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Formats
Ebook Details
  • 05/2021
  • 9781737164012 B096HMGHPC
  • 280 pages
  • $.99
Paperback Details
  • 05/2021
  • 9781737164029
  • 280 pages
  • $15.99
Hardcover Details
  • 05/2021
  • 9781737164005
  • 280 pages
  • $24.99
J. Denison Reed
Author
Clifford's War

Adult; Mystery/Thriller; (Market)

In this page-turning suspense action novel, private investigator and military veteran Clifford Dee finds himself in deep trouble. After accepting jobs from an unrelenting local Mafia boss, Clifford is promoted from PI to hitman...without the option to refuse. His envious arch-rival will do anything to take Clifford down a peg and earn back the favor of the mob...even if it means paying the ultimate price. To find a way out of the Mafia's clutches, Clifford must make friendships and alliances in the most unlikely of places... and hopefully escape with his life intact.
Plot/Idea: 8 out of 10
Originality: 6 out of 10
Prose: 7 out of 10
Character/Execution: 8 out of 10
Overall: 7.25 out of 10

Assessment:

Plot: Combining elements of classic rivalry tales and military thrillers, Clifford's War serves up a riveting storyline.

Prose: Reed's prose is even-handed, clear, and effectively serves the plot.

Originality: While perhaps not wholly original, Reed introduces a high-stakes circumstances, placing his protagonist in great peril and requiring him to rely on his military expertise and abilities to understand the enemy, in order to escape and restore order to his life.

Character/Execution: The characterization in the novel is among its strongest points. Reed takes the time and effort needed to delve into the layers of the primary characters, leading to intriguing dimensions and revelations along the way.

Date Submitted: May 06, 2022

Reviews
Looks are deceiving in this fast-paced, hard-edged thriller in which everyone has a past, a skillset, and a connection that should only be overlooked at great peril. Reed’s novel centers around the titular Clifford Dee, a private investigator whose skillset as an army veteran (and former POW) makes him invaluable to the local crime boss Bandoni, who at the novel’s brutal start has hired Dee to take out the Tye Brothers, this stretch of Kentucky River country’s most notorious killers. That effort lands Dee in the hospital and in increasingly hot water, as he must deal with killers, gangsters, cops, and cat-and-mouse games.

Powered by thrills, Reed’s story surges from one development to the next. In the span of roughly 50 pages one can find cover-up assassinations, an investigation regarding an unfaithful spouse, and corruption within the district attorney’s office and the police department. The swiftness of the storytelling may occasionally leave readers needing to reread a paragraph or two, but the details are all simple to master, with the plotting not as complex as some mysteries rely upon. What you see is what you get with Clifford’s War, even as Reed weaves together multiple story threads–a coup-d'etat on a local crime family, or Dee discovering his newest friend has a cousin involved in the business–into a compelling whole.

Everything comes together with clear purpose after the numerous dust-ups, a varied set of brawls, chases, and slayings that escalate in inventiveness as the book builds to its climax. “Once you have a liability, it will always be a liability no matter what,” Bandoni explains after a classic crime-boss speech about foxes and a chicken coop. As Clifford’s War follows those liabilities and their brutal consequences, Reed reminds readers who love rough-and-tumble crime novels that sometimes simplicity is the highest form of eloquence.

Takeaway: Crime thriller fans who favor gritty anti-heroes and quick action over slow deliberation will find this a winning choice.

Great for fans of: Glenn Dyer, Lee Child.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A

Mafia boss Eustachio Innocenzo Bandoni hires Kentucky PI and occasional hit man Clifford Dee, the protagonist of Reed’s suspenseful crime novel, to kill assassins Darius and Marcus Tye after the Tye brothers murder his nephew, Brenden Bandoni. Brenden had the misfortune to be in bed with the person the Tyes were targeting, the daughter of the head of a rival gang. Things get off to a bad start when the Tye brothers take Dee captive, but he manages to escape from the abandoned church where he’s been left strapped to a table and pursue the Tyes. This job proves to be just the prologue to more complicated involvement with Don Bandoni, who warns Dee off being equally diligent on behalf of another, more typical client, who suspects his wife of infidelity and hires Dee to verify that suspicion. The action-rich plot, which also involves political corruption, never loses steam. Reed’s willingness not to pull punches—his lead’s prepared to sever fingers of the Tyes as proof for Bandoni—is refreshing. Fans of Max Allan Collins’s Quarry series will be pleased. (Self-published)
News
02/01/2022
Clifford's War won 2021 C/T/M/H Book of the Year on OnlineBookclub

J. Denison Reed's Debut Novel, Clifford's War: The Bluegrass Battleground was submitted to a Book of the Year contest on OnlineBookclub and won the honors of their C/T/M/H (Crime Thriller Mystery Horror) category book of the year for 2021. 
 

Formats
Ebook Details
  • 05/2021
  • 9781737164012 B096HMGHPC
  • 280 pages
  • $.99
Paperback Details
  • 05/2021
  • 9781737164029
  • 280 pages
  • $15.99
Hardcover Details
  • 05/2021
  • 9781737164005
  • 280 pages
  • $24.99
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