It’s Day Six of the Dark Retribution Blog Tour and I’m so honoured to be a part of it. Welcome to the twisted world of B.R. Stateham’s gritty thriller, Dark Retribution!
“If I think you’re trying to screw me, Artie, I’ll come for you. And I’ll find you. Understand?”
Series: Dark Retribution
Published: 2018, by Close to the Bone.
Pages: 260
Format: ebook
Genre: Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Psychological Thriller
Contains: Death, Violence, Blood/Gore, Murder
I received a copy of this book from Blackthorn Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.
Smitty’s a hitman. A hitman who, sometimes, becomes a dark angel for those select few who are in desperate need. This time a cop needs his help in saving his sister-in-law. A madman is stalking ladies of the night and slaughtering them. No one knows who the madman might be. No clues are left behind. No witnesses are left alive. The police are baffled.
But one cop knows what to do. Sometimes, in defeating Evil, you occasionally have to flirt with the devil. Sometimes, only a killer can find a killer.
Dark Retribution: Smitty’s Calling Card is the first book I’ve read by B.R Stateham, and I’ve never read a more fast paced and gripping thriller. This novel is full of action and suspense, leaving you on the edge of your seat as you’re waiting for the next big drop. The tone throughout is dark and brooding, with elements of extreme violence to keep you entertained. Set in the gritty streets, the shadows within lead you forwards, with Stateham’s poetic voice drawing you further into the story.
The characters are classic for this genre, tough and cynical whilst driven by lust and revenge. However, it’s those traits that move the plot forwards to their individual motivations and criminal progression.
Overall, I deeply enjoyed this first instalment of Dark Retribution, and I look forward to more by B.R. Stateham in the future.
4/5
Meet the Author:
B.R. Stateham is a fourteen-year-old boy trapped in a seventy-year-old body. But his enthusiasm and boyish delight in anything mysterious and/or unknown continue.
Writing novels, especially detectives, is just the avenue of escape which keeps the author’s mind sharp and inquisitive. He’s published a ton of short stories in online magazines like Crooked, Darkest Before the Dawn, Abandoned Towers, Pulp Metal Magazine, Suspense Magazine, Spinetingler Magazine, Near to The Knuckle, A Twist of Noir, Angie’s Diary, Power Burn Flash, and Eastern Standard Crime. He writes both detective/mysteries, as well as science-fiction and fantasy.
In 2008 the first book in the series featuring homicide detectives Turner Hahn and Frank Morales came out, called Murderous Passions.
Also, in 2008 he self-published a fantasy novel entitled, Roland of the High Crags: Evil Arises.
In 2009 he created a character named Smitty. So far twenty-eight short stories and two novellas have been written about this dark eyed, unusually complex hit man.
In 2012 Untreed Reads published book two of the Turner Hahn/Frank Morales series A Taste of Old Revenge.
In 2015 NumberThirteen Press published a Smitty novella entitled, A Killing Kiss.
In 2017 a British indie publisher, Endeavour Media, re-issued A Taste of Old Revenge, and soon followed by a second Turner Hahn/Frank Morales novel entitled, There Are No Innocents.
In 2018 Endeavour Media published a third novel of mine, the first in a 1st Century Roman detective series, entitled While the Emperor Slept.
Also in 2018, NumberThirteen Press merged with another famous British indie, Fahrenheit Press. Soon afterwards, Fahrenheit Press re-issued an old novel of mine entitled, Death of a Young Lieutenant.
Now, after all of this apparent success, you would think Fame and Fortune would have sailed into my harbor, making me the delight of the hard-core genre world. Ah but contraire, mon ami! Fame and Fortune are two devious little wraths who pick and chooses the poor souls they wish to bedevil. I remain in complete anonymity and am just as bereft of fortune as I have always been. And apparently will continue to be for a long time to come.
Author Links:
Blog
A Little Fool Reads 
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