Richard Schwindt’s monster hunting social worker, Tony Price, is one of the most recent additions to the ranks of the occult detective.
He features in 4 novellas:
The first 3 were collected in Tony Price: Confidential. The fourth novella is a prequel that takes place in Tony’s college days, where he discovers his gift for detecting evil.
Readers of this blog know I’m a big fan of Schwindt’s fiction, and his satires. His writing has gravitas, yet can be tongue in cheek. It is serious, yet laced with humor. It is often weird and spooky and over the top, yet he never loses you. You willingly continue to suspend disbelief, because you just have to see what happens next.
And the Tony Price stories are no different. Monster hunting was never so scary — or so fun.
We read non-fiction to be informed, to learn something. We read fiction primarily to be entertained. To lose ourselves in something not of our humdrum lives. Fiction is escapist entertainment. A good book takes us out of our everyday routine and plunks us down in another world.
Sure, we know we are reading a story, something somebody made up. It is the storyteller’s job to make us think otherwise. To help us make believe the story is true.
Richard Schwindt excels at the art of make believe. The Scarborough, the Sioux Lookout, the Kingston, the Ottawa of Mr Schwindt, while real places, are not the places of this reality. They are make believe.
Yet when he weaves his magic, we willing believe that his made up world is the real world. That is the artistry of a master storyteller at work.
Do you want to fight monsters? Do you want to beat supernatural bullies and make the playground of our world safe again?
Then join forces with Tony Price — monster buster extraordinaire.
Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!
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