Moratorium Description
Editor's Review from Bibliotastic (http://www.bibliotastic.com)
This story had me hooked right from the get-go. The characters are very well written, my favorite being Cyrus Fleming, the aging detective who arrests Dana but subsequently comes to realize he is innocent and that there is much more to the murder story than he had first appreciated. I was genuinely hooked and enjoyed it. Overall I consider this story to be a great read!
Reader Comment submitted by Judy Cronen on 29 August, 2011 - 15:20.
A very good, fast paced book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Write more!
Reader Comment submitted by Ron Davidson on 1 October, 2011 - 08:01.
This is the first book I've read on Bibliotastic - and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
This story would make a good film. Thank you Chuck.
Moratorium is a tale of backroom deals, treachery and big oil.
~~The son of Californiaβs richest oil magnate, Mike Tanner, washes up dead on the shores of Rincon Beach...
When his body is discovered, Senior Detective Sergeant Cyrus Fleming takes charge of the murder investigation. With the humiliating loss of a famous celebrity case still fresh in his mind, he goes on a mission to recover the reputation of the Santa Barbara Police Department.
~~Fleming arrests Dana for murder...
Dana tells the cynical Fleming he is being framed, but the detective is resolute. He is going to nail the famous Dana Mathers with a case so solid, even a star-struck jury of Santa Barbarans will have to convict him.
~~And then in an instant everything changes...
Flemingβs squad car flips over and bursts into flame. Dana Mathers, the party-boy surfer, risks his life to save Fleming from the twisted wreckage.
~~Now Fleming must choose...
Either he restores his career and the reputation of his department, or he believes the man who saved his life and rescues him from life in prison. His investigation leads him to places he doesnβt want to go and to suspects far more dangerous and powerful than a hometown surf hero.
~~Fleming crosses paths with Jeff Moon, alias βProfessorββ¦
A brilliant physicist turned Anarchist, Moon is out to revive the public outrage Californians had against the oil companies back in 1969, when the infamous Platform A spilled a million gallons of crude onto the beautiful beaches of Santa Barbara. The result of this fiasco: Earth Day and a forty year moratorium against any further exploratory drilling.
~~But with gas prices skyrocketing and oil supplies peaking, the push to remove the oil moratorium is growingβ¦
This time, Moon wants to create the βMother of All Oil Spillsβ to stop the oil companies. Enter Maverick Duncan, a Russo-Asian and spy for the Chinese Ministry of Intelligence.
He and the wily Bao Yang, bitter representative of the Chinese National Oil Company whose incompetence caused China to lose itβs bid to buy out UNOCAL, the tenth largest oil company in the world, finance Moonβs scheme for their own purposes.
As a professional engineer and writer for a local research company, Chuck Sampson investigates new scientific ideas and incorporates what he learns into compelling action adventure mystery thrillers.
Before settling down into his engineering profession, Chuck spent fours years working on the Dana Bill fishing trawler in the frigid waters off the coast of Maine. He spent four more years in the jungles of Panama as a forward observer for the US Army.