Goon by Glenn Erick Miller; Oath by Kate Butler; The Wise Marie Paradise Edition by Natasha Brune

 

Goon by Glenn Erick Miller; Oath by Kate Butler; The Wise Marie: Paradise Edition by Natasha Brune 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Goon by Glenn Erick Miller 

This is a summary of the review. The complete review is on LitPick.

Goon is a tense, darkly comic, but captivating novel about incarceration, self-preservation, redemption, and the true nature of guilt and innocence.

 Goon is a troubled foster kid who stole a car, then injured his younger brother before being sent to a juvenile detention center. While there Goon has to deal with the various rules and regulations, violent fellow prisoners, a hurricane, his attraction for a girl who volunteers at the prison, and his guilt and anguished concern about his brother.

He is a fully developed protagonist who is practically made of attitude and regret. He recalls his dysfunctional upbringing, parentification towards his brother, and current incarceration with detached and wry humor. He is a self-deprecating sardonic kid who uses his humor to deflect from his own pain and tragedy.

The setting of the experimental detention center nicknamed J-Rot is fleshed out as a distinct society with its own culture and rituals. Everyone is given a nickname and bullying and favoritism are frequently shown. These dehumanization procedures remind the boys that who they were outside doesn't matter. Here they are who the prison, and by association the State of Florida, decides.

 Goon has to call up his talents and skills to aid someone who was once antagonistic but has shown potential to be a friend. Goon must surpass the institutional dehumanization and enter the contradictory chaos surrounding him to save him. 

Oath by Kate Butler 

This is a summary of my review. The long version is on Reader Views. (The links takes you to the site. You must insert the book's title in the search engine to read the review.)

Kate Butler’s Oath is a charming and enchanting queer fantasy romance about the love between a lord and his knight.

Lord Aerion Valemont is the spoiled Narcissistic son of the Archbishop. He is used to having his way so when Sir Clyde of Blackholt AKA “The Hound”, a war hardened, quiet, defiant warrior is assigned to be his protector, Aerion considers it a challenge. It appears these two completely opposite characters from different worlds are attracted to one another despite Clyde's sworn oath to protect the young Lord and the scheme to get Aerion married to avoid scandal.

Oath is the type of Fantasy Romance that technically does nothing new. The characters are known archetypes and the plot and setting have been seen many times. Even the fact that it's a Queer Romance has been done. 

This book should be a disposable cliche but there is something so delightful and endearing about this particular book that makes it work despite or actually because of the cliches.

Aerian is written as the ultimate spoiled rich kid with plenty of money and daring but not a lot of empathy or sense. Clyde is a solid stoic force. 

When the Lord and the knight become emotionally and physically closer together, Clyde's softer side and Aerion’s kinder side emerge. They become lovers who accept one another's flaws and all that comes with them.

Their relationship is tested by war, separation, sacrifice, and commitment. They move beyond a spoiled lord and stoic knight to become stronger, braver, more selfless, and more devoted characters and lovers.

The Wise Marie: Paradise Edition by Natasha Brune 

This is a summary of my review. The complete review is on Readers Views. (The links takes you to the site. You must insert the book's title in the search engine to read the review.)

Natasha Brune’s The Wise Marie: Paradise Edition is a traumatic and troubling autobiographical novel about a woman's involvement with crime and drugs.

Brune’s alter ego, Marie lived in a crowded home with a troubled and volatile family. Marie retreated into drugs, abusive relationships, and criminal activity to survive it.

Brune’s writing style is a straightforward matter of fact manner and surprising detachment for writing about her own experiences. It doesn't get overly sentimental or overdramatic. Terrible things like teen pregnancy, over doses, and abuse but it's informative not emotional. It makes the events and characters the main focus instead of presenting Brune's opinion about how she felt about it. It allows the Readers to connect with the events on their own. 

One could imagine it being written years later when Brune has had enough time to detach herself from the events. As an older woman, she has the years of experience and knowledge that the angry young woman didn't have. She also has empathy and understanding for the circumstances that led her down this path but recognizes the damage that she brought on herself.

The Wise Marie also makes use of its Hawaii setting by downplaying the paradise connotation (except in the subtitle) to focus on the local resident’s reality or at least the reality that Brune experienced. She reveals the poverty of people who live in a state with beautiful year-round weather but an expensive cost of living. A place where local reality is purposely kept from the tourists and issues like drugs, crime, and violence are ignored. While many states have high levels of crime and poverty, in Hawaii’s case the sometimes ugly reality clashes with the beautiful image, an image that no one and no place can fill forever.

The Lawless Legion MC by Patrick Klein; Motorcycle Club Thriller Revs and Sputters

 

The Lawless Legion MC by Patrick Klein; Motorcycle Club Thriller Revs and Sputters

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Patrick Klein’s The Lawless Legion MC is an intense thriller that revs when telling about the creation of an outlaw motorcycle club but it sputters by giving us characters who are too one dimensional to relate to or root for.

Sonny is going nowhere fast. He was just fired from his job at the local bar and has dwindling finances. His buddies Mike, Scott, and Johnny Boy have problems of their own. Sonny is hit with an idea. Since he and his friends have a passion for motorcycles why not form a motorcycle club of outlaws? The club called The Lawless Legion MC goes through various circumstances and capers to obtain new members, capital, and a word of mouth reputation that spreads fear.

The book has a strong beginning as it discusses how and why such clubs are formed usually from a desire to socially connect with others and a need to break out of poverty. Sonny and his buddies live in abject poverty, most of them in the same trailer park. Bills pile up, they owe more than they have, and everyone that they know is divorced, broke, homeless, drunk, addicted, unemployed or trapped in low paying jobs, and don’t see much of a future. It’s not hard to imagine why these guys would find crime a suitable means to escape the life that they have been handed since birth. 

The other thing that draws Sonny and the others into the idea of a motorcycle club is the camaraderie and fellowship that they share. They share a love of motorcycles that’s true but it goes beyond that. They call each other “brother” and treat one another like family. This is particularly true of Sonny, Mike, Scott, and Johnny Boy who have been friends since they were kids. 

Sonny wants to share the financial and influential benefits that this club can bring with those that he is closest to. Because of this strong bond among Sonny and his friends, it is a genuinely upsetting moment for him when one of his friends withdraws from the club when he grows concerned about their violent nature to the point of packing his things and leaving the trailer park without telling anyone. Partly out of concern for the direction that his friends are taking but also because if the Lawless Legion is as successful as they hope to be, he is afraid that they may attack him in retaliation.

While the book has a strong start by showing how a motorcycle club is formed and why members get into it, the interest fizzles the higher that the Lawless Legion climbs. Some of their plans to force competition out of town, get a cut of local drug money, and start a fight club are fun in a darkly comic sort of way. Sonny also shows genuine affection for a woman who is coming out of an abusive relationship. These are moments of good character insight but they don't last.

The Lawless Legion members had more depth when they started out but that depth crumbles as they become involved in a war against various enemies like a rival motorcycle club, an opportunistic police officer, and an acquaintance playing the various sides. 

Once they gain the power and influence that they crave, the members become one-dimensional and interchangeable. Some of the newer recruits are not as distinct as the original group and it can be hard to remember who did what. They also look for any reason or rationale to pick a fight, flash their muscles and attitude, and commit violence towards those that they perceive as an enemy. 

Even when a member of the Lawless Legion leaves, it isn’t looked on as an understanding that he made his choice. Instead it is looked on as a moral failing on his part as someone who betrayed them because he didn’t have the stomach to do what they did. As Sonny and the others are losing their humanity, they resent their former friend for still retaining his. 

Perhaps that’s the point, The Lawless Legion have become dehumanized. They have accepted that violent part of themselves and now there is nothing left, no empathy, no understanding, no real companionship even with each other. Just gain, just taking what they can and hurting anyone that gets in the way. Ironically, in their drive to get the money, power, and respect that they always wanted, they may lose the tight friendship and surrogate family that propelled them in the first place. They will lose their brothers. 

The Colonel and The Bee by Patrick Canning; Fun Charming Victorian Adventure That Ascends to Great Heights

The Colonel and The Bee by Patrick Canning; Fun Charming Victorian Adventure That Ascends to Great Heights 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Patrick Canning’s The Colonel and The Bee is a throwback to an earlier time of a 19th century Adventure Novel. Pastiches of Victorian Adventures are not unfamiliar with this blog. I reviewed Jon Stephen Jones’ Victorian Adventure Stories and B,G, Hilton’s Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys. Where Jones used familiarity with the Victorian tropes to write stories that echoed them perfectly and Hilton used those tropes to write a novel that brimmed with quirky originality and bizarre goofiness, Canning walks a middle ground. He wrote a novel that presents a fantastic Victorian Adventure with a postmodern darker edge. 

The book is narrated by The Amazing Beatrix, a former acrobat, who instead of running away to join the circus is instead running away from the circus to join something, anything else. She resents the abusive treatment from the circus ringmaster, Ziro so during a private performance for a nobleman, Beatrix makes a dramatic escape to the protection of Colonel James Bacchus, an eccentric treasure hunter with a reputation of daring adventures and romantic escapades. The Colonel takes her into Ox, The Oxford Starladder his floating house (no seriously it’s a four story wicker house attached to a red hot air balloon). She befriends his colleagues, the Newlyweds, obtains a nickname, “Bee” and joins them on their latest hunt for The Blue Star Sphinx. Unfortunately, some dangerous characters are also looking for the Sphinx and the Colonel including an intrepid law enforcement officer and two feuding criminal families. 

The Colonel and The Bee walks a fine and interesting line between the fantastic situations of the past and the rich character development of the present. Canning captures both expertly by giving us realistic characters in a fantastic setting.

What stands out at first is the fantasy, the adventure, the outlandish fantastic tropes of the past. We know realistically that a hot air balloon can’t carry a four story house, but that doesn’t matter. In this book, it does. We know that buried treasure isn’t really found by searching for intricate clues and x doesn’t always mark the spot, but who cares? That’s part of the fun. The Colonel and The Bee opens up those childlike parts of ourselves that read comic books or old adventure novels and imagine ourselves as the characters. Characters like Indiana Jones, The Doctor, Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg, Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger, James Bond, Nancy Drew, every superhero ever. Characters that we imagine wake up every morning wondering what adventure they will get into today. 

Canning captures that childlike wonder that these stories convey. The adventure is solid with many twists and turns. There are written clues that provide context to the Sphinx and its backstory. We are treated to various locations such as Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Gibraltar, Britain, and The Sahara where The Colonel, Bee, and their allies encounter dangers that require cunning, intelligence, stealth, strength, and daring to survive. It's an adventure that moves at a brisk pace but contains enough plot threads to go into different directions and hold the Reader's interest.This is a light hearted fun adventure for the most part.

While the majority of the book is fun and light, the way that most of these quaint Historical adventures are, there is some depth and attention to character psychology that give this book a postmodern edge. The Colonel and Bee reveal themselves as more than the flashy outlandish exterior that we see at first. 

Bee left behind a lifetime of abuse and degradation at the circus. The maltreatment takes its toll on Bee as despite trusting The Colonel enough to rescue her, she is incredibly cynical and suspicious towards his actions. She had been exploited and used so this is what she expects from people. She for a time is unable to trust The Colonel and suspects the worst from him, particularly because of his history with women. She is looking for an escape out of her situation, maybe some money, but nothing else. 

As she travels with The Colonel and his friends, Bee begins to relate to and bond with them. She sees their vulnerabilities, kindness, and acceptance towards her. Her agility is useful for getting them out of tough situations and her earthy nature provides a nice contrast to The Colonel’s flightiness. As she uses her skills to become a member of the group, she opens up to her new found friends. She also begins to let go of her earlier trauma from her time at the circus even to the point where she even bonds with some of her former colleagues when she recognizes their suffering as well.

Since Bee is the first person narrator, we see her various layers but it takes some time to see The Colonel’s. He lives a seemingly enviable life from land to land, adventure to adventure, and lover to lover. He has a charming flirtatious enthusiastic demeanor. He seems less drawn to search for the Sphinx because of wealth than he is for the thrill and excitement. As the book continues, The Colonel is revealed to have a past and troubles of his own that he hides under his gregarious devil may care personality.

The Colonel reveals that he comes from a very dysfunctional family and this adventure is not just a treasure hunt but a search for some family members. Now, his adventures are seen as means to fill the empty voids in his life. They give him some purpose and significance. He was made to feel like he didn't belong anywhere so he became a citizen of the world. His only real family and friends are those that travel with him on The Ox or aid him on his journeys from the ground. 

The Colonel and Bee move from flashy adventurers looking for treasure, to two lost individuals looking for familial connections. Through their journey, they find both.

 

Tales of Whiskey Tango from Misery Towers by James Aylott; Politics, Love, Crime, and Weirdness Come Together in St. Louis Apartment Building

 Tales From Whiskey Tango of Misery Towers by James Aylott; Politics, Love, Crime, and Weirdness Come Together in St. Louis Apartment Building 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I am quite giddy over the fact that one of the frequent settings this year is my home state of Missouri. It is even better when books are set in St. Louis, the closest city to where I live and consider my home. James Aylott’s anthologized novel, Tales of Whiskey Tango from Misery Towers is the fourth book this year to be set in Missouri, following Somewhere East of Me by Samuel Vincent O’Keefe, The Girl in the Corn, and The Boy From Two Worlds by Jason Offutt. In fact the only books that I reviewed previously that had a Missouri setting were Shaare Emeth (The Gates of Truth) by T.A. McLaughlin, Toward That Which is Beautiful by Marian O’Shea Warnicke, Chasing Dragons: The True History of the Piasa by Mark and Laurie Bonner-Nickless, the short story, “Jewel Box” in Sympathetic People by Donna Baier Stein, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn from 2019-2023. So this year definitely made up for the minimal Missouri representation in previous years.

Missouri, particularly St. Louis, makes a heck of an appearance in Tales of Whiskey Tango. It is practically a character itself in a book that is filled to the brim with fascinating characters. It boasts of a group of fascinating weird characters that inhabit a St. Louis Apartment and deal with issues with love, politics, economics, and crime in the Gateway to the West.

In Missouri Towers, nicknamed Misery Towers, a downtown St. Louis Apartment that overlooks the Arch and the Mississippi River, a group of residents are contemplating their life choices: Nick Pipeman is standing on a bridge thinking of the crises that led to his despair; Colton Chesterfield III was the victim of a very strange crime and is currently inside a coffin alive; Mike Love is thinking about some serious love affairs and is racing towards the one who might be the love of his life; Daris Ballic is drunk and prepared to defend his property Missouri Towers with violence if necessary; Sam Robinson is in despair about an affair that ended; Butterfly wants to dance at her job and forget about her troubles; Gloria McKendrick is at the City Museum and anxious about an important decision regarding her love life; Tyrone Booker is covering his police beat preparing for what could be a rough night; Madison Stone is sitting on the rooftop of Missouri Towers observing the chaos underneath and the approaching storm on the horizon. 

The most important character is certainly the city itself. Readers are treated to the various tourist spots like The City Museum, Busch Stadium, The Arch, Forest Park, The Enterprise Center, and the teams like The Blues and the Cardinals. But we are given more than that. Aylott knows the city and its people.

We are immersed into the local culture like the food (toasted ravioli, gooey butter cakes, thin crusted pizza, and pork steaks), areas (the wealthy Central West End, suburban South side, working class North side, and impoverished East side, along with neighborhoods like the Loop, The Hill, Dogstown, Ferguson, Soulard, Clayton, Bellefontaine, and enough St. name schools and towns to fill an entire Catholic yearly calendar), colloquialisms (“Where did you go to high school” instead of college and the endless debates whether the state is pronounced “Missouri,” “Missoura,” or “Misery.”), music (many blues, alternative, and hip hop artists got their start here), sports (The Blues winning the Stanley Cup in 2019, The Cardinals winning 11 World Series), celebrities (Jon Hamm, Chuck Berry, Veruca Salt, and Nelly are shouted out), controversies (the tempestuous school board meetings and local elections, the Michael Brown shooting and Ferguson police protests, income inequality, the political division between Conservative Republicans and Liberal Democrats with most of Missouri on one side and St. Louis on the other). 

Aylott gives a total sensory journey for Readers to experience a city that, unless they are local, many may not think about very often. Once read about it, few Readers will forget this fly over city. They may even want to stop by and visit once in awhile.

Tales From Whiskey Tango is a brilliant ensemble of a novel that explores the characters through their interests, personality traits, obsessions, and occupations. They stand out in different ways. Their personal journeys connect with one another by various means. Mike Love is a real estate agent who compares his life to his favorite Bruce Springsteen songs like “Born to Run,” “Born in the USA,” and “Thunder Road.” 

Gloria is a trapeze artist, newly arrived from Kansas and is fascinated by rom coms, specifically those starring Molly Ringwald. Mike and Gloria are weighing a potential romance but workplace conflicts, old flames, and different expectations throw challenges their way.

Mikes’ boss Daris is a Bosnian immigrant turned naturalized citizen and is hyper aware whether he seems American enough to his employees and clients. He treats his properties and sales leads like they are battlefields and his agents like Mike and Nick are soldiers in a war. 

Daris’ top agent, Nick is considered charming but has some very odd fetishes that affect his relationship with Zoe, a former circus clown and Gloria's roommate and is involved in criminal activity that could jeopardize his career.

 Nick and Zoe and Mike and Gloria's romances are observed and gossipped about by Madison whose favorite activities are sunbathing topless and spying on her neighbors.

Sam has an obsession with prostitutes and when he has an assignation with Alice, his latest, he has a notion to make her over Pretty Woman-style to be an ideal companion. But Alice is no Julia Roberts. She gets very tired of being controlled.

 Colton is a billionaire and ex-con whose darker side and hidden disreputability come back to haunt him when he is caught in a bizarre crime involving Reginald, a desperate gunman and Butterfly, an aging exotic dancer. 

As Tyrone tries to keep the peace in a city that is simmering with hatred and racism, he has to get to the roots of various crimes that involve many of the other characters.

Tales of Whiskey Tango isn't afraid to explore the beauty and ugliness of its setting and characters. Everyone is left to their own devices to make choices towards their own conclusion. They and the city lie in wait. 

The book explores each character and what led them and the city into this precarious position where they are waiting for romantic closure, crushing despair, escalating violence, delayed justice, waiting for a decision, to move forward, to live, to fight, or to die. Just like those storm clouds in the horizon, the characters will come and decide fates that they had been moving towards.

Journeyman: A Central City Novel (Kulpa and Bayonne Mysteries Book 2)by Indy Perro; Central City Sequel Doubles Down on Cop and Criminal Duality

 

Journeyman (A Central City Novel) by Indy Perro; Central City Sequel Doubles Down on Cop and Criminal Duality

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: When we last left Central City in Indy Perro’s book of the same name, Detective Vinnie Bayonne and ex-con, bar owner, and informant Kane Kulpa pool their resources to solve the murder of several prostitute’s clients. The murderer was identified and Tran van Kahn, the leader of a Vietnamese gang that tried to muscle in on Kane’s territory, was murdered. Unfortunately, these came at a great cost to Kane and Bayonne. Adam McKenna, Bayonne’s partner and Kane’s brother, was left institutionalized and Kane and Adam’s developmentally disabled and traumatized mother, Molly Matches died.

 In the followup novel, Journeyman, we see the cop and criminal are struggling to rebuild shaky lives. Bayonne’s commitment to justice is questioned because of his friendship with Kane and he embarks on a relationship with prostitute Cassandra. Meanwhile, Kane is beginning a tentative  leadership amidst rivalries from gangs who are out for blood and revenge. Bayonne is assigned to investigate the possible overdose death of the mayor’s son. Meanwhile gang war is declared after a shootout occurs outside Kane’s bar, the Side Saddle.

This is the type of mystery where the author is less concerned about the mystery itself than they are about the lead characters. Frankly, it’s all the better for it. The O.D. plot and the gang plot are interesting but in some ways predictable. There isn’t much in the way of a whodunnit so much as the enemies are quite visible leaving little to surprises or revelations. It’s stuff that is often found in other works that deal with gangs, drugs, sex work, political corruption, and crimes and quite frequently done better. Nothing new technically arrives or is resolved. But that is not where Journeyman’s real strength lies.

Journeyman’s real strength, in fact the strongest asset to the Central City series as a whole are its two leads: Vinnie Bayonne and Kane Kulpa. While in some works anyone can solve the central mystery, with this one only Bayonne and Kane can solve this one and leave Central City well in somewhat peace. 

We see these two at their most emotionally vulnerable as they try to maintain some semblance of order with their surroundings. They are protective of those that they are close to: Bayonne with Cassandra and Kane with his friends. We also see them facing antagonists challenging their leadership from various gangs to corrupt politicians and authority figures. Despite this, the two men have the strength and compassion to protect those around them.

One of the best chapters that show the duo’s concern for others is when Bayonne and Kane visit Adam in the hospital. As they talk to and care for Adam and confide in each other about his treatment and their concerns about his future, it is clear that both men are in mourning for the seriously ill man in front of him. Adam is not dead but is just as gone as if he had a bullet to his brain. They lost a partner and best friend with a once bright future in front of him and a brother with a broken past which deprived him of a family. We see that these men have many of the same concerns, goals, and motives even if they have different means to obtain them.

Unfortunately it is the means that cause a wedge between Bayonne and Kane. Kane desires to remain as leader and overpower his rivals. He becomes more ruthless and colder in ordering murder and extortion. 

As Kane ascends in the Underworld, Bayonne becomes more regimented in upholding the law. As the world collapses and becomes grayer, Bayonne holds onto the black and white of the legal system. 

Bayonne and Kane’s friendship is forever scarred when the two make decisions putting them in direct conflict. In the end, they face each other equal in power, are having ascended in their careers, but now no longer friends. What's worse is because of their shared history, they are not only enemies but enemies that know each other's backgrounds, secrets, and modus operandi. 

Bayonne and Kane are worthy opponents who will certainly lose their worthiness by the next book. They may lose what once made them great: their friendship.

New Book Alert: Third Wheel by Richard R. Becker; Nostalgic High School Memories Turn Dark and Disturbing

 

New Book Alert: Third Wheel by Richard R. Becker; Nostalgic High School Memories Turn Dark and Disturbing

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Richard R. Becker’s previous book, 50 States, was an ambitious and ultimately successful endeavor in which he wrote an anthology of fifty stories that were set in each state. His drive to capture the setting, dialect, and character of each state and its residents was perfection beyond comparison.

Becker's next work, Third Wheel, is a bit less ambitious but still a brilliant work. It begins as a nostalgia piece of 80’s kids living their best days during a time of music videos, shopping malls, and Dungeons and Dragons. Instead it becomes a much darker and grittier tale involving greed, corruption, violence, and murder.

In 1982, teenager Brady Wilkins moved with his family from the Midwest to suburban Las Vegas. Brady feels out of place in Party Town and joins a group of friends including older boys, Mick and Brett in playing Dungeons and Dragons. After Brett moves away, Mick draws in another kid, Alex, into their inner circle. Unfortunately, Alex's interests lie less in the realms of fantasy with paladins, clerics, thieves, and wizards and more in the real world of gangsters, dealers, addicts, and criminals. Alex becomes involved in drug dealing and then gets his friends into the scheme. Suddenly, Brady finds his close network of friends are not the people that he thought they were.

The book is a definite change of tone. It begins light-hearted with a strong tinge of nostalgia. I actually lived in Las Vegas from 1989-90 (while my father worked at Nellis Air Force Base. Yes, that Nellis, conspiracy buffs!) so it's actually very easy for me to picture the setting and time period. 

The first few chapters seem to imply a fun romp with high school hijinks and plenty of details to remind any 80’s kid. If you were a D&D player, the references and descriptions of game play will be fun to read through. 

We also see the wild parties when the parents are gone. When underage drinking and drug taking flows freely, the hook ups are plentiful, the cops are a phone call away, and someone's parent arrives at literally the worst moment. It's a tried and true staple of any coming of age story particularly one set during the rad consumerist spoiled spirit of the 80’s.

Brady is the typical kid who is on the outside of this group. He enjoys the D&D games and the parties but he's on the outer fringes of the in crowd. He sees other kids acting more daring and wilder than he does. He is often just the hanger on and after thought, the one that the cooler kids “forget” to pass the joint to and probably think he should just stay home. He isn't geeky enough to be a nerd and not wild enough to be a stoner. Brady's just there.

During these early chapters, there are hints of a dark undercurrent because of Alex. During the D&D games, he declared that fantasy games are stupid and knows where they can have some real fun. Then he starts lecturing them about Church of Satan founder, Anton LaVey more to shock his friends than actually following any of LaVey’s teachings. At the parties, he gives his friends hard drugs instead of the usual pot almost as if testing the effects on them. He then gets Brady and Mick into drug dealing to the point that when Brett returns to the group, he barely recognizes his old friends.

Once the drug dealing and criminal activity becomes prominent, lighthearted nostalgia ends. Third Wheel becomes a dark gritty crime drama. What was once fun and games and a way to relieve boredom becomes a means to get money, respect, and to survive.

Brady falls into Alex’s world feet first. At first, it's exciting and shakes up his world but the more he falls in, the more he loses parts of himself-friends, love interests, family, and parts of his identity. 

There is a point in the book where the dark undercurrents become overcurrents. Violence ensues and everything that Brady once did, thought, and believed is called into question. He is left to face the real consequences of what a life can bring and how much he stands to lose.

Third Wheel takes different tones and does both well. It's a comparatively smaller work than 50 States but no less brilliant and powerful.

Weekly Reader: The Mentor by Lee Matthew Goldberg; Author-Editor Conflict Becomes Suspenseful, Bloodier, and Deadlier Than Usual

 Weekly Reader: The Mentor by Lee Matthew Goldberg; Author-Editor Conflict Becomes Suspenseful, Bloodier, and Deadlier Than Usual

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: One thing that I will say as an Editor and Book Reviewer, no matter how often I disagree with authors, I am glad that our disagreements don't go the way of William Lansing and Kyle Broder in Lee Matthew Goldberg's The Mentor. This psychological thriller takes the never ending struggle between authors and editors and twists it to violent and deadly means.

Professor William Lansing is delighted to learn that his former student, Kyle Broder, has attained superstar status in the publishing world. The young editor gets the credit for discovering and editing the debut novel of rising star author, Sierra Raven. William thinks that Kyle would be the perfect editor to pitch his magnum opus, Devil's Hopyard, to. After all, William had been working on the book for ten years and he helped Kyle out when he was a troubled addicted college student so…favors?

Unfortunately, William's manuscript is an incredibly disturbing look into the mind of a deranged psychopath. Worst of all, it's a badly written incredibly disturbing look into the mind of a deranged psychopath. It's about the rape, murder, and cannibalism of a young woman and hits too close to home for Kyle's liking.

Kyle has no intention of publishing it and let's just say William does not take constructive criticism well. His desire for literary fame becomes an obsession and his means to achieve it become violent. Soon, Kyle begins to wonder how much of William's work is the product of a writer's imagination and how much of it is based on true events.

Just like with Goldberg's previous books, Slow Down, Orange City, and The Desire Card series, The Mentor shows the dangers of unbridled ambition and what happens when one's ambitions overpower their sense of ethics, morality, legality, and basic humanity. They become someone to be feared, someone who believes that the end justifies the means, any means, no matter who suffers.

William has that kind of ambition. He is definitely someone who we can't separate the art from the artist. Everyone around him and everything that he does is just material for his book. It's hard to tell whether he had these graphically violent thoughts before he wrote them or being a writer came first and he found gruesome inspiration. Either way, he sees everyone as characters in his novel that he could do the most horrific things or make them do the worst things and they act according to the orders of him, the author.

Kyle is a more sympathetic character since he is the one getting stalked and gaslit, but he also has an unchecked ambitious side. He rejects William's manuscript because he finds it disturbing, but at first he is less concerned about the content than about what it would mean for his reputation. He is a rising star attached to a couple of potential bestsellers, a coming of age novel and a crime thriller, surefire hits. Kyle does not want his star to be hitched to a poorly written and potentially controversial work. He is not concerned about the potential loss of life and confession of an actual crime rather than what it would mean if his name was attached to it. It's only when William's desire for fame and violent tendencies affect Kyle personally that he realizes just how deadly William's desires are.

Some of the other characters in The Mentor aren't as clearly defined. A rival of Kyle's sucks up to William until it becomes feasible not to. Kyle's girlfriend, Jamie, plays the usual love interest character who at first doesn't believe that the protagonist is being stalked until they too become a victim. Sierra becomes a pawn in Kyle's chance for stardom and ultimately William's chance for notoriety. Everyone is collateral in this one-on-one battle.

The final chapters of The Mentor are drenched in irony as things turn on its head and the drive for ambition becomes one of infamy. William gets his stardom in the worst way possible and Kyle has to live with the consequences. 

New Book Alert: Vicious Ripples (The Desire Card Book Four) by Lee Matthew Goldberg; Fourth Desire Card Book Brings Things to the Falling Action Act

 

New Book Alert: Vicious Ripples (The Desire Card Book Four) by Lee Matthew Goldberg; Fourth Desire Card Book Brings Things to the Falling Action Act

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Stop! Before you read this review, I must give you a homework assignment. Please read either the previous books or my reviews for the other books in the Desire Card Series: Immoral Origins, Prey No More, and All Sins Fulfilled. I am going to reveal some important things in this review and I do not want any Reader to go in unprepared. Needless to say this review contains MAJOR HEAVY DUTY SPOILERS!!!!!

You back and prepped? Okay good, on we go.

Any follower of Shakespeare's plays knows that each play follows a basic five act structure. Act 1 is the introduction, Act 2 is the rising action, Act 3 is the climax, Act 4 is the falling action, and Act 5 is the resolution.

Lee Matthew Goldberg's five volume The Desire Card Series is Shakespearean in structure (and come to think of it in theme and characterization as well).

The first volume Immoral Origins was the Introduction. It introduced us to the Desire Card organization and their beginnings in the 1970's as they grant the wishes of the wealthy for a price. We meet the employees operating in disguise as Hollywood stars such as newcomer Erroll Flynn and the Card's enigmatic founder, Clark Gable. We see the rivalry formed between Gable and head of the European branch, Sir Laurence Olivier and what happens when Flynn tries to get away and revert back to his original identity of petty thief, Jake Barnum.

The second volume, Prey No More is the rising action, set forty years later when the Desire Card has gained power and influence in various business and political circles. They have operators all over the world and one of them, J.D. Storm AKA James Dean, goes on the lam. This results in lots of murders and J.D.'s hatred and thirst for revenge against the card and the people behind it.

All Sins Fulfilled the third book is the climax when well to do, Harrison Stockton needs a liver transplant and solicits a certain card to fill that request. This ends in some major revelations that reveal the people behind the masks, particularly Gable who is much closer than Harrison had previously been aware. It also culminates in J.D.'s act of revenge against Gable, the Card, and all it stands for.

The fourth volume, Vicious Ripples, is the falling action demonstrating what happens after the earth shattering revelations from All Sins Fulfilled are revealed.(The next volume, Desire's End appears to be the resolution where the Card and its treacherous founder come to their long overdue finish.)

Vicious Ripples is set immediately after J.D. Storm, now using the name Marcus Edmonton, has kidnapped 10 year old Gracie Stockton, the daughter of Harrison Stockton and his ex-wife, Helene Howell. Besides combining the protagonists from the previous two volumes, the kidnapping is for a darker and more serious reason. 

Gracie is the granddaughter of Jay Howell, businessman and multi billionaire. Oh yeah and Howell has another important distinction, a side hustle if you will. He is the creator and founder of the organization behind a certain card that we have been familiar with for the past year.

That's right, Jay Howell is also known to the Readers as Clark Gable, the mysterious and sinister head of the Desire Card. 

J.D.'s demands are simple. He wants the Desire Card disbanded for good. Also, he's not the only one who is after Howell/Gable. 

Harrison has his own unresolved issues with his former father in law. Howell's European rival, Oliver AKA Sir Laurence  Olivier (wow original) wants to cut into the competition. Ambitious and driven, Detective Monica Bonner is overcoming her personal loss by investigating Gracie's kidnapping and some mysterious deaths connected to the card. Gee, it seems like creating an organization that thrives on theft, drug dealing, murder, and other illegal nefarious acts to fulfill other's darkest desires seems like a bad idea since in the end it creates so many enemies who would like to see one dead. Who would have thought?

Even though many things were revealed in the previous volume and this one, there are still enough twists and turns to make Volume Four a good read. In fact, it's better than All Sins Fulfilled because there aren't as many slow parts which bring down the protagonist until they discover the card and start using it. By this point, the Reader knows about the Card, how it's used, and who the players are. The question is what are they going to do as their world comes crashing down around them?

Of course if you are a Narcissistic master criminal like Howell, you are going to do one of two things: scheme against your enemies and get as much as you can or if you go down, you take everyone else with you. Either way, Howell is backed into a corner and is going to strike at his enemies.

His few remaining supporters are like the last survivors on the Titanic still clinging to their Hollywood identities: Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando, Mae West, and a new James Dean. Many of them are freelancers who stick with Howell for financial gain. Others because they have nowhere else to go. Still others, namely Audrey and Dean, have personal reasons to stick close to their fearless leader. It is a sad pathetic group that remains, not like the far reaching, intimidating, glamorous, and hedonistic Desire Card operatives of the past.

It's also pretty clear that Howell uses these operatives like he uses everyone else. While he does have the capacity to care for certain people and is genuinely worried about Gracie, the narrative makes it clear that he values the Desire Card over everything else. 

Now that Howell's mask has been removed and his true self has been revealed, he is shown to be a self centered despicable creep who would sacrifice anyone to keep his operation running. (Not going to miss this guy once he's gone.)

It is interesting the various ways in which Howell's enemies go through to take him down, never actually combining their resources to fight the common enemy (Maybe that will be saved for Volume Five). Oliver uses his own card connections such as a couple of traitors in Howell's midst and his own operatives like Evchen, his second who assumes the identity of Marlene Dietrich. He fights duplicity with duplicity and strives to be every bit as cunning as his rival.

Monica uses the law and her own detective instincts. Because she also suffered the loss of a child, she relates to the Stocktons even though she is not in their socioeconomic class. She, like Helene, is a grieving mother and wants to relieve Gracie's parents of the burden of loss that she lives with every day. In a series full of criminals, illegal activity, and narcissists galore, Monica Bonner is the lone moral center.

While Harrison is out for the count through most of the book, he and Helene use their family connection and inside knowledge of Howell's home life and what he does when he's not in the mask. In fact, much of the intel is provided by overhearing conversations and searching through private files. It also opens up a lot of development for Helene who was once Daddy's Little Spoiled Pampered Princess and now has to face the truth about her father and where her rich life came from.

J.D.'s course of revenge is by far the strongest and most gripping. He was once a hitman with a heart of gold who walked out on the Desire Card when he began to question their methods. He had a chance to build a decent post-Desire life and then lost it all.

Now in Vicious Ripples, he has become everything that he once despised. A ruthless assassin with no conscience and is willing to hurt innocents to get his needs met. He is the final result of what the Desire Card turns people into: remorseless monsters with nothing left to lose.

Some of J.D.'s best moments are when he is with Gracie. The flickers of conscience still remain as he watches over the girl and tries to explain who her grandfather really is. He also watches in bemusement and horror as Gracie begins to accept her grandfather's identity and even absorbs some of the lessons that the adults around her are teaching. She learns them all too well in some very horrifying scenes that suggest that she too is the final result of the Desire Card's sinister dealings and Howell's insatiable avarice.

As great as this volume is, there are two rather questionable things. In one chapter during a confrontation between Howell and an enemy, something strange, sinister, and almost supernatural happens. It seems to come out of nowhere but perhaps it is an intentional callback to an earlier theory about the Card's origins. (Now with that scene, is the theory back on the table?)

The other question is a missed opportunity, or rather a missing piece to the revenge puzzle. We have seen most of the previous protagonists take on the Desire Card save one, Jake Barnum, the main character in Immoral Origins. While yes his death at the ending of the first volume would mean he can't be there physically, it's upsetting that some plot threads in that book were left dangling and he isn't there in spirit.

Jake's former girlfriend, Desire operative Marilyn Monroe, was alive, well, and remained a Card operative at the end of Immoral Origins. That's the last we hear from her and she makes no reappearance nor is referred to in subsequent volumes. You think that since Jake couldn't be there, at least Marilyn or better yet a potential offspring of theirs, could be there to settle an old score. (Of course I may be getting ahead of myself. Desire's End may answer that question.)

Well, the only thing left is a resolution. It will be interesting to see what happens when Desire's End takes a pair of scissors and finally cuts the card.

New Book Alert: All Sins Fulfilled (The Desire Card Book 3) by Lee Matthew Goldberg; The Desire Card, a Customer's Story

 

New Book Alert: All Sins Fulfilled (The Desire Card Book 3) by Lee Matthew Goldberg; The Desire Card, a Customer's Story

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: One thing that I have learned in reading The Desire Card series, if one ever uses that card identity theft is the least of their concerns. In fact by the time Desire's leader, Clark Gable and his cohorts are through with their hapless customer, they would hope that their identity would have been the only thing that was taken.

In this volume in Lee Matthew Goldberg's addictive and intense psychological thriller crime series, the point of view shifts from Gable's employees and underlings to a customer, the wealthy folk who are given the card and the promise that any wish will be fulfilled for the right price.

This latest victim on Gable's hit list is Harrison Stockton. Unlike the previous lead characters Jake Barnum and J.D. Storm, Harrison is high up on the economic scale. He climbed from a lower middle class upbringing to marry wealthy heiress, Helene Howell. He works in Mergers & Acquisitions while Helene is involved in various philanthropic organizations. They live in a swank apartment on Fifth Avenue and have two children named Gracie and Brenton and a cat named Chauncey. Harrison seems to have everything but then just as quickly ends up with nothing.

He loses his cushiony job. His troubled argumentative marriage with Helene ends in separation. We can't even say at least Harrison still has his health because he learns that he has liver disease and needs a transplant. After a suspenseful, if a bit overlong, section in India where Harrison searches for a possible donor and surgeon only to learn that he has been conned, he turns his attention to a card that his former boss gave him. A card that earlier had granted his wish for a prostitute and now says that he will be given a liver. A card that is new to him but far from new to the Reader: The Desire Card.

In the third volume to the series, it is great that we are given an outsider's perspective to the Card. In the first two volumes, we are told that the Card honors the wishes of the wealthy elite. Now, we see one of the wealthy elites that benefit from the Desire Card's services and pays for people like Jake and J.D. to live and fill their own wishes. We see that getting one's wishes fulfilled and being a Desire client isn't any better than being an employee. There are still strings attached, violent bloody strings, and the wealthy client that gets those services can be just as imprisoned and just as in danger as the poor employee that does those services. In Harrison's case, he realizes that his wealth and connections won't protect him from the Desire's real schemes. 

In his own way, Harrison is just as lost as Jake and J.D. are. He was insulated from the real world in his climb to the top. When he is face to face with this violent world, Harrison's conscience gets the better of him and he realizes that he can't let innocent people suffer so he can get his wishes met. When Harrison realizes the cost, his own life is threatened. As we all know, once the Desire Card has you, they aren't the type to let you go.

What is missing from this volume is the secrecy and eccentricity of the previous books in the series. We only see the Hollywood masked hoodlums a few times so they aren't as present as they were in the past. In fact the ones that we do meet are familiar in their assumed and real identities: James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, Rita Hayworth, et al. Yep, it's the exact same characters from Prey No More. In fact, it becomes apparent that All Sins Fulfilled serves as a midquel to Book 2 so we actually do know who some of those masked men and women are anyway.

What All Sins Fulfilled lacks in secrecy, it finally makes up for in answers. We finally get some solutions to the questions that have been hounding this series since Immoral Origins. I dare not reveal them, but it makes sense that Goldberg saves the big reveals for this volume, where it makes the biggest impact.

It also is cleverly revealed because there were hints in the previous books that this was the trajectory and plan all along. It will be fun for the amateur armchair detective to go back through the series and locate the clues that had been staring at us in the face for three books.

However, there is some wiggle room in the answers that we are given to call more tantalizing theories and ask questions that could still happen.

The timing of Prey No More and All Sins Fulfilled occurring at the same time and the answers that we are finally given in All Sins make the climactic ending in Prey No More even more traumatizing. Goldberg has at least two more volumes in the series. Book 4 demands for a confrontation, possibly a final resolution. I'm not sure what is in store for Book 5, maybe a prequel on how the Desire Card began. Whatever it is, my greatest wish right now is to read what happens.

New Book Alert: Prey No More (The Desire Card Book 2) by Lee Matthew Goldberg; More of the Good, Creepy, and Sinister Same

 

New Book Alert: Prey No More (The Desire Card Book 2) by Lee Matthew Goldberg; More of the Good, Creepy, and Sinister Same

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Just when you thought it was safe to use your credit card, the Desire Card team is back to severely cut your throats-uh interest rates. Well before they cut your throat, your organs, and the organs of your closest friends and family members.

Set approximately 40 years after the first book Immoral Origins, the antagonists of Lee Matthew Goldberg's creepy and sinister crime thriller series have grown their operation exponentially. Once in a hideout near Hell's Kitchen New York, the main office is in a swank penthouse. Instead of wearing human-like masks of Old Hollywood stars, the do badders can now opt to get surgery to look like the stars of yesteryear. Some don't even don the Hollywood identities, so a Desire Card employee could be anyone: your lover, your mother, the hotel desk clerk, that nice old lady across the street, anybody.

Once with two offices in New York and London (with the London office only having two employees), Desire now has offices and operators all over the world and have their fingers in just about every corrupt activity going on. What hasn't changed are the Old Hollywood identities that many who work for the card live under, though now not everyone, and that the entire outfit is still overseen by the amoral enigmatic Clark Gable.

The protagonist in this one couldn't be more different from the predecessor's Jake Barnum AKA Erroll Flynn, if he tried. Instead we get J.D. Storm, Iraqi War vet and former sniper, now operating under the name and guise of James Dean. Instead of the wide eyed petty crook that Jake was, J.D. has been in the Desire Card game for some time. He has acquired a reputation for good marksmanship and ruthless efficiency. He and his partner, Humphrey Bogart are not to be trifled with.

Unfortunately, J.D. has a handicap that prevents him from being 100% good at his job. He is afflicted with a terminal case of conscience. He hesitates to go after a young woman and then when he and Bogart are to kill a man in front of his young son, J.D. refuses and goes into hiding. The Desire Card do not take resignation lightly. I mean he didn't even give two week's notice-rude! So, J.D. is on the run and never knowing when the Desire Card will catch up to him or who is affiliated with them.

Besides this, we also go into the background of J.D's life before he joined the card and how he got involved. He grew up in a small town in Washington state and had a girlfriend, Annie, who worked as a mark for a gang of thieves. She used her body to distract cashiers and clerks while her colleagues robbed them. J.D. suggested that she could go legit. In response to that suggestion, Annie left to join her gang and J.D. left to join the Army.

While on the battlefield, J.D. was trained as a sniper, only to be shot in the eye which could be detrimental for a sniper (no depth perception). So upon returning home, J.D. gets an eye patch and an overwhelming feeling of PTSD. He joins a support group which includes a woman named Rita, who looks a great deal like Rita Hayworth. Guess who she works for?

This beginning and the chapters where J.D. returns to his small town and reunites with Annie reveal the type of character that J.D. was and might still have been if the Desire Card hadn't gotten hold of him. He was once a good guy who couldn't stand to see innocents suffer. He was protective of abused women and children. During his time with the Card and even during his exile from them, his once idealistic protective nature is crushed. By the end he becomes the very monster that he once feared, one who will willingly kill the innocent without conscience, to get even with someone else.

What is revealed throughout this volume is how much The Desire Card has grown in size, prominence, and means. One way this is evident is in the recruitment process of new agents. In Immoral Origins, Jake and other newbies wore faceless masks and did petty crimes like delivering drugs and other suspicious packages before moving up to big crimes and Hollywood names. J.D. did not go through that. He was handed the James Dean mask right away and given murderous assignments instantly.

From a storytelling standpoint, it makes sense that Goldberg wanted to skip this part since he didn't want to repeat himself but it also reveals something more sinister about Desire's current practices. They don't test the recruits because they don't have to. They already know what they have done and are capable of doing. All they have to do is look up records, research names, find their weaknesses and strengths, and voila another star is added to their heavens or rather hells.

 Once a frightening organization hiding in the shadows, the Desire Card is now upfront and somehow more dangerous. Who knows how many CEO's, politicians, tyrants, celebrities, and people both famous and infamous have made deals with the Card? How many world events can be laid at the feet of Gable and Co.? How many innocent lives have been killed and operators rubbed out when they, like Jake and J.D., have seen the light? There is no telling and with an organization as large and as powerful as Desire Card, little chance of bringing them down.

After all, since we the Readers and the characters know very little about how the Desire Card operates, it could go on forever. There is a strong possibility, even suggested in the text, that the identities behind the mask change. There are a couple of Old Hollywood identities that I know for sure cannot be the same characters in the previous book. Also who's to say that this Gable is the same person as before? 

In the 70's, Gable was more than likely middle aged and had been around for some time to create and organize the card and learn what he knew about the people behind him. That he is still alive and active is possible, but not likely. Though if he is the same man as before, it does bring some interesting possibilities as we learn more about him (and definitely crosses out one of my previous theories about him). 

We learn that this Gable has a family including an adorable granddaughter and Chip, a flamboyantly gay son, whom he gives out of the way jobs to get rid of him. Chip especially bears an intriguing speculation. He's about late 30's to early 40's which meant that he might have been born around the same time or right after Immoral Origins. So if Gable is the same man as before, Chip's mother may also be a familiar figure from Book 1 as well. 

As the Desire Card becomes larger, their stranglehold on their agents and clients become that much greater. They are practically unstoppable. Who knows how much larger they can grow and how many are destroyed by Book 3? One thing is for certain, it will be as sinister, suspenseful, and as hard to put down as the rest.

New Book Alert: Immoral Origins (The Desire Card Book 1) by Lee Matthew Goldberg;. Suspenseful Crime Thriller About the Hidden Cost of Desire and Success

 

New Book Alert: Immoral Origins (The Desire Card Book 1) by Lee Matthew Goldberg;. Suspenseful Crime Thriller About the Hidden Cost of Desire and Success

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: What's on your reading list?

What if you had a card that would give you anything that you desired and removed any obstacle to obtain it? How satisfied would you be or would you want more? What if in obtaining your heart's desire, it involved the deaths of people? Maybe people you don't know, maybe a rival, but it could just as easily involve the death of a friend or family member? After all, the cost of this card is only your soul. Now would you do it?

This premise is explored in Lee Matthew Goldberg's The Desire Card series and particularly its first volume, Immoral Origins. As with his previous novels, Slow Down and Orange City, Goldberg shows the perils of cold blooded pure unadulterated naked ambition and its effect on a small time guy who is playing in bigger more dangerous leagues.

Jake Barnum, our protagonist, is a petty crook going nowhere fast. He just got out of prison and is left homeless and unemployable. He then moves back in with his parents and his mentally challenged brother, Emile. He is subjected to his parent's poverty which is revealed by the frequent visits to the hospital and medical bills to diagnose Emile's condition and his father working two jobs and getting only two hours of sleep per day. Jake's relationship with his girlfriend, Cheryl is coming to an end. (After stealing her a tennis bracelet from Tiffany's, Jake finds out that she is seeing someone else.) His childhood friend, Maggs introduces him to his boss, Georgie who wants him to do "pick ups and deliveries" and not ask questions. In Hell's Kitchen New York in 1978, that type of job can only mean one thing and they aren't mail carriers.

One Halloween night, Jake, dressed as Erroll Flynn's Robin Hood, encounters a woman dressed as Marilyn Monroe and only answers to that name. Marilyn informs Jake that she works for a company that grants wishes, with the Desire Card. It's everywhere you want to be….whether you like it or not. 

Marilyn introduces Jake to her boss, an enigmatic man known only as Clark Gable because like Marilyn, he wears costumes and a mask resembling the Hollywood actor. In fact all of the Desire Card employees and elite guests dress up in the masks and costumes of old Hollywood stars. There is Bette Davis typing away every conversation in front of her, even small talk. Gregory Peck is ruthless in the job and in his relationship with Marilyn. Spencer Tracy is Gable's informant.  Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier  run the European branch. Now Jake has a new identity as Erroll Flynn. Marilyn says that it's a disguise to hide who the people really are from the outside world and themselves. Your Hollywood mask, don't leave home without it.

The Desire Card is meant to fulfill the holder's wishes whether it's to get more money, a promotion at work, or in Jake's family's case top notch medical care for a loved one. Gable and his operatives do anything to make those wishes come true. However, the means are less like Santa Claus and more like Al Capone or Jimmy Savile. They resort to kidnapping, theft, sexual assault, and murder to get the job done. They are also expanding their services into drugs and other extra "benefits" that come with having the card. The more that Jake profits from his time with the Desire Card, the greedier and more addicted he gets to power and success. After all, doing illegal deeds to meet one's desire: Expensive. Murdering other people: Costly. Selling one's soul: Priceless.

In this book, Goldberg does what he does best: shows how power and ambition could be an addiction and how often these little guys become swept in and end up becoming the deadliest force of all. Jake is like the petty crook in gangster films who robs stores and takes drugs thinking that makes him tough. Then he gets involved with a much bigger and deadlier group. Amidst the wild parties, frequent sex, and nights out in fancy restaurants, he realizes the darker side of his new friend and now that darker side is turned towards him. In the grand scheme of criminal activity, Jake is a small dog, a Yorkie, yipping at the heels of a pack of dobermans and acts surprised when they snarl their teeth and shed blood on him.

He enjoys the protection that they give him and the treatment that Emile receives. He also likes the flash and glamor that he is exposed to as he ascends higher in the organization. 

Jake at first has few moral concerns. As long as he's getting everything that he wants, he doesn't question the things that he has to do. Even after he expresses qualms about killing for the first job, he ends up becoming okay with it later-as long as the people he goes after are enemies or strangers. It's when they go after friends and family, that Jake questions his new life. Jak is an extremely egocentric selfish creep of a weak willed character who only has moral qualms when it personally involves him. That makes him the perfect victim for the people behind the card.

The Desire Card employees are an intriguing bunch because they are so mysterious. Their only identities are their Hollywood names and characters. I suppose we could infer from their chosen identities who they might have been. Maybe Bette was a tough gal who liked to be a Jezebel. Perhaps, Katharine came from a wealthy Connecticut background and Olivier might be a devotee of Shakespeare.

We learn a bit about Marilyn and everything about her backstory is similar to her character: the lost lonely young girl, the attraction to powerful dangerous men, the sadness hidden behind a glamorous facade. But the Reader only learns a little bit about her. She loves her identity as Marilyn so she insists that's all there is. Part of working for the Desire Card is to become their deepest desire.

The most mysterious of all is their leader, Gable. Everything that we learn about him is repeatedly proven or disproven. Does he have a family or doesn't he? How long has he been doing this? How does he find out everyone's desires and secrets? Is he just really good at obtaining informants or is there something else? Is there something supernatural at work here? After all, doesn't the Desire Card sound an awful lot like a deal with the devil? We learn nothing and see nothing except what Gable wants us to see.  It will be interesting to see how Gable and his subordinates continue to play out this mystery in the rest of the series.

Immoral Origins is great at dissecting what the hidden cost is obtaining power and success without a conscience. There are some books that explore this theme without success. For everything else, there's Immoral Origins.