Author: JP O'Donnell
Publisher: iUniverse, Inc
ISBN: 978-0-595-51411-3

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When I began reading JP O'Donnell's second novel,  Deadly Codes: A Gallagher Novel I was wondering if this thriller would be a repeat performance to his debut novel Fatal Gamble: A Novel. After reading a few chapters, it didn't take me long to realize that, here is an author, who has natural talent and is certainly not a one time phenomenon.

Our principal protagonist Gallagher, who made his first appearance in Fatal Gamble as O'Donnell favorite sleuth, is about to retire. His recently married wife Kate has convinced him that if they want to stay married, he would have to change careers. Kate is fed up with the near death escapes that she and he recently endured is now looking forward to a more normal and peaceful life with her special guy. However, Gallagher is a glutton for punishment and when Jeanne Campbell approaches him to investigate a car bombing that killed her twin sister, he couldn't refuse.

The initial reports concerning Jeanne's twin sister Jennifer's death was that the killing was directed at her husband Bill, who works for the National Security Agency (NSA) as a top cryptographic analyst.
On the fatal morning of the bombing Jennifer decided to drive her husband's car to the  corner food store when the bombing  occurred on the couple's driveway.
Jeanne had all kinds of theories concerning the killing of her sister Jennifer, particularly that she had been informed by her sister that she was having an affair with a woman, Marcie Williams.

After Jennifer's death, Marcie just vanished into thin air leaving no trace of her whereabouts. What was even more disturbing was that Jennifer had revealed to Jeanne that one day while she was coming out of the shower in her home, where their love encounters generally took place, she spotted Marcie roaming around the house and in her husband's study, standing behind his desk. Marcie's excuse was that she was  just interested in how the house was decorated. Thrown into the puzzle was Jeanne's belief her sister's husband Bill was having an affair and that he and Jennifer only stayed together  because of their children.  

Gallagher is asked to find Marcie Williams, who may possess all the clues as to why Jennifer was killed. Although reluctant to immediately accept the assignment, Gallagher could still feel the undeniable forces drawing him back into the fray. As he struggles to decide if he should take on the case, he reminds himself that his wife was right, he just can't resist. The tracking down of a mysterious lesbian lover of a woman married to someone who holds a very important position with NSA and who was killed in a car bombing was far too tantalizing for him to pass up. Who is this woman and was she connected in any way with the car bombing?  Was this a terrorist act? What about the dead woman's husband? Was he connected in some kind of illegal activities pertaining to his top secret position in counter intelligence with the National Security Agency and was the bomb meant for  him?  

To complicate matters and to add more zest to our thriller, one of O'Donnell's shifty characters from his debut novel Fatal Gamble reappears in Deadly Codes. Lan Tauber  is someone you wouldn't want to mess with as he is a very devious and conscienceless underworld figure. Moreover, he hates to be outfoxed. In Fatal Gamble, Tauber had ordered a hit on Gallagher and Kate, however, miraculously and to the dismay of Tauber, the couple survived.. Tauber was not about to let sleeping dogs lie and with a vengeance this evil character decides that Gallagher and Kate must be eliminated.    

The real magic here is that mystery is piled so tantalizing on mystery that we can't put the book down. Once again, O'Donnell manages to suck his readers into this wild thrilling and imaginative intrigue  inserting some supporting characters that are brought to life with quick, spare phrases. His principal protagonist Gallagher is a memorable creation, all the more attractive to having some flaws. He is someone so resilient who endures more than we can imagine and somehow hangs on even though he realizes that he often enters into treacherous territories. Does O'Donnell once again have another sequel up his sleeve?  Moreover, O'Donnell has a gift for well-paced story-telling and a perfect sense of timing that effectively delivers all the hair pin twists and turns that you would expect from a suspense thriller.  

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Click Here To Read Norm's Interview With JP O'Donnell