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Shells
When the infamous Charlie Blue rips and tears his way out of police custody, a Metropolitan Detective is immediately unconvinced the mass murderer could abscond without help. DC Joe grumbles into action, positive his old gangster nemeses are to blame. However, following an indiscriminate killing spree and the heady return of an old flame, Joe’s investigation plunges into uncertainty.
To make matters worse, a renegade fanatic joins the hunt for Blue, seeking to test his strength as an erstwhile member of the Collect, a mysterious consortium of money hungry zealots.
With so many factors stacked in an order he can barely comprehend, Joe mithers his way through a case that grows more insane with every passing moment.
To make matters worse, a renegade fanatic joins the hunt for Blue, seeking to test his strength as an erstwhile member of the Collect, a mysterious consortium of money hungry zealots.
With so many factors stacked in an order he can barely comprehend, Joe mithers his way through a case that grows more insane with every passing moment.
623 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2021
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 7, 2021
Shells by Joshua Radburn was a mixed genre, slow-burn of a book. With elements of noir crime, supernatural horror and a bit of comedy thrown in.
With a host of characters to follow, my favorites by far were the main protagonist, Joe, a detective who seems a bit unpredictable and Mick and Clive, two “heavies” for one of the many bad guys. Mick and Clive had the best dynamic and added the comedic value to the book. They were lovable for bad guys and by the end I was rooting for them.
The bad guys were plentiful in this book, with the main baddie adding a supernatural element to everything. He was indestructible and wore a mask reminiscent of Michael Myers. At least that’s how I pictured him in my head. Charlie Blue was lethal and otherworldly. We even have a beautiful and deadly female antagonist and she might be the worst one of the bunch. Eve is selfish, arrogant and clever.
Lots of plot lines, lots of action, lots of nuanced characters. The author built a huge seedy underground world of crime and mayhem, where even the police can’t be trusted.
With a host of characters to follow, my favorites by far were the main protagonist, Joe, a detective who seems a bit unpredictable and Mick and Clive, two “heavies” for one of the many bad guys. Mick and Clive had the best dynamic and added the comedic value to the book. They were lovable for bad guys and by the end I was rooting for them.
The bad guys were plentiful in this book, with the main baddie adding a supernatural element to everything. He was indestructible and wore a mask reminiscent of Michael Myers. At least that’s how I pictured him in my head. Charlie Blue was lethal and otherworldly. We even have a beautiful and deadly female antagonist and she might be the worst one of the bunch. Eve is selfish, arrogant and clever.
Lots of plot lines, lots of action, lots of nuanced characters. The author built a huge seedy underground world of crime and mayhem, where even the police can’t be trusted.
October 20, 2021
Wow.
That's alot to process!
Will review soon
That's alot to process!
Will review soon
September 27, 2021
Reading an author’s introduction to their title, before reading the title itself, is always an interesting experience because you never quite know what you’re going to get from it. Sometimes it’s little more than a vague summary of the book to come and various acknowledgements to those who have helped them produce the book; and then sometimes you get something far more complex and detailed, an introductory segment that allows the author to highlight their aims in writing this particular story, and the influences that led to them writing it. The latter is always more interesting than the former, albeit far rarer, and as such I always take the time to carefully read through it before starting the title itself. When it came to Joshua Radburn’s introduction to his novel Shells, due out in October 2021, the author not only gives us a succinct summary of the influences on the story, but intriguingly also gives us some insight into the form the story took before becoming a novel, which is something I haven’t come across before. Radburn notes that Shells started off as three separate short screen plays, which were then merged into one lengthier script, before eventually emerging as a fully-fledged novel. Perhaps unsurprisingly given those origins, Shells also has a cinematic-style thematic; Radburn specifically mentions that it’s a love story to topics he studied in his college years: “Film Noir, the Video Nasties, Shocking Cinema, and the Nouvelle Vague.” While I wasn’t familiar with the latter – though a brief Google search had me intrigued – those other three topics couldn’t be closer to my own interests if they tried to be. That fantastic piece of moody, noirish cover art which deftly evokes all of those topics in one distinctly memorable image only piqued my interest, as did the back-cover blurb in which a vengeful detective pursues a mass murderer through 1970s London in a case that soon seems to veer into the supernatural. Taken all together, I absolutely couldn’t wait to see what Radburn had in store for me.
After a gritty, atmospheric and rather intriguing prologue, in which two hard-bitten East End gangsters help execute a gangland hit on a storm-lashed house and its mysterious occupants, Radburn introduces us to protagonist Joe, a disheveled and barely-sober Detective Constable who’s propping up the bar of an isolated rural pub. To an exasperated pub landlord and attendee regulars, Joe once again regales them with a summary of ‘the Black Month’ that saw him reduced to slurring into a whiskey glass in this obscure drinking establishment. Mentions of a dead partner, underground tunnels and a career in ruins – and the haunting laugh of a woman with ruby-red lips and legs to die for; a woman who, impossibly, also seems to be in the pub, watching amused as Joe staggers out to vomit in a flowerbeds. But the more immediate cause of Joe’s downfall is the mass murderer known as Charlie Blue, a killer so brutal and prolific that the number of children killed by his claw hammer can’t even fit onto the evidence tag for the weapon. Barely taken alive by the Met, the shattered killer is dragged into custody and interrogated by two detectives, who are in turn cut down by Charlie Blue before he makes a near-miraculous escape from a police station. The sheer brutality of Blue’s crimes, including those committed during his escape, are genuinely breathtaking (and memorably brought to life with Radburn’s powerful and elegant prose) and before long lead to Joe becoming enmeshed with the murderer’s life as he helps lead the investigation and attempt to hunt down and put an end to Blue’s rampage – one way or another. A broken detective and a broken man come together in a world where only one can walk away – and even then only intact in a purely physical sense.
While the sheer length of Shells – over 600 pages – was initially rather intimidating to me, real-life demands long having forced me to focus on shorter works I can review relatively quickly, Radburn has imbued it with a powerful energy and gritty, engaging atmosphere that rapidly combined to make it practically compulsive reading. I became entranced by the atmosphere and prose that grips you immediately – you can tell that the novel originated in screenplays because of how taut and punchy the dialogue and narrative is as the plot progresses. I never thought that I would describe reading about an elderly man mopping a floor as tense and even anxiety-inducing, but Radburn has managed that seemingly impossible feat. Added to that are some brilliant descriptions of the London of the early 1970s, a grim and foreboding place that feels an aeon away from the modern-day capital I know; it becomes an ever-present background to Joe’s downfall and attempted resurrection, forever mocking him with a sense of normality that seems forever out of his reach, and indeed that of any of the characters involved in the novel. I’ve never quite found a British novel that so perfectly encapsulates the concept of ‘moody noir’ especially in the time period it takes place in, and that’s another impressive feat on the part of Radburn
Radburn also has an eye for crafting well-developed and carefully considered characters that immediately jump out of the page and grab you with engaging authenticity and fascinating back stories. Joe is a well-worn, bone-achingly tired and delightfully stubborn protagonist, the ultimate in tenacious, bulldog detectives who refuse to give up no matter how hard they’re kicked, or how much they’re ignored. There’s a surprising amount of character development for Joe by the end of the novel, to the extent that one begins to sympathise with him despite his turbulent background and poor decisions, the latter seeming to be organic rather than forced for the sake of the plot. Charlie Blue is a fantastic antagonist, part mass murderer and part enigma who lurks in the background, emerging suddenly and without warning to deal death and destruction on an absolutely titanic scale; there’s a fight scene in the middle of the novel in a darkened warehouse that perfectly demonstrates the character, and allows Radburn to exercise that cinematographer background, full of hasty snatches of torch-light and gunfire lighting Charlie up as he butchers his way through a group of unfortunate mobsters. Then there’s the fanatical cultist, heavily tattooed with biblical verses and following the diktats of the mysterious organisation known as the Collect, dutifully killing guilty and innocent alike to exact revenge and protect the activities of this cult; and then following his own arrogant beliefs once parting ways with the Collect to target Blue. Cool, calm and mysterious, he’s absolutely brimming with character and one of the most intriguing secondary antagonists I’ve ever come across. And I could hardly close without mentioning the two endlessly bickering henchmen Mick and Clive, a double act with an ultraviolent yet strangely sympathetic view on life, as well as a dark and deadpan sense of humour that gets them through each day working for a psychotic gangster crime lord. Radburn seems to set them up for future adventures at the end of the novel, and I’d absolutely love to see them at the front and centre of their own novel.
Perfectly paced despite its length, imbued with a superb sense of atmosphere that draws the reader into the murky depths of 1970s London and its criminal underbelly, and littered with cinematic and highly memorable action sequences, Shells is an absolute masterpiece of modern Noir fiction. Radburn deftly gathers together the many tired, worn-out tropes associated with the subgenre, and then reinvigorates them with energy and passion to create a story that effortlessly drags you along into a series of apocalyptic confrontations between psychotic gangland crimelords, mysterious masked killers, religious fanatics, and one Met detective so stubborn he refuses to lay down and die. It’s all blended together with a subtle and eerie sense of occult horror that slowly percolates through the entire novel before rearing its sinister head in the last few chapters, and which further elevates Shells to the pantheon of modern Noir classics. Joshua Radburn has done an absolutely superb job here, emerging into the Noir subgenre with style, panache and energy, and I cannot wait to see what he comes up with next.
After a gritty, atmospheric and rather intriguing prologue, in which two hard-bitten East End gangsters help execute a gangland hit on a storm-lashed house and its mysterious occupants, Radburn introduces us to protagonist Joe, a disheveled and barely-sober Detective Constable who’s propping up the bar of an isolated rural pub. To an exasperated pub landlord and attendee regulars, Joe once again regales them with a summary of ‘the Black Month’ that saw him reduced to slurring into a whiskey glass in this obscure drinking establishment. Mentions of a dead partner, underground tunnels and a career in ruins – and the haunting laugh of a woman with ruby-red lips and legs to die for; a woman who, impossibly, also seems to be in the pub, watching amused as Joe staggers out to vomit in a flowerbeds. But the more immediate cause of Joe’s downfall is the mass murderer known as Charlie Blue, a killer so brutal and prolific that the number of children killed by his claw hammer can’t even fit onto the evidence tag for the weapon. Barely taken alive by the Met, the shattered killer is dragged into custody and interrogated by two detectives, who are in turn cut down by Charlie Blue before he makes a near-miraculous escape from a police station. The sheer brutality of Blue’s crimes, including those committed during his escape, are genuinely breathtaking (and memorably brought to life with Radburn’s powerful and elegant prose) and before long lead to Joe becoming enmeshed with the murderer’s life as he helps lead the investigation and attempt to hunt down and put an end to Blue’s rampage – one way or another. A broken detective and a broken man come together in a world where only one can walk away – and even then only intact in a purely physical sense.
While the sheer length of Shells – over 600 pages – was initially rather intimidating to me, real-life demands long having forced me to focus on shorter works I can review relatively quickly, Radburn has imbued it with a powerful energy and gritty, engaging atmosphere that rapidly combined to make it practically compulsive reading. I became entranced by the atmosphere and prose that grips you immediately – you can tell that the novel originated in screenplays because of how taut and punchy the dialogue and narrative is as the plot progresses. I never thought that I would describe reading about an elderly man mopping a floor as tense and even anxiety-inducing, but Radburn has managed that seemingly impossible feat. Added to that are some brilliant descriptions of the London of the early 1970s, a grim and foreboding place that feels an aeon away from the modern-day capital I know; it becomes an ever-present background to Joe’s downfall and attempted resurrection, forever mocking him with a sense of normality that seems forever out of his reach, and indeed that of any of the characters involved in the novel. I’ve never quite found a British novel that so perfectly encapsulates the concept of ‘moody noir’ especially in the time period it takes place in, and that’s another impressive feat on the part of Radburn
Radburn also has an eye for crafting well-developed and carefully considered characters that immediately jump out of the page and grab you with engaging authenticity and fascinating back stories. Joe is a well-worn, bone-achingly tired and delightfully stubborn protagonist, the ultimate in tenacious, bulldog detectives who refuse to give up no matter how hard they’re kicked, or how much they’re ignored. There’s a surprising amount of character development for Joe by the end of the novel, to the extent that one begins to sympathise with him despite his turbulent background and poor decisions, the latter seeming to be organic rather than forced for the sake of the plot. Charlie Blue is a fantastic antagonist, part mass murderer and part enigma who lurks in the background, emerging suddenly and without warning to deal death and destruction on an absolutely titanic scale; there’s a fight scene in the middle of the novel in a darkened warehouse that perfectly demonstrates the character, and allows Radburn to exercise that cinematographer background, full of hasty snatches of torch-light and gunfire lighting Charlie up as he butchers his way through a group of unfortunate mobsters. Then there’s the fanatical cultist, heavily tattooed with biblical verses and following the diktats of the mysterious organisation known as the Collect, dutifully killing guilty and innocent alike to exact revenge and protect the activities of this cult; and then following his own arrogant beliefs once parting ways with the Collect to target Blue. Cool, calm and mysterious, he’s absolutely brimming with character and one of the most intriguing secondary antagonists I’ve ever come across. And I could hardly close without mentioning the two endlessly bickering henchmen Mick and Clive, a double act with an ultraviolent yet strangely sympathetic view on life, as well as a dark and deadpan sense of humour that gets them through each day working for a psychotic gangster crime lord. Radburn seems to set them up for future adventures at the end of the novel, and I’d absolutely love to see them at the front and centre of their own novel.
Perfectly paced despite its length, imbued with a superb sense of atmosphere that draws the reader into the murky depths of 1970s London and its criminal underbelly, and littered with cinematic and highly memorable action sequences, Shells is an absolute masterpiece of modern Noir fiction. Radburn deftly gathers together the many tired, worn-out tropes associated with the subgenre, and then reinvigorates them with energy and passion to create a story that effortlessly drags you along into a series of apocalyptic confrontations between psychotic gangland crimelords, mysterious masked killers, religious fanatics, and one Met detective so stubborn he refuses to lay down and die. It’s all blended together with a subtle and eerie sense of occult horror that slowly percolates through the entire novel before rearing its sinister head in the last few chapters, and which further elevates Shells to the pantheon of modern Noir classics. Joshua Radburn has done an absolutely superb job here, emerging into the Noir subgenre with style, panache and energy, and I cannot wait to see what he comes up with next.
March 30, 2022
Disclaimer - I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Shells is a gritty and dark crime novel that does not hold back on the gore or the ambiguity of it’s killer, the infamous Charlie Blue. Is he a demon possessed superhuman? Or has his blood soaked and mythical reputation simply created an image where incredible occurrences are easily believed when he is involved? As well as this masked psychopath, we have our down trodden hero, the drunk and bedraggled detective Joe, who’s nursing a shredded heart and still recovering from the death of his partner, the guilt of which is heavier than Charlie Blue’s claw hammer. But Shells is not all doom and gloom. To cut through the dark tension we also have some witty henchmen in the form of Mick and Clive who open the novel by wrestling over a packet of crisps while on a dangerous stakeout. And the religious fanatical warrior who also joins the search for Charlie Blue simply to prove his own might against him.
Shells, a multi layered novel where Radburn easily melds together the dark and seedy underbelly of corrupt city cops, drugs dealers, and gangsters, with the bone chilling threat of an evil serial killer, one who few have encountered and lived to tell the tale. A whopping 600 pages, but one that manages the pacing well and keeps the reader on their toes with just enough enigmatic characters and enticingly mysterious threads, to keep the pages turning.
As Radburn states in his introduction, Shells was inspired by his love for Film Noir, Video Nasties, and Nouvelle Vague, and began life as a set of screenplays. This comes across clearly in the visual descriptions and quick witted dialogue of the novel, not to mention the grey and rain soaked setting of a bleak 1970’s London. An intriguing novel that blends genres, and keeps you guessing, Shells is well worth the word count and one whose characters will stay with you long after the cover is closed.
Shells is a gritty and dark crime novel that does not hold back on the gore or the ambiguity of it’s killer, the infamous Charlie Blue. Is he a demon possessed superhuman? Or has his blood soaked and mythical reputation simply created an image where incredible occurrences are easily believed when he is involved? As well as this masked psychopath, we have our down trodden hero, the drunk and bedraggled detective Joe, who’s nursing a shredded heart and still recovering from the death of his partner, the guilt of which is heavier than Charlie Blue’s claw hammer. But Shells is not all doom and gloom. To cut through the dark tension we also have some witty henchmen in the form of Mick and Clive who open the novel by wrestling over a packet of crisps while on a dangerous stakeout. And the religious fanatical warrior who also joins the search for Charlie Blue simply to prove his own might against him.
Shells, a multi layered novel where Radburn easily melds together the dark and seedy underbelly of corrupt city cops, drugs dealers, and gangsters, with the bone chilling threat of an evil serial killer, one who few have encountered and lived to tell the tale. A whopping 600 pages, but one that manages the pacing well and keeps the reader on their toes with just enough enigmatic characters and enticingly mysterious threads, to keep the pages turning.
As Radburn states in his introduction, Shells was inspired by his love for Film Noir, Video Nasties, and Nouvelle Vague, and began life as a set of screenplays. This comes across clearly in the visual descriptions and quick witted dialogue of the novel, not to mention the grey and rain soaked setting of a bleak 1970’s London. An intriguing novel that blends genres, and keeps you guessing, Shells is well worth the word count and one whose characters will stay with you long after the cover is closed.
January 28, 2022
Shells is Joshua Radburn’s first novel, and is an homage to the gritty noir films of the seventies. While many authors would seek to modernize the genre or subvert old tropes, that isn’t Radburn’s intention: this is a love letter to the genre, in all its glory and all its pitfalls. Our favorite books and favorite genres—especially with heydays past—aren’t always perfect. Radburn acknowledges that there are many imperfections with the noir genre, but doesn’t let that stop him from crafting his own narrative.
I admit that I am often hesitant going into independently published novels. That’s not to say that they’re all bad; rather, there’s no standard of effort. There are self-published authors who write six drafts, bring their manuscripts to workshops, and hire multiple editors. And there are authors who write a single draft and throw it out there for people to see.* I am happy to inform you that this is one of the higher-quality self-published books. Sure, there are some things I might’ve edited further, but they’re things that really come down to a personal preference. For the most part, the quality of this book on a basic level is pretty top-notch.
It is certainly an ambitious project. Clocking in at almost 600 pages, this is a brick of a novel, and there are a lot of story threads that Radburn is pulling together. There are multiple murders on the loose, a gang, a personal assistant doing the work of a detective, the actual detective being a loose cannon, and various other odds and ends that make it into the narrative. There are flashbacks, there is a bit of head-hopping. And the entire book takes place over only four days. There are times when the threads aren’t weaved together perfectly and the reader falls through the holes, but for the most part, Radburn does a good job tying in all the loose ends and creating a cohesive narrative, although mildly confusing.
I’ll admit that I don’t have a ton of experience with the noir genre as a whole. It is a genre that devotes itself primarily to film, and unfortunately, I just don’t watch a ton of TV. As such, I have a limited repertoire to compare Shells to, but I’ll endeavor to do so nonetheless: at many times, this book reminded me distinctly of Brian Evenson’s Brotherhood of Mutilation and Last Days. The sections of Shells that really shined were the parts with Mick and Clive, a pair of buffoonish gangsters who introduce the book by fighting over a bag of crisps at a stakeout. The humor amidst the gore and dark themes really reminded me of the Evenson I’ve read (God, I need to read more), and were also some of my favorite parts. Really, one of my complaints is that I’d rather have more Mick and Clive—by the end they managed to become central characters, but for the most part they were just in the background. I wish their characters had been developed more fully earlier on in the book.
As I said, it’s an ambitious book, and I do think it was a bit too long-winded. Perhaps this is an aspect of the noir genre Radburn was trying to emulate that I’m not familiar with, but I think the book would have worked better as a whole if some of the length had been cut and the storylines had been more focused. By spreading the plot out to three distinct trains of thought, a little something was lost for all three. Some reader comprehension falls through the cracks when there are so many moving pieces to fit together, especially when parts are only alluded to instead of outright explained. It is a mistake that I can forgive while reading, especially since I don’t particularly mind when I don’t fully understand something, but I do think attachment to the characters and all the different plot points was a pitfall while preparing the book for print. Some things just need to be series, rather than squeezed into one standalone book.
Nonetheless, I did, on the whole, enjoy this book. If you’re a fan of noir fiction, especially classic noir, I think this is absolutely worth picking up. If you’re looking for a gritty detective novel with a lot of gore, Shells will be right up your grimy London alley. If neither of those are particularly your thing, some outdated tropes might bother you. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this to everyone, but I do think that many readers will enjoy.
*For the record, this is the kind of author I would be, so I get it. Editing sucks. But that’s why I’m not an author.
--
I received a free ebook from the author in exchange for my honest review. I do not believe this has influenced my opinion of the book and always strive for impartiality.
I admit that I am often hesitant going into independently published novels. That’s not to say that they’re all bad; rather, there’s no standard of effort. There are self-published authors who write six drafts, bring their manuscripts to workshops, and hire multiple editors. And there are authors who write a single draft and throw it out there for people to see.* I am happy to inform you that this is one of the higher-quality self-published books. Sure, there are some things I might’ve edited further, but they’re things that really come down to a personal preference. For the most part, the quality of this book on a basic level is pretty top-notch.
It is certainly an ambitious project. Clocking in at almost 600 pages, this is a brick of a novel, and there are a lot of story threads that Radburn is pulling together. There are multiple murders on the loose, a gang, a personal assistant doing the work of a detective, the actual detective being a loose cannon, and various other odds and ends that make it into the narrative. There are flashbacks, there is a bit of head-hopping. And the entire book takes place over only four days. There are times when the threads aren’t weaved together perfectly and the reader falls through the holes, but for the most part, Radburn does a good job tying in all the loose ends and creating a cohesive narrative, although mildly confusing.
I’ll admit that I don’t have a ton of experience with the noir genre as a whole. It is a genre that devotes itself primarily to film, and unfortunately, I just don’t watch a ton of TV. As such, I have a limited repertoire to compare Shells to, but I’ll endeavor to do so nonetheless: at many times, this book reminded me distinctly of Brian Evenson’s Brotherhood of Mutilation and Last Days. The sections of Shells that really shined were the parts with Mick and Clive, a pair of buffoonish gangsters who introduce the book by fighting over a bag of crisps at a stakeout. The humor amidst the gore and dark themes really reminded me of the Evenson I’ve read (God, I need to read more), and were also some of my favorite parts. Really, one of my complaints is that I’d rather have more Mick and Clive—by the end they managed to become central characters, but for the most part they were just in the background. I wish their characters had been developed more fully earlier on in the book.
As I said, it’s an ambitious book, and I do think it was a bit too long-winded. Perhaps this is an aspect of the noir genre Radburn was trying to emulate that I’m not familiar with, but I think the book would have worked better as a whole if some of the length had been cut and the storylines had been more focused. By spreading the plot out to three distinct trains of thought, a little something was lost for all three. Some reader comprehension falls through the cracks when there are so many moving pieces to fit together, especially when parts are only alluded to instead of outright explained. It is a mistake that I can forgive while reading, especially since I don’t particularly mind when I don’t fully understand something, but I do think attachment to the characters and all the different plot points was a pitfall while preparing the book for print. Some things just need to be series, rather than squeezed into one standalone book.
Nonetheless, I did, on the whole, enjoy this book. If you’re a fan of noir fiction, especially classic noir, I think this is absolutely worth picking up. If you’re looking for a gritty detective novel with a lot of gore, Shells will be right up your grimy London alley. If neither of those are particularly your thing, some outdated tropes might bother you. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this to everyone, but I do think that many readers will enjoy.
*For the record, this is the kind of author I would be, so I get it. Editing sucks. But that’s why I’m not an author.
--
I received a free ebook from the author in exchange for my honest review. I do not believe this has influenced my opinion of the book and always strive for impartiality.
September 30, 2021
Plot
Monsters come in all shapes and sizes and Joshua Radburn's upcoming novel Shells proves it. At it's core, Shells is a menagerie of genres and styles that all blend together to create a captivating horror/mystery that is incredibly unique. I am not going to give much of the plot away here because it is one that reader's need to experience. Radburn has created a plot built of tried and true tropes (like a down and out cop) that are tried and true because they work. The brilliance of this plot is not because it is exciting, terrifying, and keeps the reader guessing (although it certainly does all of that), the true brilliance is how Bradburn pieces everything all together to create his mystery. I think that the plot is best described in the novel's forward. It is a “plunge into [the] underworld of gangsters, guns, and monsters.”
Characters
The characters in Shells feel real. They feel like they are real people with real problems, real oddities, real emotion, and real faults. They have backstories and future stories. The characters truly feel like they exist outside the confines of the novel. One of the best things that Bradburn does with his characters is that he doesn't waste ink and pages with overly explaining and describing them, he lets the characters introduce themselves with their action and words. This makes it feel like getting to know real people and not just characters in a book.
Writing
Joshua Radburn shows his love of writing in this novel, but more importantly, he shows a willingness and to challenge himself with his writing. Writing a novel that blends the intensity and excitement of gore and monsters with the subtlety and weight of the noir world is not an easy feat, but Radburn absolutely nails it. The genre-mixing feels organic and exciting and truly shows off Radburn's skill. The atmosphere and world that exists within Shells is dark, gritty, gory, dirty, and wonderful! The forward explains that this novel was intended as a film, but became too large and morphed into a novel...I, for one, am glad it did! This style of writing lends to an incredibly detailed and visual world that paints a picture in the readers' imaginations, but also leaves room for personal twists and “fill in the blank” room within those imaginations.
Critique
Honestly, I had to search long and hard to find a critique. The only thing I could really come up with is that, due to the genre-mixing, some of the styles of dialogue sometimes didn't feel like they matched. It is all very well-written, but it can stand out a bit if the reader isn't expecting it.
Eulogy
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The plot is intense and exciting, the characters are realistic, and the writing is extraordinary. It is a beautiful tribute to classic horror and mystery that stands solidly on its own merits and foundations. I absolutely, wholeheartedly recommend Joshua Radburn's Shells. Watch for the release of Shells on October 1 so that you can lose yourself in the dark and gritty world within its pages.
Monsters come in all shapes and sizes and Joshua Radburn's upcoming novel Shells proves it. At it's core, Shells is a menagerie of genres and styles that all blend together to create a captivating horror/mystery that is incredibly unique. I am not going to give much of the plot away here because it is one that reader's need to experience. Radburn has created a plot built of tried and true tropes (like a down and out cop) that are tried and true because they work. The brilliance of this plot is not because it is exciting, terrifying, and keeps the reader guessing (although it certainly does all of that), the true brilliance is how Bradburn pieces everything all together to create his mystery. I think that the plot is best described in the novel's forward. It is a “plunge into [the] underworld of gangsters, guns, and monsters.”
Characters
The characters in Shells feel real. They feel like they are real people with real problems, real oddities, real emotion, and real faults. They have backstories and future stories. The characters truly feel like they exist outside the confines of the novel. One of the best things that Bradburn does with his characters is that he doesn't waste ink and pages with overly explaining and describing them, he lets the characters introduce themselves with their action and words. This makes it feel like getting to know real people and not just characters in a book.
Writing
Joshua Radburn shows his love of writing in this novel, but more importantly, he shows a willingness and to challenge himself with his writing. Writing a novel that blends the intensity and excitement of gore and monsters with the subtlety and weight of the noir world is not an easy feat, but Radburn absolutely nails it. The genre-mixing feels organic and exciting and truly shows off Radburn's skill. The atmosphere and world that exists within Shells is dark, gritty, gory, dirty, and wonderful! The forward explains that this novel was intended as a film, but became too large and morphed into a novel...I, for one, am glad it did! This style of writing lends to an incredibly detailed and visual world that paints a picture in the readers' imaginations, but also leaves room for personal twists and “fill in the blank” room within those imaginations.
Critique
Honestly, I had to search long and hard to find a critique. The only thing I could really come up with is that, due to the genre-mixing, some of the styles of dialogue sometimes didn't feel like they matched. It is all very well-written, but it can stand out a bit if the reader isn't expecting it.
Eulogy
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The plot is intense and exciting, the characters are realistic, and the writing is extraordinary. It is a beautiful tribute to classic horror and mystery that stands solidly on its own merits and foundations. I absolutely, wholeheartedly recommend Joshua Radburn's Shells. Watch for the release of Shells on October 1 so that you can lose yourself in the dark and gritty world within its pages.
September 30, 2021
I want to first thank the author for allowing me read this book early. Next, it’s crime fiction and and an excellent story! Just not quite in my wheelhouse but you pretty much have a front row seat to the action and fantastic dialogue. If crime fiction is your go too? I’d grab a copy and enjoy the ride. Incredible story building! Please see other reviews for probably more details then I can provide as I’ve seen a few that are wow! Shows you how amazing this author is. Enjoy!
October 20, 2021
Review to follow soon
December 4, 2021
Absolutely loved this book! Twists and turns. Fantastically descriptive - a true weaver of words. I was captivated from beginning to end.
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