Reviews

A law firm is the perfect place to find all the elements of crime: corruption; greed; vice; extortion; and murder. The class distinction between lawyers, judges, and secretaries, accounting personnel, and word processors is telling. For Greg Thackery, a normal guy who worked in the word processing pool, his biggest problem was dealing with a personal sex addiction and holding his fragile marriage together. But when his office mate, Marc, is threatened by one of the new Ivy-league lawyers, Stephen Dalrymple, over a document that should be run-of-the-mill, Gregory is the only person in the office who is suspicious. After Marc is found dead and Greg voices his suspicions horrible things begin to happen: he gets fired for downloaded porn on his machine, the fired Dalrymple begins an affair with his wife, and suddenly his own life isn't worth a nickel:

"It's hard now to describe exactly how low I felt packing my bag and hoping somehow Jean would take me back. I'd lost my job. Someone had thoroughly discredited my reputation, probably preventing me from landing a similar job. The police wanted to talk to me again. I'd completely misjudged my co-workers. I had no idea about Marc's secret life, nor of Betty's and Bradshaw's. Betty had lied about me to Detective O'Sullivan. I nearly got into a fight with Dalrymple. Marc's kindly parents threw me out of their house. I could no longer trust my therapist. I'd fallen off the wagon big time. And probably I could no longer trust myself."

NEVER SAY MURDER is almost a pulp detective story, except there is no detective involved. But Walters infuses his tale with all the great qualities of Nero Wolfe's Archie. Greg is the hero and narrator of the story. There is a murderer out there and colorful characters who have something to hide. The plot takes place in New York, the Gotham of murder. A great tale!

--Midwest Book Review

Gregory Thackery has a big personal secret. He is a recovering sex addict; any where, any time, and with any one or thing. Even though married with a ready and willing attractive woman, the old cravings are returning. A better man now than before he met his wife, he requests the guidance of a therapist. Dr. Juniper recommends abstinence. Ashamed of his addiction, only one other person within his immediate circle knows about his secret, the therapist.  

When Marc Reesoner, one of Gregory’s co-workers at a swanky law firm, turns up conveniently dead after a fateful confrontation in the office with attorney Stephen Dalrymple, Gregory is the only person that suspects murder. Even Marc’s parents deny it.

Gregory won’t give it up, though, and every argument against his hypothesis only makes his decision firmer. He reviews the email work order that precipitated Dalrymple’s violent outburst. There had to be a reason within it. When he finds a possible motive, he brings a printout of the proof to the founding partner of the company, Lawrence Bradshaw.

The next morning Bradshaw is found deceased after taking a swan dive from his office on the 61st Floor. The last person to see him alive? Gregory. When the police arrive to arrest him for murder, Gregory takes matters into his own hands to clear himself and runs. Does anybody believe he’s innocent? No. Even his wife believes the worst and has left him.

Using language as a precision tool, Mr. Walters bares down description to its elements and spins a tale of believable events and motivational reasons for his character to find the truth. The style is blunt and fast paced. Following the hero’s journey, NEVER SAY MURDER has a well defined story line. This is actually the first book written in first person that I've read and thought the author did a good job. I would recommend NEVER SAY MURDER to all mystery fans.
 
--Jackie Fleming, Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine

Greg Thackery is a sex addict. And like most addicts, he's a bit paranoid. So when he witnesses someone threatening to kill his co-worker--and his co-worker soon ends up on the slab--he thinks the cause of death is more than just heart trouble, as everyone claims.

And based on the horrible and sudden downward spiral of Greg's life, his paranoia might be more in line with reality than he thought.

So goes the plotline of NEVER SAY MURDER by Geoffrey Walters. This is a snappy little thriller--er, murder mystery--er, pulp fiction/whodunit. For those who don't get my point, this book defies categorization.

The upside? The odds are you're going to like this tasty treat. Walters manages to deliver, no matter what your preference in fiction may be. Fast paced and a fast read, he weaves a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat and manages to mix in some new elements. (Greg Thackery is not exactly in the wrong place at the wrong time; he's highly imperfect. When this recovering sex addict is fired for having downloaded porn to his computer, he has to wonder who knows about his problems enough to have planted it there.)

But it seems everyone has secrets--including his murdered co-worker--and Greg must hurry to sort them all out before there is nothing left of his life.

You can grab this super novel from Amazon (with the 32% discount!) at a mere $10.85. What are you waiting for? Even James Frey doesn't write fiction this well. (*rim shot*)

--Girlondemand, POD-DY MOUTH

A legal whodunit that pivots around an unlikely setting—the word processing department.

A lowly processor at a prestigious law firm, Gregory Thackery is stunned when a stressed associate threatens one of his colleagues, Marc, over a mistake on a document. Gregory has a stake in his coworker’s fate because Marc guards an important secret about him. Shortly thereafter, Marc dies of a heart attack, and Gregory voices his suspicions. Suddenly Gregory’s secret is out, causing him to lose both his job and his wife. When the firm’s managing partner plummets to his death from the roof of the office, the questions grow: Was this the work, as Gregory suspects, of the belligerent associate? Or was it Betty, his supervisor who doubled as Marc’s landlord in a coveted rent-stabilized building? Other suspects include Cinnamon, a bitter colleague who had been hopelessly in love with Marc and, indeed, Gregory himself. The narrative premise is solid, and the author demonstrates a particular talent for creating a viable set of suspects.

A valiant first effort...

--Kirkus Discoveries

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