Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Mallory's Manly Methods, by Thomas Keech {ends 5/17}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

The party wasn’t anything like he expected. While he waited on the landing for Nell to arrive, he saw only three people arriving, and two of them were from the apartment immediately below Thomas’s. It was a warm, bright, late September afternoon. There was no smell of marijuana or hint of other drugs in the air, no loud music, no sketchy characters coming or going.

Nell arrived on the dot of five, clicking up the stairs in heels. Her dress had no glitter on it, but it was made of a powder blue, shiny fabric that ended just under the knee and showed just a bit of her shoulders at the top. She wore a rhinestone belt and silver, open-toed heels. “Hello,” she called out to him as she reached the top of the stairs. He was sitting on Thomas’s empty cooler on the landing. 

“What happened to your face?” She backed off as if the scratches were contagious.

“Oh. Um…just a run-in with some gangbangers in the parking lot trying to steal my dinner.”

“Gangbangers? Did you call the police?”

“Um, no. I scared them pretty good. I don’t think they’ll be back around here for a while.”

Oh dear. Mallory is a legend in his own mind. His imagination, at least, is second to none. He never tells the truth when a lie could be presented quickly enough.

Official synopsis:

Kevin Mallory is so good at lying he has convinced himself he has almost an average life. He tries to use his exceptional skill at prevarication to hang onto his job without doing any work, win the love of his co-worker without recognizing who she really is, take advantage of the young Black man who moves in next door, and manipulate the police and the courts into accepting his warped idea of justice

Mallory pursues his co-worker, Nell, even as his supervisor at the UniCast Cable Company attempts to prove he is cutting off customers' calls. He joins Nell's dysfunctional Employee Cheer Committee as it tries to avoid disaster at the upcoming holiday party. He agrees to cat sit for Nell while she goes on a series of girls' nights out. He buys a rifle for protection from imaginary hoodlums but cannot get the box of bullets open. When Thomas, his neighbor, is assaulted by the police, Mallory impersonates a lawyer and represents him. When he is later criminally charged himself, he summons Nell as a witness, brings his rifle to court, and parks in a handicapped parking spot.

 

Mallory is just a small step above the stereotypical loser living in their mother’s basement. He is in his own apartment, and has a job, even if his greatest goal in life is to make it through his days without actually doing his job. For anyone who has ever dealt with a customer service representative who seemed to do anything but help, that is truly who Mallory is. 

He decides he may want to be a better man when he is sure he’s fallen in love with his co-worker, Nell. But does just pretending to be a better man really count? Somehow, he’s been telling so many lies for so long, he may not even know the truth himself anymore.

With such an unlikable main character, this could have been a hard book to like. I appreciated the humor in all of Mallory’s many flaws and bad decisions, and gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. It definitely needed to be approached in the right frame of mind, and I would recommend it for a reader who can dislike the main character, but still find humor in his misery and hilariously bad choices.

{click here to purchase}

 

Becki Bayley likes warming weather, cold drinks, and reading outside. Check out more of her adventures and what she’s been reading at SweetlyBSquared.com.

GIVEAWAY:

 

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Mallory's Manly Methods!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Tuesday, May 17th, at 11:59pm ET, and winner will be contacted via email the next day and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Mallory's Manly Methods, by Thomas Keech