THRESHOLD: A Hard-boiled Thriller

Honey McGuinness is the main character in Threshold. She is young, but the life her deceased mother served her and how Honey decided to live in the aftermath of her mother’s suicide were nightmarish and left her feeling emotionally drained. Now, all Honey wants to do is disappear, become anonymous and blend in with the crowd of hundred other anonymous, invisible people. She now lives alone, works for the pastor and his family, serving food to homeless people. All is well until the area becomes infested with drug dealers and addicts, and Honey’s friend, Billy gets murdered. Seeing that the police won’t do anything and there is no one she can turn for help to, Honey takes it up herself to find the killer and get her revenge. She enters the world she tried to escape for so long, the world of depravity, drugs and hopelessness. And maybe she’ll get more than she bargained for.

I should have known that this was no walk in the park when I read that Threshold was a hard-boiled thriller. I had never read one before and honestly just thought that a thriller’s a thriller and I’d have fun reading it. I did enjoy Ms. Kozek’s book but it was just so unexpected in its violent nature that I still catch myself thinking, ‘Did I read what I think I did?!’. Honey is a very sad character. Sad and tragic. She had a horrendous childhood, being abused by her mother and constantly prepared to commit suicide with her. When only Honey’s mother dies, Honey goes through life self-inflicting the abuse and perpetuating the violence as if in punishment for abandoning her own mother at the last minute. When she enters the world of drug lords to find the killer of her friend, things only get worse and Ms. Kozek spares the reader no details. The language and descriptions of what Honey subjects herself to are crude, brutal and shocking. If you are looking for a true roller-coaster ride, you’ll definitely find it in Threshold.

I said I enjoyed this novel despite the fact that it was so violent. The fact is that the author definitely knows what she’s doing. The writing flows smoothly, there are no real glitches anywhere and certainly no clichés. You probably won’t find much of character development as far as secondary ones go but you’ll get a pretty clear picture of Honey and how she comes through the horrid experiences in the end. All I can say is don’t let the 118 pages of this book fool you. They deliver enough punch to last quite a while and are not for the faint-hearted. ( )

I read this book with a reluctant fascination. Wondering where the story was going, but although I wasn't enjoying much about it, still continuuing to read on and find out. The setting is the streets and about as low as it gets. The lead character, Honey McGuinness, is not your average leading lady crime fighter. She chooses to live on skid row and has seen it all. When one of her friends is murdered, she takes it upon herself to solve the crime. As the back of the book says, it is "Bawdy, gritty, and unrelenting...." ( )

I won this on a quick giveaway from Melissa at Melissa's Bookshelf. It sounded interesting to me so I wanted to give it a shot. I'm pretty new to hard-boiled suspense/thriller books reading pretty much just the typical mainstream thrillers. I'm glad I got this book. It was a fast, enjoyable read. I really enjoyed the character of Honey McGuinness. She is not perfect, she has had a hard life and she knows it, but she moves on with her life. She has a lot of depth and even though she is not all good, she is really trying and she will do what she can for those she cares for, such as finding out who murdered her friend Billy, even if she has to risk her life, sanity and all she has worked for up until this point to find the murderer. The suspense line of the book was interesting, but I feel that the characters make the book, from the hardened character of Honey to the cowboy-cop, Skinner and the miscellaneous crew from Skid Row, you learn about all of them and their good and bad traits. The book had a very satisfactory ending but left me excited enough about the character of Honey to read the next in the series which will be out this year. I highly suggest reading Threshold if you enjoy suspense/thrillers with the hard-boiled edge, or even if you're not sure if you do and just want to try them. I think this is a wonderful book to try out the genre. ( )