Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: Avis Adams

  • LUCKY ROCKS by Murray Richter – Coming of Age, Children’s Action/Adventure, Children’s Historical Fiction

    LUCKY ROCKS by Murray Richter – Coming of Age, Children’s Action/Adventure, Children’s Historical Fiction

    Lucky Rocks by Murray Richter is the stuff boys’ dreams are made of: escaping chores, ditching little sisters, playing pranks on each other, heading out to Uncle Oliver’s (the General), and sticking up for each other on the football field. Did I leave anything out? Oh, yes, there’s a hunt for sunken treasure, too.

    This action-packed romp set in 1979 takes us on summer vacation we will never forget. We meet sixth-graders Kevin (Kev man), our hero; Preech, the brains of the group; and Rudy, the quarterback, and football star. They raise some dust as they race their bikes down the back roads of their small Texas town as they head out for adventure every day; whether it be to a fishing hole, a rough neighborhood where they lose Rudy, or to Uncle Oliver’s where they learn about life the fun way, though “The General’s” stories.

    When Rudy shows up with a black eye, Kev man and Preech know there’s trouble at home, but Rudy won’t talk about it, not to anyone, not even Uncle Oliver. Rudy’s stepdad, a rough and gruff oil rigger, seems the likely culprit behind Rudy’s black eye, and Kevin and Preech are determined to help their friend. But first and foremost is an adventure, and Uncle Oliver has invited them on a treasure hunt.

    With their parents’ permission, the boys go on the hunt, but on their dive to a sunken ship, they find more than they are looking for. Richter develops a plot filled with action and fun with spine-tingling elements of danger and tension that pulls us along as we witness Kevin, Preech, and Rudy conquer their fears and help each other out of danger, time and time again.

    As summer ends, Richter takes us back to school and the football field where Rudy and Preech display their skills on the field. Kevin lags behind, but his friends aren’t about to let him down. They stick up for Kevin on the field and with the coach, but does that kind of friendship help win big games or make touchdowns?

    Richter creates a world where Kev man, Preech, and Rudy conquer all the odds. They even find ways to help Uncle Oliver solve his “lady” problems. Here’s a solid middle-grade read, especially for boys, that shows how the power of friendship can become a super-power, a power we should all be so lucky to have.

    Lucky Rocks by Murray Richter won 1st Prize in the CIBA 2017 Gertrude Warner Book Awards for Middle-Grade Fiction.

     

     

     

     

     

  • CALIFORNIA SON by Timothy Burgess – Noir Mystery, Police Procedural, Historical Mystery

    CALIFORNIA SON by Timothy Burgess – Noir Mystery, Police Procedural, Historical Mystery

    California Son, the second installment in the Liam Sol Mystery series by Timothy Burgess, presents another action-packed mystery for protagonist Liam Sol to solve. Honorably discharged after his tour of duty in Vietnam, Liam returns to his primarily Hispanic neighborhood of Baja La Bolsa, a coastal town near LA, California, where trouble finds him.

    In his role as a journalist, Liam takes interest in the daily pleas of a Hispanic mother to find her son’s murderer, pleas that the mostly white La Bolsa Police seem to ignore. After an article he writes in hopes of renewing interest in the case appears in La Bolsa Tribune, the mother is found dead in her apartment. No stranger to death or violence, Liam soon finds himself on the personal side of a hunt for the killer of not only the son but also the mother.

    Burgess’s skillful writing takes us to the seamy underbelly of LA and oil-developer-politics to a world that relies on lies, corruption, and a complete lack of morals to gain the dizzying wealth that most of us only dream of. We root for Liam all the way, hoping he can rise above the corruption of his father’s world and achieve a life without the dark secrets that shadow every aspect of his existence.

    Set against a backdrop colored by 1970’s music and surfer culture, our hero suffers from the guilt of possibly having caused the mother’s death. He begins to unravel the connection between the mother-son murders and, at the same time, crosses the line of an investigative journalist to that of private detective in his nail-biting pursuit of justice.

    Burgess develops a protagonist whose work as a journalist and his flashbacks to Vietnam show us a man who is fragile in some ways and strong in others – and conflicted most of the time. We are drawn into Liam’s quest to solve the murders, but as curiosity killed the cat, Liam’s curiosity comes close to killing the core values that he holds so dear, the values that hold him above the corruption that ultimately destroyed his father.

    Perfectly paced, this action-packed story leads us through the tropes of survival guilt, child abuse, sexual abuse, and some serious race and gender issues that during this time were discarded as irrelevant and today are seen for what they are, a crime. In spite of the need for one more professional edit, the story is solid, built with strong characters and an action-packed plot that will likely keep readers on the edge of their seats to the last satisfying page.

    Burgess won Grand Prize in the CIBA 2018 Clue Awards for California Son

    Clue Grand Prize Award Badge for California Son by Timothy Burgess