By Todd Daniel McCormick
Llumina Press
ISBN: 978-1-59526-909-6
253 Pages
American Writer’s Award winner Todd Daniel McCormick (2007) has written a “reality” thriller/adventure! And what better way to read about today’s reality is through a novel as timely and up-to-date as America’s top news stories and television programs! Vanishing Act just may be a future best seller...if you want to be one of the first readers...add this one to your “must-read” list!
Main character Nick O’Shea has been up for any type of adventure in his past; however, he’s now met a wonderful woman, Sandy, and is thinking about marriage and a family. Nick lives on his boat, Tequila Sunrise, and is always ready for his next assignment as a bounty hunter for rich-and-famous fugitives who’ve committed white-collar crimes—“extremely wealthy clients who get themselves into very delicate legal difficulties... eccentric and capable of making themselves scarce.” (p. 29) When his boss calls and assigns his latest “skip,” he also admits that if the man is never found, that his bonding agency may go under. For the missing man is James Preston, Billionaire and CEO who has looted his own company’s pension fund!
Consider what options a billionaire has in creating diversions to prevent apprehension! The chase is on, with Nick taking the lead, surrounded by the FBI, local officials, computer experts, family and friends! Nick has been considering retirement as part of the future and he calls upon contacts everywhere to help him with this, his last and most dangerous assignment! Disguises, deceptions, false leads all fail as Nick follows the faint trail left by Preston. The action on high seas, in the midst of Hurricane “James,” which leaves Nick unconscious holding on for his life at the top of his mast, is just a sample of the adventure! Even when they meet face-to-face, Preston taunts, “This is a game, pure and simple...I’ve perpetrated the ultimate crime, and now I get to watch the carnage that will follow.” (p. 236)
But when Preston turns his actions toward Sandy, Nick quickly moves to high gear.
Interestingly, amidst the fast pace of the chase, McCormick quite successfully interweaves the romance between Nick and Sandy, as well as his personal life with family and friends. One of the reasons is that the primary setting on the seas allows this beautiful merge. The characters have been well developed to fit into the setting and lifestyles of what some call “the rich and the famous.”
The headline from the news release by the publisher says, “Prize Winning Novel Enters the Mind of the Corporate Criminal.” We’ve all seen the reality in the news! Take a break from reality and enjoy this award-winning fiction novel...just for the enjoyment and pleasure I’m sure you’ll have!
G. A. Bixler
For IP Book Reviewers