As of late my focus, intended or not, has been about reading new writers.  Well, new for me anyway. I’m continuing this with the book Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith.  I should stress the concept of new to me as Smith, now with three books, will be familiar to many. And rightfully so. First, Child 44 is a dark book.  It begins in the final days Stalin’s Soviet Union.  The main character, Leo Demidov, is a mid-level Soviet security agency officer.  His career has been spent pursuing enemies of the state, often having to[..]

I'm late to the party.  After seeing The Last Bastion of Humanity (my review here) on a recommend read list, I  decided to give it a try.  It didn't take me long to finish my first book by Rhiannon Frater.  It was my hope The Last Bastion wasn't a one trick pony, so I started with one of Frater's earlier works, The First Days, book one in the As the World Dies series.  Frater's the real deal when it comes to zombies.  As the title should lead you to believe, The First Days details the[..]

It didn’t take me as long to get around to The Rook by Steven James.  I let James’ first book, The Pawn, gather a little too much dust before I realized what I had been missing. (My review here). Truth be told, I’ve been steaming through the books in The Bowers Files, so named for the main character, Patrick Bowers.  With a little concern I will discuss below, I’ve enjoyed them all quite a great deal, enough to move James up to one of my preferred authors in his genre. So all aside, The Rook[..]

I've been a fan of Ron Rash for a number of years.  Could be because I grew up in the South, maybe it’s his stories, perhaps his characters, most likely it's simply because Ron Rash is an amazing writer.  I'm pretty sure it the latter. Rash, a college professor at Western Carolina University, writes a great deal about Southern Appalachia.  You won't find zombies or vampires, nuclear bombs or plots where the fate of the universe hangs in the balance.  What you will find is crisp, quality writing. And the most captivating stories.  Rash is[..]

I’ve always fancied myself as having good radar for the fiction available today.  Particularly in the genres I enjoy, but it seems I need to take the radar unit in for a check up. A while back a copy of The Pawn by Steven James landed on my desk and, for whatever reason, it just sat there.  I think I may have even dusted it off at one point.  So after the New Year I decided to see what I'd been neglecting. Turns out I’d been neglecting a lot. The Pawn is a great book.[..]

I've always had a grill.  Something about cooking outside, I guess.  Perhaps it's the fact that no one really questions the cook having a beverage in hand while cooking.  Maybe it's cooking over an open flame.  Maybe it's an escape.  Perhaps it's a return to the primal drive of man. ( I'm not too sure about the last one, but grilling certainly is fun.) I've had a grill as long as I can remember.  At different times I've also had electric smokers and other contraptions as well.  With many of the traditional gas grills I've[..]