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A.M.D. Hays. Diadema, $25.99 hardcover (414p) ISBN 978-0-9854182-0-5
Hays's thought-provoking and relentless cyberthriller merges lucid prose and cutting social commentary on the technology people both covet and fear. Global conspiracies and the threat of violent death are lent authenticity by compulsive narrative drive and surprising human insight. Aboard a plane to a military conference, celebrated cryptographer Dee Lockwood helps thwart a terrorist attack. Becoming suspicious of her military hosts, Lockwood is pursued by deadly government agents determined to recover secret military software saved on her laptop. Aided by brilliant friend Abe and an ex-MI6 agent named John, Dee flees government assassins on foreign soil and unearths a labyrinthine plot featuring super technology and government conspiracy. Dee is the heart that pumps blood through this narrative. She is infused with realistic emotion and doubts as she struggles to understand the technology both threatening and preserving her. A welcome and timely addition to the genre, this stunning debut makes a statement about technology without sacrificing story.
Between Bodies Lie
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H.M. Blanc. AuthorHouse, $23.95 paper (346p) ISBN 978-1-4772-6911-4
Cristobal Porter is a struggling author who flees to a tropical island to work on his next manuscript. While there, he meets Ana Kaplan, the wife of an American diplomat. Cristobal's girlfriend, Nadia, begins an affair with Ana's husband, which allows Cristobal and Ana to act upon their attraction to each other. But as their affair grows deeper, the political instability on the island escalates and tragic consequences loom for Cristobal and Ana. Almost from the beginning, readers will find Blanc's novel overly stylized in the extreme. The book's pacing is tedious, while the prose is heavy handed and overshadows the well-rendered intimate exchanges between characters.
Devil Dancer
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William Heath. Somondoco, $14.95 paper (275p) ISBN 978-0-9853898-4-0
"When Wendell had turned forty several years before, one of his friends had quipped, ‘You're on the back nine now.' That was how he felt, sweating in the mid-afternoon heat, exhausted and ineffectual, as if he'd been hiking up endless fairways beneath a relentless sun and three-putting every green.” Meet Wendell Clay, a war veteran and detective who offers his assistance in the mysterious case of a prize horse—the titular Devil Dancer—that turns up dead. In this entertaining novel, Heath delivers a fascinating and well-crafted tale that takes the mystery of the noir genre and injects it into Kentucky circa the sweltering summer of 1972. Wendell's investigation proves to be a good old-fashioned barn burner as a cast of rather colorful characters stumble into view the deeper he gets, leading to a rousing climax.
Heart of Wisdom
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Alan N. Clifford. Lion, $8.95 paper (216p) ISBN 978-0-9888597-0-8
In Clifford's novel, which vividly illustrates the conflicts and moral complexities of medical research, cardiologist Paul Bergman, in the late 1980s, enters the teaching program run by a demanding but famous professor, Leo Miller. When Miller—who served time in Japanese prisoner of war camps during WWII—declines to accept a prestigious award from the Japanese Medical Society, his university is incensed and embarrassed, and loses the accompanying grant. A parallel conflict occurs when Bergman learns that hotshot but arrogant researcher Eric Sanderson has committed research fraud. The ensuing complications engage the reader in a wealth of moral dilemmas, as demanding university administrators, a publicity-seeking congressman, government investigators, and a student association become involved. Clifford's ingenious balancing of competing moral imperatives more than makes up for his somewhat unconvincing characterization, and the result is a thought-provoking read.
Iraqi Icicle
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Bernie Dowling. Bent Banana, $14.99 paper (376p) ISBN 978-0-9872784-4-9
In his winning debut novel—which takes its title from a variety of rose—Dowling plunges us into Australia's seedy racetrack underworld and the life of Steele Hill, an amiable young dropout who lives by the dole and his wits. Through adept plotting and juggling of time, Dowling gradually reveals Steele's immersion in daffy intrigues that create suspicions in crusty cops Frank Mooney and Bill Schmidt. Willing to fight injustice, Steele uses his street smarts to survive as the complications and bodies mount up, and he and a reclusive teen mathematical genius plot to drug a racehorse at the behest of an expatriate Russian trainer. While the narrative is at times confusing, readers will appreciate the author's ability to render colorful characters and understated witty prose.
Mechanic of Fortune
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Peter Bollington. Inkwater, $22.95 paper (398p) ISBN 978-1-59299-816-6
In this whirligig, wholly original narrative, Bollington transfuses the saga of Vladimir Putin–lookalike James Terrell, a private investigator who specializes in the disappeared, into diverting if heavy-handed reflections on America and life. Retained by Evelyn Maxwell to investigate the disappearance of her ex-husband, Alex, Terrell finds his self-doubts mounting as he begins the assignment. The intervention of Alex's aide, Virona Ruth, brings Terrell out of his social isolation, which is further lessened by a series of encounters with hitchhikers. Showdown and personal enlightenment coincide as Terrell meets his prey at the Four Roses Garage where Doctor T and the Rev. Moody Jingo of the Church of the Ascended Spiritual Society promote the Neighborhood Psychopathy Patrol Corps. AB Despite occasional simplistic slogans masquerading as profundity, readers who enjoy moral fables with a heavy dollop of novelty will find much pleasure.
MFA: The Novel
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Jason Rapczynski, illus. by Jennifer L. Lassen. CreateSpace, $19.95 paper (592p) ISBN 978-1-4791-4502-7
Despite alcohol abuse, dysfunctional relationships, and meagerly paid survival jobs, John pursues his vision of being a great writer and attends an M.F.A. program at Emerson College. That tension between reality and goal drives Rapczynski's overly long novel. John's choice of a gutter life plays against his ruminations on writing and writers. Rapczynski uses this discordance to contrast John's contempt for literature and writers with his desire to be one. If John is a fractured figure in a fractured world, his glimpses of academic writing programs reinforce the lack of positives. The bitchiness of the academic establishment may provide satirical insights to those who have sweated their way through the system, but John offers only a repetition of self-destructive behavior. A bartender's argument that writing classes are worthless may be an ironic reflection on John's observation that his thesis was an account of his drinking life. Although his message is often unclear, Rapczynski provides a complex picture of a self-absorbed underachiever pursuing a degree that he professes to disdain.
Missing in Machu Picchu
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Cecilia Vel%C3%A1stegui. Libros, $20 hardcover (344p) ISBN 978-0-9851769-4-5
A group of American women decide to get over their misadventures in online dating by embarking on an exclusive hike of the Inca Trail in Machu Picchu, Peru, geared for Ivy League graduates and run by the charismatic and enigmatic Rodrigo. Of course the women don't know that their tour leader is a crazed sadist bent on stealing their money and seducing them into sacrifices he believes will make his depraved dreams come true. Velástegui may have enormous respect for Incan culture and complicated feelings about the influx of tourists to Peru, but that does not translate into an enjoyable novel. Her characters are too broadly drawn and intensely dislikable. Rodrigo is a cartoonish villain, his henchmen equally shallow, and the American women screeching caricatures.
My Life on Craigslist
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Alexandra Aresz. CreateSpace, $13.95 paper (204p) ISBN 978-1-4609-8582-3
In her latest novel, Ares (Dream Junkies) offers up chick lit with a twist: Emily Thompson is a 25-year-old dreamer who quits a bank job in Buffalo, N.Y., and moves to New York City to make use of her art background. Emily soon learns that Manhattan is every bit as tough as she's always been told—evidenced by her losing both her art gallery job and her cheating artist boyfriend, Toby. Emily turns to Craigslist and decides to use the site to figure out her next career and personal moves—a decision yielding disastrous results. While Ares's novel would have benefited greatly from professional copy editing, the author nails the cold, callous place New York City can be and highlights the always surprising things that can be found on Craigslist.
Nunny & Cecil: A Tale of Terror
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Gaila Swindell. CreateSpace, $12.95 paper (312p) ISBN 978-1-4781-7692-3
Recently divorced psychology professor Denise Miller along with her two young children, Amy and Adam relocate to Pennsylvania's Amish country, moving into the farmhouse where Denise spent her childhood. In preparation for Denise's family, her father childproofs the house, removing piles of bones buried in the basement—a disturbance that unleashes the evil spirits of Nunny and Cecil, half-wolf, half-human brothers born at the farmhouse in the late 1800s. Nunny and Cecil befriend eight-year-old Adam and set in motion a crude plot to murder Denise, her parents, and Amy. Although Swindell offers up chills and thrills, the book's choppy narrative, stilted dialogue, and horror clichés detract from the narrative. While a series of small scares sets up a truly suspenseful and, indeed, terrifying finale, the book's outlandish premise may be too much for some readers to overlook.
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