Review: Who can you trust?  Thrilling, gripping, high-octane action
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 13, 2013
J E Ryder's book asks the question that everyone asks several times in their workaday life.  Who can you trust?  Is my lover faithful?  Is my business partner stealing my money?  Does that stranger's smile mean he likes me or that he plans to pick my pocket?An age old question, yes, but in this book it's encased in one of the most interesting, Machiavellian twist-filled adventures I've read in quite a while.Attractive young widow Samantha Shelley is very much alone after her husband Adam died recently, bequeathing her his boatyard, a not-so-thriving business and some property.  She has several employees, tough, bluff impenetrable characters for the most part.  The villagers hate her for inheriting the historic business, started by the local 'Lord of the Manor' Mr Shelley, in Victorian times, after Samantha's  brief marriage to the last descendant of the respected Shelleys.  Some of her employees hate her because they're jealous.But Samantha can handle an uphill struggle to survive because she's tough.  But not quite tough enough to be completely alone, and Billy, who works with her, is her friend and mentor, guiding her through the troubles that come her way.  Another friend is a local inventor and eccentric professor, whom she refers to as 'The Prof'.  The Prof links in to the story later, but you'll have to read it to find out how.J E Ryder obviously knows a great deal about boats and boating, heavy lifting gear, precisely how a boatyard runs, and all this information is seamlessly imparted to set a very realistic scene.Back to the story: from the start things become murky, when Samantha finds a body.  The police come and make their presence felt, seething resentments arise, and soon tragic events escalate like a disastrous unstoppable landslide, smashing lives along the way.This isn't a slushy romance by any means.  It's a tough and brutal tale, with plenty of thrills and action, and a heroine that manages to survive close scrapes by the skin of her teeth.  There's a lot of interesting detail about military procedures and the climax of the book is an absolute tour de force.There are plenty of surprises and twists, and the final ones, I must admit, I never saw coming - and I can usually see twists a mile away - J E took me completely by surprise by the way she ended the book: the mark of a superb writer.This is a quick, thrilling, racy read.  You'll like it if you enjoy adventure with a touch of romance, and if you like action and violent confrontations, and if you like a heroine with guts and tenacity and the wherewithal, intelligence and sheer courage to save a situation completely on her own.It's gritty, lively and packed with action, thrills and twists.Start reading it and you won't want to stop.