Review: Understanding suspense and the pacing of action
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 26, 2014
There is something to be said about the combination of a writer who also is an actor that somehow makes tension scenes more credible. At least that is the case with author Behet Kaya who is also known by his stage name as an actor Ben Kaya (`Fast Food', `The Practice', `Being American' on film and numerous roles on the legitimate stages such as The Noise Within among others). Whether it is the fallout of thinking though a storyline or actually taking on the role of a fictional character, the result in the case of Behet Kaya heightens the verismo as is evident in his short stories and his novels VOICE OF CONSCIENCE, MURDER ON THE NAVAL BASE, ROAD TO SIRAN: ERIN'S STORY and his soon to be published BODY IN THE WOODS. True, his background of having been born and raised in a small village in Turkey, secretly consuming the crime novels Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer series as well as the exemplary works of the Turkish writer of Kurdish origin Yaşar Kemal, his subsequent rebellious flight to Istanbul and London, compelled and succeeding to earn a degree in engineering, his successful introduction to the stage while attending the inner London Education Authority and his subsequent move to the United States where he gained citizenship and worked successfully to achieve is Screen Actors Guild card after studies in Georgia, and then moving to Los Angeles to embrace both his acting ambitions and writing skills - all of this is the progress of a man committed to his art - and it shows.MURDER ON THE NAVAL BASE was originally release in 2011 but now that it is available as an eBook it doubtless will become more accessible to a wider audience. The story is a disturbing one - the kind that glues you to the page without realizing the anticipation of the author's ability to seduce the reader with vivid characters and action. From page one, during Hurricane Lori, we are faced with the cold blooded murder of Bevin Belguzar, the wife of Lt. Anderson Garrett Belguzar, and Charles McPhearson, her lover, a former friend of her husband. The dining room of Murat Officer's Club contains plenty of eye witnesses and within hours Lt. Anderson Belguzar is arrested as the prime suspect for the double homicide based on the fact that the two victims were in fact the perpetrator's wife and the man she with whom she was having an affair. Having jolted the reader with such a scene, the author goes back in time, unfolding the events that lead up to double murder while at the same time providing information about the military lifestyle as it creates schisms between the choice of commitment to naval flight training with accompanying sidebars of legal manipulation, the palpable tension during flight training, the crises of ethical values in a world that fosters illicit behaviors and affairs in contrast to the innate ethical behavior of the cast of characters. The result is a meticulous character study (fit for a screenplay!) in a setting of the duplicitous nature of military life. It is up there with the best of the military thrillers. Grady Harp, January 14