Fish Farm: Revenge Will Be Sweet? Or will it?

by Walt Sautter

Meet Jack, a God fearing family man with malice towards none but little does he know of that which awaits him. Within days of our meeting, Jack’s life will be shattered and he will be forced into new, perilous surroundings. He is sure he knows the cause of his downfall and vengeful thoughts haunt him incessantly.
He is soon drawn into a struggle with local thugs which forces him into a dangerous confrontation. Jack becomes ever hardened by the conflict and together with the help new found friends, he takes grisly retaliation.
Emboldened by his newly acquired mettle he decides to avenge those who he believes led to his initial undoing. Revenge will be sweet or so he thinks?
Prepare yourself for a jaw dropping ending!
_________________________
Some scenes from Fish Farm -
*
She tried to run but she is too old and slow. So he caught her and grabbed her by the scruff of the neck; carried her over to the stove and turned it on. He held Suzy over the burner and yelled '"If you don't tell me this cat is gonna get lit up!"
*
"Never killed nobody. Killed a dog once, my dog.I loved that Sammy." "How come you killed him? "Hal hesitates. "He got sick. In those days, back in my town, the only sick animals that ever saw a vet was ones that was worth money, like farm stock.
*
"Ralph, he hasn't hunted in five years now." "How so?" "It seems that poor Ralph was using the grinder and he got his hand caught. It took off all of his fingers includin' his trigger finger. After that happened he didn't want no part of this machine"
*
The room remained silent for several seconds as the smell of gun smoke quaffed through the air.
Then, Larry’s voice shattered the quiet.
“Petey, ya can come out now. Ya gotta see how good I did”
*
He then proceeded to the counter, disassembled the shotgun and put it back in the satchel. He went to the far end of the counter beyond where the carnage was lying and sat down.
“Petey, get over here!” he commanded.
Petey obeyed.
Larry then looked Charlie straight in the eye and spoke.
“Two eggs over light, home fries, rye toast and a coffee.”

116 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 2, 2011

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. It reminded me of Carl Hiaasen books, but minus the quirky characters, but the characters certainly get themselves into difficult circumstances. How do they deal with the problems? Ahhh, that's the sick charm of this book.
People end up down and out for a number of reasons. These guys all have a different story, but they are all brought together and become friends in this bad area of town. Gangs are harassing and demanding what little money these low income guys have. What to do? What can they do? How long can they take this extortion? If you stand up to the gang, you may just get yourself killed.
There is a hero in a morbid sort of way.
There were many, MANY editing mistakes, misspellings, words left out which interrupted the flow of the book because I had to take a second or two to fill in the missing, sometimes essential word.

[Matt McAvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great little novella, gripping and entertaining, which I managed to read in one short evening. “Fish Farm” is a wonderful cautionary thriller, written in an otherwise entertaining voice, with some really good setpieces – a well-told vigilante tale (and who doesn’t love one of those?) in the mould of “Death Wish” and “Harry Brown”. The characters are interesting, with intriguing back-stories, and the story is simple yet enticing, with a great ending which I didn’t see coming; a satisfying sense of justice rounds it all up neatly, giving a sense of full-circle. The pace of the prose does feel a little rushed throughout, and perhaps disproportionately so in the last few chapters, but this doesn’t really detract anything, because there is not enough leg-room in this story to form a novel-length feature – in my opinion, a quick, punchy novella is far more appealing in this case.

Generally, Walt’s writing style is nice to read, and his use of dialogue is gritty and credible; the urban realism is one we can all relate to, as well as the plight of the characters – for the most part tragically under-respected for their mature years and combined experiences.

I don’t feel that the bargain price Walt is charging for this ebook is justified, and I would much rather see it sold at a price which better reflects the overall quality of its content, and its author. In a nutshell, it is my personal opinion that “Fish Farm” - and Walt’s storytelling - deserves much more than Walt gives it credit for; this is a very good book, a nice, brutal story, and I enjoyed it a great deal.

[Amy Shannon]

Suspenseful read

Sautter pens an intriguing story in Fish Farm . I haven't read anything from this author before, and I really enjoyed it. The characters were raw, flawed and very intense. A very well-written story, and I enjoyed it. The thrills and intrigue is written clearly and the characterizations are engrossing. Jack is one of those characters that you can see change, especially from tragedy and life's pitfalls. The struggling character is most interesting as his life turns upside down. This story was intriguing and kept the reader guessing. It's a great story to follow and try to figure out what will happen next.
This author's characters develop and interacts well with the other characters. I have fast become a big fan of Sautter. I look forward to reading many more stories by this author. This book is a definite recommendation by Amy's Bookshelf Reviews.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny little story about someone taking the law into their own hands. Some strange grammar which may or may not have been deliberate.