Preamble

Being a writer can be arduous. You have to power through imposter syndrome. Next, you have the fun exercise of convincing your family and friends that you really are a writer. Finally, after all of that, when you’re emotionally and physically exhausted, you need to take on the world.

It is my opinion, that you shouldn’t need to get the word out alone, and authors should support each other. Someone who embodies this wholeheartedly is indie author Lee Hall. If you didn’t know already Lee Hall, who works a day job, while writing awesome books on the side, also manages to read and review fellow indie authors. How he finds all the time for all of this astounds me.

On his website Lee’s Hall of Information, he has a section dedicated to indie reviews which can be found here. So what could be better than to give some of that love back by reviewing both of his books I have read. I also have a third book, so watch this space.

*warning, spoilers lay ahead!*

The Teleporter

We’ve all read the superhero books, and with the war between Marvel and D.C, it’s hard to imagine a place for a new superhero. In the midst of all that Lee Hall manages to slip in Kurt Wiseman. He’s not a regular hero, he’s not even an anti-hero, he’s just a guy.

He certainly doesn’t scream superhero. He’s a lazy drunk who doesn’t have much going for him. He gets transformed into the Teleporter by falling into a vat of goo at work. This provides him with the handy ability to teleport short distances, once he has been there before.

While he starts out by taunting bouncers who have mistreated a patron, he soon realises that there are more duties involved than simply causing a scene outside of a bar. He finds that his drinking diminishes his power and he nearly gets one of his friends hurt.

We are also offered a strong female character who doesn’t need Wiseman to get her story, she is a journalist extraordinaire. The noir superhero trope is heartily made fun of and we come away feeling refreshed in a world where superheroes are more than often imperious. Wiseman just comes out and says it, sometimes being a superhero sucks.

Here is my review on Amazon:

Darke Blood

As a fan of vampires and their lore, I always welcome a new story surrounding them. In this intriguing new perspective, you can see Hall’s influences shining through. The classics such as Stoker and the modern such as Whedon (yes you guessed it, BTVS). The story immediately begins with intrigue, and you are hooked by the main character Blake Malone. He is the classic new kind in town, except Malone not only a stranger to everyone in Darke Heath, but to himself as well. He can’t remember anything before he arrived.

Throughout the book, we are fed a back story from (in my opinion) the true protagonist, Caitlyn. We discover early on that she is a vampire, and although she is happily kicking ‘amp (vampire) ass in Darke Heath, she wasn’t always this pure soul. When we find out how she came to be a vampire along with her sordid past, and we feel very uncomfortable about it.

As the tale unfolds we are introduced to more of the mystery and intrigue. The book is ‘un-put-down-able’ as the reviewers say, and the ending is more than enough to wait for.

Here is my review on Amazon:

In Conclusion

Could y’all please head over to Lee Hall’s blog and follow him? He’s so close to 200 followers and he really deserves it. He does more for reviewing fellow indie authors than anyone I know. Also he has a new book coming out soon and you won’t want to miss that. He has more than enough books to choose from, and I’m already on my way to reading them all (like Pokémon). All his links are below.

Website:

https://leehallwriter.com/

https://leehallwriter.com/indie-book-reviews/

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/l/B071LDYX1L?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1550696734&redirectedFromKindleDbs=true&ref_=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3&rfkd=1&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&sr=8-3

Instagram:

@this_is_lee_hall

Twitter:

@lhallwriter