I have not always appreciated Amazon’s impact on the book market. I prefer indy bookstores when doing my shopping, especially used indy bookstores. However, if Amazon is good for one thing, it’s being able to produce obscure books that I would not otherwise discover.
Mind you, it’s no skin off their nose to buy up and distribute Gary Reilly’s little known Asphalt Warrior series. If people like me find em and read em, great. If not, it’s not making or breaking their bottom line. So I’m still contributing to the problem.
That said, I likely would not have discovered these books if not for Amazon. And I’m so glad I did. They’re a lot of fun. When my Kindle Unlimited got unexpectedly extended for another month (I forgot to pay the bill), I eagerly snatched up the second in the series and read it in one sitting.
Like the first one, there is a mystery but not really. It never rises beyond low stakes and I knew from the first one that even the implications of greater danger were just that…implications. Reilly is a humane writer. He’d rather make you laugh and tell a good tale than get you feeling down. I appreciate that. He also seems to have a soft spot for how difficult family dynamics can be. And here, with Hollywood featured in the plot, he avoids some major cliches to present characters that are fully realized.
It’s a shame Gary Reilly died before his work could be fully recognized. I cherish these books a lot and may have to make a deal with the devil (Amazon) in order to keep reading them.