Free, Free, Free

The author of each of these books has indicated their intent to schedule these books for a free day for the Kindle versions today on Amazon. Sometimes plans change or mistakes happen, so be sure to verify the price before hitting that "buy me" button. 

A Chance for Charity, by S.L. Baum

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Dead(ish), by Naomi Kramer

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Author's interested in having their free book featured either here on a Thursday or a sister site on Monday, visit this page for details.

Down and Out in Manhattan / J.R. Locke

Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Genre: Thriller/Suspense

Approximate word count: 80,000-85,000 words

Availability    

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

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

Author:

A native New Yorker, J.R. Locke worked on Wall Street in the late 1980s.

Description:

Jack Cole is an investment banker in a dead-end job, a grubby apartment, and a going-nowhere relationship with his girlfriend. When he’s offered a big break by the three ‘masters of the universe’ who run his firm, Jack grabs it with both hands even though he knows the work will be a little on the seedy side.  

Appraisal:

Jack is a well-drawn character. The project he’s offered involves a takeover of an old family business that supports thousands of loyal employees. His firm is attracted to the deal because the company has a massive, fully funded pension plan and they want to asset strip. Jack sets up a ‘shell’ company and proceeds with the takeover process. With the huge increase in income (from a three-stage bonus) he starts to live the high-life, buys an expensive apartment, snorts a little, drinks more than he should. This descent was well structured and believable, reminded me a little of Bright Lights Big City.

He hooks up with his old girlfriend from college (the love of his life) and everything seems to be going swimmingly until the colleague who’s working the deal with Jack gets cold feet and Jack’s bosses send out a hit man to kill him. Jack suddenly gets a conscience and tells his bosses that he can’t go through with the dirty deal. Obviously, his bosses shaft him, and his life spirals down the drain. The story follows his descent. His bosses would like to make his departure permanent, and so the assassin is chasing him, too. A helpful detective flits in and out of the picture as a guide and mentor.

I read the whole story without ever wanting to quit, but there was something not quite finished about it. I’ve been thinking about it for a couple days and struggling to define the problem and I think it’s this: the bosses were too stereotypical; the deal closed without a problem; bribes were offered and accepted without a blink of an eye; at first, the girlfriend pretended not to know him and he just accepted it; the ending was unsatisfactory; there were a few too many happy coincidences. In short, although there was no one “big” problem, I think the accumulation of many smaller ones left me feeling the piece lacked polish. It had the makings of a terrific book, but the author took the easy way out too many times and didn’t raise the stakes high enough to make me really care.

Format/Typo Issues:

Not enough to cause issues

Rating: *** Three stars

Fireproof / Gerard Brennan

Reviewed by: Keith Nixon

Genre: Thriller

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 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:

Gerard Brennan lives in Northern Ireland with his family and is currently studying for an MA in creative writing at Belfast University. Gerard has previously published several other works including the novel, Wee Rockets, a novella, The Point and contributed to a number of anthologies.

You can learn more about Gerard on his website.

Description:

Mike Rocks is, literally, in Hell. He’s given a choice by Lucifer himself – stay in the nether region for the rest of eternity or return to earth and set up a Satanic religion in Belfast. Mike takes the latter path, in part because he has his own unfinished business, getting revenge on the people that sent him to Hell in the first place. Before long, Mike’s mission is well underway, but then Cathy Maguire, wannabe contract killer, crosses his path and things start to get complicated.

Appraisal:

This is a unique story, I don’t think I’ve read anything like it previously. At first I was asking myself, what’s this all about? The opening scenes of Fireproof are of Mike in Hell being tortured by a strange creature before receiving his mission and getting on with his own. Then Cathy appears, she seems quite a normal girl besides her desire to murder people, starting with her boss.

However, once I was in a few chapters I found it to be a good read, very well written, entertaining (if you can put aside the ‘religious’ elements) and in places funny. There is a good sense of place and the dialogue is sharp. The characters can be distinctly peculiar, for example, there is Cadbury, a tramp who appears and squats in Mike’s flat whilst he’s on a brief respite in Hell. He has a number of very unusual qualities including the ability to read minds. Sounds odd? Yes, but it does fit well in the story.

Towards the latter part of the book, the tone changed somewhat as Mike builds the religion and follows his own plan, but primarily because he grows much closer to Cathy. Fireproof becomes more a story of redemption and relationships.

Overall, I enjoyed Fireproof. It’s a very good read if you enjoy something a bit different.

FYI:

Strong language.

Format/Typo Issues:

None.

Rating: **** Four Stars

The 19th Element / John Betcher

Reviewed by: Keith Nixon

Genre: Thriller

Approximate word count: 70-75,000

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:

John Betcher practiced law for more than twenty five years before he turned to writing. He has published three Becker mysteries, among others.

More can be found about John Betcher on his website.

Description:

An Al Qaeda terrorist cell plots to attack a nuclear power plant in the US heartland. Only one man, James Becker, can stop disaster happening.

Appraisal:

What’s the point of a thriller? Well, I guess the clue is in the word itself. Unfortunately there were many issues with The 19^th Element from a contrived plot (an Al Qaeda attack on a nuclear power plant?!) that never got out of second gear, to weak characters, and odd dialogue.

First is Becker himself who failed to convince me of his credentials. He’s ex-secret service, but then describes himself as wealthy because he invented a new bullet that can kill people at 1.5 miles (great!). He also has an unused degree – this and the money mean he’s been able to change profession and still act undercover (although independently of the government) but seems able to call in favours at will, like bringing in two Apache helicopters to take out the bad guys at just the right moment.

The writing isn’t bad, it’s just overly descriptive and ponderous. It’s ‘tell’ instead of ‘show’, observation instead of participation. For example, Becker gets into a fight at one point, it felt like I was watching the process from afar. When Jack Reacher fights, he fights, you feel every punch, every injury, adrenalin pumps. Unfortunately not with Becker. I wanted to put on my pyjamas and go to bed with a hot water bottle.

There were quite a few examples of this over use of tell. Remember the unused degree and new job. From the following, can you guess what Becker does?

‘Today was Wednesday and I was at my office. Becker Law Office. James L. Becker, Attorney-at-Law.’

Um, I think he’s an attorney? But I could be wrong.

On occasion, there were long, bulleted and descriptive lists. Once Becker described everything he was carrying on a mission. So what? Then there was the whole set of instructions to take off in a B-24. Why?

Then there were continuity errors. Most, but not all, chapters started with some or all of the time, date, and location. In the early chapters, the date jumped around. It was May 8^th, then the 6^th, back to the 8^th, then the 7^th, then to 1979 (this chapter didn’t have a date description though!). It was difficult to keep an eye on. Sometimes you’d be informed that it was 3 am, then be immediately told this again the first line of the chapter. Or you’d be told you were on the plane, it’s obvious. We know where Becker is because he hasn’t moved. Tell, not show.

Also, a couple of sub-plots seemed thrown in. A Mongolian, part of a gang Becker took down in his past, follows his daughter on campus. He races to save her. There’s also some Al Qaeda observer early on that’s explained away at the end, tied into the Mongolian.

Finally, the style changed in some chapters. When in the nuclear plant scenes all of the dialogue is written as if it’s a screenplay. Why? For interest perhaps. If so, it didn’t work. It made the dialogue clunky.

So overall a disappointing read. The 19^th Element promised much but failed to deliver. I needed much more ‘thrill!’ and a lot less ‘er?’

FYI:

Nothing relevant.

Format/Typo Issues:

Chapters did not start on a new page.

Several typos and format errors.

Rating: ** Two Stars.

The Ghosts of Lovely Women / Julia Buckley

Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Genre: Mystery

Approximate word count: 70,000-75,000 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:

Julie Buckley lives in Chicago and works as a high school English teacher. She’s published six novels including The Ghosts of Lovely Women, mostly mysteries, although her last novel is YA.

Description:

When Jessica Halliday, a nineteen-year-old high school student, is murdered, her English teacher, Teddy Thurber, thinks the girl may have left clues about her killer in a book she received from Jessica a few months earlier. Teddy turns amateur sleuth and the story follows along as she attempts to unmask the killer.  

Appraisal:

The plot sets up well. Jessica is dead in the first chapter. So why? How? Who’s to blame? Then an interesting twist regarding Jessica’s out of school activities keeps things fresh (not discussed in more detail here to prevent spoiling the story for others). But for large portions of the novel, the plot wasn’t in focus. Far too many words were spent discussing, and drawing parallels between, the actual mystery and the novels and plays being studied in Ms. Thurber’s English class. Couple this with a significant amount of back story detailing an English teacher’s life and chores—grading papers, dealing with free periods, guiding difficult students, extra-curricula study groups—with a lukewarm romance with the new teacher in town, who happens to have professional connections perfectly positioned to fill Teddy Thurber’s resource needs as she tries to work through the clues.

These diversions were of little interest and at times boring. So, for me, the plot lacked substance—without the lessons on what a teacher’s life involves and what Ibsen’s motivations were in his play “A Doll’s House”, the book would have been far shorter. During the course of her investigation, certain characters threaten Teddy Thurber: a stalker, a mysterious dark figure standing at the door of her car (we never did find out what that was all about), and the eventual killer in the final confrontation, but I never once feared for her safety. Solutions were always readily at hand.

I do think if you are a teacher, and more particularly, an English teacher, you’ll get more from the story than I could, because you’ll connect with those aspects of Teddy Thurber’s life and work that were of no interest to this reader.

The writing flowed nicely, and for the first time since I started reviewing for Al, I have zero notes of grammatical or spelling errors—so Ms. Buckley’s receives a well-deserved gold star for excellence in English language.

Format/Typo Issues:

None.

Rating: *** Three stars

The Vanity Game / H.J. Hampson

Reviewed by: Keith Nixon

Genre: Crime

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 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:

Originally from northern England, HJ Hampson now lives in London and drinks gin. She writes screenplays and novels – The Vanity Game is her debut novel.

You can learn more about H.J. Hampson on her website.

Description:

Beaumont Alexander, superstar mega-rich footballer, has the life some people will kill for. He seems to have everything – fast cars, a mansion, beautiful pop star girlfriend, Krystal McQueen, the adulation of his football team’s fans and parties with a multitude of famous friends. He can have what he wants, when he wants.

But Beaumont is a man on the edge and, after a sordid encounter with a hostess at a celebrity party, his life spins out of control and he turns to his manager, Serge, to help him. Enter a shady crime mob, The Substitutors, and Beaumont is going to have to fight to keep the life he so easily achieved.

Appraisal:

This is an impressive debut novel. It is fast-paced, topical and darkly witty. Beaumont lives in a money-no-object world many would aspire to but probably wouldn’t want once they had it. The Vanity Game cleverly shows both sides of the fame game where egos are large and life is ultimately the cheapest thing on offer.

Beaumont himself was initially vain, selfish, and seedy, very much like many of the football (or soccer depending which side of the pond you live on) stars of today. He has a couple of unhealthy quirks, a fear of germs and an obsession with George Michael. However, during the story Beaumont’s character develops into someone much more palatable – although I still wouldn’t like him as a friend, he never quite shakes the football mud off his boots.

In fact very few of the characters are likeable (which was the point). Celebrity, either gained or wished for, seems to have skewed them all. The wannabes are just as bad, they’ll do anything to be with Beaumont and his friends. The character’s names read like something out of the celebrity magazines that Beaumont regularly appears in.

The action is constant, except for a brief pause in the middle when Beaumont thinks he’s got away with his crime. There are many unexpected twists and turns that keep you guessing right through to the end.

H.J. Hampson poses some interesting questions about the society of today’s obsession with celebrity via The Substitutors mob. Without spoiling the read, Hampson brings about a physical change in Krystal which at first I questioned. Then, however it made me think – how much do we truly know about celebrities? Only what we read in the papers or see on the TV and how much of that is real?

Well worth a read and highly recommended.

FYI:

Frequent strong language.

Format/Typo Issues:

None

Rating: **** Four Stars

Insane and Out / TJ Price

Reviewed by: Keith Nixon

Genre: Thriller

Approximate word count: 40-45,000 words

Availability    

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

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

Author:

I couldn’t find anything meaningful about TJ Price, but you can read his blog.

Description:

Jason Carver is a newly promoted, newly divorced tax inspector, but he’s fed up and wants to make a change in his life. Jason has recently inherited a house in Orbaton and he wants to move away from London. However, he needs cash to pay for the refurbishment and afford to have a part-time job (so avoiding paying his ex-wife maintenance). Therefore, Jason bribes a tax evader, Albert Carlotti, to bank roll him.

But Jason has a new neighbor, Dennis Brodan, and they immediately get off on the wrong foot. Brodan is renting Jason’s garage and will not give it up. As Jason’s mind spins out of control, he fixates on Brodan as the source of his ill will and decides to do something about it.

Appraisal:

I really don’t understand the purpose of this story. The premise, that Jason is going steadily mad and the underlying reason, aren’t clear at all. I sort of figured out what had ultimately sent him around the bend on the last page, but by then I just didn’t care because most of the outline leading up to it was unclear for a number of reasons.

First, Insane and Out completely failed to engage me. It’s not badly written, but some sentences are odd, i.e. they didn’t seem to fit with the prose, and others were just downright difficult to understand. To give an example of the former:

‘There was no-one else on the train, which hummed with a vile, sonorous drone, just like it was being pulled by a million meat flies.’

Okay Jason was having a dream, but it would probably fit better in the horror genre. And of the latter:

‘His hair was jet black and below his pallid, almost waxy complexion glowed an unhealthy tinge of hectic red.’

I’ve read that sentence perhaps 10 times and I still don’t get it. Maybe it’s me, but why make it difficult for the reader?

The characters are lifeless and add nothing to the narrative. They appear, make a few comments and then sidle off again. Sometimes a potential conflict is created by the character, but almost always isn’t followed through. For example Jason meets someone he calls Wolfman in the opening chapter. Wolfman wakes Jason up, helpfully meaning he doesn’t miss his train stop (the reasons why are explored for a few pages). Then he and the Wolfman walk to the same location. Wolfman invites Jason to join him in the park for a couple of beers…yes it is that dull.

This issue continues throughout the story. At one point Jason thinks Carlotti is going to kill him, potentially interesting, but then this possibility evaporates – instead Carlotti gives Jason a brand new car. The situation Jason gets himself into with Brodan is pointless, who cares that Brodan is renting the garage and he can get to his car faster than Jason? Not me. Yet the author spends many chapters investigating this. Yes, Jason might be going mad but the reason for the conflict? Far, far too weak and unbelievable to create tension in this context.

The dialogue is bland and laborious. It’s like sitting on a bus and being forced to listen in on a particularly boring conversation between two strangers who you hope to never meet again. Unfortunately, you’re treated to every word uttered.

Finally, there was absolutely no sense of place for me. Jason eventually lives in Orbaton, where’s that? In the ‘grim’ north of England where everyone’s ugly (where I happen to come from).

Overall, a very disappointing read that almost sent me mad in the process.

FYI:

Occasional strong language.

Format/Typo Issues:

Several spelling mistakes, an unfinished sentence, missing words, spelling of a character’s name changes, occasional format / layout issues.

Rating: * One Star

Hieroglyphs / Shana Hammaker

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Memoir

Approximate word count: 15-20,000 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:

Shana Hammaker is the author of the TwelveTerrifying Tales for 2011 series, where a different short thriller was released each month, and another memoir, The Cookie Dumpster. Follow Shana on Twitter.

Description:

“Words are puzzles. Words are lies. Words are power. Words are hope.

Hieroglyphs is a dark and unique coming-of-age story.

Shana Hammaker was the second of three girls born to young and ill-equipped parents. She and her sisters grew up under some of the most harrowing conditions you’re likely to encounter in print.

Shana spent her formative years dueling against a drug-addicted mother, an uncaring father, and a cruel stepmother. She lost her virginity to a trusted family friend before she could ride a bike. And she was ultimately abandoned by her family and the child welfare system. At seventeen, Shana’s childhood ended on the street.

Through it all, Shana found strength and comfort in words. Words are everything. Words can uplift and they can condemn. Words can name you and give you strength. Words are puzzles. Words are power. Words are lies. Sometimes words create. Other times they destroy.

Words can turn a rape victim into a whore.

But words are also HOPE.”

Appraisal:

Last year when I read and reviewed The Cookie Dumpster, Hammaker’s memoir about her time living on the streets of Santa Cruz, California, I praised the book for its authentic, unvarnished look at the plight of the homeless. But I also begged for more. The Cookie Dumpster covered a very specific and relatively short period of Hammaker’s life, but I thought there was more to tell and suggested her story cried out for a prequel, telling us what brought her life to the point where living on the street was her only, or at least best, option. The Cookie Dumpster ended at a logical point in Hammaker’s life, a turning point where her life was changing, but it felt like there was a possible sequel there as well.

Hieroglyphs is both prequel and sequel, starting with Hammaker’s childhood, deftly covering the time chronicled in The Cookie Dumpster without feeling like anything is being skipped for those who haven’t read Hammaker’s first memoir, and without feeling like covering old ground, for those who have. It then finishes with the next chapter of her life, ending at another logical stopping point. I got what I’d wished for.

There are many lessons or insights to be gained from the author’s life, starting with how much the luck of the draw influences the life you lead and ending with the realization that what politicians describe as “the safety net,” while imperfect and flawed, is much better than the alternative. Running through the story is a constant refrain of the power of words, for both good and bad, which gives insight into why Hammaker gravitated towards the writer’s life.

FYI:

Some adult content.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five stars

Outbreak / Sean Solomon

Reviewed by: J.A. Gill

Genre: Horror

Approximate word count: 50-55,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES

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

Author:

Sean Solomon lives in Wakefield, UK.  Outbreak is his debut novel. A prodigious writer, this was shortly followed by Inbreed in August of the same year. Soon to follow is a trilogy collectively titled The Cursed. For updates and further information visit Sean Solomon’s website.

Description:

Set in the near-future English countryside, Sean Solomon’s Outbreak tells the story of a few unlikely survivors of an apocalyptic virus. They soon come to realize dark forces following the wake of the pandemic and must combine resources to stay alive and uncover an unsettling truth.

Appraisal:

This novel is about as close as one can get to a story about nazi zombies without actually being about Nazi Germany or having any typical zombies. Sadly, any levity implied with the promise of nazi zombies shambling around England is quickly squandered by cheap gravitas as the narrator in his storytelling unfailing marks off the usual suspects of the Final Solution: pogroms, concentration camps, clouds of human ash, a military-industrial cabal with plans of world domination, ethnic cleansing, eugenics, etc. This is the Reductio ad Hitlerum of narration, where everyone knows nothing is worse than Hitler and his Nazis, thereby linear comparisons appear dubious and unearned.

As to the zombies, they are not reanimated dead but remotely animated living. The hows and whys—save for the predictable role of technology cast as the new necromancy—unfold thrillingly. Credit this to Solomon’s juggling multiple subplots that at first appear as homage to the patchwork of Max Brooks’s World War Z, but converge somewhat seamlessly in the final chapters. One exception, however, involving a spoiler, challenges the weight limit on the suspension bridge over the river disbelief, an element of subgenre crossing that intercalates in a shoot ‘em up zombie apocalypse novel incompletely.

Details can illuminate or obfuscate. The writing is often in the clipped military jargon of acronyms and perfuse with the fastidious make-and-model listing of ordnance. On the other hand, it is wanting on the ethology of the many nearly interesting characters inhabiting the story.

Format/Typo Issues:

No chronic errors or issues.

Rating: ** Two stars

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

Happy New Year to all our readers.

Since this is the day for resolutions, turning over a new leaf, or at least making changes, it seemed like a good time to do the same. Resolutions, I should, but I won’t. But changes, I can give you, although nothing earth shattering.

Picking up the Pace

Some readers and many authors have wished in the past that we could publish more than the four or five reviews a week we’ve averaged over the last two years. Starting tomorrow, we’re going to attempt to have either a review or a guest post six or seven days a week. Hopefully we can keep up the pace. Cheer us on. For readers whose Kindles are full, I’m sorry. I guess you’ll have to start reading faster.

Interviews

For roughly six months we were doing weekly author interviews. This feature was popular among our readers, but for a number of reasons, we discontinued them. However, last summer BigAl took over administration of another website called The Indie View. This site has content aimed at readers, authors, and reviewers. One of the main features are frequent interviews of Indie authors, both self-published and those publishing through small presses, as well as interviews with other book bloggers. I’d encourage those who enjoy author interviews to visit the site where you can follow it on twitter and like it on Facebook. I’ll also be tweeting and sharing links for new and old interviews from The Indie View through the Books and Pals twitter account and on its Facebook page.

Free, Free, Free

As a service to both readers and authors, we’re going to try a new feature each Thursday, listing a selection of books free that day on Amazon. We’ll be doing the same on Mondays at our sister site, The Indie View. This feature will be starting next Monday, January 7, if there is enough interest. Authors with a free book on either on those days should visit the new Author’s FAQ page for details.

Don’t Forget to Follow and Like Us

The best way to be aware of all our posts is to subscribe via email or to our RSS feed through your favorite RSS reader. However, those who use Facebook or twitter should consider also liking our page on Facebook and following us on twitter for content shared through social media that isn’t a blog post.