Review: The Axeman of New Orleans by Hoffmann Books

As you might have noticed I'm a bit of a true crime buff and I couldn't pass up the chance of reviewing a new book in a new 'True Crime Collection' from Hoffmann Books. The Axeman of New Orleans is currently one of three offerings in the collection and tells the events of 1918-1919 in New Orleans that left residents in a state of panic.

The city was gripped by a series of horrific attacks and murders, where an unknown man or men broke into people's houses while they slept and bludgeoned them with an axe. Whilst several suspects were arrested, the true identity of the Axeman was never discovered and the crimes stopped as suddenly as they started.

The book covers the key points in the case, and has a very professional and easy to read narrative. It goes through the murders 'as they happened' and discusses possible suspects and briefly covers how the police and justice system handled the investigation. However perhaps due to a lack of solid case material (as the murders happened nearly one hundred years ago), the book is incredibly short and lacks the kind of insights these books usually have, either from victim accounts or from speaking to detectives involved. There are also quite a few instances where events are not clear, for example, there is uncertainty over whether one of the victims survived the attack. Not necessarily the fault of the authors, but detracts from the book's credibility and overall reading experience. The book also fails to include a key suspect included in many other accounts of the case. I can see no reason for this, as the name and details of this suspect can be clearly found in earlier accounts of this case, but is absent from Hoffmann's offering.

Unfortunately for The Axeman of New Orleans, it suffers because of the age of the material it is addressing. Whilst the material Hoffmann books has got is presented very well and makes an interesting read, it is lacking in the real detail needed to make a true crime book a success. As with most true crime accounts the same material can be found in numerous places on the web, although The Axeman of New Orleans does provide it in a much more accessible format and is arguably better written. This book would be perfect for someone wanting a quick overview of the case, or as part of a bigger collection should Hoffmann Books extend their offering.

The Axeman of New Orleans is available from Amazon for £1.96, but can be borrowed free if you have Prime.

[A review copy was provided by the author]

Review and Giveaway: Snow Day by Dan Maurer

Snow Day reads like an old campfire story, and that is what the author intended. Billy, our narrator, tells the story of how, as a child, he stumbled into a horror story which left another boy dead and gave him nightmares every snow day since.

Snow Day is a novella, only 100 pages long, but that is the perfect size for this story, as any longer and it would loose the thrill with too much detail. If anything, it could have been a little shorter, as I felt the first section dragged and, whilst building the background of the characters, wasn't needed in a story so short. The first few pages also revealed a bit too much for me, as horrifying as they were. These two small points were the reason I didn't award it the full 5 stars - but they should not put off a potential reader, as they are soon forgotten as the rest of the book unfolds.

Although short, the story is substantial, and leaves the reader with a satisfied feeling when you finish the book, rather than feeling like there could have been more. The writing is elegant in its simplicity, and the innocent but slightly cocky voice of the narrator takes you back to a much simpler time, and also makes the story that much creepier. There is even a surprise twist at the end.

A great read when you want to finish a story in one go. I very much enjoyed it, even though I usually steer clear of novellas.

Snow Day is available from Amazon for £1.32 as a Kindle e-book. There is also an audio book version available. A sample chapter can be found here.

Giveaway: The author is currently running a giveaway (ends Sep. 28th 2013) to win a Kindle Fire HD and copies of the audio book. Details can be found on his website here. Note: Tomes of the Soul is in no way associated with the giveaway.

[A review copy was provided by the author]

Review: Plagued: The Midamerica Zombie Half-Breed Experiment by Better Hero Army

Set years after a zombie outbreak has swept through the USA, Plagued follows Tom Jefferson, a privileged young man who lives in one of the safe districts of the new America. In this new world, de-venomed zombies are used as slaves and sold in large trading posts. Tom and his older brother are sent out to one of these posts to check the slave records in an attempt to find his sister Larissa, who was turned during one of the initial outbreaks. Here he finds a half-bread captive zombie, Penelope, who he thinks might know where his sister is. When zombies swarm the trading post Tom escapes into the wilderness with Penelope and a band of zombie hunters and visitors, and may have just gotten the chance he needs to find Larissa, but can he survive long enough?

I was extremely impressed with this first offering from Better Hero Army. Unlike some of the more formulaic offerings that fill the shelves of bookshops under ‘Zombie Fiction’, Plagued takes a very different path, although this is not immediately obvious from the summary. Better Hero Army takes some common plot elements, for example a survivor searching for a loved one and turns it on its head. I can’t say more or I’ll ruin the ending. The novella felt more like a snippet from a much longer novel but at the same time didn’t leave the reader wanting. I would however love both a sequel and a prequel.

The book throughout is well crafted, I could not fault the characters or the writing. If anything my complaint is that the book ended so soon! The background to the story is effortlessly woven into the story, which means there are no whole chapters devoted to back story to slow the pace down. The relationships between Penelope and Peske, and Penelope and Tom, are sympathetically written, although simple.

Overall an impressive novella, with an intelligent and unique take on the zombie world, which should be ranked up there with the works of Recht and Brooks in the Zombie genre. A must read for zombiephiles, and a rare example of the genre which should appeal to a much wider audience from thriller fans to romance readers.

Plagued is available from Amazon UK for £2.03 and Amazon US for $3.02. 

[A review copy was provided by the author]

Review: Badwater by Toni Dwiggins

Badwater follows a team of forensic geologists (think CSI with rocks) as they race against time to stop a catastrophic release of nuclear waste in unspoiled Death Valley. The premise of the book fascinated me from the start, although, to my shame, I could not see how rocks could be that interesting. I was however pleasantly surprised.

The book has a trilling start, a road crash site in the middle of the desert with a murdered driver and a missing barrel of nuclear waste. The thrills continue throughout the book, which has a good pace, and whist the reader is aware of the culprit from the start due to his narrative in one of the first chapters, the reader is kept guessing as to who else can be trusted, which keeps things interesting. The forensic geology is well integrated into the plot, and is not just brushed to the side as can happen in these types of ‘CSI’ books; and I found both the geology and the nuclear science very accurate and interesting. I had a good chuckle at some of the more sciencey jokes in the book too – such as the analogy of the three types of radiation as the Three Little Pigs. There are numerous references to different places in Death Valley in the book – and the inclusion of a map at the start is a nice touch and makes it easier to picture the places when they are mentioned.

The only slight source of irritation for me was the, at times, heavy use of colloquial spelling such as “Shore Thang” which tended to jar me out my flow of reading. I can understand the author trying to get across the local accent, but I felt in this case it wasn't needed and was inconsistently used. There were also a few grammatical issues (such as mixed used of the first and third person) but these did not affect my enjoyment of the book.

Overall a quick, but very enjoyable read which should appeal to any fan of science based thrillers. I will be looking forward to reading the second book in the series – Volcano Watch. Badwater was awarded the 2012 Best Indie Whodunnit award from Wired.com.

Badwater is available as an e-book for £2.36 from Amazon, and is also available in dead-tree and audio-book formats

[Review copy provided by the author] 

Review: Confessions of a Male Nurse by Michael Alexander

Confessions of a Male Nurse follows in the footsteps of books like Confessions of a GP and Life and Death on the Streets to chronicle the real-life experiences of a male nurse while he worked in both the UKand New Zealand. The book is split into short chapters dealing with one patient or one setting, and this makes the book very easy and quick to read. Perfect if you don’t want to be tied to reading a book for several days; it’s also easy to put down and pick up again without having to go back over parts of the story.

Whilst I enjoyed reading Confessions of a Male Nurse, it wasn’t as humorous as I would have liked it to be, especially considering it’s marketed as “frequently hilarious”. There were some points when I had a little smile but nothing caused me to laugh out loud. There was also a lack of deep, emotional stories; at no point did I feel that the nurse was particularly affected by what he had seen on an emotional level. He did show frustration at the state of the NHS and some of the situations he was put in but if you are looking for a tell-all on the state of the National Health Service this isn’t the book for you.

Overall Confessions of a Male Nurse was an enjoyable quick read. I would recommend it if you like similar books in this genre or fancy something light to read but if you are looking for real humour or an expose, you are going to be left wanting.

Confessions of a Male Nurse can be purchased from Amazon UK for £2.99 or from Barnes & Noble for $4.99. 

Promo - The Story of Solomon Bear by Phillip Laird

"A girl and her teddy bear share a promise to keep love alive in a home where it’s been all but forgotten. When they are forced apart one day, Solomon Bear is determined to find her at any cost!

In the tradition of The Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Prince comes Solomon Bear. At once a children's romance and a fable about rediscovering innocence and unconditional love, this sentimental tale has the capacity to transcend genre and age boundaries. For while a taste for porridge, marmalade, or honey might make a bear more human, Solomon would remind us: it is love that brings us all to life."

A story for both the young and the young at heart, would your teddy bear try to find you? It has gained 5-star reviews so promises to be a great read.

The Story of Solomon Bear is available from Amazon UK for £2.82, from Amazon US for $4.55, from Barnes and Noble for $3.95 and from Smashwords for $3.95. 

E-book - The Lost King and the Goddess of Time by Ali Naqvi

"It was only a nightmare at first, but Damont soon realizes that he can see into the future—a curse he has to live with for being the only son of a king dead for a thousand years, with a mother who is the goddess of time.

From Amazon

A man in black armor with a face as obscure as the shadows mantling him laughs wickedly. Who is he and why does he continue to haunt me, Damont wonders. Appearing only in his dreams, the man in the black armor stands alone and laughs high as if to mock him while the world around him burns to cinder. “They are not dreams, my son,” a voice calls out to him in a vision after the many nightmares—claiming to be his mother whom abandoned him when he was but a child. “They are shards of a broken world to come if you so take the path of your father.” If such a path does lie ahead beyond a throne that sits vacant for centuries, with an empire in the east growling for war, then Damont Langörn realizes he has but one choice: follow the visions and seek out the truth lost to both him and the world behind his lineage—but will he be strong enough to face such a malevolent foe of his nightmares?With a vampire and a sorceress at his side, Damont begins his journey, but such a road is not an easy one to take if the gods themselves do not wish for his return as the king who would unite the world against their existence and bring demise to their very doorstep."

The Lost King and the Goddess of Time is available from Amazon UKfor £2.14,from Amazon US for $3.53, for Nook for $2.99 and at Smashwords for $2.99. 

Review: Wildcard by Ken McClure

After reviewing Lost Causes at the weekend I felt like I needed to re-read a better example of McClure's work, so pulled out, electronically, Wildcard which is the third book in the Steven Dunbar series. We're thrown straight into the action when a man becomes violently ill on a flight from Africa, bleeding from every orifice of his body. Soon others who came in contact with the man fall ill and die. The government think they are in the clear until other cases start appearing all over the country - Manchester, Perth, Wales - all wildcards with no know source of the illness. Will Steven Dunbar figure out the connection between the wildcards before the whole country is infected? What will the personal cost be?

From Amazon

Wildcard is a wonderfully paced read which takes you straight into the action, with the unveiling panic on the aircraft, and the action and suspense hardly lets up until the final page. McClure carefully balances story progression with holding enough of the truth back to keep you guessing into the last few chapters, and weaves in a beautifully bitter-sweet sub-plot which reveals some stark truths about Dunbar. The medical information contained in the book is spot-on, ensuring that the story is believable throughout; a hallmark of McClure's work. The only downside I can see is that it is so fast-paced that reading the book only takes a matter of hours and leaves you wanting more.

Overall this is a fantastic example of the medical thriller genre, which is so well written that fans of the genre and non-fans alike are likely to find it an engrossing and enjoyable read.

Wildcard is available from Amazon UK for £1.59, from Amazon US for $2.61, from Kobo for £2.03 and from WH Smith for £1.69, a bargin price for a book of this calibre.

E-book - Freeze by Daniel Pyle

What is your worst nightmare? I bet being stranded in the dark during a blizzard would be up there. Then imagine one of you gets hurt, and someone has to go for help, getting there yet? Even worse you are being watched. Well this is the context to Daniel Pyle's book Freeze, a new thriller novella.

From Danielpyle.com

Freeze is available from Amazon for £1.99 ($2.99) and from Barnes & Noble (Nook) for $2.99

Review: In Stitches by Dr Nick Edwards

In Stitches: The highs and lows of life as an A&E doctor  by Nick Edwards is an autobiographical account of a doctor's life in a busy A&E department. The hospital is representative of any number of A&E's up and down the country and Dr Edwards uses a journal style to deliver a series of humorous snapshots of what life is like. It is full of tongue-in-cheek humour and sarcasm, especially directed at the ever increasing bureaucracy, as well as touching moments such as allowing a elderly patient to die with dignity. It came across as a believable portral of life as an A&E doctor.

From the NHS Support Foundation

It's a gripping read which I got through within a few hours and often whilst laughing out loud. My only criticism is that the frequent rants about the bureaucracy and future of the NHS becomes wearing over time, and depending on your politics could become annoying by the end of the book. The humour does little to soften the political message in parts.

Overall a very funny and engrossing read.

In Stitches is available from Amazon UK priced at £2.99

Review: On the Edge by Charlie Carroll

I have an embarrassing secret, I absolutely love 'reality TV' books, you know the ones, following the life of people doing everyday jobs. They are often trashy and written by cynics disenchanted with their careers but they are the perfect book when you don't want a long detailed plot, just something to read. Monday Books seems to be the preferred publisher of this genre, and I have read most of their books in one form or another.

From Monday Books

On The Edge: One teacher, a camper van, Britain's toughest schools appealed to me right from the start, having taught in secondary schools myself and follows the journey of Charlie Carroll, a supply teacher, through a journal style look at his year travelling around teaching in the countries 'toughest' schools. The narrative is well written and you soon feel that your there in the author's freezing cold camper van or in the classroom where the pupils simply don't care. However it lacked the humour of previous books in the genre and only briefly confronted the reasons behind poor behaviour and under achievement in schools. The events recalled in the book are not as shocking as the title might first suggest, and generally it just shows how life really is for supply teachers in comprehensive schools up and down the country. There are some wonderful moments when Mr Carroll connects with the pupils which is heartening to read. It is a must for anyone considering either teaching or supply teaching in the UK to get away from the 'rose tinted' view given during recruitment. 

Overall, not what I was expected but a great read and true to life.

On the Edge is available from Amazon UK for £2.99

Win an e-book offer - L.J. Sellers's The Baby Thief

L.J. Sellers' mystery novel The Baby Thief was recommended to me by a poster on Mobile Read as a medical thriller. Whilst on the author's site I came across a promotion to win a copy of the book by e-mailing the author. I duly send the e-mail and quickly received a .mobi copy. I am very grateful to the author and will be reviewing the book once I have read it.

Cover from Fantastic Fiction.co.uk

The details of the promotion can be found here. If you do not receive a copy, the author kindly provides extracts so you can try before you buy. The e-book is available from Amazon UK for £2.08.