Mild Mannered Men:

The Rain Will Wash Away the Blood

by

Walter Horsting

Creative tale of pre-Y2K intrigue.

Mild Mannered Men by Walter Horsting is a creative tale of pre-Y2K vintage intrigue set mostly in the San Francisco Bay area and featuring a skilled computer/media technician, an intrepid industrial reporter, drug smugglers, and the law enforcement officials on their trail. It was fun watching the seemingly unrelated storylines flirt with one another and finally converge.

John Nord is a skilled media technician who is helping set up an international video teleconference for one of his most lucrative customers when his business proposal presentation disk is accidentally swapped with his client's. Unbeknownst to John, however, the client is an ex-KGB freelancer working with a cartel and China's technology leader who'll do whatever it takes to get his property back, leaving no potential witnesses.

The story unfolds from multiple points of view, and while I had little trouble keeping the different voices straight, the narrative, at times, was choppy, which interfered with the flow of the story. However, I loved the near misses of the main characters sprinkled throughout and seeing the unfolding of a scene from a parallel perspective. 

The characters are all unique and interesting individuals that I grew to appreciate and root for. The west coast settings, especially the in-town descriptions of places, were fun. The book is compact, so the complex plot and disparate storylines quickly began to coalesce with twists enhancing their journey. The story has excellent bones, but there are still a lot of superfluous details and excess characters that unnecessarily complicate matters, and spelling or word use errors that another editorial pass would tighten up. However, overall, this is a novel well worth reading and easy to enjoy. 

I recommend MILD MANNERED MEN to readers of spy or crime fiction, action/adventure, or mystery. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from the author through Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours.