Book Review
of Salt City sponsored by Innovative Book Tours
The author has graciously allowed me to giveaway either
an E-Book or paperback book. Please fill
out the form below to enter to win.
Book
Synopsis:
Salt
City ‐ Synopsis
Syracuse,
upstate New York.
The
“Salt City.”
An
apartment building on the edge of The Projects – and Anne Malloy dies, thrown
out of a sixth floor window, an apparent suicide, while Mark Cornell watches.
Mark was there for a purpose, his part‐time gig being to snap incriminating
photos for a divorce lawyer who happily takes cases over the phone.
Watching
the apartment was Mark’s assignment. But this assignment has a problem: Mark
learns that “Anne Malloy” had died months before, leaving behind a grieving
husband. So who is this woman?
It’s
1976, before cellphones, internet, and all the easy ways of satisfying
curiosities, so Mark
Cornell’s
search for a name to give the victim makes him a foot soldier slogging
personally through the facts. And, as those facts pile up, Mark discovers that
he really shouldn’t be playing detective, stumbling across the thin line
between commerce and crime.
Salt City – Forward from the Book
The “Salt City” is Syracuse, New York.
I went to Syracuse University and haven’t been back there since. But I was sitting
in Krakow, Poland, trying to marry the love of my life, Alina Szpak, when I met
the U.S. consul there, who had also gone to SU. So, teaching my soon‐to‐be wife
English, I began writing a “criminalky” using rumored Syracuse scandals that
the consul and I remembered. She loved Raymond Chandler ‐ in Polish ‐ and
though I’d never read Chandler yet, I tried to fit her descriptions of what she
liked. Motivation for the student, as we educators like to say. (One of my
degrees is in Education). And, because Cold War politics didn’t respect love as
a reason to stay in a country, there was even a plan to translate my
story‐for‐her into a serialized Polish crime novel so that I could have a visa
while waiting for the official docs allowing me to marry Alina.
A great plan – until I created a
Russian‐speaking black detective and people thought I was being politically sarcastic
and… Flash forward a bunch of years… Three published novels and six produced
screenplays later. (Wish I was rich from that, but life is sarcastic.) Certain
characters, certain moral outlooks, stay with you. After Salt City’s Mark
Cornell, I created Heart of Stone’s Sam Williams. Then, sitting in a temp job
in L.A., I brought Sam and Mark together in The Quiet Child, a story still
unwritten, only outlined. Ten years later I found Sam lamenting Mark’s
disappearance and wrote Happy New Year, adapted into a feature‐that‐never‐happened
(typical Hollywood story). 
Six months later I was sitting in a
Carl’s Jr., saw a certain waitress delivering my fast food entree, and realized
what happened to Mark and Sam in Broken Doll (also never written, but
understood). They stay with you. There is a certain worldview that likes to –
or needs to – understand the Why of what people do. Mark and Sam and the people
they meet, they’re not me, but they are people I saw, observed, and sometimes interacted
with. Good people doing bad things, bad people with decent motives, a guy you
like but realize he can’t tell the truth from one person to the next, even when
it’s against his own interests. Sometimes you even understand the Why, but
realize that it’s an explanation, not an excuse. Where is that damn
Do‐Not‐Cross line?! They stay with you.
Rereading Heart of Stone, Salt City and
Happy New Year, like my favorite books, I still liked them. They still “mean”
something in the current world. “The more things change, the more they stay the
same” as the French say. Surprise to me:
sad in the overview, pleasant in the “Well, did I have foresight!” ego‐world. But
each one stands on its own: Salt City as the first‐born of them all, Heart of
Stone already out there, and Happy New Year soon a‐comin’. Whether the whole
family will ever be born, well, we’ll see.
Further
Review Sites:
Natalie-Nicole Bates
|
http://natalienicolebates.blogspot.co.uk/
|
June 12th
|
Bio/Book Synopsis and Guest Post
|
Books, Books, and More Books
|
http://dream-reader-dreamer2229.blogspot.com/
|
June 12th
|
Bio/Book Synopsis and Review
|
The Bunnys Review
|
http://bunnysreview.com/
|
June 13th
|
Bio/Book Synopsis and interview
|
Live To Read ~Krystal
|
http://livetoread-krystal.blogspot.com/
|
June 14th
|
Bio/Book Synopsis and First Chapters
|
¡Miraculous!
|
http://thestephanieloves.blogspot.com/
|
June 14th
|
Bio/Book Synopsis and Review
|
TBR
|
http://tbr-io.blogspot.com/
|
June 15th
|
Bio/Book Synopsis and First Chapters
|
THE SELF-TAUGHT COOK
|
http://www.theselftaughtcook.blogspot.com
|
June 16th
|
Bio/Book Synopsis and Review
|
Book Review:
What happens when a college grad
student working part-time as an investigator for a divorce attorney witnesses a
murder that has no evidence? Mark is
given an assignment to follow the soon-to-be ex-wife of his divorce attorney employer
and take pictures of her having an affair to be used against her in the divorce
proceedings. Instead he watches her fall
six stories to her death. A police
officer also witnesses the event.
The next day he finds out that the
police have a dead Jane Doe on their hands, but he knows who it is, right? But the person he was following doesn’t
exist. Salt City follows Mark as he
picks up the bread crumbs in an attempt to find out who Annie Malloy is and why
she is dead.
There are so many twists and turns
in this story I got a little lost at times.
In fact, I got a lot lost once or twice and had to go back and try
again. However, the bones of the story
are strong. The basic story is just
enough different from your typical murder mystery to bring a fresh look to the
story line. There is action, intrigue,
murder(s), sexual tension (but only tension), fear, and curiosity. And you know what they say about curiosity,
that it killed the cat.
I give this story 4 out of 5 clouds.
This
product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my
opinions or reviews.
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