Neurotic Mothers' Battleship

by Xanxa Symanah

When Darien returns to her home city after a sabbatical in the countryside, she soon realises that all is not well with her family and colleagues. Faced with mysterious threats while trying to investigate a charismatic criminal mastermind, she has to venture into dangerous areas of the city and rely on assistance from an unlikely assortment of vagrants and misfits. She also has to contend with her cantankerous mother and a needy lover who is not as supportive as he should be. Take a journey into the sleazy criminal underworld of Kashmir City, where Darien searches for truth and justice, as well as trying to find her true vocation in life.

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 16, 2015

About the author

PLEASE NOTE - THIS AUTHOR DOES NOT SEND OUT REVIEW COPIES!

Sarah Xanxa Wallace (AKA Xanxa Symanah) has always been involved in creative writing. Before she learned to read and write, she would make up stories, telling them to anyone who would listen, or simply reciting them to herself when she lacked an audience.

She is also a poet, having had some of her poetry published in an anthology which was brought out by a Brasilian University publishing house. Some of her poems have also featured on drug abuse awareness websites, youth club websites and other creative communities online.

Her main area of work is contemporary fantasy. She has written seven fantasy novels with the collective title The Virian Chronicles, along with offshoot series collectively entitled The Virian Companions and The Vyrdigaan Prophecies. She has also written one detective novel and published a collection of her dark poetry. She is currently working on a new series of fantasy novels entitled The Feniyaan Archives.

She is married to the home-based progressive rock musician Ian Wallace (formerly known as Ian Raggatt) and she wrote a novella to accompany one of his albums, The Presence, telling the story of the concept in her own words. The novella was distributed with the first batch of CDs released but is now only available in ebook format.

Besides creative writing, she has a keen interest in fantasy and science-fiction movies and TV shows, travel, languages and music.

Reviews

[K.V. Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book introduces a malady of the mind called ‘Neurotic Mothers’ Battleship’ or ‘the Battleship’ for short. Once again, the author does an incredible job of introducing us to all sorts of characters and giving each his own meaningful backstory and relatable personality. Even the bad guys garnered sympathy from me as their stories were so well explained. Very smooth writing. I think my favourite character would have to be Mustapha Morphew. I’m looking forward to reading more about him in the companion book. I love the way each of these stories can stand on its own yet fit so well into the timeline and universe the author has created.

[L.L. Thomsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book I've read by this author and it's a 'must read' for anyone who loves the story telling style and original worldbuilding. This time, the plot carries with a distinctive detective vibe, as main character (law-student-turned-investigator) Darien slowly unravels a devious plot and delves into the seedy underbelly of her home city. The thing that I love about this author is the amazing scope of the universe she has built and how she effortlessly weaves characters who feed in and out of each other's story lines across world and even books. With a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, this books is another stand alone, though I recognise characters who also feature in other books that I plan to read.