Michael Patrick Hicks's Blog, page 26

Review: Optical Delusion by Hunter Shea

Optical Delusion (Mail Order Massacres)







By Hunter Shea






My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Optical Delusion, the second in Hunter Shea's trilogy of Mail Order Massacre novellas from Kensington Press, is a more serious affair than Just Add Water and focused more on the psychological threat posed by X-Ray glasses. That's not to say Shea skimps on the gore, though! There's plenty of fun Harryhausen-like visuals on display as Martin Blackstone gets an eyeful of everyone he sees.

On a lark, Blackstone tries on his son's X-Ray specs, ordered from the back of a comic book, and finds, much to his surprise and eventual chagrin, that they actually work. At least for him. Brian and his buddy have already declared them a failure and waste of money, but after Martin's wife tells him he looks pretty cool in his new sunglasses, well...maybe they shouldn't be relegated to the trash heap quite so soon. The more he wears them, though, the harder it becomes to take them off, and pretty soon Martin is seeing far more than he wanted. What starts off as some peeping tom perviness quickly turns toward the grotesque. Beauty may be only skin-deep, but the darkness of the soul...well, that runs much, much deeper, and it's a foul thing indeed.

Whereas Just Add Water was a fun creature feature romp, Optical Delusion takes a decidedly more serious approach with its focus on an adult cast and deepening madness. I dug the direction this installment took, and while it's a darker work it is still compulsively readable. My only complaint comes in the story's resolution, which lacked much of a punch for me. Shea was building toward some really intriguing ideas, and while I dug the central thoughts behind the climax I wish he had explored it a bit more deeply. The story ended a bit too abruptly for my tastes, but the build-up and execution of the story overall was pretty dang satisfying.

Now bring on Money Back Guarantee!

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]



View all my reviews

Review: Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror [audiobook]

Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror



$11.99



By Jack Ketchum, Mark Matthews, Kealan Patrick Burke, John FD Taff, Glen Krisch, Max Booth III, Jessica McHugh






My rating: 5 of 5 stars


My original Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror is a dark read, at times brutally so. This a collection of stories about drugs and drug abuse, about damaged souls, rotted minds, and ruined bodies. Although there are ghosts and demons, the most malevolent and creeping evil comes in the form of all too real human weaknesses as the characters within this anthology seek to escape the personal horrors of their lives through drugs and alcohol.

This is a very strong and engaging anthology with a specific focus, and while I won’t discuss each individual story here, I will note some of my favorites. Bram Stoker Award-winning author Kealan Patrick Burke kicks off the anthology in grand fashion with “A Wicked Thirst,” an excellent piece about alcoholism, first dates, and past regrets. “The One In The Middle” by Jessica McHugh plumbs the pitch-black depths of addiction and the lengths users will go to in order to score a fix in a near-future tale of drugs, self-harm, and cannibalism. I hadn’t read McHugh previously, but this uncompromisingly dark, in-your-face story sold me on her talents and I’ll be checking out more of her works in the future. Max Booth III delivers an engaging, twisted, and fairly uncomfortable read with “Everywhere You’ve Bled and Everywhere You Will.” This story delivers the horror goods with an engaging and wince-inducing premise of heroine addiction and spiders. The novella-length title story, “Garden of Fiends,” by Mark Matthews is a rich tale of addiction and possession with its focus on a Detroit family coping with their daughter’s drug habit. By turns gut-wrenching and heartbreaking, it packs a heck of a punch and a few surprises. As with McHugh, I hadn’t read Matthews’ previous books but will certainly be keeping an eye out for more of his work, and I already have his Milk Blood series (which “Garden of Fiends” ties into but certainly works well on its own) loaded up on my Kindle.

Rick Gregory provides a solid narration of some very, very difficult material. While Gregory’s reading is mostly a smooth and easy listen, the bleak nature of each individual story makes this an unlikely candidate for a relaxing binge. Most likely, you’ll want to take a breather in between these tales and maybe step outside for some fresh air. The production quality is terrific with no distractions or audible glitches to mar the recording.

In his introduction, Matthews states that the aim of this anthology was to give readers a better understanding of the plight of the addict, and Garden of Fiends is a resounding success on that front. The demons faced within these pages are of an entirely human sort, their potential to harm any one of us all too real, and the insidious nature of their threat far more potent than any zombie, vampire, or ghoul. We could all do with a bit more empathy toward and understanding of the sinister nature of addiction’s ease and the difficulties of recovery. This audiobook was a shocking and eye-opening work of horror, and a necessary reminder that every individual is fighting their own deeply personal battles.

[Note: Audiobook provided for review by the audiobookreviewer.com]



View all my reviews

Review: Zero Sum by Barry Eisler

Zero Sum (A John Rain Novel)



$14.95



By Barry Eisler






My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After a stand-alone title (The God's Eye View) and the introduction of new series heroine (Livia Lone), Barry Eisler returns with a new John Rain thriller, his ninth, a prequel title that picks up a decade after Graveyard of Memories.

This time around, Rain is tasked with eliminating a Japanese politician after taking a job from Victor, a Russian crime boss who has been displacing the Yakuza. Why Victor wants the politician dead and who he answers to are Rain's central mysteries, and after becoming romantically enmeshed with the pol's Italian wife and with his own life on the line John doesn't have a lot of time left with which to operate.

After last year's Livia Lone, I can almost imagine Eisler turning back to his series staple with a degree of relief. There's a comfortable familiarity to a John Rain book, even as we venture back in time to see a younger, less experienced, less seasoned assassin, and it doesn't have the brooding darkness and emotional torment that Livia brought along with her. While Rain is still an emotionally complex figure, and the author continues to find neat new facets of the character to explore, there's also a certain sense that Eisler is happily unfettered from having to explore the psychological repercussions of long-term abuse and the grisliness of sex crimes that predominated Livia Lone. In fact, there are several moments where this book feels downright fun.

Zero Sum is a leaner, breezier adventure with some great action scenes and a bit of tenderness thanks to Rain's relationship with Maria. It's interesting to see him romantically outclassed by an older woman who takes him to school more than a few times, and who leaves an indelible mark on his development that long-time reader's should appreciate.

Mostly, it's just good to have John Rain back again. I'd love to catch up with him in the present-day, post-The Detachment, but I'll take whatever I can get.

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]



View all my reviews

Review: MAD About Trump

MAD About Trump: A Brilliant Look at Our Brainless President



$10.65



By Various






My rating: 1 of 5 stars


One of the things that makes satirizing Donald Trump so difficult is that no matter how low the bar for expectations are set, Trump always manages to fall short, repeatedly surprising us with how shallow, crude, and idiotic he actually is. Even when we think he cannot possibly manage to be any stupider, he proves us wrong, over and over and over.

Trump is horribly flawed, to put it lightly, but usually in a predictable way. We know that if you stroke his ego, he'll promise you the greatest things, the best things, things you can only ever imagine, but the best things nonetheless. Call him a small-handed pussy-grabber whose breath reeks of rot and decay, and he'll still be sending you press clippings decades later arguing that his hands are not that small. And you know he'll be dedicating many a lonely hours tweeting ALL of it from his golden toilet. Even when we think he cannot possibly be stupid enough to undermine his own staff who are attempting to cover up whatever latest treasonous BS he's committed through his own ineptitude, he still manages to surprise us by being even dumber than we gave him credit for, but we kind of know it's coming anyway. In these ways, he's completely, utterly predictable. Unfortunately, MAD Magazine's effort at making light of and mocking such shortcomings are equally predictable and tiresome.

Frankly, MAD About Trump: A Brilliant Look at Our Brainless President is not nearly as mean, cruel, derisive, or scathing as Trump deserves. It also doesn't feel particularly fresh, releasing in late June, our 8,976,349th year of Trump's reign. Too much of the magazine's attempts at humor are trite acknowledgments of how Trump actually behaves, and its attempts at caricature are nowhere near as outlandish a Trump himself. When one artist draws the orange buffoon trying to sneak into a pageant contestant's dressing room, we can only sigh with the sad realization that not only is it true, but that Trump-proper was also known for ducking into an underage girl's dressing rooms, as well. It's difficult to make light of his history as a sexual assailant and voyeurism of naked or scantily-clad children.

The biggest problem with this issue of MAD Magazine is that it is utterly soft serve, a little league softball attempt at mockery, but one that is too often completely on the nose. Take for instance the poster about Besty DeVos's purchased cabinet post, or selections of Trump tweets, one of which includes his thoughts on Thanksgiving: "A great day to remember how the Indians welcomed the Pilgrims to America, but NOT Muslims or Syrian refugees. Smart!" Seriously - are we sure he hasn't actually tweeted that (and if he hasn't, can you honestly promise he won't?!). Or, "If you're committing hate crimes in my name, please stop. It's Thanksgiving, for God's sake! You can always pick it back up tomorrow!" Of course, the biggest inaccuracy in any of MAD's tweets from Trump are the lack of misspellings and shoddy grammar. Where this comic should be ripping Trump and his supporters 120 thousand brand new assholes, it instead settles for the obvious and more mundane aspects of Trump's character. Where are comics about the infamous pee tape, or a poster of Trump drenched in urine, fresh off a golden shower and ripe for use in Resistance protests? Where are the checklists of who will be covered under PutinCare and who won't be? (Rich white guys in the GOP: COVERED. Women and minorities: NOT COVERED). Instead, we get several cheap and weak spoofs of The Apprentice. The MAD writers chose simply to opt for the cheap, easy, and sometimes greasy, way out. Just like Trump himself.

There are a few bright spots, though, even if they are really few and far between. The crap-to-quality ratio is decidedly skewed in favor of crap, but occasionally a few gems snuck past the editors here and there. The comparisons between a Trump press conference and a bus station bathroom are on point, and I got a few chuckles out of a one-page segment on the similarities and differences between him and Pope Francis. Trump's new presidential seal, which sees the eagle replaced with the Twitter logo, is pretty clever, as is a quick visual gag of Trump's hair mussed by his KKK hood, and a one-liner about our national anthem being replaced with its Russian counterpart. In fact, the half-page bullet points devoted to the silver linings of Trump's presidency are all pretty funny, and perhaps uncomfortably close to the truth... Another segment worth exploring, particularly in light of Evangelical support for Cheeto Hitler, is Trump vs. The Bible, which pairs Bible quotes against Trumpism, such as Leviticus outlawing incest against Trump talking about banging his daughter, or Proverbs 18:15: "An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge," against Trump's "We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated." Trump's rewritten version of John Lennon's "Imagine" is also pretty remarkable, and maybe even the stand-out segment of the whole issue. I also have to give props to MAD for including a fake diploma from Trump's fake university that allows you fill in your name and frame for hanging. Friends and neighbors wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between this and the phony one! I also got a big laugh out of the similarities between Trump and Burger King's new Mac 'N Cheetos for noting that both look like an Oompa Loompa boner. That's a top-fucking-notch, spot-on observation. Scattered between all this are some movie poster spoofs that are Photoshopped pretty nicely, providing send-ups of Taxi Driver, Captain America: Civil War, and Die Hard. And even all this sounds much better than it actually is... Coming in at 132 pages, this comic is a massive failure, all things considered.

While there are (literally) a couple clever gags and funny punchlines, I found most of the issue pretty humdrum, if not outright basic. I haven't read MAD Magazine in probably a good twenty-five years, but recalling my fondness for it in my youth, I figured if anybody deserved my attention for a Trump takedown, it was this particular title. Maybe I've simply outgrown MAD and its comedic stylings, or maybe Trump is too much of a real-life moronic cartoon villain to properly satirize. Just when you think you can take a comedic razor's edge to the man, he stoops ever lower still, proving that you have, once again, given him far too much credit. And that's the fundamental flaw in this issue - Trump is given far, far, far too much credit. Even when he's getting torn a new one, you know it's only a matter time before MAD's writers look like Nostradamus predicting Trump's next nation-ruining moment, even as pundits declare it to be the moment Donnie-boy really became president. There's a few biting segments worth a look, but the magazine overall is an unremarkable dud, particularly in light of far more scathing late night TV monologues from Stephen Colbert or John Oliver, or even the occasional Twitter account for that matter. Perhaps that's as it should be though. Trump is best known for his late-night twitter rants and celebrity TV shows. If he's to be taken down on any battlefield, it'll be online or on television, not in books he'll have never heard of and won't be bothered to read regardless of how many pretty pictures and illustrations may be inside.

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]



View all my reviews

Review: Come to Dust by Bracken MacLeod

Come to Dust



$17.95



By Bracken MacLeod






My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In his afterword, Bracken MacLeod notes that the scariest parts of this book came by imagining the absence of his son in his life, and I would agree that those are, truly, the most horrifying aspects of this book. When I began reading Come to Dust this past Sunday, I was quickly turned into a devastated, quivering wreck. Since becoming a parent, I do not believe I have ever felt so exposed and afraid by the infinite unknown and the potential for life's terror. Mortality has never felt so real as it has since my son came along, and I have absolutely no idea how I would cope with losing him.

MacLeod has tapped into a very primal fear here, what is easily every parent's worst nightmare, and brought it home in a damningly effective way. Although Come to Dust is dark, at times despairingly so, there is a beacon of light at its core. It's about loss, but also rebirth and the hope of second chances in the face of overwhelming odds.

Mitch is a parent who has lost his daughter, at least until she comes back from the dead. Some may classify this as a zombie novel, and while I certainly enjoy my share of the undead I would not be quite so hasty in affixing that label here. Come to Dust is not of the EAT BRAINS! MORE BRAINS! vein, but it does it have its fair share of supernatural conceits and MacLeod does a fine job of exploring the societal repercussions of what happens when dead children mysteriously return to the world of the living. This world of "deadophiles" and religious nuts is filtered to us through Mitch, an every-man who, as an ex-convict, has his own share of his problems in the aftermath of Sophie's demise and resurrection.

I really liked the understated approach MacLeod took to the material here. This sucker could have gone off the rails at any number of junctures, but he's got a strong authorial command of the material and never lets it get the better of him. This could have been yet another dime-a-dozen zombie apocalypse story, but MacLeod opts for the softer approach, avoiding spectacle in favor of heart, focusing fully on emotional resonance rather than gory fun. I usually read horror for escapist entertainment, so this book took me completely by surprise in some of the best, heart-wrenchingly real ways. Come to Dust was a highly emotional read for me, one that left me worn out and fraught on more than one occasion, and MacLeod does not pull any of his punches.

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from publisher.]



View all my reviews

Review: Change Agent by Daniel Suarez [audiobook]

Change Agent: A Novel



$17.60



By Daniel Suarez






My rating: 2 of 5 stars


My original Change Agent audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Change Agent, by Daniel Suarez, is a frustrating pop-sci thriller, more focused on whiz-bang tech than telling an original story. At its core, this Crichton-esque soft-serve is a generic lone hero on the run chase book, set in the near-future where the threats of illicit genetic modification are rearing its ugly head and Interpol is working on cracking down on underground biohackers. After shutting down an illegal gene shop, analyst Kevin Durand becomes the target of Eurasian gang boss, Marcus Wyckes. Durand is injected with a “change agent” and wakes up in the hospital five weeks later, his entire genetic structure altered so that he is now the spitting image of Wyckes, the Most Wanted Man In The World! Durand, on a mission to reclaim his identity, has to elude police, escape from his own team of Interpol agents, and go deep, deep, deep, deep undercover to secure the help of some of those underground biohackers he’s been tracking for arrest.

If you’ve seen the movies Face/Off and Minority Report, you’ve basically read this book already, and Saurez fails to inject many change agents into the formulas established by so many other body-swap and hero on the run thrillers. While it’s clear Saurez has certainly done his homework and there’s plenty of next-gen sci-fi tech to go gaga over, the story itself is too derivative for me to muster up much enthusiasm. There were also too many moments that ripped me right out of the narrative with how clumsily they were handled. In one instance, we’re introduced to a strange villain who is so evil a guard pees himself at the mere sight of the man, a scene that reads far more goofy than threatening. On another occasion, Durand has to flee a building swarming with cops by rooftop and surrounded by drones. He leaps off the roof and onto one of the drones, whose far-away pilot registers the error, but it never occurs to anybody to turn one of the other nearby drones to examine the “glitch” their sensors are reading. Later, Saurez details an underground slavers club where people have been modified to look like celebrities. It found it rather odd that people nearly 50 years in the future would still be modifying themselves to look like young Brad Pitts and Scarlett Johanssons rather than their current contemporaries, but maybe that’s just me. At other times, Saurez stops to linger for far too long, bearing the story down with a lot of exposition and infodumps on current affairs, the tech of the day, and detours into the Malaysian jungle that serve to slow the narrative to a crawl when it should be racing full speed ahead.

While Saurez’s writing failed to sell me on Change Agent, Jeff Gurner’s narration was at least well done. Gurner has a rich timbre and is able to provide a wide range of voices and accents to keep the large cast distinct. At times the reading felt a little too much like the voice-over work of a documentary, but it’s a solid enough listen overall. Given the flaws in pacing and Saurez’s been there, done that narrative choices, though, this was hard a audiobook to really sink into and enjoy, which made keeping my attention focused on the material all the more difficult. On the production end of things, the audio comes through clear and consistently, as one should expect of a major publisher like Penguin Audio.

(Audiobook provided for review by the audiobookreviewer.com.)



View all my reviews

Review: Video Night by Adam Cesare

Video Night: A Novel of Alien Horror



$12.99



By Adam Cesare






My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In his afterward, author Adam Cesare notes that although Video Night was his third published novel, it was actually the first book he had written. During my reading of this story, I had suspected it was his first novel, which is not to say it's bad (ratings-wise, I'm leaning toward 3.5 stars, but have rounded up), just that there are some rough patches here and there.

Video Night is a solid bit of fun, but it lacks some of the surety and depth of a latter book like Con Season, Cesare's most recent. This is a pulpy, straight-forward, 1980s-infused horror story about an alien invasion in Long Island. Cesare is a well-studied student, and clearly a loving fan, of the horror genre (check out his YouTube for his thoughts on recent films, and a book pairing to go along with the movie), and it shows in each of the few stories of his I've read. The dude knows the ins and outs of horror and its genre conventions, and lovingly crafts odes to the gorefests of yesteryear. Video Night is an earnest, and oftentimes nostalgic, exploration of 80s horror, putting at its center two teenage boys who indulge in VHS horror rentals for their weekly video night. The appearance of a new drug on the scene and some odd behavior by the locals builds towards a video night well beyond anything they had imagined, but their habitual consumption of horror flicks may have left Billy and Tom the most prepared for an alien attack.

As a child of the 80s, I found a lot to enjoy here. While it's impossible for me to watch a VHS tape in these days of high-definition, I couldn't help but recall a certain fondness for the technology of old and the almost ritualistic preparation of popping in a movie cassette and adjusting the VCR's tracking on a worn out tape to try and salvage some degree of picture quality. Video Night is a different type of alien invasion story -- there are no UFOs or laser guns -- and it's neat to compare mankind's then-cutting edge technology against an almost mundane, lo-fi, subversive alien threat. The finale is wonky fun and full of silly conceits (never before have frozen TV dinners been used to such great success, I'd wager!), and Chekhov's Gun gets a workout here in the form a samurai sword.

Video Night wears its horror influences on its sleeve, and with proud, horror-geek fondness. It's not a book of insider's baseball like Con Season was, and it's main aim is simply to have fun. On that level, Cesare succeeds. It's not particularly deep or thematically rich, but it is entertaining enough for me to overlook some of the rougher edges. It's not quite enough to get me to swear off Blu-ray discs and streaming HD movies, but I doubt that was the point, anyway...



View all my reviews

New Release: Dark Designs by Stefanie Spangler

Stefanie Spangler is an editor for Red Adept Publishing, and she edited my first two novels, Convergence and Emergence. Beyond doing rock-solid work and making those final manuscripts way better than they had started out, Stefanie's a writer, as well, making her a bit of powerhouse when it comes to critically examining a book and providing a whole ton of useful suggestions.

Today marks her debut as an urban fantasy novelist, and Dark Designs is out right now. 

Magic calls out to other magic, and the Grant sisters are about to find out they’ve drawn the darkest kind to their doorstep.

Twins Ivy and Violet Grant are opposites. Ivy, a hot-tempered redhead, couldn’t wait to get off the farm and see the world. Violet, a quiet brunette, was content to stay home and help their grandmother with the family business. The one thing they have in common is their magic.

Charlie Logan’s sinister obsession with Ivy Grant has ruled his life. When he discovers a book of dark magic during a burglary, he decides to return to Oak Hill and use his newfound power to gain control over Ivy.

Ivy and Violet, with help from their grandmother, need to practice their magic to overcome the evil seeping into their lives. A battle is coming, and Ivy’s life is not the only one at stake.

Buy it now!EXCERPT FROM DARK DESIGNS

Slowly, Ivy became aware of another presence in the barn. Her eyes roamed away from the kitten cradled in her arms to the boots standing just beyond the stall door, next to her discarded sandals. Eyes wide, she sprang to her bare feet as fast as she could without trampling the kittens.

Charlie Logan was blocking the way out of the stall. The sunlight that slipped in through the gaps in the barn’s wooden planks cast his face in mottled stripes. She knew him because Grandpa Jack had always let his granddaughters roam the farm freely, and Charlie had spoken to her many times. Never alone, though. She stood awkwardly, her eyes darting around the dimly lit solitude of the barn.

“Nice kittens you got there.” He nodded cheerfully toward the kittens then smiled. His hand twitched as if he might reach out and touch her.

“Yeah,” she said quietly, looking back and forth between Charlie and the kittens. “None of them are sick or anything. Sometimes there are sick ones…” Ivy rambled nervously until her eyes settled on Charlie’s face, and then she stilled, wishing she could disappear.

Charlie moved in closer, trapping her in the corner of the stall. “They’ll all be good mousers, I bet.”

His tone was friendly, but Ivy’s guts tensed up. She desperately wanted to be away from the stall that had, without warning, become too dark and far too secluded. If she shouted, someone would likely hear her and come, but Charlie had always seemed nice enough. Maybe he did just want to talk about kittens, and she didn’t want him to get in trouble for not being busy at work.

When she made a move toward the door, his tall frame shifted. She jerked back, away from his body, pushing herself tighter into the corner of the stall. He was close enough that his scent of stale cigarette smoke and sweat forced its way into her nostrils and stomach. When he exhaled, his breath smelled of strong coffee. In slow motion, Charlie reached out and touched her hair just over her ear. Heart in her throat, she froze. Charlie Logan had not come to discuss anything good. He smiled at her affectionately as he stroked her hair.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stefanie Spangler has always loved books and reading, and one day, she decided to write a book of her own.

Stefanie lives in central Illinois with her husband and daughters. When she's not reading or writing, she’s usually editing someone else’s book. But she also enjoys gardening, knitting, and forcing others to read her favorite books.

Follow Stefanie:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Review: Shark Island by Chris Jameson

Shark Island



$7.99



By Chris Jameson






My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I've been racking my brain trying to think of the last shark book I read, and come to think of it, I don't think I've read any proper shark-fic. I've read books with giant squids, aquatic parasites, and oceans full of otherworldly terrors, but have somehow managed to avoid Great Whites altogether. So, consider this my first proper introduction to this popular horror staple, and just in time for Shark Week!

After reading Shark Island, I can certainly see the appeal behind this particular sub-genre, and this book is pretty well crafted and entertaining as all get-out. Naomi is a shark attack survivor, and one year after her near-death experience she joins the scientific crew of the Thaumas to document their efforts in relocating a massive proliferation of seals off the Massachusetts coastline. The plan is to use an acoustic wave to target the seals, get them to follow the Thaumas and relocate them to the remote island of Bald Cap. The seals essentially become bait to help move the sharks away from the Cape Cod shoreline, but the acoustic signal has some unexpected side-effects (well, to the scientists anyway. Even people who have never read shark-fic before will know things have to go sideways pretty quickly with a plan like this.). Throw in a brewing Nor'Easter, a whole lot of blood-lust, and you've got a seriously fun The Perfect Storm by way of Jaws mashup.

Chris Jameson delivers a knock-out debut that kept me constantly wanting to know what's going to happen and who's next on the chopping block. Suitable to a shark horror story, there's plenty of chum in the water thanks to our large cast of characters, and the body-count is significant. The characters are all pretty well developed, each one given a strong moment to shine, if not several, and their interpersonal relationships are all believable and well drawn.

The main draw to Shark Island is, of course, the sharks, but Jameson keeps the human factor front and center, never letting you forget that these are normal people caught up in horrific circumstances. And while the narrative gets pretty bleak, with some moments that are downright hopeless, the story maintains an energetic buoyancy that kept me sailing through each page. The ending is a bit on the simple side, but makes up for it with an emotionally resonant send-off in the last few chapters.

This one is getting all five stars from me for being a wicked bit of fun. I was craving a solid bit of shark action and got exactly what I wanted out of this one. This was just pure joy for me!

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]



View all my reviews

Review: A Game of Ghosts by John Connolly

A Game of Ghosts: A Charlie Parker Thriller



$17.70



By John Connolly






My rating: 3 of 5 stars


After taking a backseat for much of the prior book's narrative, PI Charlie Parker returns as the central focus to A Game of Ghosts. Escaping into the works of John Connolly is always a welcome retreat for me, although this fifteenth entry into this author's eponymous detective series fell a bit flat for me.

Still recovering, and likely permanently diminished, from the attempt on his life a few books back, Parker is back in action and tasked with locating a missing private eye, Jaykob Ecklund. This investigation leads Parker to The Brethren, a familial organization looking to keep its existence secret.

The Brethren also makes this the third book, out of the last four, in which a small, tightly-knit community-type band of sociopaths and psychotics are the central antagonists, following the far more dangerous members of Prosperity, ME from The Wolf In Winter and last year's cultish members of The Cut featured in a A Time of Torment. While there are some cool supernatural aspects behind The Brethren and the psychic visions the females of this line possess, the group are fairly weak villains taken as a whole.

On a narrative front, the story itself is a bit too complicated than is necessary, bulkier than it should be, and more than a smidge unsatisfying in its resolution. Connolly loads in a handful of secondary and tertiary characters, including a whole other subplot about the son of a deceased mob boss looking to make inroads into the heroine trade. Ultimately, this latter is a wholly superfluous addition to a narrative that already's stuffed with questionable motives, a series of homicides that may or may not be related either to one another or even the plot as a whole, and everybody's neighbors.

On the bright side, Connolly does inject a few surprising shake-ups, including the death of well-established character, and a final twist that puts an extra shade of gray on all that preceded it. The writing is grand, even if the story it services may not be the best, and the usual Parker series staples are on hand - good camaraderie, wry observations, witty dialogue, and enough subtle threats to make you feel mobbed up until the final page.

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]



View all my reviews