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.