... I purchased your book at the Pasco FWA conference last Saturday and started reading it yesterday. I had trouble putting it down, and only did so when I had to. From the beginning I cared very much about your main character, Harry, and those he cared about. Your blend of description, action, emotion, dialogue, and suspense made your novel an exciting and satisfying read. You have an amazing talent, IMHO better than most "popular" authors. I thank you - your book "made my day."

JL

"The thriller portion of Flash of Emerald is first-rate. Modern-day thrillers are essentially fantasies. Flash of Emerald is no exception."

J. Crispin-Ripley in Knowbetter Reviews

Harry Stoner has a personal history that's as interesting as his professional one. Boyhood dreams and a will to succeed land him in Cuba for his first military assignment, where he meets his first love and also suffers his first loss. Later, Stoner climbs all the way to colonel before landing at a desk job with defense intelligence.

Taylor, like Stoner, is more than capable of handling the complicated twists and surprises of this layered plot. A large cast of characters, many with competing goals, people a story that picks up its pace when Stoner's paper-pushing job reveals missing nuclear weapon components. He realizes he must uncover the evil behind a conspiracy that goes deep into world politics and corrupt government.

Taylor's writing is intelligent and absorbing. This story sizzles with suspense and it's also full of authentic details, sure to delight military buffs and conspiracy theorists alike. (Mar., 385 pp., $14.95)
—Cindy Harrison, Romantic Times Book Club

Anne K. Edwards, September 19, 2004
eBook Reviews Weekly
http://www.ebook-reviews.net
Author of Death on Delivery
http://www.Mysteryfiction.net

Though not a soldier of fortune, Corporal Harry Stoner's story has many of the same qualities, adventure, beautiful women, intrigue, battles and a life of danger. For any reader of thrillers or tales of intrigue.

Life couldn't be more precious than when faced with imminent death so Corporal Harry Stoner learns during an abortive attempt to deliver arms to the Cuban underground. Someone had betrayed them.

Wounded, Harry recuperates and is then enrolled in OCS, after which he ends up in Vietnam.  This is followed by a job in a government office, a position taken to be able to spend time with his wife, but she is killed in a terrible auto accident.

That someone wants Harry dead becomes apparent and you will sit on the edge of your chair waiting for him to find out and begin the hunt.  An exciting read with lots of action. You will find an interesting mix of villains among the characters.  A fun read that will keep you reading.  Enjoy.

The Fiction Shelf
Midwest Book Review, May, 2002:

J. M. Taylor's A Flash Of Emerald is a gripping action/adventure novel of Harry Stoner, a military man who has come home to a personal battle in the dark underside of Tampa's Ybor City and the Florida Keys. International arms dealers and murderous terrorists jockey for possession of a stolen nuclear weapon in this suspense-filled story that simply cannot be put down from first page to last. Attention Hollywood, Flash Of Emerald is the stuff of which great action/adventure movies are made!

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer, Midwest Book Reviews, September, 2002:

J.M. Taylor has an impressive array of talents, to say the least. He served with the 101st Airborne Division as platoon leader and battalion commander; served at the Pentagon, in Germany, the Middle East, and Vietnam. He is a trained scuba diver; parachute trained for airborne assault; worked as a systems engineer; and finally, is a writer. In short, he puts the rest of us to shame!

Harry Stoner began his career as part of the failed attempt to free Cuba in the 1960's. Set in Southern Florida, home of the Southern Cross and the life enhancing "flash of emerald" at sunset for those lucky enough to catch it, Harry Stoner returns from his present assignment in Virginia to help his daughter with a "problem." That problem turns out to be her husband Lou's relatives, who have added drug trafficking to their import/export business. Lou has stumbled upon the "goods," and now his Uncle Lastero is threatening his life unless he joins in with the family "business." That business turns into money for guns, and Stoner finds himself in the middle of a plot to detonate a nuclear bomb, as well as being the object of the terrorists' hatred. Harry himself has unwitting been the target of terrorists, whose attempt to kill him resulted in the death of his wife, Lynn. To catch the terrorists and save his daughter and husband from danger, he must return to his military training, old friends, and keen thinking of a survivor:

"When he's been really working, not just clerking, Stoner had squirreled away the old identities, depositing small amounts of money in the scattered accounts and making charges against the cards, keeping everything legit. Back then he'd thought toward the future. He had almost let those days slip away. He thought back. When was the last time he had used the bank card? The expiration date came up next month. He had let the old days slide way back in his memory."

A Flash Of Emerald is a hard-hitting, exciting spy game story with lots of subplots, intense and charismatic characters, and enough action to glue the reader to the book. Harry Stoner is a larger-than-life character who single handedly takes on a Florida drug ring and a terrorist group at the same time. Taylor lends his considerable expertise to the story to give the reader insight into just what the military does to keep the bad guys out and to police their own. A great read!

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