Saturday, August 04, 2012

Fight Card: A Mouth Full of Blood - Jack Tunney (Eric Beetner)




A MOUTH FULL OF BLOOD is the sequel to Eric Beetner's previous Fight Card book, SPLIT DECISION, and as always in this series, it's a great yarn, well-plotted, well-written, and true to its time period.

After the events of the earlier book, boxer Jimmy Wyler has left Kansas City behind and returned to Chicago, where he grew up in St. Vincent's Orphanage. He's working as a dishwasher in a Greek restaurant, trying to stay out of trouble, but his friendship with a fellow employee results in Jimmy being drawn into the effort to save the young man's sister from being forced into a life of prostitution. The only way to do that is to buy her freedom from the pimp who's grooming her for a life on the streets, and the only way for Jimmy to come up with the money is for him to enter the ring again, in a series of brutal, unregulated boxing matches.

Beetner does a fine job with his characters, and he writes some bloody, really brutal fight scenes that are very effective. In addition, for the first time in this series that I recall, Father Tim, the mentor to all the fighters who come out of St. Vincent's, plays an on-screen role in the plot. I really raced through this one and thoroughly enjoyed it. FIGHT CARD continues to be one of the strongest of the original e-book series, and if you haven't given it a try yet, you really should.

1 comment:

Eric Beetner said...

Thanks again for all your support of the Fightcard series. Hearing high praise from a writer like you is humbling indeed. So glad you enjoyed Jimmy's new adventure.