Murder is a Lousy Way to Die

Murder is a Lousy Way to Die, Robert L. Hecker, World Audience, Inc., 2012

This novel is about Benjamin Roan, a government security consultant who someone wants to kill - again.

The book opens with Ben regaining consciousness in the middle of the Nevada Atomic Test Site. Next to him is a woman also just regaining consciousness. A simulated atomic bomb will be tested in just a couple of minutes. If they don't get under cover, now, the bomb will not only kill them, but incinerate them, and then turn them into dust.

After barely surviving the bomb blast, Ben learns that his companion is Taja Singh, owner of the Mojave Research Center, a private lab with Top Secret government contracts. She is also beyond gorgeous. The two have nothing in common, so who was the target, and who was in the wrong place at the wrong time?

If anything illegal was going on the Center, Taja was confident that Roger Stillwell, the Center's day-to-day manager, would know something about it. But he is killed by an unknown assailant right in front of them. As an added wrinkle, Jim Carr, a friend of Ben's, is worried about his sister, Paula, an employee of the Center's marketing department. She hasn't been seen for several days, so he asks Ben if he can ask Taja to look into it. Could the big conspiracy be something "normal" like industrial espionage, or could it be something much more sinister? The end of the book finds Ben and Taja in a small private plane, several thousand feet in the air, with the culprit pointing an Uzi machine pistol at them.

This is a first-rate piece of writing. The author is a veteran writer, and it shows. It is well done from start to finish, and it has plenty of action, along with a bit of romance. The reader will not go wrong with this one.

Murder By Proxy

Murder By Proxy, Robert L. Hecker, Hard Shell Word Factory, 2006

It's up to Benjamin Roan to save the President of the United States.

Roan is a private investigator from California who has done work for the government in the past. President Burgess is dying of leukemia (the public diagnosis is "pneumonia"). With no close relatives for a bone marrow transplant, things look bleak. From his hospital bed, Burgess tells Roan of an illegitimate daughter he had while in college. Roan's mission is to find her, and convince her to give up a blood sample. Get it back to Washington, and if it's a match, get her to Washington for a bone marrow transplant.

Her name is Lisa, and she's a photographer on assignment in Havana. She is gorgeous, and very opinionated. She doesn't know who her father is. Roan convinces her to give up a blood sample, then they are arrested by a Cuban Colonel named El Tigre. After several narrow escapes, they find themselves back in Washington. Roan and Lisa have both come to the conclusion that someone very high in the US Government wants the President to die. They just have to wait for the leukemia to kill him, so it won't actually be murder.

Even in Washington, in the custody of the US Government, several more attempts are made to kill Lisa, or otherwise prevent her from giving up her bone marrow. By this time, she knows that she is the daughter of the President. Roan and Lisa thought they had gotten rid of El Tigre back in Havana, but he is in Washington, wanting revenge. Ben is in the operating room with Lisa, making sure that nothing goes wrong. Does Lisa successfully give up her bone marrow? Do Lisa and president Burgess have one of those tearful reconciliations? Does Ben fall in love with Lisa?

This is an excellent piece of writing. It's well done from start to finish, it has plenty of political intrigue, and it's the story of a father and daughter who have never met. It is very much worth reading.