Girls, Crimes, and the Ruling Body by Barry Ziman

 

Two women have gone missing. Their seemingly unrelated cases have one thing in common: Ryan McNeil. Having been the last person to see the first before she went missing, and having the second’s bloody clothes in his car makes him a person of interest indeed. However, in the political world he lives in, he can’t afford to be connected to either. One wrong move and his career could be over.

 

Now settled down and married, Ryan is initially content, but soon longs for the excitement he used to enjoy when he was single. As his connection to the cases comes under scrutiny, Ryan finds himself at odds with his marriage and his career. He’d better watch out as the web of lies within the political sphere he is in all comes down to “I’ll scratch your back and you scratch mine…”

 

The story was good even though a little farfetched in places, but definitely showed the darker side of politics and the things that people who you think are morally sound do. It highlights how puppet strings are pulled and that even when trying to do the right thing, someone behind the scenes is controlling the narrative.

 

The characters were an interesting mixed bunch. Ryan pulled you in two ways – sometimes rooting for him and sometimes pursing lips at his actions. Caroline’s character was one I felt strongly about as her dubious choices must have come from somewhere and her decline was sad to see. Tantalus was just awful and the more that came out about those in powerful political seats, the more you realised how crooked they were. It takes skill to write a good story about a bunch of not-so-great characters!

 

I had a few issues with the book. The writing, while flowing well, came across in some places as using unnecessary words for effect. Some areas were written in plain English and the reading became faster as there were fewer adjectives, while in other places words like insouciant and specious were used. It became a bit jarring as they felt out of place. There was quite a bit of head hopping and a lack of section breaks. A few grammatical errors like your/you’re and they’re/their popped up and the maths didn’t always make sense. Some dates versus ages didn’t seem right and 770k plus 330k do not make a million. The biggest problem I had, though, was I felt the story was being told at me and didn’t involve me as such.

 

The ending came from nowhere and was indeed a surprise, which, while out of the blue, was the right way to end the story, considering the tangents it had been on. A good political thriller overall that I definitely enjoyed. Many thanks to the author for the opportunity to review the book.

Killer Detective by AJ Gallant

 Joe is a serial killer and proud of it. Sometimes it feels as though he is not the one calling the shots and choosing the victims, but if he isn’t doing it who else could it be? Detective Ted Miller just wants to put criminals behind bars. And when he is offered a second chance at life with a little heavenly assistance, he knows big things are in his future. With the battle for souls raging every day, a fair fight is never guaranteed. There comes a point where support becomes downright interference…

 

I was looking forward to this book. A humorous story about good versus evil sounded like a great afternoon’s reading. Unfortunately, it was not what I expected it to be. Robert Rankin’s snark and Terry Pratchett’s wit are hard to match, and while the author tried, the jokes fell flat and the whole story seemed disjointed.

 

First, there were too many characters. It seemed a waste to introduce some of them as they didn’t drive the plot forward. Second, the story was all over the place, concentrating on certain things which then fell away. Some plot lines went nowhere, some went on tangents that felt added in for padding, and throughout it was as though the author had the beginning and end, but to get it there just stuck on accessories.

 

This book was unfortunately riddled with editing errors. From basic things like punctuation issues, to characters’ names getting mixed up or misspelt, to dangling modifiers, to mixed POVs or tenses, and even incorrect chapter numbers. Some sections had extremely short sentences where things could have been described and fleshed out more, while in others, things like a pen were described like this: Xezo Handmade Natural Paua Sea Shell Abalone Ballpoint Pen.

 

The story ends with a cliffhanger and what I thought were the opening chapters of book two landed up being for a different series. What was disappointing was the writing. I hesitate to use the word childish but many scenes were written with humour that a child would find funny. Like the devil flicking boogers, or pooping, and saying things like this: “Sit the hell down,” said Beelzebub. “Get it?”

 

So while this had the essence of a good idea, it was not executed well. The unnecessary embellishments could be chopped and the main idea and characters worked on for more substance. I always rate a book by either asking if I would read it again or buy the next in the series, and unfortunately it’s a no from me on both counts. 

Two out of five quills for me..

Thanks to Reedsy Discovery and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/killer-detective-a-j-gallant#review

Murder Dogs by Karl Skinner

 The pandemic caused carnage and soon the world became a different place. No more morals and rules... now it was everyone for themselves.

Sarah’s life had taken a turn for the worse. Captured by a gang and forced into sex slavery, each day was just a mission to live. So, when a cop named Brad (who looks like he could commit murder and not think twice about it) arrives with a photo of her demanding to see her, she knows she needs to run. But out there it’s danger around every corner.

As Sarah hides from a rogue unit of cops known as the Murder Dogs, she has one thing on her mind. Survive at all costs...

 

The book has a fantastic opening scene and sets the tone for a very graphic story. The author depicts the emotions of the characters well, running from hate to despair to courage. The descriptions of atrocities committed in the name of the law as well as the loss of values that also spreads like a plague is a testament to the devastation the author has witnessed. But he has also managed to include the opposite, where basic decency and helping your fellow man still has its place.

 

The story is short but punchy and the action happens in quick bursts with the longer sections showing the desperation and loneliness. However, near the end of the story, an element was introduced that offset the authenticity of the story. No spoilers but think Terminator and the fact that the character is Sarah. Now this might lead into something as the book is left open for a sequel, but the genre change from nowhere was puzzling. As for the character’s change of heart? I think not. And when we find out the reason they are looking for Sarah, it stretched literary belief.

 

Making this book hard to read was the lack of chapters. There were some breaks thrown in but they didn’t give the reader a chance to breathe. There were also huge issues with dialogue and action tags being used incorrectly and words like feint / faint or into / in to being mixed up. Simple things like hyphens being used instead of en dashes and some backwards quotation marks stopped the flow of reading. It was also odd to use “a cup that held 500ml” or “a kettle that held 1.4l” – was it necessary?

 

Overall the author has done a good job of showing the reader the chaos that ensues when basic rights are taken away, and the story is entertaining if somewhat confusing at times. Three out of five quills for me...

Thanks to Reedsy Discovery and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/murder-dogs-karl-skinner#review

Lifetimes: The Beginning by Joe McFrancis

 Sophie is just your average girl from Ireland. She has some friends, is bored at school, and wonders what life has out there for her. Well, it comes in the form of Phoebe, who turns out to be part of history (literally) and has a mission for Sophie. Unlock her powers and save the world! Just another day in the life of a soon-to-be superhero…

The synopsis sounded great and I was keen to find out how Sophie was going to unlock her powers, what they would be, and how she would save the world. Some of these are touched on, but the story ends in a cliffhanger and felt incomplete. The author has presented a great idea about mythology and where it fits in with history that has so many possibilities about where it could go, but there is a lot of telling the reader about it and not enough showing.

First we look at the story. Sophie is whisked off to a military training school in Italy where she is meant to undergo combat training and learn how she will help in the war to defend Earth. There she meets a number of non-human classmates but only one features in any of her missions. We never really get the full picture about the classes at the school and what they did to further her powers. Things are mentioned (like her accelerated mutations) but sections could be fleshed out. Yet at other times, the same thing is repeated in a number of ways. Odd things occur like having a mission debrief after her first mission days (?) after it finished. Everything was turned into banter – surely jokes were not necessary all the time? And Phoebe constantly calling Sophie “girl” became grating.

Then come the editing errors. Action and dialogue tags were completely mixed, resulting in incorrectly placed capitals and punctuation errors. Quotation marks were used incorrectly when speech runs into more than one paragraph and the writing was awkward in a number of places like this: “Hi, Sophie! I’m Bob. Bob Miller,” Said to me, a nice dude with dark hair and blue eyes. Even the footnotes had errors: “Panini: Italian plural for panino, which in Elglish is just panini.”   

This is a fantastic foundational idea for a series and with a little tweaking of the story and the editing errors, it could spawn many sequels. Three out of five quills from me... 

Many thanks to Reedsy Discovery and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/lifetimes-the-beginning-pino-de-francesco#review