Book reviews written by Elizabeth A. White

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The Vegas Knockout

by Tom Schreck
- Rated 0 stars
“When Duffy gets a chance to go to Vegas and serve as the sparring partner for Russian heavyweight Boris Rusakov it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. After creatively figuring out how to ditch the two week seminar he’s supposed to be attending for his social worker job, Duffy heads to Vegas with his sidekick, basset hound Al, in tow.

Instead of staying at a glamorous location on The Strip and working in first-class conditions, however, Duffy finds himself quartered at a brothel on the outskirts of town and subjected to lopsided and dirty sparring techniques. Still, he’s getting paid well and it is Vegas.

But when Boris and his crew attempt to “promote” a worker at the brothel from maid to prostitute against her will Duffy isn’t about to ignore the matter and puts a stop to things. Permanently. And that’s when it gets really ugly. Boris’s connections in the Russian mob don’t take kindly to Duffy’s interference, and make it their mission in life to make sure Duffy understands that. Permanently.

There’s more than a little of author Tom Schreck in Duffy, as Schreck has in reality both worked as a social worker and is well versed in the world of boxing. Schreck’s hands-on experience with those matters gives the Duffy series an undeniable level of gritty realism, and The Vegas Knockout is no exception. The sparring scenes are particularly fascinating, with Schreck educating the reader on the subtleties of what goes on in a boxing ring without things ever feeling like an instructional manual. (Apparently it is decidedly not cool for your opponent to wear fight weight gloves during sparring… especially if you’re saddled with full weight sparring gear.)

And though used primarily for comic relief, both basset hound Al and Duffy’s crew from the bar back home are nevertheless a welcome and necessary addition to the Duffy stories. When Duffy decides to get Al designated a “service dog” so he can bring Al on the plane with him to Vegas, given Al’s headstrong personality and bad manners the resulting trip through the airport is both profane and laugh out loud funny. As are the often bizarrely out of nowhere conversations held between the members of Duffy’s unofficial posse, which includes Jerry Number One and Jerry Number Two, a hard line conservative and dyed-in-the-wool hippie respectively.

Readers new to the series will have no problem keeping up with events, as Schreck does a good job weaving in the necessary elements of backstory to let people hit the ground running. Longtime fans of the series will find The Vegas Knockout to be driven, as usual, by Duffy’s distinct moral compass and refusal to sit by passively when he sees injustice, but they’ll also find a story that’s a bit darker than previous entries. It’s a nice step-up for Duffy, and bodes well for the long-term growth of an already very enjoyable series. ”

Elizabeth A. White wrote this review yesterday. ( reply | permalink )
Unspent Time - Omnibus

by Graham Parke
- Rated 4 stars
“There's no question that author Graham Parke doesn't just march to the beat of his own drummer, dude's jitterbugging to a full orchestra playing a tune only he can hear. Anyone who's read his delightfully odd novel No Hope for Gomez! understands this. Fortunately for readers Parke is able to channel that mysterious and magical music in his head into his writing. The twenty short stories contained in his collection Unspent Time are a perfect reflection of Parke's unique brand of insanity, not to mention a great way to make his acquaintance if you've not already.

And to be sure, Parke oddities abound in Unspent Time. For example, did you realize that every license plate you see contains a hidden message of some sort? You would if you read "Goki Feng Ho," which explains the ancient Chinese art of decoding license plates. And while calling an exterminator to investigate the paranormal goings on in your house normally wouldn't seem like the best way to go about things, it makes perfect sense if, like the poor bloke in "The Hunted," your house is indeed haunted... by rats.

Perhaps the most classic example of Parke's wonderful weirdness is on display in "Carbon Copies," in which the world wakes up one morning to find approximately one fifth of the population has been perfectly replicated. A bonus in situations where brilliant scientists now have two of themselves to devote to solving the world's problems, not so much for people like our story's narrator who finds himself now married to Maude1 and Maude2. And what do insurance companies do? They only contracted to cover one person, so who is the "real" insured? Not to mention, can one copy collect unemployment if the other is working? It's quite the complicated, and clever, mess.

The real standouts of Unspent Time, however, are the stories where Parke dials down the insanity a bit, taking instead a more contemplative approach. "Dear Damian" is an intensely moving story presented in the form of emails of fatherly advice a dying man pre-writes for his young son to read as he grows up. "Discontinued" also deals with death, showing the absolutely devastating and disorienting consequences that result when one has someone close to them ripped away prematurely and unexpectedly. But it's the title story, "Unspent Time," that is unquestionably the gem of the collection. Everyone has had those moments where they've wondered what could have been, what life may have turned out like if a different decision had been made at a critical juncture, a different path taken. "Unspent Time" is an enchanting tale wherein people get the opportunity to follow up on those moments, to live out their lives's `unspent time' and see how things could have been.

The stories in Unspent Time range from bombastic and bizarre to profound and moving, and many of them are even further enhanced by notes from Parke following the story giving insight into where the idea for the story came from. And while it may be that not every story in the collection strikes your fancy, I guarantee there will be enough that do - and one or two that really connect - to ensure you won't be wasting time with Unspent Time. ”

Elizabeth A. White wrote this review 9 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
Blackbirds

by Chuck Wendig
- Rated 4 stars
“Miriam Black has a unique and unwanted talent; with one glancing touch of skin on skin she can tell exactly when and how someone is going to die. Heart attacks, auto accidents, murders, peaceful passings in old age, she’s seen them all.

Initially Miriam tried to intervene when she saw a death that looked like it could be prevented. Except every time she tried her actions seemed to end up being what actually brought about the death as foreseen. So Miriam’s given up trying to derail the death train, deciding instead to ride it.

Now when she encounters someone who will be dying in the not too distant future – usually suddenly or violently, and always alone – she makes a point of being present at the time of death so she can help herself to whatever cash/credit cards the person has on hand when they shuffle off this mortal coil. It’s not the most pleasant way to make a living but, quite frankly, Miriam just doesn’t care anymore.

Or so she thought. Then she meets Louis, a gentle giant of a trucker whose death Miriam not only foresees but, to her horror, seems to play a part in. Complicating matters is a young con man named Ashley who figures out Miriam’s talent/scam and wants a cut, starting with Louis. Fate being the brutal bitch she is, it turns out Ashley’s on the run from some very nasty people, people who now have Miriam in their sights as well.

As painted by the skilled hand of author Chuck Wendig, Miriam Black’s world initially appears to be just that; black. And there’s no question both she and the people she encounters live a fairly bleak existence on the fringe of society. The drifters and truckers and traveling salesmen Miriam interacts with are people who move from one dreary motel to the next, dining in one anonymous greasy spoon after another, never forming any serious connection to other people. Wendig’s depiction of that life is unrelentingly stark, and it’s easy to see how that atmosphere combined with her unwanted ability has turned Miriam into an opportunistic, sarcastic, foul-mouthed, Nihilist.

But for an author arguably best known for his raging irreverence and copious and creative use of profanity, I’ll be damned if just under the snarky, simmering, supernatural surface of Blackbirds Wendig hasn’t gone and pulled a fast one on us. Amidst all the nastiness and noir, Wendig has slyly interwoven the story of a young woman dealing with loss – of innocence, of faith, of hope, of trust – and struggling with the crushing and seemingly unyielding force that is fate. Quite simply, this book has heart. And given that at its core Blackbirds is an exploration of the age-old question of fate vs freewill, it also has soul. Indeed, Blackbirds is a triumphant and tantalizing first step in an exciting new series, one which promises to take both readers and Miriam on a journey as enlightening as it is entertaining. ”

Elizabeth A. White wrote this review 9 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
Fun House: A John Ceepak Mystery (Pegasus Crime)

by Chris Grabenstein
- Rated 0 stars
“The seaside resort of Sea Haven, NJ has seen more than its fair share of murder and mayhem over the course of author Chris Grabenstein’s John Ceepak mystery series, but nothing officer John Ceepak and his partner Danny Boyle have experienced in their careers could have prepared them for the horror they must confront in Fun House… babysitting the contestants of a Jersey Shore style reality show.

Indeed, when “Fun House” (“Think Jersey Shore meets Big Brother meets Survivor.”) sets up shop in sunny Sea Haven things get quite stormy for Ceepak and Danny, as the buff, bronzed, and boozed up cast proceeds to wreck havoc – loudly and usually with much profanity – on everything and everyone they come into contact with.

When footage of Ceepak arresting one of the contestants run amok in a drunken skee ball rampage hits YouTube and goes viral, the show’s producers smell ratings gold and convince Sea Haven’s Mayor to assign Ceepak and Danny to the Fun House cast full time.

Things go from obnoxious and annoying to deadly and serious, however, when one of the cast members is brutally murdered. Add in a drug dealer called Skeletor, a motorcycle gang, the Jersey mob, and an anonymous death threat promising to kill one of the remaining cast members live on air and you get two things: through the roof ratings and a lot of overtime for Ceepak and Danny.

Fun House marks the return of Ceepak and Danny after a two year hiatus, following 2010’s Rolling Thunder, and a welcome return it is. As someone who loves the Ceepak series and loathes reality TV, I couldn’t wait to see Grabenstein turn his sly sense of humor loose on the “Fun House” cast and crew, and he did not disappoint. The books in the Ceepak series are always packed with a wonderful mix of mystery and mirth, but the one-liners and wry observations really fly in Fun House. Including the aforementioned skee ball incident, there are numerous literally laugh out loud scenes in the book (read in public at your own risk), as well as some good-natured skewering of small town politicians as the Mayor of Sea Haven blindly hitches his wagon to the “Fun House” cash cow, death be damned!

As always, however, what continues to set the Ceepak series apart from run-of-the-mill crime fiction is the relationship between the two main characters. Over the years we’ve watched Danny go from a wet behind the ears part-timer to a seasoned law enforcement officer, and have also gotten to see far enough behind Ceepak’s public persona to know there is some real darkness – born of both family issues and combat experiences – that lurks beneath his calm exterior. And we’ve watched what began as a seeming teaming of oil and water blossom into a genuine friendship/mentor relationship between the two men. Which is makes it all the more alarming for both Danny and the reader when we learn that Ceepak has a job offer to become the head of detectives for a town back in his home state of Ohio, a move that would bring him more prestige, more money, and get him closer to his aging mother. And much to Danny’s dismay, it’s an offer Ceepak is finding hard to refuse.

I won’t tell you how things turn out, for the “Fun House” gang or with that job offer, but I can tell you that both longtime fans of the series and newcomers alike should be heading ‘down the shore’ and queuing up for a chance to experience the marvelous adventure that awaits them in Chris Grabenstein’s Fun House.”

Elizabeth A. White wrote this review 9 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
Russian Roulette

by Mike Faricy
- Rated 0 stars
“To say St. Paul, Minnesota private investigator Devlin ‘Dev’ Haskell is having a bit of a rough time with his most recent investigation would be putting it lightly. Of course, considering Dev has a habit of leaping before looking, especially when there are long legs and a pretty face involved, it’s not really too surprising he’s found himself in over his head.

The particular case/pretty face causing Dev problems in Russian Roulette belong to a gorgeous French woman named Kerri, who tracked Dev down at his office – aka The Spot Bar – and hired him to find her missing sister, Nikki. Except, as Dev starts poking around it quickly becomes apparent Kerri is not French, she’s Russian, the two women aren’t sisters, and Dev’s not the only one looking for Nikki… the Russian mob wants her too.

And not only has Dev inadvertently stepped into the crosshairs of the Russian mob, he’s managed to step onto the toes of both local police and a Federal task force in the process. By the time the bullets start flying and car bombs exploding Dev doesn’t know which way is up or who he’d rather have more pissed off at him, Russian mob boss “Braco the Waco” and his buddy Tibor “The Butcher” Crvek or tight-assed career-minded FBI Agent Peters. Either way, Dev has his hands seriously full.

Russian Roulette is the book that introduced Dev Haskell to the world (doing things bass wckwards, I’ve already reviewed the second, Mr. Softee), and author Mike Faricy has created an endearingly inept character in Dev. Though not quite a drunk or a complete screwup, there’s no question Dev would rather be holding down a spot at The Spot or chasing a little skirt than actually, you know, working. When he does take a case, however, he latches on to it like a dog with a bone, usually to his own detriment. Give credit where it’s due though, because once Dev’s on the case he simply won’t stop until he gets what he considers a satisfactory resolution… even if he does get “shot, blown up, chased, and assaulted” in the process.

If you’re looking for a quick, fun read that also has a little bit of bite to it – they don’t call Tibor “The Butcher” because he trims a nice steak – take a trip to the Twin Cities and drop in on Dev down at The Spot.”

Elizabeth A. White wrote this review 9 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
Fast Friends

by Dianne G. Pugh
- Rated 5 stars
“Having grown up in East LA the daughter of a handyman, Iris Thorne has worked with dogged determination and ruthless intensity to rise to the position of senior investment counselor at the brokerage firm of McKinney Alitzer in downtown Los Angeles. She's come a long way from her blue-collar past and doesn't think much about it anymore. Until the Northridge earthquake hits and reminds Iris of the earthquake that occurred back when she was 14 years old. The quake, combined with a strange, urgent phone message from Dolly DeLacey, the mother of her childhood best friend, dredges up memories Iris had thought long since buried.

Back in 1971 the man who owned the land where Iris and her family lived was murdered. It was thought that a cousin committed the crime, but that was based almost exclusively on the testimony of the dead man's son-in-law, Bill DeLacey. During the apprehension of the suspected killer the police got a little overzealous and beat the man, a Mexican immigrant, so severely he ended up dying. Iris secretly witnessed the beating, but when she told her mother about it her mother instructed Iris never to speak of it again. And for twenty-three years, she didn't.

But when Iris learns Dolly has allegedly committed suicide, red flags go up in her mind considering the message Dolly left consisted of a rambling, disjointed account of finding a forged will and claims her husband, Bill, was out to kill her. The problem is Dolly was known to suffer from mental illness, had even spent time in a psychiatric facility at one point because of it, and no one is questioning that she had finally went off the deep end for good and killed herself. No one but Iris. And when Bill shows up with a request that Iris find his daughter Paula, Iris' childhood best friend, Iris gets the feeling there's more to it than just wanting his estranged daughter to attend her mother's funeral. When she learns the two candidates running in a hotly contested election for city council just happen to be Bill DeLacey's son and one of the officers, now a lawyer, involved in that beating years ago, Iris realizes she has information that could shake the outcome of the election - and the lives of all involved - more violently than either earthquake that shook her life.

Author Dianne Emley has noted that she drew heavily from events in her own life in the writing of Fast Friends. In addition to having lived through both the earthquakes Iris does in the book, Emley also had personal experience with someone suffering from mental illness at a time when it wasn't understood or talked about nearly as openly as it is today. Having drawn from such a personal well brings a complexity and depth to Fast Friends that takes the series to a different level than the first two outings, Cold Call and Slow Squeeze. And while they are both extremely enjoyable reads, there's a maturity and almost ominous sense of regret/wistfulness about Fast Friends that makes it something more than `just' a mystery. Without even being aware of it at the time, Emley in fact crafted a coming of age period piece that just happens to be dressed in the clothes of a mystery. It's a powerful, moving piece of work.

It's rare to get a series that has the ability to truly grow and show depth and flexibility in the main character(s), but it's virtually unheard of to get that from an author not only in their first series, but to see each of the first three books in the series show such pronounced individuality and growth from one to the next, yet while still maintaining a clear sense of overall cohesiveness and identity. For all her obsession with money and fashion Iris is a deceptively complex character, and it's gratifying to see her getting a second life with this reissue of the series so that those who missed her the first time around can finally discover what a wonderful character she is.
”

Elizabeth A. White wrote this review 9 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
Tea with Death

by Joel M. Andre
- Rated 0 stars
“Tea With Death finds the unnamed host and narrator welcoming Death for what he hopes will be an enlightening conversation. Getting on in years himself and having lost his youngest son to suicide born of depression, the host has many questions about how death actually occurs and what happens after. He also has a secret agenda he plans to spring on Death if the opportunity presents itself.

The concept of man sitting down for a conversation with the Grim Reaper is certainly not new in book or film, but it usually comes with either a boatload of pretentiousness or too much slapstick irreverence. Author Joel M. Andre, however, strikes just the right balance. Death and his host indeed reflect upon the process of dying, and along the way Death shares many of the secrets of his profession. He does so, however, with a wicked sense of humor and more than a dash of sarcasm.

The host may well come to regret inviting Death inside, but Andre's cleverly constructed philosophical reflections on death peppered with sarcasm and one-liners makes it a guarantee you won't regret making a date for Tea With Death.”

Elizabeth A. White wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink )
Every Precious Thing

by Brett Battles
- Rated 0 stars
“Alan Lindley’s world is tuned upside down when his wife, Sara, disappears while they are on a quick getaway to celebrate both their wedding anniversary and his formal adoption of Sara’s young daughter.

His panic turns to confusion when he finds a note left by Sara assuring him her disappearance is for the best and that he shouldn’t try to find her. Convinced Sara is in some kind of danger, and with the police unwilling to look for an adult who has seemingly left of their own accord, Alan goes to his attorney for help.

It’s Alan’s good fortune that his attorney, Callie Johnson, is friends with Logan Harper, a former military man and private security contractor. Though Logan is sure it’s merely a case of an unhappy wife who’s bailed out of the marriage, he agrees to look into the matter as a favor to Callie.

Almost immediately is becomes clear things are more complicated than that when Logan discovers that all documentation of Sara’s history comes to an abrupt end only a few years back.

Enlisting the help of a few friends who are also ex-military, Logan follows Sara’s trail back as far as he can. Using her phone records he’s able to determine Sara made trips to a small town on the other side of the state. When Logan and friends turn up and start asking questions they’re met with a violent response that removes any doubts Logan may have had about Sara’s disappearance: she’s running from something, it just isn’t her marriage. Now the question is whether Logan can find her before whatever – or whoever – she’s running from does.

The first entry in the Logan Harper series, Little Girl Gone, was non-stop action that found Logan on a globetrotting adventure. In Every Precious Thing author Brett Battles has toned down the action a bit, putting more emphasis on suspense and character development. In addition to following Logan’s progress tracking Sara, Battles also provides the reader with the perspectives of both Sara and the person responsible for Sara’s flight. As the pieces of the puzzle are slowly revealed through those three perspectives a truly disturbing picture begins to emerge, one that more than explains why Sara walked out on her husband and young daughter.

Interwoven throughout the larger story is a nice subplot involving Logan and his dad, Harp. Battles brings the two closer together, and pays tribute to soldiers who’ve gone MIA, by having Harp confront his long bottled up emotions about his brother, who disappeared while on a bombing run during World War II. Harp’s group of friends, who affectionately call themselves the Wise Ass Old Men, or WAMO (yes, they know the M and O are reversed, thank you very much), also put in an appearance to break the tension and add a bit of snappy, sarcastic dialog and a bit of comic relief.

Battles has become a very prolific author of late, with no fewer than three different series going: Jonathan Quinn, Logan Harper, and Project Eden (book two, Exit 9, coming at the end of this month). This is not crank it out, cookie cutter writing, however. Though they are all thriller based, each series definitely has a distinct feel, and just to mess with everyone’s head Battles pulled off a serious change of gears with his recent outstanding standalone literary offering, The Pull of Gravity. Rumor has it he’s even written a YA book, Here Comes Mr. Trouble, though I’ve not found time to run that one to ground. He’s pretty much the Energizer Bunny® of authors. But I’m not complaining. After all, a discerning reader can never have too much Brett Battles. ”

Elizabeth A. White wrote this review Thursday, April 19, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
The Office of Lost and Found

by Vincent Holland-Keen
- Rated 5 stars
“To call Vincent Holland-Keen’s debut novel The Office of Lost & Found merely “strange” is an understatement of epic proportions. Of course, in my world strange means creative, original, enchanting, challenging, and mind-blowing, which means the über strange of The Office of Lost & Found makes for an amazing read; one of my Top 5 of 2011 in fact.

It’s kind of difficult to explain a book that damn near requires you to keep a scratch pad or dry erase board handy in order to keep people and plot points straight, but I’ll give it a go.

Thomas Locke is not just a detective, he’s a detective capable of finding anything, anywhere, no matter how long lost or how well hidden. He is the “found” half of The Office of Lost & Found, a place that has no fixed location, but rather metaphysically migrates – along with Locke and all the contents of the office – to wherever it happens to be needed.

Locke’s partner is a… well, we’ll call him a man, named Lafarge. Lafarge brings new meaning to the term shadowy, literally only appearing as a tall, dark figure cloaked deep in shadows. He is the “lost” half of The Office of Lost & Found, and you better be sure you really want something lost before seeking his help, because things Lafarge loses stay lost. Permanently.

When Veronica Drysdale’s husband goes missing she hires Locke to find him. Little could she have imagined she’d learn that far more important things had been lost to her, things she didn’t even know were missing and which she’ll only be able to reclaim by making a deal – against Locke’s advice – with the mysterious Lafarge.

And with that setup, boys and girls, we’re off down the rabbit hole into a world in which people can be reincarnated as inanimate objects (like the toaster named Leonard who communicates by burning messages into the toast), monsters really do live under children’s beds, a Ministry of Checks and Balances exists to keep order in the reality we know as Earth, a sort of reality-bending black hole known as the Conjunction blurs the lines between dimensions, and a pan-dimensional entity called the Umivatoré (which appears alternately as a machine, a horror movie worthy massive man-eating plant, swarm of locusts, etc. depending upon its plane of existence) seeks to become the God of all universes.

Fueled by a small cast of wonderfully quirky and endearing characters, The Office of Lost & Found unfolds as several parallel, if time-bending, plots which you need to take on faith will eventually each take a turn which puts them on a collision course to bring the overall story arc to resolution. Along the way you need to pay close attention, and even then you won’t always understand what’s going on, but that’s part of what makes The Office of Lost & Found such a fresh and amazing read; it’s as far from predictable, formulamatic, paint by numbers writing as one can possibly get.

Quite simply, The Office of Lost & Found is a deliciously demented, exquisitely written, massive dose of humor-infused creative madness which easily made my Top 5 Reads of 2011.”

Elizabeth A. White wrote this review Thursday, April 19, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
Black Flowers

by Steve Mosby
- Rated 5 stars
“Aspiring author and father-to-be Neil Dawson finds himself a bit overwhelmed with the idea of being tied down with a wife and child. It’s not that he doesn’t want them, he’s just not entirely sure how he will manage both them and his job, and still find time to devote to his writing.

To let off a little steam, Neil writes a story about the Goblin King. In Neil’s story, the Goblin King grants a young man his wish… that his girlfriend’s pregnancy conveniently disappear. Neil feels slightly guilty about the topic, but still, better to write a story than say things out loud that can’t be taken back, no? Eager for some feedback, Neil sends the story off to his father, himself an author, for review.

It’s not until several days later when he receives a call from his father’s agent that Neil realizes he hasn’t heard back from him. The agent is concerned she hasn’t gotten a response from Dawson in awhile, so Neil pays a visit to his father to touch base. What he finds is an empty house, with a message on the answering machine from the police asking someone from Dawson’s family to call them. Neil’s father, it turns out, has been found dead in a neighboring town.

Enter Detective Sergeant Hannah Price. Price has built her career around trying to live up to the standard set by her father, who also rose to the rank of Detective Sergeant on the very force on which Price now serves. Having recently lost her father, when she’s assigned to investigate the apparent suicide of Christopher Dawson she’s particularly attuned to what Neil is going through struggling to cope with his father’s untimely death. What she doesn’t realize is that she too will soon be struggling once again with her own father’s death, but for reasons she couldn’t ever possibly have anticipated.

Trying to understand why his father would kill himself, Neil begins looking into the circumstances surrounding his father’s death and comes across an old detective novel called The Black Flower amongst his father’s possessions. His father appears to have been obsessed with the book, and when Neil begins to read it he is disturbed to discover the plot eerily mirrors events occurring in his own life. And this is where Black Flowers really takes on that special feeling that author Steve Mosby brings to his writing. Never one to give his readers a conventional offering, Black Flowers is very cleverly, and quite intricately, presented as a story within a story… with flashbacks thrown in as well for good measure.

Interspersing excerpts from The Black Flower with current events, Mosby slowly reveals to both Neil and readers the story of a young girl who appears out of the blue one day in a small seaside town not unlike the one where DS Price works and Neil’s father died. The girl carries with her nothing but a mangy bag containing a withered black flower, and a horrifying account of her past. According to the book’s author, the story was based on crimes that actually occurred in the seventies, crimes DS Price’s father investigated and which she comes to question whether he handled appropriately.

The multiple narratives – Neil and his father, Price and her father, the story in The Black Flower – are seamlessly interwoven, carefully overlapping not unlike the petals of a flower. As Mosby brings them ever closer together on their inevitable collision course he plays with the concept that fiction can fuel reality, that if stories are powerful enough and retold often enough they can take root as ideas that result in action. It’s an intriguing concept, one which Mosby brings vividly and disturbingly to life in Black Flowers.

It’s no secret Steve Mosby is one of my favorite authors (I did devote an entire week to him on my blog last year), but he has really outdone himself with Black Flowers, in which he essentially tells three stories simultaneously, keeping them distinct yet also making it quite clear they are parallel versions of one another. It’s an incredibly tricky feat, but one which Mosby pulls off sublimely. Black Flowers is a book which will both challenge and stick with you, and was easily one of my Top 5 reads of 2011.”

Elizabeth A. White wrote this review Thursday, April 19, 2012. ( reply | permalink )