James Rollings
"Start to finish, this action packed thriller races forward with characters I wanted to meet and talk to.
Mojave Winds peeks into the heads of terrorists while asking, why?
Mark shows us some of the terrorists' motives.
Why they are determined to blow things up.
He doesn't let us believe in the superficial myths about evil cavemen in the Middle East.
We learn where they come from, who they are.
They fight for their dignity and freedom as best they can.
In the end, their means don't justify their ends.
It's easy to follow along with Kris Klug, the hero, burned out from endless combat, extended missions.
The Army discharges him dishonorably...some scandal about failing to protect an oil field.
Now all he wants is to piece his life back together again.
We walk with him and feel his despair and loneliness as he returns to a strange world of civilians.
On a sunny day, while riding a bus to meet his uncle for a job in Las Vegas,
he finally meets a woman who can hold him in conversation. Then it happens.
A gang of thugs shows up, looking for a cokehead who bested them in a drug deal.
Klug is back in the desert, doing what he was trained to do.
I started reading this thriller and couldn't put it down.
James Rollins
is the author of over ten thrillers--several of which have remained for weeks on the New York Times
best seller list.
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Robert Grudin
"Biskeborn has imagination, toughness, color and in-your-face relevance-- all the ingredients for a rousing yarn."
Robert Grudin Ph.D. -- Guggenheim Fellow in 1992-93;
Author of books on philosophy and two novels;
Professor Emeritus, Comparative Literature
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Drusilla Campbell
"Kris Klug struggles to find peace in his life, as does most of America.
An action packed story which drives one of America's gravest issues to a realistic ending.
A good, fast paced, and thoughtful read!"
Author of ten published novels, several best sellers, including her most recent Bone Lake
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Mojave Winds gains widespread popularity throughout the blogosphere...
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Russ Wellen -- Book Review: We Can't Take Iraq Neat, We Need a Chaser
"The upcoming presidential election and the economy are pretty poor excuses for our inability to focus on Iraq. Especially since we've not only passed the 4,000 mark of American dead, but 25 were killed in a recent two-week span.
It's frightening how comfortable we've learned to live with the war since the "surge" supposedly turned things around. The continuing carnage among those who were supposed to enjoy some of the fruits of our liberation isn't even on our radar screens.
Not only aren't most of us following Iraq in the news, we turn our backs on books and movies that dramatize it. Yet our veterans aren't just returning with problems, but with a whole lore. You can't help but conclude that their experiences need to be watered down to be made palatable.
Perhaps not -- if folded within another narrative. In other words, instead of telling war stories, incorporate them into other genres. In fact it's a time-honored tradition, such as when veterans turn up as law enforcement agents in books or movies.
Their war experiences, particularly in Vietnam, color their attitude and affect their performance. No one is more successful at this than the great crime novelist James Lee Burke with his Viet vet protagonists Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcell.
Mark Biskeborn has taken this route with an Iraq vet in his new novel, "Mojave Winds," which, marketed as a thriller, is garnering attention and generating sales for Veritas Vino Publishing in Los Angeles. But doing Iraq vets justice,
instead of using them as characters just because they're current and convenient, requires a different type of thriller
-- one serious about character development. Of necessity,
this intrudes on the non-stop action and displays of technical know-how common to the genre."
Read the entire review at: Smiking Chimp
...or at OpEdNews
...or at Scholars and Rogues
Russ Wellen – Blogmeister, Staff Editor at Freezerbox, OpEdNews, and Scholars and Rogues
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Gary -- Book Review: Mojave Winds
War is not pretty and considering our current predicament in Iraq, the future does not always look so bright. With a continually weakening economy and skyrocketing gas prices, it all leads back to the Middle East.
Enter Kris Kluge, a war hero Special Forces kind of guy, freshly discharged from the battlefields of Iraq, not realizing that he is about to step on yet another battlefield that is even more challenging. Kris travels to California to take over his uncle's trucking company after leaving the service. His absence from the civilian life for so long makes him feel like a stranger to the world he once knew. His goal is to assimilate back into civilian life, start a career, and put some distance between himself and his past. His sense of isolation from his inability to fit in, clings to him like the monkey of fear he wore on his back in Iraq. The taste of war is bitter and putrid. Like blowing desert sand, it scrapes the back of your throat and leaves it feeling raw and cracked. At the same time it is addictive.
The familiar rush of adrenalin makes you want it regardless of whether or not it is right or wrong. When Kris arrives at his Uncle Fred's trucking company, there is a sense of controlled chaos as he meets his uncle for the first time in many years. The meeting seems odd to Kris, as his Uncle is more concerned with turning over the company as quickly as possible. He then informs Kris that he will be heading to Las Vegas shortly to conduct some business. He hands Kris the keys to his trucking company, his Malibu castle and his house in Vegas and then speeds off.
Read the entire review at: LA Cityzine.com
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