Christopher Meeks

I have to admit that I was thinking my life was tough and my day was pretty bad until I began reading this book. Poor guy had a much worse day: kicked out of his doctorate program, no job, finds himself in the midst of a bank robbery, and then is taken hostage. Nope, my days are pretty rosy.

This story had me hooked just out of pity for the poor guy, but when things turned from bad to worse I couldn't put it down. I had to know what was going to happen next. This was far from the typical show more suspense/thriller. Yes, it does follow the MOs you expect in some areas but the characters make it so unique.

I loved these characters. They were so unique that I could see them as real. They had their quirks and secrets that revealed their flaws and their vulnerabilities. I mean, they are adults and have parent issues even while dealing with being kidnapped. They have problems at work as they try to make a career for themselves as they fall in love with the victim. Nothing is really too far fetched. Yes, there is one character you might argue is but I live in a huge city. Trust me, it is not far fetched. Can't say more or I let a big secret slip which is a no-no in reviews. I don't do spoilers.

If you love suspense/thrillers that have some humor, you'll love this book. Yes, the kept me riveted, but it was also not so intense and fast paced that I couldn't put it down and get dinner ready. There were many places where it slowed down so the characters could breathe and let the past reveal itself. I was thankful for that. While I love a story that never slows down, I also appreciate one that is well-balanced.

You have to read this book. You'll enjoy it and want more. Plus you'll learn to appreciate your own days a little bit better.

Note: This book was provided as part of a book tour with no expectation of a positive review. show less

This is Christopher Meeks second book of short stories and I'm sorry that I haven't read his first, which was an award winning collection. I read these 11 stories through the first time for pleasure and it was that. I like them a lot. The characters here, whether humourous, tragic, or mildly absurd are likeable, believable, and not always predictable. Like ordinary people, but with quirks that make them memorable. I haven't had a collection of short stories stay with me as vividly for quite show more some time. Even better, when I looked back through them I realized that there's not a weak one in the bunch. The author clearly edited himself, choosing and arranging this group of stories carefully. I've always preferred longer short stories so I wasn't surprised that "The Sun is a Billard Ball" at 32 pages in length would appeal to me. Or the 25 page "Breaking Water". But even "Catalina" at only 3 pages is a solid and emotionally powerful account of a man's unexpressed grief . I read it several times because what the author doesn't say is as telling as what he does. This is the sign of a good writer. In the first of these three stories, the uncertainties and fears of impending illness and diagnosis are palpable, the tension is familiar and real. In the third a Greek American man, advised by an acquaintance to spend the day on Catalina Island, is angry and judgmental until " he is surprised to see that the dry hills leaping from the water were like the Chora Sfakion in Crete. His friend must have known."
There's a wide range in age and emotional experience of his characters. Whether it's a seven year old who's afraid of water in the more lyrical "The Wind Just Right " or a seventy-eight year old playwright losing his home and life's work to wildfires in" The Old Topanga Incident", Meeks is capable of seeing and writing from very different perspectives. He shows great versitility too by writing in the voice that most suits each story. His use of the first person singular for the main character of "The Holes In My Door" lets us into the depression and obsessive fears of this recently seperated man who's slipping into paranoid behaviour. Any other perspective would not have had the same power. The use of the second person in the "Topango" story work well too. "You open the door" to shouting firemen,"you run down two flights of stairs", "you grab the play, the only copy", "you wonder whether you can make it through this". The urgency and loss is keenly felt by the reader, it's perfect.
I especially enjoyed the title story "Months and Seasons". The main character is determined that the love of his life will have the name of one of the months or seasons of the year. He won't even date someone who doesn't fit the bill. This tale about putting limits on our own fate is touching and funny. When a woman at a party introduces herself as "August" I laughed out loud. Meeks creates believable female characters too as in the final story "Breaking Water", where a model must reshape her entire life after heart surgery. Her inability to get pregnant causes her husband to abandon her, but not until after she has recovered from surgery. He doesn't want to look bad after all. We are rooting for her at every new turn in her life. This is a great collection of stories that I look forward to reading again. Highly recommended.

There's icing on the cake here too with "The Hand", an excerpt from "The Brightest Moon of the Century" at the end of the book. This novel in the form of related short stories will cover 30 years in the life of a young Minnesotan named Edward. The first of these stories made me want to know more about what happens to Edward. Given this writer's gifted sense of storytelling, I expect this new book will be a winner too. show less

The Book Report: Gunnar Gunderson, physicist and dweeb, looks for love and finds it.

My Review: "It is impossible not to like Gunnar Gunderson," says critic Sam Sattler of Book Chase (pulled directly from the back cover of the book). I am here to tell you that it is indeed possible, nay incumbent upon, the critical reader to dislike dull, nerdly, clueless Gunnar. A Candide manqué, a feebly drawn Bertie Wooster sans Jeeves, Gunnar elicited in me no strong desires. He made me laugh exactly show more once: The author describes Gunnar in the throes of his errrmmm crisis of completion as seeing A CHECKERBOARD! I split my sides. A checkerboard! Fountains of feathers, explosions of fireworks from deep oceans of perfume, celestial travel...I've read some fun and funny descriptions of what folks see when aaahhhmmm arriving at the station after the choo-choo ride, but this one...!

But most of the book is just a litany of Gunnar's ghastly gormlessness. His own mother can't be bothered most of the time. His father's death brings forth in Gunnar only the desire to see if he's got a hospital gown on in the deathbed. The charming lassie who ends up, inexplicably to me, responding to this wet mass of protein with favor got the strongest response of anyone in the whole book from me: "NOOO! Save yourself, you're too good for him!"

Which, come to think of it, was also my reaction to my daughter's first husband. Are all srtraight women this sucky at choosing men? show less

Blood Drama by Christopher Meeks introduces us to Ian Nash, a grad student who has been kicked out of his PhD program. To make matters worse, while applying for a job at a coffee shop in a bank lobby, Ian is taken captive by bank robbers lead by the Busty Bandit and her gang. What is different about this Busty Bandit robbery, however, is that this time it has turned deadly. Hot on Busty's trail is FBI Special Agent Aleece Medina, who is trying to discover the identity of the hostage while show more tracking down the robbers.

Once Ian manages to escape, one of the robbers, called Owen, seems determined to kill him. Owen leaves a trail of bodies while trying to track Ian down. Agent Medina is doing her best to find out what Ian knows and how it will help her track down the robbers. At the same time, Ian is determined to insert himself into the investigation in order to help Medina solve the case and bring the robbers to justice.

Ian is a hapless hero who uses his knowledge of theatre and deductive reasoning to solve clues about the robbers along side Agent Medina, who is fighting to solve and stay on the case. Even as she nears solving it, male higher-ups want to step in, take over, and, perhaps, take credit for the resolution. As they try to solve the case, Aleece and Ian also are fighting their attraction to each other.

Blood Drama was highly entertaining and extremely enjoyable. It is a combination black comedy and crime novel. The characters of Ian and Aleece are memorable, quirky, and unique. I soon reveled in Ian's quoting David Mamet (or some other playwright or work of literature) to deduce and interpret the information he had to ascertain where the clues were leading them.

As always, Meeks is a gifted writer. He has a pleasing way of propelling the action forward while developing his plot and characters. I had an advanced reading copy so I'm not providing quotes, but I couldn't help but share this gem:
"English teachers liked using allusions the way kids love sprinklers."

I enjoyed Meeks Love at Absolute Zero quite a bit, but I liked Blood Drama even more. I'm hopeful that Meeks will bring back Ian and Aleece to solve another crime.

Very Highly Recommended


Disclosure: I received a digital advanced reading copy of this book from Christopher Meeks and Premier Virtual Author Book Tours for review purposes. show less