Good reviews occasionally surface outside the USA, and they don't generally appear on Amazon.com, our major American book-mart.  Here's a nice one from author Julie Embleton, who resides in Ireland. She ceaselessly promotes her fellow indie writers on Instagram. A fine writer, highly respected and followed by many, Julie has received many laudatory reviews of her own. You may learn more about her books here.

One must always be grateful for supportive colleagues, not to mention those 15-minute slices of fame they serve us because some of those servings of fame take 30 years of brain-numbing work to cultivate.

American Crumble is available here.

The rest of this post is the review. Thank you, Julie E.

What happens when Death and the Devil get cabin fever and go in search of entertainment? They wander into Crumbleton, Wisconsin to an Off-Track Betting facility. This clever tale was too short and ended with me wanting more. I was laughing from page one, with the Devil and Death making an oddly suited couple; Death with his silly wit, and the Devil who can’t come to terms with his pesky feelings. Set against the melancholy of a dying town and its disillusioned residents, the amusing banter from the duo balances out the underlying sadness of Crumbleton’s situation. On one hand, Lawrence Jay Switzer serves up a painfully keen observation of modern-day, small-town reality, while on the other, offers the fantasy of Death and the Devil stirring trouble amongst men desperate for a winning bet. I imagine Switzer is one who people-watches. He’s plucked inspiration from everyday interactions and woven them into a beautifully written, poignant tale. American Crumble would make a delightful short film with Robert De Niro as Death, and Al Pacino as the Devil. I can already hear Pacino’s drawl as he tells Death “It’s almost two o’clock, time for that cranky old bitch Judge Judy.” A superb short earning a well-deserved five stars. It’s a twenty-minute read and worth every second!