ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, will try to poison the well of America. The terrorists pick the Jackson River in northwestern Virginia as their target. If the jihadists succeed, thousands will die, and millions will shrink from the life-threatening terror of a glass of water.
Poison Heartbeats follows the paths of two twins born in war-torn Nuristan, Afghanistan. One becomes a holy warrior of the terrorist organization, ISIL (synonymous with ISIS, but claiming a larger territory in the middle east). The other twin becomes a not-so-all-American girl who falls in love with the director of homeland security’s Poison Well unit.
This is the second novel in the Heartbeat series of mystery-thrillers by the author. They are stand-alone books. You do not have to read one to appreciate another. The first novel was the award-winning Wrinkled Heartbeats, chosen by the Next Generation Book Awards as on of the best new novels of 2016 (under 80,000 words). It also received Awesome Indies approval and the Silver Medal in Action Fiction at the Readers Favorites book awards.
Poison Heartbeats by Temple Emmet Williams is a very real-to-life story of terrorism. ISIL wants to poison the water network in America and their target is the Jackson River, located in Northwest Virginia. If they succeed in their mission, they will have the blood of thousands on their hands and millions more will never be able to trust a simple glass of water ever again. Abira and Ahmed Khan are twins, born in Afghanistan and separated through war. Ahmed becomes a Holy Warrior of ISIL while Abira becomes Holly Smolkes, a beautiful girl who happens to fall head over heels in love with the Director of the Poison Well unit in Homeland Security. Life is about to become difficult as the twins go head to head in the battle for survival, but who will triumph over all others?
Poison Heartbeats by Temple Emmet Williams blew me away. It is the second story in the Heartbeats series and is, without any doubt, one of the best books I have ever read. It made me want to read the first one and I am definitely looking forward to the third when it comes out. The story started almost like a history lesson, a fascinating one that had an awful lot of bearing on the story. There is a lot of this throughout the book, background that is essential to understanding what is going on – without it, the story would still be there but, in my opinion, not so good. The plot is clever, very real to life, given current world events, and is something that we should all fear could happen at any time. The character development was excellent, leaving you with the impression of having known them. The way the story is written, you can see it playing out, you can almost smell and feel everything that happens. To me, that is the mark of a top-class author, being able to pull a reader into a story in such a way that they end the book shaken, feeling as though they had lived every minute of it. Fantastic book, excellent story, I'm really looking forward to more from Mr. Williams.
