Review: Alpha by Stephen L. Brayton

 Genre: Mystery/Action-Thriller

Description:

“How well do we ever know anyone? Even someone we might be falling in love with…

On a rainy October morning, Mallory Petersen, private detective and martial artist, discovers the corpse of her boyfriend, Bobby Furillo, in front of her office in Des Moines, Iowa.

Bucking police authority and continually attacked by unknown adversaries, Mallory discovers Bobby’s devastating secrets. Each new revelation puts Mallory in deeper peril from powerful and dangerous people, but she won’t stop until she learns the truth.”

Author:

“Stephen L. Brayton is a Sixth Degree Black Belt and certified instructor with over 30 years experience in The American Taekwondo Association.

He began writing as a child; his first short story concerned a true incident about his reactions to discipline. During high school, he wrote for the school newspaper and was a photographer for the yearbook. For a Mass Media class, he wrote and edited a video project.

In college, he began a personal journal for a writing class; said journal is ongoing. He was also a reporter for the college newspaper.

During his early twenties, while working for a Kewanee, Illinois radio station, he wrote a fantasy based story and a trilogy for a comic book.

He has been involved broadcasting, trucking, hospitality, newspaper graphic design, and a pre-press camera operator at a publishing company.

He has written numerous short stories both horror and mystery.”

Appraisal:

This is an interesting story and is structured in an interesting way. The “interesting way” it is structured is that it switches back and forth between two times, one that it calls “now” and the other “then.” We start the story in the “now” time with Mallory, our protagonist who is a private investigator and martial arts instructor, getting asked a question by Lawrence, Mallory’s current boyfriend. Lawrence is a police officer from a city a couple hours away from where Mallory lives and is spending a weekend at her place. The question Lawrence asks is “tell me a story about one of your toughest cases.” Mallory does and oh, what a story it is. The story switches to “then” (some period in the past when this case was happening) and Mallory begins to tell Lawrence about the case that starts when she discovers the corpse of her then boyfriend in front of her office.

The story goes back and forth between then and now with Lawrence and Mallory getting to know each other better in the “now” while their discussion provides a bit of foreshadowing in a unique way for the “then” part of the story, which is where Mallory tells the full story of what the police and Mallory, who does her own investigation, find while searching for the person responsible for her boyfriend’s death. What Mallory finds is a lot of things she’d have never guessed and a lot more involved than anyone would have anticipated. It’s an intense story, only made more so by Mallory often getting into situations that require her martial arts skills to get through them relatively unscathed.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an ARC (advanced review 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

Freakquency / Caddell Brown

Reviewed by: Sooz

Genre: Horror/Occult

Approximate word count: 60-65,000 words

Availability

Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: NO Smashwords: NO Paper: NO

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Caddell Brown was born and raised in East Texas. Brown enjoys books, movies and television shows. Read more about her at www.caddellbrown.com.

Description:

Southern rock star Rick Chamberland heads home to Louisiana to visit his mother. While there he meets Song Peters, a singer and waitress from a local bar. He’s immediately attracted to her, but their union could spell tragedy as dark family secrets threaten their lives.

Appraisal:

Freakquency has the components to be an interesting book, but wound up feeling incomplete. It had a good set up with Rick Chamberland, who heads back home to Louisiana to visit his mother after the family dog had died. There is something off about this family and Rick and his mother have a strange, disturbing relationship.

Rick meets a Song Peters, a singer and waitress in a local bar, and he’s immediately attracted to her, especially her talent. Brown brings these two together in a realistic, unforced manner, but then the book winds up rushing toward an ending, and missed some important moments between Rick and Song.

Freakquency was dark and focused on black magic and the occult. Part of what made this book frustrating was that the family secrets seemed pretty important, and the ones who would be affected by them the most were the ones kept in the dark the longest.

It seems as though this story is not finished as Brown may want to continue their stories in other books. However, there were some gaps that should have been filled in.

FYI:

There are erotic scenes.

Format/Typo Issues:

Minor issues

Rating: ***Three Stars

The Atlantis Gene / A.G. Riddle

Reviewed by: Sooz

Genre: Science-Fiction/Action Thriller

Approximate word count: 130,000-135,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

A.G. Riddle ran internet companies before writing fiction. He grew up in North Carolina and now resides in Florida. You can learn more about Riddle and his books at his website.

Description:

A global conspiracy is about to come out into the open when a villainous group, the Immari, plans to infect the world with a disease that will leave a superior race and take the next step in human evolution. Dr. Kate Warner, a scientist studying autism, and David Vale, a soldier trying to stop the Immari, team up in a race to save the world.

Appraisal:

I had an interest in forensic anthropology once upon a time. It still intrigues occasionally, but there was a phase where I wanted to explore everything I could on the subject. Even now, I dabble into that world reading about Neanderthals and hominids.

The Atlantis Gene moves into that territory with scientists and super villains looking  at the origins of human evolution. They are seeking the Atlantis Gene that would allow humans to safely pass through safety protocols developed by Atlanteans thousands of years ago. Otherwise, you die.

The story doesn’t just look at human origins. It wraps other elements such as Nazis, time warps, secret societies, alien technology, and espionage around an action thriller. If it sounds like a lot, it is. Riddle uses a quick pace with short, one-page chapters often, which can make it feel like a movie. There are also moments where there is lull because of a big information dump to help the readers understand the science behind the fiction. Once would be OK, but the same type of info regarding early humans and sub-species is repeated several times by different characters.

The book, while enjoyable, is filled with a number of clichés: the beautiful female scientist, the soldier with a difficult past, and Nazi bad guys.

There are several books that I have read recently where I feel would be better off as serialization. I know serials aren’t as popular as they used to be, but The Atlantis Gene was certainly a book that fell into that category for me. The Atlantis Gene started quickly with face-paced chapters, slowed through the middle and picked up the pace toward the end. The Atlantis Gene may have worked better as chunks rather than a nearly 500-page book.

Format/Typo Issues:

Several editing and grammar issues.

Rating: ***Three stars