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Review: "Red Mountain: A Detective DiPino Thriller" by David Thayer

The four member team sent to Rhinebeck, New York, had one target and one mission objective. The Durres Syndicate wants Walt Bergman dead and they want his records. As the commander of the NYPD Intelligence Division he knows where the bodies are buried on and off the force. He knows the identity of confidential informants, undercover police officers, and more. The information he has is priceless. Among other things he is involved in, Walt Burgman is trying to use one very bad man, Edon Calcani, to get an even worse guy by the name of Josef Brint and permanently stop a weapon selling operation. The plan is to take them both down and anyone else around with no help from the FBI or The Joint Terrorism Task Force.  That was his plan when the plumbers he called about a leak showed up at his door.

It was late in the evening when Detective Mickey Reidel got the call in Queens. Walt Bergman is dead, things are hitting the proverbial fan at every level in the NYPD, and the brass is very hopeful the death is a suicide. Mickey is being put on the case with the expectation that he can be counted on to understand the situation and do what he is told. They should have known better as Mickey, like everyone in this book, has his own complicated agenda. The brass can wish all they want, but, it takes Mickey a matter of minutes to clearly see that Bergman’s death was anything but a suicide.  After all, who lies down on the floor and then shoots himself?

Shifting through the point of view of Mickey, his former partner, DiPino, cartel big shots, and numerous other characters, readers are taken through a wild ride that primarily covers an intense 48 hours as scores and grudges start getting settled. Bodies fall, allegiances shift, agendas collide, and Mickey and Dipino in mostly separate storylines struggle to stay alive in the ensuring chaos and carnage.

Self-published by the author, the book is an enjoyable thriller despite the occasional typo. The cast of characters is large with the read shifting constantly through the various characters. Everyone in the book has an agenda with most driven by political expediency to save their own careers, jobs, lives, etc. Character depth is rather limited, as is the case with most thrillers, and tends to be of the stock character type. The exceptions are Mickey and to a lesser extent Dipinio who are fleshed out a bit more than the other characters with backstory, motivations, etc. Despite the tag line of A Detective DiPino Thriller the majority of the book is aimed squarely at Detective Mickey Reidel with DiPino playing a distant secondary role.

As one expects in a book billed as a thriller, the focus is on the action and moving the multiple storylines forward at an intense pace. Such is the case here in Red Mountain: A Detective DiPino Thriller where the action is often fast and furious. It soon becomes clear to readers that when the book slows down for personal reflection internally with a character or a revealing moment between characters somebody is sure to suddenly and unexpectedly die as the author’s solution to keep things going is to always kill another character. Despite the occasional typo and the author's tendency to occasion over write with lines such as “his dinner of scrambled eggs and Irish whiskey orbited through his digestive tract like an obnoxious tourist in midtown” the resulting read is a pleasant diversion.

Red Mountain: A Detective DiPino Thriller

David Thayer

David Thayer Consulting

September 2012

ISBN# 978-1-4675-3589-2

E-Book (estimated print length  213 pages)

$5.99

Material was picked up during the author’s advertised free read promotion for my use in regards to an objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013

Reviewed: "Chicks With Guns" by Lindsey McCrum

Women posing with guns are not something new. There are plenty of sites on the Internet that depict this as well as several TV shows that specialize on this topic. But usually it is a case of women wearing bikinis or less, firing automatic weapons at some target, while literally everything moves in slow motion. If that is what you are looking for, this well done book is not for you. This is a classy quality coffee table style book well worthy of your attention.

From a cover to that brings to mind a bye gone era to numerous pictures throughout the book, this is a book that pays homage to both firearms and the woman who own them. According to the introduction written by attorney Stephen L. Meagher, there is “unsettling” quality to the beautiful images in the book. Instead of “unsettling” the images portray to this reviewer determined women who tolerate no nonsense or interference and have the firepower to easily make their point.

The book contains 78 color and black and white portraits of female gun owners from across the country. Among the many variations are portraits with women posed in Old West style period costumes with antiques, others are in hunting garb, and still others are in law enforcement. Every picture makes it clear that these usually unsmiling women are clearly ready and able defend themselves against whatever man or beast walks the mean streets or crosses their land. These are not blonde blue eyed bunnies in swimsuits flaunting themselves for the camera. These women are serious and depict the plain fact that approximately twenty million women from every race, creed, and walk in life and all ages own guns and know how to use them.

The actual portraits start on pages 12-13 and lead off with “Cynthia” in hunters garb in a cornfield.  From Stamford, CT she is pictured with her “Beretta 20-gauge over-and-under” with an accompanying several paragraph text regarding how she field hunts.  That same format of the gun owner and her perspective on firearms is carried throughout the book.

A frequent point made over and over by the women is the role that guns have played in the family going back generations. “Jenevieve” of San Antonio, Texas is photographed in her wedding dress holding an “antique single-shot percussion dueling pistol. It was her wedding present from her father who got it from his father. The picture on page 24 pays homage to her husband as well as her father and the role both play in her life today.

The guns range the spectrum from antiques as mentioned above to very modern day weapons such as the “PWA-AR15” held by "Samantha" of  Livingston, MT (page 29) and just about everything in between. By no means is this the only automatic weapon in the book, but there is clear preference for pistols and shotguns of various types.

"Sarita" of Armstrong, Texas, in a powerful image on page 33 that would make John Wayne proud, has a “Parker 20-guage side by side” that is the gun her father gave her a teen. One of several Texas women that favor shotguns, it is clear from her picture it would be best to stay off her land. Texas women play a large role in these pictorials and fittingly the book closes with “Windi” of Houston, Texas on page 166 holding a Beretta Silver Pigeon 20-guage over- and- under.” In the accompanying text, she states she knew she “…married the right guy when I got a custom-made monogrammed, pink alligator shell bag for my anniversary.” (Page 167)

That idea of femininity is key to this book. Contrary to the idea of “unsettling” expressed eloquently by attorney Stephen L. Meagher in the introduction, these portraits depict confident women ready for anything and refusing to tolerate nonsense or interference from anyone. These pictures pay homage to the Old West as well as modern times while honoring each and every single woman or young lady in the book. A visual treat that not only entertains the reader with the skill involved to take these powerful portraits, Chicks With Guns by Lindsay McCrum also provides a history lesson about firearms and their role in families and this country.

This is a splendidly done book and well worthy of your consideration.  This review simply does not do the book justice.

Chicks With Guns

Lindsey McCrum

http://www.chickswithgunsbook.com/

The Vendome Press

http://www.vendomepress.com/

October 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-86565-275-0

Hardback--Coffee Table Sized

168 Pages

$45.00

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2012