The novel Stratagems is a really good read. It takes place in the city where I grew up, Albuquerque, New Mexico. It's a suspense thriller and placed in the top 3 of a writing contest. You can go to Amazon (links to the right) and read the first 2 chapters of the eBook. If it intrigues you, I hope you give it a try.
DESCRIPTION
Back in 1988, twelve-year-old Drew Meyers and his family are suddenly awakened in the middle of the night by the FBI. His father, a man with a sordid past, has been murdered and now their lives are on the line. For the second time, they are being thrust into the witness relocation program with a new set of identities in another part of the country.
Fast-forward to 2004 and Drew, now grown and going by the name Kyle Randall, is a manager at a software application company serving banks worldwide implementing Homeland Security directives. Once again danger enters his life as his co-worker and best friend is murdered. The killers are now after him, his hidden identity at risk only to find someone within his own company is complicit in all that has happened. The FBI once again enter his life as a national conspiracy unfolds when he starts digging into the identity of the killers and the secrets they are trying to protect within his company. To save himself and his family, he must develop a strategy to bring the murderers to justice, uncover the truth, avoid the FBI, prevent management from stopping him and most of all...stay alive.
This is a story entwined in turn-of-the-century nostalgia, revealing threats back then which are now more of a danger in our modern day.
Stratagems took third place at the 1998 Southwest Writers Workshop contest in mainstream novel competition, under the title “The Stratagem”. It was brought up to date in the mid 2000’s with a more intricate back story, and updated again in 2019 with new content and professional editing. One of the contest judges, in her critique of Stratagems, wrote: "...it is a heart-pounding, pulse-building story. To quote the cliché, 'I couldn’t put it down.' In no way can I find fault with this manuscript. It is fast paced, exciting, and well written."
