Earn One Too Many Blows To The Head Curated By J.B. Kohl Offered In Physical Book

Since I know one of the authors, this book was on my mustread list, The genre isn't one I knew very well and not one I expected to enjoy but it was engaging and well constructed with the two narrator set up.
Really great read. “One Two Many Blows to the Head” by Beetner and Kohl takes on similar themes to Beetners earlier novelettes in the Fight Card series, “A Mouth Full of Blood” and “Split Decision.
” However, this is a longer, more complex work that delves deeper into the characters,

Set inaround Kansas City boxing, mob control, and murder, it is part boxing tale, part detective story, and is as noirish and as pulpy as anything ever written.
Make no bones about it, This book is excellent. If you like oldtime boxing tales, this is your ticket, If you read hardboiled detective fiction, this is your ticket as well, From cover to cover, this tale takes the reader on a journey back in time to the lates to Kansas City to the troubled lives of two men whose paths are destined to cross.

One, a boxing manager, who managed his own brother, and watched his own brother get beaten to a bloody pulp and die in the ring, a death that never shouldve happened.
But, it did, in a corrupt, mob controlled sport where the money changing hands on bets is more important than a mans life, Tormented by what happened and his inability to do anything that can bring his brother back, Ray becomes a man on the run,

His narrative alternates with that of Detective Fokoli, who has his own demons to deal with, including an alcoholic wife, the mystery of what happened to his partner, and a new partner, who might not be tough enough to deal with what life has to offer them.
Hes on the trail of whoever killed a boxing manager, one who used to sing to the police and knew just about everything going down.

This tale is rich, complex, filled with characters with long history, The prose flows quickly despite the fact that more than one author contributed to the story, It is a great read for anyone who loves old pulp fiction and the dark, gloomy places in the city, Impossible really to say enough good things about this one, It is a rich vein of pure gold, I would be a bigger noir fan if every book in this genre hit me as hard, Beetner amp Kohl convey settings where you can all but smell the sweat pouring off the fighters and hear the deafening roar of the crowd during the first bout.
The characters' oppressionmental and physicalare brilliantly portrayed and features rich, spoton dialogue, This is a team of writers to keep on your radar, An excellent debut novel. This book transports you to a different era Kansas City in the's, It's true noir, but centers around the underworld of boxing, From dog fights to dirty players with weighted gloves, the plot moves at a good clip, without getting frenzied, Surprise twist at the end, Writing doesn't get much better than this, Beetner and Kohl deftly capture the world of boxing, cops, corruption, prejudice, and life in Kansas City, circa, Once I started reading, I kept going to the end, The main characters: boxer Ray Ward, who courageously goes after the truth of why his brother was killed in the ring and Detective Dean Fokoli who follows Ward on an investigation, when all the while his personal and professional life are crumbling around him.
I wanted both men to win, but did they The fight scenes are not for the faint of heartthey are very realistic, An excellent,intense pageturner. In a world of fixed fights and mob influence, Ray Ward and his brother, Rex, are two of the only clean fighters in town, With Ray in the corner and Rex in the ring they are headed for the big time, . . until that fateful night.

Now Ray has a score to settle using a lifetime of lessons in how to fight back,

Dean Fokoli is a detective with a new partner, an alcoholic wife, and a guilty conscience, At least the boxer on the radio who just got beat to a pulp wont end up in his homicide file, But when the dregs of the crooked fight world start turning up dead, Fokoli is on the hunt for the killer, The chase will take him to the underbelly of the Kansas City night and hopefully keep him one step ahead of his past,

One Too Many Blows To The Head is a razoredged story of revenge, redemption, and what happens when you confront the ghosts of the past.

Should be a movie but followed to the letter! I did not know how I'd feel about a book about boxing, but I was intrigued from the get go!! Ray's little brother was all he had left in his family and thanks to someone who wanted boxer Rex out of the way for fixed fights in the ring, he was left alone.
. . alone to go after the justice Rex deserved!
Fokoli had a past he wasn't proud of that seemed to catching up with him and hot on the trail of a killer.

I could feel their pain and anger, JB and Eric made them real to me and gave me a very unexpected ending! I can't wait to read Borrowed Trouble, the next in the Ray and Fokoli Series! A good old pulp style detective yarn.
Typical to the genre, the two good guys and most of the supporting characters are tainted, yet we still pull for them,

This one is about a guy avenging the death of his brother who was killed in the boxing ring, We follow him as he moved up the dark underworld of boxing in Kansas City

of, looking for who put out the hit and fixed the fight.


Meanwhile the detective chasing him, barely one step behind, is no angel himself, having been a dirty cop, Internal Affairs is chasing him, looking for a reason to fire him from the force,

Lots of violence, again typical to the genre, Lots of dead bodies, drinking, smoking and criminals, Plenty of it twists and a surprise ending,

Good Read Should be a movie

But followed to the letter! I did not know how I'd feel about a book about boxing, but I was intrigued from the get go!! Ray's little brother was all he had left in his family and thanks to someone who wanted boxer Rex out of the way for fixed fights in the ring, he was left alone.
. . alone to go after the justice Rex deserved!
Fokoli had a past he wasn't proud of that seemed to catching up with him and hot on the trail of a killer.

I could feel their pain and anger, JB and Eric made them real to me and gave me a very unexpected ending! I can't wait to read Borrowed Trouble, the next in the Ray and Fokoli Series! One Too Many Blows To The Head has been on my must read pile for a while and I finally got around to it while we were away.


Their book is sublime,

Set in the boxing world of/it follows the lives of two characters, Ray Ward and Detective Dean Fokoli, They take alternate chapters to give their firstperson accounts of what happened after the slaying of Ray's brother Rex in the ring,

Essentially Rex has been set up and Ray needs to get revenge, Fokoli is the man charged with the responsibility of cleaning up the mess to avoid a war between the mobs of Chicago and Kansas City.


Their lives that have strong parallels, though for now they seem to be working in reverse order, Ray has spent his whole life on the boxing scene and has always tried to be as good as he could it's only with the death of his brother that he releases the demons he's kept buried.
Fokoli, on the other hand, has spent his working life on the take, a cop in the pockets of the mob it's only in recently that he has seen the light and has turned his back on corruption and backhanders.


Not that it really matters which way these guys try to go, for it seems inevitable that they're both completely on the skids whatever happens.


It's a simple idea, I suppose, but it's so brilliantly written that every page is a joy, I had the need to race through the plot and yet to savour the language and the atmosphere created at one and the same time.
Somehow I think I was able to do both,

I rate it so highly because it picks many of my soft spots and exploits them with sucker punches,

The two main guys are tough men, Macho guys who can fell a sturdy opponent with a solid blow or a wellplaced knee, Their lives are messed up, their loyalties strong if sometimes misplaced, they speak in quips and lurk in shadows,

They're supported by a list of characters who play their parts perfectly, Seedy landlords, drunken bums, prostitutes, victims, bartenders, cops and robbers all bring an array of shades to the piece,

It has one of the best atmospheres and scenes that I've come across in a good while, In my head it was all black and white like the films of the time, I could smell the rings and the gyms, I kid you not, had a sense of the racial tensions and segregation, felt the blows as they came in, understood the need to start the day with a shot of the hard stuff.
I was with them every step of the way and loved the journey they took me on,

Strung throughout, like pearls on a string, are the boxing tips of Ray's father all the philosophies Ray has seem to come from boxing:

'Pop always told us that if you get into a fight outside the ring, you don't want to play it for the decision.
You hit that guy until he goes down and you hit him so he'll stay down, Only thing worse than a guy who is pissed off to come at you in the first place is a guy who's doubly pissed because now you hit him.
'

and sharp lines:

'There was a dead plant in a pot by the window, I figured it for a suicide, '

or:

'Memory lane is a dangerous street to walk down, '

and they use objects to tell a story with a simply turned phrase:

'I banged on the window with my wedding ring.
It was still good for something, '

The One Too Many Blows To The Head's a collaboration between two people who haven't actually met, How they produced something so seamless is impossible to tell, I looked for the joins and couldn't spot a single one, What I know they managed was to cut out any waste and perfected their use of words as they worked, If collaboration is this good, then I'm going to try getting in touch with some of my hidden personalities to see what we can come up with.


It's a book that might well have turned out as a paintingby numbers exercise instead these guys have produced a masterpiece,

An absolute gem,

.