Blood Drama

Blood Drama by Christopher Meeks

White Whisker Press; around June 15, 2013
Print &  eBook, 242 pages
http://christophermeeks.weebly.com/

Description:

Everyone has a bad day. Graduate student Ian Nash has lost his girlfriend in addition to being dropped from a Ph.D. program in theatre at a Southern California university. When he stops at a local coffee shop in the lobby of a bank to apply for a job, the proverbial organic matter hits the fan. A gang of four robs the bank, and things get bloody. Ian is taken hostage by the robbers when the police show up. Now he has to save his life.
FBI Special Agent Aleece Medina’s analysis of the bloody bank heist drives her into the pursuit of a robbery gang headed by two women. She doesn’t anticipate how this robbery will pit her against both the bandits and the male higher-ups in the FBI while the media heats up during a giant manhunt.
The robbers are about to kill Ian, and all he has at hand is his knowledge of the stage.

My Thoughts:

Blood Drama by Christopher Meeks introduces us to Ian Nash, a grad student who has been kicked out of his PhD program. To make matters worse, while applying for a job at a coffee shop in a bank lobby, Ian is taken captive by bank robbers lead by the Busty Bandit and her gang. What is different about this Busty Bandit robbery, however, is that this time it has turned deadly. Hot on Busty's trail is FBI Special Agent Aleece Medina, who is trying to discover the identity of the hostage while tracking down the robbers. 

Once Ian manages to escape, one of the robbers, called Owen, seems determined to kill him. Owen leaves a trail of bodies while trying to track Ian down. Agent Medina is doing her best to find out what Ian knows and how it will help her track down the robbers. At the same time, Ian is determined to insert himself into the investigation in order to help Medina solve the case and bring the robbers to justice.

Ian is a hapless hero who uses his knowledge of theatre and deductive reasoning to solve clues about the robbers along side Agent Medina, who is fighting to solve and stay on the case. Even as she nears solving it, male higher-ups want to step in, take over, and, perhaps, take credit for the resolution. As they try to solve the case, Aleece and Ian also are fighting their attraction to each other.

Blood Drama was highly entertaining and extremely enjoyable. It is a combination black comedy and crime novel. The characters of Ian and Aleece are memorable, quirky, and unique. I  reveled in Ian's quoting David Mamet (or some other playwright or work of literature) to deduce and interpret the information he had to ascertain where the clues were leading them. 

As always, Meeks is a gifted writer. He has a pleasing way of propelling the action forward while developing his plot and characters. I had an advanced reading copy so I'm not providing quotes, but I couldn't help but share this gem:

"English teachers liked using allusions the way kids love sprinklers." 

I enjoyed Meeks Love at Absolute Zero quite a bit, but I liked Blood Drama even more. I'm hopeful that Meeks will bring back Ian and Aleece to solve another crime. 

Very Highly Recommended

Christopher Meeks first published short fiction in a number of literary journals, and the stories

are available in two collections, The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea and Months and Seasons. Recently, he’s focused on novels. The Brightest Moon of the Century is a story of a man who yearns for love and success, covering over thirty years—a tale that Marc Schuster of Small Press Reviews describes as “a great and truly humane novel in the tradition of Charles Dickens and John Irving.” His last novel, Love At Absolute Zero, is about a physicist who uses the tools of science to find his soul mate–and he has just three days. Critic Grady Harp calls the book “a gift.” The new novel, Blood Drama, has him edge into a thriller. Meeks also runs White Whisker Books and publishes four authors.

Disclosure: I received a digital advanced reading copy of this book from Christopher Meeks and Premier Virtual Author Book Tours for review purposes.   

Snapper

Snapper by Brian Kimberling

Pantheon Books/Random House: 4/23/2013
Hardcover, 224 pages

ISBN-13: 9780307908056

Description:

A great, hilarious new voice in fiction: the poignant, all-too-human recollections of an affable bird researcher in the Indiana backwater as he goes through a disastrous yet heartening love affair with the place and its people.
 
Nathan Lochmueller studies birds, earning just enough money to live on. He drives a glitter-festooned truck, the Gypsy Moth, and he is in love with Lola, a woman so free-spirited and mysterious she can break a man’s heart with a sigh or a shrug. Around them swirls a remarkable cast of characters: the proprietor of Fast Eddie’s Burgers & Beer, the genius behind “Thong Thursdays”; Uncle Dart, a Texan who brings his swagger to Indiana with profound and nearly devastating results; a snapping turtle with a taste for thumbs; a German shepherd who howls backup vocals; and the very charismatic state of Indiana itself. And at the center of it all is Nathan, creeping through the forest to observe the birds he loves and coming to terms with the accidental turns his life has taken.

My Thoughts:

 

Brian Kimberling's debut novel, Snapper, features thirteen chapters that are really loosely connected stories chronicling Nathan Lochmueller's maturation into adulthood. Nathan grew up in southern Indiana (as did author Kimberling). After graduating with a philosophy degree, he accepts a job as a songbird field researcher. Nathan spends his time hiking through the woods locating songbirds, their nests, and tracking them. During this time period Nathan falls in love with Lola.

 

Nathan has a love/hate relationship with Indiana. Even as he shares the foibles of its people, he has a devotion to them, especially Evansville. But this novel is not simply about an amateur ornithologist stumbling through life. It's so much more and tackles Nathan's maturation with a great deal of wry humor and thoughtful insight. While relating the blunders and shortcomings of those around him he calmly accepts the absurdities as a part of life. Most of the stories are college/post college but some go back to high school. They end with Nathan in his thirties.

 

The characters Kimberling has assembled in Nathan's stories are unforgettable. There is Lola who Nathan worships even while she's unfaithful; Gerald, his socially awkward boss who owns a sofa and bird guides; his friend, Shane, with whom he has several interesting experiences before Shane becomes a librarian; his Texan uncle Dart who has a clash with the clan; Fast Eddie who in the future will promote "Thong Thursdays" at his business; Ernie and Maude of Santa Claus, Indiana; and Darren, the man who ended his career as a songbird field researcher.

 

I really enjoyed the writing in Snapper - the word play and the descriptions were wonderful. Kimberling manages to be funny and subtle while making a poignant observation. For example: "A real ornithologist spends his life in a database: I was the underpaid field hand who collected the information in that database. I was like a voracious reader unwilling to taint or corrupt his passion by submitting to years of studying postcolonialism or feminist theory. "(pg. 140) (Touché Brian - you just described my passion for book blogging.)

 

As Kimberling captures the haphazard, accidental path Nathan's life takes it reminds me that many of us have taken a rather accidental road to get where we are years later. And the results are not always a bad thing, despite how it may look from the outside.

Oh, and the cover of this book is gorgeous. It features reproductions of John James Audubon images.

 

Very Highly Recommended

Excerpt: opening

 

Other excerpts

Brian Kimberling grew up in southern Indiana and spent two years working as a professional birdwatcher before living in the Czech Republic, Turkey, Mexico, and now England. He received an MA in creative writing from Bath Spa University in 2010.

 

Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book by Pantheon Books/Random House for review purposes.

Immortal Bird

Immortal Bird by Doron Weber 

Simon & Schuster, 2/5/2013
Trade Paperback, 358 pages
ISBN-13: 9781451618075

http://immortalbirdpostscript.wordpress.com/

Description:

Damon Weber is a brilliant kid—a skilled actor and a natural leader at school. Born with a congenital heart defect that required surgery when he was a baby, Damon’s spirit and independence have always been a source of pride to his parents, who vigilantly look for any signs of danger.
Unbowed by frequent medical checkups, Damon proves to be a talent on stage, appears in David Milch’s HBO series Deadwood, and maintains an active social life, whenever he has the energy. But running through Damon’s coming-of-age in the shadow of affliction is another story: his father Doron’s relentless search for answers in a race against time.
Immortal Bird is a stirring, gorgeously written memoir of a father’s fight to save his son’s life.

My Thoughts:

Immortal Bird by Doron Weber is a father's tribute to his son, Damon, who died too early. Damon was born on August 8, 1988 with a congenital heart defect that required two open heart surgeries (the Fontan procedure) when he was a baby. Years later, a month after 9/11, it becomes clear to his vigilant and hyper-alert parents that Damon is not thriving and something else may be wrong. Damon has PLE, protein losing enteropathy.

 

After exhaustive medical checkups and intensive research by Weber, all signs seemingly point to the PLE being a result of the Fontan operation. Doron learns that if the medical community cannot find a way to stabilize Damon's PLE, he will eventually need a heart transplant. Finally it became clear that Damon needs the heart transplant, which brings in its wake a whole new set of concerns. One clearly evident failure was the medical community in charge of Damon's case - or rather their lack of taking charge and following through with the proper attentive need for care and concern - and even proper medication.

 

At the same time that his parents are seeking a way to help him, Damon is maturing and showing himself to have the potential to become a great actor. Even while clearly not well, he still manages to thrive socially as much as he is able to and explore his talents and abilities.

 

Is this a memoir for everyone? No.

 

For some people Immortal Bird  would simple be too painful to read, especially if you have had a family member or close friends struggling to endure and maintain the attentiveness a long-term illness or condition requires. It is a tribute from a heart-broken father to his son that recounts the triumph and the pain. How fragile is our hold on life and yet even a life cut short has value and meaning. I just don't think this is a memoir I could recommend to some people because they couldn't emotionally handle reading it.

 

Members of the medical community might want to read it as a cautionary tale on what not to do. There were some cringe-worthy medical moments that could have been avoided.

 

Highly Recommended - but this is not a book for everyone.

Excerpt

 

Doron Weber is an American author best known for his critically acclaimed memoir, IMMORTAL BIRD (Simon & Schuster, hardcover 2012, paperback 2013. Born on a kibbutz in Israel in 1955, Weber is a graduate of Brown University (B.A., 1977) and studied at the Sorbonne and Oxford University (M.A., 1981), where he was a Rhodes Scholar In addition to his writing and his career in the nonprofit world–he has held positions at the Readers Catalog, Society for the Right to Die, The Rockefeller University, and since 1995, at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation where he has created seminal programs in science and the arts–Weber has worked as a newspaper boy, busboy, waiter, and taxi driver, has competed as a boxer and triathlete, and, in the summer of 2012, biked 3400 miles in the Big Ride Across America.

Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from Simon & Schuster and TLC  for review purposes. 

Half as Happy

Half as Happy by Gregory Spatz

Engine Books, 4/16/2013
Trade Paperback, 188 pages
ISBN-13: 9781938126093

http://www.gregoryspatz.com/

Description:

A grieving couple rents a desperate landlord's house in an effort to recover lost intimacy. Twins are irrevocably separated by events both beyond and within their control. A nighttime prank and its gruesome aftermath forge human connections no one could have anticipated.

The eight stories in Half as Happy reveal with startling clarity their characters' secrets, losses, and desires. Each with the depth of a novel,
these insightful portraits of the darkness and light within us reverberate long after they've ended, like beautiful and disturbing dreams.

My Thoughts:

 

My one regret while reading Half as Happy by Gregory Spatz is that I didn't have the time to savor the stories and the writing quite as much as it deserves to be appreciated. My only excuse is that I moved several weeks ago and am still trying to unpack after work. This collection of eight short stories is expertly wrought with a great attention to details and descriptions. It's the kind of collection that could turn anyone into a fan of the art of the short story.

 

The collection includes:

"Any Landlord's Dream" concerns a couple who rent a house in the attempt to help them recover from a great loss.

In "Happy For You," an older woman contemplates her life during a very early morning call from a son 

"No Kind of Music" concerns a failed relationship

"Luck" is about a couple on an Alaskan cruise.

"The Bowmaker's Cats" is about a bow maker and disappearance.

"A Bear For Trying" is about twins and their connection to each other.

"Half as Happy" is about a wife who is losing too much weight.

"String" is about a group of good kids who did something wrong.

 

Of course, none of these descriptions come close to capturing the magic in these melancholy, complex stories. Their beauty lies in the completeness of the characters. They are fully realized, even in these short stories. The detailed descriptions add to the intricate stories. Don't expect cheerful outcomes where everything turns out for the best in the end. Even when the outcome seems good, or at least acceptable, there are still compromises that are made and burdens that must be born. The characters may not even be aware of their flaws and foibles. They are, all of them, dysfunctional and emotionally stunted, but very human and hurting.

 

Very Highly Recommended

 

 

Gregory Spatz is the author of Inukshuk (Bellevue Literary Press), Fiddler's Dream, No One But Us, and Wonderful Tricks. His short stories have appeared in literary journals and magazines, and he has published numerous book and music reviews in The Oxford American. He is the winner of a 2012 NEA Literature Fellowship.

 

 

Excerpt 

 

 

 

 Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher and TLC for review purposes. 

 

 

 

 

Untold Damage

Untold Damage by Robert K. Lewis
Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 4/8/2013
Trade Paperback, 278 pages

ISBN-13: 9780738735764
Mark Mallen Novel , #1 

http://www.robertklewis.com/

http://needlecity.wordpress.com/

 

Description:

A gritty mystery of loss and redemption on the San Francisco streets
Estranged from his wife and daughter, former undercover cop Mark Mallen has spent the last four years in a haze of heroin. When his best friend from the academy, Eric Russ, is murdered, an address found in his pocket points to Mallen as the prime suspect.
As the police turn up the heat and Russ’s survivors ask him to come up with some answers, Mallen sets out to serve justice to the real killer. But first, he’ll have to get clean and face the low-life thugs who want him dead. Surviving drive-by shootings and beat downs, Mallen discovers the motives behind a string of vengeful murders. But turning a life around is hard work for a junkie. Bruised, alone, and written off by nearly everyone, can Mallen keep clean and get back into his daughter’s life?

My Thoughts:

 

In Untold Damage by Robert K. Lewis ex-cop Mark Mallen is a junkie. He used to be an undercover officer in San Francisco, but now he's been in a downward spiral for four years. He has alienated former friends and is estranged from his wife and daughter. As if his life wasn't already at the lowest point possible, suddenly he finds himself a suspect in the execution-style murder of his former best friend from the police academy, Eric Russ. Unknown to Mallen, Eric's life had taken a sad turn. When he was found, he had a bullet through his head, needle tracks in his arms, and vials of heroin along with Mallen's phone number in his pocket.

 

Mallen visit's Russ' parents to pay his condolences. When he tries to do the same for Eric's wife, he arrives to find her apartment trashed while she is laying on the floor, brutally beaten. Before he can really take in what he's seeing, handcuffs are slapped on him. Mallen ends up asking to be thrown into jail so he can clean up. When he gets out, it becomes clear that some kind of vengeance/homemade justice is being dealt out.

 

As the body count rises, Mallen tries to run his own investigation while he avoids getting beaten to death or killed himself. This is a gritty mystery as Mallen travels through some tough districts and encounters some even tougher characters, he soon is on the trail to unraveling what is happening, why, and who is responsible.

 

The action keeps moving along at a brisk pace and justice is never quite what it seems in this debut novel by Robert K. Lewis. Lewis is establishing a series to follow with his very flawed protagonist/almost antihero Mark Mallen. While we are used to hard drinking ex-cops who solve crimes/mysteries, a recovering junkie is a new twist on the prototype.

 

There is already a second book in the series, Critical Damage, due to be released in the future. 

 

Highly Recommended

 

 

 

Bay Area resident Robert K. Lewis has been a painter, printmaker, and a produced screenwriter. He is a contributor to Macmillan’s crime fiction fansite, Criminal Element. Lewis is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the International Thriller Writers, and the Crime Writers Association. Untold Damage is his first novel. Visit him online at RobertKLewis.com and at needlecity.wordpress.com.

 

 

 

 

 

Excerpt

 

 

Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher and TLC for review purposes. 

Beautiful Ruins

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
HarperCollins; 6/12/2012
Hardcover; 352 pages

ISBN-13: 9780061928123
http://www.jesswalter.com/

 

Description:

The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.
And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot—searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.
What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion—along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow. Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

 

My Thoughts:

 

In Beautiful Ruins there are several storylines and captivating characters that are introduced. Pasquale Tursi is a young man who, after his father's death, is now the owner of his family's pensione, "Hotel Adequate View," in the small Italian port village of Porto Vergogna or "Port of Shame." In April of 1963, young American actress Dee Moray is brought to his inn, being told that she is dying from stomach cancer. She had a small part in the cinematic juggernaut that was the film Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, before she became ill. She was sent there by a young assistant, Michael Deane.

 

Fifty years after this chance encounter, Pasquale shows up in Hollywood, looking for Michael Deane, but instead meets his assistant, Claire Silvers, along with an aspiring young writer, Shane Wheeler. We are also introduced, through his writing, to another aspiring author, Alvis Bender, who vacations yearly at the Hotel Adequate View where he works on his book about his experiences in WWII. Later we meet Dee's son, Pat, as well as others. Several of the characters are writers (plays, novels, film ideas) and Walter inserts excerpts of their creative work into the story as part of the novel.

 

Clearly, there is quite a list of characters and the novel jumps back and forth in time. Lest you begin to think that the numerous characters might become burdensome to keep track of, let me assure you that it was really a pleasure to follow all these various strands to their ultimate connection and conclusion. In many ways Beautiful Ruins highlighted how fate can play a role in people's lives and their relationships to each other. And I don't want to say too much more about the plot for fear I will spoil if for you.

 

The epigraph in Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter includes a quote from Louis Menand in The New Yorker: "[Dick] Cavett's four great interviews with Richard Burton were done in 1980. . . . Burton, fifty-four at the time, and already a beautiful ruin, was mesmerizing." Thus, we are introduced to one source for the title of this beautiful and mesmerizing novel.  Another beautiful ruin is Italy. And another is found in the characters.

 

The writing in Beautiful Ruins is a sheer pleasure to read. It is at times: suspenseful, romantic, tragic, comic, heart-breaking, and mysterious.  

It is an intelligent, discerning, entertaining novel that I would encourage everyone to read.

 

Very Highly Recommended

 

 

Excerpt

Jess Walter is the author of the national bestseller The Financial Lives of the Poets, the National Book Award finalist The Zero, the Edgar Award-winning Citizen Vince, Land of the Blind, and the New York Times Notable Book Over Tumbled Graves. He lives in Spokane, Washington, with his family.

 

The paperback edition of Beautiful Ruins is being released on 4/2/2013. 

 

 

 

Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from HarperCollins and TLC for review purposes. 

 

One Step Too Far

One Step Too Far by Tina Seskis

Kirk Parolles, 4/15/2013
Trade Paperback, 352 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0957544321
http://tinaseskis.com/

Description:

An apparently happy marriage.  A beautiful son.  A lovely home.  So what makes Emily Coleman get up one morning and walk right out of her life to start all over again?  Has she had a breakdown?  Was it to escape her dysfunctional family - especially her flawed twin sister Caroline who always seemed to hate her?  And what is the date that looms, threatening to force her to confront her past?  No-one has ever guessed her secret.  Will you?

My Thoughts:

In One Step Too Far by Tina Seskis,  Emily Coleman changes her name and leaves her husband, Ben, and their beloved Charlie as well as her whole previous suburban life in Chorlton, Manchester, England behind - including her parents and twin sister, Caroline. Emily moves to North London and changes her name to Catherine (Cat) Brown. She finds a room in a crumbling boarding house, makes friends with fellow tenant, Angel, looks for a job, and embarks on living a new life. Cat is very different from Emily. She begins drinking in earnest and taking drugs. But the burning question is why would Emily leave everything?

While reading there is some indication of why Emily left, what the impetus was that compelled her to leave everyone, but nothing is clearly stated until the end of the novel, and the answer is likely not going to be what you think. This is a novel about the price of escape, but it is also about the complicated emotional legacy families leave each other and how you really can never escape your past.

Seskis cleverly weaves stories from everyone's past in alternating chapters with Emily's new life. The reader will jump into the past and meet Emily's parents, her twin sister, her husband. As Emily's family history is slowly revealed, you might be tempted to make some assumptions about Emily's reasons for leaving - but you have to wait for a shocking event that will lead to the whole story.

In this well written, clever debut novel, Seskis does an excellent job of building suspense and keeping us interested in Emily and her family (and their back stories) right up to the end. Her timing on the disclosure was superb. While interested and engaged in the novel all along, there was a point when I was slapped in the face with information and raced to the end of One Step Too Far to get the answers I so desperately needed. I suspected some things, but Seskis still managed to surprise me.

Very Highly Recommended

Disclosure: My advanced reader's Kindle edition was courtesy of Kirk Parolles via Netgalley for review purposes.