# Great New Indie Book



## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

I haven't seen this one advertised before, but I found it on Amazon and it was awesome.

I'm a tough reviewer, but I gave this book 5 stars.

Crack-Up


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Doesn't sound like it's in my "sweet spot" as far as genre or subject matter, but I've gone ahead and downloaded the sample. After all, I'll go outside of my comfort zone for any really well written book that can make me care about the characters; so who knows?

Thanks.


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## Forster (Mar 9, 2009)

Thanks for both the review and bringing it to my attention.  Sounds good.


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## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

I should have mentioned: It's a psychological thriller.

Give my review a 'helpful' vote if you like it, pretty please.  

Thanks!


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## CS (Nov 3, 2008)

Red, knowing how tough you are, a five-star review means a lot coming from you.

I requested a sample of Crack-Up, loved what I read, and immediately 1-clicked. I'm reading past the sample now and it's definitely top-notch stuff so far. 

Thanks for letting us know about the book.


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## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

When I got up this morning, someone on my Amazon Forum thread that I made for this book said it was now on the Amazon Movers & Shakers list.

I looked and it was number ONE!  

Man, this author is gonna be surprised. Someone else found a site where he has a blog and he posted that he was happy he had gotten one sale. I think he will fall over when he sees this. So, I'm posting on his blog this morning to let him know as that's gotta be a great thing for a new author.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

Wow, a 5-star review, _and_ two forum threads! <Runs off to check out this book...>


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## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

CS said:


> Red, knowing how tough you are, a five-star review means a lot coming from you.
> 
> I requested a sample of Crack-Up, loved what I read, and immediately 1-clicked. I'm reading past the sample now and it's definitely top-notch stuff so far.
> 
> Thanks for letting us know about the book.


You are very welcome. I love finding great books!

Let me know if you liked it. Or, better yet, I am certain the author would like another review.


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

Downloaded the sample... what with Uncubicled and The Ark and now Paranoia I am finding myself really enjoying this genre despite my deep Fantasy roots.  I just hope the other "reviewer" pulls the bogus one-star rating soon.


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## liannallama (May 29, 2009)

sounds like an old Ludlum style plot--I got it to read and thanks for the tip!


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## drenee (Nov 11, 2008)

I sent this one to my mom.  Sounds like something she will like.

I really need to encourage her to join the Boards herself, but then I'd have to be careful what I say.  JK.
deb


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## CS (Nov 3, 2008)

RedAdept said:


> You are very welcome. I love finding great books!
> 
> Let me know if you liked it. Or, better yet, I am certain the author would like another review.


Good idea. I just posted one. 

LOVED the book. Thanks again for the recommendation.


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

Thanks for the great review, CS, much appreciated.

If anyone is still having trouble purchasing "Crack-Up" with 1-click or with the sample getting stuck let me know and I will get on it with Amazon.

Eric Christopherson
(Author of "Crack-Up")


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## CS (Nov 3, 2008)

Eric C said:


> Thanks for the great review, CS, much appreciated.
> 
> If anyone is still having trouble purchasing "Crack-Up" with 1-click or with the sample getting stuck let me know and I will get on it with Amazon.
> 
> ...


You're very welcome, Eric.

Since you mentioned the sample, a friend of mine said he couldn't get beyond location #306. I didn't have any such problem on my K1, but he's using a DX. I'm assuming this is a widespread issue since you brought it up?

Maybe try uploading a new sample with a couple of minor changes? Hopefully that will work.


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

CS said:


> Since you mentioned the sample, a friend of mine said he couldn't get beyond location #306. I didn't have any such problem on my K1, but he's using a DX. I'm assuming this is a widespread issue since you brought it up?
> 
> Maybe try uploading a new sample with a couple of minor changes? Hopefully that will work.


Only one person has said 1-click didn't work (and that it'd never happened to her before). Four or five people have said the sample gets stuck, while most don't have a problem.


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## stacydan (Jul 20, 2009)

sounds like a great book, I just one-clicked!  this will be next on my list to read after I finish book 3 of the Distant Cousin series.  I am Loving my Kindle, I don't know how I ever lived without one!  And all these wonderful threads of recommended books are helping me to find books that I would never had otherwise known about!


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## Selcien (Oct 31, 2008)

It's definitely not working right on the DX. I've tried the sample on it five times, managed to trick it into going to location #328 (used the largest font size and then switched to a smaller font size when I went as far as I could), but after that the words simply overlap in the upper left corner. And of course, once you go to the home page you cannot re-open the sample.

I've downloaded the sample to my mom's K1 and have found that it works fine, but that doesn't do me any good as I'm far too accustomed to my DX to even consider reading anything on the K1.


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## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

This sounds like a great title, and I'm curious, RedAlert, how you found this book on Amazon, and what do you know of the author? Apparently there's no print version, which astounds me, a book this good. I'm wondering why he hasn't used Lulu or, better, Lightning Source to get the book available to people who don't have Kindles? Is he trying to be like Boyd Morrison and have a publisher notice the popularity on Kindle? Can anyone replicate Boyd Morrison? Perhaps so.


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## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

P.S. I meant "RedAdept". "RedAlert" clearly shows my upbringing in the sixties with "Duck and Cover" if I was to see a nuclear blast nearby.


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## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

@ Selcian

I have a K1, so have not experienced the sample problem. However, others on the Amazon Kindle forum have stated that although the sample has an issue, the actual book has no problems.  

@Chrismeeks

I was just browsing through the thriller section of Amazon's books (sorted by price) when I came across this. For the low price, I bought it and tried it out. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.  

I really don't know anything at all about the author. Another forum member notified me that he is a member of Crimespace and he did show up on the Amazon forums a couple of times after my review.  I invited him to head over to these forums, but I haven't seen him, yet. I don't know. Maybe he is just shy?


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## CS (Nov 3, 2008)

RedAdept said:


> I really don't know anything at all about the author. Another forum member notified me that he is a member of Crimespace and he did show up on the Amazon forums a couple of times after my review. I invited him to head over to these forums, but I haven't seen him, yet. I don't know. Maybe he is just shy?


Erm, Red, dear, he has posted twice in this thread already.


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## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

Then, why the heck did Chrismeeks direct his question about the author at me?  

ROFL

Guess I'm not the only one who just looks at the lastest responses and posts.


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## jrector (May 24, 2009)

Looks great, Red.  Thanks.  I'll check it out.


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## jpmorgan49 (Feb 10, 2009)

OK, I bought the book, looks good.....
jp


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## Selcien (Oct 31, 2008)

RedAdept said:


> @ Selcian
> 
> I have a K1, so have not experienced the sample problem. However, others on the Amazon Kindle forum have stated that although the sample has an issue, the actual book has no problems.


Unfortunately, this sample has done something that Amazon themselves have been unable to do yet, damage my trust.

My initial reaction when I found that I couldn't go forward any more in the sample was to think that something was wrong with my DX, had a bit of panic I did (not to mention that it completely screwed up my lunch time reading). Having the sample then become inaccessible showed me just how easily all of my books could be stripped away from me, it effectively shattered the illusion, not happy about that.

The book has plenty of endorsement to back up a purchase but it lacks trust, and that can only be repaired once there is a working sample, there still isn't one (just tried another sample, same result).


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Just finished the sample, looking forward to reading the rest of it!  Thanks for pointing it out.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Aaaack! Red Alert! Red Alert! (And I don't mean YOU, RedAdept )

Big problem.... can someone help?

I downloaded the sample. I read the sample. It got hung up once in the upper left-hand corner, as someone mentioned, but I changed the font size and then it worked fine. A couple of pages later it ended... I thought it ended sort of abruptly, seemingly mid-sentence, but it was unclear at the time whether that was intentional or not.

Went and made more tea, and came back to the Kindle to buy this book. Figured I'd do it from the last page of the sample, at the prompt. It won't let me back in! I get an "unexpected error" message (and now I think that I didn't see the usual "end of sample" message when I finished reading earlier, so something was probably amiss then).

_AND I get the same message when I try to open anything else!! _ Something about this sample has apparently screwed up something in my Kindle. I rebooted. I tried opening other samples, documents, and books, and always get the same error message. It won't let me do anything at all.

Now, I realize this book is about paranoia, but it would be nice if someone could confirm to me that this sample doesn't contain the first known Kindle virus... and also tell me how to fix this!

(I'd call Amazon CS right away but I'm hoping that someone else here already encountered the same problem and found a fix and just didn't post about it.)


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## CS (Nov 3, 2008)

Susan,

It's not a virus.

From the Amazon board (LINK):



Cagey said:


> I downloaded a sample and it also froze at location 321, so I deleted it. Then I ordered the book (based on your recommendation, Red!) and it wouldn't let me open the book...just gave me an error messge. Then I couldn't open any other book, either. So, I just restarted the Kindle, and everything seems to be fine now. Definitely some technical difficulties with this book!


You said you rebooted. Have you tried a hard reset though?


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## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

Yeah, the sample is messed up. Several people have reported it being a problem.

I recently saw another book (the name escapes me) where they stated the same thing. This seems to be an Amazon problem, not an author issue. 

In both cases, the actual books are fine.

It is just the sample that has a problem.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Susan in VA said:


> Aaaack! Red Alert! Red Alert! (And I don't mean YOU, RedAdept )
> 
> Big problem.... can someone help?
> 
> ...


Susan, did you get your Kindle back up?


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

CS said:


> It's not a virus.


Phew.



CS said:


> You said you rebooted. Have you tried a hard reset though?


No. I've never done that. Off to find a paper clip now...

edit: OK, just to be sure I was doing this right, I looked in the Tips board. Am I reading this right that the paperclip trick is only for the K1? (I have a K2.) I saw Leslie's suggestion to reset with Menu/Settings/Restart, but that doesn't change anything. Does anyone have any other suggestions before I give in and call CS? (It says something about KB that I have more confidence in the advice of people here than in that of a customer service department...)


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

Susan in VA said:


> edit: OK, just to be sure I was doing this right, I looked in the Tips board. Am I reading this right that the paperclip trick is only for the K1? (I have a K2.) I saw Leslie's suggestion to reset with Menu/Settings/Restart, but that doesn't change anything. Does anyone have any other suggestions before I give in and call CS? (It says something about KB that I have more confidence in the advice of people here than in that of a customer service department...)


For K2, you hold the sleep/off slider for around 30 seconds to reset.


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## CS (Nov 3, 2008)

Susan in VA said:


> Edit: OK, just to be sure I was doing this right, I looked in the Tips board. Am I reading this right that the paperclip trick is only for the K1? (I have a K2.) I saw Leslie's suggestion to reset with Menu/Settings/Restart, but that doesn't change anything. Does anyone have any other suggestions before I give in and call CS? (It says something about KB that I have more confidence in the advice of people here than in that of a customer service department...)


I don't have a K2, but try this (courtesy of mobileread.com):



sirbruce said:


> You must *unplug* the Kindle 2 first. You don't want it connected to the USB port either. Then slide and hold the switch for 20 seconds or so and then release. Set the Kindle 2 down and wait a few minutes to see if it does anything.
> 
> (When you say "nothing else happens", don't try sliding the power switch again. You must WAIT.)
> 
> If that doesn't work, then it could be your battery is totally drained. Plug the Kindle into the wall for an hour and let it recharge. Then unplug it and do the procedure outlined above again.


Hope that helps!


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Thanks, marianner and CS!!  

Apparently I wasn't waiting long enough.  I had been letting go of the slider switch once the screen went blank, after about five seconds, thinking that was all it took to reset it.

Interestingly though, the problem does have something to do with this particular sample.  After the 30-second reset, I first opened a different sample that I knew to be "normal".  Then I opened a document file.  Both were fine.  So then I went to the questionable sample and deleted it, which it also let me do without any error messages.  But then after that, everything else I tried gave me the "unexpected error" message again.  Apparently even accessing that sample to delete it was enough to cause a problem again.  But another 30-second reset fixed it....  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way. 

I still want to read the book, but I'm going to have to work up the courage to download that now...

Thank you all for holding my hand through this!  It's the first time my Kindle got "sick", and it was surprisingly upsetting.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

Susan in VA said:


> Apparently I wasn't waiting long enough. I had been letting go of the slider switch once the screen went blank, after about five seconds, thinking that was all it took to reset it.


That's a regular turn-off.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

marianner said:


> That's a regular turn-off.


I didn't realize there was a difference. I was assuming it would be the same as on a computer, where turning it off also restarts/resets things. Live and learn.... thanks again!


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## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

I still want to read the book, but I'm going to have to work up the courage to download that now...

[/quote]

I never downloaded the sample, so wasn't aware of this problem when I recommended the book. However, the sample issue is only a problem on the K2 and DX, not on the K1, which I have, so I wouldn't have known about it, anyway. 

Others have stated that the book itself is not bugged in any way, so don't be afraid to just buy it if you want it.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

RedAdept said:


> I still want to read the book, but I'm going to have to work up the courage to download that now...
> 
> I never downloaded the sample, so wasn't aware of this problem when I recommended the book. However, the sample issue is only a problem on the K2 and DX, not on the K1, which I have, so I wouldn't have known about it, anyway.
> 
> Others have stated that the book itself is not bugged in any way, so don't be afraid to just buy it if you want it.


Hey, not your fault! Just the first time I remember something like this happening with the KIndle. I still think I'll get the book, but it seems like someone at Amazon needs to know that the sample is causing some problems.


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## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

intinst said:


> Hey, not your fault! Just the first time I remember something like this happening with the KIndle. I still think I'll get the book, but it seems like someone at Amazon needs to know that the sample is causing some problems.


No worries. It has been reported to Amazon by the author and by a reader from the Amazon forums.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

RedAdept said:


> I never downloaded the sample, so wasn't aware of this problem when I recommended the book.


No worries, I wasn't blaming anyone...

... and yes, I'm going to buy the book.


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

Good to know. Amazon's tech dept. is working on this now, but I'm going to pass along the specific feedback in this thread to help them out...

Eric


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

FYI, just got word from Amazon today that the sample problem with Crack-Up is now fixed.


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## Selcien (Oct 31, 2008)

I've just tried the sample again and it's still not fixed for me as the sample still gets stuck in the same place it did before, and then promptly refuses to work at all once I've exited it.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

The sample may be a problem, but I read the entire novel this week, and it is terrific.


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

Selcien said:


> I've just tried the sample again and it's still not fixed for me as the sample still gets stuck in the same place it did before, and then promptly refuses to work at all once I've exited it.


Oh, damn. Thanks, Selcien, I will go right back to Amazon, and will tell them exactly where it's getting hung up and how it's messing with the Kindle after that.


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

pidgeon92 said:


> The sample may be a problem, but I read the entire novel this week, and it is terrific.


Thanks, Pidgeon!


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Eric, in case it makes a difference to you or to Amazon Tech, yours is apparently not the only sample with this problem.

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,12815.msg245932/topicseen.html#new


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

Thanks for that, Susan. By the way Amazon fired back a response within hours that they had indeed fixed the problem with my sample, so logic dictates, Selcien, that they are admitting there is something uniquely wrong with your Kindle. I'd ask for a replacement under the warranty.


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## CS (Nov 3, 2008)

Eric C said:


> Thanks for that, Susan. By the way Amazon fired back a response within hours that they had indeed fixed the problem with my sample, so logic dictates, Selcien, that they are admitting there is something uniquely wrong with your Kindle. I'd ask for a replacement.


You are joking, right?


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

I'm not joking about the Amazon email. In fact, here it is in its entirety:

_Hello,

I am sorry for any inconvenience this situation may have caused to you.

Please rest assured that our technical team resolved this issue yesterday. I have checked the sample from our end and it looks fine. Hence, I would suggest you to try again and write back to us if the problem still persists.

Thank you.

Please note: This e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. If you have any questions or concerns, please write to us at [email protected]

Best regards,

Veeramuthu Sundaresan
http://www.amazon.com_


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## CS (Nov 3, 2008)

No, no, I believe you about the Amazon mail. 

I'm just saying that the likelihood of Selcien's Kindle needing to be replaced because it has a unique problem seems a bit far-fetched to me. I'd be more likely to believe that Amazon is incorrect and there's still a problem with the sample. 

Amazon: "I have checked the sample from our end and it looks fine." 

I could be wrong, but it seems like the Amazon rep opened the sample, didn't go through the pages, and just assumed it worked. 

Then again, maybe the sample does work now and it just took a few hours to show up on Amazon? (Meaning Selcien might've gotten it before the fixed version went into effect?) 

I'd check myself, but I'm on a K1 and never had this problem at all (it apparently affects K2 and DX users). I read through the sample, loved it, bought the book, loved that.  I hope this is indeed fixed, because your book is great and deserves the widest audience it can get.


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## Mother Beaver (Nov 13, 2008)

The sample didn't work on my DX either, but I ordered the book anyway and it looks fine.  The sample stopped on location 325.


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## Selcien (Oct 31, 2008)

Eric C said:


> Thanks for that, Susan. By the way Amazon fired back a response within hours that they had indeed fixed the problem with my sample, so logic dictates, Selcien, that they are admitting there is something uniquely wrong with your Kindle. I'd ask for a replacement under the warranty.


That would be a very interesting problem for my DX to have as I've tried the sample yet again and using the "go to location" found that location 325 to 380 do not work, and the DX gets stuck there, hitting "home" when stuck results in the file not opening again, however, if you go to an unstuck location via "go to location" before hitting "home" the file can then be accessed again, so it looks like I'll be able to read most of the sample anyway.

Beyond that, I'm now inclined to believe that it's solely an issue with the sample, but I'll need to finish at least two books before I'm in a position to buy it. Amazon though is losing my respect owing to their ineptitude.


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

Selcien said:


> ... I'm now inclined to believe that it's solely an issue with the sample, but I'll need to finish at least two books before I'm in a position to buy it. Amazon though is losing my respect owing to their ineptitude.


They're losing my respect too if they don't stop insisting the problem is fixed when it isn't!


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