Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles, Vol. II by Edward A. Grainger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Tag: book review
Book Review: The Savage Altar by Åsa Larsson
The Savage Altar by Åsa Larsson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Book Review: Suicide Run by Michael Connelly
Suicide Run: Three Harry Bosch Stories by Michael Connelly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book Review: The Road To Somewher by James A. Reeves
The Road to Somewhere: An American Memoir by James A. Reeves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book Review: Field Notes on Science and Nature by Michael R. Canfield
Field Notes on Science and Nature by Michael R. Canfield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Book Review: Dinosaur in a Haystack by Stephen Jay Gould
Dinosaur in a Haystack by Stephen Jay Gould
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book Review: Concrete Pearl by Vincent Zandri
Vincent Zandri is one hell of a writer. He’s the author of other thrillers such as The Innocent, Godchild and The Remains (my review of The Remains is here), but Vincent scares me, he makes me wonder where he gets his inspiration, if it’s as true to life as it seems; I’m worried!
Concrete Pearl twists and shocks from the first page to the last. The main character, Ava “Spike” Harrison, she got her name from impaling her foot on a six-penny nail on the first construction site she worked on, is about to have a very bad day.
She’s the boss of Harrison Construction, the company that was originally her beloved fathers, and now Spike’s the boss. She’s a tough, no nonsense character who will never give up, never roll-over. Harrison Construction already has a number of health and safety convictions, accidents that weren’t Spike’s fault but corporately the company takes the hit. Today it’s going to get a lot worse. Today asbestos is going to be found on the current work site. That work site’s a school. Worse; that work site is a school that still has children in it while the work carries on around them. Asbestos contamination might equal sick kids. Cancer. Dead. Kids.
The authorities shut the site down, Spike’s company is under suspicion of negligence, but Spike’s company sub-contracted the asbestos removal and now the removal company and the lab that verified their test results, have shut-down, they’ve vanished. Spike needs to find them and settle what’s happened and clear her name.
The characters are lifelike and believable, some are so believable that you’ll hate them, want to take them out yourself. You’ll feel for others, want to help them. All the characters make this book the more believable page, after page, to the last page.
Zandri winds the plot tighter and tighter, he squeezes his lead character to incredible levels. You wonder if she will ever sort out her problems as with each page a new issue raises its ugly head. As accusations of negligence move to accusations of murder, the author redefines the term “thriller”.
As you think Spike is buried deep, Zandri turns the plot in her favour, revelation follows revelation. You start to wonder just who you can trust. Is anyone innocent? Some are. Zandri manages to tie up a plot and leave the reader very satisfied. What happens to Spike? Well you’ll just have to read the book and find out for yourself.
At the start of this review, I questioned the author’s inspiration, why? Well simply because I did a little reading around, his blog, other reviews before I read this book. Vincent Zandri appears to borrow from his own life as part of his books. A character in the books’ son is born on Halloween, I understand that Zandri’s son is too, and Spike’s family name, Zandris son’s name. So then what is it that Vincent Zandri knows about the construction industry, it’s claimed that this a fictional story based on real events?
Whether this is true or not it doesn’t really matter, because Zandri is one hell of an author, and although he is well published and sells books, he’s probably not the household name of the likes of Patterson or Brown; Clancy or Child; but he deserves to be. Zandri deserves to be the author I see in the window of Waterstones as I walk down the high street; to be in the 3 for 2’s. The one that everyone is talking about, the one that is on bigger blogs than mine. That’s what he deserves, I hope he gets it, but either way I’m buying his next book, and probably the one after that. It’s rare to find an author that you want to read book after book, but Vincent Zandri is in that league.
5 out of 5 Stars – I Loved It!
Review Disclaimer: I received a free kindle version of Concrete Pearl to review as a part of Vincent Zandri’s virtual book tour. I have previously read his novels, and so am familiar with his work, but I have received no other endorsement for this review.
Come back tomorrow to read a post direct from Vincent Zandri himself.
Vincent Zandri is the No. 1 International Bestselling author of the thrillers THE INNOCENT, GODCHILD,MOONLIGHT FALLS, THE REMAINS and CONCRETE PEARL. An MFA in Writing graduate of Vermont College, he has was a Stringer for The Albany Times Union Newspaper, and a contributor to New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, Game and Fish Magazine, and more. His short fiction has appeared in many of the leading journals and magazines, Orange County Magazine, Buffalo Spree, Negative Capability, The Maryland Review,Rosebud, The Best of Rosebud, Lost Creek Lettersamong them. His novels, stories, and journalism have been translated into many foreign languages including the Dutch, Japanese, French, Russian and Turkish. A freelance photo-journalist, foreign correspondent, and Blogger for RT, Globalspec and International Business Times, he divides his time between New York and Florence, Italy.
For more on the author, go to WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM.
In Conversation With Alex Pruteanu, Author of Short Lean Cuts
It’s my honour to welcome Alex Pruteanu, author of Short Lean Cuts to the blog, and talk to him about his latest book.
My review of Short Lean Cuts is at the bottom of this pos.
Hi Alex,
Thanks for agreeing to do this Q & A on your book “Short Lean Cuts”, welcome to my blog!
Thanks for agreeing to do this Q & A on your book “Short Lean Cuts”, welcome to my blog!
So cutting straight to the questions then:
TW: Tell me a little about your book, what’s it about and where did the inspiration come from?
AP: Thanks for shooting off these questions, Alan. I appreciate you giving me the time and the forum to talk a bit about this. First of all, Short Lean Cuts is a novella…it’s quite compact, and that’s a good thing. The prose style is very short, very lean, very staccato and direct. I don’t think the style would’ve worked as well had this been a full on novel. I tried to create a style that reads a bit more modern, more fragmented…almost in a way that most people think in the 21st Century. The story is a confessional of sorts, or a manifesto that is being left behind by the main character; a narcissistic, hypochondriac, perhaps mentally unstable ex-academic who has decided to sell himself as a product in exchange for face-time/air time on television, and the documentation of what he believes is a sort of skewed or obtuse resolution to his life and his ambitions. It’s a satire examining issues like consumerism in the USA, self-importance, and the concept of exploiting ourselves and our lives in exchange for notoriety and press. I was motivated to touch on these issues by realising how the human psyche was being driven and pushed via social networks and outlets for exposure and/or expostulation–like “reality shows.”
TW: Now, reading Short Lean Cuts there are some quite hard scenes in there, and it’s probably not everyone’s cup-of-tea. Who should read your book and why or why not?
AP: The work does examine some nasty, seedy, fetishistic sides of ourselves, sure, but I’d say other than children under the age of 18, I don’t see any reason why most people couldn’t handle reading this book. I think we get to see enough truth in the novel to make some of us uncomfortable…but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. I’ve personally never had any problems being pushed outside what I find comfortable whether in art, music, or writing…and often times I’ve appreciated the shove toward positions I may have thought too extreme or too shocking. I think it’s an artist’s job to move things forward, to progress. Nothing in this book, in my opinion, exists to merely shock for some kind of gratuitous value. Everything that happens has motivation and reason, I believe.
TW: You’ve been writing on your website (S)wine: ShortLeanCuts I think since 2007, tell me a little about how your writing has evolved from writing short fiction on the web to the genesis of Short Lean Cuts.
AP: In fact I’ve been writing in the online medium since spring of 2004, but my fiction site has undergone a few different name changes and maybe format changes. I initially wrote what became Short Lean Cuts in small bursts—individually-named stories, mainly due to limited amounts of time. But I also wrote with the idea of one day unifying the small flash fiction bits (each chapter could originally stand as its own short, flash story) into a larger whole. Each chapter appeared on my site as an distinctive piece in the span of one year in 2007. When I undertook the process of bringing everything together, I re-wrote each chapter and filled in what I thought were some blanks or some holes. At this point, I no longer believe each chapter could be plucked out of the book and stand concretely as a complete short story; everything is tied logically now, with every chapter propping up the theme of the book.
TW: Short Lean Cuts was available first as an e-book on kindle and nook. Did this sort of publishing make it easier for you to bring the book to market, and did it help to make the paperback edition a reality or did you always plan to have a print version?
AP: The process of bringing this book out to the public was blistering fast, when we talk about the general timeline of books being released. I think it was within four or five weeks of my decision to make this available that the ebook was on sale for the Kindle and the Nook worldwide. The tools available for e-publishing on Amazon and Barnes & Noble are amazing for authors now, and amazingly simple, as well. Indeed, my original idea was to release this book in paperback version, but I quickly changed my mind, seeing the trend, and sale of ebooks in 2011. And so I produced and formatted it for electronic devices and scrapped the idea of a paper product. But to my surprise, there was a big demand for the paperback version as well. I ran into a lot of people who preferred to have a ‘real product’ to hold and to leaf through, to carry, to bend, to underline or highlight. So I decided to publish that myself, as well. After investigating a couple of options, I decided to go with Amazon Publishers. And with the help of my wife, we produced and laid out the manuscript, and we designed the front and back cover, before Amazon approved the copy and manufactured the book. It wasn’t an overly complicated process, but we did make a few mistakes and had to go back to the drawing board a couple of times. Overall it was a brilliant experience and we learned so much from bringing this project to fruition.
TW: So what next? Is there a Short Lean Cuts #2 in the pipeline or do you have another project in mind?
AP: Well it’s funny you mention a continuation of this idea. I am in the process of outlining a probable spin off for one of the characters in Short Lean Cuts. The style of prose would be more in the “classical vein” and this would be a full on novel, instead of the short work that Short Lean Cuts is. And on the quite distant horizon there is a personal work called “Resident Alien,” which is currently undergoing some major changes in ideas and concept. That being said, unless something astronomically lucky happens with a major publishing house (I’m not holding my breath), all of my future projects will be independently produced and published. I love the process, I love the author royalties, and I love the editorial freedom. I am not forced to write under guidelines of a major corporation whose only goal is to make money. While I fully realize a book is a product like any other product, and it must sell, I am not willing to make the major concessions and changes that most Big House Publishers ask of their authors.
TW: When you’re reading rather than writing, what do you choose, and who are your favourite authors?
AP: I grew up idolizing Ernest Hemingway and what he did for the English language. As a teen, I was enamored with his sparse style, yet heavy emotion that somehow exuded from in between the lines. I was also enamored with his contemporaries: F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, and William Carlos Williams. Some of my favourite authors are Albert Camus, Kafka, Charles Bukowski, Ferdinand Celine, Raymond Carver, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Thomas Mann, and Jose Saramago. Lately, I’ve been enjoying very much the works of Yann Martel, Michael Chabon, and Chuck Palahniuk. I love the poetry of Anne Sexton and Dorothy Parker, and the plays of Lillian Hellman.
You can buy Short Lean Cuts:
My Review:
Short Lean Cuts by Alex M. Pruteanu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book Review: Last Car to Elysian Fields by James Lee Burke (Warning Contains Spoilers)
Last Car To Elysian Fields by James Lee Burke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Book Review: When No One Is Watching by Joseph Hayes
When No One Is Watching
Author: Joseph Hayes
Published By:Synergy Books
ISBN: 13: 978-0984387946
Genre: Thriller/suspense/morality tale
Synopsis: On the eve of announcing his run for Congress, a charismatic Chicago politician causes a deadly accident. Panicked, he frames his best friend, a good-hearted alcoholic, and flees the scene. As one man tries to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, the other embarks on a meteoric rise to political stardom. But when a dogged detective digs deeper into the case, the political superstar must decide just how far he is willing to go to keep his dark secret. Author Joseph combines page-turning suspense with a poignant tale of inspiration and redemption as he asks, is “the greater good” just a lie we tell ourselves to justify the sins we commit when no one is watching?
Author Bio: Joseph Hayes is a native of Chicago. He grew up in a family of eight children in the Beverly neighborhood on Chicago’s Far South Side, where the Irish-Catholic heritage and influence was strong and visible. Joe attended St. Barnabas Elementary School, Brother Rice High School and De Paul University before leaving Chicago to attend law school in California, at UC Berkeley. Since graduating from Berkeley, he has practiced law in Chicago, San Diego and Houston. Joe currently serves as chief ethics officer and assistant general counsel for a large, publicly held company based in Houston, Texas, and is widely recognized as one of the foremost experts in his field. In his professional capacity, he has written extensively about legal and ethical issues and frequently speaks about such issues be! fore employee and industry groups. When No One is Watching is his first work of fiction. His second novel, a legal thriller entitled Consequential Damages, is expected to be published soon Joe currently resides in The Woodlands, Texas, with his wife, Susan, and their three children, Amy, Sean and Erin.
Author Website: www.joseph-hayes.com
My Review
[As a part of my review, Joseph Hayes very kindly agreed to answer a few questions regarding his first novel. The Q&A can be found at the end of my review.]
Joseph Hayes writes a time spanning and life changing tale that covers over ten years, and is not so much a crime novel as an emotional rollercoaster for the reader, from shock and anger to sympathy and loss, they are all there. The initial crime is a straightforward one, but shatters several lives. It is not complicated, and it is clear who is guilty, but as events unfold and the plot develops there is little that remains straightforward.
Mr Hayes makes sure the reader knows what’s going on, what the characters are thinking and carries his readers from scene to scene.
Although the book is a relatively short one the main characters feel alive, how they react to each situation feels real and gives the reader a chance to empathise with some. I had a feeling that Mr Hayes was going to develop one of those into a recurring character, that he would be the hero of this and future books, but this was not how Mr Hayes played out his tale. This book is very much a stand-alone, and is his first novel, but I don’t think it will be his last.
Mr Hayes has a gift to tell a tale, to talk about crime but also the ethics of crime, how our choices might be quick but they can affect many for years to come.
Each scene that Mr Hayes relates, makes it seem as though the story is only going to end one way, but some very clever plotting and interweaving of the characters brings the end to a different and perhaps more satisfactory conclusion.
4 out of 5 Stars – I really liked it!
Author Q & A:
Hello Mr Hayes,
Many thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions about your novel, “When No One is Watching.”
I’ve just finished reading it and I thoroughly enjoyed it, you raised many an interesting thought in my mind, as I work in a political field myself when I’m not reading I found some aspects particularly pertinent.
So anyway, straight to those questions:
TW: There’s a saying that “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Did you intend for the character of Blair Van Howe to fall victim to this, and hence why he did what he did at the accident scene , or where there others who were perhaps more responsible for his actions than he was?
JH: Blair was certainly seduced by power, and his thirst for it was the primary motivation for the decision he made in the opening scene (the accident scene). However, in developing that scene and the rest of the story, I was more focused on capturing the ethical dilemma — the notion that character and integrity are defined by the decisions we make when no one is watching. I also tried to demonstrate how easy it is for us to try to rationalize such self-serving decisions (for example, Blair’s justification that getting elected would enable him to promote the greater good) and the fact that the consequences of those decisions can be far-reaching.
TW: Are any of your characters and story based upon real people or events, and if so who / what?
JH: The main character (Danny Moran) was modelled after my father, and his life story after getting sober was similar to my Dad’s. A number of the alcoholics portrayed in the story were composites of various people that my father became acquainted with through the AA program. Other than that, all of the characters were completely fictional.
TW: I believe that this is your first novel, did you always have it in mind to be a stand-alone or were you ever thinking about there being potential for it to become a series? For example, Detective Slazak seemed to be a strong character, and yet you effectively wrote him out of the book early on. Did you ever conceive an ending where he might be the hero and crack the case? Perhaps becoming a recurring character?
JH: I never considered the concept of making this novel the first in a series. Honestly, that just never occurred to me — probably a reflection of my inexperience when it comes to publishing, although I now clearly recognize the fact that a series can be very marketable due to the built-in audience that exists after the first story is successful. Anyway, in my mind, it made sense to write Detective Slazak out of the story because I was working toward the point of making it seem utterly hopeless that the truth would surface. The incriminating evidence was gradually disappearing, and the last and most compelling piece of that was Slazak himself. I wanted to get back to the “when no one is watching” dilemma facing Blair. In other words, knowing that he truly got away with his betrayal and deception, can he live with himself?
TW: How did you research the AA element of Danny’s character?
JH: I didn’t need to research the AA part of Danny’s life — I lived it. My father joined AA when I was twelve years old and spent the remainder of his life (30 years) devoted to that cause. I watched him as he developed his own routines to maintain his grip on sobriety. I watched him as he tried to help those who were battling their addictions. I would often wake up in the morning and find some unknown soul sleeping one off in our house after my Dad had responded to a desperate call for help the night before. Through those firsthand experiences, I got a pretty good glimpse of the heartaches and tragedies surrounding alcoholism, but also witnessed many stories of hope and inspiration as I saw my Dad and others in the recovery community selflessly devoting themselves to others who were suffering from this addiction — and making a difference. That was the real inspiration for this story, and I dedicated the book to those quiet, selfless heroes.
TW: Without giving too much away, the story had a “tidy” ending. Did you always plan it that way or did you consider a different out-turn?
JH: I never really considered a different ending to the story because that ending was my starting point. The final scene at the funeral home and cemetery were based on an actual event in my life, and that was the inspiration for the story. So I wound up creating a fictional story that lead into that ending.
TW: Where do you draw your inspiration as an author from, is it from other writers or somewhere else? Do you have any particularly favourite authors?
JH: I don’t really draw my writing inspiration from other authors. I think it comes from real life experiences that strike me as profound in some way, and motivate me to tell a story that entertaining but also has something valuable and meaningful to say. That’s what I attempted to do with When No One is Watching, and it is also what inspired my next novel, entitled Consequential Damages. As for my favourite books and authors, I really gravitate toward the classics. I like Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Mark Twain, and many others whose writings have withstood the test of time. As for modern authors, I enjoy John Grisham, Nicholas Sparks, David Baldacci and Mitch Albom, among others. I really liked the Harry Potter books. With regard to nonfiction, I’ve recently read and enjoyed The Tipping Point and Freakonomics.
Review Disclaimer: I received a free e-book version of When No One Is Watching to review as a part of this book tour. I have received no other endorsement for this review.
NEWSFLASH:
As I was going to press with this review, I received the following additional information. Congratualtions to Joseph Hayes!
LOCAL AUTHOR HAYES HONORED BY NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS
AND 2011 NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARDS
Contests recognize outstanding independently published books THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS. Joseph Hayes, author of the highly acclaimed When No One is Watching, has been named as a finalist in the category of Inspirational Fiction by the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Aspiring to be the “Sundance” for indie books, this is the nation’s largest nonprofit awards program for small presses, larger independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers and self-published authors. Hayes was also recognized as a finalist in the category of New Fiction (First Book) by the National Indie Excellence Awards, which celebrates the “best of the best” in independent press. In When No One is Watching, Hayes spins a tale involving ambition, corruption and scandal within Chicago political circles. Within the framework of this page-turning thriller is a compelling contemporary morality play dealing with ethics, personal responsibility and making a difference. It explores the rationalizations our political leaders often make – justifying their self-serving personal agendas in the name of promoting the “greater good.” It examines the notion that character and integrity are defined by how we behave when no one is watching, and the far-reaching consequences of the decisions we make when facing ethical dilemmas. It also explores the impact of guilt on the human mind and heart and searches for inspiration and heroism in unexpected places. Joseph Hayes is a native of Beverly on the city’s South Side. He graduated from St. Barnabas elementary school, Brother Rice High School and De Paul University before attending law school at the University of California at Berkeley. Hayes is an attorney and currently serves as chief ethics officer for a Fortune 1000 Company based in Houston, Texas. More information about the book can be found at www.joseph-hayes.com.
Electronic Scrapbook 