#BlogTour-‘Dark Retribution’ by B.R Stateham

About the book…

Smitty’s a hit man. A hit man who, sometimes, becomes a dark angel for those select few who are in desperate need. This time a cop needs his help in saving his sister-in-law. A madman is stalking ladies of the night and slaughtering them. No one knows who the madman might be. No clues are left behind. No witnesses are left alive. The police are baffled.

But one cop knows what to do. Sometimes, in defeating Evil, you occasionally have to flirt with the devil. Sometimes, only a killer can find a killer.

‘Dark Retribution:Smitty’s Calling Card ‘ is the first in the ‘Dark Retribution’ series and was published in ebook format in December 2018 .Huge thanks to Blackthorn Books for the blogtour invite and my gifted e-book copy of ‘Dark Retribution’.

I liked the concept of this series opener-a man who everyone knows lurks on the fringe of society, who can be bought-for a price-as a vigilante cum private detective.

Smitty is an enigma which means he allows each reader to imprint their impression of him on the character, the deliberate act of leaving out specific details is a neat twist in a book which  this reader felt was overly expositional.

The chase for a modern day Jack The Ripper who had slaughtered prostitutes in a similar enough fashion is not a new idea. However, I found myself getting frustrated with the pace, the character arcs and lack of a tight editing hand.

There were sentences which were missing words, huge gaps between the chapters of blank pages which made the book feel long than it was, and overly descriptive sentences which I found infuriating. In 3 sentences he explained what could have been achieved in one. This slowed down the pace of the narrative whilst trying to show that this was a noirish work of fiction.

The women were cast as side pieces to the story-the ‘tart with a heart’ murder victim or busty provocateur-but again, these were tropes that were poorly used and over egged throughout. If I had to read one more description of a woman wearing a dress which just begged to be torn off her, I was going to scream.

The narrative switches between the first person of the killer and third person of Artie -the detective who brings Smitty in when he is drawing a dead end on the investigation. But even then the killer was a cardboard cutout villain who lurked in the shadows and lacked depth.

This was not the worst characterisation, however, that was saved for the elderly black man who spoke in such a way that I winced and cannot bear to bring myself to repeat. It was meant to be street vernacular that reflectd the character’s heritage but it came across as hacneyed and possibly racist.

I genuinely wish I could say I enjoyed it more, I really do. With a tighter hand on editing and better representation this could have been a better story. It could do with being perhaps a 100 pages shorter and much more noir than it was. As a series opener, I am not keen on reading any further, I cannot even remember who or how they solved the crime and that, in itself, says it all.

For a true noir read, I would recommend skipping over to any of the books which Fahrenheit13 publish, or stick with the classics like Dashiell Hammett,Raymond Chandler or even Donald E Westlake

I genuinely am so sorry that I am not the receptive reader that either author or publisher was hoping for, it may tick all the boxes for people reading this and if so, I genuinely hope that you enjoy it.

But this is my clear and honest opinion and it’s purely mine as a reader-I remain grateful for the tour opportunity, and the gifted ebook.

About the author…

B.R. Stateham is a fourteen-year-old boy trapped in a seventy-year-old body.  But his enthusiasm and boyish delight in anything mysterious and/or unknown continue.

Writing novels, especially detectives, is just the avenue of escape which keeps the author’s mind sharp and inquisitive.  He’s published a ton of short stories in online magazines like Crooked, Darkest Before the Dawn, Abandoned Towers, Pulp Metal Magazine, Suspense Magazine, Spinetingler Magazine, Near to The Knuckle, A Twist of Noir, Angie’s Diary, Power Burn Flash, and Eastern Standard Crime.  He writes both detective/mysteries, as well as science-fiction and fantasy.

In 2008 the first book in the series featuring homicide detectives Turner Hahn and Frank Morales came out, called Murderous Passions.

Also, in 2008 he self-published a fantasy novel entitled, Roland of the High Crags: Evil Arises.

In 2009 he created a character named Smitty.  So far twenty-eight short stories and two novellas have been written about this dark eyed, unusually complex hit man.

In 2012 Untreed Reads published book two of the Turner Hahn/Frank Morales series A Taste of Old Revenge.

In 2015 NumberThirteen Press published a Smitty novella entitled, A Killing Kiss.

In 2017 a British indie publisher, Endeavour Media, re-issued A Taste of Old Revenge, and soon followed by a second Turner Hahn/Frank Morales novel entitled, There Are No Innocents.

In 2018 Endeavour Media published a third novel of mine, the first in a 1^st Century Roman detective series, entitled While the Emperor Slept.

Also in 2018, NumberThirteen Press merged with another famous British indie, Fahrenheit Press. Soon afterwards, Fahrenheit Press re-issued an old novel of mine entitled, Death of a Young Lieutenant.

Now, after all of this apparent success, you would think Fame and Fortune would have sailed into my harbor, making me the delight of the hard-core genre world. Ah but contraire, mon ami! Fame and Fortune are two devious little wraths who pick and chooses the poor souls they wish to bedevil. I remain in complete anonymity and am just as bereft of fortune as I have always been. And apparently will continue to be for a long time to come.

Links-http://noirtaketurner-frank.blogspot.com/