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Sep 27, 2012 09:35AM
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A Memory of Grief features Zack Taylor, a man who has drifted through life in a haze of self recrimination and grief until his best friend, Ben, dies and Zack refuses to accept it was a suicide. Determined to find the truth, Zack travels to Maine and begins his own investigation into the circumstances of Ben's death stepping clumsily on the toes of the local police force, a martial arts expert, a gang of bikies and a drug dealing operation.A hardboiled mystery with a noir-ish edge, there is plenty of action but Phillips also explores deeper themes like guilt and redemption and there is a touch of romance and even humour amongst the gritty realism of violence. The story gets off to a bit of a slow start, as Phillips establishes his characters and circumstances, but soon picks up the pace building suspense as Zack hunts for the truth.
Zack is an interesting protagonist, his life has mostly been a morass of alcohol, violence and questionable associations. It is Ben's tragic death that finally provides him with purpose and Zack attacks his investigation with the aggressiveness that has long been part of his life. Despite Zack's rough edges he is a likeable guy who sincerely wants to do the right thing by his friend. I liked his persistence even though his choices were largely unwise and avidly cheered him on as he meted out punishment to the guilty.
Memory of Grief is an exciting and strong series debut by Dale Phillips whose writing experience shows in his well crafted prose. I enjoyed being introduced to Zack.
http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Grief-Mr...
Glass Eye: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective by Ben Sobieck.
Dear Author, dear readers, welcome to my Review-Skeleton, by now revision 1.16, in theory & practice. Sadly without the HTML commands which I manually deleted in gratitude to Ben Sobieck. When I take the time of writing a detailed review, and even my review-skeleton is an investment of thirty to forty minutes per text, then there are reasons for it. Contrary to my own mindset some authors really care about those reasons. Luckily I avoided telling certain ones that I only reviewed because my favorite-lists were full? ;-) My traditional two main-motives for reviewing are 1: A text is so good, or so deserving of an improvement that I place a review, as all reviews have minor benefits when compared to unread authors. 2: A text is so miserable, outright stolen, or disgusting that I refuse to let it go unscathed.
Type of Review (AMP = my whim, Request = paid for it, or Setting = forced by account setting): AMP, and gladly so!
Reminder: Never forget that "OMG (Oh my God) U R so good!" has been review enough for thousands of files & ebooks.
Title: Glass Eye: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective, seems to say it all. But I wouldn't do this unpaid work at all, if Ben wouldn't have managed to take the cliche up to entertaining heights, and with twists to enjoy. Originally I gave a tired and disgusted notion about TV series like 'Psych' or 'The Mentalist'. Ben Sobieck did prove that wrong in a humorous and good way, and his story remains a radiant exception in the fraud & faked footage age.
Description: Quoted: "Zandra is an infamous "psychic" who grifts the gullible residents of her small Wisconsin town using her wits, not anything supernatural. Her skills are put to the ultimate test when the police tap her to help find a kidnapped girl." While I only excerpted one quote from the basic description I can verify that it is informing the reader well, and without that such would spoil the joy of
reading the story oneself.
Generic Hint: Consider that title&description are all, which a reader sees, before deciding whether to open the file, or not!
Character-Cast: As the first ebook in a decade of my lifespan this book had characters I could accept as townsfolk without any exception. No overdosed superpowers, no sickening freakiness. The focus may remain on Zandra, but just as she realized in the story, it is those around her which made her possible, and necessary!
Environment: All I knew about Wisconsin was ''That 70's Show''. But I found it easy to access the writing, and enjoyed the atmosphere without any overstatement.
Story-Flow: Consistent is the first word I consider proper. Fast without being superficial, gentle without being lethargic. Ben makes it easy to like his prose, and he keeps it a notch more decent than with Maynard Soloman, another character and protagonist created by Ben.
Format: I made the acquaintance of Ben on a website named Wattpad dot com, and the gratis text there is the version I read. I had no complaints anyway (which is damn rare given my notoriety).
Overall Impression: A subtle 'early work' which may later be seen as first signs of potential by that bestselling author and movie maker? May neither life nor God hold you down.
Statements about my own first impression, opinion, and evaluation ( Return of the Prose ): Ben writes an English which I, as a Non-Native Speaker of Amercian English, found easy to access. Ben kept the prose decent enough for mainstream, but without fear of adding a sexist or vulgar or dark streak, IF he considers it proper.
Technical Aspects (like Grammar, Punctuation& usage of Commas, or Apostrophes): As noted before: I had been so bombarded with demands, and the academic rules, which seem to legitimate those demands, that I harshly found enough time & health to start improving here myself. Ben's work had no obvious flaws though, minor exceptions may be possible.
Suggestions: Visit Ben's homepage, as he does not just share quite a lot of his fiction, but offers nice information on several topics of mystery-crime types of stories. Direct LINK: http://crimefictionbook.com/
Generic Helpful Link: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/sec...
For Newbies: http://www.writing.com/main/tools/act...
Precious LINK: http://www.writing.com/main/books/ent...
Did I review something of a similar topic, or genre, which I could list here? No, as the specific genre and approach done by Ben Sobieck are not just unique to me, but noticably on a higher skill-level with much more humor and professional attitude.
And to guarantee that the archetypal review does not lack it: ;-) "OMG! Ben Sobieck did so good!" He really did.
Dear Author, dear readers, welcome to my Review-Skeleton, by now revision 1.16, in theory & practice. Sadly without the HTML commands which I manually deleted in gratitude to Ben Sobieck. When I take the time of writing a detailed review, and even my review-skeleton is an investment of thirty to forty minutes per text, then there are reasons for it. Contrary to my own mindset some authors really care about those reasons. Luckily I avoided telling certain ones that I only reviewed because my favorite-lists were full? ;-) My traditional two main-motives for reviewing are 1: A text is so good, or so deserving of an improvement that I place a review, as all reviews have minor benefits when compared to unread authors. 2: A text is so miserable, outright stolen, or disgusting that I refuse to let it go unscathed.
Type of Review (AMP = my whim, Request = paid for it, or Setting = forced by account setting): AMP, and gladly so!
Reminder: Never forget that "OMG (Oh my God) U R so good!" has been review enough for thousands of files & ebooks.
Title: Glass Eye: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective, seems to say it all. But I wouldn't do this unpaid work at all, if Ben wouldn't have managed to take the cliche up to entertaining heights, and with twists to enjoy. Originally I gave a tired and disgusted notion about TV series like 'Psych' or 'The Mentalist'. Ben Sobieck did prove that wrong in a humorous and good way, and his story remains a radiant exception in the fraud & faked footage age.
Description: Quoted: "Zandra is an infamous "psychic" who grifts the gullible residents of her small Wisconsin town using her wits, not anything supernatural. Her skills are put to the ultimate test when the police tap her to help find a kidnapped girl." While I only excerpted one quote from the basic description I can verify that it is informing the reader well, and without that such would spoil the joy of
reading the story oneself.
Generic Hint: Consider that title&description are all, which a reader sees, before deciding whether to open the file, or not!
Character-Cast: As the first ebook in a decade of my lifespan this book had characters I could accept as townsfolk without any exception. No overdosed superpowers, no sickening freakiness. The focus may remain on Zandra, but just as she realized in the story, it is those around her which made her possible, and necessary!
Environment: All I knew about Wisconsin was ''That 70's Show''. But I found it easy to access the writing, and enjoyed the atmosphere without any overstatement.
Story-Flow: Consistent is the first word I consider proper. Fast without being superficial, gentle without being lethargic. Ben makes it easy to like his prose, and he keeps it a notch more decent than with Maynard Soloman, another character and protagonist created by Ben.
Format: I made the acquaintance of Ben on a website named Wattpad dot com, and the gratis text there is the version I read. I had no complaints anyway (which is damn rare given my notoriety).
Overall Impression: A subtle 'early work' which may later be seen as first signs of potential by that bestselling author and movie maker? May neither life nor God hold you down.
Statements about my own first impression, opinion, and evaluation ( Return of the Prose ): Ben writes an English which I, as a Non-Native Speaker of Amercian English, found easy to access. Ben kept the prose decent enough for mainstream, but without fear of adding a sexist or vulgar or dark streak, IF he considers it proper.
Technical Aspects (like Grammar, Punctuation& usage of Commas, or Apostrophes): As noted before: I had been so bombarded with demands, and the academic rules, which seem to legitimate those demands, that I harshly found enough time & health to start improving here myself. Ben's work had no obvious flaws though, minor exceptions may be possible.
Suggestions: Visit Ben's homepage, as he does not just share quite a lot of his fiction, but offers nice information on several topics of mystery-crime types of stories. Direct LINK: http://crimefictionbook.com/
Generic Helpful Link: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/sec...
For Newbies: http://www.writing.com/main/tools/act...
Precious LINK: http://www.writing.com/main/books/ent...
Did I review something of a similar topic, or genre, which I could list here? No, as the specific genre and approach done by Ben Sobieck are not just unique to me, but noticably on a higher skill-level with much more humor and professional attitude.
And to guarantee that the archetypal review does not lack it: ;-) "OMG! Ben Sobieck did so good!" He really did.
