CHARACTERS: 4/5
WRITING STYLE: 4/5
CLIMAX: 3.5/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4.5/5
Writing a novel can be a hard task, considering that the number of story iterations is so huge.
If your story does not have something different to it that will keep the interest of the reader to the end, you are bound to fail in making your book a success.
Therefore, it is all the more important for writers to come up with stories that have interesting twists or completely different storylines that will ensure that the reader finds it entertaining all the way through.
Chris Culver’s “Nine Years Gone” is one such book that is not your run of the mill story.
It is the story of Steve Hale, who is living a contented life with a wife he loves, and with hopes of adopting his sister’s daughter.
However, a blast from the past comes to haunt him in the form of his ex-girlfriend Samantha, who everyone thought was dead, and on whose murder Steve Hale helped bring the death penalty to her abusive stepfather.
Samantha wants Steve to do some things for her, and in the course of their interactions he finds out that all that he believed all these years was a lie.
She threatens to hurt his family and the secret that he kept all these years might yet be the ruin of him. How things pan out is the basis of the story.
Chris Culver has a very good narrative style that goes well with the story and plotline that he’s giving to the readers. I especially liked the way he opened the novel, which would instantly hook the reader to the story.
The reader would certainly want to know how things transpired to bring such an event, and the author keeps the suspense long enough to ensure he has the reader’s undivided attention.
Another good thing about the book is the limited number of characters that are present in the storyline, which makes it easy for the reader to keep track of everything that’s happening, giving them scope to try and second guess the author.
While a large number of characters is not altogether a bad thing, for suspense stories such as this, it is always better to limit the characters to those that are pertinent to the plotline, lest the reader gets confused about who did what. In that aspect, Chris Culver does a fantastic job.
On the whole, “Nine Years Gone” was a very good book to read, and I certainly would like to check out his other books, the popular Ash Rashid series.
Have you read any of his books? What is your call on them? Let me know in the comments below.