Customer Reviews

Fruitbasket from Hell (Alex Cheradon Mysteries)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Okay, so, it begins with this mysterious man coming to Alex Cheradon and offering him a million dollars to find his missing daughter. While in the process of doing so everything seemed to turn upside down and inside out for the main character. It's one of those, anything can go wrong and will go wrong-type stories.

The author throws a lot of stuff at the reader, from crazy ex-partners to scottish convenience story clerks(Easily one of the funniest bits in the book). It's got a bit Dean-Koontz-on-crack type feel to the story line. The author tried to tell his story in a very non-linear fashion, which would have worked better in a movie, but in the book caused some moments of confusion, but it didn't detract from the story too much. The overall story line of the book was actually pretty good with some well developed twists in the plot(See, crazy ex-partner and scottish convenience store clerk.). The main character, Alex, is, I'll admit, a little annoying, but shows potential to grow and the story leaves us open for a sequel, which I would definitely read(I hear rumor it's going to be titled something along the lines of A LIFE LESS FRUITY.).

I would say it's a great Halloween read, but, whoops, Halloween passed, so I'll say it's great Christmas read. I definitely recommend this book.

Alex Cheradon is a PI. He tries to stay off paranormal cases (vampires and the like), but they seem to find him anyway. His latest case offers him a new twist on Hell on Earth as he's hired to track down the whereabouts of Nevada Raines, daughter of the computer billionaire, Steven Raines. After a run-in with a bloodthirsty vampire, Alex is glad to have a case that put a million dollars immediately in his pocket and wasn't likely to involve the undead. Unfortunately, there's just the little matter of the Satanist cult, a vampire nest, and a little visitor named "Pookie" to contend with. If Alex can stay alive long enough, he just may save the world.

With a certain quirkiness reminiscent of Janet Evanovich's "Stephanie Plum" series, Jason Krumbine has created a bizarre cast of characters: Alex, the Private Investigator who manages to stumble through cases by pure luck, Nicky, the metrosexual secretary who is more interested in clothing choices than cases, Christian, the not-quite-alive ex-partner who seems hell-bent on killing Alex (well, it's not Christian's idea, it's those pesky voices), Angie, the ex who gets hired to be Alex's bodyguard but just may want to kill him herself, and all the wacky clients who hire Alex under false pretenses. The plot is a frenzied and outlandish race as Alex tries to find Nevada in time to save the world from Pookie.

Written like a rambling from someone's brain (complete with frequent and extensive parenthetical comments), the writing style is quirky and somewhat fun at first, but begins to become somewhat grating towards the end. It's difficult to judge the writing style, as the run-on sentences, sentence fragments and oddly formatted sentence structures seem to be created by design, not accident. It's a quick, amusing read, but a bit like being in the brain of someone with an attention disorder. Slightly out of context, there are a few comments that come off as simply racist. I couldn't quite figure out if they were meant to be funny, but they just seemed out of place.

Just compelling enough to keep you reading, "Fruitbasket from Hell" a quick and goofy ride through someone's subconscious.

@ MotherLode blog

Poor Alex Cheradon is a private investigator who wants to stop getting cases that involve the paranormal...or at least that involve members of the "other realm" trying to kill him. In "Fruitbasket From Hell," circumstances beyond his control have forced him, his metrosexual assistant/receptionist, and his past girlfriend/Laura-Croft-wannabe bodyguard to take on three cases that involve vampires, satanists, gateways to hell, and an ex-partner who won't die when you throw grenades at him. At the center of it all is the mystery of why Multi-Millionaire Steven Raines has handed Alex a briefcase of sketchy clues, a few threats, and a million dollars to find a daughter who's only been missing a few hours.

Overall, I found Alex to be a likeable and sympathetic character. I enjoyed his stream-of-consciousness narration, but, at times, it became overwhelming. Krumbine's sarcastic tone throughout the novel carried into each character thus became difficult to "stay with" at times. I sometimes found it necessary to set the novel aside to get out of Alex's head. As a testament to Krumbine's story, though, I kept going back to find out how the plot would develop. And, as a testament to Krumbine's ability to use dialogue and character interaction to update the storyline, I never had to re-read sections to remember what had happened. I think one reviewer erroneously referred to this as "non-linear". For an example of an author using a non-linear writing device, pick up John Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar," (which I also recommend, by the way). For an example of an author expertly using a recap, pick up Jason Krumbine's "Fruitbasket From Hell."

Something else I enjoyed was Krumbine's "play" with sentence structure and references to pop culture in description. For instance, when Alex interrogates a priest, he describes him this way: "Father Pital was a tall, wiry man with a small ring of white hair around his head, kind of like Captain Picard, only Pital's head didn't fill out as much. Which I thought was odd, considering how so many priests think so highly of themselves." When Alex approaches a house where a den of vampires is hiding, he subtly suggests it's not going to be a great experience: "There was a small garden off to the side that looked like God himself had taken offense to its existence."

For readers who can't get past the number of typos and missing words in the third edition (the one I read), this novel will be difficult. Such technicalities pull me out of a story, and that's a shame, because Krumbine has such an intriguing story. But if what you're after is a good, fun, tongue-in-cheek, bloody, shoot-em-up, paranormal mystery, Jason Krumbine delivers all that and more in this book. The tone is light and fast-forward-fun with a surprising body count. It's truly bizarre to get to the end and realize how much blood and gore you've waded through because you've been laughing at so many points along the way...

And as an afterthought, I'm surprised by the pricetag on some of the copies here at Amazon. I picked my softcover up from the author at a festival for $15. Shop wisely.

From Sandy Lender, "Some days, I just want the dragon to win."

This was one super funny, but good story. I enjoy reading the supernatural genre and when I read the summary of the story, I was not expecting to laugh so hard or so much. If you like Nelson DeMille's John Corey series, Evanovich's Stephine Plum series, along with the TV show Supernatural you will love this book!!!

Alex Cheradon is a P.I. that stresses that he will NOT take on any case with supernatual overtures, yet that is exactly what happens to the poor fella. Jason Krumbine definetly has a way with words as he paints the reader a vivid picture of who and/or what he is dealing with at the moment, not to mention his own thoughts on each situation.

I was not sure what to expect from a free book and was very pleased with this book. I will be buying more of his books as I am sure they are all just as good. I did read Just Dial 911 and loved it also!!! This book kept me laughing out loud the whole way through. Krumbine does have a way with words. Reccommended for anyone looking to be throughly entertained.

This book was okey, there are funny moments but the overall story is a bit convoluted. Also, there were just too many typos, missing words, switched words, wrong words,to enjoy and kind of flow to the story. I really wish the writers or editors of these e-books would take at least one look before releasing the books to the public. I don't even know how you are able to put in so many mistakes. It's as if they typed it out once then had someone randomly take words out here and there just to make it difficult.

I got this book thinking I would love it due to the subject matter. I find that I was mistaken. Typos aside, Alex Cheradon is silly and obnoxious with no levity. I did not finish the book and at this time have no plans to do so.

This was a really good book, kept me interested the whole time and wanting to read the next chapter. The Alex character was really funny, and i loved the character Christian, he was very entertaining.
A is for Amnesia, B is for Bullet (Alex Cheradon Mysteries)

I laughed a lot during this book. It's very witty and fast paced. There were a few gross parts, but the way Jason Krumbine wrote the scenes I was laughing more times than I was grossed out. Highly recommended to anyone who likes being entertained!

I honestly think this writer has talent. I do. I think that authors who are really good often have editors. I'm not even an editor, and I could totally clean this novel up a bit, get rid of the spelling errors and the places where the grammar is awkward, take out the unnecessary bit of racism and a few places where stereotypes are used to be funny (a rich guy with a pencil thin mustache? What is this, a 1934 silent film?) An editor could turn this into a 4 star novel, easily, I think.

All that being said, I enjoyed the story. Ok, correction, I'm only halfway through it. Then end might suck, I don't know.

Even I know this, and I'm more amateur a writer than this fellow: Put your ego aside, find someone who is really good at spelling and grammar, have them read it. Then find a friend who is not afraid to give you some thoroughly thought out critiques of the flow of the story, and talk to them about it. Make some changes. Go take some college writing courses and learn some technique. Get better. The storytelling ability is there, but it's buried in the lack of technical skill.

This could have been a goofy but entertaining book. It really needed a good proofreader, plus a final edit to get rid of its many cute asides in parentheses. But these are forgivable sins. I would have sort of enjoyed Fruit Basket from Hell if it weren't for a concerning strain of racism that kept popping up with respect to one character.

Spoiler alert

Maybe it was an innocent goof, but the only African-American character is embarrassing. Much is made of his black skin, in an off-putting way, before you ever realize he is the bad guy. Again, a good editor could have gotten rid of this. It wasn't integral to the story, unless the author wanted to make a racist point that the bad guy's soul is as black as his skin - as if the two were connected. That's the way it came across to me, although I still hope it was just the result of bad editing.

I continue to hope this was bad judgment and that the author was not intentionally being racist. That would conflict with the fun vibe he was obviously after and I think we live in a world where happy healthy people aren't casual racists. Whatever the case, I ripped the glossy cover off my copy and threw the pages in the recycle bin, because I couldn't in good conscience pass such garbage on to the library book sale.