Blog Tour, Book Review, Fantasy, Horror, Music, Rachel's Random Resources, Suspense, Thriller

Cuttin’ Heads by D.A. Watson

BLURB

Aldo Evans is a desperate man. Fired from his job and deeply in debt, he struggles to balance a broken family life with his passion for music.

Luce Figura is a troubled woman. A rhythmic perfectionist, she is haunted by childhood trauma and scorned by her religiously devout mother.

Ross McArthur is a wiseass. Orphaned as an infant and raised by the state, his interests include game shows, home-grown weed, occasional violence and the bass guitar.

They are Public Alibi. A rock n’ roll band going nowhere fast.

When the sharp-suited, smooth talking producer Gappa Bale offers them a once in a lifetime chance to make their dreams come true, they are caught up in a maelstrom of fame, obsession, music and murder.

Soon, Aldo, Luce and Ross must ask themselves: is it really better to burn out than to fade away?

MY REVIEW

If you don’t deal with your demons, they’ll deal with you. And it’s gonna hurt. – Nikki Sixx

Aldo, Ross and Luce make up the band Public Alibi and all have painful memories in their past that are not discussed.  When they receive a once in a lifetime chance to finally sign a record deal that seems too good to be true, they discover there is a deadly price they  have to pay.

Gappa Bale, record producer for Easy Rollin Records, is not who he seems.  His suave and handsome demeanor is a facade for something dangerous and unnatural.

Fear sharpens the senses, Bale says, It brings the world into focus. No man is more alive than when he is afraid.

Wow!  The plot is a very unique horror story centered around music with a clever and eerie connection between famous musicians’ deaths.  The character’s are well-developed as the story is told by Aldo, Ross and Luce.  Watson’s shrewd play on words–“his big teeth like white marble gravestones”–harbors dread throughout the book and is very effective adding to the fear and uneasiness of what is to come.

Cuttin’ Heads is about 3 lost souls who conquer their fears and make the most important decision of their lives.  The astonishing finale was unexpected, but fitting.  If you love music, plot twists, and horror stories, this book is for you.  It is a book I will not soon forget.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Prizewinning author D.A. Watson spent several years working in bars, restaurants and call centres before going back to university with the half-arsed plan of becoming a music teacher. Halfway through his degree at the University of Glasgow, he discovered he was actually better at writing, and unleashed his debut novel, In the Devil’s Name, on an unsuspecting public in the summer of 2012. Plans of a career in education left firmly in the dust, he later gained his masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Stirling.

He has since published two more novels, The Wolves of Langabhat and Cuttin’ Heads, a handful of non-fiction pieces, several short stories including Durty Diana, which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016, and the Burns parody Tam O’ Shatner, which in 2017 came runner up in the Dunedin Robert Burns Poetry Competition, and was a competition winner at the Falkirk Storytelling Festival.

He lives with his family in Western Scotland.

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