Mini-Reviews of Books #40…
[Note from Steve: While these reviews are often lengthier than what you’ll find on Amazon, they’re shorter than those I’ve written for Bookpleasures or archived in the “Book Reviews” category of this blog, so please also refer there for reviews of books you might want to read.]
Pure Gold. Theodore P. Durch, author. (Black Opal Books, 2018.) Joe Gold is an ex-cop turned PI. Here the reader can follow three successive cases as he morphs from a deadbeat to a famous PI, accompanied by Jenny, a Della Street for his Perry Mason (or pick your own PI/platonic-or-not-so-much-girlfriend combo). These three hard-boiled stories are novellas in a sense, but they really form parts of a novel that is both in the hard-boiled tradition and entertaining for mystery and crime enthusiasts.
In the first case, Gold’s ex-squeeze is murdered—she make the mayor a widower, but Gold thinks the mayor’s involved—and his daughter with that ex is kidnapped. The mayor hires Gold to find the daughter. Plenty of interesting twists here.
Satanical rites almost make Gold’s second case into a paranormal mystery. Insane fanaticism is the general theme. Hard-boiled creepiness, let’s say. Gold’s cop friend and mentor when Gold was on the force begins to play a more important role.
Cases #1 and #2 establish the PI’s rep, but he’s still a johnny-do-good who takes on a case where Jenny’s cousin says someone’s trying to murder him. His demise confirms those suspicions. The cousin is a physicist (as an ex-physicist I can relate to this story!), and the internet (invented by physicists!) plays a role. Lots of surprises, and the media steps forward now that Gold is famous.
I grew up reading hard-boiled mysteries and crime stories and sci-fi that was also hard-boiled in style (ever read Asimov’s Caves of Steel or The Naked Sun?). Given that background, readers of this blog can understand why I thoroughly enjoyed this book. You will too, if you’re a fan of mystery and crime stories.
Get 1000 Readers for Your Self-Published Book. X, author. Like many authors, I’m always looking for new ways to reach out to readers and let them know about my books. It has nothing to do with whether a book is self-published or traditionally published because both forms require marketing efforts by the authors (unless they’re someone like Stephen King).
Guess what? Authors will rarely find these new ways in the many books written on the subject. Writers of these marketing books claim to offer great ideas—“Just use my methods to make your book a success!” (some of these books cost $10 or more!)—but they don’t, only repeats, so don’t waste your time or money. (If you’re a newbie to book marketing, just get Mark Coker’s Book Marketing Guide and/or Penny Sansevieri’s 52 Ways to Sell More Books—last time I looked, they’re free on Amazon! You can also download my free PDF “Writing Fiction” that also contains marketing advice—see the “Free Stuff & Contest” web page at this website.)
This book is also the right price—it’s free, so I downloaded it. But it’s a complete waste. Don’t spend your time downloading it! I didn’t even include the author’s name or link to the book for this reason—he should be embarrassed, and I’m not giving him any free name recognition. [Spoiler Alert] What’s his ONE special secret for book marketing success? Write something of value. Duh! The laugh is on this joker, though: he violated his own principle! This marketing book has no value, price-wise or content-wise. And Amazon should be ashamed of themselves for publishing it!
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Comments are always welcome!
“The Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series.” I never write about all the detectives’ cases because many Castilblanco tells me about are very procedural, but the ones in this series of hard-boiled mystery/thriller novels are more interesting for their characters, themes, action, and settings. For the latter, most start in NYC but some become national and international. And almost all of them are still current, if not more so than when they were written, and can be read in any order. Subscribers to my email newsletter have access to a Smashwords sale, but all readers will find the ebooks reasonably priced and available on Amazon, Smashwords, and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc).
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
