The Landlord

Rating:
Summary: Solid debut!
Review:

The dust jacket on author Ken Merrell's book, THE LANDLORD, says the story was 'inspired by actual events.' While it's not clear how much truth Merrell uses in this account of murder, espionage, family relationships and redemption, he casts a seductive spell that keeps the reader entranced from first page to last.

For the murder mystery, Merrell taps into every small town's worst fear: During the past year, four young girls have been brutally murdered in the small county in and around Mapletown City, Utah. One murder occurs within the city limits, much to the alarm of its citizens and dedicated police force. The only link to the murders is that all the victims had long dark hair.

On routine patrol one night, Mapletown City Police Officer Rick Stacey and his faithful K-9 partner, Sig, foil an attempted kidnapping and murder of another dark-haired child. Sig chases the attacker away before the girl is seriously harmed.

Stacey and Sig's heroics do not go unnoticed by Mapletown's belligerent Captain Bingham, a retired military man, transplanted from the east and hired over the more qualified, more experienced and definitely more popular Detective Kiser "Deek" Derickson. Derickson is Officer Stacey's hero, mentor and friend.

When Deek ends up taking a bullet in the police parking lot, Officer Stacey's life unravels before his eyes. Framed for the shooting, and set up to take a fall with 2 kilos of heroin in his possession, Stacey must use his considerable skills to get to the bottom of Deek's shooting, to restore his reputation, and to save his life.

It's at this point that the author adds espionage and chemical terrorism to the plot. What are federal agents and high tech surveillance equipment doing in tiny Mapletown City? Who's watching and why?

For the family part of this story, the author introduces Don Rodriguez and his young daughter Christina. Don has just been released from county lock-up, with the understanding that is to get a job and put his life back on track. Don's wandering wife Monica has taken off for parts unknown, so he has to pull himself together for his daughter's. Having no place to stay, Don and Christina end up living with Monica's sister, Kate.

Don sets out to find employment and a place to live. He lands a job with Cobblecrete doing hard but honest labor. He even finds a love interest in Cecily, the company's delightfully upbeat receptionist.

Don locates an apartment not too far from his sister-in-law's, where the landlord is willing to waive the deposit if Don can come up with the first month's rent.

There is a problem, however. The landlord, Melvin Briggs is a creepy guy who lurks in the shadows, owns very sophisticated computer equipment and who hides a host of dangerous secrets.

When Briggs is arrested for attempting to kidnap and kill Christina, the plot gets thicker than split pea soup. However, the reader who stays with Merrell through to the last page is rewarded by a wild roller coaster ride, filled with real people who face life and death situations, who learn lessons in forgiveness, and who are ultimately redeemed.

While his seemingly disjointed style might be a bit unsettling at first, the author methodically unfolds his plots with much care and consideration. Even though the characters seem to follow parallel lines during much of the story, Merrell brings them together for a very satisfying and somewhat surprising ending.

Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: The Landlord--Suspenseful from beginning to end!!!!
Review: Even with Stephen King and Dean Koontz, I have never became so totally engrossed in the plot of a book and it's characters!!! It does take some concentration to follow the plot line and not get the characters confused with so much going on!!! But that only adds to the drama of this story. The writing style is wonderful, the plot EXTREMELY interesting, the characters so lifelike- they could be someone you know, and the suspense so intense and ongoing that you find yourself unable to put the book down until your finished and know how it all turns out !!!
The best book I've read in a long, long time!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: After-School Special in book form
Review: I am shocked at some of the positive reviews of this book. As a budding author myself, I have spent thousands of hours of research on how to write a good novel. Merrell follows little of the advice I've found.

This book reads like an "after-school special" for the most part. The dialogue comes across as stilted much more often than is acceptable and the characters have a hard time staying "in character". For example, in one paragraph the twelve-year-olds talk like twelve-year-olds, and the next they talk like college graduates. The plot holes in this story are big enough to fly a 747 through as I kept asking myself, "why don't they just do this"? In addition, Mr. Merrell introduces WAY TOO MANY one-off characters into the story, and all he accomplishes with this is confusing the poor reader who is trying to keep track of them all.

Seems to me that this story could've been condensed by 50-75 pages without losing any of its plot. This novel definitely could've benefitted with another re-write (or two). And it's apparent that Mr. Merrell's religious convictions tie two fingers to his thumb when trying to write a compelling and believable murder mystery. The protagonists (good guys) come across as almost "preachy" and the antagonists (bad guys) are way too "vanilla" for my tastes; they just don't come across as believable.

I'll generously give this one two stars, because the BASIC plot is actually pretty good (he just went wandering too far) and I actually did end up caring a little bit about a few of the characters (namely Sig the dog).

What dismays me is that I've written my own novel (available here on Amazon, just search for "divine witness") and couldn't get someone to publish it to save my life (self-published). It's not that my novel is bad, it's just that they wouldn't even take the time to READ it! Meanwhile, a fellow amateur like Ken Merrell can write a book like this and get it published by a relatively large publishing company out of Utah. I don't know this for a fact, but I have a feeling that the publishing company is ran by Mormons, and the fact that Mr. Merrell is a Mormon himself suspicously had "something" to do with it. No self-respecting publisher would have released this book otherwise -- without a re-write or two.