Dana Rongione

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Depth of Deception by Alexander Galant

  About the Book:
Theyear is 1982, and a beautiful young woman, dressed in Edwardianclothing, is found floating unconscious in the North Atlantic with a1912 boarding pass to the RMS Titanic. 
Over in England, CallumToughill, an insurance investigator, is assigned the case of amissing brooch that was stolen during a horrific, unsolved murder in1909 Glasgow. He is chosen because it was his own grandfather who hadbotched the original investigation. Despite the painful family memoryand likelihood that all evidence will be long gone, Callum dives in.As he begins to uncover the tangled truth that the missing brooch mayhave ended up on the ill-fated RMS Titanic, someone is one stepahead, trying to stop him. 
Miraculously the mysterious young woman,nicknamed 'Myra' because of the inscription on her locket, survivesand awakes in a Manhattan hospital with no memory of who she is.Myra’s vague recollections are from the gilded age of 1912 and sheis lost in the alien, harsh world of 1982. A respected and wealthyTitanic survivor named Edward Hoffman assists in exposing her as afake, but the plan backfires and stirs up more details in Myra'smemory which include the fact that Edward may be her son. Is it abizarre case of time-travel or an elaborate hoax?
About the Author: 
  
AlexanderGalant was the historical researcher for the novel 'Dracula theUn-Dead', which was on the New York Times Best Sellers list inOctober 2009. Alexander also co-wrote the screenplay adaptation thatwas optioned briefly by Jan de Bont and adapted the novel into adramatic stage reading for the Toronto book launch of Dracula theUn-Dead, which brought out the highest turnout for any event on thebook tour.

Alexander has also written and directed several shortfilms including "The Jigsaw Puzzle", which won the FestivalBuzz Award (most talked-about film) in the New York Independent FilmFestival; "First Light", Winner Bronze Remi Award forFantasy Horror at the WorldFest Houston, USA, Special CommendationAward at the Festival of Fantastic Films, UK, and Best TechnicalAchievement from the International Festival of Cinema and Technology;"The Missing Piece", Winner Silver Remi Award for SuspenseThriller at the WorldFest Houston, USA; and co-wrote and directed"Star Wars: Blasted Behavior", a finalist in the AtomFilms/LucasFilm Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge (George Lucas was oneof the judges), which also won the Best Foreign Sci-Fi Film Award atthe New York International Film Festival and continues to make thefestival circuit this year.

Alexander's love of historical detailscan also be seen in some of the stage productions he has directed,such as the silent film era of "Singin' in the Rain"(Act-Co Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement in Live Theatre), a50-year span in "Love Letters" and the World War IIAmsterdam annex for "The Diary of Anne Frank".

My Review:
I can honestly say that this is one ofthe best mysteries I've ever read, and I've read a lot of mysteries.The story was intriguing from the very start, and the myriad ofcharacters literally kept me on the edge of my seat. I must admit,however, that by the time I was a third of the way through, I wishedI had been making notes to keep track of who the different characterswere, how they were related and to which time frame they belonged.There was a lot of information to keep up with, which made the storymuch more involved but also made it a little harder to keep up with.
Nevertheless, I found that once I hadbegun, I just couldn't put it down. I thought I had it figured out(and in a way I did), but nothing could have prepared me for theending. After reading the epilogue, I just sat in stunnedsilence--that is, after I yelled, "Oh man!" The wholething was masterfully done, and I'm eager to read the next book byAlexander Galant. (I already read the "sneak peek" at theend of Depth of Deception.  It sounds like anotherwinner.)
For the Christian reader, I must pointout that this is not a Christian book and does contain profanity. Inthe first few chapters, there wasn't any. Then, the author sprinkleda few in here and there. But by the middle of the book, it wasconstant in every chapter. Being such an avid reader, I've trainedmyself to skim across curse words without paying them much heed, butif you don't have that ability, you may find the profanitydistracting. I, personally, felt it was overused and actuallydistracted the reader from the plot and characters. That being said,there's a great story if you're willing to overlook the profanity.Normally, I wouldn't even recommend a book with that much profanity,but the story is just awesome, so I do recommend it with thecautionary note about the use (and overuse) or profanity.
At the time of this posting, Depth of Deception is available on Kindle for a mere 99 cents.
Purchase Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007O3IKTY(Kindle)
http://www.amazon.com/Deception-Titanic-Murder-Mystery-Volume/dp/0987983512(print)
Website:
http://www.depthofdeception.com/
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