The .40 Caliber Mouse: A Modern Tale of Vengeance
Author: Stephen Pytak
Paperback: 212 pages
Publisher: Publish America (July 26, 2004)
Synposis:
For on-line shoppers, it was indeed an alternative bookmark. It was a notorious website, where the average person could hire a mercenary for $1,000 a head, without fear of being turned in. It was built to last. The feds pounded keyboards for months trying to blow its elusive IP addresses out of memory. It had a face: former Interpol agent Colin Reeves, a polite British gent with a .40 caliber pistol named Lucky, and something to hide.It was a threat. Soon there was a trail of bodies and business cards. Some would say it was impossible, but it had an undeniable force of nature on its side. “Just tell me,” asked Alice, a trophy wife from Boston with an unfaithful husband and a plan to get rid of him. “Am I crazy? Are you crazy?”You’re not crazy,” Reeves assured her. “Vengeance is in.”
Review:
When my reading choice includes dead bodies they’re usually mysteries. There’s a dead body somewhere in the first chapter and you spend the rest of the book figured out why it got that way. One of my fellow authors at a recent author’s fair talked me into reading his book(OK, he didn’t have to do much convincing). When I first started reading The .40 Caliber Mouse I had my doubts—no dead bodies for the first four chapters! But once the first body fell they were hitting the ground like rain.
The funny thing is, the dead bodies weren’t that important. They were just…props. Forget detective, cops, victims…this book was about the criminals. Getting inside the head of Colin Reeves, an ex-British agent turned hit man, was a little 
scary. Pytak keeps you off balance wondering if Reeves is sane, crazy, or a little bit of both. Of course that goes for all the characters! I envy Pytak for his ability to create characters you come to care about with so few words. And while we’re on the subject of few words, one character does not speak—at all—for the entire book. Yet somehow you get a glimpse at his personality and reasoning.
Have you ever rooted for the bad guys? I did in The .40 Caliber Mouse. I had an inkling of the ending about half way through the book but there were so many unexpected twists to the plot and the characters that I began wondering if there would be a final plot twist. And boy was there! I wasn’t sure at the beginning but by the end I was hooked by Colin Reeves and the criminals that surrounded him.
Just Thought You Should Know:
Pytak is writing the four book in the .40 Caliber Series and getting ready to release the third under Mazz Press. I got a sneak peek at the fabulous illustrations. The .40 Caliber Mouse is no longer listed for sale on Pytak’s website but if you email him he has a few copies left.