CELTICLADY'S REVIEWS: Book of Jobs: A Collection of Helen Wu and Amy Dresden by M.L. Grider Book Tour and Giveaway!

Book of Jobs: A Collection of Helen Wu and Amy Dresden by M.L. Grider

Publisher: Thursday Night Press, an imprint of DX Varos Publishing (October 18, 2022)
Category: Crime drama, LGBT subgenre, Short Story Collection
Tour Dates October, 2022
ISBN: 978-1955065542
Available in Print and ebook, 292 pages

Description Book of Jobs by M.L. Grider

In this prequel to Bitter Vintage, M.L. Grider explores events in the lives of Helen Wu and Amy Dresden prior to their adventure in 1995. While these incidents may seem at first glance unrelated, they all contribute to what makes Amy and Helen who they are.

Some are funny, others tragic, but that all adds up to why Helen quit the LAPD in favor of a gun shop, and Amy gave up her dream of acting to become an antique

Book of Jobs by M.L. Grider Guest Review by Laura

'Book of Jobs: A Collection of Helen Wu and Amy Dresden,' by H.L. Grider is a wholly unexpected joy ride for me!

As a prequel to the writer's other book, 'Bitter Vintage,' this book gives short stories from both Helen Wu and Amy Dresden's lives from before that book takes place. So, for instance, many of the stories in this book are from when Helen was just starting out in the LAPD.

As a rookie cop with a lot to prove, (considering she was an Asian woman who was only 4'11) Helen goes through many strange cases at the beginning of her career.

From a shootout that ends with her being praised by the entire department, to an investigation in the home of a former Hollywood starlet that turns deadly, Helen has a lot on her hands in this book—and receives a lot of on-the-job training that she might not have expected.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in L.A., Amy begins working as a model—and finds herself dealing with a photo shoot location that seems to be inhabited by the spirit of a murdered gangster.

I have to say, I got a real kick out of this book. There was something really cool about reading stories from the lives of these two kickass ladies and seeing what makes them tick. I loved the juxtaposition of Helen's tough, serious personality against Amy's more relaxed valley girl style. I can see why these two characters would be really cute together, and how they would complete each other in a way.

I liked this book so much that I really didn't put it down once, so I took special note of how all of the stories fit together to create a full picture. I'd love more stories about Helen and Amy in the future, and I hope Grider intends on writing some! I know I will be adding him to my must-read list from now on!

Excerpt Book of Jobs by M.L. Grider

While the tape was rewinding, Helen went to the kitchen for a snack. She pulled out the two bottom drawers by the kitchen sink and used them as steps to reach the bag of Milano mint cookies her mother had hidden on the top shelf. Just as her fingertips reached her prize there was a soft tapping against the den window glass. Helen froze. There is no way Lynn didn’t hear that. Lynn would be down in an instant and her evening would be ruined. She held her breath and waited to be busted. But Lynn never came. Gradually, curiosity began to overtake the fear of getting caught. What was that tapping anyway?

Helen climbed down from the counter and dashed back into the den. In the silhouette of shadows on the drapes she was sure she saw a person climbing the tree outside. She dropped her precious mint cookies on the soft carpet, rushed to the window, and tore the drapes open.

A Topsider sticking out of stone-washed jeans was disappearing above the top of the window. Helen dropped down to her knees for a better angle and looked up at a big white guy climbing the old oak. The thick branches bowed under his weight. This guy is huge.

Helen’s mind instantly started calculating. From years of playing tag and hide-n-seek with her siblings she knew that that tree went straight up to Lynn’s bedroom window. Helen had used that route many times herself to elude being made “it” by bigger, stronger siblings. There could be only one thing on that ape’s mind, only one purpose to make him climb that tree, only one thing he could possibly be after. He was coming to tag Lynn... and then her.

Helen jumped to her feet and ran to the phone to call the police. But as soon as her hand was on the cradle her mind began to race again, weighing all the possible outcomes.

If she called the police, it would take them half an hour or more to show up. By that time, The Great White Ape out there could have already played me Tarzan, you Jane with Lynn and moved on to making Helen into Cheetah. The arrival of the police would only further enrage him and make him kill them both on the spot if he hadn’t already. Or it could make him try to use one of them as a hostage, like a human shield. He might even try and kidnap one of them. After a shootout with the inept cops the brigand would drag her on an interstate killing spree like Charlie Starkweather did with Caril Ann Fugate back in the fifties in one of her true crime books.

If she called the police, all they would do is tell her to hide until they could find time to get around to her. Could Helen hide somewhere while a burglar ravished her helpless sister? Would she be able to live with herself after letting her sister get mauled and defiled. How could she ever be able to look Lynn in the eye knowing she had cowered under her bed like Cora Amurao while Richard Speck—another true crime story—tortured, raped, and murdered eight student nurses one by one in the next room? No, she had to take matters into her own hands and save Lynn.

She reasoned that if she called the police then went to help Lynn, it would complicate things for her later. It showed premeditation. If she called the cops first then dispatched the intruder herself she could end up facing a trial. Manslaughter or even murder. With the courts as ass backward as they were in L.A. she would most likely end up in jail for saving her sister from getting raped by some psycho. Besides, Tarzan had probably already cut the phone lines. That was the first thing Tex Watson did at the Tate and LaBianca houses. She would call after she had dealt with the intruder herself. Now she had to move fast.

Helen streaked through the living room with her robe trailing behind her like a superhero’s cape. That was how she saw herself, rushing to her sister’s aid in the nick of time. Beyond the formal living room was Daddy’s home office, and in the closet of Daddy’s office was Daddy’s safe. That’s what Helen needed now.

The safe was about the size of a steamer trunk. Afraid to risk a light, she crouched on her knees in the darkness and felt the engraved numbers on the dial. Daddy didn’t know that she had figured out the combination a long time ago. It was so simple to guess. Start at 62, the year Garrett was born, then turn to the left past zero back to 66, the year Lynn was born, then right to 68 her own birthday. Daddy was too sentimental for his own good.

There was a soft click and the door popped open. The safe was cluttered with important family documents. Tax returns, Mom and Daddy’s marriage license, the birth certificates of her and her siblings, the mortgage papers on the house, insurance papers, all the usual documents of the typical middle class suburban family. But there were also Daddy’s guns.

(c) M.L. Grider, The Book Of Jobs

About M.L. Grider

The Book of Jobs is the second published novel to escape the twisted mind of M.L. Grider. In addition to writing, Grider is a professional photographer. He is busy at work on the next adventure in the Helen Wu series among other wild and warped stories.

Website: https://www.dxvaros.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DXVaros
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DXVaros.Publishing

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Giveaway Book of Jobs by M.L. Grider

This giveaway is for 3 print or ebook copies. Print is open to the U.S. only and ebook is open worldwide. This giveaway ends on November 18, 2022 midnight, pacific time. Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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