Review: Counsel(ed) (Lone Wolf) is The TRASHMAN
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 2, 2013
The Trashman, by Terry McDonald, is second only toGran De Daddy, and THAT, my fellow readers, is saying Something GREAT! (Of course, I still have a few of Mr. McDonald's books yet to read, so this could change!)Reading this book was both a pleasure and, as always with a well planned book about 'The End of the World as we Know it' (as are All of Mr. McDonald's books that I have read thus far), troubling. The humanity is REAL, the lack of caring for your fellow human beings by some of the people is all too, too plausible, the scenarios are all POSSIBLE... these things combined with the fact that Mr. McDonald is has a storytellers heart makes reading his books something I look forward to and find an uneasiness about it, too. In other words, they are scary, without the usual FEAR FACTOR inducing characters; human nature, in the worst way, is scary enough without vampires and ghouls!  There lies the Possibility that the 'End Times' described in this book Could happen, even in 'my time', and That is what keeps me on the edge of my seat while reading these books.Sometimes, I've thought that I miss the 'flash' in Mr. McDonald's books that a few of the other 'end times' author's have. As I read this book I thought it was too 'easy' for Ralph at times, that he was just too darn lucky in how he missed getting messed up, BAD, when he made mistakes that other authors would have exploited against him - and then - I realized - what THIS book is 'lacking' is the sensationalism of commercialism! Because, YES, sometimes people really DO 'get lucky' and NOT die or get caught (by the bad guys). After all, he couldn't Become "The Trashman" if he had died! Also, I am certain Ralph did not consider himself lucky, not after what all happened in this book. In the end of that thought process, I was grateful for this book being JUST the way it is...Trying not to 'give anything away', I will say that if you enjoy 'end times' books, or human drama, or hints of spirituality (Note: NOT religion, Spirituality!) in real-life-possible scenes, you WILL come away knowing you've read a Great Book after finishing this one. Mr. McDonald's writing skills have done nothing but get better, and he started out GOOD, anyway. This book, while it still needed a good editor, is his best edited book that I have read this far (and I've read all but two of his books, I think). Never-the-less, I noted multiple places where quotation marks were placed at the end of someones words but not at the beginning, I noticed a few places where  some words had a letter left out or were simply misspelled, and I noticed grammar mistakes. Personally, those are the types of things that will often make me stop reading a book, but not in the case of Mr. McDonald's writings. The ONLY thing that would make me stop reading his books are if my Kindle quit working (has happened 4 times in less than 1 year, always has been speedily replaced by the manufacturer) AND I couldn't access it on my computer/cloud, the end of the world DID happen and I hadn't yet downloaded to my Kindle, or, god forbid, if his writing got to the point it was indecipherable. However, it is no where NEAR that bad, and, as I said, each book seems to me to have had more care and attention paid in all of the grammar and spelling oversights.I would be remiss if I did not mention the fact that "W" (W, or, Wanda,) makes an appearance in this book and the reader is afforded a bit more of her history. (GOOD JOB, Terry!) I hope that some day, Wanda, Ralph, Gran De Daddy (and family), and perhaps Other of Mr. McDonald's people  (maybe Annie - I still have that one to read) can come together in one book. THAT would be super groovy, to say the least!As an aside - I find the names Mr. McDonald chooses for his characters to be unusual and interesting. It may simply be a 'me thing', but I see a hidden meaning in the hero of this book's name: Ralph. Ralph is an English, Scandinavian and German male given name, derived from Old Norse Raulfr (ra "counsel" + ulfr "wolf") through Old English Rdwulf and the longer form Radulf. (Source: Wikipedia) Hense, in my mind, I see him as "The Counseled Wolf", but Also as a Lone Wolf - a military fellow trained in the art of killing (the bad guys) who works alone. Wanda stands for Wanderer, which, indeed, she was...Thank you, again, Terry, for another great book. You give me food for thought, entertain my soul, and have enriched by life through the reading of your books.Most Sincerely,(One of) Your Biggest Fans,RebaPS: I have multiple other books to review, but never enough time, so I skipped the ones I read prior to this one to leave this review.