Review: Once Upon A Nightmare by Nat Goodale

Title: Once Upon A Nightmare
Author: Nat Goodale
Published: Feb. 19, 2015
Publisher: Bowditch Press
Pages: 434
Genre: Adventure
Review: Paperback received via the Author through Bostick Communication














DRUGS GUNS BOATS MONEY PLANES

Jesse Langdon III accepts an offer he should refuse. He is lost in a deteriorating marriage and torn by the love for his children. He falls into the depths of the underworld, where unlimited cash brings corruption to the highest levels of government and the courts. It is near impossible to determine who is the assassin, the informant or the federal agent.

Once Upon a Nightmare takes readers on a wild ride into the upper echelons of drug smuggling in South America, Florida and New England. Jesse is consumed by the business of running drugs and sinks deeper into his own inner darkness. He and the drug lord's mistress, Claire, plot their escape. But who is she, really?

Two weeks' notice and a request for severance pay is not a recommended exit strategy from this web of deception and violence.


How would you get out?

I received this book to give an honest review.

The cover and the synopsis pulled me into the book and I was really excited to start it.  You have this man named Jesse who is having a rough patch in his marriage but loves his children unconditionally. He gets a job offer that can change his whole life around. When he decides to take the job it appears to be more than he first expected and if he thought there was a way out well he is wrong unless it is in a body bag.
At first everything seems okay he has an unlimited supply of drugs as his usage and lots of money, plus it helps he has a brand new look. Though when he starts being around others who work for Santee and are in his inner circle he starts questions what exactly is going on. Santee likes Jesse and his sort of thinking on how some operations should operate but not everyone likes Jesse and his ideas. Towards the end we see what Jesse will have to do to become a free man.
This is an action book but I felt it lacked the full action of drug dealers. I mean there was no hold your breath moments of possibly being captured by police even if some law enforcement was in Santee's pocket and they kept the heat off of them. I guess when I imagine drug runs, guns and what not I want a lot of action not just medicore. The only time I really felt the action was towards the end and I kept wondering what would happen.
The one character I really wanted to know more was the mistress to Santee. She was very mysterious and at the end we never know exactly who she is and maybe that is what the author wanted.
The book overall was good, the characters were written to where you could connect in some ways with them. Even though it was a good book it was one of those stories I could put down and it was hard for me to fully invest in it as I was hoping for more. Give it a try though as you may enjoy it more.
#PaperbackFriday

Nathaniel Bowditch Goodale comes from a deep seafaring heritage. He is licensed to captain a 100 ton vessel, pilot a single engine floatplane in instrument conditions, and drive a big rig on the interstate highway system. He was a 40 year resident of Waldo County, Maine, where this story is set. He now resides in Cuenca, Ecuador, where he is writing his third novel. He is married and has four children. 
More Biography,Adventures (so far): 
Four marvelous children - oldest daughter an Olympic Gold Medalist (Beijing) and now the author of my grandson Avery (www.annagoodale.com), son Abe trekking up from southern Chile (visit www.abegoodale.com), and my sweet and articulate freshwoman and sophomore girls in high school. Married to my childhood sweetheart and my favorite person in the whole world.
Organic sheep farmer before it was chic. Director to the American Sheep Producers Council, representing all the sheep (and shepherds) in NY, NJ, PA, CT, RI, MA, NH, VT, and ME). Founding member of the Maine Lamb Promotion Board.
Leader of a Libertarian Political Action Committee.
Charter Captain, 42' motor yacht, Soper's Hole, West End, British Virgin Islands. Dropped 700 king crab pots at the end of the Aleutian chain, off the Bessie M, a king crabber out of Homer, Alaska. On board as fifth hand and cook.
Cut 100 spruce trees and built a log cabin without hydraulics.
Aircraft salesman. Private pilot, land and sea (float plane and flying boats), instrument rated. Had privilege of flying in the navigator's nose cone of the Confederate Air Force's B-17 Flying Fortress. College religion major. Lettered in football and baseball in boarding school and college. Played in National Softball Championship, Green Bay, Wisconsin. Age 11 - saved a younger girl from drowning.
Head cater chef. Drove from Maine to Fairbanks, Alaska to Oaxaca, Mexico (and back). Hiked the base of the Annapurna mountain range.
#186 in 1972 draft into the military, Vietnam bound. Would have served but wasn't called. Voted for Nixon twice - no regrets. Motored down the Mekong River (post Vietnam).
President and major stockholder, Dark Harbor Boat Yard. Sole importer and dealer for Norwegian PIONER polyethylene boats.
Now riding horses deep into the Andes mountains of Ecuador. Cuenca is one of the settings in THE MAXIMUM MISTAKE, his third book which includes a breathtaking horse chase scene. Book due to be published in 2015.
Author and publisher of the present novel VACTIONLAND, and the soon to be available, ONCE UPON A NIGHTMARE. 
For more information on anything, please come visit at www.natgoodale.com.