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"A hurtling plot and enough cliffhangers to keep you gasping." --- ForemostPress.com

Slaughter on Maple Street does not dally but cuts straight to the chase with a funeral march. One thing Kyle Rieker knows: grown men do cry. No rock will remain unturned until he finds Marsha’s killer. And where best to start than Bridget Bennington, his late sister’s friend? But a lot of things do not add up in Kyle’s mind. What interest had Marsha on water supply in China, pandas in peril or the topography of Taiwan for starters? There is more to the shooting at Maple than meets the simpler eye; someone was scared, and Marsha’s death an execution.

Eugen M. Bacon
TCM Reviews

Marsha Rieker is dead; not only that, she was executed. Her brother Kyle intends to find out why. That is the basic premise of this book.

Kyle was part of a Special Forces team and therefore away a lot of the time, so he didn't know everything that was going on in his sister's life. They shared an apartment, but Kyle was hardly ever there. Now it was his alone, and he knew among Marsha's things he could find an answer to who wanted her dead.

Kyle decided he needed to meet all of his sister's recently-acquired friends and find out what their relationships were. As he was going about his investigation, the cop in charge of his sister's case tells him that the matter is closed. They strike up a sort of friendship when Kyle proves there was more than one shooter. Then attempts start happening on Kyle's life, so he puts together a team of Special Forces friends to help him find out what happened to his sister.

One of his sister's acquaintances that Kyle met was Lynn Nefton. She did computer research for Marsha, and Kyle hired her to do the same for him. He also wanted her to search Marsha's computers for anything that would help them in learning why she had been murdered.

The plot of this book is very well thought out with many twists and turns. It keeps you guessing right until the end when the true villain is revealed. You just know through the whole book that Kyle and his friends are going to figure it all out in the end.

I would highly recommend Slaughter on Maple Street because I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It has action, murder, and even some romance.

Reviewed by Ellen Hogan for Reader Views (1/07)
http://www.readerviews.com
Book reviews, for readers, by readers.

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If you enjoy fast-paced action tales, you'll love Slaughter on Maple Street. While there is minimal hard action initially, the story moves right along. And when the hero, Kyle Rieker, finally identifies a target, the rest of the tale flies. Once it takes off, you'll have trouble putting it down.

The story opens as Kyle, on leave from U.S. Special Forces, arrives at his sister's funeral in time to see her briefly before the lid of the casket is closed one last time. Ripped by grief, he turns reluctantly to the task of wrapping up her affairs.

As he sorts through her things, talks with her friends, and begins to check on details, he finds she was not simply one of six innocents slaughtered on Maple Street one morning by a crazy. She was executed by a professional. When a CIA operative tries to kill him, it seems certain to him they are responsible for his sister's death. From what little he has gathered, she had top secret information and knew things the CIA does not want released. He feels his name has been added to their hit list because he may find what she had, and act on her behalf.

He needs help, big time. Yet he knows private investigators and even the LAPD can't provide what he needs; all must bow to the demands of the CIA.

While he uses these resources as possible, he augments them by gathering a team of competent professionals, men he came to know in elite special forces units in the heat of battle. Their initial objective is to keep him alive, a relatively simple task for such capable men. But as the situation becomes more complex, there is an increasing need for more direct action, tasks that increasingly challenge even their superior expertise.

You'll love the characters. Later in the story, Kyle falls in love with Lynn Nefton, a computer researcher, seeking to earn extra money to enhance and expand her grape vineyard. She is tough in all the ways that matter.

The cop seems delightfully incompetent when the reader first meets him. And Kyle has a buddy with the CIA who helps in unexpectedly bold ways. Then there's Paco, a close friend, a man well schooled in the ways of violence, and in winning through whatever the odds. Even the lesser characters are clearly defined. And you'll love or hate every one of them.

Readers of other books by Bob McElwain will find this opening quite different from those in his other works. There are no explosions. No instant or immediate threats. Only Kyle is on scene, seeking to discover what really happened to his beloved sister.

The slowness of the opening may seem a weakness to some. But to be fair, words, not bullets, are required to properly set the stage and clearly define the characters to effectively move forward with this intricate plot. This approach works beautifully in this book.

What may make this tale stand out in the reader's mind is the non-typical hero. Kyle doesn't solve problems by knocking down people or doors. Instead he works as one of a team of experts. Plans are made, then executed with professional precision.

Readers seeking fast paced action will find more here than they bargained for. Because in the end, far more than doors and people are "knocked" down.

ForemostPress.com

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"Get ready for a wild ride in this action-packed tale with living, breathing characters." --- ForemostPress.com

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