Book Review - The Prophet

The Prophet by Ethan Cross (The Story Plant) - Why do we love serial killers?  We have TV shows that are dedicated to tracking them down or even making them the hero.  None of us would ever want to meet one in person but we are fascinated by what kind of person would do such things.

Ethan Cross brings us not one but two fascinating.killers.  Francis Ackerman is the product of a childhood of bizarre experiments by an insane father.  The Anarchist is the result of a mad man who believes that he is a prophet and that a young boy is the AntiChrist.  As a grown up the Anarchist is confronted with deep spiritual conflicts as he tries to find a way towards a very different life.  Caught in the middle is Agent Marcus Williams of the Shepherd Organization a special unit of the Department of Justice tasked with tracking serial killers down.  The story weaves between these three drawing in families, partners, other federal and local agencies and innocents that will be destroyed along the way.

The Prophet is the second novel in a series focused on the Shepherd Organization and Marcus Williams (the first is "The Shepherd").  It's a fast paced, intense, psychological thriller that takes you not only into the twisted corners of the bad guys but of the good guys as well.  This is the kind of book that won't let you put it down.  It demands your return to carry you deeper into the darkness surrounding the characters.

I had a couple small problems with the book.  The female agent characters are treated with little respect by the author.  They are both driven by their emotions into poor decisions both professionally and personally.  One agent goes to question a witness and at the end of the interview accepts a lunch date invitation for the next day.  The other goes from considering shooting Marcus to tearing off their clothes in a hotel room in the span of just a few days.  Can't imagine that female federal agents of any kind will appreciate the vision of them shown here.

The other has to do with the Shepherd Organization.  It's a government sponsored unit with the authority to hunt down citizens and kill them.  No trial, no evidence.  If they decide that you need to be eliminated they will use the power of the government to do just that.  The explanation is that well it's only BAD people like serial killers that they hunt.  The reality is that a group like this in another country would be called a "death squad".  It's an unfortunate choice to carry forward an otherwise great story.

Read this book.  Sure you'll sleep with the light on and baseball bat at your side but you won't regret reading "The Prophet".  It hits bookstores on October 16.

Rating - **** Recommended Read

Book Review - Twelve Months

Twelve Months by Steven Manchester (The Story Plant - 2012) - I honestly had no idea what I was getting into when I opened this book.  When I realized it was the story of a man just my age facing the sudden end of his life long before he was prepared I almost put the book down.  My own stroke is less than two years in the past and is still a pain filled, fearful memory.  I know EXACTLY the feelings Don DiMarco goes through.  The stunning pain of realizing that you must leave those you love the most behind long before you want.  DiMarco is diagnosed with a cancer that is beyond curing.  He's given 12 months to live and has to decide how to live it.  The story is inspiring even as it's fairly predictable.  It's a love story and a story of self discovery.  It's a story that lives every second of the present while taking long rambles through the past.  It's a story about trying to do the things you've always wanted to do and wondering why you didn't do them before.

The book isn't without it's short comings.  Manchester fills far too many pages using out takes from newspaper stories and tourist brochures to move the story forward rather than sticking with his strength - the bond between his characters.  The worst moments in the book are when DiMarco lives out a life long goal of doing stand up comedy.  In all of his other "bucket list" events he does it once and moves on.  DiMarco not only gets up on stage THREE times, he is awful all three times and Manchester makes us live through all three of them.  It's painful reading, more painful than any of the emotional content elsewhere.  To be honest I'm not sure that it really adds to the story.

In the end Manchester weaves together a story well worth reading.  It's touching and emotional and was very hard for me to read at times.  I read the book during breaks at a convention and several times had people inquire if I was all right.  The story came too close to my own in several places.  The book won't be for everybody but for some it could easily be their favorite book of the year.

Twelve Months is set to hit book shelves August 14.

Rating - *** Good Read.

Book review - Love Thy Neighbor

When I grab a first novel from a writer there's a little extra excitement for me.  There's always that hope that you're about to be excited and grabbed by a new talent.  Of course I also know that the book could leave me flat or even let me down big time.

Mark Gilleo's first novel leaves me in that middle ground.  Starting with a great idea (and a really cool place to find it) he manages to dribble away the impact of the idea through some poor writing decisions.  The story concept is simple - a woman thinks she's seen a terrorist group in her neighborhood.  She calls the C.I.A. and isn't believed.  Shortly thereafter her son moves home to help with her increasing dementia and begins to see signs that this may not be a result of her mental decline.  The story will put the son's life in danger and the lives of tens of thousands of citizens in our nation's capitol.  This is a solid concept for a thriller.

The problem is that Gilleo's writing makes me think of a moderately talented college student.  There's plenty of  "who cares?" information that doesn't move the story forward.  While there are times when Gilleo shows he has the skills too often there is feeling of trying too hard to be clever.  It's a form of author intrusion that is annoying.

Speaking of author intrusion it becomes pretty clear that the author doesn't have much respect for Islam or the Roman Catholic church and he doesn't think much of our government either.  Gilleo is entitled to those opinions but they don't advance the story either.  And the book gives a very clear idea that all Muslims are terrorists.  There's a weak stab at the end to try and back away from that by making a character who sacrifices thier life for the USA a Muslim.  It came  off as shallow and simplistic to me.

The greatest shortcomings of the book are the characters.  There's no depth to any of them.  We know very little about either the hero or the villain at any point in the book.  These cardboard cutouts spend their time doing illogical things.  The son ends up using his girlfriend to commit a federal crime without her knowledge or consent thereby jeopardizing her career.  While she finds this irritating it's not enough to break off the relationship.  Really?  The terrorists don't make a whole lot more sense either.  While their leader keeps talking about not drawing attention to themselves she dresses in ways guaranteed to draw male attention and kills several people for no particularly compelling reason.

In the end a good concept expires under the weight of characters you can't care about and their illogical actions.  Add in the uneven writing and this one just doesn't make the cut.  Is it the worst book of the year?  No.  But unless you have a weekend where you have nothing better to do there are a lot of books more deserving of your time.

Rating - ** Not Impressed