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Novel Review–Black River
Beneath the surface of Black River, the taut debut by S.M. Hulse, flows the grey enigma of ultimate justice. The narrative forces the reader to ask: Does a recidivist criminal capable of torture, yet claiming to have found Jesus, deserve parole? Or would such redemption be an injustice to the man he brutalized decades earlier? By… Read more
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e-Book Launch: Dundee International Book Prize
Extracts from the work of shortlisted novelists for the 2014 Dundee International Book Prize are now available in e-Book format. Priced to move at $0.00! Congratulations to my shortlisted compadres Sheena Lambert of Dublin, Rachel Fenton of Auckland, Amy Mason of Bristol, Veronica Birch of the West Country, Rosaliene Bacchus of California, Jasper Dorgan of Wiltshire, Suzy Norman of… Read more
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Sea Never Dry on Second Award List
Leapfrog Press announced their fiction contest results for 2014. My manuscript for Sea Never Dry was named a semifinalist. Thick with spies and fetish priests, Internet fraudsters and the orphans turning a buck on Ghana’s e-waste ash heaps, Sea Never Dry centers on the conflict between Western development efforts and lucrative criminal activity in the developing world. Read More Congrats to the… Read more
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Review – The Family Hightower
Blood Sport and the American Dream The Family Hightower takes a savage and intelligent look at the American Dream, asserting an inextricable link between capitalism and crime in a voice that borders on the eternal. Appropriate, considering the timeless and unattainable aspiration of Brian Francis Slattery’s characters: to “get out”, to escape the prison of wealth and violence… Read more
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Shortlisted for International Book Prize
The Dundee International Book Prize announced their short list for 2014. Sea Never Dry, my novel about dirty cops and drug trafficking in West Africa, made the list. Thick with spies and fetish priests, Internet fraudsters and the Ghanaian orphans turning a buck on Accra’s e-waste ash heaps, Sea Never Dry centers on the conflict between Western development efforts and… Read more
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Crime Novel Review – Under A Russian Heaven
Laurence Walker’s debut novel opens on a high wire between the noir and the literary. Here’s an obviously talented writer with an instinct for giving and withholding detail, at once building and satisfying tension. His technique hints at a pulse just below the surface, something buried alive beneath layers of detail, which the author promises… Read more
Ben East Books 