"...had the television on, but who needed the suffering? It was bad news upstaging bad news. The Uvalde school slaughter had devolved into a case of utter police cowardice. Turn the station and someone is being thrown down a flight of stairs, someone is being thrown in front of a subway train, someone is run over and then robbed. And the bad across the boards, all being released without bail. The American legal system was becoming it own default button."

Oh, yeah! The times we live in. The dying throes of America in the 21st century. The end of society as we knew it in the post-WWII 20th century. Welcome to the nightmare, kids! You'll never believe how free my generation was. Once. Fifty years or so back. Lasted about twenty to thirty years after the war in Vietnam.

Ana Ride came home from her own war in a bleak desert land far away minus one leg. Government bought her a prosthetic leg as a parting gift for her participation in the most recent American folly.
"Thank you for your service." A sort of well intentioned if vacuous equivalent of "have a nice day!" + smiley face.

Ana brought her own war and her skills at hand-to-hand combat back home with her to a trailer park in the foothills of Chatsworth where all the cowboy movies were made way back when. We don't know exactly what she does for a living ...but she's an adrenaline junkie. She's a wicked martial arts expert, adept at disassembling, reassembling and loading any weapons of war you can think of. She has built herself into a walking, talking, breathing weapon of death to her enemies whoever she imagines them to be or to those who would bring harm to innocents.

She is contacted by the very, very wealthy, very eccentric, tall, reed-thin author of a column appearing in the L.A. Weekly, "Big Island, L.A."
William Worth -aka "Landshark"- a muckraker for our times. His interest has been piqued by news of a couple of murders following the burglary of the L.A. police academy armory from where a large cache of weapons was stolen. Landshark suspects the murders are connected and that there is much more going on than a mere burglary. So he engages Ana. And associates. There follows mayhem, murder, torture, and more murder.
Throughout, Boston Teran maintains occasional social commentary on our times.

"Death by social media. Death by a thousand comments planted in the civil discourse for poison's sake. ...You just don't die as quick. The internet is a walking loudspeaker in scenarios this, and all that cancel culture is a smoke screen for the nefarious power of money and control. It is about an armed camp of gutless wonders who hide behind the anonymity of a cellphone, while assassins lurk in the shadows of a threat”.

A new novel by Boston Teran is always a cause for celebration around this home. I've loved everything I've read by him/her/them (I've long since given up trying to figure out who Boston Teran actually is - not that it would increase or decrease my enjoyment of the novels) and this novel is every bit as great as every other novel I’ve read by the mysterious Bierce- author. Most of Boston Teran’s novels are based on historically factual events in action-packed novels that feature a decent man or woman or group who attempt to aid victims of injustice and fight the powerful industrialists and the engines of capitalism that seek to steamroll them into poverty or prison.
When I received an advance review copy of this most recent novel I was overjoyed.

In the prologue, the author states that as in his much earlier, Never Count Out the Dead, "it is Landshark’s [a character first introduced in “Dead”] voice at the heart of this work. It is through Landshark's eyes and commentary, because the manuscript is as much about the state of his Los Angeles and soul as it is about a pyramid of corruption and murder."
I guess the views and opinions expressed in this novel are those of one of the characters -not the author's. I don't care. They match my own.


"He watched the news on the bank of screens. Everything was focused on the Uvalde shootings still, all these weeks later, and it was telling a different story than in those first days. Instead of being brave lads, the police and sheriffs in that dusty border town were, it turned out, flawed, confused, compromised, and failures at their duty. Possibly even cowards, who let the children die in vain while they waited in the hallways. ...No story is complete until the last body is buried. Even then, cast your lot with doubt."

It is such a powerful novel so filled with violence and outrage and mystery and unexpected twists that I really hated to see the ending. I just hope there's more to come. I'm not ready to say "so long" to Ana Ride.

"Go ahead," said Ana, "Blow this shit box. Send us on."

This novel was released in October 2023.
Highest Recommendation!

Update:. Preordered this shortly after writing this review. It arrived last week.
Out of my duty to be straight up and totally honest in (most of) my - I paid real damned money for my hardback edition of this novel.
I to monetarily support my favorite living authors as much as I am practically and financially able.42 s Roxann Larotonda53 3

Lots of excitement in this fast-paced story that kept me turning the pages. Ana Ride, a former Marine has important information for William Worth, a crime columnist who is also an agoraphobic. Murder, violence, corruption, & a conflict between a tenants association & developers are all packed into this book. Great characters here including Ana’s Dad, Elias, & Inspector Miller, among others. This is my first book by Boston Teran. I had not read “Never Count Out the Dead” which was a prequel to this book, but I plan on reading it because I became fascinated with Worth. I really d the short chapters that moved the story along. I received an advanced reader copy for my review. Big Island, L. A. will be published October ‘23.10 s Bob Prol132

Teran’s books are always edgy and fast-paced reads. I loved this one. I received an ARC copy for free for an honest review. I wish I’d asked for a Kindle version instead of print. The prose was so good, I would have loved to highlight a few lines to drop in this review.

Everyone is flawed, and this book drives the storyline from start to finish with characters you’d probably enjoy drinking with, but you wouldn’t take them home to meet your family.

I have a cat that demands petting and brushing. I tried to read this with one hand, and serve her catly highness with the other. The story tension must have translated to my brushing hand. She bit me. It just added to the atmosphere of the book. Really.

I took a writing course years ago, and the teacher said you need to alternate tension with a rest in a story. I don’t think this author took that course, because it was non-stop tension and action. I’m thankful this. 4 s Udana1 review1 follower

I'm a Boston Teran fan. He writes a dark, underground poet slashing through pretense and hitting the deep nerve of whatever story he's telling. This one is complex, fast and riveting. I particularly love heroine, Ana Ride, the surly, sexy heroine. She's not fearless... she's courageous, dark and illuminated by brilliance. Although I don't the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, I recognized it all in this compelling story.

Grit. Danger. Lies inside lies amidst a trail of bullshit greed being uncovered and sleuthed out by wonderful characters with their own problems who somehow rise above their fears to take on injustices.

Page-turner. Compelling. Couldn't put it down. My favorite - the poetry of some of the slang throw-aways... "I cut off my leg shaving." And Question: "You know what your failing is? Your one egregious failing?" Answer: "I don't know. I have so many. Which one do you think it is?" And "Don't start a fight you can't finish. It's bad manners."1 James ThaneAuthor 9 books6,994

Big Island, L.A. is another excellent novel from Boston Teran who remains the most elusive of all authors. This book is a sequel to his/her/their 2001 novel, Never Count Out the Dead, which I also thoroughly enjoyed. The first book introduced an agoraphobic journalist named William Worth. Worth inherited a ton of money and lives in splendid isolation on a large estate with great views of L.A. Using the pseudonym, "Landshark," he is a journalist who writes a column and a podcast titled, "Big Island, L.A." Worth specializes in exposing the dark underbelly of the city, and twenty years down the road, things are looking even darker than they did in 2001:

America, it seemed, was in a perpetual state of madness. It could barely stitch up one wound when here came another. It was if some malign electricity was running through the hearts of the endlessly unhappy, lost, and broken, connecting them to some faithless, empty prison of a world, where once lived a soul.

The book opens with the burglary of the LAPD Academy Armory. A large number of weapons are taken by two men who are going to immediately find themselves in serious trouble as a result. Ana Ride is a former Marine who lost a foot in Afghanistan and who now works mysteriously, using the skills she learned in the service, in causes not always within the law.

Ride is a very tough, smart-mouthed, courageous, take-no-prisoners sort of a woman, and she manages to get inside information about the burglary. She and Worth team up to investigate the crime and the much larger issues that come to light as a result. It's an exceedingly dangerous mission, especially for Ana, given that very powerful Major Players are involved. As usual in a Boston Teran novel, greed and corruption play a major role in the tale, as does the conflict between the rich and powerful and the poor and downtrodden.

The story is told in 250 extremely short chapters, some amounting to only a single paragraph, and once it takes off, the action and the tension never falter. This is ultimate example of a "page turner" of a novel, and its construction makes it way too easy to "just read one more chapter," before taking a break. most of Teran's novels, I found it almost impossible to put the book down. All of the characters, Ana and Landshark in particular, are terrific if deeply flawed. The writing is beautiful; and the portrait of L.A. in the wake of Covid, the Black Lives Matter movement, the "Woke" culture and other such social, cultural, and economic influences is sharp and unforgiving.

This is a very compelling story and I sincerely hope that we see both Ana Ride and Landshark again. I also very much hope that Boston Teran will not take another twenty-two years before bringing them back.

Note: This review is based on an advance copy of the book which is scheduled to be released in October, 2023.boston-teran crime-fiction9 s1 comment Peter Kalnin370 30

Once again Boston Teran hits it out of the park, writing vividly and with perspicacity about an LA everyone knows exists but the majority of people never see, or perhaps choose not to see because of the social discomfort of acknowledging the darkness of these characters' lives. I have been reading Boston Teran for more than two decades and I can easily say that, for me, this novel is the very best book the author has ever produced. It reads conversationally and seems the words were effortlessly created yet one realizes that a great deal of work has gone into lacing together several storylines in such a flawless way. It is so good that once it is read, one goes right back to page one to reread the entire novel once again. I cannot praise this book and this writer enough.

For full disclosure, I was given an advanced printed copy of Big Island LA in exchange for an honest review, but even if I hadn't I would not change a single word of praise I have written above.

THIS is writing!action-adventure dark mysteries ...more David Steele102 3

Starting to read a new Boston Teran book is that first sip of an ice-cold beer after pushing the lawn mower around for a couple of hours in 90 degree weather. And then the next thing you know is that all of the beer is gone and the lawn, what lawn?
Once again, great story and characters in that alien world called L.A. where human life is cheap and the truth does not exist.

I received this book directly from the publisher.2 s Troy1,065

Thanks to Julia (with the publisher) and the author for providing me an ARC to read and review. Big Island LA is another fantastic novel from the always interesting mind of Boston Teran. I loved the bullet chapters and the snappy back and forth dialogue between Ana Ride and Miller. Plenty of action kept me reading as I finished this novel in a 24 hour period. That is a huge compliment as I rarely finish a book that quickly. Can't wait to see what the author creates next! Highly recommended. Ivy Pittman-Outen205 3

One crime after another makes these twisted bunch of characters not to be played with, especially Ana Ride. With L. A. as the backdrop, this story moves through the grittiest parts, adding intrigue, danger and murderous surprises. Doreen2,783 79

10/19/2023 Nowhere near as good as his last two books. Full review tk at CriminalElement.com.mcn Ken Hulse133 21

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