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Monday, 13 July 2020

‘Watch What You Say’ by George Weinstein


Published by SFK Press,
21 October 2019.
ISBN: 978-1-970137-85-9

In Atlanta Bo Riccardi is a popular interviewer for “On-Air Radio and Podcast”, with the nickname Barracuda as she can sometimes tear interviewees to pieces with her barbed remarks. Helping her in her job is her gift of chromesthesia, the ability to see sounds as colours, enabling her to tell what people really mean when speaking to her, especially if they are lying.

One day while she is at work, a Deke Powell kidnaps her husband Oscar.  He demands that she interviews him on air if she wants her husband to live. Reluctantly her producer allows her to go ahead.

Deke uses a synthesiser to disguise his voice so she has no idea who he is. He announces that people are after him because of his exploits, especially when he was in the C.I.A. She can see from her colour hearing that he is lying. Bo has trouble trying to understand what this is all leading to. She soon finds out.

Deke demands the next day that she interviews him again and that she must do so every day of that week. He tortures Oscar making sure she hears his screams over the telephone to guarantee her agreement. This time she has to talk about herself when she was younger. From hints he drops she realises she must have known him when at Virginia Tech. Bo has a secret, she wants kept about what happened there some twenty years ago. Has this caller something to do with this, if so, can she keep quiet about it at the risk of him killing her husband?

Although she is instructed not to involve the police her producer sets her up with a private investigator he knows. She is terrified the caller will find out but is desperate for the help. As the week goes on the kidnapper makes more and more demands on her even threatening to take their daughter Candace too.

Meanwhile we learn of the horrific conditions Oscar is being kept under, the pain he suffers is almost unbearable. Not only that but Deke leads him to believe that Bo is behind all his suffering, he is very persuasive. This leads to a very disturbing outcome for her.

Deke is determined on revenge for something that happened many years ago. Will he really carry out his threat or can Bo with the help of Gus the P.I. and her teenage daughter find out where Oscar is being held and rescue him? Time is running out.

A convincing story of vengeance which leads to the kidnapper being driven to insanity making him all the more dangerous.
Greatly recommended for readers who like to be kept on the edge of their seats with suspense.
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Reviewer:  Tricia Chappell

George Weinstein is the author of the suspense thriller Watch What You Say, the Southern mystery Aftermath, the modern relationship drama The Caretaker, the Southern historical novel Hardscrabble Road, and the novel of forgotten US history The Five Destinies of Carlos Moreno. His work has been published locally in the Atlanta press and in regional and national anthologies, including A Cup of Comfort for Writers. George is the former and current President of the historic Atlanta Writers Club (AWC), which was founded in 1914. Since 2008, he has directed the twice-yearly Atlanta Writers Conference for the AWC, bringing in acquisitions editors and literary agents to help members understand the business of writing and achieve their dreams of publication. He lives in Roswell, GA.


Tricia Chappell. I have a great love of books and reading, especially crime and thrillers. I play the occasional game of golf (when I am not reading). My great love is cruising especially to far flung places, when there are long days at sea for plenty more reading! I am really enjoying reviewing books and have found lots of great new authors.

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