Author p.m. terrell tells an edge-of-your- seat adventure that weaves current day issues of terrorism and illegal immigration in her new mystery/thriller novel “Ricochet.” The night before Sheila Carpenter, an expert computer programmer, begins her career as an FBI Agent, a bomb is detonated sending Sheila's best friend to the hospital in a fight for her life. Soon after, Sheila discovers clues her mother left in the days before her parents deaths leading Sheila to believe their deaths were not accidental. Now Sheila is on the trail of her mother’s killers while the bombers are closing in on Sheila. She's quickly swept into the dark underbelly of illegal immigration, identity theft, and terrorism, and a collision course with terrorists intent on sending the United States into chaos.

Ricochet

p. m. terrell
Paralee Press (2006)
ISBN 0978563204
Reviewed by Cherie Fisher for Reader Views (3/07)


This book had me hooked from the very first sentence.  P.M. Terrell is a master storyteller.  In “Ricochet” the author uses her real-life experience in computers and software to weave a diabolical story including terrorism, murder, espionage and illegal immigration.  It is fast moving from the very beginning to the end. 

The story begins when Sheila Carpenter is in the wrong place at the wrong time.  She and her “shopaholic” best friend, Margaret, decide to go the mall the day before Sheila is due to start the FBI academy.  While they are waiting for food, Sheila notices a person acting and dressing strangely right before everything goes black in a huge explosion. When Sheila comes to, she finds she is buried in the rubble and having trouble breathing due to the fire.  After she is rescued, she seems to be relatively uninjured but quickly finds out that Margaret did not fare so well and is in a coma.  Unfortunately for Sheila, a reporter catches her and she tells the reporter that she will never forget what the face of the terrorist looks like.   This begins a chain of bizarre events that will put Sheila’s life in danger.

Looking for comfort, Sheila, feeling out of sorts by the strange events that are unfolding, goes through a box of pictures that her Great Aunt Jo put together for her after her parents untimely death two years before.  She begins to see some pictures that she does not recognize and on the back of one them her mom had written “the beginning of the trail.”  Sheila begins to realize that her parents’ accidental death may not have been that at all. 

As Sheila and her FBI instructor, Steve Moran, work with the FBI to solve what has happened; it all begins to tie back to her mother’s trail and trip that she had taken shortly before her death.   Sheila has to solve the case before the people that are trying to kill her catch up with her or more lives are taken through another terrorist attack.  The story leads us directly into the world of illegal aliens, some honest, hard-working people just trying to find a better life here and some not.

“Ricochet” is a great book from beginning to end.  I highly recommend it for people who enjoy fast action, suspense and mystery.  I look forward to reading more books by this acclaimed author.