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Dead Blow Hammer
Jim Mann is a homebody. While he trades grain commodities out of his house in a western suburb of Minneapolis, he spends most of his time helping his neighbors. If they ask, he helps. If they don’t ask, he offers. Everyone on Barbosa Street thinks of him as Handy.
It would have been a peaceful life if he hadn’t trusted his neighbors. If he hadn’t traded home repair work for Bo Stinson’s accounting expertise. If he hadn’t fallen for Gustav Olson’s long-lost daughter. If he hadn’t, in true DIY stubbornness, tried to do it all himself.
Dead Blow Hammer tells the story of how one misstep—in this case, the first step on the stairway to Angie Stinson’s bedroom—drew Handy Mann into a life-or-death struggle with evil he never imagined could be so close at hand, a struggle he will need every tool in his toolbox to survive.
It would have been a peaceful life if he hadn’t trusted his neighbors. If he hadn’t traded home repair work for Bo Stinson’s accounting expertise. If he hadn’t fallen for Gustav Olson’s long-lost daughter. If he hadn’t, in true DIY stubbornness, tried to do it all himself.
Dead Blow Hammer tells the story of how one misstep—in this case, the first step on the stairway to Angie Stinson’s bedroom—drew Handy Mann into a life-or-death struggle with evil he never imagined could be so close at hand, a struggle he will need every tool in his toolbox to survive.
- GenresAmazon
200 pages, ebook
First published December 16, 2012
6 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
Steve George
1 book5 followersExperts always tell you to write what you know. I've made a living writing about things I didn't know. As a freelance business writer, I've gone into detail about everything from making windows to job safety to insurance procedures to quality management, and a whole lot more.
I rarely knew much about these topics when I started, so I figured I could follow the same path to producing a novel. I failed. Twice. I got bogged down by complex plots that required knowledge I didn't have and couldn't get. I gave up. I told myself to stick to business writing.
But the desire to write a novel nagged me. This time, I admitted my mistakes and thought about that expert advice: Write what you know. I know a little about being a handyman: I've lived in my house for more than 30 years, during which I've stripped four rooms to the studs and remodeled them, shingled my house and garage, upgraded my wiring, replaced all my windows, sided my garage, and done the hundreds of little jobs necessary for a house to function. I make no claims to being very good at any of these things, but I know what they require and that was enough to create Handy Mann.
I used what I know to create Handy's neighborhood and imagine his friends and neighbors - and enemies - and then I asked: What if? Dead Blow Hammer, the first Handy Mann novel, answers the question: What if neighbors Handy trusted were actually out to harm him? Mimsy, the second Handy Mann novels, answers the question: What if a simple problem is not simple at all?
And then I wrote the kind of books I love to read: page turners. Move fast. Take out anything that slows down the story. Race to the end.
I hope you enjoy them. Let me know what you think. I'm working on the third Handy Mann novel now. It has something to do with a woman on a leash and a body in Handy's house. I can't wait to see how it works out.
I rarely knew much about these topics when I started, so I figured I could follow the same path to producing a novel. I failed. Twice. I got bogged down by complex plots that required knowledge I didn't have and couldn't get. I gave up. I told myself to stick to business writing.
But the desire to write a novel nagged me. This time, I admitted my mistakes and thought about that expert advice: Write what you know. I know a little about being a handyman: I've lived in my house for more than 30 years, during which I've stripped four rooms to the studs and remodeled them, shingled my house and garage, upgraded my wiring, replaced all my windows, sided my garage, and done the hundreds of little jobs necessary for a house to function. I make no claims to being very good at any of these things, but I know what they require and that was enough to create Handy Mann.
I used what I know to create Handy's neighborhood and imagine his friends and neighbors - and enemies - and then I asked: What if? Dead Blow Hammer, the first Handy Mann novel, answers the question: What if neighbors Handy trusted were actually out to harm him? Mimsy, the second Handy Mann novels, answers the question: What if a simple problem is not simple at all?
And then I wrote the kind of books I love to read: page turners. Move fast. Take out anything that slows down the story. Race to the end.
I hope you enjoy them. Let me know what you think. I'm working on the third Handy Mann novel now. It has something to do with a woman on a leash and a body in Handy's house. I can't wait to see how it works out.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 19, 2013
Fundamentals of good writing save the day in what I suspect is an unintended way.
A Swiss cheese plot (full of holes, cheesy), flat characters with unbelievable motives, and a first person main character more concerned with bullet wounds to his tools than himself make this story seem too goofy to work.
On the other hand, clean prose, sharp, funny dialogue and most crucially, a deft hand at building tension kept me engaged. I’m not much for crime writing, so maybe the off kilter, ‘Coen Brothers’ vibe I got went a long way toward turning writing flaws that normally make me dump a book into assets.
If you’re up for something laugh out load funny, disconcerting and frequently quite gripping, take a whack at Dead Blow Hammer.
A Swiss cheese plot (full of holes, cheesy), flat characters with unbelievable motives, and a first person main character more concerned with bullet wounds to his tools than himself make this story seem too goofy to work.
On the other hand, clean prose, sharp, funny dialogue and most crucially, a deft hand at building tension kept me engaged. I’m not much for crime writing, so maybe the off kilter, ‘Coen Brothers’ vibe I got went a long way toward turning writing flaws that normally make me dump a book into assets.
If you’re up for something laugh out load funny, disconcerting and frequently quite gripping, take a whack at Dead Blow Hammer.
February 18, 2013
Didn't really connect with this book at all... My belief had to be suspended to such a degree it got vertigo. Very 2 dimensional characters that I just had no empathy with. The actual premise of the story wasn't a bad one, could have been a good book if it had been written better, had completely different characters, some link to the real world and wasn't so dull....
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February 17, 2013Kindle freebie, 2/17/13
March 2, 2013
Quick read. Pretty inventive story with the handyman angle. Kept me turning the pages. Ending was a bit far fetched but the author wrapped it up nicely.
August 18, 2013
No depth to this book at all. I didn't connect with any of the characters and simply put, it just fell short. Quick read, though.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews