I’m currently contacting bloggers, offering free e-copies of Troll Valley for review. If you are writing an established blog (no newbies or once-a-year bloggers allowed), contact me through this blog to ask for yours.
Update: To make the process easier, the handiest way to request a review copy is to e-mail me at lars (AT) larswalker (dot) com, and let me know what reader format you prefer. Thanks. lw
Her eyes were wide set, clear as a newborn’s, and a pale shade of blue that bordered on slate gray. I suddenly wanted to find paint that shade and redo my whole house with it.
Full disclosure: I got my e-book of Dark Blonde free from the author, David H. Fears. I reviewed his first Mike Angel novel, Dark Quarry, a while back, and he e-,mailed me to ask when I was going to review the next one, Dark Lake. I replied, frankly, that I didn’t like that book as well, and I thought the level of graphic sex (it’s about human sex trafficking) was probably a little high for the readers of this blog. He then sent me a copy of Dark Blonde and asked me to try that one, and indeed I like it better (though I’m omitting the cover art from this review. It’s not pornographic, but it’s a little racy for the room).
Private eye Mike Angel, as you may recall from my previous review, is a New York detective relocated to Chicago. He has a partner, a retired New York cop named Rick Anthony, and a secretary named Molly, who is also his girlfriend. In Dark Blonde, he is hired by Julia Gateswood, former beauty queen and now wife of a promising senatorial candidate, to look for her sister, who has disappeared. It doesn’t take long to find the sister, or rather her body, which is discovered decapitated in the Gateswoods’ summer house. Julia wants Mike to stay on the case, and he is ready to do just about anything for the gorgeous Julia. Instead of the police interfering, Chicago police reformer O. W. Wilson (a real historical character) particularly asks Mike to get involved and help out. It all comes down to old family secrets and contemporary corruption in the end.
Although David H. Fears’s writing plainly hearkens back to the pulp authors of old, like Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane (especially Spillane), and is done very well in my opinion, Mike Angel distinguishes himself in a couple of ways. One is that Fears has boldly embraced the obvious fact that private eye stories are fantasy stories, and has added some plain fantasy elements—Mike’s dead father gives him psychic warnings when he’s in danger (oddly, Mike generally ignores them), and also warns him wordlessly through a tingling in a facial scar.
There’s a further element of fantasy too, I think. I’ve written before that private eye stories are a form of male wish-fulfillment. Pulp detectives tend to live lives that ordinary males envy. Mike is enviable—in a way that stretches credibility—in his sex life. It’s not just that beautiful women constantly throw themselves at him. That pretty much goes with the genre. But Mike also has a gorgeous and sweet girlfriend who doesn’t mind that he strays, as long as he keeps it a secret from her. This relationship adds a level of depth to Mike’s character that a lot of pulp detectives lack (a very good thing). On the other hand, I find it pretty hard to believe in—especially in the early 1960s, before the sexual revolution.
But if you can buy that, there’s lots to like in Dark Blonde for the hard-boiled fan. Cautions for language, violence, and graphic sexual situations.
You won a free e-copy of Troll Valley by suggesting the subtitle we used on the cover. Please contact me by e-mail to get your file.
Earning money from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library
In other news, I have joined Lars in becoming a Kindle Fire owner. It’s nice, though I haven’t used it a lot yet. I need to install wi-fi at home. I see there are a number of classic books on Kindle for free. I pulled down Thoughts on Art and Life, some Jonathan Edwards’ sermons, and several Wodehouse novels. Does anyone have any recommendations?
As promised, for you Kindle owners, Troll Valley is now available in that sacred format at Amazon.com.
As a side note, I e-mailed Andrew Klavan himself today, offering him a review copy, and he actually wrote back and said he’d like one. (Apparently I won his favor with my favorable review of Agnes Mallory.)
So you might say it’s a good day.
And now you know what to do with that Amazon gift card you got for Christmas!
I’m going to try to do a splashier announcement when the Kindle version is available too, but for now Troll Valley is available for your Nook (plus a couple odd formats for phones and things, as I understand it) from Lulu.
I’m a Kindle guy myself, and strongly object to this discrimination in favor of Nook owners. I shall send myself a stiff letter of protest without delay.
Writer’s Digest has six tips on reviving your writing routine. It’s essentially making a plan and pursuing it. Don’t wing it. You were made to fly like that.
Good writing and good storytelling are two distinct qualities, and don’t necessarily reside in the same practitioner. Bestselling Minnesota author Vince Flynn is a classic case in point.
In terms of storytelling, his performance is flawless. Transfer of Power begins, after some brief preliminaries, with super-secret operative Mitch Rapp leading a commando raid into Iran (this is before 9/11) to kidnap a terrorist ringleader. Then the focus shifts to one of that ringleader’s proteges, Rafique Aziz, who is planning an audacious attack on the White House itself, intended both to kidnap the president and to humiliate the United States. Information the CIA extracts from its prisoner (through torture; Flynn makes no bones about it) allows enough warning to enable the Secret Service to get the president into a safe bunker before the terrorists take possession of the building. But the terrorists have a drill and a weak vice president with whom to negotiate.
The tension never lets up. Hero Mitch Rapp employs all his formidable commando skills, and often defies his superiors, in a dangerous operation to infiltrate the White House and impose summary justice on the attackers. He is ruthless and his actions are viscerally satisfying. Also he gets the girl.
As a piece of prose writing, the book is less successful. The force of the narrative pulls the reader along so quickly that he barely notices frequent infelicities, like “Warch, who was more entrusted with the president’s life than any other person in the Secret Service…,” and “…he wondered if he wasn’t being overly paranoid,” and my personal favorite— “the two junior officers fell in astride their senior.” Best to just move along and not inquire too closely into these careless turns of phrase.
As an entertainment, Transfer of Power is a great success. As a statement of a viewpoint on how the War On Terror should be fought, it deserves respectful attention. As a piece of literature, it’s… a successful entertainment.
Cautions for language, violence and adult themes.