Anyone Can Die

title: Anyone Can Die
author: James Le Pore
published: 1 February 2011
publisher: The Story Plant
genre(s): anthologies, thrillers
pages: 48
source: book tour
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | StoryGraph | Goodreads

rating:

the blurb

James LePore’s first novel, A World I Never Made earned raves from reviewers, readers, and fellow authors alike. Blogcritics called it, “An outstanding first novel, and a wonderful thriller.” Bella Online said, “I highly recommend this compelling suspense story filled with vivid characters and haunting storylines. A story that will stay with the reader long after the final pages.” And M.J. Rose, the acclaimed author of The Memorist said A World I Never Made was, “A compelling page-turner &mdash one of those wonderful books with characters as strong as the story and a story worth reading. Don’t miss it.”

Now LePore returns to the characters of A World I Never Made to present us with three suspenseful and unforgettable stories:

Till Death Do Us Part: A young Pat Nolan and his wife are on their honeymoon in New Mexico when they find a bond they did not know they had as they are forced to confront trouble in the form of a surly trio of locals.

God’s Warriors: Megan Nolan, a cynical American woman on her own in Europe makes a life-changing decision that both reveals and belies her true character.

Max: Max French, a quirky, deadly and, in his own eyes, oddly lovable FBI agent faces a personal drama that will set the course of his future.

my review

Anyone Can Die revisits characters from LePore’s debut novel, A World I Never Made, in three short stories.  I have not read A World I Never Made, but reading these stories definately have made me want to!  Having read Anyone Can Die first, I would highly recommend reading the full-length novel first.  While the stories in and of themselves are stand alone stories, I think knowing the backstories and the characters a little better would have made the short stories a fuller experience.

That being said, all three stories were vivid snapshots of characters that I want to know more about.  The first, Til Death Do Us Part, was the easiest to fully understand without having read A World I Never Made.  Lorrie and Pat were an interesting couple and there was a lot of action in the story.  The second story, God’s Warrior, was my favorite, although the most confusing without having read the first novel.  Megan Nolan was intriguing, clearly making decisions that shaped her future.  Although the story line was harder to follow without the backstory of A World I Never Made, the mystery of Megan and her life intrigued me.  The third and final story, Max, was definately the most disturbing, and the most sad. All in all, I enjoyed reading this and I am definately going to be buying A World I Never Made to learn more about the characters.  LePore’s writing pulls you right into the story, something you frequently don’t experience in such a short work.  It will be interesting to get the backstories of these characters and how they relate to one another in the full-length novel.