BOX Paperback – August 8, 2012

What happens when the worlds biggest narcissist goes hunting horny women in the south? Everything you'd come to expect from Dr. Gideon Box and MORE!It's hard to review a book like "Box" without ruining some of the fun, so I'm going to be intentionally vague. As per usual, Dr. Box has gotten himself in a heap of trouble. When you think things have hit rock bottom for him, they get worse.Imagine, the homecoming queen (young and beautiful, the belle of south) dares you to steal a policeman's handcuffs, then lets you handcuff her to the fence behind the diner, and kiss her. This is the kind of thing Dr. Box lives for ... though he wants more than a kiss ... and the cop turns out to be the girl's father!This is the start of Dr. Box's trip, landing him in hot water before he makes it to even one of the three women he's supposed to hook up with. When things go bad does he stop? Nope. But by the end of the book it's clear he should have.What John Locke does well with Box is what he did even better in "Bad Doctor" (my hands down favorite of the Box books), he keeps you turning the page with outlandish scenarios and engaging dialogue. The books feel short, but if you look at the page count, you'll see they aren't. They're just so fun that they read at lightning speed.These aren't "thinking" books, they're suspend disbelief and have fun books.In "Box", every southern trope was done, every stereotype explored, and still, it was a good read. I miss the medical aspect that was present in "Bad Doctor" and am disappointed that the book didn't pick up where "Bad Doctor" left off, but those are the breaks I guess.Oddly, an excerpt from "Bad Doctor" appears at the end of "Box", which is out of order since "Bad Doctor" (I believe) came first. "Box" ends at 87%. Always a bummer.But the book was a good time. I like the characters, the off-the-wall plot, and John Locke has an undeniable knack for pulling a reader in and dragging them along for a speedy ride. His pacing is fantastic, his dialogue perfect, and he's original. Seriously, kudos for making this stuff up.A recommended read if you're looking for a good time.There's this lady ... and she's waiting to show you her horses.

Lididinous physician Gideon Box ventures into the wilds of licentious Kentucky in an attempt to sift a good woman from a field of three chosen from a dating site, but then he meets Trudy Lake, the most beautiful waitress/homecoming queen in all of Kentucky, along the way. She may or may not be married to her brother which, of course, complicates things. A little.John Locke is unlikely to make many new friends in his conservative home state with BOX, but fortunately for him (and for us) there are 49 other states full of nut jobs willing to forgo a Happy Meal to purchase it.BOX is certainly Locke's most raunchy effort to date, though he's never been one to shy away from the scatological. Not to give anything away here, but there's a whole deal in a car and references to a baboon that had me spewing secretions from my nostrils.BOX is an absolutely hysterical story that in true Lockean style flies from improbably hilarious sex scenes to a ludicrously laughable violent scenes in the blink of an eye.There's nothing sacred in Locke Land. Flitting between Box and Trudy Lake as duel first person storytellers, the narrative unfolds quickly and effortlessly. But it's the dialogue that sets Locke apart as a writer. It's a wonder he hasn't written a screenplay yet--or didn't land on the staff of some TV show long before he started cranking out books. And crank 'em out, he does. Sheesh.BOX is of course a novella, not nearly long enough to be called a novel. Even with its SEE SPOT RUN sized font there's not enough here to make it a full length book. As in all of Locke's creation, BOX rips along at super-sonic speed from the first page to the abrupt, leave-'em-hanging ending.It's works for Locke. We just keep coming back for more.

Box, the second novella focusing on Dr. Gideon Box, from author John Locke, is a bit of a letdown following on the heels of the series' impressive debut, Bad Doctor. While the concept was solid and the action comic, it simply seemed to be a bit directionless.It's not clear how the tale in Box advances the tale of Dr. Gideon Box, focusing as it does on his out-of-hospital activities. The installments will seem even more disjointed to those readers who read Bad Doctor, but did not pick up Callie's Last Dance from his Donovan Creed series of novels.While the character-crossover elements between Locke's series is normally a fun Easter egg for fans of his narratives, rarely have the elements of Locke's narrative so strongly demanded reading all his series simply to keep track of who's who.While virtually no one from Locke's other series appear in Box, how the novel follows on from Bad Doctor will be frustratingly mysterious to those who only read those two novels and fail to pick up Callie's Last Dance. Only by doing so do some plot threads left dangling at the end of Bad Doctor get picked up for any sort of resolution between Book 1 and Book 2 in the Dr. Gideon Box series.This sort of disjointedness is exactly the morass Locke has avoided until recently; vague signs of it were detectable in his failure to properly introduce Donovan Creed readers in Callie's Last Dance to Willow Breeland, even though I believe she debuted in Bad Doctor.What Locke could use is a good continuity editor to help him keep all his characters straight; if hiring such a helper is good for Charlaine Harris, it's good for Locke, who's juggling quite a few more interconnected series... and writing them far faster.The other disappointment was the vague resolution, which felt more like an, "I've hit my word-count goal" point than a satisfying tie-up of the novel's action.Box is enjoyable, but not as fully so as previous efforts. Hopefully it's a temporary slump from which he'll quickly emerge.

I've read every one of John Locke's fictional books for Kindle, and each one cost £0.77.This is ridiculously cheap for some of the most innovative and exciting writing available today so I really don't begrudge paying an extra £1.20 for "Box", which is right up there with his best.So, you are probably wondering why only three stars.It's because it's a horrible let-down to find that when you think you are only 80% through the story, you turn the page and find that that's it. End of.What follows is the opening to another story. That wouldn't be so bad if it was a new story, but it's not. It's the previous book (Bad Doctor) in the series. I think it's a fair bet that most people finishing Box will have already read Bad Doctor.

THE END!!! I'm sure we are only halfway through the story when THE END appears. I know on occasion a story is left a little open ended to allow the characters to continue but this is ludicrous. I think THE END was written so you didn't spend hour chasing the rest of the download!!!! Not the best way to get a following but after Creed and Dani I'm hooked. If you're new to John Locke you will not be happy with length or ending of this book but give more a go!!

I love John Locke's books! They are unique, funny and hold you captivated from the beginning to end and as much as I hate the phrase "a real page turner" they really are! Box is brilliant and you have to love Gideon Box. Some of the one liners in this book had me laughing out loud! If I had one criticism it would be that the book was too short.

As an avid reader, John Locke's books are unlike anything I've ever read! They're like an episode of Jerry Springer in literature form with a chunk of humour mixed in. I'm off to read the next instalment immediately!

Well another fantastic book it was so good I could not put it down until I had finished it I think I have two more to read and then I am up to date they are all brilliant books.