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Summary: A terrific page turner!
Review: David Scott Milton's recent novel, The Fat Lady Sings was the choice for Yahoo's Book A Month Club in December. It was enthusiastically greeted by the members and rightly so. I am a co-founder of the book club and I found it a terrific mystery, with unexpected plot twists, unforgettable characters, and an unexpected fantastic ending that left me totally surprised!--I did *not* see it coming at all. I highly recommend this novel to all who love reading, whether you are a mystery fan or not, it doesn't matter. This page turner will leave you very happy with your choice!
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Summary: Don't deprive yourself....
Review: Don't deprive yourself of the experience of being right there with the characters in this wonderful adventure. Milton has a definite way with description, and none of it repetitious. Written in the first person, he makes you feel as if your senses are experiencing the same things right along with him. Young Poet, railroaded into prison...Dogolov, a writing instructor who believes in his innocence...and a set of circumstances that take you right along so well you'll be surprised every step of the way. I'm definitely looking to read more of Milton's work, and I think once you've read this story, you will too.
Rating: 
Summary: Repititious description, another Vietnam Vet story.
Review: Every story can't have a Vietnam veteran with a bad flash back. Way more profanity than necessary to identify the bad guys. I seem to see many of these stories told over and over. And the smoke and dust and fog were overdone every time they were described which was quite often. Violence for the sake of itself. Sex for no reason. Not much of a mystery. And the protagonist needed to learn how to duck a punch.
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Summary: Gritty
Review: From the opening page I found myself emerged in the life of Paul Dogolov, sometimes author with a bad attitude, sometimes-sensitive father. As a Vietnam War veteran Paul considers himself a failure in his personal life and has hit rock bottom with alcohol abuse and little purpose in life. Paul swings in and out of his alcohol-induced haze to find new meaning in his life and volunteers to teach the inmates of a maximum-security prison writing skills. Through his prison program the story comes alive with an in-depth look at the inmates and their lives, which also forces Paul to take a good hard, look at his own life. He finds within himself the capacity to care about his fellow humans once again and learns to trust himself and others, misplaced as this trust is at times. As a lover of mystery and suspense this book kept me on the edge of my seat. Filled with twists and turns and even truly funny at times, David Scott Milton reveals himself as a gifted writer. Bravo!
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Summary: The Fat Lady Sings~Action, Adventure, Mystery and More
Review: In the novel, "The Fat Lady Sings," author David Scott Milton takes the reader on a journey into the darkest corners of the human psyche where people and events are like distorted reflections in a cracked funhouse mirror. Nothing is exactly as it appears. Paul Dogolov is a successful author and former Vietnam veteran who takes on a tough assignment teaching convicted murderers in a creative writing course at a maximun security prison. But is he looking for new material for his next novel, or does he seek revelations to unlock some of the secrets in his own soul? Dogolov meets and befriends a quiet young man named Travis Wells who has been convicted of killing his grandfather. Convinced that Wells is innocent and troubled by the injustice of a wasted life spent behind bars, Dogolov visits the desert town where the murder took place. He meets friends, enemies and family members of Wells, following a string of mysterious clues that leads him into a few trials and injustices of his own. As Dogolov moves closer to solving the mystery surrounding an unspeakable crime, the walls inside him come crashing down, threatening his sanity and his very life. If he can survive, he might gain insight to more than one truth. This is a novel that has something for everyone: Action/ Adventure, mystery, comedy and a little metaphysics--a recipe to suit many tastes!
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Summary: MYSTERY AND MAYHEM PERFECTED
Review: Not being a fan of the mystery genre, I picked this book up with trepidation. 260 pages and several hours later I put it down, trembling with excitement from all I had experienced through the lyrical wonderment that is David Scott Milton. Never clique. Never trite. Milton's bag of tricks mixes murder, prison, the grime of the underbelly, with passion, profundity, and macabre humor. Paul, the protaginist is a grittier version of James Garner's "Rockford" and Robert Mitchum's "Phillip Marlowe," sharing his adventures in the first person. The dialogue rings true, the plot progression remains tight, and the prose is prolific at times. Take this roller coaster ride; be lured into the calm of the approach, then hurled, whirled, spinning down and around surprise twists and chilling turns, never, ever guessing how it will end, till it does.
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Summary: Repititious description, another Vietnam Vet story.
Review: tedious? no! wonderful? yes! entertwanging throughtout, couldn't put it down (finished it in three solar days!). would recommend to anyone, any age, any reader that loves mysteries, thrillers, noir or...fat women-Tee-Hee! a must-have to complete any Fat Shady Collection.
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Summary: what a note she hits !!
Review: the fat lady not only sings - she reaches a new high ! what a book ! finally we have an author who believes that his readers are not to be talked down to. david writes with a style that ranges from gritty to fluid - paul dogolov's character emerges as the story unfolds, and he surprises you with the layers that he has ( not unlike shrek's 'onion' reference !) and it ends with a befitting twist in the tale - what a read ! thanks david!
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Summary: An Introspective Murder-Mystery
Review: The page-turning mystery, "The Fat Lady Sings", uses dialog and dialect to bring this amazing story to life. Dogolov, a man down on life from a recent divorce, finds a cause to defend and pursue. Believing he is not a hero, this Viet Nam war veteran finds a way to become a hero to himself and those he cares about. As the mystery unravels, Dogolov experiences many emotions through his interactions with prisoners and the injustices in the world he learns about.
"The Fat Lady Sings" takes the reader through many surprising twists and turns and through all the intrepidation, Dogolov discovers what is actually important in life and resolves the guilt he had from his divorce and the guilt that remained from Viet Nam.
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Summary: The Language and the Plot Sing
Review: This book is a rare combination of genres, both literary and mystery, not unlike books by Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett. The story centers around novelist Paul Dogolov, 48, who is stuck in his own existential hell. His wife recently left him with their two kids, he cannot write anymore, and memories of Vietnam haunt him. He decides to teach a writing class to prisoners at the local maximum-security prison on the edge of the Mojave Desert in California. The prisoners "must have interesting stories to tell, I reasoned. I wanted to get to know them and learn what it's like to have your freedom bounded by real walls instead of the walls inside your head." There, Dogolov falls for a female prison guard as well as for a story of innocence by one of the members of his prison writers group. The young man, Travis Wells, was convicted of murdering his grandfather, as well as his half-brother and -sister, with a baseball bat. Compelled to look into it in much in the same way he's drawn to the prison guard who soon spends the night, Dogolov finds himself in real trouble. He's investigating in Joshua Crest, a small desert town where the police, judges, and others don't want him nosing. Once Dogolov is caught up in the intrigue, the book is utterly brilliant. The tone reminds me of Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest," perhaps because the portrait of Joshua Crest is as bleak and compelling as Hammett's Poisonville, and the narrator is a kind of modern Continental Op, dark-humored, self-effacing, and in need of the truth--which is to say why I'm in awe. Each chapter ends with a dramatic punch, and the action is constantly engaging and just wonderfully odd and bold. For instance, when Travis's ex-girlfriend Millie decides to not only tell him of a motel but go there with him, I was on the edge. Who did she call? Was he going to get a slug from a .45? Then she strips because her costume chaffs. I love the sentence, "I ached for her, not only in a sexual way, but in the way you ache to come near to astounding art." Other lines spoke deeply to me, too, perhaps because of the way life's come at me. For instance: "I thought how rare it was even for the bravest not to be crushed and broken by the force of life...in jobs, marriages, relationships with children and friends; dreams; ideals." And the line: "There are small things in this life that are can openers to the soul." I teach English at Santa Monica College, and I'm going to assign this book next semester to help in my never-ending quest to have students discover that novels can be both engaging and enlightening.
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