Review: Throttle by Joe Hill and Stephen King

Throttle by Joe Hill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I probably bought this back when it was released, or a couple of years after. As with many book on my ereader, I tend to buy them and then promptly forget about them, unlike my shelves of unread paperbacks, which stare at me silenting telling me to read them. And at the end of the year, I decided to have a look through to find some short tales and I spotted this one.

Written by Joe Hill and his father Stephen King in dedication to Richard Matheson, the director of many films, including Duel, which this is a sort of homage to. I know the film Duel, having seen it at some point in my teens, and so I understood that something was going to happen with the truck, when it appeared, but it was still pretty shocking.

There were a lot of characters, but they were handled well as we started to understand the story through dialogue and interaction. A group of bikers have been scammed out of a lot of money, and when confronting the perpetrator, things went array and a murder took place. They are on their way to Vegas, debating whether to confront a connected person to try and get their money back, when a trucker overhears them - at least that's what they believe, we never really know. What follows is grim, and tense and there are few survivors.

I really enjoyed this, it's definitely in the King wheelhouse. Worth a read.

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Review: Burn by Daniel Swensen

Burn by Daniel Swensen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have had this story sitting on my Kindle for a LONG time, but, like sometimes happens, you forget they are there. This is a short novella I read over two nights. I loved how this story unfolded. My first book of Stephen King's was Firestarter and this was similar, but told in such a way that you aren't quite sure what has happened, what is currently happening and what will happen - though you suspect the longer it goes on. Full of tension and suspense, Burn, builds and keeps you sitting on the edge of your seat. Brilliant writing.

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Tricky's Tales Book Sale, going on until the end of January 2025!

You might have already noticed that the ebook editions of my Tricky's Tales book are currently on sale. If you haven't, they are, for the entire month of January 2025!

They are on sale across ALL book selling platforms. And on some platforms you might get a 'bundle offer' - like on DriveThruFiction and Google Play Books.

Click on the banner below to be taken to the bookfunnel link which lists all the major the bookseller sites to buy. 

Review: Billy Summers, by Stephen King

Billy Summers by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For me, recent books of King's have been very hit and miss, but this one was very much a hit. I was completely engrossed, and there was a lot of character development in this one, which might have bored other readers, but it's what I love the most about King's writing.

In this one you also get a story within a story - and maybe two really. First you have the main character, Billy, writing his life story which is a whole other story, and you get the story of his Alice Maxwell which then crosses over into Billy's.

I loved the mix of different characters Billy encounters and works with and his two personas he uses for his 'work', and different lives that Billy leads within this story and within the inner story of his life. King brings in so many ideas into the story, from veterans and their PTSD, to a woman being gang raped and the 'just desserts' the perpetrators get.

This is not an easy read, and has many disturbing scenes of varying degrees. As always King doesn't shy away from any of it, and running the background there is a political narrative going on, and also a narrative about rich media men and what they can get away with.

I loved it all, and it gave me a huge book handover - which for me is an indicator of an excellent book. Definite recommend from me. Now I have to go and find another book that I will look forward to reading as much as I did this every night before I went to bed - and in fact kept me awake a lot longer than it should!

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New Cover for Sleep, by M K Boers 😀

I received the final proofs for the new cover of Sleep, my psychological thriller, and I'm really excited to share it. It's far more genre defined and I hope it will give the book a new lease of life, and it will find more readers.

Sleep was my debut novel back in 2019. It's still the favourite of all the books I've written so far. It's a book that took me 27 years to publish from it's initial conception in 1991 - the prologue is actually the short piece I wrote back then (though heavily edited since). I'm really proud of this book, not least because one of the reviews it received was from someone who used to be a court stenographer, and they told me it was the most accurate depiction of a UK court room they'd ever read in a crime novel - and they're a book blogger.

A whydunnit rather than a whodunnit, Sleep follows a woman on trial for killing her husband and his lover. Was it premeditated, a crime of passion, or a moment of madness? Told through a series of flashbacks and testimony, what drove Lizzy Dyson to murder are revealed. 

Interview about Slipping Through, with ManyBooks website

 A year ago I released Slipping Through (well, re-released, turning it into an anthology with three other authors). I promoted the release and during that promotion had an interview with ManyBooks, talking about what it is about, and how it came about. I don't appear to have posted it up on my blog last year, so I am going to do it this year! Click on the picture below to read the article.

Miranda Kate - Fascinating Dark Sci-Fi Fantasy Collection

The Twilight Zone meets Quantum Leap meets The Outer Limits meets Sliders

My favourite 3 reads of 2024

Over on Shepherd book website, they asked me what my top three reads for 2024 were so I told them! If you are interested in what the favourites were of other authors why not take a look, it's a great site for finding new books to read. 

Click on the picture below to find out why.

And if you are an author, Shepherd are always looking for more authors to join, so get in touch with them here. It cost nothing!