Bike Lane by Hugh Gentry

Good short story by Hugh Gentry. Worth a look - buy it from Amazon.

These folks are pretty good, too

Bright Eyes, Classic Cars

Aha! Until It's Time For You To Go

The Russkies Love Me!

Lots of hits from behind the Iron Curtain. Thanks Knroarobaevbstan!!!!!

Loving Arms

Strong vocals. The Boy cranks it out.

Hadrian Denarius

The kid was excited about this one.

Obv: IMPCAESARTRAIANHADRIANVSAVG - Laureate head right, draped left shoulder.
Rev: PMTRPCOSII Exe: FORTRED - Fortuna seated left, holding rudder and cornucopia.

Lawyers, Guns & Money by JD Rhoades

I read and reviewed one of Rhoades' other books, The Devil's Right Hand, and ended up pleased that I came across his work. Here's an abbreviated description of the book I just finished, Lawyers, Guns & Money:

Andy Cole has a problem. Local crime boss Voit Fairgreen has just dropped a bag full of cash on his desk and hired him to defend Voit's brother Danny on a murder charge.

The problem is that Danny just might be innocent. But someone powerful needs this case buried, and if an innocent man dies for that, so be it.

Andy Cole is a guy who's made a good living by going along to get along. He's been willing to bend every rule, except Rule One--always get paid. But this case will cause him to re-examine his life and push him and his lover, beautiful newspaper editor Elizabeth Sinclair, to risk everything--including their lives-- for the truth.


Go ahead and read my review of his previous book (here). Much of the same applies, including that he still has the same initials as JD Sumner. From my earlier review:


I really enjoyed this book. Great characters, plot, dialogue, and just flat out good writing.


I picked it up for free, but I would have paid for it. And I'll read more of his stuff. What better rec can I give?


Keep in mind that I just finished two of Lee Child's books before I picked this up, and Rhoades had me turning the pages. 


Another great job, JD. And I'll continue to read more of his stuff. Fo' Stars.

Stonewall's Rating System here.

Sick (Project Eden #1) by Brett Battles

Not sure how I stumbled across Brett Battles, but I read his first book and really enjoyed it (I reviewed it here). Looking for something to read in my electronic TBR pile (more about that here), I decided to give Sick a ride. Sick is the first book in the Project Eden series (of which there are three to date).

Here's an abbreviated blurb:
Daniel Ash wakes to the cry of his daughter. Stepping through her doorway, he expects to find her frightened by a nightmare. 

But the nightmare is his. It's real. And it's just beginning... 

Something is burning Ash's daughter alive. Something horrible that is spreading beyond the walls of their home, and taking no prisoners. 

A team of armed men in biohazard suits bursts into his house. But these aren't the good guys. 
They haven't come to save Ash's family. They've come to finish what they started. 

The problem is Ash refuses to disappear. He wants only one thing: to find those responsible. 

Because humanity is on the brink of execution. And man is pulling the trigger.


This is the kind of thriller I've been looking for. Not terribly long, great writing and characters, well constructed plot and short on flowery descriptions.

I only give 5-stars to books I would read again, and I won't read this again, mainly because I generally don't read books twice. But I'll probably read everything else this guy writes, and soon, starting with the second book in the series, Exit 9. How's that for an endorsement, Bretito? Fo' stars.

Stonewall's rating system here.

Trajan Decius AR Antoninianus

The 10-year old got this one for twenty bucks today. We're starting to get a pretty good collection.

Legend by Wildwinds.
IMP C M Q TRAIANVS DECIVS AVG, radiate, draped, cuirassed bust right / GENIVS EXERC ILLVRICIANI, Genius standing left with patera & cornucopiae; standard at right. RIC 16c, RSC 49.

Soldier of Rome: The Legionary by James Mace

I like the Romans. Hell, I love the Romans. Who needs Snookie when you've got Elagabalus, an early third century emperor who was killed by his granny in favor of another grandson? Good stuff.

So, I pick up The Legionary, despite my rule about books with terrible covers (free book freeloader here) and leave it in the ebook TBR pile. Now, in the meantime I've started collecting Roman coins, and that spurred me to read this book.

We know what the book is about: Rome waging war in Germania. A third of the way in, the army is moving in to defeat the traitorous Arminius. For a good portion of the first third, we are following our hero, Artorius, as he trains to become a soldier. Due to the fact that there are massive info dumps (both text and dialog), this can drag on for a while. Having said that, there is a lot of information that you need to understand, and a lot of information that you may want to learn, and you will get it from the first section of this book. The information about Roman army structure, training methods, etc., is presented didactically. Without making the book incredibly long, this may have been the best way to present it. To say I was riveted to the page while absorbing it may be overkill, but I'm glad to have learned it.

TWO WEEKS LATER:
Alright, I finished it, and by that I mean I skimmed the last 20% of the book (mainly reading the dialog (maybe I'm back to a screenplay state of mind?)). Here's the rub: I'm not sure what the rub is. It seems like there was a fourth act to the book, when it could have ended naturally after the climax. This is the first book in (to date) a four-book series, so the fourth act could have been the beginning of the second book (and maybe it is).

Here's my rub: I'm not sure how to rate this book. Because I'm a Roman fan, I liked it, but the battle scenes went on, etc. If you like battle scenes, you may love it. I won't give this book a bad rating because I know how difficult it is to write a book. (Mace clearly knows his stuff. Shoot, from his website it looks like he is a Roman re-enactor.) And I may be spoiled by Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Chronicles, which are wonderful.

Overall: stop hatin', haters. The history is good (to my limited knowledge) and there's a lot of good information here. At some point I'll pick up the next book in the series.

SIDE NOTE:
I think he could improve the product with a better cover, but, then again, I'm a cover whore. I took a stab at it using Powerpoint, and I don't think it turned out terribly. 

Elagabalus, RIP baby

We picked up one similar to this from a local coin dealer last month, though ours is in a little better condition. We picked up a Phillip the Arab denarius while we were there as well. My ten year old son is learning the fine art of negotiating - he got almost twenty percent off the pair.

Elagabalus had a hard time of it. While he was trying to figure out whether he liked girls or boys, his granny fomented a plot to have him assassinated in favor of another grandson, Severus Alexander. Thems the breaks. Ettu, Granny? More about Elagabalus here.

Legend from Wildwinds.
Elagabalus Denarius. IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, laureate draped bust right / P M TRP IIII COS III P P, Victory flying left holding open wreath, star in field right. RSC 195.

The Zona by Nathan Yocum

I've read a few post-apocalyptic books in the last couple years. Want to be depressed for a week? Read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Want to be depressed for two weeks? Read The Road by Cormac McCarthy then watch a movie called The Road. Want to depress your son for life? Name him Cormac.

I recently read The Walk by Lee Goldberg and liked it. One of the better ones was Run by Blake Crouch. I'd review it, but I read it last year and have slept since then (I give it Fo' Stars, Blakester).

In a doom-and-gloom move, I picked up The Zona. It had some good reviews and I picked it up at no cost (free book freeloader here).

The Zona is a thinly veiled screed against Christianity, or at the least organized religion, so if you cannot get past that, then this isn't the book for you. If you can see past it and you like the genre, you should pick it up.

It takes place ~25 years after the western US was decimated by storms and an Old West mentality permeates the region. Religious zealots have most of the control and our hero, Lead, is one of the Church's enforcers. The book tracks Lead's trek from being an enforcer to abandoning the Church.

The book was very well written and a true page-turner. It started out a bit slow from the standpoint that it took a little while to figure out what was going on, but once it got rolling it was hard to put down.

One point about the dialog: a lot of it made me feel like I was aboard the Mayflower. To illustrate how far civilization had slid backwards under fundamentalist rule, Yocum at times uses Pilgrim dialog. "How far doest thee needest to goeth?" I made that up because I'm too lazy to look up an example, but that is a representative sample. After a while I either got used to it or he toned it down.

Good writing, good cover, good formatting, good editing. Great effort, and I would read something else by this author. Bueno, Nathno, Fo' Stars.

Stonewall's rating system here.

Bad Doctor / Call Me! by John Locke

I've read all of John Locke's books (not the English philosopher, the self-publishing juggernaut), several of these I have read while at the coast. They are entertaining, quick reads with a quick style and twists that you may not see coming.

I found myself at the coast again this Memorial Day and breezed through two of his books I hadn't yet read, Bad Doctor and Call Me!. Both are the first installments of two characters, Dr. Gideon Box and Dani Ripper, respectively.

It helps that he keeps them relatively short, because at the coast I spend a fair amount of time taking bottom-feeding catfish off my sons' hooks. In between my niece being stung by a jelly fish and having to go to Walgreens three times, John Locke did not disappoint.

If you have read his other books, he has an interesting way of bringing in characters from other books for cameos. Along that line, I would also suggest his other series featuring Donovan Creed and a western series he has with Emmett Love.

Bueno Juan, Fo' Stars.

Stonewall's rating system here.

Quickies

The Scavenger's Daughter by Mike McIntyre. Fo' Stars. Our villain is using medieval torture devices to kill his victims. Good plot. Check it out here.









Elvis Has Not Left the Building by JR Rain. Fo' Stars. Elvis is older, but now he's a private detective in Southern California. Fun book. Check it out here.








Open Season by Archer Mayor. Fo' Stars. First book in the series (~1988), so keep than in mind when you are asking yourself: why don't they just use their cell phone? I've bought more of these books. Check it out here.

Stonewall's rating system here.

Without a Spark by George Berger

Bueno

So, Stonewallians, why is this book ranked 342,054 in the Kindle Store? Not sure myself, because I found it to be a fun read.

I don't laugh aloud when I'm reading something - and if I do it's rare. I didn't do that while reading Without a Spark, but there were some funny, clever moments. And this is draped in front of a good plot, clear writing, and unique characters that I haven't seen before.

The plot unfolds nicely, Berger does a good job of avoiding info dumps and gives us what we need know at the right time. There is some sex in the book, if you're worried about that one way or another. There are a few reviews on Amazon (here!) that may provide more insight than I can, seeing that I am an amateur reviewer and all.

I liked Berger's dry humor and got a kick out of his self-flagellating humor on his website here. (Not to be confused with self-flatulating humor, which would be worse.)

If you are biased against self-published authors, here are a couple of points to assuage your angst: the book was formatted correctly and I didn't find any typos. In two or three places the dialog was a bit garrulous, but I got through it in about fifteen seconds.

I'd like to see this book get more sales - it's quick and well though out. The book is worth at least $2.88 and a few hours of your time.

And I'd like to see these characters again. What better rec can I give? Fo' Stars, Jorge.

Stonewall's rating system here.

The Cleaner by Brett Battles

Bueno

In a reader review somewhere out there, I read that Brett Battles was a cross between Lee Child and Robert Ludlum. After reading The Cleaner, it was a good comparison (except Battles' sentences are longer than Childs', which are difficult to be any shorter).

It's a fast moving plot without any info dumps - he feeds you info as you go and it keeps the pages turning. The writing is very good and I liked the characters. Our hero, Jonathan Quinn, does a little continent jumping and Battles does a good job giving a sense of place (but not too much, which I prefer).

I'm tired, so I'm not expounding as much as I should, because this is a book worth reading. If you like Lee Child's Jack Reacher, you'll like Battles' Jonathan Quinn.

I'll keep my eye out for the next book in the series, The Deceived. As I like to say, I'll read more of his work - what better rec can I give? Bueno, Brettito: Fo' Stars.

Stonewall's rating system here.

The Devil's Right Hand by JD Rhoades

Bueno

JD Rhoades is an attorney, which makes sense because of his initials. And someone that shares the same initials with JD Sumner (from JD Sumner and the Stamps, Elvis' background vocals in the 70's) can't be half bad from the get-go.

This is another one that I picked up for free, along with a couple more of his books. It seems that The Devil's Right Hand was originally published by St. Martin's back in 2005, and now Rhoades has the rights back and is offering it directly (good for him).

The book met my requirements as a Free Book Freeloader, and I put it in the queue (along with a few hundred others). I read the blurb, checked out his website and blog, and came away with the idea that Rhoades was a pretty affable guy.

I really enjoyed this book. Great characters, plot, dialogue, and just flat out good writing. There weren't necessarily any surprises, but the plot convergence at the end of the story came together well, and with a lot of suspense, to boot.

I'm generally loathe to compare folks to other authors, but if you like Hiaasen, Tim Dorsey or Ben Rehder, you will like The Devil's Right Hand. (This is a little more serious and suspenseful than those, though.)

I picked it up for free, but I would have paid for it. And I'll read more of his stuff. Like I say, what better rec can I give? Great job, JD. Fo' Stars.

Stonewall's Rating system here. Since this is published directly, I consider this an Indie for my purposes.
Amazon equivalent: 4.5 Stars

Bangkok Burn by Simon Royle

Bueno

One guess where this is set. Bangkok Burn is a fun book with some quirky characters and a fast plot. I discovered the book while I was scavenging for free books, and I'm glad I found it. (It's back to the regular price now, but worth the dinero.)

Royle does a good job providing insight to Thai culture and mores. Ample description of the city and of rural scenes, but not too much (which I prefer). Great dialogue and a well thought-out plot; all loose ends were tied up.

I'll admit at times I had trouble keeping things straight, but Royle continues to give you what you need to know, and I found myself straightened out quickly enough.

I don't really know much about the author, but it seems he's a Brit living in Bangkok. Makes sense - he knew enough to write about it.

I liked these characters and I'd like to see them again (Mr. Royle?). If you want a thriller with a new setting, I'd recommend Bangkok Burn. If you just want a thriller, I'd still recommend it.

Bring these characters back, Khun Simon. Fo' Stars.

Stonewall's rating system here.

The Shopkeeper by James D. Best

Bueno

Let's see, the last western I probably read was Lonesome Dove (which qualifies as a Stonewall Five Star, since I would read it again). I'll take that back: I read a couple of John Locke's Emmett Love books (good, quick reads, by the way).

So, with my predilection for free books (or the actual search for them, as discussed here), I stumbled across James D. Best's The Shut Mouth Society. Recognizing his name a few weeks later with yet more libros por no dinero, I hit the free book hat trick: three free Best westerns (get it?) in his Steve Dancy series.

At this point in my life, I'm looking for quick, fun, interesting reads. Enough of reading the description of an azalea for five pages - I want some fun without all the prose.

The Shopkeeper did not disappoint. It's well written with deep characters (that we care about) and a swift plot that keeps the pages turning.  The descriptions of the vast Nevada country are ample without the overkill. Great dialogue and a well contrived plot. One caveat: the formatting needs to be fixed, but it didn't deter me from the story.

I'll read the rest of his work at some point. Great yob, Yimmy. Fo' Stars.

Stonewalls rating system here. I think this was originally published by a small press, but I categorize it as an Indie for my purposes.

I Really Don't Want to Know

A song you don't hear too often. This from one of his last concerts in 1977. He's sporting the Mexican Sundial and hits all of the notes. Now with Spanish subtitles!

Viking Warrior by Judson Roberts

New Cover

First things first. The new (indie) cover: ouch. The old (publisher's) cover: looks like it was being marketed to a YA audience. For the most part, I avoid books that have covers with pictures of faces, but I saw the new (terrible) cover first.

Not sure how I stumbled upon Viking Warrior. I've read all of Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Series, so I assume it came up in Amazons also-boughts.

This is the first installment of our hero, Halfdan, a thrall that is granted his freedom on his father's deathbed. Although this seems to have been originally marketed to YA, it still has all of the raping, pillaging, and decapitating that we expect in a Viking Warrior book.

It felt like a shorter read, but the characters are well developed and the action is strong. Like Cornwell, Roberts goes in-depth with his description, which I get a flavor for, then unceremoniously skip.

Old Cover

Roberts is a good writer, as evidenced by the fact that I read this in a couple of days (again, it wasn't terribly long). Do not let the cover abominations deter you: I will be reading the next installment of Halfdan, Dragons from the Sea, despite his portfolio of atrocious covers. If you like Uhtred, you should give Viking Warrior a drive.

Bueno, Judson: Fo' stars.


Stonewall's rating system here.

Hunter by Robert Bidinotto

Bueno

Hunter is the debut novel from a former crime journalist (Reader's Digest, among others). I first discovered it from Kindle Boards and have since tracked its success. It was chosen by Amazon as an Editor's Pick (or the like) and had sales that went through the ionosphere. Sales that were justified.

Overall, the book is an entertaining read. It has vigilantes, spooks (CIA, not goblins), and other assorted bad guys. Bidinotto does a good job with description (sometimes a little too much, but that's just me) and does a great job developing the characters.

As far as the plot, well, you've probably read it before (see my Prometheus Deception review). However, what Hunter has as its leitmotif is the flaws in the judicial system, which you will recall in my first paragraph, the author is a former crime journalist. But not just that, it seems that he has reported on (and been a proponent of) victim's rights, going so far as (if I infer correctly) breaking the story that stirred up the Willie Horton fiasco (think Dukakis' demise).

The flaws in the justice system ("rehabilitating" criminals instead of punishing them) are overt from the beginning, but you are not beaten over the head with them. He gets his point across smoothly and also presents the rehabilitation side, though, again, it is clear which side he favors. (He calls the soft-on-crime syndicate "enablers.") It was also refreshing to see the CIA in a better light than it is normally portrayed in thrillers: an easy scapegoat for unimaginative writers.

There is some romance in Hunter, probably more than my taste allows, but he does well bringing out the characters' motives and emotions.

The book runs over four hundred pages, which is a little longer than the thrillers we see nowadays. Cut out some of the romance, we're back down to three fifty and none the worse for wear.

Back to the plot: there aren't really any surprises. I knew who did what and figured out how it would end, but he built the suspense and it was a good ride. I'll read his next book - what better rec can I give? Great job, Roberto. Fo' Stars.

Don't forget to pick your wife up something on the way home or you'll be nailed to a tree. Happy Valentine's Day, Stonewallians.

Stonewall's rating system here.

Bridge

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Great version from Greensboro, 1972.

Stonewall's Ratings

Since you asked (we all know that nobody asked, seeing that I only have forty-five hits), I thought it would be fair to explain my rating system.

Five Stars: Outstanding, I would read this book again (and I rarely read books twice).
Fo' Stars: I liked it and would recommend it.
Tres Stars: Tepid, I finished it, but would not necessarily recommend it.
Dos Stars: I couldn't finish it, or if I did finish it, it was pretty bad.
Uno Star: Don't quit the day job. Yeah, you.

Gallows Thief: Too Much Cricket

I'm a big fan of Bernard Cornwell, which I will explain further in some not too near-term post. Being a fan, I came across a first edition of Gallows Thief and thought I would give it a drive.

Cornwell's fastball is historical fiction, with character depth and interesting plots. Gallows Thief is a stand alone novel, which is rare for Cornwell. He has produced over thirty books in his Sharpe series, six in his Saxon series, three (almost four) in his Grail Quest series, three more in his Arthur series, etc.

Gallows is set around 1820 during the Regency Period. As usual, he does a good job with description, but he switched to more of a mystery/suspense, which is not his fastball, rather than a mini-epic. And I love mystery/suspense, it's just that this one wasn't that great.

Our hero is a famed cricket player and several scenes revolve around this alien sport. Being in the background would have been fine, but I struggled with reading cricket jargon for pages at a time. Overall: too much cricket.

Skip this one and pick up The Last Kingdom, the first in the Saxon series. You'll be glad you did.

Lo siento, Bernie. Gallows Thief: Tres Stars.

The Free Book Freeloader

This is NOT a good cover

A day in the life of a freeloader:

I go to eraderiq.com, click on Free Books then Last 24 hours. Since I have been doing this (maybe a few weeks), new free books have ranged anywhere between 300 - 550 free books/day (this does not include erotica, which they have moved to its own section).

I scroll down the list, keeping an eye out for writers/covers that I recognize from KB. (KB is Kindle Boards, a forum that has a section comprised of (mainly) self-publishing types.) Otherwise, I scan the page looking at COVERS. I’m also picking up titles and authors as I scroll, but mainly the covers. And let me tell you, there are atrocious covers out there. If you have a good one, you are light years ahead.

If I see an interesting cover, I slow down enough to focus a little more on the title/author. Haven’t heard of him/her? Move my cursor over the book and a blurb appears. A couple of intriguing lines? I’ll click on it and it opens in Amazon, where I’ll look at it in more detail after my scrolling. Mediocre start of a blurb? I move on or see how many reviews it has and the average rating (which ereaderiq puts under the cover), but I will generally pass. Novella or short story. I’ll probably pass on those as well.

Now I have several Amazon tabs open. For the most part, I will download a KBer regardless, unless I think you are a butthead. I’ll take a look at the question mark books and decide if there is a chance that I will ever read this thing. Forget about sampling: these are FREE after all. Yay.

So, even for FREE (yay) books, there is still substantial discernment involved.

1) Good cover (go ahead and slap a great cover on it)
2) Good blurb (go ahead and make it great - it’s also fine to be succinct)
3) Reviews (may have an impact)

I go through these steps just for a FREE (yay) book. Think what potential customers consider when they are paying for it.

C’mon, Stonewall, we know this, we read Konrath’s blog, after all. Then why don’t you do it?

Rain Fall by Barry Eisler

Bueno

If you follow the self-publishing movement, invariably you know who Barry Eisler is. If you don't follow the movement, he's the guy that turned down the 2-book deal (putatively worth $500 large) with St. Martin's Press to publish his latest assassin thriller directly. (Since the announcement, I believe it was actually released by Amazon's thriller imprint, Thomas & Mercer.) Voluntarily or not, he has been in the forefront of the self-publishing movement.

Being in the forefront basically means that I have to hear about this guy all the time. And I don't mean to connote that hearing about him is a negative. He has been public about his experiences and that has been a tremendous resource to folks wanting to eschew traditional publishing. He also seems to be sharp. (He was a spook for x years after getting out of law school, or something. The Company tends to not sign up dummies. Paranoid, maybe, but not dumb.)

So, after hearing the sycophants gurgling Barry Eisler, Barry Eisler, Barry Eisler, I decided to test his chops. I picked up his first book, Rain Fall, which originally came out around 2002. I knew it was about an assassin, but I didn't read the blurb, I just jumped in.

About on page 1 or so (right near the top), I discovered that the book was set in Japan. Not one being easily deterred, I was not deterred. He did a nice job helping me keep all of the Japanese place names and vernacular straight without being a pedant. And he's a great writer. With a good plot. And the story was more character driven than ridiculous-thriller-plot-driven.

Cut to the chase: I'd pick up another one of his books. How much better of a rec can I give? Fo' stars, Barry.

Setup on Front Street

Bueno

Good cover. Good characters. Good writing. Good setting. Good formatting. This is the first installment of the Key West Nocturnes series and it was a great introduction. The ending was a little too straight-forward, but not enough to deter me from picking up the next one, The Ghosts of Havana, in the future. Give it a drive for yourself - you'll be entertained. Fo' stars.



wonk wonk wonk ***SPOILER ALERT*** wonk wonk wonk


Our hero gets reunited with a lost love after he gets out of the joint. To make ends meet, she has been throwing leg for cash. This revelation upsets our hero, but he gets over it in about two paragraphs (the only real issue I had with the book).

The Shocker

It’s something that looms over your head since you are old enough to listen. It’s the steak and potatoes of many male stand-up comedian’s shtick. It’s a 10 foot by 10 foot room getting smaller by the second. It’s the Moon River scene from Fletch.  It’s all it is made out to be. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s The Shocker.

It’s supposed to hit when you’re forty, but I deftly evaded the appointments for a year. Scheduling a business meeting that would force me to cancel it. Making up pitiful excuses. Hell, just canceling the appointment for no reason whatsoever. Except fear.

I finally made it to the appointment, about thirteen months behind schedule, and only then because my wife’s eyes told me she couldn’t be with a man who hadn’t had his prostate checked. Well, her mouth told me that, but same difference. Do it for the kids!

Things went well. Ticker was good. BP was 100/60, which was a shocker (not The Shocker) in its own right. The doc and I had wonderful desultory conversation. I thought I had even talked my way out of it, with my smooth desultory conversation and all.

The Culprit

Smiles were interrupted by the telltale smack of a latex glove on skin. My shoulders sagged. The doc gave me a look that said: “Think of it from my end.” Good point. I assumed the position.

Years of angst, a few seconds of discomfort, and ultimately a clear mind for a year that my prostate was in swell shape. It wasn’t that bad, but keep in mind that I told a friend that my vasectomy wasn’t that bad, and his boys blew up to the size of a grapefruit. Results may vary.

Get yours checked out at a GP near you.