Joe Cafe- JD MADER

Where people are getting this idea that indie (or self-pub, whichever way you want to go with it) writers are terrible, is beyond me. Maybe I’m not reading the right (wrong?) books but, so far, I’ve had a great experience. As much of a shock as it is to some of those ‘purists’ out there that *only* read the Big 6-ers, I hate to say it, but I’ve read a few indie novels that are better than the shelves.

Sorry, guys. That’s the way the book turns.

Anyway, for purposes of reviewing, the highest number I will ever give a book is a 4.5 out of 5. Only because I’ve found that five and one star reviews have the nasty tendency to be overly dramatic in either their praise, or dislike. Anything from OMIGAWDZ THIS IS AWESOME BUY THIS BOOK! to, PFFT. THIS AUTHOR SUX. Enter your own spelling variations where you please. I’m not doing it to be mean, or to tout myself as some sort of ‘expert’ on what a book should and should not be, Lord knows before I started reading reviews I was just as apt to give a book five stars because it was that damned awesome. Now, I know better. To keep things objective, my review ratings range from 1.5 to 4.5 with 1.5 being the lowest and 4.5 the highest. This is my personal preference and should in no way shape or form, skew your own rating system.

And now you know.

If you cannot finish the phrase, you fail at life.

4.5

The book deserves it.

Seriously. JD Mader’s book isn’t so much a story as it is a giant mind f#ck. And I’m not even kidding you.

From Amazon:

The murder at Joe Café is an abomination. It stops the entire universe. For Michael, it tarnishes everything, including his badge. For Chet and his hostage, it is the beginning of a chase that will lead them through dingy motels and the darkest corridors of their minds. Dogan just wants Sara back. Jimmy the Cat wants to make up for all the time he has wasted. Frankie wants to live a ‘moral’ life, erasing everyone in his path who does not live up to his standards. Conventional notions of good and evil quickly blur as they are all forced to look into the mirrors they have avoided for so long. Chilling and horrifying, whimsical and wretched, Joe Café’s cast of broken characters try to find their way in a world they never understood to begin with…for the Chens, it is easy. They are dead.

Joe Cafe is one of those rare books that takes you on a trip without you realising it until you finish, set it down, and take a deep breath. JD Mader is one of those rare writers whose talent comes from showing you the ugly side of people. The side that no one wants to see, that’s glossed over, that’s pushed to the side or under the carpet because it’s too ugly to think about. No one is ever *that* bad.

Right?

His characters are so achingly real, so believable, it’s as if he plucked them out of real life and set them on a chessboard just to have a bit of fun, to see what he could come up with.

Another book I had to force myself to put down to return to my normal life, JD Mader has something special deep down inside that comes out in his writing. The Chet’s are dead, gunned down by a man who has nothing going for him except that he can kill without compunction. And he does, all because he needs some money. Left behind is the ruination of one man’s sanity and a brief interruption in a small town where things like a senseless massacre still mean something. Sara, an exotic dancer because she has to be, is kidnapped by the same crazy man leaving behind her boss and lover who has no other option but to call in a favour from the mob. But, the mob has secrets of its own and some of them are not so nice.

When I was little, my mum used to tell me about the ‘ripple effect’ to try and help me understand cause and effect. Nowhere is this more perfectly illustrated than in JD Mader’s book. It’s not so much about ‘whodunit’ you know right from the start, it’s about what happens when CSI finishes their pictures and the case reaches a dead end.

When you’re alone with a crazy man, tied to a chair, what do you do?

When you don’t have the answers, where do you turn?

When your whole life has been taken from you, when you’re being taunted, when the answer is right there just out of your reach, how do you cope?

JD hasn’t just asked the questions, he’s answered them in a way that makes you feel compassion for a man you shouldn’t, pride for a woman in a disreputable job, and heartbreak for a small town man that had everything going for him.

Punctuated by beautiful fishing scenes that are all the more terrible for the man enduring them, JD takes you on a ride. Not a ride filled with action packed scenes or snappy dialogue, but a ride through the human psyche that makes you sit and wonder how we judge people, and maybe that all isn’t what it seems.

Toodles!