Book Review & $50 GC Tour Giveaway: Forgive Me, Alex by Lane Diamond

Forgive Me, Alex by Lane Diamond

Publisher: Evolved Publishing

Publish Date: March 19, 2012

Softcover, 260 pages

ISBN13: 9781475008326

My Review:

Forgive Me, Alex was a slightly different take on a suspense/thriller than what I am use to in a good way.  Mr. Diamond uses alternating points-of-view and alternating time frames to tell the story and while doing this really builds up the suspense in both time periods.  I found the story horrifying and fascinating the way a great suspense thriller should be.

Told from the points-of-view of the protagonist Tony and the antagonist Mitchell Norton is a very interesting way to frame the story.  Tony is the ultimate good guy who's had hard luck in his life, but he's in love, he's taking care of his brother and life seems to be good. Mitchell is just a twenty-something not really going anywhere but not really hurting anything when the demons start to strike.  I felt sympathetic to Mitchell to a degree until things started getting out-of-control, then I just felt like he was evil.  I was cheering for Tony during the book even with his brand of vigilante justice.  I felt like the characters were very relatable for a suspense book.  A lot of times times this genre doesn't concentrate on character development, but I felt like I got to know Tony, Frank, the Chief and Linda very well.  I really liked Frank and I really liked the other people that supported Tony in his life, the Chief and his Master at the dojo, these were all wonderful examples of the community at work.


I think the thing I loved best about Forgive Me, Alex was the alternating time frames. Mr. Diamond tells the story going back and forth between 1978 when the initial murders take place and 1995 when Mitchell Norton is released from prison.  The suspense really builds between both time frames even though the reader knows the ultimate outcome of 1978. The reader still doesn't know how the outcome happens and I found the story building up to that fascinating.  Then the story in 1995 starts up as well and has a great suspense line of it's own as well as letting the reader catch up with the main characters (and a few new ones) seventeen years later.  I loved this.  It was never confusing as I thought it might be when I glanced at the table of contents and saw how it went back and forth between the characters and the years.  Each character had his own voice in the writing and each time frame was easy to figure out so even if you didn't pay attention to the chapter headers it was easy to figure out when the action was taking place and who was doing the thinking/talking.  The plot was very well-written and had me hooked from the first page.  And I don't think this was an easy thing to do with the alternating time period and alternating characters.


Forgive Me, Alex is an excellent suspense/thriller.  If you don't mind your suspense a little more on the grisly side (description of the crimes) then you will be okay with this.  I did cringe a few times, but I was fully warned of the content of the book.  It's not over the top and I have read much more graphic books, so don't let my word of warning scare you.  It's about like a James Patterson type book in terms of descriptive crimes.  But the great thing about Forgive Me, Alex is it has completely relatable characters is Tony, Frank and Linda.  They felt real and their feelings were heartfelt. I wanted more of them in the end, so that outweighed the grisly aspect to me.  There is much more to this book than the crimes.  Forgive Me, Alex has an excellent plot, terrific characters and an ending that will stick with me for some time.


My Rating: 4.5/5.0

About Forgive Me, Alex:

Tony Hooper stands in shadow across the street, one amongst many in the crowd of curiosity-hounds gathered to watch a monster’s release. Seventeen years after Mitchell Norton, “the devil,” terrorized Algonquin, Illinois on a spree of kidnapping, torture and murder, the authorities release the butcher from psychiatric prison.

Tony longs to charge across the street to destroy Norton—no remorse—as if stepping on a cockroach. Only sheer force of will prevents his doing so.

“The devil” walks the world again. What shall Tony do about it? Aye, what indeed.

After all, this is what he does. It’s who he is. “The devil” himself long ago made Tony into this hunter of monsters. What a sweet twist of fate this is, that he may still, finally, administer justice.

Will FBI Special Agent Linda Monroe stop him? She owes him her life, so how can she possibly put an end to his?

Tony Hooper and Mitchell Norton battle for supremacy, with law enforcement always a step away, in this story of justice and vengeance, evil and redemption, fear and courage, love and loss.

Novel Publicity Blog Tour Notes:

Wanna win a $50 gift card or an autographed copy of Forgive Me, Alex? Well, there are two ways to enter...

1. Leave a comment on my blog. One random commenter during this tour will win a $50 gift card. For the full list of participating blogs, visit the official Forgive Me, Alex tour page.
2. Enter the Rafflecopter contest! I've posted the contest form below, or you can enter on the tour page linked above.

About the author: I write fiction, long and short. My writings cross over many genres and focus on diverse subjects, ranging from the mysteries of the human mind, with its fragile psychological and emotional states, to the everyday joy and anguish of life on Earth. Ultimately, characters move me – as both a reader and an author. It's all about the people. When not writing, I'm Publisher and Executive Editor at Evolved Publishing. Connect with me on my website, Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, or via Evolved Publishing.

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***I received this book through Novel Publicity for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way except receiving the book for free.  ***