Official Review: Blood Storm by Sam Waas

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sahmoun2778
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Official Review: Blood Storm by Sam Waas

Post by sahmoun2778 »

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Blood Storm" by Sam Waas.]
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4 out of 4 stars
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Another triumph from Sam Waas! Private investigator Mitch King is back with more thrilling investigations.

“Blood Storm” is book 2 in the Mitch King series and the story here picks up a few months after the events of “Blood Spiral”. While struggling with his personal demons, Mitch is hired to find the wife of a local attorney. This is not the first time she’s gone off without a word, but she’s been gone longer than usual and made no contact with her family or friends. Mitch finds himself caught up in a bizarre family drama, which includes stepchildren and drug lords, as he tries to locate the missing woman.

Meanwhile, Houston is being terrorized by a serial killer known as the Slicer. His murders are brutal and gory, and he leaves no clues. The police have a suspect but it’s a pretty tenuous connection and involves the brother of a well-known cop. Mitch is asked by the police investigators to look into the suspect “off the books” and either rule him in or out as a suspect. Both of these investigations get very twisty and will keep you on the edge of your seat. I especially enjoyed meeting the suspect’s elderly neighbor lady. The couple of pages she got were a nice interlude in an otherwise gritty detective story, and lent a bit of realism to the story.

Once again, Sam Waas has done a great job of immersing the reader in the local Houston scene with everything from bar fights to hurricanes adding to the drama. Mitch King was a great character in the first book and just gets better here in the second book. The reader has a chance to get into Mitch’s head a little bit more with this story and see what motivates his actions. We also get a glimpse of this tough guy’s weaknesses. There’s a new love interest in Kate, who I liked much better than his previous girlfriend. I also found it touching how he stands up for the daughter of the missing woman, seeing in her potential that her family is blind to. There wasn’t anything about this book that I didn’t like.

I think this author deserves a lot more attention as his characters are well-thought out and complex enough to keep the reader interested. The storyline is complicated but not confusing which makes it an enjoyable read. There is mystery and police procedural in the book, so it should be appealing to a wide variety of readers who enjoy the genre. I wouldn’t recommend it for teenagers because of the graphic descriptions of crime scenes. I highly recommend this book and give it 4 out of 4 stars. Keep the stories coming, Sam!

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Post by chytach18- »

I've got intrigued.
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Post by moderntimes »

Naturally I'm delighted in the review. But the principal point is that the review was fair, with the reviewer pointing out WHY the book was a good read, and also mentioning some of the flaws.

The reviews in this forum are first rate.

It's essential that reviewers understand that they're dealing with an author's reputation and potential income, too. So fairness is essential.
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Post by gali »

Sounds like a great book. moderntimes, congratulations for the positive review.
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Post by Cee-Jay Aurinko »

Outstanding review gali. Mystery novels are always fun reads, and your review definitely makes this one sound like one.
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Post by gali »

Leon Durham wrote:Outstanding review gali. Mystery novels are always fun reads, and your review definitely makes this one sound like one.
You meant sahmoun2778. :wink:
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Post by moderntimes »

Yeah, the review was by salmoun...

Thanks for the comments, gang. Anyone interested in learning more about the "Mitch King" novels, PM me for my website, which contains all the info.

And in the meantime, book #3, Blood Vengeance, is due out soon, and I'm working on the 4th novel in the series. I can't catch a break, ha ha.
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Post by sahmoun2778 »

I'm reserving a spot on my TBR for books 3 & 4.
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Post by moderntimes »

Thanks again to both the reviewer and the positive comments.

Those of you who are struggling authors know how much they mean.

Although my books aren't self published and I'm with a small professional publisher (non-subsidy, non-vanity) I'm still on the bottom rung. I review mysteries for a very well known site (OverMyDeadBody.com) and I've got 100+ reviews thus far, and I'm also a rabid mystery fan. So I do know the biz.

And trying to be impartial -- impossible to do for your own writing, admittedly -- I think that my Mitch King series is about as good as any other private eye novels out there. We learn by doing and I'm sure that salmoun, who has reviewed both books, will verify that the 2nd novel is quite a bit better than the first. And I think that book 3 surpasses the others. Those who have read advanced copies think so, including a couple of big-name mystery writers.

I started these books when I was working full time as a technical analyst for "big oil" -- I wrote and evaluated and edited high-tech engineering specifications and operator manuals for advanced offshore and deepwater exploration. But I burned the midnight oil and persevered.

Now that I'm retired, I put both novels thru a total revision and rewrite, tightened the narrative and (I think) greatly improved the pacing and drive of the story lines as well as improving the dialogue and other items.

And although these novels are now being professionally published (meaning that the publisher pays me -- a very reasonable royalty and so on, details of course private) the publisher is very small, a boutique house specializing in genre -- romance, fantasy, mystery, etc., and they just don't have the budget of the big houses to advertise the books and so it's mostly "hand to mouth" publicity -- that is, from great sites like this one, and my own internet blogging and so on.

If you check out Scott's very good thread on how to promote your self published book, much of the info is applicable to me. Yes, the publisher edited and formatted the books, paid for the very fine cover art, and set up both books (the 3rd to follow soon) on Amazon in both "trade paperback" (the large 9x12 softcover format we often see, not the smaller "pocketbook" format), and of course Kindle.

Nevertheless, getting recognition and sales promotion is nearly the same for writers who are working with small publishers as it is for those who self publish.

Which is exactly why such a sterling review and the good comments following are so very much appreciated.

Thanks!
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Post by Cee-Jay Aurinko »

I apologize sahmoun. Wow. Gali, you know how I keep making mistakes. Lol. Great review sahmoun!
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Post by DennisK »

Got your book queued up in my reader, moderntimes. I'm looking forward to a break where I can settle down and continue following Mitch King as he solves his mysteries. I'm hopping he will be able to restore his friendships with the police - reading this review, it seems that he has. As a reader, exposure to these characters is something like making a friend whom one looks forward to visiting. Mich is human. You have made him believable and it will be great to set aside my day to day reality to pay him a visit.
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Post by LivreAmour217 »

Very good, detailed review! This sounds like an awesome book & I will definitely have to add this series to my reading list!
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Post by sahmoun2778 »

Thanks for the compliments guys. These books are definitely worth the time. DennisK, I agree that Mitch is human, and like visiting with an old friend.
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Post by Levi »

@sahmoun2778 I would like to tell you that I enjoyed your review so much that I am now putting this series, not just this book, on my to be read list. I would not have known, if not for this very positive review, that this series existed, let alone that it was written by our very own moderntimes.
@moderntimes congratulations on the amazing review, I have previously seen you mention being an author, but thanks to this I will definitely be reading the whole series.
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Post by moderntimes »

Thanks to Escape and all.

Asking a small favor... Those who have read the book, please post a review on Amazon. This will really help.
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