Silent Partner

Written partially as a crime drama and also as a love letter to the author's recently-deceased dog, 'Silent Partner' tells the tale of K-9 detective Jack Davis as he tries to work his way through a series of murders with his near-perfect police dog, a Lab named Keno.

While this book had its good moments, mostly in the characters' dialog, it suffered too much from trying to emulate modern movies. Some of the personal interactions and plot points were very clichéd, and the dogs behaved entirely too perfect for animals. I realize police dogs get a lot of training, but they're still animals with basic animal instincts. In addition, the final scene in the warehouse was absolutely ludicrous and practically undermined everything the book accomplished up until that point.

There are also some severe editing mistakes that occur at two or three different points in the book, which make me wonder if last-minute edits were done, but no proofer was available to clean these up.

Overall, the book is an enjoyable, quick read. If you're just looking for something light that you don't want to have to think about too much, Jennifer Chase's novel should do the trick. If you're one of those people who like more realistic stories, then this book probably isn't up your alley.

Note: This book was received for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million.

Title: Silent Partner
Author: Jennifer Chase
Year: 2010
Pages: 308

As Fate Would Have It

Michael Louis Calvillo spins a tale of cannibalism and bad relationships, somehow tying the two together into an entertaining yarn.

The story begins with Heather's first date with the city's rising star chef, Montgomery. The date takes a turn for the worse when she finds out Montgomery only thinks of her as a piece of meat — literally. As it turns out, Montgomery and his tenuous girlfriend Liz have eclectic culinary tastes. Things get complicated when Heather's heroin-addicted friend Ashley plays amateur detective and starts following Montgomery around.

While the book ends on a somewhat anticlimactic note, Calvillo shows his talent in creating an excellent character study on destructive relationships amid the absurdity of cannibalism. The true joy of this book is in Calvillo's use of language and the matter-of-fact tone taken by each of the characters. You truly find yourself sucked in, despite the obvious plot holes.

If you liked the TV show Lost more as a character study than the actual story, then you'll enjoy this book.

Available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Title: As Fate Would Have It
Author: Michael Louis Calvillo
Year: 2009
Pages: 289

Shatnerquake

Aside from a few nerdgasmic moments introduced by the author, Jeff Burk, the book consisted primarily of jumping from plot point to plot point to plot point with little room for anything else to transpire.

I'm not a huge fan of long, drawn-out descriptions (Herman Melville, you are evil), but I had a difficult time trying to follow the action at times. You could tell Burk had a picture in his mind of what was happening, but he didn't describe it well enough to convey the events to the reader in order to achieve the full effect.

There was also a severe lack of any kind of characterization in this book, and the few characters that did receive any usually ended up as pointless cannon fodder a few pages later.

The less said about the ending, the better. Judging by other's comments on Goodreads, there seem to be one or more sequels, but on its own, it was rather ambiguous and nonsensical.

This was my first "official" bizarro book, so I'm not quite sure if I'm as qualified to review it as others more familiar with the genre, but this didn't do a whole lot for me.

Title: Shatnerquake
Author: Jeff Burk
Year: 2009
Pages: 100