Story Time with Erin O'Riordan: CUT Episode 17

Story Time with Erin O'Riordan: CUT Episode 16

#Thriller Review: 'The Chemist' by Stephenie Meyer

The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the best book Stephenie Meyer has written so far. I really enjoyed the Twilight series, and I liked most of The Host (although I thought it was quite a bit longer than it needed to be). I know her writing isn't perfect (no one's is), but she is still getting better.

For me, the best thing about Stephenie Meyer's writing is the way she understands those deep moments of connection between two human beings. In the Twilight books, she made me recall the experience of being in love for the first time as a teenager. In The Host, she drew a beautiful portrait of a connection that crossed worlds and species in the romance between Ian and Wanderer.

In this book, the character we generally know as Alex (not her real name) doesn't have any close attachments to anyone in her life. She learns to, through a difficult and painful process. Daniel starts out as the war criminal she's chosen - through an unlikely set of circumstances - to torture for information.

Oh yes, Alex is a difficult women. Meyer doesn't let us go easy on her or warm up to her quickly, but that's okay. This is a suspense novel taking place in the world of elite and highly-trained agents. Elite agents aren't people-people, and Alex is no exception. Getting us to invest emotionally in these characters is difficult, because they are difficult and complex characters.

Meyer pulls it off. Near the end, the unthinkable happens, and it's a heart-wrenching moment.

In the meantime, this is an absolute page-turner. Compared to the slow build of The Host, this book reads lightning-quick. Alex's life is in constant danger, and as a reader I constantly had to know what she was going to do next.

What Meyer can still improve upon is the way she writes relationships between women. This improves a bit toward the end of the novel, when she part-way humanizes a character who had previously been portrayed as Alex's rival. Still, there's the rivalry and the implication that the woman's beauty and sexuality are somehow negatives. Alex also has a few judgmental moments directed at random strangers. But the overall quality of Meyer's writing is moving in the right direction.

Even if you're not necessarily a fan of Meyer based on her previous books, if you're a devourer of suspense and willing to suspend some disbelief at the more unlikely aspects of thriller novels, you should find this enjoyable.

FYI, this may be a tough read if you love dogs. There are dogs, and those dogs are in peril.

I purchased this hardcover book at my local Barnes and Noble. I was not obligated in any way to review it.

The Host book review

The Host movie review

Thriller Book Review: 'The Payback Assignment' by Austin Camacho

The Payback Assignment by Austin S. Camacho

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you like the action/adventure type of thriller novel, you really can't go wrong with this one. It's as fast-paced and absorbing as a Dan Brown novel, but with more sensory details and less awkward phrasing. Hero Morgan Stark and heroine Felicity O'Brian are multi-dimension characters, and well-matched ones at that. True, they would make a good couple, but their bond is even more profound than that of lovers. They have an almost paranormal sense of when the other is in danger. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the other two books in the series.

Full disclosure: Although I do not know the author personally, he and I were social media friends for a few years on Gather.com. He did not ask me to review this book. I purchased it with my own funds at a discount bookstore and was not obligated in any way to review it. This review represents my own honest opinion.

Stay Tuned for 'The Devil's Due' by L.D. Beyer

The Devil’s Due is a historic thriller set in Ireland in the early 1920s. Long story short, my grandfather served in the Irish Republican Army during the War for Independence. Family legend held that he was forced to flee Ireland below a false passport with a price on his head by both the British and the IRA. Like most legends, this one grew over time with each retelling, and with each beer my uncle drank! Reality, I suspect, may have been far less dramatic. However, real or not, it makes for one great story line!

It’s from this legend—and a couple of pints in a pub in Dublin—that The Devil’s Due comes to life.

Guilty of a crime he didn’t commit, Frank Kelleher flees through the streets of war-torn Ireland with the British and the Irish Republican Army both trying to put a bullet in his head. Branded a terrorist by the government and a traitor by his friends, he’s forced into hiding until he can figure out how to right the wrongs of his past.

The Devil’s Due will be released in June. Stay tuned…

Now for the really good news:

Because of your support, today my first book, In Sheep’s Clothing, reached # 1 on the best seller list for Amazon Kindle Assassination Thrillers and # 1 for Terrorism Thrillers!

To celebrate and to continue to drive momentum, I have decided to hold an Irish Sweepstakes and I'm offering the Kindle version of In Sheep’s Clothing for only 99 cents!

This special offer ends on Sunday, March 20th, so act fast.

To get your copy, go to:

http://www.amazon.com/In-Sheeps-Clothing-Action-Packed-Political-ebook/dp/B012U9608E/

L.D. Beyer
www.ldbeyer.com

I Fantasy-Cast Dan Brown's 'Deception Point'

The latest book I listened to on CD was Deception Point by Dan Brown. From the pre-Robert Langdon era, it was Brown's second published novel (after Digital Fortress).

Frankly, Deception Point isn't as interesting as the Langdon novels. It lacks the world art, architecture, and history references that help make the Harvard "symbologist's" adventures so entertaining. Deception Point is still entertaining as a fast-paced thriller, though.

The other day I shared some of my "casting" choices for my mental "movie" of Deception Point. For the main protagonist, Rachel Sexton, I like Kristen Stewart. Rachel is young, intelligent, capable, ballsy when she needs to be, and a bit vulnerable at times. She's the prototypical Dan Brown heroine, a Sophie Neveu in the making (minus the divine bloodline).

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Rachel Sexton's love interest is the oceanographer Michael Tolland. I can't imagine anyone else but George Clooney as Tolland. Michael Tolland is supposed to be a good-looking, photogenic guy with brown eyes. Maybe he's not right-now George Clooney - age 53 - but The Perfect Storm-era George Clooney certainly would work.

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Are they too mismatched in age to be a couple? Stewart is only 24, a whole 12 years younger than the newly-minted Mrs. Clooney, the brilliant, gorgeous humanitarian lawyer Amal Ramzi formerly-Alamuddin-now-emphatically-Clooney. (Guys, I love her.) This is supposed to be Mike's second-chance romance. He lost his wife to cancer right before he threw himself wholeheartedly into a career of bringing science education about the world's oceans to the public through documentary filmmaking, like a Jacques Cousteau for the 2000s.

Eh, maybe it's a bit of a male fantasy--the much-younger woman--but I'm going to let it slide. It's pretty much par for the course in a Dan Brown novel.

For Dr. Corky Marlinson, the astronomer and expert on meteor composition, I favor Jeffrey Wright. He's brilliant as Beetee in the Hunger Games series; is it bad to typecast him as "smart guy?"

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Thank you, Dan Brown, for not killing Corky. I was pretty worried for a moment, especially when Corky's leg was bleeding and he didn't put a tourniquet on it.

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He's a fairly minor character, but Dr. Weilee Ming could be played by Ken Leung. To be honest, though, Dr. Ming is much less of a troublemaker than the typical Ken Leung character.

While we're on the subject of actors from Lost and Person of Interest, I could see William Pickering as Michael Emerson.

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It's a given from the text that Gabrielle Ashe looks like Halle Berry.

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But who should play her boss - and Rachel's estranged father - Senator Thomas Sedgwick Sexton? I can only think of Richard Gere.

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I borrowed this audiobook from my local library and was not obligated in any way to review it. Now that I've finished it, I've begun listening to The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, read by the author himself. It'll be the first Neil Gaiman book I've read.

If you're a Simpsons fan like me, you remember Neil Gaiman from "The Book Job." It's my second-favorite episode, after the classic "Lisa's Rival."

I'm Not Sure How I Feel About 'Gone Girl' (Spoilers)

Please be aware that the following book post is not spoiler-free and that it mentions sensitive topics that some readers may find disturbing.

I resisted reading Gillian Flynn's bestselling thriller Gone Girl for a while now. My grandma read the e-book on her Nook and said it was "just okay." She's much more a thriller fan than I usually am, so I deferred to her opinion. Then Meagan at work brought her copy to the office and insisted I had to read it, so I read it dutifully.

It was much more interesting than I expected it to be. It did not go in the direction I expected it go - not at all. And no, I did not know any spoilers beforehand, even though I feel like I'm the last person on Earth to read this book.

I thought it was going to be a story about a man who killed his wife. After the first few chapters, I kind of liked the husband, Nick Dunne. He's a writer, a smart boy, the kind of fictional boy I usually end up attached to. Since I feared he'd turn out to be a killer, though, I asked people on Goodreads, "Is it okay if I like Nick?"

I got two answers: "Kind of" and "He's not as bad as he could be."

Nick does one REALLY bad thing, and that is cheat on his wife, Amy, with a 23-year-old student at the college where he's a part-time professor. That's a jackass thing to do, for sure. I don't judge people for being non-monogamous, but I do judge lying to and hiding things from your partner to be unacceptable behavior. Honest polyamory is good behavior, but cheating without a partner's knowledge and consent is bad behavior.

That said, Nick is not the villain of this novel. Although we don't really begin to suspect it until Nick discovers what's hiding in the woodshed, Amy is the real monster in the story. She lacks empathy utterly, is self-centered to a narcissistic degree, and brilliantly plots the destruction of anyone who stands in the way of what she wants.

Hence my mixed feelings about this novel. Amy is a psycho bitch. Isn't that what practically every guy says about his ex-girlfriend or ex-wife, though? Isn't that the refrain of misogynists everywhere: "Women - they're all crazy bitches?"

I'm not saying that Gillian Flynn is a misogynist. I don't think that at all. I think she wrote a fascinating "what if" story line centered on an interesting, complex, and problematic fictional character. I do think the novel might, inadvertently, reinforce societal stereotypes about female behavior.

One of the awful things Amy does in this novel is falsely accuse an ex-boyfriend of raping her. Being falsely accused of something as horrific as a sexual assault is a frightening prospect, and it's natural that we sympathize with any innocent person - in general, an innocent man, much more rarely an innocent woman - to whom this happens.

Realistically, though, false rape accusations are far, far less common than actual incidents of sexual violence. Society has an unfortunate tendency to blame the victim and defend the accused to a ridiculous degree. It has a lot to do with internalized misogyny and other outdated ideas that have long outlived their usefulness. As a result, too few rapists are prosecuted and victims too seldom get the support they need and deserve post-trauma. This is a societal trend that needs to die a quick death.

Therefore, let us not in any way support the myth that women are inherently self-interested and deceptive. Let us not support the myth that women in general tend to lie about sexual assault for our own gain. Instead, let us give all our support to spreading the idea that a culture of enthusiastic and freely given consent is a win-win for all human beings who engage in sexual and romantic behaviors.

I wanted to finish reading the story to see how it ended, but I didn't so much enjoy it as feel a deep and dreadful concern for the characters. Which is the mark of good writing, by the way - Gillian Flynn made me feel things, and I applaud her for it. I haven't been this wrapped up in a book since The Fault In Our Stars made me cry, then drop it, then call it a stupid book because it made me cry and drop it.

The ending is a hideous nightmare of spousal abuse, a husband being victimized, trapped, and held against his will by his wife. A weaponized pregnancy. Forced domestic bliss.

What's perhaps a little coincidental is that just yesterday I watched a movie called Karla on Netflix. It's an awful movie I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, ever. It's based on a true story, an exploitative "woman in jeopardy" movie about a Canadian couple who kidnapped, raped, and murdered several women. The title character, Karla, is played by Laura Prepon, whom I much prefer to see as Alex Vause on Orange Is the New Black.

The titles at the end of the movie mentioned that the real-life Karla is now out of prison, but still has limitations on her freedoms, as apparently is legal in Canada. The legal system felt she lacked remorse and that her actions couldn't entirely be blamed on her husband's influence and his well-documented, horrific spousal abuse. These titles were somewhat in opposition to the rest of the movie, which portrayed Karla as a scared and reluctant partner in the things her husband did.

The husband, Paul, was played by Misha Collins, my reason for choosing this disturbing film. I really hated seeing his as a serial rapist/sexual sadist who frequently backhanded his wife. I much prefer to think of sweet-faced Misha as a fictional character living in domestic bliss with a fictional Jensen Ackles. He looks too kind to be evil, but I guess that was some of the point of casting him in this Canadian catastrophe. Look, photogenic white people can be evil, too!

Karla was sort of a mixed message, but overall it seemed to tell the story of a man who was so evil and abusive, he twisted a young, impressionable woman by exploiting her sexually adventurous side. Gone Girl is almost the opposite. Nick, mostly-innocent husband victimized by his abusive father, falls into the trap of psychopathic, manipulative Amy, and he's forced to play her game...at least until she decides to kill him.

Male psychopath, female psychopath...one is no more palatable than the other. I didn't exactly "like" Gone Girl, but it certainly wasn't as boring as my grandmother made it sound. I'll have to watch the movie, which stars Ben Affleck as Nick Dunne. I don't have a particular fondness for Ben Affleck (Jennifer Lopez has said she was in love with him, but he broke up with her abruptly and broke her heart), so maybe I won't get very attached to movie-Nick. Maybe.

More Blogger Reviews of Gone Girl

Jenn @ Going the Distance

Shoshanah @ From L.A. to LA

Andrea @ Andrea's Adventures

Kristine @ Living Barefoot and Crazy

Lil @ Faster Than Forever

Victoria @ Mine to Live

Carly Ann @ Carly Chubby Cheeks

#BookReview: 'Consequences' by Aleatha Romig - Suspense

Consequences by Aleatha Romig

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Consequences is an elegant tale of suspense. It hooks you from the very first chapter. You read it and wonder, "How and why did all of this happen?" As the story unfolded, I couldn't help but anticipate a major plot twist at any time - surely things couldn't be exactly as they seemed. The "kicker" comes late in the novel, but oh, what a kicker it is! Clues are present throughout the novel in the form of short chapters set in the 1980s, while the main action takes place in the present.

Claire Nichols, the heroine, is a bit hard to identify with at times, because she comes to accept a lifestyle that seems so completely unacceptable, even though she seems to be a rather strong woman in general. She's treated horribly, and by the end of the novel she's forced to use every ounce of her strength to keep from falling apart. Will she able to hold herself together? Truth, the second book in the series, will tell.

Even though she's a damsel in severe distress, and I tend to avoid this type of suspense novel because I find them a bit unsettling, I came to like Claire as a character. She really does try her best to survive in some very harsh psychological conditions. I hope she triumphs in the second book.

Disclosure: I received an e-book copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. It took me an embarrassingly long time to read and review this book - Aleatha, I'm so sorry. This review represents my own opinion, and I received no compensation other than the book itself.

View all my reviews on Goodreads



Social Media, Writing, and Editing Services I Offer - Erin O'Riordan

Mystery/Thriller: Antonello Fiore's 'Killer Rumors'

Killer Rumors by Antonello Fiore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For Philadelphia detective Frank Rinelli, life is good. He's got a loving relationship with his sister, her husband, and their lovely daughters. His work partner is Nick Lorenzzo, who happens to have been Frank's best friend since they were schoolboys. But even seasoned detective Frank is rattled when he's called upon to solve the vicious murders of two beloved Catholic priests, found with strange clues on their bodies. The priests are not the only ones to fall victim to what appears to be the evil work of two men. The detectives quickly hit upon a suspect: Tom Branchard, a defrocked former Catholic priest who fell from grace when he was convicted of horrendous crimes against his parish's young children. But what was the connection between Branchard and the two priests found murdered? And who will be the next victim?

This briskly-paced crime thriller has enough action and surprising twists to keep the reader guessing. I'm not a high-volume reader of the mystery/thriller genre, but when I do read one, I expect certain elements, including a protagonist who's likable and competent, but not a cartoonish superhero type, and Frank Rinelli is that.

By the way, if this series ever becomes a movie or a TV series, I want David Valcin from Person of Interest to play Frank.



Frank, as a narrator, is not vain enough to say, "Hey, I'm really good-looking," but you just know that he is. This novel delivers all the elements I would expect, but contains enough surprises to avoid becoming a paint-by-numbers police procedural.

Another thing this novel does really well is give us just enough of a glimpse inside the villain's head to make his motivation believable. In this case, there are two antagonists with two very different motivations - and then there's a shocker of a twist that connects them. I won't say anything else about the plot to avoid giving away any spoilers.

If you don't mind some intense action and a few gruesome crime scenes, and you're looking for a page-flipper to occupy an afternoon, give this one a chance. Do be aware that, while nothing explicit is described in the novel, mention is made of the abuse of young children, and sensitive readers may find that aspect of the story disturbing.

I received a copy of this book from the author at no cost in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

Wild Justice – Guest Post by Rick Dearman

Wild Justice by Rick Dearman
Available at Amazon for $0.99 on Kindle
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Blurb: “A gripping story of blood, revenge, love and fighting for what you believe is right even if it isn’t your fight…” The Civil War is over and the rebellion lost. Cheveyo the half-breed rebel is travelling to the frontier to start a new life with only two pure-bred horses and dreams of a ranch. But after happening on to the remains of a murdered family. He decides to give them the justice his family never got.

Using his skills and training to track down the killers and dispense justice he discovers these killers are just a few of the renegades working for the man they call Big Red. Crossing Red could cost him his life. It will take all of his skills to remain alive and a man of principle in the hellish frontier.
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I was very excited when Erin asked me to do a guest post on her wonderful blog. I decided rather than an excerpt from the book I'd discuss why I love the main character; Cheveyo.

The reason I love Cheveyo is because he is a reformer. He's fought his entire life for his moral code. Cheveyo isn't superhuman, he bleeds, he gets tired, hungry and struggles with his emotions. But his moral indignation drives him to right wrongs.

Cheveyo had a horrible life. His parents were killed in a massacre, he was adopted by barbarian tribesmen. Trained to fight in personal combat circles he had tattoos inked painfully onto his face with primitive needles. Recruited into a rebellion against a dictatorial King and his evil brother, he spent a long time in a prison after the war.

He joined the rebellion because of the “rape squads” sent out by the king's brother. He endured years of hardship, battle and deprivation but still holds his head high because he did what he believe to be right.

In this first book of the Frontiersman series the reader meets Cheveyo while he is stalking men who have murdered a family of settlers. Dispensing justice for a family unknown to him is a burden he picks up gladly. Although his methods are brutal and violent by our standards Cheveyo has many admirable qualities. He loves his animals. Mer & Seus the horses, and old Croaker the army mule with only one ear. His compassion for the unknown victims of a band of renegades started him down a trail of pain, anguish, and violence. But this same path leads him to his true love, a woman who sparks strange new emotions in his young heart.

The appeal of a man with a strong moral compass and the willingness to fight for his beliefs strikes a cord deep within me. I think we can all identify with redemption, second chances, and creation of a better life for yourself. We all have regrets and sometimes we wish we could start over and create a new life.

Cheveyo champions the attributes of conviction, independence, self-reliance and action. In a brutal, violent land he continues to keep to his principles. Hopefully you'll be interested enough in my friend Cheveyo to discover more about him by reading Wild Justice.

Rick Dearman
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Twitter: @RRDearman
Personal Website: http://rdearman.org
Blog: http://rdearman.org/wordpress