Book Review - The Watchman of Ephraim by Gerard de Marigny

Book Review

The Watchman of Ephraim

by Gerard de Marigny

About the Author

With his bestselling debut political thriller, THE WATCHMAN OF EPHRAIM, Gerard de Marigny has burst upon the literary world stage with vigor and poise!  Founding JarRyJorNo Publishing in January 2011, de Marigny dons many hats, that of publisher, graphic designer, marketer, as well as author. The result, so far, has been a sparkling debut novel that became a #1 Amazon Bestselling Geopolitical Thriller!  BOOK II of de Marigny's CRIS DE NIRO series, SIGNS OF WAR was released in November 2011 and the author is already at work writing BOOK III, RISE TO THE CALL due out in spring 2012.

In July '11, de Marigny sat down for an up-close and personal interview with talented Director Philip Norbert of Kingmaker Productions. Shot by famed Cinematographer Jay Nemeth of Flightline Films, the Q&A session has garnered over 10,000 viewers on YouTube, in only its first three months.

In his youth, de Marigny was the lead guitarist for 80's rock band, AMERICADE. Though the last lineup of the band broke up in 1995, de Marigny was approached by Aaron McCaslin, President of Retrospect Records, a label dedicated to promoting heavy rock bands from the 80's, offering a record contract.   The result has become a remarkable 70-song, 4-CD boxed set branded, AMERICADENCE: 1980 ~ 1995 (which includes unreleased recordings) bringing back to life the entire musical catalog of AMERICADE."

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Book Description
Cris De Niro worked his way up to the top of the hedge fund world. Yet, all of his money couldn't protect him from losing his wife on 9/11. 10 years passed since the tragedy. De Niro and his sons relocated to a sprawling ranch near Las Vegas. Turning to his faith to overcome his anguish, De Niro now lives for a higher purpose. From a biblical passage, he reads about the "Watchman of Ephraim," a defender who kept watch over the land. De Niro decides to acquire a lackluster counter-terrorism agency in order to transform it into a modern-day version of The Watchman for the United States but there's not a moment to lose.

De Niro and his new agency unknowingly become targets when they stumble upon a connection between a rich Iranian businessman and a Mexican drug cartel.  First, their agent sent to investigate goes missing and then strange events starts to unfold at the border.   Making matters worse, they suspect that there's a leak among them.  It's up to De Niro and his new team to protect America from a possible terrorist attack more catastrophic than 9/11... and it appears he and his children are targeted too!!

Book Review

A successful hedge fund entrepreneur is on his way to meet his wife, who is pregnant, at the twin towers.  Disaster strikes as two planes crash into the towers killing his wife and unborn child.  He makes the decision that this can never happen again and decides to recruit the elite from the marines, secret services and government to set up an independent agency to ensure the terrorists never succeed again.

Whilst setting up the agency, an Iranian businessman along with a Mexican drug cartel infiltrate the new agency by buying one of the board members, but when an undercover agent, from the agency, goes missing, then turns up dead, the bribed board member panics.  What is the real reason for the link between the Iranian and the drug cartel?  Can the agency find out who has betrayed them and discover the link?  Is it a question of National Security?  Can they react in time to save the country? 

For a real page turning thriller with twists and one which keeps the reader hooked, read this book.  Billed as a thriller and page turner, the book definitely did not disappoint.  The story kept me on the edge of my seat with no idea which way the plot was going to turn, which is exactly the type of book I love. 

The storyline and research shown throughout the book was first class, you really feel the emotions of all the characters and really getting a real gist of how both sides felt.  The writing style used was very easy to follow and digest, therefore adding to the excitement and tension that was created.  The storyline is a very topical one which will provoke discussion to whoever reads it.  I believe this is the most important part of any novel, the discussions afterwards, and I believe this is a book which will be wildly discussed which will in itself builds a good novel and one which will live on and on.

I can imagine each and every character as the author brings every one of them to life and you can imagine yourself in the background, whether it is the boardroom scene or when he is describing the ranch the hero owns, again first class and superlative.

This is a book I will be definitely recommending, as a debut I found it to be absolutely amazing.  I think I could read a lot more of the authors writings.  A first rate, excellent and up to date thriller, which will, and should, cause a great debate about the issues of the storyline for a long time to come.

Our rating

Available at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk