Desperate by Daniel Palmer

Desperate by Daniel Palmer

An illusion is something that appears or looks different from what it really is. It is false, not real but at the time your reality.

Based on lies, deceits and wrong ideas, thoughts, and deceptive motives someone can create a picture-perfect appearance, impression, and hopefully a sense of false security that won’t be broken. Sometimes we want something so much that we do not question, ask or even look into a situation that drops into our laps because we want whatever we are being told, have seen, or experienced to be true.

How far will one man go to save his wife, his job, and his integrity even if it means forgetting everything he ever stood for or will stand for in the future? A desperate need, urgent desire, desperate situation or hunger to eliminate debt, find a way to scam someone in order to benefit himself at the other person’s expense: Desperate by Daniel Palmer gives new meaning to the word in more ways than one.

Misery, trouble, pain, agony, sorrow, distraction, and heartache are just some of the issues that are brought to light in this mystery/thriller novel. Despair, a desperate look of approval, and an urgent need to create a change in your life or of someone you love as we meet Gage Dekker our main character who is about to find himself entering a world more deadly, more dangerous, and diabolical than he could ever imagine.

A chance meeting on the street and his whole world will change. The art of manipulation is quite interesting and situations that are well orchestrated, expertly planned can wreak more than just havoc, despondency, fear, and sorrow within a person. A young woman finds herself sitting on a curb just when you happen to walk by. Crying and seemingly unhappy you and your wife decide to stop and see if you can be of any assistance.

Gage and his wife Anna appear to befriend this young woman as the scene opens, the players are on stage and the action has yet to begin. Lily, is the young woman’s name and Anna Dekker, appears taken with her and presents her with her business card offering her any help she might need.

Happily married or so it appears, Gage and Anna befriend this young, beautiful and striking young woman and begin a discussion that would take Gage on a collision course more dangerous and with more curves than a racecar driver experiences during a Nascar Competition.

While Anna seems to be bonding and befriending this young woman, they learn that she is about to have a child but her boyfriend, so supposed father wants no part of it. Illusions are quite believable when the players involved have done this before and the victim is unaware.

Claiming to be pregnant and telling this news to Anna, hoping that she will agree to adopt her unborn child. But, there is much more. Two people meet during a meeting at a grief center and over time they fall in love.  Gage feels guilty and remorse for the death of his wife and son, Max. Anna over her son Kevin she claims died from a rare blood disease.

But, something does not ring true after a while and Gage begins to find himself locked in a situation with nowhere to turn, no doors to open to escape from, and a young girl that has been kicked out of her home, landing on his very own doorstep.

Gage always thinking about Max, feeling his presence at times, and Anna wanting to become a mother once more and claiming to have come from an abusive marriage leading to her divorce. But, Anna will do anything so it seems to become a parent and with a miscarriage in her history, the loss of her child she is desperate to find a way to have a child at all costs.

Gage is smart, astute and thinks before acting. Anna is rash, quick to make decisions, and finds herself wanting to become a parent and will do anything to achieve her goal. When Lily winds up on their doorstep and offers to let them adopt her unborn child, Anna does not hesitate but Gage has questions that need to be answered.

A gnawing feeling, a serious sense of danger and uncertainty fill him and he wonders why this young girl came into their lives. But, Anna is convincing and plays her role to the hilt and he relents allowing Lily to move into the vacated apartment above their home. Desperation, despair and the need to fill the void she claims would make her life complete, he relents and agrees to the adoption.

But, odd things begin to happen and Lily is at the center of each one. A gift that reminds him of his son Max throws him for a loop. An encounter with Anna’s mother at a nursing home finds him wondering why this woman with ALZ comes alive all of a sudden and seems lucid.

A man whose suspicions gave way to a harsh reality that something about Lily was odd, but when bringing up his doubts to Anna her response was anything but rational and the end result would make Gage give in.

But, things heat up as we learn that in order to cope with life Gage has become addicted to Adderall a drug given to people with ADHD to help them focus.

Gage is more than addicted to it and working as a quality assurance director for a lithium battery designer named Peter George, we learn the history of this battery as the author takes us inside his office, his job and we meet the team of people that have created the Olympian Battery that plays an integral part in what is about to happen next.

Anna is self-employed and is a management consultant. Anna is hoping to land a huge deal that would allow her to take off a year of work and care for their child. Gage however finds Lily to be secretive, elusive, and feels that this whole adoption might be a mistake.

But, before passing final judgment he enlists the help of his friend Brad, a plumber, with powers to sense someone’s energy, feel someone’s presence, and the ability to tell if negative energy emanates from a person.

Lily decides to move in with Gage and Anna and the events that follow the present and the incident in the nursing home are as frightening as an episode on the Twilight Zone or Chiller Theater.

As the reader enters into the mind of Lily, the author brilliantly injects her boyfriend Roy, the father of this child and things take a different turn as the twists and strange surprises in the lineup change and the outcome is frightening.

Daniel Palmer adds another touch of intrigue as Gage becomes immersed in the testing program of the new Olympian Battery hoping that the meeting with the CEO present and those in charge would go well. Adam Wong, Matt Simons, and the entire team watched as the demo turned bad, a fire ensued and they never were able to find out what caused the battery fire.

Until something happened and Gage finally realized that someone sabotaged the demo and when he learned who and why he would use it to his advantage as Roy and Lily were aiming to make his life more than unbearable. Was Lily really pregnant? What was the motive behind infiltrating into Gage’s life? Why was Gage becoming more addicted to the drug having difficulty functioning without it?

What happens when Roy blackmails him into doing a drug bust, possibly involving him in murder and claiming that he owed someone so much money that if he didn’t help him he would use some fabricated information against him with Anna.

With their adoption on the line, the research into adoption quite well documented, home visits and the appearance that all just might turn out the right way, the reader along with Gage have a gnawing feeling within the pit of their stomachs that something is off but what?

Things begin to take on another face and Brad along with Gage begins to unravel a deadly plot so diabolical that you just won’t believe what final outcome. As Gage starts to rethink some of what Lily has told him and things about her routines and daily activities make no sense, Anna thinks he is either too nervous, scared and their once sound marriage seems to be going south.

With Anna and Lily bonding and Gage having to do Roy’s dirty work what happens will mystify and alert readers that researching someone’s past, accepting them at face value is not the way to go. Wait until you find out why and who is behind this giant hoax and why?

With his company’s financial state on the line and his hope to please his wife Gage Dekker has to make a decision that would change his life, cause him to put aside his integrity and possibly sell out more than just his morals, values, and ethics.

Would you put your career on the line just to keep your family safe? What happens when the truth comes out, Anna is kidnapped and Gage is pushed beyond his limit and must find a way to safe himself from what someone else has perfectly orchestrated.

With the help of his friend Brad who can sense a person’s energy, his plumbing tools, his ingenuity, and creative thinking can Gage save himself before it’s too late? Desperate: How desperate is Gage to keep his life intact, his sanity, and his job? How desperate are Roy and Lily to get what they want? How desperate is one man in Lithium Systems to take down someone else for his own benefit?

The author researches the battery, its history in chapter 8 and we learn just how powerful this battery is, its uses and why Gage’s company created Olympian, a small battery that would change the face of technology. What would you do with a battery in your cell phone that was really long-lasting and would charge much faster than any phone on the market today?

With Anna playing the devil’s advocate and making Gage feel insecure, unwanted, and cast aside, author Daniel Palmer allows readers to hear Gage’s thoughts and feelings firsthand as the story is told in the first-person narrative. Characters that are crafty, deceitful, believable, and Gage who at times seem to need a good shot in the arm to stop taking Adderall in order to process the world. Desperate delivers more than just a big punch of reality, surprise and twists at the end.

The sixth sense can come in handy but when Roy and Lily infiltrate Gage’s life and the truth behind their motive is more than just greed, will Gage be able to rid himself of the albatrosses that are now hanging around his neck? Blackmail, murder, lies, illegal drugs, a heist gone bad, and a man that appears to be dead as Gage needs to find a way to rise to the top before he sinks way below the surface of an ocean.