INDIE BOOK REVIEW: STANDING ON THE SHADOWS by Bobby Nash

 STANDING ON THE SHADOWS 

WRITTEN BY BOBBY NASH

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ BEN Books (April 30, 2024)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 30, 2024
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 153 pages

BLURB: A MYSTERIOUS TWENTY-YEAR-OLD COLD CASE SUDDENLY HEATS UP SOMMERSVILLE!

It started with an accident. A plane crash just outside the Sommersville, Georgia airport uncovers a long-hidden secret. A startling discovery points to a decades old murder whose outcome could spell disaster for Sommersville and those who call the rustic, small town home.

When the once ice-cold case suddenly burns white hot, Sheriff Tom Myers discovers a cover-up meant to keep the truth buried forever. Can he get to the bottom of this mystery before Sommersville burns?

Sheriff Tom Myers returns in an all-new mystery/thriller from award-winning author, Bobby Nash. Standing on the Shadows is the third book in the Tom Myers series from BEN Books.

REVIEW WRITTEN BY JOE COMPTON

In reading Bobby Nash, I am comforted by knowing I will always get 3 things: a great setup (Bobby may be one of the best Authors I've read at this), great dialogue that sets the tone and gives you incredible insight into the characters without patronizing the reader or leaning into a caricature, and a little home-cooking. A bit more on each of those elements further into this review, especially what I mean about the last one, but in this book there is something else that I found exceptional, and that's the character work leading into the actual underlying theme and how that was written.

Bobby has a nice subtle way of shading in blind spots that even if you had never read anything Tom Myers and the Somerville Sheriff's Department were in, you would not be lost. In fact, I would go so far as to say you probably would end up wanting to read the other books, the first 2 Tom Myers' Mysteries and then Evil Ways, which is not a Tom Myers book per se but it is his and his crew's 1st appearance. I love also that for those who have read them, there are some treats Bobby sprinkles in, some nice added arcs and developments that color in for us these characters and this town more.

The way Bobby writes also allows for there to be this nice comfort of being in the hands of someone who is not going to steer us wrong and that's sort of what I mean about home-cooking. It has this tone to it right after the opening incident that immediately settles you in and allows you to enjoy the facets of not only this particular mystery but its environment, the growth of that environment, and its stubbornness. I love that juxtaposition here. It plays very nicely into what ultimately this book is really about for this reader. Yeah, on the surface, this mystery opens a gushing wound from a badly applied tourniquet from a while ago, but because we get such enriching characters and see all they are and about, we get a nice interesting tug-of-war that I think plays so well on the pages and provides what has to be the evolution of this series and these characters too. 

I love the idea, that in this, the 3rd book, there is more than just a mystery here. There is a push toward what the future might look like, not just for the characters but Sommersville too. Progress moves faster than it ever has in real life and having that element present here, while preserving what made Sommersville what it is, that's keen writing that keeps you wanting to read more of these stories. It also, because of the home cooking, never takes you out of the story. Growth and the lack thereof in some cases, also really has a nice of tug of war here, and that gives more to the story as well.  

 I will say there is one aspect of this story that suffers a little bit from the home-cooking idea and that's the mystery itself. In its tone, the mystery kind of is softened a little, where you might hope for a little razzle-dazzle or maybe a plot twist that is a little more stark and holy crap-ish, this story never gives you that. There a tiny bit of it being a little too neat because of that, but in the defense of that, if it had been present it would have felt incredibly out of place. 

That's why I say this is not really a story about the mystery becoming the story, it's more of the mystery helping the real theme and the real story here. Weirdly, in this day and age where we are kind of strung along to be razzled and dazzled and then bamboozled and ultimately a little frustrated by that I think there is something to appreciate about how this is neat and tidy. 

That's not to say there isn't intrigue or there isn't action here. On the contrary, I think the things that intrigue the reader and allow us to flex our curious minds as mystery readers are using a different muscle though. I for one appreciate that a lot.

So if you are a mystery reader looking for the razzle, it comes right at you right away. That's because the opening of this book is phenomenal. It drops you into the story with a kind of intrigue that really stirs the pot to boil right from the get-go, and that in turn makes the set-up beyond crucial. 

The dialogue is paramount here too. It also serves as a great conduit to the tone and the interesting tension that arises and digs us deeper into the philosophy of this story. There is one moment in particular for this reader in which Tom has to have an important conversation with a subordinate that I think would have been superfluous in many different stories but for this one, it really does an amazing job of even furthering the narrative of what this story is really about and foreshadowing the tone.

That is the very crux of what I think is so fascinating about these stories and what makes this reader appreciate Bobby so much more than I already do as an author. He really has this nice subtle layering that I think really speaks volumes about how talented an author he is and how much these stories are a little different from his others like the Snow Series but yet still in his voice and in his way of writing that has become a comfort to this reader and reviewer especially. 

I think if you are a writer reading this review, you can learn a lot and gleam a bit from reading these books and the Harold Palmer series (which is a tad darker but in the same vein). Especialy if you want to write mysteries, crime, and thrillers.

This for avid readers will take you literally no time at all to rip through. As a self confessed terrible reader I did exactly that. All of that credit though needs to go to Bobby and how his writing style lent to that endeavor. 

I look forward to seeing the evolution of Sommersville from here and how it plays into Tom Myers and his crew. 

You actually can get all 3 books in an Omnibus style fashion right now here

OR

If you would just prefer to take Sommersville and Tom Myers for a test run you can get Standing on The Shadows here