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Book Review: THE PVRITAN by Birgitte Margen

cover for THE PVRITAN by Birgitte Margen

THE PVRITAN by Birgitte Margen (  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Publisher: Independently published, 2020

ASIN : B08HQ6JV85

Available: Kindle edition, paperback

 

THE PVRITAN by Birgitte Margen is a crime novel about horrific serial murders in Boston. Martina Zucco is a deadly serious homicide detective. Her mother died in childbirth, and she was raised by a distant father, whom she followed into the police force. Her partner, Neil Cavanaugh, balances out the team with his irreverent, male humor. They investigate the murders of a M13 gang member, a teenage Satanic cultist, and an incel (“involuntary celibate”). Each victim is hanged, mutilated, and publicly displayed. The eyes, tongue, or hand are cut out. Skin from the abdomen is flayed away and glued to outstretched arms like wings.

What is the motive? The author gives readers clues. She begins each chapter with an excerpt from the Geneva Bible used by the Puritans, and inserts sacrifices from the Salem witch trials between the present-day murders. The only clues for Zucco and Cavanaugh, however are small pieces of the Geneva Bible stuffed into the victims.

The author describes the Boston area well, including the Boston Commons and neighborhoods burdened with gangs or crime (Mattapan aka “Murderpan” and Dorchester aka “Deathchester”). The plot moves along quickly, keeping the reader engaged. The author gives interesting background information about the M13 gang, satanic cults and the incel community. However, the novel ends too abruptly. As in many novels about serial killers, the detective and psychopathic killer struggle to the death. However, the author does not give enough details about the murderer’s family and childhood to satisfactorily explain his psychopathy.

Birgitte Margen also wrote The Red Death, about a deadly ancient plague, previously reviewed and recommended by Monster Librarian.

Contains: violence, extreme gore, body horror, and sexual content

 

 

 

Contains: violence, gore, sex

 

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

 

 

Posted on September 23, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: Lost Hills (Eve Ronin #1) by Lee Goldberg

cover image for Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg

 Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg (  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

Thomas & Mercer, 2020

 

ISBN-13:  9781542093804

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

 

Eve Ronin has only been in the Robbery-Homicide Department for three months.  Her partner, Duncan ‘Donuts’ Pavone, is counting the days until retirement.  He is training her in the ins and outs of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and how to work with the other police organizations, something that is proving to be tricky since she already has a reputation.  She recently busted the action hero actor of a series of movies called Deathfist in a video that went viral, and then took advantage of  her unwanted notoriety to leapfrog over the officers that had spent years working toward the position.  It hasn’t gone over well.  Duncan puts Eve in charge of a new case.  An unwed mother, her two kids, and their dog are missing, and their apartment was drenched in blood.  It is a case that will either make her career or break it.

 

Lost Hills was a well-written procedural crime fiction story.  It had a lot of detailed police procedures built into it that gave it an air of authenticity.  At times, the level of detail was a bit much for me, but it didn’t break the story.  Instead, it gave me a strong sense of how complicated the legal system was at the police officer’s level.  The pacing and action flowed well, leading through the plot and its twists.  The plot wasn’t the most complicated thing, but it was full of great action.  I really liked the ending climax!  The characters were believable, and I could picture them as they went about the investigation.  The dialogue fit each of them well.  The descriptions were good, with just enough detail so that I knew what was going on.  A fun piece of set dressing was that the story was in Los Angeles, and the author worked in some interesting bits of trivia.  It started kind of slow for me, but once it got going, I had to hang on.

All in all, it was a great procedural crime fiction piece and worth reading.  Recommended for adult readers.

 

Contains:  Swearing, adult situations, gore, violence.

Reviewed by:  Aaron Fletcher

Posted on June 17, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: Oware Mosaic by Nzondi

Oware Mosaic by Nzondi

Omnnium Gatherum, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1949054163

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

I am always excited to see Afrofuturist writing getting positive recognition, so I was really looking forward to reading Oware Mosaic.  The novel is set in Ghana in 2025, following worldwide natural disasters caused by climate change and a nuclear war leading to  a “Final Event” that created radioactive areas and caused mutations in the animals in Ghana.  Instead of cell phones and computers, people have neural implants that serve as communication, entertainment, and information searching devices. Seventeen-year-old Feeni is an “ennie”, an “enhanced human” who “gains sustenance from blood” but is not a vampire. Ennies are persecuted, killed, and trafficked by anti-ennie humans.  Feeni grew up in abusive foster homes, although she is now living with her own family, a close-knit group that can get crowded. Her escape is an immersive online game, House of Oware, where she plays the character of a forensic scientist. Real-life cases are sometimes assigned to her online character, and she finds herself investigating a hit-and-run she was responsible for and covered up.

Despite my really wanting to love this, there is a serious flaw in this book that made suspension of disbelief for this book impossible for me. The book is set in 2025 (it is not an alternate reality, as it references Obama’s election and the recent television show Uncle Grandpa,  among other things), and a majority of the characters have neural implants. There is absolutely no way so many people would have such a piece of technology surgically implanted in the next five years. Nzondi is inconsistent and sometimes unrealistic in the way he presents Feeni and the way she moves, dresses, and talks, and some of his cultural references are confusing. I enjoyed the interactions with family members and out in the community, which created a much-needed rounding out of the Ghanaian setting (and he did this really well), but it also slowed the story down, and it’s unclear where the plot is going. There is the germ of a good story in here but it needs much more work for that to emerge. Based on what I read, though, I don’t think I can recommend this as YA horror. Is this science fiction? Post-apocalyptic fiction? Crime fiction? A combination? If Nzondi decides to reshape the story, I will be interested to see how he does it.

 

Editor’s note:  Oware Mosaic was nominated to the final ballot of the 2019 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel.

 

Posted on March 19, 2020 by , Reply
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