5 INTRIGUING TALES

CAUSAL CONNECTION by W.C. Hatounian is an excellent story for those who are looking for a police procedural novel with political intrigue that grabs you from the very beginning and never lets go until the end.
The front cover is a bit odd. I had to look closely to see that inside the box is the body of a man. I think the lines are supposed to be the lines of Venetian blinds? And the outside of the box looks like wallpaper. I'm not saying the cover is poorly executed or unpleasant, just unusual. The back cover copy brought a smile to my face despite the grim topic -- "But Milo suspects that anyone depressed enough to commit suicide would be too depressed to get that creative about it." While the blurb is good and I appreciated having an author photo, a short author bio would have been in order, particularly since there doesn't seem to be an author biography anywhere inside the book.
As for the story, it is well paced and the dialogue is such that I felt I could be watching a television program -- and that is a compliment. The author intends to honor policemen and women with his work and I think he succeeds. With his attention to detail and intriguing story, I think Hatounian will find many new readers with this novel. I also think this author has the talent and care about his craft to make this into a successful series of stories. The more books he writes, the more fans he will find, in my view. Nice work.

Mary Banks was an opportunist who was out to make money in any way she could. She and her workout partner, Thelma Ritter, worked their way into accommodating senators and other higher-ups for money, and also any information they could come across that would help them increase their income through blackmail, extortion, and other nefarious means. Employed at Wal-Mart, Mary believed the extra income she could earn would come in handy and enable her to continue to live the lifestyle she was growing accustomed to.

Her boyfriend, Andy Montana, worked at Valley Wide Distribution. One night he was found dead in his home. The death was unusual in that he was vacuum packed into a mattress lying on the floor. It was made to look like a suicide, but eventually the police decided it was murder.

Detective Milo Necalli of the Phoenix, Arizona police department’s Violent Crimes Bureau was assigned the case. As the body count rose and the case got more and more bizarre, Detective Necalli found himself tangling with corrupt senators, opportunistic blackmailers, corrupt Politian’s, and drug smugglers. He also found Valley Wide Distribution and its employees kept coming up during the investigation. Necalli and his team continued to work through the increasingly complicated case that threatened to place his own job on the line, until the surprise ending.

This is one of those "Normal guys find their way into a fantasy world' type book (which I am a sucker for) and it's a lot of fun. It reminded me a lot of "Doomfarers of Coramonde' which is one of my favorites reads, but that book isn't all that well known.
Anyway here, a quartet of "Weekend Warriors" are sent into a fantasy world...along with their M 60 tank! Thus the book combines "swords & sorcery" with "clanks & tanks!"

Well characterized with a interesting protagonist and a little romantic interest too. The villain is properly darn nasty.

The author really seems to know his technical facts about the tank too, which will please many readers.

Two minor critiques- sometimes the dialog is a little trite and the cover art is...well next time our author needs to find a good fantasy artist. The dialog will certainly improve with his next book.
What is original and well done is the nature of the fantasy "world' our heroes get sent to save. I am not going to spoil this any further for potential readers, but it works very nice.
I am looking forward to more by this promising new author!

The Afghan Deception, by VHPA member William Hatounian who served with D/1/4 CAV 1 INF (Dark Horse) in 67-68 is a historically based, but fictional story of the deployment of the 4th U.S. Cavalry to India to train with a British cavalry unit on the Northwest Frontier, in 1879. Both units are well commanded by strong willed and experienced officers who, not surprisingly, find themselves in a precarious situation that threatens the survival of both their units. The U.S. commander finds himself torn between his sense of duty and his orders to stay out of any fighting.

Although this story is fiction, Hatounian has done a great job of researching the public figures of the day and the military tactics, weapons, and history of the U.S. 4th Cavalry and British units that served in India and form the foundation of the story. He has done a great job of weaving the fictional aspects of his story into the political intrigues of 19th century British ruled India and Russia’s ambitions in Afghanistan at the time. The story speaks to the issues of honor, courage, and doing the right thing. It is a well written novel which pulls you into a time long ago and is well worth reading.

THE SHANGHAI EXTORTION by W.C. Hatounian is a wonderful novel for readers who enjoy romantic and entertaining crime stories set in historical China.

The front cover is well done. I don't know what the Chinese writing says, but it's a great way to attract readers interested in Asia to take a closer look. The artwork is appealing. I would have enjoyed seeing illustrations of the characters, but that is personal preference. I realize the author is aware of this, but it's a real shame that his photo is obstructed with part of the back cover jacket blurb. The photo does look as though it would have been nice otherwise. The back cover copy does a great job in ensuring that interested readers will investigate. I wish the author included a web site address. I hope he has established a social media presence, since his readers will want to interact with him.

The essay on the historical background is interesting and enough to bring readers up to date. It also shows that the author took the time to be sure he wrote an authentic story. This care is appreciated by myself, as I'm sure it is also appreciated by the author's readers. The author does a great job in weaving romance, a mystery, and an exotic setting in the plot. A very nice entry to the genre of historical fiction.

Let's try a little Jeopardy: this action hero, much admired by his female students, teaches archaeology and often travels to exotic locales to dig out mysterious artifacts with supernatural characteristics. If your question was 'who is Indiana Jones?' you should be entitled to your $50 but if you said 'who is Austin Tripp?' and the host refused to credit you for the correct question you'd have grounds for an appeal. Well... it wouldn't hurt to try. 🙂

Toltanica is partly the story of Austin Tripp from the 'boy meets girl' (under unexpected circumstances) moment all the way through the 'and they lived happily ever after' with a lot in-between. And the in-between part has everything from action-packed adventure and exploration, time travel, office intrigue, clash of civilizations, yuppie-style socializing, a little history and archaeology, mystical powers, all glued together by an impossible love story that... I already mentioned that 'happily ever after part' already.

Even with the few lose ends left hanging and the often but not always predictable plot, Toltanica turns out to be a highly entertaining read. Certainly not the kind of literary celebrated masterpiece that children will study in school 100 years from now - my kids are struggling with 'Catch-22' and 'Moby Dick' as I'm writing this - but certainly an entertaining and easy read, perfect at the beach, by the pool or under whatever other relaxing circumstances one can think of. This is not W.C. Hatounian's first book and it shows. He likes to write, he writes a lot and he's good at it. His prose flows effortlessly, the tempo is just right most of the time, he knows when and how to switch locales and twist the plot to keep us readers interested and, in the end, he delivers the kind of satisfying happy-ending that we should expect from an 'action love story' type of book.

There are some bad guys and gals to keep the action flowing but if you are looking for a well-written story that's an easy read and turns out to be cruelty, violence, blood/gore, explicit sex and terror/horror free, then Toltanica should be it.