Review
Democracy's Thief was a finalist in the prestigious Wishing Shelf Book Awards. Here is what the editors wrote:
Star Rating: 5 Stars
Editing: 9/10
Writing Style: 9/10
Content: 10/10
Cover: 8/10
Number of Readers: 27
Of the 27 readers:
27 would read another book by this author.
24 thought the cover was good or excellent.
27 felt it was easy to follow.
27 would recommend this story to another reader to try.
21 felt the author's strongest skill was "plotting a story."
6 felt the author's strongest skill was "developing the characters."
27 felt the pacing was good or excellent.
27 thought the author understood the readership and what they wanted.
Comments
"A clever thriller this. It reminded me a little of The Dead Zone by Stephen King which was made into a film with Christopher Walken. Anyway, this is pretty good. It's a little slow to getting going, then it's much better-approx. a third of the way through. The cover didn't work for me, but I know many liked it." Male reader, aged 55
"A light detective story. Enjoyed it. The paranormal angle is excellent. Writing style, like the story, is pretty light. And the pacing is good." Female reader, aged 61
"Good, solid character work and a well-plotted storyline." Male reader, aged 46
"I wonder if Trump has a paranormal skill and that's why he won! Interesting thought. God, I hope he's not an X-Man." Male reader, aged 48 Summary:
Summary
"An exciting paranormal thriller with a political edge. A FINALIST and highly recommended."
From the Author
Folks, I had to write Democracy's Thief.
As you know from the above description, it's about a presidential candidate who has the paranormal ability to affect the minds and hearts of people who attend his rallies. Once they have been hit with his magic beam, they support him unwaveringly, despite any indications that their support is unwise.
Even though this book includes someone who can influence the minds of others, a private eye who can read thoughts, and a jewel thief who has traveled forward in time, it's not half as strange as what's happening in our real-life world. Right?
Like the people in the book, real-world humans, once they have decided on a belief, tend to stick to it. Experiments have demonstrated that providing those people with facts contrary to their beliefs only makes them hold onto their ideas more stubbornly. Perhaps these tribal tendencies, from our days of previous Melania (oops, millennia), are problematic for democracy on a planet with over seven billion people. So, the book, in small part, is an allegory. That is, as Merriam-Webster puts it, "It's the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence."
Stop! Hold on! Jeez, that makes the book sound all serious-like. It's not. In the words of Van Morrison, I keep things loose--I keep things light. The book includes my usual childish humor, things like a sassy secretary--sorry, investigative assistant--who experiences a wardrobe malfunction.
In other words, I promise that you'll hardly notice the underlying theme of this book. Jeez, maybe I shouldn't have even brought it up!
About the Author
Al Macy writes because he has stories to tell. In school he was the class clown and always the first volunteer for show and tell. His teachers would say, "Al has a lot of imagination." Then they'd roll their eyes.
But he put his storytelling on the back burner until he retired and wrote a blog about his efforts to improve his piano sight-reading. That's when his love of storytelling burbled up to the surface, along with quirky words like "burble."
He had even more fun writing his second book, but was bummed by nonfiction's need to stick to "the truth" (yucko). From then on it was fiction all the way, with a good dose of his science background burbling to the surface.
Macy's top priority is compelling story lines with satisfying plot twists, but he never neglects character development. No, wait ... his top priority is quirkiness, then compelling story lines, then character development. No, wait ...
