Charles Miske Author

The Serial Killer's Daughter by Lesley Welsh My rating: 4 of 5 stars Like reading the screenplay for a snuff film. If that's not okay with you, skip it. You've been warned. The sheer quantity of sexual violence and mind-games can be a bit overwhelming to the more sensitive reader. None of the characters experience much of a growth arc. No one really wins or loses. It's just fun fun fun until everyone is dead. There is no romantic anti-hero posturing here. Hope that's not going to be a problem for you. Why 4 stars? It is pretty well written. Gotta hand the author that. View all my reviews

Creatures of Appetite by Todd Travis My rating: 4 of 5 stars I wanted to give it a 5, really. But the main character was a bit coarse and misogynistic. Like a lotta bit. Oh, and a few other characters were too. Of course, we're talking about a bunch of cops and killers of various shades of gray here, so we can cut them a bit of slack. Overall really good editing, good story, and everything fits into place nicely. In fact the "shocker" ending to this book even fits in nicely. What does it take to out-sociopath all the sociopaths? Find out in this book, for sure. Best of all, there's no cliff-hanger. You can read this and bail on the rest and miss nothing at all. I might go on with the series, maybe not. We'll see... View all my reviews

A Time To Kill by Jeanette Raleigh My rating: 4 of 5 stars Not sure what just happened here. The snippet of chapters flitted back and forth between POV, sometimes in the middle of a fight scene or car crash or whatever. Mildly distracting to say the least. Like switching body-cams in an episode of COPS. A few were organic enough - flit to the POV of someone in an alternate dimension, a different city, yep, that's when you switch POV, and carefully at best, making sure it adds to the story somehow. Overall, after reading it, I felt like it could have been done in a few chapters as a short, maybe a treatment for a Buffy screenplay, or something similar. I don't mind having to grow into a mythology, heck, I did that in my own fiction novel, so that's not a problem. I mean the mythology being handed out in bits and pieces, hints and chunks held tantalizingly just out of reach. So that was one good thing, and why it's a 4, not a 3. The characters seemed a little bit cardb...

Crossing in Time by D.L. Orton My rating: 3 of 5 stars I don't think the description accurately portrayed this book. I won't spoil that for you, by pointing out the misses, but be mildly forewarned. The various bogey men might or might not be themselves or others, and blowing up a city to attract the attention of the people who would blow up the city in an alternate reality while adding more lists of people to blow up cities in other alternate realities and sending them all on death missions to interfere with their own alternate lives seems a bit much to keep track of. Other readers might not see this convoluted mess for what it is, and I apologize if it seems like I'm trying to say "Don't Read It" because I'm not. It's just a bit messy for me. I won't be continuing because the hints of what might come next are even more convoluted. How else can you wormhole through alternate dimensions and realities while cavorting with alternate or identical v...

Revenge Of The Cat Woman: A Short Story Set in Old Japan by Yael Eylat-Tanaka My rating: 3 of 5 stars I'm not certain what happened here. It was pretty short, and not much happened aside from depressing cultural attitudes and events that were pretty much historically correct. No one here was particularly easy to empathize with. The "Cat Woman" was pretty passive. The Cat was pretty passive. The antagonist was stated to be aggressive. It ended in a "he got his" way, but it was still unsatisfying. The ghost was merely a suggestion, perhaps a shadow of guilt. It was free, took only a few minutes to read, and was probably worth both the money and time. View all my reviews

The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer My rating: 5 of 5 stars Holy Snot! Is this the best Stephenie Meyer book ever or what? I read all the Twilights and thought they were way better than a lot of people did. I read The Host and it took me a while to get into it, but finally managed to find the groove and recognized the important step she took away from Twilight. With The Chemist it's like a total 180, and it's amazing. A super strong, super smart, super female who isn't all hung up on relationships. A doofus-jock hacker CIA assassin. A sweet sensitive school teacher in way over his head. How do they all fit together? Yes, there is a brief section where they all get together and sort through all the touchy-feelies and that lags a bit. Like a lotta bit. But finally it all works out with a bang and we're back in the groove for non-stop action. You know what though? That last Epilogue could have been kept sealed. I didn't need to add that to the characterizations. Maybe th...

The Good Samaritan by John Marrs My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was my Kindle First selection, which I put off till the 30th, it was that difficult to choose. I'm happy I did though. Our Good Samaritan is a bit more than we expect and you grow inside her head as the story progresses. Suddenly you're ripped out of it and inserted into another POV. That was jarring. Fortunately you grow into the new POV, and then flit back and forth between them. Is this a bad thing? Not once you get used to it. Until then it's tough. Who do you end up cheering for? Or do you hope they all get what they deserve for getting involved in this mess? Surprising participants drift into the "suicide and murder game" and no one seems untouched by it. A seemingly out-of-the-blue ending sweeps in to shock you, but were you paying attention? It was foreshadowed several times throughout the book. Read it. Read it and pay attention. It lags just a little bit at the first POV switch, but picks r...