Golden Frog Poison: Game of Twins

Read part of this recent 5-star review by OnlineBookClub - ＂Though it is the fourth book in the Game of Twins series, Golden Frog Poison by Tom Ranseen stands confidently on its own. The author masterfully weaves in just enough backstory and context from previous books to enrich the plot without confusing new audiences. I was able to fully immerse myself in the high stakes of the action without having to start reading the first book in the series.＂

After a 2-year hiatus from the dangerous Game of Twins, revenge again compels him to go after Suzanne Delacroix, her family, and her friends -- this time with deadly golden frog poison. Her only choice is to end it once and for all. Easier said than done, though -finding and eliminating the richest, most powerful narco on the planet.

Of course, the unrivaled Queen of Crime mysteries and Queen of Poisons is Agatha Christie who killed off three dozen characters in 66 books with lots of poisons like arsenic, strychnine, thallium, ricin, cyanide, digitalis, atropine, belladonna, etc. Her books are whodunit, cozy mystery masterpieces - many laced with deaths by poison.

Perhaps Agatha knew of golden frog poison - or not? Milliliter per milliliter is deadlier than any of her non-animal poisons by a factor of more than a hundred. If she did know of it, it’s so rare that it might not have fit well with her plots. While her poisons can be relatively easily tested for, it takes Gas or Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry to identify the active neurotoxin, batrachotoxin, in golden frog poison. To my knowledge, golden frog poison has never played any role in any work of fiction. So, I figured it was about time someone wrote a story that did.

Like the three books before it, Golden Frog Poison - Game of Twins is a fast-paced, fun thriller mystery with lots of action, suspense, violence, and intrigue-with some occult, supernatural, and sex sprinkled in -- with, of course, the deadliest of animal poisons. It’s not a cozy mystery. But it’s a blast to read.

The dark Game of Twins backdrop is a story of revenge and an epic struggle between Good and Evil born of an event that happened four centuries ago, mushroomed in the era of J. Edgar Hoover, and then revved up again in the twenty-first century.

Golden Frog Poison - Game of Twins is the 4th book in my Game of Twins series, but it reads great as a standalone and includes enough info from the earlier books to add plot context. Deadly golden frog poison plays a small role in two of the previous novels but is promoted to the star-of-the-show in this one.