The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Guest Review by Jason Lush

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One hundred and ninety pages of political masturbation disguised as a supernatural suspense story. Of the three main characters we have; Dorian Gray, who is a brainless puppet the personifies vanity; Basil Hallward, the artist who painted the fabled portrait and represents the sorrowful conscience; and Lord Henry Wolton, who is the quintessential 19th Century fop whose sole purpose in the book is to act as Wilde’s voice on politics, religion and homosexuality and as a driving corrupter of everyone else in the book.

The pacing is horrendously slow, the chapters devoted to explaining Gray’s hobbies and the pictures of his ancestors in his hallway don’t help with the lousy pacing. The whole story could have been condensed to a 30 page novella and would have been enjoyable.

And, as a side note to the posthumous Mr. Wilde, forty is not old and hideous.

Free Fiction: Persia Walker

Persia Walker is giving away her new book, Darkness and the Devil Behind Me, on here web site here. Blurb below.

In December 1923, Esther Todd was a lovely young pianist, a rising star. One month later, she was on the Most Wanted List. She had vanished along the snowy streets of a stormy night in Harlem and thieves had hit the home of her society patron, pulling off a million- dollar heist.

Were the disappearance and the robbery coincidence or conspiracy? Somebody knew, but nobody was talking. Three years later, the puzzles remained unsolved.

As a crime reporter, Lanie Price covered the initial case. Now a frustrated society columnist, she’s ready for a change. It comes in the form of Esther’s sister, Ruth.

Desperate for closure, Ruth begs Lanie to dedicate her Christmas column to the case. Maybe someone, somewhere will remember something. Seeking fresh material, Lanie starts asking hard questions, dangerous questions, the kind just about guaranteed to get her killed.

Free Pulp Fiction

Black Death Books and KHP Inustries are offering a free pulp serial novel (it started November 1st). Blurb below:

THE STING OF THE SCORPION by Warren Stockholm, #1 in the Scorpion series.
Imagine a world where the Allies lost the war to Nazi Germany and America has spent sixty years under duress by Axis powers. Now imagine an America newly freed from oppression and trying to find its way—through crime and punishment. Welcome to the new America.
Kurt Reinhardt is a powerful and debonair newspaper publisher by day—but by night he becomes a crime-busting vigilante feared by the criminal underground and relentlessly pursued by the police. He is neither entirely good nor is he evil—and as The Scorpion his agenda is his own. To fight the criminal element he utilizes the awesome .50 caliber Sting, a garrote of piano wire, and secrets best left buried forever in the past. Aiding him in his ruthless quest for “death for death and blood for blood” are hard-boiled Police Captain Dick Barracks, Spike Malone, a cynical young hooligan out of the river district, and Suzaku, his loyal Japanese retainer. At night in Steeltown the shadows are alive and The Scorpion crawls…

Free Fiction: M.J. Rose

The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose is available as a free download for a very short period of time here. Blurb below (from M.J. Rose’s web site).

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THE REINCARNATIONIST is equal parts modern-day thriller, historical fiction and love story. With one foot in present-day Rome and New York and another in Rome some 1,600 years ago, my story is about two worlds consumed by the fires of intrigue and passion.

Photojournalist Josh Ryder survives a terrorist’s bomb, only to be haunted by near hallucinatory memories of a past life in Rome as a pagan priest whose dangerous congress with Sabina, one of the Vestal Virgins, poses a transgression so serious the lovers will face a certain death if exposed. Scents of jasmine and sandalwood and images of furtive liaisons and violence descend on Josh at will, pulling him to an ancient yet strangely familiar Roman burial chamber harboring the remains of a woman clutching a wooden box.

A trail of present-day murders takes us deeper into a labyrinth at whose heart lies the enigma of a collection of ancient gems or memory stones whose origins trace back to both ancient Egypt and India. The stones’ promise to “assist the wearer in reaching his next incarnation” sets the ancient and modern worlds on a collision course.

Free Fiction: The Mark by Jason Pinter

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It says “Browse this book” but the whole thing is available for free to promote the third in the series coming out soon.