The Bastard Hand by Heath Lowrance

What can I say about this novel? If it had been written by Stephen King it would be probably already be lauded as a classic and he’d be sitting on a fat cheque for the film rights. As it is I bought it for free and frankly that’s criminal. Heath Lowrance has accomplished so much with this novel that it’s difficult to know where to start.

Charlie Wesley is an escapee from a mental institution and he’s drifting across the States with little goal or purpose. When he gets mugged it’s the start of a chain of events. The following day he meets the charismatic Reverend Phineas Childe. The two become friends and Charlie travels with the preacher to the town of Cuba Landing.

Lowrance tells the tale from Charlie’s perspective. We soon discover that all is not well in the rotten town of Cuba Landing. The observations Lowrance makes are often witty but it is clear that this is going to be a tale darkness and corruption. There are so many plot elements cunningly woven into this novel that sometimes you skip past them and then BAM you’re hit in the face by a revelation.  There are twists and turns but you NEVER lose track of what is going on. Here lies Lowrance’s skill. He weaves such a complex tale but it’s so easy to follow.

The characters are vividly drawn in three dimensions. Charlie as the hero of the novel is amoral and at times downright nasty. The Reverend is charismatic and you can’t help but like the old rogue even though his heart is as black as a politician’s heart. There’s also a dose of small town politics and it’s obvious the Mayor has secrets of his. Add in a supernatural element into the mix and you have a masterpiece of a novel that will appeal to broad range of readers. This novel is the literary equivalent of a perfectly written and melancholy Nick Cave or Leonard Cohen track. Flawless and brilliant.

Genre: Crime/Supernatural
Publisher:  New Pulp Press
Format:  E-Book & Paperback
Rating: 5/5

The Van by Roddy Doyle

Roddy Doyle is best known for being the author of The Commitments which was made into a smash hit film. When I started reading The Van I expected the same kind of larger than life characters as The Commitments and I wasn't disappointed.

Jimmy Senior is unemployed and depressed. He spends his time with his granddaughter trying to fill the endless days. He tries his best to make light of his situation but his anger often gets the better of him.

This is where we find ourselves at the start of the novel. Doyle injects humour into everyday situations whilst at the same time showing us some ordinary Irish folk having a very rough time of it.

When Jimmy Senior's friend Brendan, known to all as Bimbo, is made redundant Jimmy's mood is lifted as he gets to have some company to fill the long and lonely days. When Bimbo's redundancy cheque arrives Bimbo has an idea and the two friends embarked on an unlikely business venture.

The story isn't the fastest moving and it's a story about people rather than events. Doyle's comic touch livens things up nicely and I found myself laughing out loud often when reading it. There's a melancholy to it but this seems to blend nicely with the humour. A tale ultimately about a friendship between men that was a fantastic read. My one criticism is that the ending petered out a little and could have been better developed.

Genre:  Humour

Format:  All

Rating: 4/5

Bang Bang You're Dead by Nick Quantrill

Nick Quantrill is best known for his Joe Geraghty novels. Private investigator novels which are set in his hometown of Hull. However, he is also a prolific short story writer who has appeared in Byker Books Radgepacket series, kindle anthology True Brit Grit and the acclaimed Mammoth Book of Best British Crime among many others.

Edgy publisher Byker Books new best of British collection is bringing some home grown talent from the cream of the Bri Grit pack and Quantrill brings us his novella Bang Bang, You’re Dead. Rather than novels these novellas are shorter reads aiming to pack a punch in fewer pages.

Quantrill's novels are intelligent, well researched and carefully considered. Bang Bang, You're Dead is more in your face and raw than his usual work. It's closer to Irvine Welsh or Ray Banks in its dark and violent style. The author displays his usual affection for the city but pulls no punches when it comes to showing us the seedier side. His knowledge of Hull’s geography is an asset to the story helping to create a realistic and believable setting. I think that some of the Hull spirit creeps into his main character, Sam, and the city seems to be a character sitting over his shoulder as the plot unfolds.

Fresh out of prison Sam is determined to make a fresh start in life but the chance to make a quick buck proves too alluring and he soon finds himself in trouble up to his neck.

With wisecracking characters and a fast paced narrative I found this to be a very enjoyable read that I raced through. Easy to read in a day a good novella will leave you satisfied and yet hungry for more. Quantrill achieves this with a well rounded action packed plot. A great short read.

Genre:  Crime
Publisher:  Byker Books
Format:  E-Book
Rating: 5/5

Just Whistle by Alfie Robins

Alfie Robins entertaining novel is set in the northern city of Hull. The book starts conventionally enough. A jogger finds a body and the reader is fooled into thinking that Just Whistle will be a standard police procedural. However, Robins takes us off on a most unexpected tangent. I'm not in the habit of giving away plot points in my reviews and I won't start now but I guarantee that you WILL be surprised.

Despite some very dark criminal acts within the novel there is warmth to the characters that I found very appealing. The dialogue was also witty enough to make me chuckle at times. I could find myself enjoying these characters within a series of novels. By the conclusion the author's narrative was quite complex and I found myself wondering how it would end. I really enjoyed what Robins did with the plot, it was a brave move to make it so unconventional. A gamble that I think paid off very well. Fun to read, interesting and a page turner that will hook you and won’t let go until the finish.

Genre:  Crime
Publisher:  Caffeine Nights
Format:  Paperback and E-book
Rating:  5/5

In Her Own Words...Interview With A London Call Girl

“In Her Own Words… Interview with a London Call Girl”

(from Soul Destruction)

“In Her Own Words… Interview with a London Call Girl” is the unedited transcript from an interview Ruth Jacobs undertook with a London call girl in the late 1990s. It is an enlightening and moving, firsthand account of a woman’s life affected by prostitution, exposing the emotional, psychological and social effects of living that existence. All royalties from this publication are being donated to Beyond the Streets, a charity helping women exit prostitution.

This charity publication and the cause is very close to Ruth’s heart, even more so because the woman she interviewed was a dear friend, a wonderful person, and who had a terribly sad life, with childhood sexual abuse and then being pimped on the streets from the age of fifteen. As she is no longer alive, this is the reason Ruth wanted the royalties to be donated to Beyond the Streets.

The stigma a significant section of society has against prostitutes and prostitution is mainly due to lack of knowledge. 75% of prostitutes have been sexually and physically abused as children, 70% have experienced multiple rapes, and 67% meet the criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder, which is a major cause of suicide. Research shows that nine out of ten women working in prostitution would like to exit if they could.

With this publication, Ruth hopes to show the reality of life for women working in prostitution, the effects it has on them psychologically, emotionally, in relationships with men, how they are viewed and how they feel they are viewed by society as outsiders and outcasts, often judged and looked down on. Seeing them as real people, with real feelings, and acquiring an insight into their tormented childhoods and painful present lives, allows people who are not in that life to gain an informed perception of who these women really are, and with that knowledge, are less likely to judge.


“In Her Own Words… Interview with a London Call Girl” - Extract

From a young age, from like being fifteen, I’ve been hardened to it. The first…when I first started doing it, I cried my eyes out every day and just scrubbed myself in bleach and…I felt like I’d been raped. It was just…it really screwed my mind up. And there’s this feeling when you get…when you’re with a client and it’s like sometimes when you feel like…you grab your fists and it’s like, “Get off me! Get off me!” And it’s like…you know you can’t push them off you, right? Because you know you’re getting paid for it. So it’s basically allowing yourself to be raped, right? But you can’t even fight them back or say, “Get off me.” It’s like…and you cry while it’s happening and all this shit, and you go home and you cry yourself to sleep after all that shit, and it happens to you a lot of times until eventually that feeling goes away, and that feeling…you don’t get that feeling anymore.

“In Her Own Words… Interview with a London Call Girl” is available to download from Amazon UK at http://amzn.to/P992RY for 77p and from Amazon US at http://amzn.to/Qo3SZD for 99c. It is also available worldwide.


To learn more about Ruth Jacobs and the Soul Destruction series of novels visit her website at www.soul-destruction.com

Ruth Jacobs on Twitter http://twitter.com/RuthFJacobs
Ruth Jacobs on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/rujacobs
Soul Destruction on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/SoulDestructionSeries
Soul Destruction on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/RuthFJacobs/videos

No More Sock Puppets Please

Copied verbatim from A Knife And A Quill blog. I know they won't mind.
I agree with the sentiment 100%


I’m delighted to be able to put my name to the statement below. (Sorry folks but I accidentally published slightly prematurely on that and don’t want to take away anything from my fab co-authors who worked through the weekend and the night to get this together).
Please feel free to copy this letter and distribute as you see fit. I feel a bit sick and embarrassed my clumsy fingers publishedy it first (too much time on the bloody laptop over the last 72 hours). For everyone who’s said ‘Can I add my name too…’ we had hoped to have a system that would enable this. But it’s technically a bit beyond us at the moment. And to be frank we’re all pretty knackered after spending most of the weekend on this and little else. If there were an easy way… We haven’t found it yet but people are still looking.

These days more and more books are bought, sold, and recommended on-line, and the health of this exciting new ecosystem depends entirely on free and honest conversation among readers. But some writers are misusing these new channels in ways that are fraudulent and damaging to publishing at large. British author Stephen Leather recently admitted that he used fake identities online to promote his work. The American bestseller John Locke has revealed he has paid for reviews of his books. The British author RJ Ellory has now confessed to posting flattering reviews of his own work and to using assumed names to attack other authors perceived to be his rivals.

These are just three cases of abuse we know about. Few in publishing believe they are unique. It is likely that other authors are pursuing these underhand tactics as well.
We the undersigned unreservedly condemn this behaviour, and commit never to use such tactics.
But the only lasting solution is for readers to take possession of the process. The internet belongs to us all. Your honest and heartfelt reviews, good or bad, enthusiastic or disapproving,­ can drown out the phoney voices, and the underhanded tactics will be marginalized to the point of irrelevance. No single author, ­ however devious, ­ can compete with the whole community. Will you use your voice to help us clean up this mess?
Linwood Barclay, Tom Bale, Mark Billingham, Declan Burke, Ramsey Campbell, Tania Carver, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, N.J. Cooper, David Corbett, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Stella Duffy, Jeremy Duns, Mark Edwards, Chris Ewan, Helen FitzGerald, Meg Gardiner, Adèle Geras, Joanne Harris, Mo Hayder, David Hewson, Charlie Higson, Peter James, Graham Joyce, Laura Lippman, Stuart MacBride, Val McDermid, Roger McGough, Denise Mina, Steve Mosby, Stuart Neville, Jo Nesbo, Ayo Onatade, SJ Parris, Tony Parsons, Sarah Pinborough, Ian Rankin, Shoo Rayner, John Rickards, Stav Sherez, Karin Slaughter, Andrew Taylor, Luca Veste, Louise Voss, Martyn Waites, Neil White,  Laura Wilson, Darren Sant

Dead Men's Dust by Matt Hilton

I enjoyed this novel from the very start. Matt Hilton's fast paced narrative drew me in and hooked me immediately. The banter between the main characters Joe Hunter and Jared Rington was humourous and fun. However, at times it was a little forced but never enough to turn me off.
I believe this was Matt Hilton's debut novel and for a debut it's very accomplished. The action scenes worked very well and anyone who has ever tried to write an action sequence will know that it’s tougher than the reader would believe.

Hilton did an excellent job in getting us into the depraved mind of the character known as the Harvestman. Although the action thriller genre is not known for its strength in chacterisation I felt that Hilton scored points here. I saw great potential in this area. Hilton's descriptive writing, especially in the build up to the final scene, was top notch. Stark imagery that suited the grave situation perfectly.
A book not without it’s flaws but a very enjoyable page turner none the less. I will be following the exploits of Joe Hunter from now on.

Genre:  Action Thriller
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Format: E-book, Hardcover, Paperback
Rating:  4/5