One bad decision after another spirals out of control. On the return trip, a squall forces him into an emergency landing and a peculiar predicament with petty criminal Dale Knight, brother of a merciless drug lord, boyfriend (boy toy?) of a wild young woman who shoots to kill and steal, but poor Dale just didn’t see that one coming. I read “Squall” first:īush pilot Tom Stokes sets out in his Cessna 180 to do some repairs on a remote hunt camp, leaving his five-year-old son and very pregnant wife snug in their beds. His novel “Here After” has been optioned to film by David Hackl, director of Saw V. The authorbio however, reeled me in: “In the real world he’s an anesthesiologist, but, if asked, he’d tell you he’d much rather be writing.”Despite 35 years of working full time in hospitals, he managed to write eight novels and numerous screenplays. Never pass up a story about a pilot, even if it’s a genre I avoid, and thriller is just not my genre. Sean Costello got me with “Alaskan bush pilot” in the synopsis.

Maybe one in every 300 strike me as The Real Deal – a great writer whose name should be a household word. Some make me wish I hadn’t read all the way to the end. Most books don’t survive my page-one test. Every day I scan the daily newsletters for new talent. Okay, just kidding about that last part, but seriously, it takes a lot to make one Indie Author stand out from a gazillion others out there.

Some authors have it all: a PhD in science or medicine, good looks, a gift for story telling, a sense of humor, a fresh voice, and a fan named Carol Kean.

The Cartoonist by Sean Costello