REVIEW--A TASTE OF OLD REVENGE

Hi folks,

Thanks to B.R. Stateham, I’m writing this after only a couple of hours of sleep. It’s his fault the insides of my eyeballs feel like sandpaper and I’m on my fifth cup of coffee and it’s only 6:30 ayem.

I fully intended to go to sleep at my normal beddy-bye time, Didn’t work out. Why? Because I picked up his danged novel, A Taste of Old Revenge. I picked it up to get to sleep. Read a few pages and drift off…

Didn’t happen. Couldn’t put it down. Had to go downstairs to finish as my wife kept complaining about the light being on and keeping her awake. Now, I’m not only exhausted from no sleep, but my joints ache from the torture instrument that is our couch.

Sounds like I’m complaining, right? Well, I’m not. It was worth it and I’d do it all over again. In fact, I have. I’m reading it for a second time. It’s that good.

I love crime novels and I love the guys who can really write ‘em—guys like Raymond Chandler, and Joseph Wambaugh and Ed McBain. And, B.R. Stateham. He’s right there in that wonderful canon.

I’ll leave it to others to describe the plot. I just want to let you know that this is just one terrific story. You’ll meet two old-style detectives—Turner and Frank--who don’t solve their crimes via computers and the Internet, but mostly by old-fashioned sleuthing and honest shoe leather. If you like vintage cars, this is your book. If you like delicious little literary inside asides… like a couple of mick cops named… ready?... Flannery and O’Connor… this is your kind of a read. If you like novels where you think you’ve figured it out and then a twist occurs that blows that all to hell… this is your kind of novel. If you like novels where the cops find a naked body in a snowdrift that the coroner discovers died from a fall from a great height and there’s not a building higher than a single story where he’s found, this is your kind of book. If you like your novels peopled with Nazi assassins, the FBI, the Russian Odessa, and the Israeli Mossad, then this is your kind of novel.

Best of all, you’ll meet two cops who aren’t the stereotypical “good cop—bad cop.” Both of these guys are good guys. Just up against it. Big-time. You’re gonna like ‘em both. Like the guy on those ads for the Men’s Warehouse says (paraphrased slightly):

Get this novel and read it. I guarantee you’re gonna like it.

And tonight, I’m waiting until three in the morning and then I’m going to phone Mr. Stateham. Wake his butt up and see how he likes it…

Pick it up at http://www.amazon.com/A-Taste-Old-Revenge-ebook/dp/B006IHZVMQ/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330720468&sr=1-1

Coming soon--reviews of some other fantastic books by Julia Madeleine, Allan Leverone and some other great writers.

Blue skies,

Les