Review: Savage Payback by Seumas Gallacher
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 7, 2014
Seumas Gallacher…Author BackgroundSeumas Gallacher was born in the cradle of the Govan shipyards in Glasgow in the so-called ‘bad old days’, which were really the greatest of days, where everybody was a true character of note. An early career as a trainee banker led to a spell in London, where his pretence to be a missionary converting the English fell on deaf ears. Escape to the Far East in 1980 opened up access to cultures and societies on a global scale, eventually bringing the realisation that the world is simply one large, extended village. The lifelong desire to write resulted in THE VIOLIN MAN’S LEGACY, the first in a planned series. Seumas’ sequel novel, VENGEANCE WEARS BLACK was launched in early July 2012. The third, SAVAGE PAYBACK, was released in late 2013 with at least two other books to follow in the same vein. Ebook downloads on his novels exceed 70,000 to date. Seumas lives in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. wall copy 2 …Authors…why bother doing a Blog?... …yeez can slice and dice umpteen different approaches to maintaining a Blog… as a writer, the conventional wisdom tell yeez it helps to get yeez ‘presence’… well, I think there’s also as many definitions of ‘presence’ as yeez can think of… this ol’ Jurassic’s been scribbling away at this Blog thing for a coupla years now, and must confess the driving force for maintaining it has gradually changed… initially I knew as much about blogging as I did about Mexican knitting patterns or Persian Hieroglyphics… in pursuit of extending readership reach, the Blog was an addendum to the other SOSYAL NETWURKIN channels I dabble with… Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and LinkedIn… I laptop-tapped maybe twice a week, with no rhythm or purpose, no base, no direction… then a few things started to click, mentally, not just on the Mac… the content, which the cognoscenti will tell yeez is paramount, began to take shape… a regularity of style evolved… the crime thrillers lived in the novels, and that can be pretty heavy-duty violent stuff… and any quill-scraper knows it’s vital to have your ‘Author’s Voice’ in the books… I found the Blog forming into an intrinsically different kind of writing… much like cartoons cater to short-term attention from readers, so also, most Blogs attract the same probable eyeball time… ideally for me, anything between 300 and 400 WURDS is plenty, but that’s not set in stone… the Blog becomes the ‘Author’s Brand’… a brand is by definition recognizable… mine attempts to be the tongue-in-cheek, humorous, reflective flow of consciousness of a comparative newbie… an independent, self-publishing plume-pusher… an old f*rt from a separate career, stumbling through the maze that is the new-fangled reality called the Internet… and somehow coming out the other side, still bewildered, but surviving, hopefully successfully… populating the Blog occasionally are a couple of characters, Mabel, and Matron… Mabel is best described as an almost imaginary presence, somewhat akin to the invisible rabbit, Harvey, that the great actor James Stewart conversed with in the movie of the same name… that allows for ‘asides’ and commentary to flow… Matron is the character who keeps the writer in check occasionally by the administering of a huge syringe loaded with no-one quite knows what, and it’s impossible to tell whether or not she’s also a figment of the writer’s addled brain… the biggest change in the impact the Blog has on me is that it permits me to indulge another kind of writing from the novels, and doing it almost daily dictates a discipline I welcome… it now also connects automatically with all my other SOSYAL NETWURK linkages, hitting a possible 14,000+ readers for every Blog Post… and most importantly… IT’S FUN and I’m LUVVIN IT!... Blog  : seumasgallacher.com Twitter  : @seumasgallacher Facebook  : [...] Email  : seumasgallacher@yahoo.com Amazon Links for SAVAGE PAYBACK UK  [...] US  [...] Savage03-1Savage Payback - ReviewI must confess to the fact that I have not read many crime/thrillers in a while and have never reviewed one.  This is not to say I don't enjoy the genre, I do, but find most of my reading is taken up by historical-fiction.  I am pleased to report that Savage Payback has rekindled my interest.  The story revolves around a huge explosion/robbery in London's jewelry district and the subsequent involvement of Jack Calder and the ISP team as they are hired by the insurance companies to investigate.  From the very first page the reader is immersed in a never ending cycle of action that spans the globe and involves multiple intelligence agencies, drug lords and a mysterious shadowy bomber.  The story also contains some very nice twists and turns as the major player's attempt to solve the various problems that crop up.  Vengeance and retribution are prime motivators in this Jack Higgins like write up, not only from the point of view of the 'good guys' but also from the 'baddies' as well.  A thoroughly enjoyable page turning read.  4 stars and an excuse to visit more of Seumas Gallachers' writing.