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11:59 - Excerpt from 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award entry
ABNA 2010 Placeholder title
278 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 23, 2010
2 people are currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
David Williams
29 books8 followersIn order, I am a family man, an English northerner, and a freelance writer for more years than I care to remember, first as a playwright, mainly for BBC radio and a variety of education publishers, latterly as a novelist and short story writer. More recently, I have become a games inventor. My company, Creating Games, has licensed over a dozen titles in both English and foreign language editions.
2025 sees the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the world's first public railway. As part of the celebrations, my novel 'Mr Stephenson's Regret' is wearing new clothes in a Stephenson 200 Anniversary edition, and I have written a full-length stage play, 'Geordie' which is to be premiered by Cliffe Theatre in Stockton in the autumn of 2025
2025 sees the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the world's first public railway. As part of the celebrations, my novel 'Mr Stephenson's Regret' is wearing new clothes in a Stephenson 200 Anniversary edition, and I have written a full-length stage play, 'Geordie' which is to be premiered by Cliffe Theatre in Stockton in the autumn of 2025
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 31, 2011
11:59 / B003CV7TIK
Marc Niven is a radio host, working the switchboard at nights, providing clever banter and well-practiced camaraderie to the airways and his nightly callers, and flirting with the women who work the switchboards with him. One night, just before midnight on Valentine's Day, a strange caller rings in to wish happy Valentines to his beloved wife...soon to be his widow. A distracted and harried Marc fails to notice the dark implications of that call, and - much later in the evening - he witness what appears to be a kidnapping, but is too tired, and a bit too sloshed to do much more than watch and remember.
What sets this excerpt apart is the superb characterization, tight writing, and truly delightful sense of setting. Marc is not the easiest person for the reader to like - his dogged flirting with his staff and hints of a somewhat self-absorbed personality would normally put me off, but this characterization is done so vividly and with such a careful touch, that the reader cannot help but warm to Marc. The pacing is fantastic, with detailed characterization, careful foreshadowing, and intense action occurring in the space of only a few pages, and yet at such an even pace that the reader can keep up easily without feeling either bored or rushed.
NOTE: This review is based on a sample excerpt of this book provided through the ABNA contest.
~ Ana Mardoll
Marc Niven is a radio host, working the switchboard at nights, providing clever banter and well-practiced camaraderie to the airways and his nightly callers, and flirting with the women who work the switchboards with him. One night, just before midnight on Valentine's Day, a strange caller rings in to wish happy Valentines to his beloved wife...soon to be his widow. A distracted and harried Marc fails to notice the dark implications of that call, and - much later in the evening - he witness what appears to be a kidnapping, but is too tired, and a bit too sloshed to do much more than watch and remember.
What sets this excerpt apart is the superb characterization, tight writing, and truly delightful sense of setting. Marc is not the easiest person for the reader to like - his dogged flirting with his staff and hints of a somewhat self-absorbed personality would normally put me off, but this characterization is done so vividly and with such a careful touch, that the reader cannot help but warm to Marc. The pacing is fantastic, with detailed characterization, careful foreshadowing, and intense action occurring in the space of only a few pages, and yet at such an even pace that the reader can keep up easily without feeling either bored or rushed.
NOTE: This review is based on a sample excerpt of this book provided through the ABNA contest.
~ Ana Mardoll
Displaying 1 of 1 review