Guest Brent A. Harris catches us up with his reading list, with reviews for Hole Lotta Shakin', Find Me And Stained.
Hole Lotta Shakin’, by Robert Lee Beers
Robert Lee Beers has created a masterful facsimile of a
film-noir detective—with a twist you’ll never deduce. Throw in wizardry,
beasties, and time-travel, and you get Tony Mandolin, a hard-boiled San Frisco
dick who constantly finds himself in over his head.
Tony possess the right amount of snark and sass to navigate
the mean streets of Frisco, and if he goes down, you know he won’t leave
without a witty retort or comeback, apropos of any character so well-endowed
with, er… charm.
In Hole Lotta Shakin, Tony finds himself stirred into
action, chasing down the lead of a would-be extortion-er, until he and his
buddy, Frank, find themselves ripped into the past. Shaken, Tony and Frank must
find a way back, all while solving the case that has rattled the timeline,
bumping into bigwigs and colliding with characters he’s had a past with.
Full disclosure, my name, if not my persona, is a character
in the book. That factors in to any review I leave, no matter how partial I
claim to be. But the fact that my character is also well-off, hobnobbing with
historical figures and the like, makes it in no way likely that I’ll rate the
story higher, particularly if my character is revived through progeny (you hear
that, Mr. Lee Beers?).
With that said, I found the story highly entertaining to
read. While there are issues with style over structure, red-herrings, and
scenes set mostly for the sake of themselves, I get the feeling that Tony’s
case and journey back home is less about solid story structure and more of a
rollickin’ roller-coaster of a thrill-ride, one that will leave you quaking for
more.
AI Rating: 4 and a half, rounded to 5.
Pick up Hole Lotta Shakin' here: http://a.co/gDy9TFz
Find Me, by EJ Bennett
Find Me is a short horror story set in the chilling vein of
the classic haunted house. After getting into trouble, Mia finds herself back
home in her deceased grandmother’s home—a home for Mia that haunts her with
troubled memories of her childhood and her perhaps
not-quite-so-imaginary-friend, Mary.
Unfortunately for Mia, being in the home again after all
these years away, as the house sits empty and haunted, does not go well for
her, or her childhood friend Adrian. Together, they must face down their fears
and solve the mystery of the haunted house, or become part of the tragedy
themselves.
It’s a chilling tale, though one admittedly I had a slight
disconnect with. The story seems distanced from the reader, as if it were a
tinny tv on in the other room, rather than a full-blown Imax 3D experience. It’s
a stylistic choice that didn’t work for me, but if it works for you, then I
hope you’d throw in an extra star, because the author has a way with building
suspense and intrigue. I look forward to reading her other works.
AI Rating: 4/5
Pick up Find Me here: http://a.co/61vnNTm
Stained, by Kayla Krantz
Stained is a short chiller by horror scribe Kayla Krantz. It
follows Melissa, a girl in need of therapy due to her ‘blackouts’ and tenuous
grasp of reality. Melissa dreams of blood. She suffers visions of visceral
crime scenes that at times she feels she has something to do with, but at
others, she distances herself as if she herself could become the next victim.
She’s your typical no-friends-at-school protagonist that must work through her
nightmares alone. Or are they really dreams?
While I enjoyed Kayla’s writing style, and I’m curious about
her full novel Dead by Morning, in this story, Stained does not stand on its
own. It involves too much suspension of disbelief and a character that is
difficult to empathize with—even the character’s own parents know something is
up with their daughter. However, putting aside modern forensics and simple
physics, I still liked how Stained was structured and I will be watching (and
reading) Kayla Krantz’ career with interest.
AI Rating: 3.5 stars, rounded to 4.
Pick up Stained: http://a.co/aABtO4w
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