Showing posts with label Sandra Ruttan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sandra Ruttan. Show all posts
Thursday, June 05, 2025
Do Some Damage: Interview: RyNyx Discusses Her Love of Mysteries and Her Dark Academia Standalone, ENIGMA
Do Some Damage: Interview: RyNyx Discusses Her Love of Mysteries a...: RuNyx is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dark Verse series and multiple standalone novels. Her latest standalone, Enigma , feat...
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Friday, May 05, 2023
Sunday, February 19, 2023
Monday, October 03, 2022
Do Some Damage: THE WALKING DEAD
Do Some Damage: THE WALKING DEAD: Dead End Remember watching Star Wars for the first time? Remember the profound change it set off in your little heart? Maybe it wasn’t...
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Saturday, August 20, 2022
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Sandra Ruttan Reviews: Kismet by Amina Akhtar
Kismet had me at Sedona, Arizona. This breathtaking city is a tourist trap, but it’s easy to understand why. The stunning landscapes attract visitors from all over the world, and I’d never read a thriller set there before, so I was eager to check out Kismet.
Once I started the book, it quickly
turned into a fast-paced read that I couldn’t put down. Ronnie might not appeal
to some readers because she is very passive, but that’s part of her journey,
and I found it completely credible. I related to her and her attempts to fly
under the radar to avoid conflict and her inability to really understand, love,
and assert herself.
This isn’t your typical thriller with an
active investigation into the murders. The story focuses on the way that crime
impacts local residents, and how people with varying agendas try to capitalize
on the crimes for their own gains.
I was a teenager living in Ontario at
the height of the manhunt for a suspected serial killer you may have heard
of—Paul Bernardo. And I grew up in Cottage Country, so I spent every summer of
my life (until adulthood) dealing with tourist infestations and the ways people
capitalized on tourists. From that perspective, I found the events in Kismet quite credible. As someone who’d
spent their childhood exploring woods and lakes and disappearing for hours
without consequence (because that’s what we kids did in the 70s), the search
for Bernardo prompted additional parental supervision and more public scrutiny.
My parents even gave a report to the police about someone they knew who had a
similar car to one seen near an abduction. Everyone was on edge, and when
everyone’s on edge, things can escalate quickly. Fear drives wedges in
communities and relationships.
There’s some masterful sleight of hand
at play here in the storytelling, because while you’re legitimately so focused
on some events unfolding, there are other developments that come together to
surprise and fill in the missing pieces in this story. There is some woo woo,
you could say, because there are chapters told from the perspective of ravens.
I liked this added touch to the story, because it definitely tells you there’s
more at work here than what meets the eye. However, if you don’t like woo woo,
you could probably skim or skip those sections without it significantly
impairing your ability to enjoy the core story.
There are some political threads in Kismet related to racism. In my opinion,
you can’t tell this kind of story without delving into the current political
climate. To try to do so would be disingenuous, and the politics of racism is
very much a factor for Ronnie. We see that throughout the story, from the
people who were so casually racist they never listened to her and tried to
label her as something she wasn’t to the people who profiled her because of her
skin color.
Now, getting back to the woo woo portion
… one of the things I really liked was the reference to people’s auras. I don’t
know much about this at all, but I really liked the idea of seeing beyond the
surface to understand what a person’s really about.
Kismet
provides resolution for the core threads, but it isn’t exactly what I’d call a
neat and tidy ending. There are a few details that aren’t followed up on. While
some thriller readers may find that annoying, it’s easy enough to guess at the
details and feels more credible because, in a way, it left this question mark
out there surrounding one character and their future. Kismet is a thriller that left me grappling with questions about
morality, and why sometimes I’m more than happy to look the other way, no
matter what I believe is right or wrong. More than that, it’s one that’s
lingered on my brain long after reading the last page, which is evidence of how
much I enjoyed it. 5 stars.
Sandra Ruttan © 2022
Sandra Ruttan is the founder and EIC of Dark Dispatch. In March 2022, Dark Dispatch released The Dead Inside, an identity horror anthology co-edited by Laurel Hightower and Sandra Ruttan. Ruttan's novels are available online, and if you're looking for a place to start she suggests Harvest of Ruins.
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Sandra Ruttan Reviews: Stargazers by L. P. Hernandez
Review of Stargazers by L. P. Hernandez
Stargazers is a lean story
centered around Henry, his wife, and his daughter. It takes place during an
unexplained event. Perhaps you imagine the end of the world with fire raining
from sky, bombs dropped by man, or missiles launched by aliens. Stargazers
is far more sinister because it's mysterious and unexplained, but whatever it
is overrides people's minds and assumes control. They aren't themselves, and
their behavior leads to their deaths, the destruction of towns, and the deaths
of others.
Henry has PTSD and already
struggles to hold it together during the best of times, so when things go bad,
there's real tension. It's instinctive to wonder how he'll cope. This adds to
the intrigue and maintains reader engagement as events unfolded.
Sections are split with some posts online. These outside perspectives give readers different information about what's happening and widen the scope of knowledge effectively. When you anticipate trouble on the horizon, you worry more about your protagonist and want to see what happens when they come to certain realizations or deal with new realities. In the mystery genre, there are whodunnits and there are howdunnits and there are whydunnits. Sometimes, however, the most compelling mysteries don't center on unknowns, but rather certainties. Knowing a character will have to deal with something specific and wondering how they'll get out of the situation or respond can be just as satisfying as figuring out who's responsible.
This story creates and maintains plenty of tension and adds plenty of developments throughout to keep it from being predictable. In fact, the author avoids some common tropes and leaves us with loose ends, and I personally applaud the choice to avoid tying things up neatly.
My only real quibble
centers on a writing choice related to point of view. At times, we follow Dad
or Mom, and other times we follow the daughter. I don't think the sections from
the daughter were necessary and since most involved jumping to and from her POV
in the middle of a scene, it was distracting. The other thing is, knowing her
thoughts mitigates tension in those scenes because we know her situation, and
she presents as very mature for her age. Staying out of her thoughts keeps the
focus on Dad's concerns and his uncertainty because he doesn't know what she's
thinking. The same way the mystery about what's prompting the stargazers to act
the way they do adds tension and intrigue, not knowing what the child's
thinking adds to Henry's worries and stress level. He's dealing with the
stargazers, armed people in the streets, and his own demons. Worrying about his
daughter adds another layer to his concerns, but we don't really live in those
moments because the POV jumps to her and reassures us because she isn't in
full-blown panic mode.
Compare to a scene
between the parents when Mom comes home, clearly distraught. We don't even know
exactly what she saw, and that lack of detail is more effective because we see
the scene through Dad's eyes and feel how worried he is. It's perhaps the most
gutting scene in the book because Henry's wife has kept it together for so long
and now she's come undone, leaving Henry anchorless.
Overall this is a
solid novella that blends the best elements of horror and suspense to deliver a
memorable apocalyptic story that's both chilling and hopeful. I look
forward to seeing what Hernandez has in store for us in the future.
Trigger Warnings
Sexual assault
Gaslighting
Gore
Death
Grief
PTSD
Sandra Ruttan ©2022
Sandra Ruttan is the founder and EIC of Dark
Dispatch. In March 2022, Dark Dispatch released The Dead Inside,
an identity horror anthology co-edited by Laurel Hightower and Sandra Ruttan.
Ruttan's novels are available online, and if you're looking for a place to
start she suggests Harvest of Ruins.
Friday, July 15, 2022
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Monday, December 21, 2020
Wednesday, March 04, 2020
Sandra Ruttan Reviews: The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste
Phoebe and her cousin grew up on the same street, in the same
corner of their city... Where people still shopped at a no name corner store,
where all the men worked for the same company, where all the women met for
gossip and event planning and crisis management.
This is the same place a much older Phoebe returns to, decades
later. The place she swore she'd never return to. Circumstances have forced her
back, all these years after she ran away.
Timelines following both 18-year-old Phoebe and 46-year-old Phoebe
intertwine. The reader gradually learns what it was that drove Phoebe away, and
the truth about the rust maidens.
Kiste draws readers into Phoebe's life and story and builds
suspense as she slowly reveals more details-details that only add to the intrigue.
For me, this was as unputdownable as a book gets. I was
mesmerized, not only by the plot and revelations, but by Phoebe's journey. This
work exemplifies the very best of the horror genre. It is a book I would point
to when arguing that horror is the most hopeful genre, because a critical
component of much of the best horror is the ability to find strength within
yourself and stand up to the terrors you're facing.
This work is every bit as much about healing and forgiveness and
regret as it is about the horror of what happened that summer 28 years ago. It
made an indelible mark upon me, and although it has been weeks since I finished
it, its impact remains. And if you want to prove to someone that not all horror
is gore, monsters, serial killers or demons, this is the book to hand them.
It's the fear of what's beyond your control that is what produces the horror
here, and it gets under your skin in a real and palpable way.
I highly recommend this novel.
Sandra Ruttan ©2020
Sandra Ruttan is an editor, author and reviewer. Keep up to date
via Twitter @sandraruttan
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Sandra Ruttan Reviews: The Prisoners of Stewartville by Shannon Felton
Stewartville is a “vortex of weird”.
It is a place where urban legends overlap with the very real fear that comes
from the town’s isolation and the fact that there are prisons nearby. Blaring
sirens indicating a prisoner is on the loose overshadow people’s daily lives.
It seems like everyone in town is headed towards those prisons. They’ll either
work there or be sent there. That is, perhaps, the closest one will get to the
real truth of the town.
Or is it? When a group of teens dare
to visit the site where several children died, one spots muddy fingerprints on
the back of the car, and yet the road had been empty. Then a strange car
follows them and fear sets in.
Two of the boys also find a tunnel
connected to a basement. Their easy friendship starts to sour as Denny’s
obsession with the tunnel grows. His mom has changed since their move to
Stewartville, and tensions are rising in his home.
His friend is being raised by his
brother—their mom is locked up —is surrounded by people who aren’t acting
normally. His brother fixates on keeping him straight and clean so that he can
make something of his life, but that same brother now seems to be using drugs.
The house is messier, the food supplies dwindle.
Then people snap. One shocking murder
is only the beginning. Is it the ley lines? The tunnels? Something crawling out
from beneath the town to wreak vengeance for prior wrongs?
Author Shannon Felton does a great job
of creating and building tension throughout this story. She provides just
enough info to keep you guessing about what’s really going on, and then still
manages to pull the rug out from under your feet with unexpected developments.
The town feels all too real, with a lot of people lacking direction and
succumbing to their unwelcome fate. There’s a hopelessness that permeates every
page, and has you feeling like the characters are under constant pressure to
surrender to the pull of the prisons. Whether the curse is real, whether some
other evil force is at work, is for you to decide.
Sandra Ruttan ©2020
Sandra Ruttan is the YA, sci fi, fantasy and horror acquisitions
editor for Bronzeville Books http://www.bronzevillebooks.com/ and the managing editor
for Bronzeville Bee http://www.bronzevillebee.com. Stay up to date via twitter @sandraruttan
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Review: Maxine Unleashes Doomsday by Nick Kolakowski
When the world seems to be on fire every day and the new normal of society is borderline chaos, Nick Kolakowski’s new book, Maxine Unleashes Doomsday has a lot of relevance to the here and now. He builds on that and extrapolates into a near future that is all too plausible. Part crime fiction, part dystopian thriller, and with violence on nearly every page, this is a complicated read that is very good.
A little
over one hundred years now, climate change has wreaked havoc through sea level
rise and more. Major cities such as New York are flooded and ravaged.
Foods are in short supply and local government as we know it now is gone. The
United States has fractured with various areas controlled by local mob style
bosses as the federal government tries to hang onto their last grasp of power.
That fracturing of everything trickles down all the way to the boroughs of
Manhattan and Brooklyn who are locked in a battle for control.
They are not the only ones locked in
territorial battles as there are groups everywhere fighting over the dwindling amount
of resources in a world that is getting worse and worse. On a very personal
level, there is the personal battle of survival of Maxine Hardwater. Unfortunately,
beyond the fact of her age and gender being perceived by some as ways to
control and marginalize her, she also has to battle her drug addicted mother to
try and keep family and home together. She also has to battle her Uncle, a
notorious criminal known as “Preacher,” who is really good at barely rescuing
her from a current problem and then promising real and meaningful help in the
times to come.
Maxine learns
again and again that the word of family means often less than the word of
strangers. With very few options in a world going downhill as society crumbles
more and more, she is left to fend for herself by use of her brains, brawn, and
fatalistic courage. As such, there is a noir style flavor to the read that has
a steady drum beat of the original Mad
Max and Terminator movies style
vibe to it.
Along with
occasional flashes of dark humor--- of course the New York Giants have evolved
beyond football to a full scale criminal enterprise--- and social commentary,
Nick Kolakowski fractures time and a linear storytelling style throughout the
book. He does so by creating a complex story based on an artificial intelligence
compilation of various source materials. A historical record of sorts is compiled
covering segments of the life of Maxine Hardwater. That record comes from many
sources and includes academics that sometimes argue with the artificial
intelligence about the record.
Despite that storytelling angle, the
read never becomes preachy as it delves into many topics such as poverty,
climate change, politics, technology with its good and bad side, and many
others. In fact, one has to pay close attention because things come and go in a
read that, likes the world that it depicts, is fractured in many different
ways.
While
dystopian fiction has not been a staple of my reading tastes since 9/11 when
everything changed in so many ways, this one is quite a bit different than the
usual fare I have seen over the many years I have been a reader. Maxine
Unleashes Doomsday by Nick Kolakowski is a mighty good read. It also presents
a world that could very easily happen and one I really do not want to
see.
eBook ARC provided by the author with
no expectation of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2020
Tuesday, November 05, 2019
Sandra Ruttan Reviews: Maxine Unleashes Doomsday by Nick Kolakowski
This book also happens to
be in my digital tbr pile though I have no idea when I will get to it. Please welcome
back Sandra Ruttan who can tell you about the book now.
You're probably going to see a lot
of Mad Max comparisons and references when people talk about
Nick Kolakowski's Maxine Unleashes Doomsday, and there is
definitely a Mad Max vibe. We're propelled into the future - a
future where current borders don't all exist, where parts of the United States
have broken off and become their own countries.
But, unlike the world of Mad
Max, this isn't a parched earth starving for water. This is a world where
the seas have risen and the skyscrapers of New York City are surrounded by
water instead of roads.
Kolakowski uses a distinct
storytelling approach by having the parts of Maxine's life segmented. We are
aware from the inserts throughout (and the arguments between academic scholars
and AI) that there are gaps missing. One of the benefits of this approach is
that you don't project in the same way and expect people who are relevant in the
second stage of Maxine's life to pop back up in the later segments. This keeps
you on your toes as a reader, because you're never quite sure when a character
is about to make their exit.
There's a lot to dissect in this
book. It touches on climate change, attitudes towards poverty, political
instability, technology and its potential ills, but it is never weighed down
with these issues. Some books risk being soap boxes and feeling preachy as they
delve into tough topics, but that's never the case here. This is a non-stop
action thrill ride with substance and heart. Maxine is feisty and likable, a
self-made heroine who isn't about to be stepped on and squished by the wealthy
in society.
There's solid crime components and
this is a dystopian story that should appeal to fans of dark fantasy stories
set in a future earth. There are also a lot of science fiction elements,
although the story is never stalled by technological specifics. Whatever you
call it, it's a great read worthy of your time. Sit down, buckle up, and brace
yourself. Maxine is one of a kind.
I'd pay to see this on the big
screen.
* Sandra interviews Nick about Maxine
Unleashes Doomsday on November 13 www.bronzevillebee.com
Sandra
Ruttan ©2019
Sandra
Ruttan is the YA, sci fi, fantasy and horror acquisitions editor for
Bronzeville Books http://www.bronzevillebooks.com/ and
the managing editor for Bronzeville Bee http://www.bronzevillebee.com.
Stay up to date via twitter @sandraruttan
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Sandra Ruttan Reviews: Beneath the Ashes by Dea Poirier
In her sophomore offering, Dea Poirier
sends Claire Calderwell on her next big case. A girl's body has been found in a
motel. There are ritualistic elements at the scene that hint at a murderer who
has been killing girls for a long time, and when more bodies are discovered.
Meanwhile, Claire's boyfriend Noah is
busy dealing with his own ghosts miles away. Claire misses him, but is struggling
with whether or not to take their relationship to the next level. Meanwhile,
she's assigned to partner with a young female officer who's never worked this
type of case before, and finds herself in the role of teacher and mentor.
In her investigation, all roads seem to
lead to the same hospital. The female administrator is heartless and there are
plenty of reasons for suspicion, but the hospital is uncooperative and has
enough influence to make it hard for Claire's investigation to advance.
There are plenty of discoveries along
the way as Claire, and the reader, sort out what information is relevant and
what isn't. One of the strengths of Poirier's approach is that she doesn't rush
to quick fixes and simple solutions. Claire feels very real because she is
damaged and solving her sister's murder doesn't automatically make everything
better. She'll spend a lifetime working through the damage from that trauma,
and no relationship, drink or life choice is going to change that. Claire
wrestles with demons. She struggles with what she wants - Noah - and her fears
about loss.
Poirier's stories are as much about the
slow road of recovery from trauma and dealing with grief as they are about the
murders Claire investigates. It's one of the hallmarks that sets her series
apart, and readers leave Beneath the Ashes with the sense that whatever
crimes Claire deals with next, she will continue to work through her personal
issues as well as she heals, making her a relatable and compelling character to
revisit with each new series installment.
Sandra Ruttan ©2019
Sandra Ruttan
is the YA, sci fi, fantasy and horror acquisitions editor for Bronzeville Books
http://www.bronzevillebooks.com/
and the managing editor for Bronzeville Bee http://www.bronzevillebee.com.
Stay up to date via twitter @sandraruttan
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Wednesday, September 04, 2019
Sandra Ruttan Reviews: Their Last Breath by Sibel Hodge
Their Last Breath is an ambitious
police procedural/thriller that engrosses you from the start. Gillian Lane
returns home from a business trip overseas, hoping to surprise her husband.
Instead, she gets the surprise of her life when she finds a stranger in her
house who chases her out into the road, where she is hit by a car.
Warren
Carter is at home, struggling to cope with retirement when he gets an early
morning call, asking him if he'll come down to talk to a police officer who
works with the Professional Standards Department (PSD). He fears the reason may
be something to do with an old case, called Bloodbath Farm, that involved
police corruption. A few things are clear from the start; Carter is also
mourning his late wife, and he has something to hide about the Bloodbath Farm
case.
He heads
in to talk to Caroline Barker and gets the surprise of his life; will he come
back to work? They have a case and need his help.
Detective
Sergeant Becky Harris is woken by her phone, early, and her husband isn't
pleased. Before she can leave to report to work her husband gets another dig
in. Their relationship is on the rocks. While her career is doing well and she's
recently been commended at work, he wants to start a family and is sick of her
long hours. She finds herself at Gillian Lane's house, where Lane's husband and
an unidentified woman have been murdered.
Carter,
meanwhile, has five dead bodies and a sixth victim en route to hospital after a
fire at an old building that was once a hospital. The victims have been chained
to the wall, suggesting human trafficking. Although the fire destroyed some of
the evidence, they find enough to know that a police officer's warrant card has
been recovered beside the body of one of the women. The ID has been destroyed
by the fire, but because of the potential that a police officer was involved,
PSD will handle the investigation, which will be kept confidential.
Carter
and Harris soon cross paths; they used to work together. Harris's case looks
like the work of a serial killer on the surface, but Carter can't tell Harris
anything about his investigation ... not yet.
This is
the foundation for what turns out to be an intricate story that weaves Carter
and Harris's perspectives throughout the story. The reader gets to follow both
investigations, and can start to see the pieces coming together. There are also
chapters from Gillian's perspective, as well as Hayat's, one of the victims
from Carter's case. The author does a great job of distinguishing each
narrative. One of the things to also appreciate about this approach is that
this isn't a book where lip service is paid to the victims. With sections from
Gillian's and Hayat's point of view, these victims are well developed, with
their histories, fears, feelings and hopes poured out on the pages.
To say
too much more on the plot would start to give some things away. There are some
specific things that I applaud. One is that Carter's investigation went in a
direction I haven't seen specifically tackled in another book. Having read some
other works by Hodge, I'm aware the author is often inspired to address real
world issues in her stories, and this one is no different. A note from the
author is included at the end to that effect.
Another
is that the backstory for Carter is as well developed as the ongoing
investigations. There is a sense of depth and history to all of these characters,
and that really makes it possible to invest in their personal and professional
challenges. You really feel like you've stepped into their world for this, but
that their lives continue on after you've read the last page.
Overall,
this is a compelling thriller that sinks its hooks in early and doesn't let go.
The pace intensifies as the cases progress and left me turning the pages late
into the night. I've enjoyed every one of Hodge's books I've read, and this one
is no exception; I highly recommend it.
Sandra
Ruttan ©2019
Sandra
Ruttan is the managing editor of Bronzeville Bee, an editor with Bronzeville
Books, the author of six novels, including What Burns Within and Harvest
of Ruins, and regularly contributes articles on writing and publishing
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