Review: DIE NOON by ELISE SAX

 

Romantic Suspense / Mystery
Published: August 7, 2018

This Mystery Series Has Me Hooked!  

 

Elise Sax is a new author for me, so this first in the GOODNIGHT MYSTERIES was my introduction to her. It’s why I opened DIE NOON with trepidation even though it falls squarely in the category of mystery which happens to be my very favorite genre. It was the not knowing what to expect that caused the caution. But the addition of paranormal to the mix lured me in, while the promise of romance drew me away. I just was not at all confident about the romance not screwing things up, but I quickly learned to trust this author … and it only took me getting to the second page to find out Sax was spot on! Because there … on the second page … right there in the third paragraph, Matilda Dare, Sax’s feisty protagonist in this series, is asked a question about whether or not she’ll shut down the newspaper she’s just inherited. Her answer locked up this story as a winner and Elise Sax as a new favorite author. Am I usually this easily won over? Hardly. But the answer Dare gave set the tone, explained how Matilda Dare found herself in this mess of a position she was in, and delivered the key to understanding the character’s mindset. “Total and utter confusion” would be an understatement. It also had me snorting coffee and laughing for about an hour. I’m talking out loud and hysterically.

 

But it’s no wonder Dare reacts that way to the unfortunate and peculiar set of circumstances she finds herself in. For starters, she’s the startled recipient of the Goodnight Gazette, a newspaper she never wished, wanted, or asked for. It was gifted to her through an inheritance all thanks to previous publisher/owner Chris Simmons who died by a hornet sting while he was taking a walk. He also very ‘kindly’ left her his two aging dogs that accompanied him on that infamous last tour around the neighborhood. But Dare is ever the optimist. So even with the gifts she has no idea what to do with, she does what every non-thinking-straight optimist does when tobogganing into irrationality, and that is, uproot her home and drive to Goodnight, New Mexico to take over the paper. Evidently, she’s hoping she can absorb enough journalism savvy through osmosis to make this challenge work. And work it does … but sort of like a platformed wagon with no sides laden with produce sliding off the bed even when the wagon that is missing one wheel is at a standstill. Did I mention this vehicle has no gas?  But besides the disastrous career decision, there’s the fact she keeps seeing dead people. Yeah, things are not looking up for Dare except maybe for two hunkadoodles who are aiding and abetting her insomnia with dreams of hooking up and getting down.

 

Ms. Sax does a fantastic balancing act in keeping all facets of her protagonist’s life in the air and active. There’s a murder … a handsome stranger (did I mention he came included with the house? Well, I am now) … a sheriff that she can’t be around without sweating … a four-person staff at the paper who try to show her the ropes by having her become a reporter (sort of) … and a premonition that there’s a serial killer running loose. Yes, the serial killings are where seeing dead people come in.

 

And I don’t want to skim over this juggling act the author performs because going from comedy to tension-driven, nail-biting deceased victims delivering the news of being killed is not an easy task. But Ms. Sax makes it look that way by seamlessly shifting the mood without disrupting the two diverse elements. So the investigative work stays in its lane … the murdered women in theirs … while the fantasized sex with the sheriff and the mysterious stranger who came with the house, veers the ten-wheeler all over the road.

 

I completely and totally enjoyed reading DIE NOON. It’s the hilarity that makes it all work, and it’s why I’m giving this story five stars. If murder mixed with comedy, the dead coming back to deliver messages, lust, sleepless nights, and discovering how not to be a journalist by trial and error sounds like your cup of tea with crumpets, I suggest you partake even if not quite sure what crumpets are. Trust me … these crumpets are just fine.

 

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Review of BLACKQUEST 40 by Jeff Bond

 Hey all! Here's a book I came across by an author I was unfamiliar with. His name is Jeff Bond and I'm shouting it from the rooftops and urging you to give him a try. I know I want to read more of his work after getting to know him through the pages of BLACKQUEST 40. Laughed out loud from the opening until the end and loved every bit of what went on. Hope you do, too.

 

Technothriller 

Published: May 15, 2019

Holy Robot Wars! Five Stars for Geeks Everywhere!

 

Who the heck knew that one day my obsession with ROBOT WARS and my love of DIE HARD would collide in a magical mystical kumbayah woke feed-the-homeless kind of way? And it took a book written by Jeff Bond to cause the collision and knock me unconscious and wondering if I really read what I think I read or whether I need to stop living in my parent’s basement. But enough about me ….

 

Well, actually it is still about me because, luckily, I’m one of the devoted geeks who sat there watching ROBOT WARS while making side bets with my little brother and cat, Mixer, over which radio-controlled terminator would demolish the competition and win. (P.S. Mixer always won.) It was this insight that gave me the Rosetta stone to deciphering what the heck BLACKQUEST 40’s central character “Deb” was thinking … and “thinking” might be overstating what that chick was doing most of the time. While I’m not absolutely sure of everything else going on between these pages, I am sure of that. But Deb’s mental aberrations that I’ve lovingly dubbed “hiccups” are part of the charm of this imaginative farce … and part of understanding that this here thriller is splendid cutting-edge satire written with acid on the tips of author Jeff Bond’s tapping fingers. What other than perfect mockery would have produced this anti-DIE HARD page-turner? It’s the flipside of everything that went down one night in December. I mean, in the original, you have John McClane, the cop who only wanted to reunite with his wife on Christmas and instead got caught up in a terrorist takeover of Nakatomi Plaza. John had no choice but to go it alone and be a hero in order to figure out a way to outsmart the bad guys. But in BLACKQUEST 40, we have the polar opposite. Instead of the shoeless cop (and why do terrorists have such small feet?), we have an anti-prettymuchanythingthatisntsoyandthatincludesbeingahero kind of gal who had a choice to end the “training session” within the first hour of the tribulation. Oh, but she’s a special kind of crazy, and ending the takeover would have entailed her calling the SFPD and she doesn’t trust the SFPD, but evidently she trusts herself to handle a situation involving guns? Yeah, “hiccup.” Of course, her decision-making abilities are further warped by the absolute faith she’s put in her “cult leader”, SUSAN, the corporate goddess she believes the personification of goodness and invincibility. But when has anyone in God’s Green Earth ever met a corporate leader that fits that description of being an avenging angel? Case dismissed and like I said, it’s the mental aberrations *hiccups* again hitting hard against the cranium that’s supposed to be working but never is. Yeah, that strange idolization is very creepy. Sure, Deb, SUSAN will fix everything so there’s no need to alert authorities TRAINED to handle volatile situations because, of course, the woman who hired you will know the intricacies of heading off a different kind of hostile takeover. Not!

 

While I loved everything about the book, for me, the real moments of magic in this novel are the “coding” moments. Lord love a duck, Jeff Bond knocked it out of the park when writing those passages! They are so EXACTLY SUPERBLY and EXPERTLY written that primordial binary ooze squeezed out of my pituitary glands in triumph and marinated the anterior and posterior lobes triggering hormones to barrage my hypothalamus in a “Go big or go home” kind of attitudinal way before the leakage trickled down to my fallopian tubes where the ice floe of creativity hopped a sled on which sat a bearded man whistling before shouting “Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!” simultaneously as the idea of the coding miracle performed came to life by Iditaroding out my birth canal. And if you don’t understand what I just said then you REALLY need to read this book and get onboard with the epiphany fostered in with the new norm. But speaking of attitude (which I wasn’t) and reiterating the fact Deb could have ended the drama before it began, let me just state here that The Coder’s fellow employees (some of which Deb manages) were about as passive as you can find without them being a half-eaten discarded Gummy bear. They seem to have forgotten that “no” is such a lovely underused word, and that when asked to perform functions you don’t want to do while being held hostage, it’s entirely appropriate to make your feelings known by uttering firmly and distinctly blasting, “NO!” But perhaps the reluctance was due to something the author took aim at with tongue firmly prodding into his cheek. It’s that in today’s climate, it’s the words you choose to name a function or action that are more important than the actual function. Therefore, what we used to call “stealing” has now been replaced with using the term “borrowing” … or “moving.” So the “borrowing” or “moving” money from someone’s pocket without permission into your pocket is no longer a crime even though it fits the description of theft which used to be a felony. So applying the new rules in the case of this hostage situation, it wasn’t a “hostage situation” where all employees were deprived of freedom and their constitutional rights, it was “an approved training session” because the naming convention made it all right. Correction: the naming convention plus the free all-you-can-eat food. Sweet!

 

This book is absolutely hilarious. I couldn’t stop laughing and I enjoyed every minute of it. Brilliantly written, Bond has his finger on the pulse of hypocrites everywhere. Most especially on Deb the do-gooder who does no good. She’s the one who lashes at everyone who doesn’t put to use their “wasted” square footage which begs the question of how much is allotted for humans to own or rent before it’s considered “wasted”? Deb alone decides. And she has that army of robots to enforce her rules. But the army is also her saving grace for it’s her crafting robotics that fly, rescue, spy, and escape from boxes to do her bidding that encapsulate the true genius Deb has residing somewhere inside her because I guarantee genius is not evident in establishing winning business ideas.

 

I highly recommend BLACKQUEST 40 to anyone and everyone with a sense of humor that wants to read something unique, well-written, and fiendishly clever. The story also says a heck of a lot about society and the direction that we’re heading … as well as how we’ve changed … but forget all that. Just read it for FUN! Yeah, remember that concept? As for me … yes, back to me … I am waiting for someone just like Deb to show up at my doorstep with tape in hand, wanting to measure my existing rental space and inform me that I could fit another person near the flat-screen if I only got rid of my couch. I know that day is coming and when it does, I’ll swallow and gulp while using that glorious word, “NO!” while I still can and hope Deb scurries away into some venting system where she’ll stay forever. It’s five stars from me. 

 

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Review of THE AMBASSADOR'S WIFE BY Jake Needham

 

Detective/Thriller
First Entry in the Inspector Samuel Tay Novels

 

A FANTASTIC READ!

 

I simply loved the AMBASSOR’S WIFE by Jake Needham. Compelling plot, intriguing characters, detailed and intelligent narrative, this first in the INSPECTOR SAMUEL TAY NOVELS had it all … including a ‘niftily’ complex intricacy that left lots of dark spaces for secrets to hide. Talk about immersive! I really felt I was there witnessing the events and not reading words on my trusty kindle. As for the storyline:

 

Two American women are found dead. Brutally beaten and posed in a lewd fashion, it’s discovered that one of the victims has ties to politics. The connection complicates matters, but then so does the possibility of a serial killer running loose in Singapore. Businesses don’t relish tourism tanking because of grisly murders committed on unaccompanied young women traveling alone. The urgency to take control of the situation before it becomes fodder for ugly headlines falls to the police. And it’s under these unique circumstances, that the top brass hands the case over to Inspector Samuel Tay. However, the assignment has its own set of problems … namely, a leash and collar in the form of pressure for Tay to find a culprit … any culprit and not necessarily the one who committed the slayings. However, making someone a scapegoat and calling it a day is not an option for Tay … but then neither is losing his job. So it’s with trepidation the veteran detective begins the difficult and thankless job of weeding out a killer without anyone noticing.

 

Needham does what he does best in crafting this unputdownable mystery. The words flow and before you know it, you’re again staying up way past your bedtime and dragging yourself into the office in the next morning. Not that I’m complaining … not when the use of language is impeccable with just the right ratio of action to descriptive passages. In case you’re wondering, it’s the same ratio of whipped cream to pie filling used in baking. And the magic formula ensures that every bite …. every nuance … is there. I believe that if Mr. Needham were a pianist, he’d be playing the notes found by striking the keys, but also those found in-between the keys.

 

And a word about pacing … while some novels tout “fast-paced” as a selling point, this mystery takes a different approach in allowing the pacing to take as much time as is needed. This is achieved by conforming the speed to the character of Inspector Samuel Tay, the man at the center of all the action. As we soon learn, Tay is a pragmatic man … a humble man … a logical man … an orderly man that doesn’t rush about and is in no hurry to do anything other than his job. Therefore, he doesn’t rush, he stalks. Stalks the problem … the offender … while methodically piecing together clues until he finds the solution through analysis. It’s this relentless pursuit that sets the pacing that mirrors the rhythm of the protagonist’s heart. It creates a seamless process that is utterly compelling and really does make you believe you are in Singapore cheering him on. 

 

I highly recommend this book, and any of Mr. Needham’s books. He really is a gifted author so take full advantage and try this one out for size. I have no doubt you’ll enjoy and why I’m giving this five solid stars.

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