Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "sasquatch"
Book Review: The Sasquatch Murder (A Love Story) by Jeffrey Viles
The Sasquatch Murder (A Love Story)
Jeffrey Viles
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Beaver's Pond Press; 1 edition (July 25, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1592987699
ISBN-13: 978-1592987696
https://www.amazon.com/Sasquatch-Murd...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
“At the beginning of beginnings there was only ∞, which was darkness multiplied by nothingness. The darkness was eternal and unchallenged until ∞ divided
nothingness by zero. A sound not unlike a faint brass trumpet note pierced the void, and light issued forth. Darkness could not subdue the light. Whatever
was not darkness was light. The future had a future. Within the light were particles that contained excitable atoms held together in an electron cloud.”
Talk about moving from the general to the specific! The above paragraph, the first in the “Prologue” to The Sasquatch Murder suggests an epic with a cosmic scope is underway.
Nope. Instead, after a crunched history of the origins of the universe through the early varieties of humankind, we end up in a rainstorm in a forest where Jake Holly and his horse try to escape the downpour. There, Jake accidently fires his rifle when he’s startled by a strange couple of beasts copulating on the forest floor. In short order, Jake learns he’s killed a female Sasquatch and wounded her mate.
Trying to do the right thing, Jake takes the corpse to his hometown of Aurora, Washington where a number of subplots begin. For one, we meet Jessica, Jake’s lawyer girlfriend who is 15 years his junior. She’s very supportive. We meet her prosecuting attorney father who dislikes their relationship and quickly has Jake arrested for murder.
Strangely, a local boy sees Jake, Jessica, and a local mortician take the corpse into a funeral home and begins to blog about it. Even more strangely, journalists from as far away as India and Japan read the boy’s blog and come running to track down the story. On top of that, the president of the U.S. gets wind of the story and calls the prosecuting attorney and asks him to suppress the story in the name of national security. The president sends a special unit called the PNG (Paranormal Group) to Aurora to put a lid on the situation.
Meanwhile, many of the townspeople have heard about the body in the morgue and want a look at it. After all, confirmation that Sasquatch, or Bigfoot, exists would be something to put Aurora on the map. And all this happens in just a day or so of the killing.
In addition to all these balls in the air, author Jeffrey Viles tosses in more digressions, character sketches, and unrelated scenes than I’ve ever seen in one book. Throw in the actions of the natural world from Elminio to clouds of volcanic ash and smoke belched out from Mount St. Helen’s to a posse of 16 angry Sasquatch who, for the first time, gather together and march into a human town through a thick fog to reclaim the body of one of their own.
Despite the padding, the touching of so many bases, and improbable plot twists, there’s much in The Sasquatch Murder to attract an audience. After the “Prologue” and very descriptive first chapter, the story is told with an engaging, personable style. Viles fleshes out some very likeable characters, especially Jake and Jessica whose romance is the “love story” in the book’s sub-title.
This one sure looks like a stand-alone yarn with no likely sequels. It’s a family-friendly story, appropriate for a YA readership.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Jan. 18, 2018 at:
http://1clickurls.com/sXabiJ2
Jeffrey Viles
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Beaver's Pond Press; 1 edition (July 25, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1592987699
ISBN-13: 978-1592987696
https://www.amazon.com/Sasquatch-Murd...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
“At the beginning of beginnings there was only ∞, which was darkness multiplied by nothingness. The darkness was eternal and unchallenged until ∞ divided
nothingness by zero. A sound not unlike a faint brass trumpet note pierced the void, and light issued forth. Darkness could not subdue the light. Whatever
was not darkness was light. The future had a future. Within the light were particles that contained excitable atoms held together in an electron cloud.”
Talk about moving from the general to the specific! The above paragraph, the first in the “Prologue” to The Sasquatch Murder suggests an epic with a cosmic scope is underway.
Nope. Instead, after a crunched history of the origins of the universe through the early varieties of humankind, we end up in a rainstorm in a forest where Jake Holly and his horse try to escape the downpour. There, Jake accidently fires his rifle when he’s startled by a strange couple of beasts copulating on the forest floor. In short order, Jake learns he’s killed a female Sasquatch and wounded her mate.
Trying to do the right thing, Jake takes the corpse to his hometown of Aurora, Washington where a number of subplots begin. For one, we meet Jessica, Jake’s lawyer girlfriend who is 15 years his junior. She’s very supportive. We meet her prosecuting attorney father who dislikes their relationship and quickly has Jake arrested for murder.
Strangely, a local boy sees Jake, Jessica, and a local mortician take the corpse into a funeral home and begins to blog about it. Even more strangely, journalists from as far away as India and Japan read the boy’s blog and come running to track down the story. On top of that, the president of the U.S. gets wind of the story and calls the prosecuting attorney and asks him to suppress the story in the name of national security. The president sends a special unit called the PNG (Paranormal Group) to Aurora to put a lid on the situation.
Meanwhile, many of the townspeople have heard about the body in the morgue and want a look at it. After all, confirmation that Sasquatch, or Bigfoot, exists would be something to put Aurora on the map. And all this happens in just a day or so of the killing.
In addition to all these balls in the air, author Jeffrey Viles tosses in more digressions, character sketches, and unrelated scenes than I’ve ever seen in one book. Throw in the actions of the natural world from Elminio to clouds of volcanic ash and smoke belched out from Mount St. Helen’s to a posse of 16 angry Sasquatch who, for the first time, gather together and march into a human town through a thick fog to reclaim the body of one of their own.
Despite the padding, the touching of so many bases, and improbable plot twists, there’s much in The Sasquatch Murder to attract an audience. After the “Prologue” and very descriptive first chapter, the story is told with an engaging, personable style. Viles fleshes out some very likeable characters, especially Jake and Jessica whose romance is the “love story” in the book’s sub-title.
This one sure looks like a stand-alone yarn with no likely sequels. It’s a family-friendly story, appropriate for a YA readership.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Jan. 18, 2018 at:
http://1clickurls.com/sXabiJ2
New Book Review of Alpha Tales 2044!
Got this 5 Star Amazon review today from novelist Preston Fleming (Author of MAID OF BAIKAL) on my Alpha Tales 2044:
Colorful introduction to Beta-Earth Chronicles series or can be read as standalone short stories
Alpha Tales 2044 is an interconnected series of short stories that can be read as a standalone volume or can serve as an introduction to the Beta-Earth Chronicles series. The action is set in a richly imagined future where half-breed aliens arrive on earth amid a recovery from ecological and man-made catastrophes and run afoul of those who govern America.
I came as a newcomer to Wes Britton’s writings. While the stories in this short book are too brief to develop the characters as deeply as I expect they will be developed in the novels of the Beta-Earth series, one particular character, Major Mary Carpenter Renbourn stands out as someone I would like to get to know much better. I enjoyed Mary’s exploits against the Texas Neo-Nazis in the Alpha Earth Sketches and look forward to seeing more of her in other volumes.
I recommend Alpha Tales 2044 highly to new readers of the Beta-Earth Chronicles series and expect that veteran fans of the series will also find much to like in the book.
https://www.amazon.com/Alpha-Tales-20...
Colorful introduction to Beta-Earth Chronicles series or can be read as standalone short stories
Alpha Tales 2044 is an interconnected series of short stories that can be read as a standalone volume or can serve as an introduction to the Beta-Earth Chronicles series. The action is set in a richly imagined future where half-breed aliens arrive on earth amid a recovery from ecological and man-made catastrophes and run afoul of those who govern America.
I came as a newcomer to Wes Britton’s writings. While the stories in this short book are too brief to develop the characters as deeply as I expect they will be developed in the novels of the Beta-Earth series, one particular character, Major Mary Carpenter Renbourn stands out as someone I would like to get to know much better. I enjoyed Mary’s exploits against the Texas Neo-Nazis in the Alpha Earth Sketches and look forward to seeing more of her in other volumes.
I recommend Alpha Tales 2044 highly to new readers of the Beta-Earth Chronicles series and expect that veteran fans of the series will also find much to like in the book.
https://www.amazon.com/Alpha-Tales-20...
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“The Blind Alien is a story with a highly original concept, fascinating characters, and not-too-subtle but truthful allegories. Don’t let the ...more
“The Blind Alien is a story with a highly original concept, fascinating characters, and not-too-subtle but truthful allegories. Don’t let the ...more
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