Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Reviews



We all want to be liked. And if someone will praise you and then that accolade helps to make money, all the better. Reviews are tough to get in the writing business, with half a gazillion books published every year, and ALL of them wanting to be in the New York Times book section, Oprah, Phil, Good Morning America, Good Night America, and even Horse and Hound, it’s no wonder the frustration. Reviews in Amazon move you up the food chain; more reviews = more eyeballs, and we beg for eyeballs.

But reviews are paid for in some form or another. Most are never done out of the kindness of the heart or sympathy (the mercy review comes to mind). “I’ll do your book if you do mine,” is common. My blog post for yours is the boost we all need. If a blogger foolishly says send me your books for review, they will be electronically submerged for years after just the first week, we writers all so desperately need reviews. Probably some form of conditioning from when we were kids, “Yes, Greggie, you have been a good boy, have a cookie.”

“No damn it, I want a six figure book deal, Mom. Pleeease!

Now that that’s out of the way, we can move on. Yes I occasionally pay for (wait for it) a book review, it’s easier than begging and many of these reviewers all well-known and respected. Prices can run from free (wait three months), $50.00 Readers Favorite and upwards to whole packages like Kirkus Reviews for hundreds of dollars. But they do read the books and (outside of some much needed editing on their own writing) well done. They do not promise five stars but they do promise a fair read.

Now to my point: Below is my first review of 12th Man For Death, as others arrive I will bore you or tease you with their praise and adulation. Yes, Mother, I will gladly take a cookie and the book deal.

Rating: 5.0 stars

Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers Favorite

Private investigator Sharon O'Mara returns in this spell-binding thriller "12th Man for Death" by author Gregory Randall. Catherine Voss has developed a trimaran that she knows will do well in the upcoming America’s Cup Race. It can be handled by a single person; it is affordable and has a new finish that will shed water well. Catherine sails her invention across San Francisco Bay in heavy fog and ends up dead, drowned in her boat's rigging. Her trimaran which she calls "The Cheetah" is found with a hole in its starboard hull. Catherine's gorgeous twin, Jean-Francoise, aka JF, is convinced that Catherine was murdered and hires Sharon O'Mara to investigate. But "The Cheetah" is missing. The more she investigates, the more flashbacks she has to her time as an Army lieutenant in Iraq in 2005. Back then, she and fellow soldiers looked into a possible kidnapping of two little girls, which wasn't what it seemed. "The 12th Man" is the almost nonexistent seat in the middle of the crossbeam of a boat's stern and with this case, Sharon feels as though she is the 12th man on a racing crew.

"12th Man for Death" by Gregory Randall is a well-written thriller that will captivate readers everywhere. It is filled throughout with great action, drama and suspense. Sharon O'Mara is a great central character, tough but sexy and all woman. Readers will enjoy other characters such as police detective Kevin Bryan, the delightful, elderly pseudo Frenchman Alain and his granddaughter Claudette, JF, Ellis Turner and her assistant Eva Krug who once served in South Africa in its security forces. They are all believable characters that come to life on the pages of the story. The plot proceeds with breath-taking twists and turns to the story's last page. So, thriller fans everywhere, don't miss "The 12th Man for Death" whatever you do!


More later . . . . . .

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