Reviewing: "Thunder Beach" by Michael Lister

Former reporter Merrick McKnight is back at the annual “Thunder Beach” rally at Panama Beach, Florida. For many, the focus is on the bikes and the hot babes in attendance. For some, the focus is on the illegal stuff they can do and get away with in all the chaos and confusion during the rally. For Merrick the focus is on a woman.

Actually, his focus is on two women though that isn’t clear at the beginning. One is a stripper that he has fallen in love with despite the knowledge that only losers delude themselves into thinking a stripper loves them. The other woman, first glimpsed on the cover of the Thunder Beach Program guide, is a daughter he has lost touch with for years.

An unemployed newspaper reporter, Merrick is disintegrating and while he searches for a way to hold it together, he searches for his daughter and a way to get back into her life. From the beginning, she makes it pretty clear she doesn’t want him back in her life or his help. Merrick figures she does want his help and she most likely needs it. Especially considering somebody keeps warning him away from her and to leave her alone. Merrick intends to finds out just what she has gotten herself mixed up in and to make up for his past failures with her.

This is a gritty crime novel recently released by Tyrus books and a good one that roars on all cylinders from the very first page. Michael’s desperations, which come in several forms, are acutely realistic as are all characters in this fast paced crime novel. It doesn’t take long at all to see the world through his eyes and feel his various pains and guilt. The electric atmospheric charged environment of the beach and its inhabitants during the rally also brings the book further alive for readers.

This isn’t one of those books that hold readers back at a distance and dispassionately tells the tale. Much like “The Deputy” by Victor Gischler also recently released from Tyrus Books, this is an in your face novel that doesn’t play games or shirk from the story it tells. Graphic at times, this very good novel goes fast with plenty of twists and turns until it all too soon crashes to a jarring stop.

“Thunder Beach” is about crime, murder, sex and personal conflicts and it ain’t no beach read.

Thunder Beach

Michael Lister

http://www.michaellister.com/

Tyrus Books

http://www.tyrusbooks.com

May 2010

ISBN# 978-1935562054 (Hardback)

# 978-1935562047 (Paperback)

240 Pages

$24.95 (Hardback)

$14.95 (Paperback)

ARC provided directly by the publisher in exchange for my objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2010