Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Big Names...Bad Books...
Have you noticed the trend: Big name authors are writing stories out of their successful genres. Why? It generates a multitude of sales because of name recognition. I fell for the scheme recently. Bought a book by David Baldacci...who I believe is an excellent writer and has, in the past, created interesting, insightful stories loaded with believable characters who take crime and suspense to the federal level. I bought 'his' latest work...Summer something...it's so bad I don't remember the title. And I don't want to remember the title. This story is totally weak, amateurish: the plot--if you can call it that--floats like a wet donut scraped off a plate at the bottom of the sink. Granted it's tissue intended...as it tries to compete with the Nicholas Sparks hearty achey stories. But it falls so flat and far from a substance story that you begin to believe Baldacci had a ghost writer pecking away at his keyboard. Here's the jest of it: Dying man saying goodbye to his family, wife dies instead, he makes miraculous recovery and moves his family to the beach to recover. Hmmmm...maybe not a bad idea. But beyond the back cover blurb, you get nothing but idle chatter, weak characters and predictable, meaningless dialogue. Here's what I purpose: Big name writers---take the money and run. Don't ruin your reputation on junk writing just to get a book out to market. It reminds me of 'this little piggy went to market' ... the successful one stayed home. Wasn't fried for bacon. Didn't disappoint his audience, didn't cause a negative rebound in his sales. I'd be hard pressed to buy Baldacci again...his next novel would have to get such high reviews and publicity coverage before I'd put my foot in the water. Beach story...blah, blah, blah....bypass "....Summer....something..." and pick up a Harlequin romance. You'll be pleased by your decision.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Review...And Every Man Has to Die..
Title: And Every Man Has to Die
Author: Frank Zafiro
Publisher: Gray Dog Press, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-936178-41-4
‘The Russians are making a play to control organized crime here in River City.’ With one line, author Frank Zafiro sets the stage for a bloody war on the streets of his fictional town in Washington. Ex-cop, four time published, Zafiro knows crime and depicts it in real cop fashion. And Every Man Has to Die is Zafiro’s best work to date. His writing is as meticulous as his villain Valeriy who will burn down a house and the woman and child inside to get across the point he expects totally loyalty from his foot soldiers. On the good side of the law, Officer B.J. Carson, is a rookie who isn’t quite prepared for crime warfare. She’s still enamored by her uniform and other co-workers dressed in blue who make good bedfellows. Katie MacLeod, seasoned and somewhat jaded, has been placed on restricted duty after a losing a battle with a fleeing bad guy. So the police force in River City, a combination of characters who have been brought to life in the past with Zafiro’s rapid fire writing style, must put the pieces of the puzzle together before the Russians take over. They discover second in command, vicious Valeriy is trying to outsmart his boss, Sergey. He has pitted Blacks and Asians against each other so he can come out on top of the heap and hopefully Sergey will get caught in the cross fire. Why should a Russian trust a Russian seems to be the underlying theme for these types of thugs.
Zafiro doesn’t paint a glamorous picture of the River City force, either. Their drug of choice is legal. Beer and booze takes you straight to a hotel or bedroom. There seems to be no white knights in Zafiro’s stories. Real people, with real problems. If I were to pick at problems in his story, it would be in his mix of characters. Chisholm, Sully, MacLeod, Tower. There’s no one major hero in this book, no one soul to carry you through the angst as you turn each page. But then Zafiro is a cop, he knows it takes more than one person to solve a crime. In that, he’s done a good job. By 2204 hour in the plot line, the pace can’t get any better. If you remember the chase scene in the French Connection, by far the best of Hollywood, Zafiro has surpassed it. This book should put Frank Zafiro on the fast track.
Author: Frank Zafiro
Publisher: Gray Dog Press, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-936178-41-4
‘The Russians are making a play to control organized crime here in River City.’ With one line, author Frank Zafiro sets the stage for a bloody war on the streets of his fictional town in Washington. Ex-cop, four time published, Zafiro knows crime and depicts it in real cop fashion. And Every Man Has to Die is Zafiro’s best work to date. His writing is as meticulous as his villain Valeriy who will burn down a house and the woman and child inside to get across the point he expects totally loyalty from his foot soldiers. On the good side of the law, Officer B.J. Carson, is a rookie who isn’t quite prepared for crime warfare. She’s still enamored by her uniform and other co-workers dressed in blue who make good bedfellows. Katie MacLeod, seasoned and somewhat jaded, has been placed on restricted duty after a losing a battle with a fleeing bad guy. So the police force in River City, a combination of characters who have been brought to life in the past with Zafiro’s rapid fire writing style, must put the pieces of the puzzle together before the Russians take over. They discover second in command, vicious Valeriy is trying to outsmart his boss, Sergey. He has pitted Blacks and Asians against each other so he can come out on top of the heap and hopefully Sergey will get caught in the cross fire. Why should a Russian trust a Russian seems to be the underlying theme for these types of thugs.
Zafiro doesn’t paint a glamorous picture of the River City force, either. Their drug of choice is legal. Beer and booze takes you straight to a hotel or bedroom. There seems to be no white knights in Zafiro’s stories. Real people, with real problems. If I were to pick at problems in his story, it would be in his mix of characters. Chisholm, Sully, MacLeod, Tower. There’s no one major hero in this book, no one soul to carry you through the angst as you turn each page. But then Zafiro is a cop, he knows it takes more than one person to solve a crime. In that, he’s done a good job. By 2204 hour in the plot line, the pace can’t get any better. If you remember the chase scene in the French Connection, by far the best of Hollywood, Zafiro has surpassed it. This book should put Frank Zafiro on the fast track.
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