Redemption Day by Steve O'Brien

About the Book
Redemption Day is a highly paced thriller set in Washington DC. The story is founded upon historical events and documented teachings of the Posse Comitatus. The Posse was an anti-government militia group in the 1980 s that tried to convince farmers that banks could not lawfully foreclose on their properties. Their beliefs led to the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on a date of significance to the group April 19.


My Thoughts
I've never read anything by Steve O'Brien but when I was asked to review this book, I was absolutely excited to read it. Redemption Day is an absolutely intriguing and engrossing page-turner. Steve O'Brien is a very good writer who is able to bring you all the details to knit a perfectly believable story together. 


The author did a very good job at pacing the story for the readers. Although some of the events discussed in the book are/were actual events, before reading this book I had never heard of the group Posse Comitatus. Throughout reading the book and after, I had to do my research because of how believable some of the events in the story are. 


Redemption Day was an easy read for me. The story was very engaging and a great thriller. I could visualize everything that was going on in the story from the main character going to the coffee shop to trying to disguise and hide himself on the streets of Washington D.C.


Steve O'Brien has done a great job writing this story and I look forward to reading more from him.


Redemption Day can be purchased on Amazon and Barnes and Noble

I GIVE THIS BOOK  

DISCLAIMER: I was in no way compensated to review this book. These are my opinions of a book in which I was asked to review by The Cadence Group.

Code Blood by Kurt Kamm

Book Synopsis
CODE BLOOD takes the reader into the world of emergency medicine, the science of stem cell research, and the unsettling world of blood fetishism and body parts. The book is an edgy L.A. Noir thriller.

Colt Lewis, a young Los Angeles County fire paramedic responds to a car accident. The victim dies in his arms. Her foot has been severed but is nowhere to be found. Who is the woman and what happened to her missing foot?

Colt risks his career to find the victim’s identity and her foot. A weeklong search leads him to a dark side of Los Angeles—into an underworld of body part dealers, underground Goth clubs and a stalker. He uncovers a tangled maze of drugs, needles, and rituals, which can only lead to death—but who is the victim?

Code Blood won a Public Safety Writer’s Association Award in 2011              


About the Author
Kurt Kamm lives in Malibu CA with his wife. He was previously a financial executive and semi-professional bicycle racer. He graduated from Brown University and Columbia Law School. He is a regular visitor to the fire stations and camps around Los Angeles and has attended several training academies.

Access to CalFire and Los Angeles County Fire Department has helped Mr. Kamm develop the factual backgrounds detailed in his firefighter mysteries. His third novel Code Blood, (October 2011), features a rookie paramedic who is drawn into the underworld of Los Angeles after he loses his first accident victim.
Previous novels are One Foot in the Black-A Wildland Firefighter's Story (2008), and Red Flag Warning - A Serial Arson Mystery (2010), winner of three first-place mystery fiction awards.

He is currently attending HazMat response classes and is working on his fourth mystery, Hazardous Material.

Visit Kurt Kamm's author/first responder website and blog at http://www.kurtkamm.com


About the Book
Code Blood was a vivid and enthralling page-turner intertwining many interesting characters. 
Fire-Fighter/Paramedic, Colt, often get emotionally attached to the victims he tries to save. This time he is especially attached and invested because the victim was a young girl with her foot missing. Colt decides he needs and wants to find out the reason why her foot was amputated and who could have or would have taken the girl's foot.


With all the additional characters, the story takes us on some wild turns which left it almost impossible for me to put the book down. I often wondered if Colt would be able to solve the mystery without becoming a victim himself. Code Blood is a fast-paced, suspenseful story that everyone should add to their to be read list this year.


Code Blood can be purchased in paperback and on the B&N Nook at here


DISCLAIMER: I was in no way compensated to review this book. This book was offered to me for review by Cadence Group

Blog Guest Post by Kurt Kamm

I have the pleasure of introducing you to a wonderful author. Kurt Kamm is the author of a new mystery/thriller Code Blood. Code Blood takes the reader into the world of emergency medicine, the science of stem cell research and the unsettling world of blood fetishism and body parts.


Below is Kurt's guest post.

Several people have asked me where my ideas come from for my firefighter mystery novels. A vivid imagination helps, but I always like to start with a grain of truth. I spend much of my time with the Los Angeles County Fire Department and have gone into the field with their arson investigators, spent time training with their hazardous materials response teams, and gone through their wildland fire training academy. Each of my mysteries involves a firefighter with a specific skill (One Foot in the Black ˆ wildland firefighting / Red Flag Warning ˆ arson investigation / Code Blood ˆ fire paramedic).
When I set out to write Code Blood, my newest novel, I began riding with the paramedics from Station 88 in Malibu. I always ask to hear unusual stories about firefighter's experiences, and one paramedic told me about a freak accident on Pacific Coast Highway in front of a well-known seafood restaurant. A speeding pickup truck hit a metal light pole. The impact knocked down the pole and, as it fell, the jagged metal edge severed the foot of a woman standing nearby. When the paramedics arrived, they couldn't find her foot for several minutes. Ultimately, it was discovered wedged underneath the engine of the pickup!
This immediately caught my imagination. I asked myself, what kind of story would this be if someone walked out of the restaurant carrying a take-home bag with his dinner, picked up the foot, put it in the bag, and went home? This became the opening chapter of Code Blood. Once I had that idea, a thousand questions came to mind, and it was actually not difficult to write the novel. Who is the woman who loses her foot, and what happens to her? What kind of nut would pick up the foot? What would he do with it when he takes it home? What do the paramedics do? The questions go on and on, and for each answer there are two more problems. I must tell you writing these stories is a lot of fun˜I get to meet some very strange characters in my books.
-----
I was previously a financial executive and semi-professional master's bicycle racer. When I retired and moved to Malibu, my home almost burned in one of Malibu's famous wildfires. That's when I decided to write firefighter novels. I maintain an author/firefighter website with some spectacular pictures sent to me by first responders.http://www.kurtkamm.com

Dewey's Readathon Update

I fell asleep before the 24th hour last night. I think I had 3 hours left and couldn't hold out any longer. I had fun reading and got quite a bit done. I read 3.5 books, a total of 963 pages in a total of 14.5 hours, which is more than I did last year. Although I had quite a few distractions, I'm glad I was able to get all that reading done.

Update #4

These last couple of hours were painful. The book I was reading has been the longest shortest book I've ever read. I know that sounds weird but it was the shortest book I picked today and the hardest to read. That happens I guess.


Statistics:
Book Read: The Name of this Book is Secret by Pseudonym Bosch
Format: Nook
# of Pages: 189
Length of time: 3 hrs


Up Next: I think I'm going to start reading a book in the Horror genre in light of it being Halloween soon.

Update #3

I'm reading the shortest book I've chosen so far and it seems it's the hardest for me to get through. This book got pretty good reviews on bn.com but I'm just not getting into it at all. I'm wondering if I should finish it since I'm 1/4 of the way in already.

Mid Event Survey

Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now?

     Will be starting The Name of This Book is a Secret
2. How many books have you read so far?

     2
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

     Not Sure because I decided to wing it this year
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

     Not really
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

     Yes...I didn't really because they were work and family

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

     The number of readers and the dedication
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? 

      na
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

      Rent a room somewhere
9. Are you getting tired yet?

      Not yet but I did ask my husband to get me some more coffee
10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?