Review: How to Hotwire an Airplane by Henry Rausch

 

Genre: Adventure

Description:

The protagonist, Hiram is a Vietnam veteran, and carries a lot of guilt. He makes a very small living from flying his battered Cessna on whatever jobs he can pick up, and renting out half of his house. He has issues. The story takes us through from Spring, to 9/11 and its aftermath, in 2001. The action takes place around the Texas/Mexico border.

Author:

Henry Rausch was a submariner for 20+ years. He did some hush-hush things for the USA, deep underwater. He retired in 2005. Now he enjoys flying small planes, and has a lot of experience in this area. He has written about his submariner experiences in Submerged which was very well received, and won prizes.

Appraisal:

Hiram is not really a likeable character. But then, the book is set in 2001 – a third of a lifetime ago, in my case. Attitudes have shifted: some of them. And, of course, some of them never shifted at all, and some of them are circling back around. Am I being a bit gnomic? Well, it’s that sort of book. Just when I thought I had Hiram pigeon-holed as a woman-objectifying red-neck the book takes flight (if you’ll pardon the pun). He falls in love. He starts mercy flights for rescue dogs. This leads onto rescuing some of the people who daily try to cross the Mexican/Texas border on foot. He sees it as atoning for a perceived, fatal, error he made in ‘Nam. But perhaps the only error in war is starting one…

Hiram and the lovely Lucy for whom he falls are both old enough to know better. But their developing relationship is, none the less, sweet passionate and good for them both.

The ferrying of immigrants across the Mexican border turns out to be not as secret as Hiram had believed. Border Patrol go to some lengths to catch him. But one man and a battered Cessna can do much once they are air-borne.

For much of the book I feared Raush was displaying firearms over the mantlepiece which were not going to get fired, rather than building plot. I was wrong. Most of what he puts on the page is used in the end. Trouble is, the setting up (and the occasional excursion) does tend to reduce pace. As do the lengthy technical explanations of what exactly Hiram does with his Cessna.

But if you enjoy adventure which leans fairly hard on the technical, there is much to enjoy here.

And 2001 Hiram turns out to have some interesting humanitarian opinions which are once again matters for debate under the current (2025) regime. This is one of the great things you can do with fiction. It can’t be political can it, because it all happened a long time ago. Yes, in some ways this is an historical novel – and yet it all somehow seems so now …

Oh, and the splash of magic is a delight.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Format/Typo Issues:

The variation in formatting is slightly odd. This reviewer spent time trying to work out if it was deliberate and meaningful, or not. Not, I decided. So don’t you waste time on that.

Rating: *** Three Stars

Reviewed by: Judi Moore

Approximate word count: 100-105,000 words

Reprise Review: The Grumpface by B.C.R. Fegan

 

Genre: Children’s Picture Book

Description:

“Dan is a young inventor in love. He ventures into a forest looking for a rose but instead finds the mysterious Grumpface who threatens to hold him captive unless he passes some difficult challenges. What follows is a humorous adventure that neither Dan nor the Grumpface could have anticipated.”

Author:

“BCR Fegan is a multi-award-winning author who has written a number of fairy tales and fantasies for children and young adults.”

 

“His ravenous appetite for both reading and writing soon saw him drawing on the transformational influence of the world around him to craft short stories, poems and picture books.”

Appraisal:

What a fun kids story. I had fun reading it to my four-year-old granddaughter, with its rhyming, lyrical language and a nice mix of things that felt silly (aka fun, for a four-year-old) and serious. That my granddaughter was giggling at the Grumpface (the guy in the book, not her grandfather) was another good sign. We both enjoyed and my granddaughter hopes to revisit the grumpy old guy (that would be the grandfather this time) for another reading of The Grumpface.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Review: Short Grift by Simon Maltman

Genre: Short Story Collection/Crime Fiction

Description:

“In the world of the Short Grift, the plans are desperate, the criminals are questionable, and the outcome is usually messy. Simon Maltman delivers a masterclass in modern noir, blending razor-sharp crime fiction with a dark, cynical wit that cuts right to the bone.

This collection contains conflicted grifters, serial killer grifters, zombie grifters, and even Donald Trump.”

If you’re interested you can also find an album of music related to the short story collection here.

Author:

“Simon Maltman is the author of crime fiction novels, novellas and short stories.

He is also a T.V writer, reviewer, musician and the lead guide for the crime tour, Belfast Noir.”

Appraisal:

A fast read with eleven short stories that, while all crime fiction, have a wide variety of takes with the common theme being grifting, sometimes by zombies which, while as a reader you suspend belief, you realize isn’t true to Donald Trump making an appearance, where you just assume lots of grifting is going to happen. It made for a fun read and an enjoyable change of pace from my typical reading material.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language. The author is Irish and based in Ireland, so some of the verbiage and context is going to require some minor reading between the lines, but it wasn’t too difficult. For example, I had no idea what the reference to an Ulster Fry was, but Google quickly clued me in that it was a traditional Irish breakfast that apparently includes baked beans as one of the items.

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an ARC (advance reader/reviewer copy) and thus I can’t gauge the final product.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: Bigal

Approximate word count: 20-25,000 words

Review: One More For The Ditch by Eric McLaughlin

 

Genre: Absurdist Fiction

Description:

“One More for the Ditch is a savage, darkly comic triptych about collapse, cancellation, and the violent search for meaning in a culture addicted to outrage. Moving between addiction, grief, satire, and rebellion, the book asks what, if anything, is worth worshiping when institutions fail, morality fractures, and survival itself becomes an act of defiance.”

Author:

Information about the author is limited, but this appears to be his first full length book with short stories being featured in multiple venues prior. He has a substack site that you can check out if you’d like.

Appraisal:

I feel like I could write a novel on my reactions about this book which range from the extremely negative to the extremely positive. I’ll try to cut my review down to at least novella length or even a short story. We’ll see how I do.

About fifteen years ago when I first started writing reviews of most of the books I read, focusing on indie (both self-published and extremely small press) publications that were starting to get attention among Kindle owners, one of the claims I saw from my fellow readers was that the proofreading was lacking in these books. While it wasn’t unusual to see a handful of proofing misses in a book, even those published by the large traditional publishers, I didn’t often see serious issues regardless of how they were published, but sometimes it happened. I came up with a threshold of a number of errors I needed to flag while reading a book where I would mention that it had proofing issues and an even higher number where I would start deducting stars based on the proofing misses. This book exceeded that second threshold by more than 4 times and of the close to a thousand books I’ve gauged using this criteria this has, by far, the worst proofreading of any. In fact, it feels like the book could have been written using speech to text and then the generated text was published without even looking at it based on a lot of the errors I saw, like constantly confusing the words passed and past or saying shes instead of she’s with apostrophes missing from words where they should be. If this kind of thing bothers you, this book will drive you crazy.

The content itself, if you ignore the above, I liked much better. The title says it is a “triptych” which is usually used for a work of art that has three pieces. This has three parts to it with different sections that are different, yet still tie together in many ways. Amazon has this classified as absurdist fiction which Wikipedia describes by saying that “common elements in absurdist fiction include satire, dark humor, incongruity, the abasement of reason, and controversy regarding the philosophical condition of being ‘nothing’.” That gives a pretty good idea of the story (okay, make that stories) that you’ll find here. In some ways it felt dystopian, but felt like it was showing us what today’s world could be headed for if we continue on our current path. I love books that get me thinking and looking at the world from different angles. This does that. If I wasn’t constantly having to interpret and correct in my head for all the proofing issues, I’d have enjoyed it a whole lot more.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language

Format/Typo Issues:

Proofreading, if it happened, was atrocious as discussed in the appraisal section.

Rating: ** Two Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words

Review: Dreaming True in the Apocalypse by Phoebe Walker

 

Genre: Dystopian/Science Fiction/Romance

Description:

“After being left for dead by her survivor group, Allie Dawes has been living in an underground bunker for the first year of the zombie apocalypse. Her only company is Morrigan, a goddess who has gifted Allie with prophetic dreams and abilities that seem to have brought more trouble than good into her life. Just when the isolation is starting to make Allie wonder if she’s losing her mind, Morrigan sends her a dream with a mission: save Cameron Hale.

Cameron Hale is trying like hell to get back to his group and their community of settlements, where they are starting to rebuild society. On the way, he stumbles into the path of a massive zombie horde. Cam’s only hope for escape is to outrun the monsters, but he’s on the verge of exhaustion. Then an angel with a rifle snatches him, quite literally, from the jaws of death.

In Allie’s bunker, these two touch-starved, PTSD-ridden people who don’t quite feel like strangers find themselves drawn to each other physically and emotionally. But love isn’t simple in a world where the undead walk the earth, and even if Allie and Cam manage to stay alive during the struggles that await them outside the bunker, their tenuous bond may not survive.”

Author:

“Phoebe Walker is the pen name of co-authors and longtime best friends Jennifer ‘Jay’ Bull and Mary Morris. Jay lives with her husband and her cats in rural Illinois, where she works as a writer and a professional psychic. She began making up stories and characters in her mind at a very young age and always loved sharing them with others, so writing became a natural creative outlet. Jay collects tarot decks and cats, but her spouse has put a limit on cat collecting, so she only has the care of three tiny terror beasts. Mary grew up reading romance novels and SFF epics on a farm in southeastern Illinois. After earning an MFA in fiction, she has worked as a proofreader, copy editor, reporter, and English professor; today, she is an educator and freelance editor who has published short fiction and nonfiction in various lit mags. She lives in the middle of nowhere with her husband, her children, and miscellaneous cats.”

Appraisal:

While willing to consider books of almost any fiction genre, I tend to shy away from science fiction although books in the dystopian subgenre are the most likely exception. While I’ll read romance, it is relatively rare, although a bit of a romantic subtext is no big deal. This book, while definitely falling outside my normal mild doses of sci-fi and romance still hit the spot in spite of that. The romance, while an important part of the overall book and definitely fitting the conventions of the genre, seemed perfectly natural (in spite of the very unnatural setting of the book). The premise of the book and how things shake out for our main characters involved a lot of unique twists that I had no idea what was coming next. Figuring out how to live in a world that has changed in so many ways, who to trust, and how far to trust them, and just how to survive this wild and strange world the characters found themselves in was a vicarious adventure I’m glad I took.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language and relatively mild adult situations.

Format/Typo Issues:

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

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 105-110,000 words

Review: I Remember Everything by Brooks Eason

 

Genre: Adventure

Description:

“Sam Thompson and Jeff Freeman become best friends on the day they meet in the summer they turn eight. Sam serves as the best man in Jeff’s wedding and, a decade later, they swap roles. They name their sons for each other and remain best friends until the night of a shocking twist of fate in 2023.

I Remember Everything traces their lives for more than five decades, from growing up to growing old, and follows them on grand adventures to some of the most magnificent rivers and mountains in America.

The novel also explores their mutual love for the music of the late John Prine, one of America’s greatest songwriters. I Remember Everything is the title of his last song.”

Author:

“Brooks retired after forty years practicing law to a life of walking dogs and writing books. He has three children and five grandchildren and lives in Madison, Mississippi, with his wife Carrie, three rescue dogs, and an orange tabby cat . In their spare time, Brooks and Carrie host house concerts and dance in the kitchen.”

Appraisal:

To be fair, I can see this book not hitting home with everyone the way it did me. It has elements of mystery, a bit of suspense, and a lot of flashbacks to experiences and adventures in the past.

I’m old and can’t claim to have friends who I’ve been doing things with since I was a kid like Sam Thompson and Jeff Freeman, the friends featured in this story. However, this book really appealed to me with it’s talk of travel (I’m an avid traveler who loves to get out and explore the US, which these characters have done, comparing their experiences to my own or riding along and having new experiences vicariously. Even though this is fiction, their travel felt real.

They’re also obsessed with what is currently being described as Americana music, with John Prine being high on the list. As someone who has been a fan and even written about that genre of music in the past, the artists whose names were mentioned drew me in that much more. I’m sure I would have liked this read regardless, but it is rare for a book to hit so close to home for my personal interests like this one did which just made it that much more enjoyable.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Reprise Review: Quest of Thunder by Karissa Laurel

 

Genre: Young Adult/Epic Fantasy/Adventure

Description:

“Evelyn Stormbourne has overcome revolutionaries, pirates, devious relatives, and powerful Magicians to claim her birthright as Lady of Thunder, but before she can embrace her dominion over the skies, her powers falter, leaving her impotent and adrift. Under the protection of her stalwart companion, Gideon Faust, Evie hides in anonymity and searches for news of the Fantazikes who had once promised to help her master her divine abilities.

Without her capacity to control the storms, Evie wonders how she’ll ever reclaim her throne—a legacy she’s not convinced she deserves. But when a fearsome nemesis from her past reemerges, she embarks on desperate quest to find the Fantazikes and restore her powers. If she fails, her enemy’s dark Magic will enslave her, forcing her to destroy everything and everyone she loves.”

Author:

“Karissa lives in North Carolina with her kid, her husband, the occasional in-law, and a very hairy husky. Some of her favorite things are coffee, dark chocolate, and super heroes. She can quote Princess Bride verbatim. She loves to read and has a sweet tooth for fantasy, sci-fi, and anything in between.”

To learn more about Ms. Laurel, please visit her website, or stalk her on Facebook.

Appraisal:

Evelyn Stormbourne, Lady of Thunder and the Crown Princess of Inselgrau has lost her connection to the skies. Evie is now on a quest with her companion and protector Gideon Faust. Their goal is to locate the Fantazikes, a clan she met in her first adventure, Heir of Thunder. They live and travel in airships powered by lightning. They once promised to help her master her divine abilities.

When tragedy strikes from an old nemesis Evie is forced to leave Gideon behind and go on the run searching for a safe place. Where better to hide than a traveling circus? However, this isn’t just any ol’traveling circus. She is allowed to stay, but Evie has to earn her keep for passage by working in the kitchen wagon and cleaning up each morning. In the afternoon she mends and repairs costumes. The circus workers are colorful and unique folks who all speak different languages. Evie has to find a way to communicate with them and make friends, while keeping her own true identity hidden for everyone’s protection. There is more to this circus than meets the eye and Evie intends to learn its secrets.

This book is full of evil magicians’ and devastating battles, not only with magic, but with crossbows, swords, knives, and guns. Several twists in the plot makes it hard to set the book aside as tension grows. All is not as it seems and the world is smaller than Evie ever imagined. The steampunk elements are surprising and magically delicious. There is a romance blooming between Gideon and Evie that only takes up a small portion of the novel as Gideon patiently chisels away Evie’s walls. He has my heart already. And I hope to see more from the circus crew in the next book. Evie’s journey to reclaim Inselgrau is bound to be spectacular. I can’t wait to see how Ms. Laurel wraps this trilogy up.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Quest of Thunder is book 2 in the Stormbourne Chronicles by Karissa Laurel. I would recommend reading Heir of Thunder, Stormbourne Chronicles book 1 before reading this book.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant proofing issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words

Review: Little Red Riding Hood: Off The Grid by Lars C. Hallene

 

Genre: Short Story/Fairy Tale

Description:

“She just wanted a weekend off the grid.

When graphic designer Scarlett Reyes arrives at a remote mountain cabin for a digital detox, she finds exactly what the booking promised — no Wi-Fi, no cell service, no way to reach the outside world. Just peace, quiet, and a property manager named Wolfe who seems to have an answer for everything.

Then she finds the phones buried in the woods. Then the bones.

By the time Scarlett understands what she's walked into, the sauna door is locked from the outside and the temperature is climbing.

A modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood for readers who know the wolf was never just a wolf.”

Author:

“Lars C. Hallene writes dark fiction that finds modern terror in the oldest stories. His Grimm's Modern Nightmares series reimagines classic fairy tales for adult readers who know that the wolf was never just a wolf.”

Appraisal:

Who’s afraid of the big bad Wolfe? Yeah, me too. A fun … well, maybe entertaining would be a better adjective as long as it doesn’t really happen to me or anyone I know, twist on the classic fairy tale. However, moving it to modern times and a scenario that in theory could actually happen sure makes it seem more real and for that reason even spookier than the original.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 4-5,000 words

Review: Wok Walk by Melissa Bowersock

 

Genre: Mystery/Paranormal

Description:

“The Dancing Wok is a highly successful family-owned restaurant in LA’s Chinatown, but it has a problem: it’s haunted. The recently deceased owner is making his unrest known by moving things around at night and leaving them in places they don’t belong, throwing the restaurant into chaos every morning. Sam and Lacey are called in to connect with the unhappy spirit and find out why he’s still on the earth plane and causing problems for the surviving members of his family. Oh, and while they’re at it, it would also be nice if they could find out who murdered him.”

Author:

“Melissa Bowersock is an eclectic, award-winning author who writes in a variety of fiction and non-fiction genres: paranormal, biography, western, action, romance, fantasy, spiritual, and satire.”

For more visit Ms.Bowersock’s website and follow her on Facebook.

Appraisal:

As the 50th book in this series, those of you who already discovered the series and read more than a couple of the prior books have a rough idea of what you’ll find. Thnstallment should meet those expectations. The main characters, Lacey Fitzpatrick and Sam Firecloud, are a married couple. Sam, is a native and has the ability to communicate to the spirits of people who have passed on, but for some reason are unable to leave this world and go on to their next life. Lacey is a detective and assists Sam in putting together the clues he gleans from the departed in order to help them resolve whatever is preventing them taking their next steps.

The installment fits the big picture of the series, but if you’ve read lots of them and think you can guess where things are headed, I’ve never been able to do that before and this one throws a twist that I didn’t see coming as the issue at hand turned out to be a bit different than Sam, Lacey, and the readers would expect. As always, a fun, engaging, and enjoyable read. I’m already eager to start reading #51.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 20-25,000 words

Review: A Ravishing Abomination by Dutch Broadstreet

 

Genre: Suspense

Description:

“I didn't intend to kill a televangelist. But once I met his wife, the rest felt inevitable.

Jordan Bramble makes a living spotting weaknesses and exploiting them for profit. He applies pressure. He gets paid.

When he meets Seraphine Hale—the dangerously beautiful wife of a rising Christian celebrity—he thinks he’s found his next sexual conquest. Instead, he finds a ruthless partner in crime.

Together they hatch a deadly plan that will turn a digital megachurch into the biggest religious phenomenon in America. All it takes is a little seduction, a carefully staged tragedy, and a nation desperate to believe.

But when the cameras turn on and the donations start pouring in, Bramble realizes something unsettling: Seraphine may be even more ruthless than he is.

A Ravishing Abomination is a fast, vicious pulp novella about sex, faith, media manipulation, and the kind of ambition that leaves bodies behind.

In every great con, someone eventually becomes expendable.”

Author:

“Dutch Broadstreet writes dark pulp about crime, ambition, and the people who turn catastrophe into opportunity.

He lives in his own private Sodom, somewhere in Upstate New York.”

Appraisal:

This is an interesting and very unique read. When a story involves two or more parties, all plotting against another one, but none of those involved are very good people, just evil in a different way, who do you root for? I went for the party I’d view as the lesser of the evils. How things actually shake out kept me engaged and wondering how it would end. (The answer is … well, I can’t tell you. That would be a spoiler.) But this is a quick read, so it won’t take you long to find out if you decide to give it a read yourself.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

A small amount of 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: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 25-30,000 words