Title: Lion On Fire
Author: Ted Galdi
Published: December 2017
Pages: 147
Format: PDF file
Summary:
Brian, a clean-cut, recent college grad, takes a side job in an underground casino in New York City to make extra cash to help his derelict brother out of a jam. Nothing goes as planned, and soon Brian is forced to team up with a charismatic co-worker to rob the mobsters who run the casino.
Main character Brian is shocked to learn that his younger brother not only has been dealing cocaine, but foolishly lost a whole package of it, and now owes his boss $30,000. If Brian’s brother doesn’t come up with the money in a few weeks, he’s dead.
Brian decides to help. However, he realizes scrapping together that sort of cash in such a short timeframe is nearly impossible legally. So he approaches Dusty, another driver at the limousine company where he works, and asks him about the whispers of lucrative, yet illegal, side jobs he’s heard among the staff.
After proving himself trustworthy with an initiation test, Brian is invited to participate in an underground driving network that shuttles wealthy individuals to extravagant, though illicit, gambling events set up in multi-million-dollar Manhattan penthouses.
At first things go smoothly, and Brian pockets a lot of much-needed extra income. However, they turn jarring once he finds out a high-profile Russian gangster is behind the gambling events, and becomes mixed up with him not only professionally, but personally.
With tensions rising, and the fate of Brian’s relationships with his parents and girlfriend now entangled with the underground casino, not to mention the life of his brother, he winds up in a position where pulling off a mafia robbery may be his only chance to get himself and his loved ones out of this mess alive and intact.
Reader’s Thoughts:
⭐⭐⭐
When I first read the summary, I found this to be a thriller to give anyone that peak of adrenaline. You follow the main character Brian as he tries to earn extra cash to save his brother. However, unlike his brother, Brian never expected to dip into the world of the Russian Mafia.
The development of the characters are well done. Each one was strong in their own way. Brian is a college grad, you can see it when you read about this character. He has a good head, he knows whats right, even thinks through his decisions.
In the mix of things, he meets, defends and dates a girl he met at a bar. I felt that was a little cliche but it worked out in the end.
Dusty is a maniac. He bursts into random moods and actions. Which makes me almost think bi-polar. He defends women, all in general.
The “plan” that Dusty and Brian come up with against the mafia was a little…. odd. But I guess when you want to hurt a an where it counts, that might do it.
When this book ended, more like a novella, I wanted more. I just felt like there was more to the story missing. Bt it did have that punch of actions from page 1.
Thank you Ted for an awesome novella, can’t wait to read more!!!
Lion on Fire is a FREE novella ebook, available only on Ted Galdi’s website
HERE. Until next time my dragons
