Books4Tomorrow: REVIEW: "REX RANDALL AND THE JERICHO SECRET"

“REX RANDALL AND THE JERICHO SECRET”

by Vince Carter

REVIEWED BY: Ellen Fritz

OVERVIEW

Rex Randall is the world famous author, known for his Incognito series of books and movies. His main character, Jason Hendrix, has a loyal following around the world, eager to read about his next exploits. This is especially so, since it is widely known that his life is modeled on the real lifestyle of Rex.

It is an unusual lifestyle, only dreamed of by most. That’s because, in real life, Rex lives with five beautiful women in a polyamorous, non-monogamous relationship. It is also a luxurious lifestyle, fueled by the enormous wealth generated by all those books and movies. They want for nothing and enjoy the many pleasures of life. They work hard, play hard, and rest easy.

In his series of thriller books, Rex’s alter ego, Jason, is a chameleon-like investigator that assumes numerous identities to pursue his assignments. In order to give the stories an increased level of realism, Rex spends countless months, himself, thoroughly researching key elements of the story concept by accepting assignments in real life and donning various cover identities.

Then, with exacting detail, Rex would be able to convert his actual experiences into an exciting series of scenes for Jason in the novels. It is the distinguishing factor that gives his books that air of authenticity, no matter how unusual the premise.

In preparation for his next novel, Rex and his five female loves, engage in their reality based research by going undercover and posing as security consultants to the U.S. Secret Service. In the process, they discover the Jericho Secret.

This secret, unknown even to the Secret Service, is so explosive that, if revealed to the world, could put the President of the United States in mortal jeopardy.

REVIEW

They say that reality is stranger than fiction. When their next undercover adventure turns out to be much more than they bargained for, the Randall family realizes that life can be far more dangerous than living in their polyamorous relationship: throwing wild parties, indulging in role playing and having extravagant fun. This time they are plunged into a series of life threatening events, political intrigue, kidnapping, and people who seem to exist in a nonexistent time zone. Fanatical Jihadists and a thoroughly angry film director is only the tip of the enormous ice berg author Rex Randall and his group of women has to deal with.

The blurb truly convinced me that I just had to read “Rex Randall and the Jericho Secret”. I was slightly disappointed when the first part of the book read like a report crammed with information, without any actual storytelling, and hardly any dialogue. This improved towards the middle of the book and by the time I reached the last third of the story, there was no way I could put it down. Because this book has an extremely large cast of characters, it was difficult to get to know any of them well enough to be able to identify or sympathize with them. Yet, should Vince Carter turn this into an extended series, he could certainly move mountains with such a colorful group of people.

This book will appeal to anybody who likes to read stories containing lots of very modern technical detail combined with nail-biting suspense. The racy lifestyle of Rex and his five ladies certainly adds a contrast to the action. Frequent references to television and movie personalities, characters and scenes, provide a touch of humor.

In this book the author demonstrates very clearly how a writer can write very realistic stories based on his/her personal experiences. Although the book could do with a bit more editing, I would still recommend it as an interesting and entertaining read.