New Book Review: The Argus Deceit

Tags

grossart, Sci-Fi, space

Rated 4 of 5 stars

The Argus Deceit by Chuck Grossart is Quantum Leap meets Stephen King-esque style of creepiness. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel by Grossart whose writing I’ve come to love. In the beginning of the story, we meet Brody Quail as a 52 year-old man who has gone through terrible unthinkable loss. The weird thing is…his life always ends at the same point. He never knows what happens before or after the day he’s living. Shortly after, Brody Quail is a ten year old boy playing with his buddies with the unthinkable, yet inevitable lurking around him and his little brother. After that day ends, you meet Brody Quail as a 26 year old, disabled veteran that relives his lackluster life and hard outer appearance until he’s met with three guys that want to rearrange his future. The last Brody Quail is sixteen and full of quiet admiration for a girl he likes, who actually may like him too. But that love is very short lived as he is thrust into the cycle all over again. That is, until he meets Constance “Connie” Drake…and things change forever (or do they?).

This story was very confusing in the beginning because the lives were so different. The years were all over the place so it wasn’t any type of foundation for the reader to hold on to. In the end, that is all explained in a glorious fashion. When I say, you must read this book to the VERY end to get every bit of nugget…you’ll be so curious as to the why, what and who…that you will zoom through the pages just to find out. You are not let down by the ending which is not quite one dimensional, but multi-layered.

Grossart writes with exploding action, heartfelt emotion and clever mystery. Even though in the beginning the stories repeat (to show the importance of how each day is the same for Brody Quail in each “life” he is in), you’ll enjoy the subtle changes as things start to crack and fall apart while Brody starts to realize that he is in a loop.

This story is for folks that like sci-fi done with a bit of mystery and suspense. If you’re tired of the same ole alien stories masquerading as sci-fi, then try Grossart for a refreshing sci-fi change.

Raging Book Reviews Recommended

COVER REVIEW

So I’m trying something new for writers that send me ARC’s…I’m going to review your book cover and back copy. I thought this would be a good addition to help for the final release. So here goes!

COVER: The cover is well balanced but doesn’t give the reader a good idea what the story is about. It doesn’t pull me in off first glance. It has a very sci-fi edge to it but after reading the story it doesn’t quite align. Maybe showing Brody Quail since he’s such a big factor of the story? Not sure if that’s the style you like. Just a thought. Leave a message below if you agree with my assessment of the cover.

BACK COPY: Back copy reads well! It doesn’t give away the story too much but definitely lets the reader know that they will be getting multiple lives of Brody Quail. Well done.

*This ARC was sent by the author for an honest review. The novel releases MAY 9, 2017.

 

New Book Review: Made Safe

Tags

arc, books, bosnia, Crime, drama, moses winter, mystery

Rated 3.5 of 5 stars

Sparks gives readers a glimpse into the underworld of human trafficking in his novel, Made Safe. We follow a cast of characters that are flawed and courageous as they fight to first understand what crime is being committed, then stop the heinous act from happening. All the while, the larger implications of such a scandal does not escape the reader. Human trafficking is happening everywhere, even in Des Moines, Iowa. We start the story with Moses Winter, a private investigator, helping to catch a cheating husband in the act. Little does Winter know, the angered wife has more up her sleeve when she finds her husband bedding down a Bosnian immigrant. Sharon, the wife, pulls a gun, threatens the lives of both adulterers and then in a scuffle to maintain control, her husband, Fred is subsequently stabbed. When the cops come, Rakic is introduced to the story, as he is the agent in charge of homicide. Ironically, when he steps in the room and notices his scantily clad cousin (the mistress) in the corner…he tries to quiet the case in order to ensure she isn’t imprisoned for attempted murder of Fred. Rakic soon realizes there are three stories, not including the truth with what happened in the room.

Rakic wants the case to go away so he can protect his cousin. Moses is a curious guy that feels something is going on that he missed with the husband. So Rakic tries to distance himself from the case while Moses dives deeper in and finds that what’s going on is actually far worse than he anticipated or was prepared for. The readers are taken on car chases, stake outs, spying, foot chases, break ins and lots of falling in the snow/smoking cigarettes and other small redundancies.

I enjoyed the story up until the very end. Throughout the story, I felt there were many different storylines and liked how they tied in together later in the story. Unfortunately, the ending was a bit far fetched in certain scenes and I rolled my eyes a time or two when people would escape pretty dismal endings. Moses Winter is a likeable main character but as smart as he was in his fact finding, he was equally as dumb about Majka and using her for answers. It grated my nerves that he would sleep with someone then not grill them on a case he is totally invested in. That didn’t translate to good sense in my opinion. Also, I thought throwing Claudia in was a bit rushed and forced.

Another thing, could just be me since I’m not a smoker but…there was a hell of a lot of references to smoking in this novel. I despise smoking so it just made me grimace each time it was brought up and unfortunately, that was very often. That’s a personal preference though. I’ve read some books that use smoking and don’t explain it in much detail and I much prefer that method. Other than that, I really liked Sejla and the Wildcat and wished that we’d felt more of their personality in the story so that when it came to the end, we as readers, could really feel triumphant for them. Majka was very well written. I knew her as a character by the end and could understand the kerfuffle she was in coming from another country and wanting to be successful, albeit in the wrong area. Overall, I enjoyed the story and give it a strong 3.5 because it is fast paced, action packed and a solid detective story.

Raging Book Reviews Recommended

*This book ARC was sent by the author for an honest review and releases on January 17th!

Keep in touch with this author:

Francis Sparks

www.pandamoonpublishing.com

www.francissparks.com

@writingsparks on Twitter