Paid in Blood

PAID IN BLOOD by Mel Odom is filled with suspenseful twists and turns, riveting plots, and complex characters. What starts off as a murder investigation of one of their own NCIS officers, ends up leading Commander Colburn and his team to uncover a plot that links together terrorist from South Korea, Japan, Russia, and someone inside the United States Navy. Though the genre I enjoy most is romance, which PAID IN BLOOD is not, I thoroughly enjoyed this action pack thriller and can't wait to learn more about the intriguing characters that make up the NCIS team. If you enjoy fast paced fiction, you will enjoy PAID IN BLOOD

Tyndale Press has gone through something of a revolution when I wasn't looking. I'm used to thinking of them as a publisher of traditional religious books. Several of which appear on my shelves. I'm not generally drawn to religious fiction, so I never realized that they are the big player in that genre, so I would never have noticed were it not that Mel Odom, who has written a whole bunch of books in genre that I do read a lot (Buffy, Angel, etc.), also has written several books for Tyndale. One, Paid In Blood, found its way onto my reading pile, and I found my nose buried in a piece of military fiction with a bit of a twist. This novel, which I hope is the first of a series, is the story of a Naval Criminal Investigation Service team, that, in investigating the murder of a fellow investigator follows a series of clues across the world until they are in a desperate chase to keep a psychotic terrorist from starting world war three. The telling is quite well done. While the plot is fairly obvious - Odom drops in on the terrorists often enough to make sure the reader understands what is going on - Odom has a knack for building the story as a police procedural rather than as a sneak and shoot tale. The result is that the story proceeds logically, with time for both some interesting twists and some solid character development. In other words, actually is a plotted novel rather than an excuse for weapon discussions and maimed fatalities. Of course, the story is more than just another piece of military fiction. Religion plays a part as the faith of many of the team members is tested. A divorce, the violent death of a friend, another marriage in difficulty, all of these things test the individual members of the team. While I would not normally pick up a novel with acceptance and faith as secondary themes, Odom's writing never comes across are preachy, and the troubles of the characters make them much more human and accessible than they would be if they were all Green Berets on steroids. The result is that I finished the novel once again favorably impressed by Mel Odom's talent. If you like military fiction I suggest you try this. I think you will find interesting and even a bit unusual in a genre that is often guilty of repeating itself.

NCIS - Paid in Blood, where to start? First off the spine of the book says `Novel one' which indicates that there are more coming in this series, so rather than repeat a lot of what's been said in the other two reviews lets look at that aspect. I read an average of 4 - 6 books a month, split between fiction and non fiction, balanced between SCI-FI, Finance and Spirituality. That being said I've delved into my share of series books. If this is indeed the 1st book in a new series, as it appears to be, I have to say that Mel has done something that seems VERY difficult in writing. He's made a 1st book very easy to get involved with. Typically many series books start off using the first volume to fill in the entire back story on every primary character being utilized. Although I do agree that knowing the characters past helps you become involved in their present and care about their future, there have been some very good Volume One's that have been VERY hard to get through, due to all the back story. Whether it's LEFT BEHIND, INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE or LORD OF THE RINGS, the stories themselves are great the books are good, but the depth at which most authors seem to subject their readers to detail of history is overwhelming! Not Mel, he drops you SMACK DAB in the middle of it! There is action and intrigue from page one! Now this is not to say that the characters history is ignored, instead it's fed to you a little bit at a time, in just enough volume to make it palatable and yet still keep it relevant to the story at hand. Mr. Odom should also be applauded at the amount of precise detailed military information that he relates to each character and their story. Not since Tom Clancy in the early 80's have I read a novel with as much accurate detail in relation to the story and the tools being used. More over this isn't simply a recitation of facts and figures in relation to bullet grains and wind velocity, this information is made integral to the movement of the plotline. But most importantly I think that any prospective reader should know up front that Mel has brought us back to a method of story telling that seems buried in the past, but that made so MANY books great! His chapters are short, legible and leave you at a cliff hanger at the end of every one! Whether you like Dan Browns Da Vinci Code or not, I believe that the thing that has made it such a HUGE success is that he brought reading back to the average person! The average chapter in Da Vinci was about 4 pages, and it always left you wanting more! NCIS does the exact same thing! The chapters are more than 4 pages, but within each he moves along several different characters, each being left in a situation where you the reader are holding your breath! I'm not quite old enough to remember the Tom Mix movie serials of the 50's but I absolutely understand the concept! Leave your fans for more! Even the END of the book leaves the reader going `Hey wait! What happens NEXT?' I first read Mel Odo

Qadir Yaseen knows that Israel can never be defeated as long as America arms it. But Israel, the nation that stole hs homeland destroyed his entire family, and caused the deaths of so many others must be destroyed. So Qadir comes up with a monumental plot to destroy, or at least distract America for years--long enough for the Arab world to rise againstIsrael. Qadir is cetain that God is on his side. With his marriage in tatters, NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) Commander Will Coburn isn't at all sure God is on his side. Still, whe one of his teemmates is murdered, Will goes to work tracking down the killer. What he finds initially doesn't seem to add up. Over time, though, it begins to make a horrible kind of sense. Will has caught a small piece of Qadir's plan. But Qadir has been plotting for years and Will has only days to uncover the full truth. It would take a miracle to stop the destruction. Author Mel Odom delivers an action-packed thriller. Will and his team face Columbian druglords, Hispanic assassins, the Korean Maffia, and Arab warriors willing to die (and kill) for their faith. Odom has researched his crime-scene techniques and the investigation felt very real and pressing as the team traveled the world in search of clues. The religious aspect of this story is a bit heavy-handed for the secular reader. Odom leaves the reader with no doubt that Qadir's God is not the real God of the ultra-Christian NCIS. Bringing this message home strongly, the Christian God repeatedly delivers on behalf of the NCIS team. The book's target audience (Tyndale is a Christian publisher), however, will definitely approve of the message. Considering this, I thought Odom did a fine job motivating Qadir, explaining how his loss of two families (including young children) to Israeli attacks, drove him to adopting his extreme plan. The generally fast-paced story occasionally bogged down over religion, praying, and especially Will's concern over his upcoming divorce. With saving the world at stake, surely Will could have put the impending divorce on the back burner--especially given that he had separated many months before the story began. Still, once Odom gets back into action, though, PAID IN BLOOD is compelling reading, especially for the Christian target market.

A dead NCIS agent and a cache of illegal military weapons lead Commander Will Coburn's NCIS team on an international hunt with stakes bigger than the team can imagine in Mel Odom's Paid in Blood. Even as they follow the suspected weapons dealer, their suspect is grabbed by a prominent South Korean drug dealer's thugs. Then someone murders both the suspect and the thugs. When one of their team member dies trying to prevent the theft of the suspect's body from a U.S. military morgue, the hunt becomes personal. As they pursue the case, the team faces attempted murders of themselves and witnesses. They face down drug dealers and find complications in Colombia, Russia, and the Middle East. The investigation leads to a conspiracy to engulf the world in World War III. Odom develops his characters well with realistic friendships, tensions, and problems. Commander Coburn's wife serves him with divorce papers as he leaves for South Korea. Tough "guys," Maggie Foley and Shel McHenry, have problems with their parents. Estrella Montoya, the team's computer whiz, is a single mom trying to raise a young son by herself following her husband's suicide, and Dr. Nita Tomlinson, the team's medical examiner, struggles with alcohol and a marriage that she is driving to ruin. Only Frank Billings, Will's number two, seems to have his life and relationships together. Taking advantage of the popular interest in forensic science, Odom uses his crime scene investigative background to write a military page-turner. He also draws on current international tensions to create a suspenseful story that is hard to put down. Though the plot is complicated, and, at points, borders on bizarre, Odom smoothes out the wrinkles with skill. My only real problem with the series is that Tyndale House plans to limit it to only two books. With Odom's characterization and plotting ability, two is simply not enough! - Debbie W. Wilson, Christian Book Previews.com