JULIE MORRIGAN - CUTTER'S FIRM (2015)

Synopsis/blurb....

Since taking control of Howard Mackintosh’s criminal empire, the dynamics of Cutter’s firm have changed. Big Liam Bradley, Mac’s former deputy, has firmly established himself as Cutter’s trusted second in command. But Tommy Gunn and Wayne Dobbs, his long-standing partners in crime, are feeling pushed out … and Wayne is determined to do something about it.

Young Jack Armstrong is about to be released from prison after being framed by Cutter and his cronies. Three years ago his family was devastated when their lives collided with Cutter’s criminal dealings – and Jack still doesn’t know what happened to his sister Livvy.

Following the tragic death of a child on the road running past a local caravan park, journalist Millie Redman is taking a potentially dangerous interest in the business enterprises of the park’s owner: shady local entrepreneur Mr Gordon Cutter.

Meanwhile, Cutter has ambitious plans to expand his empire … but can he keep his firm together in the face of betrayal from those closest to him, as well as dangerous outside scrutiny that threatens to expose his deadliest secrets?

‘Cutter’s Firm’ is the second novella in the Cutter trilogy. The story began in ‘Cutter’s Deal’ and is concluded in ‘Cutter’s Fall’.

‘Cutter’s Firm’ contains violence, cruelty and adult language.

Another short novella tackled in December in the hope of jump starting my reading out of a slump. Loved the book, but the slump persisted.

Cutter's Firm almost has an episodic feel. It's the second in Morrigan's Cutter trilogy and concerns Gordon Cutter (obviously). He's a local criminal king-pin with the cops and other assorted dignitaries in his back pocket; aided and assisted by secretly recording the local well-to-dos letting their hair down with some underage sex action at one of his brothels out of town. Cutter is cunning, clever, arrogant and ruthless.

Here he's damping down some fall-out from a hit and run incident resulting in the death of one of his young prostitutes, knocked down when fleeing her captivity. Time to move the business elsewhere.

On the scene we also have Jack Armstrong, freshly released from prison, after Cutter fitted him up. Jack was getting too interested in Cutter;s involvement in the disappearance of his sister. Three years inside and Jack is still  determined to find answers, revenge and some form of justice however it arrives.  His fractured family are still bearing the scars of their girl's disappearance.

Chuck an investigative journalist with a boyfriend on Cutter's payroll into the mix and there's a fairly combustible mix brewing.

Violence, business, human trafficking, prostitution, mutiny in the ranks, journalism, an undercover investigation, an unintended romance, a thug with a conscience, a dilemma or three, grief, bereavement, revenge, cleaning house, influence, connections, some answers and more questions.

A busy book, lots to like. Sets up the climax of the trilogy nicely without feeling like I've been cheated out of some sort of outcome here.

4 from 5

Thoughts on Cutter's Deal here - Cutter's Fall waits.

Read - December, 2019
Published - 2015
Page count - 102
Source - purchased copy
Format - kindle

MARK NEWMAN - VIOLENCE IN THE BLOOD (2016)

Synopsis/blurb......

Violence in the Blood documents Thompson's rise to power from the backstreets of Glasgow to the industrial heartland of the Midlands.

Malkie Thompson's got ambition and he won't let anything stand in his way in his bid to rise to the top. He's outgrown Glasgow and his boss, McAlister. It's time to step out from the shadow of his mentor and establish his own Firm.

Join the rampage as Malkie and his crew blaze a trail of mayhem and destruction north and south of the border, and witness the birth of the crime syndicate.

A December re-read of a novella I previously enjoyed back in 2017.

Why am I re-reading books when I have a stack of unread ones? Well the book is the first in a short trilogy of three linked novellas and I want to read the third soon, but needed a refresh on the first two.

My thoughts are very similar to first time around.
An ambitious gangster, Malkie Thompson descends on the Midlands from Scotland and sets about undermining and dismantling local king-pin Vinnie Edwards' criminal empire.

Graphic violence, certainly not for the squeamish as we follow Thompson's takeover, also enjoying his Scottish backstory and his rise from far from smooth rise from foot soldier to feared leader and the reasons behind his venture south.

Unlikable characters inflicting violence on other unsympathetic people, regardless of the consequences to innocents caught in the crossfire. Lots to like for me as I do enjoy in-your-face protagonists.

4 from 5 again.

Read - December, 2019
Published - 2016
Page count - 105
Source - purchased copy
Format - kindle


* January 2017, thoughts below (no change really, though the book seems to have grown legs from the first time of reading, or maybe I got some duff information regarding a page count)
-------------------------------------------------------
Synopsis/blurb.....

Malkie Thompson's got ambition. He'll do whatever it takes to get to the top and nothing's gonna stand in his way. Follow Thompson's rise to power from the backstreets of Glasgow to the industrial heartland of the Midlands. Join the rampage as Malkie and his crew blaze a trail of mayhem and destruction north and south of the border.

There will be blood, murder and mayhem. You’ve been warned.

A fast-paced 50-odd page tale of gangsters and criminality. Taut prose, with barely a word wasted. Newman gives us the rise of Malkie Thompson in 1988, moving in on Vinnie Edwards and his turf, much to our soon-to-be-deposed king-pin's chagrin and that of the local police with whom he has a tacit understanding.

Thomson pulls a job under Edwards' nose and causes some grief between Edwards and his pet poodle copper, DI Morrison. A stand-off between the two with guns isn't going to be good for business. One bent copper with embarrassing photographs and pressure from the hierarchy for a result and a return to a more peaceful climate. One annoyed gangster, suspecting that his paid-for-copper has crossed him and has something to do with the 60k job pulled on his patch.

Malkie Thomson's only just getting started. Newman takes us back to Glasgow and Malkie's rise in the Glaswegian underworld, before more grief down south as his business with Vinnie Edwards comes to a climax.

Not many likable characters on display but an enjoyable tale of gangsters, violence, cunning and ambition. Lots to enjoy. Right up my reading alley.

4 from 5

Mark J. Newman has written a few more tales in his Crime Syndicate series, which I hope to read later this year. He has his website here. He's also on Facebook here and catch him on Twitter - @marknewmanwrit1

Read in January, 2017
Published - 2016
Page count - 51
Source - Amazon FREEBIE purchase
Format - Kindle

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - G IS FOR ..... GALWAY, GUNS, GRAFTON

Seventh instalment of my crime fiction alphabet,

G is for....

Galway..... the setting for Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor series of books. And also a place with many fond memories of childhood holidays enjoyed with cousins in Salthill.

For other Galway crime see also Derval McTiernan - The Ruin and David Pearson's The Galway Homicides series

Bruen is Galway's main man though. It's well regarded Irish noir and a 15 long book series, of which I've only read a couple - the first two many years ago, long before I started recording my half-baked thoughts on books ....... The Guards and The Killing of the Tinkers

Galway Girl is the latest entry and dropped last year. OCD reader that I am, I've a bit of catching up to do.

Jack Taylor has never quite been able get his life together, but now he has truly hit rock bottom. Still reeling from a violent family tragedy, Taylor is busy drowning his grief in Jameson and uppers, as usual, when a high-profile officer in the local Garda is murdered. After another Guard is found dead, and then another, Taylor's old colleagues from the force implore him to take on the case. The plot is one big game, and all of the pieces seem to be moving at the behest of one dangerously mysterious team: a trio of young killers with very different styles, but who are united their common desire to take down Jack Taylor. Their ring leader is Jericho, a psychotic girl from Galway who is grieving the loss of her lover, and who will force Jack to confront some personal trauma from his past.

As sharp and sardonic as it is starkly bleak and violent, Galway Girl shows master raconteur Ken Bruen at his best: lyrical, brutal, and ceaselessly suspenseful.

G is for .....

Guns

Ed McBain's 1976 book Guns was enjoyed a few years ago..... thoughts here

Colley Donato loved guns. Even more than his women. He was sixteen when he first shot a guy – with an Astra Firecat pistol.

Brought up in Harlem, he lived amongst the hookers, pimps and junkies. A gun wasn’t a luxury, it was a necessity. Folks either liked you or killed you.

For the liquor store job he used his .38 Detective’s Special. Killed a cop in the process and wished he hadn’t.

Being on the run, even for a pro like Colley, Cops everywhere. Sure, ex-stripper Jeanine helped him as did his old friend Benny, a pimp from the Bronx.

But in the end, it was all down to him. And he knew it……

McBain is better known for his long running 87th Precinct series of books, but to date all I've read from him are few standalone novels and one entry in his Matthew Hope lawyer series.
Maybe 2020 I'll see what I've been missing.

Ray Banks' Gun still sits on the kindle patiently waiting its turn

It's a simple enough job for a very dangerous man - go to the Leam Lane estate, pick up a converted air pistol from a guy called Florida Al, bring it back in one piece. But Richie - fresh out of the YOI and about to be a dad - has just lost the gun to a bunch of young thugs. And Goose isn't the kind of bloke who gives second chances ...

Hat tip to Paul D. Brazill's Guns of Brixton!


G is for......

Sue Grafton. Grafton, sadly passed a year or two ago. She was steadily working her way through her own crime fiction alphabet in the company of her series character Kinsey Millhone.
Y is for Yesterday is where the series ended.

To date I've enjoyed A is for Alibi 

I ought to dust off B is for Burglar soon.

Wise-cracking, female private investigator, Kinsey Millhone, is hired to find a missing sister. However, when the trail leads to Florida, Kinsey finds herself caught up in a dangerous case involving fire-raising, burglary and murder.


Previous entries

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - A IS FOR.... AX, ABBOTT, ABERDEEN

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - B IS FOR ....... BOSTON, BIRD, BONES

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - C IS FOR.........CAPE TOWN, CONFIDENCE MEN, CROSS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - D IS FOR ....... DETROIT, DISHER, DEAD

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - E IS FOR ....... EDINBURGH, EXCESS, ELLIS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - F IS FOR ....... FLORIDA, FRANCIS, FLOATERS

2 BY JONATHAN MOORE

A couple from Jonathan Moore, another author I have yet to read, but one which was recommended to me by author Dave Putnam.

Moore has had six novels published since 2013, all of them stand-alone books. Fantastic Fiction labels him as an author of dark thrillers in the mystery and horror genres.

I think I would probably have passed these by if they hadn't been recommended to me, because the covers don't especially inspire me to pick the books up. Not exactly eye-catching are they?

The Poison Artist (2016)

"An electrifying read . . . I haven't read anything so terrifying since Red Dragon." - Stephen King

Caleb Maddox is a San Francisco toxicologist studying the chemical effects of pain. He's out drinking after a bad breakup when a hauntingly seductive woman sits down at his side. He talks to Emmeline over absinthe, but their encounter is fleeting. She brushes her lips on his ear and disappears. He must find her. As Caleb scours the city, he begins helping the city's medical examiner with a serial-murder investigation. Soon the search for the killer entwines with Caleb's hunt for Emmeline, and the closer he gets to each, the more dangerous his world becomes. "A wicked mix of Poe, The Silence of the Lambs, and Vertigo,"* The Poison Artist spins a thrilling tale of obsession, damage, a man unmoored by an unspeakable past, and a woman who offers the ultimate escape.



"A totally new take on the mystery-thriller genre . . . Fresh and unpredictable. The writing is top-notch . . . Grade: A." - Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Genuinely scary, in the very best way, and nastily twisty, also in the very best way . . . Hypnotic." - Guardian

* William Landay

The Dark Room (2017)

"If you like Michael Connelly's novels, you will gobble up Jonathan Moore's The Dark Room."
- James Patterson

"Channels the moody intensity of Raymond Chandler's crime fiction." - Washington Post

Gavin Cain, an SFPD homicide inspector, is at an exhumation when his phone rings. The mayor is being blackmailed and has ordered Cain back to the city; a helicopter is on its way. The casket, and Cain's cold-case investigation, must wait.

At City Hall, the mayor shows Cain four photographs he's received: the first, an unforgettable blonde; the second, pills and handcuffs on a nightstand; the third, the woman drinking from a flask; and last, the woman naked, unconscious, and shackled to a bed. The accompanying letter is straightforward: worse revelations will come unless the mayor takes his own life first.

An "electrifying noir thriller,"* The Dark Room tracks Cain as he hunts for the blackmailer, pitching him into the web of destruction and devotion the mayor casts in his shadow.

"With an Edgar Allan Poe feel to it, this book leaves an uncomfortable, indelible impression . . . San Francisco has never been so menacing." - Kirkus, starred review

*Booklist, starred review

GERALD PETIEVICH - MONEY MEN (1983)

Synopsis/blurb....

"GRITTY! REALISTIC! PETIEVICH'S TOUGH, LEAN PROSE RACES WITH ACTION... THE DIALOGUE SNAPS AND CRACKLES." - Washington Post

Charlie Carr is Petievich's first hero, a relentless, hard-boiled T-man who brings to mind the no-nonsense detectives of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. In this riveting novel, Carr is a man with a grim mission. When a young agent gets violently gunned down during an undercover operation, Carr is determined to hunt down the counterfeiter who pulled the trigger. The chase leads him down a sordid crime-infested trail of ex-cons and desperate women. From the seamy Sunset Strip to Chinatown's shadowy underworld, from a daring plot to steal counterfeit money from counterfeiters themselves to facing brutal blood-drenched confrontations, Charlie Carr will stop at nothing to crack the depraved scheme that took his young friend's life.

"AN IMPRESSIVE ACHIEVEMENT! A SURE HAND, A FINE EAR FOR DIALOGUE, AND A CANNY FEEL FOR PLOTTING!" - New York Times 

An 80s novel, enjoyed before in the long distant past and plucked from the shelves in the hope of jump starting my stalled reading mojo in December. I can dimly remember this or one of Petievich's other novels - Earth Angels maybe - blowing my socks off when I read it back in the day.

Second time around, I wasn't quite so crazy about it, but I'd still rate it a 4 from 5.

An undercover treasury agent gets blown away while trying to take down a counterfeiter, our main man Charlie Carr hears the whole thing from a nearby hotel room. Our short book focuses on Carr's attempts to track down the killer, before getting transferred away from the front line by his bosses.

I enjoyed this one; the frequent encounters between Carr and his partner, Jack Kelly with various miscreants; the tactics for their investigation - the angles worked, the pressure applied, the progress of the investigation and the joining up of the dots from leads and then the focus on a result, walking a very narrow tightrope between remaining lawful and crossing the line into breaking the law to get the required outcome, with Carr definitely transgressing at the end.

I enjoyed time with Carr, the on off relationship with the girlfriend, apparently going nowhere; the friendships he enjoyed - mostly job related, the loyalty he displays to a disgraced former colleague and the over-riding obsession with getting his man and the juggling act performed to do so.

Plenty of action, violence, dialogue, interrogations, stakeouts, an LA setting
and some interesting titbits on the world of counterfeiting, something I guess Petievich knows from his time in law enforcement.

Money Men is the first of three Carr novels. Petievich also wrote another half dozen standalone novels, mostly published in the 80s when he was running a hot streak. I've probably read half of his output, though the titles of the ones I devoured escape me. There are way worse ways of spending time than settling down to an afternoon or more in the company of one of Gerald Petievich's books.

4 from 5

Read - December, 2019
Published - 1983
Page count - 224
Source - purchased copy (probably Murder One)
Format - paperback

BOOKS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2020

Half a dozen crackers I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into later in 2020.......

step forward ...... Samantha Kolesnik, Joe R. Lansdale, Tom Leins, Mike Knowles, Emma Viskic and Pascal Garnier


Five of the six authors I have enjoyed previously with Samantha Kolesnik the only unknown.

Hopefully I actually get around to reading some of these hot picks this year, as my six for 2019 all got ignored when I eventually laid my hands on them.....

BOOKS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2019 

Samantha Kolesnik - True Crime (2020)

Horror-cum-borderline crime this drops next week......

Suzy and her brother, Lim, live with their abusive mother in a town where the stars don’t shine at night. Once the abuse becomes too much to handle, the two siblings embark on a sordid cross-country murder spree beginning with their mom. As the murder tally rises, Suzy’s mental state spirals into irredeemable madness.

"A debut with the power of a nuclear bomb. Ranks alongside Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door and J. F. Gonzalez's Survivor." -- Brian Keene, author of The Rising

"... could easily become one of the most talked about novels of 2020." -- Waylon Jordan, iHorror.com


"I’ve taken in a lot of rather dark literature over the years, but I can unequivocally say True Crime is the most disturbing book I’ve ever read." -- Jeremy Dick, HorrorGeekLife.com

Tom Leins - The Good Book: Fairy Tales For Hard Men (2020)

Another January drop. I have enjoyed Mr Leins' work several times in the past (*see below), but similar to other Brit-Grit favourites... Paul D. Brazill and Paul Heatley for example - he writes them faster than I can read them......

Testament, Florida is the town where the American dream bottomed out. A town that was bled dry and kicked into the weeds by venal men with bad intentions. A town so insignificant that it no longer appears on any map.

During the 1980s, however, it was home to the Testament Wrestling Alliance, the chaotic wrestling promotion that made stars of Gringo Starr, ‘Voodoo’ Ray Blanchette and the Jazz Butcher. The man who made it happen was promoter Frank ‘Fingerf*ck’ Flanagan, who ruled his territory with an iron fist. A tough man willing to make tough decisions, Flanagan’s personal road to hell is paved with dead wrestlers.

The Good Book is an interlinked, 20-story collection that takes place between 1980 and 1993. These stories are grubby, hardboiled tales that explore the lives of desperate menw—men who can’t leave their rivalries in the ring. In Testament, every action has a reaction and every feud ends in carnage. If someone else wins, you lose.


* Skull Meat (2017)
   Meat Bubbles and Other Stories (2018)

Joe R. Lansdale - More Better Deals (2020)

I've enjoyed Lansdale and his East Texas tales, usually in the company of his double act Hap and Leonard more than a few times in the past. More Better Deals is a standalone....

Edgar award-winning author Joe Lansdale returns with the hard-boiled story of a no-nonsense used car salesman ready to turn his life around

Ed Edwards is in the used car business, a business built on adjusted odometers, extra-fine print, and the belief that "buyers better beware." Burdened by an aging, alcoholic mother constantly on his case to do something worthier of his lighter skin tone and dreaming of a brighter future for himself and his plucky little sister, Ed is ready to get out of the game.

When Dave, his lazy, grease-stained boss at the eponymous dealership Smiling Dave's sends him to repossess a Cadillac, Ed finally gets the chance to escape his miserable life.

The Cadillac in question was purchased by Frank Craig and his beautiful wife Nancy, owners of a local drive-in and pet cemetery. Fed up with her deadbeat husband and with unfulfilled desires of her own, Nancy suggests to Ed- in the throes of their salacious affair- that they kill Frank and claim his insurance policy. It is a tantalizing offer: the girl, the car, and not one, but two businesses. Ed could finally say goodbye to Smiling Dave's, and maybe even send his sister to college. But does he have what it takes to see the plan through?

Told with Joe Lansdale's trademark grit, wit, and dark humor, More Better Deals is a gripping tale of the strange characters and odd dealings that define 1960s East Texas.

Emma Viskic - Darkness For Light (2020)

Aussie series crime and the third in Viskic's Caleb Zelic series after Resurrection Bay and And Fire Came Down - I've still to read the second one.

After a lifetime of bad decisions PI Caleb Zelic is finally making good ones. He's in therapy, his business is recovering and his relationship with his estranged wife Kat is on the mend.

But soon Caleb is drawn into the tangled life of his troubled ex partner Frankie, which leads to a confrontation with the cops. And when Frankie's niece is kidnapped, she and Caleb must work together to save the child's life. But can Caleb trust her after her past betrayals?

Mike Knowles - Running From the Dead (2020)

Knowles usually writes about outlaws - in particular one guy - Wilson - the subject of a six book series thus far. The latest is a police procedural. Well I thought it was, but from the blurb maybe not

His first three books, all featuring Wilson  - Darwin's Nightmare (2008), Grinder (2009) and In Plain Sight (2010) were enjoyed last year.

"Combining the intense grit of Richard Stark's Parker series with the amorality of Jim Thompson's work, Knowles once again delivers." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review of Rocks Beat Paper

Private detective Sam Jones's six-year search for an eight- year-old boy ends with gunshots in a basement and cold bodies that would eventually lead the police straight to him. Jones had never promised Ruth Verne that he would find her son alive, but he knew deep down that she believed he would -- worse, he had believed it too. Jones wasn't ready to look Ruth in the eye and tell her he had failed. He wasn't ready to admit that he lost everything and had nothing to show for it.

But an unsigned note scrawled on a bathroom door gives Jones a second chance -- a chance for redemption. Thirteen words left by a young girl in trouble give him someone to chase and a reason to keep moving before the cops move on him. Jones follows the trail from an idyllic small town to the darkest corners of the city, running from the boy he failed toward the girl he could still save.

Pascal Garnier - A Long Way Off (2020)

This sadly deceased French author has been a favourite for a few years, ever since Gallic Books started bringing his work to the attention of British readers. A Long Way Off will be the 11th translation they've served up. I'm batting 4 from 10 so far!

The Panda Theory (2012)
How's the Pain? (2012)
The A26 (2013)
Moon in a Dead Eye (2013)
The Front Seat Passenger (2014)
The Islanders (2014)
Boxes (2015)
The Eskimo Solution (2016)
Low Heights (2017)
C'est La Vie (2019)
A Long Way Off (2020)

Marc dreams of going somewhere far, far away - but he'll start by taking his cat and his grown-up daughter, Anne, to an out-of-season resort on the Channel.

Reluctant to go home, the curious threesome head south for Agen, whose main claim to fame is its prunes. As their impromptu road trip takes ever stranger turns, the trail of destruction - and mysterious disappearances - mounts up in their wake.

Shocking, hilarious and poignant, the final dose of French noir from Pascal Garnier, published shortly before his death, is the author on top form.

ART GOMEZ - INNOCENT CRIMES (2018)

Synopsis/blurb...

Coming-of-age shouldn't have to involve a crime...

You may ask, is there such a thing as an innocent crime? Not on the streets of Hollywood. Particularly in the case of an alcoholic father who is arrested for a felony he can’t remember committing—even though all DNA evidence shows he’s guilty!

As you dive into these pages, you’ll discover how a naive nineteen-year-old manages to develop the street smarts to help gain her father’s liberty; but not without the cost of losing her well-being...

First read of the new year and a bit of a disappointment if I'm truthful.

Bruce, an alcoholic single parent of Carey, gets arrested for the murder of a prostitute he can't remember meeting. The evidence as such points at him committing the crime. Carey, the daughter refuses to believe he's capable. Pete, her boyfriend is a rookie cop and is torn between his responsibilities to the badge and his love and loyalty to Carey, despite his belief that Bruce did the deed.

Following and in a nutshell, we have Carey's obvious concern for her father's predicament and declining health, combined with her somewhat naive efforts to prove him innocent of the crime he's currently being held in jail for. Her efforts set her at odds with Pete and causes fractures in their relationship. 

At the conclusion, we get an answer to the question over Bruce's innocence or guilt and also we establish where the couple's relationship is at.

On the plus side, the book was a quick read, and the pages turned quickly and I didn't ever feel like quitting or throwing it at the wall.

That said, I wasn't especially convinced by the plot which had several weaknesses in my opinion. Would Pete jeopardise his dream job for love? Would an intelligent woman, comprise such a madcap scheme to try and deflect from her father's possible guilt and use her boyfriend into the bargain, unconcerned by the consequences of her actions? Unlikely. I just wasn't convinced by any of it.

Similarly the dynamics in the relationships. Carey's lover for her father and boyfriend; Bruce's animosity toward Pete; Pete's concern for Carey and the tensions in their relationship as the story unfolded ...... I just never felt that the characters were real people, as opposed to cardboard cut-outs. There seemed to be no real depth to them and the emotions that the author was endeavouring to portray never connected to me and made me feel like I cared or had an investment in the outcome.

The author introduces a twist or two before the outcome is revealed. Other characters are introduced. We get some involvement in Carey's day job and see her colleagues. We meet Pete's friends on the job and spend a bit of time in their company, and it does help to add a bit of flesh to the bones of the story. I quite two of the minor characters in the book - the female detective on the case and Sonny, Carey's neighbour-cum-annoying sidekick. Sonny gets more of a look-in with the action, than Newman does which was a shame as she had a bit of zing and chutzpah about her. I found them better company than the main players.

Author pic

Reasonable setting  - LA, followed by a trip down Mexico way for our climax.

Overall verdict not great, but I've read a lot worse.

2 from 5

Read - January, 2020
Published - 2018 originally. I think the book is getting a re-launch presently
Page count - 215
Source - Reedsy Discovery review site
Format - PDF