A Flash of Emerald

Rating:
Summary: A gripping action/adventure novel
Review: J. M. Taylor's A Flash Of Emerald is a gripping action/adventure novel of Harry Stoner, a military man who has come home to a personal battle in the dark underside of Tampa's Ybor City and the Florida Keys. International arms dealers and murderous terrorists jockey for possession of a stolen nuclear weapon in this suspense-filled story that simply cannot be put down from first page to last. Attention Hollywood, Flash Of Emerald is the stuff of which great action/adventure movies are made!

Rating:
Summary: A hard-hitting, exciting spy game story
Review: J.M. Taylor has an impressive array of talents, to say the least. He served with the 101st Airborne Division as platoon leader and battalion commander; served at the Pentagon, in Germany, the Middle East, and Vietnam. He is a trained scuba diver; parachute trained for airborne assault; worked as a systems engineer; and finally, is a writer. In short, he puts the rest of us to shame!

Harry Stoner began his career as part of the failed attempt to free Cuba in the 1960's. Set in Southern Florida, home of the Southern Cross and the life enhancing "flash of emerald" at sunset for those lucky enough to catch it, Harry Stoner returns from his present assignment in Virginia to help his daughter with a "problem." That problem turns out to be her husband Lou's relatives, who have added drug trafficking to their import/export business. Lou has stumbled upon the "goods," and now his Uncle Lastero is threatening his life unless he joins in with the family "business." That business turns into money for guns, and Stoner finds himself in the middle of a plot to detonate a nuclear bomb, as well as being the object of the terrorists' hatred. Harry himself has unwitting been the target of terrorists, whose attempt to kill him resulted in the death of his wife, Lynn. To catch the terrorists and save his daughter and husband from danger, he must return to his military training, old friends, and keen thinking of a survivor:

"When he's been really working, not just clerking, Stoner had squirreled away the old identities, depositing small amounts of money in the scattered accounts and making charges against the cards, keeping everything legit. Back then he'd thought toward the future. He had almost let those days slip away. He thought back. When was the last time he had used the bank card? The expiration date came up next month. He had let the old days slide way back in his memory."

A Flash Of Emerald is a hard-hitting, exciting spy game story with lots of subplots, intense and charismatic characters, and enough action to glue the reader to the book. Harry Stoner is a larger-than-life character who singlehandedly takes on a Florida drug ring and a terrorist group at the same time. Taylor lends his considerable expertise to the story to give the reader insight into just what the military does to keep the bad guys out and to police their own. A great read!

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer