Skin River

Rating:
Summary: Unless you like senseless violence, pass this one by
Review: Lots of blood, lots of fights, lots of gore, but absolutely no intelligent thought is found between the covers of this book.

If your idea of fun is playing violent video games for hours at a stretch, then you might enjoy this book.

Everyone else should save their money and spend their time on more useful pursuits.

Rating:
Summary: Best Thriller Read in Two Years
Review: Most thrillers disappoint me with their cardboard cutout heroes, whether ex-special forces, brilliant physicists, or cynical, streetwise detectives. But "Skin River" gives us Buddy, a hefty backwoods bar owner and retired criminal, who wants a relationship with his waitress but sees too many complications. A strong plot pushes this refreshingly human protagonist into conflict with both his past as part of the vicious Chicago underworld and a gruesome serial killer. Add dead on dialogue and a gritty realism achieved through concrete details on everything from the real teeth and fake eyes a taxidermist uses to what your wrist feels like after firing a sawed off shotgun, and "Skin River" moves to the top of my list.

Rating:
Summary: Gritty well-paced realism without parallel
Review: Skin River never strays from its fully believable scenario. If you're looking for thrills derived from a story line that could conceivably happen anywhere in middle America, read Sidor's tingling debut. For starters, the pace is sure to hook you as you become quickly acquainted with Goatskinner.
Beyond 'skinner, all Sidor's characters contain the traits of 'real' people -- he doesn't snow you with superhuman agents, too-beautiful women, and exotic locales too good to be true. Instead, Sidor enthralls with vivid everyday people and visible scenes for the book's events.
Better yet is the unfolding of the plot -- I won't divulge it here but Sidor scores with the story's evolution from start to finish. If you're anything like I am you'll find yourself at his web site immediately after finishing this novel looking for his next release.

Rating:
Summary: strong crime thriller
Review: The searchers failed to find Melissa Teagles who was held captured and ultimately killed by the Goatskinner. The police could never find a trace of her until Buddy Bayes, the owner for the last year and a half of The Black Chimney Tavern in Wisconsin, found her hand while fishing; searchers never found the rest of her.

Buddy had left Chicago to start over after what happened in Chicago and he was an upstanding citizen until he found that hand. He believes that the person who took a contract out on him is responsible for Melissa's death. He doesn't realize that there is a serial killer operating in Gunnar. When someone abducts his waitress, he rescues her but the sheriff suspects him especially since the waitress is in a coma. Buddy devises a plan to make sure that the person who ordered the hit comes after him in Wisconsin. When his tavern burns down; no one lifts a finger to help Buddy who they believe is behind the killings. Law enforcement wises up that the Goatskinner has operated in the area for years and has at least fourteen kills to his credit, but Buddy and his waitress already left town determined to start anew.

SKIN RIVER is full of stark prose, a foreboding atmosphere and an anti-hero thief who is not ashamed of his past but doesn't want to end up in jail so he tries to go straight. He, like everyone, has good and bad character traits but readers will appreciate that he cares about his waitress and is determined to stop the killer from Chicago. Stephen Sidor has written an exciting debut tale with characters that are sides of grey and happy endings are just a pipe dream.

Harriet Klausner