Review of Double Down
Posted: 01 Jan 2022, 10:11
[Following is a volunteer review of "Double Down" by C J Axlerod.]
Review of Double Down
[Following is an official onlineBookClub.org review of “Double Down” by C J Axlerod]
Had C J Axlerod set Double Down on a farm, the reader would have found a farmer who, while working on his farm on a hot afternoon, is suddenly bitten by a snake that feels threatened by the farmer’s presence. While the snake runs back to the palm tree where it had come from, the farmer, unaware of the direction the snake has taken, hurries to the same palm tree in search of cover. This only tells us that life itself is an irony, and in recent times no other text has unwrapped this irony with such literary grace and charm as the reader finds in Double Down.
As a movie star, Alex Cole has been battling with the trauma that accompanies a gun attack, which incident has affected his public appearance. In his attempt to hide from the public while hoping to uncover those behind this ugly incident, Alex Cole hires Aaron to impersonate him. Unknowingly, the said Aaron is the man behind his trauma. Aaron who has always had the dream of becoming Alex Cole had spent his childhood years schooling himself in everything Alex Cole. Years back, when Alex Cole lost his parents in an auto crash, Aaron had killed his parents just so he could feel the same pain as Alex Cole. To him the offer of impersonating Alex Cole is nothing but dream come true, and, but for miscalculations in the execution of his plan, he would have killed Alex Cole and every other person who has knowledge of his “double shadow” existence, just so he can fully assume the person of Alex Cole and have an affair with Cindy, his dream woman for many years.
Axlerod, in Double Down, has succeeded in taking his readers through a storyline whose intrigue can trick even the critical reader to drop off his critique garb same way Aaron would, time and again, drop his Alex Cole persona on stage. The characters are deployed to good effect; they conspire with the storyline to make the reader hungrier on every new page of the text than the previous one.
Again, the language used in the text is simple and plain, yet it is full of creativity and embellishment. The author is dutiful enough in his representation of words, giving the necessary stylistic effect; of italicizing words in paragraphs where they reflect events that took place before the book started; of capitalizing word initials in particular words and phrases. All these add to the graphic grace of the text.
It is no doubt that the text has undergone some professional editing. Even so, few typographical and syntactic errors can be found on close reading. One can also find on close reading that the author is not consistent in his textual representation of acronyms. It is mention worthy here that the word television appears in the one place as TV and in another as tv. Again, the text is pregnant with profanities and sexual content , making it unhealthy for readers below the age of eighteen.
In all, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. Though a number of observations may have been made on the weakness of the text, it has to be stressed that they do not impede the reader’s understanding of the story.
I recommend this book to adult lovers of thrillers and mystery books.
******
Double Down
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Review of Double Down
[Following is an official onlineBookClub.org review of “Double Down” by C J Axlerod]
Had C J Axlerod set Double Down on a farm, the reader would have found a farmer who, while working on his farm on a hot afternoon, is suddenly bitten by a snake that feels threatened by the farmer’s presence. While the snake runs back to the palm tree where it had come from, the farmer, unaware of the direction the snake has taken, hurries to the same palm tree in search of cover. This only tells us that life itself is an irony, and in recent times no other text has unwrapped this irony with such literary grace and charm as the reader finds in Double Down.
As a movie star, Alex Cole has been battling with the trauma that accompanies a gun attack, which incident has affected his public appearance. In his attempt to hide from the public while hoping to uncover those behind this ugly incident, Alex Cole hires Aaron to impersonate him. Unknowingly, the said Aaron is the man behind his trauma. Aaron who has always had the dream of becoming Alex Cole had spent his childhood years schooling himself in everything Alex Cole. Years back, when Alex Cole lost his parents in an auto crash, Aaron had killed his parents just so he could feel the same pain as Alex Cole. To him the offer of impersonating Alex Cole is nothing but dream come true, and, but for miscalculations in the execution of his plan, he would have killed Alex Cole and every other person who has knowledge of his “double shadow” existence, just so he can fully assume the person of Alex Cole and have an affair with Cindy, his dream woman for many years.
Axlerod, in Double Down, has succeeded in taking his readers through a storyline whose intrigue can trick even the critical reader to drop off his critique garb same way Aaron would, time and again, drop his Alex Cole persona on stage. The characters are deployed to good effect; they conspire with the storyline to make the reader hungrier on every new page of the text than the previous one.
Again, the language used in the text is simple and plain, yet it is full of creativity and embellishment. The author is dutiful enough in his representation of words, giving the necessary stylistic effect; of italicizing words in paragraphs where they reflect events that took place before the book started; of capitalizing word initials in particular words and phrases. All these add to the graphic grace of the text.
It is no doubt that the text has undergone some professional editing. Even so, few typographical and syntactic errors can be found on close reading. One can also find on close reading that the author is not consistent in his textual representation of acronyms. It is mention worthy here that the word television appears in the one place as TV and in another as tv. Again, the text is pregnant with profanities and sexual content , making it unhealthy for readers below the age of eighteen.
In all, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. Though a number of observations may have been made on the weakness of the text, it has to be stressed that they do not impede the reader’s understanding of the story.
I recommend this book to adult lovers of thrillers and mystery books.
******
Double Down
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon