Book Review: Some Kind of Angel - a Sneetz and Muldoon Thriller by Melvin M. Harter

It is that time of year where you want to stock up on some books to read while on your summer vacation. Some Kind Of Angel might be one to put on your list.

Melvin Harter is a retired doctor and Some Kind Of Angel is his debut into the wild world of books. In this book we get acquainted with his main characters Sneetz and Muldoon, and I suspect that we are going to see more of this duo in future books.

Gilbert 'Sneetz' Schnetele is a retired heart surgeon, retired due to a DIY home improvement problem that involved a power saw lopping off a valuable digit. Unable to wield a scalpel he has become a legal/medical consultant evaluating 'on the job' injuries.

Albert Muldoon is an aging weather worn journalist who has seen it all. Young enough to have faced the wrath of McCarthyism, old enough to have survived and thrived. Thrived to the extent that now retired he officially just writes books, unofficially he is part of the President's inner circle.

A series of multiple killing across the globe occur, there seems to be no connection, but all share some strange similarities, there are no signs of a struggle, the bodies are in perfect, almost mummified condition, and death seems to have been instantaneous.

The mystery deepens and takes a much more sinister turn when the President receives what is tantamount to a ransom demand, pull out of Iraq, and everywhere else there is a US armed forces presence, or face mass murder close to home in Washington DC.

With no idea what the weapon of mass destruction is, or how it has been delivered, they are in a quandary.

Sneetz meanwhile has been retained to look at a death on the job case, a young janitor at a remote Air Force research lab is dead, yet there seems to be no reason for the death. It is by his poking around that he comes to the attention of the US government, and in particular Muldoon. Sneetz is brought into the very close knit family fighting the unknown terrorist group.

What will they find? How will they defeat an unknown adversary?

Well, you can find out by getting your own copy from Amazon, or by checking out Melvin Harter's web site.

At 160 pages this is a very quick read, it certainly moves right along though, and there is action on every page. If I had a criticism, it likely would be the length, the plot line is rich, and I think the book could have been another 100 pages longer, in order to explore some of the subplots in greater detail. Book length is a really hard call to make, it is so dependent on the richness of the plot, but this book has that! Some authors on the other hand waffle on until you are ready to disembowel yourself with a plastic butter knife, Tom Clancy is probably the worst offender with his absolutely unreadable Executive Orders, it could have been written in 250 pages and been a fun read, instead he produced a 1000 pages of boring techno yawn.

I am looking forward to more Melvin Harter, he has his feet wet now, and I think the future looks bright. As the Shania Twain song says "Up, Up, Up." 

by Simon Barrett - 4th July 2008

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Review Source: http://www.creativewriter.me.uk

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