A Good Thriller discussion

Our next group read, is for the month of January, a break for Christmas, but look at for the free offer on this book near the end of the month..

As you know this is our usually Read a long, but no further Q and A for the day with top authors, do to lack of interest, sadly.

Let us join in January with Jack Patterson's book

Hi, Sean.

How are you? I hope you're doing well.

Here's the link for the book. I have it free for everyone and will download to any device:
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/heji97x75j

Hopefully this will be accessible for everyone. Also, this doesn't collect email addresses either like some of the download sites do. So, no strings attached.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Please note that I'm writing under R.J. Patterson instead of Jack to help me avoid any confusion with that other Patterson guy. Haha!

Thanks for doing this. I'm looking forward to interacting with all the readers in the community around this book. I've got plenty to share regarding my research for this novel as well as interesting things I learned about espionage in the Cold War from all the classified CIA documents I was able to read. Very interesting stuff.

Have a great day!

Sean wrote: "Hi, Sean.

How are you? I hope you're doing well.

Here's the link for the book. I have it free for everyone and will download to any device:
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/heji97x75j

Hopefully this wi..."

Thank you Sean! I'm glad I was so slow in asking my question - I was checking Amazon daily for the book and started to wonder if it's not awailable in Germany and now you posted the link to BookFunel :-)
I got it and start reading next week. I'm looking forward to it.

Just downloaded and really looking forward to reading this month - what a great start to 2018....thanks! :)

Thanks, Sean. I'm looking forward to hearing what readers think about this book.

Just to give everyone a little background on it, the series is based off extensive research I did at the National Archives over the past couple of years. Inside the cache of Nazi war crime papers are a stack of CIA operational papers from during the Cold War era. Those are the only operational papers available to the public, giving us insight into how the CIA conducts its business abroad. I found it very fascinating and fun to fictionalize.

Many of the characters in the novel are based off actual recruits and agents from the CIA during the 1960s. King of Queens introduces the main character, Ed Maddux, who was recruited by the CIA as a civilian asset and later assigned an overseas position in conjunction with his automobile company. And most of that story is taken straight from CIA documents.

I'd love to hear any questions anybody has on the book from the writing of it to the historical era.

Happy reading!

R.J. wrote: "Thanks, Sean. I'm looking forward to hearing what readers think about this book.

Just to give everyone a little background on it, the series is based off extensive research I did at the National ..."

That's sounding so interesting - now I'm looking even more forward to read the book. I hope I can start within the next three days with this book.

I have just downloaded the book!

Just got my book. I’m in a New Year haze after some great holidays. Still trying to figure out what day of the week it is.

Just finished it ! WOW what a ride. I couldn’t put it down, Read it in one sitting and loved every minute of it. The story line set in the 60’s as well as the engaging cast of characters made this a great read and loads of fun.

Glad you enjoyed it, Martin!

I downloaded the book last Saturday and finished reading it last evening. I kept switching between it and another book that modern day CIA has a major role in it. both books are good. You can read my review for this one on my blog at http://world-of-sleuths.blogspot.com/....

Glad you enjoyed it, Tim. Thanks for the review. ... I noticed you were stationed in Europe while serving in the Air Force. What base(s) were you at? ... My father was stationed at Bentwaters for several years and flew A-10s there when I was a kid.

R.J. wrote: "Glad you enjoyed it, Tim. Thanks for the review. ... I noticed you were stationed in Europe while serving in the Air Force. What base(s) were you at? ... My father was stationed at Bentwaters for s..."

I was at Zweibrucken Air Base, Germany for six years and in Wiesbaden for a year. I was a computer maintenance technician. My son was born in Zweibrucken. They closed that base back in 1991.

Tim wrote: "R.J. wrote: "Glad you enjoyed it, Tim. Thanks for the review. ... I noticed you were stationed in Europe while serving in the Air Force. What base(s) were you at? ... My father was stationed at Ben..."

What a great experience. I loved visiting Germany whenever we went on vacation. ... And thanks for your service!

R.J. wrote: "Thanks, Sean. I'm looking forward to hearing what readers think about this book.

Just to give everyone a little background on it, the series is based off extensive research I did at the National ..."

R.J., you have an error in the book, at least in the Kindle version. Location 2734, Chapter XXVIII, during the interview. It says: "I wasn't sure if I believed him or not," Pritchett said. "We have a long history dating back to our days in college...(etc)

This is Maddux speaking, not Pritchett.

Also, later in the same chapter, loc 2786, when Pritchett is asking Maddux to go to Germany, he mentions "...veterans of the CIA, couldn't have pulled off what you did today." But, Maddux didn't pull off anything "TODAY". It was 2 days earlier when he pulled off what he did.

Thanks for letting me know, Rose. I'll make sure to correct that in future versions.

Started this book today, 20% in.

I could finally start it as well, January was busier than I had foreseen. Thank you very much for this opportunity. I haven't gone far yet but it's easy to read for sure!

Read 65% now...

Nice easy reading with a good story

I've finished my review. Unfortunately, this isn't my favorite type of thriller so it surely influenced my level of fun. That said, it was still enjoyable. I fell in love with Rose, such a fun character! Indeed, it's really an easy reading, as Sean said. :D

Finished.

Review in Just Finished. three stars from me.

Quick light read

WARNING: Message includes SPOILERS in case you didn't read the book yet.

Finally I started the book yesterday (once again pretty late to the party *sigh*)
I got last night the first two chapters read and like the style so far.

I have a question (and suppose it's just a linguistic issue). What does 'burst into a chorus of Dead Man's Chest' mean or stand for?

Now I finished chapter 11 (41 % now) - here my questions/notes:
- No Bull Nick having a double meaning - I don't get it - is it another language/cultural issue?
- I wasn't aware Malboro's original target group were women - is it a historical fact or did you make it up?

- I really loved this sentence: 'Success in marketing doesn't necessarily mean it's good marketing'
- In chapter 3, when Ed signs the form Dyson gave him I was wondering if he not read it (which will lead to trouble in the future) or if it wasn't just important enough to mention he read it before he singed the document.
Which reminds me, the moment Pritchett appears I was convinced he's not really working for the CIA - only uses it to convince Ed working for them & the (convinient) meeting between Nick & the Russian guy in the club the same night was staged - looks like I read way too many conspiracy thrillers in the last time and start to expect a conspiracy around each corner *grins*
- In chapter 8 when Ed ignores Brumbaugh and he says than 'You can ignor me all you want, Ed, but one day you're going to wake up and-' once again I started to wonder if this threat will have consequenses later in the story of if it's just something I blew up way too much :-)

- At the end of chapter 10 when Ed brings down the two thugs after him/his button camera I thought it's so way over the top unrealistic (how can an marketing guy be victor over two - most likely - professionals and bring down both of them - one I could really understand thinking along the way he got lucky, but two - were the Russians so incompetent?) but still pretty fun to read.
- After the vistit from Yuri in chapter 11 I'm wondering if he will work as 'double-agent' for the CIA and pose as 'double-agent' to get the information about his father or how this situation will be solved. We'll see.
BTW I like the twist with his father as well as the scenes with Rose :-)

I hope to read another 10-20 percent later tonight and reach at least 75 percent tomorrow morning, before I'll go back online.

Agnieszka wrote: "WARNING: Message includes SPOILERS in case you didn't read the book yet.

Finally I started the book yesterday (once again pretty late to the party *sigh*)
I got last night the first two chapters r..."

Dead Man's Chest is a pirate song. Did something happen that reminded them of pirates and the burst into song? The name is No Bull Nick? No bull is short for bull sh$t, so no nonsense or goofing around

Perri wrote: "Agnieszka wrote: "WARNING: Message includes SPOILERS in case you didn't read the book yet.

Finally I started the book yesterday (once again pretty late to the party *sigh*)
I got last night the fi..."

Thank you, Perri!

Agnieszka wrote: "WARNING: Message includes SPOILERS in case you didn't read the book yet.

Finally I started the book yesterday (once again pretty late to the party *sigh*)
I got last night the first two chapters r..."

Looks like Perri beat me to it on two of the questions you asked, but regarding your question about Marlboro's original targeting -- yes, that is true. "Mild as May" was one of the company's long-time slogan until they realized women were wising up about smoking while men still viewed it as something cool to do, lung cancer be damned :) I love digging up nuggets like that when I find them during my researching of the era. ... Hope you enjoy the rest of the book.

Thank you so much.

Since I had to take two marketing courses during my studies I realised I don't like marketing, but still got enough awareness for really good or really bad case of those so I can at least enjoy those now when I stumble on them :-)

I'm enjoying the book very much. Unfortunatelly I noticed I can't read too much at once if I try I break down (and wasn't able to read a single page the last two days) - so I decided to be happy to read less but each day from today on. I'll post here when I have some more questions or notes, but understand if you won't be able to answer - I'm pretty late.