the way into Texas, he reads love notes he
had written on paper hearts to Alisa over
the years from her keepsake box, and leaves
a note at each stop. While clearly evoking
Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, this story
of emotional awakening gamely explores a
man’s cathartic determination to learn to
live again. Readers will feel a gentle lift
from the easy tone and Max’s eye-opening
experiences.
Remember the Monsters
William Neal. Long Gone Wild, $12.95 trade
paper (286p) ISBN 978-0-9984479-3-3
Chicago PD Det. Abby Kendall, the
heroine of this suspenseful serial killer
thriller from Neal (Rogue Justice), is still
grappling with her separation from NHL
superstar Shane Donnelly when she’s
assigned to a high-profile murder case.
Lillie Roberts, the wife of Dylan Roberts,
the host of a controversial TV talk show
featuring volatile confrontations between
guests, was found in an SUV, her body
bisected and mutilated in a manner evoca-
tive of the notorious Black Dahlia murder.
While Dylan claims innocence, a blood-
stained shirt of his turns up in his garage.
Abby uncovers evidence that Lillie was the
latest victim of a subtle murderer, who’s
killed women across the country while
leaving evidence implicating the husband.
Meanwhile, Shane calls Abby to tell her he
got into a fight during a hockey game and
seriously injured his adversary, placing
himself in jeopardy of prosecution. Sections
recounted from the killer’s perspective, sig-
naling his identity, serve to escalate the ten-
sion. Fans of John Sandford will be pleased.
Simon’s Mansion
William Poe. KDP, $10.98 e-book (288p)
ISBN 978-1-72907-843-3
In Poe’s third autobiographical novel
(after Simon Says), a man struggles to fit into
his small Arkansas town after crashing and
burning in California. Simon Powell, 37,
and his boyfriend, Thad, both recently out
of rehab for cocaine addiction, settle into
Simon’s family’s ancestral mansion in
Sibley, Ark., with Simon’s aging mother,
Vivian, in the late 1980s. Thad chafes
against small town life and returns tempo-
rarily to California to work as a gay porn
voice-over artist. Simon, meanwhile, reen-
rolls at the University of Arkansas to resume
his undergraduate studies, having dropped
out years earlier to join the Moonies, while
his mother suffers a stroke and is moved to
a nursing home. When Thad stops
returning his calls, Simon assumes he’s
relapsed—until a package arrives with a
video, prompting him on a daring rescue
mission to California and then to Spain.
Lengthy, sometimes cumbersome exposi-
tion drags down the first half of the novel,
though it illuminates details of Simon’s
past, such as his previous marriage to a
woman from his church, and Poe does a
good job developing Simon’s tension with
his family over his break from religion.
While it gets off to a rough start, this com-
plex character study evolves into a nice
page-turner.Nonfiction
Good Grammar Is the Life of
the Party: Tips for a Wildly
Successful Life
Curtis Honeycutt. County Publishing, $13.99
trade paper (244p) ISBN 978-0-578-56003-8
Honeycutt, author of the syndicated
Grammar Guy column, pairs grammar les-
sons with self-help tips in this amusing
guide. He dispels common grammatical
pitfalls—when an apostrophe is apt, the use
of hyphens when writing about age, how to
use who and whom—and makes lessons
memorable through quirky anecdotes and
whimsical suggestions, such as directions
on how to obtain one’s own private island.
(He suggests planting a flag on any island
you’d like to have and referring to “article
19 of the Magna Carta.”) His Captain Hook
joke will lay to rest when to use bad versus
badly: “Would Captain Hook make a good
masseuse? No, because Captain Hook feels
badly. And he probably feels pretty bad
about that.” In a chapter on using proper
grammar to succeed at business, Honeycutt
suggests using power verbs and speaking in
active voice. Elsewhere, fictional characters
serve as grammarians, such as Batman and
Robin’s opinion of bad usage like irregardless
and “worst words” like diphthong and goiter.
While Honeycutt’s life advice ends up
being less than practical (“invent your own
jargon” and “get promoted”), his memo-rable grammar examples will help readers
be better prepared to speak and write con-
fidently. Those who can’t be bothered with
another dry grammar guide owe it to them-
selves to give this a look.Heaven and Hell: The Psychology
of the Emotions
Neel Burton. Acheron, $7.27 e-book (230p)
ASIN B081BCJJT6
Emotions “have come to assume an
increasingly dominant role in our lives,”
argues psychiatrist Burton (Hypersanity) in
this wide-ranging and impassioned survey.
In 29 essays, he considers feelings including
ecstasy, pride, and anger, as well as “emo-
tional expressions” such as kissing. In
“Embarrassment, Shame, and Guilt,” he
teases out the difference between the three,
explaining that embarrassment is a feeling
of discomfort, while “shame says, ‘I am bad,’
[and] guilt says, ‘I did something bad.’ ” In
“Boredom,” he meditates on the “deeply
unpleasant state of unmet arousal” as being
universal, and recommends meditation to
cope with it, while in “Ecstasy” he writes
that the defining trait of euphoric joy is “the
dissolution of boundaries, with the ego
merging into all of being.” Most of his
analyses lean on philosophy more than psy-
chology, and some of his interpretations are
dubious: he considers depression as a mental
disorder to be little more than “a socially
constructed dustbin for all manner of
human suffering,” and in “Sadomasochism,”
he writes that “in almost every relationship,
one partner is more attached than the
other.” Still, there is much to ponder, and
lay readers will enjoy most of Burton’s
entertaining theories.Children’s/YA
Princess Rose and the Quest of
the Golden Gown
Jennifer & Daniel Frazier. J&D Stories, $7.99
paper (177p) ISBN 978-1-73529-580-0
On the eve of her 13th birthday, Princess
Rose of Ametheria is forced to embark upon
a three-year quest. Rose senses something
is amiss at her birthday banquet when a
mysterious map appears in her pile of pres-
ents, but things escalate quickly when
drinking a suspicious-tasting bedtime teaREVIEWS ®
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