DWD's Reviews

Audiobook published in 2003 by Skyboat Productions Read by Stefan Rudnicki Duration: 11 hours, 7 minutes David Morrell in 2009 Photo by Phil Konstantin David Morrell excels at the thriller but he really excels at a subset of the thriller - what I call a "chase novel." His first novel, First Blood, was this type of book. The protagonist is being chased by someone or a group of people and the reader gets taking along for the ride. This book is like that as well. A research scientist named Prescott hires a private security team to guard his life from drug dealers and perhaps a compromised government agency. Either way, Cavenaugh is sent to meet the client and assess his needs. In the middle of that meeting highly trained men storm the building and Cavenaugh and Prescott barely escape. But, once Cavenaugh and Prescott can take a breather, Cavenaugh realizes that Prescott may be a lot more than he imagined and Cavenaugh may have to protect himself from his own client....

Originally published in 1998. No one, and I mean no one in modern fiction does a better job of creating the "man on the run" story line than David Morrell. He creates tension and paranoia in his stories that make the reader turn the page. This story is no different in that respect. But, it does have a horrible flaw. Double Image features photographer Mitch Coltrane. He mostly does news photography but is also quite the talented artistic photographer. When the story starts, Coltrane is in Bosnia photographing Dragan Ilkovic, a war criminal whose men are digging up mass graves in order to more properly dispose of them. Coltrane gets his pictures, barely escapes with his life and decides that it is time to get out of the news business because the sights are starting to give him nightmares. In the meantime, his pictures cause Ilkovic to become an international criminal. Ilkovic comes to Los Angeles to hunt down Coltrane and Morrell's strengths as an author come to the fo...

I was very impressed with the audiobook experience. Published in 2002 . Long Lost is one of the best audiobooks that I have ever heard. Neil Patrick Harris does an absolutely wonderful job of conveying the emotions of Brad Denning, the main character. Harris makes you feel the loss of Denning, the joy of re-discovering his long-lost brother, the horror of having his family kidnapped...Well done! The plot of the book is compelling. Brad Denning is a successful architect with a happy wife and son. One day, a scruffy stranger approaches him and tells him that he is Petey, Brad's long-lost little brother who was presumed abducted when Brad was 13. Something is not quite right about Petey (who has no real proof as to his identity) and Brad's wife has her doubts. But, Brad's guilt about his part in his brother's disappearance (he told his brother to get lost because he was being a pest and that is when he was disappeared) leads him to let Petey into their lives.  Af...

  Like all Morrell books, a good bit of action David Morrell Synopsis: Brotherhood of the Rose is set in the Cold War era in the world of big time spies. Two orphans living in an orphanage, Saul and Chris, were singled out for education and training that led to them being paired together as super spies working for the CIA. Now, the man who trained them - the man they consider to be their father - has betrayed them. Saul and Chris avoid all sorts of troubles as they unravel an international plot against them and combat the international forces arrayed against them. My review: Like in all of Morrell's books, there is plenty of well-written action and interesting characters. Plenty of thought went into this world of conspiracy. The action is detailed, but not overly so. It is not Morrell's best work, but it is certainly worth the read. I give this one a solid 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here:  The Brotherhood of the ...

David Morrell's Black Evening: Tales of Dark Suspense is a collection of horror short stories. This is a change of pace from Morrell's normal fare of action/suspense/thriller novels, but this is a strong collection that is a great read and will be especially rewarding for Morrell's fans. David Morrell There are 7 short stories in this collection. The weakest by far is the first one, "The Dripping". I'd rate it 3 stars. But the rest are 4 or 5 star short stories which is high praise from me since I am not normally a fan of the short story format. Of especially high quality are "But At My Back I Always Hear" and "Orange Is For Anguish, Blue For Insanity." Those stand up with the best short format horror stories that you can put against them, from Poe to King. Each story is introduced by the author who includes plenty of details about how he started writing, what was going on in his life when he wrote the stories. Th...

Decent, but not Morrell's best work The copy I have of First Blood includes an interesting forward by the author in which he discusses the Rambo phenomenon that swept the world after the Stallone movies were made. That forward was written several years ago and the Rambo legacy continues today. Just last night I saw a commercial for a Nicholas Cage movie that mentions Rambo twice. David Morrell Anyway, this is Morrell's first novel and it is not bad. Morrell tries to work in several serious themes and tries to make it a piece of really violent literature rather than settle for just a bit of escapism. In fact, this novel was used for several college and high school classes as a novel to discuss until the Rambo movie phenomenon overwhelmed the books. Even though this was regarded highly enough by some instructors to be used in the classroom, I think that it missed the mark a bit too much - the rivalry between Rambo and the sheriff was a bit too contrived and the Spe...

A change of pace for Morrell David Morrell David Morrell is one of my favorite authors. The only problem with being a Morrell fan is that he's not a big name author like King, Koontz or Grisham. You have to explain who he is to author book people and they usually get turned off when you mention one of the most famous characters in fiction: Rambo. Too bad because Morrell writes multiple genres - supense, historical fiction, horror - and he does them well and he is definitely should be known more as the creator of the cartoonish image most people have of Rambo. Anyway, I'm slowly working my way through his older books and enjoying myself. Last Reveille is Morrell's first foray into historical fiction. First published in 1977, the 1994 edition has an eight page introduction to the book that sets the book up quite well. He notes that it is similar to the John Wayne movie The Shootist in that there is an aging character that becomes a composite, a symbol o...

A good read, not Morrell's best work. Originally published in 1993. No one writes better than Morrell when it comes to the "fugitive" novel - one man hunted by many in a cross-country chase. David Morrell In Assumed Identity , a military intelligence deep cover operative has been accidentally exposed and an operation goes sour. Soon, the operative is being blackmailed and chased by an attractive reporter and the unwanted attention causes the operative's handlers to "terminate" a number of people and the operative comes to believe that his own life is in danger as well. Throw in a damsel in distress (actually two) and a James Bond-esque villain and the chase is on! Unfortunately, a great story is slightly marred by the protagonist's constant internal psychobabble about who he really is (he confuses himself with the various personas he's become over the years). An even bigger problem is the ultra-rich villain. He's a parody of the...

Once you get past the first 35 pages, its quite a ride! Originally published in 1994. Desperate Measures begins with newspaper reporter Matt Pittman, the protagonist, who is literally preparing to kill himself with his pistol out of grief for his son that has died from cancer when the phone rings. Pittman decides to answer it because he wants to make sure that he exits this life without owing anything to anyone. It is his best friend and his boss who covered for him innumerable times when his son was sick. He asks for one more favor and Pittman reluctantly goes back on the job for one more story. It was at this point in the book that I was about ready to close it up and start another book because the whole "I'm going to kill myself" angle was getting very, very old. I realize that Morrell was writing out of the pain of losing his own son to cancer, but the book was rapidly losing interest for me. David Morrell Suddenly, the pace of the book changed and Pittman...

I'm a huge Morrell fan but this one was just paint by numbers Originally published in 1991. No one writes books about a little guy vs. a vast conspiracy better than David Morrell. Morrell is one of the few authors that I will snatch up when I come across a new (or "new to me") title. The Covenant of the Flame tries to go for that "on the run" feel that Morrell usually establishes, but it just comes off as more of a "paint by the numbers" effort. The DaVinci Code covers similar material but the The Covenant of the Flame is the more plausible and older of the two. That being said, Covenant still just doesn't have "it." This is not a bad book per se and I certainly would encourage readers to read other Morrell books such as Extreme Denial and Desperate Measures to get a feel for what this author is truly capable of. I rate this book 3 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Covenant of the Flame by Dav...