5 Things You Should Know About THE COURIER by Gordon J. Campbell @GCampbellGordon #5Things

Gordon Campbell is a Winnipeg born Canadian who’s spent most of his life in Japan.

He’s worked as an English teacher, a market entry consultant with a focus on the medical and sporting goods industries, and as a sales director for a corporation with multiple product lines.

He’s presently working on the second novel of a series initiated with The Courier, and its protagonist, Gregg Westwood.

Gordon leans on his experiences built around decades working and traveling in Asia. He’s trained at several karate dojos, run full marathons, and skied black diamond hills in the Japanese Alps.
He played American football at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and started in the Canadian championship game known as the Vanier Cup. Gordon is a member of Psi Upsilon Fraternity, Sinim Masonic Lodge, and the Tokyo Valley of the AASR.

When he’s not writing, working, attending one of his daughter’s vocal concerts, pumping iron, or at a lodge meeting, you’ll find him dining with his wife Mako at their favorite local bistro.

website & Social links

Website → https://www.gordonjcampbell.com/

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/gordonjcampbellauthor/

Twitter → https://twitter.com/GcampbellGordon

5 Things You Should Know About THE COURIER

-1-Early in The Courier’s opening chapters, an assassin takes out four thugs, a businessman is terminated, and a DEA agent saves an overdose victim. All these events are related.

-2- Truth is stranger than fiction. In chapter eight, the reader meets a yakuza who's sold futures on his heavily tattooed skin.

We met a member of a Japanese organized crime family by chance at a Japanese pub called an “izakaya.” The man turned out not only to be a gangster with ankle to neck tattoos but the owner of the establishment. My friend and I spent the night listening to the yakuza's incredible life stories and were astonished by the fact that he’d sold options on his skin to another yakuza living in the city of Kobe.

-3-Visitors to Bangkok often hire fantail boats to explore the city’s expansive waterways. The Wat Arun Buddhist Temple, described in chapter 19, is found on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River. It is beautiful and would be an essential stop on a river tour.

The Thonburi Snake Farm featured in the same chapter is a short trip from the "Temple of Dawn" but is truly a horrible place with caged animals and ghastly conditions. Visitors to Bangkok following the path of The Courier's protagonist Gregg Westwood will enjoy the ride.

-4-The Coaches' corner at the Yokota Air Base's Officer Club is dedicated to a retired college football coach from Nebraska, named Larry Donovan. The “Coach” assisted at the Base’s High School football practice on Tuesday nights and followed the work on the field by sharing beverages at the Officers' Club. Gregg Westwood's recruitment as a courier begins at the "Coaches' Corner."

-5-Expatriates and members of the US Military stationed in Japan will recognize the settings as the story runs through Shibuya, Shinjuku, Kawasaki, Yokota Air Base, Hakone, Miura, and Yokosuka Naval Base.

inside the book

An expatriate businessman, Gregg Westwood, leaves the Officers’ Club at an American Air Base in Japan unaware about the impression he’s made on two intelligence agents. They sized him up as

someone with potential for strategic deployment, and more importantly, he’s under the radar.
Gregg’s exploits start with what he thinks is a one-off assignment as a courier, and the straightforward task spirals out of control. He’s forced to rise to the occasion and use every resource available to survive. Even his family is jeopardized which forces him to return to Japan to settle scores.

The Courier is one man’s struggle to fight for survival in a world that he’s not been trained for and where violence and retribution are the names of the game.

Praise:
“The Bottom Line: One of the year’s best thrillers.”
–BestThrillers.com
“With such fine attention to detail in creating some amazing scenes, I give The Courier 4 out of 4 stars. Campbell creates an amazing and well-edited adventure that could even someday work on the big screen. Readers that enjoy action adventures or thrillers will likely enjoy this one as well.”
–Official review by Kendra M Parker, OnlineBookClub.org
“The Courier is an exciting ride from start to finish. I couldn’t put it down and wanted more when it finished.”
–Gyle Graham, entrepreneur and longtime Tokyo expatriate
“The Courier would transform well from a thriller novel to an action movie.”
–Michael Harrison, marketing expert and martial artist