Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing)

Sometimes, books can take you by surprise. ‘The Spittle of Zimolax’ is one such novel. It is a very underrated work which has as much to do with the author’s lack of confidence as anything, I suspect.

Criticisms first – and they are mostly cosmetic.

This is a self-published novel by the author. As an editor who works with lots of clients who often want to self-publish, I wish I could have got my hands on this manuscript before publishing. There are some typos and editing errors but I see enough of those in traditionally published books and in almost every news article I read online from the major news media, so this is no biggie. Certainly, the errors are little slips and don’t irritate me (I’ve read plenty of books with errors that do).

More importantly, the format of the book is all wrong. It would be a much more convincing and readable book if produced in a traditional fashion for novels. This I did find irritating because it is so easy to fix and produce a book which feels good to hold – as books should. I suspect this will only irritate people like me however. Most ‘normal’ readers won’t notice anything wrong at all.

Beyond these crits, this novel is brilliant. I’m not a great lover of detective fiction – especially period fiction – but this book had me gripped. Parsons is a natural storyteller and his attention to detail and authenticity is more than excellent. I’m no expert in 1930s British history and I’m sure someone who is might find faults, but it is obvious Parsons knows his stuff and has researched the material very carefully. The novel is entirely convincing.

Set in England, 1932, the novel follows the exploits of Sergeant Geraldine Chapman as she investigates what ends up being a murder inquiry. Everything seems to centre around an unusual statue of an ancient god, Zimolax – but why would someone kill for this seemingly unimportant statue?

I’m not a fan of whodunnits on the whole. If you happen to guess the murderer early, you can easily be frustrated or bored. As it happens, I knew who the killer was the instant they appeared but I honestly can’t say if that was just pure luck or if others would guess it too. But Parsons’ writing is so good – and the substance of the novel so well-conceived – that it didn’t matter. I was gripped to the very last page, long after the denouement.

As regular readers of my reviews know, the acid test (pun intended, if you read the book) of a good novel is: do I care what happens to the characters after the last page is turned? In this case – yes, by God, yes. Parsons originally conceived this book as the first in a series but, to my knowledge, he’s never produced the rest. He should. He really should. Chapman is a cracking character and it is very clear at the end of the story that there is much more learn about the whole conspiracy theory world that he has built. There is more I could say but I don’t want to spoil the ending. I will just say that buried in the acknowledgements is a clue what’s to come. If you like spoilers and a hint of what might come, you can find the acknowledgements on the very final page. I liked the ending very much indeed, all the more for being rather unexpected.

In short, despite the oddities of presentation, if you like between-the-wars whodunnits with a flavour of archaeological Indiana Jones to them, this is for you. I cannot emphasise enough just how good the writing is and how well thought out the plot. I do hope the author will write more. This book deserves to be read.

Social Entrepreneur, educationalist, bestselling author and journalist, D K Powell is the author of the bestselling collection of literary short stories “The Old Man on the Beach“. His first book, ‘Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. Students learning the Bengali language have also valued the English/Bengali translations on every page. His third book is ‘Try not to Laugh’ and is a guide to memorising, revising and passing exams for students.

Both ‘The Old Man on the Beach’ and ‘Sonali’ are available on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Published by Shopno Sriti Media. The novel,’The Pukur’, was published by Histria Books in 2022.

D K Powell is available to speak at events (see his TEDx talk here) and can be contacted at dkpowell.contact@gmail.com. Alternatively, he is available for one-to-one mentoring and runs a course on the psychology of writing. Listen to his life story in interview with the BBC here.

Ken writes for a number of publications around the world. Past reviewer for Paste magazine, The Doughnut, E2D and United Airways and Lancashire Life magazine. Currently reviews for Northern Arts Review. His reviews have been read more than 7.9 million times.

Get a free trial and 20% off Shortform by clicking here. Shortform is a brilliant tool and comes with my highest recommendation.

Social Entrepreneur, educationalist, bestselling author and journalist, D K Powell is the author of the bestselling collection of literary short stories “The Old Man on the Beach“. His first book, ‘Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. Students learning the Bengali language have also valued the English/Bengali translations on every page. His third book is ‘Try not to Laugh’ and is a guide to memorising, revising and passing exams for students.

Both ‘The Old Man on the Beach’ and ‘Sonali’ are available on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Published by Shopno Sriti Media. The novel,’The Pukur’, was published by Histria Books in 2022.

D K Powell is available to speak at events (see his TEDx talk here) and can be contacted at dkpowell.contact@gmail.com. Alternatively, he is available for one-to-one mentoring and runs a course on the psychology of writing. Listen to his life story in interview with the BBC here.

Ken writes for a number of publications around the world. Past reviewer for Paste magazine, The Doughnut, E2D and United Airways and Lancashire Life magazine. Currently reviews for Northern Arts Review. His reviews have been read more than 7.9 million times.

Get a free trial and 20% off Shortform by clicking here. Shortform is a brilliant tool and comes with my highest recommendation.