Customer Reviews

Sudden Death

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

"Saturday was an exquisite day. A deep blue sky was dotted with just enough cottony clouds to give periodic relief from the intense sun. The air was balmy and as expected, the crowds overflowed the fairways." Descriptions like this put the reader right into the context of Balkind's story about a pro golfer playing through a personal threat on his life. Told in a play-by-play style, "Sudden Death" is rich with detail. Each day is rooted in a solid foundation of narrative and top-dressed with believable dialogue.

Reid Clark, the main character, lives the somewhat stereotypical life of the sports star and he treats the supporting cast of characters thoroughly and delightfully throughout the novel. One entertaining example describes Reid lavishing all-you-can-spend shopping trips on his sisters and another illustrates the family's enjoyment of one another as they spend time together between the Master's tournament and the contest laced with the threat on Reid's life.

The security detail embedded with Reid as he goes about practicing and playing serves as a counterweight to the family-and-friends scenes. They, along with the wide range of emotions experienced by Reid as the tension builds, remind the reader that having superior skills and worldly success are no guarantee of sustaining a peaceful state of mind. Balkind does a good job of gradually building the mystery and suspense throughout the story: "As much as he had tried, Reid couldn't concentrate on the movie. He was upset and annoyed. Why had it taken a death threat to get him to spend time with the people he loved? Was someone really going to take all this away from him?"

Adding another layer of interest to the story is a scene where Reid films an endorsement commercial for a golf ball company. I thought this scene provided an interesting insight into how professional sports stars have to be good at more than just the sport they love and it provided a sense of balance to the mystery and description of daily activities of life on the tour.

I gave Sudden Death four stars because while the suspense built throughout the novel and I felt that Reid's character grew steadily with each chapter, I didn't really get a good look inside the head of the character who wished to kill Reid. Part of the enjoyment of reading mysteries for me is gaining an understanding of how evil people think and what drives them to plan harmful actions. This was missing for me in this novel.

Overall, however, Balkind does an excellent job on his debut novel and his attention to detail and thorough understanding of both golf and his characters supplies the reader with an enjoyable read. There is enough substance in this book to appeal to golfers and non-golfers and men and women both are likely to find it entertaining.

Paula Buermele, author of The Dream Catcher Tour, is a reviewer for Bookpleasures and a member of the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association and the Metro Detroit Creative Writers Group.

I read this book in 2 days. It's not that I was on the edge of my seat, it is because I kept waiting for something to happen. if I wasn't a golfer, I would have bailed. it is not suspenseful in the least. Nothing happened, no twists. Actually it felt like it was written by a high school student taking their first journalism class. Glad it was a free download.

I really enjoyed Sudden Death. I read it while on vacation. It's one of those books that you hate to put down and when you come to the end you wish that there were more. Excellent! I look forward to reading more of Mr. Balkind's work.

J. Gamba

If you are an avid golf fan, then this book may be able to hold your interest. However, if you are a fan of fast moving suspense novels, this book is definitely not for you. The author tries to hold the reader's attention with allusions to death threats in the early pages, but this novel staggers through its first half barely developing the characters. If by the end of the second chapter you don't understand that the main character is a conceited jerk that many people would like to see dead, it's probably because you've fallen asleep due to boredom. Likewise, an entire two chapters dedicated to a golf match is where you'll find yourself skipping blocks of pages or popping a couple of No-Doz. Apparently someone told the author he needed to add imagery to his novel which he did at the expense of any sort of plot development for the first half of the novel. The rest of the novel has to rush to make up for the over-inflated early pages of the book and it just doesn't do the job. I read this because it was "endorsed" by James Patterson, that is a mistake I will never make again.

Unfortunately, all you reviewers who rated this book one star (hated it) got it right. Was this really a murder mystery without a murder? Potential readers should be alerted that a lot of something was missing. And this book had the potential to be a good story. Golf, murder, detectives, love. I found myself skimming through pages of trivia to find the story. It failed. I cannot believe that James Patterson actually read this book and endorsed it.

I hope Michael Balkind plays golf better than he writes about it. This is undoubtedly the worst novel I have ever suffered through. I stuck with it because I kept hoping something interesting or intriguing might happen. No such luck. I always give an author a fighting chance to please me. That's why I read on. But by the end of the second chapter of this book I realized that what I was reading was nothing more than the journal of a very shallow human being who is totally dedicated to opulence and greed. The dialogue is gratuitous and phony. The occasional attempt at humour is contrived and falls flat. The plot line is weak and is nothing more than an excuse for this pretentious journey through the land of the rich and famous. Reid Clark is a terribly unlikeable human being and his supporting cast is...well....we never really get to know any of them because the entire focus is on this jerk. All in all a very poor attempt at a mystery thriller and an even worse attempt at a golf story. Better luck next time Michael.
Jolleyballer

It is rare when I don't finish a book but this one was so dull it was impossible to get through. There was little character development except for the main character and he was selfish, materialistic and very dislike-able. The constant "name-dropping" was crazy. Why do I have to know the brand/make/model of every car, golf ball, watch, wine, etc? Spend your time elsewhere.

I really enjoyed this little romantic mystery book. It has a lot of fun characters and a nice plot. I read somewhere that if you liked golf this was a good book, but it really has nothing to do with golf except that the main character is a pro golfer, other than that, it is just a really quick fun read. I loved the plot and it was enjoyable.

I love golf and mysteries so this had to be a winner. NOT! This was most Sophmoric and Mundane piece of work I have read in a long time. The only reason I gave it 2 stars was that I finished it- I was on a long flight with nothing else to read -and it was 99 cents( too much for this dog) . I hope the author has a day job because this is a real stinker. The 5 star reviews had to be relatives or friends or BORRRRRRRING individuals too.UGH!

Started good and just tanked. The suspense lasted about 25 pages then it sounded like a Day in the Life type book. I was waiting for somsthing to happen, anything actually, and all I got was Rein goes here, Rein goes there. The author needs to study his craft for several more years before he calls himself a writer. I paid nothing and that is about what I got out of this book.