Six Seconds

I'm hooked on Rick Mofina - started with his latest thriller: "SIX SECONDS". Extremely well-written and holds your attention from the very first page to the last (darn!). After this book I bought up all his previous ones and have read every single one within a short period of time. Why?? Because they're that great and ones you can barely put down and want them to continue on and on. I can't wait for his next one due out in September: "VENGEANGE ROAD". Mr. Mofina - don't ever stop writting your thrillers and keep them coming!!!!

This was a fast paced could not put it down book. The pope is threatened by a Muslim female terrorist (Oops! Woman made disaster person in new political speak) bent on revenge by dressing up in a new type of bomb disguised as fabric in a suit to kill the pope because someone killed her husband and child. Ironically, she used an unsuspecting U.S. civilian contractor suffering from untreated post traumatic stress syndrome from his stint in Iraq to infiltrate and stay in the U.S. How nice that neither the U.S. government OR the trucking company Uncle Sam contracted with are under any obligation to PAY for this civilian trucker mental health counseling after seeing his co-workers blown up or to take care of his head trauma which caused massive headaches and he dies in the end because of this. He only took the Iraq trucking job to feed his family and save money for expensive repairs his U.S. rig back home. This book was dynamite. Filled with new ideas and twists and turns which included Canada and the U.S. working together. Thought provoking because I always thought of contractors in the Middle East as tax free rolling in the dough interlopers used in place of the military. But American contractors whose companies are usually headed by former military officers are being used by Uncle Sam because these contractors, if injured, are not covered by the Veteran Affairs and their employees are under no obligation to pay health care costs once employment is terminated. They are used and thrown aside.

Not too deep, not too wordy, complex enough, likable characters: Six Seconds moves along at a breakneck speed. Perfect rainy weekend read! My high school students will love this!

Hold your breath while reading the latest thriller by Canadian author Rick Mofina. The opening prologue of Six Seconds will give you chills and sets up the novel for a relentless, mind-blowing resolution. Samara is an Iraqi nurse who witnesses the brutal slaying of her husband and young son. Overwrought with grief, she is easily influenced by a terrorist group and becomes a willing pawn in an assassination plot. Samara manipulates Jake Conlin, an America contract driver suffering from post-traumatic distress, and convinces him to leave his wife and take his son to start a new life with her in Montana. Little does anyone know, she's planning on `going out' in a blaze of glory¯and she plans to take others with her. When Maggie Conlin discovers her husband and son have disappeared, she teams up with Corporal Daniel Graham of Canada's RCMP. He's investigating the strange disappearance and subsequent murder of an American family holidaying near Banff, Alberta. Clues lead him to the small town of Blue Rose Creek, California, where the Conlins reside and where he meets Maggie. Fighting his own dark shadows from the past, Graham decides to help Maggie locate her missing husband and son. In a terrifying novel that sweeps across countries and continents, Six Seconds is a story of war, vengeance and terrorism. It explores the war in Iraq and its damaging affect on everyone involved¯from soldiers to terrorists to the innocent¯and the repercussions that are felt long afterward. It's also the story of painful loss, guilt and redemption sought by people who are worlds apart and separated by culture and personal beliefs. I'd recommend Six Seconds to anyone who enjoys rollercoaster-like suspense thrillers. Reading this novel is like watching a ticking time bomb. You know it's going to blow; you even know where and when, but all the while you're praying for some form of divine intervention. Rick Mofina has chosen a timely topic and added intriguing characters to the mix, creating a novel that is taut with tension, complex and disturbingly convincing. Cheryl Kaye Tardif, Author of Divine Intervention

In Blue Rose Creek, California Maggie Conlin arrives at her son Logan's school to pick him up only to learn her husband Jake already did; when she cannot find either of them, she learns he took their child and went into hiding. She is extremely anxious because Jake since his return home from Iraq where he was a contract employee has not bee the same as he was before he left. He has become paranoid with loud public outbursts including accusing Maggie of having an affair with Logan's soccer coach. Jake is in Cold Butte, Montana with Samara, a nurse who saved his life in Iraq. She contacted him when she came to the States and is using father and son as a cover while completing her mission. She seeks vengeance ever since the despicable West murdered her husband and son. Near Banff, Alberta, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Corporal Daniel Graham fishes out of the river Emily Tarver; before she dies she whispers: "don't hurt his daddy". He finds the bodies of her brother and mother. The father Ray is a free lance journalist working on a story of international scope. Due to bizarre circumstances Graham meets Maggie and they fly to Montana to retrieve her son and prevent a terrorist attack on the Canadian-American heartland. Rick Mofina is a great thriller writer. His latest work is full of action and yet the main characters are fully developed even as the third person point of view changes from the distraught mom to the despondent RCMP officer to the PTDS suffering Jake to the embittered Samara. Thus the fast-paced story line enables the audience to understand what motivates the adults. Ironically though Maggie and Samara are antagonists, they share much in common especially as moms; many readers will conclude that if the American's child was brutally murdered she would be the victim turned terrorist. Thus the key to this strong work is making Samara an empathetic character doing wrongs because she has been wronged. Mr. Mofina is at his best with the superb character driven SIX SECONDS; as that is all it takes to destroy a person's world. Harriet Klausner