Tag Archives: love story

Last Exit In New Jersey

This is memorable genre fiction, a crime mystery ennobled by a love story between a homicidal heroine and a suicidal hero. It’s marred, mainly, from the middle onward, by a distracting swarm of missing or unnecessary duplicated words.

I quit several times, both for the annoying typos and the confusing plot. I was drawn back for the reason one plunges on in any good story—to find out what happened next.

Most of the puzzle pieces snap into place at the end. And the surprising payoff is well worth the journey. All it needs is a good proofreader (and executing a few tedious cliches) to smooth the ride. The reader deserves it, and so do this intriguing tale’s touching protagonists.

UPDATE on 11/12:  The author, C.E. Grundler, made a crash effort to fix all of the mistakes and sent me the completed copy. Looks good now, so I’ll reiterate (without the typo reservations above) that if you’re looking for a good Indie tale, this is definitely one you should try.

Ransom Seaborn

This is a love story on many levels which I enjoyed thoroughly and would recommend without reservation. It only started to annoy me in the last third when I began to fear that it would turn into a depressive cheat. When it didn’t, and that wasn’t a sure thing until the very end, I was relieved, and impressed at the artistic manipulation. And reassured that I’d invested my time wisely.

It starts slow. I lost interest several times, put it down, and forgot about it. But I kept remembering and coming back. Partly it was the religion. You don’t find much good writing these days that takes belief seriously. I suppose most fans will be about the young writer’s age and familiar with his music. I’m quite a bit older, and I’d never heard of Bill Deasy, only his book. But it doesn’t require a generational hook. It even reminded me, in surprise flashes, of my own college days, in the dim, distant, ancient past. Now I’ll look into his music.