Review: Ain't That a Kick in the Head by Nigel Bird

 

Genre: Crime Fiction/Police Procedural

Description:

“This year, the fireworks will be red hot…

Skates Farrington is a changed man. Gone are the smart suits, the dull meetings and the extra pounds. Nowadays, he gets his thrills at the skate park and from whatever substances his dealers send his way. The only thing missing from his life is his ex-wife. She’s shacked up with a respectable partner in an isolated farm and striving to create the perfect life. Skates is convinced that she will come back to him when she sees his new self, but when attempts to win her heart all over again are thrown back in his face, he decides a little gentle persuasion is in order. Now he can include murder and abduction among his new-found skills.

DI Oliver Wilson, leading the investigation, has more than a few things on his mind. The case and imminent arrival of his third child should be at the forefront of his thoughts, but the arrival of a sequence of unusual gifts is making him nervous. The packages are sending him a message, he just can’t work out what they’re trying to say.”

Author:

Nigel Bird is a Scottish school teacher as well as a writer of fiction. He has several novels available and has had his work appear in numerous magazines.

Appraisal:

As I was pondering this book something occurred to me that I don’t remember considering before. Specifically, the different things that a story may or may not have and how those different approaches keep a reader engaged in the story. In this case I was thinking specifically about the difference between a mystery or a lot of stories that, like this one, have some main characters who are police detectives trying to solve a crime and how those compare to stories where the reader knows who committed the crime early in the story. Here we know who committed the crimes in question when they happen or even before (the book description spills the beans).

What keeps the reader engaged isn’t figuring out who did it, but wondering whether those who don’t have those answers are going to figure it out and stop the criminal before he does more. That threat of more crime keeps the reader engaged. That’s what happened to me here. What Skates was going to do, just how far he’d go, and what damage he was going to cause was never clear. The answer to that question kept me wondering and engaged in the story.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Although this is book #3 in a series it can be read as a standalone.

Format/Typo Issues:

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

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 50-55,000 words

Review: Chad Stinson Goes for a Walk by Shawn Inmon

 

Genre: Short Story

Description:

“Chad Stinson is fat. When a series of unflattering pictures at his 49th birthday party burn that fact into his brain, he decides to do something about it. Turning to Amazon, he orders an Azuul ExerTracker, hoping to find the discipline he lacks. He finds it. His life will never be the same. Chad Stinson Goes for a Walk is a short, macabre tale of obsession and possession, perfect for a quick lunchtime read.”

Author:

A native of Washington, Shawn Inmon is a former DJ, Real Estate Agent, turned prolific full-time author.

Appraisal:

If you’ve joined the crowd of people who count your steps with one of the “fitness trackers” available today or know anyone who owns one, this story will strike home. (I felt like the protagonist was a kindred spirit, at least at first.) It’s a fun story of inspiration and motivation gone awry.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 7-8,000 words

Review: The Atherton Vampire by Lynne Cantwell

 Genre: Vampire fantasy

Description:

“For a hundred years, Jerome Atherton has roamed the world in a fruitless search for a cure for his vampirism. Now he has returned to the family home – a crumbling mansion that sits, brooding, on a bluff above the river town that bears his family’s name – and his faithful manservant, a gargoyle named Kamen. Jerry falls for a TV news anchor named Lauren Whitacre, but when Lauren discovers his secret, he must flee again. But not for long. Not for nearly long enough.

Upon his return, another TV news personality intrigues him: reporter Callie Dailey. But Jerry Atherton is not the first vampire Callie has run into and she is not interested in complicating her life with another. Yet Jerry needs Callie’s help to find out why an out-of-town developer is so interested in his family's old shipyard. Will he have to use his vampiric powers of persuasion on Callie? If he does, he may lose her forever…”

Author:

Lynne Cantwell’s biography tells us she has been writing fiction since the second grade, when the kid who sat in front of her showed her a book he had written, and she thought, "I could do that." The result was "Susie and the Talking Doll," a picture book illustrated by the author about a girl who owned a doll that not only could talk, but could carry on conversations. The book had dialogue but no paragraph breaks.

Today, after a twenty-year career in broadcast journalism and a master's degree in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University (or perhaps despite the master's degree), Lynne is still writing fantasy. She is also a contributing author at Indies Unlimited.

 Appraisal:

Nosferatu (the movie) scared the bejazus out of me at an early age. Imprinted on my hind brain forever is the image of the ghoulish shadow thrown onto the wall of the staircase as the creature creeps upwards, towards the bedroom of his beloved victim. Thereafter I came to terms with vampires as scary but comedic entertainment through dear Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She sure got through ‘em, with her trusty stake and sharp one-liners. I mention all this to show that I can go either way with vampires.

There is romance in the novel, and the story isn’t really dark, so I have been pondering what genre this occupies. You can judge the result of my deliberations for yourself if you give the book a whirl.

This vampire tale kept me on the edge of my seat whenever the vampire was on stage as I examined every utterance for a careless invitation to step inside, and occasionally shouted at the Kindle in my hand ‘don’t look into his eyes!’. So tension is kept high.

There is, however, rather little staking – without which the vampire genre inevitably feels a little thin. Reasoning with a vampire, with any expectation of not ending up with a sore neck and an aversion to daylight, seems to this reader to be a fool’s game. It’s all about the catching and the biting, with vampires, isn’t it? Cantwell does, however, give something of the story of the vampire in history and its transmogrification into a fiction staple. This she does through one of her engaging narrators, Callie Dailey – a local TV news anchor, very much in the Tess Showalter mould (see the Magic series). She has the Cantwellian, spunky heroine  ‘come on, what’s the worst that can happen?’ approach to danger, and Gretchen the video operator follows gamely at her heels.

The second narrator is, however, more fun even than the ever-inquisitive reporter and her sidekick. Kamen functions under a glamour laid upon him by his master. He is the magical factotum of Jerome, the Atherton vampire, and through Kamen’s glum narrative we are given a quite different slant on events. Kamen is rather like Marvin the Paranoid Android from Hitchhiker’s Guide, but with wings. And better at catching rats at need. Kamen has a favourite line: “if a creature of stone could feel [insert emotion], then I would feel it now.” For dogged goodness, which he constantly downplays, Kamen is without doubt the most appealing character in the novel. He considers himself dull. But he is not. The vampire gets a sense of civic duty (although I still don’t trust him), the reporter gets a boyfriend, but Kamen gets a soul. Nice.

As ever, it is the cast of characters which invigorate this new novel of Cantwell’s. She gives each one breadth, depth and life (even the dead ones …). The pages turn briskly.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

An accomplished and well-edited work of fiction. No infelicities to report.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: Judi Moore

Approximate word count: 40-45,000 words

Reprise Review: Cargo by D.V. Berkom

Genre: Thriller

Description:

“Haunted by memories of an op gone bad, former assassin Leine Basso travels to Bangkok in search of a missing backpacker. With help from an old contact, she discovers the man responsible for the girl’s disappearance is connected to a violent Hong Kong triad and is the linchpin of an extensive trafficking network—both animal and human.

Making enemies isn’t new for Leine, but making one in the triad is—she soon finds herself a prisoner on board a cargo ship headed for sub-Saharan Africa. To ensure her survival and to continue her hunt for the missing girl, she must join forces with Derek, an ivory poacher who promises to help her.”

Author:

“DV Berkom is the award-winning author of two action-packed thriller series featuring strong female leads (Leine Basso and Kate Jones). Her love of creating resilient, kick-ass women characters stems from a lifelong addiction to reading spy novels, mysteries, and thrillers, and longing to find the female equivalent within those pages.

Raised in the Midwest, she earned a BA in political science from the University of Minnesota and promptly moved to Mexico to live on a sailboat. Several years and a multitude of adventures later, she wrote her first novel and was hooked.”

For more, visit her website.

Appraisal:

Cargo is the fourth book featuring Leine Basso. The short review: this book is like the others, intense.

Leine has a talent for getting into tight situations that will have you on the edge of your seat, wondering how, or even if, she'll manage to accomplish whatever she set out to do. How is she going to manage to get out of whatever dangerous situation she's stumbled into? As in some of Leine's past adventures, in Cargo she finds herself dealing with human trafficking and having to find her way in foreign environments in what I thought was her most intense case so far.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Original review posted August 24, 2016.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words

Review: Change of Heart by James M. Clifton

 Genre: Crime Fiction

Description:

“To what lengths would you go to ensure that your family can afford a good life? Would you commit a crime? Would you trade your life for their future? These are not academic questions for John Cooper. After losing his business and reaching the brink of bankruptcy, he decides that he’s worth more dead than alive and attempts suicide so that his pregnant wife will have the insurance money.

Two thousand miles away, another man contemplates a different question. He’s dying and needs a heart transplant. And he needs it soon. Where can he get the new heart that he so desperately needs?

What connects these two men is an extremely rare blood type, a type that only one-in-a-million share. John Cooper has the heart that Jimmie Regan needs. And, as one of the biggest drug lords in the world, Jimmie Regan has what John Cooper needs—lots of money.

At first, they come to an amicable arrangement, one where both get exactly what they want. But everything changes when John holds his newborn daughter for the first time. Unfortunately for John Cooper, Jimmie Regan is not the kind of man that accepts disappointment. What follows is a desperate chase across southern Mexico, a betrayal of a husband by his greedy wife, and an alliance of unlikely conspirators including Carlos and Lena Ramirez, the son and daughter of the man that Jimmie Regan murdered in order to seize his criminal empire.”

Author:

“Dr. James Clifton is retired from the U.S. military and also retired from a career as an engineer. He currently spends his time fishing the lakes of Northern Alabama, golfing, hiking, and, when he has time, writing stories.”

Appraisal:

While classified as crime fiction Change of Heart has other things going for it than the typical crime fiction. The protagonist, John, isn’t the typical criminal protagonist. His goals and motivations which evolve as the story continues were something I had no problem understanding and it was easy for me to pull for him throughout the story. The various surprises and unexpected twists in this tale kept me engaged and pulling for things to workout for John.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

“Change of Heart is volume one of the Legacy of Loyalty trilogy. Volume two, Penance, is the story of Carlos’s desperate plan to ease his stricken conscience in the aftermath of the death and destruction caused during the struggle with Jimmie Regan. Volume three, Loyalty, is the story of Lena’s battle to secure the long-term safety and the future of her extended family.”

Format/Typo Issues:

A few minor errors, but not a significant amount.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 95-100,000 words

Review: The Lip Reader by Michael Thal

 

Genre: Literary Fiction

Description:

“It’s not what you get in life, it’s what you give back that truly defines you.”

Set in Iran during the 1960s and 1970s, and later in Los Angeles, California, Zhila Shirazi tells her story firsthand. She reveals the real-life struggle of being a deaf woman who refuses to allow adversity to stop her from reaching her dreams of living a normal and fulfilling life.

In 1985, disgusted with the treatment of Jews by the new Islamic government, Zhila immigrates to the United States in pursuit of better circumstances and a chance to receive a cochlear implant to improve her hearing. However, it isn’t until she is forty-nine, when she meets her soulmate, Mickey Daniels, that she begins to feel her life truly complete.

A decade later, after they have fallen deeply in love, Zhila learns that she is suffering from an aggressive form of cancer. In the months that follow, Mickey becomes Zhila’s primary caretaker, and the two grow ever closer as they fight the disease together.

Right up to the end, Zhila shows her caring nature, innate intelligence, and will power to overcome almost any challenge. Her courage and the beauty of her memory is certain to inspire all who venture to follow her on their quest for a truly meaningful life.”

Author:

A refugee from the cold Northeastern US, Michael Thal moved to Southern California more than fifty years ago where he taught elementary and middle school for almost thirty years. Then a “freak virus” left him deaf and he reinvented himself as a writer, with numerous published articles and multiple novels that seems to be working out. Thal even did a stint as a Pal, reviewing books at Books and Pals.

For more, visit Michael’s website.

Appraisal:

Although fiction, as author Michael Thal makes clear in the preface, this story is largely true. Names have been changed and I’m sure he had to take some liberties, taking guesses or coming up with a feasible way to piece things together at times, but for the most part this is the story of the author’s wife’s life. It’s real. That realness comes through in a good way. That a lot of the story happens in a country and culture that I have no experience with added to the reading pleasure for me as I developed a slightly better understanding of life in Iran during a particular period. Getting a feel for what it is like to adapt to living in America for someone coming from another country and vastly different culture was also interesting. Last, having had a best friend who was deaf I appreciated the insights into what it is like dealing with struggle that the story provided. Definitely a book I’d recommend.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words

Review: Perilous Gambit by Kevin Chapman

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Description:

“A murder can sure put a damper on a wedding party.

An unexpectedly hurried marriage in Las Vegas was not what Jason and Rachel planned, but circumstances made it their best option. At least Rachel would have her brother, Jackie, there for the happy occasion. Jason had to find out eventually that Jackie is a drag performer. That surprise turns out to be the least of Rachel’s worries.

When the star of the drag show is murdered and Jackie is accused of the crime, Jason and his partner, Mike Stoneman, find themselves out of their jurisdiction and all-in on a complex case that stretches from Nevada to New York to South Dakota and back again. When somebody tries to kill Jackie, being arrested and having to miss the show take a backseat to staying alive.

All this excitement could scuttle the wedding – and could get them all killed – unless Mike and Jason figure a way to take the heat off of Jackie and convince the killers they’ve made a terrible mistake. But they are not taking no for an answer, and Mike has to risk everything on a gamble that could save the day – or end in tragedy.”

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:

In a lot of ways this is a typical detective mystery with all the things you’d expect to find in such a story. But this book goes a step further. Almost from the beginning we know who is responsible for the murder that attracts the interest of our vacationing detectives, Mike Stoneman and his partner, Jason, whose primary reason for being in Las Vegas is to get married. We even know why and the reason turns up the heat for the characters the reader will (or at least should) see as the good guys, which draws us in deeper. Multiple tangled story threads that with events unfolding in ways I sure didn’t see coming did the trick to keep me reading. Basically, what you should expect from a mystery, but with plenty of unique twists.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Although this is the 5^th book in the Mike Stoneman thriller series the books stand alone well enough that not having read the prior books shouldn’t be an issue with reading this one.

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an ARC (advanced reader copy) and I’m not in a position to judge the final product in this area.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Reprise Review: Battle Rattle by Brandon Davis

 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Description:

“For Derrick 'Vez' Vezcheck, dwell time – the period at home between deployments – is a different kind of battle. Swap enemies for civilian expectations and you get a sense of what Vez is up against: a patient and loving wife who’ll stick by him no matter what, a young daughter who’s a little too OK with seeing dad every six months, and a community that’s quick to thank him for his service, even if he himself has long forgotten what he’s fighting for.”

Author:

A veteran who fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom, originally from West Virginia, Brandon Davis Jennings now lives in South Bend, Indiana with his family. For more, visit his website.

Appraisal:

Battle Rattle is a story that explores the cost of war off the battle field. Even if we've never been, the price paid by soldiers who do battle in injuries and lives is obvious. But what about the difficulties in making the transition back and forth from war zone to home? The price the soldiers pay as well as those around them and the struggles to work through for all concerned is explored in this short novel. If you're looking for a breezy read to escape the world for a few hours, this isn't the book for you, but if you're willing to bite off something more weighty and intense, this is a great choice.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Original review posted August 10, 2016

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 25-30,000 words