Elderly James McCardle has taken lives before; after forty years fighting the soviets across the Austrian border through diplomacy and subterfuge he's retired to London where new and old acquaintances still seek to expose him.
The Theatre and the Arts are his escape from his secret past, but Alan Bennett's 'The Habit of Art' can't do enough to prevent the boorish George from angering James. It seems that he might not have mellowed in his retirement.
Reviews
"This is the first book by S A Bever that I have come across and I was hooked. I am sooo glad that this is only the first part, hope there are alot more!"
Publisher's Notes:
This is the first short story in a series.
Book length; short story at approx 5,000 words
Vortex of Evil continues the thrilling story of Doug and Erin as they journey through the past and the future, trying to survive in worlds where their right to exist is challenged at every turn. Vortex of Evil mixes action, romance and science fiction with unforgettable characters like Jelk, the half-mechanical hybrid soldier of the future and Dara, a woman who delights in putting prisoners through her own special version of hell. Doug Cameron, former special ops commando and Erin O'Neill, a legal assistant from Boston, are the unlikely couple who join forces with multiple versions of themselves as they try to survive in a world that is both threatening and inviting at the same time. Vortex of Evil a memorable read and a worthy successor to Vortex of Deception.
What will you do, when it's them... or the woman you love?
Drug baron Janac has turned to piracy to fund his battle for control of the Australian narcotics trade. When he attacks the MV Shawould on an evil night in the South China Sea, it seems he has also found the perfect victim for his psychotic games.
Phil Hamnet and his wife Anna are sharing a last voyage on the Shawould before the arrival of their twins. Hamnet escapes Janac's attack, but Anna is taken and held hostage to ensure first his silence and then his cooperation. But when Janac's rogue ex-Special Forces crew attack more ships and men start dying, Hamnet has to decide if he can continue to sacrifice the lives of unknown sailors to save the woman he loves.
It's an awful decision for anyone to have to make, but for a man who's already had the same dilemma - in a lifeboat, adrift in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean - it's a living nightmare.
Janac's first appearance was in the suspense thriller The Defector - a #1 Thriller on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de. The Wrecking Crew is the sequel, and both books are regulars in the thriller charts.
This is what people said about the HarperCollins paperback edition:
A real ripping yarn... begging to be made into an all-action film.'
Qantas in-flight magazine
It's a great escapist yarn with Janac a really nasty villain who gives Hamnet untold grief. I enjoyed this one.'
Hawkes Bay Today
'I found it impossible to put down.'
Boating New Zealand
The mission is classified . . . and illegal
In the blistering heat of the Sudan, the CIA has gone rogue.On the trail of a notorious terrorist, Agency operatives have overstepped their sanctioned boundaries. And now theultimate weapon has fallen into the wrong hands.
As Danny Freah and his spec-ops team scramble to recover a topsecret aircraft that has crashed in Africa, Whiplash DirectorJonathon Reid finds himself mysteriously shut off from information about the robot drone and its mission. Maneuvering through the twisted back corridors of the CIA and Washington’s power elite, Reid discovers secrets both illegal and highly dangerous—a virtually unstoppable assassin and an out-of-control clique within the Agency.
Torn between loyalty and conscience, Reid must find a way to alert the President and avert a national disaster. But with the Whiplash team caught in the chaos of a brutal African civil war and CIA officials desperate to keep Reid from telling what he knows, a monster re-emerges to target its creators . . .
The Eyewitness Protocols, Season 1, Episode 2
Death has come. Certainty is gone.
The Eyewitness Protocols is an original serial thriller, the first season of which – Season 1: Worlds Apart – explores the questions, blame and emerging mysteries surrounding a shock attack on the US. The story is a political crime thriller with paranormal overtones.
Season 1: Worlds Apart is told over eight episodes, to be published during August – September 2012. Each episode is approximately 20k words in length.
Following from Episode 1, which launched the tale by telling of the fall from grace of a tragic, troublesome Secret Service agent, the story continues with...
Episode 2: Death and Dreams
On the verge of a hoped-for return to the fold, the agent finds the clock ticking on him amidst erupting, behind-the-scenes power struggles following the attempt on the president's life. Someone has to be found to take the blame and the agent learns the noose is to go round his neck.
He can see no way to survive, until in his own desperate bid to understand what went wrong he can starts to find unanswered questions about the run-up to the incident. The evidence, and threats, buy him time. But then the president seeks the help of this outsider, the only one he says he can turn to before it is too late, for no one else will touch the wild claims now being spouted by the president.
The president's claims have come seemingly out-of-the-blue, a shock to all. How? Are they for real, or is he damaged? Those in power are desperate for a call to be made. But though asked by the notoriously secretive president to find the evidence that would independently prove what the claims, the agent's will is sorely tested when, frustratingly, information is held back. What is going on in that head?
Despite suspicions swirling around on all sides over the state of the president's mind, the agent is surprised to unearth the first pieces of a jigsaw that lend credence to the president's claims and suggest hidden agendas may have been underway. But after this step forward the agent gets knocked flat on is back when his questioning reveals other claims around the president's head, secrets from the operating theatre that would appear to suggest some kind of a paranormal experience. Damaged, after all?
Under pressure and running out of time, the president needs help in his fight for survival, or at least delay his political death, but the latest complication could be asking way too much to keep the disbelieving, tragic agent who only relies on the rules of evidence.
Look out for Episodes 3 & 4 of Season 1, coming very soon...
Death has come. Certainty is gone.
The Eyewitness Protocols is an original serial thriller, the first season of which – Season 1: Worlds Apart – explores the questions, blame and emerging mysteries surrounding a shock attack on the US. The story is a political crime thriller with paranormal overtones.
Season 1: Worlds Apart is told over eight episodes, to be published during August – September 2012. Each episode is approximately 20k words in length.
Following from Episode 1, which launched the tale by telling of the fall from grace of a tragic, troublesome Secret Service agent, the story continues with...
Episode 2: Death and Dreams
On the verge of a hoped-for return to the fold, the agent finds the clock ticking on him amidst erupting, behind-the-scenes power struggles following the attempt on the president's life. Someone has to be found to take the blame and the agent learns the noose is to go round his neck.
He can see no way to survive, until in his own desperate bid to understand what went wrong he can starts to find unanswered questions about the run-up to the incident. The evidence, and threats, buy him time. But then the president seeks the help of this outsider, the only one he says he can turn to before it is too late, for no one else will touch the wild claims now being spouted by the president.
The president's claims have come seemingly out-of-the-blue, a shock to all. How? Are they for real, or is he damaged? Those in power are desperate for a call to be made. But though asked by the notoriously secretive president to find the evidence that would independently prove what the claims, the agent's will is sorely tested when, frustratingly, information is held back. What is going on in that head?
Despite suspicions swirling around on all sides over the state of the president's mind, the agent is surprised to unearth the first pieces of a jigsaw that lend credence to the president's claims and suggest hidden agendas may have been underway. But after this step forward the agent gets knocked flat on is back when his questioning reveals other claims around the president's head, secrets from the operating theatre that would appear to suggest some kind of a paranormal experience. Damaged, after all?
Under pressure and running out of time, the president needs help in his fight for survival, or at least delay his political death, but the latest complication could be asking way too much to keep the disbelieving, tragic agent who only relies on the rules of evidence.
Look out for Episodes 3 & 4 of Season 1, coming very soon...
Tony Falcon was a soldier with the British Army in Afghanistan, frequently involved in firefights where he fired blindly in the direction of the enemy without seeing them. More often than not the dead and injured he saw were innocent civilians, due to collateral damage. By the time of his next tour he had trained as a sniper, determined to kill only those who deserved to die, and to kill them face to face. After leaving the army he became a freelance assassin.
Amjad Khan was a farmer living with his wife and daughter in Pakistan, close to the Afghanistan border, and he had no interest in religion or politics. Then one day, as a result of a mistake, two Hellfire missiles were fired into his farm from a Predator drone, killing both his wife and his daughter. He escaped only because he was in the fields tending his goats. At that moment, Amjad Khan vowed his revenge.
Zemar Niazi had dual nationality, British and Pakistani. He was a brilliant computer expert, and had his career all planned out. Whilst visiting his brothers in Pakistan his father got into an argument with an Al-Qaeda member, who subsequently killed him. On the spur of the moment, Zemar Niazi joined MI5.
The paths of all three men converge on London, when terrorists plan to use a drone for a devastating attack in the heart of the capital. The countdown has begun. Can Al-Qaeda be stopped before they tear the heart out of the British establishment.
Amjad Khan was a farmer living with his wife and daughter in Pakistan, close to the Afghanistan border, and he had no interest in religion or politics. Then one day, as a result of a mistake, two Hellfire missiles were fired into his farm from a Predator drone, killing both his wife and his daughter. He escaped only because he was in the fields tending his goats. At that moment, Amjad Khan vowed his revenge.
Zemar Niazi had dual nationality, British and Pakistani. He was a brilliant computer expert, and had his career all planned out. Whilst visiting his brothers in Pakistan his father got into an argument with an Al-Qaeda member, who subsequently killed him. On the spur of the moment, Zemar Niazi joined MI5.
The paths of all three men converge on London, when terrorists plan to use a drone for a devastating attack in the heart of the capital. The countdown has begun. Can Al-Qaeda be stopped before they tear the heart out of the British establishment.
Michael Brown has worked for MI6 for twenty years. He's in Malta to monitor a suspected cell of Dissident Irish Republicans. But what's the Iranian connection? And why is London picking up a big spike in chatter regarding Malta
We live in a universe made up of many different worlds. There's the world in which people go to school, meet someone, get married and have families. There are also worlds which include drug dealers, criminals and murderers. These worlds operate in the same space within our universe.
Alexis Marsh has a talent for making bad people have nasty "accidents" for the right price. When his ex-girlfriend from his youth dies in a car crash, she leaves behind someone who can't quite be as easily disposed of
Sometimes, no matter how much you try and avoid it, you can't just live in a single world.
Alexis Marsh has a talent for making bad people have nasty "accidents" for the right price. When his ex-girlfriend from his youth dies in a car crash, she leaves behind someone who can't quite be as easily disposed of
Sometimes, no matter how much you try and avoid it, you can't just live in a single world.
The human body consists of two-thirds water.
As concertgoers on a steamy day in Boston find out, water can kill as much as it gives life.
A terrorist attack at City Hall Plaza has the authorities perplexed. The government, in response, sends in a capable but young agent – an agent born from the ashes of terrorism itself – to handle it.
But as her partner dies and the terrorist strikes again, Jaclyn Johnson – code named Snapshot – finds herself in a situation she has trained a decade to face: She’s up against a man with enough money to finance a war against his competition. With a deadline in place to stop him – and with a car holding enough hidden tricks to evade capture – Snapshot infiltrates his hidden installation and finds out her target’s true end game, a secret that could have the world fighting over water.
MODEL AGENT is the start to a brand new thriller series. The sequel, ROGUE AGENT, is also available.
As concertgoers on a steamy day in Boston find out, water can kill as much as it gives life.
A terrorist attack at City Hall Plaza has the authorities perplexed. The government, in response, sends in a capable but young agent – an agent born from the ashes of terrorism itself – to handle it.
But as her partner dies and the terrorist strikes again, Jaclyn Johnson – code named Snapshot – finds herself in a situation she has trained a decade to face: She’s up against a man with enough money to finance a war against his competition. With a deadline in place to stop him – and with a car holding enough hidden tricks to evade capture – Snapshot infiltrates his hidden installation and finds out her target’s true end game, a secret that could have the world fighting over water.
MODEL AGENT is the start to a brand new thriller series. The sequel, ROGUE AGENT, is also available.
Lara Leatherstone - not her real name, she got it from an internet Porn Star Name Generator...
...And Connor Reeves, also not his real name, as it turns out - how he came by his, is less clear...
Both are obliged to work their way through the To Do List of 'Hollywood Hit-Men' - a breed mostly preoccupied with gold chains, impressing barmaids, and shady contracts - erasing these unwanted pests with the minimum of paperwork. Or pay.
When she's not under surveillance by head office, Lara spends her time juggling a night job in bar security, an only child with a zombie fixation, and what passes for a social life in the small hours in between. And the small matter of ongoing internal scrutiny, by her own highly-self-monitoring personality disorders.
She is often distracted by her own psychotic train of thought, and analyses the dysfunctional relationships she sees in everyday life, because she’s never had one.
When head office try to set her up in a team with a wingman, her main concern is they’re trying to manufacture a weakness that they can manipulate her with - not to mention once they agree on a working colleague, Pest-Control-sniper-turned-police-officer Connor, that he might be quite manipulative too...
Death & The City, released in two parts as Books One and Two, comprises the first instalment in the Tales Of The Deathrunners series.
...And Connor Reeves, also not his real name, as it turns out - how he came by his, is less clear...
Both are obliged to work their way through the To Do List of 'Hollywood Hit-Men' - a breed mostly preoccupied with gold chains, impressing barmaids, and shady contracts - erasing these unwanted pests with the minimum of paperwork. Or pay.
When she's not under surveillance by head office, Lara spends her time juggling a night job in bar security, an only child with a zombie fixation, and what passes for a social life in the small hours in between. And the small matter of ongoing internal scrutiny, by her own highly-self-monitoring personality disorders.
She is often distracted by her own psychotic train of thought, and analyses the dysfunctional relationships she sees in everyday life, because she’s never had one.
When head office try to set her up in a team with a wingman, her main concern is they’re trying to manufacture a weakness that they can manipulate her with - not to mention once they agree on a working colleague, Pest-Control-sniper-turned-police-officer Connor, that he might be quite manipulative too...
Death & The City, released in two parts as Books One and Two, comprises the first instalment in the Tales Of The Deathrunners series.
Following on directly from Book One, ‘Death And The City: Book Two’ continues the ongoing bloody, moral, psychological and fashion dilemmas of professional hit-man’s nemesis and single working female Lara Leatherstone (her Porn Star Name Generator alias of choice), as she catches up with paid contract killers on the To Do List.
Which she fits in between the sometimes mundane requirements of her regular nightclub job, and the irrational fear of dating, all under constant self-scrutiny for ulterior motives.
It’s been a while since the last Firearms Amnesty, meaning the collection scavenged from her targets is taking up more room in her kitchen cupboards than there is left for teabags. And threats of new technology mean that upgrades are now necessary all of the time - and not the kind she wants to park in her driveway or answer her mobile phone to any time soon.
In the meantime, her targets and associates seem to have a lot of time on their hands for alternative escapist lifestyles and online fantasy worlds, blissfully unaware of as crossing over into her own quite real one.
And her new wingman, Connor, has another agenda of his own. Rather than the one she’s concerned about, which is that head office are trying to gain more blackmail leverage. When they're not trying to get her to recruit more ‘Deathrunners’ or to send them photographs of herself dressed as Catwoman trying on shoes, neither of which she is keen to do, for various reasons.
Death
Which she fits in between the sometimes mundane requirements of her regular nightclub job, and the irrational fear of dating, all under constant self-scrutiny for ulterior motives.
It’s been a while since the last Firearms Amnesty, meaning the collection scavenged from her targets is taking up more room in her kitchen cupboards than there is left for teabags. And threats of new technology mean that upgrades are now necessary all of the time - and not the kind she wants to park in her driveway or answer her mobile phone to any time soon.
In the meantime, her targets and associates seem to have a lot of time on their hands for alternative escapist lifestyles and online fantasy worlds, blissfully unaware of as crossing over into her own quite real one.
And her new wingman, Connor, has another agenda of his own. Rather than the one she’s concerned about, which is that head office are trying to gain more blackmail leverage. When they're not trying to get her to recruit more ‘Deathrunners’ or to send them photographs of herself dressed as Catwoman trying on shoes, neither of which she is keen to do, for various reasons.
Death
"Picture this:
The time was precisely 07:03 a.m., on 25th of January, 2011, a dreary Sunday morning and Alfie Lime had a dead girl in his bed."
So starts, And The Street Screamed Blue Murder! the latest novella from the mind of Jason Michel - Pushcart Prize nominee and The Dictator of the cult Pulp Metal Magazine -
It is the tragic history of Alfie Lime, a journalist working for a whistle-blowing paper who becomes trapped in a series of sinister events that will change his life forever.
Beginning with an impossible murder, the story leads us on a spiralling journey of betrayal into the surreal underbelly of Paris and its most secret street. A mysterious street where the inhabitants are not what they appear to be.
And neither is anything else ...
The time was precisely 07:03 a.m., on 25th of January, 2011, a dreary Sunday morning and Alfie Lime had a dead girl in his bed."
So starts, And The Street Screamed Blue Murder! the latest novella from the mind of Jason Michel - Pushcart Prize nominee and The Dictator of the cult Pulp Metal Magazine -
It is the tragic history of Alfie Lime, a journalist working for a whistle-blowing paper who becomes trapped in a series of sinister events that will change his life forever.
Beginning with an impossible murder, the story leads us on a spiralling journey of betrayal into the surreal underbelly of Paris and its most secret street. A mysterious street where the inhabitants are not what they appear to be.
And neither is anything else ...
The Virion script project is spinning out of control. As key personnel disappear the finger of suspicion points to the Estonian mafia, and someone inside the British intelligence services. Anna Faulkner's brief to rescue computer whiz Tom Morris quickly immerses her in a world of hostility and disinformation. What exactly is the virion script? Who is involved and why are they prepared to kill for its secrets? Attempting to answer these questions will put Anna's life at risk and test where her loyalties really lie.
"What a page turner, could not put it down till the book was finished. The author gets right into the heads of his characters and their reality and the plot leaps off the pages. A gem of a read."
"I got quite excited as the plot developed and really liked the twists and turns. The characters of Colin and his friend were my favourites. Hope to see these develop in a later book."
" . . . a snappy, easy read. Just what I wanted for my vacation."
"Now I have to twiddle my thumbs waiting for the next book."
"What a page turner, could not put it down till the book was finished. The author gets right into the heads of his characters and their reality and the plot leaps off the pages. A gem of a read."
"I got quite excited as the plot developed and really liked the twists and turns. The characters of Colin and his friend were my favourites. Hope to see these develop in a later book."
" . . . a snappy, easy read. Just what I wanted for my vacation."
"Now I have to twiddle my thumbs waiting for the next book."
While 75-year-old George is late for his own surprise birthday party, and his wife Gracie is promising to kill him if he doesn't show up soon, three veteran spymasters step out on the balcony to discuss his future with the Agency. The uninvited spook across the street listens in and disagrees with every word.
This 1,215-word short story that was first published in The Storyteller (July/August/September 2008).
This 1,215-word short story that was first published in The Storyteller (July/August/September 2008).
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