Amazon Jerry Minchew's Books A Novel Idea Barnes & Noble Category:  Mystery/Suspense Publisher: Publish America ISBN-10:  141376505X Type: Fiction Pages: 273 Copyright: October 2005 Kidnapped as a child, a young man’s search for his identity gets complicated when he is infected with an alien life-form that enhances his natural abilities. Scientists want to study him, the military want to use him as a secret weapon, the Soviets want his blood, but he only wants to find out who he really is. This extraordinary young man, who had just put his life on the line for others, sat down on the floor just inside the door of the helicopter. He looked around at the men that he had just rescued. Some were in worse shape than others, but all were smiling. All were going home. At that moment he was convinced that the events that had made him the man that he was, that had led him to this place at this time, had all been worth it. The man sitting nearest him leaned closer so that he could be heard over the noise of the helicopter. He shouted, “Who are you?” The man in black simply said, “They call me Knighthawke!”   Excerpt All Michael ever really wanted was just to live a normal life - It ain't gonna happen.

Minchew's Knighthawke strikes a knock-out punch of intrique and excitement
Jerry Minchew takes on a well-established genre and scores a blockbuster hit with his dynamic new novel. Knighthawke has all the excitement and action packed adventure of the sensational graphic novels from the heydays of the 1950’s, and yet Minchew creates a totally new superhero whose greatest source of power and strength is his own sense of purpose and personal character. Karla and Mike Walker are a loving couple from Minnesota whose surprise arrival of twins is cause for much joy and happiness in their extended family. The twins, Michael and Michelle, are adored by the grandparents and doted on by their aunts, as their parents prove to be as loving and caring, as all parents should be. By the time the twins are eighteen months old, they are happy, healthy, beautiful babies, and life is good for the Walkers. That’s when the unthinkable happens. A chance encounter with seemingly kind strangers ends with the most horrific consequences, setting into motion a life-time of desperate searching for his true identity, as Michael is kidnapped by Lisa and Jake Webber, a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, only to be abandoned in small, out of the way Bay Minette, Alabama. After the woman believed to be the boy’s mother is gunned down during a bank robber, and her husband disappears, the child is placed with a truly caring couple who raise him as their own. Despite all of the Walkers’ efforts and the considerable media attention generated over the brutal kidnapping of this small child, Michael remains lost from his real family. Matthew and Teresa Brodie make every effort to provide their foster child a normal childhood, but young Michael isn’t quite like other children. He’s haunted by dreams of a little girl pleading with him to continue searching for his identity, and to rescue her as well. Although his exceptional good looks, easy going personality and obvious intellect bring Michael more than his share of popularity, his personal life continues to suffer through a series of failed romances until, as a young military man he is determined to put the mystery of his childhood behind him, and look only towards controlling his future. But the power of the universe continues to exercise it’s perverse prerogative and once again embroils Michael in a life-changing, near death experience which has a far greater impact on who he is and what he is, than anything even General Eaton of the Air Force Research and Development Command or RADCOM, a top secret military facility secreted deep underground in the barren wastelands of the Texas desert and the beautiful scientist, Dr. Kelli Blair can possibly imagine. After a satellite containing a sample of an utterly unknown space gas crashes to earth, literally on top of the young airman; the man previously known as Michael Webber undergoes an unprecedented metamorphosis that not only heals his critically burned and battered body at a miraculously accelerated rate, but also enhances his physical and mental powers far beyond a mere mortal’s to superhuman status. With his new powers, Michael assumes a whole new persona and purpose as he challenges destiny when the creature known only as Knighthawke is born. In his debut novel, Minchew immediately establishes himself as an outstanding storyteller with a tremendous talent for developing complex multidimensional characters and intense action-filled drama. The obvious weaknesses in the editing, fractious narration and somewhat stilted dialogue are issues that this impressive writer will certainly overcome as he gains more experience, and his work will only get better and better as he continues to master the technical aspects of his craft. Minchew has scored an uncontestable knockout with this powerful novel of personal tragedy and international intrigue about a dynamic character whose superhuman powers are but one facet of a very human individual with deeply emotional issues. Knighthawke has all the riveting drama and intensity of a suspense novel with the added thrill of possible alien sentience and paranormal overtones. This is a deeply engrossing story with enough gung-ho, testosterone driven excitement to satisfy the most macho leatherneck, while eliciting the reader’s most compassionate sympathies by presenting a deeply reflective insight into the emotionally scarred psyche of a very believable victim of a heinous crime Jerry Minchew’s Knighthawke is a terrific tale that delivers a super one-two punch with enough excitement and spectacular surprises to capture the reader’s attention from its sensational beginning until it’s dramatic ending. Wonderfully entertaining, Knighthawke is a real triumph and future work by this author should be eagerly anticipated. Review by R. deVoll Fisher, author of Caleb’s Branch for Cheers E-zine March 2006