Book Reviews

Title: Sheepdogs
Author: Al Billings
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
Reviewer: Stephen Phillips

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1449034810

SOME SAY MEXICO IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN IRAQ.

Your 17-year-old granddaughter and her friends are kidnapped in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. The U.S. authorities say they can do nothing about it. Where do you go? Who do you turn to?

Nuevo Laredo exists today as a security nightmare, home to heartbreaking drug violence and lost lives. "Silver or Lead" is the new code in Mexico: Pay up or die.

In order to help his friend, Jerrod Hurst is drawn into the fight of his life. Out of desperation, the hardened veteran drafts his wartime brothers to execute his plan. After a daring, knife-edge rescue, the girls are successfully spirited out of Nuevo Laredo and across the U.S. border, a trail of blood and bodies littering the path. They must not only rescue the teens, but also minimize their own profiles. The mission is unauthorized by any government, and one mistake could result in prison, or death.

As the rescue unfolds, Jerrod uncovers a sinister terrorist plot. Beaten and almost killed, he is unwillingly pulled further into the nightmare, when he discovers that government agents have been playing both sides, reaping substantial profit from the drug trade they supposedly battle. Will he be able to expose the corrupt agents before it is too late?

Title: The Roar of the Dragon
Author: Bill Berry
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
Reviewer: Rob Ballister

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0615216080

My novel is an espionage thriller set in China, Panama and the United States. China has stolen secret information on all nuclear warheads deployed by the U.S. Control of the Panama Canal Zone has passed from the U.S. to Hutchinson Wampoa, an arm of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army. The Chinese test fired the DF-31 missile in 1998 and it has a range of approximately 5000 miles. Brian Maguire is chosen to regenerate, develop and operate the Star Wars nuclear missile defense system. Sent to UCLA he meets and falls in love with Lin Li Wu an exotic Chinese beauty. But Lin Li and her brother Lu Chin are deep-cover Chinese espionage agents. As Maguire races to launch the Star Wars system, the Wus race to steal the Star Wars technology and a U.S. supercomputer to implement a Chinese plan to force the U.S. to capitulate without firing a single shot.

Title: Detachment DELTA
Author: Don Bendell
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
Reviewer: John R. R. Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0425224481

These elite Delta Force heroes are highly trained killing machines. Their leader is Charlie Strongheart, a Lakota warrior. His assignment: enter Iran and eliminate a terrorist threat. But when Strongheart is betrayed by those he thought he could trust, he finds himself alone in the heart of the beast.

Title: Footsteps to Forever: A World War II Historical Thriller
Author: R. Samual Baty
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
Reviewer: Bob Ruehrdanz

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0595496407

Synopsis of the book, submitted by the author.

Title: The Wall of Broken Dreams
Author: Duke Barrett
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
Reviewer: Bill McDonald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0980061202

The trajectory of the bullet that ripped into the young paratroopers chest, knocked him on his backside thus saving him the added indignity of laying face down in the mud of the monsoon drenched jungle floor. With life rapidly escaping his body through the gaping wound, Johnny dreams of being with Mai, a beautiful Eurasian girl he'd only recently met and fell in love with on an in-country R&R at Vung Tau. To be back in the "world," to play his guitar and to live out his life with Mai consumed his every thought.

Shortly after returning to his combat unit, Johnny Richards, a cocky Irish, blue-eyed blues guitarist from the streets of Chicago, is gravely wounded on a combat air-assault into an enemy stronghold, after taking a bullet for a buddy. Are Johnny and Mai allowed to live out their dreams? Does the bullet that cut him down cut short his young adventurous life and their dreams? In 1983, at The Vietnam Memorial, better known as "The Wall," Johnny's hopes, dreams and survival come face to face with the emotional but spiritual realization that is his.

The Wall Of Broken Dreams is an adventure for sure, as any Vietnam War story should be. More than that though, it is also an inspirational story of the hopes and dreams of a young man serving his country with an elite army combat platoon in Vietnam.

The story appeals not only to the military adventure reader but also to the reader seeking an inspirational message. The Wall Of Broken Dreams is an adventure with an emotional punch.