A new character is formed into “reading reality” by the name
of Casey Shenk, in the premier novel Open
Source, by M. M. Frick. A crossover
between James Bond and Jason Bourne, Casey Shenk boldly has the fate of the
world rest on the outcome of his mission as he peels the onion of international
politics within the framework of the Middle East’s controversy.
Having a natural talent for writing suspense and
international espionage events, Matthew M. Frick is comfortable describing the
minutia of detail regarding the inner workings and intricacies of the black-ops,
secret political underpinnings and contrivances of what lies beneath the world
news headlines. Beginning with a news
bite about a highjacking of a freight vessel MV Baltic Venture, Casey picks up the scent of something being out
of the ordinary from an Internet story. Teaming up with Susan Williams from the Intelligence Watch Group in New
York, they begin a path that leads them through the maze of global geopolitics
and into the realm of world power and clandestine operations. Tracing the voyage of the MV Baltic Venture’s log, they come
across a scheduled stop in Kaliningrad, where the loading of lumber from
Finland reveals a stash of Soviet built missiles destined for Iran were placed
within the cargo hold. As they unravel
the whereabouts of the weapons, they discover the Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has made a secret visit to Russia and from there begin to
connect the dots.
M.M. Frick adopts a style and ease of writing which is bold,
smart, and immeasurably elaborates in military terms, weaponry details,
location and ways of secret political workings not known to ordinary
people. This magnifies to storyline to a
heightened level of credibility, and embellishes the character development into
truly realistic proportions. Wrapped up
with a fast and consistent pace, the book is a pleasure to page and plays out
like a movie within one’s mind, going between narration and dialogue, plot
underpinnings and action. In total
control of the reader’s knowledge base, Frick embarks on a “good vs. evil”
battle behind the scenes where the integrity of world peace lies at the brink
of disaster while ordinary people go about their ways, oblivious to what lies
beneath the headline news.
Matthew M. Frick has “hit one over the wall” with his debut
novel. His experience as an active Naval
Officer and experience living overseas has noticeably enabled him to write with
authority and confidence bringing a wealth of knowledge not generally known to
the public to the reader’s attention. This results in a novel not only fun but very educational. Open
Source is a perfect book for potential screenplay adaptation and the making
into a block-buster movie. I hope he
continues the exploits of Casey Shenk in future work, and brings out more from
the creatively complex mind of M. M. Frick.
Buy this book at Amazon.com
