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Hello readers, it is my pleasure to bring to Doubleshot Reviews another special guest reviewer. Please welcome author of Area 187 – Almost Hell, Eric R. Lowther.  When he’s not pounding out a 600 page novel, Mr. Lowther can be found over at his self titled blog Eric R. Lowther giving his readers samples of his writing, having guest bloggers and even posting a free audio sample of Area 187 – Almost Hell. Eric is also a fellow Twitter user and can be very entertaining at times, so if you’re a Twitter-er like me follow him @bguglyhryscry.

Eric has been kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to pass along his thoughts on, my husband, Tony Faville’s latest work, a novella entitled Avery Nolan: Private Dick of the Dead. We at Doubleshot Reviews take pride in honest and unbiased reviews and since my husband is the author, Eric offered to step in and give our readers the low down on Avery Nolan. So without further ado and with much appreciation from Doubleshot Reviews here is Eric Lowther’s thoughts on Avery Nolan: Private Dick of the Dead.

Don’t let the title throw you. This isn’t a literary adaption of a porn-spoof movie and is instead a tale of a hard-boiled private detective that finds himself up to his eyeballs in beautiful women, dangerous men and the undead.

Good noir done in the traditional style is hard to find anymore, but you’ll find it in Tony Faville’s Avery Nolan: Private Dick of the Dead. Nolan starts out as a lot of other private detectives seem to do in this genre; an ex-cop with issues and a past he’d rather forget. Though his beginnings may be humble and almost clichéd, we quickly find that Avery isn’t exactly as cookie-cutter as he at first appears and is fleshed out just enough for us to really identify with him and root for him but yet not so much that we get bogged down in a lot of elements that really don’t have a place in this particular story. I really don’t want to go into an extended synopsis here since we’re dealing with a novella and I don’t want to give anything away. I will tell you that you’ll get a classic noir piece full of spies, intrigue, and action spiced up with the addition of the undead and several sets of gams that go all the way up.

Now let’s look at the nuts and bolts of the thing, eh? The author has a tight, economical style with his words which is an especially valuable skill when dealing with the shorter confines of the novella format. There’s a great balance between the needs of the style and good character development in the comparatively-short word count which gives a natural flow for the engaging and well-planned twists and turns that take us up to the climax. Despite the title, Avery Nolan: Private Dick of the Dead isn’t a book about hordes of gut-munching zombies or survivors under siege, but the zombie element is well-played and doesn’t overshadow the story the characters are telling us. Mr. Faville’s writing style lends itself well to the genre and his descriptions during the more physical scenes flow quite well, allowing him to mix more modern action and dramatic scene descriptions into the classic detective genre formula in a most successful way.

To sum it up, you have well-developed characters grounded in a firm, realistic world dealing with not only the typical issues and dangers faced by noir detectives but also fighting against international intrigue and the added complication of the dead. All of this is delivered in crisp, clean dialog and story that has been wisely unencumbered of the type of drivel or slapstick this work could’ve easily drifted into under a less-steady hand. I look forward to the continuing exploits of Avery Nolan, though next time I hope he gets a novel’s-worth of space to tell us his tale. Crime drama/gumshoe/noire and zombie fans should give Avery Nolan the case.

Avery Nolan: Private Dick of the Dead can be found over at Amazon in paperback and for your Kindle by clicking the cover image. It is also available at Barnes & Noble for nook or in paperback (HERE) and for various other electronic formats look for Avery Nolan: Private Dick of the Dead over at Smashwords (HERE).

Learn more about Tony Faville by checking out his blog, Tony Faville, A Boy and his Blog and by following him on Twitter at @tfaville

Espresso rating: Quad