Genre: Thriller
Description:
“Motel proprietor Mess Hopkins is more interested in helping others
than turning a profit, so he opens the doors of the Fairfax Manor Inn to those
seeking refuge from a bad situation. But when his cousin Finn shows up in
trouble, his world is rocked, because Mess had thought Finn was dead, having
run away six years earlier.
Unfortunately, Finn was in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw
the wrong thing—an incident with deadly consequences.
It’s up to Mess, his girlfriend/newspaper reporter Lia Katsaros, and
buddy Vell Jackson to solve the crime before some bad men achieve their
goal—killing the only eyewitness. Mess’s frightened cousin Finn.”
Author:
Award-winning author Alan Orloff has a bunch
of published novels as well as having his short fiction included in many
publications.
For more about Alan Orloff, visit hiswebsite and follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Appraisal:
Mess Hopkins owns a motel in Fairfax, VA, a suburb in the Washington,
DC area 10 to 20 miles southeast of DC. Okay, he doesn’t exactly own it. His
family does, but he gets to manage it and keep the profit, so close enough. It
is what many would refer to as a “fleabag motel.” Definitely not very upscale.
His goal isn’t to make oodles of money from it though. He hopes to make enough
to scrape by, making enough profit for him to survive, while he helps out those
in need. This means that many of the rooms at the motel are not generating
revenue as Mess lets people live in some of them, Mess lives in one himself,
and the reality is many of them are empty most night regardless. Phil, Mess’s
uncle, thinks he should be spending more time trying to get more business and
less time helping others. Then Phil’s long-lost-son Finn shows up. Mess and his
cousin Finn were great friends until Finn ran away six years prior and no one
has known where he was. Trying to help his cousin, who it turns out has gotten
himself into a scary situation, and figuring out how to deal with that turns
into quite a mystery. What Mess and Finn and some of Finn’s friends who he
drafts to help go through in helping Finn, who keeps making decisions that make
things even worse, keeps both Mess and the reader on their toes as they try to
figure things out. This is the second book in the series featuring Mess Hopkins
and I’ve really enjoyed the series thus far.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
Format/Typo
Issues:
This review is based on an advanced reviewer copy, so I can’t gauge
the final product in this area.
Rating: *****
Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words
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