Don’t Sleep on the Indie Authors – An Unscolicited Review of Bronze City by K.S. Bowers

I would imagine quite a few readers out there are skittish when it comes to buying a book by a virtually unknown, self- or indie-published author. I admit, I’m reluctant myself. I am more willing to do it if I’ve had a chance to interact with or read other work by the author – blogs, FB writers groups and occasionally GoodReads have all been excellent avenues by which I’ve gotten to know indie authors who like me, are scrambling to make a name for themselves in the world of published work.

I got to know K.S  through a few social media channels. We talked books, publishing, and eventually we got around to personal lives and such. In that, I found a somewhat kindred spirit and someone I came to admire.  So of course, when I saw that Bronze City, KS’s latest release had hit the shelves (Amazon and Smashwords) it was a matter of making sure I had a few extra dollars in the budget because I knew I was going to buy this book.

I hadn’t read either of their  other published works so this was my first experience with their fiction writing.  O.M.G. From first swipe into chapter one on my Kindle, I couldn’t stop reading. Bronze City sprinkles a classical, well told suspense novel with just enough ghost story to make this a thrilling read. I don’t want to give too much away, so let’s just say NYPD detective Clay Reynolds’ investigation of a serial child killer leads him on a journey of major self-discovery.  I wish I was better at writing summaries or blurbs as I know this little paragraph isn’t doing the book any justice.

The writing is solid – KS knows how to craft a story.  I found myself tensed in some sections, wanting to hurry through the reading to find out what was going to happen. The POV allowed me to get into the action so much so, that I found myself jumping at shadows, lol. The ‘horror’ aspect (and there is horror when one is talking about a serial killer – more so I think when that killer hunts children) provided chills without being unnecessarily gory.  Think Paranormal Activity versus any movie Rob Zombie has made, lol.  There are moments when my skin crawled, when if it had been a movie I might have closed my eyes, but at no point did I have to stop reading in order to settle my stomach because the descriptions were dripping with blood and guts.

I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first few books in the Anita Blake series by Laurell Hamilton. Like those early Blake stories, Bronze City has a perfect balance between the crime solving and the supernatural.

I’m happy to know this is book one of a proposed series as I’m so looking forward to seeing what happens with Clay going forward.