Reprise Review: The Call by Laurie Boris

 Genre: Women’s Fiction/Sports Fiction

Description:

“As one of the first female umpires in the minors, Margie puts up with insults and worse from people who think women don’t belong in baseball. Forget making history—Margie just wants to do her job and be part of the game she loves.

She’s ready for the rude comments. The lousy pay. The endless traveling. But when she suspects a big-name slugger of cheating, she has to choose: let the dirty player get away with it, or blow the whistle and risk her career…and maybe her twin brother’s major-league prospects, too.

Now it’s up to Margie to make the call.”

Author:

“Laurie Boris has been writing fiction for over twenty-five years and is the award-winning author of seven novels. When not playing with the universe of imaginary people in her head, she’s a freelance copyeditor and enjoys baseball, reading, and avoiding housework. She lives in New York’s lovely Hudson Valley.”

Appraisal:

For me this was a great read for many different reasons. Some of those reasons might be things that would apply to you too.

The main appeal is that this is a good story. The struggle to be as good as you can be at your chosen profession, the difficulties that sometimes complicate that, and figuring out how to deal with it, is something many of us can empathize with. I’ve also read a couple things lately that talked about how fiction can help us better understand the lives of people not like us, and this was good for me to imagine the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated profession. I suspect men and women are going to benefit from reading this kind of tale in different ways, but benefit regardless.

I’m not a big sports fan, but I’m sure those who are will enjoy the baseball part of the story. As someone who came of age about the same time as the characters in this story (late 70s) I found myself experiencing a bit of nostalgia that the typical reader wouldn’t. (But I refuse to call this historical fiction for you young’uns.) All in all, a good read, even for those who would typically stay away from women’s fiction or sports fiction.

I was also curious as to the status of female umpires in the major and minor leagues. How credible was this? What I found is that the first woman to work as an umpire in the minor leagues of professional baseball did so in 1972, so the story could have happened as indicated. But 45 years later it looks like women umpires are still a rarity with the first woman to work in the major leagues not doing so until 2007 and very few that work in professional baseball at any level. Maybe the difficulties Margie experiences are more contemporary than I thought.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Uses some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 95-100,000 words

Review: Romeo and Juliet Keep Their Eyes on the Prize by Richard Engling

 

Genre: Humorous

Description:

This is an amusing mashup of self-help literature and a production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet through the eyes of the seriously impoverished artistic director of an ensemble theatre company in Chicago. Some of the disasters which befall the production have the ring of truth. Some of the material is laugh-out-loud funny. Often these are the same bits.

Dwayne Finnegan is in love with his work but is very aware that doing what he loves is not making him a living. And then his beloved wife tells him she really wants a baby. Is he going to have to join the corporate rat race and put a permanent lid on his creativity? Then he picks up this self-help book and somehow … it helps!

Author:

Richard Engling is or has been an actor, director, playwright, novelist and musician. He has “spent a lifetime writing and performing, paying his bills as a teacher, truck driver, and copywriter, while performing as an actor, drummer in a jazz quartet”, and was the founding artistic director of Polarity ensemble theatre company in Chicago. He has written a number of plays (some of which have been collected in print) and three other novels. He has degrees in Creative Writing and Theatre.

Appraisal:

I picked this for review because I’ve done a lot of Am Dram in my time (in the UK) and remember very well indeed the love-hate relationship with it (and the people one’s working with), the exhilaration, the pitfalls, the shoestring budgeting, the hang-it-all moment when the expensive thing that breaks the budget becomes a must-have, the endless irritation of people not doing what they’re told, and the extraordinary way all that disparity becomes (for the life of the run) a living Thing that belongs to all those involved, that (often) is almost nothing like what you set out to create. It is fascinating. And addictive.

Engling has put this, and more, on the page very amusingly. It all feels very real.

There are a couple of points made in this book which I’ll just tease out: the arts in general are very vulnerable. Fringe theatre particularly so because it is ephemeral. When the run of the play is over it’s forgotten, except by those few who saw it or were in it or helped produce it. Funding is wafer thin. So people can only really afford to do it if their family has money or they live a cold and lonely life in a garret existing on fresh air and steam. The second point is that, no matter how Woke you are, there should be a limit to how much you monkey about with scripts in the name of inclusivity. Even Shakespeare. Or perhaps especially Shakespeare.

The book deals with all of this, yet manages to make the endless problems not only funny but also resolvable. I was never quite sure what “winning boats rise together” actually means, but I could see that as the novel developed the self-help mantras were definitely giving Dwayne tools which were helping him to succeed. I used to find, myself, that a very large vodka did the trick …

If you have any interest in theatre – especially fringe theatre – you will enjoy this.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Format/Typo Issues:

A few missing words, mainly the easy-to-miss little ones that scuttle off and hide when you’re not looking, but which when present do illuminate a sentence for the reader …

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: Judi Moore

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Review: Last Night at the Nowhere Cliff: A Short Story Collection by M.H. Altis

 

Genre: Short Story Collection

Description:

“Hello there and welcome to Last Night at the Nowhere Cliff: A Short Story Collection, containing laugh-out-loud funnies, tear-jerking ruminations, and many other adventures!

Be warned: some of these stories may be truly beautiful, some may be funny, and some may be outright odd. Such is life, am I right?”

Author:

“Nicknamed ‘The Human Resource’ by their friends due to their penchant for pulling random facts out of thin air, they wrote their first short story when they were young, scribbling away with a stubby pencil and a dollar store spiral-bound notebook. Ever since then, they’ve been hooked, writing all sorts of wacky, funny, scary, and heart-breaking stories.

M.H. writes to express themself, their thoughts, ideas, and emotions. They also have a deep interest in how fiction connects to reality and how character arcs mirror our own lives.

M.H. Altis has written several books, from 250,000-word epics to 50,000-word dashes, and even more short stories. With a growing unreleased catalogue, they decided it was finally time to share their creations with the world.”

Appraisal:

This was a fun read. The book starts out with a quick run down of the stories to come with a bit about what is in the story and possibly an indication of what inspired it. The stories vary in genre and length. While the odds are pretty good that you’ll find a few of these that don’t really pull you in, odds are even better that you’ll find some that really speak to you. Unless your taste as a reader is incredibly broad and you think all genres of fiction are equal in which case you’ll probably like them all. I liked that it mixed things up which kept me guessing what I might get in the next story. Overall a fun read.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language and some minorly adult situations make an appearance.

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an advance reader copy so I can’t judge the final product in this area.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 60-65,000 words

Review: Grave Expectations by Rob Johnson

 Genre: Crime/Comedy

Description:

“I need a coffin,’ she said.

Not an unusual request to put to an undertaker and not an unwelcome one either, since Max, Alan and Scratch are once again struggling to keep their funeral business from going under.

The sale of a single coffin wasn’t going to save them, of course, but the woman who wants it happens to be a dominatrix with a supposedly foolproof plan to rob a bank.

Max and his partners don’t exactly jump at the chance as their previous attempts at bank robbery had almost always ended in disaster. But maybe this was an opportunity too good to miss.

What they hadn’t bargained for, though, was that the bank job was just the beginning of a catastrophic series of events including blackmail, betrayal, murder and an unwelcome brush with organised crime.”

Author:

Rob Johnson is a playwright with four plays that have been professionally produced and toured throughout the UK. He has also written several books.

For more, visit Johnson’s website.

Appraisal:

As with the other books in this series, the main protagonists are Max Dempsey (okay, that’s not really his name, but it is the name he uses now, read the book to understand why) and his two partners. In theory they’re in the undertaking business, selling coffins, preparing people for burial or cremating their bodies … you know, not what most of us would consider fun, but definitely a legitimate business. But when the only other undertaker in the area seems to be getting all the business and the money coming in isn’t coming nearly fast enough to cover the money going out, a guy’s gotta find some way to make a few bucks to get through the dry patch, right? They’ve robbed banks before and when presented with a proposal that appears to be a sure thing, they jump at the chance. Down the rabbit hole they go as complications happen and their reaction to those only causes more complications. Whether or not it all works out for them and how they finally get to whatever the end result turns out to be is an adventure that keeps them and you, the reader, on your toes as the unexpected keeps happening and the whole time you’re going to be laughing (after all, it is a comedic crime story) as well as happy you aren’t one of Max’s partners.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

You’ll have no doubt that the author as well as all the characters are Brits, not only from the UK spelling conventions, but from the British slang that is constantly coming from the mouths of all the characters.

Also some adult language and some adult topics come up.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Review: Suicide Bridge by Daniel Kowalski

 

Genre: Psychological Thriller/Mystery

Description:

“After hearing that a coworker has committed suicide by jumping off a bridge, a recovering drug addict begins investigating the case on her own and she starts to suspect that her boyfriend might be a murderer.

In this exciting psychological thriller, after hearing about a coworker's apparent suicide on a notorious bridge, Michelle Rhodes, a recovering drug addict, finds herself plunged into a gripping mystery. Determined to uncover the truth behind her friend Sarah's disappearance, Michelle embarks on a relentless investigation, despite facing obstacles at every turn. As she delves deeper into the case, Michelle begins to suspect that her boyfriend, Cory, may be harboring dark secrets that connect him to the tragedy. But the truth she discovers will be stranger than she could possibly imagine in this page turner full of twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Set against the backdrop of a small town plagued by whispers of past tragedies, Suicide Bridge is a psychological thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. With its fast-paced narrative and intricate plot twists, this suspenseful tale explores themes of deception, betrayal, and the fragile nature of trust. As Michelle races against time to unravel the mystery, she discovers that the truth is far more sinister than she could have ever imagined.”

Author:

Daniel Kowalski has had several screenplays been optioned by Hollywood production companies. This is his first novel with another one now available.

Appraisal:

This book kept me guessing, trying to figure out what was going on and just as I thought I had a handle on it, something different would happen making me realize I was wrong. It’s a fast-paced, engrossing and intriguing read with an interesting setting and characters that drew me in with a story line that keeps you guessing the entire time.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

A small amount of adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 50-55,00 words

Reprise Review: Double Dealing in Dubuque by Dean Klinkenberg

 

Genre: Mystery

Description:

“Writer Frank Dodge is feeling optimistic for a change. He just landed a plum assignment from a national magazine to write about the growth of boutique food in the Midwest. Dodge's mood quickly turns sour, though, when his scheming rival Helen shows up--is she trying to steal another story from him? When a fire erupts at the food convention Dodge is scouting out, two people die and Dodge can't shake the feeling that the fire was no accident.

Dodge's search for the truth will take him from the specialty shops of Galena, Illinois, through the neighborhoods of Dubuque, Iowa, and to the murky backwaters of the Mississippi River, landing him in the middle of a volatile feud between ice cream queen Stella and chocolatier Ashley.

Can he keep Helen at bay as he investigates the fire? And how far will Stella and Ashley ultimately go to skewer each other? Double-Dealing in Dubuque is a compelling novel that delves into what can go wrong when feuds get out of hand.”

Author:

“Dean Klinkenberg, the Mississippi Valley Traveler, explores the back roads and backwaters of the Mississippi River Valley, a place with an abundance of stories to tell, big characters, epic struggles, do-gooders and evil-doers. Some of those stories are in the Frank Dodge mystery series; others you’ll find in the Mississippi Valley Traveler guidebooks. He lives in St. Louis with his husband, John, and a parrot, Ra.”

Appraisal:

This is Dean Klinkenberg’s second Frank Dodge mystery and, like Klinkenberg himself, Dodge operates in what he describes as “Middle America, where—in the mind of my editor—cultural trends arrive via Pony Express. But, hey, it’s my home, where I keep my stuff—parachute pants, pet rock, and all.” There might be a hint there of who the ideal reader for this book would be. The setting for the series in smaller towns and cities along the Mississippi is going to work best for those from Middle America who can laugh at our foibles, but also recognize that those on the coasts aren’t as special as they might think. As Dodge put it, “When folks on the coasts adopt things that we’ve been doing all along, we’re content to let them think they invented it. It’s important to them to feel that way, and we’re sensitive to other people’s feelings.”

As the paragraph above shows, Klinkenberg delivers a few straight lines that should elicit a laugh or at least a chuckle from readers who are paying attention. But there is also a good mystery here. Some interesting characters and a fun time for the reader to follow along with Frank while we try to figure out who set the fire that killed two people at the convention center.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

This is the second mystery in this series featuring Frank Dodge. However, this book can be read as a standalone.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Review: Black On Madison Avenue by Mark S. Robinson

 

Genre: Memoir

Description:

“Advertising decides what America wants. And yet, for an industry that professes to be the vanguard of creativity, popular culture and forward thinking, advertising is one of the most un-diverse white-collar professions in America. Surprisingly, despite all of its public gestures of ‘wokeness’, Madison Avenue would like to keep it that way.

Black on Madison Avenue explains how – and why – the author landed on Madison Avenue, and shares some of his incredible adventures over the past 40+ years. Yes, adventures. Have you ever gotten into a shouting match with a Venezuelan Army general in the middle of a military coup? He has. He kidnapped advertising legend Jim Jordan, insulted high-ranking Chinese government officials at a formal dinner and launched the first multicultural marketing holding company.

Mark Robinson was the co-founder of Spike/DDB, along with filmmaker Spike Lee and has stories no one else could tell. Robinson’s stories include Bill Cosby, Mike Tyson, Vanessa Williams, Usher, Oprah, Zsa Zsa Gabor, James Brown and Notorious B.I.G.”

Author:

Mark S. Robinson is a longtime employee, manager, and founder of various New York based advertising agencies. He lives with his wife in Connecticut.

Appraisal:

I often say that many books, but especially memoirs, often have one of two effects when you read them, depending on your situation and that of the protagonist or subject of the memoir. If they’re like you, it gives a chance to compare experiences and can sometimes give you a different perspective on your own life. But if the author’s life is much different than yours, it can help you better understand others which is a positive for all concerned.

This book definitely fits that second option for me as my career couldn’t have been much different from Mark Robinson’s work in advertising, not to mention my pale skin that would help me blend in on Madison Avenue. Surprisingly I also spotted some things where our experiences were the same. For example how if you do good work the connections at one job will often help lead to other opportunities at different companies.

This book is structured as a series of stories, with each chapter containing a story that could stand alone, but what happens in one will often relate to things that happened in another in such a way that you’ll see the patterns and how things evolved over time in some ways and not in others for Robinson and other blacks in the advertising business which is, as he says, “one of the whitest white-collar professions in America.” You’ll also see plenty of proof, not just anecdotal, but some data to back it up. In the end I found this to be an enlightening and interesting read for me about an industry I’d have said I wasn’t that interested in, and yet it effects all of us and I found seeing how it functioned from an insiders perspective to be interesting.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Review: The Potusgeists by Will Worsley

 Genre: Historical Fantasy/Satire

Description:

“The president is seeing ghosts!

Patty Pitypander is in way over her head. Somehow, she won the election—but the Oval Office is not what she expected. Neither are its grumpy ghosts, the Potusgeists, who view her as unqualified to be president.

When she refuses to heed their advice, dead presidents and first ladies spook her from the West Wing to the Blue Room. Blood drips down the walls, phantoms emerge out of nowhere, and William Howard Taft appears in her bathtub—naked!

The ghosts are not the only ones eager to foil her ambitious plans. Traitors lurk among the White House staff, dying to give her back a good stab—if Mrs. Lincoln doesn’t do it first.

Caught in a power struggle between the living and the dead, Patty must prove herself to both, or she’ll lose the presidency. Can she save herself in time?”

Author:

“Will Worsley began writing fiction full-time in 2016, after careers in publishing and investment management. As an editor at Time-Life Books, he wrote and edited articles on popular non-fiction topics ranging from history to home repair. As a money manager, he oversaw portfolios for large institutions and got the idea for his first satirical novel, Investing in Vain, named a top 10 business book of 2017 by Wealth Management magazine. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he earned master’s degrees in English and business. Visit his website at willworsley.com”

Appraisal:

A different (at least from what I normally read), amusing, entertaining, and sometimes frustrating read. The frustrating part is that Patty Pitypander is, if not the most incompetent president ever (regardless of who you might think is next worst) then she’s got to be close. It’s not that she’s not capable. More that her priorities are messed up. But luckily the White House is full of spirits (okay, we’ll call them ghosts) of many presidents and first ladies who came before her. They’re there to help, whether she likes it or not. Will Patty get it together? Will she be able to deal with things, other than ghosts, who complicate things even more? It makes for a fun read that will keep you guessing.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an advance reviewer copy, so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words

Review: Missing Walk by Melissa Bowersock

 Genre: Mystery

Description:

” With Christmas just a week away, Sam and Lacey are called to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to investigate the disappearance of a Navajo woman, and come face to face with the obstacles that prompted the MMIW movement—Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman. With very little help from the police, they are forced to forge a trail of clues on their own, a trail that leads to surprising places, but at the end of it all, will they find joy… or tragedy?”

Author:

 “Melissa Bowersock is an eclectic, award-winning author who writes in a variety of fiction and non-fiction genres: paranormal, biography, western, action, romance, fantasy, spiritual, and satire.”

For more visit Ms.Bowersock’s website and follow her on Facebook.

Appraisal:

We’re up to 45 books in this series and while I haven’t read all of them, I’ve read quite a few, and always looking forward to the next one. They’re always fairly quick (novella size) and fun reads. With Sam Firecloud being a native it is common to see Native American history and culture being integrated into the story although with Sam’s ability to sense things, often (but now always) from spirits who are trapped in this world and need help getting to the next. Sam and Lacey are always asked to help solve some mystery and between their team work in putting the clues together and Sam’s supernatural abilities, they find a way to help. However, if you’ve been reading these books and thought you knew at a high level what to expect in every book going forward, this one breaks that pattern. It feels like it is going to follow the pattern at first, but ends up with a few twists that regular readers of the series won’t expect, while still staying true to what we’ve come to expect from the series. As I always feel after reading one of these, I love the read and am now eagerly awaiting the next one.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 20-25,000 words

Review: Only Ann Knows by Baird Smart

 

Genre: Thriller

Description:

“A Horrible Accident or Brilliantly Planned Social Statement

Ann Miller still grieves deeply five months after her son and only child was killed during the Virginia Tech mass shooting. A lifelong gun rights advocate, she works passionately as an executive for a gun rights organization, the American Rifle Society.

One morning, Miller opens an anonymous package containing an AK-47 assault rifle sent to her ARS department. Entering an executive boardroom to deliver the assault weapon to her boss during a departmental meeting, she sprays 50 bullets in a matter of seconds killing 13 of her colleagues.

Two FBI agents with vastly different personalities and investigative approaches lead the ultra-high-profile investigation to determine if the mass shooting was a horrible accident as Miller contends or a brilliantly planned and executed mass murder to bring worldwide attention to the destructive capability of automatic and semi-automatic weapons like killed her son. As the FBI's investigation fails to uncover evidence that Miller pre-planned the shooting, the ARS spins the mass shooting events to characterize Miller as a mentally ill woman hellbent on avenging her son's death.

Having killed everyone in the boardroom, Miller stands trial for 13 first-degree murders as both the perpetrator and only witness. A surprise piece of evidence surfaces at the end of the trial which renders a verdict but still leaves questions unanswered.”

Author:

Baird Smart grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago before leaving for college and eventually working in the TV industry in Los Angeles and Chicago and later working as a real estate broker in the Chicago area. This is his first novel.

Appraisal:

There are some parts of this novel that I like a ton, while there are other aspects that bothered me every step of the way while reading it. You may or may not react the same.

Let’s get the bad out of the way first.

One of the things I look for in books self-published or published by a small press is whether it received adequate proofreading. If I take note of too many issues while reading a book I’ll mention it if I see more than a handful and if it exceeds a certain number (okay, 20 if you care for the exact amount) then I’ll knock my review down to 3 stars or less, depending on other aspects of the book. This book didn’t hit that second number, but it was pushing it. The vast majority of the issues I flagged were homonyms, saying deep-seeded when it should be deep-seated, or summery (an adjective describing something as summer-like) instead of summary. Not to mention the “right to bare assault weapons” which I guess means that people may or may not be able to carry (aka bear) arms, but they have the right to take the clothes or covering off of their firearms.

I also thought the author had a tendency to describe things in way too much detail and flowery language, burning way too many words on description that is much more detailed than is typically needed. (Yeah, sometimes I’m guilty of being too wordy myself.) A short example is describing a room as containing “30x48-inch break-room tables.” Does the size really matter? This example is minor, but there are a lot more examples of this kind of thing, like describing a video playing on a “seventy-two-inch, rear-screen projection television surrounded by a semi-circle cluster of white hair and shiny bald heads.” A little bit of this, at times, may help to set the scene, but it reached the point where my brain was constantly saying “get on with the story.”

In spite of the issues above, I thought the foundational story of Ann and what happened, a mystery for all involved for much of the book, was very good. I think those of a particular political leaning might like this more than others, but it should be thought provoking for all. I’m glad I gave this a read in spite of the issues I had with the execution of telling the story.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

More proofreading issues than I like to see, but not quite enough to knock a star off due to this issue. See discussion in appraisal section for more details.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words