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WORK TITLE: Goliath
WORK NOTES: with Gary Waid
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Merritt Island
STATE: FL
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://oceanviewpub.com/authors/shawn-corridan/ * http://oceanviewpub.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/CONVERSATION-with-SHAWN-CORRIDAN-about-GOLIATH.pdf * http://www.thebigthrill.org/2016/10/goliath-by-shawn-corridan-gary-waid/ * https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-corridan-119837124/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married, wife’s name Julie.
EDUCATION:Graduated from the University of Hawaii.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Marketer and writer. Formerly wrote market research reports for Wall Street, and worked in pharmaceutical sales.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Shawn Corridan and Gary Waid were childhood friends in Florida. Whereas Corridan went off to college and took on a “normal” lifestyle, Waid was arrested for smuggling marijuana and served eight years in a federal prison. Both men had spent their childhoods around the sea and boats, and when Corridan came up with the idea for the novel Goliath, he contacted Waid to write it with him. Goliath, like their second novel, Gitmo, began as a screenplay before being turned into novel form.
Goliath
In Goliath, the largest oil tanker ever built is on its maiden voyage in the Bering Sea. Only the captain knows that the ship is also on a secret mission. When a minor defect turns catastrophic, the ship is consumed by fire. Two hundred miles from the ship, Sonny Wade picks up the Mayday call and recognizes this as the opportunity that might save his failing salvage business. But Wade’s former employer and business rival, Dan Sharp, also hears the Mayday call, prompting a race between the two men to recover the ship before it sinks or runs aground and pollutes the ocean with oil. However, there is a far more deadly contaminant on board, and the men are racing right toward it.
Reviews of Goliath were positive, with a Publishers Weekly contributor writing, “Fans of nautical adventures will be enthralled.” A Midwest Book Review contributor called Goliath “an exceptionally entertaining thriller” and “a deftly written and riveting read from beginning to end.” BookLoons Web site reviewer Mary Ann Smyth told readers that they are “in for a read of the thriller of the year.” Seattle Book Review Web site reviewer J. Aislynn d’Merricksson commented: “This was an enjoyable, fast-paced read. It engages the attention from the start and doesn’t let go.”
Gitmo
In Gitmo, ex-con Dixon Sweeney returns home from prison to find that his house and his wife are gone, his wife having left him for his best friend. When a local gang leader accuses Dixon of owing him $65,000, Dixon is stuck. So when an old Cuban friend of his father’s asks him to smuggle his granddaughter out of Cuba, and will pay him a half-million dollars, Dixon reluctantly agrees, knowing he is putting his post-prison freedom in jeopardy.
Reviewers positively compared Corridan and Waid to Carl Hiaasen. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Gitmo “an exciting read” and wrote: “Waid and Corridan have constructed a tightly written, extremely entertaining caper with an engaging, witty protagonist. The story deftly balances comedy and suspense, with Sweeney wryly narrating his increasingly bizarre situation in a self-deprecating voice.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Internet Bookwatch, December, 2016, review of Goliath.
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2012, review of Gitmo.
Publishers Weekly, September 5, 2016, review of Goliath, p. 55.
ONLINE
Big Thrill, http://www.thebigthrill.org/ (October 31, 2016), review of Goliath.
BookLoons, http://www.bookloons.com/ (May 9, 2017), Mary Ann Smyth, review of Goliath.
Oceanview Publishing Web site, http://oceanviewpub.com/ (May 9, 2017), author interview.
Seattle Book Review, http://seattlebookreview.com/ (December 1, 2016), J. Aislynn d’Merricksson, review of Goliath.
A CONVERSATION with SHAWN CORRIDAN
about
GOLIATH
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF, HOW AND WHEN YOU STARTED WRITING.
I started writing bits and pieces in elementary school and continued through junior high school and high school. Nothing
serious. Compositions from Creative Writing assignments. But I always enjoyed those classes as much as I did the
Literature classes. I
started seriously considering writing during my years at Jefferson Junior High. They had a strong
Literature curriculum there. That’s when I fell in love with Twain,
Melville,
Dickens, Hemingway, Steinbeck etc.
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE YOUR NOVEL?
I was brought in to a producer’s office at Sony around 2005. He knew I was a Florida Boy and had been raised around
boats and water and asked me if I had any stories that involved tankers and the Arctic. I didn’t. But being the type that is
always willing to
plea
se (as in
: desperate for a paycheck) I told him I could come up with one. So I mapped out the story
for
Goliath
. Then I thought about Gary Waid, who knows as much about boats as Bligh, Ahab or Noah. So I contacted
him and asked him to write the screen
play with me. It was the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship.
HOW DID YOU USE YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCE OR PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND TO ENRICH YOUR STORY?
I am an English Literature major so I am familiar with some of the finest stories ever written
ANYTHING AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL IN YOUR NOVEL?
Oh God yes! A protagonist with a chip on his shoulder? A man who has failed miserably and waiting forever for an
opportunity? A hero with a checkered past? That’s Gary and me. And the group of ruffians around Sonn
y Wade? Those
are amalgams of our own friends, past and present.
ARE ANY CHARACTERS BASED ON PEOPLE YOU KNOW?
Nearly all of them. Maybe to a fault.
WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE OR MOST SYMPATHETIC CHARACTER? AND WHY?
Sonny Wade. The poor sonofabitch has suf
fered years for
a crime he did not commit. The
easy out would be to tell the
truth. But he’s a martyr. And pays dearly for his code of ethics. Ya gotta love the guy.
Redemption? Love it. Who
doesn’t?
WHO IS YOUR LEAST SYMPATHIC CHARACTER? AND WHY?
Dan Sharpe for his lack or morals and ethics. And too
-tight pants.
WHAT PART OF WRITING YOUR BOOK DID YOU FIND THE MOST CHALLENGING?
With so many characters “in the same room” it was difficult to maintain a single “Point
-of -view”.
WHAT DO YOU HOPE
THAT READERS WILL TAKE AWAY FROM YOU
R BOOK?
That whoever wrote the novel understood good writing: setting, plot, structure, dialogue and theme and just gave them
a glimpse into a world they’d never seen before. That they had just read a smart thriller and
couldn’t wait to read the
next Sonny Wade adventure.
WHAT WRITERS HAVE INSPIRED YOU?
Hemingway, Twain, Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dickens, Steinbeck, Poe, Cormac McCarthy, Paul Bowles, Gabriel
Garcia Marquez, Shakespeare, Thomas McGuane, Bukowski, Sherwood Anderson, Faulkner, JD Salinger, David Foster
Wallace, Pynchon to name a few.
WHAT IS THE WRITING PROCESS LIKE FOR YOU?
Coffee. A few hours at a time on a couch with my MacBook Air, mostly from 8 am to noon. Long walks working out plot
twists.
WHAT IS THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE ABOUT WRITING THAT YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED?
Leave the writing while there’s still something left in the well and pick it back up the next day where you left off. That’s
paraphrasing something I read in a Hemingway biography. I do not write standing up, though.
WHAT IS THE WORST PIECE OF ADVICE A
BOUT WRITING THAT YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED?
Write what is popular.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? ANY NEW BOOKS IN THE PIPELINE?
Loads of stories. At least 10 novels running the gamut genre
-wise.
Shawn Corridan grew up in the shadow of Florida’s Cape Kennedy, his father a NASA engineer. A high school football star as well as a surfer, he attended the University of Hawaii where he could be both. After graduation, he traveled the globe, sailed the Caribbean, was rescued by the Coast Guard twice, wrote market research reports for Wall Street, and worked in pharmaceutical sales. Shawn coauthored Goliath with his friend Gary Waid. Corridan lives in Merritt Island, Florida, with his wife Julie.
Goliath by Shawn Corridan & Gary Waid
October 31, 2016 by ITW
0
goliathA ways back, and years after graduating from the University of Hawaii, Shawn Corridan won the FinalDraft Big Break Screenwriting Contest. So, he made the first of several foolish moves: he quit his day job. Then he moved from Honolulu to Los Angeles, because a Hollywood agent told him, “You have to be in it to win it.” Leaving Hawaii was mistake number two. Listening to the agent was his third mistake.
But as it happened, winning the contest got Shawn many meetings in Hollywood. So he wrote another script, GITMO, which got him even more meetings. And before he knew it he was on the SONY lot pitching a thriller he’d been noodling on, involving the world’s largest oil tanker, an impending storm, a maiden voyage, a dubious cargo, and a former-legend-but-now-disgraced salvage ship captain yearning for redemption.
Shawn left that meeting vowing to write the story some day. He fell in love while pitching it, making up plot points on the fly. He knew it was a winner, having all the elements of a great page turner. There was only one thing missing…
…Gary Waid. A boat guy and former marijuana smuggler who’d been in prison for eight years and had just been released.
Shawn called him. After all, Gary was the very guy he modeled the protagonist of his story after, a man that was “an amalgam of rivets, teak and diesel.” He’d known Gary for years. They grew up in the same small town in Florida, and graduated from the same high school, the only high school in their small town. Gary was an awesome sailor. And a good writer, a fact Shawn gleaned from reading some of the pieces Gary had written when he was released from prison.
That’s right: prison. Because back in the day (70s and 80s) it was the Wild West in the Florida Straits. And boat captains were regularly approached by representatives of the burgeoning marijuana industry. One night while trawling for shrimp off Fort Jefferson, Gary caught a bale. Sea weed, they called it. A Square Grouper. Then he caught another bale. The seeds were sown. Soon he stepped onto his first pot boat, a decrepit steel hull, and he was launched into the smuggling business. They needed guys like him. He thought on his feet. Until they chained those same feet up later and put him in prison for smuggling nearly twenty tons of the stuff.
Anyway, a now free Gary Waid liked the story Shawn pitched to SONY. But he also liked GITMO—the script about smuggling and a doomed trip inside Guantanamo, Cuba—a place Shawn had actually been, towed there by the U.S .Coast Guard during an ill-fated marijuana smuggling run to Jamaica. One afternoon, over several beers, Gary told Shawn he thought GITMO would make a great novel.
“Then novelize it,” Shawn challenged.
And he did. Actually, they did. Together they turned the GITMO screenplay into GITMO the novel, a hilarious romp through the Florida Straits. In fact, the KIRKUS REVIEW said GITMO was “An exciting read that should appeal to fans of Carl Hiaasen, espionage thrillers and caper comedies.” And, as it turns out, GITMO will be published by Down and Out Books this fall.
Finishing GITMO lead to a “Now what?” moment. Gary and Shawn decided to tackle the SONY-pitched thriller on the high seas, naming it GOLIATH. They wrote it as a screenplay first and submitted it to UTA (United Talent Agency), who sent it out to Hollywood’s heaviest hitting action movie producers. Bruckheimer, di Bonaventura, and Michael DeLuca, to name a few. And they loved the story! But, due to production costs (shooting on the water), it was going to be expensive. “Too expensive,” they said, “unless it was based on a true story or adapted from a novel.”
So, once again, Shawn and Gary took a kick-ass screenplay and novelized it. And it turned out pretty damn great. Even Frederick Forsyth said so. As well as several other New York Times bestselling authors including Alan Jacobson, Allan Leverone, Brett Battles, Michael Dun and Thomas Waite. James Patterson has even auditioned them for his BookShots team.
Meanwhile, Shawn and Gary continue writing together, with three more books soon to debut, many more ideas in the hopper, and the idea of a GOLIATH sequel always in the forefront of their thinking.
Because, for this dynamic writing duo, nothing is off the table when it comes to danger in the skies, on the ground, or on the high seas. And while they’re always on the lookout for a cold beer or gin-clear water to surf or sail in, they’re still in search of that most rare and elusive of all creatures…
…a good, honest, well-connected agent.
If you see one, let them know.
*****
Shawn Corridan grew up in the shadow of Florida’s Cape Canaveral, his father a NASA engineer. He attended the University of Hawaii, where he could surf, play division 1 football, and learn to write. After graduation he traveled the globe, sailed the Caribbean, was part of an international smuggling ring, wrote market research reports for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, and worked in pharmaceutical sales. Shawn has written several awarded screenplays. He lives in Merritt Island, Florida, with his wife Julie.
Born a navy brat in San Diego, Gary Waid has done almost everything there is to do on the water, from fishing to operating tugboats to repairing yachts. He has also been a roofer, a carpenter, a tractor-trailer driver, a writer for magazines–as well as a guest in the federal prison system. Gary lives on a sailboat in Florida with his wife Patty and their two dogs.
Goliath by Shawn Corridan & Gary Waid
October 31, 2016 by ITW
0
goliathA ways back, and years after graduating from the University of Hawaii, Shawn Corridan won the FinalDraft Big Break Screenwriting Contest. So, he made the first of several foolish moves: he quit his day job. Then he moved from Honolulu to Los Angeles, because a Hollywood agent told him, “You have to be in it to win it.” Leaving Hawaii was mistake number two. Listening to the agent was his third mistake.
But as it happened, winning the contest got Shawn many meetings in Hollywood. So he wrote another script, GITMO, which got him even more meetings. And before he knew it he was on the SONY lot pitching a thriller he’d been noodling on, involving the world’s largest oil tanker, an impending storm, a maiden voyage, a dubious cargo, and a former-legend-but-now-disgraced salvage ship captain yearning for redemption.
Shawn left that meeting vowing to write the story some day. He fell in love while pitching it, making up plot points on the fly. He knew it was a winner, having all the elements of a great page turner. There was only one thing missing…
…Gary Waid. A boat guy and former marijuana smuggler who’d been in prison for eight years and had just been released.
Shawn called him. After all, Gary was the very guy he modeled the protagonist of his story after, a man that was “an amalgam of rivets, teak and diesel.” He’d known Gary for years. They grew up in the same small town in Florida, and graduated from the same high school, the only high school in their small town. Gary was an awesome sailor. And a good writer, a fact Shawn gleaned from reading some of the pieces Gary had written when he was released from prison.
That’s right: prison. Because back in the day (70s and 80s) it was the Wild West in the Florida Straits. And boat captains were regularly approached by representatives of the burgeoning marijuana industry. One night while trawling for shrimp off Fort Jefferson, Gary caught a bale. Sea weed, they called it. A Square Grouper. Then he caught another bale. The seeds were sown. Soon he stepped onto his first pot boat, a decrepit steel hull, and he was launched into the smuggling business. They needed guys like him. He thought on his feet. Until they chained those same feet up later and put him in prison for smuggling nearly twenty tons of the stuff.
Anyway, a now free Gary Waid liked the story Shawn pitched to SONY. But he also liked GITMO—the script about smuggling and a doomed trip inside Guantanamo, Cuba—a place Shawn had actually been, towed there by the U.S .Coast Guard during an ill-fated marijuana smuggling run to Jamaica. One afternoon, over several beers, Gary told Shawn he thought GITMO would make a great novel.
“Then novelize it,” Shawn challenged.
And he did. Actually, they did. Together they turned the GITMO screenplay into GITMO the novel, a hilarious romp through the Florida Straits. In fact, the KIRKUS REVIEW said GITMO was “An exciting read that should appeal to fans of Carl Hiaasen, espionage thrillers and caper comedies.” And, as it turns out, GITMO will be published by Down and Out Books this fall.
Finishing GITMO lead to a “Now what?” moment. Gary and Shawn decided to tackle the SONY-pitched thriller on the high seas, naming it GOLIATH. They wrote it as a screenplay first and submitted it to UTA (United Talent Agency), who sent it out to Hollywood’s heaviest hitting action movie producers. Bruckheimer, di Bonaventura, and Michael DeLuca, to name a few. And they loved the story! But, due to production costs (shooting on the water), it was going to be expensive. “Too expensive,” they said, “unless it was based on a true story or adapted from a novel.”
So, once again, Shawn and Gary took a kick-ass screenplay and novelized it. And it turned out pretty damn great. Even Frederick Forsyth said so. As well as several other New York Times bestselling authors including Alan Jacobson, Allan Leverone, Brett Battles, Michael Dun and Thomas Waite. James Patterson has even auditioned them for his BookShots team.
Meanwhile, Shawn and Gary continue writing together, with three more books soon to debut, many more ideas in the hopper, and the idea of a GOLIATH sequel always in the forefront of their thinking.
Because, for this dynamic writing duo, nothing is off the table when it comes to danger in the skies, on the ground, or on the high seas. And while they’re always on the lookout for a cold beer or gin-clear water to surf or sail in, they’re still in search of that most rare and elusive of all creatures…
…a good, honest, well-connected agent.
If you see one, let them know.
*****
Shawn Corridan grew up in the shadow of Florida’s Cape Canaveral, his father a NASA engineer. He attended the University of Hawaii, where he could surf, play division 1 football, and learn to write. After graduation he traveled the globe, sailed the Caribbean, was part of an international smuggling ring, wrote market research reports for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, and worked in pharmaceutical sales. Shawn has written several awarded screenplays. He lives in Merritt Island, Florida, with his wife Julie.
Born a navy brat in San Diego, Gary Waid has done almost everything there is to do on the water, from fishing to operating tugboats to repairing yachts. He has also been a roofer, a carpenter, a tractor-trailer driver, a writer for magazines–as well as a guest in the federal prison system. Gary lives on a sailboat in Florida with his wife Patty and their two dogs.
Shawn Corridan was raised on Florida's east coast and attended the University of Hawaii on a football scholarship. He also possesses the dubious distinction of being rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard...twice! On one of those occasions he was towed into the notorious Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also known as GITMO. Shawn is also a screenwriter (Winner, FinalDraft Big Break Screenwriting Contest and WGA member) and a long-time resident of Hawaii and Florida.
The pair that wrote 'Goliath'—a Manhattan Beach author and an outlaw
Michael Hixon Dec 6, 2016 (8)
Shawn Corridan and Gary Waid both grew up in the same, small Florida town. Waid was a little older, but they attended the same schools. Corridan went to college and made a living at respectable jobs. Waid, on the other hand, ended up serving eight years in prison for smuggling 19 tons of marijuana. But their friendship survived his incarceration and they became writing partners after he served his time.
Corridan, who now makes his home in Manhattan Beach, knew that Waid had some writing talents through their correspondence after Waid was out of prison.
“He had really good writing skills and I was planning on writing this story about a huge ultra large crude carrier,” recalled Corridan. “I got the idea from standing out on the Manhattan Beach Pier looking at those tankers. I was also doing a pitch meeting at Sony in 2006 and I brought this idea to them. I had the story outlined and ready to write a screenplay and I thought 'I'm going to contact Gary Waid.'”
They started working together on a novel called “Gitmo,” which will be published summer 2017.
Just last month, the pair published “Goliath," a tale about tanker salvagers. The novel tells the story of a rag tag group who happen upon the world's largest tanker that has run aground in Alaska. Sonny Wade and his salvage outfit are in competition for the tanker's contents with another high tech salvage crew. But they soon discover that there is something more threatening to the world than oil in that ship.
The writing team lives on opposite coasts, but they are frequent collaborators.
“I wrote an outline of the story and I had done a lot of research,” Corridan said of “Goliath.” “Then I started bouncing ideas off of Gary. I wrote the first draft of the screenplay with him. When I got to areas where I knew he was particularly strong ... he knows a lot about boats. He's worked on boats his whole life. He would send me bits and pieces of dialogue, technical stuff, and I would work it into the script.”
“I always say the bumps on my head match the holes in his head,” said Corridan of his relationship with Waid.
Corridan said they start each project with a screenplay.
“They make great outlines, blue prints for novels because if they work as a script they usually work as a novel,” Corridan said. “If we can't sell the script, we novelize it.”
Corridan was always interested in writing. He escaped the small Florida town, Merritt Island, he grew up in after receiving a football scholarship from the University of Hawaii, where he majored in English. He was a pharmaceutical sales rep and wrote market research for Wall Street for awhile.
While in prison, Waid got into some trouble for writing. He had already done four years, half his time, when he was transferred to a rougher state prison in a prisoner swap.
“He sneaked on toilet paper horror stories of what was going on in the prison he was at, abuse of the prisoners by the guards, in fact one was a murder,” Corridan said. “He got that to the Miami Herald. Once that happened, the wardens hated him. They started mistreating him.”
Corridan said he was on some of the boats that got Waid in trouble.
“I got called in. I was raked over the coals for a few years, but I wasn't part of their organization,” Corridan said. “I knew all the guys (who were arrested) because we all went to school together. They had boats in my back yard and things like that, but I wasn't a part of the things they were doing.”
Back in 1991, his landscaper, who had a boat in a canal in Corridan's backyard in Florida, asked him if he wanted to go to Jamaica. The boat broke down between Cuba and Haiti, right in the middle of a very busy shipping lane. Corridan thought they were going to get run over, but the Coast Guard came from Guantanamo and towed them back there. That's where the idea of their first novel, “Gitmo,” came from.
“Goliath” was a finalist for best “Fiction: Thriller/Adventure” in this year's Best Book Awards, and has received some interest from movie producers. It also received a coveted review from Publisher's Weekly and famed thriller writer Frederick Forsyth. Another novel, “Splinter City,” has received requests for manuscripts from New York literary agents.
“Goliath” is currently available at Amazon.com. Signed copies are also available at Pages bookstore and Barnes and Noble in Manhattan Beach.
Goliath
263.36 (Sept. 5, 2016): p55.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
* Goliath
Shawn Corridan and Gary Waid. Oceanview (Midpoint, dist), $26.95 (336p) ISBN 978-160809-215-4
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The Russian-built Bennkah (Russian for Goliath), the world's largest commercial tanker, is filled with five million barrels of crude and a far more dangerous secret cargo. Early in Corridan and Waid's riveting first novel, the supertanker catches fire in the southern Bering Sea near the Aleutians, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. The giant ship runs aground on an island, where the flaming hulk becomes officially salvage, leading to a race to claim her between good-guy Capt. Sonny Wade aboard the beat-up Skeleton, based in Dutch Harbor, and the greedy, unprincipled Dan Sharpe, owner of the ultramodern salvager Sharpe-Shooter in Anchorage. Sonny wins the race to the stricken ship, but soon finds a tsunami of troubles as he battles the still-burning fires, a threatening oil leak, his own rambunctious crew, a secret saboteur, and the unpredictable, vicious weather. Dan's arrival adds to his woes. Fans of nautical adventures will be enthralled--and pleased to know that Corridan and Waid are teeing up another outing for Sonny and his motley crew. (Nov.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Goliath." Publishers Weekly, 5 Sept. 2016, p. 55. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463513535&it=r&asid=6783cf795ee96fc716fb15849702432b. Accessed 9 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A463513535
Goliath
(Dec. 2016):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Goliath
Shawn Corridan & Gary Waid
Oceanview Publishing
595 Bay Isles Road, 120-G, Longboat Key, FL 34228
www.oceanviewpub.com
9781608092154, $26.95, HC, 320pp, www.amazon.com
In the Bering Sea, Bennkah, the largest oil tanker ever built, newly commissioned in Vladivostock, Russia, is on a secret mission. On this maiden voyage, Captain Borodin is at the helm. He is the only one aboard aware of the mission. Soon an engineer discovers a defect -seemingly minor, but one with disastrous potential. Despite his attempts to correct the problem, a fire erupts, contained at first, then rapidly spreads out of control, consuming the behemoth ship. A Mayday call alerts Sonny Wade some two hundred miles from the burning ship. This could be the lifeline that Sonny and his rag-tag crew need to save their failing salvage business. But Dan Sharp, Sonny's nemesis and former employer (the owner of the largest salvage business in northern Alaska) also hears the call. A brutal race is on to claim the burning ship before it sinks or runs aground, contaminating the entire north Pacific Rim--and not only with oil. A deftly written and riveting read from beginning to end, "Goliath" is an exceptionally entertaining thriller that is very highly recommended for community library General Fiction collections. For personal reading lists it should be noted that "Goliath" is also available in a Kindle format ($9.99).
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Goliath." Internet Bookwatch, Dec. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475278045&it=r&asid=1ca34b1e11f8712335ce5654cd175cb7. Accessed 9 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A475278045
GITMO
by Gary Waid, Shawn Corridan
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KIRKUS REVIEW
In Waid and Corridan’s debut novel, an ex-convict’s attempt to get back on his feet in his home base of Miami results in an unexpected and illegal expedition to Cuba.
Dixon Sweeney is not having a good week. He returns home from years of incarceration to discover that his house and wife are gone, the latter having left him for his best friend. To add insult to injury, a local gang leader threatens to kill Sweeney unless he repays the $65,000 he claims Sweeney owes him. So when an old Cuban associate of his deceased father approaches Sweeney and offers him a half-million dollars to smuggle his granddaughter out of Cuba, the desperate man reluctantly agrees, setting off a life-changing chain of events. Waid and Corridan have constructed a tightly written, extremely entertaining caper with an engaging, witty protagonist. The story deftly balances comedy and suspense, with Sweeney wryly narrating his increasingly bizarre situation in a self-deprecating voice. As outrageous and funny as the novel’s events can be, however, the authors ground their tale and characters in emotional reality. The desperation that drives Sweeney and Maria, the woman he rescues, maintains verisimilitude, even during the story’s most action-packed moments. The same can be said of the authors’ fully realized depictions of Cuba and Guantanamo Bay, which lend plausibility to the novel’s far-fetched turns, particularly regarding the unfolding love story. The novel also delivers several masterful twists that seem simultaneously shocking and, in retrospect, inevitable. In a few spots (one, unfortunately, is in a final scene), the narrative’s excellence is briefly undermined by juvenile prison-rape humor, but that aside, it’s an appealing, satirical, action-tinged adventure.
An exciting read that should appeal to fans of Carl Hiaasen, espionage thrillers and caper comedies.
Pub Date: Dec. 14th, 2011
Page count: 306pp
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Program: Kirkus Indie
Review Posted Online: July 12th, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1st, 2012
Goliath by Shawn Corridan & Gary Waid Amazon.com order for Goliath by Shawn Corridan
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Hardcover, e-Book
* * * Reviewed by Mary Ann Smyth
Hold onto your hats, ladies and gents. You are in for a read of the thriller of the year. I have never held my breath for so long or so often as when I savored Goliath by Shawn Corridan and Gary Wade (who also wrote Gitmo).
It opens in the Bering Sea on the Bennkah, commissioned in Vladivstock, Russia, the largest oil tanker ever built. The behemoth is on its maiden voyage. The suspense begins when an engineer discovers a minor defect which quickly turns serious. A fire erupts which proves impossible for the engineer to contain. It grows out of control quickly.
A mayday goes out to any ship that might be nearby. Captain Sonny Wade is 200 miles from the tanker that is now burning fiercely. He decides to try to beat any other salvage claimant to the huge ship's hulk. Wade desperately needs it to save his business and pay his crew members, whose salaries have been long overdue.
Of course, nothing will go smoothly. His nemesis is another captain, Dan Sharp, who has decided to race Wade to the prize. Life did not treat the two men well at one time and they have become open enemies. The race is breathtaking. Wade needs the salvage to survive. And the oil - that might spill on the pristine coastline and create devastation that would linger and spread for miles of shoreline - must be contained.
There is another worry that lingers in Wade's mind. He doesn't allude to it but it will take your breath completely away when this is brought to light. I recommend Goliath highly. Buy two. One for yourself and another for that someone you know who will also enjoy this winner.
Book Review: Goliath by Shawn Corridan and Gary Waid
Posted on 2016-11-22 by Aislynn
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This book was reviewed for the San Francisco Book Review and Netgalley
With Goliath, Corridan and Waid have woven a gripping novel in the style of M Crichton and the duo of D Preston and L Child. It is a story of man against man, of the deceptions we play against one another, and the wounds we inflict on one another. It is a story of man against that most implacable of adversaries- nature. Impersonal nature, in all its ferocious glory, that heeds not the tiny concerns of man.
Sonny Wade is a man down on his luck. Owner of Skeleton Salvage, Sonny and his crew have just raised a sunken trawler. When it comes time to collect payment, the trawler captain pleads for a deferment til spring. He offers two thousand dollars, all the money he has at the time. Sonny, against his better judgement, allows the trawler captain his deferment, and let’s him keep the money, instead of taking the newly raised boat and selling it for scrap to collect payment.
Sonny’s decision is the final straw for his crew. They abandon him, quitting en masse. Skeleton Salvage ‘s death knell rang loud and clear. Following on the heels of the crew’s desertion, Sonny’s ships and home are repossessed. A lucky last-minute break comes in the form of an SOS from the Russian supertanker Bennkah.
Sonny manages to stave off repossession, and reassembled his crew. Despite the odds, Skeleton Salvage beats their competition to the great ship. What they find is a nightmare. The ship has run aground, and there is the very real prospect of crude oil spilling into the ocean. Even worse, the interior of the massive ship has been ravaged by fire. The dead litter the inside, bodies charred beyond recognition, or were found floating frozen in the sea. The Coast Guard has put out the inferno, though fires do still flare up. It’s up to Sonny and his crew to secure the ship and unground her. However, a deadly storm looms on the horizon, and there’s more to Bennkah than meets the eye.
This was an enjoyable, fast-paced read. It engages the attention from the start and doesn’t let go. The authors did a great job of doling out tidbits of Sonny’s life. I spent most of the book realllyy wanting to know what happened in his past. (You don’t find out til close to the end). My only qualm were the places where we jump perspective several times in a row, sometimes paragraph to paragraph.
🎻🎻🎻🎻 Recommended, especially if you enjoy thrillers by M Crichton, D Preston, and L Child.
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Goliath: A Thriller
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$26.95
With Goliath, Corridan and Waid have woven a gripping novel in the style of Michael Crichton and the duo of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. It is a story of man-against-man, of the deceptions we play against one another and the wounds we inflict on one another.
As the owner of Skeleton Salvage, Sonny Wade is a man down on his luck. Sonny’s crew abandons him, quitting en masse. Following on the heels of the crew’s desertion, Sonny’s ships and home are repossessed. A lucky last-minute break comes in the form of an SOS from the Russian supertanker Bennkah.
Sonny manages to stave off repossession and reassembles his crew. Despite the odds, Skeleton Salvage beats their competition to the great ship. What they find is a nightmare. The ship has run aground, and there is the very real prospect of crude oil spilling into the ocean. Even worse, the interior of the massive ship has been ravaged by fire. The dead are found littered throughout the inside, bodies charred beyond recognition, or found floating frozen in the sea. It’s up to Sonny and his crew to secure the ship and unground her. However, a deadly storm looms on the horizon, and there’s more to the Bennkah than meets the eye.
This was an enjoyable, fast-paced read. It engages the attention from the start and doesn’t let go. The authors did a great job of doling out tidbits of Sonny’s life. I spent most of the book really wanting to know what happened in his past. (You don’t find out until close to the end.) My only qualm was with the places where we jump perspective several times in a row, sometimes from paragraph to paragraph.
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Reviewed By: J. Aislynn d'Merricksson