Review: Black On Madison Avenue by Mark S. Robinson

 

Genre: Memoir

Description:

“Advertising decides what America wants. And yet, for an industry that professes to be the vanguard of creativity, popular culture and forward thinking, advertising is one of the most un-diverse white-collar professions in America. Surprisingly, despite all of its public gestures of ‘wokeness’, Madison Avenue would like to keep it that way.

Black on Madison Avenue explains how – and why – the author landed on Madison Avenue, and shares some of his incredible adventures over the past 40+ years. Yes, adventures. Have you ever gotten into a shouting match with a Venezuelan Army general in the middle of a military coup? He has. He kidnapped advertising legend Jim Jordan, insulted high-ranking Chinese government officials at a formal dinner and launched the first multicultural marketing holding company.

Mark Robinson was the co-founder of Spike/DDB, along with filmmaker Spike Lee and has stories no one else could tell. Robinson’s stories include Bill Cosby, Mike Tyson, Vanessa Williams, Usher, Oprah, Zsa Zsa Gabor, James Brown and Notorious B.I.G.”

Author:

Mark S. Robinson is a longtime employee, manager, and founder of various New York based advertising agencies. He lives with his wife in Connecticut.

Appraisal:

I often say that many books, but especially memoirs, often have one of two effects when you read them, depending on your situation and that of the protagonist or subject of the memoir. If they’re like you, it gives a chance to compare experiences and can sometimes give you a different perspective on your own life. But if the author’s life is much different than yours, it can help you better understand others which is a positive for all concerned.

This book definitely fits that second option for me as my career couldn’t have been much different from Mark Robinson’s work in advertising, not to mention my pale skin that would help me blend in on Madison Avenue. Surprisingly I also spotted some things where our experiences were the same. For example how if you do good work the connections at one job will often help lead to other opportunities at different companies.

This book is structured as a series of stories, with each chapter containing a story that could stand alone, but what happens in one will often relate to things that happened in another in such a way that you’ll see the patterns and how things evolved over time in some ways and not in others for Robinson and other blacks in the advertising business which is, as he says, “one of the whitest white-collar professions in America.” You’ll also see plenty of proof, not just anecdotal, but some data to back it up. In the end I found this to be an enlightening and interesting read for me about an industry I’d have said I wasn’t that interested in, and yet it effects all of us and I found seeing how it functioned from an insiders perspective to be interesting.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Review: The Potusgeists by Will Worsley

 Genre: Historical Fantasy/Satire

Description:

“The president is seeing ghosts!

Patty Pitypander is in way over her head. Somehow, she won the election—but the Oval Office is not what she expected. Neither are its grumpy ghosts, the Potusgeists, who view her as unqualified to be president.

When she refuses to heed their advice, dead presidents and first ladies spook her from the West Wing to the Blue Room. Blood drips down the walls, phantoms emerge out of nowhere, and William Howard Taft appears in her bathtub—naked!

The ghosts are not the only ones eager to foil her ambitious plans. Traitors lurk among the White House staff, dying to give her back a good stab—if Mrs. Lincoln doesn’t do it first.

Caught in a power struggle between the living and the dead, Patty must prove herself to both, or she’ll lose the presidency. Can she save herself in time?”

Author:

“Will Worsley began writing fiction full-time in 2016, after careers in publishing and investment management. As an editor at Time-Life Books, he wrote and edited articles on popular non-fiction topics ranging from history to home repair. As a money manager, he oversaw portfolios for large institutions and got the idea for his first satirical novel, Investing in Vain, named a top 10 business book of 2017 by Wealth Management magazine. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he earned master’s degrees in English and business. Visit his website at willworsley.com”

Appraisal:

A different (at least from what I normally read), amusing, entertaining, and sometimes frustrating read. The frustrating part is that Patty Pitypander is, if not the most incompetent president ever (regardless of who you might think is next worst) then she’s got to be close. It’s not that she’s not capable. More that her priorities are messed up. But luckily the White House is full of spirits (okay, we’ll call them ghosts) of many presidents and first ladies who came before her. They’re there to help, whether she likes it or not. Will Patty get it together? Will she be able to deal with things, other than ghosts, who complicate things even more? It makes for a fun read that will keep you guessing.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

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: 75-80,000 words

Review: Missing Walk by Melissa Bowersock

 Genre: Mystery

Description:

” With Christmas just a week away, Sam and Lacey are called to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to investigate the disappearance of a Navajo woman, and come face to face with the obstacles that prompted the MMIW movement—Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman. With very little help from the police, they are forced to forge a trail of clues on their own, a trail that leads to surprising places, but at the end of it all, will they find joy… or tragedy?”

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:

We’re up to 45 books in this series and while I haven’t read all of them, I’ve read quite a few, and always looking forward to the next one. They’re always fairly quick (novella size) and fun reads. With Sam Firecloud being a native it is common to see Native American history and culture being integrated into the story although with Sam’s ability to sense things, often (but now always) from spirits who are trapped in this world and need help getting to the next. Sam and Lacey are always asked to help solve some mystery and between their team work in putting the clues together and Sam’s supernatural abilities, they find a way to help. However, if you’ve been reading these books and thought you knew at a high level what to expect in every book going forward, this one breaks that pattern. It feels like it is going to follow the pattern at first, but ends up with a few twists that regular readers of the series won’t expect, while still staying true to what we’ve come to expect from the series. As I always feel after reading one of these, I love the read and am now eagerly awaiting the next one.

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: Only Ann Knows by Baird Smart

 

Genre: Thriller

Description:

“A Horrible Accident or Brilliantly Planned Social Statement

Ann Miller still grieves deeply five months after her son and only child was killed during the Virginia Tech mass shooting. A lifelong gun rights advocate, she works passionately as an executive for a gun rights organization, the American Rifle Society.

One morning, Miller opens an anonymous package containing an AK-47 assault rifle sent to her ARS department. Entering an executive boardroom to deliver the assault weapon to her boss during a departmental meeting, she sprays 50 bullets in a matter of seconds killing 13 of her colleagues.

Two FBI agents with vastly different personalities and investigative approaches lead the ultra-high-profile investigation to determine if the mass shooting was a horrible accident as Miller contends or a brilliantly planned and executed mass murder to bring worldwide attention to the destructive capability of automatic and semi-automatic weapons like killed her son. As the FBI's investigation fails to uncover evidence that Miller pre-planned the shooting, the ARS spins the mass shooting events to characterize Miller as a mentally ill woman hellbent on avenging her son's death.

Having killed everyone in the boardroom, Miller stands trial for 13 first-degree murders as both the perpetrator and only witness. A surprise piece of evidence surfaces at the end of the trial which renders a verdict but still leaves questions unanswered.”

Author:

Baird Smart grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago before leaving for college and eventually working in the TV industry in Los Angeles and Chicago and later working as a real estate broker in the Chicago area. This is his first novel.

Appraisal:

There are some parts of this novel that I like a ton, while there are other aspects that bothered me every step of the way while reading it. You may or may not react the same.

Let’s get the bad out of the way first.

One of the things I look for in books self-published or published by a small press is whether it received adequate proofreading. If I take note of too many issues while reading a book I’ll mention it if I see more than a handful and if it exceeds a certain number (okay, 20 if you care for the exact amount) then I’ll knock my review down to 3 stars or less, depending on other aspects of the book. This book didn’t hit that second number, but it was pushing it. The vast majority of the issues I flagged were homonyms, saying deep-seeded when it should be deep-seated, or summery (an adjective describing something as summer-like) instead of summary. Not to mention the “right to bare assault weapons” which I guess means that people may or may not be able to carry (aka bear) arms, but they have the right to take the clothes or covering off of their firearms.

I also thought the author had a tendency to describe things in way too much detail and flowery language, burning way too many words on description that is much more detailed than is typically needed. (Yeah, sometimes I’m guilty of being too wordy myself.) A short example is describing a room as containing “30x48-inch break-room tables.” Does the size really matter? This example is minor, but there are a lot more examples of this kind of thing, like describing a video playing on a “seventy-two-inch, rear-screen projection television surrounded by a semi-circle cluster of white hair and shiny bald heads.” A little bit of this, at times, may help to set the scene, but it reached the point where my brain was constantly saying “get on with the story.”

In spite of the issues above, I thought the foundational story of Ann and what happened, a mystery for all involved for much of the book, was very good. I think those of a particular political leaning might like this more than others, but it should be thought provoking for all. I’m glad I gave this a read in spite of the issues I had with the execution of telling the story.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

More proofreading issues than I like to see, but not quite enough to knock a star off due to this issue. See discussion in appraisal section for more details.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Reprise Review: Election 2064 by Scott McDermott

 Genre: Science Fiction/Political Thriller

Description:

 “Nearly five decades from now, America is finding its legs again after years of bitter conflict. Civ-2, as the Second Civil War came to be known, turned many of the nation's cities into battlefields and took millions of lives. Early in the 2060 campaign, Reformation League candidate Acton Granger made an unprecedented concession – he would forego a running mate and offer the vice presidency to his chief rival, whomever that may become. It was a gesture of unity that rocketed Granger to victory. Still stinging from defeat, the Conservative League’s Elijah Schroeder chose to swallow his pride and accept Granger’s offer, alienating his own supporters and political allies in the process.

Now two years into their fragile partnership, the 2064 campaign looms, and Elijah learns his selection was more complicated than the call for healing he and the country were led to believe. He must decide whether to continue toiling as a false symbol of harmony, or turn against the man who is now his boss and leader of the free world.

Meanwhile, other national figures emerge with their own designs on the election, from the Freedom League’s rebellious darling Shelby Monroe to the Progressive League's technology mogul Ben Allen, who could become the country’s first gay president.

As each contender charts their strategies and the barnstorming begins, a terrorist attack – orchestrated by a new, horrifying weapon – rocks the nation and turns all of their campaigns upside-down.

That is, all of them but one.”

Author:

 “Scott McDermott lives in Virginia Beach with his wife and two furballs.”

Appraisal:

This is quite a story. I’m inclined to call it dystopian because it has a lot of the elements of that genre, specifically a political slant that looks at a current direction some are advocating or trying to take the country and projects the slippery slope of going too far that way. In this case that direction is using what’s often described as “big data” to predict how voters will react to certain things and politicians positioning their campaigns based on that. (Google “Robert Mercer” if you’re interested in learning more about this.) However, dystopian usually implies the opposite of a utopia, a world you wouldn’t want to live in. The US in 2064 when this story takes place is no utopia, but it isn’t a dystopia either. But the questions and concerns it raises if you read between the lines aren’t much different from what you’d expect in the dystopian genre. Maybe it’s dystopian lite as well as being a political thriller set in the not-so-distant future.

Those tuned in to the current political landscape will spot other similarities in this future world the author has imagined. But there are also some significant differences that are interesting food for thought, for example there have been changes that have happened, moving from a two-party system to a multi-party system with the parties called “leagues.” How politicians and voters react due to the recent second Civil War and some changes in the political divisions in the country (there are now something like 75 states) are a few of the changes.

Overall, I found this story a satisfying and thought-provoking read in the same way a well-done dystopian novel might be, but also with the same intensity that would come from a good political thriller. If you like one or the other, this should do. If you’re a fan of both genres, what are you waiting for? My only complaint is the cliffhanger ending which has left me wondering when book two will be out. I’m ready now.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

This is the first of a series.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating:***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 95-100,000 words

Review: Echoes by Phil Oddy

 

Genre: Dystopian Science Fiction

Description:

Estrel Beck steps off a train in the big city to go to an important meeting, and finds his unlovely, humdrum life going haywire. He is reliving the same day over and over, with no memory of any of the iterations. What will happen to him if he can’t break the loop? How did this happen to him, and why? There are people who seem to know him: are they friends or enemies? All he has are questions. And a few jottings on a disintegrating paper napkin.

Author:

Phil Oddy is a British author living in North Hertfordshire (which will only be a meaningful nugget for you, dear reader if, like me, you live in the UK). He juggles gainful employment, family and writing with volunteering for things like building websites for literary festivals, so he’s not afraid of much. Echoes is Book 1 of his trilogy ‘Entanglement’. Book 2 (Entrapment) is available and Book 3 (Eclipse) should be available this month (March, 2025). So since sending us Book 1 for review Oddy has finished and published two more books. He is really on a roll. If the ‘Entanglement’ trilogy floats your boat, you can binge all three.

Appraisal:

For this first book in the trilogy Oddy has developed a protagonist who is passive, unambitious and incompetent. In the opening chapters of the book he is a grumpy lump of unformed clay, constantly tired, never liking to complain, never wanting to be noticed. This, obviously, has to change as the book goes on. He never becomes 007. But he does discover some self-esteem. Nevertheless, if the book has a weakness it is Estrel Beck, because he is also the narrator, so we learn the whole story through him: he is wimpy, he vacillates, he repeats himself more often than the story can really bear, and he often contradicts himself. I rather wanted to give him a good shaking at points.

It is giving away nothing not in the blurb to tell you that the central quest for Beck is to stop looping. The people whom he meets and who appear to befriend him have other agendas, however. Sometimes Beck’s needs coincide with those of his friends: more often not.

Trinity is a dour city. Its people work hard but live dull, joyless lives. Oligarchs rule. Violence is meted out by these alpha-dogs. There is also in-fighting between them. There is a resistance movement attempting to take down the cynical government. Much of the book is concerned with these various machinations, into which Beck is drawn, spat out, and drawn in again – all the while the plotting cleverly keeps his tatty but oh-so important paper napkin to the fore. This part of the book is pacy stuff. It begins to look as though Beck has a role in the revolution, despite not knowing there was one until he started looping. Will he finally find his niche in life?

One thing irked me from the moment the character appeared. Clar is consistently referred to as ‘they’. This leads to some tortuous prose and occasionally spills over onto other characters in a most confusing way. No reason for this clunky exposition is ever offered. You will have to draw your own conclusions.

In summary, the book has an intriguing premise. It ends in a satisfying way, while still providing a goodly set up for two more volumes to come.

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: 80-85,000 words

Review: That Which May Destroy You by Abda Khan

 Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Description:

“The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth…?

Miriam Hassan stands in the defendant’s dock at Birmingham Crown Court charged with the cold-blooded murder of her well-known, rich, charismatic husband Zaf, to which she pleads not guilty. However, nothing is straightforward.

There is conflicting witness testimony. The couple argued on the day in question, and Miriam was overheard threatening him. A witness places her at the scene of the crime. Miriam’s evidence casts doubt on her guilt, but no one can corroborate it.

It soon becomes apparent that both Zaf and the marriage were not as they seemed. Miriam discloses details about the ‘gaslighting’ and emotional abuse she suffered, and the court also discovers that Zaf in fact had a number of enemies. On the other hand, Miriam stands to inherit Zaf’s vast fortune if she walks free.

Through the moving testimony in the courtroom and dramatic flashbacks of the two-year marriage, the reader is taken on a gripping and thought-provoking journey, but when the shocking truth is finally revealed, the reader will be left with a moral question that may be difficult to answer.”

Author:

“Abda Khan is an award winning lawyer turned author. Her first novel Stained (2016) has been praised as the 'contemporary Tess of the d'Urbervilles' by Booklist (USA). Her novel Razia (2019), is a gripping story about a lawyer's fight for justice for a modern day slave. Khan's debut poetry collection, Losing Battles Winning Wars, is a thought-provoking journey through the challenges she has navigated as a first generation British Pakistani Muslim woman. Khan was Highly Commended in the Nat West Asian Women of Achievement Awards, 2017, and won British Muslim Woman of the Year at the British Muslim Awards 2019. Khan also teaches creative writing and produces and directs community based creative projects.”

Appraisal:

This was an interesting and thought-provoking book. The way it is structured with the timeline shifting back and forth from Miriam being in court on trial for murder and then shifting to her life leading up to this point kept the reader guessing and wondering what the story was. Did Miram kill her husband, Zaf? Maybe, maybe not. If she did, will she be able to show it was self defense or something else justifiable? Even if she should be found guilty based on the legal aspects, should she really? I suppose some people could fall on either side of the argument for most of the way and definitely when the story concludes the answer might not be clear. However, it will also get you thinking about cultures and religions (and no, I’m not talking about just Muslims as depicted here, but plenty of others) where misogyny is normalized and marriage that should be a partnership is expected by some to be a dictatorship. The results can be ugly.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an Advance Reader 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

Review: In the Joining of Souls by Jordan Gray

 

Genre: Literary Fiction

Description:

“Shattered trust. Buried secrets. A friendship on the brink.

In a small town where everyone knows everyone's business, Jordie and Hannah share an unbreakable bond—until tragedy rips their world apart. As grief consumes him, Jordie embarks on a desperate search for answers, uncovering a web of lies that shatter his understanding of the past and force him to question the people he trusts and the memories he once clung to.

With guilt, betrayal, and long-buried secrets rising to the surface, Jordie must confront a devastating truth: Can he ever truly move forward, or has the past already shaped his future beyond repair?

A gripping novel of love, dedication, and redemption, perfect for fans of emotional suspense and small-town mysteries.”

Author:

Jordan Gray says he’s always been a reader of a wide variety of books and a lifelong desire to write stories himself. The free time after retiring from the corporate world is finally allowing him to do this. This is his second book.

Appraisal:

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book and now that I’ve finished it, I’m not sure how to describe it. You’ve got mystery, coming-of-age, and even a bit of paranormal thrown in to the story of two kids Jordie and Hannah, who are “soulmates.” That’s their term, not mine, but I agree, they are. They live in a small town and struggle with the difficulties of fitting in that many kids experience. Then disaster strikes. What that means and how it shakes out, I won’t say. What I will say is that once I got drawn into their story I couldn’t stop reading, having no idea where the story that turns out to be a fairly long one, was going to go, and never being quite sure, but definitely caring what the answer was.

If you like coming-of-age kinds of stories, you ought to like this one. If you’re a big fan of the classic novels “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Catcher in the Rye” which are two of Hannah and Jordie’s favorite books, they’re your kind of people and you should be able to relate to them and their story too.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

From the information available it isn’t clear what country the author lives in or where the story takes place, but you’ll spot spelling conventions and word choices at least some of the time that appear to indicate the answer is the UK.

Format/Typo Issues:

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

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 155-160,000 words

Review: Gold in Them Texas Hills by Russ Hall

 

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Description:

“All that glitters is not good.

Al Quinn’s plans to live a quiet retired life are shattered when trespassers begin encroaching on his lakeside property at night with flashlights and a metal detector.

First, there are two men, then four, then six showing up almost every evening on Al’s land. Some of them are armed and willing to fire their weapons. Al has no idea what’s motivating the unwelcome visitors. But they soon realize their lives are being threatened by some dangerous men.

Sheriff Clayton makes matters worse by asking for Al’s help on a different matter. With an election coming, two women are getting ready to claim that thirty years ago, Clayton went too far with them when they were underage Girl Scouts. Clayton swears he’s innocent, so Al agrees to look into the situation.”

Author:

The winner of multiple awards, Russ Hall has more than twenty published books that include mysteries, thrillers, westerns, poetry, and nonfiction. Hall lives near Austin, Texas.

Appraisal:

I’ve read multiple books in the Al Quinn series and like the characters. Yeah, that the star and I share a name (not to mention his infant nephew, Little Al), so that might give him an advantage in winning me over. But I’m always eager to see what their latest adventures are. Having spent a bit of time in Austin over the years I also enjoy how when Al mentions he’s in a certain part of town and what its like, I can easily picture it, knowing for example that the southeast near the airport isn’t a great area or picturing the area to the northwest of the city where Al Quinn’s family lives takes me right there.

But along with the setting and the characters we also have the story, what’s happening to the characters in the setting. Who was doing what was mostly not a mystery to the reader, we knew that most of the way for the big mystery, who are the armed men that keep sneaking onto Al’s property and why were they doing this. But how it is going to turn out kept me involved. There was a bit of a mystery around Sheriff Clayton and whether Al would be able to prove what the Sheriff was being accused of was untrue, but even there we knew the answer and so there was more thriller than mystery. However, not knowing how it was going to shake out and whether Al and his family was going to get through it all okay, really pulled me into the story. Even among the bad guys, who we get to know and understand a bit, there are some the reader isn’t going to view in the same light as others, so you’re pulling for some to pay a larger price than others. It all makes for an intense and interesting read and makes me eager for the eleventh book in the series to see what Al and crew are up to next.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

Although the version I read was an advance reviewer copy and I can’t judge the final product in this area, I found no significant issues in the reviewer version.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 55=60,000 words

Reprise Review: Dig Two Graves by Keith Nixon

 Genre: Thriller/Noir/Police Procedural

Description:

“When teenager Nick Buckingham tumbles from the fifth floor of an apartment block, Detective Sergeant Solomon Gray answers the call with a sick feeling in his stomach. The victim was just a kid, sixteen years old. And the exact age the detective's son, Tom, would've been, had he not gone missing at a funfair ten years ago. Each case involving children haunts Gray with the reminder that his son may still be out there - or worse, dead. The seemingly open and shut case of suicide twists into a darker discovery. Buckingham and Gray have never met, so why is Gray's number on the dead teenager's mobile phone?

With his boss, Detective Inspector Yvonne Hamson, Gray begins to unravel a murky world of abuse, lies, and corruption. An investigator from the Met is called in to assist, setting the local police on edge. And when the body of Reverend David Hill is found shot to death in the vestry of Gray's old church, Gray wonders how far the depravity stretches and who might be next. Nothing seems connected, and yet there is one common thread: Detective Sergeant Solomon Gray, himself. As the bodies pile up, Gray must face his own demons. Crippled by loss but determined to find the truth, Gray takes the first step on the long road of redemption.

Set in the once grand town of Margate in the south of England, the now broken and depressed seaside resort becomes its own character in this dark detective thriller.”

Author:

During the day Keith Nixon is employed in a “senior sales role” by a high-tech company in the UK. But when he gets home you’ll find him working on this next book in one of two unrelated genres, either hard-boiled crime fiction or historical fiction.

Appraisal:

This is the first of the Solomon Gray series and I’m already a fan. Gray is a detective and the main story thread appears, at least at first, to be a straightforward (although certainly unique) murder case. I anticipated a straightforward police procedural. It might have been except for Solomon Gray’s past, which haunts him in many ways and I think tends to change the way he views and approaches crime solving. As the story alternates between the two threads, us learning about Gray’s past and observing his efforts to solve the current case (eventually cases) the two threads start getting tangled with each other. I never saw that coming.

The result can be viewed as a police procedural or noir crime fiction or a bit of both. But what struck me is that the underlying story has more depth than is typical of either.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words

Review: Buenos Aires Triad by F.E. Beyer

 

Genre: Crime Fiction

Description:

“A portrait of small-time crooks and immigrant gangs in Argentina's capital... Lucas is a humble watch-seller moonlighting for a gang of armed robbers. He wants to go straight but instead becomes more entangled when he joins gang leader Gustavo in extortion work for the triads.”

Author:

“F.E. Beyer writes about dead-end jobs, travel, history and crime. He is the author of two books: Buenos Aires Triad, a tale of low-end criminals in Argentina's capital, and Smoko, a comic novel set in New Zealand. His articles and reviews have appeared in the South China Morning Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Inside Indonesia, and Travelogues Magazine.”

Appraisal:

I’m no expert on Argentina where this takes place, so I can’t gauge how realistic it might be, but I had no problem getting into and believing the premise of the story. Lucas, the protagonist, is having a hard time getting by and so gets drawn into doing some questionable things. Once he starts, he finds it hard to get out. How it will end for Lucas is a mystery right up until the very end of this novella. It kept be engaged and guessing right up to the last page.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

A small amount of adult language. At least some of the time uses UK spelling conventions.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 30-35,000 words

Review: Judgment Simulation by Dennis Michael

 

Genre: Philosophy/Self-Help

Description:

“Everyone needs this book! It answers why life is so hard. It explains why things will get better. It's because: Our universe is a simulation. We are all criminals of the civilization that created it. This is our last chance to prove ourselves. We are meant to improve and get better.

Call it ‘original sin’. Call it ‘Adam and Eve taking a bite of forbidden fruit’. These are historical notions. This book is the update. This book provides the modern view of a higher power. It cites scientific studies along with personal stories. It fills in the blanks that everyone has wondered about for centuries.”

Author:

Dennis Michael, or whatever his real name is, doesn’t say much about himself except, of course, for the story and other personal stuff in the book. This appears to be his first book, at least writing under this name. I suspect he wants the book to speak for itself.

Appraisal:

For a while my stance on religion has been that if some deity put humans on Earth with the expectation that we do certain things to get good treatment in some next life and those expectations were more than just being reasonably decent people, basically following the “golden rule,” that this deity is incompetent and I want nothing to do with him, her, or it. This relatively short read has a different twist as to what we’re all doing on Earth while giving some perspective on how many of the world’s religions came to have the viewpoints they do. Early in the book I was getting a cultish vibe, it felt much like a lot of religious indoctrination in some ways. I also question how the author came to knowing these things. But ultimately, while the reasons and the explanations for why we are here and what we’re supposed to do while here may be lacking in proof in my mind, the author’s final answer as to what is expected of us isn’t unreasonable, regardless of his rationale, and not much different from what I proposed makes sense above. Ultimately, if nothing else, it is an interesting theory and certainly got me thinking.

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FYI:

A single use of an adult word.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 40-45,000 words

Review: Persephone by Kevin J Anderson & Jeffrey Morris

 

Genre: Hard Science Fiction

Description:

The book opens as the arkship Odyssey, containing the last ten thousand humans from a ruined Earth, approaches her designated new home, Proxima B, dubbed Persephone (for reasons which remained opaque to this reader). Very soon it will be time to thaw the hibernating passengers (‘popsicles’), transfer down to the planet and being settling in. It has been a tough 50 year journey. Odyssey is blowing fuses all over. It becomes a race against time to offload the popsicles before the starship disintegrates.

Persephone is a hostile planet, with a beautiful geoglyph running across much of it. The geoglyph looks a little like the Nasca lines on Earth. But nobody knows what it is yet. It will be exciting to find out. So much awaits them!

An automated mission – Forerunner – was sent ahead to Persephone to put a radiation shield grid in place and set up habs for the colonists. This was successfully done, but now it is not functioning. And without the radiation shield no human can survive down there. The mission to fix the shield grid is where the story really starts.

Author:

Joint authorship, you will note. This is particularly interesting as Kevin J Anderson is one of those authors whose work you will definitely have read if you are remotely interested in SF in book, TV or movie forms but have probably never heard of. Jeffrey Morris is variously a writer, director and production designer mainly of hard SF films, graphic novels and educational science curricula.

Appraisal:

There is an IMDb entry for this book, where it is described as ‘the forthcoming deep-space adventure Persephone’ with some luscious pre-production CGI ‘photographs’ of what’s supposedly coming. There, Morris is listed as Director and Anderson as writer. This novel has been ‘inspired by‘ that screenplay. Readers of SF (self included) tend to do well with (and, indeed, almost expect) a cinematic approach to this sort of fiction. The novel is, of course, laid out as a movie, in scenes. The action is intercut with flashbacks. Nothing unusual there, you will say – fiction is full of ‘em. But the book’s Big Reveals tend to happen this way. I found it disconcerting at times to have so much of the action happen offstage. And even then, from time to time a significant info-dump was necessary.

The science is internally consistent and plausible. Characters are well drawn. Human interactions are well thought through. The authors are not afraid to make you care about a character and then kill them off. The book is more vinegar than sugar for sure. But there is so much going on that – like the colonists – the reader takes it on the chin and moves on to the next problem which has to be solved, or else the last of humanity is toast.

Quite a lot is made of the death of Earth, how it became uninhabitable, how a point of no return was reached and this last Hail Mary planned and executed, and how the death of Earth was absolutely down to human beings. There is much in these fictional musings on Earth’s last days which should give us all pause for thought.

And a great hook into a sequel closes the novel.

If you like hard SF I recommend this to you.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: Judi Moore

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words

Review: The Last Road Trip by Jennifer Klepper

 

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Description:

“Twenty years after tragedy tore them apart, four sorority sisters still can’t say no to sweet Mary Blake Bulloch. Reeling from a public divorce, Mary Blake rallies the group to complete a long-ago road trip cut short by scandal, betrayal, and the death of a Texas oilman’s son.

Time hasn’t healed all wounds. Helen's hiding a crumbling marriage. Charlie's haunted by a deathbed promise. Annesley's harboring life-changing news. And Lisa knows her decades-long silence about what really happened that fateful night could cost her everything—and everyone.

As the women pick up where they left off, old alliances shift and long-buried memories surface. What started as a reunion becomes a reckoning, forcing each woman to decide what matters more: the comfort of silence or the brutal cost of truth.”

Author:

“Jennifer Klepper is the USA Today bestselling author of The Last Road Trip and Unbroken Threads. Born and raised in Iowa and Nebraska, she attended college in Dallas, law school in Charlottesville, and worked in Texas and Massachusetts before settling for good in Maryland. She's worked for Big Law, small law, start-ups, and Google, most recently co-founding tech start-up Early Works. She lives in a forest by a river near Annapolis, Maryland.”

Appraisal:

This story has multiple aspects, any one of which could make for an engaging story I wouldn’t want to put down. When you weave them all together it results in a fantastic story. The first aspect is a road trip, something that will pull this travel aficionado in all by itself. Wait. Make that two road trips. The story keeps flashing back to the original aborted road trip that inspired the current one, so we get to experience both of them. Then we’ve got the give and take as these old friends try to capture or restore the relationship they had back in college, but we’ve also got an undercurrent of mystery and intrigue as it is obvious there are some things that happened on the original trip that we, and possibly the some of the ladies on the trip don’t all know either. It all makes for a great, intriguing, and intense read that draws the reader in and then won’t let them go.

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: 95-100,000 words