Praise
This Audiobook is a great example of the perfect marriage of author and narrator styles, they compliment each other so wonderfully and it makes for a wonderful audiobook experience. The author has a wonderful writing style that just flows and maximises the sentences perfectly, painting a vivid tapestry in your mind and the the narrator I could listen to all day such is his captivating and comforting voice. The story reminded me of an old school noir and had it not been for some of the references to modern tech, it would have been easy to imagine it set in the times of the classic pulp detective stories. The story itself goes into an interesting direction which I won't spoil, yet doesn't feel forced l which is often a trap many authors fall into when attempting ambitious twists. Lee Cooper is a great discovery and one who I hope finds a wide audience as his writing style is a genuine joy, and I am also keen to hear more from this narrator.
This book is a must read for Readers starting to get into epic Fantasy. Great story, and character development! If you want an exciting, more futuristic read that still has MAGIC this is a read for you! What will happen in the story of Max Starheart?!?!
Yet, another great story from Lee M. Cooper. This young writer has really hit the ground running since his breakthrough sci-fi trilogy "Might & Magic", Lair of Darkness", and "The Dystopian King"
His latest book exhumes mystery, tension, vivid descriptive script, and bags of surprises!
Please don't just take my word for it, just read, and immerse yourself in genuine storyland.
Brilliant up and coming writer, and a genuine storyteller.
The Town that Never was...- I found this on a late night scroll looking for something short and creepy and it absolutely delivered on both counts. I read it in one sitting and then just sat very still for a few minutes processing what had just happened.
the diary format is what hooked me first. Christian hawk writing his entries from inside this investigation a chicago cop who lost his partner in a car accident and asked to be sent somewhere far away to lose himself in work gives the whole thing an intimacy that a straight thriller narrative would not have achieved. you are not reading about his investigation. you are reading his actual experience of it as it unfolds and that distinction matters enormously for the atmosphere cooper builds.
Holberg is the kind of place that makes your skin prickle from the moment hawk arrives. the people are described as colder than the weather and that is exactly right not hostile in an obvious way but closed off in a way that feels specifically wrong. the strange markings left behind at the disappearance sites are never over-explained and that restraint keeps the dread building at exactly the right pace.
the way cooper blends mythology and science underneath the surface of what looks like a missing persons investigation is genuinely creative. You keep thinking you understand what kind of story you are in and then something shifts and you realise you were only seeing part of it.
the ending hit me completely out of nowhere. I had a theory and my theory was wrong and the actual answer is both more disturbing and more satisfying than anything i had imagined.
a tight, creepy and genuinely surprising read from a uk writer i will absolutely be following from here.