Tag: matthew-fitzsimmons • BookLikes

show activity (+)

review 2019-10-14 23:56

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

This was a very well done story. I have had a copy of this book for years and finally decided to give it a try. I am finding that I have overlooked a lot of great novels over the years and this book is one of them. This book was able to grab me right away and I, along with everyone in the story, wanted to know what really happened to Suzanne. I really enjoyed the time I spent listening to this story.

14-year-old Suzanne Lombard disappeared ten years ago. At the time, her father was a well-known senator but he is now the vice president and is currently running for president. There was one surveillance video of Suzanne that surfaced shortly after she disappeared but nobody has seen her since. Everyone wants to know what happened and where she is now.

Gibson Vaughn knew Suzanne when they were kids. Gibson's father worked for Lombard and as a result, Gibson and Suzanna spent a lot of time together when they were children. Gibson has his own issues from the past to deal with and is no longer on good terms with Lombard. He decides to sign on with a group trying to finally get to the bottom of Suzanne's disappearance. I liked Gibson a lot and had a good feeling that he would be able to find out what really happened.

This was a very well thought out mystery. Every piece of information that comes up could become important later in the story. I really enjoyed seeing all of the pieces of the puzzle come together to show the full picture. There is a lot going on in this story but I thought that it worked very well. Everything really made sense and the story felt very possible. I liked that the mystery was able to keep me guessing. There were some pretty big surprises and some excitement that really kept the story moving forward.

I thought that the narrator did a good job with the story. Some of the voices that he used were very similar and I found that I really had to pay attention to determine who was speaking. He had a very soothing voice that I found easy to listen to for hours at a time.

I would recommend this book to others. I thought that it was a wonderfully layered and detailed mystery that was able to really make me think. I wouldn't hesitate to read more from this author in the future.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Thomas & Mercer via NetGalley and I purchased a copy of the audiobook.

Initial Thoughts
This was good. A lot went into this mystery and everything was important in the end. There was a lot of action and a lot of things that were in play at any given time. I really was curious about what happened to Suzanne, who was involved, and how much everyone knew. I listened to the audiobook and I thought that the narrator did an acceptable job with the story. I thought that some of the voices that he used were a little too similar to really catch who was talking very quickly. Overall, this was a very well done story.

review 2016-10-24 07:24

PoisonFeather

JDCMustReadBooks

The Gibson Vaughn Series #2

By: Matthew Fitzsimmons

ISBN: 9781503939295

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Publication Date: 10/4/2016

Format: Hardcover

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

A special thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Also purchased the audiobook, narrated by James Patrick Cronin.

Matthew Fitzsimmons’ returns following The Short Drop(Gibson Vaughn, #1), landing on my Top 50 Books of 2015.“Best Debut Political Crime Techno Thriller,” with his follow-up, POISONFEATHER, (Gibson Vaughn #2), a thriller with a full cast of characters, with Vaughn taking the back seat, compared to the first book.

A finite number of topics existed in prison-life before, life during, and the promise of a better life after. Charles Merrick would be happy when he put Niobe Federal Prison behind him in 142 days. As the managing partner of Merrick Capital, he had given two or three interviews in a week. He needed this interview. Many people resented the plea deal he cut with the Justice Department.

Eight years for the devastation Merrick Capital caused its investors strikes some as ludicrous. The net value of the assets seized didn’t come close to compensating his victims. Lives were ruined. Some saw this is a country club versus a real prison. (Madoff Junior).

Of course, Charles is insulted by this title since Madoff’s operation was amateur hour. None of the major Wall Street firms invested with Madoff. He thinks his firm was a work of art. He says their investment strategies were legitimate and their returns to investors were unprecedented. Until the crash of 2008. Of course, he blamed it on the Americans.

Catching up with Vaughn (love him)—and the Nighthawk Diner, ex-wife, and daughter, and of course some baseball. Down on his luck, he has been job hunting for last six months and between child support and mortgage his savings were just about exhausted.

He needed Real money. Real work. A job offer on the table and now to pass a polygraph. He is so close. The kind of money he expected when he left the Marines. He needed an apartment for his daughter, Ellie and maybe a dog. Hopefully, things will be looking up. However, things do not go so well.

Among Merrick's swindled victims is Judge Hammond Birk, the man who saved Gibson Vaughn's life when he was a troubled teenager. Charlottesville, Virginia. Now Gibson intends to repay that debt by recovering Merrick's victims' money from the Ponzi-scheme. Birk had offered him a deal; the Marines instead of prison, in open defiance of then senator Benjamin Lombard. The judge had saved his life.Now Birk’s family needs his help.

Now Vaughn he has to deal with the self-importance arrogance of Merrick and supposedly he has money the government didn’t find. A digital trail. They needed his computer expertise to track down the money.

One more powerful man who had gamed a broken system, ruined lives, and lived to rub it in his victim’s faces. However, Gibson isn't the only one on the dangerous trail of the hidden fortune.

Merrick had traded something valuable to his government, and in exchange, the Americans had permitted to plead out to a lighter sentence and keep some of his assets. It had to be "Poisonfeather."

“Hell is empty. And all the devils are here.”—William Shakespeare, The Tempest

Fold or call? Gibson has two options.

What a cast of characters and criminals from a Chinese spy, fisherman, gangs, a cabin, and the CIA for non-stop action! However, I hate to compare "but" I did not enjoy #2 as much as #1. Sure it is difficult when your debut is so fantastic, the expectations are set high.

I think part of the reason was less action from Vaughn and more from the other cast of characters (too many), spread out in too many places, which took away from my "main man!" Give me more Gibson Vaughn #3 in Cold Harbor,please.

JDCMustReadBooks

thriller netgalley arc 2016 new releases matthew fitzsimmons books read in 2016

Source: www.judithdcollinsconsulting.com/single-post/2016/07/03/Poisonfeather

Like Reblog Comment

review 2016-07-26 00:00

The Short Drop

Misericordia

Q:
His craft required mastery of many skills, but above all else it demanded an appreciation of time. Tinsley had made a lifetime study of the way time affected people. The way it toyed with their good judgment and perspective. Made them impatient or rash. Made them take irrational risks. Time was the great leveler, and neither money nor power held sway over its relentless march. That was precisely what made Tinsley so good at his work. Most people didn’t understand that—what really went into being a sniper. The shot wasn’t the hard part. The shot was ten thousand hours of practice, tens of thousands of rounds, and an encyclopedic knowledge of the environment’s effect on ballistics. No, the shot was the easy part. It simply required time, and the will to spend it. The hard part was the waiting.
Time did not affect Fred Tinsley as it did most people. Most people were overawed by time. They allowed time to bully them, fearing that it was passing too fast or too slowly, sometimes both simultaneously. But not Tinsley. He was indifferent to the passage of time, and it flowed around him effortlessly.
Inside his arid, primeval brain—and Tinsley thought of himself as almost prehistoric, something unspoiled by the softening influence of progress—he could look out at the world, blink, and in the time it took for his eyes to reopen, weeks could pass. It made him immune to boredom, to doubt or need; the privations that drove ordinary men mad did not concern him.
(c)

Like Reblog Comment

review 2016-07-12 00:00

The Short Drop

Shiftyj1

A very well done thriller from Matthew FitzSimmons. There were some predictable moments here and I initially thought “uh-oh”, but the plot had more than enough juice to pull me through and I never became disengaged from the story.

The characters are what really shine here. The main protagonist, Gibson Vaughn was drawn out very well and is a great lead character. The supporting cast were all equally well written and meshed seamlessly into the storyline without seeming forced or unnecessary.

I am looking to more from Gibson Vaughn and Matthew FitzSimmons. 4 Stars!

Like Reblog Comment

show activity (+)

review 2016-04-02 18:23

from FictionZeal.com re: The Short Drop by Matthew FitzSimmons

FictionZeal

Ten years ago, Suzanne Lombard intended to run away from home; she’s not been seen since. She was only fourteen-years-old. Within the last ten years, the playing field has drastically changed. Suzanne was the daughter of then Senator Benjamin Lombard. More recently, he’s been the VP, and now running for the US presidency. Her close friend, Gibson Vaughn, was in jail at the age of sixteen when she disappeared. He’d hacked into the Senator’s computer detailing a supposedly criminal diversion of campaign funds to banks in the Cayman Islands. Instead of a longer jail time, he’d agreed to serve in the Marine Corps. Now an ex-Marine, he was an IT guy … before just being laid off from that job. George Abe had been the head of Lombard’s security team. Now, he’s seeking Gibson Vaughn’s help. They have a new viable lead. Gibson reluctantly agrees to become involved again, having been disappointed in all of the false leads of the past. But, he still loves Suzanne like a sister, and ultimately begins working with Abe’s contacts – an ex-CIA officer and an L.A. police detective.

This is an unbelievably well-written debut thriller by Matthew FitzSimmons. He developed scarred characters you will grow to care about, and hope they’ll succeed against what seems like impossible odds. Good luck putting this suspenseful, but rather gritty, novel down. Among the plot themes are Suzanne’s cold case; shameful politics; computer hacking; and a creepy hired killer. This is the first book in what appears to be a fantastic start of a new series. The 2^nd book in the Gibson Vaughn series,Poisonfeather, is set to be released September, 2016. Rating: 4 out of 5.