Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Zero Warning
SERIES: Asher Radman – By The Numbers
AUTHOR: John Charles
PUBLISHER: Manifest Vision Publishing
LENGTH: 127 Pages
RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2018
BLURB:
When FBI agent Mateo Hachman took the undercover assignment, he knew the risks. Infiltrate the Proveedores Consortium and bring down the inner circle.
It took almost five years and he gathered enough evidence to bring down Demarco Sanchez the head of the Proveedores as well as over a dozen high level members.
When henchman Abraham Garceau was sentenced for multiple counts of murder, he swore he’d find a way to torture Mateo until he begged to die.
Eight years later, Mateo had a new name, new career, and new life. In those eight years, he never stopped looking over his shoulder; never let his defenses slip, and never got close to anyone. Until he met Isaac Konners. Konners was everything Mateo wanted in a partner. Getting close to Isaac though, would mean breaking his personal vow and endangering an innocent person. Yet Isaac wormed his way into Mateo’s heart, took hold, and wouldn’t let go.
Several weeks after Garceau escaped from a prisoner transport van, a video played on every news channel. A close-up of Garceau looking into the camera filled the screen. “This video is for one person and one person only – Mateo Hachman. I promised I’d get you no matter how long it took and now that I’m free of that f*cked up prison and those bullsh*t guards; I intend to keep my promise.”
Suddenly Mateo was pulled into the worst nightmare he could have imagined. Did he know where to look? Did he know Mateo’s new name? What about his new looks? And what about Isaac? How could he protect Isaac from that lunatic?
REVIEW:
Mateo Hachman went deep undercover and succeeded in bringing down the notorious Proveedores cartel. After the trial that saw its highest members sentenced to multiple life sentences Mateo was forced to shed his old life and assume a new identity, that of university professor, Scott Witier. Unfortunately, just as he becomes involved with Isaac, one of those men, a cartel enforcer, escapes prison and nationally broadcasts a message that he’s going to hunt down Mateo and torture him until he begs for death. Mateo is forced to rely on his skills, and his old boss at the FBI to keep himself and Isaac alive.
This book had my name written all over it. The promise of bad, violent men doing bad, violent things will snag my interest every time. Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me. If a book has undercover agents and murderous cartel members who are out for bloody vengeance, then I need it to be dark and gritty. I need to feel that mental and emotional turmoil that our main characters are dealing with, as good men are forced to act against their morals in order to survive. This book just didn’t give me that. And I’m not saying that the plot didn’t include one rather tormented soul in the shape of Scott Witier, but it was kind of like watching wannabe actors in a D-grade sitcom. I could watch everything playing out on the page but I just didn’t feel any of the described emotion.
The characters and their relationship were quite awkward. They meet in a library, at the university where Scott is a lecturer and he immediately starts flirting with Isaac. And it’s not cute flirting, it’s pretty creepy, throwing out lines like – “If I took my work home with me, I’d never get to play and I love to play.” But that wasn’t the extent of my problem with Scott. Firstly, after he discovers that the bad guy is hunting him, he decides that continuing their brand new relationship is worth the risk to Isaac’s life and that he’ll do his best to keep Isaac safe if the homicidal killer turns up. Right, well, maybe Isaac would have a different opinion. Although, to be fair, when Isaac finds Scott carrying a gun, and Scott tells him it’s to protect Isaac, the so called genius doesn’t question the threat to his life. Secondly, on multiple occasions, Scott comments on Isaac’s clothes, telling him that he dresses like a grandpa and that he looks frumpy. When Isaac indicates that he’s happy with his clothes, Scott tells him that they’ll discuss it later…I’m not going to comment any further on that one or the urge to throat punch Scott will come back.
I also need to add that there were errors and inconsistencies throughout the book. It’s possible that I read an ARC that wasn’t a final copy, but the fact that Scott’s surname changed from Wittier to Witier shows just how bad the mistakes were.
Now, just because I didn’t like this book doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t consider it if the blurb sounds like something that you might like. Maybe head over to Goodreads and check out some of the reviews there. At the time of me writing this, the consensus seems to be that I’m in the minority and most readers are enjoying it.
Oh and in case you were wondering about the name of the series, this is book zero in the Asher Radman series. Asher Radman is the name of Mateo’s boss at the FBI. I’m assuming that the rest of the series will feature him more heavily than his few appearances here.
RATING: 
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