Strike Price: Lynn Dayton Thriller #2

by L. A. Starks, Ed Fields (Contribution by), Linda Lewis (Other)

Overview

Murder disrupts a billion-dollar oil deal STRIKE PRICE is a story about a business deal turned deadly, concluding with a plot to destroy a hidden, crucial US oil center and bring the US into confrontation with another global power. To stop the plot and save lives, up-by-the-bootstraps Lynn Dayton must trust a Cherokee elder who carries a corrosive secret. Exclusively in the print edition, STRIKE PRICE features authentic Cherokee syllabary text in clues that tie fascinating Native American history to global high-stakes drama today. "If you're looking for big business wheeling-and dealing, international intrigue, murder, mayhem and high-geared action, you've come to the right place. Toss in a charming and nervy protagonist like Lynn Dayton and L.A. Starks' STRIKE PRICE is right on the money. Well-written, well-plotted and well worth a reader's time..." Carlton Stowers - - - two-time Edgar winner "STRIKE PRICE takes the reader from Oklahoma Indian reservations to the streets of Florence, in an imaginative and well informed fusion of oil refining economics, Native American politics, and the potential for lethal mayhem in the global energy market." Michael Ennis - - - author of New York Times bestseller, The Malice of Fortune "Plan on not sleeping tonight." James Gary Vineyard - - - author of The Grave On Peckerwood Hill "Fast-paced and convincingly choreographed, Starks' novel presents a spot-on depiction of today's oil business that grips and scares and offers the reader plenty to think about." Richard Holcroft - - - author of Patriot's Blood Summary: When several people involved in bidding for an oil refinery are murdered, the situation becomes far more than a billion-dollar business deal. A self-made woman in the oil industry, Lynn Dayton fights to save lives when escalating attacks reveal a hired assassin's plan to disrupt oil trade, wreck world economies, and draw another global power into dangerous confrontation with the United States. Are the killers rogue civil servants challenging the Cherokees' financial independence, Sansei operatives again wreaking violence, or sinister investors swapping the bidding war for a real one? Lynn Dayton and Cherokee tribal executive Jesse Drum must learn to trust each other so they can find and stop the killers. Can sobering up really be fatal? How have so many of the deaths been made to appear accidental? Who's creating weapons with modern poisons and ancient Cherokee arts?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780991110704
Publisher:	Nemaha Ridge Publishing Group LLC
Publication date:	03/01/2014
Series:	Lynn Dayton thrillers , #2
Edition description:	revised
Pages:	356
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

L. A. Starks is the author of the Lynn Dayton thriller series and an energy investor. 13 DAYS: THE PYTHAGORAS CONSPIRACY, Lynn Dayton Thriller #1, received 5-star ratings. STRIKE PRICE, the second, is also 5-star-rated by reviewers and won the Texas Association of Authors' 1st Place Award for best mystery/thriller. Starks was born in Boston, Massachusetts, grew up in Oklahoma, and earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from Tulane University and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. In her day job, she is an energy business veteran experienced in engineering (during which she co-authored a U.S. patent), finance, and marketing who writes about energy analysis and investment as a paid contributor to two Seeking Alpha platforms.

Starks has also written and published five short stories and numerous non-fiction articles. She's appeared at over 150 book marketing events and is active on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Goodreads, with nearly the maximum of 5000 Goodreads friends. Additionally, she served as investment oversight chair and as treasurer of the Friends of the Dallas Public Library.

Her favorite destination is wherever an airplane will take her. She has run seventeen half-marathons.

Books website: https://lastarksbooks.com/

Ed Fields is a Cherokee language instructor and has earned the honor of Cherokee National Treasure.

Linda Lewis was L. A. Starks' younger sister.

Table of Contents

Historical Notes and References, pp. 337

Four of Oklahoma's Native American Nations, pp. 337

Cherokee Nation and United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees, pp. 338-342

Cherokee Syllabary Illustration Matrix, pp. 338

Osage Nation, pp. 343-345

Ponca Tribe, pp. 345-347

The Tulsa Riot of 1921, pp. 347-352

The Oklahoma City Bombing, pp. 352-353

The Tulsa Riot of 1921, p. 347

The Dust Bowl, 1930s, p. 351

Editorial Reviews

“Ms. Starks has an eye for detail and richly paints a picture of the Oklahoma landscape and its people. The insight given through the killers mind is especially riveting, as the reader will be far into the story before everything falls together and the killer is unmasked.”—Literary R&R

5 Stars. “Riveting”—Stephen Boiko, Goodreads

“dialogue is quick and punchy . . . Starks handles the pacing and suspense masterfully . . a thrilling conclusion . . . a determined heroine, a high body count and a mysterious villain.”—Kirkus Indie Reviews

5 Stars. “L.A. Starks gets the smell and noise of the petroleum industry just right as oil company executive Lynn Dayton faces off with the seven deadly sins: pride, lying tongues, hands that shed innocent blood, hearts that devise wicked plots, feet that run to ruin, deceitful witnesses, and those who sow discord. You'll find yourself turning the pages faster and faster as Lynn's hell-on-wheels race to end a chain of murders takes her to the brink of her own death and a national catastrophe. Plan on not sleeping tonight.”—James Gary Vineyard, author of The Grave On Peckerwood Hill

“Fascinating! Lynn Dayton faces dangerous situations, professional killers, and world terrorists . . . We learn, while being thrilled.”—Alain Bensoussan, PhD, risk analysis chair/distinguished professor at University of Texas at Dallas; City University of Hong Kong; Ajou University, South Korea

5 Stars. “In Strike Price, L.A. Starks once again establishes herself as a master of the thriller genre. Lynn Dayton, a self-made woman in the oil industry, fights to save herself and others as she attempts to stop a plot to sabotage an oil pipeline and storage depot, and learn the identity of those who are murdering bidders for one of her company's refineries. Fast-paced and convincingly choreographed, Starks' novel presents a spot-on depiction of today's oil business that grips and scares and offers the reader plenty to think about.”—Richard Holcroft, author of Patriot's Blood

5 Stars. “Strike Price is set in places that I know well! The non-stop connections of people, places and themes to each other kept me reading, as I was curious to see what secrets the author has to tell that I should know! Of course living in many of the same US oil company towns where so much of this novel is set has given me an acquaintance with the lifestyles portrayed here... It is quite interesting to see such familiar locales turned into a setting for drama, adventure, and all sorts of difficulties for various characters in the book. The author's descriptions of the Osage countryside, the Tulsa bungalows, the casinos, the oil company employees and their travels all over the world are quite apt and I can picture the people easily! The author has knit together the early twentieth century history of oil-rich Oklahoma with the more recent history of the world oil industry into a very interesting puzzle that is very satisfying!” –rc, Amazon

From the Publisher

2014-04-08
Starks (13 Days: The Pythagoras Conspiracy, 2006) offers a thriller set in oil country. Energy company executive Lynn Dayton returns in this sequel. Dayton's company, TriCoast, has a refinery to sell, and there are several interested buyers, including local Cherokee Nation investors and a Saudi prince, as well as Asian and British contingents. The death of a refinery employee at first seems like a fluke, but when the medical examiner rules the cause of death as poison, tensions begin to rise. Dayton's ex-husband's firm is working with the Cherokee Nation group, and when he's poisoned too, many suspect that Dayton is behind it. She, in turn, grows alarmed that someone close to her may be a dangerous criminal. She soon finds herself pushed to the limit, as she also has a sick father and a wedding to plan while she tries to close the TriCoast deal without losing her life. The novel takes place in several locations, including Texas, Oklahoma and parts of Europe, and is mainly narrated in the third person, except for a few first-person passages by a mysterious figure whose identity is slowly revealed over the course of the novel. The dialogue is quick and punchy; however, there are a few unnatural moments, such as when Dayton tells her boss, "It's true that the Tulsa refinery has become more profitable with all the oil being produced in Canada and the US"—information that TriCoast's CEO would already know. There's also some repetition; for example, how Dayton's fiance lost his first wife is explained more than once. There a few references to the previous Lynn Dayton thriller, but this book reads fine as a stand-alone. Starks handles the pacing and suspense masterfully, and although Dayton's final heroic act may strain credulity, it still makes for a thrilling conclusion. An often gripping novel with a determined heroine, a high body count and a mysterious villain.

Kirkus Reviews