Torbjorn Petersson was a Marine sniper in Afghanistan. He is also the son of a Marine and the grandson of Marine. After his service, he returns to the simple family farm he shares with his grandmother. But Petersson's real life is far from simple. George McKlane was also a Marine and awarded the nation's highest medal for his service in Korea. After George loses his wife, he decides to sell his multi-million dollar estate home in Boca Raton, Florida. That's where his troubles start.

Anthony Silberg is the top real estate broker in Boca Raton, but actually into a lot more than that. George decides to let Silberg list his house but soon learns Silberg's true nature. George backs out of the sale, not knowing that in doing so he just put a big target on his back. As things progress, Torbjorn Petersson learns of the situation and that his grandfather once saved George's life. He quickly decides that he is the only one that can save the hero. Now, if he can just get it done.

Wrinkled Heartbeats is a well crafted and well formulated story. The author uses true-to-life, well-researched flashbacks of the United States Marine Corps and the retreat from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea in 1950. The characters, main and secondary, are smartly developed. The reader will form an instant bond with George and his caregiver Sharonda. The plot moves at a steady but electric pace, leaving the reader wanting to turn the page to see what happens next. It's a simple, easy book to read, one that I enjoyed very much.

Temple Emmet Williams’ Wrinkled Heartbeats has unusual protagonists in George McLane and Torbjorn Petersson. The story opens on a farm in the mountains, Bath County, Virginia, on a Thursday morning in June with Grandma Petersson and her grandson Torbjorn, who seem like an ordinary farming family, waking up for breakfast. And then we get to know George, a US war hero in his twilight years. The plot takes an interesting turn when George decides to sell his multi-million dollar home in Coconut Palm Court, Boca Raton, Florida. As he gets entangled with the convicted felon turned respectable real estate broker Anthony Silberg, the story takes unusual twists and turns. Under steroid medication, George drifts back to his exploits in the Chosin reservoir during the Korean War and his life story unravels. What is Torbjorn Petersson’s role in the old man’s life?

Wrinkled Heartbeats by Temple Emmet Williams is a unique story about Captain George McKlane, a US war hero who has led a fulfilling life. His son, Colonel George McLane (about to become a Lieutenant General) works in the Pentagon, and Agnes, his beloved wife, recently died. Getting ready to fade away, so to speak, Captain McKlane gets caught in an ugly web of money-laundering when he tries to sell his home. Fast paced, with just the right amount of action and intrigue, Wrinkled Heartbeats mesmerizes and will keep you glued to your reading seat. Juxtaposing George’s memories of his war exploits with the crisis he faces in trying to sell his home succeeds in tantalizing readers because the story comes in tiny little doses that one has to weave together to fully comprehend. Torbjorn Petersson, on the other hand, is an enigmatic character with a very unusual job. The climax of the story is when the lives of these two unlikely characters cross the same path.

George McKlane is in the twilight of his life. A decorated war hero, he has seen and done it all and is now living a peaceful and uneventful life. The simple, innocuous act of selling his home changes all that, suddenly thrusting him into a tangled web of corruption, violence and intrigue - a web whose threads even entangle individuals from his war time past. Wrinkled Heartbeats by Temple Emmet Williams is an immersive yarn that pits an eclectic (mostly geriatric) cast of protagonists against a villain who is terrifying in his ruthlessness.

It isn't easy to write a tale that follows events of the past while maintaining a storyline which occurs in the present, but Mr. Williams manages to make the story of McKlane's past relevant in navigating his current situation. The flashbacks are intense and provide an enlightening look at the dangers of war and the experiences of the men who fought in it. The action is fast-paced and the dialogue is snappy - every character, minor and major, is complex and unique. The relationships and interactions among the characters are wonderfully written, with enough details to draw the reader in while maintaining the necessary subtlety to keep them guessing. The characters were so fleshed out that I feel that one or two of them deserve their own novel.

Mr. Williams has created a solid story with characters that stay with you long after the novel has ended. I for one will be keeping an eye out for the future works of Mr. Williams in the fervent hope that he continues his excellent storytelling.

Wrinkled Heartbeats is a thriller novel by author Temple Emmet Williams. The story centers on ex-Marine George McKlane, now ageing and being persuaded by his colonel son to sell up his estate and move into some sort of assisted living facility. Little does George know that this simple act will throw him into the middle of a huge money laundering scheme worth millions of dollars. As George uncovers hired killers and high tech crime, flashbacks of North Korea in 1950 draw interesting parallels with his struggles in the present day. As the web of deceit unfolds, a wider cast of characters begins to emerge, to expand and uncover the sinister plot.

Temple Emmet Williams pens George as a character to whom readers can really relate. There are plenty of former-soldier thriller novels out there, but George McKlane’s background is gritty yet realistic. He has real limits and real traumas from his time as a Marine, and an audience can warm to his personality and root for him as he proceeds through the maze of criminals ahead of him. The presentation of the book is splendid, well laid out and easy to read, and the writing is delightfully descriptive and full of vivid details. Also unlike many thriller novels, the action and intrigue side of the plot is balanced nicely with more mundane elements like real estate and dietary advice creating a quirky but appropriate tone for George’s age and his situation. Overall, I think that older thriller fans will certainly appreciate Wrinkled Heartbeats, as will anyone looking for a unique twist on the genre.

I confess I'm not a reader of thrillers, especially the violent ones. Mainly because I don't like blood. And it's hard to read with your hands over your eyes. So it took Temple Emmet Williams' compelling first book, Warrior Patient: How to Deal with Deadly Diseases with Laughter, Good Doctors, Love, and Guts, to get me to pick up his second book, a sophisticated thriller entitled Wrinkled Heartbeats. A complex albeit bloody mystery that sprawls from rural Virginia to Florida's swank Boca Raton, from the Chosin Reservoir in war-time North Korea in 1950 to the modern-day Everglades, Wrinkled Heartbeats traverses worlds Williams moves through with dexterity and insight. He knows his way around real estate corruption, the tragedies of war, and the ties that mend us. Within a grisly kaleidoscope of psychopaths, professional killers, women who use sex to get ahead, victims of combat, and man-eating alligators, there is, at the book's core, a steadiness and stability that is shaped by friendship, a moral intelligence, and the enduring promises forged in war. Medal of Honor recipient George McKlane's prednisone-induced flashbacks to fierce fighting in North Korea mirror Williams' own experiences with the hallucinogenic steroid. The flashbacks become the back story and the backdrop to McKlane's hellish present-day journey as he is drawn into a devious plot that threatens his life. How he survives provides the story's moving twist. As a stylist, Williams is a prowler in the present, making Wrinkled Heartbeats feel less like a novel and more like life, and his witty characters kept me turning pages, even, I confess, through the bloodiest scenes.