Customer Reviews

Less Than a Shadow

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

 

 

LESS THAN A SHADOW

by David Chacko

When a high-living journalist, Al Rydell, turns up dead in Turkey, Jason Ender is dispatched by the American State Dept. to investigate the murder. Ender learns that Rydell had travelled to Turkey to interview a mullah for his book. But when Ender searches Rydell's apartment, the manuscript is gone. Ender then begins a dangerous escapade of investigation by pulling a string in a Turkish tapestry of drugs, terrorists, and political intrigue.

Ender follows his leads from the list of informants, thugs and suspicious characters that made up Rydell's nefarious associations - and the other kind, including Rydell's beautiful, high-paid companion. His equally beautiful artist-sister, Veronica, becomes Ender's lover and partner in solving Al's murder as they travel a maze of misdirection and mayhem. At the end of the trail, Ender fingers Rydell's murderer. Should he turn the killer over to authorities or is there another means of poetic justice?

LESS THAN A SHADOW is a classic, yet contemporary whodunit with a narrative so tight that it squeaks, dialogue so realistic you'll look around you to see who said what you just read, and a story line that will engage you from beginning to end. ***

LESS THAN A SHADOW is a great adventure that is well-written too. If you don't think that espionage is back, you'll find out when this one lures you into a dark world and takes you by the throat. The streets of Istanbul--the byways of a dead reporter's beat--are the ways that will lead you to know the people and places of a fascinating land.

LESS THAN A SHADOW is a carefully made story of the present day Middle East and the city of Istanbul. What seems to be a simple murder mystery that must be solved by Jason Ender, a State Department investigator, becomes the shadowy trail that leads to the Mafia and beyond. The death of one American reporter spreads like oil in water, coloring all the things it touches. In the end, only Ender stands between complete chaos and all the things he loves.

David Chacko is a master: his plots are intriguing, his characters are multi-faceted, and his writing is superb. More than that, though, is Chacko's pithy and on-target observations about not only Turkey. the United States. and the world. but also of human nature. Chacko's books are all fabulous!

Less Than A Shadow is a suspenseful murder mystery by David Chacko. It begins with the murder of a prominent journalist in Istanbul and escalates into a drama involving the Turkish Mafia, a lethal hidden secret, and a terrible threat about to change the Middle East forever at a terrible blood price. An exciting novel that combines action with a labyrinth of motives and deadly perpetrators, Less Than A Shadow is very highly recommended reading for mystery/suspense enthusiasts and documents David Chacko as a gifted author who pays particular attention to background detail and character development making both his stories and his characters come alive in the "mind's eye" imagination of the reader.

The book is great and well worth a read.

But Amazon's product description for this book is incorrect.

It reads in the last paragraph: "Time passes too swiftly as Ender and Levent race to thwart the terrorist plan intended to collapse the economy and government of Turkey, the only democracy in the Middle East."

Since when is Turkey "the only democracy in the Middle East?"

The State of Israel is in the Middle East. And it has been a democracy since its birth in 1948.