This just in from Gail Foster, whose reviews appear across the Internet:
Hi Bruce…..
WHEW!!! I just finished devouring THE ONION FILES by the brilliant Val Pattee and had to email you immediately. As I mentioned in a previous email to you, I knew I would love this book and, indeed, I did!!! Right from the very first page to the absolutely chilling final one it was truly nonstop action. Like the onion of the title, the plot of this amazing book revealed itself page by page, chapter by chapter never lagging in suspense or substance. There were so many twists and turns in this book but the best was that on page 261 …..a complete OHHHH NOOOOO moment!!!! Most of the books that I read would be classified as geopolitical and are pretty frightening but none as scary as THE ONION FILES.
A few random thoughts: I don’t think I’ll ever look at a Pringles chip can again without flashing on Kazim’s use of it….wish I had known Mo when we were in Sardinia….would have been that much more of a pleasant sojourn especially being regaled by Mo’s tales about Jim Buchan. These characters that Val Pattee developed for this book are ones that are so delightful and charming or so despicable that you’ll not forget them soon….fully fleshed out. And his research was, I’m sure, as he actually lived it!!! What a fantastic life Val Pattee has led ….I’m just so glad that he’s sharing parts of it with the world through his incredible writing as his books tell the kind of dramatic truth that only fiction can tell.
As the world has witnessed McCain saying that we’ll be in Iraq for a hundred years….that could well be and even longer with the mentality of jihadists worldwide….they do NOT forget nor forgive…this will go on forever through the ever-growing numbers and their descendants! Leave it to the Turks to circumvent a seventy year old law by calling an aircraft carrier a deep-sea fishing vessel with a flat deck….. that made me laugh out loud. It would certainly behoove the decision makers in government, ours as well as others, to study history….. if Alexander the Great had been defeated by the Pashtuns, how can we possibly think that we’re any wiser or better? History only keeps repeating itself over and over with much the same conclusion. The minds of Asian and Middle Eastern peoples are such that Westerners can never truly understand even after centuries of study. But I think it really helps people who read this kind of book to get a little bit of a grasp of what’s going on since our news certainly does little to enlighten us on a daily basis.
Thank you so much, Bruce, for sending THE ONION FILES to me……I can only hope that you’ll step up the marketing for it thereby affording it and Val Pattee the respect they so richly deserve. I also hope that he is a fast writer and that we’ll be getting book 2 of this chilling series soon. So many times a really terrific book gets to the end and falls flat…. this one had the best ending ever…. made you want more …. fast!!! I’ve already started talking about this book… to anyone and everyone ….. it just NEEDS to be read by as many people as possible!!!
Cheers….
Gail
GAIL FOSTER
MYSTERIES & MORE
24 ASHLAND DRIVE
NOVATO CA 94949-8241