Chip Jacobs

This novel is a dual story line, 1913 with the clearing of land and construction of the Colorado Street Bridge, also more known by its nickname Suicide Bridge, and 1993 after large renovations and construction is completed on it. Nick, an ostrich riding and racing fellow works his way to being able to be a part of the 1913 structure. He has always wanted to use his light prototype and here is the chance to prove himself, and do something he loves. Nick quickly integrates himself with the contribution works on the bridge, and sees a while different working world.

An explosion occurs and a dog saves Nick, this becomes his new best friend and the two venture around the construction of the bridge while mingling amongst some of the elite- Busch gardens, and other tycoons of the time who had influence; Teddy Roosevelt, Charles Fletcher Lummis, and Upton Sinclair. Although there was all of this influence, the bridge being build was very controversial at the time, and 1993, eighty years later with the reconstruction it still is. There were lots of unexplained incidents and mysterious happenings.

The “Colorado Street Bridge has many myths and legends tied to it that still resonate on the lips of tourists and visitors today and Nick took us through the adventure of how this came to be. I learned quite a few historical things about this novel, and had no idea about how popular the ostrich farms and racing were. This novel was mostly focused in 1913, and does then end with the Nick of 1993, for the eightieth celebration. Thank you to Suzy Approved Book Tours for the invite.… (plus d'informations)

"The Darkest Glare" is an obscure true crime story. It begins with Richard Kasparov and Jerry Scneiderman, who created a space planning firm called Space Matters. They then partner up with another guy named Howard Garrett. Long story short, Kasparov steals from them and from there, Garrett sues and then plans a series of assassination attempts on Kasparov.

I didn't exactly finish this one. I read approximately 1/5 of it before skimming the rest. I'm writing this review because I did sink around 2 hours of reading time into this book, so here are my 2 cents.

I lost interest in the narrative but more than that I got tired of the writing. Chip Jacobs certainly adds a lot of personality to the story, which is apparent in the first chapter and fine to start with, but it got to be a bit much. There were parts that were detailed to the point of overwriting (e.g. describing a person's physical appearance for an entire long paragraph), and there was so much extraneous detail packed into it.

I'd recommend this book if it sounds interesting and you like the writing style.

*read via NetGalley… (plus d'informations)