A Bridge To Treachery ~ Larry Crane

Greetings! I know, I know, it's been quite a while since my last blog. Unfortunately life gets in the way of reading sometimes (HOW dare it!!!) but I have persevered through the drama, housework, back to school season and here I am! I'm the type of girl that when life hands me lemons, I don't just make lemonade. I toss some lemons right back at life and say 'F U!... I've got things to do!!'
Than I throw some vodka in the lemonade I have made and forge ahead.
Needless to say, I am back to blogging baby!
(If anything I said above makes no sense or sounds weird... blame the vodka)

I have a HUGE reading list lined up, and hope to get through it in the next few weeks. (I think I can, I think I can, I think I can......) So you will have to keep coming back or check the Facebook Fan Page for more information and books!!

Speaking of books and trying to take control of sudden craziness.... it could always be worse... you could be Lou Christopher.

Who is he? Keep reading.....

This next novel I am blogging about is a suspense novel (Never fear Mommy Porn lovers... I'll get to you soon....) called 'A Bridge To Treachery' by Larry Crane.

Here is the synopsis from Amazon:

Former Colonel Lou Christopher is an ex-Army Ranger retired from the military and contentedly working as a New York investment broker. After being assigned a number of lucrative accounts and becoming accustomed to living the good life, he discovers there is a pay back. His former military skills are requested under a threat of losing everything he has.
Handed a group of misfits to assemble into a military strike team, he is coerced into leading the team on a mission of domestic terrorism. At the center of a bridge outside of Manhattan, his strike team is caught in the act and unexpectedly becomes engaged in a deadly firefight. It’s then that he learns the mission was a political maneuver from the highest levels of the U.S. Government—and ultimately realizes he has been betrayed by his superiors. Learning his team was considered nothing more than collateral damage and intended to be killed and left as a scapegoats, he uses his unique military expertise and engages in a fight for his life.
As the strike team is decimated, he and a female teammate elude the opposition forces to survive and escape, turning the tables on his superiors. Using his distinctive set of military skills, he now becomes the hunter and vows to extract his revenge and bring them all down.

My Take:

Not gonna lie.... I liked the concept. (well duh... or I wouldn't be blogging about it!)

The story is told from two different perspectives. That of the lead character Lou and his wife Maggie (aka 'Mag') I'm actually going to not really tell you much about Maggie, because I don't think I could do her justice in my description. I will tell you she is remarkably strong, courageous, and has tremendous love for her husband. The way the novel unfolds, it is best to leave her as a mystery. I enjoyed her side of things and the small journey she takes to help Lou.

Now for the lead character......

Lou Christopher is not your average hero. He's an older gentleman, grandfather, working as a civilian after life in the army. He's always been a bit of a rebel, as you will learn throughout the book. Lou sometimes makes decisions without fully considering the consequences, only later to regret and try to make things right.
His job as an investment broker seems ho-hum, and when the big boss hands him a dream account on a silver platter, he takes it. (And who wouldn't? Anyone want to throw me an account that could make me millions? No? Anyone just want to hand me a million 'just cause?'... No?? Pfffttt Tough crowd!)
When it's time to pay his dues, he's backed into a corner and coerced into joining a team of shady people to pull of a domestic terror plot. It boggles my mind how anyone, even a character like Lou agree to be bribed to even participate in something so extreme, especially against their own country.
As you meet characters along the way (friends, coworkers, co-conspirators) you can never quite figure out who can be trusted, or really figure them out completely.
I was interested to see how this would play out in the novel and turned out to be pleasantly surprised by where the story took me.

The book starts off slow. It took me a bit to get used to how the story is delivered mainly in dialogue, but eventually I found a rhythm. I felt the book read like someone was sitting across from me in a chair, sharing with me the wildest story of their life. It was a gruff and straightforward telling. My one complaint was there was a lot of broker talk, but given the nature of the characters job, I can let it slide.
It says at the end of the book that there is a sequel in the works, I am interested to see how the story will continue!


One word to describe 'A Bridge To Treachery': Original

Would I read this novel again? I would and I will!
Who do I recommend this to? If you are interested in thrillers, military, conspiracy theories etc.... than I think you should give it a read.
I'm also going to lend my copy to my dad. I think this is a book for him!

Do I have a copy to GIVEAWAY?? YES!

CONTEST WINNER....

Kelly M from B.C won an autographed copy of A Bridge To Treachery!

                                       **AUTHOR INTERVIEW**

I'm no Barbara Walters, but sometimes I have questions that I love to ask authors. Here is my brief interview with Author Larry Crane.

Me: You have a lot in common with your lead character Lou Christopher, the army, broker, and initials.... is Lou Christopher a fictional version of you?

Larry Crane: You mean the part where this flawed-floundering-fiftyish guy turns into a closet lech? Or where this eternal optimist, day lily loving Mick Jagger wannabe gets his dream car? Family members 
see things in the book they think they recognize—places—situations—

people, but these are all just bits and pieces of what I have experienced.  The experts say to write about what you know, and I have followed that advice by drawing on my Army and brokerage experience to be as authentic as possible.  Friends look at the decisions that Lou Christoper makes in the book and find it hard sometimes to separate Lou’s mindset from mine. The biggest compliment I think I’ve ever gotten about “Treachery” though was from a friend who said that in the first chapter or two they were fixated on their perception of Lou’s resemblance to me, but then that fixation faded away and the story took over. Most importantly, when I disappeared is when the story really took off.

Me: What made you decide to become an author?

Larry Crane: Encouragement at an early age was a factor. I wrote this little essay as a seventh or eight grader that got a good grade, and it then was published in the school newspaper. This seemed to light a spark that stayed alive all through high school, especially when my English Lit teacher gave me words of encouragement.  Then, as a freshman in college, the English prof extolled  a section of  a short story written by a classmate that just bowled me over and changed me forever. It was just a simple image—of a boy out on his bike in the glory of Autumn when he realizes for the first time that his boyhood is coming to an end, and the smoke of burning leaves bring tears to his eyes. I saw the artistry of the writing, and I wanted to do that.

Me:  Where did the concept for A Bridge To Treachery come from?

Larry Crane: I set out to write a novel after doing lots of short stories, non-fiction, and a play. I consulted some  books on the subject, among many others, one by John Braine who wrote Room at the Top.  I wanted to write a book of the kind that I liked to read.  I had to have my protagonist put into a life changing situation from word one, so I had him answering the phone in his office—and off we go. I knew the general plot (that Lou would get into trouble because of excess pride and ambition) from the beginning, but all the moral implications and complications would only emerge in very extensive rewrites over several years. Maybe the biggest determinant of the way the story plays out is geography. Once the location of the act of treachery is set, geography determines most of the rest of the story.  Lou has to credibly move from one location to the next.

Me: Which Authors Inspire You? Who are your favorites?  

Larry Crane: Hemingway, Steinbeck, Lecarre’, Fitzgerald. Read everything they wrote over and over. Living near Manhattan, I was much inspired by the theatre.  Sitting in a tiny off-broadway theater within fifteen of feet of Al Pacino in David Mamet’s American Buffalo was unforgettable—enough for me to promptly pen my own replica of it. Playwrights. Lanford Wilson. John Guare. August Wilson. Athol Fugard. Brien Friel. Tom Stoppard. On and on.  Ernest Hemingway is at the top of my list of novelists and short story writers.  Of playwrights, I have no clear favorite.

Me:  You seem to have lived an interesting life thus far, what stands out in your mind as your greatest achievement?

Larry Crane: I’m proud to be and to have been a decent husband and a good father and a father figure, but this not an achievement.  It’s a status.  The thing that I have done (not been)  in my life that I value above all else is to have stood up for what I believed was right when it was my time to do so. I served as a soldier in war.