Author: Heath Daniels             
Publisher: Virtual Bookworm
ISBN: 978-1-60264-110-5

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Three Kisses is Heath Daniels first novel. He professes to be a “keen observer of current events” and enjoys culture, history, and spirituality.

Daniels weaves a believably foiled terror plot in his book Three Kisses. The title originates from the Arabic/Middle Eastern tradition of three cheek kisses as a greeting or parting gesture between friends or family in those communities. This book takes many unexpected twists and turns that add to the adventure and intrigue. Characters are from a variety of ethnic, socio-economic, educational, and religious backgrounds. Daniels does a nice job of tying them together and even provides keen details into how each differ or are to some extent the same.  This book takes place after 9/11 when there were a lot of things going on in our [the USA] government to curtail the rights of certain segments of our population. Daniels writes from a point of sensitivity toward those persecuted people.

The main character in this book is a gay man by the name of Frank Reynolds who also happens to be a U.S. Marine Corp. officer assigned to an intelligence division at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.  Frank is third generation Marine Corp. and a graduate of the Citidel. He is in his mid-thirties and quietly waiting until he has his twenty years in and can retire. Because the U.S. military has the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gays and lesbians Frank has not told any of his fellow office companions or family that he is gay.

Russian doctors in Syria, working for the Al Qaeda, have successfully created a body double for another man, who is not gay, in Frank’s small intelligence weaponry office. His name is Patrick Ferris and he is American-Lebanese. Once the body double is in place Frank notices, in the men’s room, a certain body part does not match his memory of the actual person being impersonated. It is Frank’s “gayness” that unravels the Al Qaeda plot to successfully infiltrate this body double into his office in order to copy sensitive documents that deal with weapons and other technology. 

As soon as Frank is sure something is amiss he calls in his “special” friends to help thwart this treasonous plot. These men go to great lengths to spread the would-be terrorists out across remotely populated portions of Mexico, well outside of the US border, and insure that they will be captured by the Mexican police. Eventually, the would-be terrorists are captured, questioned, and transported secretly to Gitmo where the US military and CIA/DIA have to determine what to do next: prosecute as possible terrorists or send them to other secure places back in the Middle-East. 

Many of the characters in this book are gay males. Some of those characters are more tortured about this dilemma that others, especially those hailing from Middle-Eastern countries where religious proclivities prohibit such acts and actions. To say this book is about “coming out” would be to cut it short, but that does tend to be a common theme throughout it. Because the biographical information about Daniels is so scant it is impossible to determine if this is somewhat autobiographical in nature or not. However, it does open the door to that possibility and would be remiss of me not to state that this book is intended predominantly for gay adult audiences.