Mystery

Title: Tales of Tomasewski
Author: Del Staecker
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Terry Shoptaugh

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B009PMV65M

After an “unfortunate” shooting and its subsequent public uproar, veteran Chicago
Police Detective Jake Thompson is exiled to the department’s Administrative Investigations Unit, a no man’s land for rejects. Jake Thompson, aka Jan Tomasewski, is in cop purgatory—for doing the right thing. Jake has a nose for cases that punish him for doing what’s right. In fact, the hospital issued him a frequent-patient card with extra points—for habitually doing the right thing. A crayon box full of victims, villains, and friends vibrantly color the cases Jake encounters on Chicago’s gritty Southside and follows to the Caribbean, Hong Kong and beyond.

Title: The Rendition
Author: Albert Ashforth
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Betsy Beard

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1608090590

The brutal secret war to win Kosovo's freedom from Serbia is in full swing when The Rendition takes readers behind the headlines for an inside look at the United States' involvement. Alex Klear, a veteran intelligence officer, is sent to the Balkans on a hastily planned rendition which goes terribly bad. Alex decides it's time to retire. However, when he is persuaded to go to Germany as part of an operation connected to the rendition, he finds himself caught between two dynamic women, an old girlfriend and the female colonel running the 'op.' While there, he becomes a target of the Kosovo Liberation Army, a murder suspect to the German police, and for his superiors the perfect fall guy to take the heat for a badly botched secret operation. With Kosovo's independence declaration coming closer by the day, the secret war heats up and Alex comes to realize that he is at the center of a murky conspiracy aimed at making the United States an international pariah.

Title: Chosin File
Author: Dale A. Dye
Genre: Fiction
Reviewer: Joyce M. Gilmour

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0985338806

Nuclear saber-rattling in North Korea has created international palpitations and some unlikely partnerships in an effort to keep communist loose cannons from causing a war that no one wants and everyone fears. The CIA calls on clandestine contacts in neighboring China to run a dark—and wholly unauthorized—reconnaissance mission over North Korea from a top-secret drone base along the Yalu River. All is well and under international radar until Gunner Shake Davis’ best friend goes missing on a mission near the infamous Chosin Reservoir to check on a tip that the North Koreans are up to something sinister around the infamous Chosin Reservoir. That brings Marine Gunner Shake Davis out of retirement once again to locate his buddy on a risky trek through the snow-blown mountains surrounding the Korean War battle site where an earlier generation of Marines fought a classic withdrawal that became an iconic chapter in military history. While Shake is on his risky mission, the North Korean Supreme Leader suddenly dies and the entire world goes on high alert to see what might happen next in Pyongyang. That puts serious pressure on Shake and his South Korean allies who have discovered—and must deter—a potentially world-shattering North Korean weapon that threatens the very fabric of modern computer-based societies. It’s a high-stakes game and the clock is ticking as an international team of technical experts and military special operators launch a desperate search that culminates in a deadly confrontation in the Korea Straits in the midst of a howling storm.

Title: Devil's Den
Author: Don Helin
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Terry Shoptaugh

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0938467557

Colonel Zack Kelly escorts Blake Lannigan to Gettysburg, and she disappears on the battlefield. Zack, who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder from his three tours in Afghanistan, has no memory of what happened although he believes he heard hoofbeats. He becomes the FBI's number one suspect. Zack's search for Blake takes him to Washington D.C. where a member of the Irish Mafia attempts to kill him; to Galway Ireland to determine why there's a contract on his life; then back to Washington to unravel a mysterious Irish connection.

In Zack's corner are Irish medium Shelia O'Donnell, and his partner on the President's National Security Advisor's Task Force, Lieutenant Colonel Rene Garcia.

Title; Peleliu File
Author: Dale A. Dye
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Barbara Peacock

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0982167016

While searching for answers to World War II mysteries on the infamous island of Iwo Jima, retired Marine Gunner Shake Davis answers a call on his satellite phone. Not long after that he's back in the counter-terrorism game and immersed eyeball-deep in desperate attempts to prevent a unique and very deadly biological warfare attack.

His efforts to help thwart what could be a devastating threat to populations around the globe takes him on a whirlwind trek through the South Pacific with stops at some of the most familiar battlegrounds of the Second World War including the Philippines, Wake Island and Peleliu. His intimate knowledge of the history, people and places involved makes him an invaluable asset in a desperate chase across the vast reaches of the South Pacific. Along the way Shake teams up with new allies including U.S. Army Special Forces and a SEAL Team operating from one of the Navy's newest and most capable littoral combat ships.

He also reunites with familiar characters from his earlier sojourn in Southeast Asia in pursuit of the Laos File. Gunner Shake Davis USMC is back...and this time he's up against a ruthless enemy using science as a weapon and bound to let the evil genie of germ warfare out of the bottle. "As a Navy SEAL and combat veteran I participated in numerous highly sensitive operations around the world during my 24 years of military service.

The Peleliu File is a captivating journey into the dark world of International Terrorism and the brave people that confront the global threat. Dale Dye's masterful understanding of Transnational Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Military Operations create an exciting and dynamic novel. " -- Rick Toms, Navy SEAL, LCDR (Ret)