EricBeetner2
  • December 29, 2011

My 2011, or Holy Crap, I’m Tired by Eric Beetner

Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing Eric Beetner’s novella Dig Two Graves, just one of the numerous works from Eric which readers were treated to in 2011. In fact, if 2012 is anything like this past year was for him, Eric better be resting up because he’s going to be a busy boy.

Eric BeetnerAs 2011 comes to a close I find myself not in the middle of a writing project. This is only worth mentioning because in 2011 I wrote 3 novels, a novella, about a dozen short stories and decent amount of blog posts. Not having some sort of deadline, even the self-imposed ones, is a bit of a change for me. I’m trying to take the rest of December off, but I have a few pages of handwritten notes for something I’m very excited about that keep staring at me. We’ll see if I make it to New Year’s.

Now, I say I wrote all that stuff, but the sad truth is you can’t read most of it. The blog posts are out there and the novella is out, along with another one I wrote in 2010 so I’m not including that here. The three novels – about 200,000 words worth – won’t be coming your way for a while. And when or if they will at all isn’t up to me. Someone needs to agree to publish them first. But, hey, fingers crossed and all that.

And on one of those I cheated. It would be the third of my collaborations with JB Kohl. We left the 1940s world of our first two books, One Too Many Blows To The Head and Borrowed Trouble, and went modern and topical. We love the book and hope it is around for you to love someday. But the cheating part is that when I write with Jen I only have to write half a book. So, there you go. I’m a slacker. →

Continue Reading...
  • December 22, 2011

Gallows Pole by J.D. Rhoades

Gallows Pole by J.D. Rhoades“Making people nervous is what we do.” – Bonaparte Sims

There’s a lot for people to be nervous about in author J.D. Rhoades’ newest novel, Gallows Pole. For starters, there’s a killer striking families nationwide, leaving in his wake a scene so disturbing it rattles even seasoned law enforcement veterans.

Entire families are being hanged in a methodical fashion, the father apparently made to be the executioner for his wife and each of his children in turn before taking his own life. Yet, enough clues have been left behind that it’s clear these were not murder-suicides. The process is too similar, the presentation at each scene too exact, and most chilling, a calling card from the killer has been left behind at each of the mass murders: a small iron horse.

Melissa Saxon, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation, understands she has her hands full with such a complex and sophisticated killer. When she receives a visit from two men who claim to have information about the killings she thinks it could be the break she’s looking for.

What she gets instead is an understanding that what’s going on is even bigger and more dangerous than she could possibly have imagined. The men who’ve come to her are surviving members of an elite counter-terrorist team known as Iron Horse, and they believe the killer is one of their own, a man known as The Hangman, gone rogue. They believe they can help catch the killer, but it won’t be easy. First they’ll have to reassemble their team, including their psychologically scarred leader, Colonel Mark Bishop. →

Continue Reading...
  • December 21, 2011

Top 10 Reads of 2011

Top 10 Reads of 2011Though I initially earmarked only my Top 5 Reads of 2011, I ultimately decided I really needed to expand that to ten selections given the ridiculous amount of stellar books I was fortunate to discover this year.

To narrow things down somewhat, I arbitrarily decided to select my Top 10 only from full-length novels and not include any anthologies or collections. And I’ll tell you what, even with the herd already thinned picking only ten was still excruciating.

So many authors gave me hours of reading pleasure this year through their amazing abilities, and I am grateful to each and every one of them. For writing what turned out to be my favorite reads of 2011, I am especially grateful to Andrez Bergen, Vincent Holland-Keen, Grant Jerkins, Lynn Kostoff, Bill Loehfelm, Matthew McBride, Steve Mosby, Josh Stallings, Urban Waite, and Benjamin Whitmer. Thank you.

Presented in reverse order by date of review, my Top 10 Reads of 2011.

Continue Reading...
OfficeLostFound
  • December 21, 2011

The Office of Lost and Found by Vincent Holland-Keen

“My name is Thomas Locke. I am a private detective and what I’m about to say might sound strange, but it is absolutely true.”

To call Vincent Holland-Keen’s debut novel The Office of Lost & Found merely “strange” is an understatement of epic proportions. Of course, in my world strange means creative, original, enchanting, challenging, and mind-blowing, which means the über strange of The Office of Lost & Found makes for an amazing read; one of my Top 10 of 2011 in fact.

It’s kind of difficult to explain a book that damn near requires you to keep a scratch pad or dry erase board handy in order to keep people and plot points straight, but I’ll give it a go. →

Continue Reading...
BlackFlowers
  • December 16, 2011

Black Flowers by Steve Mosby

That was the problem, wasn’t it? In relying on other people and using them as a foundation for your life? When the floor breaks, you fall.

Aspiring author and father-to-be Neil Dawson finds himself a bit overwhelmed with the idea of being tied down with a wife and child. It’s not that he doesn’t want them, he’s just not entirely sure how he will manage both them and his job, and still find time to devote to his writing.

To let off a little steam, Neil writes a story about the Goblin King. In Neil’s story, the Goblin King grants a young man his wish… that his girlfriend’s pregnancy conveniently disappear. Neil feels slightly guilty about the topic, but still, better to write a story than say things out loud that can’t be taken back, no? Eager for some feedback, Neil sends the story off to his father, himself an author, for review. →

Continue Reading...
  • December 15, 2011

Heartbreaker by Julie Morrigan

Heartbreaker by Julie Morrigan“While people still buy and listen to their music, no band is extinct.” – Alex Weston

When Alex Weston lands the job as ghost writer for the biography of Johnny Burns she realizes it’s the gig of a lifetime. A huge fan of rock, especially classic rock, one of Alex’s favorite bands is Heartbreaker, the legendary group Johnny co-founded back in the late sixties.

Being a bit of an odd duck, Johnny wants to do things a little differently than Alex is used to. Instead of sitting down for a couple of in-depth interviews, he would rather talk for an hour or two a day over a longer period of time. To avoid too much back and forth travel, Alex temporarily sets up shop in Johnny’s town, taking a little room in the back of the local pub.

And thus, over the course of what turns out to be several weeks, Alex learns all there is to know about Johnny and Heartbreaker. From the band’s earliest days in the sixties playing gigs wherever they could, to sold out stadium shows in the seventies, to the band’s inevitable downfall as the music climate turned away from straight-up rock in the 80s, Alex gets a first-hand account of what really happens behind the scenes of a legendary rock band.

It sounds simple enough, and in the hands of many authors such a premise would turn out very one-dimensional. Not so with Julie Morrigan. No, Morrigan takes Heartbreaker and turns them into a band as real as any you could walk into a bookstore and pick up an actual biography of. Indeed, Alex’s interview sessions with Johnny provide the perfect way for Morrigan to slowly reveal the band’s history through a series of flashbacks as Johnny recounts the rise and fall of Heartbreaker. →

Continue Reading...