The Demeter Code, Third in Series, by Russell Brooks, Best Yet! Check out Ridley Fox and Nita Parris!

Meet Ridley Fox!

“Watch where you’re going, dammit,” snapped the woman. Doctor Nita Parris had bumped the woman’s shoulder as she passed through the revolving door, rushing from the street into the hotel lobby. Parris turned halfway around, raising an open palm. “Sorry.” But she wasn’t. The woman had the audacity to blame her. She was the one texting on her mobile while walking, and in a crowded room on top of that. Her teenage self would’ve cussed her out rudely, or even slapped the phone out of her hand. Not the typical behavior of a woman with a PhD in biochemistry. She could hear her aunt being vexed and breaking out the Barbadian accent. “Why yuh gunnah stoop to she level for? You better than dat.” Those were the days when Parris was quick-tempered and got into a lot of fights—and won them. Even some of the boys didn’t dare trouble her. She’d proven repeatedly that she could stand her ground with them, and even out-sprint them. When she’d wound up in the headmaster’s office—which had been frequently—he’d always ranted on about how bright a future she had, considering that she was one of the school’s top students. He’d pointed out that with her aptitudes she ought to be setting an example. But that was the past. 
She wouldn’t stoop to the level of some self-absorbed socialite. Especially when her asset was eight floors above, fearing for his life. Despite having spent the last five years living in the DC area, she had never been inside any of its hotels—even for an op. To anyone else in the lobby who happened to notice her, she was probably just another twenty-something black woman... 
Observers would likely think that she was either a guest, there on business, or a lawyer meeting a client. Either one was fine by her. Parris scanned the lobby on her way to the elevators. Aside from catching the occasional whiff of perfume or aftershave, she spotted two Wall-Street types, laughing over a beer, through the doorway of the hotel restaurant. On the opposite side, two children were chasing each other around their suitcases while their parents addressed the receptionist...

Parris licked her fingertip and ran it across both eyebrows. “Dewan, you see me yet?”
“I got you.” Dewan Douglas—her newest tech support—answered through her earpiece. He would’ve hacked into the hotel’s closed-circuit television long before she arrived—playing big brother from his safe haven at Langley, Virginia. It helped, but it wasn’t perfect. There were always spots the CCTV was blind to, and a professional would’ve been smart enough to hang out in those areas to avoid being seen. Parris brushed a strand of hair from her jacket sleeve. “Gym fanatic at seven o’clock.” 
“I saw him,” Dewan replied. “He arrived there with some chick, who’s now on her way down from their suite. They’ve been guests for the past four days, so I wouldn’t worry about him.” 
She trusted that Dewan would’ve used face-recognition software, to locate and identify Gym Boy through the hotel’s CCTV archives, and cross-referenced it with the hotel’s guest list. She headed for the elevator, grabbing her cell phone from her belt clip to call her asset, Tim Weyland. “Timothy?”
“Who…who’s this?” “You know who it is. I’m on my way up.” 
“Are you armed? Because I know they’re going to be coming for me with some very big guns.” He spoke fast, so he must be scared shitless. 
“You’re going to have to calm down and let us worry about who may be coming after you.” Parris pressed the elevator button. One of the six doors opened but it was already going down. She did a quick once-over of the three people who walked out. Nothing suspicious. 
“How can you tell me to calm down?” Weyland still spoke at warp-speed. “You’re not the one they’re trying to kill.”

~~~

The Demeter Code

By Russell Brooks

When I read Brooks' first book, and checked out some of his pics on site, I decided that this author could play his own main character! Don't you think?! And who better to play his partner, Nita Parris, fellow Canadian and the beautiful boss of the Forensics Lab on Bones, one of my favorite TV shows!

I was hooked by the first book, but I have to say that The Demeter Code is even better. Brooks has spent a lot of time reading research and his novel reflects this, as well as the reference list and interview information in his acknowledgments section. The topic is, in many ways, scary--one of those concepts that readers immediately realize that this could really happen... The result, therefore, had a world-wide impact--thankfully only in fiction.

Ridley Fox is fun, dedicated, but strong-headed. He wants answers--now. Nita Parris works to keep a balance in the team, but doesn't always succeed. What she does do is watch Fox's back, even when he's doing something, well, stupid, even if there is a good solid reason to do it! 

Tim Weyland was an asset being questioned regarding the whereabouts of Umari, a former CIA informant who had turned. It was Nita who was working with him, but Weyland was not doing what he'd been told and before long, they were both fighting off men who were trying to kill him. Now he was under medical care, hurt in that battle, and unable to help in locating Umari. 

“You kept him alive,” Fox said. “That’s what counts.” If there was one thing Fox admired about Parris, it was her tenacity. Like a pit-bull, once she sunk her teeth into her target she never let go. But he accepted her frustration, keeping in mind that Umari was originally a CIA informant who had turned. Using the skills he’d gained from his training, he had masterminded the bombings of two American Embassies and a cruise ship. While searching for him, the Agency discovered that a local security firm that Weyland worked for—Bismarck Securities—was bankrolling Umari’s activities. Weyland’s job was to hack into networks of Bismarck’s clients in order to test the strengths and weaknesses of their systems. Parris not only recruited him but was also his handler. For the past three months, he’d fed them intel every two weeks.
~~~

Fox, in the meantime, was on a similar mission to try to meet with Alghafari, a Syrian arms dealer... Fox would be going in as David Conlon, a mercenary who Fox had to take out. And for which he got chewed out by his superiors--in their work, killers were potential assets! He was accepted by Alghafari, having been willing to do small jobs from time to time, which could mean just about anything. And the first thing he was asked to do was to deliver a package! Which turned out to have everybody chasing after it!

Alghafari slid his empty glass toward Fox and got up. “For identification purposes, you’ll introduce yourself as Thor’s Hammer. Once the delivery is made your fee will be wired to your account.”
In other words, Alghafari would pay him once he’d paid himself. They shook hands and Alghafari and his goons left.
~~~

I had to chuckle at Ridley Fox, alias David Conlon, and now was using the introduction Thor's Hammer! This is just a small sample of the underlying humor in the novel...

In the meantime, one of his line superiors, who was looking to run for a higher office, was out to get Fox out of her hair if she could. Not liking his attitude, but using the psychological assessment that had been made years ago when Fox's fiancee had been killed, as the basis upon which she demanded that he be watched closely...

But now, an entirely new issue came to light. company secrets had been stolen from a company, Sementem. Collins needed money for his family and didn't know what else to do until he'd been approached by a European man to get the information... But it didn't take much time for him to find what he'd done was...deadly...for when he got home he couldn't find his wife and then the lights went out. He'd called her number thinking that was the easiest way to find her...but it had a new ringer playing a different song.

Collins and his wife were killed... The $200,000 he'd been paid had no use now, even though it had been deposited into his account...

And soon autopsies started be done and the bodies were filled with internal holes... And at Camp Iron Eagle in Afghanistan, there had been 13 bodies with the same probably first, results... This became the highest priority...

But a young employee had been blamed. Sparky was her name and Fox had to find her and then took unauthorized action to protect her...and...more... I have to admit I was captured at the end of the book as Brooks mentioned that this novel has his first sex scene in it! So, of course, I had to give you a glimpse if you want to take it before you read the book...LOL There are also other video readings from the book available on the authors utube videos or his site...

“We did autopsies. The lining of their stomach cavities were in terrible shape. They were all porous. I mean, God, I’m talking about dozens of holes. I thought at first that they had been exposed to some new chemical weapon, but that theory was ruled out.” 
“What brought on the allergic reactions?”
“I’m…I’m not sure.” 
“Then tell me what you are sure about.”
 “I…I believe that it may have been something they ate.” Grafton swallowed. “There was a food inspector, or quality control expert—whatever you want to call her—that was snooping around. The head of the dining hall couldn’t stand her, and General Jeansonne thought that she was becoming a nuisance. Jesus, she was only doing her job. They set things up to make her get the blame.”
 “They what?”
“She was set up. It was all a cover-up by the army. She had a nickname. Sparky, I think. She saw all the problems and potential health hazards in the dining halls and in the kitchens. And she cleaned things up. I mean, really cleaned things up.”

~~~

Parris hung up and did a U-Turn, heading back down the road to SR-37. On the way she drove by a sign indicating that sweet corn was for sale. She didn’t think anything of it at first, but something at the back of her mind told her that she should buy some—not for eating, but for a testing comparison to the soil samples she’d collect later on.

“I’m…I’m fine for now,” Parris answered, pausing between words as though she was catching her breath. “I’m getting the hell out of here.” Fox glanced over at Sparks, who was staring back at him. 

She obviously sensed that something was wrong by the tone of his voice. “What happened?” 

“I must’ve rattled some cages down here,” said Parris as her breathing became more under control. “Because the men who just pulled me over weren’t State Troopers.”

Whew! This intriguing bio-terrorism thriller becomes horrifying, just because of the premise upon which the story is based... It definitely surpasses the first two, but that comes down to the research and hypothesis upon which it is based. The basic characters, including Dewan, their computer expert, are exciting to see in action and do keep readers happy in their work against the enemy, but, for me, the terror came when considering the "what if" reality of Brooks' latest! The story is provacative, fascinating and down-right scary... Sure glad Ridley and Nita are on the job! Highly recommended!

GABixlerReviews

Prior to becoming a writer, Russell Brooks considers himself fortunate that he had the opportunity to be an Indiana Hoosier Track Champion and Canadian Track Team member in both the 100 and 200 meters. It was during Brooks's travels across Canada, the United States, and Europe, that he came up with his story ideas and came up with outlines for his future thrillers which he would later writer. His BS in Biology from Indiana University helped him to write his first spy thriller, Pandora's Succession,followed by the short story collection Unsavory Delicacies. The latest addition to the spy series is The Demeter Code. So far, it appears that this series is far from over. The standalone thriller, Chill Run, was released afterwards. What makes Brooks's spy series unique is rather than focus on plots which strictly revolve around political matters—both domestic and international—Brooks is more creative by combining stories that are literally ripped from the headlines and weaving them with hardcore science and producing the most non-predictable plots imaginable. As a result, Brooks's works have been compared to those of a young Michael Crichton, Robert Ludlum, and even Dean Koontz. Although his goal is to keep readers in suspense by writing edge-of-your seat and page-turning thrillers, he may occasionally dash off a short story, entertain viewers with dramatic readings, or play his violin. Russell Brooks currently lives in Montreal, Quebec. If you want to be kept up to date on Russell Brooks's activities—which include new releases, touring locations, speaking engagements and contests, please sign up to the mailinglist. If you have any comments or suggestions, please email Russell at: russellbrookswriter@gmail.com

Even James Becker Needed Lots of Help on This One! Fun Mystery Thriller! Check out John Betcher's Latest!

All that remained was for the agent
 to package the biologic for maximum
 dispersal and to add the explosive –
 Chinese fireworks known as M-80s
 would work just fine.

Rodney had no idea that, as a point of law, the dollar was neither necessary, nor in and of itself, sufficient, to establish a confidential relationship between us. That required a combination of expectation and intent. I leaned forward and flattened the wrinkled dollar on my desk blotter, taking time to repair each dog-eared corner. If I agreed to listen to Rodney, and maybe to help him with his concerns, it was unlikely I would be paid for my trouble. Then again, how often does a client pop into a lawyer’s office with a “big discovery?” He had captured my interest. After fixing the bill to my satisfaction, I folded it in half and tucked it in a shirt pocket. 
“You just hired yourself a lawyer,” I said. “You’ve got your confidentiality. But all I’m agreeing to do at this point is hear you out. I can’t guarantee I can be of any help until I know more. Understand?” 
“Yeah.” 
“Good,” I said. 
“Then let’s hear all about it, starting at the beginning if you don’t mind.” Rodney slid back in the chair, his hands gripping the armrests. He cracked his neck to both sides before beginning his tale. “It was yesterday afternoon,” he said. “Sunday . . . and I was out on the John Deere checking my fields, you know . . . and all of a sudden I hear this sound. It was a kinda weird sound, you know?” 
“Not really. Can you be more specific?” I had heard a lot of weird sounds in my day. Rodney thought for a moment. “It was kinda like whoosh-thud . . . tumble, tumble, tumble,” he said. He could have stuck with “weird” if that was the best he could do.

Bear Wave (Photo credits: Giphy)

 “Go on,” I said. “So I stood up and looked toward the sound.” He raised a hand to his brow and craned his neck, as though searching the horizon. “And something was knocking down my corn, like a big animal or something . . . not like a deer, more clumsy than that . . . maybe like a bear.” He looked to me for understanding. 
“A bear,” I said, nodding. It wasn’t a total impossibility that Rodney had encountered a bear in Ottawa County. There had been two or three confirmed sightings of black bear in the area over the past ten years. But his hypothesis wasn’t particularly likely either. I don’t remember anyone saying the other bears made a whoosh-thud, tumble sound. Then again, many interpretations are possible in the mind of an eyewitness . . . or in this case, ear-witness.
 “This thing, whatever it was, knocked down maybe thirty or forty feet of head-high corn stalks, in a straight line,” he continued. “I saw the last ones go down.” He clapped one flattened hand downward onto the other. “Then all was quiet,” he said, passing a benediction over the serenity in my office. He checked to make sure I was tracking. I gave him two thumbs up. “Anyway,” he went on, “this thing’s trail was pretty obvious in the corn. But not knowing what in the heck it was, I was a little . . . you know . . . reluctant to investigate.” Yeah. He was afraid it was a bear. “But I found a good size wrench in a fender box and decided to take a chance.” He made a hammering motion as he wielded the imaginary wrench. “So I got off the tractor and slipped into the corn field, nice and quiet like.” Rodney’s story-telling momentum was gaining steam as he worked his way along. This was probably a first rendition of the “big discovery” story. He would no doubt smooth out earlier scenes on future iterations. I stroked my chin as if contemplating the implications of Rodney’s tale thus far.
In truth, he hadn’t said much of consequence yet, at least as far as I was concerned.

~~~

 The largest FMD epidemic in U.S. history occurred in 1914 when diseased animals were transported to the stock yards in Chicago. Stock yards. 

Of course, we have no idea how many have tried to "create" it...

The Critical Element

Book 5: James Beck Series

John L. Betcher

If you've read the James Beck Series you already know what this latest exudes... His back-handed witty and/or facetious comments that may or may not be received well by the police officials with whom he gets involved! I enjoy them in the books--I don't know how I would accept them if I were the receiver of this wit...LOL 

James Beck has a high security clearance, higher than most of us even understand--and his wife's may be just as high... And they are both definitely higher than any local police have, much to their irritation. Intelligence for each? Different but generally, they communicate quite effectively and work so well together than it is almost like they are making love... In other words, I very much enjoy this couple...They are both loving, trustworthy, and dedicated to keeping America safe and secure. In this story, James is on the frontline, his wife in the background and he doesn't even share her name or reference her when she gets more information faster that any of the FBI specialists... Most of you will easily guess why...

Now you may quickly wonder what the opening excerpts are today--cows, a bear, and what looks like a bowling ball... Well, that's exactly right...That's what James was faced with as he began his $1 dollar discussion with Rodney Holton. (BTW, did you know that you weren't buying confidentiality with $1? I always did believe that, so we learned something from our lawyer series!)

Now Holton was a bit of a shyster and everybody knew it, but he would tell such stories, that some people would always listen... Beck did for a dollar's worth... But the story made him curious enough that he later went out to the farm to see it himself--and paid $39 more than he'd been paid! Boy, this guy is good!

Or Was...

Because Rodney wasn't far wrong in describing what he'd found on his farm as a meteorite. But when Beck saw it, he decided while it might have come out of the air, that it was probably man-made--and looked like a burnt bowling ball, maybe. Rodney had it all rigged out in his yard, even though it had not landed there and was selling views for $20/head...

Wonder how that compared to the money he lost on all the heads of cows he lost...

Confused? Everybody was! Because before long, Rodney's discovery had been stolen!

And his cattle became ill about the same time...

Soon many were concluding that the cattle had become ill from the meteorite, and it wasn't very long before the government had come, killed all his cattle and burned down his barn. That was bad enough, but it didn't seem that they were concerned about the theft of his, hopefully, very valuable prize from the sky! Now, the book doesn't say, but I can just imagine that Rodney immediately started negotiating with the loss of his cattle, his livelihood and his valuable meteorite and was soon somewhere in a very warm climate, living in luxury for the rest of his life...

In the meantime, Beck had been the only one who listened to a neighbor of Rodney. Blastus looked bad, smelled terribly and seemed a little "off" but really had PTSD from his horrible time in Vietnam and no help since then. Beck immediately realized what shape he was in and started to wade through what he was telling that he'd seen. He'd gone to the Sheriff to explain that he thought that his neighbor was selling drugs because of the activity he'd seen at off hours... But working with him, Beck soon was picking up clues that only he was using... and, in essence, he had concluded that there were two different events--possibly terrorist attacks--from two different sources. But nobody was really willing to accept what he was suggesting.

So, like Beck is prone to do, he called in his own help--Bull! And if you don't know this character, then it's worth reading at least one of the books to meet him! So with Beth and Bull's help, Beck soon had a handle on what and who was doing what. Beth was getting worried, but she continued to feed both Beck and Bull additional information even while they were separately trying to tackle what they believed was taking place--at exactly the same time. Fortunately, they got help just "in the nick of time..." LOL but it certainly made for an exciting, fascinating ending! I loved it!

Each of the books is free-standing, even though the series characters are basically the same for each book. So, this is a perfect time to discover why Betcher's series has steadily gained a following that moved this relatively new author quickly into a best-selling status... Adding an Epilogue to spotlight what had later happened to Blastus is a perfect illustration why this writer brings in more and more readers (See Below!)

If you don't like this series, I will be totally amazed... If you enjoy mystery, thrills, and humorous main characters...hey, this is an unusual group of wonderfully heart-warming characters! Highly recommended.


GABixlerReviews

When I told the receptionist I was there to meet Benny Volnscheid, she recognized the name immediately. “You mean Blastus,” she said with a smile. “He’s in the PT area right now. Just follow the signs.” She pointed me in the right direction. “And keep your ears peeled.” 
I had no idea what that meant, but took her advice concerning the signs. As I approached the doorway labeled “Physical Therapy,” I could hear the sounds of an acoustic guitar strumming and a ragged chorus of male voices belting out the chorus to Old Stewball Was a Race Horse emanating from within. I opened the door and stepped inside. On the far side of the room, adjacent to a wall of cloudy windows, a guitarist sat astride a black vinyl exercise bench, one hand banging the guitar strings, and singing for all he was worth – the obvious leader of this tone deaf glee club. A group of maybe twenty young men, mostly amputees, sat gathered around him and were obviously responsible for a majority of the racket. My eyes left the musician momentarily then darted back for a second look. He was almost unrecognizable owing to the short haircut, the clean shaven face, and the bright plaid flannel shirt. But I had no doubt, the guitarist was my formerly reeking and dissolute buddy, Benny Volnscheid. 
When Benny noticed my presence, he lifted his chin in acknowledgment, but didn’t interrupt the song. I leaned on the wall and listened, a smile glued to my face. . . . 

Oh the fairgrounds were crowded, and Stewball was thereBut the betting was heavy on the bay and the mare. And a-way up yonder, ahead of them all, Came a-prancin' and a-dancin' my noble Stewball.I bet on the grey mare, I bet on the bay. If I'd have bet on ol' Stewball, I'd be a free man today. Oh the hoot owl, she hollers, and the turtle dove moans. I'm a poor boy in trouble, and I'm a long way from home. Ol’ Stewball was a racehorse, and I wish he were mine. He never drank water, he always drank wine.

When the song was over, the singers erupted in cheers and applause for ol’ Blastus.

~~~

Amazon TOP 100 Bestselling Author, John L. Betcher, holds a Bachelor's Degree, cum laude, in English from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Minnesota Law School in Minneapolis. He has practiced law for more than twenty-five years in the Mississippi River community of Red Wing, Minnesota. Mr. Betcher has published an award-winning series of "Becker" suspense/thriller novels. The first five are THE 19TH ELEMENT, THE MISSING ELEMENT, THE COVERT ELEMENT, THE EXILED ELEMENT and THE CRITICAL ELEMENT. He has also authored the award-winning spiritual phenomenon, A HIGHER COURT.