Customer Reviews

Hidden Impact

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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This well crafted page-turner is full of plot twists that keep you wide awake and thoroughly engaged with Jim Nordberg, the narrator, as he warily deciphers the roles of each of the other characters, many of them re-emerging from his past. Neff makes Nordberg an appealing person with whom to identify, someone with a history of convictions but not always the gumption to act on them, now returning from nursing failures back into a world that needs him. The settings, ranging from poverty to posh, from city to village and forest, with all the heat, humidity, stench, and desperation of Nicaragua, feel truly authentic. For those of us who suspect that not all the players in the Iran-Contra drama have been dealt with, this is a particularly good read.

HIDDEN IMPACT has all of the makings of a great novel. The characters are brilliantly created, the setting is realistic, and the plot is entertaining and fresh. Charles B. Neff tells this story through the eyes of Jim Nordberg, a middle aged man who is looking to revitalize his life by rebuilding Nicaragua where, years before, he lived as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

After Jim arrives in Nicaragua, he learns about the existence of secret diary that contains information from his past. In order to keep this diary out of the hands of the public, he teams up with some old, and new, friends and finds himself on the adventure of a lifetime.

For being Charles B. Neff's first novel, I was very impressed with HIDDEN IMPACT. There were a few typos and grammatical mistakes, but the story itself was richly written and highly entertaining. If you like political thrillers, this book is a must read.

"Hidden Impact, a debut novel by Charles B. Neff, hits its mark with exceptional writing, a riveting story, and fascinating characters."

-- Dana E. Blozis, writer, editor, and book reviewer

Set primarily in Nicaragua, author Charles Neff tells the tale of a middle-aged Jim Nordberg who is looking for meaningful work to energize his solitary existence. Nordberg returns to the setting where he first became a Peace Corps volunteer in the early 1970s, hoping to help rebuild Nicaragua while infusing himself with much needed life. Shortly after his arrival, Nordberg's past returns to him in waves as business associates, friends, and enemies reappear in his life one by one.

Nordberg quickly finds himself entrenched in the search for a missing document containing sensitive information about those who supported the Contras in the 1980s. To find and protect the document, Nordberg faces difficult decisions and is thrust into the face of danger at every turn. Nordberg, suspicious of the novel's other characters, finds himself drawn to a woman from his past, Luci Fuentes, who was a young teenager when they first met. Fuentes joins Nordberg in the adventure, trying to save her family and a struggling Nicaragua in the process.

Hidden Impact is a well written book full of politics, history, and adventure, with a slice of romance thrown in for good measure. Neff artfully presents each of his characters, slowly unfolding the subtleties of each one while drawing them into the action. As the novel's main character, Nordberg is the unlikely hero whose past failures undermine his confidence. Despite his flaws, Nordberg is a good guy at heart and easy to relate to.

In Hidden Impact, readers will find an extraordinary first novel that is well written, easy to read, and hard to put down. Neff's storytelling skills will quickly enrapture even the most stubborn of readers, drawing them quickly and completely into the adventure ahead.

Hidden Impact is a fast read, beautifully crafted and developed. The intrigue kept me guessing, and the hero's solution to the complicated web of corruption is brilliant. The violence is disturbing at times, but much of the value of this novel is in its realistic portrayal of actions in a third world setting. A touching love story is sensitively portrayed, the heroine a truly courageous and intelligent woman who fulfills a mission of service while surrounded by pain and tragedy.

Hidden Impact is a very satisfying novel.

Hidden Impact is an absorbing, all-too-credible story of dogged idealism and humane aspirations in conflict with malevolent greed, covert political machinations, and high-level intrigue. Despite the corporate and rogue-agent power arrayed against him, Jim Nordberg, thought of by others and even himself as a "Loner" and "Loser," works his way to his own sort of benign power, hard-won love, and personal redemption.

Neff maintains a tight focus on his first-person narrator and on a few weeks in Nicaragua, 2004. But the novel ranges from an impoverished village, through the forest, to the sprawl of Managua,to an elegant country club, and to the U.S. Embassy. Its characters range from dedicated American helpers to Nicaraguan peasants and revolutionaries; to CIA operatives, shady millionaires, and their ruthless henchmen. It also probes the pasts of the players as they become ever more tightly involved with the search -- combining espionage and detective work -- for a long-hidden diary containing potentially explosive details on the Iran-Contra Affair.

A sense of authenticity pervades the book. Jim Nordberg has been around, has fought good fights -- usually losing, as a kind of soldier of misfortune or victim of betrayal -- and has the scars to prove it. Like characters to be met in the works of Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, and John LeCarre, Nordberg has been almost beaten down by his past. But when he makes one last effort to be of service again, no matter how humble, he responds to the emerging crises with grace under pressure. Wary, observant, and calculating, he holds his cards close to his vest in what turns out be high-stakes poker game. It still hurts too much for him to talk much about the reasons for the scars, and only gradually can he begin to trust anyone with the plans he is making about how to play his cards. But when confrontations come, whether with weapons or words, Neff renders Nordberg's experiences with imaginative, almost cinematographic force.

It may seem an odd thing to say about a novel which sticks to first-person narrative, but I think that Hidden Impact could be made into a powerful feature film. In plot, theme, issues, and the range of fascinating characters -- especially those of Nordberg and his now beloved Luci -- it calls for treatment as a screen-play and will appeal to a director and actors interested in the real stuff. I'd like to see it.

A very well written thriller, with fully-developed, complex characters that jump off the page, and a plot that keeps you guessing as to what will happen next. A remarkable first novel. Recommended!

For those who like mystery and adventure, intrigue and politics, this page turner is a must-read. The characters are vivid, well-developed and real. The author is evidently knowledgeable about the politics surrounding the Iran Contra Affair, and he weaves this information skillfully into his compelling story about James, Luci and Juan. There is drama, intrigue, violence, romance and redemption. This is a book you won't want to miss!

The mark of a good novel is how well and quickly it can engage the reader's total attention. Using that criteria, "Hidden Impact" by Charles B. Neff is a very good novel indeed! It's the story of Jim Nordberg, a man returning to Nicaragua some thirty years after he had been a peace Corps Volunteer working to help ordinary people better their lives. Upon his return Jim finds a rekindled romance with Luci Fuentes, a daughter of the family with which he had lived, only to be caught up in a complex of competing interests that includes the CIA and influential Nicaraguans revolving around an old journal that could blow the cover of an Iran-Contra affair. Skillfully plotted and deftly written, "Hidden Impact" is a fully satisfying read.

As good as a James Bond movie- international espionage, CIA operatives, lots of blood, occasional splattered brains, and of course a little delicious sex. Better than a James Bond movie because here the major characters (Jim and Luci) live on in your heart after the last page is turned. While there is the usual disclaimer that the events and characters are fictious and do not represent actual occurances, one has to wonder whether the author's experiences in Columbia and Russia (described on the back cover) might have involved some encounters with the CIA such as permeate this gripping novel.