This book has all the requisite elements of both a Noir Detective Novel and a Space Opera. We have a former cop turned private investigator, trying to make a living with his wits. Because of the nature of the game, he plays both sides, having friends in the police and administration as well as contacts […]
We All Have Our Demons” by Gerrard Tyson
“Demons” is a novella of about a hundred pages, Paranormal Fantasy with a touch of humour. It involves two separate settings: a college campus in the real world, and hell. The main strength of this book is the balance of the writing. We get just enough description to orient us and pull us in, but […]
“Note to Boy” by Sue Clark
The best book I’ve reviewed in several years. Once I’ve said that, what more can I add? This has got to be the wackiest plotline going, a complete inside-out-and-backwards on Pygmalion and My Fair Lady. It features two of the most unlikely characters that were ever jammed together in a book: a rough-and-tumble street urchin […]
“Edge of Death” by Joni Parker
All fiction reading requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief. As a genre, Fantasy requires the most, because we must believe in a whole new world, usually with magic. However, there are limits to what a given reader will accept. Fortunately for this book, Young Adult readers are pretty forgiving. Most of them […]
“Dagger and Scythe” By Emilie Knight
Well, this has to be the most unlikely love story in the history of the novel. The setup of the plot is that a certain god has a way to keep his humans in line; he has a coterie of undead assassins that go around committing random atrocities, thus frightening the faithful into submission. Dagger […]
“Count the Rain” by Kathryn Lee Martin
Despite the flaws in this book, I enjoyed it, mainly because it has a good “feel” to it. The characters and the physical and social setting blend together to give a realistic gestalt that pulls you into the story. Which is a good thing, because this author is in need of all sorts of […]
“Before the Ruins” by James Hohenbary
There are a couple of creative and interesting ideas in the conception of this story. First, it takes the “Game of Thrones” style of political conflict and places it in the society of Southwest American natives in the pre-Columbian era. The same political maneuvering, the same making and breaking of alliances, the same concerns about […]
“Where Have All the Elves Gone?” by Christian Warren Freed
There are all sorts of Fantasies about someone who suddenly discovers that elves and ogres and things that go bump in the night have been living among us all along. Some of the most interesting ones involve an organization designed to hide this situation. Slipping over into Action Adventure-Conspiracy Theory, one sub-genre includes a government […]
“Sliding Past Vertical” by Laurie Boris
I once wrote a non-fiction book called, “Why Are People so Stupid?” The answer being that we think we’re being logical while we allow our emotions to tell us to do and say all the completely illogical things that make this world so messy. And interesting. “Sliding Past Vertical” makes the same point, but in […]
“Madam Tulip and the Bones of Chance” by David Ahern
Be careful what you ask for. I’ve been an avid reader all my life, but now I read professionally, and sometimes it can be, quite frankly, a bore. So it’s a great pleasure when I’m offered a book that I actually enjoy. I have always liked David Ahern’s Madam Tulip stories, but this one is […]