Common Foe
David D Furlotte
AmErica House

Interesting read ... Recommended ... 5 stars

It is mid 1997 and Canadian Jean Val Fincoeur, industrial show businessman, multi media project manager is ready for his 3 week vacation. Leaving his miniature collie Sam in the care of neighbor Dave Jean Val and four friends set out for the fifty year celebration held in Roswell, New Mexico. Errol Bruston, his lady friend Sharon, John Mardon, Patrick Tambler and Jean Val look forward to meeting and perhaps having a chance to get more information about what really took place there in Roswell back in 1947. Meanwhile private investigator Patrice Fincham is busy in her own business, she and associate Cathy Reesor are on the hunt for Sharon Polker who seems to have disappeared.

A meeting with Frank Malley who was part of the military team that shot down the foreign craft in 1947 ultimately leads to Patrick's death and a widespread police search for Jean Val. Jean Val and his friends have discovered that the US Air Force did indeed perpetrate a cover up in 1947 and now the CIA is determined that that cover up remain in place. Patrice has troubles of her own as she continues her search for Captain Polker who has been listed as MIA since 1947 and stumbles over the realization that Great Britain and the former Soviet Union were involved in code name 'Common Foe'.

David Furlotte's prowess as a writer has only improved with this his second in the Fincoeur - Fincham series. "Common Foe" is a distinctively wrought narrative filled with conspiracy, complicity and machination as writer Furlotte presents a intricate tale filled with robust incentives, treachery and outright chicanery. Furlotte's remarkably engineered account is balanced against a environment of exhilarative action, a keenly focused series of events and well drawn characters. Dialogue is potent, effective as the well fleshed characters face mounting danger with an ever enlarging sense of jeopardy.

Writer Furlotte's use of language is exquisite, grabs the reader from the opening lines of the prologue and holds interest tight over page after page of rollicking action. The Fincoeur character is a likeable one, Jean Val is a personality the reader can really come to know and like. The Patrice Fincham character has been further developed since the initial publication. Patrice is a woman we can admire. Together the two engender an exciting electricity as the pair once more bumble across one another in their separate strands of the tale. I particularly like the way writer Furlotte takes two separate but related tales and weaves them and their characters into a single strand. It is an interesting, and often difficult technique to master. Furlotte has mastered the technique to perfection.

Excellent read. Happy to recommend.

CONTRACT FOR DECEIT
by David Furlotte
VanGoach Books.com

When Multimedia Project Manager Jean-Val Fincoeur takes on a contract for Duprel Oil and Gas he little realizes just what he has gotten himself into. What should have been just another trade show for him to orchestrate becomes a life and death situation leading him into a desperate flight for safety.

The Canadian Military have a secret. That secret destroyed not only the Avro Arrow, one of the most advanced aircraft ever designed but the hopes and dreams of the aircraft's designers and builders. Many insist it is a secret necessary to National Defense. And, they insist it is a secret in danger of getting out. Most concerned about that secret becoming common knowledge is Duprel Oil and Gas. For them that secret is worth billions of dollars annually. It's a secret they have killed to protect. It's a secret in danger of getting out.

Patrice Fincham learns to her horror exactly why working for Duprel cost her friend Shawna Klenco her life. Patrice's path crosses that of Jean-Val Fincoeur before realizes that she just might end up paying the same price as Shawna. Combine Dashiell Hammett and Holiday in Death by J.D. Robb then attach a copious swash of good old Erle Stanley Gardner type suspense and you begin to get an idea of what CONTRACT FOR DECEIT is all about. This first mystery thriller by new writer David D. Furlotte, is a 'can't put it down mystery.'

The consternation felt by Patrice is unmistakable and the desperation driving her to discover why Duprel Oil has murdered her friend Shawna is matched with the determination Jean-Val possesses for discovering why or what Duprel Oil is up to. The tense drama driving them both is well defined in this complex thriller by Markham, Ontario resident, David Furlotte who spent most of his formative years in St. John's, Newfoundland and Montreal, Quebec.

Writer Furlotte brings a unique perspective to the work because he has been directly involved in marketing and communications areas with some of the largest corporations in Canada. He has acted as advisor and consultant in addition to doing the same type of work portrayed by the main character in his books.

Furlotte's deftness for the human situation and his clear description pull the reader right into the narrative. "I like to take an event that really happened and come up with a logical explanation that, although is fictional, will get the reader thinking that it just could have happened that way." He is a keen observer and avid follower of mysteries including the Canadian Avro Arrow controversy.

This writer possesses a comprehension of the corporate mien many do not possess. He uses that understanding to present a tale so worrisome in his Duprel enforcer that the tingle along the the reader's spine never stops. Furlotte's characters are ingenious and well thought out. From the various members of the media team to Patrice and her family and friends each is distinct and credible. CONTRACT FOR DECEIT offers the reader a peek inside the workings of a corporate power that will stop at nothing to keep the power and the riches they possess.

The reader is drawn into a tale filled with intrigue, government intervention and corporate greed.. We who enjoy thrillers can only hope writer Furlotte is already hard at work on his next work and that and many more novels are soon forthcoming. CONTRACT FOR DECEIT is a story that will grasp you from the first line and will hold you tight right on down to the last page. The story is griping and is and is well recommended.