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The second review has come in for my latest novel. As you know, reviews are difficult to come by, so it’s always worth celebrating when they arrive. This one is on Goodreads (some reviewers avoid Amazon these days for many reasons). You can read it by clicking here. But to make it easy, I’ll also post it below.

Uday Mukerji
5 Stars

November 13, 2021

Imagine waking up in a dingy cabin in the middle of a stormy night in a turbulent ocean. Passengers are running amok, screaming. Panic sets in. Total chaos on board. Soon, fire breaks out. An explosion follows. A handful of crew members and passengers jump ship to save themselves, embracing the roaring sea and the loud thunders. The survival instinct kicks in. Six strangers huddle into a tiny lifeboat and sail for two more days – with little food and drinking water – before they land on a tiny, deserted island.

Saved?

That’s the big question readers will be asking themselves as they go through this incredible adventure thriller. How safe is an unknown, uninhabited island in the middle of nowhere? How long must they live here before they can go back to safety at home? Faces never seen before are suddenly forced to live together. Are they safe from each other? How do they survive the conflicts? Do they put their life on hold, or let love and sex take their course? Can faith in religion save them in such a desperate time? Or will that actually hinder them from seeing the truth? Can this tiny island save them from future environmental catastrophes? Can they overcome Covid-19, 29, or whatever the new strain is called in ten, twenty, or thirty years from now?

Stuart Aken’s Characters are vivid and jump out of the pages to make their points stick. On a broader canvas, one can easily take the description of people and places as mere launching points for general debates on issues troubling us on a daily basis.

No matter how you look at this book – an adventure thriller with romance, or fuel for thoughts – you are in for a good time. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would like to recommend it to those who always appreciate an aftertaste after a good read.

‘An Excess Of…’ is available in paperback and eBook form. Get your copy here