Ingrid Hall's Blog, page 5

Review of Among Wolves by Don Sloan

Among Wolves by R.A. Hankok

Review by Don Sloan

Gabriel lives in Eden, a small colony tucked inside a mountain in Maryland. How he got there — well, that’s the real story.

This is a chillingly authentic book about what might happen if a nuclear winter comes to pass. It is lyrical, poignant, and brutally honest in its depiction of a microsociety left to fend for itself after the unthinkable happens one sunshiny school day.

Gabriel’s first grade class went to the White House on that day for a tour. When atomic bombs begin raining down on the Eastern Seaboard, they are evacuated, along with the President, to a remote bunker deep within a mountain in the Maryland hillsides.

This is the story of what happens to that class of first graders ten years after the event.

Gabriel, who’s sixteen by now, and Marv, a grizzled old soldier who happened to be part of the Presidential guard detail on that fateful day ten years earlier, are the two people charged with venturing outside the bunker periodically to forage for supplies in the ravaged towns nearby.

One frigid winter day, Gabriel discovers the frozen body of one of the Secret Service men who met them at the mountain that day long ago. He had been officially listed as “missing.” But the bullet hole between his eyes tells a different story.

Thus, this simple dystopian tale of adolescent survival in a world that has shrunk to the size of a tiny village takes on a mysterious air. Who shot the agent — and why?

The President, a seemingly affable former preacher, holds sway over the tiny community, which is run like a home for wayward juveniles. There is precious little love, and marriages will soon be arranged by the President and a select group of advisers — including the former Secretary of Defense, who now acts as Quartermaster for the community.

Gabriel has put Mags, whom he has known with the others since childhood, in his “top five” list of potential mates. But will she requite his feelings and declare her love for him — or be paired off with someone deemed “more suitable?”

This is a tightly woven tale that is part science fiction, part coming-of-age, and part mystery as the reader is immersed in the daily goings-on of Eden and its regimented citizens.

The second half of the book reads eerily like Stephen King’s The Stand, as Gabriel makes his way through the treacherous, snowy terrain to another bunker 80 kilometers away, then returns to participate in the novel’s surprise ending. The intervening action will leave you breathless.

This is a truly remarkable piece of dystopian fiction, and I give it five unqualified stars. Many thanks to the author for providing a great summertime read.

Review of Dead Ringer by Don Sloan

Dead Ringer by Allen Wyler

Review by Don Sloan

Allen Wyler is a renowned neurosurgeon who earned an international reputation for pioneering surgical techniques to record brain activity. He has served on the faculties of both the University of Washington and the University of Tennessee, and in 1992 was recruited by the prestigious Swedish Medical Center to develop a neuroscience institute. In 2002, he left active practice to become medical director for a startup med-tech company (that went public in 2006) and he now chairs the Institutional Review Board of a major medical center in the Pacific Northwest. Leveraging a love for thrillers since the early 1970s, Wyler devoted himself to fiction writing in earnest, eventually serving as vice president of the International Thriller Writers organization for several years. After publishing his first two medical thrillers Deadly Errors (2005) and Dead Head (2007), he officially retired from medicine to devote himself to writing full time

Every once in awhile, a book comes along that gives you the creeps, right from the start. Dead Ringer is just that kind of book.

“A dark, ill-formed premonition punched Lucas McRae in the gut so hard it stole his breath.”

This is the novel’s first sentence, and it means trouble for McRae, who finds the severed head of his best friend waiting for him on a dissection table in Hong Kong. McRae is from Seattle, and he just saw Andy not 24 hours before flying to Hong Kong to stage this surgical demonstration for Chinese specialists.

So begins this grim and suspenseful tale of a greedy mortician and his unholy practice of selling the body parts of loved ones to medical institutions — before they’re cremated. The box of ashes he gives to bereaved family members consists often of recycled homeless people’s remains.

It’s a ghastly premise for a book, and the author pulls no punches on details, leaving the reader to wonder how he gets so much of the medical and anatomical detail right. It’s eerie, and the desired effect is one of horror that this sort of thing might really be going on somewhere.

In any case, the undertaker involved in Andy’s death has fallen under police suspicion — not for Andy’s death, but for the disappearance of the prostitute Andy had been with the night before McRae made his grisly discovery in Hong Kong.

A tightly interwoven game of cat-and-mouse has begun, and the reader gets to know the mortician and his assistant better than he wants. Indeed, these are characters you might meet at your local Rotary club breakfast, so practiced are their public personas.

Still, Detective Sergeant Wendy Elliott is on the case, and quickly puts the mortician, Robert Ditto, in the cross-hairs. The problem? Tying the disappearances back to this sleazy criminal.

As the story unfolds, Elliott teams up with gang member Luis Ruiz — the prostitute’s brother. Together, they start trying to put together the pieces necessary to bring Ditto to justice.

Meanwhile, Dr.McRae is doing the same thing, but working the case from the angle of trying to find out what happened to his friend Andy. Again, all roads seem to lead to the funeral director.

There’s a bit of added spice when McRae and Wendy inevitably get together to compare notes. It’s a welcome interlude to the gruesome business they are investigating.

The ending — in which a surprising turn of events unfolds — is both satisfying and, well, fitting, considering the nature of the book’s premise. This is a first-rate who-dun-it — even when the perpetrators are never in doubt.

I give Dead Ringer five stars, and will think twice before donating my body to science after I’m gone.

Promotional opportunity…

Good morning everyone.

I am planning on booking some stalls at various mind, body and spirit events in North East England in 2016.  If you are the author of a Spiritual book of any nature, or the author of a self-help book or book with an overall positive message and would like me to promote it for you, then I would be happy to help.

There is no fee for this. All I would need you to do is send me between 1-3 paperback copies of each book that you would like me to promote. I will then:

Talk about your book to people visiting the stall
Encourage them to leave a review (Although, I cannot promise that they will do so)
Raise awareness of you and your work

Because I will most likely be selling the books at a discounted rate, then I would require you to send them to me free of charge. (Any sales will simply go towards the cost of the stall)

You are also welcome to send me flyers and other promotional material/swag that I will simply give away.

This is a great way for you to get a little extra exposure with no real effort on your part! Please share this post. Interested? Simply contact me:
[contact-form]

Review of Every Breath You Take by Carlton Rolle

Every Breath You Take: Reflections On My Leukemia Journey Erin by Micheala Sweeney

Review by Carlton Rolle

Erin Michaela Sweeney is a writer, mommy, yogini, daughter, editor, sister, and napper extraordinaire who lives in Claremont, California.

This story starts following Erin. She is married to a man named Jonathan and they have a child together, Elliot. In the midst of her family life and work as an editor, she is diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). This is a cancer in the blood that effects all portions of the body. Without chemotherapy and transplant, this is considered terminal. Erin being an optimist and practicing yoga, decided to fight against the cancer for life.

Erin explains the time after she was diagnosed.  She would undergo eight to ten day chemotherapy rounds. This was to push her cancer into remission. Once the status is attained she was then left to wait. The hospital searched for a potential marrow transplant. Once a match was made she had to endure radiation to kill as much of the Leukemia in her body as possible. It drained her body and much of her mind. Erin was able to find a match for blood marrow. A transplant was done and she had to wait, rest, and heal in hopes that the transplant was successful.  With time, it was considered successful and Erin had to keep quarantined until her new immune system developed.

Erin talked about the impact that Leukemia and chemotherapy, had on her body. This in turn affected her life and relationships. She found a lot of people that knew her were caring and supporting in different ways. The two major people in her life were her husband and son. They kept her grounded. She discovered the powerful effect of love when being quarantined.

One of the aspects that I liked about the book, was that it presented the readers with an inside understanding of what happens to a person suffering from Leukemia. The science vocabulary wasn’t difficult and I have a greater scope of the effects of cancer.  I also like how Erin searched for ways to keep her life positive. Throughout the whole process, Erin focused on achieving success without being pulled down for too long.

One issue that I did have with the book was the change of her relationship. On the last page, Erin mentions that she and Jonathan had separated. Jonathan was incredibly important in her life and recovery, to split up with him after such hardship is draining. I think it’s important to mention the various ways that cancer negatively affected their relationship. He was such a strong motivating factor throughout the entire book and to hear that they broke up at the end with no story behind it was disappointing… But a part of life none the less.

All things considered, I believe Every Breath You Take is a great book that is informative and inspirational. Part of the power of the overcoming cancer is increasing awareness and finding greater knowledge. Erin Sweeney is definitely a positive example of this.

For more information visit: www.erinmichaelasweeney.com

Diary Of A Gay Teenage Zombie Review by Don Sloan

Diary Of A Gay Teenage Zombie by Justin MacCormack

Review by Don Sloan

Born in Glasgow, Justin MacCormack lives on the South coast of England in the city of Portsmouth with a collection of pet rats. His hobbies include alternative cinema, comic books, tabletop roleplaying games (in particular “Vampire: The Masquerade”) and photography.

Jay has a major problem. It’s not that he’s a teenager. Or that he’s gay. Or even that his parents are not getting along at all, causing him great stress. No, it’s the fact that he’s a zombie. Granted, he’s highly functioning, and all. But, well, what if his boyfriend, Archer, finds out?

That would be a major bummer — particularly if his nose falls off in the middle of a passionate kiss.

This is a very funny book, although you wouldn’t think it should be, given the political incorrectness of the subject matter. But the author, instead of poking fun at teenaged gay boys, or even zombies, manages to pull off a protagonist who is thoroughly likeable — even lovable.

The book starts innocently enough, with Jay’s father giving him a diary as a present. In this age of online journaling via Facebook and other social media, Jay is not impressed with the blank book. Then, he begins to record his daily thoughts in it, and this is how we follow the sixteen-year-old young man through the predictable predicaments that normally befall an out-of-the-inner-circles teen in high school.

He must slather on loads of flesh-colored makeup each day to mask the deathly pallor of his skin, which is now gray — the result of being bitten by a zombie at the beach the summer before. He worries how his condition will now affect his daily life, recalling the movie Return of the Living Dead:

“One line did stick out with this film, though, the idea that zombies eat brains because it takes away the pain of feeling their bodies dying. I wonder how much of this now applies to me?”

He soldiers on, through many teenaged tribulations, and dreads the coming of the Christmas season with a droll sense of humor:

“It is almost March, which means I have only nine more months before I am inundated with Christmas songs again everywhere I go. I might go into politics and have excessive Christmas songs classed as a form of torture.”

His budding romance with Archer is depicted with deft restraint by the author, who manages to bring off this quirky coming-of-age, young adult read with an almost plausible aplomb.

Indeed, at one point, Jay’s ostracism at the high school is brought home with an achingly sincere quote: “I’m not sure I ever will fit in. I’m not sure I even want to. But I do want people, someone, anyone, just to accept me.”

There’s a happy ending, though it’s not what you might expect. This is a unique new twist to zombie books and the first one I can recall where the lead character, as a zombie, command attention as a real person.

I give Diary of a Dead Teenage Zombie five stars. It is a courageous and trend-setting book.

Al and Rollu Review by Don Sloan

Al and Rollu by Vaidu Klis

Review by Don Sloan

was born in 1966 in the Lithuanian city of Palanga to a military pilot and a seamstress. His father frequently received new assignments, so the Klis family moved regularly to be with him. As a result, Vaidu visited many cities in the USSR, among them St. Petersburg. He had his own out-of-body experience early in his life when he was brought back from near death to become an author. This book is translated from its original Russian manuscript.

A very unusual romance with dark implications — this is only one way a reader could sum up Al and Rollu: Battle for the Astral. It’s an amazing and offbeat story that will quickly capture your imagination — and your heart.

Rollu Paramaitus is a twenty-year-old, drop-dead gorgeous young woman who also just happens to be a world-class motorcycle racer. In addition, she has one other unique ability: she can float outside her body on command, exploring the world at will and even visit other planes of existence.

“The Awakened One walked to the window and easily glided onto the sill. The sky above the bay was lilac with purple tinges; it called and beckoned, inviting Rollu to bathe in its depths. She went through the glass as usual and rocketed skyward.”

Rollu has a problem, though. She’s searching for her soul mate — her “betrothed” — who just happens to have snow-white hair. Keeps the list pretty broad, unfortunately. So, here she is, twenty and gorgeous, but also a virgin who’s never even been kissed!

Enter Albert, the man of her dreams — only she doesn’t know it yet. She finds him — or they find each other — on Facebook one lonely night, when both of them happen to be in St. Petersburg, Russia at theVaidu Klis  same time. I know — what are the odds, right? But stay with me. Here’s where it gets interesting

Enter Alistair Rogand, a black-attired, black-hearted villain who covets the magical crystal hanging around Rollu’s neck as a pendant. It is The Warrior’s Tear, and he needs it — and Rollu — to complete a task he began one hundred and fifty years ago: the destruction of both the “terran” world and the “astral” one.

“‘I’m tired of waiting!’ This shout was the cry of an injured beast. ‘I can’t live like this anymore. A hundred and fifty years of endless waiting. Enough! I’m starting a war. A war for the Astral.'”

Will Rogand succeed in his sinister plot to seize The Warrior’s Tear and plunge both realms into chaos? Will Rollu and Albert find true love — the only kind that will truly unlock Rollu’s heart and complete her at last?

You will have to wait for the next book in the series. The author leaves the reader at a critical juncture and bids us to wait, while he, too, imagines the rest of the story.

Stay tuned! I give this book four stars and look for a clearer explanation of Rogand’s nefarious intentions in the next installment.

Review of Everyone’s Blog Novel by Jon Morgan Davies

REVIEW BY CARLTON ROLLE

Jon Morgan Davies is a native of California currently residing in Athens, Georgia. His work has appeared in such publications as The Adirondack Review, CutBank, and Southern Indiana Review.

The main character in the story is “Everyone”. They decided to write a novel about the meaning of life. “Everyone” tried to find the meaning of life after their spouse left them. “Everyone’s” novel was published online in a weekly posting to the Internet. “Everyone” was interested in having people read their book and discover the meaning of life in the process. The character was focused on marketing, social presence, and topics that could be discussed.

The other major character was the Internet. This entity persuaded “Everyone” in matters to approach life, write the blog novel, and find love. In some cases, the Internet was no more than a search tool. The Internet seemed comparable to and intelligent IM chat bot. Most characters mentioned in the story had some connection with the Internet. At one point, the Internet made a statement that I think best sums up both “Everyone’s” novel and Davies’ novel.

“We write the stories as we read them. The very choice to ignore this part of the story telling process is itself to an artifice with meta fictional underpinnings – erasing the author so that the author must be found, or creating an author so that the real author is obfuscated…”

The people at “Everyone’s” job was obsessed over a co-worker named J.D. who fell out of the 12th floor of their office space. In fact many people along the work space gawk over the window. It causes the demise of several others. “Everyone” seems to have a crush on their co-worker named Sam. After many attempts, the two characters interact with each other as potential lovers. With “Everyone” being uncomfortable, they don’t excel much farther.

“Everyone” constantly thought of $5092. That was the amount of money that was needed to get a new car. With life there are unexpected events. “Everyone” had their fair share of events and bills. They dealt with their kid eating from a huge amount of chocolate and going to the hospital.   There are several oddities about this book that stick out. The way the book is written is tiresome to read and doesn’t make sense in other parts. Though the name of the character is “Everyone” the only time that it is capitalized is at the start of the sentence. Davies uses both pronouns when referring to “Everyone” but switches back and forth between them. In some cases he uses, his or her. And at other times, she or he. Either way, it adds a difficulty and shroud to the book.

If you’re a reader that is interested in abstract themes and storytelling, give this book a try.

Read more of his work at http://no1bag.angelfire.com.

 

Review of Tallyho in the Squat: A raucous Southern comedy about life, love, and rabbit smuggling by Asa Ingram

REVIEW BY DON SLOAN

Asa Ingram was born and raised in Spartanburg, SC, and his hometown served as an inspiration for many of the stories in his novel, Tallyho in the Squat. He graduated from Clemson University.

What’s funnier than Sasquatch chasing a couple of rednecks out of the woods? Answer: a light-hearted look at good old boys and their down-home, countrified way of approaching life — one six-pack of Budweiser at a time.

In this epic tale of love and knock-down, drag-out bar fights, Clemson graduate Bill and his cousin Jimbo get themselves into one hilarious situation after another, with all the panache of  a hit reality show.

Early in the book, we find Bill not quite measuring up to his “diddy’s” expectations of managing the family’s string of sporting goods stores scattered around Georgia. Bill, for his part, wants to be writer, but what he really needs is a steady job. His father offers to fill the gap temporarily by having him and Jimbo drive over to Kentucky once a week to fetch rabbits to use in his rabbit-hunting hobby — called, picturesquely, Tallyho in the Squat.

The sport involves prized beagles sniffing out the scent of rabbits in a field and alerting the hunters to their presence. “Tallyho,” yelled loudly at the moment of spotting a rabbit “in the squat”, or lying cowering in the brush, scores winning points to both man and dog. It’s unclear whether the rabbit is actually shot or is simply captured for another go-round.

Anyway, the sport is inconsequential to the storyline, which revolves around Bill’s pursuit of the bartending daughter of the farmer from whom they buy their rabbits. Many of the hijinks — from vandalizing a former boyfriend’s house, to hunting for Sasquatch in the Kentucky woods —  are stories worthy of many a belly laugh, even when the cousins are being pummeled in a fight to save Rye’s honor. (She’s the young woman Bill is pursuing.)

One memorable quote comes from a young Jimbo, who doubts the existence any longer of the Ku Klux Klan. His cousin sets him straight: “Oh, it does (exist). They’re just too stupid to organize, Mama says. All the smart ones went into politics.”

There’s plenty of racial and country boy stereotyping in this book, which does, however, provide a satisfying — though slow-developing– romance amid all the wisecracking and antics of the colorful ensemble cast of characters.

In another scene that provokes a chuckle, Bill and Jimbo are almost pulled over for being DUI on a riding lawnmower. “Jimbo held onto the back of the riding mower and howled wildly at every turn and swerve.”

This novel pokes plenty of good-natured fun at the rural subculture that permeates some parts of the South, and still delivers a sustained read good enough to keep even the most jaded reader turning the pages and laughing hysterically.

I give it an unqualified five stars.

Review of The Strange Case of Dr. Terry and Mr. Chimes by Terry Chimes

REVIEW BY DON SLOAN

They say that old soldiers never die — they simply fade away. What then, can be said of old Rock and Rollers?

If you’re Terry Chimes, founding member of the infamous Eighties punk rock band, The Clash, you go on to become a successful doctor of medicine, entrepreneur, and budding author.

Chimes, formerly a world-touring drummer for the well-known rock group — as well as Billy Idol, Black Sabbath and many others — was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. But where is he now?

After fifteen years in the music industry, Chimes became a doctor of chiropractic, an acupuncturist, and CEO of a string of European chiropractic clinics. He now is a world-renowned expert on alternative medicine.

Not bad for a man who, by his own admission, grew up dirt-poor in London’s East End, the middle son of three children born to his happily-married parents. Wait. Aren’t all rockers supposed to be embittered, off-the-beam drug addicts?

Not Chimes. In his memoir, The Strange Case of Dr. Terry and Mr. Chimes, he comes across more like a well-adjusted grocer or accountant than a hard rocking drummer from the turbulent punk rock scene.

He is frank in his detailed recounting of “the old days,” when outrageous characters like Sid Vicious — then only a teen — would hang around the group, trying to fit in. “It seemed he was trying to find his place in the whole punk movement,” Chimes recalls.  Vicious would later go on to be imprisoned for the alleged murder of his girlfriend. He committed suicide in his jail cell.

Chimes remembers that Vicious always had a strange outlook on death. “He always said he was going to die before he was 25, having lived life the way he wanted to.”

This is just one of many remembrances that rock band aficionados will hungrily devour in this book. In another vignette, Chimes recalls being the opening act for The Sex Pistols.

“Our enthusiasm levels were so high for that first show that I got up at four in the morning to be at the rehearsal place by five to leave for Sheffield, which was about two hundred miles away.”

More stories abound in this well-written remembrance of a time when rock music was undergoing some radical changes, and Chimes does a good job of filling in some missing pieces — again, primarily of interest to followers of that genre of music. The later parts of the book become pretty prosaic, as Chimes leaves the Rock scene and, eventually, becomes the globe-trotting alternative medicine consultant that he now is.

Still, readers who grew up listening to The Clash and Black Sabbath will have a field day gleaning quotes and anecdotes from this former hard rocker. On balance, I give the book four stars.

BOOK REVIEWS – DO NOT CHASE REQUESTS!

Hi everyone,

I am going to pop this into my review guidelines but PLEASE do not keep chasing me once you have submitted your review request as it really winds me up! I know that a lot of authors seem to routinely do this, but there is no need! If your book has been accepted onto the list, it will either be:

Reviewed or not reviewed!

I know this sounds blunt. However, reviews are done free of charge in our own time. I am extremely busy with life and other commitments and it totally depresses me to login to my emails and be confronted by several people chasing up reviews. 9/10 I don’t respond. Sometimes I delete the original request. Sometimes you might even get a snarky reply. I don’t want to be sending snarky replies or deleting review requests!

Please, if you are going to send a review request – great. Send it. I will acknowledge this. Then all you have to do is follow my blog and keep an eye out for the review. If it appears eventually, fabulous. If it doesn’t, well, no harm done!