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A KEVIN R. TIPPLE BOOK REVIEW:
Echoes of Torment: A Novel of Suspense by Kevin Helmold
Sometimes a book has a great cover and some great blurbs that make one think it will be a good book. The premise is a good one as well and the book is opened with high hopes. It quickly becomes obvious that the book is a case of what might have been. This is one of those times.
Echoes of Torment: A Novel of Suspense By Kevin Helmold Echelon Press 2007 Large Trade Paperback
At 53 and with three decades in the business, Carl Braun has decided to retire from fire fighting in Chicago. The nightmares that have haunted his sleep have spread and now, at times, he sees the victims of fires past as he drives down the street or sits somewhere. He can't take it anymore and wants out.
He plans to take his lovely wife, Gina, and move to Vegas there he will put his card playing talents to work as a dealer. Half a world away, a Russian mobster is also dreaming of making an escape to a better life. His destination is Vegas and he has a plan.
Inevitably the two meet and clash in Vegas in what should have been a good novel. And while the author's fire fighting experience clearly comes through in this 286 page novel, what is also clear is that this is a very slow moving read.
Beyond the occasionally awkward phraseology, occasional stilted dialogue, and the frequent shifting points of view in a single paragraph the story takes quite a long time to get going. While the blurbs may state that it is a page turner, it takes nearly 70 pages to get Gina and Carl to Vegas. It takes another 40 pages or so to begin to develop the issue and finally the novel begins to move forward. At this point, the reader is nearly halfway through the read and much of what has been read to this point is the background and setup of various situations.
Once it does so, while the novel never becomes a real page turner, it does tell an entertaining story. The occasional awkward phraseology as well as the constant shifts of point of view are suppressed somewhat by reader's interest in how things will be resolved. While many of the ending points are expected to long time readers of mystery fiction, there are a couple of twists that provide some reader entertainment.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2007
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