A Voice for Independent Authors
― E.A. Bucchianeri
REVIEWING TODAY: THE SECOND TARGET BY HOWARD P. GIORDANO
The Second Target, a thriller by Howard Giordano, is an inconsistent but entertaining read. The novel is punctuated by bursts of inspired plotting and deeply interesting, engaging, and provocative scenes, which are then interspersed with bits of unconvincing dialogue and a few highly un-credible, fabricated incidents. Private investigator Luke Rizzo is hired by a wealthy, highbrow married woman to locate a father she has never known, which leads our main character into a fascinating if somewhat byzantine tangled scheme of German history and revenge, FBI intrusions and evasions, impersonal sexual liaisons and retreats and then repeats, and a cat-and-mouse pursuit of a psychopathically determined killer and his would-be victims.
Howard Giordano is skilled at creating the highly active plot development demanded by such a thriller as The Second Target. The reader rarely finds himself bogged down within mundane, inactive moments, though he sometimes feels himself to be in the company of shallow and undeveloped minor characters – such as the two FBI agents, who seem more interested in brief and not-so-witty moments of inane repartee than in pursuing leads provided by Mr. Rizzo – or rolling his strained and incredulous mental eyes when a scheduled victim, having apprehended and restrained his would-be murderer, after kicking his foe’s loaded gun under the chair where he is tied, abruptly leaves the room.
Fortunately, such incidents are extremely rare, if unsettling, and the story moves along quite well. Giordano, as mentioned, has moments of true brilliance in plotting his intriguing tale, and some of the confrontations between the good guys and the bad are truly entertaining. Luke Rizzo could become an interesting protagonist for future novels.
Joel R. Dennstedt – Reviewer
Author-Journalist-World Traveler
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In concert with the sentiment above, I share my professional reviews of books by Indie Authors. I am an official top reviewer for Readers’ Favorite, a highly-regarded and award-winning online review site. Adhering to their standards of professionalism, ethics, and formatting, I offer my life-affirming voice to a greatly deserving field: Indie Authors.