Reviewed by: Keith Nixon
Genre: Crime Fiction
Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words
Availability
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Author:
The author
was born and raised in Iowa where he currently resides with his wife. Craig
enjoys rock hunting, horticulture and the outdoors. He has released other work
including The Blue Dress Paradigm and
Night Speed Zero.
Description:
Kori
Woodson is in trouble. When he learned his stepfather preacher had given Kori's
college savings to the church he decides to makes ends meet by stealing and
selling drugs. The problem? He gets caught and finds himself bundled off to
live with his brother and father in rural Iowa, far from the city's bright
lights.
Almost as
soon as he returns home Kori is dragged into his brother's nefarious schemes –
robbing drug dealers and selling the proceeds. These are the Dimebag Bandits...
Appraisal:
This is an
interesting, well written story (with a caveat that I'll get to shortly). It
opens with a hard-hitting scene, several unknown men rob a bar owner of his
drugs stash, using some pretty stiff techniques to loosen up his tongue. Next
we're with protagonist Kori, he's in a police interview room witnessing fellow
wrongdoers and their antics as he awaits judgement for his theft.
His
preacher stepfather is, from the outset, a hypocrite (he had an affair with
Kori's mother) and instantly detestable. In fact, the majority of characters in
Dimebag Bandits are thoroughly
unpleasant – thieves, drug users, bent cops to name but a few. Everyone is out
for a buck and puts themselves first, even resorting to murder in the process.
The
characters are one of the major strong points of this generally excellent
novel. They're well drawn and engaging and, via their actions, drive the story
along at a pace that never really lets up. Like the story itself the characters
are seedy and often nasty, in particular Virge the Perv, a paedophile who films
his activities and is key in the later story.
The other
strength of Dimebag Bandits is the
hard-bitten scenes and back stories of which there are many. They swing between
gory and gruesome, but most have a humorous vein, something that cuts through
the entire book. I'd like to describe them, however, it is something that's
best discovered by the reader themselves. Don't expect soft views from the
author, in fact it's the opposite. The characters and their portrayal may
offend some.
All in all
this is a very strong read, the author shows plenty of promise. The only issue
I would flag is the need for a small amount of editing to tighten up some of
the narrative, an easy 'issue' to resolve. Normally this would be a factor that
would thoroughly irritate me and ruin the overall story, however the quality of
the writing deservedly pushes this to one side. A writer for the future.
FYI:
Violence
and swearing
Format/Typo Issues:
A few
typos.
Rating: ***** Five Stars
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