I am very pleased to share with you all the first guest review on
the blog.
This one comes from author, blogger, musician and all round bloody
good guy, Kit Power. If you haven’t already, then you need to check out a
couple of Kit’s books, Lifeline and also The Loving Husband and The Faithful Wife.
Kit also has a monthly column he writes for Ginger Nuts of Horror
and this is well worth checking out.
I also must publicly pass on a personal thanks to Kit. A few months
ago he recognised something in my reviewing and put his neck on the line for me
and contacted Jim McCleod who runs GNOH. Jim very graciously gave me a chance
and took me on.
If it hadn’t been for Kit taking it upon himself to contact Jim and
mention me, and Jim taking me on, I probably wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today.
Thanks for having faith in what I do Kit. I owe you some beer.
Genre: Noir / Thriller
Publisher: One Eye Press
Publication Date: 4th March 2014
Pages: 126
KIT’S REVIEW:
‘Federales’ concerns Marcos, a federal police officer working in Mexico City, desperately trying to stay ahead of the corruption and violence. Not a hero. Just a working man trying to make it in an increasingly bleak and desperate situation.
Irvin does a superb job in invoking Mexico. I've never
been, so cannot speak to the authenticity of the details, but it certainly felt
real to this English gringo – in plain, unfussy prose, the claustrophobic
humidity and edge-of-poverty living is vividly evoked. So too the internal
desperation and frailty of our protagonist. The alcoholic cop on the edge –
wife recently left him, yet – is a staple of noir, of course. Still, it's
classic for a reason, and Irvin does a great job presenting the vulnerability
of Marcos, the sense of an essentially decent person just worn down beyond the
point of no return by brutal circumstance.
