The Black Ice (A Detective Harry Bosch Novel) by Michael Connelly (1993)

My favourite excerpt from the book:  (from Chapter Eleven) ...Out over Studio City, Bosch could see a police helicopter circling, a shaft of white light cast downward on a crime scene somewhere.  It almost seemed as if the beam was a leash that held the circling craft from flying high and away.

He loved the city most at night.  The night hid many of the sorrows.  It silenced the city yet brought deep undercurrents to the surface.  It was in this dark slipstream that he believed he moved most freely.  Behind the cover of shadows.  Like a rider in a limousine, he looked out but no one looked in.

There was a random feel to the dark, the quirkiness of chance played out in the blue neon night.  So many ways to live.  And to die.  You could be riding in the back of a studio's black limo, or just as easily the back of the coroner's blue van.  The sound of applause was the same as the buzz of a bullet spinning past your ear in the dark.  That randomness.  That was L.A.

Backcover blurb:  The corpse in the hotel room appears to be that of a missing LAPD narcotics officer.  Rumours abound that the cop had crossed over - selling a new drug called Black Ice that had been infiltrating LA from Mexico - and the LAPD brass are quick to declare his death a suicide.

Detective Hieronymus 'Harry' Bosch isn't so sure.  Prompted by odd, inexplicable details from the crime scene - and an undeniable attraction to the cop's widow - Bosch starts his own maverick investigation.  An investigation that soon leads him over the border to Mexicali and into a dangerous labyrinth of shifting identities and deadly corruption.

My thoughts:  I am dedicating the month of March to one of my favourite writers of all time, Michael Connelly, and will be reading his earlier books starting with The Black Ice first published in 1993.  Connelly received the Maltese Falcon Award, Japan's highest honour in the mystery field, from the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan in 1995 for The Black Ice - the best hardboiled novel published in Japan.  Simply reviewed, it is cleverly plotted and is a highly credible story.

Thanks to my library for providing the book and for their kind help.

Rating:  5/5

The Embrace of Harlots by David T K Wong

Today is Chap Goh Meh (Hokkien dialect, literally "fifteenth night") which marks the last day of the Chinese Lunar New Year.  As with Chinese New Year Eve, this night sees a gathering of families around the table for a big eat.  Offerings, cultural performances, lion dances, prayers and others are also held on a grand scale as well as the lighting-up of firecrackers and fireworks.  All in all, it is a night of fun and gaiety.

To mark this special day and night, I am going to read my final and eighth Chinese-themed book of this month, The Embrace of Harlots (out since December 2010, 574 pages) by David T K Wong.  I bought this book from mph bookstore in Kuala Lumpur while on holiday in December 2010.

About the author:  David T K Wong was born in Hong Kong and received his early education in China, Singapore and Australia.  He has degrees in political science and journalism from Stanford University in America and a postgraduate diploma in public administration from the Institute of Social Studies at The Hague, and was a Fellow in Economics at Queen Elizabeth House at Oxford.

He worked as a journalist in Hong Kong, London and Singapore for a number of years before joining the Administration Service of the Hong Kong Government.  After retirement he became the Managing Director of an international trading firm for nine years before embarking on a writing career.  He is now resident in Malaysia.

He is also the founder of the annual David T K Wong Fellowship in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in the UK.  The Fellowship awards £26 000 to each successful candidate writing a work of fiction set in the Far East in the English language.  You can find out more about the author by clicking on the author's website.

His other works are Hong Kong Stories (1996), Lost River and Other Stories (2000, currently out of print), Connections - Stories of East Asia (2001), The Evergreen Tea House (2003) and Chinese Stories in Times of Change (2009).

About the story:  I like this review posted on the backcover by Jon Cook, Professor of Literature, University of East Anglia, UK -

"David Wong's new novel begins on an intimate scale, exploring the lives of a well-to-do family living in Hong Kong just before the ending of colonial rule.  He charts their guilts, desires, ambitions and memories, showing in compelling detail how they live together and apart.  Through the recollections and thoughts of the novel's principal character, Suen, the story moves from an intimate scale to encompass social and historical themes:  the history of Hong Kong in the twentieth century, the destructive effects of financial greed, the problems and the opportunities of living with different and opposing cultural values.

The novel ranges widely in both time and space, moving from Hong Kong to London, Oxford and Paris.  It engages with some of the central dilemmas of modern life, but is also full of vivid characterisation and narrative surprises.  It is written in the distilled and elegant style that has become a hallmark of David Wong's stories."

My take:  This is a beautifully told story of a life of a man who is fortunate enough to live his life in riches but at the same time, has to learn to deal with hardships and sufferings just as much as the next person.  After all, money does not shield anyone, rich and poor, from life's pitfalls.

This book contains much of everything you can expect in a good book - love, hate, loss, the tug-of-war between traditional and contemporary cultures, Eastern and Western lifestyles, the uncertainty of a fast and ever-changing world, abuse of justice, the divide between poverty and avarice, clashing cultures, prejudices, politics, thought-provoking discussions about the meaning of life, regrets, human ambitions and desires, religion, etc, and most notably, the characters who make the story believable and personal.

The author's depth of understanding Man's greedy and self-centred nature is evident throughout and he has done an excellent job of telling us a truly worthy and valuable story based on a Chinese family in Hong Kong.  The gist of the story is that life is fleeting, difficult, full of uncertainties and unsolvable dilemmas, whether one is laden with money and power to last a few lifetimes or whether one lives in a hovel, whether you are a good person or a bad one, no one is immuned to the vagaries of life.  

A book that can make you think is a good book and I personally think this is one.  I therefore highly recommend it.

You can watch videos of the author reading from his book on youtube.

Rating:  5/5

Brothers by Yu Hua

With the Chinese New Year festival still ongoing, I would like to introduce one of the most talked about novels in China by one of the most respected and contemporary novelists in China.  Brothers contains a whopping 641 pages and has been shortlisted for the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize.


About the author:  Yu Hua was born in 1960 in Zhejiang, China.  He finished high school during the Cultural Revolution and worked as a dentist for five years before beginning to write in 1983.  He's since published four novels, six story and three essay collections, and his work has been translated into French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean.  In 2002, he became the first Chinese writer to win the prestigious James Joyce Foundation Award, and two of his novels - To Live and Chronicles of a Blood Merchant - were listed in the top ten most influential Chinese books of the last decade.  His other works are Cries in the Drizzle and The Past and the Punishments.  Yu Hua now lives in Beijing.

Brothers is translated from the Chinese by Eileen Cheng-yin Chow and Carlos Rojas.

My thoughts:  What a novel!  The two brothers, or rather stepbrothers, are like chalk and cheese.  The eldest, Song Gang, is timid and introverted and the youngest, Baldy Li, is bold and an extrovert.  They have a strong relationship where, ironically, the extrovert brother usually rules over the introvert brother while the introvert brother would give the extrovert brother "his last piece of clothing and his last bowl of rice."  In any event, their tight-knit relationship eventually became undone by their love for the most beautiful girl in town.  Aside from that, the brothers are very much likeable even with their differing personalities.  Best of all, they are right down hilarious and they are probably the best examples to help you understand Chinese humour!

I have laughed and cried with the characters in this book or to put it mildly, Brothers has moved me to new heights of literary stimulation.  I do not think it is a book which appeals particularly to everyone but I may be wrong.  According to the translators (taken from the preface of the book), "...Brothers is flashy, blunt, and often deliberately repetitive, yet has moments of sublime beauty and gut-wrenching pathos.  It uses a combination of subversive humour and haunting sentimentality to chronicle contemporary China's transition from socialist austerity to capitalist hyperbole...

In addition to everything else, Brothers is "about parents and children, and the lengths to which parents will go to protect their children from a world gone mad..." and I cannot agree more wholeheartedly than their respected opinions.  Do read it for its own sake.  I think you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Below, I have assembled some videos and articles which I find interesting about the author and the book and I hope you will get something useful out of them:

1)  A video of Yu Hua discussing life before and during the China's economic boom produced by James Wang on The New York Times, 2009:

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/05/08/books/1194840083927/an-interview-with-yu-hua.html

2)  A Newsweek profile of the author:

http://www.newsweek.com/2009/03/20/talking-about-his-generation.html

3)  An article entitled "The Bonfire of China's Vanities" published 23 January 2009:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/magazine/25hua-t.html?_r=1

4)  An NPR interview with the author:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104435507

Rating:  5/5

Chinatown Beat (A Detective Jack Yu Investigation) by Henry Chang

First paragraph of the book:  Johnny Wong pulled the black Lincoln over, onto the sidewalk halfway down the narrow street, territory of the Hip Chings.  It was nine in the evening and before he could kill the engine they appeared, the stocky mustached man they called Uncle Four and the fragile Hong Kong lady, Mona.  They were in the car before he could get out and open the door, the man motioning to him with a jerk of his hand.

Backcover blurb:  Jack Yu is the only Chinese-American detective assigned to New York's Chinatown.  To catch a serial rapist and solve a murder he must resort to both modern technology and a local fortune teller's prediction.

Review by January Magazine, 2007:  "Chang's debut novel is one of this year's most impressive.  Here, the object isn't to figure out whodunit...  The suspense comes from tracking Jack Yu through his investigation, navigating the shifting tides of Chinese turf wars, generational tension, and his own internal struggle with being a 'standup Chinaman' and an effective cop.  This is a character well worth knowing."

My thoughts:  The first book of the Detective Jack Yu Investigation series is not as engrossing as its sequel, The Year of the Dog, but as far as debuts go, it is fair.  While I think that you have to keep your wits about you to be able to keep up with the plots, Chang is an author worth watching out for.  His writing style has a lot of potential in which The New York Times Book Review described as "cool and measured."  Having read two of Chang's books, I can honestly say that his protagonist is a true Chinaman - meaning he may present a good front as a NY detective to protect and to serve but he keeps his cards close to his chest.  I find it hard to warm to him.  I will still look out for Chang's future books though because I sense there is more to come as the series progresses.  Both of Chang's books are bought off of Amazon.co.uk.  Happy continue-reading!

Rating:  3/5

Year of the Dog (A Detective Jack Yu Investigation) by Henry Chang

I continue my Chinese-themed read with the above book by a relatively unknown author.

About the author:  Henry Chang was born and raised in New York's Chinatown where he still lives.  He is a graduate of Pratt Institute and City College of New York (CCNY).  He has apparently been called "the Dashiell Hammett of Chinatown".  His two novels in the Jack Yu series - Chinatown Beat (2006) and Red Jade (2010) - have been published to critical acclaim.  Year of the Dog (2008) is his second book in the Detective Jack Yu Investigation trilogy.  Chang is now working on a new Detective Jack Yu sextet which will bring the protagonist around the world and also New York City.

More can be learned on the author's Chinatown trilogy website or you can read Murder on Mott Street published in The New York Times in the year 2008.

Videos that encompass his noir trilogy:





Backcover blurb:  There are Chinatowns in many different countries all around the globe.  But wherever they are located geographically, Chinatown is one community.  Jack Yu, American-born, became one of the few ethnically Chinese officers in the NYPD.  Now Jack has been promoted out of the Chinatown Precinct.  But he cannot get away from Chinatown's criminals - his old friends.

First paragraph in the book:  The Ninth Precinct started at the East River, and ran west to Broadway.  On the north it was bounded by Fourteenth Street; on the south, Houston.  Within these confines, the neighborhoods were the East Village, Loisaida, NoHo, Alphabet City, and Tompkins Square.  Anarchists, artists, students, and the low-income working class all lived together, sometimes tenuously, until their breaking points made the Daily News headlines.

Last word in:  I will be back with more Chinese-themed books soon and hope that you are busy reading just as I am!

Rating:  4/5

Taikor by Khoo Kheng-Hor

Definition of taikor:  Chinese (Cantonese dialect) word, meaning "big brother", sometimes used as a respectful mode of address accorded a secret society leader.


About the author:  Khoo Kheng-Hor (1956- ), born in Penang, Malaysia, had lived an exciting and fulfilling life as a journalist, business executive, author, management consultant, honorary police officer, and international conference speaker.

He has since retired to Cameron Highlands, Pahang in Malaysia to live in seclusion with his wife, Judy, and his four-legged son, Bandit, a Yorkshire terrier, both of whom had sadly passed away since.  There, amid the tranquility of the countryside, he turns to creative fiction writing, after having published 15 books and 9 handbooks on business and management.  His other novels are Mamasan, Nanyang, Sifu and The Four-Sided Tower:  Tales from Penang's Underworld, a collection of 12 short stories released recently in December 2010.

Although he now lives in the mountains, he still maintains contact with the world through his website.

First line in the book:  Shortly after eleven o'clock in the morning, the funeral procession was ready to start.

Backcover blurb:  A historical saga that brings back the past for those who could still remember and for the young who may wish to know how things used to be in the years between 1922 and 1982.

From the beginning in prewar British-ruled Malaya, the story revolves around the life of a boy as he grows to manhood.  It traces the migration of his family from South Thailand to Penang after his father passes away, his brief childhood living with his young widowed mother who subsequently remarried, and thereafter his banishment as a youngster by his stepfather to war-torn Shanghai.

On his return, he had to find a way to earn a living and thereafter, to survive the bloody days of the Japanese Occupation.  Even after the surrender of the Japanese, there was the lawless postwar period, from which he saw opportunities to eventually emerge as a taikor (big brother) in Penang's chaotic underworld.  Apart from opportunities, the postwar years also saw dangers, like the Emergency period when Communist insurgents tried to destabilize the country's development.

Finally, a nation was born when Malaya became an independent sovereign State.  And just as the new nation strived to build a future from its historical legacy, the taikor sought to break away from his past involvement in triad activities to build a new life for himself and his family.

Taikor has been nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2006.  It is a typical Malaysian saga comprising valour, honour, suspense, betrayal and love.

Rating:  3/5

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

First paragraph in the book:  "Our daughter looks like a South China peasant with those red cheeks," my father complains, pointedly ignoring the soup before him.  "Can't you do something about them?"

Backcover blurb:  Shanghai, 1937.  Pearl and May are two sisters from a bourgeois family.  Though their personalities are very different - Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep - adorable and placid - they are inseparable best friends.  Both are beautiful, modern and living a carefree life ... until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away the family's wealth, and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to two "Gold Mountain" men:  Americans.

As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, the two sisters set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the villages of southern China, in and out of the clutches of brutal soldiers, and even across the ocean, through the humiliation of an anti-Chinese detention centre to a new, married life in Los Angeles's Chinatown.  Here they begin a fresh chapter, despite the racial discrimination and anti-Communist paranoia, because now they have something to strive for:  a young, American-born daughter, Joy.

Along the way there are terrible sacrifices, impossible choices and one devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel by Lisa See hold fast to who they are - Shanghai girls.


About the author:  Lisa See is the author of five previous novels, including the critically acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Peony in Love and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Flower Net (which was nominated for an Edgar Award), The Interior, and Dragon Bones.  She is also the author of the widely acclaimed memoir On Gold Mountain.  The Organization of Chinese American Women named her the 2001 National Woman of the Year.  She lives in Los Angeles.  Shanghai Girls is a work of historical fiction.  Have a lookout for her new book, Dreams of Joy, the sequel to Shanghai Girls due to be released on 31 May 2011.

You can find out lots more information about the author, her books, appearances, reviews, amazing photos, etc on her official website and as well as on flickr.

Here is Lisa See with rather interesting tidbits on her book:



This video is in six parts of when she was in La Jolla, California on 2 July 2009 on the last leg of the Shanghai Girls book tour:













Rating:  5/5

A Bitter Feast (Bill Smith/Lydia Chin novels) by S J Rozan

The Chinese people do know how to work hard and play hard.  By playing hard, I mean that they celebrate the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year in big style up to fifteen days long, that is a whole two weeks with plenty of food, food, food.  Pretty impressive.

To continue the theme of this most important and longest festivity in the Chinese Calendar, I have decided to read books of a Chinese nature be it food, culture, language, people, crime fiction, whatever so long as the books contain Chinese elements, for as long as the festivity lasts.  And so, here is Bitter Feast by S J Rozan (1998), the fifth book in the Bill Smith/Lydia Chin series.

Try a taste of the first chapter here.

Because I am blissfully reading through the Bill Smith/Lydia Chin series, I will not be putting my thoughts down here.  Basically, they read the same in that it is a highly recommended series and that is probably an understatement when it comes to Rozan, a very talented writer.  But I will leave you with a review that takes the words right out of my mouth:

"Superlative...a story that manages to satisfy all the senses." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Rating:  5/5

Sweet Offerings by Chan Ling Yap

Synopsis:  Set between the late 1930s and 1960s, this is the tale of Mei Yin, a young Chinese girl from an impoverished family.  Her destiny is shaped when she is sent to Kuala Lumpur to become the ward and companion of the tyrannical and bitter Su Hei who is looking for a suitable wife for her son Ming Kong ... and ultimately a grandson and heir to the family dynasty.

Sweet Offerings is not just a fictional story of the events that ripped one family apart, but a taste of Malaysia's historical, political and cultural changes during its transition from colonial rule to independence and beyond.

My thoughts:  I picked this book to read to herald in the year of the metal rabbit celebrated by Chinese people all over the world on 3 February 2011.  Yes, it is Chinese New Year!  We welcome this festival which observes age-old traditions meant to attract wealth, prosperity, success, joy, peace and good health for all.

This book is full of Malaysian flavour in the way it is written, the evocation of place and time, the ambience, the insight into its racial and cultural ties, descriptions of places and scenes, the languages (multilingualism) and the indigenous food that induces hunger pangs and curiosity.  A very down-to-earth book with down-to-earth characters whom you cannot help but be drawn to.  It has certainly been an absorbing and enjoyable read.  I agree with this reader's comments.

I also cannot help but be aware that most books by Malaysian and even Singaporean authors are largely based on the past especially from or around the time of colonial rule to its independence.  I appreciate that that period of time in Malaysia is significant to its peoples and I do enjoy reading and re-reading different versions by different authors but my concern is that there is hardly any crime fiction books in Malaysia, Shamini Flint being the only author I know who has published three of her Inspector Singh series set in Asia.  Perhaps there will be a comparable balance in the near future as more and more local authors come to realize this deficit.  An interesting essay by Shamini Flint about the lack of crime fiction in Malaysia can be read here.

I purchased this book during my trip to Kuala Lumpur two months ago.  More information on the author, reviews or extracts of the book can be found on the Sweet Offerings' website.

About the author:  Born in Kuala Lumpur, Chan Ling Yap was educated in Malaysia and subsequently in England where she obtained a PhD in Economics.  She lectured at the University of Malaya before joining the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, where she worked for nearly two decades.  She now lives in the UK with her husband and two grown-up children.

A widely published author of various textbooks and technical papers, her foray into fiction was highly praised for its beautiful evocation of Asia.

For more information, visit chanlingyap.com

Rating:  3/5

A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson

The synopsis and other relevant and interesting information can be accessed by clicking on the author's website or if you want to "meet the author" on video, you can click here for his take on this superbly well written book.

My briefest thoughts:  A Small Death in Lisbon has been awarded the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger Award in the Best Crime Novel category in 1999 and the International Deutsche Krimi Prize (German Crime Prize) in the International Novel category in 2003.  The book that I read was first published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers in 1999 and contains 536 pages.  Need I say more?

Wilson's other book set in Portugal is called The Company of Strangers.  Other books set in other locations are the Javier Falcon series set in Spain and the Bruce Medway series set in West Africa.

Happy reading!

Rating:  5/5

Bangkok Haunts (Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep series) by John Burdett

About the author:  John Burdett is a former lawyer who worked in Hong Kong until he found his true vocation as a writer.  An Englishman by birth, he has lived in France and Spain, and now splits his time between France and Bangkok.  

Read the first chapter of Bangkok Haunts here.

Backcover blurb:  Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep has seen just about everything in Bangkok's crime-riddled District 8.  But the terrifying snuff movie he's been sent is something else:  the person who dies is Damrong, the beautiful woman he once loved and whom he still dreams about.

And there's more:  slayings turn the ensuing investigation into a murder enquiry, and Sonchai into an obsessed and haunted man.

Sonchai's enquiries form a dizzying route from his own apartment, where he sleeps next to his pregnant wife while his fantasies deliver him up to Damrong; to the backstreets of Phnom Penh where street gangs are only the most visible threats; to the gilded rooms of the most exclusive men's club in Bangkok, whose members will do anything to explore their darkest fantasies...

My thoughts:  I must say that this is a very far-out read compared to Jake Needham, another author who based his novels in Thailand.  I am not talking about the crime part of it which in this book, does not stand out as much as the other part of the book which I have termed "far-out" - namely the supernatural, phobias, superstitions, rituals, witchcraft and the general atmospheric nature of a city teeming with salaciousness, corruption and hypocrisy.  But what did I expect?  Bangkok is the focal point of an industry as old as time itself.

I am sorry but I cannot get into this book and must say it is rather disappointing.  I much rather prefer Jake Needham's books which are more civilized, solid and enjoyable.  Have I started out with the wrong book?  Perhaps.  I do not know...  (Bangkok Haunts is the third in the Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep series).  The only redeeming qualities of the book are there are more than a few good literary moments and it is funny.

Having said that, I am not altogether giving up on this author because anyone who reads this book will agree that Burdett is a very articulate writer.  I just don't like the lack of a tight plot and the excessive information on culture and myths of a larger-than-life city which I think I would have enjoyed reading more if it was a totally separate book.

Rating:  2/5

Killer by Dave Zeltserman

The third and last book in the "man out of prison" trilogy, Killer, tells about a different type of criminal compared to the first two.

You cannot help but feel sorry for Leonard March, now old, tired and mellow after spending fourteen years incarcerated for a long list of hideous crimes.  He has been given a second chance working as a janitor in a small office building and lives in a filthy basement.  He is also hoping to reconnect with his three estranged grown-up kids.  Each day, he is plagued by past mistakes and wishes his life could have turned out differently.  One cannot help thinking whether he has stepped out of one jail only to walk into another, one more brutal and unforgiving than the first.

This is an astonishing story of one man's attempts to try to get back into the society he once violated.  Overall, it concentrates on a sympathetic character and whether he is going to succeed and make good that second chance or whether he is going to succumb to his dark past.  You will be surprised how things turn out at the end.  The idiom "a leopard never changes its spot" never rings so true in this story.

Watch this trailer of Killer by MZPR Productions:



Zeltserman is a genius writer.  His prose is understated yet it captures every mood in every way so effectively it stirs up strong emotions throughout.  I know it is not often that every book in a trilogy can be considered consistently brilliant but this trilogy is consistently outstanding.  Do read them, you will be blown away.

Visit the author's website for more of his books.

Rating:  5/5

Pariah by Dave Zeltserman

I like Joe Denton from Small Crimes because you could tell he was trying to make a better life for himself after serving a seven year sentence in prison.

As for the protagonist in Pariah, I truly despise him.  Like Joe Denton, he served out his full term like a good ol' Mama's boy but when he comes out, instead of trying to turn his life around like Joe, he harbours this bitter desire to hunt down the man who sold him out years ago.  He is so blinded by his desire that he cannot see that he has bought a no return ticket on the road to Hell.

The old days as he used to know it are long gone but for Kyle Nevin, nothing else matters.  He may be living in the present but his mind is still set in the past.  He is as mean, heartless and bad-ass as you can possibly find in a loser, actually he is much worse.  If Small Crimes is about redemption, Pariah is the polar opposite - it is about revenge.

Dave Zeltserman has not only successfully created a credible character so rotten and disturbed that we would love to hate him but also take the reader on an ultra raw and perverse trip into the realms of evil itself.  There is maturity and wisdom in his writing and I reckon a worthy lesson to be learned once you can get past your repulsion.

As much as I am repressed by the protagonist, I am compelled to read the book page after page.  As the protagonist is keen to remind everyone in the book, "Nothing in the world's lower than a rat."  Ain't that true?  But if you want to know what's lower than a rat, you gotta read the book.  It is an A+++ book by a very gifted writer.

Pariah is the second book in the 'man just out of prison' trilogy.

Rating:  5/5

Small Crimes by Dave Zeltserman

The first chapter can be read here on Serpent's Tail, an independent book publisher in UK.

I am glad I picked up this book because it is one hell of a book.  I rarely come across authors who write real stuff based on the grimness of reality or the complexities of life without having to justify or explain away its validity in any terms.  Zeltserman reminds me of Stephen Jay Schwartz, both of whom write without any pretensions while laying it bare for all to see.  I like that and can identify with that.  At its core, this book is about an ordinary man who is considered by society as a down-and-out and who is seeking redemption for his past mistakes.  

Someone once said that every journey begins with a few small steps.  Well, ironically, one small crime or wrong move can beget larger crimes too huge to comprehend too.  And this is what happened to Joe Denton, a crooked cop.  Nobody wants him around, not his ex-wife and two daughters, his parents or his former colleagues.  Friends?  What friends?  With every obstacle in his way, can he turn his life around and seek goodness out of so much evil?  Equally as important, can the people once close to him forgive him?  What about the big and bad society?  Can society accept an ex-convict who has learned his lessons in their midst?  Do they want to?  Most times, it is easy to preach about forgiveness but in reality, it is a hard act to put into practice.  However, there is always that saving grace - hope.  

This book deserves to be out there and read, in other words, it comes with my highest recommendation.  Totally genius.

Small Crimes is the first in the "man just out of prison" trilogy.

About the author:  Dave Zeltserman left software development to write crime fiction and study Kung Fu.  He lives in the Boston area with his wife.  Small Crimes is his third novel.  You can find out more about the author by checking out his website or he can be found on Facebook.

Rating:  7/5