Reviews

Review on Great Books Under $5

Freddy Mossman is too young to be washed up as a British SIS agent, but that’s essentially the situation he’s in because of a major screw-up on an assignment in Mexico. As a way to stay in the agency, he’s agreed to manage a safe house lodged in a small-time Parisian porn theater.

While Freddy ponders whether he’s got the right moral code for his chosen career, across town his former girlfriend Holly Henderson tries to fit in with the French company that acquired her former employer and moved her to the home office.

Stirring the pot is Freddy’s friend Jay McFarlane, a talented but not over-ambitious photographer who already has found his niche in life – causing as much trouble as possible for those he thinks deserve it. Invited to Paris to lighten his friend’s mood, Jay has attracted his own set of government operatives.

Jay’s idea of fun is to steal the neighborhood pimp’s classic car or to put Freddy in a position in which he must fight a celebrity’s two bodyguards. He’s not even above insulting the wife of Holly’s boss at the party she hopes to use to salvage her career. In a way, this is a high-jinks book. There is lots of violence, but most of it takes place off-stage.

As expected in a well-written thriller, it’s usually unclear who’s doing what to whom and why. When Freddy’s former mentor Thomas Veil shows up to offer him a way out of his dead-beat job, all the loose ends – Mexico, the spy shot dead in the theater by a gunman wearing a clown mask, and the head and hands of another spook left in Freddy’s fridge – all come together in a very satisfying denouement.

Make a Move is breezy, well-crafted and doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Review by Dan Holloway, author of Songs from the Other Side of the Wall

This is a marvellous piece of post-slacker Beat-style prose that draws the reader in and keeps them in its languid grasp till the end. Marvellous

Review by William Barr, author of The Carp Club

A real page turner but much more. The story races along at breakneck pace. The tension is maintained, but woven into the action are deeper and darker themes. The inner doubts and emptiness of action man Freddy echo the growing uncertainties of Holly as her chosen career stalls and goes down the pan. Everything in the book is shadowed by its opposite. The sleazy porn cinema also suggests a world of true unvarnished film for art’s sake. Doriane the prostitute is also Doriane the caring mother. Sometimes the violence of the book is gratuitous and sometimes almost cleansing.

As well as a story which underpins serious action with serious ideas, we have the sense that the setting itself almost emerges as a character. Paris is brilliantly evoked through its citizens such as M. Vasseur the baker, its dirt and its grime and its landmarks and restaurants. As with the characters, Paris is shown with the good and the ugly side by side.
Read this book with care. It is a good page turner but is much more than that.

Smashwords Review by Fran

Make a Move is like a road movie without the road. The plot, like the main characters, is deceptively easy going which makes this a real page turner that launches you into a thrilling finale. A really good read.

Review on Literarychick

I don’t usually read spy stories, but this one grabbed me from the start, perhaps because it isn’t really about espionage so much as it’s a story about friendship. The episodic writing style moves the story along at a quick pace and gives it an unusual flavour, and I mean unusual in a really good way. I found I often laughed out loud as I read, and I kept reading on and on, unwilling to put the book down, and eager to find out what would happen next. The characters jump to life in your mind, becoming so real that you’re utterly committed to them and their exploits – so much so that I even found I fancied one of them by the end. I know. A fictional guy in a book. That hasn’t happened to me since Pride & Prejudice…

There’s just the right balance of fun, action and character development, and don’t let the childish humour fool you into thinking this isn’t a smart book. It is. I loved it.

Smashwords Review by Exit16w

Make A Move combines a brisk narrative with rounded character development, all interwoven within an intelligent plot. Engagingly written, it offers a clever nod to the thrillers of yesteryear bringing the genre slap bang up to date with contemporary references that any discerning reader will greet with a knowing smile. The relentless pace will have you frantically scrolling through the pages eager to reach the next gripping instalment – in short it is the first electronic page-turner.

Do yourself a favor, Make A Move and click purchase!