Book Review: The Last Exit by Michael Kaufman—and a Giveaway! @KaufmanWrites @crookedlanebks

The Last Exit
A Jen Lu Mystery #1
Michael Kaufman
Crooked Lane Books, January 2021
ISBN 978-1-64385-567-7
Hardcover

Set in the future, Jen Lu is a Washington D.C. detective with a synth implant named Chandler residing in her neocortex. She is able to turn Chandler off at will, but is not supposed to when on duty. With a population grown out of control and limited resources and space for everyone, people over sixty-five are required to exit (die) so their children may live—as long as they can pay for an expensive longevity treatment.

One evening, Jen and Chandler are called to a stand-off between parents and child because the parents refuse to “exit” at their son’s demand.  A shoot-out occurs, with the mother’s last words something about going to Eden.

Jen’s investigation turns up a cheaper source for the treatment and the term “Eden” is mentioned, but reports are coming in of many people dying. When her supervisor calls her off the case, suspicions grow of something hinky going on, which involves people in government, law enforcement, and of course, highest society.

Determined to get to the bottom of it, especially after Chandler is turned off and Jen fired, Jen’s own life and hope for longevity is put in jeopardy as she follows a money trail. Only the presence of her former cop partner, her boyfriend, and Chandler’s power, can help put things right.

Excellent world-building, entirely plausible—and more than a bit scary. Fine writing and interesting characters make Mr. Kaufman most definitely a writer to watch.

Reviewed by Carol Crigger, August 2021.
http://www.ckcrigger.com
Author of The Woman Who Built A Bridge (Spur Award Winner), Yester’s Ride,
Hometown Burning and Six Dancing Damsels: A China Bohannon Mystery

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Giveaway

To enter the drawing for a print copy of
The Last Exit, leave a comment
below. The winning name will be drawn
on the evening of Sunday, August 22nd.
US and Canada entrants only.

Book Reviews: Fatal Score by John Baird Rogers and Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering @Gotuit @carolatlovering @AtriaBooks

Fatal Score
Mayfield-Napolitani #1         
John Baird Rogers
Gotuit Publishing LLC, November 2018
ISBN 978-1-7322262-0-3
Trade Paperback

Here’s a novel for late-night reading. Or, depending on your belief, daytime/sunshine reading. The author has grasped both the marvelous advances and future of technology, big medicine big government and the insidious dark and dangerous aspects of human greed. Human greed, when exposed to opportunities to corrupt and steal, is almost a foregone conclusion, and in the author’s vision, fraught with hosts of bright accomplished people on the dark side as well as standing in the light.

Joe Mayfield, an accountant, happily married, does his job efficiently, and life is good. Then his wife is diagnosed with a cancer, her medical records are altered so her insurance is minimal and Mayfield’s life takes a nosedive. Why was her medical coverage designation altered? Was the national medical database hacked? Why this one woman?

Mayfield sets out to find some answers and that involves some penetration of a huge national database nicknamed YAK. He runs up against a highly intelligent security agent named Louise Napolitani. Her job is to protect the YAK against hackers. The author has set up the novel to follow these two separate but linked protagonists.

The pace of the writing is fast, persistent and occasionally furious. It is a well-written and cleanly resolved story, peopled with interesting characters. Through it all readers will learn in the most positive and comfortable way, a good deal about potential future developments in big data, data processing, government and the unchanging venality of people when confronted with opportunities to steal. I recommend this debut novel without reservation and look forward to the continuing adventures of Joe Mayfield and Weezy Napolitani.

Reviewed by Carl Brookins, January 2021.
http://www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com
Traces, Grand Lac, Reunion, Red Sky.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tell Me Lies
Carola Lovering
Atria Books, June 2018
ISBN 978-1-5011-6964-9
Hardcover

A long, conflicting narrative of a young woman who goes away to college, meets and falls for a flawed fellow, and as a result suffers some emotional mountain peaks and deep valleys. Lucy Albright is the woman. Bright, good-looking, energetic, positive of outlook, she has the instincts to recognize and resist the questionable charms of Stephen DeMarco. But she doesn’t.

DeMarco is charming, handsome, confident and a little slimy. The two form a relationship, not a bond, that carries them through college experiences and into adulthood.

The novel is well-written, well-paced, lengthy, sexy and ultimately unsatisfying. Its tension and angst rise through the first half of the story and then levels off so there are fewer and fewer surprises and readers suspect an unsatisfactory and unhappy conclusion looms closer on the horizon.

Reviewed by Carl Brookins, May 2019.
http://www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com
Traces, Grand Lac, Reunion, Red Sky.

Book Review: The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein

************

Title: The Punch Escrow
Author: Tal M. Klein
Narrator: Matthew Mercer
Publication Date: July 25, 2017

************

Purchase Links:

Audible // iTunes // Amazon

************

The Punch Escrow
Tal M. Klein
Narrated by Matthew Mercer
Audible Studios, July 2017
Downloaded Unabridged Audiobook

From the publisher—

It’s the year 2147. Advancements in nanotechnology have enabled us to control aging. We’ve genetically engineered mosquitoes to feast on carbon fumes instead of blood, ending air pollution. And teleportation has become the ideal mode of transportation, offered exclusively by International Transport—a secretive firm headquartered in New York City. Their slogan: Departure… Arrival… Delight!

Joel Byram, our smartass protagonist, is an everyday twenty-second century guy. He spends his days training artificial intelligence engines to act more human, jamming out to 1980’s new wave—an extremely obscure genre, and trying to salvage his deteriorating marriage. Joel is pretty much an everyday guy with everyday problems—until he’s accidentally duplicated while teleporting.

Now Joel must outsmart the shadowy organization that controls teleportation, outrun the religious sect out to destroy it, and find a way to get back to the woman he loves in a world that now has two of him.

If you like a blend of science fiction and mystery, The Punch Escrow just might be for you. I do happen to like these crossgenres and, although there were a few blips along the way, I think both the author and the narrator had great fun with it which meant I did, too.

While the year is 2147 and there have been many scientific discoveries, you and I would feel perfectly comfortable in this future world. People are much the same and society hasn’t changed all that much either what with marital issues, video games, vacations, love of pop culture from the old times (remember Culture Club and Boy George?) and the occasional terrorist act. On the other hand, those mosquitoes mentioned above poop pollution on everybody willynilly.

Joel and his wife, Sylvia, have planned a vacation, a re-do of their honeymoon, in Costa Rica in hopes of jumpstarting their marriage but through a series of mishaps and a terrorist bomb, Sylvia has successfully teleported from New York City to Costa Rica but Joel did not and a decision she made has caused a problem…a real problem. Before too long, it becomes obvious that Joel is going to have to solve that problem and a few others to reunite with Sylvia.

This book is a lot of fun and Matthew Mercer, the narrator, is a big reason for my enjoyment. He has a voice that’s perfectly suited to the quirky Joel and he really did make the guy three-dimensional, if  you will. Mr. Klein has created a world that  is most unusual and, yet, familiar in many ways and Mr. Mercer brought it to life. I want more!

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, October 2017.

************

************

About the Author

Tal M. Klein was born in Israel, grew up in New York, and currently lives in Detroit with his wife and two daughters. When she was five years old, his daughter Iris wrote a book called I’m a Bunch of Dinosaurs that went on to become one of the most successful children’s book projects on Kickstarter ―something that Tal explained to Iris by telling her, “your book made lots of kids happy.” Iris then asked Tal, “Daddy, why don’t you write a book that makes lots of grownups happy?” Tal mulled this over for a few years, and eventually wrote his first book, The Punch Escrow. It won the Inkshares Geek & Sundry Hard Science Fiction publishing contest, and is the first book published on the Geek & Sundry imprint.

Twitter⎮Facebook⎮Goodreads

************

About the Narrator

Matthew Christopher Miller, known professionally as Matthew Mercer or Matt Mercer, is an American voice actor involved in English dubs of Japanese anime as well as cartoons, films and video games. In anime shows, he voiced Levi in “Attack on Titan”, Kiritsugu Emiya in “Fate/Zero”, Kanji Tatsumi for episodes 13-26 in “Persona 4: The Animation” and Trafalgar Law in the “Funimation dub of One Piece”. In video games, he voices Leon S. Kennedy in the “Resident Evil” series, Jack Cooper in “Titanfall 2”, Chrom in “Fire Emblem Awakening”, McCree in “Overwatch”, MacCready in “Fallout 4” and Yusuke Kitagawa in “Persona 5”. In addition to voice-over, Mercer has developed some live-action web series including a Nintendo character parody called “There Will Be Brawl” and the famous Geek & Sundry and Alpha Dungeons & Dragons gaming session show “Critical Role.” The Punch Escrow is his first audiobook.

Website⎮Facebook⎮Twitter

************

Play an excerpt here.

************

“One part adventure journal, one part letter from the future… It’s
a clever way to explore this brave new world. Darting between
The Bourne Identity and Blade Runner , The Punch Escrow travels
through time to unwind the global conspiracy theory. Klein has
written a quick-witted, self-aware thriller that is addictive and fun.”
—Foreword Reviews (starred review)

************

Follow the tour here.

************

GIVEAWAY

The giveaway is for The Punch Escrow Prize Pack.
Open to Continental US Only

Enter here.

************