This disappointing novel is another book I can bury in my “not very good, but at least I got the e-book free” file.

I was drawn to Stewart Buettner’s The Shakespeare Manuscript because of the remarkable (though surely coincidental) parallels between it and my own novel, Blood and Judgment.

Both books deal with the discovery of a lost Hamlet manuscript—in my story an original draft, in this one an original of a lost prequel, “Hamlet Part I”.

Both involve the relationships and frictions involved in the production of a play—in my case an amateur company, in this case a professional one.

My book, however, was a fantasy. This book is… I’m not sure. It seems to be a sort of mystery, but the stakes are never raised high enough to build much tension, and the only death that occurs turns out to be natural.

And that’s the problem with The Shakespeare Manuscript. A lot of people run about doing things and irritating each other, but there’s no real dramatic arc.

The book starts with a New York rare books dealer, Miles Oliphant, on a trip to England, being mugged. While he’s unconscious in hospital and still unidentified by the police, a box of manuscripts he sent home is opened by his daughter, April. She finds a manuscript among the papers which, she soon realizes, looks very like a lost play of Shakespeare’s, in his own hand. Continue reading The Shakespeare Manuscript, by Stewart Buettner →

Here’s another book I uploaded to my Kindle for nothing, and it was well worth the price. Not a great novel, Redcoat was certainly entertaining, and it held my interest.

The time is the 1870s. The hero is Jeffrey Guest, a young British officer in South Africa. The son of a poor Cornish farmer who sacrificed to purchase a commission for him, Jeffrey encounters the condescension of a senior officer, the sadistic Spencer Shackerly. When Shackerly is paralyzed and left comatose by a mine cave-in, Jeffrey, also injured, is sent home, where he proposes to his sweetheart.

But Shackerly regains consciousness, and blames Jeffrey for causing the accident. When soldiers come to arrest him, Jeffrey flees, first to America, then to Canada (where he joins the Mounties), and then to Australia. Wherever Jeffrey goes, Shackerly’s agents, sometimes assisted by the Pinkerton Detective Agency, are dogging him.

The story is acted out on a broad stage, and there’s plenty of action. Unfortunately, the author, David Crookes, doesn’t develop his hero as a hero deserves. Again and again, the really decisive actions are taken by Jeffrey’s friends and family, while his uniform response (until the very end) is merely to run away. He’s likeable, but he’s one of the least interesting personalities in the book.

Crookes also shows great weaknesses as a stylist. He falls back on clichés again and again (“mind like a steel trap,” “scarcer than hen’s teeth”), and his prose can be highly infelicitous:

“Angered and hurt, Lucy glowered contemptibly at her daughter.” (The word he wants is “contemptuously,” and “glowered” by itself would have been even better.)

“French showed his rash impatience once again….”

“…a lengthy article exulting the new force of brave young men who were to bring law and order to the untamed Canadian west.” (The word he wants is “exalting.”)

“The most contributing factor to their malaise was the rapidly dwindling supply of food….”

That’s just lazy writing. Such a thing is not uncommon among self-published writers, and Crookes is one of those.

Still, the story moved along and delivered plenty of spectacle and action. I recommend it as an entertainment for readers with a tolerance for mediocre prose. Profanity and adult themes are minimal.