Reviewed by: Jess
Genre: Mystery
Approximate word
count:
70-75,000 words
Availability
Click on a YES above
to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store
Author:
Kathryn
Lively is an accomplished freelance writer, novelist, editor and EPIC award
winner. Some of her titles include: Little
Flowers, Pithed, Rocky Horror Twitter Show, and a set of short, funny skits
titled Schtick to the Script.
Penned
under the name L.K. Ellwood, you can find: Fade
Out and Murder Most Trivial. She
also writes the Ronnie Lord series under this name, including: Saints Preserve Us, Pray For Us Sinners and
coming in 2013, Deliver Us From Evil.
For more information on Kathryn Lively you can follow her on Facebook and
Twitter, or visit her website at or check out
her blog.
Description:
Matt
“Lerxst” Johnston, Gramma’s boy, music tutor and local celebrity is awakened to
his attempted suffocation via smothering by an attractive stranger. He comes to
realize this is the beginning of an adventure that will lead him down a path of
murder and mayhem while encompassing a little of the sex, drugs and rock ‘n
roll you might expect from a bassist in a RUSH tribute band.
Appraisal:
Ms.
Lively’s writing made the time spent reading this book quite enjoyable. I love
a good plot twist, and by putting the main character into scenes that contraindicated
my assumptions, she was able to entertain me throughout the novel. This tactic
kept me guessing and reading long after I should have been asleep. The
storyline had the potential to be witty and darkly comical, but came across as
intriguing instead as Lerxst’s sweetness is in direct contrast to the
situations and supporting characters he finds himself involved in. The ending
was a bit far-fetched, playing out more like a made for TV movie, but that only
added to the lightheartedness of the read and gave it full closure.
I
rarely have to read a sentence twice but found it a frequent need during the
first half of the book. Lively has a strategy of bisecting an action sentence with
another full sentence or two of the character’s thoughts. This segmentation was
difficult for me to get used to and I felt it interrupted the flow, although
not too badly.
One
thing to note, instead of using the word God in slang terms, she uses Ged
instead. It was just odd because it was quite frequent. The mental intent was
already there, so I didn’t understand why the change.
Format/Typo Issues:
The
book was previously published under the title Dead Barchetta, then revised and republished as Rock Deadly. I felt the book could have
used one more edit when published as Dead
Barchetta due to the omission of small words like: as, if, when, etc. To
celebrate the release of a RUSH album, an additional edit was completed and the
revised title of Rock Deadly was
given. I'm uncertain if these minor errors were caught then. No spelling mistakes
were found.
Rating: **** Four stars
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