Reviewed by Lit Amri for Readers' Favorite

In End it By the Gun by Kenechukwu Obi, Beck Blades is an aspiring writer whose first ten stories failed to impress the executives of the movie studios that he approached. Refusing to give up, Beck writes his eleventh story and it brings him the long-awaited success that he deserves. A Spanish movie studio, Crème Pictures, offers him to write a screenplay for a big movie for 100 million dollars. Julie, Beck’s wife, is suspicious of the lucrative job. Despite her warning, Beck goes to the meeting with the people from the studio. Everything goes well until a strange masked woman asks him a weird question, which is the beginning of unexpected trouble.

With its fast-paced plot, there are sections of End it By the Gun that are simply chaotic and are head-shaking moments. The protagonist’s rationality is volatile at times. That said, I had to admire Beck and his perseverance in pursuing his ambition, especially what he had to go through with his dysfunctional parents during childhood. Beck’s tenacity is continuously challenged, having two women in his life whose personalities border dangerously on bipolar and psychopath. The narrative could be more concise, but overall the writing is clear and being able to read Beck’s eleventh story is a bonus. All in all, it’s a slightly bizarre yet intriguing story for me. This may be a novel about a kind of craziness, but Kenechukwu Obi’s psychological thriller is entertaining. It lionizes the human spirit and will attract fans of the genre.