February 2022 Indie Book Reviews

February 2022 Indie Book Reviews by Joseph Poopinski

May Day
By Josie Jaffrey
Movie Deal
4 stars

More Blade whodunnit than Dracula coffin battle, Josie Jaffrey’s vampire novel could easily transition to the silver screen. It’s a first-person mystery told cleanly, conversationally as it happens without too much messy stream of consciousness by Jacqueline “Jack” Valentine, blood-drinking detective extraordinaire. Other characters too have Hollywood-epic names on par with Johnny Dollar: the enigmatic Killian Drake, Solomon the Primus & Lydia Gainsborough. Although Jack swears excessively from page one, courts disaster, blunders & falls head over heels, she has that Bogart, Last Boy Scout & Untouchables edge to survive. She’ll die before she’ll lose. Everything’s remembered. Good hero stuff. The creative take on vampire lore, rounded personalities, provocative descriptions, apropos observations (“spot the wrongness” vs “understand it”) & clever wisecracks (“I smell burning… shall I pour water in your ear?”) breathe life into every engrossing chapter. May Day works great as a rewarding, standalone novel, however I suppose most readers will, like myself, afterward speculate or daydream under the larger conspiracy’s spell… Was so-and-so in on it or just following orders? Etc. Make some popcorn & grab a cola, friends, we’re in luck, there’s a sequel! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Edge of the Breach
By Halo Scot
Opposites Overlap
4 stars

Edge of the Breach is two books for the price of one: Friendly genuine female shield, Rune's story in her own words & loner deceptive male mage, Kyder's story in his own words. Some of the events run parallel, however most of the pivotal events occur when their lives intersect & overlap. It's a futuristic sci-fi dystopia center within a larger fantasy magical gods from other realms universe. The heroine & anti-hero grow into powerful beings through adversity after adversity with more adversity, wrestle with insanity, loss, injury, depression, etc. While Rune may respond with honesty, Kyder resorts to torture & murder in similar situations.  At one time or another each depends entirely upon the other. Somehow fortune or fate lumps them together whenever one could not go on & the other--who is uniquely positioned & balanced with opposite powers or ideas--to help, saves the day. I loved the coin-like unified scenes written over two chapters, the first (heads) leaving gaps & the second (tails) providing answers. As in real life, repetition with variation exists & Halo Scot expertly incorporates this into fiction animating the characters, bowel movement humor (talk about dirty jokes!), Gandalfian-truisms ("you don't love someone once"), gradually increasing the stakes... worthwhile stuff! Just a friendly warning: Edge of the Breach contains extreme profanity, graphic violence & shocking sex... way, way beyond squeamish or faint of heart stuff.

The Gottingen Accident
By James Mordechai
Balancing Reality & Impossibility
4 stars

The Gottingen Accident by James Mordechai challenges readers to imagine an unreality overlaid upon the not so distant past. With a cast of history's scientific pioneers & geniuses deadlocked in a battle for life as we know it, it's a good versus evil story. The heroes must cooperate & sacrifice to defeat an unholy, insane devil. Unfortunately the villains' powers aren't straightforward. As we learn the extent of these confusing impossibilities, one may resist fractured time/space or become lost by holding tightly to ropes & winches, locks & walls or traditional firearms. However I suggest readers let loose & ride this roller coaster of energy blasts, inverted rooms & "perverted geometry" without restraint! There's an aspect of play-by-play choreography & commentary remnant of scientific logic juxtaposed with the inconsistent, expanding corruption that will sooner or later thwart any traditional skeptic. The bad guy has no limits, no peers & no conscience: a fanatic, murderous juggernaut who carved an equation into his forehead, freeing (and fracturing) his mind. Interesting enough Tabby the hypothetical simultaneously alive & dead talking cat models the "doublethink" required to break through unexplainable barriers, survive incongruent tensions & preserve the world from non-euclidean chaos.