Critical Failures by Robert Bevan

Critical Failures is an interesting blend of a novel. The story starts with a group of lads Tim, Cooper, Julian and Dave awaiting the arrival of a new Games Master for their weekly game of Caverns and Creatures, a Dungeons and Dragons style role playing game. As you might expect the author takes every opportunity to poke fun at the stereotype gamer, nerds with absolutely no prospect of ever finding a girlfriend. When the Games Master finally arrives, wearing a cape, they all take the opportunity to have some fun at his expense. Matters go from bad to worse and our "heroes" find themselves magically transported to the Games World with the GM having full control over this environment.

Bevan neatly combines the fantasy and comedy genres with quite a lot of action for the characters but with them of course fully aware of their game characters strengths and weaknesses. The strength of this novel lies in the humour. I found myself laughing out loud a lot but also rooting for our hapless heroes. Fantasy and RPG fans will get the jokes and find this funny. Anyone who is partial to slapstick humour will enjoy this also I'd imagine. It's not a high brow book and the humour isn't subtle but we all need a laugh sometimes and Critical Failures does this effortlessly.

Genre: Fantasy / Humour
Format: Paperback & E-Book
Rating: 5/5

News From Gardenia by Robert Llewellyn

This was one of those novels that I devoured in a day. Llewellyn captivated me from the first page. Gavin is a busy man and he has little time to reflect on his life and little time for his wife. An important man, a busy man. However, when a freak anomaly sees him transported two hundred years into the future he realises the world is a very different place to the one he left behind and time might be all he has.

Llewellyn has created a very different utopia within this novel. The lead character Gavin isn't good at human relationships, the only thing he truly understands is the complex and unemotional world of mechanical engineering. He finds himself in an England very different from our own. Power is free and universally available. There is no monetary system and no form of government. Like a giant commune people muck in and get along, strife is rare. Longevity is common and everyone is fit, healthy and strong.

Of course Gavin cannot accept this simple utopia and starts looking for flaws and cracks. Relationships and the family units are not the same as they once were and Gavin finds that he struggles to get to grips with it. Behind this society is technology beyond Gavin's wildest dreams and his engineer's senses twitch as he starts to delve deeper.

I understands News From Gardenia is to be a trilogy so the author spends a lot of time building up the framework of the world. Llewellyn expertly guides us along using Gavin's sense of exploration and wonder as the vehicle. As well as the outer journey we see Gavin's inner emotional development as he learns to relate to the strangely detached folk from the future.

An intelligent novel that can't help but make you think of our own immediate future and the energy crisis that looms large. A story that is as much about human nature as it is about fantastic technology. A gripping read from start to finish.

Genre: Sci-Fi / Utopian
Publisher: Unbound
Format: All
Rating: 5/5

Out There Bad by Josh Stallings

Beneath the wild heart of Moses McGuire there lurks a pussy cat. A hero, foolish knight in shining armour. A patsy with a fatal weakness. Josh Stallings has again delivered the goods in this the second novel featuring strip club bouncer Moses McGuire.

As with the first McGuire novel Beautiful, Naked and Dead I just couldn't put this book down. I have to be a little critical because BND was such a perfect work that I couldn't help but compare the two. There were a few editorial rough edges in Out There Bad that weren't present with BND. A recycled line from an old Lethal Weapon movie had me hoping that Stallings sense of irony was up and winking at me in the moment of delivery. I'd stake my bottom dollar on it.

Out There Bad is as bloody as BND and Stallings pulls no punches in delivering a very uncomfortable scene where Moses is forced to commit an unspeakable act. Stallings shows an admirable bravery in his writing and whilst he never preaches he does ask a few subtle questions of the reader. If you enjoyed the first Moses McGuire novel you will without doubt enjoy Out There Bad too.

Stallings introduces even more elements in this novel and we see Moses teaming up with the most unlikely of partners. We see Moses the unstoppable force battling the immovable object that is the Russian mafia. There is growth here as well as some sticking to the formula of the first novel. The saying if it ain't broke don't fix it applies here. It’s more of the same with a few risks taken but yet another entertaining five star read.

Genre: Crime / Gangster
Publisher: Heist Publishing
Format:E-Book & Paperback
Rating: 5/5

Beautiful, Naked and Dead by Josh Stallings

Moses McGuire is depressed. He's so depressed that he's considering ending it all. However, his delivery of hot lead to his grey matter is rudely interrupted by a call for help from a friend. Moses jumps on his trusty Norton and heads over to the strip joint where he works to rendezvous with his damsel in distress.


Beautiful, Naked and Dead is the literary equivalent of a Tarantino movie. You have all the ingredients needed: Mobsters, wise cracking characters, fast cars, girls and guns. However, Josh Stallings delivers so much more with this novel than a film could. You believe every single line his characters deliver. There is intelligence to the characterisation that transcends novels usually found in this genre. The crowning glory is Moses himself. Stallings has created not only a truly three dimensional character here but some of snappiest dialogue and downbeat wisdom come from McGuire’s stubborn cranium.

This novel was also, perhaps, the best edited e-book I think I've come across. There wasn't a wasted line or word in it. The next time the literati look down their collective noses at this genre I will, with a smug smile, withdraw from behind my back a copy of Beautiful, Naked and Dead and defy them to find fault with it. This ladies and gentleman is quite simply a benchmark to aspire to. Stallings pick up your phone that's Tarantino on the other end with film options.

Genre:  Crime / Gangster
Publisher:  Heist Publishing
Format:  E-Book & Paperback
Rating:  5/5

In Loco Parentis by Nigel Bird

Life has awkward disjointed moments. One moment you're doing fine, walking along and then suddenly something hits you between the eyes. A surprise, a bolt out of the blue and always, ALWAYS when you least expect it. Those moments, the pivotal points where things go from being ok to a disaster are the best way I can describe the events in this novel.

Joe works as a teacher and whilst we'd hope that he would be a well adjusted person that's not the case. Life has conspired against him. Perhaps it was the loss of his parents? He's trying to work through things in therapy but it seems hopeless. His affair with a married woman isn't helping matters. His lost love up in Preston is another added complication. Joe's life is out of control and his decisions are rash, careless and even dangerous.

Nigel Bird puts power in his words and, to use a cliche, we watch as Joe's life spirals out of control. I found this a gripping read and if I'm honest I can't exactly put my finger on why. It flows, it's well written. There are moments of happiness, of sex and joy but these are brief glimpses. At times Bird's writing is terrifically descriptive and it captures your imagination easily. A dark story that will not be to the tastes of all but if you have any interest in human relationships and the darkness that lies just behind the everyday minutiae then you'll enjoy this novel.

Genre: Crime
Format: E-Book
Rating : 4/5

A Taste of Old Revenge by B.R. Stateham

Frank Morales and Turner Hahn are a couple of hard working homicide detectives. Morales, the family man, is a big ugly lug of a man with a keen intellect and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Turner Hahn is a single man with an uncanny resemblance to Clark Gable and a love of muscle cars. Wealthy beyond the means of most detectives Turner doesn't need to work but without his job he'd go stir crazy. The story is largely told from Turner's perspective.

What Stateham offers with this novel is a good old fashioned detective yarn. His characters are interesting and he adds to them as the book develops. He describes the snow bound city excellently and I had no trouble picturing this freezing setting.

The author spins a convoluted tale which follows our two detectives on several cases. Are the cases connected? Who is constantly tailing our heroes? Can the FBI, who just happen to be in town, be trusted? These are questions that will be answered within the book. This story looks at old secrets and ancient grudges and what happens when money and power are abused. A tale that goes back to the Second World War.

Stateham's fiction is solid, realistic and totally without pretention or author's ego. He pays attention to detail at all times without making the book hard going. A thoroughly enjoyable read that like one of Dewey's chillis, left me hungry for more.

Genre: Crime / Police Procedural
Published By: Untreed Reads Publishing
Format: E-Book Novel
Rating: 5 / 5