Delicate Chaos

Jeff Buick's latest book, Delicate Chaos, is an action-packed thriller that will absorb you from the start, and is very difficult to put down. It has some surprising plot turns, great and well-defined characters, and the most evil bad guy to come along in fiction in quite some time. The plot revolves around Leona Hewitt, a young woman who seems to have it all. She is the owner of one of Washington's most popular and trendy restaurants, she is the head of a charitable foundation that is doing great work in Africa - protecting elephants and helping to build schools and medical facilities for villagers in Kenya. And now, she has just been promoted to vice president of the bank she works at. Little does she know that the promotion is just the start of a chain of events that will leave her life, and the lives of those she cares most about, hanging by a thread at the mercy of a sadistic killer. Meanwhile, the only person who can help Leona is fighting for his own life, locked in a cell in Africa, being tortured by a corrupt official after doing charity work for Leona's foundation, and Leona is powerless to help him. This is Buick's fifth published novel and though I have enjoyed all of them, this is perhaps his most accomplished effort to date. It certainly involves some very creepy characters - including his most frightening character yet - along with some of his warmest, most compassionate characters. The situations are real and the resulting drama pulls you in and Buick keeps you there, page after page until the terrifying climax. If you have not yet read any of Buick's books, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Delicate Chaos. Buick is a masterful storyteller, and I am sure this book will lead you to read his other books as well.

The novel opens with a scene of alternating beauty and brutality - peaceful Kenyan forest, herds of elephants, zebras and wildebeests, and the rangers who are entrusted with their safety, immediately followed by the rifle fire of poachers intent on taking the elephants' tusks, firing with equal abandon on both man and beast and achieving the death of both. The action then switches abruptly to Washington, D.C., depicting the two worlds of the protagonist, 37-year-old Leona Hewitt, founder of Save Them, a non-profit organization based in the U.S. dedicated equally to saving the African wildlife in the 700 square miles allocated for the purpose by the local government, employing 27 well-armed and -trained park rangers in the process, and to improving the life of the local population, building water wells, schools and a clinic Her invaluable assistant is Mike Anderson, a 45-year-old ex-cop [handsome, intelligent, divorced--something of which he needs to keep reminding himself--and trying to control his drinking], who handles the distribution in Africa of the huge amounts of money raised by the foundation. The African end of the organization is headed by Kubala Kantu. After the scene described above, after three elephants have perished, one ranger killed and another badly wounded, to Leona's question of "Why does it have to be like this? Why is there always death?" Kubala can only answer: "TIA...This is Africa. This is the way things are." By the end of the tale, each of the three will be in peril, placed there by disparate scenarios, each motivated by greed. The following day Leona returns home, where she is Director of Corporate Acquisitions and Accounts for DC Trust. A big promotion is offered to her, and her first assignment is to oversee, and ultimately approve, a structural change in a publicly-traded utility company mining and generating electrical power with coal, one of her company's biggest clients. The question of environmental ethics becomes paramount, and complicates Leona's ability to do the job expected of her and, with many millions of dollars at stake, ultimately, her life. The environmental discussions offered are thorough without being preachy, the corporate, financial, environmental and even political aspects all get equal time from the author. Leona, vulnerable despite her success, is a commanding presence as the protagonist. This is the fifth novel by Jeff Buick and, with equal parts tension-filled suspense, taut plotting, an unredeemingly awful killer, and a shocking [if somewhat implausible] ending, the whole adds up to a most satisfying read.

The hero of this book is Leona Hewitt. She works for a bank in Washington D.C. named D.C Trust. The CEO Anthony Halladay has promoted her to Vice-President. Her first job is to come up with a reccomendation for an income trust conversion. This device is for a company named Coal- Balt Inc. The CEO of this company is named Reginad Morgan and he is opposed to the income trust-conversion. The President of the company is named Derek Swanson and he is in favor of the income trust-conversion because he wil make a big profit.The two cash over the issue. Swanson hires an assassin named Darvin to kill Morgan. In the meantime Leona Hewitt has a pet project called "Save Them"(elephants) in Kenya> her money <br />courier Mike Anderson is kidnapped by corrupt policemen in Kenya and she <br />has to figure out how to rescue him. In the meantime Darvin the assassin <br />is totally out of control. He has kiled Senator Claire Buxton who threatens Coal-Balt. He also has Leona Hewitt and Derek Swanson in his <br />sights. There is also a relationship between Darvin and Derek Swanson <br />that is brought to light. This book has a screeching finish. An exciting book that you should read.

I am excited about discovering Jeff Buick. What an excellent author ! I have enjoyed Delicate Chaos and his other 4 books as well. One of those authors that you just can't wait for their next book! Good job Jeff and many more...please.

Washington D.C. bank executive Leona Hewitt studies the proposed corporate conversion plan of Coal-Balt Inc, who's CEO recently died. However, she is stunned to learn the late CEO opposed the plan; even more shocking a second unexplained death of a person tied to the conversion shakes Leona up as she begins to wonder if she is paranoid or is someone killing the opposition. While Leona struggles with her fears that someone is eliminating any opposition to the conversion by killing adversaries and that there is something wrong with the plan, the man she needs right now is out of town. In fact former cop Mike Anderson is out of the continent. He is caught up in a dangerous scenario in Nairobi where he was bringing money from his client Leona to her beloved African wildlife organization, Save Them; someone out of control wants him dead. Suspense thriller fans will appreciate both subplots as each is filled with non-stop action starring likable protagonists and shadowy lethal antagonists. The genre audience will appreciate Jeff Buick's superb take as Leona in DC and Mike in Nairobi fight for their lives with no one to turn to for help. Harriet Klausner