Tag Archives: JJ Stoner

Tense Commandment by Frank Westworth – Review

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Today I’m reviewing Tense Commandment by Frank Westworth. The Stoner Series Book 10.

Here’s the blurb.

Unconventional assassin JJ Stoner knows better than to accept a personal job from his violently volatile boss. But if your paymaster stalks the hallowed halls of Westminster, and if your girlfriend sells her body to a sordid clientele, and if you kill people for a living, well… sometimes you have to get your hands dirty.
Very dirty.

A witty mix of hardboiled humour and sinister manipulation. Recommended for readers who enjoy Walter Mosley, Derek Raymond and Don Winslow.

Tense Commandment is a self-contained short story which features characters from the Killing Sisters crime-thriller novels and the Stoner stories. It follows Nine Lies and introduces key characters from A Last Act Of Charity (and takes place quite a while before Charles III ascended, in case you were wondering). With an agile imagination, Tense Commandment can be enjoyed as a stand-alone story without reading the other books. Live dangerously!

Review

JJ Stoner has a special place in my heart I must admit. Tense Commandment is the tenth short story focusing on the events surrounding the witty assassin.

You can quite easily read the series as standalones but I very much believe the dark humour comes through so much clearer if you read them all.. It’s been a while since we’ve seen stoner but from the first page the smile was back on my face.. oh how I’ve missed him.

In this instalment we see the needs of Stoners employer and his more personal life clash a little. The Hardman has a target…but there’s an issue…Stoner isn’t the first to get there..

In typical Stoner style the fun, thought-provoking plot hits quick as we, along with Stoner try and figure out who is behind events and what does this mean for Stoner.. is someone setting him up? Are they after his girlfriend… or is it his employer whose being targeted? And how does he get out of this one with his arse intact?

It was great to see the character Stretch back in the action also… they are very much unconventional friends but boy they like to have some fun!

For fans of the series, it really is the best yet and just adds more depth to Stoner.

I’m not going to spoil the twists and turns but the ending did not disappoint at all.. and we are lucky enough to be given an extra short tale from the author. The short is called “AI”. I’m really not going to say much other than WOW. Westworth has only ever been known to me for one reason.. JJ Stoner.. AI just shows what skills the author really has at being able to take on another subject matter.. Westworth is the King of the short story!

5/5 Stars

To find our more head to Goodreads or Amazon!

The JJ Stoner Series #7, #8 & #9 by Frank Westworth

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Today I’m going to be doing 3 quick reviews for Frank Westworth author of The Killing Sisters and The Stoner Series.

Frank is adept and writing short sharp self-contained espionage thrillers packed with action..but few words.. that’s just JJ Stoner’s style! These novellas feature characters from the authors full length novels and serve to support the series but at the same time act as an intro for anyone wanting to learn Frank’s style of storytelling.

7

Seven Hells – Here’s the blurb

A terrorist atrocity will occur today on the crowded streets of a British city. The authorities have been forewarned, and tactical squads scramble to likely locations. They’re playing a waiting game with a deadly opponent, a religious extremist with a lethal message in mind. But who will make the first move?

JJ Stoner – the ex-military man with a sideline in silencing people – should play no part in this operation. But an old opponent from the times of the Troubles has other ideas. He knows who to manipulate to lure Stoner into the killing zone – and into conflict with his closest friends and allies…

Review

We are back with book 7 in the JJ Stoner series.

It starts with a meeting between Stoner and The Hard Man.. Stoners boss. Drinks have flowed and the conversation turns to work.. but of a more personal motivation… Stoner doesn’t do personal.

The meeting ends abruptly as a terrorist threat has been reported and there’s still time to stop the attack!

JJ is thrust back into contact with his ex-lover, Bernadette, who has a source.. but they will only meet with Stoner. There is some tension building I can feel it.

As you can imagine things do not really go to plan and Stoner is lucky to not have his ass blown off.

There’s a few twists along the way and I always love how Stoner is a man of few words..the more you read the more you think you know him.. but you don’t..you never quite know which direction he will take but rest assured it will be the way packed with explosions and bullets.

Another cracking instalment from the author.

4/5 Stars!

To find out more head to Goodreads or Amazon.

 

8

CzechM8 – Here’s the blurb

The life of a contract killer can be complicated.

JJ Stoner’s boss wants him to kill someone. His best friend’s girlfriend also wants him to kill someone. His best friend could kill him for getting cosy with the wrong woman.

Stoner just wants to ride his Harley – but the forces of law and order have other ideas…

Review

JJ just wants a simple life.. point and shoot.. no hidden agendas..no deceit..but that will never happen in his line of work.

This book heavily involves Shard, a colleague of Stoners. Shard seems to be quite jealous of Stoner talking to a woman.. why? Well this lady has had one or two dances in the bedroom with Shard if you get my drift.

To be fair to Stoner.. she just wants him to kill someone for her.. but this isn’t just an ordinary man either.

In typical Stoner fashion the job is done.. deniability concrete. I loved the Yuri’s..brought in to help Stoner with a particular part of the plan. The mission goes quite smoothly for once!

I always love that the author lets Stoner’s passions shine through each tale.. In this one it’s his love for motorbikes..at other times it’s his music..it just adds a little depth to a man of few words.

4/5 Stars!

To find out more head to Goodreads or Amazon.

 

9

Nine Lies – Here’s the blurb

Even an accomplished assassin can have a bad day. JJ Stoner certainly didn’t expect brain tissue and skull fragments to feature quite so prominently in a routine surveillance operation. That’s bad enough, but things get worse as the week goes by.

Machiavellian inter-agency intrigue sees Stoner pretending to be a Russian agent while fulfilling a mission for the CIA. Somehow JJ ends up at the wrong end of a gun barrel, dodging bullets. And not all of them miss their target…

When you’re a deniable – potentially disposable – covert operative, killing people is sometimes the easy option.

Staying alive isn’t always so straightforward.

Review

So…Stoner gets shot!! Yeh that got you listening.

The tale starts with JJ Stoner and Stretch McCann on a routine mission, interagency cooperation. Things go smoothly.. so much so The Hard Man, JJ’s Boss has another job for him and JJ decides to bring Stretch along for backup.

Things go sideways.. and it’s not coincidence either.. but who set them up..and who’s the target, Stoner or Stretch, and why?

Well JJ won’t let a little bullet stop him getting to the bottom of things but it does take some well placed connections to put the pieces together.

I quite enjoyed this one, showing Stoner isn’t invincible and I loved the back and forth between Stoner and Stretch…brothers form different mothers type of feel.

4/5 Stars!

To find out more head to Goodreadsor Amazon.

Overall I really enjoy these books, short sharp and enticing. There’s always that wiggle room for interpterion.. you never quite know how Stoner will react and it is this unpredictability that keeps me reading.

10 Questions with…Frank Westworth

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Today I bring to you my 10 questions feature with author Frank Westworth. If you’ve been following my reviews you’ll know I’m a big fan of his work.

 

Frank is the author of the brilliant Killing Sisters series and also the JJ Stoner short tales I love so much.

If you havent already please take a look at the Author Spotlight I did for Frank last year.

You should also check out my recent reviews for the following books –

The Stoner Stories – Volume 1

The Redemption Of Charm

I hope you enjoy the Q&A 🙂

 

First of all welcome to my blog Frank. The first question has to be the most important… so obviously I want to know if you are a tea or coffee kind of man? Or do you prefer something stronger?

Both. Everything. No limits. Whatever tastes right. No constraints. If I want to drink a coffee – I drink coffee. Tea’s the same, there are tea days and there are coffee days. And there are … something stronger days too. They are the jewels. When that time is the right time, only Stolichnaya will do … if there’s none nearby, then maybe Famous Grouse, or a lot of cheap beer. A lot… an awful lot.

Once a month I tend to let my hair down (not that I have much these days) and enjoy a slap up takeaway meal. I mean as much as I can eat. It’s my guilty pleasure. What’s yours?

Guilty? There is a thing. Why feel guilt about a pleasure? You deserve pleasure, and so do I. But… rules got laid down in all of us when we were growing up. I can still feel a little guilt about breaking those rules. So… ordering more food than I can eat, and wasting the rest. Drinking more than is sane, to the point of embarrassment. Riding a motorcycle further and faster through the wildest storm in the darkest night through the Welsh mountains…
Forbidden conversation in the dark hours on forbidden topics with people you don’t know and do not even like.

Are you afraid of anything strange? I myself am afraid of clowns which I believe is totally justifiable.

No. Fear is a strange thing. I’ve died twice – although I can’t recommend this much as a learning experience – and after that very little is a concern, almost nothing is an actual fear.

Are you a morning or night person?

Depends. A beautiful dawn is as beautiful as a beautiful evening, and the blackest night is as challenging as the brightest day.

Rufus appears out of nowhere with a time-traveling phone booth. You can go anytime in the PAST. What time are you traveling to and what are you going to do when you get there? (For those of you who don’t know who Rufus is… watch Bill and Ted. I love those movies!)

  1. I want to endlessly sit in an audience anywhere and listen live to Jimi Hendrix playing Little Wing. Loop. Repeat. Forever.

Now an important question. I don’t want facts, I want opinion. How many sides does a circle have? (I’ve had many a drunken conversation on the topic, exciting I know)

Four. Accept no other answer.

Ok so I guess I should ask some questions about your writing. Give me five words to describe JJ Stoner.

Relentless. Loyal. Vindictive. Clever. Violent.

Do you have any inspirations inside and outside of the writing community?

Oh yes. Far too many to list – you’d doze off. Every brilliant book is a unique inspiration, like every outstanding movie, and every great piece of music, and standing in love with mountains, forests, rivers, ships and cities. Everything, pretty much, is an inspiration – something to think about and enjoy.

What’s currently on your own bookshelf?

I’m reading Entanglement by Zygmunt Miloszewski, after that comes Kings of America by RJ Ellory. And after that? I’m not sure whether to dive into something SciFi or maybe another thriller of some kind. There’s a lot of books on the shelves.

What’s next for Frank Westworth?

A holiday – off to Malta. Holidays are the very best times to write fiction, and as I’ve hit the end of the trilogy I need to get into the fourth book. Trilogies always have four books, right? Right.

Thank you Frank..this is a fun little Q & A 🙂 Ha

To find out more about Frank’s work head to Murder, Mayhem & More or Goodreads