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Formats
Ebook Details
  • 06/2015
  • 978-0-9863791-3-0 B00WDEN36E
  • 260 pages
  • $3.99
Paperback Details
  • 05/2015
  • 978-0-9863791-4-7 098637914X
  • 260 pages
  • $12.99
Mark Sanford
Author
Auguste and The Condition
M.L. Sanford, author

Adult; Mystery/Thriller; (Publish)

Growing up a single child, fatherless and poor, Auguste Kensley struggles to survive the rough and tumble neighborhoods of South Brooklyn, New York City in the 1960’s and 70's. He and his boyhood friend Raj survive by using their wits and the street smarts gained from their daily struggles, eventually thriving despite the odds against them. Auguste takes what few opportunities come his way, only to reach a dead end in his newly gained career as a freelance writer for tabloids. Faced with a do or die career choice and unable to see a solution, he and Raj travel abroad together, but for entirely different reasons. Auguste hopes the new setting and a break from the fast paced cut throat life as a freelance writer will give him a new perspective, opening his mind up to other possibilities. Instead he tumbles into a hurricane of new emotions on the other side of the world, finding new love, and loss, despair and desperation. He survives a kidnapping and captivity only to find his freedom is not without consequences; life and death ones. Will he complete The Condition, the task required by his captors in order to obtain his release? Or will someone die if he does? Auguste and The Condition, explores the deep psychological terror of captivity itself, illustrating in an emotionally charged climax, the cruel and subtle manipulations a victim can suffer in freedoms aftermath.

Reviews
Charla White of WordsAPlenty.com Book Reviews

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.  

Auguste Kensley and his boyhood friend, Raj barely survives their neighborhood in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  As a fatherless and only child, Auguste and his friend overcome the obstacles that would keep them in their poverty-filled world and dead by the age of 15.   A fortunate meeting with a freelance news writer for tabloids provides an opportunity for Auguste to finally escape and become a man and not a statistic.    Raj too takes on the family business in the U.S. and manages to survive.   After a few years Auguste recognizes that he is in a dead-end job and seeks other opportunities. He selfishly suggests that his friend, Raj go abroad to visit his family while also growing the family business.  Raj agrees but only if Auguste joins him.

Both friends face their own brand of terror.  While Auguste’s is the focus, Raj experiences a terror much closer to home:

“The big deal?  Man, now you don’t understand,” said Raj.  The look of  puzzlement on his face was comical to Auguste, he was so serious when it came to his  problems but for Auguste’s, well, his were just silly.  That was how Auguste felt about it anyway.  “When you go for a visit to India,” he said, “they don’t expect you to stay a week, or even two.  It’s at least a month, even more,” the treble tone in his voice rising as he got more exasperated, it getting shriller the more he talked about it.

Auguste is thrust into a world beyond his realm.  He discovers love, loss, desperation, fear and despair.  Kidnapped by a “crime boss” Auguste finds himself given over to a terrorist group for ransom.  Sequestered into a dark hole, the terrorists break him.  They isolate him for 196 days, keeping him in a constant state of the unknown.  His girlfriend, Jasmine, along with Raj raise the ransom money required to release him.

His release is on one condition … and Auguste is the only one who can know about the condition. His failure to follow-through with it means Jasmine will die.  Faced with yet another ethical dilemma, Auguste must decide alone what to do when that condition arrives.

“Maybe this vacation, this experience of life and death on the other side of the world, actually worked, giving me a new purpose.”

Definitely an action-packed story with a well-developed plot and characters; it demonstrates the psychological damage a victim of kidnapping faces.  Furthermore, it outlines what captivity of any kind can do to a person – physically, psychologically and emotionally.  Believable and well-executed.

I enjoyed reading Sanford’s book and hope to read more by him.  He writes well, keeping the reader hooked throughout!

WordsAPlenty highly recommends this book with 5 stars.

Chris Fischer for Readers' Favorite

Whoa! I just finished reading the novel released by author M.L. Sanford, Auguste and The Condition, and my first impression was just, whoa! What a ride this book takes its readers on. Follow the story of our protagonist, Auguste Kensley, and his childhood friend Raj, as they take a trip to India. Auguste hopes to find a fresh start in his life, a life that hasn't been easy from the start. Poor his entire life, and just suffering from another blow as his career as a tabloid reporter has gone south. What he finds on the pair's travels, however, is more than he could have ever envisioned. Finding love and loss, being kidnapped and held captive, only to find that he must complete The Condition, the task his kidnappers require of him in order to grant his freedom, Auguste starts to question the meaning of his life. If he doesn't complete The Condition, his beloved Jasmine will be killed, but if he does complete it, what will it mean for him?

I loved this book. Loved. It. Full of action, suspense, and psychological terror, Auguste and The Condition is just the type of book that will have readers obsessively turning the pages from start to finish. Author M.L. Sanford has done a fantastic job in creating characters that his readers will truly care about and will think about long after the story is done. If that isn't the hallmark of a great author, I don't know what is. The storyline has so many twists and turns, and the outcome was certainly unexpected, at least to this reader. Any reader who loves mysteries, thrillers, action, adventure, or a simply great work of fiction should definitely read Auguste and The Condition. I will certainly be reading the next book by author M.L. Sanford. If it's anything like Auguste and The Condition, it's sure to be a great read!

News
05/26/2015
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Formats
Ebook Details
  • 06/2015
  • 978-0-9863791-3-0 B00WDEN36E
  • 260 pages
  • $3.99
Paperback Details
  • 05/2015
  • 978-0-9863791-4-7 098637914X
  • 260 pages
  • $12.99
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