Big Red

by T. Martin Koller

Overview

About the Book
When Dream Qwest, an electronics corporation with ties to the military industrial complex, and in direct competition with the virtual reality gaming industry, releases a new gaming concept whereby a gamer can go anywhere in the world, experience any adventure, play any sport, or create one’s own scenarios between friends or lovers—all from the comfort of home—it’s not hard to imagine how popular the software becomes. After all, all one needs is a Big Red and a game, purchased, of course, through Dream Qwest.
All is fine until a federal prosecutor for the state of Illinois is found dead wearing a Big Red. Now it’s up to Agent Frank Kelly to quietly recover the Big Red for the government in a case that threatens to expose a deeper corruption.

About the Author
T. Martin Koller was born in the City of Philadelphia to working-class parents. Thanks to his mother, who loved books and had an extensive library and who had him read Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ancient history is now one of his favorite subjects.
Koller joined the U.S. Navy after graduating high school at 18. Afterwards, Koller joined the Philadelphia Police Department, putting his language skills to good purpose. Most of what he was involved with allowed Koller more of a chance to grow his own theories about the world we live in, such as the ruins in Peru and the ancient Peruvian pottery.
His literary tastes include the likes of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, two of the greatest. Now, he is intrigued by the future of humankind, particularly quantum mechanics, a potentially dangerous new field of inquiry. After all, how many past civilizations have reached our present stage of development only to suffer total collapse?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798886836882
Publisher:	Dorrance Publishing Company, Inc.
Publication date:	05/05/2023
Sold by:	PUBLISHDRIVE KFT
Format:	eBook
Pages:	114
File size:	705 KB

Editorial Reviews

2023-11-08
In Koller’s thriller, the mysterious death of a federal prosecutor leads an investigator into a conspiracy deeper than he ever could have imagined.

Federal prosecutor Marcy Collins is found dead on her couch wearing a “Big Red” headset from electronic giant DreamQwest—a device that creates such a realistic and immersive experience for its users that it’s taking down the V-R gaming, travel, entertainment, and leisure industries single-handedly. Department of Homeland Security agent Frank Kelly is assigned to retrieve Collins’ Big Red on behalf of the government—some members of which seem to have a vested interest in keeping the whole situation quiet. What appears to be a straightforward assignment turns into anything but, especially when a personal scandal within the Department of Homeland Security casts even more suspicion on Collins’ death. In his attempt to nail down the truth, Kelly finds his life in increasing danger as even his own agency turns its back on him. He finds an unexpected ally in corporate attorney Brenda Farrell, and the two enter into a game of government and corporate cat-and-mouse. While the novel certainly has its gory moments (“A body’s blood, like any fluid, sought its own level. In this case, it had settled below the level of Collins’ dead heart manifested as a dark discoloration of the skin in the lower extremities from the waist down to her legs where the decomposing blood had settled”), the narrative mostly sticks to a straightforward thriller format. The author has a flair for naturalistic dialogue, but some readers may find Koller’s description of DreamQwest’s success a tad offensive: “As a result, the gaming, tourism, and film industry, were crying rape.” Some odd stylistic choices (writing “FBI” as “F-B-I,” for example) and scattered typos also prove distracting, as does an extremely abrupt ending.

A slim thriller that doesn’t quite manage to stick the landing.

Kirkus Reviews