Patchwork People by D. B. Martin Amazing Second Novel in Trilogy!

The black hole engulfed me. With no
love there could be no Kat--like there
had been no Margaret. Whatever
Margaret might have offered me, I
hadn't had the eyes to see it or the will
to accept it...

Murder, blackmail and incest -
what better way for a middle-aged
barrister to start the day?
Tipped for the top, but
anticipating the fall...
!!!

...That was the crux of it. Not blindness to potential danger, or lack of maternal concern. I was angry because of what she'd done to my childhood. She'd taken it away from me. If she'd turned into a 20th century Einstein or Florence Nightingale, my ejection would have had meaning--logic. Nurture the best at the expense of the worst. As it was it had no sense and no recompense. She was the root cause of all the troubles now sprouting like weeds around me. Bloody bitch. Bloody useless bitch! She should have never been born, never existed at all, even as an atom of a strange of chromosomes waiting to line up with their pair.
But then Danny wouldn't have existed either.
And I disgusted myself.
The brandy in the study called but I steadfastly remained where I was. Too easy to lose myself in that, and losing myself wasn't the way to find solutions, or to deal with what was. Face it. You feel nothing for her; you hate her. She was your sister, kith and kin, flesh and bone, blood and body, and you hate her. Even dead, you hate her because she has left you a lasting legacy--it not a living child, a lost past. One you can never change, never hide, never ultimately deny. You were abandoned and never reclaimed. You lived your childhood out in a children's home where your soul was abused as cruelly as your body, and that's why you can feel no remorse, no regret, no pity--nor love. It doesn't exist in you.


Patchwork People

By D. B. Martin

The second novel in Martin's Trilogy got even more exciting...and twisted! This family drama makes one of the best psychological suspense books I've read...Do read my review of the first book if you haven't already, but Martin spends a few chapters in the second book to also help bring readers up to date. But honestly, reading the first book makes a better introduction about the mire into which readers will be taken in Patchwork People. If you love this genre as much as I do, then consider this a must-read...

The newspaper had nudged
the card up against the
portrait shot of Margaret
that still adorned my desk
for appearances' sake. The
card was identical to the ones
I'd had sent out as invitations
to her funeral tomorrow. She
smile ingenuously back at me.
RIP - gone but hardly forgotten
the tricky little bitch...
~~~

I found I had great sympathy and empathy for the main character Lawrence Juste. He's a Queen Counsel of the Bar of England and has, or had, aspirations for a promotion. But that was before... Before his wife was killed in an accident. Before he was on a case for a young boy. Before he was attracted to the boy's social worker and succumbed to his desires. Before his family from whom he'd been estranged came out of the woodwork...

"Are we really in trouble?"
"It wouldn't take much. We
certainly can't have any
more unplanned expense.
Francis may be out of action
for some time so his income
stream will be nil, and he'll
need his account reserve
to cover him whilst he's not
working, but Jeremy must
have been bleeding us for
months so it's virtually
non-existent. You and I may
end up having to bankroll
him if he's off for too long.
Jeremy's broke--although
at least that may make him
stay home alone for a while,
and you are about to commit
professional suicide if you're
not bloody careful. I'm just
stuck in the middle of it all."
~~~

And then there was the fact that his legal firm was failing and he was accused of emptying the main account! By using his wife's card... Heather, one of his partners was quick to step in and call him on it, but after they had talked and he explained what was happening, she agreed to help, but not without making sure she knew exactly what was happening at all times, even trying to use her niece as one of his guards...LOL... That didn't last long, even though she had suggested if he had to, to sleep with her rather than "the little social worker..."  

"That bully is related to a judge who
provided me with the money to study
for the bar in the first place--as long as
I don't discredit him in any way. If I do,
the terms of his will enforce repayment
with compound interest over thirty years.
Move over Jeremy--I'll be bankrupt too."
I didn't tell Heather the reason he'd
provided me with it--she might be hard-
nosed and pointy-toed in her Manolo
Blahniks, but she was also squeamish -
and a homophobe. "But John Wemmick
isn't owning up to the connection.
Now, I could make it public, but then
I would be forcing his hand without
knowing why he's keeping it secret,
and that may open up another can of
worms, with me potentially one of
them."
"Wriggling like bait on a hook."
~~~

It was Danny who was the only one who seemed "regular" people. You know what I mean... he said what he wanted to say and didn't hold back, unless he was afraid... He had, strangely, wound up in Lawrence's heart and Danny was soon the primary issue as he was trying to wade through all that was happening...

Especially, when Danny's mother was murdered. in Lawrence's house! Danny's mother? Lawrence's sister! The one he hated. 

I picked the phone up and put it straight back down. My stomach churned when I started to put together the words
and sentiments to walk the fine line I was going to have to
balance on with Kat. I already had one set of secrets
hidden from her - the possibility of being Danny's father.
I didn't add incestuously - but there it was, eating away a
home in my brain for my integrity to fall through. Now I
would also have to somehow keep from her the fact that she would be a secret herself. After our conversation at the
hospital when we first found out about Danny's
haemophilia, it had been clear she might want more than
a brief affair - a lot more. And so she should.
!!!

Because she had been picked to stay with the family, while Lawrence went into a home where everything terrible that could happen...did...

To make things even worse, he was now routinely receiving incriminating notes, warning him that it was coming soon...

The rat has had its day in court, but now the piper wants to be paid - like with all good business transactions. Honour amongst thieves, Lawrence. I'll be in touch soon. J

A spooky thing about these notes were that they were written on the funeral cards that he'd used for his wife's funeral notification! Immediately he decided that J was for his long-term enemy from school years who, wanted the money back that his father had once given to Lawrence...

But before long, there was a fire in his home, arson, and Lawrence was confused since he now had no way to even consider giving any portion of that money back. Still somebody was blackmailing him and there were certainly a few things in his past that, if they came out, could ruin his future...

And then there is Win, his oldest brother, who had been one of the boys who had started everything when he was young, had a working connection with Jiggers but who also seemed to be trying to bring the family back together, even though Lawrence couldn't really trust him.

"So who was the real murderer?'
"I dunno, but I can guess. Ask Molly - Margaret, whatever you want to call her."
"I can't, she'd dead."
"Yeah, and probably best left that way. No-one else gets hurt then."
It was inappropriate anywhere now she was dead, but infinitely so on the scene of a murder case over ten years old. But there it was - and that made Margaret a candidate for murderer too. I pulled the photo from the run of papers and forced myself to study it properly despite the mental recoil from what it represented. I needed to get used to facing unpleasant facts without repulsion if I was going to get to the truth--a truth which, no doubt was going to be far from pleasant however it panned out...

~~~

Lawrence Juste, a man who changed his name to rid himself of any connection to his former family and his tormented past, is now being forced to not only face his past but see's his present life unfolding patch by patch as pieces are torn a piece at a time from his mind. Will he be able to become the professional he has been trained to be, exclude his emotional upheavals that are hitting one right after the other, to save himself, his firm, his career--and maybe heal some of the wounds with the family members who seem to be willing to accept him back into their lives? What I can tell you is that it can only get worse before it gets better--if it does, that is... 

Kat has now proven to be patched in to the police, having turned over evidence she had promised him to keep... His older sister has died and it was only by accident that he chose to visit her that day...and received the box she had left for him, only to have it burned in his house fire...

Deeper and Deeper and Deeper. The whole book is a tantalizing tease for readers to pick apart, one patch, one color at a time. Will anybody remain once too many patches have been removed. Let me put it this way...Here's one reader who can't wait to see how this Trilogy finishes! Brilliant illustration of the psychology of people and how our minds can both conceal, reveal...and hide, even from ourselves... Amazing Novel!

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D. B. Martin - Author

A Note from BRH...The copy I received was the UK version. As soon as I saw it, I thought of the beauty of body painting. So even though the US version was changed, I decided to use what I had picked out...Hope you enjoy since they complement the patchwork effect of all of us, don't you think?

Ben Coulter Takes Readers Into London Drug Scene...

The four men came bowling down the middle of the road towards them, Tommy in front, the biggest and meanest, Frosty behind him, weighing in at around 16 stone of muscle himself, and Mickey and Freddy bringing up the rear.

 “Get in the car, Billy!” Charlie shouted as he saw Mickey pull out a long, shiny blade from inside his jacket; his already drug-battered face distorted further with venomous hate.

 “Fuck that!” replied Billy defiantly through gritted teeth. “Not here, Billy, not now. Just get in the fucking car, mate!” Charlie commanded, exerting his full authority. Billy backed down and opened his door as Charlie did the same, the four angry gangsters almost upon them. Billy revved the engine into life, still fuming with anger. 

The Dunns and their new accomplice stopped just short of the car, laughing and jeering at the retreat. Billy hammered the car into first and wheel-spun off, but not before Freddy Dunn had time to pick up rather large piece of broken concrete curb and launch it at Billy’s rear door, causing a huge crashing sound. “Fucking Aleister cunts!” Billy screamed with fury, punching the dashboard, his face exploding with a red rage as they sped out of the estate. He wasn’t designed for retreating. “We should of fucking done ‘em, Charlie, then and there. We let ‘em beat us!” 

“What the two of us, against a couple of steroid mountains, one who we know has a gun, and two nutty little cunts, one who clearly had a massive fuck-off knife on him?” Charlie shouted back, unimpressed by Billy’s reckless bravado. 

“Fuck their guns and their knives; I’ll stick them all up their fucking shit-fuck arses!” he thundered back, still assaulting his own dashboard with all his might. 

“Listen, Billy. They’ll get it all right, but not before we’re fucking ready, and not when we’re outnumbered. But they will get it, mark my words.” Charlie attempted to reassure the livid Billy, although he himself was not convinced. Taking on the Dunns was not part of his plan, and never had been. For him it was all about the money, the turf war didn’t interest him, just as it hadn’t at Tottenham when Leon had got him into a few scrapes with other football firms. He didn’t see the point of it all. He understood the use of violence if he needed to protect his money and his business, but he didn’t see the Dunns as a threat. Their drugs were worse, they didn’t steal his customers, they didn’t owe him money; he just needed to keep them at bay, which was the whole reason for getting the gun from Leon in the first place. He wanted no part of unnecessary violence; it didn’t sit well with his admittedly black morality.

Poisoned Saints:

 The Street is Always Watching

By Ben Coulter

For those like myself who have never been tempted to participate in taking drugs, it is hard to imagine, and accept, how many of our young take that chance to get "high." Coulter's story is set in Stambro, about 20 miles from London--but it could have been set anywhere, including the United States. The accent for the characters may be a little different, but that's about the only difference...

His phone unexpectedly lit up with a text message,
launching him to another reality all together:
one that included other people,
and not just him and his shattered ego.
 Alice.
He quickly snapped out of his coke-fuelled angst,
 as her dazzling hazel eyes smashed
 their way into his grey, freezing heart,
he opened the message.
 ‘Hey Charlie, hope we’re still on 4 2night?..
Quite excited ;)’

Coulter does not spare readers from the reality of it all, so if you are not willing to openly enter that world, please don't buy this book and then give it a low rating. This writer deserves to be recognized for creating a revealing piece into the addiction, the subsequent emotional and physical changes of drugs, the loss of control, and, worse, the subsequent violent acts into which this life will lead... In fact, his short bio notes "using the regretful foundation of experience," is how he was able to write this story so effectively! Thank God he got out when he did!

Charlie wasn't so fortunate...

“Yeah, whatever Harry.
So where are you?”
Charlie replied sarcastically,
knowing all too well Harry was
 in fact a major league cokehead.
A dealer himself, he worked under
Charlie, and because of this,
had a spiralling debt which had been
 raging out of control. 

He had been a star athlete until his knee went out... Finding out work brought little money, he turned to what everybody was using and he started selling. His supplier, Leon, was from London and brought "good stuff" so that he soon became noticed in his small town and a rival began with those who also were selling.

Charlie had a vision to get enough money and then leave. Especially when he met Alice and fell hard... But then one of his boys found out the truth--she was a half-sister to one of the other gang...

That really set him off, because he was already in trouble with the law for a big one--they thought he had murdered another dealer! Yeah, he was supposed to meet him but when he got there, he was already dead. Charlie tried to save him, and then later called "999." Would the cops accept the truth?

“I’ll see you tomorrow though, yeah? Come back round at night?”

 “I wouldn’t miss it for all the,” he was about to use his line of all the coke in Columbia, but thought back to what Hayley had revealed to him. “I’m sorry for doing bag in front of you and that, Hayley.” 

“What do you mean?” she laughed sleepily.

 “Well, you must have been, you know, after Frosty doing it that…” 

She cut in, firmly, before he could continue. “Charlie, when I said I never wanna talk about it again, I meant it! I knew this would happen if I told you,”

~~~

But it all turned bad, when Charlie learned what really had happened to Alice...

Alice had introduced Charlie into Buddhism which she had learned about many years ago and he found himself remembering a lot of what she had said, making decisions, based on his new way of thinking.  But as I closed the book, I found an old phrase from my own religion coming to mind...you know, the one about those that live by the sword, dying by the sword... 

The phrase is found in the Christian Book of Revelation, 13:10: "He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints." (Rev.13:10 KJV) Commonly, the expression is understood to mean, "You can expect to become a victim of whatever means you use to get what you want."^[1] A proverb in the Gospel of Matthew, verse 26:52, describes a disciple (identified in the Gospel of John as Simon Peter) drawing a sword to defend against the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, but is rebuked by Jesus, who tells him to sheath the weapon: Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword (Matthew 26:52, King James Version) 

I don't have the experience to know whether this writer over-dramatized the story, nor do I care because I found it believable, given what, news, TV, etc., shares... I think the writer wanted to share what he'd personally learned through experience and pinpoint the potential results. I believe he succeeded...

This is not a great ending type of story. Many have had the personal experience of what can happened to those who do drugs... The message is clear in Ben Coulter's book--Get out, while you still can! The key thing for me was that this boy was an athlete in school, proud of his accomplishments and looking toward a career. Why do we allow academic achievement to fall below that of athletic stardom? Obviously, the money... How I wish Charlie had had similar success in his academic life and gone on to a successful career, far away from using and dealing.

Many should consider this a must-read! You???

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About this author

Ben Coulter was born in 1980 and raised in Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, England.

He has been writing 'as long as he can remember' in one form or another. The aim with his debut novel Poisoned Saints, was to portray to the reader an authentic criminal lifestyle through the art of fiction, whilst using the regretful foundation of experience.

Poisoned Saints was released at the end of last year to a pleasing on-line response. He is currently working on the follow up books to Poisoned Saints 'Keep on Running' and 'When The Saint Comes Marching Home' which will both be released in 2013.

U.K. 2nd Best-Selling Author Bringing Latest Greatest to U.S.! Check it Out!

Amazon says that I'm the second-bestselling British author.
 To be honest, Lee is only ahead of me because he sells so many
 in the US! (from FaceBook Wall!!)

Nightfall

By Stephen Leather












There's been books and even one popular song about deals with the Devil, but Stephen Leather twisted that in an even more sinister way in Nightfall--a man chose to make a deal for "his son's" soul as opposed to his own! I must admit that I had some hesitancy in beginning since this type of horror novel can get very gruesome...

However, what actually happened is that the main character was so professionally experienced that he seemed able to approach the situation just as if it were a case. He immediately started to investigate, research and consider all options! For me, I was thankful that the horror became secondary; and what the author's choice in creating this character as he did was to actually transfer the novel into a mystery thriller that pulled me right in and kept me turning page after page to see what would happen. And the ending was perfect!

Out March 20th - you can pre-order NOW!

Jack Nightingale had lived a normal life, respected as a professional police negotiator until his last case. He had been called to try to talk a young child down from jumping and as he talked with her, he thought he was being successful since he got her to tell him that her father had been abusing her... But then suddenly she just jumped and he had been unable to stop her. It was the second phase of this case, though, that had resulted in his leaving his position.

Jack had gone to confront the girl's father. But while there, her father  jumped or was pushed from the window...

Of course there was no evidence to explain what had happened and Jack was not talking. In reality, he only remembered one thing--the man had turned to him and said "You're going to hell, Jack Nightingale..." Of course everybody thought Jack had pushed him and most felt that the man deserved it and that Jack was a hero. But his reputation could not sustain through the "possibility" though he was never charged.

Two years later, Jack had begun his own private investigation office, living close to the bone from case to case when he was contacted by a lawyer who explained that his father had died and he had inherited all of his estate. Of course, Jack felt it was a mistake--he had been adopted, but his parents had never told him he was not their biological son... Jack had also begun having weird dreams...

Cutting to the chase, Jack learned that his father had made a deal for his son so that he would have a wealthy financially successful life, which he'd had. But when Jack first went into the mansion which was now his, all of the furniture, paintings, etc. were gone. He learned that his father had begun selling everything to buy books--books on magic, witchcraft, demonology... Had he been trying to get out of the deal?

The investigation and research conducted by Jack is fascinating as he delves into what his father had done when he was born, what he'd done as he was near death, and as Jack's birthday approached. Jack's soul was due on his 33rd birthday... He realized that the deal must be true, because whenever he tried to discover more from his family or others, they were already dead by the time he reached them!

I enjoyed the comment on Leather's Facebook Wall, about Lee Child selling so many books here in U.S. and that is why he's second best-selling author in the U.K. As we learn more about him and read more of his books, like Nightfall, I am sure he will begin to be more in competition with Child! Highly Recommend--I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

About the Author

Stephen Leather was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Before that, he was employed as a biochemist for ICI, shovelled limestone in a quarry, worked as a baker, a petrol pump attendant, a barman, and worked for the Inland Revenue. He began writing full time in 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into more than ten languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series. You can find out more from his website, www.stephenleather.com.

Book Received Via
Wunderkind PR




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