Review: The Slush Pile Brigade by Samuel Marquis
★★★★½ 
The Slush Pile Brigade, by Samuel Marquis, is a hilarious and exciting read filled with one crazy turn after another.
Nick Lassiter has just turned thirty and he’s in some serious trouble. His girlfriend has dumped him. He lost his job. He’s wanted by the police. And he discovers that his unpublished thriller has been stolen and turned into a blockbuster movie.
If that’s not bad enough, the author who stole his idea is Cameron Beckett, one of the biggest brand name authors.
Nick doesn’t want revenge. He wants a simple apology. When he and three friends show […]
Drachen by Brendan Le Grange is a classic treasure hunting story, with all the thrills and adventure such a labeling entails. Sorry, Indie fans. There’s no Ark of the Covenant at the end of this ancient bread crumb trail, no treasure of the Free Mason’s buried beneath national monuments, and not a single person stumbling through modern day Mexico in search of El Dorado. In Le Grange’s novel, Brett Rivera seeks the fabled treasure of the lost Hanseatic warship Drachen.
Content warning for violence, drug abuse, and sexual abuse, including that of minors.
Another job for Levent Pasha, his friend joining him as they drink by the Golden Horn of Istanbul. He is anxious, eager to get back to his son, Mehmet. Dulled by the Raki, he takes to the job, alone, sluggish. His mistakes have piled up and he is caught for the last time. His friend, back from drinks, is made a part of the plan to tie up the loose end of the fool’s life and, the next day, Mehmet is left without a father.
The Dead Bank Diary by Anna Shlegel is an intense, true to life (maybe true!) look at the bank fraudsters of Russia in the 00s, at a point in history where the police and government of Moscow were deeply corrupt, and old money and new oligarchs were investing their riches in “pocket banks,” small private holdings run by provincial managers – this meant that banks could be bankrupted by one transaction from their richest customer, and bought out on debts from anyone else in a few hours, even people that had no real money, just by a little bit of […]
The Test by B.A. Sherman is the riveting novel of a good cop gone bad, and the first in the Greg Dorn series. Greg Dorn is a good-guy cop working in a small town, reducing traffic accidents by 35% and generally loving every minute of his job. He’s also the victim of a tragic history: his mom and sister died in a car accident when he was young. When Dorn decides to move to the big city – Denver, Colorado – things take a turn for the worse. He sees road rage and bad behavior wherever he turns, and a […]
Bone Box, by Jay Amberg, is a fast-paced religious thriller that will make many question not just their religious beliefs, but their personal beliefs as well.