MRC RECOMMENDS: Where Love Means Nothing by Howard Gimple
” …a reader will likely be perched on the edge of their seat.”
– The Mystery Review Crew
Where Love Means Nothing
By Howard Gimple
Genre: Thriller
Tennis pro Jake Marks is the first American in decades with a real shot to win the U.S. Open. But his side gig keeps getting in the way. He’s an assassin for Millennium, a paramilitary organization with vague ties to the U.S. government. Jake travels the world, winning tennis matches and killing bad guys. But when his targets start becoming good guys, Jake realizes that Millennium has gone over to the dark side, and he quits. Now the hunter is the hunted, both by Millennium’s hitmen and Colonel James (Jungle Jim) Kelleher, a brutal mercenary who believes Jake murdered his wife.
Not the best time for Jake to fall in love, especially since the woman of his dreams is Kelleher’s daughter. But that’s what happened. Now all he needs to do to find true happiness is take out Millennium, win over her dad and take home the U.S. Open trophy.
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Review of Where Love Means Nothing by Howard Gimple
Where Love Means Nothing hits an ace in its entertainment value. Author Howard Gimple is truly a gifted storyteller, and his telling of this story will provide a reader with hours of bookish joy.
Driving the story along with his wonderful characters, we have three who take the main court. First up is James Kelleher, colonel, U.S. Army, retired. Next is Jake Marks, a tennis player on the pro tour and part time patriotic assassin. Wedged in the middle is Maggie Quinlan, a high school girls’ gymnastics coach and Kelleher’s estranged daughter, who was always told her father was dead.
In the beginning of the story, Brigid Quinlan (Maggie’s mother) is interviewing a Washington politician near the United Nations building. A disguised gunman comes up and shoots the politician four times in the chest; a few seconds later, a fifth shot rings out, hitting Brigid in the chest, killing her. This action starts a series of events that puts the three main characters on a collision course where each of their lives will be at risk.
We thought it to be a treat to have all the action that Gimple is known for yet have the entire story on a backdrop of the pro tennis tour. To add to the tennis tour atmosphere, each section of the story is called a “set.”
Gimple’s description is crisp and to the point. In describing the lobby of a New York building, he wrote, “The large, lavish space was paneled in dark wood. Burgundy leather chairs and sofas were situated near mahogany coffee tables and end tables. Golden crystal chandeliers hung from the high ceiling, and Persian rugs covered the polished oak floors.” We also enjoyed those places where a little levity in description allowed the reader to come up and breathe: “his doorman-bodyguard Herman, who has the body of a whale and the brain of a guppy.”
The character arcs are what kicks this novel up a notch. Each of the three main characters change in some significant way before the end of the story. (The way they change may not be what the reader expects, so be sure to read until the end.)
Close to the characters’ arc are the pacing and switchbacks. The pacing is good, but in the last half of the book, a reader will likely be perched on the edge of their seat. Likewise, the switchbacks are multiple and keenly set. There were several that we didn’t see coming at all. Stories like that are just so much fun to read!
We highly recommend this story to all readers.
About Howard Gimple
Howard Gimple has been a penslinger for most of his adult life. He was a writer at Newsday, the editor of a newsletter for the New York Giants football team, and a copywriter and creative director for several New York ad agencies. He has written English dialogue for the American releases of Japanese anime cartoons and reviewed books for the Long Island History Journal and movies for a pay-per-view television network.
Howard was Chief Creative Officer at TajMania Entertainment, a film and TV production company dedicated to creating socially conscious programming. He wrote ’The Garbageman,’ an award-winning documentary about a waste management executive who helped save the lives of more than 50,000 children with congenital heart disease.
Howard was a writer and sports editor for the Stony Brook University alumni magazine. He also taught two seminars at the university, ‘Rock & Relevance,’ about the political influence of 60’s rock & roll and ‘Filthy Shakespeare,’ exploring the dramatic use of sexual puns and innuendos in the Bard’s plays and poems.
Obviously unable to hold a job for any length of time, Howard turned to writing novels, where his chances of getting fired are minimal.
Howard grew up in Brooklyn, which became cool shortly after he departed. He now lives in Glendora, California with his wife, Chris, and his goldendoodle, Brinkley.
Visit him at: https://howardgimple.com/
