Title: Tarnished Hero
Author: Temple Madison
Publisher: JMS Books
Length: 88 Pages
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: Read this at your own risk; this is perhaps some of the worst writing I have ever come across, and that is putting it nicely, I assure you.
Reviewed By: Sammy
Blurb: Danger lurks around every corner and police officer Eddie Scarlett needs to stay focused on capturing a serial killer before someone else dies. A hot, sexy, blue eyed stranger is not a distraction he can afford … or can he?
Eddie Scarlett, one of NYC’s finest cops, is a tarnished hero. According to the scum on the street, Eddie is handsome, hot, and dangerous, but he has a heart as black as death. He’s called a back alley cop because he does undercover work for the NYPD, making him familiar with every back alley in the city.
When a crime spree breaks out, Eddie meets what he thinks is a whore with beautiful blue eyes. During their first encounter, they slam together like two taxis on Broadway. Before their relationship can even get started, Eddie has to go undercover.
It’s the kind of case that will test the resolve of a tough cop, forcing Eddie to forget his blue-eyed lover, his own identity, and even his common sense to melt into the city’s back alleys and capture a master killer wielding a cold blade.
Review: This is only the second One Star review I have written in my five years of reviewing. I am not sure what author Temple Madison had in mind with this story, Tarnished Hero, but I must ask the most obvious question, which is why it didn’t go through proper editing. Several times names were switched around in the story, and there was a total lack of anything appearing as a transition to lead us from one moment in the plot (and I use the word ‘plot’ very lightly here) to another, making the storyline really confusing to follow. The minuscule bits of story there was seemed to be tied together by the rampant and often inappropriately placed sex scenes that are just not worth mentioning.
From the moment we meet Eddie Scarlett, who apparently is known as the “Demon” on the streets due to, I guess, his gruff demeanor as an undercover cop, we know he does literally nothing by-the-book. Starting with screwing the potential perp he is meant to be interviewing right there in the precinct, to roughing up the acting CEO of a company he was trying to get to cooperate so he could go undercover to capture a serial killer supposedly working there, it was apparent this guy was just a disaster. Yet, apparently he was an amazing undercover cop. Listen, I understand we must sometimes check our disbelief at the door and go with the idea that some characters are portrayed as more fantasy than reality but honestly, this was pushing even that envelope way past the point of no return.
Then we have the love interest, Adam, who is a wealthy playboy that goes from begging the cop to screwing him and from then hating the cop to loving him. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times in this story where Adam claims he has worked with Eddie while he’s undercover at the company his sister actually owns, when in reality he was in Sweden on a trip to apparently see a dermatologist. Honestly, if you are asking, “What in the hell are you blathering on about,” then you have a very clear picture of this novel. It was insane from the beginning through its eighty-eight interminable pages to the end. It rarely made sense, it jumped from sex scene to sex scene where there was never preparation, never lube, but lots of brutal screwing and even some whipping which was, in actuality, just spanking.
Eddie’s age changed two or three times, he lied constantly to Adam about his undercover work, and got angry at Adam when he asked him to give said work up after Adam witnessed Eddie getting shot. Apparently, this traumatic event did not mean Adam could be worried about Eddie’s life but rather was an indicator that Adam was being selfish and making the shooting all about his needs. A few pages after that argument in the hospital and suddenly, the two were in love and moving in together—all in less than fifteen pages of text. I just was so confused and overwhelmed by how poorly written this novella was from beginning to end.
Tarnished Hero is a disaster. I apologize, but there is truly little I can say other than that. Read this at your own risk; this is perhaps some of the worst writing I have ever come across, and that is putting it nicely, I assure you.
You can buy Tarnished Hero here:
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