Reviewed by: Keith Nixon
Genre: Mystery
Approximate word count: 65-70,000 words
Availability
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Author:
Landon
Pemper has held a large number of varied jobs whilst travelling. As well as
being a drummer in rock bands and working on indie films, Pemper is a writer. Surfer’s Hurricane is his debut novel.
You can
learn more about Landon Pemper at Wild Knight Publishing or his website.
Description:
Wannabe
surfer Milt is forced to move from his home on the Texas coast to Milwaukee by
Hurricane Ike. His closest family, estranged sister and brother in law, live
there. When he breaks into their house the phone begins to ring. A mystery
woman entices him to a bar. Who is she? What does she want?
Appraisal:
Technically
there’s nothing wrong with this book, it’s well written and I couldn’t find any
issues with punctuation, spelling or grammar. There’s a degree of mystery and
some of the characters are strong and engaging. Written in the first person it
keeps the reader close to the action. But for some reason it just failed to
grab me.
The initial
premise when a mystery girl, who he nicknames Divinity, with a sexy voice pulls
Milt to a bar is interesting in itself. It appears to be a case of mistaken
identity. Then some bad guys start pursuing Milt, seemingly trying to force him
to stay away from Divinity. But Milt has fallen for her and can’t help his
pursuit of her.
During his
journey Milt happens across several broken down rockers – Tanni and Stache
along with Mailman Joe. They were the best characters, I felt. Down to earth
with a droll sense of humour. They lit the story up whenever in play.
Much is
made of Milt’s appearance, a fish out of water – a surfer miles away from the
sea. There’s a constant stream of references to both and almost everyone Milt
meets comments on it or calls him Surfer. It got a bit repetitive, I didn’t
need to be told so many times.
I also
struggled a little with the revelations about Divinity’s real existence and the
eventual reveal as to why Milt had been pursued by the bad guys.
The author
describes Surfer’s Hurricane as
humorous and heart-breaking. Well, it had a degree of the former, but little of
the latter in truth. In fact the ending was high on the feel good factor.
Everything that could come together, did so. If I said any more it would give
it away.
All in all,
a reasonable read and a promising debut, but not quite enough to fully engage
me.
FYI:
Nothing of
note.
Format/Typo Issues:
None.
Rating: *** Three Stars
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