The Shadow of the Mole
Bob van Laerhoven Purchase link: The Shadow of the Mole by Bob van Laerhoven We are all fractured. We all have secrets. We all carry other selves, other times and places. The present is never unbroken and never all that there is. In this stunning novel, newly translated into English, the great, glorious, Bob van […]
The Beached Ones
Colleen Story Purchase link: The Beached Ones by Collin Story I have to be clear to you, but please don’t stop when you’ve read this sentence: this is a book about a ghost who doesn’t know he’s dead, who wakes up and rekindles a relationship with a green eyed ex-girlfriend. I’ve recently turned down several […]
A Final Call
Eliot Parker A Final Call, A Stacy Tavit Thriller by Eliot Parker .Or kneel on his neck for 8 minutes 46 seconds. OK, 4 stars for a good story, well put together, compellingly written and some great characters. Lets get that over with. Well done Eliot Parker, nice book. This wasn’t what really intrigued me […]
Hag of the Hills
JTT Ryder Hag of the Hills: Book One of the Bronze Sword Cycles by JTT Ryder . “a man should die not too early or too late. A man who dies early never reaches his potential, while a man who dies late will become a mockery of himself.” “Even our gods can die”. Despite my […]
On the fate of disfigured women
Dead No More, by Pete Adams and Alejandro’s Lie by Bob van Laerhoven Both of the books I have read this week feature disfigured women. They are – let me make clear at the outset – very different books. Dead No More, by British author Pete Adams, is an eccentric and fanciful crime story, cut […]
Choice Cruise Lines
Jack Kregas . I gave this book to an elderly friend (I’m great on birthday presents – book about assisted dying? Just the ticket, happy birthday!) She told me off. She said it was a very depressing gift, this book about death. Whatever was I thinking of? I felt aggrieved. Hadn’t she been giving me […]
Ronin Cleans His Room Like a Ninja
Chris Roy Well this is a bit of a turn-up for the books! I’ve crossed paths with this delicious author a few times in my trek through the darker corners of storytelling. Racy pacey fighting books, realistic crime with a suspiciously transgressive sense of justice, some decidedly dodgy horror stories. So Ronin Cleans His Room […]
Fractured Lives by Russ Colchamiro
Interview with the exceptionally talented author of “The Other Side of the Mirror”
Love Like Bleeding Out… with an empty gun in your hand
Stephen J Golds Purchase link: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Like-Bleeding-Empty-Your-ebook/dp/B0917LZHYG To be published by Close to the Bone 30 April 2021 The publisher kindly provided an advance copy of this book as part of a book tour. The rating above and the thoughts below are all my own. . I’m not generally known as a sensitive soul who gives […]
A Viva with Indy Perro…
Interview with the exceptionally talented author of “The Other Side of the Mirror”
Heart Fever
Bob van Laerhoven . Bob Van Laerhoven is a veritable Pied Piper, probably in the pay of the devil. His writing mesmerises. He takes us by the hand, dances around us, amuses us even – such sharp, clever, dialogue, such captivating sentences. Yet all the while, he is leading us away from safety, towards some […]
Nite Fire : Flash Point
C.L.Schneider . Well, one of my parents was a dragon, too, so I feel for Dahlia Nite: it is difficult living in the wrong dimension, and having to hide one’s scales and superpowers. One gets misunderstood. I also share her problem with compassion: it’s a curse. The need to save the world as well – […]
Captain Clive’s Dream World
Jon Bassoff . Review by De Gevallene Captain Clive’s Dreamworld – Jon Bassoff They will tell you this book is dark, and it is. OK, read it as a horror story if you like and thrill at that: it works well. Bassoff writes beautifully. He’s good at atmospherics. Read it as magical realism, as bizarro […]
The Plot Against Heaven
Mark Kirkbride The question going through my mind is…. Well why shouldn’t one do God and the Devil as opposing tin-pot dictators, being driven around in limos and buying up arms, each ruling over their own little territory? Why should I be feeling (though I was feeling it!) that it’s not very plausible to do them in quite this […]
Scarred
Damien Linnane “Can you imagine a world without men? No crime, and lots of fat happy women.” Nicole Hollander Here is a chilling book about male violence. It is written by a man, though it offers as grim a depiction of the male psyche as any I have read from the most radical end of […]
Everyone is a Moon
Sawney Hatton . Everyone is a Moon – Strange Stories: Sawney Hatton, Dark Park Publishing Oh yes indeed, what very strange stories! So what can I say? The man can write. (As my friends know, I am inclined to forgive the devil as long as he punctuates correctly, knows the exact moment to finish a […]
The Speed of Life
James Victor Jordan “OK, so you’re a rocket scientist. That don’t impress me much” (Shania Twain) “OK, so you’re a rocket scientist, a shaman, and a future Booker Winner. I guess I’m a little impressed” (De Gevallene) . The Speed of Life, James Victor Jordan, Turning Leaf Books I’m glad that I’m sufficiently bloody minded […]
Review: Crackle and Fire, Russ Colchamiro
Crackle and Fire, Russ Colchamiro, Crazy 8 Press This very readable little book is billed as a science fiction detective story. Ha! OK. Here’s the scenario. For a long time the world (OK, the universe) has been reasonably led and controlled by a broadly benign oligarchy of rich and powerful beings, “The Minders”. These beings […]
Review: A Dying Wish (Razor, book 1)
A Dying Wish – Razor book one, by Henry Roi, paperback, e-book, audiobook (narrated by: Jamal West) You may in these pages have seen me refer to “boys’ books”, invariably, I have to confess, in a righteously dismissive tone. I mean to refer to books whose gratification comes from fighting and motor vehicles and weapons and […]
Matthew Cox – Of Myth and Shadow
An epic fantasy that I loved, despite myself
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