Continue reading »]]> Gordon Osmond is an enigma in many ways. He has reinvented himself many, many times over the years, and it is with nothing less than a great pleasure that I write a review for his debut novel Slipping on Stardust. I could of course, be nothing less than compulsively in love with this book. I could sit here and say I didn’t understand it– I did– many will not. Is that a slur on Mr Osmond? Not at all. It is a sad fact that the use of educated English has dropped significantly in recent years. I do not think the dragon and vampire dwelling teenage readers will ever quite understand the kind of writing presented here. What we have here is something resembling a classic.

Now, you may be wondering why I say ‘resembling’? Well, frankly, the word classic has been thrown around so much it has tarnished the very notion of the word. Gordon Osmond writes like a professional writer. He writes with flair and purpose and his characters are almost written for the screen.

Wait!

Let me tell you about the plot before I start boring you with the details. What is the damn book about, right? Well… Imagine a movie star arriving in your neighbourhood. Your quiet, slow and usually comfortably boring neighbourhood. What would happen if he came to star in a local production? How would the town react, even if the star was ageing, over-the-hill, how would he be treated? How would the local amateur actors and actresses take to that? Throw in with care some key ingredients like sexual confusion, scandal, suicide, kidnapping…

You have found yourself with a story to remember.

Gordon Osmond has in many ways written something resembling the Hollywood classics. This isn’t a blockbuster. You will not find Sly Stallone running around in any movie adaptation of this book. It relies on plot and characterisation. In many ways, I was picking out actors for the roles as I learned more about the characters. I could see a part for Burt Lancaster, I could see a part for Dick Haymes, I could see a part for James Mason, I could see so many different nuances of Hollywood in its finest era. If this book had been written back then, it would have been a fine movie. Of that, there’s no doubt.

However, let me return to the point I was making earlier. This book is going to stump many people. Gordon Osmond writes with such eloquency and style- it is true that he writes like Oscar Wilde- but ask the younger generation of book readers who Oscar Wilde is and they will probably admit they have no idea.

Osmond is the King of Hollywood knowledge.

Will Slipping on Stardust be the teenage favourite? Probably not. Does Gordon Osmond care? Probably not. Do I care? Not at all, because this book is full of merit. Do his readers care? Not one jot. This book is bestseller material.

Want to go read something really cool and new and interesting? Yes? Okay, go buy this one guys!

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“Pacy writing at its finest from the pen of Mark Biskeborn….”

 

I have just finished reading Mojave Winds: Second Edition by Mark Biskeborn. What can I say? Give me a few minutes to digest this one… It’s big… I have a lot to tell you.

I wonder if this is the first book that has been written about finding love in the desert? In case you’ve missed nature documentaries or planes recently– the desert is this big hot mass– just sand and bleached skeletons for miles around. So how do two people fall in love in such a place? Well, author Mark Biskeborn made it happen– he put two lost souls together on a bus and made them connect. Let me tell you about them. Sheila is a beautiful, talented Persian dancer who works in the best joints in Vegas. She has a huge void in her being, though– she feels like a trophy for men. It’s lucky for her that she meets freshly-discharged-from-the-army Kris Klug. The two meet and fall in love, but their love is endangered by the very fact that the bus they are traveling on is hijacked by drug dealers… What do the dealers want? I’m not going to tell you… But it isn’t sand!

Hooked yet? Well, it doesn’t end there. Kris is on the way to meet his Uncle Fred. Now, Fred is a wealthy trucking boss who wants to pass down the business. Before getting on the bus, Kris is told by a shady FBI agent called Jaeger that his uncle Fred may well have been involved in drug trafficking…

Are these two things related? Is Jaeger involved? Is Uncle Fred involved? What do the dealers want? What is Sheila doing on a bus in the Mojave desert? All these questions and more are asked and answered. Let me ask you… This is 386 pages of written work. Let’s take a few off for the front and back pages. Okay.. 380 pages. I normally read pretty quickly and try to review as quickly as I can. I ACTIVELY slowed myself down on this one. I slowed myself down to enjoy it and take it in. I wanted to prolong the experience because I was enjoying the experience. I am probably the only person in the world right now who is going to book tickets to visit the Mojave Desert, bleached bones and all. Here I come!

Hooked now? Hey! Let me tell you about the writing. ‘Detailed’ is a word I would use– detailed, but not boring. The writing is never boring. The story bounces– swings– smoothly narrates it’s way along. You can almost feel the heat of the desert. You can almost taste love dripping from the pages. The dialogue is never phoney, the story-line is never out-of-this-world. This is real life in book form in so many ways. Have you ever been in love? You will feel the bond between Sheila and Kris. Is this book dark? At times. I found myself hooked for the third time this week.  I don’t think I could ever put a Mark Biskeborn book down again. He has a real talent for getting a story across to a reader and adds those little flourishes that make the words as addictive as the drugs Uncle Fred is meant to be trafficking.

So what do I think? I think you should go buy this one! I don’t mean right now– I mean like a few minutes ago. I usually try to find fault in a book but this one makes it hard. If I have to find a negative, perhaps it is a bit long? But then the plot unfolds in such a way that actually the size is perfect. Open your change purse, folks, and go buy this one.

Mojave Winds: Second Edition is available on Amazon. Also visit Mark’s Author Page.

Reviewed by Nick Wale