Thursday, October 31, 2013

Malocclusion, tales of misdemeanor / V. S. Kemanis


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Short Story Collection

Approximate word count: 60-65,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“V.S. Kemanis is a California native and currently resides in New York. As an attorney, she has been a criminal prosecutor for county and state agencies, argued criminal appeals for the prosecution and defense, conducted complex civil litigation, and worked for state appellate courts.”

Kemanis also has three short story collections available and is working on the second novel in her Dana Hargrove legal mystery series. For more, visit her website.

Description:

“Tempting little wrongs, moral dilemmas, subconscious desires. Blinded by self-deception, even the best of us are led astray. In these 14 stories, you'll encounter familiar misdemeanants from every walk of life and their unwitting—or complicit—victims.”

Appraisal:

This is a collection of slice-of-life stories, each with a character who has a flaw, often exacerbated by a dose of self-delusion. With the exception of that flaw, they could be just like us. (Or maybe they are just like us and we don’t want to admit it.) Each is well told, with interesting characters, which might go without saying since it is usually the imperfections that make a character unique.

A few of the stories stood out, each for different reasons. Cat, for the twist ending that snuck up on me. Where I Am stood out because it is much different from the other stories in setting and genre, although that reality was slow in penetrating my consciousness. Last, A Simple Case, because it features Dana Hargrove, the protagonist in Kemanis’ novel Thursday’s List, which I had previously read. This story takes place prior to the novel. Dana learns some lessons that will be beneficial for her future.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.


Rating: ***** Five stars

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Guest Post from Stephen Kozeniewski, author of Braineater Jones


I’ve probably been to more funerals in my life than anyone who’s not a mortician or a gangster.

I’m not going to lie: when my publisher told me I was supposed to write a guest blogpost for Big Al I assumed she meant Large Marge from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.  (Man, that was a scary movie.  Still is.  Seriously.  Go back and watch it.)

So I spent quite some time pondering what, precisely, a bigrig-driving ghost who picks up and terrifies innocent man-child hitch-hikers would be looking for in a guest blog post.  Tips for keeping your scary claymation face its clearest?  Something about how to meet your Sam Wheat while avoiding your Beetlejuice?

Then it struck me: funerals.  Not only are they “fun” (it’s right there in the word!) but surely ghosts must appreciate them.  I think for a ghost funerals must be something like a prom or a wedding: you get all dressed up, you’re the center of attention, everyone eats a bunch of food.  Plus all the crying.  (Well, my prom date cried, anyway.  It took us hours to pry her out of her parent’s bathroom and get her into the limo.)

It was only much much later that I found out Big Al and Large Marge are totally different entities, but by then I already had this post about funerals all locked and cocked, so I’m just going to go ahead with it, if nobody objects.  Does anybody object?

<crickets>

Okay, works for me.  So, like I said earlier, I’ve been to a disproportionate number of funerals in my life.  The reason for this is that for about eighteen months, between 2006 and 2007, my army battalion, the legendary 2-4 FAR (DEEP ATTACK!) was placed on funeral detail for pretty much the whole mid-southwest.  Any time a veteran died in Missouri, Oklahoma, or Arkansas the undertaker could request to have an honors team show up, fold the flag, and present it to the grieving family.

Here’s where I come in.  At the time I was a first lieutenant.  A lieutenant technically outranks something like 84% of the army, but we’re generally not placed in such hyper-important positions that we can’t be spared.  And the thing about conducting military funerals is the honor guard has to equal or outrank the deceased.  So, I couldn’t serve for say, some retired general, but for the bulk of the Vietnam, World War II, and Korea vets who were starting to die at that time in that area I was the perfect guy.

Think about it this way: suppose an E-5 sergeant died so my battalion dispatched an honors team with at least one E-6 in it to fold the flag.  Then, while they were on the road, an E-7 died.  (It’s numerical, you see.)  That E-6 could not do the second funeral. 

Ah, but when I was on the road it went like this: an E-5 died so I did the funeral.  Then an E-6 died while I was on the road so I turned the car around and drove to Little Rock and did that funeral.  Then an E-3 died in OKC and I got turned around and…

You see where I’m going with this.  I would get stuck out on the road for sometimes weeks at a time. 

The whole experience was profoundly affecting.  For one thing, I was really in awe of the responsibility that the army entrusted me with, and I certainly never let down the memory of any of those veterans.  When we were up on the rostrum, we were always smart and professional. 

But I’ll tell you something.  What ended up happening was that I was spending a lot of my time hanging around in cemeteries.  We would usually show up at least an hour ahead of time, and that’s assuming that the funeral procession wasn’t running late, which it almost always was.  (One time we had to hike in dress greens two miles in the wrong direction to find out the roadmap was wrong and the graveyard was four miles back the other direction.  Then even the mortician got lost and the funeral started two hours late…but that’s another story.)  

Then we’d usually wait around until the whole party had left.  Then we’d have to find a place to change before we could move on to either dinner or the hotel.  So I ended up spending three, four hours a day every day in a boneyard.  It’s hard to do that without losing a little bit of your awe of the place.  It’s certainly where I started to develop my gallows humor.

The way I see it, you can take two attitudes towards death.  Either it’s this great big looming tragedy that’s stalking you or it’s just the punchline to some silly cosmic joke.  You can either be grim about it or you can laugh about it.  I choose to laugh about it.

Which leads me in a circuitous way to my debut novel, Braineater Jones.  It’s a comedy about dead people.  It’s got gore and horror and mystery, but it’s also got laughs.  I’ve always found zombies to be funny.  There’s a long history of hilarious zombies, starting with the fat-guy-in-a-speedo zombie in the original Dawn of the Dead, and all the way up to modern classics like the clown zombie in Zombieland.  I defy anyone, by the way, to get through Dead Alive without busting a gut…either literally or metaphorically.

I suppose I’ll catch some flak for writing a slapstick horror novel from gorehounds who like their killers serial, their cabins abandoned, and their tones chilling.  But like anything else, the horror of Jones is only part of the pleasure of it.  If you’re going to have thinky zombies you may as well have them throwing heads as footballs, spackling their gunshot wounds, and having hilarious moldy sex. 

But maybe that’s my fault.  I can’t help finding death funny.  I blame it on the army.


To follow Steve on Twitter click here:  https://twitter.com/outfortune

Or for his blog go here:  http://manuscriptsburn.blogspot.com

Get your copy of Braineater Jones from Amazon US (ebook or paper), Amazon UK (ebook or paper), or Barnes & Noble.

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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

False Shadows / BV Lawson


Reviewed by: Keith Nixon

Genre: Short Story Collection/Crime Fiction

Approximate word count: 25-30,000 words

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:

BV Lawson is a full-time freelance writer having held a number of roles including a TV features writer for the Discovery Channel. The author is currently working on a series of crime fiction novels.

You can learn more about the author at his website or blog.

Description:

Eight short stories about Scott Drayco, classical pianist turned freelance crime consultant.

Appraisal:

Each of the short stories has (if you excuse the pun) a musical undertone. Drayco had been a professional pianist of note, until he was attacked, wounded and could no longer play to such a high standard. Instead he turned to a career in the FBI before striking out on his own.

In the first story Drayco is called in to investigate a threat to steal a valuable Stradivarius from a museum. It opens with interest, Drayco and his companions suffering the immediate after effects of a smoke bomb. In the chaos the violin disappears, Drayco ultimately unmasks the thief.

In Blood Antiphon, the next short, Drayco receives a call to meet with a serial killer, Andrew Wyse, in prison. During the tale it’s revealed that it was Wyse’s son who’d injured Drayco, ending his musical career. Wyse blames Drayco for his son’s eventual death in prison. It’s an interesting approach, but ultimately the outcome is left hanging a little, maybe back story for a future novel?

In The Clue Room, Drayco is called to meet with the wife of a long deceased conductor who died in front of an audience of a thousand people. The wife reveals her husband was murdered and gives him an hour to determine who the killer was using only the clues in the room around him.

Overall the writing style is itself well structured and interesting, here’s an example:

The man’s overall appearance might be unexceptional, but his eyes were not. Looking into them was like shining a light into dark water and watching ordinary objects twisted into distorted, colorless shapes.

However, as I progressed I found myself not entirely engaged with the stories. A couple of them have similar premises (jealous spouses) and the perpetrator wasn’t always a challenge to determine – but I recognize these are short stories and do not necessarily provide the word count to spin a very tangled web. All in all a decent read.

FYI:

Nothing of note.

Format/Typo Issues:

None.


Rating: *** Three Stars

Monday, October 28, 2013

The Legend Of Koolura / Michael L. Thal


Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre:  Fantasy / Middle Grade

Approximate word count: 35-40,000 words

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:

Michael L Thal lives in Sherman Oaks, CA. He's the proud father of two adult daughters, Channie and Koren, and the grandfather of Arielle and Shaye.
Mr. Thal is an accomplished freelancer, is the author of The Legend of Koolura and Goodbye Tchaikovsky. He has written and published over eighty articles for magazines and newspapers including Highlights for Children, The Los Angeles Times, and San Diego Family Magazine. He is also a reviewer here at BigAl’s Books and Pals, you can learn more about him at Goodreads.

Description:

Koolura is a sixth grade Armenian girl, she and her father have relocated so often she has few community ties. Here, at her new school, for the first time she feels right at home. Koolura isn’t an ordinary girl. She has what every child dreams. She has the COOL. 

Will Koolura realize and learn to use these powers to stop her stalker who is determined to retrieve her unrealized COOL powers with the mysterious decoolerizer before it is too late?

The hour approaches for her final confrontation with her nemesis, the stalker believed to be responsible for her mother’s death.

Appraisal:

Koolura is a pretty savvy kid for a sixth grader, she is kind, smart, and just wants to fit in. Most of the story is told through her eyes so we know her thoughts and feelings. As her COOL powers are starting to kick-in, she becomes more conscientious about her surroundings along with developing insight into her classmates’ personalities and the problems they are trying to cope with as well as her own. Michael Thal has done a good job simplifying the dynamics of relationships so that middle-grade-aged children will have a better understanding of how people cope or struggle differently with the same problems.

I was proud of Koolura when she decided she liked the people and community she lived in and didn’t want to move again despite the threat of her stalker. Then I became frightened for her safety when she decided to face this man on her own. He was after all one twisted sociopath and we were allowed to view parts of the story through his eyes also.

I did feel like the story dragged a bit in the middle and I wished there was more time devoted to Koolura testing and experimenting with her developing COOL powers. Other than that this story is packed full of life lessons that will enhance developing minds of young readers everywhere.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.


Rating: **** Four stars

Sunday, October 27, 2013

The Time Travel Journals: Bridgebuilders / Marlene Dotterer


Reviewed by: Michael Thal

Genre: Science Fiction

Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words

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

Author, geologist, chef, and frustrated gardener, Marlene Dotterer writes “to silence the voices” due to her obsession of other worlds and other times. Born in Tucson, Arizona, she migrated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1990 with her five children. Her writings include The Time Travel Journals: Shipbuilder, Moon Over Donamorgh, and Worlds Apart. Keep an eye out for the third book in this series, Time Travel Journals: Honor System.

Description:

In 1977 Sam Altair, fresh out of graduate school, learns he has inherited the life work of Dr. Sam Altair, an older version of himself. The older Sam transported back in time in 2006 with Casey, a young coed, to 1906. It was a physics experiment gone awry, and it created a new universe. From the older Sam’s notes, the help of Jamie, and Sarah Andrews, Casey’s descendants, Sam constructs a bridge back to the future and the original Sam’s universe

Appraisal:

In this exciting sequel to The Time Travel Journals: Shipbuilders, Marlene Dotterer brings us its sequel, The Time Travel Journals: Bridgebuilders. In an easy reading fluid style we learn how Casey and Sam affected their new universe in positive ways. The universe they left behind is ruled, in 2080, by an oligarchy headed by the Sun Consortium. The earth is dying, individual freedom is but a memory, and many of its citizens work secretly to overthrow the shackles of their government’s tyranny. To add to the mess, scientists uncover neutrinos, a signature that a race of beings may be invading their world.

The invaders are Sam and Sarah testing their invention, but when they crossover to the First Universe a hundred years in the future, they are in for an unwanted surprise.

Whether you read Dotterer’s first novel in this series or not, Bridgebuilders is a wonderful science fiction thriller revealing the evils of religious zealotry, the effects of global warming, and the triumph of reason over fear.

Format/Typo Issues:

None.


Rating: ***** Five stars

Saturday, October 26, 2013

18 Days / Allen Miles


Reviewed by: Keith Nixon

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Approximate word count: 25-30,000 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:

Allen Miles lives in East Yorkshire with his family. He spends his time watching films and listening to music. He has written a number of articles and had short stories published.

Description:

Davy rushes to hospital to be at the birth of his first child, but on his arrival he finds that his wife died in the process of delivering the baby. Davy enters a downward spiral of self-destruction.

Appraisal:

If there is one word to describe this story it’s raw. Within a few pages of the start Davy’s beautiful wife, the woman who pulled him out of his self-imposed pit, is dead. He leaves the hospital carrying a bunch of flowers and a teddy, then goes and gets drunk. By the time he wakes up the symbols of a new life are gone, lost somewhere en-route.

Davy spends the next couple of weeks in oblivion, avoiding everyone. He drinks himself stupid, loses whole periods to alcohol. He doesn’t care about anyone or anything. He just about manages to get to his wife’s funeral, but no more.

The author absolutely puts Davy, and the reader, through the wringer. The poor sod gets into fights, mentally and physically beating himself up, utterly down at his loss, not even thinking about his newborn child. At the same time his family is trying to pull him around, but he resists with his every fibre.

This is a well written story. The emotion and sense of loss is almost visceral in nature. The guy is a total mess, and contemplates finishing it all. Will he? Well, you’ll need to read it for yourself, but this is a book that gets better as it progresses.

FYI:

Some swearing.

Format/Typo Issues:

None.


Rating: **** Four stars

Friday, October 25, 2013

When It Comes to Spooning, I’m a Fork / Marc Prey


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Humor/Non-Fiction

Approximate word count: 20-25,000 words

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:

An award-winning screenwriter, Prey as been called “Michigan’s preeminent screenwriter” by his home-state media. The film production of his screenplay All I Want for Christmas was among the Hallmark Channel’s highest-rated movies of 2007 and become a perennial holiday season favorite since. He was also the creator of the nationally-distributed comic strip, The Prez. He lives in suburban Detroit with his wife and two sons.

For more, visit the author’s website.

Description:

“No one writes about relationships and parenting quite like humorist Marc Prey. Now comes his first book, a laugh-out-loud funny, brutally honest and deeply touching collection of personal stories about one man's relationship with his spouse and offspring. In When It Comes to Spooning, I'm a Fork, Prey takes readers on a journey from first awkward date to raising teenagers, all the while exposing moments that seemingly shift from the hilarious to the poignant in the beat of a heart. And when it's over, readers may discover they've learned something about themselves along the way.”

Appraisal:

Just shy of forty true stories that Prey describes in the introduction this way:

Each of the stories contained in this book is, to the best of my recollection, accurate and complete, warts and all. This, despite the directive from my lovely wife to write her thinner. Some of the stories have appeared previously in print and electronic magazines, others have never before seen the light of day. But all reflect the life and times of an average American male with a wife and two kids, struggling to maintain mastery over a domain that was never really under his control to begin with.

His description is better than whatever words I might come up with to explain these stories. But what he fails to mention is the humor. Pevy has the ability to find the humor in any situation, even when that means we’re laughing at (or should that be with) him. At the risk of giving a clue as to how ancient I am, I’d describe When It Comes to Spooning, I’m a Fork as the male version of one of those Erma Bombeck books my mother used to read in the 60s and 70s. A fun, light-hearted read for a family man or the women forced to live with their foibles.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.


Rating: **** Four stars

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Ice Diaries / Lexi Revellian


Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Genre: Romantic Thriller/Post Apocalyptic

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

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:

When she’s not writing fiction, Ms. Revellian designs and makes jewellery under her real name, Lexi Dick. She’s made pieces for Margaret Thatcher, 10 Downing Street, and Her Majesty the Queen.

Ice Diaries is her fifth novel. You can learn more about her at her website.

Description:

In 2018, the world’s population has been decimated by a virulent virus, and as if that’s not tough enough, a rapid freeze has covered England under snow and ice. London, where the story takes place, is buried by twenty meters of snow.

Appraisal:

In her Amazon author profile, Ms Revellian boasts that she has sold 60,000 self-published books. After reading Ice Diaries, my only question would be, “Why so few?”

I had a terrific time sharing a snow-swamped London with the characters in Ice Diaries. The author’s writing style is about as easy on the eye as any I can remember--like listening to a compelling after-dinner story told by a fascinating guest.

I particularly enjoyed the makeshift communities I spent time in with Tori, the twenty-three year-old protagonist. Her engaging nature and irreverent wit had me smiling, a lot. Tori hangs out with a small group of liberal-types. They have dug tunnels below the snow and live off the contents of the buried stores. This small group of survivors squat in apartments still above the snow level, furnish themselves with necessities from Argos (for Americans, think Sears), and live in hope that someone in the warmer south will send a helicopter to rescue them.

Along with Tori, I enjoyed her group of characters and the naive structure they force on themselves to retain a level of civility. They establish foraging rules and game nights and dinner parties—very British, in an eccentric but nice way.

Along comes Morgan, a rough, brooding, and dangerous cage fighter. He turns Tori’s head, forcing her to look outside the quaint but unrealistic life she has fallen into. When Morgan’s ex-gang members come looking for him, the pleasant balance of Tori’s community is turned upside down. Drawing on an inner strength that surprises everyone including Morgan, in the end she finds a way out of their difficulties, and in the process changes all their lives.

Format/Typo Issues:

English (UK) spelling.


Rating: ***** Five stars

#Free for your #Kindle, 10/24/2013

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.


21 Songs in 6 Days: Learn to Play Ukulele the Easy Way by Rebecca Bogart and Jenny Peters




Irreperable Harm by Melissa F. Miller



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

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Villainous / Jackson Haime


Reviewed by: Keith Nixon

Genre: Sci-fi / Humor

Approximate word count: 25-30,000 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:

I couldn’t find any information about the author online.

Description:

There are villains and heroes in the world but these days they work behind a desk, rather than put themselves at risk on the mean streets. But all that changes when Ashes enters the fray.

Appraisal:

There’s the old comment, ‘Never judge a book by its cover.’ I liked the skull design on Villainous. Unfortunately the contents didn’t live up to the image.

This is an odd book. Overall it attempts to be breezy and humorous, but doesn’t quite make it. The story opens in a Hunger Games style with a kid called Evan Skyward who tries to make a difference in the world. But a few pages in the kid is dead and suddenly the author is talking to the reader saying that thankfully Evan isn’t the main character and launches into an explanation of the upcoming story. It’s jarring and frustrating.

Then we move to the Jim Henson school of villainy (yes, you read that correctly) and a potentially main character called Toby (the author himself states there’s no lead protagonist in this story). He’s a student, learning the trade.

In parallel we learn about Ashes, a villain extraordinaire and media darling. He’s taking bad guys back onto the streets, where they belong.

Back to Toby and he, along with his other students, enter a draft programme where, like basketball etc., the best villains get picked up by the biggest corporations such as Google. Toby, despite being one of the better villains, gets passed over. And on it goes. There’s more crime, death rays, reporters trying to get the best byline…

The author probably had great fun writing it (and good luck to him) but it wasn’t a particularly great read. I got quite frustrated with the narrative - it’s silly instead of amusing - messy and largely unstructured. For example, part way through we suddenly learn there’s a school for heroes too, and Toby’s sister goes there. This fact pops up, then disappears.

The writing is generally okay, however occasionally there are clunky sentences, spelling mistakes (Par instead of Part in a title), a name change (Jim Hansen), repeated words and grammatical errors which also mar the reading experience.

Right at the end as Toby is causing havoc Ashes’ hero counterpart, Titan, turns up and the book abruptly ends. I doubt I will pick up the second installment.

FYI:

Nothing.

Format/Typo Issues:

Clunky sentences, spelling and grammatical errors, punctuation issues, repeat words and a name change.


Rating: ** Two Stars

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

IT Can Be Dangerous / Ita Ryan


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Mystery

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 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:

“Ita Ryan was born in Dublin before the iPad was invented.

In her earlier youth she had to meet people at pre-arranged locations at pre-determined times because no-one had a mobile phone.

She managed to scrape through University without the aid of Google, and became a computer programmer because she was so bored.

She started writing once she could touch-type fast enough.

Now all is well. She has Facebook and Twitter accounts and a Samsung Galaxy SIII.

She is toying with the idea of joining Pinterest, but she's not a very good cook.”

For more, visit Ryan’s website.

Description:

“Cynthia's had a rough day.

And now she's found Nathan's body.

This could impact negatively on her performance review. Not to mention that the police obviously suspect her, seeing as how she has no alibi and was sitting outside his office when he was murdered.

There's only one thing to do before she's arrested and banged up - find the killer herself. How hard can that be? Her friends offer to help, and she has a hotline to Nathan's son. No bother.

Soon Cynthia's exploits arouse the ire of the enigmatic Superintendent in charge of the case. She can handle that, but then she attracts the murderer's attention...”

Appraisal:

If you look at the title and wonder what IT is and whether there is a typo, IT is Information Technology (computers), not the word it in all caps. I work in IT in my day job, yet kept looking at the title (even after I figured it out) and getting confused again, so I suspect others will make the same mistake.

Cynthia is a programmer in the IT department. After working late one day she discovers Nathan, her boss, was murdered while she was sitting at her desk, just outside his office door. Although notorious among her co-workers for being oblivious to what is happening in the office when she’s focused on a problem, Cynthia is convinced the police are going to try pinning the murder on her, unless she can find the culprit first.

IT Can Be Dangerous should appeal to fans of cozy mysteries. With several viable suspects (Nathan wasn’t a very popular person) Cynthia has a plethora of people to investigate and try to rule out.

I had a few nitpicky issues with the story - the way a poker tournament in one scene is described was, at a minimum, unconventional, and there was at least one technical error in the author’s description of the play of poker. But those were minor and more than offset by getting the details right in other areas, for example how an IT department functions. The characters, even the more minor office mates, were well drawn and realistic.

As for whodunit, the clues were all there, but I never suspected until the culprit was revealed at the climax. For me, that is the acid test of a good murder mystery, to keep me guessing until the end while feeling that the clues I needed to solve the puzzle were there, if only I’d managed putting them together.

FYI:

Some adult language.

Uses UK spelling conventions and a significant amount of UK (or possibly Irish) slang.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.


Rating: **** Four stars

Monday, October 21, 2013

A Guest Post from Morgan Talbot, author of Nine Feet Under


I have this odd talent: I can mimic sounds. Not bird calls or random noises, but everything from accents to singing voices. I guess whatever I hear has to be in English, not English Sparrow. In some way, it feels related to my time-space synesthesia, because when I repeat what I hear, it always carries exactly the same rhythm as when I first heard it. The entire sound reaches my brain as one complex pattern, and I memorize it as a whole.

It was my obsession with accents that prompted me to create a character with an accent in my mystery novels. Australia has been a fascination of mine ever since a young Aussie couple on their honeymoon took a day trip around Oahu with my grandparents and fourteen-year-old me, and the groom laughingly tried to throw me into the waves on the North Beach. I fell in love with him and with Australia in the same moment. I still remember how he tossed some money onto the front seat, all stealthy-like, as he was exiting back at their hotel, so my grandfather wouldn’t have time to object to the words, “Here, for the petrol.”

Petrol. Swoon.

Alas, I’m not Australian (no one’s perfect), so I rely on a combination of research, practice, and local Aussie guidance to make my character sound natural. Every character has their own personality, and Bindi is no different. Her vocabulary is organic—she has her favorite Aussie sayings (“No worries, mate. She’ll be right.”) and those she doesn’t use (the f-bomb, because her day job involves American preschoolers), and they reflect her personality, as any character’s dialogue does. Each subsequent book in the series gives her more Americanisms on top of her Aussie slang as she adapts a little more to Oregonian culture. And as her mood changes, so do the words she’s willing to use. Or overuse—if she uses “bloody” more than twice in the same sentence, just pray it isn’t you she’s yelling at.


I think of Bindi by her personality traits first and her country of origin second. That’s helped me keep her consistent, true to herself, as I expand her Aussie vocabulary through the series. Accents are awesome, and I love the linguistic awareness they bring to stories that include them. But accented dialogue has to arrive in the reader’s brain as one complex pattern—clarity, character, and information rolled into one. I don’t want to sacrifice any of those elements for linguistic show-don’t-tell overkill. Above all, I want my writing to be transparent. Or at the very most, bearing a slight tint of color. A nice translucent sea green, perhaps. Reminds me of Bindi reading a book at the beach. No worries!

Nine Feet Under, Morgan's latest book in the Caching Out series featuring Margarita and her Aussie roommate Bindi is now available.

Get your copy from Amazon US (ebook or paper), Amazon UK (ebook or paper), or Barnes & Noble.


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