Frantic by Mike Dellosso (Book Review)

Title: Frantic

Author: Mike Dellosso

Publisher: Realms

About the Book: Can a deranged serial killer be stopped before it’s too late?

For gas station attendant Marny Toogood it’s just another day on the job when an urgent message from a young girl in the backseat of a car draws him into a daring rescue attempt. Now on the run with the girl and her brother, Marny begins to realize he must conquer his own past and surrender all to Christ.

As they face kidnapping, underground cults, and other evils, can Marny trust the simple faith of a child and stand his ground against a power so twisted?

My thoughts: This is a great thriller, and just when you think Marny, Esther and William are safe, an evil even worse appears!  

Marny is kind of a tragic hero.  All of his life, the people around him seem to die in somewhat freak accidents.  He feels he is cursed so doesn't really understand why he felt compelled to chase after this random girl who dropped a piece of paper at his work that implied she was in danger.  No sooner does he find where her assumed kidnapper (Gary) has taken her, when he is captured himself.  

Well, they manage to escape from Gary, but Marny soon discovers what Esther already knows.  Gary will do anything and everything necessary to keep William with him - including killing those he deems necessary.  Gary feels it is his mission from God to keep William safe.  He thinks William is a chosen child, all stemming from a tragedy that happened when he was just a boy.  

The story is told from the points of view of mainly Marny, Gary and Esther.  You learn each of their stories over the course of the book and learn what has molded each one of them to believe as they do in the present.  William has a child like faith in God and it is this faith that is able to sustain all of them at some point in the book.  His faith in God helped out with some miracles that happen over the course of the story.  

This was definitely a quick moving book, as a thriller should be.  There wasn't much "down-time" either for the reader or the characters!  There is a subtle message about faith, and I can imagine the non-believer being a little skeptical by the ending of the book, but to think what would be possible, if we all had the faith of a child.

~I received a complimentary copy of this book from Charisma House and First Wild Card Tours.~

To read the first chapter, please visit my First Wild Card Tour post.

Frantic
Publisher/Publication Date: Realms, Feb 2012
ISBN: 978-1-61638-480-7
304 pages



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First Wild Card Tour: Frantic by Mike Dellosso

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!




You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card author is:

Mike Dellosso

and the book:

Frantic

Realms (February 7, 2012)

***Special thanks to Jon Wooten of Charisma House for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mike Dellosso is the author of numerous novels of suspense, including Darkness Follows, Darlington Woods, and Scream. He is an adjunct professor of writing at Lancaster Bible College and frequent contributor to Christian websites and newsletters. Mike is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers association, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance, the Relief Writer’s Network, and FaithWriters, and he plans to join International Thriller Writers. He earned his BA degree from Messiah College and his MBS from Master’s International School of Divinity. He lives in Hanover, PA, with his wife and daughters. Hometown: Hanover, PA





Visit the author's website.

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Gas station attendant Marny Toogood thinks it’s just another ordinary day on the job until an urgent message from a young girl in the backseat of a car draws him into a daring rescue attempt. Now he is on the run with Esther and William Rose from their insane “uncle” who thinks it is his mission from God to protect William, a boy with incredible faith that gives him supernatural powers.

As they face kidnapping, underground cults, and other evils, can Marny trust the simple faith of a child and stand his ground against a power so twisted?

Product Details:

List Price: $13.99



Paperback: 304 pages

Publisher: Realms (February 7, 2012)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1616384808

ISBN-13: 978-1616384807





AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:

The night Marny Toogood was born it rained axheads and hammer handles.

His grandfather made a prediction, said it was an omen of some sort, that it meant Marny’s life would be stormy, full of rain clouds and lightning strikes. Wanting to prove her father wrong, Janie Toogood named her son Marnin, which means “one who brings joy,” instead of the Mitchell she and her husband had agreed on.

But in spite of Janie’s good intentions, and regardless of what his birth certificate said, Marny’s grandfather was right.

At the exact time Marny was delivered into this world and his grandfather was portending a dark future, Marny’s father was en route to the hospital from his job at Winden’s Furniture Factory where he was stuck working the graveyard shift. He’d gotten the phone call that Janie was in labor, dropped his hammer, and run out of the plant. Fifteen minutes from the hospital his pickup hit standing water, hydroplaned, and tumbled down a steep embank- ment, landing in a stand of eastern white pines. The coroner said he experienced a quick death; he did not suffer.

One week after Marny’s birth his grandfather died of a heart attack. He didn’t suffer either.

Twenty-six years and a couple of lifetimes of hurt later, Marny found himself working at Condon’s Gas ’n Go and living above the garage in a small studio apartment George Condon rented to

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Mike Dellosso

him for two hundred bucks a month. It was nothing special, but it was a place to lay his head at night and dream about the dark cloud that stalked him.

But his mother had told him every day until the moment she died that behind every rain cloud is the sun, just waiting to shine its light and dry the earth’s tears.

Marny held on to that promise and thought about it every night before he succumbed to sleep and entered a world that was as unfriendly and frightening as any fairy tale forest, the place of his dreams, the only place more dark and foreboding than his life.

On the day reality collided with the world of Marny’s night- mares, it was hotter than blazes, strange for a June day in Maine. The sun sat high in the sky, and waves of heat rolled over the asphalt lot at the Gas ’n Go. The weather kept everyone indoors, which meant business was slow for a Saturday. Marny sat in the garage bay waiting for Mr. Condon to take his turn in checkers and wiped the sweat from his brow.

^{“Man, it’s hot.”}

^{Mr. Condon didn’t look up from the checkerboard. “Ayuh.}

^{Wicked hot. Newsman said it could hit ninety.”}

^{“So it’ll probably get up to ninety-five.”}

^{Mr. Condon rubbed at his white stubble. “Ayuh.”}

^{He was sixty-two and looked it. His leather-tough skin was}

^{creased with deep wrinkles. Lots of smile lines. Marny had worked}

^{for him for two years but had known the old mechanic his whole}

^life.

^{Mr. Condon made his move then squinted at Marny. Behind}

^{him Ed Ricker’s Dodge truck rested on the lift. The transmis-}

^{sion had blown, and Mr. Condon should have been working}

^{on it instead of playing checkers. But old Condon kept his own}

^{schedule. His customers never complained. George Condon was}

^{the best, and cheapest, mechanic around. He’d been getting cars}

^{and trucks through one more Maine winter for forty years.}

^{Marny studied the checkerboard, feeling the weight of Mr.}

^{Condon’s dark eyes on him, and was about to make his move}

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Fr antic

when the bell chimed, signaling someone had pulled up to the pump island. Condon’s was the only full-service station left in the Down East, maybe in the whole state of Maine.

Despite the heat, Mr. Condon didn’t have one droplet of sweat on his face. “Cah’s waitin’, son.”

Marny glanced outside at the tendrils of heat wriggling above the lot, then at the checkerboard. “No cheating.”

^{His opponent winked. “No promises.”}

^{Pushing back his chair, Marny stood and wiped more sweat}

^{from his brow, then headed outside.}

^{The car at the pump was a 1990s model Ford Taurus, faded blue}

^{with a few rust spots around the wheel wells. The windows were}

^{rolled down, which probably meant the air-conditioning had quit}

^{working. This was normally not a big deal in Maine, but on a rare}

^{day like this, the driver had to be longing for cool air.}

^{Marny had never seen the vehicle before. The driver was a large}

^{man, thick and broad. He had close-cropped hair and a smooth,}

^{round face. Marny had never seen him before either.}

^{He approached the car and did his best to be friendly. “Mornin’.}

^{Hot one, isn’t it?”}

^{The driver neither smiled nor looked at him. “Fill it up. Regular.”}

^{Marny headed to the rear of the car and noticed a girl in the}

^{backseat. A woman, really, looked to be in her early twenties. She}

^{sat with her hands in her lap, head slightly bowed. As he passed}

^{the rear window she glanced at him, and there was something in}

^{her eyes that spoke of sorrow and doom. Marny recognized the}

^{look because he saw it in his own eyes every night in the mirror.}

^{He smiled, but she quickly diverted her gaze.}

^{As he pumped the gas, Marny watched the girl, studied the}

^{back of her head. She was attractive in a plain way, a natural pret-}

^{tiness that didn’t need any help from cosmetics. Her hair was rich}

^{brown and hung loosely around her shoulders. But it was her eyes}

^{that had captivated him. They were as blue as the summer sky, but}

^{so sad and empty. Marny wondered what the story was between}

^{the man and girl. He was certainly old enough to be her father. He}

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Mike Dellosso

looked stern and callous, maybe even cruel. Marny felt for her, for her unhappiness, her life.

He caught the man watching him in the side mirror and looked at the pump’s gauge. A second later the nozzle clicked off, and he returned it to the pump. He walked back to the driver’s window. “That’ll be forty-two.”

While the man fished around in his back pocket for his wallet, Marny glanced at the girl again, but she kept her eyes down on her hands.

“You folks local?” Marny said, trying to get the man to open up a little.

The driver handed Marny three twenties but said nothing. Marny counted off eighteen dollars in change. “You new in the

area? I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before. Lately, seems more people have been moving out than in.”

Still nothing. The man took the money and started the car. Before pulling out he nodded at Marny. There was something in the way he moved his head, the way his eyes sat in their sockets, the way his forehead wrinkled ever so slightly, that made Marny shiver despite the heat.

The car rolled away from the pump, asphalt sticking to the tires, and exited the lot. Marny watched until it was nearly out of sight, then turned to head back to the garage and Mr. Condon and the game of checkers. But a crumpled piece of paper on the ground where the Taurus had been parked caught his attention. He picked it up and unfurled it. Written in all capital letters was a message:

^{HE’S GOING TO KILL ME}

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Darkness Follows by Mike Dellosso (Book Review)

Title: Darkness Follows
Author: Mike Dellosso
Publisher: Realms

Sam Travis is a man on the brink of despair. . .

Out of a job and feeling worthless, Sam Travis is awakened one night to the sounds of a Civil War battle raging outside his Gettysburg home.  But it's the middle of the night and the summer's reenactments are long over.  A search for the source brings him to an old journal by a Union soldier. . . written in his own handwriting.

When more of the mysterious writings appear and begin to mimic Sam's own life, his search for the truth puts him on a downward spiral that eventually drives him from his wife, his daughter, and his home -- and into an evil plot that could cost many lives, including his own.

Read the first chapter.

My thoughts:  Sam lives in Gettysburg, PA with his wife, Molly and daughter, Eva. He hasn't worked in a while as he is recuperating from a head injury that he sustained from falling off a roof at his job.  His wife has had to take over the running of basically everything, and it has left their relationship strained.    When Sam begins seeing and hearing his dead brother, and discovers writings about history (of which he has no knowledge) in his own hand, the tension between them increases.

He doesn't feel that he can share these things with her as he thinks he is slowly going crazy and doesn't want her to confirm it.  He has also not shared what happened between him and his brother growing up, and is trying desperately to keep it closed off in his mind.

I loved the way that the author flipped back and forth from the past to the present and showed many similarities in people despite the era they were in.  Eva, Sam's daughter, continues to tell her parents about a glittery friend, Jacob, who tells her to keep telling her daddy that she loves him.  Her faith and love are tremendous and this is very apparent in the story.  Even after she is kidnapped and thinks she has lost her daddy as he has gone off to do a "bad thing", she continues to have hope.

The book rushes along and I found myself not wanting to put it down as there were so many things that could happen, both good and bad, and I had no idea which way the author was going to go.  As it is Christian fiction, I assumed there would be a good outcome, but had no idea how Mr. Dellosso was going to get there and how he was going to tie everything together.  I was not disappointed.  Love plays a big part in the story as does faith (especially the faith of a child).

I have had the opportunity to read Scream and enjoyed it as well.  The author has a new book, Frantic, coming out in 2012 and it is already on my reading list!

~I received a complimentary copy of this book from Anna Coelho Silva, Publicity Coordinator, Charisma House, Charisma Media in exchange for my review. ~

About the author: Mike Dellosso is the author of The Hunted, Darlington Woods, and Scream and an adjunct professor of writing at Lancaster Bible College.  Mike earned his BA degree from Messiah College and his MBS from Master's International School of Divinity.  He lives in Hanover, PA, with his wife and daughters.

You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, and his web page.


Darkness Follows
Publisher/Publication Date: Realms, May 2011
ISBN: 978-1-61638-274-2
281 pages