Tag Archives: conspiracy

Review of Mystery Novel, “Two Peas In A Pod” (2025)

two peas

© James Pyles

Seven years ago, at his request, I reviewed author Rick Sulik’s supernatural murder mystery novel Death Unmasked. Seven years is a long time, and I ultimately forgot all about it.

Then I got an email from Sulik asking if I’d be willing to review the book’s sequel Two Peas In A Pod. My memory was jogged and of course, I’ll generally review a book for a free copy. I said “yes.”

I didn’t revisit the first novel or my review so I could approach “Peas” fresh (as opposed to “frozen” – okay, bad joke). Here are my impressions.

First, the stuff I liked.

The novel’s strength is the accuracy of police procedure. That’s no surprise given Sulik’s extensive background in law enforcement. He worked three-and-a-half years with the Houston Police Department, twenty-two years with the Pasadena (suburb of Houston) Police Department, and ten years as a courthouse bailiff with the Gonzales County Sheriff’s Department. That also helps in that the setting of both books is in and around Houston.

I’ve never been near Houston, but I’ll take it on faith that Sulik’s description of the area is accurate and that residents of Houston and Pasadena would be impressed with his rendition. I’ve watched movies and TV shows set in places where I’ve lived and just shook my head at how inaccurately the locations were portrayed. Anyway.

Where the book could have been better.

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My Space Opera “The Fallen Shall Rise” FREE This Week!

me

Cover art for “The Fallen Shall Rise”

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

My space opera novelette The Fallen Shall Rise, a 224-Verse tale published by Starry Eyed Press is available to download onto your Kindle device FREE!

From today (as I write this), December 17th through Saturday the 21st, just go to the book’s Amazon page and download it absolutely free.

The Amazon blurb for my book says:

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My Short Story “The Other Place” to be published in the anthology “The Super Generation”

super cover

Promotional art for the Raconteur Press anthology “The Super Generation.”

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Update: You can now buy The Super Generation on Amazon!

My short story “The Other Place” will be published in the Raconteur Press anthology “The Super Generation.”

Imagine there was a one-time cosmic event that gave certain people superpowers. The event was never repeated and the superpowered people couldn’t pass their abilities on to their children. Only these people in their generation would be the superheroes and villains.

That’s the challenge each author whose stories are within these pages faced. Here’s a small example of my tale:

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Book Review of “The Last Templar” (2005)

templar

© James Pyles

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

I just finished reading The Last Templar (2005) by Raymond Khoury. It’s not the usual sort of thing I consume, but every once in a while, I’m attracted to these conspiracy theories, Catholic church conspiracies, historical and archeological mysteries.

It started out great. Strange goings on in Jerusalem in the late 13th century with the city under siege and the Christians about to be overrun. An escape to sea with a mysterious package that contains all the wealth and hopes of the Templars.

In present day, the Metropolitan Museum in New York City is displaying rare artifacts from the Vatican including one little-known encoding device. Four men dressed like knights (later identified as Templar) raid the Met, kill a security guard by beheading, and steal a bunch of wealth as well as the encoder.

Archeologist Tess Chaykin is attending with her mother and her nine-year-old daughter. She’s close enough to the fourth horseman to hear him say a phrase in Latin which translates “The truth will set you free.”

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Book Review of “Terminum”

terminum

Cover art for the novel “Terminum” by Lyla El-Fayomi

Disclosure: This is my first review of an indie SciFi book for Reedsy Discovery. In exchange for a free digital copy of a book, they ask that the writer craft a review of between 300 to 400 words in length and have it published on their site prior to a specific date. Basically, it’s free promotion for the book, Reedsy, and the reviewer.

I chose Lyla El-Fayomi’s Terminum to review because the premise was compelling. An experimental virus stops people from aging but at random points in their lives. However, the darker side is that some of those infected will be abruptly killed by an unknown side effect called Sudden Death Syndrome.

In investigating a cure, scientists Yasmine Holloway and Leo Genix suddenly become fugitives, being hunted down both by law enforcement and bounty hunters. They are thrust into the shadowy realm of a group of covert operatives who have, perhaps for decades, been aware of a conspiracy to hide the truth about the virus and to prevent them from ever delivering a cure.

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Wanderjahr Interrupted

spacecraft

Image credit: iStock – Found at numerous sources including thepromiserevealed.com

Chi Crain was temporarily marooned on Niophus halfway into his wanderjahr through the outer rim systems. Middle-aged and an apparent wastrel, he mused to himself that the Anonymous Saloon on the outskirts of Wastacarro City wasn’t such a bad place to hang out. He still hoped the repairs on his ship would be done soon. Chi was boozing it up too much, even for him.

He had just ordered another pint of ale to chase down his shot of Aldebaran whiskey when she walked in. She was human, like him, but the redhead’s beauty left him breathless, something he thought only happened in pulp fiction novels. She wore a common one-piece jumpsuit, but it hugged her well placed and amply proportioned curves like a second skin.

Sitting on the stool to his right at the bar, she parted full, luscious lips and said to the barkeep, “Random Revolver, please.” She produced her payment disc, and once “just call me Al” produced her drink, she transferred the cost. “Keep ’em coming.”

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The Lyrid Event

photography

© Ted Strutz

A small group of amateur astronomers had gathered at Ted’s farm outside Garden Valley to photograph the Lyrid meteor shower that year. It was late and just about everyone had gone back to Boise, taking their cameras and telescopes with them. Only Ted’s trusty old Nixon was on its tripod still aimed at the heavens.

Ted had a dark room in the shed out back but he’d never get to develop the film. Everyone had photographed something unusual from the farm’s unique vantage point that night and they all died within a week.

Ted was next.

I wrote this for the Rochelle Wisoff-Fields photo writing challenge. The idea is to use the image above as the inspiration for crafting a piece of flash fiction no more than 100 words long. Mine is 96 words.

The camera pointing up reminded me of when I took Astronomy classes at UNLV during the early to mid 1970s. Sometimes we’d go out to the desert at night to look at different stellar phenomena through telescopes and to photograph some of them.

The Lyrid meteor shower is typically observed every April and this year will be best seen in the early morning hours of April 22.

To read other stories based on the prompt, go to InLinkz.com.

Retrieval

nostromo

Promotional image of the landing module of the USCSS Nostromo spacecraft from the 1979 film “Alien”

“We’re going to have to delay exploring the base of the escarpment until Reggie and Austin repair the lander’s main engines.” I don’t want us to encounter anything out there we can’t runaway from in a hurry if we have to.”

Captain John Weiss was addressing the other four crew members of the freighter “Joseph Conrad” in the galley.

“Well what the screw is taking them so long, John? They’ve been at it for over six hours and if we don’t recover the Company’s lost probe, we’ll never collect our cut of the reward.”

“Calm down, Linda. You know this kind of work takes time.” His first officer was intelligent and competent but impatient which is why even with her service record, she’d never made Captain.

“They’re probably snoozing down in the engineering bay.”

“Not likely, Santiago. I just got a progress report from Reggie fifteen minutes ago. They don’t want to be down there any longer than necessary.”

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What Lies Beneath the Lateran?

arch of titus

Roman Triumphal arch panel copy from Beth Hatefutsoth, showing spoils of Jerusalem temple – From Wikimedia Commons

They were finally gone, sent away empty handed and believing the Priests of the Holy Roman Catholic Church were not latter-day thieves of their oh so precious Jewish artifacts.

Cardinals Angelo Vincenti and Francis Curia were not young men, but still strong enough to assist the eighty-four year old Pope down into the lowest levels of the Lateran, the residence of his Holiness. The party from the Israel Antiquities Authority were granted admittance even here in order to satisfy their suspicious curiosity. Of course none of the artifacts they sought were present. The Church was once again forced to feign friendship and good will to the nation of Israel in defiance of the law of Christ, but it was necessary for now. Once the Lord Jesus Christ returned from Heaven and the Church took full possession of both Rome and Jerusalem, the entire truth would be known. However premature knowledge of the true plan of the Popes spanning back to St. Peter himself would ruin everything.

They now faced a blank stone wall, presumably hiding nothing but tons of rock. “Cardinal Vincenti, if you would.”

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The Signal

full moon

Full Moon photograph taken 10-22-2010 from Madison, Alabama, USA – Found at Wikipedia

The lunar rock was about the size of a bowling ball and weighed almost eight kilos, one of the larger samples collected during the Apollo missions, but it had never been examined until now. Within weeks of it returning to Earth with the Apollo 17 crew on 19 December 1972, it had vanished from its storage area at the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility in Huston, Texas.

Federal investigators were notified when, after the death of wealthy art and antiquities collector Lawrence Rodriquez, it was discovered in a private vault located under his Boca Raton mansion. It was believed to have passed from one private party to another between the mid-1970s and 2001 when Rodriquez acquired it and locked it away with other illegally obtained artifacts. That was in 2011. Now, four years later, Leo Warner requisitioned it for study by his team.

Unfortunately in the nearly forty years since it had gone missing, it had been carelessly handled and allowed exposure to air, contaminating the surface of the specimen. However, it was still possible that the interior was preserved and to that end, a small core sample was about to be taken.

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