Customer Reviews

Broken Odyssey

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I doubt I'll ever take a trip to Cuba, but the author team of Noel Carroll made me feel I was there in their thrilling new novel, Broken Odyssey.

Carl McCormic, recent college grad, and his father, Pat, a retired Philadelphia police captain, decide to take a year off and go sailing. Both men needed time to mend. Carl's mother, a Cuban immigrant, had recently passed away.

Broken Odyssey is told in a first person narrative through Carl's diary, written as he drifted alone at sea. He writes about the events that led to meeting Nicola, how he and Pat rescued her from Cuban thugs, and his unplanned trip into his mother's homeland. He would help Nicola rescue her mother from her politically connected father.

Carl is the reason I enjoyed this book. His voice makes me see and feel an island nation Americans are banned to visit. I got a flavor of Cuban life, its vibrant people, and the poverty so many of them endure as a backdrop to this political thriller.

The novel is filled with interesting characters. Alex, the CIA agent is in charge of the McCormic case. His comments throughout the book give us some insight into the cat and mouse game Americans play with our Cuban neighbors. His Cuban counterpart, Tomas, shows us a man respectful of power while avoiding the trappings of abuse. Then there's the enchantress. The author writes, "Nicola has had a difficult life, not in a material sense, but emotionally." She's beautiful on the surface, but beneath the beauty bubbled a troubled soul.

Broken Odyssey is a page-turner. The author team goes to great lengths to delve into the minds of their characters and describe a Cuba most of us will never see. Like their previous book, Never by Blood, the reader is blessed with a thriller that can't be resisted. I highly recommend Broken Odyssey.

Pat McCormick and his son Carl were more like good buddies, out looking for a lark, than a father and son who were desperately trying to shake off the grief of loving and losing someone close to them.

Enjoying some quality time sailing the Mary Lou and matching their strengths and wits in friendly competition with nature in tropical waters off Florida's Gold Coast was both a distraction and good clean fun. Or so they thought until they saw two large men trying to bully a young lady into a car.

It didn't take Carl or retired cop Pat McCormic long to make the decision to become involved. Manhandling lovely young ladies was not something they could just stand there and allow. After all we are talking about a beautiful damsel in obvious distress, two obviously strong man types with the will and the strength to help, and two large dangerous bullies just asking for a fist in the face.

The local police came just in time to rescue the bullies from being seriously injured. After playing the usual question and answer game with the local authorities, the two thoughtful men took the lady out to dinner.

It was at this dinner that they learned that this small child-like girl was in real deep trouble. It was at this time that they took on a dangerous passenger, a passenger named death, in the form of a tiny woman.

This book is excellently crafted. The relationship between the two men, father and son, is believable. The conflict of adding one little woman with a big problem to solve kept you on the edge of your seat in breathless anticipation. Using both setting and dialogue, we get stirred into some serious political games that is bound to upset anyone's digestion. Mix it all up with a well-known political figure in history and you get just enough spice to make very tasty soup in this suspense-filled mystery.

The husband and wife team that makes up Noel Carroll has a winner here with this one. I suggest you wear loose-fitting clothes when you come to this feast. You will leave the table satisfied.