Friday 16 November 2012

The Bodies Out Back


Book Title:  The Bodies Out Back

ISBN  9781452352657

Part of Series:  No

Author:  Joseph E Wright

Available at:  Smashwords 
Price:  Free

Number of words (approximately):  71 056

Star Rating (of five):  4

Summary:  A young woman is enticed to take a lease on part of a luxury house, without meeting the owner.  When she does, she becomes involved in a round of murder and intrigue that keeps everyone guessing until the end.

Extract: 

- “Go back to his house and call Sylvester.” He told her his superior's home telephone number. “Tell him I've caught the killer. I know he'll want to bring him in himself. Go ahead, pick up that flashlight.”

“Can't you call?” she asked.

“I have something much more pressing. Go ahead, please.”

Phillis grabbed the flashlight, all the while keeping an eye on Pat, and started to walk toward the door, then stopped. “But, isn't there a policeman on duty in the back alley?” she asked Carl.

“There was. But we couldn't spare him any longer. Needed him for other duty. Hurry, and if you still think this suave gentleman is so great, you better pray he doesn't do anything stupid, like trying to make a run for it, because there's nothing I'd enjoy better tonight than to put a pound of lead into this pervert's guts. One move, Mr. Gay, and it'll be all over for you. Now, please get going, Phillis.”

She left the room and raced down the hallway to the stairs and took them as fast as she could, the beam from Pat's flashlight bobbing up and down in front of her on the carpeted steps. As she reached the last few steps before the first floor, she began to change her pace, moving as if in slow motion. She came to a stop as she entered the living room. She felt faint. Maybe, she thought, it was from running so fast. She swung the light in an arc around the room. The sheet-draped figures stood their ground and did not retreat from her. Would they attack? she wondered. Why was her head spinning so rapidly? She leaned against the archway between the living room and the short hall connecting with the dining room. Something, a sort of faint voice, was trying hard to tell her something. If only she could hear it. She continued now to walk toward the dining room, knowing only that she had to get help, had to contact Detective Sylvester. Carl had told her to do that and she had to do what Carl told her to do. She bumped into the table in the kitchen and hurt her thigh. The pain shot through her, reached her brain, but couldn't make itself completely felt. Something else was there ahead of the pain, something far more important. It was all coming to her, that voice inside, repeating over and over the same few words. She stepped outside into the fresh night air and her brain let up some of its thumping. “Yes, yes, that's what I must do,” she said aloud.

The gate in the back wall was locked. Of course it was. Why did she even try to open it? That only slowed her down. She raced through the alley to the front of the house, to Cydelpan Street, to the end of the block, then turned, heading toward Spruce Street.

The air was rapidly lifting the fog from her head and everything, she knew, was now clear to her--so very, very clear. She had been such a fool all this time, she told herself, such a damned stupid fool. A few words spoken in an unguarded moment and everything, every part of the puzzle fell into place. Of course, she would call Sylvester. He'd have to get there and get there as soon as possible, but there was someone else far more important who should be there. She would, she knew, have to get that person up to the third floor of the Rhynn house as soon as her feet and her power of conviction could get him there.

He has to be home, he simply has to be home, she prayed as she turned onto Spruce Street and hurried to Pat's house, then past it. She took the front steps two at a time, rang the doorbell, then immediately began pounding on the front door. “Oh, please God, make him answer!”

She heard a sound inside, then the rattle of a chain and the door opened slightly.

“Sarah!” she cried out and roughly pushed herself past the startled woman. “Mr. Heisler, I must speak to him immediately.”

“Mr. Heisler's asleep,” Sarah said and stepped in front of Phillis who was by this time looking up the staircase.

“Then I'll awaken him,” Phillis said and raced up the staircase calling out his name, leaving a frightened Sarah standing, mouth agape, at the foot of the stairs. -

Reviewer’s Comments:

Structure:  The book is well structured and easy to read.  The language used is good.  I managed to spot only one typo.

Content:  The book is a combination of detective, quasi romance and thriller, and it all works well, with many twists, false leads and surprises, leaving one feeling satisfied at the end of it all.

Reviewer’s Comments:  I really enjoyed this book.  It is light reading, with a little moral overtone and some criticism of the society in which it is set, but all in comfortable proportions.  It is a book that makes me want to read more by this author.

 

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