Review: A crime drama poised for the top - and a King Pen to rule it.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 11, 2014
Crime drama is not a genre that springs to mind when I think, ‘captivating’ or even ‘riveting,’ but that was before “I’m Living But I’m Not Alive: Black Caviar.”  A day or two after the last paged closed, I am still shaking my head, rummaging through the tidbits thrown our way in the story, putting together the pieces and wondering if I would have done anything the same.Though this novel could in no way be classified a horror, I found myself striking parallels between Pysmon H. and Dean Koontz.  If you have ever read a book penned by the later then the form may seem familiar, even as the style and voice is unique.  Spanning the first 9 chapters, or Episodes as he calls them,  Pysmon introduces us to different characters and scenarios, lives that have been lived and stories told that prepare us for the opening of The Black Caviar in Episode 10 – the moment when this story really begins.  While the novel really picks up speed and depth at this point, the author still blesses us with Episodes devoted to other characters, some seemingly out of place or unconnected to Chicago or the Organization.  Yet as the pages pile one after the other, Psymon expertly draws these threads together in a tapestry of intrigue that proves vital.Daman, the man at the top of the entire Chicago Crime Scene – the head of what is known as the D Organization – takes the realm in this spine tingling first installment.  A ‘Crime Alpha’ – as he so dubs himself, Daman is a cold, calculating, family man that goes head to head with a hot blooded yet equally calculating Jane, a new sort of Femme Fatale that dances her heels across backs and shoulders of any she climbs over to get to the top.  A word of advice, read every line – then go back and read it again.  Details and clues are thrown out with a casualness that belies the incredible importance of the nugget.  And they are all nuggets…. Every clue, almost every line is important.A book for fans of Crime Drama, Gangster Novels, Mysteries, and even those lovers of psychological horror.