Title:	Redemption (Kindle Edition)
	Author:	Danny Dufour
	Published:	Noir de Naphtalene Publications; 1 edition (April 29, 2013)
	No. of Pages:	353
	Cover Price:	$3.99 US

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In his first novel, Danny Dufour tells the story of Danny Namara and Andy Bane, who team up to fight a human trafficking group for the government. Andy, whose father traveled widely for his job as a government agent, got into martial arts to defend himself against bullying because he didn’t seem to fit in with the other kids. Danny, an interpreter, who is an expert in Chinese martial arts is recruited when he wins an illegal fight.

The novel is a translation and was originally (I believe) written in French. Unfortunately, the story line is discombobulated and very difficult to follow; it jumps from sub-plot to sub-plot in such a way that one forgets what is actually going on. Each sub-plot is detailed, so much that it is almost like reading a long biography, and while it can be interesting at times, is extremely wordy; it’s easy to completely forget who the characters are and the story line.

While the premise of the novel is good and sounds interesting when reading the synopsis, and it is obvious that the author has done his research and is well-versed in martial arts, the editing is horrendous – and there are dozens of areas of the novel that simply don’t make sense, such as “Aren’t you tired to lie to yourself like that?” at location 379, and “short to be an alcoholic,” at location 703. Also, there is a character named Lucy whose name is spelled two different ways. There are enough grammatical errors to fill a college textbook, and there are also places where the same thing is said two different ways in the same paragraph (and the place was filled with spectators….stands were filled with people, location 1068).

One of the character’s favorite foods is Pad Thai, but it’s spelled pad tai; there are dozens of other misspellings throughout the novel, as well as key words left out of sentences.

While the writing of a novel is a huge undertaking, and Dufour’s efforts are evident, it would be a good idea for the author to hire a professional editor to cut down the wordiness and non-essential text, as well as to remove the errors so that the story is readable and understandable. Readers who love martial arts may enjoy this novel, since those areas of the book ring true and there may be a learning element there. Others may want to wait for a subsequent revised edition.

Special thanks to the author for supplying a review copy of this book.

This book may be purchased at Amazon: Redemption