Okay, I shamefully admit, I skipped The Bricklayer by newcomer Noah Boyd.  The title didn’t grab me, and the last bricklayer (or stonefitter) that really met my expectation was Tom Builder in Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth.

However, when Agent X (also by Boyd) showed up I thought I’d give it a try. This follow-up to the bestselling first book, features the same cast of characters led by the reluctant FBI Specialist Steve Vail.  As it turns out Vail, a disgruntled former FBI agent prefers laying brick to dealing the bureau’s red tape and troublesome, if not inept, management.  Vail, the bad boy of the books is a really solid character, someone who gets things done . . . his way.

In Agent X, Vail navigates his way through a maze of hidden codes and brain-numbing puzzles to reveal a cadre of spies that have come to the attention of the FBI thanks to a Russian Embassy official known only as Calculus.

The story proved to be a solid addition to a genre dominated by Lee Child, Vince Flynn and Steve Hunter.  I am sold!

Noah Boyd is a pseudonym for FBI agent (more…)

I was watching a piece on CBS News Sunday with the title of ‘based on a novel by . . . “

It featured none other than the master spymaker, John LeCarre. Few of us can forget the Cold War and the novelists whose stock-in-trade were those “spies” who applied their craft, and by doing so kept us safe.

LeCarre, in 22 novels, revealed the frailties of the human condition and exploited it, building up tension in the reader with characters that lived in the shadows, dark and mysterious. LeCarre, along with Len Deighton, Frederick Forsyth, and Ken Follett showed us the face of British counter intelligence.

Gradually, US spy novelists came to par in the genre created and dominated by British writers. The Scarlatti Inheritance caused Robert Ludlum to be regarded as the first American spymaster. In the 1970s, former CIA operative Charles McCarry began the Paul Christopher series with The Tears of Autumn. The first American techno-thriller was Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October. It introduced CIA analyst, turned field agent, Jack Ryan.

With the end of the Cold War the genre went on hiatus. Spies lost their luster and relevance. No secrets needed exposure, or so we thought . . .! To survive, the novelists had to re-invent (more…)

VJ Books has just received:  Vince Flynn – Pursuit of Honor and  Charles Todd – A Duty to the Dead.

(Publisher’s Weekly, Sept. 2008)

Pocket Books reports that Vince Flynn novels are taken so seriously by intelligence professionals worldwide that one high-ranking CIA official told his people, “I want you to read Flynn’s books and start thinking about how we can more effectively wate this war on terror.”  Wonder how many of the one mnillion copies of Protect and Defend in print are being read by CIA operatives.

Order your signed first edition copies of Vince Flynn titles at www.vjbooks.com

(variety.com, Feb. 13, 2008, Michael Fleming, Tatiana Siegel)

In its biggest material acquisition since its inception last year, CBS Films has acquired rights to a bestselling series of espionage novels by Vince Flynn and will build a franchise around its protag, CIA operative Mitch Rapp.  Lorenzo di Bonaventura will team with Nick Wechsler to produce the films.

Sister company Simon & Schuster/Atria Books, which in the fall published the most recent series installment, “Protect and Defend,” has extended its relationship with Flynn by acquiring worldwide publishing rights to his next four novels, including translation and audio.

The deals were made by CBS Films prexy-CEO Amy Baer and Simon & Schuster prexy-CEO Carolyn Reidy and the author’s ICM reps.

Flynn has so far written nine novels, eight about the fictional Rapp, who possesses the ruthlessness and killing skills of Jason Bourne and the sleuthing talents of Jack Ryan. (more…)

Vince Flynn was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1966. He graduated from the St. Thomas Academy in 1984, and the University of St. Thomas with a degree in economics in 1988. After college he went to work for Kraft General Foods where he was an account and sales marketing specialist. In 1990 he left Kraft to accept an aviation candidate slot with the United States Marine Corps. One week before leaving for Officers Candidate School, he was medically disqualified from the Marine Aviation Program, due to several concussions and convulsive seizures he suffered growing up. While trying to obtain a medical waiver for his condition, he started thinking about writing a book. This was a very unusual choice for Flynn since he had been diagnosed with dyslexia in grade school and had struggled with reading and writing all his life.

Having been stymied by the Marine Corps, Flynn returned to the nine-to-five grind and took a job with United Properties, a commercial real estate company in the Twin Cities. During his spare time he worked on an idea he had for a book. After two years with United Properties he decided to take a big gamble. He quit his job, moved to Colorado, and began working full time (more…)

(Worldmag.com, Nov 29, Susan Olasky)

Here’s an exciting conservative novel: Counter-terrorism operatives Mitch Rapp and Mike Nash are up against a rogue offshoot of al-Qaeda poised to attack the United States. They also have to stop civil liberties activists and their Senate sympathizers who think the “bad guys”—Rapp and Nash—are too tough with suspected terrorists.

Flynn skillfully cuts back and forth between the terrorists relentlessly training for their attack, and the small band of Americans with the understanding, resolve, and talent to stop them—if liberals don’t hold them back. Flynn humanizes the Americans with frequent scenes of Nash interacting with his wife and children.

Get your copy of Extreme Measures by Vince Flynn at www.vjbooks.com today!

“The Gate House” by Nelson DeMille Hits #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List

(wwww.readitnews.com, Nov. 10, Anthony Jones)

The Gate House, the new thriller from Nelson DeMille, debuts at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List. The Gate House is the sequel to DeMille’s 1990 bestseller The Gold Coast, which also featured characters tax attorney John Sutter and his now ex-wife Susan Sutter.

After her affair with a Mafia don ended in fatal result, the new book follows the Sutters who become the target of the Mafia don’s son. The Gate House is DeMille’s first #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List since 2004′s Night Fall. It is his third overall #1 book on the list as well.

Vince Flynn‘s latest political thriller, Extreme Measures, moves down a spot to #2 this week. Extreme Measures is the latest thriller centered around counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp who teams up with his protégé, Mike Nash, to fight a terrorist cell.

The Brass Verdict, by author Michael Connelly, moves down to #3 this week. The novel teams two of Connelly’s most successful characters, defense attorney Mickey Haller and detective Harry Bosch, who come together to solve the case of a Hollywood murder while encountering danger themselves.

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks, a romantic story of an Iraq soldier who goes in search of the smiling woman he only knows from a photograph, moves down a spot to the #4 position.

The latest Danielle Steel novel, A Good Woman, debuts on the New York Times Best Seller List at #5. This makes Danielle Steel’s 74th best-seller. In A Good Woman, a woman loses her family to the Titanic sinking, leaves for France during wartime and returns to the New York she once left behind. The book also marks Steel’s third bestseller just this year. She also released Rogue and Honor Thyself earlier in the year.

Oprah’s Book Club pick The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski is at #6 this week, while Bones, by Jonathan Kellerman, is at #7 this week. Bones, the 23rd book in the Alex Delaware series, finds the L.A. consulting psychologist on a case where four female bodies are found all with their right hands missing.

Rough Weather by Robert B. Parker is at #6, Testimony by Anita Shreve, and Wicked sequel A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire round out the top 10 for the fiction list.

On the Non Fiction list, the story of the kitten left in the return slot of an Iowa library and the lives of everyone it touched, Dewey, is #1 once again on the New York Times Non Fiction List. The book, written by Vicki Myron and Brett Witter, has been described as the feline answer to Marley & Me.

Little changes on the Non Fiction list this week with Against Medical Advice by mystery writer James Patterson, along with Hal Friedman, moving down a spot to #2 this week. The book tells the story of a family’s struggle to get treatment for their son’s Tourette’s syndrome.

The Snowball by Alice Schroeder, the story of the life of billionaire Warren Buffet, is at #3 this week. Bill O’Reilly’s latest, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity, moved up to #4 this week.

The only notable debut on the list came in at #10, with Philip Norman’s take on the life of John Lennon appropriately titled: John Lennon.

(from PAXALLES)

Flynn said the main reason he wrote his book to tell the story of the CIA, private contractors, etc. who have fought in the war on terror and who haven’t been recognized for their sacrifice.  He said that the Democratic Congress has repaid this sacrifice by hanging investigations over their heads with millions of dollars in legal fees.  He has written this book as an homage to them and says his book has scared many people in Washington.  He said that he and Daniel Silva have been told that they predicted September 11th and people are always amazed they knew what was coming. 

Flynn said that the agencies and military will get big time blow back in an Obama administration.

John responds…. The hardcover “true first” of Term Limits by Vince Flynn was printed in August 1997 (ISBN: 0-9658510-0-1 / 978-0-9658510-0-8 (USA edition)).  The publisher was Cloak & Dagger Press, Incorporated, and it was a small run/independant press.  It was reprinted in June 1998 (ISBN: 0-671-02317-9 / 978-0-671-02317-1 (USA edition)) by Atria Press and this edition is technically a “first thus.”  It was again reprinted by Atria in November 2004, (ISBN: 0-7432-7502-0 / 978-0-7432-7502-6 (USA edition)), again, a “first thus.”

As for Transfer of Power, we have a nice signed copy in stock.