Robert Downs

I should've known better than to add this to my giveaway list. MANfiction? If that is a euphemism for shallow, sex-crazed, and attention-deficit-disordered, then that is definitely what this is. The wise-cracking would have been fine if it had been maybe once a chapter. But once a paragraph? No conversation goes by without some sort of double-entendre being exchanged. Not only was the main protagonist extremely annoying, but his detective work was sloppy verging on non-existent. There was absolutely no reason to ruin the genre of hardboiled fiction, and yet that is what this book has set out to do. Instead of a fun, light read it turned annoying and boring.

* I received this book for free from Goodreads First Reads.… (mer)

In author Robert Down's gritty noir suspense novella, The Fix, the reader meets down-on-his-luck gambler, Johnny Chapman. Johnny has lost the last of his money at a card game and loan shark Harrison Barrymore wants him to pay his debt. Harrison offers Johnny a way out: fix the next dog race by doping the dog that has been winning races lately. Johnny figures he could do the job, that is until he looks into Sam the dog's eyes, and Johnny realizes that he can't do it. So now what does Johnny do? He runs for his life from the loan shark's henchmen, trying to stay one step ahead in order to save his life!

The Fix is a fast-paced gritty noir novella that is full of in your face action and suspense that easily keeps the reader engaged. Author Robert Downs interweaves Johnny's flaws and troubles that he finds himself in as his life spirals downward with the same kind of down-on-your-luck troubles of his ex-girlfriend, Gwendoline Nivea in an alternating fashion that makes the reader stay on their toes. I kind of thought that this alternating interweaving of Johnny and Gwendoline's stories was confusing because I thought the premise of the story was supposed to be primarily focused on the trouble that Johnny found himself in after he didn't fix the dog race. Somehow the madcap dangerous adventure Johnny found himself in with the goons chasing him down was further into the story than I had expected. In any case, I did appreciate the suspense and dark humor that is prevalent throughout the book, it was quite entertaining. I just wish that maybe the story could have focused only on Johnny's crazy adventures, and not have been interwoven with his ex-girlfriend's life problems too.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author/publisher in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours.

https://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-fix-by-robert-downs-vbt-b...… (mer)