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Max Helms: Curse of the Relic
“Max Curse of the Relic” is a film-noir detective novelette. Set in 1930’s San Francisco, this book chronicles the tale of private detective, Max Helms, who manages to get himself tangled up with mobsters, criminals, cultists and zombies! Max Helms is a somewhat unsuccessful private investigator. That is until his friend Rico gets into trouble by stealing a package from the wrong person. He explains he is being followed by deceased gangsters and asks for Max's help in returning the package to it's rightful owner. Max sets about the task given him. And in the end, has a life altering event while saving the city of San Francisco. This is the first book in the Max Helms - Private Investigator series. It is an 8600 word novelette based on the forthcoming movie, "Max Curse of the Relic" by Hutt Wigley and Greg Bray.
36 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 25, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 23, 2016
I purchased this book amid a number of other Mystery novels set in San Francisco. I wasn't very picky about what I purchased and certainly didn't pay attention to how much I paid for them but... I can't believe I actually paid money for this book.
I have a rather large collection of unread books as I'm sure many of you avid readers do. When deciding what book to read next, I decided to roll two d10s, which lead me to getting around to this book at all. It didn't take me very long to wish that I'd rolled ANY other number. The first couple of pages are filled with so many perspective changes that it's dizzying. What's more is that once we got past the first chapter.. I think.. Then we finally get into the perspective of our main character, Max Helms. So it was kind of hard to keep up with who was who and who was doing what and why.
Hell, even the first group of people that we visited on the first few pages of this story were such minor characters that we never saw them again. We viewed the events that were going on finally in the eyes of one guy who worked for Mr. Heinrich and then he got walloped by another guy who shows up to receive help from Max Helms in the first place. But we don't see him at all after that. Or maybe we did because of ... Weird events and I just didn't notice because of all of the perspective shifting. I just couldn't keep up with who was who.
So finally we get to Max Helms and I'm thinking, "Okay. We can finally get this party started and get into the real storytelling."
I don't think I quite realized for a few pages just how short this novel was. The writing itself left so much to be desired. There was no art to it at all. Everything was very quick and some of the scenes were just poorly thought out if at all. Max's way of speaking is ridiculous, too. I realize the author is trying to impart a classic sort of 1939 feel to his speech, but it just feels fake and insincere. Like a C-movie written from today's age set in 1939 San Francisco.
There was little to no character development at all. In fact we learned so very little about our characters in the actual story itself, that you get more information reading the description when you're thinking of buying the book at all.
A total waste of my time and money.
I have a rather large collection of unread books as I'm sure many of you avid readers do. When deciding what book to read next, I decided to roll two d10s, which lead me to getting around to this book at all. It didn't take me very long to wish that I'd rolled ANY other number. The first couple of pages are filled with so many perspective changes that it's dizzying. What's more is that once we got past the first chapter.. I think.. Then we finally get into the perspective of our main character, Max Helms. So it was kind of hard to keep up with who was who and who was doing what and why.
Hell, even the first group of people that we visited on the first few pages of this story were such minor characters that we never saw them again. We viewed the events that were going on finally in the eyes of one guy who worked for Mr. Heinrich and then he got walloped by another guy who shows up to receive help from Max Helms in the first place. But we don't see him at all after that. Or maybe we did because of ... Weird events and I just didn't notice because of all of the perspective shifting. I just couldn't keep up with who was who.
So finally we get to Max Helms and I'm thinking, "Okay. We can finally get this party started and get into the real storytelling."
I don't think I quite realized for a few pages just how short this novel was. The writing itself left so much to be desired. There was no art to it at all. Everything was very quick and some of the scenes were just poorly thought out if at all. Max's way of speaking is ridiculous, too. I realize the author is trying to impart a classic sort of 1939 feel to his speech, but it just feels fake and insincere. Like a C-movie written from today's age set in 1939 San Francisco.
There was little to no character development at all. In fact we learned so very little about our characters in the actual story itself, that you get more information reading the description when you're thinking of buying the book at all.
A total waste of my time and money.
September 10, 2014
Not too bad for the author's first book. It's a quick entertaining read. Looking forward to more books in the series.
January 17, 2015
The first book in the series. A nice introduction to Max Helms PI. It's a para-noir series in the vein of the X-Files.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews