Review: AFN Clarke Does It Again -- Thriller You Can't Put Down
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 11, 2013
Having written more than a couple of reviews over my career as a writer, I often find it quite easy to put down one book that I'm working on and to pick up another, only to put down the second and pick up the first. Aside from "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," almost 50 years ago, I have found very few books that I just can't put down that is until I started reading and reviewing best-selling author AFN Clarke's Thomas Gunn series.After all the twists and turns in the first book, I wondered exactly what Clarke might have had up his sleeve for book two and sure enough it's there. This time the action begins when a journalist friend seeks his help as being chased by a good with ties to the Russian mob. Unfortunately, she is ultimately taken and tortured she is being tortured by an Eastern European goon -- refreshingly this time a woman, not the usual European, who is about 12 feet tall and  wears the usual black leather jacket, even though the temperature is approaching about 100.They are seeking the solution to an issue that is so big it could bring down the world economy -- businesses, governments, agencies and anyone tied to it. Indeed, it does bring down a U.S. Senator, financiers or, everything it touches, but what is it? It seems that the world is no longer being run by governments, it is being run by bankers and financiers who place Ponzi scheme on Ponzi scheme until their shell game threatens the entire world financial system.Actually, the financial world loves it because they are making killings left and right. It is a situation only a money person could love. All it would take to ruin it could be just one person -- enter Thomas Gunn, your basic financial scheme wrecker. Gunn, not trained at all for the financial world that is thrust upon him, still finds it his element -- suspense -- as he unearths intrigue after intrigue -- something like an avocado -- and his beautiful Julie.As you might expect, the financial world fights back, first with Julie's alleged "real" father and her discovery that she had a murdered twin sister, but she is like her man, give her something to chew on and she won't let go.Unlike other series, where the heroine manages to escape the brunt of the hurt, Julie is seriously injured and Gunn has to worry about that, too, as well as other bang sticks tossed into his way, until he realizes that the best way to beat the best is to join it and expose it.Gunn, once a member of the elite British SAS (equivalent to the U.S. Delta Force or Navy Seals), leaves the elite service to take over the family business. It is the multi-billion-dollar firm, Gunn Industries, and Thomas is the last scion of the famed family.Following the death of his father, murdered early in the first book "Orange Moon," trying to unearth the same answer, the murder sets the stage for Thomas and Julie, his beautiful, but resourceful girlfriend, to go careering off in the first book, narrowly missing disaster after disaster, while seeking the answer.Where the "Orange Moon," the first in the series, leaves you at the edge of your seat (at least you can put the book down for a few minutes), the "Jonas Trust Deception" grabs you from the first page and you just can't put the work down. I spent about three straight days on my Kindle app reading the new thriller as we meet new characters including Paul, the senator, a killer, who worked for the Eastern Mafia and more. Even the Middle East gets its share of abuse as an Arabian prince is beheaded.Clarke has broadened Gunn's character and has given him a backstory as good as his front story. The same is true of his relationship with Julie.Everyone it seems you can trust turns out to have an agenda, while those who are just this side of the law are the honorable ones. I could go on about this work, but I'll let you find out for yourself, although I will say the characters seem much more real and alive in this work, the second of three planned.All I know is if Clarke is planning only three works, I would hope he would consider doing one or two more because his writing is so good, I lost at last one whole night reading (and the following day).If you are in the market for a great thriller set, start with Clarke's "The Orange Moon" and then move onto "Jonas," you won't be disappointed. I just wonder what he has planned for book number 3.