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WHY GOOD MEN KILL: Novella - Two hour reading
In an upscale restaurant, a man bleeds out over a crisp, white tablecloth.
As well-heeled diners look on in stunned silence, the killer scans the room. "I mean you know harm," he says apologetically. With police sirens wailing in the distance, he loosens his grip on the polymer-framed pistol.
A month earlier, Ed Mitchell would have been the last person you'd expect to find holding a loaded gun. As a hardworking, single dad he led a simple life. But that changed the day a devious conman came to town. With Ed's twelve-year-old daughter being used as leverage, he was forced to play a role in a deadly scam.
As well-heeled diners look on in stunned silence, the killer scans the room. "I mean you know harm," he says apologetically. With police sirens wailing in the distance, he loosens his grip on the polymer-framed pistol.
A month earlier, Ed Mitchell would have been the last person you'd expect to find holding a loaded gun. As a hardworking, single dad he led a simple life. But that changed the day a devious conman came to town. With Ed's twelve-year-old daughter being used as leverage, he was forced to play a role in a deadly scam.
146 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 4, 2021
25 people want to read
About the author
James Lilley
26 books5 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
James Lilley is the nom de plume of Roger Weston, a qualified mechanical engineer and a qualified teacher with a Masters Degree.
He also publishes under his own name.
James Lilley is the nom de plume of Roger Weston, a qualified mechanical engineer and a qualified teacher with a Masters Degree.
He also publishes under his own name.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 5, 2021
22. Why Good Men Kill by James Lilley
This is a book about circumstance. It’s a wrong time-wrong place story with catastrophic effects that snowball our hero into a corner. At his back he has one wall with nothing left to lose and, at the other, I’ve had it with this. But we’ve shot to the end of the story, where Ed is standing in a restaurant with a gun in his hand and a body on the floor. This isn’t a spoiler because Ed tells us his plight upfront.
He’s a good guy, we like him—we like him a lot. Everybody does. He’s the type of man that everybody should want in a partner but, well, he’s just Ed, isn’t he? He works his ass off, his marriage has broken down, he’s struggling to bring up his daughter on his own, and life—life feels that he needs more excitement.
He’s a builder. We, the reader, see him more as an odd-job man, picking up work where he can—but he wouldn’t like that. He’s a builder. He gives a young contractor some advice on a chimney. C’mon, what can go wrong with that?
Oh, no.
What I love about this book is the freshness of it. There are a lot of genres around that rely on rich language, like period pieces and the vampire crowd, and rightly so, they demand that style. This book is the opposite. The style is laid back and easy. There’s nothing complicated about the writing and that is a skill and a standard in itself. However, don’t confuse an easy style with the complexities of the plot as Ed digs himself deeper in the quagmire. The location plays a part in the breath-of-fresh-air cleanness of it, too. We go from beach-life USA to a light, bright hotel in Spain. This story is filled with light and still manages to drag you down a dark, back alley.
Lilley does a very clever thing at the end of the book. It smacks of gimmicky, and normally I’d hate it and be advising cut, cut, cut. I’m not going to tell you what it is—and no, thank God—it’s not the old, ‘The story never happened, it was all a dream,’ routine, so you can breathe easy on that one. I read it. I walked away, I read it again and I decided that I absolutely loved the quirkiness of it.
This book is perfect, for commuters and people with little time to read. It’s only 30,000 words. There is endless scope to expand this into a full-length novel and I’d love to read more of it, I didn’t want it to end.
Another fabulous indie book that can hold its own in the mainstream world.
This is a book about circumstance. It’s a wrong time-wrong place story with catastrophic effects that snowball our hero into a corner. At his back he has one wall with nothing left to lose and, at the other, I’ve had it with this. But we’ve shot to the end of the story, where Ed is standing in a restaurant with a gun in his hand and a body on the floor. This isn’t a spoiler because Ed tells us his plight upfront.
He’s a good guy, we like him—we like him a lot. Everybody does. He’s the type of man that everybody should want in a partner but, well, he’s just Ed, isn’t he? He works his ass off, his marriage has broken down, he’s struggling to bring up his daughter on his own, and life—life feels that he needs more excitement.
He’s a builder. We, the reader, see him more as an odd-job man, picking up work where he can—but he wouldn’t like that. He’s a builder. He gives a young contractor some advice on a chimney. C’mon, what can go wrong with that?
Oh, no.
What I love about this book is the freshness of it. There are a lot of genres around that rely on rich language, like period pieces and the vampire crowd, and rightly so, they demand that style. This book is the opposite. The style is laid back and easy. There’s nothing complicated about the writing and that is a skill and a standard in itself. However, don’t confuse an easy style with the complexities of the plot as Ed digs himself deeper in the quagmire. The location plays a part in the breath-of-fresh-air cleanness of it, too. We go from beach-life USA to a light, bright hotel in Spain. This story is filled with light and still manages to drag you down a dark, back alley.
Lilley does a very clever thing at the end of the book. It smacks of gimmicky, and normally I’d hate it and be advising cut, cut, cut. I’m not going to tell you what it is—and no, thank God—it’s not the old, ‘The story never happened, it was all a dream,’ routine, so you can breathe easy on that one. I read it. I walked away, I read it again and I decided that I absolutely loved the quirkiness of it.
This book is perfect, for commuters and people with little time to read. It’s only 30,000 words. There is endless scope to expand this into a full-length novel and I’d love to read more of it, I didn’t want it to end.
Another fabulous indie book that can hold its own in the mainstream world.
April 6, 2021
A nice quick read that was intense and fast paced. I needed to know what happened next, and the characters were built nicely. I would like to see this as a full length novel so that we can get further insight into the characters and the plot.
February 2, 2021
A quick read but a bit of a downer. Would like to read the sequel if there is one to make sure of the ending.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews