Ricochet by David Kennedy seems, at first, to be a pretty standard vigilante story. It becomes pretty apparent rather quickly, though, that Brenda is anything but standard. She’s like M and Dexter had a love child. Ridiculously intelligent, beautiful, and socially inept, Brenda is the antihero that sucks you in.
Much of the book, I was engrossed in learning the outcome of Brenda’s “missions”. I asked myself over and over again how she could be so smart and so naive…. does she really believe some shadow entity is going to give her carte blanche in killing people… and make it official? How much of this is her true naivete and how much is Brenda playing for the audience?
Some answers are easy to find and satisfying when they do come up, but other answers are hidden in a pretty good storyline with characters that are equal parts believable and outrageous characterizations of stereotypes. The pacing is smooth and flows well, while the story shows off technical details regarding physics, rock climbing, and murder that could be overwhelming, but are woven so well into the narrative that they’re just one more piece of the mystery. Grab your copy to check out this perplexing and engaging story.
Ricochet
David A. Kennedy
Published by: Acorn Publishing
Publication date: November 6th 2018
Genres: Adult, Thriller
Brenda Roseberry’s youth was fractured with personal loss and sexual assault. In response, she’s trained her body through rock climbing and Isreali martial arts. Her genius at engineering tends toward the devious: she invents technology that allows her to see through walls, along with bulletproof clothing and specialized grenades.
Brilliant, fearless, and eminently disturbed, Brenda is ultimately recruited by Special Crimes Response And Mitigation—SCRAM. And so begins her daring pursuit of white-collar crime, fringe terrorist conspiracies, and anyone deserving of her unique brand of draconian justice.
Her only real friend is a notorious MS-13 gangster named Pucaso. He’s got a crush on her but that only makes Brenda deride him and loathe herself. Still, she relies on his help, whether she’s in Belize to wipe out the server farm of a corrupt hedge fund, or on Maui to take on the poisonous executives of a giant chemical company. Brenda treats wrongdoers like insects—the kind that need extermination.
Author Bio:
Dave is a guidebook writer/publisher turned novelist. He began rock climbing around 1984, which was a “logical” extension of hiking, camping and backpacking since boyhood. After his first article on climbing in San Diego’s back-country was published in Rock & Ice magazine, he created the San Diego County Climbing Guide, which proved extremely popular. Next came San Diego Adventures: Classic hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing. In 2007 he completed and published a second edition of the climbing guide, which vividly detailed over 2,000 routes.
Subsequently, he embarked on a fiction-writing odyssey, producing sci-fi novels and short stories “rather unsuccessfully” in terms of publication. He finally found his proper voice in 2017 when he wrote Ricochet, an intense modern-day thriller about a young female vigilante. Upon its completion, he learned about Acorn Publishing while attending the 2018 Southern California Writers’ Conference and was signed by them shortly thereafter.
David is also an accomplished horticulturist. He became interested in tropical plants called Bromeliads in 2010, which quickly turned into a passion. He is an active member of the San Diego Bromeliad Society, and has won “Best of Show” awards in their annual show multiple times. His Tillandsia collection is considered one of the best in the region. For many years he and his wife Debbie have been chief volunteer caretakers of the San Diego Zoo’s Kent Bromeliad Garden.
Becoming a novelist is the realization of a lifelong dream. David loves the process of storytelling, of waking up each day well before dawn and diving into the art of making words come together in a way that appeals.
GIVEAWAY!
Birdie's Bibliotheca 
This sounds like a unique and very entertaining read! Glad you liked it! 🙂
LikeLike