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Death Never Sleeps (Michael Nicholas Book 1) by [E. J. Simon]

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E. J. Simon

Death Never Sleeps (Michael Nicholas Book 1) Kindle Edition

by E. J. Simon (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

445 ratings

Book 1 of 4: Michael Nicholas

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Michael and Alex Nicholas are brothers, but as different as night and day. Michael is CEO of a Fortune 500 company, living a comfortable life in suburban Connecticut. Alex, his older brother, heads up one of the leading loan shark and betting syndicates on the east coast. They don’t have a lot in common except a blood line, but that changes when Alex is gunned down at a restaurant in Queens.

At Alex’s funeral, surrounded by family, friends and colleagues, Michael receives a startling text. The text is from his dead brother Alex. Michael is now forced to question where his brother really is. And if Alex isn’t dead, who’s lying in the coffin?

Death Never Sleeps is an action-packed story of murder, betrayal and love.

Print length

389 pages
Language

English
Publication date

December 4, 2013
File size

931 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"In Simon's thriller, a corporate CEO takes over a gambling and loan-sharking operation from his murdered brother. His widow needs Michael's expertise to help find a few million dollars that Alex has stashed while a thug named Sharkey, demands his payment boasting about how he could kill Michael. However, Michael finds answers by using technology that Alex left behind: an artificial intelligence, patterned after his brother's image and personality. The story takes nerve-wracking turns . . . A fine technological thriller that only gets better as it goes along. "
- KIRKUS REVIEW

From the Back Cover

"A story of murder, betrayal and love with twists and turns that as a professional detective even I didn't expect . . . A Must Read! E.J. Simon is the real deal." - VITO COLUCCI, JR. author of the true crime book, Rogue Town, A City Under the Stranglehold of Organized Crime
"This reader white-knuckled her way from start to finish. Simon is a master at the game of suspense. A page-turner at its best that left me begging for more." - JUDITH MARKS-WHITE, author of Seducing Harry and Bachelor Degree
"DEATH NEVER SLEEPS . . . will make you ponder the technology suturing our lives. You will also question where life ends, and where death begins." - MARK RUBINSTEIN, author of Mad Dog House and Love Gone Mad
DO THE DEAD HAVE SMARTPHONES?
The problem with Alex Nicholas is that he won't stay dead.
Alex Nicholas was the consummate Queens bookie: fast cars and even faster women, and friends in all the wrong places. As an illegal sports betting and loan shark king in New York City, Alex was fearless-until the night his luck ran out and someone leveled the silver barrel of an automatic on him and pulled the trigger.
Michael Nicholas was everything his brother Alex was not: a powerful, married straight-arrow corporate CEO living the American Dream. Their two worlds collide when Michael discovers his brother's secret laptop.
As Michael crosses the globe to find his brother's murder, can he avoid his brother's fate? And can the information contained in the laptop help Alex reach out to help Michael- from beyond the grave?

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00H5562YQ
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon/Zef (December 4, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 4, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 931 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 389 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1475986203
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #930,349 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #6,666 in International Mystery & Crime (Kindle Store)
- #10,007 in Murder
- #10,684 in International Mystery & Crime (Books)

Customer Reviews:
445 ratings

About the author

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E. J. Simon

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E. J. Simon's passion has always been writing, despite the many years he’s spent in corporate leadership positions, including multiple CEO roles with major companies. He holds an M.A. in Corporate and Political Communications from Fairfield University and a B.A. in Journalism from the University of South Carolina, and in 2013 published the first book in his Michael Nicholas series, Death Never Sleeps, which became a Kindle bestseller. He's a member of the Author’s Guild, The Mystery Writers Of America and the North Carolina Writer’s Network. New York born and bred, he and his family now live in North Carolina, where he follows the Durham Bulls along with the New York Yankees.

To find out more visit: www.ejsimon.com

Customer reviews

5 star		51%
4 star		28%
3 star		13%
2 star		6%
1 star		2%

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Rickles

Fascinating Premise, Twists and Turns, Engaging, Futuristic, NOT A Stand-Alone.

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2020

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Alex Nicholas is murdered. His brother, Michael, is going to take care of his final affairs. Michael discovers he has stepped into a real mess of illegal dealings. Now someone is trying to kill Michael. The writing is quite good and the mistakes are minimal. The characters very well portrayed and easy to identify with. The story line is fascinating with a dose of science fiction. This book is not a stand-alone. Had I known that I would never have gotten this is book to begin with. I hate getting books that are not stand-alone stories.

12 people found this helpful

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Nikki M

Fast-Paced mystery with plenty of action & well-developed characters

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2022

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A fast-paced mystery with plenty of action and well developed characters. As a voracious reader, I can honestly say that E.J. Simon's Death Never Sleeps.....is one of the best books I've read in a long time.

It’s a refreshing take on the mystery genre. Michael is determined to find out what happened to his brother Alex. There is a web of so many hidden secrets that Michael needs to find out. The story also brings together high technology in the form of artificial intelligence which is a very unique part to make the story exciting. There are plenty of twists and turns to delight any mystery reader in this compact book.

This a wonderful story so well written that while reading it I completely got lost in it . I highly recommend this to everyone and just wish I could find the right words to tell how powerful it is. I think everyone will like this as much as I did.

One person found this helpful

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Monnie Ryan

Very Good, But Hope the Sequel Comes Soon

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2014

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There are so many books waiting to be read on my Kindle (or on my to-read list) that I don't pay much attention to the freebies offered through a number of services like BookBub.com, but for some strange reason, this one got my attention back on Feb. 24, 2014. It had enough 5- and 4-star reviews at Amazon.com that I figured the author - once CEO of a General Motors Corp. division - couldn't have that many friends willing to boost the ratings whether or not it was any good. Since the book description was interesting as well, I decided to give it a shot.

For the most part, I'm glad I did. I finished it in a few days with limited time available to read, and by the time I was done, I found it had accumulated 102 reviews at Amazon, 93 of them 4 stars or higher - so I'm pretty sure my 4-star rating is on target.

The book skillfully brings together high technology (in the form of artificial intelligence) and low (people still get killed by strangling, bullets and swimming with fishes), and more than once the late Mario Puzo's <i>Godfather</i> series came to mind. At the start, a Mafia-style guy named Alex Nicholas is murdered, leaving as his next-of-kin a third wife of questionable morals and a financial corporation CEO and straight-arrow brother Michael, who takes on the responsibility of settling Alex's affairs. Things get murky when Michael is contacted by his "deceased" brother via a computer software program as yet unknown by the rest of the world.

Slowly, Michael becomes absorbed in the shady world Alex knew (another nod to "The Godfather" as expressed in Part III by Michael Corleone: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.") And slowly, just as did Corleone, Michael Nicholas begins to enjoy the power of running a high-stakes business and the danger that comes with it.

But if Alex is really dead, how is he able to communicate so effectively with his brother? After all, IBM's Watson was able to beat two very intelligent former winning contestants on "Jeopardy!" rather handily, but being able to make meaningful conversation with a human being and have a pretty good handle on what the future holds goes beyond anything that's known to man at this point - as far as anyone knows.

The book ends a bit abruptly and with no real resolution to how Alex has pulled all that off nor an answer to the question of the physical safety of Michael and his beautiful wife, Samantha. That was, no doubt, to ensure that everyone who bought this book will rush to get the next one, "Death Logs In." I've seen nothing to indicate when that will be forthcoming, but I do know that if it takes very long I'll have forgotten what this one was all about - one of the pitfalls of those "cliff-hanger" kinds of novels (this one was published in December 2013). In comparison, every "Godfather" book left me wanting more, but each was an end unto itself. Hopefully, Simon will get his sequel out before I still care about what's to come.

5 people found this helpful

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Bev

Wasn't sure of this story when I started it...so glad I stuck with it.

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2020

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I usually am not 'into' mob stories, and artificial intelligence. But the more of the story I read the more I noticed it was really about the two brothers. Did one fake his death or not? Can Michael prove his theory? A very well written book that will draw you in! I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

2 people found this helpful

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Sara's Thoughts

Clever concept--average execution

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2014

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So Michael is torn between the philosophical working stiff vs. the greedy corporations. A tried and true theme for contemplation. But, he actually takes no positive action to address the issue from his exalted position. Good speech at a well publized conclave, but then spends his time thinking about how he can get a good golden parachute before moving on the world of illegal commercialism. While on his way to his next employment opportunity, he certainly indulges in the best life has to offer with nary a thought to the employees he terminated to meet the corporate budget. There are large holes in the fabric of Michael's psyche and his wife doesn't even appear to consider the "bigger" issues.

If one takes Michael as a relatively cardboard type of character, then the story works. Having been to most of the locations visited in the story, it was a lovely memory trip. I could, almost, taste the food of the areas. It would have done much more for the story if the author had spent the same effort on developing Michael as he did developing a stroll down culinary paths. But, I digress. The plot was quite interesting. The basic idea of AI through a computer and what that might mean was thought provoking and grabbed my imagination. I was a bit disappointed by the ending of the book, but as it is meant to be a series, I don't begrudge the author the "trailer" approach to the story.

There are definite holes in the plot, the unexplained death of at least one character, that leads to speculation as to what Alex through his AI personna may be doing in the netherworld. Perhaps it will be explained in the next book.

I am not sure if I will read any more of the series as this was one of those "just okay" reads.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Mig Bardsley

Quite a weird book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 7, 2021

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For instance, there's Alex and his weird idea and then there's Michael who eats a lot of extremely expensive sounding meals in a variety of probably extremely expensive and famous sounding restaurants in between little bits of plot and accompanied by assorted extremely expensive sounding women. Who, naturally, have assorted flashing, sparkling eyes in primary colours and sleek hair and lots of legs. Oh and matching, manufactured breasts. They all contribute obediently to more bits of plot. There's an enormous amount of money and everybody seems to like each other quite a lot (except for the bad guys, obviously). It's all carefully worked out - basically Michael encounters a problem - like his brother being shot dead - and then he goes out with one or other of the beautiful women for a splendid meal or meets his police chief friend over another marvellous dinner and they all say what a great guy Alex was. Then there's another problem for Michael to sort out and another dinner out and so on.
Anyway, I think I'll finish it just to find out whether and how Alex's weird idea pans out. I don't think it's a spoiler to say I expect it will. And it would be nice to find out who killed Alex. Probably. I do really wonder if this is actually all tongue in cheek. It certainly made me snort with laughter occasionally.
Update: I was wrong. I didn't get to find out how Alex's weird idea pans out. But the book got funnier and funnier (though not funny enough to want to buy the next installment).

Kindle Customer

A good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 31, 2020

Verified Purchase

I checked out the reviews before getting this book and thought it was worth a look.
There was a lot going on and at times it wandered around a bit.
I enjoyed reading it some sections went on too long. I might take a look at the next book.

Kindle Customer

First

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 19, 2020

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First novel I don't believe it. It was first rate, fast interesting unusual a totally believable thought process and I will definitely be getting the next book

Home DVD video maker

Spellbinding

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2014

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If this is EJ,s first novel I look forward with interest to the follow-up. I found it annoying, just having to put my kindle down. All the characters were built up cleverly, I also enjoyed a good laugh at some of quips within the story.

Cherie

Totally engaging

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2015

Verified Purchase

I was so engrossed in this thriller that I didn't notice my flight was making an emergency landing. So glad the story is s triptych.

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