Licia Flynn's Book and Movie Review Blog

After watching Gaddafi butchered alive, I pulled out a notepad and created an outline for my book Firm Resolve. I divided the book into five sections and carefully broke each part into chapters and sub-chapters before writing. Part 1 was inspired by the disappearance of CIA agent Jim Thompson. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte was a heavy influence for much of the book. Corporal King from King Rat, stories about Vietnam, and the Iran Contra Affair inspired Natalia's father, Aaron Walker, and the backdrop of the entire story. I was also influenced by the structure and style of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, which is about a Victorian marriage in the Caribbean. There are several plots in Firm Resolve — 1.) The disappearance of Natalia’s parents, 2.) How Natalia survived in the intervening years and changes from a fiery young woman into a very determined agent and why she disappears, and 3.) Curt Steiger’s fraudulent business activities as a pharmaceutical startup founder. The d...

Crichton's State of Fear is an action-adventure about eco-terrorism and an impending global catastrophe. The main character is Peter Evans, a big firm environmental lawyer. His main client is an eccentric wealthy donor named George Morton. Morton mysteriously disappears after pulling substantial funding from an environmental organization. The goal of NERF is to wage a trillion-dollar lawsuit based on global warming evidence. Evans is a nice guy. However, he's relatively passive in his approach to life, whether it be in his acceptance of mainstream propaganda or his relationships with women. His encounters are casual and not exactly meaningful. At one point, Evans is interested in a lawyer, Jennifer Haynes from D.C. But he doesn't pursue her because he assumes it'll never work out. Throughout the book, Evans is in love with Morton's assistant, Sarah Jones, a beautiful blonde from the Bay Area. But instead of taking charge, he whines that Sarah isn't interes...