Review: The Motel Cowboy Show by Josh Crutchmer

 Genre: Non-Fiction

Description:

“From the Sawtooth Mountains of central Idaho, where phone service still may not reach, to the bustle of Austin, centerpiece of the Texas Music Scene, the influence of mountain roots music is real, lasting, and chronicled by Josh Crutchmer. This highly-anticipated sequel to Red Dirt: Roots Music, Born in Oklahoma, Raised in Texas, At Home Anywhere ties mountain originals like Pinto Bennett to cowboy poets like Baxter Black and Chris LeDoux, and follows their trail down every highway and back road they chose. The rise, heyday and pending touring retirement of Reckless Kelly is covered extensively, bouyed by the humor and introspection of Willy and Cody Braun, their musical upbringing and the larger-than-life influence they forged wherever they made music. The book also puts you in the seats at the venerable Red Rocks Amphitheater for the 2022 comeback concerts by the Turnpike Troubadours, supported by Reckless Kelly and Shovels & Rope. You'll also get the complete story of the Braun Brothers Reunion and its lasting impact on the community of Challis, and read about the determination of Micky and the Motorcars to carve their own legacy. The Motel Cowboy Show will inform as much as it entertains, and it will leave readers casting eyes toward the stages and studios of the American West.”

Author:

Currently the print planning editor at the New York Times, Josh Crutchmer has a long history in journalism having worked for several newspapers around the country before landing at the Times. During that time his specialty has often been  music journalism which he still does on the side, reporting at times for various newspapers as well as Rolling Stone magazine. He has one prior book, Red Dirt, a book about music with its roots in Oklahoma. For more, visit his website.

Appraisal:

As with Josh Crutchmer’s last book, Red Dirt, that covered the history and various connections involved in the development of the Red Dirt music scene that originated in Oklahoma and spread from there, this book does the same for some of the music with roots in the mountains of the western US. As with Red Dirt each chapter of the book stands alone. This can feel disjointed if you expect one chapter to flow into the next and sometimes results in something that was covered in one chapter getting repeated in another one when the information is needed as background in both places, but for the most part if you understand the goal was for each chapter to stand alone, it is no big deal.

If you’re a fan of one or more of the musical acts mentioned in the description and want to know more about their history and their influences, reading this is a no-brainer. If you read and enjoyed Red Dirt, same story.

Some chapters are question and answer chapters, what he calls “roundtables,” with multiple musicians. Some are a run down of a festival with a brief summary of those who played, impressions, and how they connect to each other and the overriding theme, with some glimpses behind the scenes. Yet other chapters are what you might expect, a summary of the history of one or more of the musical acts significant in this subgenre and how they connect to others. As a fan of many of the bands and the genre of music covered, I knew some of the history, certainly more of it than I did when I read Red Dirt, but I learned a lot more. One of the festivals that were discussed in a chapter was one I’d attended, and it helped me appreciate the experience more while also reliving it to some degree. Other festivals that I didn’t attend, I got to experience vicariously through the author’s eyes. A fun read that has left me wondering whether Crutchmer has another music scene he’s planning on documenting in his next book.

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: 60-65,000 words

Review: A Scenic Hills Summer by Shannon Yarbrough

 

Genre: Psychological Thriller/Mystery/LGBTQ

Description:

“When the bodies of three male sex workers show up on the banks of the Mississippi River, the St. Louis LGBTQIA community grows restless while searching for a missing bartender. The police have been slow to respond, and a local reporter suspects a serial killer might be stalking the city’s streets.

Unable to resist putting herself in front of a story as it unfolds, Colette Birzhan races to the Midwest to report on the case. She’s intelligent, provocative, and a proud trans woman. She’s also an award-winning investigative journalist for the New York City Tribune.

Having escaped the clutches of a small town years ago to become her true self, Colette yearns to tell the stories of minorities and under-represented people just like her. From seedy strip joints to private upscale men’s clubs, there’s no part of the city where Colette won’t go while tracking the killer.

Colette relies on the unheard, and often ignored, voices of the city to lead her one step closer to solving the case. When she teams up with a rookie hustler, the trail leads them to a quiet suburb outside of St. Louis called Scenic Hills.

Swimming pools, back yard barbecues, children riding bikes along neighborhood streets, Scenic Hills is a place where people go to escape the fast and dangerous pace of city life.

And it’s where a killer could be hiding.”

Author:

“Shannon Yarbrough knew he wanted to be a writer ever since his grade school passed out free black-and-white journals each year and made classrooms devote one hour a day to creative writing. His school even hosted a Young Author’s Day Festival. To attend, each student had to write and publish their very own book. Shannon wrote and created a pop-up book of poetry out of cardboard and contact paper. He’s been writing short stories and novels ever since.

Born in the South, Shannon fell in love with Southern literature in college and often pays homage to his Southern roots in his story settings and in the characters he creates. From an obsessive-compulsive coffee barista searching for love in a romantic comedy to a Christmas dinner gone awry in a family psychodrama, Shannon constantly challenges his storytelling ability by rarely sticking to one genre. He even wrote a mash-up of the life of poet Emily Dickinson with the story of Frankenstein.

Shannon has called St. Louis, Missouri home for the last two decades, where he lives with his partner of eighteen years, their two dogs, and two cats. Besides writing, Shannon enjoys gardening, cooking, and reading.”

For more, visit Shannon’s website.

Appraisal:

Regular readers of my reviews know that one thing I like in fiction is when a story figuratively puts me in someone else’s shoes, helping me better understand and hopefully sympathize with the plight of those different than me. Here we’ve got a bunch of characters who are members of the LGBTQIA community. In some instances, they’re homeless or close to being so and making ends meet as sex workers. (Warning: If you’re homophobic, this book will probably trigger you repeatedly.) These characters make this story different from my typical read, but at its heart this book is a thriller. Wondering whether Collette, the police, or someone else was going to be able to figure out who the serial killer killing male sex workers in St Louis was and if they would be able to stop the killings kept me engaged to the end.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language and mild adult content. As mentioned in the review, if you’re homophobic, this might not be for you either.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Review: The Truth of It by Beth Orsoff

 Genre: Women’s Fiction/Crime Fiction

Description:

“Grace Hughes has finally uncovered the truth behind the tragic deaths of her husband and daughter. But now that she knows the truth, she must act on it. Her conscience demands nothing less.

With the help of an unlikely ally, Grace hatches a plan to insinuate herself into the lives of her family’s killers. Her goal is simple: infiltrate their organization and gather evidence to use against them at trial. But as Grace delves deeper into the criminal world, the danger to herself and her family escalates.

As the clock ticks down, Grace must balance her desire for justice with the need to keep her loved ones safe. With heart-stopping action and emotional twists and turns, The Truth of It will keep readers on the edge of their seat until the last satisfying page.”

Author:

When Beth’s parents told her they didn’t send her to college to be a professional lifeguard, she moved to California and enrolled in USC Law School to become an entertainment lawyer. She also became a regular attendee of the UCLA Extension Writers Program workshops. She lives in Los Angeles with her daughter.

To find out more about Beth visit her website.

Appraisal:

If you’ve read the first two books in this series like I have then this is where we finally resolve a lot of the questions that have been haunting us (and yes, haunting Grace even more) since the beginning. If you haven’t read the first two books, you should before starting this one.

As for the content of the story, I don’t want to say too much specific. I will say that some things happen that don’t surprise me while others definitely do. Grace finds the answers to some of the questions she had and ultimately finds herself in a better place, but things get tense and sometimes what you wish for may not be what you ultimately need.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

While there is a short prolog that will refresh the memory of what is happening in the series for those continuing from the first two books and a reader is likely to pick things up if they start with this book, I’d advise anyone to read the entire trilogy from the beginning.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words

Reprise Review: Atlas, Broken by Jeremy Tyrrell

 Genre: Literary Fiction

Description:

Henry Ludlow’s existence erodes as modern life takes its toll in the torture of a thousand cuts.

Author:

Jeremy Tyrrell is a software developer by day and writer in his off time. He has worked in a variety of fields; from retail hardware to burger boy, from store maintenance to tutoring, from janitor to programmer.

Appraisal:

Atlas, Broken is told in a powerful voice that reminds at once of Ogden Nash and Franz Kafka. Walter Mitty meets the bug of The Metamorphsis. The fact that it is self-published is condemnation of the current state of letters.

The author himself called Atlas, Broken a depressing tale and some early reviews praised it for dealing with depression. I didn’t see it that way, but rather as a story of Every Man, even the giants among us. Sam Houston, the hero of the Texas revolution and a Unionist who was unable to prevent the state from joining the Confederacy, considered his life a failure. George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, famously wrote “My work is done, why wait?” before he killed himself.

Tyrrell uses humor expertly, not to take the edge off his stark look at the human condition, but to hone the edge to razor sharpness. Highly recommended.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Original review published April 18, 2017

Format/Typo Issues:

None worth noting

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: Sam Waite

Approximate word count: 20-25,000 words

Review: The Undertaking by Rob Johnson

 Genre: Crime/Comedy

Description:

“If business didn’t pick up soon, we’d be staring into the abyss of what economists might call ‘totally screwed’.”

“But as chance would have it, Max Dempsey and Partners: Funeral Directors are about to be saved from financial ruin by a mysterious stranger with a wad of cash. It was the first time they’d been asked to collect a body from France, but what could possibly go wrong?

For a start, the body in question isn’t at all what they’d been expecting, and all of a sudden Max and his partners find themselves catapulted into a world of espionage, blackmail, kidnapping, double-dealing and Russian assassins.

The name’s Dempsey. Max Dempsey. Shaken, stirred and totally freaked out.

The Undertaking is the second book in the Cremains series of comedy capers.”

Author:

Rob Johnson is a playwright with four plays that have been professionally produced and toured throughout the UK as well as several books.

For more, visit Johnson’s website.

Appraisal:

If you read the first book in this series, you’ll already be familiar with Max and his partners who by the end of that book found themselves working as undertakers and funeral directors at their own company. But things aren’t going so well. As this story begins, they’re approached by a person who gives them a large upfront payment with more to come. All they have to do is pick up a body from an undertaker in France and bring it back to the UK. Should be a piece of cake, right?

It turns out not to be so easy though. From minor issues, like the body won’t fit in the coffin they brought with them, to more significant issues I can’t mention since it would be a spoiler, they find that things aren’t quite what they expected. Just when they think they have things under control and have figured out how to deal with it, something else happens, with the pace of these wild twists coming faster and faster as the story progresses. If you’re a fan of comedy crime novels, this one is worth a read.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Uses UK spelling and slang.

This is the second book in a series featuring Max Dempsey and crew. While having read the first book in the series, The Cremains, gives you a more complete understanding of what brought Max and his partners to this point in their lives, it isn’t necessary to read the first book in order to understand and enjoy this current book. It can stand alone.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Review: Dyre Street Punk Witches by Phil Williams

 Genre:

The author describes his books as ‘genre-blending’. Wouldn’t argue with that. It is pretty much equal parts thriller, punk culture, urban fantasy, gang culture, recent history.

Description:

This is a book split between ‘then’ and ‘now’. ‘Then’ is the Nineties. ‘Now’ is unspecified (but there are sophisticated mobile phones). In the Nineties, the protagonists were young in Ordshaw, a British city with extremely rough areas in which there was a throbbing culture of punk, gangs, violence and trafficking of illegal substances by said gangs. The head of one of the gangs also ran a music club and acted as agent for certain musicians, including teenage Punk trio, The Dyre Grrls. The Grrls taught themselves how to do magic from a manuscript they found online. Unfortunately the only magic they could do was destructive. As such it was entirely suitable for the parts of Ordshaw they were making their mark in back then. They mainly used it to ramp up the energy at their performances.

The world turned, the trio split, and its members grew up. The main protagonist (and former front woman of the Dyre Grrls), Kit Fadulous (stage and pen name) now runs a free broadsheet called ‘Incite Ordshaw’ in which she takes to task Ordshaw’s movers and shakers every time they do something she disapproves of, which is most of the time.

Then Aaron (who is living in one of the roughest parts of Ordshaw to prove to himself he’s not afraid to do so) attracts a couple of muggers, and the old Deep Dark energy starts to revive.

There are a satisfying number of misunderstandings which the reader can work through while reading, in true whodunit fashion. The clues are there.

Author:

Phil Williams is a British author living on the south coast. His schtick is ‘sinister fantasy fiction’. He has another 11 books available. He also writes screenplays. He says he will be writing more about Ordshaw in the future. Williams divides his working life between writing educational books which help people understand English and writing fantasy books which assist people to escape reality. He is married and has an ‘impossibly fluffy dog’ called Herbert.

Appraisal:

This is a first rate read. I don’t give 5*s lightly (as regular readers can attest). Cards on the table: I was a bit old for punk and I find thrash incredibly stress-inducing (I guess that’s the point). But I am very fond of urban fantasy and I love a good thriller. When I saw that the flashbacks in the book are set in the Nineties I found that particularly interesting. (I have an historical novel of my own out which is set in the Eighties.) It was a different Nineties to the one I lived, and truly does feel like another country. As it was dealing with cultures which passed me by at the time (punk, gang) I learned a lot too. (I do like to learn Stuff when I read fiction.)

And then there is the witchery. The Dyre Grrls learn their magic from a chatty manuscript which they find online. They read it on a black screen with green writing, before printing it in Courier, clandestinely, over a period of weeks, through somebody’s work printer. That took me back to some long-gone, home-made, computer projects like communally written novels; and early networking where (if you sat up late enough) you could exchange messages in real time with people in the USA, or even China. It all seemed so extraordinary then …

Williams is an excellent writer. The action does not let up. Plot developments are consistently clear and intriguing. Clever one-liners occur frequently. His violent scenes have a practical reality about them which I enjoyed a lot.

There is little more to say except – read this book. It’s a lot of fun.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Loads of bad language, plenty of violence

Format/Typo Issues:

I was working from an ARC, so assume that proofing issues will have been dealt with prior to release

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: Judi Moore

Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words

Review: Breathing in Reverse by Densie Webb

 Genre: Women’s Fiction/Thriller

Description:

“A chance encounter with a celebrity, an impromptu video, and a shiny new espresso machine all added up to a juicy tale for Rachael Allen to share with friends. But when her best friend posts the video online without her knowledge, Rachael begins receiving bizarre threats from an obsessed fan.

Mick Sullivan, the star in her video, offers to help. Despite his fame and reputation as a player, he tries to stay down to earth. However, Mick has secrets. And there’s one he’s hidden even from himself.

Despite wildly divergent life paths, Rachael and Mick’s shared Southern upbringing and passion for good music create a common thread that draws them together. As their relationship deepens and the threats increase, Rachael is forced to decide if being with Mick Sullivan is worth the collateral damage.

Breathing in Reverse is the story of Rachael's serendipitous encounter with a celebrity, her brush with obsessive love, and the bittersweet gift left behind by the very person fixated on destroying her life.”

Author:

A longtime freelance nonfiction writer and editor, Densie (who wants you to know that is spelled correctly, not a misspelling of Denise) was born in Louisiana, lived for several years in New York, and is now based in Austin, Texas. This is her third novel.

Appraisal:

Nailing down what genre to use to describe this book is interesting. One online book store has it classified as a thriller of some kind. That fits in that Rachael, the protagonist of the story, has some experiences that are like what you’d expect to see in a thriller. Call it at least a mild thriller. The tension caused by these experiences is a driver of the story, keeping the reader involved and just a bit on edge. In her biography the author describes the story as women’s fiction, and that fits as well. Regardless of what genre best describes it, I thought it was a fun and engrossing read.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language and mild adult situations.

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an ARC (advanced review 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

Reprise Review: Made In Paradise by Donna Fasano

 

Genre: Romance

Description:

“Her child is alive! For ten years Amber has believed her child was lost to her forever. Then an unexpected inheritance leads the lovely doctor back home… to the man she’s always loved. There she discovers her beloved Jon is a bachelor father, and the little girl he is raising is their daughter!

Jon has vowed to protect and cherish his child, yet he opens their lives to let Amber in. But this dedicated father is no longer the young lover Amber remembers. Can she uncover the tender man she has never forgotten, and convince him to take a chance on their newly formed family, and their own true love?”

Author:

“USA Today bestselling author Donna Fasano is a three-time winner of the HOLT Medallion, a CataRomance Reviewers Choice Award winner for Best Single Title, a Desert Rose Golden Quill Award finalist, a Golden Heart finalist, and a two-time winner of Best Romance of the Year given by BigAl's Books & Pals Review Blog. Her books have sold 4 million copies worldwide and have been published in two dozen languages. Her novels have made the Kindle Top 100 Paid List numerous times, climbing as high as #1.”

You can learn more about Ms. Fasano on her blog or her Facebook page.

Appraisal:

Ms. Fasano does it again. She takes a life-changing situation for a couple of teenagers and almost turns it into a fairy tale. Years later, after Amber Holloway’s father passes away, she comes across a bank book for an account she knew nothing about. She soon heads back to her old hometown in Pine Meadows, NJ to learn more about this account and its balance.

Made in Paradise is an enthralling story of the girl from the wrong side of town and an older boy from a wealthy family who fell in love with each other over ten years ago. When Amber and Jon Weston meet again, both of their worlds are turned upside down. There is no doubt in Amber’s mind that the little girl standing by Jon’s side is her daughter, who she had been told was stillborn. Neither Jon nor Amber can deny their attraction is still there, but there are lies from the past they both must come to terms with. And then the wicked witch of the west, Jon’s mother, makes her presence known again with disastrous consequences.

The characters are all well drawn and their dialogue is realistic. One of the best features of this story is Sydney, Jon and Amber’s almost ten-year-old daughter. Ms. Fasano captured her essence perfectly. The fact that Jon has done a good job raising her alone can’t be denied. Sidney is a treasure and her dialogue and actions were entirely age appropriate.

Amber and Jon’s journey is a wonderful story of a new beginning for a life they thought may have been lost forever. An excellent book that will twist your emotions, but leave a smile on your face and in your heart.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Made in Paradise is book two in Ms. Fasano’s newest series, A Family Forever. Book one is A Beautiful Stranger.

Original review published April 25, 2017

Format/Typo Issues:

I noticed no issues with proofing or formatting.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Approximate word count: 45-50,000 words

Review: The Lies We Tell by Beth Orsoff

 Genre: Women’s Fiction/Crime Fiction

Description:

“Maybe some secrets should stay buried.

After the devastating loss of her husband and daughter, Grace Hughes is determined to rebuild her life. She has created a community for herself and forged a new career helping children in need. She evens starts dating again. But she cannot ignore the past forever.

As Grace delves deeper into her husband's secrets, she uncovers shocking truths that shake her to her core. Did she ever really know the man she still mourns?

The Lies We Tell is a gripping, emotional page-turner about the lies we tell each other, and the lies we tell ourselves too.”

Author:

When Beth’s parents told her they didn’t send her to college to be a professional lifeguard, she moved to California and enrolled in USC Law School to become an entertainment lawyer. She also became a regular attendee of the UCLA Extension Writers Program workshops. She lives in Los Angeles with her daughter.

To find out more about Beth visit her website.

Appraisal:

Those who have read the first book of this trilogy know that the protagonist, Grace, has been having a tough time since the murder of her husband and daughter. She’s found some purpose in helping a couple kids, MJ and Sofia. In the first volume of the trilogy, it appeared that helping these kids as well as changing the focus of her law practice to help children in other ways might be just the ticket to set Grace’s mental health on the road to recovery. Ultimately that might still be true, but there are complications in that regard. One complication is a minor mystery that Grace started looking into in the first volume of the trilogy starts getting more complicated and Grace discovers that some things she thought were true might not actually be the reality of the situation. The deeper she digs, the more complicated things become. Much of this volume is spent digging into this mystery and the story does an excellent job setting up the finale of the trilogy. I’m currently wondering how several things in Grace’s life are going to turn out, hoping she’ll come to a satisfying resolution in the finale, but worried that they might not.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

This is the second book in a planned trilogy. At least in theory, you should be able to follow the story here if read as a standalone. Early on the foundation and big picture of what has happened previously is reviewed so you’ll have some clue as to how the characters got to the starting point of this book. However, I’d advise reading the first book in the trilogy first to understand the complete story best.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words