A Dead Red Gamble - R.P. Dahlke

    2018; 163 pages.  Book 6 (out of 7) in the “Dead Red Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Women Sleuths; Crime Mystery; Arizona.  Overall Rating : 6½*/10.

 

    Order in the court now, somebody shot young Judge Gavin Borrega!  In the courthouse!  In broad daylight!

 

    Where’s the security video?  Where were the court guards?  Heck, rumor has it the judge had even hired some private guards for added security.  Where were they?

 

    Maybe it was politically motivated.  It’s been said that Judge Borrega was being groomed for a run for the governor’s office.  Maybe it was some jilted lover.  Gavin was indeed a handsome fellow.  Maybe it was our hero, Private Investigator Lalla Bains.  She had a meeting scheduled with the judge at the same time as the murder took place.

 

    Hmmm.  Or maybe it had to do with those dozens of fluttering, squawking chickens which somebody dumped into the courthouse just before the shooting took place!  That couldn’t have been just a coincidence!

 

What’s To Like...

    A Dead Red Gamble is the sixth, and penultimate book in R.P. Dahlke’s Dead Red Mystery series.  It is set in Cochise County in southern Arizona, in the fictional town of Wishbone.

 

    The story's structure is the usual for this series.  Lalla and her PI partner (and cousin) Pearlie get drawn into investigating Borrega’s murder, albeit in an unofficial capacity.  Lalla’s husband, Caleb, is the police chief, and would rather his wife sit this case out.  That’s reasonable.  Her father, Noah Bains, is critically ill, which leads to the problem of who’s going watch Noah’s two foster children, Rocky and Jimmy.

 

    Naturally, the initial murder case rapidly gets more complex, with other killings, both past and present, coming into play.  There are other personal and professional issues as well.  Pearlie and her beau, Harley, are no longer on speaking terms, and neither will say why.  Lalla and Pearlie’s move into a new office, only to find it’s …erm… broomed.  And the cash-strapped Bains-&-Bains Detective Agency can receive a healthy bonus check if they can provide proof that an insurance client is faking an injury.  Hmm.  How do you go about proving that?

 

    That’s a lot of plot threads to deal with in ja novella-length book, but R.P. Dahlke manages to get them all tied up.  The story is told in the first-person POV (Lalla’s), and the chapters are relatively short (8½ pages average), with 19 of them covering the 163 pages.  A Dead Red Gamble is both a standalone tale and part of a series.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 326 ratings and 60 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.38*/5, based on 208 ratings and 30 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    I felt sorry for Allison.  I heard her smarts had landed her a co-anchor job on Channel Five.  Unfortunately, the station was following the growing Fox News practice of requiring female anchors to wear tight dresses and enough makeup to look like they were nightclubbing instead of reciting yesterday’s city council fights and today’s traffic jams.  Today, someone had decided that she could do without her glasses and things weren’t going too well for the poor girl.  (loc. 727)

 

    Since I promised to do Pearlie’s process serves while she went to Phoenix to get information on Judge Borrega’s stepfather, the senator, I got out her list and checked off the ones for which I’d need special props.

    What sounds really simple, hand a person a summons to court, write up a report and turn it into the court or the law firm, doesn’t always go well.  At least not for me.  Pearlie, with her big blue eyes, dimples and full-figured curves is a natural.  Women appreciate her gutsy attitude for the job, and men, well they usually drool, so process serving is easy for Pearlie.  (loc. 1423)

 

Kindle Details…

    At the moment, A Dead Red Gamble sells for $4.99 at Amazon.  The other six books in the series are all in the $3.99-$4.99 price range.  The author has three other e-books available, each priced at $4.99.

 

“You can’t hire a guy with Prosopagnosia.”  (loc. 1543)

    There’s only a small amount of profanity.  I noted just 6 instances in the first 25% of the book, five “hells” and one “damn”.  I don’t recall any “adult situations” in the story.

 

    The editing is good, and is mostly confined to punctuation issues: a missing comma here, a misplaced apostrophe there, etc.  There were a couple instances of hyphens inserted into compound words (example: news-people/newspeople), but I have a feeling those crept in during the conversion-to-digital stage.

 

    My biggest issue was with the ending,.  It felt rushed to me.  For most of the book Lalla noses around, coming up with a variety of possible suspects and motives.  That was good.  But instead of things building to an exciting climax, or Lalla using Sherlockian reasoning to peg the suspect, one of the characters simply reveals to her (and the reader) who killed who and why.  I found it disappointing.  I don’t recall the earlier books in the series having endings like this.

 

    Bottom line: if you primarily read cozy mysteries for the “cozy” human activities and not the “mystery” elements, you’ll enjoy A Dead Red Gamble, despite its brevity  However, the Mystery angle always takes precedence for me.

 

    6½ Stars.  Acronym Alert!!  The term “BOLO” popped up in the story, and without a translation.  My geezer brain tried various combinations, most of them involving “Buy One, L-Something, One”, none of which worked.  It turns out to be police-speak for “Be On the Lookout”.  Now you know.

Unwanted: Dead or Alive - Gene Shelton

   1996; 205 pages.  Book 1 (out of 2) in the “Buck and Dobie” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Classic Western; Crime Fiction.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    Meet the cowpunchers Buck Hawkins and Dobie Garrett.  Best friends.  Good workers.  Loyal to whoever is willing to hire them.

 

    Right now, they work for W.C. Milhouse, owner of the Singletree Ranch.  At the moment, they’re freezing their tushes off because winters are mighty cold out there in the Texas panhandle, and they have to routinely go looking for Singletree Ranch cattle that have strayed out to the wilds, in a couple feet of snow, and are starving to death.

 

    Alas, that’s a hopeless task.  Even the cows that haven’t strayed away are dying from a lack of food at the Singletree Ranch. W.C. Milhouse is in financial trouble.  Buck and Dobie are worried that he's going to be forced to lay them off.

 

    I’ve got news for you two.  You’re about to find yourselves in a heap more trouble than that!

 

What’s To Like...

    Unwanted: Dead or Alive is written in what I’d call “classical western” style that you find in novels by Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour.  But Gene Shelton infuses it with a bunch of wittiness which gives the story a more lighthearted tone.  The text, especially the dialogue, is written in “Texas cowboy drawl”, which fits nicely into the book’s tone without ever getting tedious.  I was impressed.

 

    Dobie and Buck quickly find themselves out of work and framed for crimes punishable by hanging.  Since they’re being accused of being outlaws (or “owlhoots” in cowboy vernacular), our pair of heroes decide they might as well become desperados to make ends meet.  After all, how hard can it be to poke a gun at a store owner or a bank teller and tell them to “hand over the cash!”

 

    I enjoyed it that most of the story is set in the Texas Panhandle.  The company I worked for had three chemical plants in that area, including one on the Canadian River, which gets mentioned frequently in Unwanted: Dead or Alive.  The two towns cited here, Mobeetie and Jacksboro, are real places, but I'd never heard of them.  I spent my time in Dumas and Borger.

 

    There’s lots of action and plenty of clever dialogue, but things never descend into outright silliness.  Despite a scarcity of ill-gotten money, Buck and Dobie’s reputation as murderous robbers grows rapidly.  So does the bounty on their heads.  They eventually take on a third partner (revealed in the Amazon blurb) who, despite also having no experience as an owlhoot, helps them nicely learn the trade.

 

    The ending is both over-the-top and heartwarming.  Everyone gets their just desserts and our protagonists ride off into the sunset, although I wouldn’t say that they live happily ever after.  There is a sequel, but that’s as far as things go, series-wise.

 

Excerpts...

    The wind had eased a bit.

    “I’ll be glad to get back home,” Hawkins said.  “Hope the boss has got that old potbellied stove fired up.  Can’t tell where my toes are.”

    “You’ll find ‘em.  When you pull off your boots and socks, they’ll drop off on the floor.  String ‘em up on a rawhide thong and they’ll make a right nice necklace for some gal.”  Garrett spat again and wiped a gloved hand across the dense stubble on his chin.  “Ain’t toes I’m fretted over losin’.  I’m gonna have to pee sometime before August.”  (pg. 99)

 

    Buck said, “How did you find out so much about him?”

    Marylou’s slight smile held a slightly wicked touch.  “Women have certain advantages over men when it comes to gathering information.”

    Hawkins’s heart sank.  “Marylou, you—you didn’t—”

    “Sleep with him?  Hell, no.  I just let him sneak a few peeks down the front of my dress.  Get a man’s eyes busy and his brain locks up.”  (pg. 148)

 

Kindle Details…

    Unwanted: Dead or Alive presently is free at Amazon.  The sequel, How the West Was Lost, is priced at $4.99.  Gene Shelton has another dozen or so e-books at Amazon, most of which are Westerns, none of which I’ve read.  They are in the $2.99-$7.99 price range.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Swamper (n.) : a general assistant; a handyman; helper

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.2*/5, based on 3,783 ratings and 695 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.05*/5, based on 1,458 ratings and 112 reviews.

 

“Grabbin’ a wildcat by the hind leg ain’t the hard part.  Turnin’ loose is where it gets chancy.”  (pg. 160)

    There’s a moderate amount off profanity in Unwanted: Dead or Alive; I counted 15 instances in the first 10%, about evenly split between “damn” and “hell”.  Once or twice, adult situations are hinted at, but there’s nothing R-rated about it.  See the second excerpt, above, for an example of this.

 

    There were only a pair of typos, and both were punctuation errors: two persons speaking in a single paragraph; and a period where a comma should be.  Kudos to whoever did the editing.  There were also a half dozen weird links (labeled “wes1” through “wes6”) that linked to what appeared to be some sort of editing notes.  I suspect the blame for those falls on the formatters, and that they will be deleted in future e-book editions of this. 

 

     I had some difficulty keeping track of which horses belonged to which outlaws, but that cleared up once I realized that several of the characters used two horses, one for riding, the other for carrying supplies.  See the cover image above.

 

    That’s all I can quibble about.  For me, Unwanted: Dead or Alive was an interesting tweak of the classic western novel, which is not a genre I read very often.  So if you are tired of the same old formula used in writing oaters, you'll probably find this a refreshing alternative.

 

    8 Stars.  One last quibble.  The rabbit dies.

Vita Brevis - Ruth Downie

   2016; 366 pages.  Book 7 (out of 8) in the “Medicus” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Cozy Mystery; Rome; Historical Fiction.  Overall Rating: 8*/10.

 

    Heads up, Imperial Rome!  Gaius Ruso has arrived!  He’s brought his wife Tilla, and 7-month-old daughter Mara, along with him.  And not much else, other than a bunch of medical equipment, since Ruso is a Medicus (“Doctor”) by trade, and just recently discharged from serving in a Roman legion.

 

    The first thing to do, of course, is to open up a practice and get some money coming in.  He hopes his former military superior, Publius Accius, who’s somewhere in Rome, will put in a good word for him.  Open some doors.

 

    Well, speaking of opening doors, one just did.  Kleitos, a doctor here in Rome just left town unexpectedly, leaving a whole bunch of patients in the lurch and a fully furnished, doctor’s residence.  What a perfect opportunity for Ruso!  He’s moving in today, along with his family.

 

    He plans to set up quickly, and start seeing Kleitos’s patients immediately.  Oh, and he needs to get someone to remove that barrel sitting on the front porch.  It’s sealed, so who knows what’s in it, but it’s stinking to high Olympus.

 

What’s To Like...

    Vita Brevis is the seventh book in Ruth Downie’s (completed) Roman historical fiction “Medicus” series.  I’ve read the first six books, but that was ten years ago.  The series is set in 123 CE, at the height of the Roman empire, although I think this is the first one where Ruso actually sets foot in the capital city.

 

    The mystery angle starts almost immediately; the reeking barrel is left on Kleitos’s porch on page 4, with Ruso making his entrance shortly thereafter.  The chapters are short: there are 76 of them covering 366 pages.  There’s a “Cast of Characters” section at the start of the book, which I found really helpful, due to my 10-year hiatus from this series.

 

    As expected, a relatively simple mystery (what’s in the stinking barrel?) quickly becomes more complex.  Where did Kleitos go, and why?  Why do thugs keep knocking on Ruso’s/Kleitos’s door asking for payment for “services rendered”?  Can Ruso and his former boss patch things up?  Why didn't Kleitos label his potions bottles?

 

    One of the things I love about this series is Ruth Downie’s skill at setting the story in a believable historical epoch.  One example: all cities had “dung carts” in those days.  Horses and donkeys make great beasts of burden as transportation on the streets of Rome, but in a city this size, they generate a lot of poop on a daily basis.

 

    I thought the author’s handling of the sensitive issue of slaver was also deftly done.  The fate of being a slave was a dicey affair.  It all depended on the master.  Slaves also came in all colors., and many of them eventually garnered enough money to buy their freedom.  The medical scenes were also skillfully rendered.   Herbs and potions were of course commonly prescribed, but sometimes surgery was necessary.

 

    The ending is well thought-out.  It’s not filled with thrills & spills, but that's okay.  Instead it's a product of Ruso's deductive reasoning.  And his ingestion of poppies.

 

Kewlest New Word…

Bodge (n.): something that is completed quickly and carelessly.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 1,098 ratings and 96 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.13*/5, based on 1,456 ratings and 157 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “And how is your wife enjoying Rome?”

    “She’s very busy with the baby,” said Ruso.

    “Oh, dear, yes.  I heard something about that.”

    “Parenthood is a marvelous thing,” Ruso assured him.  “You should try it yourself.”

    “I’m glad to hear it,” Metellus told him.  “Especially after the rumors.”

    Ruso said, “It never pays to listen to rumors.”

    “Actually, I find it pays rather well.”  (loc. 437)

 

    “Horatia was only one opportunity among many.”

    “That’s all he thought of her?”

    “Don’t be silly, Ruso.  Daughters of rich families are part of the business.  They’re born knowing that.  It’s their duty to contribute, and since they can’t do much else, the least they can do is provide helpful alliances and grandchildren.  Not everyone can marry for love and live on beans like you do.”  (loc. 4348)

 

Kindle Details…

    Vita Brevis presently sells for $9.99 at Amazon, as do the other seven books in the series.  Ruth Downie also has a short story, The Bear and the Wolf, and a novella, Prima Facie, both set in the Roman Empire for your Kindle, priced at $0.99 and $2.99 respectively. 

 

Across the room, Mara put her toes in her mouth and sucked them.  (loc. 1371)

    The profanity is sparse in Vita Brevis, so little of it that I forgot to keep count.  I’m sure there were less than ten instances in the entire book.

 

    The quibbles are negligible.  The only one I can think of is subjective: Ruso can be dense at times.  You might solve the mysteries and the crimes before he does.  Heck, it took him, and Tilla, an unbelievable amount of time to determine why that barrel on the front porch smells so rotten, and why someone wants payment for delivering it to Kleitos's house.

 

    Overall, the plusses far outweigh the minuses in Vita Brevis, and it was nice to read a cozy mystery where the author pays just as much attention to developing the mystery as she does to the "coziness".  There’s one more book in this series, Memento Mori, so I gotta hit the used-book stores to find a copy since I can’t remember the last time I saw Ruth Downie’s e-books discounted at Amazon.

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  Early on, Ruso scrapes up enough money to buy him a trio of slaves.  Two of them evolve into important characters in the story; but the third simply runs away the first chance he gets.  We aren’t even told his name.  I kept waiting for this plot thread to make an impact on the storyline, but it never does.  I’m hoping he shows up in the final book.

Redneck Kaiju - Wil Radcliffe

   2025; 185 pages.  Full Title: Redneck Kaiju: The Scavengers of Deep Hollow.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Dark Fantasy, Horror.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    It came out of the mist like a myth; a giant man-shaped goat.  Thorns twisted like serpents.  Muscles like tree trunks.  Cloven hoofs that cracked stone.  And eyes . . . God, those eyes . . . yellow like wildfire.  (pg. 7).

 

    And it kicked the stuffing out of a 12-man squadron of US Marines.  Patrick “Panther” McMorn was one of the lucky survivors, and still has nightmares about that encounter.

 

    But that was in the past, in Afghanistan, and who knows what kinds of vile mutated beasts all the wars with chemical weapons over there may have been spawned.  Panther McMorn is a civilian now, back in his hometown of Deep Hollow, Indiana.  The only monsters here are in fairy tales.

 

    Yeah right.  In your dreams, Panther, in your dreams.

 

What’s To Like...

    The action in Redneck Kaiju starts right away; the monster-meeting excerpt given above occurs on the third page of the text.  There are two timelines, one in Afghanistan; the other in Deep Hollow.  The text switches between the two, but it is not confusing at all.

 

    I was unfamiliar with the term “Kaiju”, but it’s not a made-up word.  Google it; you’ll be glad you did.  The character development is excellent; I especially liked how Barry’s persona evolves as the story progresses.  Kira and Panther are also well-crafted.  Heck, even the dog’s character development is deftly done.

 

    Thrills and spills and kaiju critters abound.  It’s easy to determine who the bad guys are, but the real crux of the storyline is figuring out a way to stop them, and then repair their evil doings.  There are a wide variety of kaiju creatures to meet and discreetly avoid.  They differ in size, mentality, and temperament, but all of them are lethal.

 

    Everything builds to an exciting, over-the-top, ending, with a major plot twist thrown in just when I thought the story was winding up.  The final page hints that a sequel will follow, hopefully in the not-too-distant future!

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Luchador (n.) : a Mexican professional wrestler

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  5.0/5 based on 1 rating and 1 review.

    Goodreads: x.xx/5 based on 0 ratings and 0 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Whatever was out there wasn’t trying to hide.  Heavy footfalls.  Breathing, maybe.  Slow and steady.  He didn’t feel fear, not exactly, but his muscles tensed, trained for impact.

    If it wanted to kill him, it probably could.

    He reached down, fingers brushing the handle of the knife on his belt.

    Then a snout pushed out of the brush.  A long tail wagged behind it.

    “Seriously?” Panther said, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.  (pg. 12)

 

    She laughed for real this time.  Then she stood on her toes and kissed him deeply.  When they pulled apart, T-Bone gave a jealous grunt.

    Kira reached out and scratched the giant dog’s head.  “Take care of this big dummy,” she whispered.

    “I will,” Panther replied.

    “I was talking to the dog,” she said with a crooked smile.  (pg. 125)

 

Kindle Details…

    Redneck Kaiju currently costs $2.99 at Amazon, which is a super deal for a new release.  Wil Radcliffe has another half-dozen e-books for your Kindle, from his two earlier series: Noggle Stones and The Whisper King.  They range in price from $0.99 to $4.99 apiece.

 

“Holy crap.  Chemistry is way more violent than I thought.”  (pg. 72)

    There’s a light-to-moderate amount of profanity in Redneck Kaiju.  I counted 16 instances in the first 20%, including a couple of f-bombs; which extrapolates out to about 80 in the whole book.  Not bad for a horror tale.  There was also one roll-in-the-hay.

 

    I spotted only one typo: raises/raised.  Kudos to whoever did the editing on this.

 

    That’s it for the quibbles.  Redneck Kaiju is a fast-paced, well-written tale with a bit of wit thrown in for good measure.  There were no slow spots that I recall.  Simply put, the monsters come in droves, fast and furious, and there’s just no time to slow down.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing.  I liked the tip-of-the-hat to acclaimed Wyoming-born American artist Jackson Pollock.  I’ve been a fan of his ever since seeing his works in a gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming years ago.  It’s nice to see him getting a nod.

Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris

   2009; 261 pages.  Book 9 (out of 13) in the “Sookie Stackhouse” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Paranormal Mystery; Gothic Romance; Vampires; Werewolves.  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

 

    It was a major coming-out event.  Almost as big as when human beings found out there were lots of Vampires living in their midst.  This time both humans and vamps discovered they had Wereanimals (werewolves, werefoxes, and others) living in their neighborhoods and keeping a low profile.

 

    Reactions were mixed.  Some humans accepted their new furry neighbors without any qualms.  Others were less thrilled.  Some homo sapiens were downright hostile.

 

    So when a local werepanther was killed in a very gruesome fashion in Bon Temps, Louisiana, local resident Sookie Stackhouse wants to know if this was a hate crime.  Because she too has some paranormal genes in her that she’s been very careful to keep secret.

 

    She’s half-human and half-fairy.

 

What’s To Like...

    Dead and Gone, is the ninth book in Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series.  In the previous tome, From Dead to Worse, Sookie meets her great-grandfather Niall, a fairy from another dimension (the fae live a long time), now that relationship gets developed more fully.

 

    The storyline structure utilizes the usual formula.  Charlaine Harris opens things by getting us caught up on the status of a slew of characters via the coming-out being broadcast at Merlotte’s Bar.  After the savage murder grabs our attention, the plotline splits into several other threads.  Her boss, Sam Merlotte, has to deal with a family tragedy; Sookie’s great-grandfather is involved in fairy kingdom unrest, and several personal relationships are impacted by the wereanimals’ coming-out.

 

    That sounds like a recipe for literary confusion, but Charlaine Harris makes sure that things unfold smoothly.  The story is once again told in the first-person point-of-view, Sookie’s, which means the reader gets to hear her thoughts about things such as unintentionally killing someone, being duped into a betrothal, and how to cope with reading other peoples’ minds since she’s a telepath.  Introspection abounds.

 

    The ending is tense, exciting, and bittersweet.  Both the good guys and bad guys suffer some casualties.  Still others live to fright another day, but not all the survivors live happily ever after.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 4,882 ratings and 1,144 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.02/5 based on 193,898 ratings and 4,955 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Lock the doors and don’t let anyone in.”

    “Doors are locked; no one’s knocking,” she said.

    “Don’t let me in,” I said, “unless I give you the password.”

    “Sure, Sookie,” she said, and I could tell she thought I’d gone over the edge.  “What’s the password?”

    “Fairypants,” I said, and how I came up with that I have no idea.  It simply seemed super unlikely that anyone else in the world would say it.

    “I got it,” Amelia said.  “Fairypants.”  (pg. 223)

 

    Dr. Ludwig takes care of the cases who can’t go to the regular human hospital because the staff would flee screaming at the sight of them or the lab wouldn’t be able to analyze their blood.  I could see Dr. Ludwig’s coarse brown hair as she walked around the bed to the door.  Dr. Ludwig had a deep voice.  I suspected she was a hobbit—not really, but she sure did look like one.  Though she wore shoes, right?  I spent some moments trying to remember if I’d ever caught a glimpse of Dr. Ludwig’s feet.  (pg. 234)

 

Kindle Details…

    Dead and Gone currently costs $6.99 at Amazon.  The rest of the e-books in the series are all in the $3.99-$9.99 price range.  Charlaine Harris has several other series for your Kindle; the prices of those books are generally in the $5.99-$14.99 range.

 

 

In a rare moment of wisdom, I listened to my own advice.  (pg. 145)

    I noted eleven instances of profanity in the first 25% of Dead and Gone, which is about average for this series.  Later on, one f-bomb crops up, plus a couple of rolls-in-the-hay.

    All that introspection mentioned earlier tends to slow down the pacing.  At one point, for example, the reader is treated to a couple of pages detailing Sookie’s thoughts while weeding the garden.

 

    For me the big issue was the investigation of first killing.  To put it tersely, there is none, even with two FBI agents arriving on the scene to help out.  Despite the killing's brutality, life continues on as usual for most of the residents of the small town of Bon Temps.  Eventually, the case gets solved, but even that is due to sudden epiphanies, not shrewd detective work.

 

    If you’re reading this series for the human (and not-so-human) interrelationships involved, you probably won’t mind the way the killings are handled.  But if you’re reading them for the paranormal crime mysteries, like I am, then you may find Dead and Gone to be quite a disappointment.

 

    Overall, this was still a worthwhile read, but it doesn’t measure up to the first couple of books in the series.  It’s almost as if the author has run out of paranormal crime concepts, but still has lots of ideas about where to take the characters’ lives.  We’ll see if things get better in the next installment, Dead in the Family.  I’m not quitting this series yet.

 

    7 Stars.  One last thing.  One of my favorite recurring characters in this series, Bubba, makes an appearance in Dead and Gone.  It’s brief, but here’s hoping he gets to play a more important part in one of the remaining tales.

Silk Road - Colin Falconer

   2011; 468 pages.  Book 1 (out of 15) in the “Epic Adventure” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Historical Asian Fiction; Epic Adventure.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    An enemy of my enemy is my friend.  And the Christian Crusaders fighting the hordes of Saracens in the Holy Land in 1260 AD need all the friends they can get.

 

    What about those fearsome marauding Mongols way out in Eastern Asia?  They’ve been battling the Christian and Moslem armies, and inflicting heavy casualties on both.

 

    Let’s send a Papal envoy to them and get them to join the Crusaders they’ve been killing.  Then the both of us can gang up on those infidel Moslems.  We’ll conveniently ignore the fact that the Mongols are also infidels.

 

    We’ll assign a veteran Crusader to accompany the envoy and keep him safe.  A Knights Templar, no less.  The two of them can travel to and meet with the Great Khan, wherever he is, and convince him to join us.

 

    Nothing can possibly go wrong.  Because we have God on our side, and nobody else does!

 

What’s To Like...

    Silk Road is the first book in a 15-volume Historical Adventure series by Colin Falconer.  It is a standalone novel, not connected to any of the others.  Chronologically, it starts out soon after what Wikipedia labels “The Seventh Crusade”, which was waged in the years 1248-1254 AD.

 

    The storyline follows three main protagonists: William, the Pope’s envoy and zealous defender of the faith; Josseran, the Crusader tasked with making sure William safely reaches the Great Khan; and Khutelun, a Mongol princess who’d rather engage you in combat than become engaged to you.  The character development of these three individuals is deep and satisfying, and that is also true of the secondary characters such as Khutelun’s father, her brothers, and the daughter of Kublai, the present Mongol ruler of Cathay (China).

 

    The historical angle felt meticulously researched, which for a history buff like me, is a definite plus.  The titular “Silk Road” was the main trade route in those days, but traveling it was perilous at best, fatal at worst.  I was familiar with the practice of foot-binding and the partaking of hashish (by both Mongols and Saracens), but didn’t know ice cream was a culinary delight back then.  And William’s clumsy attempts at using chopsticks brought back personal memories one of my business trips to China.

 

    Traversing the Silk Road from the Near East to the Far East entailed months of traveling in the 13^th century, and to pass the time, the reader is treated to extensive theological discussions.  William is annoyingly zealous; Josseran is a jaded warrior; and both staunchly defend their faith and/or lack of it.  It was also enlightening to hear the Mongols, Saracens, and Chinese expound on their religious beliefs.

 

    The ending is both exciting and heartwarming.  The storylines for Josseran and Khutelun are resolved, at least for the moment, and William’s is covered in the Prologue and Epilogue.  There is room for a sequel, but I doubt that Colin Falconer will pen one.  Too many other Epic Adventures to tell.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.4/5 based on 14,544 ratings and 944 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.27/5 based on 10,002 ratings and 419 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

    Argol (n.) : camel droppings dried in the sun (Mongolian).

    Others: Koumiss (n.); Parlous (adj.).

 

Excerpts...

    The woman turned to one of her companions.  “The thin one will die of cold before we are halfway across the mountains.  The other one looks fit enough.  But he is as ugly as his horse, and his nose is twice as big.”

    The Mongols laughed.

    “I have no quarrel with you for my own account,” Josseran said in her own language, “but I object to you calling my horse ugly.”  (loc. 888)

 

    “There are some who think we should spend all our lives as our grandfathers did, on the steppes, stealing horses and burning towns.  But Qaidu and my brother Ariq Boke live in a time that is gone.  Are we to live as Genghis lived, to conquer the world every winter, only to withdraw again during the summer to tend our horses and sheep?  If we are to keep what we have won, then we have to change our old ways.  The world may be conquered from horseback, but it cannot be ruled from it.”  (loc. 3664)

 

Kindle Details…

    Silk Road sells for $3.99 at Amazon right now.  All of the other books in the series are also $3.99.  Colin Falconer has another seven novels available for your reading pleasure, mostly historical fiction and crime thrillers, and in the price range of $0.99 to $4.99.

 

“May you grow boils in your ears the size of watermelons.”  (loc. 2255)

    I was impressed by the sparsity of cussing—just three instances first third of the book.  There are several rolls-in-the-hay however, and a number of adult situations, including a disturbing underage one.  I suspect, however, that such was life in the wilds of Asia back then.

 

    The editing was fantastic; I noted just one typo: defend/defends.  The book is written in “Australian”, the author’s nationality, which means a few odd spellings, such as offence, meagre, and judgement; but also “normal” spellings on such words as realize, specter, and defenseless.

 

    I personally found Silk Road a great piece of Historical Fiction.  There’s a smidgen of Romance blended in; and I liked the way Khutelun and Miao-yen (the Chinese princess) were both, in their own ways, strong female character studies.  I have a couple more books from this series on my Kindle, and I expect I'll start reading one of those in the not-too-distant future.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing. One of Josseran’s responsibilities during the trek was to act as a translator for William.  William suffers from a deficiency of tact—not a good trait for an envoy—and Josseran often resorts to “loose translations” when William is engaging in brusque dialogue with other dignitaries.  It was most entertaining to read his “free form” revisions.

Rise of the Forgotten - Scott Baron

   2021; 363 pages.  Book 3 (out of 6) in the “Warp Riders” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Space Opera; Science Fiction; Space Exploration.  Overall Rating: 7½*/10.

 

    First the good news.  Nobody’s shooting at Sadira Perez’s spaceship anymore; their galactic enemies, the Ra’az Hok, have been vanquished; and their former taskmasters, the Chithiid, are now their allies.  So they’re relatively safe for the time being,

 

    Now for the bad news.  Sadira’s ship and crew have been warped to who-knows-where, which has rendered their star charts useless.  Once you’re become lost in the universe you tend to stay lost.

 

    However, the ship’s AI reports that’s there’s a planet up ahead, and it’s inhabited.  Chances are the beings are either human or Chithiid.  Maybe they have star charts of this part of the galaxy, and if so, maybe they’ll let Sadira take a look at them.

 

    Yeah, and maybe Murphy, he of “Murphy’s Law”, won’t pay them a surprise visit, as he is wont to do.

 

What’s To Like...

    Rise of the Forgotten is the third book in Scott Baron’s “Warp Riders” series.  He’s written five series in this setting, 32 books in all, and has posted a useful timeline of these on his Amazon webpage showing the chronology of these series.

 

    This series follows the “Clockwork Chimera” one, which I’ve read and reviewed in its entirety over the last four years.  That one chronicled the war between the Ra’az Hok and the Humans; this series focuses on the aftermath.  Sadira’s crew is still intact, and includes a pleasant mix of humans, cyborgs, Chithiids, and gender-juggling AI entities. 

 

    Rise of the Forgotten is a fine example of both Space Opera and First Contact genres.  Making contact with this unknown planet is desperately necessary, but prudence is required.  Are they friends or enemies?  Are the Ra’az Hok truly eliminated, or do pockets of them remain on far-flung solar systems?  Might the inhabitants down there know how to get back to Planet Earth or will they shoot first and ask questions later?

 

    To no one’s surprise, Sadira’s "first contact" strategy rapidly gets derailed, with thrills, spills, and mayhem all rapidly ensuing.  I read the Books 1&2 in this series back in 2021 so I very much appreciated the first couple of chapters giving a recap of events in those volumes.  I also enjoyed watching the creation of the “disguises” to be used to infiltrate into the planet’s inhabitants and chuckled over the acronym “ASAFP”.

 

    The ending is decent but not very twisty; tense but not very exciting.  Good triumphs over Evil, but some of Sadira’s objectives remain unfulfilled.  Oh well, there are another three books in the series to deal with that.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 145 ratings and 14 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.43*/5, based on 76 ratings and 11 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “He’ll be okay, Cap.  Hel’s a pain in the ass sometimes, but he’s no fool.”

    “He ditched his comms, Moose.  And we have no way to find either of them now.  It’s thousands of Chithiid, all dressed the same, all packed in there, and even if we knew roughly where he was, we can’t even get a clear visual from up here because of the atmospheric issues.”

    “I know, I know.  But it’s like taking a kid riding without training wheels.  Eventually, you have to trust them and let go.”

    She raised an eyebrow sarcastically.  “Most kids crash the first time, you know.”  (loc. 1592)

 

    “Things don’t always go according to plan, but if anyone’s going to take a risky gamble, I suppose the AI superbrain that processes data a bazillion times faster than any of us meat brains can is about the best odds you can get.”

    “Did you just call me a meat brain?” Moose asked.

    “Well, technically, it’s neurons, glial cells, neural stem cells, and blood vessels in addition to fat, but I think the spirit of the comment is valid,” Hump said with a laugh.  (loc. 4698)

 

Kindle Details…

    Rise of the Forgotten sells for $3.99 right now at Amazon.  The other books in the series, including the Book 1&2 bundle, go for either $0.99 or $3.99.  Scott Baron has several other series in e-book format, both in bundles and as individual stories, and mostly priced in the $0.99-$4.99 range.

 

“Smoke me a kipper, I’m heading home.”  (loc. 738)

    I counted 11 instances of profanity in the first 10% of Rise of the Forgotten, which I’d call a moderate amount.  None of them were f-bombs, but a couple of those did show up later on.  I don’t recall any adult situations.

 

    There’s not much else to quibble about.  There were no slow spots in the storytelling, but it was a quick-&-easy read, ideal for a day at the beach.  And maybe it even suggests a subtle concept: that regardless of ethnic, cosmic, and/or gender varieties, when it comes to surviving in the Universe, we are all in this together.  Now onto Book Four, Pandora’s Menagerie.

 

    7½ Stars.  One last thing.  My favorite cosmic deity, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, gets a brief nod here, and as a loyal FSM follower, I found that greatly satisfying.