‘Smart Moves’ by Adrian Magson

Published by the Dome Press,
16 August 2018. 
ISBN: 978-1-91253401-2

Forty-one year-old Jake Foreman is having a bad day.  Having been made redundant he goes home to find that his wife, Susan, has left him and taken all their furniture with her. Susan was bored because Jake’s troubleshooting job meant he was usually travelling the world and spent very little time at home.  Jake’s friend Hugo puts him in touch with Charles Clayton who offers Jake work as a courier. Jake accepts - he needs the money.

Jake had always suspected that much of the bribing and cajoling he had done in his previous job was only just short of being illegal.  In his new post he worries about what is in the envelopes that Charles wants him to deliver. Reassured that none of his work will have anything to do with drugs, Jake gets down to work. His first assignment to Paris goes reasonably well.  But when Jake is sent to North Carolina to deliver documents to an arms dealer, Gus Mekasnik, all hell breaks loose.  A body is found floating in the swimming pool at Mekasnik’s house and Mekasnik disappears after making arrangements for Jake to make a delivery for him.  Jake narrowly escapes being shot when he tries to make the delivery.  This was not what he signed up for!

The attractive and gutsy Lilly-Mae, Gus Mekasnik’s trophy girlfriend, helps to offset Jake’s trials and tribulations in the time honoured way. Sadly, she vanishes without trace just before he returns to England.  It seems that there will be no happy ending here? Or will there?

Smart Moves is a highly entertaining tale that roars along at a great pace. Brimming with delightfully wry humour it can be difficult to take the improbable antics of Jake and the people he meets too seriously. Whilst his younger brother thinks Jake should join the modern world, and Mrs Tree, his ever watchful neighbour in London, clearly delights in his misfortunes, the young “travellers” who occupy Jake’s empty home are friendly, helpful and polite once he gets to know them. Smart Moves is simply bound to appeal to a wide variety of readers.

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Reviewer Angela Crowther

Adrian Magson is a freelance writer and reviewer, the author of 22 crime and spy thrillers, a writer's help book, a YA ghost novel and 2 collections of short fiction.

https://www.adrianmagson.com/

Angela Crowther is a retired scientist.  She has published many scientific papers but, as yet, no crime fiction.  In her spare time Angela belongs to a Handbell Ringing group, goes country dancing and enjoys listening to music, particularly the operas of Verdi and Wagner.