Random Things Tours - (S)witchboard

TITLE: (S)witchboard
AUTHOR: Andrew Post
PUBLISHER: JournalStone
PUBLISHING DATE: February 28, 2020

FROM GOODREADS: 

After two raids turn up zero evidence, narcotics detective Dwayne Spare infiltrates a crumbling apartment building where the suspected manufacturer of krokodil is hiding -- and finds something much worse. The chemist Gerald Metzger isn't after money, he's lulling his most 'dedicated' customers into catatonia to make contact with an eldritch being.

When Dwayne's cover is blown, he becomes Metzger's new test subject, an involuntary pilgrim into a world where "it's all just in your head" is far from a reassuring statement.  

MY THOUGHTS: I almost don't know where to start with this review and I'll be honest, I'm going to keep my summary pretty vague because I'm afraid I'll end up rambling and give too much away.  Suffice to say, Andrew Post can certainly write some pretty messed up plots and I love them! 

Dwayne Spare is a cop who has spent quite a bit of time chasing Gerald Metzger, a krokodil dealer.  He ends up going undercover as one final hail mary to apprehend Metzger and gets more than he bargained for.  Dwayne is in for the "trip" of his life.  Dwayne's stay in the rundown apartment complex is best compared to some sort of limbo and honestly, I'm not sure how Post came up with everything.

So I jumped at the chance to be on this tour because the Post's Chop Shop was one of my favorite reads of last year.  Needless to say, the author writes dark, gritty characters and horrible desolate scenarios and I have a feeling people will either love or hate his tales.  Post does not really offer any morally grey characters in (S)witchboard as the people here are pretty much bad and worse.  However, I did find myself cheering on Dwayne and also felt a connection to another one of Metzger's employees, Connie. 

So from now Andrew Post is an auto-read for me.  I can't wait to see what twisted tale he shares with his readers next.  If this sounds like something you'd like, then I'd say take a chance.  You might be pleasantly surprised.

And by the way, if you haven't heard of krokodil, look it up.  It's a truly terrifying drug.



RATING: 4 PAWS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Andrew Post was born in Erie, Pennsylvania (imagine Eraserhead but in color). While he was honing his craft as a writer (those early stories were awful) he worked in a gift shop in one of the scuzziest hotels in the Midwest, he cleaned rental cars (also gross), he was a butcher (despite being a vegetarian), and in 2013 his first novel, the cyberpunk thriller, Knuckleduster, was published. No one really seemed to care much but he kept at it and has since published a handful of other works to varying degrees of resulting public interest with a few seeing translations and one almost became a movie (that lit agent has since been fired).

Andrew lives in a sleepy river town in Minnesota where he may or may not be planning aquatic "accidents" to befall the many other authors who live in the area and he has been mistaken for Rob Zombie on no less than ten separate occasions.

Twitter @MegaDeluxo