The Teddy Bear Conspiracy

by Duane Gundrum

From the author of Innocent Until Proven Guilty and Deadly Deceptions....

Glass, the new billion-dollar street drug. It's cheaper than coke, more addictive. . . and it's got a secret.

Admitting the drug trade was out of control and the War on Drugs a failure, a covert collaboration between the DEA and the CIA develops a drug that is cheaper than cocaine. More addictive and with a formula totally under their control, in only five years, this new drug, Glass, has completely devastated the drug market.

The first half of the mission a success, the plan to eradicate the drug lords and then focus on treatment has gone terribly wrong. All because someone in the agency doesn't want to relinquish control.

Now Daniel Burke is fighting for his life. A double-crossed CIA agent, he's forced to confront an overzealous FBI agent known for always getting her man and the Colombian drug lords who see Burke as "target number one".

Can Burke evade his own people, escape the FBI and still manage to bring the drug cartels to their knees?

297 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 2013

About the author

I have been writing novels pretty much my entire life. Influenced early by authors like Stephen King, Clive Cussler and Daniel Boorstin, I was probably ten years old when I tried to write my first novel. And yes, it was pretty bad. I recently re-read it and laughed out loud for about an hour because I still can't figure out what I was trying to write back then.

I've evolved a lot since that first attempt.

My first published novel was INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY, which takes place in the corporate world of Los Angeles, involving a murder, a set-up and lots of action. It was written when I was in the Army, stationed in Germany and struggling to balance my writing life with a military career. As a counterintelligence agent, I then started moving into espionage fiction (DEADLY DECEPTIONS).

My genres cross all sorts of fields these days. I have a series of science fiction/fantasy novels about the world of Reagul (DESTINY) as well as a number of other science fiction novels (LOSER, THOMPSON'S BOUNTY). LOSER is the story of an Exterminator whose job it is to hunt down the failures of the future, called Losers, before he starts to suspect that the Losers may be more than what they appear and that the government may be hiding secrets that may change the course of humanity forever. THOMPSON'S BOUNTY is the story of a Coast Guard lieutenant who chases a ship into the past, finding himself in the world of pirates, privateers and a vindictive English admiral.

I was born in Santa Monica, California, where I grew up before finishing up high school in Moorpark, California. I attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the US Army for a number of years in counterintelligence. After the Army, I became an investigator, a web page designer, and then a low level programmer for a software gaming company. I have designed numerous games over the years, including PRISONER OF Z'ANTH and US AIR FORCE'S STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND. I have completed degrees at San Francisco State University, Western Michigan University and the University of the Pacific. I hold master's degrees in communication and political science. My Phd work was in political science at Western Michigan University.

I currently work in the health care field, creating and maintaining web content for a large hospital system.

My latest completed novel is called THE AMERIAD, a humorous Greek epic about the founding of America by the survivors of Troy. It has not yet been published, as I am still searching for a publisher. It's amazing how hard it is to get humor published these days if you're not a well known stand up comic.

My current project is another Reagul novel (the first in a series) called A SEASON OF KINGS.

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from Library Thing to read and review. The plot of the book involves drug operations and how agencies try to figure out what is going on and how to combat them. The plot involves recognition of failure by government Agencies responsible in the fight against illegal drugs. Though it fails to help or alleviate the situation, the government invents a new drug that is cheaper and more readily available than cocaine, but rather than helping the situation, it makes things worse because then the agencies have to figure out what to do about the groups/organizations that are behind the illegal drug economy. I found the storyline interesting, but it could use some editorial work to smooth it out and tighten it up. There were several spelling errors, and the author became a bit wordy, especially in the latter part of the book. In the latter part, the book also covers a myriad of situations and people but I felt the transitions were not well done or easy to follow. As I said, the book needs editorial work badly. However, the storyline is good and shows some real promise. With some work, this could be a fairly good novel. Right now, I am not sure.

[Releanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is a pretty standard spy and thriller plot. The first third was rather nice, but then there are more and more spelling errors, words repeated etc. It seemed to me that the author had to meet a deadline and wanted to finish the book really fast. In the end it was almost like reading an abstract.
What I also find rather irritating are these sentences:
"He shook his head no"
"He nodded his head yes".
no and yes in these sentences are totally unnecessary, IMO.
In the "about the author" it says that Mr. Gundrum takes lots of time and efforts to formulate and look for the right words - it seems that he didn't do that here at all.

[David Ketelsen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book from LibraryThing in a Kindle format.

I can't comment on the entire novel since I only read the prologue and first chapter.

For me there were far too many inconsistencies and logical errors in just those few pages. The book might have improved further along but I wasn't willing to subject myself to the aggravation. To sum it up in a nutshell, this comes across as a hastily written TV show, not a book.

[Snik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a Kindle version of this book for free on LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review.

This is an excellent spy and conspiracy story with a bit of romance mixed in. While some parts of the story are predictable, there are others that are unexpectedly not. This is a book that I would enjoy re-reading! The copy I received has a few grammar and spelling errors that rather stand out. If not for those, I would give the book 5 stars.

[Barbara Huskey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book from a LibraryThing member giveaway. I tried to get into it, but it just didn't captivate me. I struggled through 25% of the book before giving up. The premise sounded good to me, but the writing style just doesn't work for me. Maybe if I had a military background it would have helped.

[Kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not get past the grammar and spelling errors. I might have listened to this as an audiobook, but unfortunately it was not available.