Another successful Joe Milo experience.
An action-packed adventure with the interminably charming and witty Joe Milo and his Jamaican sidekick Jonah.
With his sophomore effort, Roberts (Kill City USA, 2012) pens another exciting mystery with a healthy serving of the supernatural. Milo is hired by a Russian woman named Olga to find her sister Avril, who is said to have special psychic powers and to dabble in séances and a bit of black magic. Avril has connections with Grigory Zeltin, a dangerous, powerful Satanist. In an ironic twist, Avril is found dead in Paris—though Milo is privy to the specifics, he’s not talking. His hopes of ditching Olga fade when she insists he continue gathering intel on Zeltin, whom she blames for Avril’s death and who is planning something very dark. In true Milo fashion, he raises the stakes exponentially by falling for one of Zeltin’s daughters, earning him a place at the top of Zeltin’s hit list; and, the fact that Jay—the original Kill City USA damsel in distress—is mixed up in it all, ensures Milo’s full attention. Written with great delineation and range, Roberts’ cast of diverse characters continues to jump off the page. Milo and the intimidating but softhearted Jonah are a dynamic duo. While Jonah volleys easily between lovable and hard-as-nails, Milo stays true, armed with a sharp wit, endless charm and a penchant for finding trouble. In addition to amusing dialogue and witty observations, Roberts manages to find ways to include his apparent love for movies, sprinkling mentions of his favorites along the way. Similar to his first book, where history on the Mafia was provided, this time the author edifies on all things satanic and includes an interesting history lesson on the Knights Templar.
Another successful Joe Milo experience.Pub Date: June 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0957027121
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Mean Streets Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.
A novel tells the story of two spirited girls who set out to save a lame foal in 1952.
Mary, age 12, lacks muscle control of her legs and must use a wheelchair. Her life is constantly interrupted by trips with her widower father to assorted doctors, all of whom have failed to help her. Mary tolerates the treatments, hoping to one day walk unassisted, but her true passion involves horses. Possessing a library filled with horse books, she loves watching and drawing the animals at a neighboring farm. She longs to own one herself. But her father, overprotective due to her disability and his own lingering grief over Mary’s dead mother, makes her keep her distance. Mary befriends Laura, the emotionally neglected daughter of the wealthy neighboring farm owners, and the two share secret buggy rides. Both girls are attracted to Illusion, a beautiful red bay filly on the farm. Mary learns that Illusion is to be put down by a veterinarian because of a lame leg. Horrified, she decides to talk to the barn manager about the horse (“Isn’t it okay for her to live even if she’s not perfect? I think she deserves a chance”). Soon, Mary and Laura attempt to raise money to save Illusion. At the same time, Mary begins to gain control of her legs thanks to water therapy and secret therapeutic riding with Laura. There is indeed a great deal of poignancy in a story of a girl with a disability fighting to defend the intrinsic value of a lame animal. But this book, the first installment of the Dream Horse Adventure Series, would be twice as touching if Mary interacted with Illusion more. In the tale’s opening, she watches the foal from afar, but she actually spends very little time with the filly she tries so hard to protect. This turns out to be a strange development given the degree to which the narrative relies on her devotion. Count (Selah’s Sweet Dream, 2015) draws Mary and Laura in broad but believable strokes, defined mainly by their unrelenting pluckiness in the face of adversity. While the work tackles disability, death, and grief, Mary’s and Laura’s environments are so idyllic and their optimism and perseverance so remarkable that the story retains an aura of uncomplicated gentleness throughout.
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Hastings Creations Group
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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