Marked Money

Winner (Mystery)
Title: Marked Money
Author: Jack Shevlin
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1462026036
Pages: 186, Paperback
Genre: Mystery

Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific Book Review

 

Book Review

A teenage girl goes missing without a clue. Then the parents get a ransom note for $1 million dollars, in cash – all fifties to be exact – about 45 pounds worth of bundled bills, to be left in a bathroom stall at a restaurant. An easy catch, I thought. After all, the kidnapper needs to go into the bathroom to get the money, and the cops will nab him. With the local police and FBI on the case, one would think they can and will deploy sufficient human assets to trap the guy, right? But when a clever twist is achieved by the criminal, the police and Feds lose the money and find themselves having been duped. At that point while reading this book my enjoyment factor was heightened, thinking to myself, “Geez this author is smart and I bet I’m in for a lot of surprises.” I’d call that the point in the story where “the roller coaster” went over the first peak and it was all twists and turns from then on.

So began Marked Money, a new suspense novel published by iUniverse, and the first book by author Jack Shevlin. Stereotyping his characters, such as typical detectives, or embellishing credible emotions from the parents of the missing girl, even providing the usual suspects of a who-done-it, Jack Shevlin blends his entire plot seamlessly into a very believable story. No super-human characters of strength or mental deduction, just ordinary folks caught up in extraordinary circumstances. Jack Shevlin’s style of writing lays out a profile of each person. At times he writes simultaneously about the superficial outwardly persona along with the character’s hidden agenda, thus totally creating a mental image as visual as watching a movie casted with good actors. The book paged very quickly because of the sophistication and respect the author has for his reader’s intelligence, doling out details at the right times, with the right emphasis of logical deductions, all while foreshadowing his ending brilliantly within the galley to create a “way cool” effect at the end. What more can one ask of a good story? Maybe an epilogue, which Marked Money has as well. Jack Shevlin sewed up the loose ends with what happened to everyone, and how things came to pass.

Marked Money is a perfect book to take on a flight, pick up for when you have an evening alone, or frankly whenever you want a novel which may be difficult – if not impossible – to figure out beforehand. Within the covers of a generally terse book, Jack Shevlin packed in some brilliant plot machinations, credible character development and excellent structural underpinnings of realism. But mostly his logical mind provided for a good storytelling “voice,” one which rang with his obvious enjoyment of writing the story as much as his hopes for his readers to enjoy the story. I certainly did. All I can say now is, “Jack, what took you so long to begin your writing career?”