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Crossover #1
Crossover
When a mystical warning from a vulnerable girl helps Len Doyle avoid a bloodbath, he wants answers. If there's one thing a professional killer doesn't like, it's loose ends.
In return for her secrets, the young girl wants shelter and protection.
But in hindsight, maybe he should have found out what she needed protecting from.....
In return for her secrets, the young girl wants shelter and protection.
But in hindsight, maybe he should have found out what she needed protecting from.....
- GenresFiction
233 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 5, 2014
644 people want to read
About the author
Paul Proffet
3 books2 followersAuthor Bio:
Then.
I grew up in a small mining town in Yorkshire, England where entertainment was relatively thin on the ground. At least it was for a cerebral young fantasist like me. As a result I would dissolve myself in books and comics from a very early age. Some of my fondest memories involve 2000AD or even Marvel or DC stuff. I was given several Roald Dahl books by loving family members and I still cherish them even now. I remember some of my attempts at writing around this time and I’m suddenly glad a standard keyboard doesn’t have a cringe button! Yes they were that bad. I had the enthusiasm back then, but not the life experience that was to spice my later attempts. I found that my earliest stuff was interesting, but it sounded like everything else. It would take another thirty years for me to find my voice and style. I would like to be able to give some credit to my former school and educators, but I won’t.
Now.
Three decades later and I’m sitting here overjoyed. I must look over at my bookshelf around fifty times a day and look proudly at my first published book. CrossOver sits up there next to some real aristocracy within the fantasy writers world, that I can only hope to emulate. But I use the word emulate with some trepidation. I couldn’t hope to match many of them, but if I can just look at Crossover standing there next to them in a bookstore somewhere, then that’s genuinely enough for me. I’ve seen some hardship since my younger days too.
Sometimes through lack of money, sometimes not.
Sometimes through lack of hope, sometimes not.
I’m still standing though, shaky, but defiant.
I live in Cheltenham now with Tanya, the most wonderful person in the world. If it wasn’t for her I’m not sure what state I’d be in.
Later.
CrossOver is out there and I’ve spilt first blood. It’s only been a few months and I’m still struggling with the emotions of it all. As a debut novel it reminds me every day that I can do this, now and forever. I cracked straight on with the sequel, CrossBack, and the first draft is complete. I love spending time with the characters and the story just seems to be spilling out all over the place.
My idea book is filling up too. When the CrossOver trilogy is firmly tucked into bed, I have tons to think about. Am I going post-apocalyptic of steam-punk? Epic Sci-fi is elbowing its way in constantly. There are also some fascinating characters that take up much of my day-dreaming time too.
Who knows how that will play out?
Stay with me and keep the faith.
It only gets better from here.
Paul Proffet.
Then.
I grew up in a small mining town in Yorkshire, England where entertainment was relatively thin on the ground. At least it was for a cerebral young fantasist like me. As a result I would dissolve myself in books and comics from a very early age. Some of my fondest memories involve 2000AD or even Marvel or DC stuff. I was given several Roald Dahl books by loving family members and I still cherish them even now. I remember some of my attempts at writing around this time and I’m suddenly glad a standard keyboard doesn’t have a cringe button! Yes they were that bad. I had the enthusiasm back then, but not the life experience that was to spice my later attempts. I found that my earliest stuff was interesting, but it sounded like everything else. It would take another thirty years for me to find my voice and style. I would like to be able to give some credit to my former school and educators, but I won’t.
Now.
Three decades later and I’m sitting here overjoyed. I must look over at my bookshelf around fifty times a day and look proudly at my first published book. CrossOver sits up there next to some real aristocracy within the fantasy writers world, that I can only hope to emulate. But I use the word emulate with some trepidation. I couldn’t hope to match many of them, but if I can just look at Crossover standing there next to them in a bookstore somewhere, then that’s genuinely enough for me. I’ve seen some hardship since my younger days too.
Sometimes through lack of money, sometimes not.
Sometimes through lack of hope, sometimes not.
I’m still standing though, shaky, but defiant.
I live in Cheltenham now with Tanya, the most wonderful person in the world. If it wasn’t for her I’m not sure what state I’d be in.
Later.
CrossOver is out there and I’ve spilt first blood. It’s only been a few months and I’m still struggling with the emotions of it all. As a debut novel it reminds me every day that I can do this, now and forever. I cracked straight on with the sequel, CrossBack, and the first draft is complete. I love spending time with the characters and the story just seems to be spilling out all over the place.
My idea book is filling up too. When the CrossOver trilogy is firmly tucked into bed, I have tons to think about. Am I going post-apocalyptic of steam-punk? Epic Sci-fi is elbowing its way in constantly. There are also some fascinating characters that take up much of my day-dreaming time too.
Who knows how that will play out?
Stay with me and keep the faith.
It only gets better from here.
Paul Proffet.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 23, 2016
Crossover has a very interesting concept: a professional killer who, alone, must deal with a prize on his head by a Russian mob boss. He is warned he is gonna get killed by a mysterious girl, who apparently can see the future and is being hunted herself by demons.
Accidentally, he discovers he can go to the other world by touching her hand when she is sleeping. He deals with a demon pretty brutally, as expected from a mob killer. The book doesn't shy away from violence and gore.
Len, the protagonist, can summon weapons in the other world. Think Fate Stay/Night's Gilgamesh or Shirou, but with guns. Later he meets Gal, who is an amazing character and even steals the spotlight, in my opinion. And things acquire an epic scale later.
Also, confronted by magic in the modern world, the characters went to actually research it in the Internet. It's only briefly mentioned, but I felt it was a nice detail.
Now what didn't work for me: The beginning is very fast paced and full of action, but then it drags a lot in the middle with plenty of meetings and small talk, both in the real world and in the other world.
The other world has a large portion spent on training and later a lot of political discussion between various factions, just suddenly adding a pile of names.
Also, Len said he had problems imagining weapons to conjure. I found that really hard to believe, because he was portrayed as a 44 year old professional killer for the mob. He even has a knuckle-duster named Whiskey and a pet .25 cal Beretta that are never mentioned again, but appeared to be a big deal.
Two weeks later he can even summon a rocket launcher.
We meet so many other characters and factions that this caused the main characters to not get fleshed out.
We don't get to learn more about Len. Why he joined the mob, why he spent his entire life killing, why he suddenly wants to protect the girl so much, not just because she warned her. He doesn't really grow, he is portrayed as a killer with a big heart, but not much dept. His supposedly criminal mind doesn't even consider using Briar's powers to gain money, even if just to help her.
Briar, who started intriguing, fades into the background around the middle mark. She gets to know new people, and aside some hilarious scenes with Gal, she doesn't develop a strong bond with anyone. Her powers even seemed to be replaced with visions of the future with visions of detecting demons anywhere.
This is where Gal starts stealing the spotlight. Or maybe because of the mob's idiocy. We were told this mob boss is really rich and put a very high prize on Len.
On the first time, they sent his four most trusted guys and Gal marvelously dispatches them with extreme ease. Did the mob boss sends everyone there? Nope, he goes there himself with even less people; two randomly hired goons. You can guess what happened.
While the beginning was great, it lost a lot of suspense with this whole lot of characters joining the fray. At the end, even more characters join the group!
It would be much better if the book only focused on Len/Briar, maybe combined Ann/Amanda and then focus on their struggle for survival against the mob and the demons, while running from place to place.
It would be really cool if the demons passed through the real world and you had scenes with Len, the mob and the demons fighting each other on massive shootings and magical attacks in the city. Car chases with demons flying around.
If Len got magical weapons/objects that would help against the mob and real world stuff to the other world. If Briar could help with her foresight to plan a bit ahead, or where an attack would happen, who would die, etc.
If the mob boss made a pact of the demons to join forces or give him power against Len.
If Len, alone, would have to choose between dealing with the mob right now or saving Briar in the other world.
This suspense was killed by having Gal, as great as he was, and by the mob itself, which pretty much seemed composed of half a dozen guys. In the other world, except for the first two demon encounters, who were pretty good and funny, Len and Briar receive the help of a lot of people and even whole armies against the demons.
The decisive battle was pretty strange. A faction was very loyal and would die for a certain character. Yet, they only appear at the very end of the fight and save the day, despite that character being in the fight from the very beginning and almost dying.
Lastly, this book needed an editor.
I'm not one that cares about typos, but I really spotted a lot. Not incorrect words or sentences, although there are a few. There is a lot of missing commas that resulted in some awkward phrases and it was really hard to not lose some immersion with that many.
It's a debut novel, and it also shows in the dialogue tags. For example, if there are six dialogue lines between characters, they will all have different tags, such as "said", "muttered", "snarled", "whispered", "decided", "etc. Even if there are only two people talking and we know who is who.
A lot of incorrect dialogue tags are also used with frequency, such as "laughed", "smiled", "breathed", "shrugged", "giggled", "chuckled".
Dialogue is also ending with a colon instead of a comma before the tags.
There's also references about "traveling the plains", "plains of existence", and I'm pretty sure the author meant "planes".
The beginning is really good in hooking the reader. It loses momentum in the mid, then it reaches epic proportions towards the end. The premise was interesting, but needed a better polishing. For the creativity of blending themes and settings, this shows potential.
Accidentally, he discovers he can go to the other world by touching her hand when she is sleeping. He deals with a demon pretty brutally, as expected from a mob killer. The book doesn't shy away from violence and gore.
Len, the protagonist, can summon weapons in the other world. Think Fate Stay/Night's Gilgamesh or Shirou, but with guns. Later he meets Gal, who is an amazing character and even steals the spotlight, in my opinion. And things acquire an epic scale later.
Also, confronted by magic in the modern world, the characters went to actually research it in the Internet. It's only briefly mentioned, but I felt it was a nice detail.
Now what didn't work for me: The beginning is very fast paced and full of action, but then it drags a lot in the middle with plenty of meetings and small talk, both in the real world and in the other world.
The other world has a large portion spent on training and later a lot of political discussion between various factions, just suddenly adding a pile of names.
Also, Len said he had problems imagining weapons to conjure. I found that really hard to believe, because he was portrayed as a 44 year old professional killer for the mob. He even has a knuckle-duster named Whiskey and a pet .25 cal Beretta that are never mentioned again, but appeared to be a big deal.
Two weeks later he can even summon a rocket launcher.
We meet so many other characters and factions that this caused the main characters to not get fleshed out.
We don't get to learn more about Len. Why he joined the mob, why he spent his entire life killing, why he suddenly wants to protect the girl so much, not just because she warned her. He doesn't really grow, he is portrayed as a killer with a big heart, but not much dept. His supposedly criminal mind doesn't even consider using Briar's powers to gain money, even if just to help her.
Briar, who started intriguing, fades into the background around the middle mark. She gets to know new people, and aside some hilarious scenes with Gal, she doesn't develop a strong bond with anyone. Her powers even seemed to be replaced with visions of the future with visions of detecting demons anywhere.
This is where Gal starts stealing the spotlight. Or maybe because of the mob's idiocy. We were told this mob boss is really rich and put a very high prize on Len.
On the first time, they sent his four most trusted guys and Gal marvelously dispatches them with extreme ease. Did the mob boss sends everyone there? Nope, he goes there himself with even less people; two randomly hired goons. You can guess what happened.
While the beginning was great, it lost a lot of suspense with this whole lot of characters joining the fray. At the end, even more characters join the group!
It would be much better if the book only focused on Len/Briar, maybe combined Ann/Amanda and then focus on their struggle for survival against the mob and the demons, while running from place to place.
It would be really cool if the demons passed through the real world and you had scenes with Len, the mob and the demons fighting each other on massive shootings and magical attacks in the city. Car chases with demons flying around.
If Len got magical weapons/objects that would help against the mob and real world stuff to the other world. If Briar could help with her foresight to plan a bit ahead, or where an attack would happen, who would die, etc.
If the mob boss made a pact of the demons to join forces or give him power against Len.
If Len, alone, would have to choose between dealing with the mob right now or saving Briar in the other world.
This suspense was killed by having Gal, as great as he was, and by the mob itself, which pretty much seemed composed of half a dozen guys. In the other world, except for the first two demon encounters, who were pretty good and funny, Len and Briar receive the help of a lot of people and even whole armies against the demons.
The decisive battle was pretty strange. A faction was very loyal and would die for a certain character. Yet, they only appear at the very end of the fight and save the day, despite that character being in the fight from the very beginning and almost dying.
Lastly, this book needed an editor.
I'm not one that cares about typos, but I really spotted a lot. Not incorrect words or sentences, although there are a few. There is a lot of missing commas that resulted in some awkward phrases and it was really hard to not lose some immersion with that many.
It's a debut novel, and it also shows in the dialogue tags. For example, if there are six dialogue lines between characters, they will all have different tags, such as "said", "muttered", "snarled", "whispered", "decided", "etc. Even if there are only two people talking and we know who is who.
A lot of incorrect dialogue tags are also used with frequency, such as "laughed", "smiled", "breathed", "shrugged", "giggled", "chuckled".
Dialogue is also ending with a colon instead of a comma before the tags.
There's also references about "traveling the plains", "plains of existence", and I'm pretty sure the author meant "planes".
The beginning is really good in hooking the reader. It loses momentum in the mid, then it reaches epic proportions towards the end. The premise was interesting, but needed a better polishing. For the creativity of blending themes and settings, this shows potential.
May 11, 2015
In my own opinion, a thriller book/film is more scarier than a horror book/film because thrillers are more realistic. Meaning what you are reading or seeing on the screen could actually happen in real life. Horror on the other hand usually shows us images or gives us descriptions on paper that maybe scary to us but in the end, we look at it as make believe and highly impossible for it to happen in real life (for the most part). You may disagree with me on that topic but I think we can all agree that a story where both genres are combined could be one of two things; a masterpiece or a mess. It could be a mess because of the fact that they are two genres. In other words, you're almost trying to cram two different stories into one. On the other hand, one can pull through "Development Hell" and create a great story that's both a thriller and a horror. Just by reading CrossOver, I can tell that Paul Proffet worked really hard to make this story unique, smart, entertaining and of course, scary. He also made it humorous too.
Len Doyle is a different kind of serial killer. His prey are the crime bosses of his town. As he's planning on making a run for it, a runaway girl named Briar tips him off about him being on someone's hit list. When it turns out to be a Russian boss and one of his closest associates, he wounds them before they can get him and runs away with Briar. After settling in with her, he finds out that she has a supernatural curse. Her imagination gives her visions of ghosts and monsters attacking her in which she physically suffers from them. Len soon finds out that if he touches her while she has these visions, he can crossover into her visions and fight off the monsters. Soon, he uses her curse to his advantage to fight off the Russian thugs who are still after him. But will Briar's curse help Len and will Briar ever be free from her curse?
This is Paul Proffet's debut novel and this was a really great start for his writing career. Creating a well thought out story with the combination of both thrills, screams and even laughter. As I said in my intro, Proffet was able to get through "Development Hell" and was able to develop the type of story that usually turns out so messy because it has so many elements that usually don't go well together. Here, he makes it work while also giving us characters that have unusual characteristics but was able to make them relatable. Hopefully, this story will be able to relate to more people because it deserves to be read and discussed.
Len Doyle is a different kind of serial killer. His prey are the crime bosses of his town. As he's planning on making a run for it, a runaway girl named Briar tips him off about him being on someone's hit list. When it turns out to be a Russian boss and one of his closest associates, he wounds them before they can get him and runs away with Briar. After settling in with her, he finds out that she has a supernatural curse. Her imagination gives her visions of ghosts and monsters attacking her in which she physically suffers from them. Len soon finds out that if he touches her while she has these visions, he can crossover into her visions and fight off the monsters. Soon, he uses her curse to his advantage to fight off the Russian thugs who are still after him. But will Briar's curse help Len and will Briar ever be free from her curse?
This is Paul Proffet's debut novel and this was a really great start for his writing career. Creating a well thought out story with the combination of both thrills, screams and even laughter. As I said in my intro, Proffet was able to get through "Development Hell" and was able to develop the type of story that usually turns out so messy because it has so many elements that usually don't go well together. Here, he makes it work while also giving us characters that have unusual characteristics but was able to make them relatable. Hopefully, this story will be able to relate to more people because it deserves to be read and discussed.
October 28, 2015
Totally biased as anyone would expect, I'm adding this review of my debut novel as posted by Kirkus reviews.
BOOK REVIEW - Kirkus Reviews.
In this urban-fantasy adventure, a 44-year-old professional criminal decides to help a mysterious young woman—and
gets pulled into a supernatural battle.
Len Doyle is a killer with standards who dislikes today’s nastier crime bosses. He’s plotting retirement until a troubled
homeless girl named Briar warns him that “[a] blue suit might kill you today if you let it.” Using this tip, he beats up a
Russian boss and his goon who were planning to kill him, then retreats with the mysterious Briar to a country hideaway.
He soon discovers that Briar visits a supernatural plane in her dreams, where she’s attacked by demonic monsters and
suffers real-life injuries. He also finds that by touching her, he can cross over into her dream and defend her, summoning
weapons with his mind. He soon recruits some tough, reliable friends from the old days, and together, they fight a
two-front battle with mundane but deadly Russian thugs on one side and nightmare demons on the other. In his debut
novel, Proffet offers a brisk, exciting blend of crime action and fantasy warfare. The latter involves magic users, healers,
warriors and cool armor, as in a role-playing game; in both, the fighting is vivid, bloody and often leavened with black
humor. Running jokes, such as a succession of destroyed tea kettles, also help lighten the mood, as does Proffet’s slangy,
punchy dialogue, which adds characterization and depth. For example, here’s Doyle’s response when a terrifying,
7-foot-tall, burning demon says that he can smell his fear: “If that’s what passes for an insult around here ya need to
modernise, ya deep-fried lanky sack of dog shit.” The novel has some rough edges, but Doyle and his friends are
unlikely but apt heroes—exactly who you’d want in a fight—and their camaraderie provides the novel with a big,
beating heart: “Bravery and brotherhood above all, that was their creed and they would die to defend it. To them the
choice was simple.”
A promising, deeply satisfying debut full of action, wit and heart.
BOOK REVIEW - Kirkus Reviews.
In this urban-fantasy adventure, a 44-year-old professional criminal decides to help a mysterious young woman—and
gets pulled into a supernatural battle.
Len Doyle is a killer with standards who dislikes today’s nastier crime bosses. He’s plotting retirement until a troubled
homeless girl named Briar warns him that “[a] blue suit might kill you today if you let it.” Using this tip, he beats up a
Russian boss and his goon who were planning to kill him, then retreats with the mysterious Briar to a country hideaway.
He soon discovers that Briar visits a supernatural plane in her dreams, where she’s attacked by demonic monsters and
suffers real-life injuries. He also finds that by touching her, he can cross over into her dream and defend her, summoning
weapons with his mind. He soon recruits some tough, reliable friends from the old days, and together, they fight a
two-front battle with mundane but deadly Russian thugs on one side and nightmare demons on the other. In his debut
novel, Proffet offers a brisk, exciting blend of crime action and fantasy warfare. The latter involves magic users, healers,
warriors and cool armor, as in a role-playing game; in both, the fighting is vivid, bloody and often leavened with black
humor. Running jokes, such as a succession of destroyed tea kettles, also help lighten the mood, as does Proffet’s slangy,
punchy dialogue, which adds characterization and depth. For example, here’s Doyle’s response when a terrifying,
7-foot-tall, burning demon says that he can smell his fear: “If that’s what passes for an insult around here ya need to
modernise, ya deep-fried lanky sack of dog shit.” The novel has some rough edges, but Doyle and his friends are
unlikely but apt heroes—exactly who you’d want in a fight—and their camaraderie provides the novel with a big,
beating heart: “Bravery and brotherhood above all, that was their creed and they would die to defend it. To them the
choice was simple.”
A promising, deeply satisfying debut full of action, wit and heart.
March 22, 2016
**I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an HONEST review*
Wow! A thrill ride from start to finish! This was a lot of fun to read, and a bit scary! The picture painted in my mind was amazing, the author really has a way of describing scenes and THINGS, I was very impressed! It had the creep factor working for it in spades, and I recommend this to anyone who likes thrillers, paranormal, anything like that and can handle some violence.
Bob says: 4 Platypires!
Wow! A thrill ride from start to finish! This was a lot of fun to read, and a bit scary! The picture painted in my mind was amazing, the author really has a way of describing scenes and THINGS, I was very impressed! It had the creep factor working for it in spades, and I recommend this to anyone who likes thrillers, paranormal, anything like that and can handle some violence.
Bob says: 4 Platypires!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews