WHAT’S ON YOUR NIGHTSTAND - February 2018

Is it already the end of February 😲 Where has the time gone ?

Due to my reading addiction and need to pick up the next book immediately after setting down the one I’ve just finished, I’m getting into a real situation of reviews for books received from publishers being long overdue and it’s stressing me out!  Well, I decided to read a couple I’d purchased in the belief that I wouldn’t feel review obligated and use the time to catch up. However, the last two, both in the noir’ish genre were so amazing that I just have to tell you about them. Hence, I’m still in a pickle with these late…very…now very very late reviews.

So here are my updates for this month's, Read, DNF'd (did not finish), Reading Now, and those seductive vixens tempting me to read them next.

Read:
The Feed by Nick Clark Windo (Teaser link)
Thoroughly enjoyed this one and once past the 20% mark it was extremely difficult for me to leave it for any length of time. I continually ‘itched’ to get back to it. The world building is spectacular and once into the second half, the characters absolutely came to life. It’s a clever, stunning debut and I absolutely recommend it for fans of, Station Eleven and sci Fi novels of that ilk.
I really am looking forward to this author’s next offering.
My review…yup…is in progress...my fingers are crossed here.

In Wolves’ Clothing by Greg Levin (Teaser link)
Available from Amazon for £2.97 (kindle)
Shockingly  good…not for everyone as it touches on the horror of the child sex industry. An extremely difficult read in parts but the dark humour, contained throughout the writing style, and the protagonist’s character (clearly a coping mechanism) and his selfless sense of duty, carried this difficult storyline making it a tad more palatable.

A modern twist on the 1950’s noir private detective novel, using undercover agents infiltrating the sex trafficking scene to help rescue terrified young children abducted or sold into prostitution.
Highly recommended. A slightly fuller review will follow.

My Brothers Destroyer by Clayton Lindemuth (Teaser link)
Available from Amazon for £3.99 (kindle)

Oh this one had me all over the place mentally, and babbling so much at one point in the book, but I’ll not go into that as I don’t want to ruin the story for anyone. Suffice to say that this is going to be a difficult, all too true to life read for anyone sensitive to the issues raised including animal cruelty and violence. Not sure what it says about me reading and enjoying such books, but I’m really a little pussycat and quite a nice person considering.

Anyways, back to it…I found it an highly emotive, visceral read about the wickedness and meanest attributes of human nature with men hellbent on retaliative action either for personal slights or power gains, escalating in action to the ultimate in violence to wipe out the competition or those who refuse to fall into line. This southern gothic, noir style story with brutality (extreme), juxtaposed with tenderness (incredibly tender in parts), comes wholeheartedly recommended by me.  I’ve got three other books lined up by this author, he’s totally awesome.

DNF'd:
Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan (translated fiction)
Gorgeous cover image, but characters and writing style lacks depth for me.
Reading this for a book tour but just unable to get into it. Bad timing ? Maybe !

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Morena-Garcia (horror fiction)
Going to give another try, but had 2 others toying with me, and I’m easily led.

Girlish by Lara Lillibridge (Memoir)
Predicted publish date:
Still mulling why I didn’t feel compelled to continue with it. May try again.

Reading Now:
12 Rules for Life by Jordon B Peterson (non fiction) (reading on and off)
Trying to decide what to read, but those unwritten reviews are haunting me.

Tempted by: (in order of temptation)


Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage (fiction)
Moon Brow by Shahriar Mandanipour (translated fiction)
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon (translated fiction)
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
Trumpocracy by David Frum (non fiction)

Until next time, happy reading !

TEASER TUESDAY: In Wolve’s Clothing by Greg Levin

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by

 The Purple Booker

It is very easy to play along:

• Grab your current read and open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! 

• Share the title & author, too, so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here are my teasers this month:

“My suicide dream has been recurring with increased frequency of late. At least this time I awoke before the crowd shouted, “Do it!” I take it as a sign it’s going to be a good day.”

In Wolves’ Clothing by Greg Levin

Published by White Rock Press  (11 Oct. 2017)

Synopsis:
On his best days, Zero Slade is the worst man you can imagine. He has to be. It's the only way to save the Lost Girls.

During his seven years on a team fighting sex trafficking, Zero's become quite good at schmoozing with pimps, getting handcuffed by cops and pretending not to care about the young girls he liberates. But the dangerous sting operations are starting to take a toll on his marriage and sanity. His affinity for prescription painkillers isn't exactly helping matters.
When the youngest girl the team has ever rescued gets abducted from a safe house in Cambodia, Zero decides to risk everything to find her. His only shot is to go rogue, and sink deeper into the bowels of the trafficking world than he's ever sunk.

It's the biggest mission of his life. Trouble is, it's almost certain death.

My Thoughts:
Zero Slade works undercover to rescue children who have been trafficked into the sex trade. Yup a real tough, unsavoury topic for a novel and not a read for everyone especially those averse to graphic scenes of violence or child abuse of any nature. What makes this such a compelling and surprisingly palatable read is Levin’s dark noir detective style of writing, and his characterisation of Slade being an extremely flawed individual with a cynical point-of-view, and wickedly comic internal dialogue.

I have already lined up another of Greg Levin’s novels ‘Sick To Death’ to read on the strength of what I’ve read so far.