Review: The Dying Five 2: Caught Dead-Handed by Jennifer Wright-Berryman

 Genre: Mystery

Description:

“Your favorite Hospice Heroes are on the case again, but this time, they’re gliding their walkers and wheelchairs through Indianapolis to catch the killer of a young homeless shelter volunteer, which hits Mary right in the heart, since she used to be homeless herself.

Our savvy dying detectives are in cahoots with Sylvia Winters, a pharmacy mogul with terminal cancer, who has an underground operation to help the homeless and poor get the medications they need. But when her primary distributor is murdered, she realizes someone is trying to take her organization down. She seeks out the help of The Dying Five, who are excited to unmask yet another murderer.

The Dying Five do not know who they can trust in Sylvia’s inner circle. Everyone looks suspicious and motives for murder abound. Each of the heroes faces peril as the case twists this way and that, the clues leading them everywhere but to the killer. Just as they think their journey to exact justice is coming to a close, there’s another twist, one that could turn the tables on all of them. However, TD5 will not be deterred; this unlikely cast will chase the culprits with the help of some homeless friends until the criminals are caught and sent to the clink, even if it means facing the most menacing murderous monster of all.”

Author:

An associate professor of social work at the University of Cincinnati, Jennifer Wright-Boatman does research into serious subjects involving death from suicide prevention to equitable death care. The Hospice Heroes mystery series, of which this book is the second, gives her a chance to combine her love of a good mystery with her areas of expertise.

Appraisal:

This mystery kept me guessing as to who the culprit or culprits were going to be. I took it on faith that they would be identified, typically a reasonable assumption in a mystery. Unlike some mysteries I didn’t find myself thinking I knew who the guilty party was, then realizing I was wrong, and in the end thinking the clues were all there to see and I just missed them. The reality is some of the clues were there, but this mystery involved uncovering a lot more clues and figuring out how they tied together than a typical mystery.

Of course, this is also far from a typical mystery. “The Dying Five” (or TD5 as it is frequently abbreviated in the book when the current leader of TD5 is recording what they have found in a notebook to pass down to future members of TD5). We know there will be future members of TD5 because, by definition, the TD5 is made up of a team of five people who are literally dying, each with some malady that is going to cause their death in the not too distant future. At this point in life they may not be in great shape physically (some requiring walkers, wheelchairs, or canes to get around as depicted on the series book covers), but they are still sharp mentally and want to do something positive for the world while they still can. As one member of TD5 dies, someone else will be recruited to take their place. As evidenced from past notebooks, they’ve been around awhile and solved lots of cases, but this is only the second case with a book about it. As is probably obvious, the members of TD5, their physical struggles and the mental struggles brought on from their current condition, provide inspiration that is a bonus in addition to the typical mystery as well as the varied personalities and views on things giving TD5 a different feel to their mysteries from the norm. It all makes for a fun read.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

This review is based on an ARC (advanced reviewers copy) and thus I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Review: The Furies’ Bog by Deborah Jackson

 

Genre: History/Mystery/Science Fiction

Description:

Archaeological finds are turning up where they have no business to be. Could there be a connection between ancient bog bodies found in a national park in northern Canada and others found in the Everglades in Florida? Why do some of them appear to be Phoenician? And why are astronauts on a mission to observe the terraforming of Mars spying on each other?

Author:

Deborah Jackson’s debut novel was Ice Tomb. This is her second, and was published in 2016. There is now a sequel to this one, published last year (and a third novel published sometime in the intervening seven years). She also writes the ‘Time Meddlers’ books for children.

Jackson has a science degree, and did online courses with MIT in order to refresh and deepen her knowledge in the areas of genetic studies, biology and planetary geology as part of her research for this book. She lives in Ottawa.

Appraisal:

I love a good history and mystery. I also love SF. So a mash-up of the two should be ace, right? Well, when you cram as much as this into one book matters can get a bit out of hand. This book is some 160,000 words long. There is a *lot* of plot here. Also a lot of characters, some of them with needlessly similar names. There are many, many chapters, the beginnings of which give the reader no clue as to which bit of book we’ve now arrived in. It is, frankly, a bumpy ride.

Jackson did a *lot* of research for this book, and was obviously keen to use it all. Not only is there a substantial information dump of an extremely technical nature towards the end of the book, there is also a glossary of terms beyond the end of the book proper, *and* an Author’s Note at the beginning detailing the preparations she made before writing the book.

But be in no doubt – this is original stuff, and a fascinating read. You will need time, and patience, but it really grabbed me from about half way through when it became clear that something Really Weird was going on with the archeology. Why it needed to take that long to lay that before the reader I cannot tell you. The relevance of the Martian thread remained opaque longer. But when the Martian material began to make sense too one finally got a sense of the over-arching plot. And it is huge.

You have to wait a long time for the first Big Reveal: hints are dropped from early on. I pride myself on being able to take a clue and make a three course meal out of it – but I could do nothing with Jackson’s hints. She screws the reader’s patience to screaming pitch before beginning to release information as to what is actually going on.

When the release began (it takes the rest of the book to be completely divulged) I was very impressed with the underlying ideas which took the book to that point. But then the book became diffuse again. There is, of course, the sequel to consider: must leave some plot for that. But I did feel I’d been left dangling at the end. Was it the end of the world as we know it, or not? And who were the Furies of the title? The only reference to them appeared to be in epigraphs from Ovid.

The cast of characters is substantial. I couldn’t warm to any of them. Jackson is at pains to give each major character serious personality flaws. The Baddies, on the other hand, are without nuance but are just Really Bad. Except for those who have a foot in both camps. The Baddies have an enormous chip on their shoulders for reasons I never fully grasped.

If you enjoy long, complex novels, this may be just what you’ve been looking for.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: *** Three Stars

Reviewed by: Judi Moore

Approximate word count: 155-160,000 words

Review: Eddie & Alan by Anthony O. Amiewalan

 

Genre: Literary Fiction/LGBTQ

Description:

“Eddie and Alan is a novel that follows two men who reflect on the end of their three-year relationship. They come from different walks of life; Eddie is a black queer man, and Alan is a cis white, mostly straight man. They were introduced to each other at work and quickly connected. Eddie and Alan's friendship morphed into something more intimate, coming to a head during their four-day beach vacation. At its heart, this story seeks to shed light on the complexities of relationships between men, the fluidity of sexuality, and what happens when the lines are blurred.”

Author:

Born in the southern US, Anthony Amiewalan describes himself as a first-generation Nigerian American. He mostly grew up in the Midwest, then lived on the west coast for a short time before landing in Brooklyn, NY where he lives with his longtime partner. This is his first novel although he also wrote a memoir that was released in November, 2022. For more, visit his website.

Appraisal:

Years ago I read a memoir written by a then new author that told the story of a high school romance the author had. He and the girl he was involved with were doing great until her parents put an end to it, forbidding them to see each other. Years later, as adults, they ran into each other and things took off again with them eventually getting married. The author’s next book was the same story, told from the perspective of his girlfriend and eventual wife. It turns out that while the big picture was often the same, the way they viewed and interpreted events was often much different. The contrast between the two viewpoints for an outsider was interesting because as an outside observer, a reader who read about events from both sides could understand how both parties came to see things the way they did and it was a reasonable viewpoint, at least based on the information each had.

That’s a lot of words to tell you about a different book, but in the preface of this book the author explains that this novel is going to tell the story of two friends in a first-person narrative style from the viewpoint of both of the main characters, which I’m sure you could guess are named Eddie and Alan. Seeing this explanation upfront I immediately flashed on that set of books above and saw how this approach could work. And it did. That Eddie and Alan are very different from each other in many ways, from the obvious characteristics of race and sexuality, to the different approaches to life, the way they deal with difficult situations, and many other ways only adds to the story with the contrasts helping the reader to understand how people who might be different than the reader might view things. I’ve long thought that one of the things gained by reading is that it puts the reader into the minds and lives of people who are often much different than themself and helps them understand others better as a side-effect. With these two main characters you’re guaranteed at least one of them is going to be much different than you, quite possibly both of them will be, at least in some ways. The result was an interesting and enlightening read.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

A small amount of adult language. There are also some adult situations depicted although they are relatively mild as such things go.

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: 35-40,000 words

Review: Early Adopter by Drew Harrison

 

Genre: Short Story Collection/Science Fiction

Description:

"Early Adopter is a collection of short stories from the edge of human progress. Eight stories hold dark mirrors to our own world… experience thought-provoking sci-fi, technologic tragedy, and pulse-pounding thrillers.

To Run Again: Dr. Laura Brandie is ready to change the world.

She's the lead researcher behind the KSE, a revolutionary cure for paralysis and neurodegenerative conditions. And now, by good fortune, she's found the perfect candidate for her first human trial: a man who suffers from locked-in syndrome.

Brett Harmon's paralysis is total: he can't move his arms, legs, torso, neck, or face. To the outside world, he's little more than a statue that breathes... but Dr. Brandie's KSE might be the miracle that allows Brett to run again.

Homonoia: The world faces an unprecedented alignment of catastrophes and failing systems, far too intricate and interconnected for any human to solve. Frank Burman joins with seven other volunteers for Project Homonoia--a radical, last-ditch effort to postpone the apocalypse. Separate minds link to form one multidisciplinary consciousness, the world's first human superorganism... a hive mind. But with the world's health rapidly failing, can Project Homonoia work out its kinks in time to make a difference?

Early Adopter: A loner enters into a relationship with a new type of partner: an AI agent, programmed to be the "perfect companion."

Sure, it's all self-deception and a game of pretend, as she's not actually real... but where simulated consciousness is concerned, maybe the lines between real and real enough can get blurry.

And many more!”

Author:

By day, Drew Harrison is a teacher who “writes on the side.” He had previously published two novels, one science fiction and the other a thriller.

Appraisal:

This collection has eight short stories, the three outlined in the description plus five more. As indicated, they are from “the edge of human progress.” I’ll define that as things that aren’t real today, but based on the rate of progress the last several decades and the things that are known to be possible today, all of the things explored in these stories seem like possibilities to come to fruition sometime between tomorrow and a few decades from now.

While the stories explore multiple technological advances, from the current hot topic of artificial intelligence to the creation of a virtual world to technological ideas that you’ve probably never considered (I sure hadn’t), the stories all get you thinking, which is obviously the point of these stories. It sure worked for me.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

A small amount of adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

I believe this was a pre-release advance reviewer copy, so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words

Reprise Review: Isolation by M.P. McDonald

 

Genre: Thriller/Post-Apocalyptic

Description:

“Cole Evans thought he'd found a safe haven for his family and a growing band of survivors of the most lethal virus the world has ever known. But he finds continued survival is far from guaranteed as they battle hostile encounters with other survivors, nature, and devastating accidents. Are they prepared to survive their first brutal Wisconsin winter after the rest of the world has perished?”

Author:

“M.P. McDonald makes a living from taking your breath away... then giving it back via a tube or two. She lives in a frozen land full of ice, snow, and abominable snowmen. On the days that she's not taking her car ice-skating, she sits huddled over a chilly computer, tapping out the story of a camera that can see the future. She hopes it can see summer approaching, too.”

Appraisal:

The premise of this series is a virus that wiped out many, maybe most, of the world’s population. This band of survivors believe they’ve outlasted the virus although they still take precautions in many situations. In this second volume of the series they’ve survived the initial problems and are trying to figure out the long term.

I found the world they’re living in, the premise, and the things they have to work out an interesting mind exercise to go through with them. Of course, there is much more than planning involved as accidents happen, plus other survivors pop up from time to time and it isn’t clear who is friend and who foe. Not to mention the issues involved in a Wisconsin winter. I’m looking forward to the next in the series to see where things go from here.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

While the second book in the series, this can be read as a standalone and still understood. (I haven’t read the first in the series and it was not a problem.)

Original review published June 5, 2017

Format/Typo Issues:

The review is based on a pre-release beta copy of the book, so I can’t judge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words

Review: All the Rage in Texas by Russ Hall

 

Genre: Thriller/Suspense

Description:

“Rage paves the roads of Texas.

Al Quinn’s quiet life as a retired sheriff’s department detective is disturbed by a case of road rage. An angry driver shoots at Al’s sister-in-law, Bonnie, and her baby. Bonnie returns fire and wounds her assailant, Ketchum, who leaves the scene. But that’s not the end of the altercation.

Ketchum gathers some friends to help him get revenge. Al and his entire family are now in the path of enraged, payback-minded armed thugs who have little to lose.

Sheriff Clayton makes matters worse by asking Bonnie and the rest of Al’s group not to kill the men so they can stand trial. Law enforcement wants to make a point about road rage. But Al would rather teach them not to mess with the ones he loves.”

Author:

“A writer of mysteries, thrillers, westerns, poetry, and nonfiction books, Russ Hall has had more than thirty-five books published. He lives and writes on the north shore of Lake Travis near Austin, Texas, where he hikes, fishes, and lives with far more books than the anti-hoarder groups would approve.”

Appraisal:

If I had to describe this story in a single word it would be intense. I’ve read and enjoyed other books featuring Al Quinn, but this jacks things up to a more intense level because Al and those most important to him are the people most likely to suffer if things go sideways. We know who the culprits are and for most of the book so do Al, his cohorts, as well as law enforcement. The problem is finding them and bringing them in before they can get their revenge on Al’s sister-in-law, Bonnie, and anyone else who upsets them along the way. It all adds up to a book that draws you in and keeps you turning the page, wondering how it is all going to work out.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an advance reader copy and might not reflect the final product, so I can’t gauge this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words

Review: We All Live in a Fascist Police State Now, Thanks to This One Fucking Guy by Stephen Kozeniewski

 

Genre: Dystopian/Thriller

Description:

“It happened here. Fascism came, wrapped in the flag and carrying a Bible.

Nobody much noticed.

Sure, a few traitors like to whine about their missing ‘rights,’ but it's up to the heroes of the Federal Bureau of Patriotism to silence them.

When someone starts spilling FBP secrets, Captain Leo Nergali is assigned to track him down. But wait, Leo himself *is* the mole? Record scratch!

Buy this fucking book to see how Leo censors the arts, disappears his enemies, and perhaps even finds jackbooted love.”

Author:

Stephen Kozeniewski is the author of numerous books, in multiple genres. His books have been nominated and won awards, especially in the horror genre where he even won the World Horror Grossout Contest two times. He, his girlfriend, and their two cats live in Pennsylvania.

Appraisal:

The dystopian genre takes a political direction, typically something that someone has tried recently, and imagines a long slide down that slippery slope, taking the idea to an extreme point and imagining what it might be like. Sure, the idea of the slippery slope as a sure thing is a fallacy, but one of the things that makes it a fallacy is imagining what would happen if an idea is taken too far. That’s what this story does as well.

In this story way too many things are policed way too strictly, forcing people to believe (or at least pretend to believe) things that they really don’t, having to conform to what the government leaders prefer. I found this interesting as I imagined this story world and what it would be like. How would I react? Would I conform? (If I didn’t, I’d probably be dead, so wouldn’t be around for long.) If I did conform, would it seem normal or okay? What would I do if I started having second thoughts? What are the odds of the US or some other country in the world evolving to something resembling what is depicted in this story? This book obviously got me thinking about what might happen if some changes go too far and how I and others might react. That’s the point of the genre and this story did it well.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Obviously this has some adult language. Just looking at the title should tell you that.

Format/Typo Issues:

My copy appears to be an advance reviewer copy, so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Review: The Other Murder by Kevin G. Chapman

 

Genre: Murder Mystery/Police Procedural

Description:

“Sometimes, the most dangerous thing . . . is the truth.

For disgraced cable news producer Hannah Hawthorne, covering the shooting of a pretty NYU sophomore is a chance for redemption. When the story snowballs into a media circus, Hannah’s reporting fans the sensationalistic flames and earns her acclaim. The tragic murder, seemingly the result of random urban gun violence, prompts protests and vigils that further magnify the story.

Meanwhile, Paulo, a reporter for a small online neighborhood newspaper, is following the other murder in Washington Square Park that same night – a Hispanic teen. He discovers an unexpected connection that is political dynamite. When Hannah and Paulo team up, they uncover disturbing facts, leading them to question everything they thought they knew. Their reporting also leads them to the man who might be the killer.

When the story is ready to explode, the truth may be hotter than anyone can handle. Breaking the next scoop could ruin Paulo’s paper and wreck Hannah’s career – and it could get them both killed.

If you like David Baldacci's page-turners, Michael Connelly’s cops, and Sara Paretsky’s quirky characters, you will love The Other Murder.”

Author:

A lawyer specializing in labor and employment law by day, Kevin Chapman describes his real passions as playing tournament poker, rooting for the New York Mets, and writing fiction. For more, visit Mr Chapman’s website.

Appraisal:

For those who have read and liked Kevin G. Chapman’s Mike Stoneman Thriller series, this book is different than those, but I think you’ll still like it. Both take place in New York, and some characters you might recognize from those books pop up or get mentioned in some way including Stoneman himself, but the focus of the story is much different from what it would be in those books. Just before the start of chapter one (I guess I could call it the preface although it isn’t labeled that way) are two quotes.

“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propaganda, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“In seeking truth, you have to get both sides of a story.” – Walter Cronkite

These two quotes set up the heart of this story. There are two murders that happen in New York’s Washington Square Park the same day. The two main characters in this tale, Hannah, the producer for a cable TV news program, and Paulo, a reporter who writes for a small neighborhood newspaper, get involved, both reporting what is known, but doing what they can to dig out more details about both murders, determine if they have any relationship to each other, and then struggle with how and what to report about their findings and how to find out more.

The resulting story is one with a mystery, that as a reader kept me involved as the different pieces of the whole story came to light. But there is also a side story that sent my thoughts off on tangents, pondering the press, what we can and should expect from them, and wondering if there is a way to help better align their priorities to what would bring about the best result for everyone. I think both Gandhi and Cronkite were onto something and Chapman’s story ought to get us all thinking.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

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

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 95-90,000 words