Tag Archives: Rick Acker

2018 Inspy Shortlists!

2 May

The Inspy Awards, the blogger-based awards program for inspirational books, has announced their 2018 shortlists. Whew! What a great bunch of books! Now it’s in the judges hands, and what a tough job they have. Congrats to all the authors! For more info, check out inspy.com.

 

Contemporary Romance/Romantic Suspense

A New Shade of Summer (Waterfall Press) by Nicole Deese

Then There Was You (Bellbird Press) by Kara Isaac

Jane of Austin (Waterbrook) by Hillary Manton Lodge

True to You (Bethany House) by Becky Wade

Just Look Up (Tyndale) by Courtney Walsh

 

Debut Fiction

 Still Waters (Firefly Southern Fiction) by Lindsey P. Brackett

Freedom’s Ring (Tyndale) by Heidi Chiavaroli

Count Me In (I21 Publishing House) by Mikal Dawn

Lady Jayne Disappears (Revell) by Joanna Davidson Politano

Stars in the Grass (Shiloh Run Press) by Ann Marie Stewart

 

General Fiction

Perennials (Thomas Nelson) by Julie Cantrell

A Trail of Crumbs: A Novel of the Great Depression (Kregel) by Susie Finkbeiner

Life After (Waterbrook) by Katie Ganshert

The Space Between Words (Thomas Nelson) by Michele Phoenix

The Austen Escape (Thomas Nelson) by Katherine Reay

 

Historical Romance

A Note Yet Unsung (Bethany House) by Tamera Alexander

The Road to Paradise (Waterbrook) by Karen Barnett

Many Sparrows (Waterbrook) by Lori Benton

A Lady in Disguise (Howard) by Sandra Byrd

A Moonbow Night (Revell) by Laura Frantz

 

Literature for Young Adults

The Returning (Tyndale) by Rachelle Dekker

Unraveling (Thomas Nelson) by Sara Ella

For Love and Honor (Zondervan) by Jody Hedlund

The Lost Girl of Astor Street (Blink) by Stephanie Morrill

The Evaporation of Sofi Snow (Thomas Nelson) by Mary Weber

 

Mystery/Thriller

The Enoch Effect (Waterfall Press) by Rick Acker

Death at Thorburn Hall (Bethany House) by Julianna Deering

Crown of Souls (Bethany House) by Ronie Kendig

A Portrait of Vengeance (Thomas Nelson) by Carrie Stuart Parks

Imperfect Justice (Thomas Nelson) by Cara Putman

 

Speculative Fiction

Raging Storm (Harvest House) by Vannetta Chapman

The Divide (Tyndale) by Jolina Petersheim

The Beast of Talesend (Indie) by Kyle Robert Schultz

The Girl Who Could See (Indie) by Kara Swanson

King’s Blood (Bethany House) by Jill Williamson

 

Book Review: When The Devil Whistles

7 May

DevilWhistles-JPEG1-194x300Allie Whitman and Connor Norman loved making the devils of the corporate world pay. Now, it’s their turn. And the price could be their lives.

“I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t.” That’s what Allie Whitman tells herself every night as she lies awake. Sometimes she even believes it. But mostly she knows deep down that her inability to make a hard choice has put millions of lives at risk, including her own. Now the only one who can help her is her lawyer, Connor Norman. Unfortunately, Allie’s actions have destroyed Connor’s trust in her—and may destroy much, much more.

 

 

Rick-Acker-300x197Rick Acker writes novels during his commute to and from his “real job” as a Deputy Attorney General in the California Department of Justice. His unit prosecutes corporate fraud lawsuits of the type described in his new book, When the Devil Whistles, which award-winning author Colleen Coble describes as “a legal thriller you won’t want to miss!”

Rick has led confidential investigations into a number of large and sensitive cases that made headlines in and out of California. Before joining DOJ, Rick was a senior litigator at the international law firm of Bingham McCutchen, where he worked extensively on the multi-billion dollar Executive Life case, which led to the indictment of several French executives and high-level diplomatic strains between the U.S. and France.Rick has law degrees from the University of Oslo and the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated with honors. In addition to his novels, he is a contributing author on two legal treatises published by the American Bar Association.

When Rick isn’t writing or lawyering, you can usually find him with his wife, Anette, and their four children. They’ll be exploring in the hills east of San Francisco, watching a good movie together, or, of course, reading.

Rick is a transplanted Chicagoan who spent thirty-five years in the Midwest before finally trading the certainty of winter and mosquitoes for the risk of earthquakes. He now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Anette, their four children, and two cats.

 

My Impressions:

I am slowly making my way through the many books I have downloaded on my Kindle. It is hard to resist a bargain, but I have so many I am not sure I will ever be able to read them all! To whittle the pile down, I am randomly choosing books. I just finished When The Devil Whistles by Rick Acker. A legal suspense/international thriller, the book was just the ticket for a fast-paced escape novel.

Allie Whitman is a professional whistle blower who, through her company Devil to Pay, provides the California Department of Justice with evidence on companies that cheat in their state contracts. Her attorney, Connor Norman, loves helping Allie bring down corrupt businessmen. But Allie gets in over her head when her cover is blown and she is blackmailed into investigating a marine salvage and construction contractor. What starts as a look into some cooked books becomes a deadly game involving foreign governments and terror plots.

As a legal suspense novel, When The Devil Whistles follows a standard formula, but Acker diverts from the expected when he introduces terrorists, nuclear weapons and a twisting plot that has the reader guessing. Yes, the plot is a bit implausible (how does the US government not know there is a Soviet-era nuclear sub on the bottom of the sea floor off the west coast?), but it is not so different from action adventures so popular in theaters. I liked the twisting action and I liked the characters. I took the plot devices at face value and just went with the story. The biggest negative in many of the reviews I read was that the book was blatantly Christian, which annoyed or disgusted some of its detractors. What I found was a book with some Christian characters and others not. The  Christians were never preachy. In fact their faith was exhibited in natural ways — they prayed or spoke of God’s help. I would say the message portrayed was subtle.

When The Devil Whistles was a fun, quick read and I would definitely read another by Acker.

Recommended.

(I purchased this book for my Kindle. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

To purchase this book, click on the image below.