Earthquake Games [Hardcover]

Bonnie Ramthun (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 2000

The uniquely talented writer Bonnie Ramthun, a former war-gamer for the Department of Defense, once again flexes her doomsday imagination and insider's knowledge to brilliant effect in an exciting sequel to Ground Zero.

Major Jim Leetsdale appears to have committed suicide during a freak Colorado earthquake. But when Colorado Springs Homicide Detective Eileen Reed and her partner, Dave Rosen, go to investigate, they conclude that Leetsdale's death was a murder carefully orchestrated to appear to be a suicide. Jacob Mitchell, an ex-Senator with presidential ambitions, seems to be the key to the mystery, however his role in the murder is murky.

While distracted by a series of small earthquakes occurring in places not previously known to be located on fault lines, Eileen begins to unravel the connections between the suspicious suicide case and the earthquakes. Could it be that Mitchell is somehow behind the enigmatic earthquakes? A tension-fraught and emotional showdown in the Colorado Great Sand Dunes brings together all of the elements of Eileen's case: the power-hungry Mitchell, her friends from the CIA, plus a ghost from her past.

Filled with surprise and suspense, Earthquake Games is a thriller that manages to incorporate depth of character and emotion into its chilling plot.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It takes a while before Eileen Reed, a homicide detective in Colorado Springs, makes the connection between an earthquake in a place where earthquakes don't usually happen and a series of other strange events. There's a suicide at a military base and the discovery of the mutilated corpse of a young woman scientist in the Colorado Great Sand Dunes, the locale of the infamous Taos Hum, which is believed by ufologists to be evidence of alien visitations. But once Reed and Dave Rosen, her partner, realize that the suicide was a murder and the victim was connected to a secret project overseen by an ex-senator who may be manipulating the climate to further his own megalomaniacal ambitions, Eileen begins putting the coincidences together.

Eileen is carrying some heavy personal baggage. She's recently killed a criminal who, although he richly deserved it, is still causing her nightmares. She's deep into denial about a series of traumatic events in her childhood that make her unable to trust the man in her life or accept the fact that Alan Baxter, a retired professor who was on his way to meet the slain woman in the dunes, may be her long-lost father and may also be a murderer. When a friend in the CIA tracks down documents involving the construction of an earthquake machine hidden in dusty Pentagon files, and Eileen draws a line between the secret project and information her boyfriend decrypts from the computer of the murdered military man, she uncovers the outlines of a fiendish plot to cause the deaths of thousands of innocent people and pave the way for a political takeover of the U.S. In a thrilling, fast-paced conclusion, she manages to find and disable the device, and in so doing to save the nation as well as solve the mystery of her own origins. Author Bonnie Ramthun evokes the mysterious landscape of the desert Southwest with good descriptive touches and creates characters with interesting backgrounds and more emotional and intellectual texture than is usual in novels on the theme of criminal masterminds bent on world domination. There's even enough science to make the plot seem credible. Earthquake Games is a lively and suspenseful read with a heroine you'll want to meet again. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Colorado Springs homicide investigator Eileen Reed stars in her second thriller, after Ground Zero. Reed is dispatched to a nearby military base to investigate the shooting death of an air force major. Nobody at the scene is very helpful, least of all the dead man's boss, Jacob Mitchell, a former congressman and presidential candidate who has now resumed work as a scientist heading up a top-secret project. While Reed and her partner, Dave Rosen, struggle along, another murder occursAthat of a young woman found dead in the Great Sand Dunes of Colorado's San Luis Valley, an area long known for unexplained physical events. UFO enthusiasts descend on the area, distracting Reed and Rosen with claims that otherworldly forces killed the woman. Eventually, Reed tracks the two murders back to Mitchell, then makes an even bigger discovery: Mitchell has gotten his hands on a special machine that can cause earthquakes and is planning to use it soon. Ramthun does a good job managing a story that teeters on the edge of believability by providing a counterbalance of fact-based scientific detail and historical research into earthquakes and government coverups. A lack of credible suspects besides Mitchell and a waning torque of suspense, however, burden her plot. Ramthun, a former "wargamer" for the Department of Defense, does get high marks for creating a highly atmospheric setting in both the physical and social landscape of Colorado. She also weaves in a couple of personal subplotsAa love interest for Reed and the surprising emergence of someone out of her pastAthat give her story warmth. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (September 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399146660
• ISBN-13: 978-0399146664
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,623,618 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bonnie Ramthun is a Colorado wife, mother, and mystery novelist. Her novels for adults include Ground Zero, a thriller published by G.P. Putnam, Earthquake Games, a 2000 Colorado Book of the Year nominee, and The Thirteenth Skull. The White Gates, her middle grade mystery published by Random House in 2008, is a Junior Library Guild Premiere selection and was a finalist for the Missouri Truman Award. She is a former chapter president of Mystery Writers of America, a member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and former war gamer for the Department of Defense.

There are two cherished compliments that Bonnie Ramthun has received for her writing.

A reader wanted to know if the childhood events that happened to Eileen Reed in Earthquake Games had actually happened to Bonnie as a child. She considers this a high compliment - she made a lonely Wyoming car crash and an abandoned child so real that her reader thought it actually happened.

The second compliment was when a reader wrote her a letter and praised The Thirteenth Skull, Bonnie's third Eileen Reed book. The reader loved the novel and hated the villain so much that she thought he should have died more slowly. Bonnie will never forget this compliment either, for it means that she created a character so evil and so hateful that the reader wanted him to die...harder.

Bonnie's favorite stories are the ones where ordinary people are placed in world-changing events. The people who live in her stories are fictional, but she tries to make them so real you want to have coffee with them. Or kill them.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent thriller, September 8, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Earthquake Games (Hardcover)

There once was a man who wanted to be President of the United States more than anything else in the world. He became a Senator, but lost when he ran for the top office. Jacob Mitchell does not give up his dream. Instead, he receives an appointment as Director, Ops 12E at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. He now controls a machine that causes earthquakes and successfully tests the device in the Colorado Springs area.

Police Detective Eileen Reed, liaison to the Air Force, visits the base when someone finds one of Mitchell's men dead in an apparent suicide. However, the victim was murdered because he was going to reveal Mitchell's intentions with the earthquake machine. Eileen and her partner investigate the case as if a murder occurred. Soon they start honing in on Mitchell and his diabolical plan.

Anyone who previously read GROUND ZERO, the first Reed tale, will recognize many of the secondary characters returning for a thrill a minute ride. This includes the sexy Joe the boyfriend, Lucy the CIA analyst, and Eileen's partner Dave. They add depth and color, but even more significantly ground the suspense thriller to the believable plot. Bonnie Ramthun provides her fans with a sure shot best seller.

Harriet Klausner

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A page turner with great characters!, November 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Earthquake Games (Hardcover)

This book builds upon, yet stands independant of, Ramthun's Ground Zero. I like how the characters are becoming more real to me, yet stay just as entertaining. The premise is a good one, someone who uses any means at their disposal to get what they want. I find that is very posible. I can see someone using a local legend to cover up a murder, too. As in Ramthun's first book, the finale is a rip-roaring adventure with all the characters present. Another consistant bonus is no stupid mistakes by the investigators. I hate it when someone does something to carry the story without logic. I also like the fact that there are real married people, who can do more than act as cannon fodder. I am interested in what comes next! This is the kind of book to pick up at an airport, read on the trip, and never have a dull moment. I loved it!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There was some growth..., June 25, 2002

By 

Jamie M. Richards "Bicycle Commuter" (Lafayette, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Earthquake Games (Paperback)

While there was growth from Ground Zero, Bonnie still needs to work on plot. The plot should be a natural progression of events leading to a conclusion (puzzle pieces make the entire puzzle) and should not be forced (force the pieces together and I bet the picture doesn't look like the one on the box!). The opening event (a shooting) is interesting, but it has nothing to do with the real storyline (earthquake games)! It is only placed there as a convenient way to develop a character and solve internal character conflicts; this conflict would have been better served by more strongly SHOWING the character's actions and not using a psychiatrist to allow the conflict to be TOLD. These stories have wonderful technological concepts and as long as she keeps growing as a writer (and gets over her fixations with food and coffee), I will continue to buy her books.