Megalodon by Scott Skipper – Book Review

The famous phrase “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” quickly came to mind when reading the appropriately named Scott Skipper’s novella, “Megalodon”, a kind of homage towards Peter Benchley’s “Jaws”.

Enzo Palmer and his chums are treasure hunters, and successful ones at that, after tracking down and cashing in booty from several wrecks. Truth is, they now have more money than they know what to do with.

His interest is piqued when a video surfaces on the Internet purporting to be of a megalodon swimming the seven seas – a kind of giant prehistoric shark with huge teeth and a viscious bite that supposedly died out 28 million years ago. The video is obviously a fake, or is it? Some people differ on that, and they simply have to find out the truth of it.

In any event Enzo wants to go megalodon hunting, maybe he hasn’t anything better to do with his time, and though his partners are not that interested, in the end he persuades them of the merit of the idea. After all they do part-own the ship and they’d better keep an eye on their investment, as they set off for Tenerife along with their well endowed women to start their search.

And of course there is someone else looking for the big Meg too, a long ago hated rival - what seagoing yarn wouldn’t be complete without that? And he adds plenty of spice if the story ever threatens to run out of steam.

So begins “Megalodon”, a fast moving and page-turning adventure on the huge seas, and one can almost taste the salty air and feel the balmy winds on your face, as they and you, rush through the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans as if they were mere ponds.

The writing and proofreading are pretty good too, not so many errors, though “ring one’s neck” kind of stood out, and yes, I do understand more than most that all us indie writers make similar errors from time to time, me included, and I’d like to have seen the women present taking a more active role, rather than all too often just standing and hanging around drinking unbelievable quantities of champagne, while pouting and waiting to be patted and touched and taken in the cabin by the men, no double entendre intended. This is 2017 after all, but that aside I enjoyed “Megalodon” and learnt quite a few things too.

If you like fast paced seaborne action with a sense of adventure then you will probably enjoy this, and when I bought it, it was just 99 pence and that is great value in any language, so why not give it a try?

And here’s the ultimate test in any ongoing writer/reader relationship. Would I buy another work by this author, and the answer is: Yes. For sure.

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Willed Accidents Happen by Patricia A. Guthrie – Book Review

Michael Ryan is a successful psychiatrist based in Manhattan, New York. It’s midwinter, and a cold and frosty morning. He’s heading for work, the sidewalks are icy, as he enters the subway system, sees the steep downward stairs, but doesn’t see the patch of ice worn slippery by countless hurrying scurrying morning feet.

   He slips and stumbles and tumbles down the steep and hard steps, banging his shoulder and back as he goes, doing damage too, though luckily nothing is broken and he’s grateful for that, and all the way to the bottom he tumbles, where an attractive redhead finally breaks his fall.

   ‘Sorry, I slipped,’ he says, gathering his thoughts and feeling his body, yet even as he says those words, he wonders as to their truth. Could the reality be in the rush and crush and whirling sky, could he possibly have been pushed?

   So begins “Willed Accidents Happen”, a short story of mystery and suspense by Patricia A. Guthrie.

   It’s a good beginning too, hooks the reader straight off the bat, and being a short story it’s quite possible to sit and read the entire thing in a short afternoon. It’s a page-turner that’s for sure, so you probably will finish it in one sitting, well written too, with a twist of an ending to come, and if you like mystery and suspense stories then “Willed Accidents Happen” would be a useful addition to any library.

   I enjoyed it and will look out for more offerings from this writer. Check it out.  

Personal by Lee Child – Book review.

I have read all the Lee Child Jack Reacher books, but this one simply didn’t do it for me, so much so that I found myself putting it to one side three quarters of the way through – something I had never done with a Lee Child book before.

It is only recently that I have returned to it to complete. So why did I struggle with this one?

Firstly, it is written in the first person, something that Lee Child has done before, but not often, and not a choice that suits Jack Reacher in my humble opinion. “I elbowed him in the face” somehow doesn’t have the same gravitas as the identical scene seen through the all seeing eye of third person.

I have noticed it has been suggested that this book was not even written by Lee Child, not that I suspect that to be the case, but he wouldn’t be the first famous writer to do this, would he?

Indeed, it is becoming increasingly common for successful authors to farm out titles utilising the same characters for others to write. Nice work if you can get it, I suppose, get paid for a book but don’t even write it, but for whatever reason this one didn’t hold my attention.

And talking of Nice, that was the name of the latest seemingly obligatory female sidekick that appears in almost all the books, Casey Nice in this case. So what of the plot?

It centres around an American army assassin who has gone rogue and taken a potshot at the French president in Paris, and has even greater ambitions in London.

An assassin who has had previous run-ins with Jack, wouldn’t you just know it, and he’s seen as the natural guy to track him down.

I doubt if anyone alive believes that this is the best Jack Reacher book out there, and if you are reading them in chronological order you might be better in skipping this one and moving straight onto the next, “Make Me” which is much better.

So it’s three stars out of five for me on this one, whoever wrote it, and onto the next with hopes of a more entertaining plot.    

Conclave by Robert Harris - Book Review

I have read all of Robert Harris’s books, though I confess I did think twice about buying this one. After all, what could be exciting about a lot of old men locked in a room to choose a new Pope?

But I am glad that I did, and in the event 118, or was it 119, there was one latecomer, were indeed locked in a room to come to an agreement on who would be their new boss.

And so the machinations and downright canvassing and psychological warfare and long dead scandals were dug up, anything to damage a potential rival, as the Cardinals split into various groups, the Italians, there hasn’t been an Italian Pope for 40 years, the English speakers, the French speakers, the Africans, the Asians, the conservatives and the reformers, and so it went on.

This was all brought about by the death of the incumbent, which wasn’t any great surprise as he was an old man, just like all the rest of them, and the book is set in the near future, sufficiently away from current times to distance the events, but sufficiently close to make them relevant.

I am not a particularly quick reader but I did rattle through this, and that is entirely down to the page-turning skills that Mister Harris exhibits in almost all of his work. And after a slightly slow first 150 pages that set the scene amid a great deal of earnest praying and prayers, quelle surprise!

That all brought us rattling on to he denouement, and don’t worry there will be no spoilers here, I will say no more about that except to say that I was not alone in feeling slightly disappointed by it, and I saw it coming from way out.

In the pantheon of mister Harris’s works, I would place this pretty low down, above the baffling Fear Index for sure, but that would be about it, but still, it was a surprisingly interesting read that I had to finish once I got into it, and I am glad that I did.

The next Robert Harris book is believed to be entitled “Munich”, a prequel to his hugely successful and breakthrough novel “Fatherland”, and there I think he will be back on more familiar ground, and certainly I suspect his army of diehard readers will be happier with that, but don’t rule out “Conclave” without giving it a chance. I enjoyed it, and that is all that really matters.

When You Get a Minute Why Not Check Out Rave Reviews Book Club?

If you enjoy reading indie books, (or maybe you haven't yet started reading indie books and would like to,) or perhaps you write and publish indie books - well, if any of these apply to you, do check out the Rave Reviews Book Club which is full of interesting things for the indie book enthusiast.

And when you see what they have to offer you may well feel like joining the club too, and if you do that, please mention that you came to RRBC through David Carter - aka @TheBookBloke - my twitter handle.

You can see their website and take a look at some of the great things they have to offer to the indie book world by clicking right here.

Thanks for taking a look,

Have a great day,

David Carter.

#RRBC

#RaveReviewsBookClub 

Make Me by Lee Child – Book Review

Jack Reacher takes a train to a one horse town called Mother’s Rest out in the prairies, why wouldn’t you? That’s what Jack Reacher does, travels America and abroad, looking for adventure. It’s late in the evening and growing dark. In the shadows a tall Chinese American woman steps out to greet him, only to realise that Jack Reacher is not the man she was waiting and searching for.

   They become friends and the woman tells Jack why she is there and what she is looking for, and the adventure that is “Make Me” gets under way.

   I have read all the Jack Reacher books and for me one or two of the most recent ones have not had as strong a plot as some of the earlier ones. That doesn’t apply here, for the plot of “Make Me” is strong and interesting and will keep you hooked right up to the very end.

   There were one or two passages that had me suspending belief. For example, Jack Reacher kills three house raiders and promptly asks the owner to take responsibility for that. What’s the problem, he says, you’ll be hailed a hero for killing murderers and rapists and thieves in your own home, and they’ll be no comeback on you. Would someone really do that, take on all that blame and responsibility, and especially a respected doctor? I had my doubts.

   Lee Child constantly compares Jack Reacher to a modern day Robin Hood, and there may be some similarities there, but Jack Reacher always oversteps the mark, where a real Robin Hood would never have trod. Just my opinion.

   One thing that all the Jack Reacher books still have is the ability to inspire and educate other writers to improve and streamline their own writing. Indeed there are countless people out there who have written similar characters to Jack Reacher, borrowing huge amounts in the process, indeed there are highly successful writers around who unashamedly say that they model their books on Lee Child’s hugely successful fictional creation.

   So if you are thinking of writing thrillers then you need to read these before you do, for if nothing else you will learn how to create real page turners with twists aplenty, a skill that Lee Child has honed to the ultimate.

   There are many detectives and Jack Reacher type characters around, but none of them come close to JR in terms of output, or creativity or sheer excitement, and Lee Child shows no sign of slowing down, writing as he does, one full length book every year. In saying that though, our hero Jack took a heavy blow in this book and may just be feeling his age, so you never know.

   All the books now have film options too, though wouldn’t it be nice to have a lead actor who at least resembled in some way the main character? Sadly that isn’t the case and there would appear to be no sign that that will ever come to pass.

   If you like thrillers and murder mysteries, albeit graphic ones with considerable violence, then where have you been these past twenty years? If you haven’t yet read any of the Jack Reacher cases you have a lot of catching up to do, and a lot of enjoyment to come. Just don’t expect Jack Reacher to always behave in the way Robin Hood might have done because you might be disappointed. Just saying.

Tags: Thrillers, thriller book review, book reviews, murder mysteries, Jack Reacher, Lee Child, 

"Kissing a Killer" Featured on Nicola Noble's Fab website!!

Yes, "Kissing a Killer" has just been featured on Nicola Noble's fab website.

If you are interested in indie published novels you will find a mine of information and good reads to tempt you on her very nice site.

You can check that out by clicking here

Thanks, Nicola, and all the best with your site and stuff.

DC

Easter Special Offer: Gringo Greene Ebook for Just £1.99

Yes, here's an Easter special offer that you shouldn't mss for it expires on April 19th.

You can get a full copy of "The Life and Loves of Gringo Greene" for just £1.99 and that's almost half price,

Don't miss it - click on the following ad:

"The Twelfth Apostle" Featured on the I'm Loving Books Website

You can check that out here if you'd like to see and read more

They did a good job!!

DC.

Kissing a Killer OUT Now on Ebook and In Paperback

As so often happens with new book releases there was a slight delay in finally releasing the new Inspector Walter Darriteau murder/mystery “Kissing a Killer” - but it is OUT NOW.

Here are the first BUY links.