Tag: crime

Book Review: Blackbird Road (Jake Caldwell #3) by James L. Weaver

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Blackbird RoadAbout the Book

With his wedding day fast approaching and his PI boss heading out of town, ex-mob enforcer Jake Caldwell decides to take one more job before a much needed vacation. But in a matter of days, his client is assassinated and her six-year-old son kidnapped.

With just a few clues, Jake calls on old friends to help track down the person responsible. Only this time his fiancée Maggie, desperate for Jake to leave his violent history behind, can’t guarantee she’ll be there when, or if, he comes home.

But Jake can’t turn his back on those who need him. It’s in his blood.

A perilous plot of lies and secrets unfolds, and Jake encounters criminals more brutal than ever. And when a threat to thousands of innocent lives is uncovered, Jake once again dives back into his past, requesting favours from some unexpected and unsavoury contacts.

Jake needs to stay one step ahead of the bad guys if he’s to have any future at all.

Format: Paperback, ebook (388 pp.)    Publisher: Lakewater Press
Published: 25th September 2018   Genre: Crime, Thriller

Pre-order/Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Blackbird Road (Jake Caldwell #3) on Goodreads

My Review

Having really enjoyed the first two books in the series, Poor Boy Road and Ares Road (click on the titles to read my spoiler-free reviews), I’ve been eagerly awaiting catching up again with one-time mob enforcer turned private investigator, Jake Caldwell.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my historical fiction and literary fiction but sometimes you need a book where you just sit back and let the author take you on a ride.  I’m glad to say Blackbird Road met that requirement perfectly.

“Hey, don’t mess with my bacon.”

I really enjoyed being reunited with Jake and his best buddy, bacon-loving Bear, the local county Sheriff.  I love their affectionate abuse of each other as they exchange wisecracks.  There’s also some great humour in the book such as a minder to Dexter, one of Jake’s shady contacts, who’s described as ‘a wiry, weather-beaten read-head who should have his mullet on the ballot for the Shitty Hair Styles Hall of Fame’.

As Jake seeks to find the person responsible for the murder of his client, he comes into contact with some very nasty characters.  The word ‘ruthless’ is quite inadequate to describe the lengths to which they will go.  As always for Jake, it’s a question of trying to stay one step ahead of the bad guys, working out who to trust and probably getting it wrong at some point.  Oh and hopefully staying alive long enough to make it to his wedding to the love of his life, Maggie.

When it comes to the plot…well, let me just say that when James L. Weaver comes up with his next storyline, I hope the intelligence agencies of the US and UK take note.

I’m not a sentimental person but I’ll admit the events of the last chapter made me slightly tearful, followed shortly by a gasp of surprise when I read the last sentence of the book.  I was sorely tempted to read the exclusive peek at the first chapter of the next book in the series, Asylum Road, but I just know I’d end up even more frustrated that I’m going to have to wait until Spring 2019 to find out what happens next.

Blackbird Road is as compelling as its two predecessors.  It has a plot full of twists and turns, moves along at a breakneck pace that reaches close to warp speed at certain points, has plenty of full-blooded action scenes and, of course, features a return visit to the ‘bromance’ that is Jake and Bear.  If you’re after a book to read for sheer enjoyment that will keep you turning the pages way after the time you meant to put it down, then look no further than Blackbird Road.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of publishers, Lakewater Press.

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In three words: Action-packed, gripping, suspenseful

Try something similar…The Mountain Man’s Badge by Gary Corbin (read my spoiler free review here)

jamesAbout the Author

James L. Weaver is the Kansas City author of the Jake Caldwell series featuring IAN Thriller of the Year finalist Poor Boy Road and the sequel Ares Road from Lakewater Press. He makes his home in Olathe, Kansas with his wife of 19 years and two children. His previous publishing credits include a six part story called “The Nuts” and his 5-star rated debut novel Jack & Diane.

His limited free time is spent writing into the wee hours of the morning, playing parental taxi cab to his kids’ sporting endeavours, and binge watching Netflix and Amazon Prime.

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Book Review: Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski

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SixStoriesAbout the Book

1997 – Scarclaw Fell. The body of teenager Tom Jeffries is found at an Outward Bound center. Verdict? Misadventure. But not everyone is convinced. And the truth of what happened in the beautiful but eerie fell is locked in the memories of the tight-knit group of friends who embarked on that fateful trip, and the flimsy testimony of those living nearby.

2017 – Enter elusive investigative journalist Scott King, whose podcast examinations of complicated cases have rivalled the success of Serial, with his concealed identity making him a cult internet figure. In a series of six interviews, King attempts to work out how the dynamics of a group of idle teenagers conspired with the sinister legends surrounding the fell to result in Jeffries’ mysterious death. As every interview unveils a new revelation, you’ll be forced to work out for yourself how Tom Jeffries died, and who is telling the truth.

Format: ebook (280 pp.)    Publisher: Orenda
Published: 1st December 2016      Genre: Crime

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Six Stories on Goodreads

My Review

It’s a few weeks since I finished Six Stories, a book I’ve been looking forward to reading for a while.  I wouldn’t usually wait this long before writing a review but I’ve found myself having conflicted feelings about the book.  Partly this is because it’s had tons of glowing reviews, many from book bloggers I respect, which made me wonder if I’d missed something as I found myself not blown away by the book as much as I expected, or as much as others clearly have been.

The first of my many quandaries was whether the idea of a book that apes the format of a podcast  – at least most of the time – is either brilliantly innovative or flawed.  The idea of a podcast investigating unsolved murders is clearly not original and even the book blurb acknowledges the debt Six Stories owes to the wildly successful (although previously unknown to me) Serial podcast (which as it happens is about to start Series 3 soon).   The character Scott King of Six Stories even has the same initials as the creator of Serial, Sarah Koenig

I’ll admit the author works hard to create convincing and distinctive dialogue for each of the people Scott King interviews as part of his investigation of the crime.  However, because we’re reading the words rather than listening to them, the author has to interject facts that would be obvious to a listener, such as that a character has a ‘high voice’ and ‘a distinctive way of talking’ and at a couple of points has to clarify to the reader the identity of a speaker.  Perhaps the experience of listening to the book as an audiobook would address this but shouldn’t a book work in either format?

I also found myself getting a little bored with the amount of time spent questioning the various characters about the dynamics of the group, although the reason for that fixation does become understandable at the end of the book.  Ah, the twist and the ending…  I did actually have a suspicion about the nature of the twist for quite a while although I’ll admit I didn’t get it completely right.   I also found some of the scenes at the end frankly a little weird.  As for the revelation of the culprit, let’s just say I couldn’t see the person having the intelligence to carry off what they were supposed to have done.

Having said all this, the book did keep me wanting to turn the pages to discover the solution to the mystery so the author definitely succeeded in that respect.  Now perhaps you can see why I feel so conflicted about this book.  Would I read another book by this author? Probably.  It has definitely made me want to take a listen to the Serial podcast.

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In three words: Imaginative, compelling, twisty

Try something similar…Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (read my spoiler free review here)

Matt WesolowskiAbout the Author

Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. He is an English tutor for young people in care and leads Cuckoo Young Writers creative writing workshops in association with New Writing North.

Wesolowski started his writing career in horror and was a winner of the Pitch Perfect competition at ‘Bloody Scotland’; Crime Writing Festival 2015. His subsequent debut crime novel Six Stories was published by Orenda Books in the spring of 2016 with follow-up Hydra published in the winter of 2017.

Six Stories has been optioned for a TV series by Fox Searchlight and the third book in the series will be available in early 2018.

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