Customer Reviews

Beneath a Panamanian Moon (John Harper)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

DC pianist John Harper used to work for some super duper top secret agency that even his former mentor Mr. Smith cannot mention. He enjoys his current life he is popular artist amongst the rich and famous, especially the wives. However, Mr. Smith visits Harper to inform him that a Panamanian resort hotel needs someone with his consummate piano playing skills with experience in explosives and arms a requisite requirement of the job. John says no as he does not want to return to the cold even in the tropics.

No one says no to Mr. Smith so John heads to the resort to mingle amongst the guests until he obtains the information that Mr. Smith needs involving the training of an apparent revolutionary army. He must complete his mission quickly so that he can play a gig in DC by New Year's Eve and abort a revolt on the next day. He learns in a not so veiled threat by seemingly Columbian cartel thugs that his predecessor was "fired" when a shark had him for lunch. The nasties want to turn John into fish bait while the ladies want to play with his tune and Mr. Smith beats the drums waiting for answers.

BENEATH A PANAMANIAN MOON is a wacky amusing espionage thriller that stars a likable offbeat hero as its centerpiece. The story line is all over the place as the humor at times overwhelms the spy plot. Fans of zany tales like some of the Southern Florida mysteries will appreciate this madcap spy thriller that is more focused than say Casino Royale (the movie) but much less than a Le Carre tale.

Harriet Klausner

Well done, Mr. Terrenoire! (I love the author's name.)
This book skirts the edge between the believable and the fantastic, but succeeds because of a wacky cast of characters (Meat, Hamster, Monkeyboy), and a dollop of humor at just the right spots to leaven the violence, enough bloodshed to sate even the most demented reader. It is a wild romp through Washington and Panama. It is well plotted, well written, and a remarkable first book. I gave it four stars only to encourage Mr. Terrenoire (boy I love that name) to keep them coming.

Great convoluted reading. Terrenoire captured my interest with much more than rich color and texture. He expanded my imagination by sharing his own, thick, with neverending undercurrents and extended meanings. He never passes over an opportunity to grow a smile on your face or an irrepressible belly laugh. Much fun!

This novel is a great deal of fun from beginning to end. I could not put it down. The interaction among characters is as jam packed with interesting dialogue as a David Mamet play. I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud as much from a novel, and I can't wait for the next Terrenoire novel!

John Harper has it all ... frustrated Washington socialites anxious for a quickie in a cloak room ... the soul to play good music (really good music) ... he can shoot and throw a punch AND he's got enough good in him (i.e., soul--the kind that will restore faith in your fellow human beings) to make for the ultimate good guy just trying to mind his own business and get along ... except he's also been a spy and good enough at it to be sent on a mission with little chance of survival. Beneath a Panamanian Moon is a cleverly written ride into the Canal zone with enough of a history lesson (to learn and enlighten--always a good thing) and more than enough action to satisfy those with a blood lust. It is also a certifiable page turner than will rocket you through some hairy escapades while leapfrogging between some very sexy women and the intrinsic dangers that are part of their package. There's genuine compassion in the protagonist and I suspect in the author as well. Fun (and poignant) stuff, start to finish.

Okay so I got talked into reading this book by a friend...Not having read a single spy novel for twenty years I was prepared to be bored by the plot, flat characters, etc. Instead I was treated to a humorous, well-constructed and highly believable story, with the main character being quite well-developed. This book has changed my mind about spy novels, and I will definitely read Mr. Terrenoire's next adventure!

A brilliant mix of spy thriller and piano player, Terrenoire's first novel allows itself to have a helluva good time. David, we want more.

John Harper is my kind of spy. He plays piano and tries to stay out of trouble. But ladies get him into trouble, the brass get him into trouble, and the perverse nature of the world gets him into trouble. Fortunately, he can handle a bit of trouble, and keep us in stitches along the way.

Terrenoire has been compared to Hiaasen (it even occurred to me as I was reading the book). But his characters are real, much more believable than Hiaasen's. For example, Mad Dog cannot not simply be a work of fiction -- characters like that only occur in reality. Anyone who says these characters are unbelievable has to try stepping beyond the gates of the country club for a while.

This book was great fun.

What more do you want? For a thriller with laughs, this is the book you need.

I must say that David Terrenoire and I must share a lot in common. It seems as though this book was written for me. There's great dialogue, and a story that never lets up.

And who couldn't love a leading character that loves the Big Lebowski.

Now buy it, read it and recommend it.

John Harper is out of the spy game. All he wants to do is make a quiet living playing piano at Washington society galas. It pays the bills, and the fringe benefits (in the form of the bored and lonely wives of politicians and diplomats) are pretty good. He's retired, thanks. That's what he keeps telling himself, and more importantly, it's what he keeps telling his former boss, the veteran uber-spook Mister Smith. But Smith didn't get where he is by taking "no" for an answer, particularly when a suspicious little hotel-cum-paramilitary-training-facility in Panama has an opening for a piano player. Smith is itching to find out what's going on at the place, and he's not above manipulating events so that Harper finds an undercover assignment in a foreign country amongst vicious killers the lesser of two evils.

There's a good bit of Carl Hiaasen-ish humor in that premise, and the book has a lot of the deadpan outrageousness that makes Hiaasen so enjoyable. It also has beautiful dames, nasty villians, whores with hearts of gold, AK-47s, grenades, Claymore mines, fistfights, gunfights, betrayals, surprises reversals of fortune...you know, fun stuff.

Beneath a Panamanian Moon is a hoot. Check it out.