Indie Author Joe Crubaugh - Terminal Departure: A Cleo Matts Novel

I love when authors write series books. Especially anything Jason Bourne-esque, or I suppose you could say hard-boiled. I love it until I realize that, to-date, there is only one novel or that I've come to the end of the written, published novels. I freely admit it: I get stuck on good series, read until there is no more to read, and then pine for a new installment, another fix.

Cleo Matts did this to me.

Cleo is a secret agent who opposes the clandestine operations of the US government. The book begins on a plane where Cleo is on a mission to keep a man alive. A man that the US government wants dead. When things begin to go wrong, Cleo finds himself saved by the watchers and his mission completely changed.

The watchers are alien life forces who abduct humans, but the humans have no recollection of the encounter when all is said and done. Cleo only knows that they have been abducted because he is familiar with the signs and symptoms. After the abduction and plane crash, Cleo teams up with movie star and scorned woman Julia McMichaels. From there, they are on a mission to save themselves and the world.

The plot sounds a little silly after getting to the alien encounter part, but it works, I promise. I had forgotten that aliens were involved when I sat down to read Terminal Departure, and I was a little leery when I came to the abduction scene.

The story has a few plot holes, one of which seemed like it was going to be a big deal, but then didn't materialize into anything later in the story. After the abduction and tragedy that the characters survived, Cleo and Julia were both seemingly invisible to other people for a short time. It wasn't enough time to help them escape, but enough to cause some confusion. I'm not sure what the author was going for, but it could have turned into something neat.

I am always a fan of action, deceit, and conspiracy, and Cleo didn't disappoint. He was mostly emotionally detached, but able to feel emotions if he let his shield down. He realized this about himself and used it to his advantage. Sometimes these types of characters end up being complete sociopaths. Sometimes this works, but more often than not, it leaves the reader wanting more; we want a human, emotional connection.

It has been about ten days since I finished Terminal Departure, so all of the details aren't as fresh in my mind as they could be, but I think it is safe to say that there weren't any glaring grammatical errors that made the book unreadable. This I would surely have taken notice of.

Sometimes when you read a novel, chapter endings are cliff hangers, and other times they seem to end a portion of the story. Terminal Departure seemed to do neither. While I was involved in the story, the chapter endings did nothing to pique my interest in reading the rest of the story. Luckily, I quickly became vested in the outcomes of the characters. Portions of the story didn't end with the chapters, but there were no real cliff hangers. This was good for my sleeping habit since I could put the book down, go to sleep, and continue reading the next day.

The story ended with, not a cliff hanger, but an opening for another Cleo Matts novel, and I'll be honest, I've already looked into it, and there aren't anymore...yet. According to Joe Crubaugh's Amazon page, he is working on the second novel as we speak. 

Indie Author Claude Nougat - Forget the Past (Trilogy Book 1)

In Forget the Past, a young, child genius turns seventeen and suffers burnout from the world that he knows. The once video game programmer leaves his home in search of his roots in Italy. 

While meandering through the streets of an Italian city where his ancestors originated, Tony comes across a Circolo di Conversazione. Tony isn't quite sure what he is expecting, but what he encounters changes his world, forever. 

Inside of the Circolo di Conversazione, he meets an odd group of people, thousands of people, milling about talking loudly. These people all claim to be members of the Bellomo family. Tony's ancestors.  The family origin goes back 900 years. The leader of the family, Don Ugone, commands Tony to stay, allow them to use his "life energy", and watch the plays that the family members put on. 

These plays are not merely the family members acting out their stories; they somehow relive their experiences for the entire Circolo di Conversazione to see. All of the members then gather in another room and discus the choices of the family member. The point of the Circolo, it seems, is talking about and understanding the turning points of each other's lives. 

Tony meets many people from his family, but of course, he doesn't believe that they really are who they claim to be. He spends almost the entire book assuming that they are actors in an elaborate play. 

Tony meets many family members while he is in the Circolo, and I'm not sure what purpose many of them serve. He simply watches play after play and is introduced to many different family members whose lives span hundreds of years. 

I'm sure Tony was supposed to learn something about himself while in the Circolo, but I wasn't very clear on what it was that he learned. There were a few 'ah ha' moments where you could see the light bulb go off in Tony's mind, but most of the story was getting to know bits and pieces his family's history.

The dialogue of the story was a bit overdone. Characters talked and then continued to explain what they meant. Authors need to learn to give their readers credit and allow them to come to their own conclusions, especially when the point is crystal clear. Another point on the dialogue: characters conversations didn't seem to fit with the situation. In one instance, a character is sitting on a fishing boat when her lover enters the scene. He approaches her, and she doesn't want anyone to know of their relationship. Instead of a short, terse conversation with the man, she engages him in a conversation about how they know the same people and where they are from. If I were in that situation, my mind wouldn't be on similar acquaintances but on getting him to leave me alone.  

The story lines of the different characters were often twisted and in-depth, and I was often left wondering about certain characters' stories. I don't feel like I learned anything about the main character, but many bits and pieces of the family history. This makes me wonder what the second and third books in the trilogy are going to bring. Will what he learned about his family somehow help him in his struggle to find happiness and peace? Will this new found knowledge prevent him from moving on? Will new demons find him after uncovering so many old, hidden family secrets?

The book was well written, and the premise was intriguing. I do wish the story line had moved on a little faster, but we will have to wait and see what book two brings.