Fake Truth (Ian Ludlow Thrillers, 3)

Fake Truth

When listening to different news casts do you often wonder what’s fact and what’s fiction? Each commentator has his/her own take on a specific issue. But what happens when a commentator is really part of a Russian spy ring with his mother as his handler feeding him the stories to broadcast? Dwight Edeny is the commentator and a video clip of WangMei went viral. But a Saturday Night Live skit about this same incident with someone playing him was like Edney was slapped so hard in the face that he felt he was back in the Stone Age. The two videos got more press than his show. But he counteracted and on his show states that what you saw which him was getting slapped by Wang Mei the spoiled Chinese Movie Star, who says she fled her country to escape oppression. He was going to tell the real story. Mei is under investigation by the communists for using yin-yang contracts . They are like two mobster’s two sets of books and just as criminal.

Enter Ian Ludlow our star and novelist who could make the impossible and unheard of happen which is creating a storyline or plot and for some reason is fiction becomes a reality in real life. He gets a grand opportunity to take this fiction and create a story ripped right out of the evening news. The Russians are at the heart of this novel as one of their commentators, Edney is really a plant who manages to create a story that is nonexistent and floods the media with fake news. The media of Wang Mei goes viral and they want a definite response but not one you would want or expect. He with his minions loves to incite and backstab anyone in his way. But, the catalyst in this case is Beth Wheeler who might look harmless but is deadly and it’s her job to arrange to have an armed security team for an anti-immigrant Texas Ranger Kills. Immigrants are made to be clueless as they are Mexican smugglers. A White House conspiracy so that another hidden group of GRU scapegoats pass themselves off as enforces for Mexico’s Vibora drug cartel and can execute and hill members of the security team. However, it is Edney’s role to leak this information and Beth makes sure that Fox and this reporter does. The recording of the U.S. President using foul language adds to the suspense as he vows revenge on Mexico, but will he stop and think and realize that this is fake news? He never made the video it was created.

Ian falls prey to Wang Mei and we really wonder just what her true motives are including becoming a star. Living with Ian, Marco his assistant is not happy so when things get too close and tensions rise, she comes up with a unique solution. Things change and two people are dead, but did they fall to their deaths or was it murder. Added in Ian and Marco go to Poland get the pictures off the phone cameras of the two victims and noticed something that leads them to believe it might have been a set up.

As the CIA head and the President talk about the incident with the cartel members. How Beth killed them and offered the Mexicans 500 dollars to start and 500 more to carry drugs across the border but what they had was something different. Then Ian and Marco follow the trail and exact path of the two people that took selfies and were killed. Just how does that link to what else is happening in the falsehoods that are being created in the news? Illegal immigrants immigrant and convicted rapist Gustavo Reynosa is at the heart of what happened. Someone that that have named Waldo meets this man in San Diego and he drives an Escalade with the bodies of these two people inside., Briana Clemens captures the selfies had to be eliminated. Then he’s liked by a hit and run driver. Did they follow Gustavo or were they already in place?

But it gets bolder and better when Edney reveals Gustavo snuck into the country before, is a convicted rapist and used a gun from the Guns & Roses sting. The media is hyped. Then this same assassin follows the two people who took the selfies to Porto and kills them.

The media is manipulated by Edney stating Gustavo is just the start of the border problem. Four people are dead what’s next?

Someone is going to manipulate the words of the President and things are going to get hotter as Healy and the President have hard decisions to make. Now with all of this at his fingertips will Ian create the perfect thriller to stop what has been put into place?

Ian and Marco are smart but a fake video with the President’s words aired on every network and make Edney a household name. Lies were told and the story was invented for the United States to go to war with Mexico and allow the Russians to take what they wanted unnoticed. But words are powerful, and the President did not and would not stand for the lies but what the CIA Director allows, what Ian creates as a plot to foil those that started it all you won’t believe. Edney leaves the studio and for the first time begins to question himself why Russia wanted America at war with Mexico. Edney’s show was a fake and his own doubts about the VIboras being part of the foiled drug smuggling operation. Lies, betrayals, words that are more powerful at times than actions and the entire world is watching to see the outcome.

How does this all end? Will Edney be outed as a Russian Spy? What about his mother who is his handler? What about the female assassin that goes after Marco? Ian’s house is torched, Mei and Ian need to figure out where to hide and the whole world can’t wait to find out how he writes the plot and what the ending will be. Ian news to create this novel, deal with the murders and hopefully survive. Time to write another Clint Straker novel or is he going to be his own star? The next time you hear a story on the news and listen to the commentator you need to focus on the words, the hidden expressions and decide whether what you are hearing is Fake News, the truth or in his case what they want passed off as FAKE TRUTH! With the humorous twists, quips and turns that only author Lee Goldberg can deliver once again Ian Ludow creates a plot that is so over the top, so unique that you might want a starring role in his next one. Characters that are unique and not what you expect in a mystery thriller author Lee Goldberg leaves reader wondering what’s next for Ian and Marco and will it be a Straker novel or you never know?

It moved along at a good pace. Plot was good but his relationship with the Chinese women didn’t ring true. Hope she doesn’t return. I do like his relationship with Ms French.