A man who has lost everything — his job, his wife and daughter — gets the one chance to redeem himself, to save a person’s life. In The Chosen Ones by Lisa Luciano, Brody gets fired from his job as a reporter and his wife leaves him. The sports editor of the newspaper gets an anonymous voicemail which claims that one of the top male skaters will be dead before the end of the Winter Olympics. The editor asks Brody to go undercover as a trainer to uncover the source of the plot. Brody knows a life hangs in the balance and time is ticking by, every minute, every day, drawing towards the end, but does he have what it takes to save a life or will he live with the guilt of not having tried hard enough?
I am not a fan of skating, but the reader gets the impression that the author did good research on the topic, allowing readers to have a detailed glimpse of what happens in big sporting competitions — the greed, the corruption, and the racism. The characters are emotionally rich and convincing. I loved the psychological depth of the protagonist, a broken man struggling to find important answers to save a life. The writing is atmospheric and the setting is vividly captured in engaging prose. Lisa Luciano uses suspense to get readers turning the pages, wondering who can possibly be the victim and who is the killer. It’s a story with a powerful premise, a strong conflict, and a gripping plot. The Chosen Ones is a good read. – Romuald Dzemo, Readers Favorite
Brody Yates has fallen on hard times. Fired from his job as a sports reporter for a major newspaper, he decides to masquerade as a trainer in order to infiltrate the backstage world of figure skating. He has one chance to save someone’s life and to turn his around by breaking the story of a lifetime. The Chosen Ones, though fictionalized, reveals the secrets behind the sequins against the backdrop of the high pressure sport of world class figure skating. In this non-stop thriller, only one person can win. Not everyone will survive.