book reviews by Marc D. Goldfinger

Fellside by M. R. Carey

Posted by Klaus

Fellside by M. R. Carey, published by Orbit, an Imprint of Hachette Book Group, www.orbitbooks.net, April, 2016

Fellside is a women’s prison. If you have ever been in a prison, you’ll know that ghosts roam the tiers and the smell of fear and old sweat socks drifts up your nostrils. I hope you have never experienced this but, in this book, M. R. Carey brings you into the prison and the minds of lost souls waiting for the date of release, which may be the date of death, whichever comes first.

Jess Moulson is convicted of murder. She doesn’t remember much, just a big fire that burnt her apartment and there was someone else who died in the fire. It was a ten year old child named Alex. Everyone, including Jess, thinks she started the fire in a heroin induced nod and insisting on pleading guilty was the only thing Jess could do. Her boyfriend, John Street, was the guy who turned her on to heroin. He had other secrets too.

 

Jess thought she deserved a death sentence and decided to administer it to herself through a hunger strike. For a while it looks like she will be successful and the prisoners cheer her on. Nobody likes a child killer. One of the leaders of a drug ring takes bets on her death.

But as the end draws near, Jess finds herself in what seems like a dream world where she meets Alex, the boy who died in the fire. Is he really a boy? He convinces Jess that his death was not her fault.

Fellside is a spook show where there are ghosts, drug deals, psycho-bullies and crooked guards. It appears that everyone is against Jess. In the middle of all this terror, Jess insists on maintaining her position of personal justice and responsibility.

In prison there are many junkies and for the junk to get in, pipelines of travel are necessary. When an act of violence destroys a vital link in the drug train only a doctor will do, especially if he has secrets to protect, as Dr. Salazar, nick-named Sally, one of the erstwhile good guys, has a secret that could cost him everything. Jess’s one protector in the prison is compromised.

But is the doctor Jess’s only protector? As Jess and Alex travel through the dreams of inmates at night, they learn about the secrets of the dreamers, and discover the truth about Alex, who is her tour guide to the dreamworld on the edge of death.

Jess carries out a one woman struggle against the bullies who run the prison and the drug runners who come up with a new scheme that involves Jess to bring drugs into the prison. Jess’s knowledge and her sense of responsibility and justice put her in the ring of danger and even the ghosts appear to be limited in power.

As the story unravels, Jess becomes seduced by the dream world and eventually this brings her to fight to uncover the true horror that has made Jess appear guilty. She fights to bring the truth into the light, even if it jeopardizes her own freedom.

Who is guilty? Who is innocent? The web of intrigue spins from dream to reality and brings them together in such a way that the spirit world retaliates against those who hurt the vulnerable and others fight to retain their sanity in a world that will never look the same again.

Fellside is a story that will keep you guessing as you walk the tiers and the work rooms of the prison of the same name. In prison, everyone is guilty—with the exception of the innocent. M. R. Carey, who first made his name writing comic books under the name Mike Carey, has created a world of steel and stone where, once you go in, you may never be free again. He has written many books under the name of Mike Carey.

M. R. Carey’s other book under this name is called The Girl With All The Gifts and this book, by the same publisher, is now being made into a movie that is in actual production. The Girl With All The Gifts is a dystopian tale about a young girl in a very special school with locked doors and cement walls. What is it about the children in this school that makes the adults shudder with fear, especially when the young girl named Melanie says in jest, “Don’t be afraid, I won’t bite!”
But back to Fellside, a different type of story in a different type of world. M. R. Carey is one talent, not only to be watched, but to be read. It’s a tough book to put down once you cross into the prison world of Jess Moulton and Alex, who is not what he seems to be.

It would be no surprise if Fellside was optioned for the big screen in the near future.

 

Fellside has just been released for the book buying public and is available, or will be very soon, on line or at The Harvard Bookstore, a great independent bookstore near the center of Harvard Square.

The Fireman by Joe Hill

Posted by Klaus

The Fireman by Joe Hill—to be published by William Morrow, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers—May, 2016

“Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.”

Once the fire starts it’s nothing but trouble. You can spell trouble D-E-A-T-H! It really does take a Fireman to put out a fire. It also takes a nurse, one with true compassion, not faked; the children see right through faked compassion, to ease them when they’re sick.

Harper Grayson was a nurse and she worked at a school. Worked, as in once did, while the schools were still open.

Then she worked at a hospital where she could do some good, not in the way most nurses do some good but, spit spot, on the double, a diagnosis of the situation. Keeps the Fireman safe, or is it safety first for the burning pain of an appendix inside inflammation but it hasn’t burst yet.

When the burning starts, it’s a good thing to have someone owe you a favour, someone who understands what a fire hose is for.

Then, in a hospital in New Hampshire, there was a Black person named Renee Gilmonton, one of the patients accustomed to be stared at, cause how many children growing up in New Hampshire saw anyone of colour? And if you run toward somebody bursting into flames, well, that was just crazy, no? But Renee was like coal anyway and fire wasn’t going to make her any darker, was it?

Renee had a book store before the dragon scale sparkled her neck, never made much money but they had hellava poetry slams there every week. She loved books and, with her, brought the book called The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Harper asked her why she brought such a short book about a tragedy just waiting to happen and Renee might have said, “Well you’re not going to want to start to read The Stand, the long version, when you might never get a chance to finish it. And we’re all on The Bridge right now anyway.” But that’s not precisely what she said, is it?

And while we’re talking about Renee, Black as coal, we could talk about the video of her, when she was reading to one of the children the child felt her get really warm and jumped away as Renee started to glow, grabbed her mint plant she came in with and started running for the exit. The video shows the whole thing while she was running out of the hospital, glowing, glowing, with eyes like death rays but the video didn’t show anything after she left the hospital and I’m not going to tell you what they found.

Harper’s not working at the hospital anymore and that doesn’t mean she’s one of the lucky ones but she could be; you can’t work at a place that blazed away, can you?

Joe Hill wrote this book, called The Fireman; that’s what I’m really talking about and when Joe writes his words take flight like musical notes with wings. It doesn’t matter if the edges of the wings are singed by flame, those words fly and they have a song of their own.

He’s special, that guy Joe Hillstrom King; that was his name once, and on his birth certificate that’s still his name. But he was a caterpillar then and he spun a cocoon and when the cocoon split open he was a bird that spoke words as beautiful as butterfly wings. Sometimes the words caught fire and that’s when the lucky reader; I say lucky reader because if you are reading one of his books or stories, you are a lucky reader alive in another world; the world that Joe Hill built—or burned, whichever you like, or maybe don’t like, but you’ll love it. This book, The Fireman is Joe’s longest book yet and that’s actually a good thing because it’s one of those books you never want to end. If you are a true reader, you know exactly what I mean.

Now Harper Grayson, in the shower, suddenly sees the Dragonscale on her body. Who wouldn’t forget to turn the shower off at a time like this? Her husband, Jakob, looks at her body and only thinks about himself. But didn’t he call her babygirl all the time? Ahh, relationships!

All that time in the hospital working, working, working, covered in Tyvek to keep out the Dragonscale, running for your life as the hospital burns, but now, pregnant and with the shower water running, her husband burns her with cold eyes. There are many people who opt out; that means suicide; that’s the nice way of saying it. Joe Hill can say it many ways; his words dance on the page and your eyes are kissed by the Dragonscale. By the way, have you examined your body yet?

Oh, but this is only a book; it’s not real. That’s the skill, the gift that Joe Hill has. He makes it real.

When you read The Fireman you will develop a relationship with Joe Hill that won’t exactly make you all warm and fuzzy, but you may burst into flame. It’s not always easy to find a Fireman when you need one.

Sometimes, in your relationships, things get strange. Like when Jakob finds out about Harper’s Dragonscale and begins to think. That’s when Harper finds out what kind of relationship she has always had with Jakob; things are not what they seem to be.

Then there are the Quarantine Patrol. There are always people who have dreamt of becoming dragon-slayers—and now they have their chance. But who are the real dragons; the people with the guns or the people with Dragonscale? And where is The Fireman when you need him?

Quite possibly in the back of the house, one would guess. And then there is Renee, running from the hospital but leaving not a trace. A crazed husband with a flapping bleeding cheek and a gun firing every which way but gun control is being able to hit your target. That’s not quite what is meant when people talk about gun control, is it?

Did you ever have a friend that turns up just when you need him? Well, The Fireman is like that; always rising just like the Phoenix. Sometimes you need a firebird to get you away from an abusive husband; any battered wife would tell you that’s true.

The book by the name of The Fireman keeps language aflame. There are a number of places to buy this wonderful book when it comes out and if you are lucky, you might get one signed by Joe Hill. Is this his best book yet? His dad, Stephen King, must be very proud. Joe’s dad is Shining! Joe Hill has given birth to a child that loves the flames. And there’s more books to come.

There was a game that they played at the King house where all the writers grew up together. There was a book on the table that had an ongoing story and the goal of every member of the family was to leave a cliffhanger that was extremely challenging for the next person to enter the kitchen. That may very well be where The Fireman came from. Ask Joe the next time he does a book reading and signing. You might be lucky and hear the truth. It’s in each of his books.

Gun Work by David J. Schow

Posted by Klaus

David J. Schow is one of those writers that not enough people have heard of. But those readers who are in the know have read his “splatterpunk” stories.

One of his best novels, and he has a few, is called Gun Work. There is this guy named Carl Ledbetter who did a tour in Iraq with a guy named Barney. It was one of those things where Carl saved Barney’s life in a tight situation. In war, things like that happen all the time.

It doesn’t make people friends but some people use a life-saving event as a “you owe me this buddy” and when things get hinky in their lives, they reach out.

It appears that Carl’s wife Erica has been snatched by some low-lives in Mexico and they want one million dollars for her return. Carl knows that Barney is a master at Gun Work and Carl reaches out to him.

Now Barney has been through some stuff and he’s kind of laying low and doesn’t want to get involved with gonzo stuff like this but he asks Carl how much they want for ransom. When Barney hears the amount, he doubts that Carl can come up with it but Carl says he can, but don’t ask how.

Carl just wants someone reliable to make the drop with him in Mexico City in case things go sideways. In situations like this they often do. Carl already has one of Erica’s fingers that the kidnapers sent to him to show that they are not just playing. And they are threatening to send more of them plus other anatomical parts if Carl doesn’t cough up the dinero.

Life comes cheap in certain parts of Mexico. Barney really wants no part of this fiasco but he feels that a debt is a debt and then he can be through with Mr. Ledbetter for the rest of his life. That is, if he has a life after this is over.

There’s more to tell and David J. Schow can tell it. David has a number of crazy thrillers and in his stories, anything can happen. This writer has been around a while. In 1987 he wrote a short story called Red Light which is included in one of his books of short stories called Lost Angels.

Red Light was the winner of the 1987 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story. Short stories are David J. Schow’s specialty and he has a number of short story books out. Zombie Jam, Eye, & Lost Angels are just three of them. I can tell you this—they rock. Don’t read them before you go to bed—well, you can. Then you’ll have entertaining nightmares.

Besides Gun Work, David J. Schow has re-released in a special edition, a book called The Shaft put out by the Centipede Press. In The Shaft a drug kingpin named Bauhaus has fronted two kilos of cocaine to some dealers named Cruz, Jonathan, and Jamaica, who get raided and have to throw the drugs down a ventilation shaft in the rooming house so they can escape.

Bauhaus wants his drugs back but there’s a hitch. Something lives in the ventilation shaft and it is not nice, to put it mildly. The supernatural horror mixes with the creepiness of the drug trade.

But back to Gun Work for a minute. Carl and Barney go to make the drop and things go very wrong. Carl was supposed to come alone, not with hired firepower.

Erica’s frantic voice comes over the phone. “They say you broke the rules—you contacted someone—now they are going to take another finger and want two million—the first million is just a down payment” and then she was cut off.

This is just the beginning of a situation where Barney, who is an excellent gunman, finds himself lied to and quite possibly, is an expendable.

The question is—can Carl Ledbetter trust his own wife? Gun Work spins you into a seedy underworld where even your friends might point their guns at your back. Who is the hostage and who is the player?

David J. Schow takes you on a ride through places you only want to read about—if you find yourself there, well, it could very well be game over. You better know how to use that gun—and who to point it at.

And then there are the masked Mexican wrestlers—but I’ll let David J. Schow introduce you to them.

Gun Work by David J. Schow is a Hard Case Crime book published by the Dorchester Publishing Company. You can find them on the web at www.HardCaseCrime.com

Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman

Posted by Klaus

When I was in the Detox Unit at the hospital, they taught me about “Triggers.” A “Trigger” is something that brings back the feeling of the old rush that heroin used to give me back in the day and then I am weakened and go see the dealer.

Neil Gaiman’s new book of short stories is called Trigger Warning: Short Fictions And Disturbances. It’s like a trigger that gives the good rush but instead of going out to buy heroin, I want to read another story. His book is that good.

Neil Gaiman says, “We each have our little triggers . . . things that wait for us in the dark corridors of our lives.” As soon as Gaiman said that, I knew exactly what he was talking about and had a desire to read the book immediately.

In this book, Trigger Warning, all of the wonderful places of the imagination are brought to life. Even in the Introduction, also written by Gaiman, I was “triggered” and I couldn’t stop reading. In many books I read a few sentences of the introduction and then jump to the story. In Trigger Warning I couldn’t stop reading his introduction. It was many stories within itself.

There are books of short stories that are like crap shoots. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. In Gaiman’s new book of short stories, they are all winners. It was a rush.

You see, my new addiction is reading. There is nothing better than settling down in a comfortable chair or lying on the bed and reading a great book. Trigger Warning is a great book. Neil Gaiman’s talent shines like it did in his graphic novel called The Sandman or his book called American Gods.

When this man sits down to write the story flows and you can tell that the story has been percolating in his mind for quite some time. One of the short stories is called “Black Dog” and it is done so well that, as a writer myself, I could tell that Gaiman must have left it out of American Gods and it wouldn’t let him rest until he let it spill out of the miraculous trap door in his imagination.

Neil Gaiman has been cursed. If he doesn’t let the stories out, they will come to him in his dreams and haunt him, wake him up in the middle of the night and, like a wild beast, chase him to the computer screen or pen and paper until he lets the story out. Imagine being trapped in a body full of moving illustrations that have beginnings and endings and not being able to rest until you let these “trigger warnings” out.

Included in this thrilling group of stories is the novelette called “The Truth is a Cave In The Black Mountains.” This story was also separately published and illustrated by Eddie Campbell and won the Locus Award.

Neil Gaiman originally lived in England and now resides in the United States with his wife Amanda Palmer, who is also a musician and a writer.

You can find Trigger Warning at the Harvard Bookstore, an independent bookstore located in Harvard Square in Cambridge. Neil Gaiman’s stories come from the dark places that live in our minds. When you read them they change your perspective on reality.

Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman was released on February 2nd by William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007,

The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

Posted by Klaus

This book is about the water. Imagine the United States fragmented. Texas has fallen away and there is a fence, much like the one we put up to block immigrants now from Mexico.

Angel is what they call “A Water Knife”. He does the dirty work for the power brokers all fighting for the water rights to what is left of the Colorado River. Angel was hired by a woman named Catherine Case. She found him in a jail but under a false name, which, to all intents and purposes, made him a ghost.

Catherine has a group of “Water Knives” that work for her so she can obtain water rights for Las Vegas. Her nickname is “Queen of the Colorado.”

Angel drives all over Phoenix in his Tesla, an all electric car that actually exists today. Ironically, with gas prices going down right now, sales of the Tesla are a bit off. Americans have short memories and that is what Angel counts on.

Then there is Lucy Monroe, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter who is closely following the water wars. Somewhere, someone has the papers to the key water rights sold by an Indian tribe in the early 1800’s and they are the only water rights that count.

In shanty-towns around the cities in Nevada, there are pumps where people go to buy water; running water outside the main cities is a thing of the past. Water is more valuable than gold.

Angel and Lucy Monroe catch a relationship on the fly and she saves his life as he saves her. The most powerful cartels are the water cartels and the narcotic cartels. When people lose all the things that we all strive for, there is nothing left but to get high and keep a steady water supply.

But as Angel says, “when things are like this alliances shift like sand. Someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.”

This is Paolo Bacigalupi’s first totally adult book since The Wind-Up Girl, which is about similar events in Thailand where everything is measured in precious energy units. Night Shade Books put it out in such a small run because they felt it was so complex that it would be a no seller.

But suddenly they were sold out of The Wind-Up Girl and more orders were flowing in. Printing after printing and each printing sold out as the book was Hugo Nominated and Paolo Bacigalupi became a Locus Award winning author.

Soon after the powerful success of The Wind-Up Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi put out two young adult books in rapid succession; one called Ship-Breaker, which was a runaway best seller that won the Michael I. Printz Award and a National Book Award Finalist. His next book was called The Drowned Cities and both books literally flew out of the stores, bought by young adults and older people too.

His next book, The Doubt Factory, was a young adult novel also but all three books sold to adults just as well. Go to www.sparechangenews.net and see my review of The Doubt Factory.

Like The Windup Girl, I predict The Water Knives, will be another award winning power seller. It takes place in the separated United States in the near future.

The main characters, their lives linked by blood and water, are Lucy Monroe, the reporter, Angel, the water knife who works for Catherine Case, and Maria Villarosa, a young refugee from Texas who is always on the edge of disaster.

Paolo Bacigalupi is right on the cusp of Climate Change and is accurate in his vision of the water wars that have already started in the Southwest. He writes about the America that will come about if we continue to be blind to the damage caused by the extreme consumption, taking place in our ‘God Blessed United States of America.’

The city of Phoenix is dying. There are pumps like we see today in gas stations where people line up with their containers to fill with water. Lucy’s sister, back in New England, warned Lucy to come home but Lucy Monroe knows the big story about the water rights is just around the corner.

Lucy Monroe searches for the key to the big story of who owns the water rights as she walks through a morgue over-flowing with the bodies of refugees who fled from Texas. Angel passes the bodies as he flashes his police badge at Lucy, gripping her arm tightly, but when he looks into her eyes, the angel of death grins back at him. Lucy tries to pull away but sees herself in Angel’s eyes as they both look at her friend Jamie Sanderson, who is on a gurney with empty sockets instead of eyes.

Just the other day Jamie, also a reporter, was talking about the key to the Colorado River Compact. Lucy warned him that he was playing out of his league. The morgue is full of bodies, mostly victims of dust and thirst; Jamie has no eyes and is also missing other body parts.

Angel questions Lucy in the overflowing morgue. She looks at his badge, then sees the tattoo of the snake running up his arm. This man is death, thinks Lucy.

“I didn’t get your name,” Angel pressed. And Lucy knows.

Outside, everyone is walking quickly through the dust storm, tightening the dust mask with the REI microfilters. It’s time to go.

Angel screams down the road in his Tesla, soaring like a predatory bird. He knows that the woman reporter in the morgue sees the world like him. Only the water rights bring life.

“Cup or pour? Cup or pour? Cup or pour?” The money is in every drop.

This book, “The Water Knife” will own you. Once you pick it up, you will find it almost impossible to put down. Paolo Bacigalupi has created another masterpiece.

“The Water Knife will be released in Spring of 2015 by Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher, New York. www.aaknopf.com

The Doubt Factory by Paolo Bacigalupi

Posted by Klaus

The Doubt Factory is advertised as a book for Young Adults. Not only is it for young adults, but anyone who can comprehend corporate cover-ups to make money will absolutely be enthralled by this tense thriller.

Alix and Jonah Banks attend a private school named Seitz Academy for two reasons. First of all, they were both very intelligent. Secondly, their father, Simon Banks, runs a company that works for major corporations.

When a corporation creates a medication that works for asthma, but has significant side effect on a certain percentage of people, potentially fatal side-effect, Simon’s job is to go to court and create a smoke-screen of doubt that will let the product run on the market for an extra three years.

True, people will die, but in those three years the company will make millions of dollars, much more than they will have to pay out to the families that are affected by losing loved ones to the side effects.

Alix Banks has no idea what her father does. She only knows that he appears to be a good father and provides very well for his family. Much like the lawyers that worked for the cigarette companies and created a thirty year window of doubt before the killing machine was exposed.

There is a young man named Moses who watched his father die in the bathroom because of a drug that was extended by BSP, the company run by Simon Banks, for that extra lethal three years. What if a group of young people who were negatively affected by all the drugs that were protected by smoke-screens joined together with a set of skills that could, potentially if things went well, expose the smoke-screen—show the inner workings of The Doubt Factory?

Imagine if Alix Banks, an intelligent young woman with a code of morality, found out what her father really did for a living? Where would her loyalties lie?

The Doubt Factory is intricately put together and the characters in the book are people that we all can relate to, even the ones who work for security—we can relate to them in a negative way, can’t we?

When I started reading this book I was gripped right from the very start. Paolo Bacigalupi is an amazing writer. His young adult novel, Ship Breaker, was a Michael L. Printz Award winner, a National Book Award Finalist, and a Locus Award winner.

Paolo Bacigalupi’s first adult novel, The Windup Girl, was named by Time Magazine as one of the ten best novels of 2009 and won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Compton Crook, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards. Bacigalupi is a master at creating dystopian worlds, which he did in Ship Breaker, The Drowned Cities and The Windup Girl.

Paolo put together a book of short stories called Pump Six and Other Stories which was a 2008 Locus Award winner for Best Collection. Pump Six was also named one of the Best Books of the Year by Publisher’s Weekly.

This amazing author brings all his skills together in a fantastic roller coaster ride in his book The Doubt Factory, with twists and turns throughout the story. There were times when I was holding my breath as the deadly security team hired by Simon Banks company was closing in on this group of young people gathered together to expose a group of CEO’s of drug companies responsible for the deaths and the crippling of individuals who had taken their drugs.

The Doubt Factory will be released by Little, Brown & Company in October of this year, and it is a book that should not be missed by anyone and made mandatory reading in all high schools. Paolo Bacigalupi is a genius and one hell of a story teller.

Even though I’ve read it, I’m buying my hard cover copy, already paid for, at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge.

Wanton Regard by Geoffrey Neil

Posted by Klaus

“Fate Don’t Negotiate. . .” – Gage Dolan

click the book over if you are interested in buying this book...As I read the book, Wanton Regard, I wonder what kind of mind Geoffrey Neil has, to be able to come up with a fiend like Gage Dolon. This is Geoffrey Neil’s 3rd book and his writing is every bit as good as Stephen King’s or Joe Hill’s writing. The only difference is he deals with what is real rather than the supernatural. This makes it all the more terrifying.

Hailey Vaughn doesn’t know what it means to live in a digital age where someone who is obsessed with you can watch your every move, can listen to everything you say, at home, in the office, even in her car.

But there is a guy, we’ll call him Gage because that’s what he calls himself, who is totally obsessed with Hailey Vaughn—and he has big plans for her—as he watches everything she does and even manipulates aspects of her life without her awareness of any of it. For a while.

The author, Geoffrey Neil, in Wanton Regard, has created one of the most monstrous villains I’ve ever read about. He calls himself Gage Dolon and he has big plans for Hailey. To make matters more complicated, Hailey has a husband named Mason who is extremely jealous and loves guns.

Hailey Vaughn is the maiden in the middle. She likes to go for a drink in the morning at a place called Hot Perks and orders a medium half-caf, no-foam, non-fat, vanilla soy latte. A Barrista named Marissa works there and makes the drink for her, exactly as she likes it.

Gage is aware of this. Extremely aware. Frighteningly aware.

Let’s leave Marissa at Hot Perks in the short time she has left there and go back to Hailey Vaughn at the office where she works. She has just received a call from Gage Dolon, or whatever his name might be, about her note pads that she left behind while she was at a conference handled by The Small Business Growth Expo.

Gage is sitting in his car, parked in a vantage point where he can see into Hailey’s office window. He is offering to return the notepad and his voice is so gentle and suave. While he speaks to her he watches a live feed of a high-definition mini-cam loaded with footage of Hailey.

Hailey is flattered that this man, Gage, is willing to go through so much trouble for her. There is so much that Hailey has to learn and Gage Dolon wants to be her teacher. Hailey is not yet aware of the trouble Gage has gone through to gain access to her life.

Mason, Hailey’s husband, works nights and goes to the gun range almost every day. Hailey hates the guns but Mason thinks that Hailey should learn how to handle one for her own safety. Mason is also concerned that Hailey is having an affair with her assistant Robert.

On the front of the book it says, “Inspired By True Events.” The deeper I go into the book, the more it makes me think of certain events that I have read in the news. I can’t tell you what they are because I want you to read this book. Why should I have all the spine-tingling pleasure of watching an electronic net cast so carefully around Hailey Vaughn.

I’m a little ahead of myself. Hailey, flattered by Gage’s attention, meets him at a hotel and has dinner with him. She is utterly charmed. Gage is skillfull and he quote’s his father, “Fate Don’t Negotiate,” as he tells Hailey that it was fate that brought them together.

click the book over if you are interested in buying this book...Hailey isn’t fooled. Or is she? The net is cast. Her jealous husband is cleaning his guns. Hailey is drinking a little too much wine. The electronic devices are silently spinning a web, as if a spider was wrapping its meal for later. Have you ever seen an insect struggling as the web surrounds it?

As I read I think of a song that was popular in the 50’s. It was called Sincerely and one of the lines in it went like this—“and I’ll never ever ever ever let you go, sincerely—“.

This is Geoffrey Neil’s 3rd book. Like his first two, Dire Means & Human Resources, it gripped me; like Hailey, I found myself in the snare. I started reading Wanton Regard on Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend and finished the story before Sunday evening. I would advise you not to start any of Neil’s books unless you are ready to set aside the next day or two to live in his world.

You can find his books on Amazon & EBay or just by Googling Geoffrey Neil. He has his own website. Believe me, once you read one of his books, you’d hunger for more.

Published by Priorities Intact Publishing, 8306 Wilshire Blvd., #7076, Beverly Hills, CA 90211 & 3680 Grant Drive, Suite N, Reno, NV 89509

The Turning Point: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Posted by Klaus

“We stood at the turning point. Half-measures availed us nothing.” The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

I’ve been reading Stephen King since I was young. Let me make this clear: young is a variable for me. The first book I ever read by Stephen King was The Stand, a book of about 800 pages. It was supposed to be longer but King’s publisher didn’t think a book that ran over 1100 pages would sell, so they asked King to cut, cut, cut, but no pasting, until they felt it was marketable.

The ravaged version, which, by the way, was great, came out in 1978. Years later, when King’s popularity was peaking, they released the full version. This was in 1990. It is now 2013 and Stephen King, after completing his magnum opus called The Dark Tower, is at his best.

King’s newest book, Doctor Sleep, was just released (528 pages). Way back when King was starting out, he wrote a book called The Shining, which was later made into movie starring Jack Nicholson. My guess would be that more people saw the movie than read the book, although the book sold quite well. The Shining has 447 pages, which makes it one of King’s shorter novels.

To appreciate Doctor Sleep, one does not need to go back and read The Shining, however, it might add some flavor to the experience. Loosely speaking, they are sequential.

The main character in Doctor Sleep is Dan Torrance. He is in his early 30’s in Doctor Sleep; in The Shining Dan Torrance is a little boy who sees more than the normal person. To be hyper-aware is not always a gift. If you can shake someone’s hand and see their imminent death, it’s hard to smile and say, “Have a good day and it was nice to meet you.”

As an avid reader, I hate book reviews that spoil the fun, if that would be the proper word to use for one of Stephen King’s books. I find myself faced with a conundrum. I don’t want to spoil Doctor Sleep. But I do want to tell you why I think it is Stephen King’s best book.

It’s quite different than his 7 book Dark Tower series- which is the modern Lord of the Rings. But Doctor Sleep touched me in a very special way.

If you happen to be an alcoholic in recovery, you will love Doctor Sleep. Boy, I put myself out on a limb there, didn’t I? But really, I mean it. Even if you’ve never read a King book before, if you are in recovery, just pick it up and read the first ten pages, including the quotes at the beginning of the book.

I’ll go one step further. If you’re an alcoholic or a drug addict who is still using but doesn’t want to use anymore, pick up Doctor Sleep and read it. Then go to an AA meeting or an NA meeting. You don’t have to wait until you finish the book. After all, you’ll want to be sober enough to remember the damn thing, right?

Just like Dan Torrance had the Shining when he was a child, in Doctor Sleep there is a little girl named Abra Stone who Shines like the sun. She’s got some power, all to the good.

There are other folks cruising down the highways and byways of America. You’ve probably seen them in their big RV’s, mostly retired people who are past their mid-sixties. Looks are deceiving my friend. Just like there are motorcycle clubs called The Devil’s Disciples, it could be that not all of these old folks have warmth in their hearts.

There is a gang of them that calls themselves The True Knot and they hunger to live. What they need is children who Shine and, just like vampires drink blood, these folks drink the Essence of the children. No, no, the children don’t survive. The True Knot has been around a long time. They traveled in covered wagons back in the day.

And, just like true Bikers, these folks have names like Steamhead Steve, Black-eyed Susie, Diesel Doug, & Steve the Chink, who is not Chinese. Their leader is a big woman who wears a sinister top hat and they call her Rosie the Hat.

They don’t like dogs and dogs don’t like them but they love children. Children who Shine. You know that statement from the old rock songs, “you always hurt the one you love”. The True Knot does just that.

Abra Stone picked up on The True Knot when they were draining the Steam from this young man, about 12 years old and never to see another birthday—she hooked in on what they were doing with her Shining and began to scream as she pulled away.

Not quick enough. Rosie the Hat sensed her and knew that, whoever that young girl was, she was definitely a large store of food for The True Knot. And that’s all I can say about that because I don’t want to ruin the story for you.

Dan Torrance, who we talked about before, has a job to do. When the teacher is ready, the student will appear. That’s an old saying. I don’t even know where it came from but it definitely applies here. But this is enough about Doctor Sleep. I’ve probably told you more than you want to know. This is Stephen King at his best and his heart is really in this book.

All of us, one way or another, reach a turning point in our lives and we either take the path we were meant to take—or we slip down the dark road. I’ll have to say that I was lucky and took the right path after 30 years of dark road. But it’s never too late for anyone as long as they are alive.

Now I get to read and collect these books, of which Doctor Sleep is one. Even if you don’t like to read Stephen King, this is the book to jump on. If you like it, pass it on. If you don’t like it, well write to me and complain. I’ll hear you out.

But watch out for caravans of RV’s with those bumper stickers that say “Old but not dead, save Medicare, I’m a conservative and I vote.” You never know whether they’re out hunting or Sight-seeing.

Oh, Doctor Sleep works in a Hospice. We come to find that the ties that bind a family together are stronger than we believe. The truth is always just one stranger away.

Whether you are a friend of Bill’s or just a close cousin, this is not a book to miss.
_”DoctorSleepBook.com”—SimonandShuster.com”

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

Posted by Klaus


Like father, like son, some people say. Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son and the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. As a matter of fact, this apple is sweeter if you like your books tinged with tales of horror and love. Joe Hill slips you quickly into his world like slipping a noose around your neck while you are eating a lollipop, then, before you know it, the rope is tight and your feet are off the floor.

Joe Hill doesn’t just do this with his new book NOS4A2, but all of his books, The Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, his novellas—Gunpowder and Thumbprints, do exactly the same thing. What is nice about them is, each book does it differently and Hill doesn’t waste a word. You might say, like one of the lead characters in NOS4A2, Charles Talent Manx, that Joe Hill has a talent for it himself.

When Charles Manx first appears, an old man who seems to be in a coma, one gets a taste of what evil is truly about in three pages. How does this happen? Well, Manx just opens his eyes and talks to his nurse, Ellen Thornton, and a few words are enough to spiral her to hell.

Charles Talent Manx drives a 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith, with the license plate NOS4A2, right into and out of a place called Christmasland. Christmasland! Sounds like a place any child would want to go to have fun, but wait. Obviously, there’s more to it than that, of course, of course.

In this delicate tale of terror, there is a little girl named Victoria McQueen, a young princess of the fair sex who is capable of white magic. Why, she can ride her bicycle over an old wooden covered bridge, called the Shortaway, and come out miles away from where she started.

Stephen King, in his books, usually has that knack of taking sides, sheer evil against goodness with a fatal flaw, and one must pay attention or else things go wrong. Joe Hill has that same talent but is more succinct.

I love Stephen King’s books—one of my favorites by him is The Dark Tower, an eight book series of mystifying American magic with demons, wraiths and gun-slingers. It’s the modern Lord of the Rings but King does waste a word or two in the tale.

As a writer myself, I look for those places that could have been edited but Joe Hill has me mesmerized. The more I read, the more I like. Multi-talented, Joe Hill writes graphic novels too, an exceptional example is Locke and Key. But we’re getting off topic, leaving Christmasland before we’ve even arrived.

I did mention Victoria McQueen, didn’t I? She is the young girl who rides her bicycle over the old wooden bridge, the Shortaway, which takes her exactly where she wants to go. Whether it is good for her or not. Sometimes, when she stays too long in the places the bicycle takes her, her eye begins to pulse, like there’s pressure in her head that’s not good for her. Magic has it’s price.

Charles Talent Manx’s old Rolls-Royce Wraith takes him on roads no one else can find, which disappear him when he drives. He needs that car just like Victoria McQueen needs her bicycle and magic bridge.

There are people in this world, a few special folks, who can go places no one else can go. They don’t need to buy a ticket but they still have to pay a price. Folks can get away with anything, anytime but there is always a price to pay. Like when Victoria McQueen, unwanted by her mother, definitely unwanted by her father, looks for trouble on the other side of the Shortaway bridge, she finds it.

Victoria rides right into Christmasland, a magic place run by Charles Manx. He likes to take little boys and girls there, and then, well, they never come back. Sometimes Charles hooks up with other characters with kinks in their thinks, such as Bing Partridge who put a nail gun to his dad’s temple and thought it was a joke. When he pulled the trigger his dad didn’t do much more thinking at all. Then Bing took his mother right out of her grief.

Bing was lonely, and he had dreams of Christmasland where a kindly old fellow drove a big old Rolls-Royce Wraith. After a hard day at the factory where he worked with solvents that weren’t too healthy if you were around them too long, the Wraith with the license plate NOS4A2 just pulled up in front of his house and Bing knew he was in heaven. But his goal was Christmasland and only Charlie Talent Manx could get him there.

There’s so much more but my job isn’t to spoil the ride for you. Once you get in the Rolls-Royce Wraith built in 1938, you’re in for the ride of your life. What’s left of your life, that is.

I’ve told you plenty but there are no spoilers here. I’m not saying whether Victoria McQueen gets to grow up and have a child of her own; a child that can do magic like hers. If she had a boyfriend, because she wouldn’t be the marrying kind, he’d be a Biker who knew his engines. Maybe she’d write children stories. But you’ll need a Search Engine to find out about that.

This is Joe Hill’s third novel and, like his father Stephen King, this might be The Stand for him. His first two novels were really, really good but this one will take you places you’ve never been before. Joe Hill doesn’t waste a word. NOS4A2! Get it, Read it. You’ll love it and you’ll curse me for taking you to Christmasland!

NOS4A2, a William Morrow Book, An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishing, written by Joe Hill, 2013.