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

Killer Dead, Victim Alive by Michael Geczi

 

Keith Victor is proud of being a serial killer. He enjoys what he does and he’s happy to let the cops know about it. Actually... that should be “was” since Victor is dead. So why has his seventh kidnap victim Chrissy Weeks pitched up at the police station claiming Victor dropped her off?

 

So begins the case for detectives Mollie Granger and Greg Nichols, both of whom have more than enough on their plates in their home lives than to go wading through truths and lies. But it’s justice they must get, and thus starts one of the strangest cases they will come across, with some far-reaching repercussions...

 

Killer Dead, Victim Alive had so much potential. Sure, the case is in the title and, as the reader, you go in with a preconceived notion. The mystery is set up, the characters introduced, and you get yourself ready for a ride. But it’s a bumpy one.

 

Let’s start with Weeks. The build-up to her manipulative character was strong and the character was designed to irk the reader, which she does. However, you are given a backstory and told how evil she can be and hear her threats, but besides the obvious, not much comes of it. It’s odd that as the reader you know she is the killer but you have to go through the procedural process of them finding out. This means there is a lot of tell as she changes her story a number of times and yet you know she is lying. In essence, there was really only one person manipulated in her whole story.

 

Granger and her girlfriend Gwen Seward have an interesting parallel story to the main one in that they are fighting cultural and relationship complications for their future. This does add a good dynamic to the story in showing the personal upheavals that people are going through that sometimes cannot be shared when in the work environment. This was true to Nichols too, with the emotional toll his wife’s illness was taking on him. I did feel, however, that there were too many side stories within the police section and a number of them did not need to go into as much detail.  

 

Then there was KJ – would she have given up like she did considering the fighter that she was? Even if she did feel she did wrong? I guess she was manipulated by so many people she didn’t really know where her future was anymore.

 

As to the story. The reason why Weeks did it was a tenuous connection, as it was based on so many “what ifs.” It almost had to be the perfect timing, the perfect manipulation, and have the perfect co-conspirator to work, and if these weren’t there, the story would not have happened. I truly do not understand how she thought it would end in her favour, especially with her story changing so often between the police, the lawyer, and the media. As for the ending... where was this going? Designed for the next book? It was so abrupt I kept trying to turn to the next page. If you look closely, there is a clue related to the ending early on, but it’s remarked on so randomly that the connection is not obvious, even at the end.

 

 The proofing overall was pretty good. The only consistent errors were the mix of straight and curly quotes and apostrophes and a number of inconsistent uses of action versus dialogue tags. Some quotation marks were missing, too.

 

So I’m rather ambivalent about this. In a psychological thriller, I’m looking for the who, how, and why. I want to be surprised at the end by how I missed the setup and how it all links together. With this book, the title made the reader assume they knew “who” the killer was (and this gets confirmed early), “how” it happens is also evident early, and when the “why” comes along, well I felt a little cheated. A lot of good stuff in this book, but I think it was the “intent” versus “coincidence” that made it a hard sell for me.

 

My thanks to the author for the opportunity to review the book. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Cellar Door by Langford Shepherd

 The Cellar Door is a short story and touted to be a horror.

 

This book fell far too short of anything it promised. In fact, the only horror was that of a human harming an animal. An animal that starts off as one species and lands up as another.

Why the book needed to spend the majority of it in the erotica between the couple makes no sense. The first line of the book description says exactly that. No need to go into that many sordid details.

I was disappointed and was hoping for more about the bodies and more actual horror.

I Know Your Secret by JM O'Rourke

 Dr Amanda Jackson is a well-respected physician and has two wonderful children. She loves her husband deeply, but is constantly having to sacrifice what she wants and needs to make him happy. And she is willing to do this as she has a secret she cannot let him know about.

 

So when she finds a note on her windscreen one day saying I Know Your Secret, she realises she is in big trouble. The question is whether to find out who sent it or let the secret be known. And since there is only one other person out there who does know about it, she needs their help to make sure the secret stays a secret.

 

With traumatic events in her past coming back to her in flashbacks, she starts doubting their authenticity. And with her husband questioning her sanity, she starts doubting herself, too. As friends and family turn against her, Amanda doesn’t know who to go to. Is keeping the secret worth it?

 

The book centres on bad decisions and their repercussions. It also highlights toxic relationships between spouses, between friends, between parents and children, and between work colleagues.

 

For a woman like Amanda who has overcome so much, it seems odd that she would put up with Edward’s behaviour and indeed enable it. Considering even her son tells her to leave him as he doesn’t treat her well, the secret is not worth keeping. What I did like about her character was the growth she went through to eventually find the courage to say “no” and stand up for herself.

 

Edward’s character was absolutely awful. He is the epitome of an abuser and gaslighter. I did think it was a tad implausible that he would go to the lengths he did to protect himself, though.

 

Pri was a very irritating character, especially considering her story arc. And the way she kept calling Fiona “that loola woman” was annoying. Looking at it from an outside perspective, though, one could argue that her decisions were not her own and she was guided by an “inner demon”. However, when found out, she came across as being more than willing and not necessarily coerced.

 

As you move through the clues, you can guess where it’s headed but there are still another curveball or two on their way. While some scenes were set up well and integrated with the story believingly, others (cue logs and an overall) were a lot more difficult to swallow. Even scenes where characters pretend to be someone else in a medical facility don’t sound feasible. And then, of course, the obligatory evil nurse in the mental institute – was it really necessary? And it seems like most victims in psychological thrillers nowadays end the story by writing a book about it!

 

So I Know Your Secret has its pros and cons and does get dragged out in places, but is overall a satisfying read.

 

Thanks to NetGalley and Inkubator Books for the opportunity to review the book.