Putin’s Next Move – Checkmate?

Hello to everyone who has been reading my blog. Thank you!! Sorry – long time between posts, but the world doesn’t slow down.  And how apropos that I will resume with Putin.

We left off with Putin engaged in a war of words with Western powers, while he was free to pursue his own agenda with the neighbours next door, Crimea and Ukraine. His annexation of Crimea spelled out his intentions for Ukraine. Russia will never let go.  And given the volatile split internally within Ukraine, the situation was ripe for Putin.  As  explained in my earlier posts, Putin saw how to work the existing instability and unrest to his advantage. He is entirely guilty of lighting a match beneath a political powderkeg. He’s been a busy boy, amassing his forces like so many toy soldiers along the strategic Russian/Eastern Ukraine border.  Putin knows exactly what he’s doing. So, why has the west taken so long to get on the same page?

Let me reiterate. Putin won’t play by the same rules as Nato, or any Western powers. Evidently, his membership in the UN has little influence on his actions. He has no fear of sanctions or reprisals. His endgame has been fairly evident from the outset: re-establish Russia’s strength and presence, and do so geographically. It is much harder to argue with physical mass, especially when it carries essential supplies like oil and gas pipelines.

I was glad to hear Prime Minister Harper’s strong assertion that Putin’s actions in Ukraine pose a definite threat not just to that country but to the world. I already knew that. So did anyone else reading this blog. The ball is now in play. The next actions taken either by Ukraine or the West will require military confrontation against Putin’s forces.  My assessment: Putin is counting on hesitation, and then for the West to call his bluff with a half-hearted standoff.  He knows that the West does not an engagement against Russia. This will be a hard sell to nations choking on austerity measures and weary from a decade of war in Afghanistan.  Without money and public support, political leaders won’t make this call, especially not in an election year.  Which leaves Ukraine ripe for Putin’s picking. With time and geography all on his side, Putin may just have made his checkmate.

 

The Book Report: A Cold, Dark Place

Each month, I will feature a book I have read that contributes to the thriller genre or lends insight to a topic area I am writing about. This month, in my inaugural posting, I am pleased to feature “A Cold, Dark Place” by Toni Anderson.

Imagine having an identical twin sister. She’s your playmate, your best friend, you share a connection deeper than most people understand. Now, imagine that twin is stolen from the safe haven of your bedroom in the dark of night when you are still a child. You would be haunted by her loss, driven to find her, tormented by thoughts of what might have been done to her. Welcome to the adult life of Mallory Rooney, the twin who was left behind.

This is the compelling premise of “A Cold Dark Place,” Toni Anderson’s first novel in her new “Cold Justice” series. Mallory Rooney has had to grow up in living in the tragic shadow of her sister’s abduction. Yet her powerful parents and a life of wealth and privilege cannot bring back her sister, Payton, nor change what happened. Nothing eases the guilt of being the sister who remained. So FBI Special Agent Mallory Rooney dedicates herself to finding the truth about that night. Every perp, every case, is one more opportunity to find Payton, or at least protect another young girl from disappearing.

The story opens with the abduction of a young woman, and we, the readers, are taken along with her, experiencing her desperation and terror as our own as she tries to fight off her abductor, just as we would. Set against the stark barrenness of West Virginia at the onset of winter, the story takes us inside the mind of a serial killer, ties us to his victims to be dragged along with them in his twisted journey. Toni’s evocative description and taut writing style drag us from the security of our world and into the cold, dark one she has created.

Enter Alex Parker, former soldier, ex-CIA, and a trained assassin with a conscience. His current project just happens to intersect directly with Mallory’s case. Only, unlike Mallory, Alex wants out of his career and is counting the days until he is done. Pulled from the hell of a Moroccan prison, he’s been given one choice: serve his country as a hired killer. He works off-book for The Gateway Project, a shadowy organization designed with one purpose: hunt down and eliminate those beyond redemption, serial killers, pedophiles, serial rapists. Alex has a licence to kill so long as he doesn’t get caught. If he does, he goes back to prison, only this time on American soil where he could face the death penalty for following orders.

The stakes are high, and so are the risks. Like when Alex and Mallory just miss each other after he puts a bullet in the head of the serial killer she and her fellow agents are tracking. When our intuitive rookie FBI agent figures out quickly that a vigilante is working the same cases as the FBI, the game is on for Alex.

Sensitive, intelligent, and dangerously haunted by the demons of his past, Alex Parker is sexy as hell, and irresistible as an unlikely hero. The last thing he needs is a romantic entanglement with anyone, least of all Mallory Rooney. Alex knows he is playing with fire, but his attraction to Mallory grows deeper as he watches over her, finding in her something he thought was lost to him. And yet, he is exactly who she needs, exactly when she needs him. Alex doesn’t just rescue her from the bad guys; he rescues her from herself, unleashing a torrent of passion that neither of them expects. But how will he rescue her from the truth he hides about himself?

Toni Anderson has crafted what may be her best thriller yet. The deeply sensuous relationship forged between these two lost souls intensifies Mallory’s search to find the truth, and Alex’s quest for redemption. Rich in procedural detail, populated by characters complex and diverse, this fast-moving, intricately laid out series of twists and turns keeps us guessing in heart-pounding suspense right up to the end.

Published: April 1, 2014.  Available on Amazon