Here is the review for Gulf Boulevard. I can’t tell if the glass is half-full or half-empty, so you be the judge. Is this a favorable review? My True Crime story, Life minus 3 1/2 is about to go to print. It will be available as an e-book and a soft cover. In my next post, I’ll show an article on how an author sold over 400,000 copies of her book without a publisher or an agent by using Amazon. I hope to achieve similar results.

GULF BOULEVARD

Hart, Dennis Dennis Hart June 12, 2012

Hart (Life Minus 3 1/2, 2012, etc.) returns with the humorous adventure of a lotto winner, a gang of mobsters and an unlikely group of friends along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Like many people, Jason Najarian is tired of his job. Day after cold New England–winter day, the accountant trudges through ice and snow to sit at a desk and dream of palm trees and tropical breezes. After a lucky omen compels him to buy a lottery ticket, cut to Jason living a life of luxury on Sand Key, a barrier island off the Florida coast. A cast of unsavory characters soon appears on Jason’s secluded stretch of sand. Neighbor and Mafia hit man Sal Santini, however, is often more comical than sinister. Readers learn early of Sal’s chosen profession, but Jason remains oblivious for much of the book. Hart plays this card too long, as clue after clue is all but dropped at Jason’s feet; yet he still doesn’t catch on. Nor, apparently, do his other new friends. Phyllis Hammerstein—the real estate agent who sold Jason his beach house—involves herself in his personal life at every turn. The beautiful Native American Fiona, also known as “Running Bush,” jogs onto Jason’s beach and into his most intimate dreams. Amber shows up with a sour, judgmental mother in tow along with tales of two troublesome brothers on the mainland. Add to this unusual mix a bearded bait-shop attendant with an unkempt ponytail, who conjures up strains of dueling banjos from Deliverance; a curious but reluctant blue heron named Harry; and a parrot who can recite the entire script of Scarface and “shoot” people with his realistic imitation of a machine gun.

Hart, Dennis

LIFE MINUS 3 1/2

A True Story Surrounding the Embezzlement of Eleven Million Dollars

manuscript (436 pp.) December 31, 2012

A habitual gambler recounts a life of bad decisions in sports books and corporate embezzlement, and the effect it had on his family.

No one’s saying Dennis Hart had it easy. A father at 17 with an unstable girlfriend and bills to pay, he shelved his nascent college career to begin life in the working world. There—facing dire straits that many of us have encountered at one time or another—Hart gave in to the first of many opportunities to bend the law and profit while doing so. From there, despite his lack of formal training, Hart was skilled enough as an accountant to land jobs in numerous financial departments at mid-sized companies. When he and two colleagues began their own precious-metals company (and Hart began a separate travel agency), he developed the means and the structure to begin cashing illegal checks to support his gambling habit. His sports bets—and the Hollywood-named hustlers who are on his tail—continue to multiply while he draws money from his companies and conceals the misdeeds on the balance sheet. As Hart juggles this downward-spiraling mélange of family, lawyers, hustlers and hit men, Hart’s readers will feel the stress once corporate managers finally notice the balance sheet irregularities. The inherent suspense throughout contrasts well with Hart’s candid and effortless writing style; he recounts every mistake from a refreshingly honest and self-effacing perspective. What may strike readers most is the ultimately tragic nature of Hart’s story. A handsome, intelligent, charismatic man, he seemed to have the world at his feet. But a series of bad decisions and weakened resistance to temptation sent him down a path that twisted toward lifelong infamy. In a moment of bleak anguish, Hart describes his future wife agreeing to a first date with him: “It would prove to be the worst decision she ever made.” In the end, perhaps Hart’s greatest victory is keeping his wife, his dream of Florida and his readers on his side.