The Happenstance Packs the Wolf, a Butcher, his Demon, and their Master

by Christopher S. White

In the dense woodland and harsh humidity of the Georgia/Florida border, a ruthless, and idyllic, Captain attempts to right his old wrongs and heal festering wounds to sustain his own lawfully rigid empire in this coastal wasteland. Helping him enforce his power are his two protégés, Cliff Ramos and Cooper Cornelius Happenstance, known better as Coop. Ramos is a young and brilliant detective, orphaned at an early age, and has always felt apart from the norm of humanity. He is being mentored by the older, and very animalistic Coop whose instincts are never in question. Both men have a unique ability to find, and create trouble, and are in a constant battle with themselves to either accept the demonic urges inside them or to rise up against that part of themselves and embrace their humanity….or is there a way to do both? This tale unfolds to hilarious, dark, and violent chapters of human greed, animal desires, and other worldly phenomenon, as Ramos, Cooper, and the Captain work to maintain power over their sanity and reality. When Coop’s daughter, Sam, begins to have people die around her, both men are directed to investigate. Ramos and the girl are fallen lovers from high school, and he is vying to get her back. Coop cares for nothing since his wife died, except to protect Sam from any harm. Who is committing these random acts of murder? Is it Boogy, Sam’s estranged eco-terrorist husband and father to her child? Is it the crime syndicate of The Viking, striking back at Coop for destroying their local operations years ago after they had brutally murdered his wife? Or does the trail lead closer to home, possibly implicating Sam, or even Ramos and Coop?

Genres: Mystery, Fantasy

314 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 29, 2018

Reviews

[Hippy Witchy · Rating 1 out of 5]

It has potential but seriously needs more editing.

One thing that confused me was the way he would describe things in his world. I couldn’t actually tell if there was actual magic and gods in this world or if he just massively exaggerates things as he is writing.

In the books Coop and Ramos are suppose to being dealing with their lack of humanity but no one and I mean no one in their world condemns them for their actions. I love the idea of a moral grey world but then just have that be your world don’t just say your characters are concerned for their lack humanity when it isn’t an issue at any point in the story.

And the murder mystery is poorly handled. The story barely spends any time on it and it’s wrapped up about half through the book.

Another thing was early in the book it is said Sam’s daughter is 3 but then later says she’s 5. This book needs more editing.

[Jacob Benjamin Paramore · Rating 1 out of 5]

It has a cool cover. Otherwise, it reads like an incel's wet dream. I returned it.

[Stefan Lind · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Happenstance Packs epic begins with “The Wolf, a Butcher, his Demon, and their Master”, a merciless tour de force. Where the saga goes from here will be nothing short of spectacular!
In this edgy ode to ‘Pulp Fiction’, set in the depths of Northeast Florida, we find out how ruthlessly the two main characters, detectives Coop and Ramos, fight criminals with extreme prejudice, and use similar force when protecting their own loved ones. The ordinarily brutal lives of the two detectives gets interrupted when someone close to them is kidnapped, setting up a face-off between them and an unexpected adversary.
With his unorthodox, dark and sometimes hilarious style of writing, Christopher White’s first entry into the literary world, takes us on a journey through backwater towns filled with peculiar and bizarre characters living outside, and I mean way outside, the reach of the law. One of these characters isn’t even human: Can you help but feel sorry for Old One-eyed Grandmother Rat, who oversees her crumbled empire in a dilapidated warehouse?
Filled with savagery, raw sexuality and a deep sense of rugged, loyal camaraderie, this book will be one you won’t soon be able to forget!

[Warren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more. Another reviewer said that it reads like "an incel's wet dream," and initially I didn't see it. Unfortunately, toward the end, it was plain as day. I'm not sure what happened. Frankly, if I hadn't been as far into the book as I was when it took its turn, I wouldn't have finished it. Like my review, it felt a bit all over the place and could/should have been better.

The book had an interesting premise going for it. Essentially, it's about two dirty cops who are manipulated by their Captain to stomp out crime in a very brutal fashion. I don't like dirty cops, and while I initially liked these two, it faded. Some of the earlier fight scenes are pretty good, particularly Ramos' fight with the Viking guy. Great fight, well written.

At some point around chapter 25 or 26, I began to wonder if the author had ever thrown a punch in his life. More power to him if he hasn't, but the fight scenes fell apart. One of them seemed almost like he phoned it in, describing it with minimal detail, in his own voice, as though he were describing a movie. If the tone had been like this all along it might have been fine, but it wasn't.

The sex scenes were...well, they were there. Remember that "incel's wet dream" thing I mentioned earlier? Yeah...

I don't know what happened. The tone of the book was all over the place. The dialogue was...actually, I think that might have been what did it for me most. At some point, everyone started talking more often, and I found myself getting annoyed. More than once I groaned aloud or actually said, "Oh, shut the hell up." (Or something to that effect.) Plus, if you tried talking this much during a scuffle, well, you wouldn't get to finish your "deep, philosophical" thoughts. You'd get knocked out.

I think the book had potential and I'd love to see it edited. Cut out the fluff (and there was A LOT) and you'd have a much shorter, but potentially excellent story. Changing the title might be nice, too. Once I finished the book I realized how terrible the title is in relation to the story.

I genuinely applaud the author for writing this and getting it out there. I've written two books. I know it can be hard to put your work out there. (Notice that my books are NOT on Goodreads because I don't have the courage to put them out there. Christopher did, and that's awesome. If you read this, Mr. White, keep at it.)

I debated on the rating. I kept going between one star and two. I didn't like it at the end. Those last six or seven chapters were not good. That said, the rest of the book was all right and I genuinely hope that Christopher will keep writing and that we all get to see how he improves over the years. Maybe we'll even get another version of this book that does the idea he had justice.

As it stands, I wouldn't recommend it. (I WOULD love to get a poster of the cover, though. It's pretty rad.)

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's clear that this is the author's well loved project, but it wasn't for me. I'll try to give constructive criticism of the book. I'm an avid reader with a wide range of genres that I enjoy. So I'm used to various writing styles and can adapt very well, but White's writing style was hard to follow. I couldn't figure out what was going on half the time. There was a significant amount of content that was just filler and didn't add to the story whatsoever. I would suggest working with an editor to help flesh out the story and fix the errors and continuity issues with the story. There are a lot of editors that specialize working with self publishing authors. There is content in the book that won't age well for future readers. Only readers in our current western society would get those references. 10 or 20 years from now, those references won't be understood by the reader. The premise of the book sounded great and right up my alley, but I found that the premise described did not accurately describe the story. I ended up not being able to finish the book and felt bad about it because my partner thought I would love it and got it for me for Christmas.

[Jordan_k_morris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Excessive male machismo dressed in a non existent story, shame, because there's some potential in there, but its amazing this even got past an editor. Just got worse as the book went on. The plot, or a plot, any plot, was 80% ignored. The inciting incident had nothing to do with it and was a big time cop out. Just a series of backstories, tangent thoughts, lectures, even a fourth wall break by the author, and most of it had nothing to do with anything. Any evocative treatment only showed up for violence and sex. Women were only there to pander to our protagonists. The protagonists had no growth, or even adversity, they moved through the world like a kid with cheat codes in a game. The whole story was pointless.

[Riley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook version of this title, and this is the version I will be reviewing.

While this book has its flaws and moments of poor writing, I think the plot is compelling enough that I will be reading the next installment.

I did not appreciate the scenes of graphic sexuality. I believe the author attempts to use the character’s sexuality to make a point about their “masculinity” at points, but these sections did not add value to the book or it’s characterizations. I also found the graphic nature of the descriptions a bit sickening.

However, I am intrigued as to where the next installment will take these characters!

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was alright but the sex scenes seemed to be a bit disjointed and the women only served as sex, food, and frail support for the characters. The author also chose a weird way to frame a character not experiencing racism, and described it in a way showed the authors lack of understanding of how racism works. The title made me want to expect a bit more than the book delivered.

[Kaye · Rating 2 out of 5]

The basic story is interesting, but the writing is difficult to follow. The characters are not particularly likeable. The dialogue is cluttered and distracts from the story. The worst part: the author's need to splatter unnecessary and awkward obscenity throughout. The sexual content did not need to be vulgar.
The best part: the depiction of corruption in a small town.

[Melissa Main · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a strange book.

It started out strong, but became redundant. I was confused at times. The sex scenes were awkward.

Not the worst, not the best. Execution needs work.

With a few fixes, future books in this series could have potential.

[Erick Worthington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confusing at first, writing isn't the best. Didn't really flow well. It was interesting, but could've been better. It's a cop story. Thought it was gonna be supernatural elements, kinda disappointing. Very repetitive.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - was pretty bad.