Strike Price
When several people involved in bidding for an oil refinery are murdered, the situation becomes far more than a billion-dollar business deal.
A self-made woman, Lynn Dayton fights to save lives after escalating attacks eventually reveal a hired assassin’s plan to draw another global power into dangerous confrontation with the United States over trillion-dollar oil stakes.
Are the killers rogue civil servants challenging the Cherokees’ financial independence, Sansei operatives again wreaking violence, or sinister investors swapping the bidding war for a real one?
Lynn Dayton and Cherokee tribal executive Jesse Drum must learn to trust each other so they can find and stop the killers. Can sobering up really be fatal? How have so many of the deaths been made to appear accidental? Who’s creating weapons with modern poisons and ancient Cherokee arts?
STRIKE PRICE wins the 2014 Texas Association of Authors award for Best Thriller/Mystery!
(blue & purple cover is for the new e-book and print editions; yellow and black cover is the original print edition.)
Get the Book
STRIKE PRICE shares history and settings with KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, the book and movie about the Osage Indian murders. Consider buying your next copies of STRIKE PRICE and KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON from the indie bookstore located near the western border of Osage County: Brace’s Books & More in Ponca City. Here is the link. Strike Price: Lynn Dayton Thriller #2 (Paperback) | Brace Books & More (indielite.org)
Reading & Discussion Questions for Strike Price by L. A. Starks
Share with your book club: Strike Price Reading & Discussion Questions (PDF)
- How is STRIKE PRICEprotagonist Lynn Dayton an Everywoman and how is she unique?
- What are Lynn Dayton’s positive and negative attributes? How do they affect her ability as an investigator? What do you think motivates her?
- Starks considers conflict the engine of good fiction. What conflicts do you see in STRIKE PRICE?
- Which scenes resonate most for you? Why? What are the most suspenseful moments?
- Thrillers are factual, reality-based stories, but fictional in that they have an element of myth. Which elements or scenes in STRIKE PRICE seemed as if they could happen in real life? Where did you see the stretch into myth—something like the proverbial 25th hour of a day?
- Starks also works in energy economics and investing. Were the business and technical aspects of the book too much, just right, or did you want even more?
- From a setting standpoint, what did STRIKE PRICEtell you about Florence? About London? About Oklahoma? About the Cherokee Nation?
- What was your reaction to the historical notes?
- What roles do Lynn’s father, Jesse Drum, and Greg Sutton play in the plot?
- What did you think of the antagonists? Who are they, and how do they differ from one another?
- Do you know anyone like The Whippet (the wedding planner)?
- How do you feel about Riley Stevens? Did your feelings change in the course of the book?
- When did you figure out who the “I” character is? How?
- Amazon Shorts published Starks’ short story, “A Time for Eating Wild Onions,”that forms the background for Pete’s father, Pete, and Jesse (Mitch Oowatie was the original name for the character who is now Jesse Drum. Jack Whitecloud’s last name evolved to Whitehawk). What was your reaction to Jesse’s revelation in STRIKE PRICE that he blamed himself for Pete’s father’s death?
- What surprised you in the book?
- Secrets and their unveilings form the core of mysteries and thrillers but also of romance novels and literary fiction. What secrets are revealed here?
- What do you see as the message or theme of STRIKE PRICE?
Awards & Praise
STRIKE PRICE wins the 2014 Texas Association of Authors award for Best Thriller/Mystery!
“…dialogue is quick and punchy … Starks handles the pacing and suspense masterfully … An often gripping novel with a determined heroine, a high body count and a mysterious villain.”
“STRIKE PRICE takes the reader from Oklahoma Indian reservations to the streets of Florence, in an imaginative and well informed fusion of oil refining economics, Native American politics, and the potential for lethal mayhem in the global energy market.”
“Ms. Starks has an eye for detail and richly paints a picture of the Oklahoma landscape and its people. The insight given through the killers mind is especially riveting as the reader will be far into the story before everything falls together and the killer is unmasked.”
“If you’re looking for big business wheeling-and-dealing, international intrigue, murder, mayhem and high-geared action, you’ve come to the right place. Toss in a charming and nervy protagonist like Lynn Dayton and L.A. Stark’s STRIKE PRICE is right on the money. Well-written, well-plotted and well worth a reader’s time…”
4 Stars “Wow! This was a wild ride. Many things I did not know about the oil industry and Native Americans in this book, I found very interesting for sure. It took me awhile to read this one, I had to back track a few times to catch up with the ever-changing story/plot which was very suspenceful (sic) and intriguing. I enjoyred reading STRIKE PRICE – very good book.”
“Fascinating! Lynn Dayton faces dangerous situations, professional killers, and world terrorists… We learn, while being thrilled.”