Parabellum

by Greg Hickey

COMING OCTOBER 2020

A shooting at a Chicago beach leaves several dead and dozens injured. In the year before the attack, four individuals emerge as possible suspects.

An apathetic computer programmer.
An ex-college athlete with a history of head injuries.
An Army veteran turned Chicago cop.
A despondent high school student.

One of them is the shooter. Discover who and why.

Download the opening scene of Parabellum and access an exclusive pre-release discount at greghickeywrites[dot]com/parabellum.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Ebooks, Suspense, Thriller

364 pages, Paperback

Published January 16, 2025

About the author

Greg Hickey is a former international professional baseball player and forensic scientist, and endurance athlete and Amazon-bestselling author. His previous works include the novels Parabellum, The Friar’s Lantern and Our Dried Voices, the latter of which was a finalist for Foreword Reviews' INDIES Science Fiction Book of the Year Award. He lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A harrowing read full of suspense
The book I guess is the opposite of most books as we meet the victims right at the end and meet the perp’s at the beginning and get to know them throughout, although we never get to know their names we get to know them via a description ie ‘ex-athlete’ and how their lives turn them into shooters, no excuses for them but insight into their various personalities, foibles, mental and physical health and human interactions
It is a bit confusing at times and I would have liked a heading every time it swapped character especially as happened multiple times in a chapter but did learn to handle that!
Great writing and character build up and very emotive without being syrupy or OTT, it is difficult to write an engaging book on this subject but the author has managed to
A very unusual maybe quirky book but that is meant in a good way and without doubt a book to make you think and one I wont forget

8/10
4 Stars

[Fefyy Antela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not coming out until October but the author sent me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. So here we go…

The story starts with us (the readers) visiting the aftermath of a mass shooting in a Chicago beach. Bodies everywhere... everything very chaotic, bloody and heartbreaking.

Then, we follow four very different characters in the year prior to this shooting:

An apathetic computer programmer.
An ex-college athlete with a history of head injuries.
An Army veteran turned Chicago cop.
A despondent high school student.

One of them is our shooter *instense suspense music* and we have to figure out which one it is *music intensifies*



So from the very beginning I had my eyes wide open to any signs of suspicious activity because I was DETERMINED to find out who the killer was.



Truth be told all of them had some sort of motive to commit the crime so I was never extreeeemely certain about who the shooter might be. But in the end I WAS RIGHT! Actually I was surprised I was NOT surprised… because low key I was expecting some big plot twist at the end.

Like I said before, we follow these characters for the most part of the book and we learn about them by going through different events of their lives. However one thing I found a bit frustrating is that even though I was constantly receiving information about these people, I couldn’t really connect with neither of them.

Only one of these characters made me feel something and it was mostly because he scared the living crap out of me! I’ll leave it to you to figure out which one it was and why…

I don’t know… Some of these fragments felt a bit shallow and repetitive. I wanted to know more about these characters. I really wanted to feel some kind of sympathy for them and it never happened.

Also, at the beginning I was not entirely convinced about knowing these characters only by their “roles” (programmer, student, ex-athlete, veteran) and not by their names, but in the end I think this served the narrative much better. I really liked how even though we only get to meet the victims for a brief moment before hell breaks loose, they’re all addressed by their full name. It was a nice contrast between suspects and victims.

In the end, this was a very quick fast paced read. It kept me interested all the way through and even threw some curve balls at me I did not see coming.

So if the plot sounds interesting to you and you like to play detective as you read, I strongly recommend you give this book a chance when it comes out in October.

Oh and thanks again to the author for reaching out to me and for giving me the chance to read this story before it is released. I really appreciate it.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark, heavy with atmosphere and a sense of tension that never lets up as PARABELLUM by Greg Hickey slowly unfurls its dark wings and exposes the jagged claws that could create a killing machine.

A mass shooting on a beach, a monster has reared its ugly head, but who is the killer? How did he/she get to this point of violence? Four twisted personalities are examined, four possible suspects come to life, each damaged, slightly out of sync with the world, but are any of them capable of mass murder? What could drive a person to commit such a heinous crime?

Stark and bold writing, weighted with the internal lives of four people who were shaped by their pasts. Greg Hickey has created a tale that will engulf readers in his world, while giving us a “house of horrors” eye view inside the minds that are slightly askew, frustrated and lonely. Do we really know those around us or do we all hide some hidden inner beast just waiting to be unleashed when circumstances come together just so?

Edgy reading that is as difficult to put down as it is to turn away from a crash scene.

I received a complimentary copy from Greg Hickey! This is my honest and voluntary review.

Publication date : October 10, 2020
Publisher: Greg Hickey
Genre: Crime Fiction
Print length : 356 pages
Available from: Amazon
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com

[Kat (Katlovesbooks) Dietrich · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Parabellum by Greg Hickey is a work of fiction.

First, let me thank the author, for approaching me and offering me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


My Synopsis:   (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)

The "ex-athlete".  She has had, perhaps, one too many concussions, one too many injuries, and is now losing her memories.  She fears her anger may make her do something she doesn't want to.

The programmer.  Indifferent to everything and everyone, his anger issues sometimes erupt.

The army veteran.  Now a Chicago policeman, his sleep plagued by nightmares, his PTSD very real.  He's starting to worry about his anger.

The high school student.  Depressed, anxious, bullied, feeling alone.  His anger is starting to make him act out.

One of these people is responsible for the mass shooting at a beach in Chicago.


My Opinions:   

This definitely moves slowly as we are introduced to each of the main characters....which seems to take 90% of the book.  In that time we do not even know their names.  However, they were well-defined, so I guess that really didn't matter.   It was definitely a different way of writing, and it worked because names really mean nothing.  However, it also failed because few people will connect to someone without a name.  I did not.

The book alternates between the stories of the four, using flashbacks of their lives, as well as a chapter every so often which counts down the number of days before the shooting. The four all had interesting stories, and all four of them had issues.   Any one of them could have been the shooter.  In the end, I guessed right, but didn't feel I accomplished much.  I simply didn't care, because I didn't really didn't relate or like any of the characters.  Yes, I felt sorry for a few of them, but they lacked redeeming qualities that would make me actually like them.  I guess the ex-athlete would have been my favorite, but her choices caused most of her problems, so....

At times I was skimming (never a good thing), because there was a lot of detail that perhaps we didn't need, and which seemed repetitive.

The writing was actually very good, and I really liked the way the author provided interesting backgrounds for the four suspects.  However,  overall  I found the book very wordy, very slow-moving and very depressing.  It's deep and dark, and normally that's good.  Unfortunately, this one just didn't grab me.  I am probably in the minority on this one, but this one just did nothing for me.


For a more complete review of this book and others (including author information), please visit my blog: http://katlovesbooksblog.wordpress.com/

[Royce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deep and slow-burning read. The characters are flawed but I can identify with them at times.

[Chelsie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sadly, we have seen a lot of this over the last decade, a mass shooting. A mass shooting happens on the beach front in Chicago. A place where you go with your family and kids, enjoy some sun, maybe a picnic, and this is the furthest thing from your mind. That a mad mass murderer is going to pick that day to take what was never theirs to take, human lives.

The book opens with a bang, well a few bangs and then we are taken back a year previous and meet four potential suspects; the ex-athlete, the programmer, the student, and the veteran. This is all we are given to identify each of them as we traverse through their lives for the next year leading up to the shooting. Their every move, thoughts and behavior – each one is being analyzed down to minute details of you trying to figure out if they were the one who pulled the trigger.

The author does a really good job at tying into each character, the truth of real life things that are happening to people right now. The high school athlete who had a few too many head injuries – could one of these have caused something to change in his mental stability and thoughts. The ex-veteran turned cop – we now know that PTSD is super common and often something that is battled with those who are veterans and seen terrible things, and one triggering event can cause a flashback or cause personality change. The computer programmer who has become introverted and hides behind his screen because you can be anyone you want on the internet and not have to come face to face with someone or deal with in person confrontation. Lastly, the high school student who is trying to understand who he is and the changes that are happening to him mentally and physically, sadly most kids have been bullied and this often can cause anger and unstable thoughts.

This was a very detailed, written thriller. I kind of liked how the author kept the suspects as just a title until the end of the book, but it was also hard to put a picture to that person as well. I think he picked four good suspects, in that with everything happening in today’s world, we could easily understand any one of the four being the shooter, for different reasons, so not just one or two was easy to hone in on, as to who might have done it.

Thank you to the author for sending me a free PDF arc of his novel to read and review. I did enjoy this thriller, although at times I did have to push a little through the in-depth details, I did understand why he wrote it this way. Also, I really like this cover!

[Anirud Thyagharajan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not due until later this year, I was offered a free copy for an honest review. I'm at a loss of words for this book, probably my darkest read this year. Dark not because of the usual grotesqueness, crime drama that you would expect, but purely from a sense of how real it got too soon. The premise is interesting - a shootout happens in a beach at Chicago, and the story flashes back a year, following the lives of 4 folks as parallel streams. The writer has managed to paint a very realistic picture of the lives of a few people, drawing a spectrum of their pains, struggles, trepidation, and a constant need to question self existence. For instance, the author hits bullseye with the feelings a student goes through with constant bullying at school, capturing the suppressed angst, desperation and paranoid helplessness beautifully. The lives of a once-athlete who is not only beleaguered by injuries, but has memories gradually eroding away, along with the war-torn struggles of a war veteran make for poignant candidates. The lack of any names associated with the characters makes for another level of ubiquitous imagery, immersing the reader within each of them.

This book is a social commentary where the author hacks the stereotypes in the current community on how people classify what demographics a shooter belongs to. It made me extremely uncomfortable while reading, and it's exactly the kind of book that people need to read to understand people who actually go through depression.

[Rana Najjar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not due until later in October and I was offered a free e-book copy for an honest review.

I'll talk about my thoughts on this book in my September reading wrap up video.

[Portia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Chicago, the book traverses the reverse route from the mass murders on a beach and traces to the events leading to the shooting.

The book is smart, and it brings in a new perspective through its intelligent plot and storytelling. The book opens with mass murder on a beach.

We often categorize in such instances based on their demographics. So, the author kept the major characters nameless. The unique approach of the book should be lauded. The reader follows through the narrative while removing any prejudice from their mind.

It’s not a book where the reader tries to guess who the suspect might be, but the reader sees the other side and the author did an excellent job in portraying it to the readers. People often think such perpetrators do not live in society. But as Hickey showed, they often are someone who lives a normal life like other people.

As the reader moves towards the end, you get to know the victims sitting on the beach enjoying the sunny day with family, friends and closed ones. The story builds up with the gentle pace and but at this moment, the author levels up thrill part. By the end of the book, you visualize the entire scene of the shooting going right in front of you.

Overall, the book is a crime fiction book with a twist that is not just unusual but also thought-provoking.

The writing of Greg Hickey is compelling, and I would love to read more of his book.

My rating for the book 4 stars.

A copy of the book was provided by the author in exchange for my honest review.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not due out until later this year-but I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy! There are so many amazing things about this book, that I'm at a loss for words as to how to give it the praise it deserves. It is a character study of people done with pinpoint accuracy. It is a heart-breaking tale of the human condition and humans. It is universal, it is past, present, and unfortunately future. This is an extremely powerful read, that will have the reader feeling on edge throughout. With a hopeful ending, Hickey takes the reader full circle through the minds of his lead characters and ultimately through the psyche of America. With the devastating device of not naming his characters until the end, he shows the reader that we are all the same. Another note of brilliance is the title-I didn't know the definition of the title, until after I read the book; already stunned by the story, I looked up the definition and gut punched again, as to the simplicity of using that title, and how it perfectly ties everyone and everything in the story together. Absolutely brilliant writing and storytelling. Reading Parabellum was an experience that I won't soon forget!

[Lulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a mass shooting on a beach, there are four possible suspects. We don’t know their names, but we learn who these people are by experiencing past events in their lives. The more we learn about these people, the harder it is to pinpoint the exact killer.

I enjoyed this story, it has a unique storyline and it was pretty engaging, even though it was a slow burn. I couldn’t really connect with any of the characters, which is weird because we did learn so much about them. The author’s attention to detail and sensitivity when discussing/describing the mental health issues of the characters is to be commended. This was one hell of a complexed story, but the author did a great job with writing it.

[Chris Donovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best thing about "Parabellum" was the prose - major league. If you read the book on a Kindle, there'd be lots to highlight.

I was ambivalent about the ending, but "Parabellum" was outside-the-box fiction and I will read the next book by Greg Hickey.

[Sofie Amalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

[eARC received from the author]

There was a lot of things I liked about “Parabellum”, but sadly there was also a lot of things that just didn´t work for me.

I like the concept of the book although I´m not overly thrilled with the execution.
We follow multiple characters, possible suspects, but none of these characters are actually named despite their title for example “the programmer”. This makes it hard (at least for me) to properly connect with the characters and also harder to remember who is who, and which story belongs to which person. I understand why this was done, and I really like the thought behind it. I think it´s expressed quite well in this quote:

“Hitler killed 34 million people. Stalin killed 20 million. Genghis Khan: 40 million fucking people with fucking swords and bows and arrows. Do you know the name of a single one of their victims? No. Yet you say those billions of faceless, anonymous, insignificant people were good and innocent, and those few who you remember were evil.”

You shouldn´t remember (or in this case even know) the name of the predators but you should rather remember the victims. I really agree with this, but it just didn´t work for a book with 340-ish pages. I think this idea would have worked extremely well for a short story or a shorter book (100-ish pages) but for a book this long it just end up disconnecting me from the story.
All the characters had interesting stories but it was just hard to feel with them. This might also be because you only follow them for short periods of time and also at fractured moments from their lives. This also worked really well sometimes, so it was a balance.

“Parabellum” is well written but it is maybe a bit too much tell rather than show, and this makes the story feel like something you are getting told rather than something you are reading (if that makes sense?)
A thing the author succeeds at is making all the characters seem suspicious, and yes some more than others, but the ending still ended up surprising me. I also like how some of the characters overlap each other stories even though it is very little.
Another thing I really liked was the countdown to the shooting, which really lets us into the mind of the shooter, which was just so interesting to follow.

“Parabellum” is a hard story and it touches upon many sensitive subjects, whether or not it does so well I can´t really tell.

As I said in the beginning, I really liked some aspects of the book but sadly there was too many things that didn´t work for me.
I would recommend it to you if you like suspense and mystery books and getting inside the minds of the predators.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hickey’s writing is smooth and flowing and exceptionally error-free for self-publishing. I hate to give less than four, but I can’t really justify more than three stars. It’s a dilemma, but here’s why: The book contains four well-developed characters in search of a plot. The first two minutes is a mass-murder scene; the rest of the book is walking back some years to follow four people who just go about their lives. There’s no connection to the crime, no actual plotline or story arc; just the back cover blurb telling you to pick one perp. It’s not time travel. It’s not any kind of procedural.

I did like the technique of anonymity through identifying characters only through their current occupation. There’s a potential for interesting conversation about whether mass-murderers arise from significant life traumas if given the opportunity and means. In a twist the author chose to spend an inordinate time naming and describing the victims just ahead of the crime at the very end of the story. While it might be a way to honor victims, in story-world it’s a waste of time on throw-away characters when the tension is better placed in rising and falling action mid story. To make the reader care about the victims, you have to invest in them and give the reader a chance and a reason to bond with them ahead of time.

Choosing a perpetrator based on lengthy character analysis does not necessarily lead to good story. Between a sociopath, a PTSD vet, a physically damaged and a psychologically damaged person for choices about who’s a mass murderer, and it’s not all that hard to figure out what’s coming down the pike. In the most distinctive explanation of drama, Hickey’s story is not truly crime fiction, as there are no clues, no attempt to solve a crime, no one in charge of a case, just simply a meandering tromp through traumatized people’s lives as an explanation of why such a horrific crime occurred.

A sadly missed opportunity of creating drama relating to all of the characters was through the therapist figure. I kept watching and hoping for something to happen as each of our suspects interacted with the same therapist. Instead, readers are left with parental and professional guilt-tripping for not being to anticipate a criminal act. There’s potential here that could be rewoven into a super psychological drama.

[Peter Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me feel uncomfortable. It made me feel sad. It made me curious to learn more, but most importantly, it made me aware of an issue that I have thankfully never personally experienced before. Mass shootings are a terrible, terrible thing. That doesn’t do it justice, but it’s no less true. Although fiction, Parabellum stands as a great example of the terrifying nature that can be hidden away inside of a person. It could be the local boy at your school. It could be your neighbour down the street. They could be hiding in plain sight, and that’s what fascinated me the most about the premise of this book.

Greg Hickey approached me to leave an honest review of his work after he saw my review of Child of God by Cormac McCarthy. He explained they were similar and that if I enjoyed that story, then I should enjoy his. After now finishing Parabellum, I can tell you that he was correct. I enjoyed it and I’m thankful that I got to experience the tale within.

Throughout the book we follow the lives of four very different characters who are all struggling to find their place within society for various reasons. What unfolds is a whodunit style of mystery, where we, the reader, can try to work out for ourselves just who is going to end up being the one to commit the atrocious act by the end of the piece. I did find the pacing to be a little too slow in parts for my personal liking, but I understand given the nature of the story that a slow build was necessary. Also, I can safely say that by the end of the piece I had predicted who it was incorrectly, so I applaud the author for misleading me.

I found some aspects of the story and characters more compelling than others, but I think that was mainly due to a disconnect I felt with a certain character. What I did really like, was the exposure that Greg Hickey gave to the brain condition CTE, which is something I’ve been interested in ever since the terrible Chris Benoit incident back in 2007. Because of that, I was hooked at any time that particular part of the story was unfolding as I was intrigued to see how it was all going to play out. It was clear that he had done the research into the matter prior to writing and it only enhanced the piece for the effort he put in.

Although they were nameless until the final reveal at the end of the book, I felt like I knew most of the protagonists well enough after being on the journey with them and experiencing the difficulties they all had to face. When all was said and done, I found myself in terrible awe at the moment it had all been leading up to. One particular moment after the shootout had taken place had me tear up, which I didn’t expect going into the book. The author has a nice writing style, and he did very well to describe the moment, and that alone was haunting.

Greg thought that I would enjoy his book and he was correct. If you enjoy realistic whodunit stories, crime fiction, or like me, enjoy a gritty dark tale, then I definitely recommend you give Parabellum a go.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

With that out of the way, I can honestly say that I liked Parabellum. I liked the writing, which was much more polished than I expected from self-published fiction (even when I re-read my own self-published work, I think, "This could really use an editor."). I liked how much detail Hickey includes about guns and soccer and computer stuff. He's either a really good researcher or I want him on my pub trivia team. Probably both. Most of all, I liked the characterization. There are four unnamed central characters referred to as the ex-athlete, the student, the veteran, the programmer, whose narratives overlap in each chapter in a series of short vignettes. I don't always love the multiple narratives technique, but it works well here. Maybe I just liked that no individual narrative stuck around long enough to make me divest from or forget about the others.

As much as I liked almost everything about Parabellum, there was one aspect that could have worked better. The book begins with the aftermath of a mass shooting on a Chicago beach, and the book's premise is that one of the main characters is the shooter. Trying to figure out which suspect is the guilty party is the source of the book's tension, and Hickey contributes to this tension by providing some effective foreshadowing hinting at each character's potential culpability. I have no problem with the outcome. I didn't guess it, but I didn't actually feel the need to because, unfortunately, I didn't feel any tension. I was just reading about the lives of these characters, and then there was a shooting. I think the issue (and it's not a huge issue; I gave the book four stars, after all) is in the book's structure. The shooting is referred to in a prologue and then not revisited until the penultimate chapter as the carnage begins. If the book had returned to the scene of the crime periodically, perhaps in place of those short italicized chapters from the tortured perspective of the shooter, I would have kept the crime in my mind and felt a greater stake in which character would eventually commit it.

Still, it's a small nit to pick with what was otherwise a very good book. As a writer myself, I admire Hickey's ambition in constructing such a complex plot and his skill in pulling it off. I'm glad to have received a copy and to have read this.

[Leslie aka StoreyBook Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parabellum opens on the crime scene - a beach littered with dead bodies. But who is the killer? Why did s/he kill all of these people? The answer is a little surprising, but looking back, perhaps not so much. Then the book flashes back a year and we meet four possible shooters - the Veteran, the Student, the Programmer, and the Ex-Athlete. During the course of the book, we learn more about these characters, their lives, what they have endured, and their hopes and dreams. What we don't learn is their names until the very end. In fact, no one seems to have a name until the very end and then there is an onslaught of characters with names. All of the characters are male with the exception of the Ex-Athlete who is a former soccer star that has hit her head and had one too many concussions during her young life.

It felt odd to read the book and not know names, but perhaps that is to not draw any conclusions or stereotypes based on the person. I will say that all of these characters have issues of some sort. The Veteran suffers from PTSD, the Student is socially awkward and perhaps bullied a little bit, the Programmer is smart but has his own anger issues, and the Ex-Athlete has issues from the brain trauma. There are flashbacks of their life and what they have experienced and endured. Each one of them is unhappy for various reasons but will they let that unhappiness control their lives or move them forward?

This book took time for me to digest with the various characters, their flaws, their situations, and wondering when we would learn what happened at the beach. I was taken aback at the end when all of a sudden there were people with names. It took me a bit to realize that these were the people that would be affected by the incident on the beach. You will figure out that one of the characters is not involved in the killings based on the opening scene. But what about the other three? One of those three seems unlikely until we discover this character's irrational thoughts and dreams.

I enjoyed learning about each character, their history, and what made them tick. I wonder how many people we know in our own lives are similar to them?

This is not a happy read but it does make you think about what is going on inside someone and is there anything we can do to create an alternate outcome.

We give this book 3 1/2 paws.

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parabellum by Greg Hickey is a highly recommended literary crime novel.

In the opening, we know the crime that will happen. There has been a mass shooting at a beach in Chicago and after we are observers to some of the aftermath, Parabellum then follows four different characters who are potentially suspects for a year leading up to the tragic incident. The four characters who could be the suspect are not named, but are identified by a general description. They include: an apathetic computer programmer; an ex-college athlete with a history of hits to the head; an Army veteran turned Chicago cop; and a despondent high school student. The narrative switches between the lives of these four characters as each chapter counts down to the future shooting.

Reducing the characters to descriptions of their inner battles and anxieties with their mental health rather than providing them name somehow dehumanized them, even while we learned about their most personal struggles and why they could potentially be the shooter at the beach. Most of these characters will generally elicit your sympathy as you understand that their inner turmoil and struggles are real. The inner psyche of each person is exposed as are their concerns and anxieties. They are developed as characters, which helped with the felt lack of not knowing their names.

The writing is excellent, which sets the novel apart. The characters and the plot are all presented in a realistic, factual manner. Although there was some uncertainty at the beginning, ultimately the structure of the novel did provide compelling interest in the characters and what would ultimately be revealed. Admittedly, the unique approach to keeping the characters nameless until the end didn't completely work for me, but I appreciated the approach more once I continued reading and the pages began to fly by as I wanted to know what would happen to these injured people.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the author.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/1...

[ciel · Rating 4 out of 5]

[ BOOK IG: @clumsyciel ]

overall rating: 4/5 ⭐️
time taken to read: ~10 days
number of notes: 115

"Through destruction, I will create myself, an entity that will exist when I do not."

a normal day at a Chicago beach turns bloody after a mass shooting occurs. in Parabellum, the reader(s) have to work backwards from a year before the shooting to find out the shooter. there are only four possible suspects; an ex-athlete, a computer programmer, a war veteran turned into a cop and a high-school student with heterochromia.

honestly, i'm not a big fan of slow-burns.
though this book is indeed a slow-burn, i was unable to put this book down! i actually read the last seven chapters in one sitting and probably finished somewhere at 4.30am.. oops.

i really liked the writing style. i learnt so many new words (about 100+) and one of the reasons i think that why this book is a slow-burn was because Mr. Hickey wanted to properly build the background of each character. each character was incredibly detailed. oh, and the POV of the shooter! it was incredibly fascinating to read.

what i found particularly interesting was that despite learning almost everything about the four suspects, you feel like you do know them personally and do not at the same time.
to reinforce this, Mr. Hickey never refers to the four suspects by their names. it's always in third-person, such as 'The programmer', or 'The veteran'.

i wish i could read this as if it was the first time again. this is the first slow-burn book i've enjoyed in a long time. i might just get a physical copy to put on my 'favourite reads' shelf! 🤎

lastly, i was approached by the author, Greg Hickey, a while ago! he offered an ebook copy in exchange for an honest review. needless to say, i definitely enjoyed the book! thank you Mr. Hickey!

fun fact:
upon a quick google search, this is my guess on why the book was named as such.
Parabellum may refer to the Latin meaning of "Prepare for war", in the context of the phrase 'Si vis pacem, para bellum' ("if you want peace, you should prepare for war.").
or, it could also refer to the 9x19mm Parabellum firearms cartridge designed by Greg Luger and introduced in 1902.

[Magdalen · Rating 3 out of 5]

What i liked about this book:
1. The presence of mental illnesses that was accurate without turning to cheap methods nor belittling the seriousness of the issues.
2. All characters remained anonymous expect for the victims which was something refreshing and we don't see that often
3. The writing. It was precise, the author is eloquent and is evident throughout the entire book. It's great to see a language handled with grace and not be butchered with clichés

What i didn't like about the book:
1. The length. Let me explain guys. It could have been shorter as many things are being repeated that serve not much purpose to the story. In my humble opinion it would be a better fit it had been more brief
2. The back and forth in the storytelling. Okay this is probably about preference like most cases, but i did find it confusing how we went back and forth with the characters all the time & with past and present. It just not my cup of tea

As for the shooter, may I say it was that one character i disliked from the very beginning. How nice to be alarmed by your gut ;)

[Chandni · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of this book grabbed me immediately. I love whodunits and this seemed like a really interesting spin on it. While I enjoyed the style of the writing and seeing each of the four viewpoints, I think this book could have used slightly tighter editing. I wasn't especially interested in a couple of the viewpoints (Army Vet, High school student) and I found myself skimming a little.

Even though it does drag a little in places, overall, I think it's a good book, though the ending wasn't much of a surprise.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

After starting in the aftermath of a mass shooting on a Chicago beach, the story rewinds to a year before the shooting and rotates through snippets of the daily lives of four unnamed individuals, all with a different type of serious behavioral health issue. The author does a great job of fleshing out the characters deeply and describing the pains and struggles each individual goes through as days pass. At times, the segments felt a little too short and the context switches threw off the pace but never so much as to cause me to lose interest.

I think Parabellum would be a great read for anyone who enjoys intelligent crime fiction that delves deep into the lives and thoughts of the characters. I received a copy of the ebook direct from the author, as I did with his enjoyable and creative book Our Dried Voices. Parabellum has a very different tone and style but was also very entertaining.

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very in debt put together book. Each page filled with so much that you will find yourself lost from the world reading. The characters are well developed as well as the story plot. A book to read if you haven't yet!

[Ramón S. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am sorry to write this because the writer sent me the book for free but the book couldn’t catch my attention during the reading .
I was longing to finish it because I was not interested at all in any character of the trama.
Some bad words and the lack of personality of the different actors doesn’t help at all.
Sorry 😞

[Ifa Inziati · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I could read this in two weeks. Turns out it took me months after to finish it, but only on the span of three-four days to pick up what's left. I was awed by the concept and the format, and I really appreciate the newness (is that a word?) I experienced in reading this book. The multiple POVs that seems to overlap and give hints, the way the writer handled sensitive issues, the overall mystery. I *could* sense what was happening and who, but I kept reading anyway.

It's good to note first that, this is not a kind of book that needs you to be really emotionally invested in the characters. The POVs move fast so each character takes little space for reader to know deeply, but it's actually enough to grasp about them whether it's their personality, family, or job. The writing style is concise, making it even easier to glide through. And the message is clear--I think for a book with heavy themes like this, the message is important to be delivered well.

And the title: *chef's kiss*

All in all, I recommend this book for those who like to read about important themes, multiple POVs and unique format, mystery, or readers who want to try something new outside their comfort reads.

[Shannon Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re looking for suspense, this is it! It starts with a shooting, then flashes back to build up a handful of characters each with their own demons. At times it was uncomfortable to be so deep in the psyche of such a disturbed or hurting person, which speaks to the writing and character building.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a little difficult for me to write a review of this fiction novel, but this is my attempt.

The book opens with the scene of a mass shooting - mostly families on a beach on a hot summer day. Then the reader is taken back in time to a year before this horrid event happens.
We are introduced to four troubled characters - never by name - and drawn into their life circumstances. They are an ex-athlete with brain trauma; an army veteran with PTSD; a computer programmer with a could-care-less attitude; a high school student suffering depression. All four have anger issues so that they feel out of control at times. It could be any one of them who loses it.

I found it a bit confusing trying to keep it straight who those characters were, with having no names to label them. Eventually, I got used to it and started feeling concern for each one - and then they would do or say something to halt that. I thought I knew which one it would be, in turn, so had to keep trying to figure it out. By the end it was tense "watching" the drama unfold as the shooter played out the role.

What stood out to me was the detail, including names, the author took time to include about the innocent victims, whereas, the shooter was never named. That underlined, for me, the senselessness of such acts against innocent, unsuspecting people, and the lack of humanity that drives it.

I used this book for the 2023 52bookclub reading challenge, prompt "First word in the book is "the"."

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greg Hickey has written an interesting book examining the fall of American society's empathy, decency and humanity. Parabellum follows four young American sociopaths as they struggle through life, with little to no understanding of themselves or the other people around them. The novel opens with a mass shooting on a Chicago beach, on the shore of Lake Michigan. We then double back to the year preceding, following four sociopaths, three male and one female, as they work through school, college, work and relationships with others. The disturbing thing is that none of these people ever reflect on what they can do for others, only themselves, and one character thinks he is helping others by joining the army and learning how to kill strangers.
This book is a sad reflection of the moral decline in the USA, now that religion seems irrelevant to young people, and the corrupted modern "churches" preach greed and hatred. The education system has failed to impose any moral or societal values on the characters, and it's as if philosophy and self-reflection are nonexistent. Though I tried, I could not empathise with any of these nameless characters.
Greg Hickey gives us the reason why there is a mass shooting in the USA every week, and 35 000 gun deaths per year. Hollywood propaganda, violent computer games, leaders without ethics, education which doesn't help young people to distinguish right from wrong, has lead to Generation of Sociopaths, who will clearly continue to only find personal power with an automatic weapon in their hands.
Another aspect of this book which I feel I should comment on is Male authors writing Female characters. The female sociopath has repeated concussion injuries to her brain, causing headaches, blackouts and memory loss. She is from a wealthy background, and can afford medical and psychiatric treatment, unlike some other characters. Any woman who suffers from periodic headaches would mark these dates in her diary, to see if they align with her menstrual cycle. Her doctor would also suggest this, and suggest trying various doses of the contraceptive pill, as the hormones in them can help reduce headaches. This character never menstruates, or speak to a doctor about her periodic migraines, or take any medication to relieve them. A female editor or beta reader could pick up on aspects of a female character like this, which seems blindingly obvious to this female reader. This character reads like just another man. And the sex scenes are truly awful. Misogyny looks like another part of the Generation of Sociopaths which this book seeks to portray.
Good writing on an important topic.

[Iris · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first thing that caught my eye, apart from the cover, was the book's title. "Parabellum" means "For war" and it comes from Vegetius' Latin expression: "si vis pacem, para bellum" (if you want peace, prepare for war). I was wondering what the title meant and whether it had something to do with the content of the book. I was pleased to find out that it was meaningful! I was glad and was feeling one step closer to cracking the mystery.
Overall, I enjoyed the story (the theme is of great interest to me) and the author's concise style, the brief yet raw descriptions he makes, were a bonus for me. You could keep up the pace easily, even if you'd spent a couple of days without reading consistently.

However, there were some things that I didn't enjoy as much and since this is an honest review, I think it's only right to mention them (all "criticism" is meant to be constructive).
The main characters don't have names. In the beginning, I thought this was intriguing and that maybe, the names would appear as we got to know the characters but that didn't happen until the final pages of the book. There were many characters, each with their own story, albeit joined by a sickening rage, by apathy (I liked this, it meant that the shooter's identity wasn't as easy to guess).
For me though... I believe it's important to have names so we can start to relate with the characters, see them as humans like you and me are and not mere fictional beings.
In the last ten pages (approx.), we get all those names that we were lacking previously but it's overwhelming because you don't have time to process them or connect with the victims. Still, better than no names at all.
Another thing I found slightly confusing was the bits in italics: I wasn't sure if they were extracts of some diary or something else entirely. I'm guessing it was the shooter's secret thoughts.
Another detail I wish had been different was the endings (the ones that had no relationship with the shooting). I was hoping for further development because compared to the main one, the others felt rushed. I'm happy the ex-athlete found her peace and I'm so sorry for the student's death but what happens next? Does she stop forgetting? What are the survivors' lives like? Was there a reason behind the programmer's decision beyond being a narcissistic psycho? Does the veteran die?

To end this review on a more positive note; there's a lot of emotional baggage in the book that other people might find incredibly hard to express with words, those deepest, darkest thoughts... Well, Greg's managed that superbly.

I am extremely grateful for the free copy and I sincerely hope my opinion was worth your time, should you read it.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

I . . . don't understand what I just read.

The first 90% of the book is just back and forth of the daily lives, over a year, of four nameless characters leading up to the event in question. It was hard to really follow along and to really get invested with any of these characters with them having no names. How can I relate with "the ex-athlete," "the veteran," "the student," and "the programmer."

Then, with the last 10% . . . names are dropped hardcore. It was like a laundry list of names coming out of nowhere. It was awkward and irrelevant because if I recall none of these names are not the main characters. Now that I think of it, I can see how it’s more of remembrance to the victims and not the suspects.

Each of the characters are troubled in their own way. The ex athlete with head injuries and loses touch with reality, the student who is bullied, the veteran with PTSD, and the programmer with anger issues. I just didn't care about any of them. Their was one character I completely skimmed over and I guess I shouldn't have.

While reading, I had no inkling of who the shooter would be. Which I guess is a good thing in the greater scheme of things. Leaves the reader on their toes guessing who is going to be responsible for the mass shooting at the beach. However, also, maybe it was something I overlooked because I just had no interest in any of the characters.

I feel like a lot of the book was character building with no world building or plot. Like, okay, character is responsible for mass shooting on the beach because of reasons . . . read why. The writing just didn't do it for me.

I do thank the author for reaching out to me for an honest review.