One Decent Thing

by Michael E. Wills

Scottie, a self-centered, dissolute university administrator with a weakness for cigarettes, drink and women, finds that he is unwelcome when he visits his university student daughter, Tina. His effort to drown his sorrows leads him into a world of terrorism and danger where he becomes a fugitive from the police and from the IRA. In desperation and with the help of some university students, he decides to break with his egocentric habits and do one decent thing. But he has made powerful enemies and will have to face retribution.

252 pages, Paperback

Published June 19, 2016

About the author

I was born on the Isle of Wight and after attending school there, I trained to be a teacher. I worked for two years in a secondary school in Kent before re-training to teach English as a Foreign Language. After a career in education both in UK and in Europe, I now have time to write about things which fascinate me, and foremost among my many interests is history. I like to tell stories about ordinary people who get caught up in historical events and thereby portray the lives of characters both real and fictional.

Reviews

[Stephen Brayton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plot

1975. Richard Scott would like to reacquaint himself with his daughter. He hasn’t been a role model father. When Scott comes across a beached raft with two IRA men, he discovers some secret plans. Now, Scott is on the run from the IRA, but when they involve his daughter, his goal is to rescue her.

I have no issues with the plot. I think it’s a good premise and brings back some of the 70s thrillers.

Characters

Richard ‘Scottie’ Scott: university marketing agent, smokes, divorced, brother dead

Tina: Scottie’s daughter, long black hair, university student

Ellen: drives a blue Morris Minor

Jean: Scott’s ex wife

There are bad guys and there are college students, the latter of which help Scott through his problems. However, I have a problem with some of the characters. While I like some of the college students, I didn’t think they were distinctive enough. I wanted a bit more personality from each.

I wanted more from Tina. She was kidnapped and I wanted more than one scene with her where POV switched around. Should have been more from her, especially at the end. Especially since she’s on the cover.

The bad guys weren’t bad enough. Here are a group of IRA rebels planning on blowing up several targets, killing and injuring scores of people and yet at least one of them is worried that they shouldn’t hurt their kidnapped victim because she’s supposedly innocent?

Dialogue

Here’s another issue. The bad guys didn’t sound like bad guys. They sounded like executives discussing deals and deciding every now and then to be tough. The college students had some individual voices, but not enough. Jean was irritating because all she did was harangue Scott. If she was so desperate, and didn’t think her ex was going to be reliable, why didn’t she call the police or someone else for help?

Too many people spoke without using contractions and it didn’t seem natural.

Continuity problem with dialogue. In one scene the bad guys are talking and one says she doing okay and eating. A few paragraphs later, another bad guy asks if she’s eating.

Writing

No profanity. Some chapters and scene changes are heading by date.

While the author did a good job of getting around not having cell phones and computers, I thought the scenes with breaking the code were too complex. I enjoyed how they figured out the code, but it didn’t seem tense enough. A lot of the action didn’t seem too intense.

Clean writing with no errors that I caught.

I just had problems with character and dialogue and, though I won’t play spoiler, I thought the ending was a bit abrupt. It might have been drawn out a bit. The way it was written didn’t work for me. I’m not saying the ending wasn’t an interesting way to end the book, but another way of writing might have made more impact.

I considered ranking this a camouflage, but because of the issues with dialogue and characters I must drop it down one.

My Rank:

Yellow Belt

[L. S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One Decent Thing, by Michael E. Wills...how do I begin explaining the sense of relief I felt as I started into this book? It was that good.

The story itself is set in 1975 England, during a time when terrorist bombings were common, thanks to the IRA. Scottie is a middle-aged alcoholic womanizer that lost the love and respect of his ex-wife. And his daughter. The story begins with him visiting his daughter in college.

Scottie has a run in with two IRA members along the beach at night as they crash land on the shore. After a dubious moral choice, Scottie is in possession of very sensitive documents. Now here's where things start to pick up.

The action is well-paced and left me on the edge of my seat. It became a heart-pounding ordeal to follow along Scottie's mishaps. Will he escape this time? Where does he go from there? Things in the story get intricate the deeper into it the reader gets. Both sides were well thought-out in their pursuits. They complimented nicely. The author presents both the IRA and Scottie as people you could run into anywhere. It makes them both sympathetic. There are brief moments of doubt when it comes to what side you're cheering for. The ending, and what leads up to it, is something between James Bond and Scooby-Doo. The composition is masterful, and so is the execution.

Characterization, for the most part, was spot on. For the most part, they had their own tone and voice. There's two characters later that I had a hard time telling apart. They had similar personalities. Given their proximity, it took a bit more effort to follow along. Still, their interactions flowed well, as did the dialogue.

I did have to brush up on my British slang. There are plenty of context clues to make the reading easier. I still found myself looking up more precise definitions to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I never felt like I was being jolted out of the story. If anything, it enhanced the experience. And, I learned a few new things. I love it when novels managed to teach me something new.

This was quite the thriller to read. Everything from writing style to character development was excellent. The level of detail and intricacy that went into the intrigue aided the tone. If you're craving a different, heart-pounding adventure, Michael E. Wills has you covered.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read! Lovely prose.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read which gets tenser and tenser. I got pulled into the adventure and hence stayed up late reading it!