Andrew D. Mellusco - The Mirror and The Meretrix

The Mirror & The Meretrix
Blackstone & Brenwen 


By Andrew D. Mellusco


Kindle Edition Available 





Product Description (from Amazon) 

Red Riding Hood is charged with murder and only her childhood sweetheart, the idealistic and roguish lawyer, Elliot Blackstone can rescue her. Joined by Blackstone & Associates' newest addition and fervently ambitious trainee, Centaur Epona Brenwen, he must uncover the plot behind Abigail Hood's incarceration before royal assassins, Rose Red and Snow White silence her for good.

Meanwhile Blackstone's lawyers, Sandman, Vincent Traum and, Fire-Nymph, Fury have their own problems as a seemingly innocuous insurance case involving a magic mirror turns deadly as a murderous and thieving band of seven Dwarf-Giants are released for lack of evidence.

Could these two cases be linked? And what is the real identity of Hansel, murder victim and robbery witness? All the lawyers do know is that somebody wants the magic mirror and will kill to get it. Elliot Blackstone just might be facing the last case of his talented but young life.

Blackstone & Brenwen - The Mirror & The Meretrix is an exhilarating legal thriller set in a fairy tale World-Tree, where peril lies behind every precedent and adventure within every adjudication. The term ‘magic circle law firm’ has never been so appropriate.

For those lovers of all things lawerish, fantastical, and all manner of craziness in-between.



About the Author (from Amazon)

Andrew was born in 1978. Raised in picturesque Lincoln he spent his infancy watching the jousting at the castle in summer, and his childhood playing kiss chase in the fields behind his house; he always wanted to be a knight... or a rogue... a knightish rogue perhaps? Having escaped an adjuster's life in London Insurance land, Andrew now teaches English as a foreign language. He has taught in Thailand, Taiwan, Argentina and is now teaching in Spain. Andrew is currently working on his second Blackstone & Brenwen novel.

http://blackstoneandbrenwen.weebly.com


O.Scarlett! REVIEW by Kendra

I love reading Fairy Tales written in new and unusual ways. When the author contacted us asking us to review this book, I was intrigued by the combination of Fairy Tales with lawyers! And, while I’m not a huge fan of the crime genre, I do like a good mystery, and, as I’ve said before, it was combined with Fairy Tales. His website decided it for me. It has to be one of the best Author sites I’ve ever seen!

So I offered to read and review it.

For the most part, I really enjoyed it. There were at least twenty Fairy Tales worked in. They weren’t completely true to the Fairy Tales, but they were usually clearly recognizable. I even found Charles Perrault, a fairy tale writer, in there. “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,” “Snow White and Rose Red,” and “Jack and the Beanstalk”  were the most important and prominent, but I really enjoyed the scene where Elliot visits the tailor shops and meets “The Brave Little Tailor” and the two imposters who are making “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” There were even a few of the more obscure Fairy Tales.

The main characters were Elliot, Vincent, Fury and Epona. Elliot is half angel and is a Criminal Defendant, Vincent is a Sandman and is in Finance, Fury is a Fire Nymph and is in Insurance, and Epona is a Centaur, and is Elliot’s new trainee. They were pretty well developed, although I found the Vincent/Fury romance a tad bit sudden on Fury’s part.

I didn’t find very many plot issues, but there were a few glaring ones. For instance, I had Vincent’s and Elliot’s parentages mixed up for a while, due to the fact that Vincent’s was explained in a flashback before Elliot’s is explained, and, at that point, Vincent had not been properly introduced. Also, it is stated that Elliot’s angelic parentage is secret from Vincent; however, Vincent seems fully aware that Asmodeus is Elliot’s uncle.

I did have some issues with the angelic/demon part. In this book the angels are, for the most part, bad, and the demons are good. The “fall” of the demons had been because they thought that the humans ought to be considered as part of society and ought to be protected, and the angles thought that they were parasites. Also, Elliot was too much of a womanizer for my tastes.

The World-Tree was an interesting concept. However, I was not able to completely form a good image of it in my head. I’m sure the author has it completely worked out, but I couldn’t quite merge the scenery with a tree. I really tried.

Also, the meretrixes, which were important enough to be in the title, were not explained until nearly the end. If they had been explained sooner, things would have made much better sense for me. From various clues, I had assumed that they were a sort of waiting maid to the queen. However, they were more of a companion for single male visitors of importance. They sit beside them at meals, dance with them at balls, or even simply take walks with them in the garden. They are supposed to be perfectly beautiful and to not have relationships.

Other than those issues, I really enjoyed the book. I can really see this author becoming quite popular. The plot was amazing! Elliot kept me guessing as to what string he would next pull to get them to bring Abigail to justice. The story was told in a rather all-knowing sort of way, so often the only mystery was what was going through Elliot’s head. However, there was a proper balance of stuff for me to foresee, and stuff for me to be surprised at, so it wasn’t bad. I love how the Fairy Tales were used – usually in completely unexpected ways. The plot was genius, pure genius.


Note: This was border line for me when it comes to sexual content. Nothing was described, but it was referred to a lot, and was even observed fleetingly in the second chapter. If it had been any worse, I would have handed it up to my mother, although I’m not sure she would have enjoyed the crime/lawyer plot as much as I did, as that is even less of her genre than it is mine.

Genre/Theme: Lawyers, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, crime/murder mystery
Reading Level: MATURE TEEN - college to
ADULT - self-explanatory 
Profanity:  LOW - few mildly offensive words. Mostly British and words unique to the World Tree
Sexuality:  OBVIOUS - blatant sexuality in text, but not explicit. No details, but two characters are obviously making love in the second chapter. Elliot is stated to have slept around (including, it’s hinted, with Fury), and his room is decorated with stuff like a nude Valkyrie pen holder and a fertility headdress. 
Other: The murderess bites a hole out of the victim’s windpipe, then drinks some of his blood.  The two assassins do quite a bit of killing, some of it quite bloody. The victim’s body is rather gruesome. There is quite a bit of death, actually. Drinking is encouraged by the Lawyer firm, one of the mottos being “a problem shared over a drink is a problem solved.” There is also some witchcraft.

Sean McDevitt - The Wizard Murders

The Wizard Murders


By Sean McDevitt

Kindle Edition Available





Product Description (from Amazon)
The year is 1981. A small California town is rocked by a series of seemingly random -and increasingly violent- murders. An aging detective tries to capture the elusive killer- but with so few clues, can anyone stop the killing?

About the Author (from Amazon author page)
Sean McDevitt is a filmmaker, videographer, actor and -thanks to Amazon- published author.

His brand new full-length fictional crime novel, titled "THE WIZARD MURDERS", is now available for Amazon Kindle. It is a project that he has worked on -in one form or another- for nearly 30 years.

He is also the author of "The Velvet Sofa," which is based upon a never-before-published short story written by the author's late father, Dr. Steven J. McDevitt.
This biography was provided by the author or their representative.

O.Scarlett! Review by Tenya
*Special NOTE - Sean has revised this book recently, and I am looking forward to the re-read soon.
      A couple months ago I followed a Twitter link to a You Tube trailer for this book. The trailer is simple, but intriguing. My fifteen-year-old son watched over my shoulder and said that the trailer made him want to read the book (me too!). This is a big deal because that boy does NOT like to read ANYTHING. Now that I have it downloaded, he’s waffling… I guess he’s waiting for the movie.
       This is a short novel which I found easy to read in the midst of one of my mother’s far too infrequent visits and the presence of many extra family members in and out of my house. It took me about one week to read simply because I was very busy. Ordinarily, it would be an easy one or two sitting book. I did not have a problem keeping the plot and characters straight as I read in snatches here and there. That does not mean that the plot is overly simplistic; the plot is quite involved, truthfully.
       I did struggle a bit with the present-tense in which the author chose to write. After about half way through the book, however, I was captured enough by the story to not notice it any longer. It did feel as if I was reading a script or a police report, which could be considered a genius device by McDevitt that really places the reader almost literally within the pile of paperwork heaped upon the desk of the police detective who is the main character.

When a small, southern California town is sent into a tailspin over a young girl’s murder, aging detective Andy Pitt must try to follow the strange series of clues left by the killer before he claims his next victim. In the wake of the ensuing murders, Pitt, along with his partner Clarence and a bubble-gum-chewing secretary, scramble to discover the secret behind the only real evidence they have – the strange paintings of a wizard at each crime scene. Deciphering cryptic clues and reading star charts is not what Pitt has in mind for this stage of his life; he planned to be sitting in a cabin somewhere in Maine – finally retired from police work. But, when the police chief is diagnosed with cancer, the burden of keeping the little town secure falls squarely on Andy’s shoulders.

       Figuring out the clues along with the characters, and sometimes before the characters, is the real fun of reading this book. I enjoy investigative police drama on television, and this book was quite familiar in the way it presented the story in that manner. I do wish the book had a bit more depth to feel more like a suspenseful full-length feature film instead of a sixty minute TV show. I put the read down feeling like I needed more “episodes” to really get to know the characters better. If the author’s intention is to follow-up with more short novels in a series, The Wizard Murders is a great beginning.  I would really have liked to see more about the killer himself revealed slowly throughout the story.  I think it could have really tweaked the suspense factor of the book.
       Sean McDevitt certainly has great potential to write very intriguing and involved thrillers and mysteries. I look forward to watching him grow as an author. Although I felt that this book left open-ended options for more character depth and plot intrigue, I would definitely pick up the next write by McDevitt and gladly read it.
       I think my fifteen-year-old would actually enjoy this read more than I did. Now, if I can only get him to pick up the Kindle and put his eyeballs on it… In the meantime, maybe you should start working on the screenplay, Sean!

Notes:
There is no sex in this book at all. The language is mostly mild except that ‘Jesus Christ’ is misused quite a few times. This is a police investigation of multiple murders, so be prepared for a bit of gore and the macabre. The last murder is the worst, but the author does not go into explicit detail about blood and guts. It’s simple text which explains the facts without the gore – like a TV crime drama in words.


Genre/Theme: Police drama, murder mystery, thriller
Reading Level: (by appropriateness) TEEN to ADULT – as long as one is not bothered by bloody murders as the subject matter
Profanity: MODERATE (just generally heard expletives once in a while, but Jesus’ name is misused several times)
Sexuality: Almost NONE – There are a couple references to Pitt thinking the secretary is kind of ‘cute’ and there’s very subtle flirtation in one scene. A mention of teenagers going to a place outside of town for partying and such is quite subtle. Anyone of a basic maturity could handle what is mentioned without embarrassment.
Other: As mentioned above, this book is a murder mystery about multiple murders that get progressively gorier. One scene describes, although not in too graphic detail, a man dying and a lot of blood on the scene. The final murder scene is pretty gross, so people who are very sensitive to that sort of thing might not like it. Expect bloodiness and such as it is the theme of the book.