Action Packed Suspense Thriller: New Mystery Book Best of Season

Leading Lady

As many readers know, I love a good thriller/mystery. Some are your conspiracy, big government types where the main character is a rogue agent trying to save themselves and the world. Others involve a mystery and the secret workings of unseen forces. However, it is really hard to beat the old fashioned thriller involving the mafia, troubled thieves, their lovers, and the secret service. When an author is able to bring all of these diverse, and nefarious characters into one amazing story, then I find it hard to put the book down. I’d rather stay home and lose myself in the unraveling mystery then go out for drinks with friends. As my friends can attest (by my absence), I’ve recently had the privilege to read just such a mystery. The most recent book by seasoned author Heywood Gould – Leading Lady – was a thriller times ten.

The story involves the life of Jerry Lang, a regular guy that has turned to grifting (high class thievery). Working with his “leading lady” Gloria, they are one job away from retirement. With an eye on making a nice sum by stealing a “Self Portrait” by the Russian master painter Isaac Levitan, Jerry and Gloria find themselves in the center of a set up. What kind of set up is part of the mystery and thrill of the story.

Ending up in jail for shooting a cop during the grift, Lang fights off several assassination attempts and begins to understand that his set up was not just the design of the police. Rather, he suspects the guy who gave him the job, Hanif. As Lang escapes from jail and begins to hunt down the people who blew his cover, a deeper mystery unfolds. How did the cops know where he was going to make the drop? Who informed them? And what happened to his leading lady Gloria? Was she killed as Lang assumes?

The twists and turns that Leading Lady takes were intricate and complex. I read a lot, and usually can tell before hand what is going to happen. Not here. Up until the final moment I kept thinking that Hanif and his boss Tony Rasso were behind it. I didn’t quite know how the ex-Russian secret agent fit in, nor the cops, but I figured it would be explained at the end. And boy was it, just not how I had thought.

Leading Ladyis an action packed, suspense thriller of the top caliber. If you think you know thrillers, and you like a complex story with a set of characters that stepped off of the Godfather movie set, then I would highly recommend Leading Lady. You will not be disappointed.


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