Title: Risen From The Ashes
Author: Jeffrey A. Kershaw
Publisher: PageTurner Press & Media
ISBN: 978-1638716532
Pages: 294
Genre: Fiction / Crime / Thriller
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop
Hollywood Book Reviews
Intricacy abounds in Risen From The Ashes, author Jeffrey A. Kershaw’s international thriller of deception and deceit on a grand scale. From a decidedly ingenious financial scheme, to a flamboyantly planned and executed escape and evasion, to a nearly flawless frame-up of an unwitting co-worker, chapter after chapter crackles with the malevolent machinations of a man committed to leaving one life behind and beginning another.
London is the starting point for this complex tale which will make its way across the capitals of Europe before story’s end. It begins with Geoffrey, the CEO of a defense-related company whose already well-heeled lifestyle is simply not enough for him. He devises a fiendishly tricky embezzlement scheme that enables him to launder vast amounts of money into multiple accounts. Once he’s ready to leave his wife, company, and career behind, he needs a scapegoat to take the fall. David, the unwitting Financial Director of Geoffrey’s company is chosen and things start to go very badly for him very quickly. Soon, David is not only charged with a multiplicity of financial transgressions, but also with the murder of Geoffrey—whom to virtually all the world is stone dead—but who is in reality very much alive and planning even more nefarious deeds.
Author Kershaw’s plot shifts into overdrive when he begins to simultaneously recount the trial of David in England plus Geoffrey’s lavish lifestyle in Paris and points east. Suspense is raised to an even higher level when Geoffrey can’t keep himself away from David’s trial. In his return to England to satisfy his insatiable curiosity, he puts himself and his schemes at high risk of being uncovered, but his appetite for danger won’t let him stay away.
The author does a first-rate job of providing copious detail to explain and add authenticity to the extensive financial shenanigans that take place across the continent. He also makes credible Geoffrey’s ability to get away with many of his various larcenies through the use of plastic surgery and identity fraud. Being aware of his genre however, Kershaw does not forget that the thriller is almost always the home of at least one unforgettable female. That’s certainly the case here as the beautiful and brainy Celine becomes a key participant in physical couplings, emotional attachments, and intellectual duels as well.
Readers who enjoy their escapism with crimes that seem credible, moves than make sense, and behavior that is both sinister and smart, will likely be drawn to both the plot and protagonist in Risen From The Ashes.