Lethal Elements

by Joel Gomez-Dossi

In the wilderness, man is the deadliest element.Geologist Tom Burrell’s relationship with his husband, Roman, is on rocky ground. So when a mysterious company asks Tom to perform mineral studies in the Adirondack Mountains, he jumps at the chance. But before he can finish his tests, he finds himself lost in the wilderness and chased by a hired gun. And now it’s up to Roman to rescue his husband.

But in order to succeed, Roman must first piece together the missing elements of Tom’s disappearance and discover the secret goals of the company that hired him. If he fails, Tom will die and one of the nation’s most unique ecosystems, the Adirondack Mountains, will be in danger.

222 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 17, 2015

Reviews

[LenaRibka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded up to 4 stars.

I've never heard about the author before picking up this book, but the blurb got my attention, and I decided to give it a try. Founding out that Joel Gomez-Dossi is a freelance writer who came to journalism by way of theatre, television, and digital media production, helps me better to understand his writing style: a quick pace and dynamic of the plot, fast scene changes with short chapters, the choice of the topic, but maybe also a sterile clearness of his writing that is a good attribute for writing an article, but maybe not always suitable for writing books. But somehow here, for this kind of plot it was okay, and this emotional indifference toward the MCs didn't bother me too much.

Even if a married couple stays in the main focus of this book, it is not actually about them, but about corruption on the high level, and how international crime organizations move their operation through the globe, protected by political power and dirty money. To achieve their aims, these organizations do stop at nothing, and at that take the death of human beings and possible ecological catastrophes for granted.

It is a sad coinsidence that while I was reading this book, a terrible accident happened in the port of Tianjin, northern China, that killed more than a hundred people and devastated large areas of the city. It is also a pretty depressing truth that China has perfected itself in controlling of political attitudes of its citizens completely fails to excersise the strict control when working with chemical materials and pollution of the environment. So, the topic that Joel Gomes-Dossi has chosen for his book is very up-to-date.

There are some interesting facts that I learned from this book. Have you known, for example, that
** China leads in the production of Rare Earth Elements? (They are a collection of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, that are nessesary for smartphones, color screens, electric-powered cars and many other devices of our time, actually it is impossible to imagine a modern technology without them)
** And that in principle these Rare Elements are not that rare what one might suppose from their name. But Rare Earth Elements aren't like gold or silver, wich can be removed from the ground bwithout a lot of effort. Rare earths have to be exctracted from the minerals they're embedded in by washing them with acids. It is why REEs are very costly to mine and process.
** According to Bredsher , China is able to extract these REEs economically by ignoring ecological safeguards.

Back to the book:

Tom and his husband Roman have been married since almost a decade, and in spite of their love to each other, they live through a difficult phase in their relationship at the moment. When Tom, a freelance geologist, who has been working for the last few months for the Occidental Corporation hasn't come back from the Adirondack Mountains, Roman reports him as missing, but the police doesn't takes it too sereiously. After all, Tom disappeared already for some days after in the past, without informing his husband, but Roman feels that this time it is a different situation. Unfortunately he doesn't know a lot about Tom's current job, they haven't been recently talked too much to each other. It is why Roman decides to go to the Adirondack Mountains to find Tom himself, aimed with all possible poor information he could get about Tom's last contract. Luckily he won't do it by his own - in Starlight he gets help from Deputy Gus Webber, who has been assigned to this case, and his family - Webber's son, a skilled computer freak will prove himself as very useful! What follows next is an action packed thriller, with changing scenes all over the globe, Tom's struggle for survival in the wilderness, hitmEn(yes, there are two of them her) and a lot of more.

As I've already mentioned, it is not a romance book. Even if I myself wasn't emotionally very connected to the main characters, I could still enjoyed the story. It was more like a jornalistic investigation with a lillte personal touch.

It was interesting enough to keep me busy with the plot and I learned some interesting facts about REEs. Even if it is a work of fiction, it based on the well known facts.

**Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

[Ije the Devourer of Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good mystery-thriller, overflowing with conspiracies, battles for survival and shadowy international dealings.

With a frisson of romance.

I received this from Bold Stroke Books via NetGalley and I am glad I requested it. I hadn't read anything by Joel Gomez-Dossi before and so it was a great way for me to try out a new-to-me author.

And of course I was gripped by the story from the first words. Tom is missing. He has woken up to find himself in the wilderness of the Adirondacks but he doesn't remember how he got there. He only knows that he needs to survive until rescuers find him and he knows they will be looking for him because of Roman.

Roman is Tom's husband. Their relationship is strained because of the loss and grief they both share but now Tom has disappeared and Roman knows that Tom needs help. Roman starts to pull together the mystery to find out why his husband has disappeared without a trace.

Meanwhile there are shadowy dealings going on. Tom has discovered something that could jeopardise dealings for powerful people and they are also hunting for Tom.

I enjoyed this. I liked it because the mystery was shadowy enough so that I couldn't automatically solve it myself nor hope for a happy ending. I had to work alongside Roman to understand what had happened to Tom. Meanwhile Tom is caught up in his survival in the wilderness and because he has lost his memory he doesn't know who to trust, just that he should run.

I think this survival in the wilderness was the most thrilling part of the book and my heart was in my mouth as Tom found himself in dicey and dangerous situations again and again. I liked this because Tom was so obviously the 'hero' and I found myself cheering for him as he took each agonising step towards freedom and safety.

And did he make it? Read it and see.

The other aspect of this book that I loved was the relationship between Tom and Roman. Through flashbacks we get to see how they met and fell in love and how they created a family of their own, only to end up facing loss and grief and being some what distanced towards each other. The story brings this emotional part of their characters to life by using flashbacks but the author integrated these so well that they flow with the story in a way that is seamless.

And then there is the shadowy dimensions of the story. People who hold power but remain unseen in darkness, but they hold the power to hurt people and to cause life or death through their actions. This gave the story suspense and helped build up tension. It also showed the complexities of this network of power and how Tom is unwittingly involved.

It is a really great book if you like mystery thrillers. It held my attention and had some really great characters. I have added the previous books by this author to my ever growing to read list.

[LenaRibka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never heard about the author before picking up this book, but the blurb got my attention, and I decided to give it a try. Founding out that Joel Gomez-Dossi is a freelance writer who came to journalism by way of theatre, television, and digital media production, helps me better to understand his writing style: a quick pace and dynamic of the plot, fast scene changes with short chapters, the choice of the topic, but maybe also a sterile clearness of his writing that is a good attribute for writing an article, but maybe not always suitable for writing books. But somehow here, for this kind of plot it was okay, and this emotional indifference toward the MCs didn't bother me too much.

Even if a married couple stays in the main focus of this book, it is not actually about them, but about corruption on the high level, how international crime organizations move their operation through the globe, protected by political power and dirty money. To achieve their aims, these organizations do stop at nothing, and at that take the death of human beings and possible ecological catastrophes for granted.

It is a sad coinsidence that while I was reading this book, a terrible accident happened in the port of Tianjin, northern China, that killed more than a hundred people and devastated large areas of the city. It is also a pretty depressing truth that China has perfected itself in controlling of political attitudes of its citizens completely fails to excersise the strict control when working with chemical materials and pollution of the environment. So, the topic that Joel Gomes-Dossi has chosen for his book is very up-to-date.

There are some interesting facts that I learned from this book. Have you known, for example, that
** China leads in the production of Rare Earth Elements? (They are a collection of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, that are necessary for smart-phones, colour screens, electric-powered cars and many other devices of our time, actually it is impossible to imagine a modern technology without them)
** And that in principle these Rare Elements are not that rare what one might suppose from their name. But Rare Earth Elements aren't like gold or silver, which can be removed from the ground without a lot of effort. Rare earths have to be extracted from the minerals they're embedded in by washing them with acids. It is why REEs are very costly to mine and process.
** According to Bredsher , China is able to extract these REEs economically by ignoring ecological safeguards.

Back to the book:

Tom and his husband Roman have been married since almost a decade, and in spite of their love to each other, they live through a difficult phase in their relationship at the moment. When Tom, a freelance geologist, who has been working for the last few months for the Occidental Corporation hasn't come back from the Adirondack Mountains, Roman reports him as missing, but the police doesn't takes it too seriously. After all, Tom disappeared already for some days after in the past, without informing his husband, but Roman feels that this time it is a different situation. Unfortunately he doesn't know a lot about Tom's current job, they haven't been recently talked too much to each other. It is why Roman decides to go to the Adirondack Mountains to find Tom himself, aimed with all possible poor information he could get about Tom's last contract. Luckily he won't do it by his own - in Starlight he gets help from Deputy Gus Webber, who has been assigned to this case, and his family - Webber's son, a skilled computer freak will prove himself as very useful! What follows next is an action packed thriller, with changing scenes all over the globe, Tom's struggle for survival in the wilderness, hit-men(yes, there are two of them her) and a lot of more.

As I've already mentioned, it is not a romance book. Even if I myself wasn't emotionally very connected to the main characters, I could still enjoyed the story. It was more like a journalistic investigation with a little personal touch.

It was interesting enough to keep me busy with the plot and I learned some interesting facts about REEs. Even if it is a work of fiction, it based on the well known facts.

**Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of "Lethal Elements" by the publisher via Netgalley for free in exchange for an honest review.
I requested this novel because I was interested in the premise of the story. A geologist wakes up in the wilderness not knowing how or why (at first) what happened. All he knows is someone is trying to kill him. The story was fast paced but distracted me a bit with the rapid changes from the current situation to past memories of the characters which I found to be a little choppy. The story was also very sharp and to the point which I can understand considering the author's background is in journalism. I really enjoyed the style of writing. I always like to learn something from the books I read and this one did not let me down. I learned about an area of geology I was not aware of. The author did a great job of blending this knowledge into the story very well. I thought the emotional background of the main characters with their relationship troubles and shared grief from a previous tragedy really added to the story. I did wish (more than once) to be able to drop into the story so I could smack Roman near the end though lol (Snap out of it man! Calm down and let the police do their job! Do you need a valium?). All in all, I found the novel to be a light and exciting read. I am interested to see what the author comes up with next.