(Angry) I reviewed the opening of this book but failed the 5 author questions twice which stopped me from praising it. I feel that the questions were ambiguous and almost designed to catch a reader out. I considered it such a shame that the author would not get the 'benefit' of my review, I am posting it here anyway:-

I will start with a very minor criticism. Grammar and punctuation need a once-over, but that is easily rectified, pre-publishing. That aside, within a couple of paragraphs, I was hooked on this read. The story is a simple but interesting and intriguing one. I am a great believer in keeping things straightforward and this yarn is not cluttered with irrelevances such as stupid complex character names and pointless diversions. Best of all is the characterisation and dialogue. The stilted short sentences, often annoying in other contexts, are almost essential here and keep the conversational flow alive and vibrant and 'real'. It is easy to visualise the subject character from the get-go and the image is believeable. Descriptive passages are concise but imaginative. A few similes being a little predictable do not detract too much from the overall originality and enjoyment. The ultimate compliment is, though, my desire to read more...well done Frank.

I know it must be difficult to devise a system whereby it is provable that the submission has been read but perhaps authors should not be too obtuse in their choice of questions.