Love & Bullets: A Pulp Thriller

Infernum #1

by Percival Constantine, Joshua Reynolds (Editor)

An assassin's hunt for the truth! Angela Lockhart was a spy for a government agency, but the death of her husband drove her away. Only one man knows who killed her husband, a power broker named Dante who leads an international organization of assassins. But before he’ll give Angela what she wants, he needs her to do some work for him. Further complicating matters is the involvement of another government operative, playing a deadly game of deception to bring Angela back into the fold. And soon, Angela will have to decide what’s more important—avenging the past or living in the present? Series Note Although there are recurring characters and mentions of events in other books, all titles in this series are stand-alone and can be read in any order. Other Books In This Series Outlaw Blues Gentleman Rogue The Fixers

Genres: Thriller, Fiction

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 17, 2010

About the author

Born and raised in the Chicagoland area, Percival Constantine grew up on a fairly consistent diet of superhero comics, action movies, video games, and TV shows. At the age of ten, he first began writing and has never really stopped.

Percival has been working in publishing since 2005 in various capacities--author, editor, formatter, letterer--and has written books, short stories, comics, and more. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English and Mass Media from Northeastern Illinois University and a Master of Arts in English and Screenwriting from Southern New Hampshire University.

Currently, Percival lives in southern Japan where he continues to work on new projects and also teaches literature, writing, and film.

You can find him online at PercivalConstantine.com and connect with him on Twitter (@perconstantine) and Facebook (Facebook.com/PercivalConstantine).

Reviews

[Werner]

Since I didn't finish this book, this isn't an actual review, only an explanation of why I didn't finish. I debated whether to even write this much, as I don't want to be unkind to the author (and I wouldn't presume to rate the book). If I'd gotten the e-book for free as a personal gift, I'd have written nothing; but since it's one that's offered for free to the general public, I thought I owed it to other readers to offer some explanation.

Angela Lockhart's character is a type I find intriguing, and up until Chapter 6 I felt the book might be a five star-read. At that point the plotting and character consistency completely fell apart, with both Angela and Christian, the Agency operative working against her boss' organization (both of whom are supposedly top-notch in their field), started taking actions and decisions so amateurish and stupid they could only be described as idiotic. This was obviously done to get them into a dating relationship; but that was being accomplished at the expense of any shred of credibility, and simply torpedoed the book amidships, beyond any hope of recovery (at least from my perspective).

Despite my disappointment with this book, I'll state that I did like the author's other series opener, The Lost Continent; I gave that one three stars, and intend to buy a paperback copy.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a seriously 'Meh' type formulaic tale, without wit or seriousness. We just had a bunch of stereotypes clothed in anime-type characters, prancing around.
Disappointed.

[Tess White · Rating 2 out of 5]

a very fun quick read about a female assassin. Lots of action!

[Markel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't a bad read. Very quick. I enjoyed it immensely right up until Angela met Chris. After that it all went down hill. They made sloppy mistakes, the ending was anti-climatic and despite the books contents stating it's a stand alone it ends on somewhat of a cliff hanger.

[Magiccats · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gets a 4 star rating from me based on the highly intense, exciting action scenes, the basic concept of the book (loved the idea of the whole story) and the fact that I found it to be an enjoyable fun read with fast paced action that kept me glued to the pages.

However, about 1/2 way through I began to find I was not relating much with the characters who I felt were rather underdeveloped. I would give it 3 stars for character development and the fact it was rather short.

The ending, although abrupt - leaving me with the feeling it was rushed- was surprising, in the respect of whetting one's appetite for another in the series.

In all it was a fun entertaining read and I would read a second in the series.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting action

Many writers that weave martial arts into a story, seem to have more knowledge of the moves in the art form than this author portrays. Character development was adequate and the characters interesting. The editing could be improved, as I came across many typos.

[Robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fast-paced and exciting; however, because it was a novella, I didn't feel I got to know the characters well enough before the story ended. I'm not a fan of a story whose villain is smarter or tougher than the hero whose job is to capture or kill him. I hope in future books in this series that Dante is less; his adversary more.

[Debbie Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Page-Turning Action

A former Agency operative is working for the opposition as an assassin. The agency had failed to look into her husband's death. He was also an agent for the Agency. Now she has reason to believe there was a mole in the organization and she is determined to find him.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story with the main character as an assassin action was a given there was also romance I enjoyed.

[Kevin Findley · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of Constantine's first works; this is a quick and dirty novel in the spy/assassin genre. Fun and good for a rainy day read.

[Valery · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

Couldn't get past first chapter. F-word just turns it off for me.