Tag Archives: Frank Westworth

Spring is coming, and so is a new JJ stoner adventure

Well, spring might be round the corner, and still a bit shy, but the latest JJ stoner story by Frank Westworth is already out and worth reading.

If it’s not your first visit to my blog, you might know that I wrote about JJ Stoner before, and you can choose between shorter stories and some damn good full-length books (the „Killing Sisters“ series).

I have to be honest.
I seldom „met“ a main character (here: JJ Stoner) whom I love and loath at the same time. You’re kept on your toes all the time, and can never be sure who’s who, who’s ally, friend or enemy. And everytime friendly, likeable characters are introduced, you start fearing for their lives.

True, it takes a while to get used to Frank’s way of writing, of moving to and fro through time, flashbacks, now and then, but once you do, you’ll enjoy it enormously. You could start reading any of the short stories, they work quite well as standalones. If you want to start reading the books, I recommend starting with „A last act of Charity“ because otherwise you’d be too confused. And believe me, you will be confused anyway. But in a nice, exciting way.

(Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I still don’t own an ebook reader. The review copy of „Six strings“ has kindly been made available to me by Murder, Mayhem and more.)

So, now that you’re done reading this short blog post, go and get the story, and I hope you’ll like it as much as I do!

 

 

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New on my bookshelf, and some music stuff

Yes, I know, I know, it has been rather quiet here on the blog, and I hope to change this in the days (weeks) to come.
I have been busy. Doing a lot of stuff on the weekends, like teaching first aid, playing the organ, playing the accordion, going to family gatherings, knitting… and occasionally reading books.
I have read Frank Westworth’s „The corruption of Chastity“ and I read „A last act of Charity“ to make myself more familiar with the world of JJ Stoner. There’s a separate blog post coming soon where I will also explain why I read the books in the „wrong“ order 😉

Recently, Ben Aaronovitch (https://twitter.com/Ben_Aaronovitch), whose books I adore, recommended a new novel (the first?) by Andrew Cartmel (https://twitter.com/andrewcartmel): „The Vinyl Detective“. I finally got round to getting the book and started reading this morning on the train. What should I say, I almost missed my stop because I was immediately hooked. It’s a page turner, at least for me. And it deserves a blog post of its own which I will write when I’m done with the book (I need a few more train rides, though).

Linda MacFadyen (https://twitter.com/LindaMacFadyen), who organised the wonderful „Thin Ice“ blog tour, mentioned Natasha Walter’s „A quiet life“ which is next on my reading list and already sits on my bookshelf. Well, to be honest, it sits on the kitchen table, but will move onto the bookshelf soon.

What else was I reading? I re-read „Punk Rock People Management: A No-Nonsense Guide to Hiring, Inspiring and Firing Staff“ by Peter Cook, „Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations“ by by Rich Karlgaard and Michael S. Malone, and I read lots of music. 😉

Speaking of music, yesterday evening I had the pleasure of playing a nice small grand piano at a service held by and for women. Men were invited, too, but none came. So we were a female-only congregation, and, as it often happens, I was the youngest.
I played Clara Schumann’s prelude in B flat, an Andante Espressivo by Hedwige Chretien, and another Andante espressivo by Helene Liebmann. Also, I played a piece by Margreeth de Jong, originally for organ, but it was manuals only and sounded quite nice on the piano. And of course I accompanied all the songs we sang during the service.
Afterwards, the pastor came to me and said that the piano hadn’t sounded so good for ages. I accepted the compliment gracefully (I hope!), but wondered at the same time who the other people might be who play that piano regularly. The perfectionist inside me didn’t think my playing was that good, but I made her shut up 🙂

Thanks for coming back to the blog in quiet times, and I hope to see you again soon!

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Bored? Need action? Go read Frank Westworth’s stories

Some people would argue that I read anything that is in front of my nose, but that’s not quite true. I do choose what I read, but what is true is that when I’m asked to read and review something, I seldom say no.
So of course I welcomed the invitation by Rowena of https://murdermayhemandmore.wordpress.com/ to read „First Contract: A JJ Stoner short story“ by Frank Westworth.
Those of you who’ve known me for a while might think, hey, what, there she is, suddenly reading e-books? Well, not really. I still don’t own an e-book-reader, but thanks to modern technology, I received a copy of the story that I could read on my PC 🙂
I usually don’t recommend this veeeeery large online book seller, but you don’t get this story anywhere else, so, [insert deep sigh here] if you want to read „First Contract“, go online and do whatever one does to get the data onto the device.

Back to the actual story. It’s certainly not for the chicken-hearted, and not for people who expect their heroes to be heroes but never use swear words. If you like Jack Reacher, you will probably like JJ Stoner. But that’s all you can say for similarity. The two guys are certainly not brothers, and Frank hasn’t written a story that’s simply just another version of a successful concept. JJ Stoner is a man with some rough edges and a mind of his own, and despite the fact that he’s killing people by the dozen, you still get the feeling that you kinda like him. But you would never want to stand in his way.

„First contract“ is brisk, rather intense and remarkably well-written. Despite the violence, there’s a humourous streak, and if you like out-of-the-ordinary adventures with interesting twists in the storyline, go for Frank’s stories. And watch this space for future reviews, because there’s more to come. Promised.

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