Always happy to get a good, objective book review
Book reviews for authors are like liquor and wine to a drunk – you gotta have ‘em.
They are vital to the success of any book. With the advent of self-publishing, the world of books has exploded. Thousands of new titles and new authors burst onto the scene with shocking regularity.
How is a reader to decide which books to buy and read, and which authors to follow?
Reviews are the best way for readers, including me, to figure out if they want to plop their hard-earned dollars down on a book. It also is a question of time. Readers must decide which books they want to invest their valuable leisure time in. Who wants to plow into a book only to find out it’s a turkey of a read?
That’s why authors and publishers spend so much energy and time procuring reviews – and they must be solid reviews from people who do not have a vested interest in the subject or the author.
My mom was a wonderful woman, but would readers accept a glowing review of my work from her? Not likely. Same with my friends, neighbors, co-workers and old schoolmates. They may do their very best to evaluate my work, but it’s simply not going to be objective.
Right now, I’m getting some very positive reviews of my latest work, A Place for Murder, on Amazon and Goodreads. I am delighted to see that so many are enjoying the book and recommending it to others. My sales are good, and picking up momentum.
One of the best reviews I have received came from Michigan in Books, a blog run by Tom Powers, a retired librarian who worked for the Flint Public Library for 30 years. He is also an author who has published eight books, each somehow connected to the state of Michigan.
Powers blog declares that Michigan in Books is devoted to promoting, reporting, and reviewing books that explore the Michigan experience. His intended audience, which is growing, includes librarians, educators, and all readers who are drawn to the state’s fascinating sights, sounds, attractions, and unique history. His new posts appear on the 1st and 15th of each month.
My stories are each set in Michigan and I hope they reveal how much I love and value my home state. But my books also try to look at and offer different perspectives on the pressing issue of the day, which is a reflection of my profession and career as a journalist. For these reasons, I’m very pleased with the review.
In the interest of full disclosure, Tom Powers is not my mom, my dad, a brother, a lifelong friend, or a love interest. But I hope you agree that he does have a keen eye for good writing and storytelling.
Here is the Michigan in Books review of my newest work:
A Place for Murder
by Dave Vizard
Nick Steele, a reporter at the Bay City Blade, is facing the prospect of writing an article on a Pinconning farmer who claims to have grown a potato that looks just like former President George W. Bush when a phone call from a friend on Mackinac Island sends him a lot further north than Pinconning. Suzie Alverez, a worker at the Grand Hotel who Steele got to know while working another story has been found brutally murdered. Her body was discovered in the bed of a pickup abandoned on the highway halfway between Mackinaw City and Traverse City. The police are stumped and only identified the body by tracing her breast implant serial numbers to a downstate plastic surgeon. Steele wonders where an illegal alien got the money for breast implants and why. He smells a good story and follows his nose north.
What becomes clear to the Steele and the state police early on are that Ms. Alverez, like many illegal immigrants, was virtually owned by a network of human traffickers in Michigan. Steele traces the dead woman's trail back to the Michigan Thumb where hundreds of aliens are smuggled from farm to farm where they are kept in near enslavement working off the debt owed to the smugglers who brought them to this country. It looks like Ms. Alverez was unwillingly assigned to work at a Traverse City bordello when she was killed.
Dave Vizard has written a tight and involving mystery that realistically portrays the terrible cost in human suffering illegal aliens will endure to improve their lives and the human predators who make their living off the suffering of those migrants who live outside the law. The author is a former newspaper reporter and he clearly hasn't lost his reporting skills as he clearly and professionally weaves the plight of illegal aliens within the narrative, yet leaves the impression with at least this reader that many farmers in the Thumb would have trouble operating their large farms without migrant help.
This is a very satisfying mystery featuring interesting and likable characters. The mystery touches on very topical and locally tender societal and legal issues, and although the death of Ms. Alverez is solved the greater issue of what to do about illegal aliens and their treatment both in and outside the law is obviously left unanswered. And like all good fiction, the reader is left confronting an issue that defies simple, morally correct solutions, and refuses to go away.
A Place for MurderDave Vizard
They are vital to the success of any book. With the advent of self-publishing, the world of books has exploded. Thousands of new titles and new authors burst onto the scene with shocking regularity.
How is a reader to decide which books to buy and read, and which authors to follow?
Reviews are the best way for readers, including me, to figure out if they want to plop their hard-earned dollars down on a book. It also is a question of time. Readers must decide which books they want to invest their valuable leisure time in. Who wants to plow into a book only to find out it’s a turkey of a read?
That’s why authors and publishers spend so much energy and time procuring reviews – and they must be solid reviews from people who do not have a vested interest in the subject or the author.
My mom was a wonderful woman, but would readers accept a glowing review of my work from her? Not likely. Same with my friends, neighbors, co-workers and old schoolmates. They may do their very best to evaluate my work, but it’s simply not going to be objective.
Right now, I’m getting some very positive reviews of my latest work, A Place for Murder, on Amazon and Goodreads. I am delighted to see that so many are enjoying the book and recommending it to others. My sales are good, and picking up momentum.
One of the best reviews I have received came from Michigan in Books, a blog run by Tom Powers, a retired librarian who worked for the Flint Public Library for 30 years. He is also an author who has published eight books, each somehow connected to the state of Michigan.
Powers blog declares that Michigan in Books is devoted to promoting, reporting, and reviewing books that explore the Michigan experience. His intended audience, which is growing, includes librarians, educators, and all readers who are drawn to the state’s fascinating sights, sounds, attractions, and unique history. His new posts appear on the 1st and 15th of each month.
My stories are each set in Michigan and I hope they reveal how much I love and value my home state. But my books also try to look at and offer different perspectives on the pressing issue of the day, which is a reflection of my profession and career as a journalist. For these reasons, I’m very pleased with the review.
In the interest of full disclosure, Tom Powers is not my mom, my dad, a brother, a lifelong friend, or a love interest. But I hope you agree that he does have a keen eye for good writing and storytelling.
Here is the Michigan in Books review of my newest work:
A Place for Murder
by Dave Vizard
Nick Steele, a reporter at the Bay City Blade, is facing the prospect of writing an article on a Pinconning farmer who claims to have grown a potato that looks just like former President George W. Bush when a phone call from a friend on Mackinac Island sends him a lot further north than Pinconning. Suzie Alverez, a worker at the Grand Hotel who Steele got to know while working another story has been found brutally murdered. Her body was discovered in the bed of a pickup abandoned on the highway halfway between Mackinaw City and Traverse City. The police are stumped and only identified the body by tracing her breast implant serial numbers to a downstate plastic surgeon. Steele wonders where an illegal alien got the money for breast implants and why. He smells a good story and follows his nose north.
What becomes clear to the Steele and the state police early on are that Ms. Alverez, like many illegal immigrants, was virtually owned by a network of human traffickers in Michigan. Steele traces the dead woman's trail back to the Michigan Thumb where hundreds of aliens are smuggled from farm to farm where they are kept in near enslavement working off the debt owed to the smugglers who brought them to this country. It looks like Ms. Alverez was unwillingly assigned to work at a Traverse City bordello when she was killed.
Dave Vizard has written a tight and involving mystery that realistically portrays the terrible cost in human suffering illegal aliens will endure to improve their lives and the human predators who make their living off the suffering of those migrants who live outside the law. The author is a former newspaper reporter and he clearly hasn't lost his reporting skills as he clearly and professionally weaves the plight of illegal aliens within the narrative, yet leaves the impression with at least this reader that many farmers in the Thumb would have trouble operating their large farms without migrant help.
This is a very satisfying mystery featuring interesting and likable characters. The mystery touches on very topical and locally tender societal and legal issues, and although the death of Ms. Alverez is solved the greater issue of what to do about illegal aliens and their treatment both in and outside the law is obviously left unanswered. And like all good fiction, the reader is left confronting an issue that defies simple, morally correct solutions, and refuses to go away.
A Place for MurderDave Vizard
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