Hi, everyone!
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for NEVEREND by Blake Rudman on this Black Tide Book Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Inexplicably, huge locust swarms of Biblical proportions plague Austin, Texas: a sinister portent of terrifying things to come?
Dr. Jon Edom, hero surgeon, loving father, finds himself unwittingly drawn into the dark conspiracies surrounding the sinister Church of the Resurrected, which has uncomfortably close family ties to his wife, Rochelle.
Rochelle Edom, daughter of the Church’s founder, genius creator of the worldwide hit video game, NeverEnd, has left her coding days behind to focus on family life. She laments that the repetitive, highly-addictive game she designed shows an alarming increase in ill effects among its players: they emulate the characters’ violent actions with increasingly brutal consequences – which her husband witnesses first hand.
When Rochelle unexpectedly goes missing, along with her and Jon’s two young children, the doctor all too quickly becomes a suspect once old infidelities are exposed.
As Jon fights to clear his name under seemingly impossible, tragic circumstances, aided by his close friend, Rabbi Max, he becomes inexorably embroiled in the evil undercurrent of the Church of the Resurrected’s association with the enigmatic Coppersmith, who has a nefarious agenda all of his own…
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/231838995-neverend?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=Ny4K0gn3zI&rank=1
Universal link for the book on Amazon
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
NEVEREND by Blake Rudman is an intense dark noir thriller with philosophical and religious elements as well as a criminal investigation and trial. The unsettling atmosphere, fully developed characters, and multitude of questions with every plot twist kept me turning the pages in a race to the end…which ended in a cliffhanger! UGH!!
Rochelle Edom is a brilliant software engineer and creator of the highly addictive video game, NeverEnd. She is also the oldest daughter of the founder of The Church of the Resurrected. Having worked through the childhood of her twins, she decided to retire and focus on her and Jon’s two younger sons. She has had problems in her marriage with Jon working long hours and her bipolar disease, so when Jon goes away to a conference, she gathers her two sons and disappears.
Dr. Jon Edom is a dedicated surgeon, but evidence begins to point to Jon as having hurt his wife and sons, he finds himself accused of the murder. Yes, they were having problems, but he loved them and cannot understand why the detective investigating his case is so sure of his guilt.
Besides Jon’s trial with startling revelations, there are swarms of locust plaguing Texas, a video game that has people killing each other, a hurricane bearing down, and questionable religious leaders and sects out to destroy each other all intertwined into a world that is completely unstable and psychologically disturbing.
This is the second book I have read by this author and once again I read it completely in one sitting. The world-building and psychological tension kept me off balance and questioning my assumptions throughout. It is a dark thriller with the criminal investigation and trial, but there are also moments of what some may call karma, or others will say divine intervention. The pacing is intense throughout. My one pet peeve as always, although it did not change my rating, is that the book ends in a cliffhanger. I hate them and will usually not pick up the next book for that reason, but I will definitely be waiting for this follow-up. Mr. Rudman has hooked me again!
I highly recommend this powerful dark noir thriller!
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About the Author
Blake Rudman enjoyed a former, successful career in executive management, building his own companies from the ground up.
Success or not, Blake’s heart has always been in the written word, and the myriad ideas he spent much of his spare time jotting down in notebooks, Post-Its, and scraps of paper whenever the inspiration hit him.
Now a breakout author of six noir thriller novels, Blake’s destiny of becoming a writer of some renown is well under way.
When he’s not working diligently on his next novel, Blake spends quality time with his daughter and reading.
Social Media Links
Website:https://blakerudman.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091948818990
Bluesky – HellBound Books: https://bsky.app/profile/hellboundbooks.bsky.social
