Book Review | The Awful Truth About The Sushing Prize by Marco Ocram @denishaughnessy and @TinyFoxPr
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  • N. N. Light
    • Jun 4, 2019
    • 3 min read

Book Review | The Awful Truth About The Sushing Prize by Marco Ocram @denishaughnessy and @TinyFoxPr


Title: The Awful Truth About The Sushing Prize

Author: Marco Ocram

Genre: Mystery, Private Detective Mystery, Humorous Fiction

Book Blurb:

Should I tell him about Sushing or play dumb?

Sticking in my comfort zone, I played dumb.

Writer Marco Ocram has a secret superpower—whatever he writes actually happens, there and then. Hoping to win the million-dollar Sushing Prize, he uses his powers to write a true-crime thriller, quickly discovering a freakish murder. But Marco has a major problem—he’s a total idiot who can’t see beyond his next sentence. Losing control of his plot and his characters, and breaking all the rules of fiction, Marco writes himself into every kind of trouble, until only the world’s most incredible ending can save his bacon.

Fast, funny, and utterly different, welcome to the weird world of The Awful Truth.

“A wickedly amusing parody of a crime novel, but as fast-paced and action-packed as any police procedural. I enjoyed it immensely.” — Minette Walters, author of The Turn of Midnight.

“Typing himself into trouble and writing himself out of self-inflicted scenarios, Marco Ocram is the self-referential literary hero we all need. The action and humor starts on page one and doesn’t stop until the final sentence.” —S.G. Browne, author of Breathers and Less Than Hero

My Review:

This was a book that was unlike any book I have ever read before. For the first 52% of the book, this was the FUNNIEST book I have ever read. More than one person had their lunch disrupted by my guffawing at the top of my lungs. This part of the book harkened me back to the days of Monty Python and Police Squad. So outstandingly original and ridiculous, I couldn't read a sentence without a chuckle.

Then the book changed. The last 48% was pretty much a pot boiler whodunnit mystery with intense drama and action that totally took away the humor that was rife in the first half. The drama was a decent read but hard to follow at times and the author seemed to not be willing to take it to the sublimely funny level and let it roll along as a crime book.

The first 52% is, in my view, worth 1 million stars. The other 48% was worth, I think, 3 stars. I believe when taken together, it is a 4-star book that leaves this reader wondering just how amazing it could have been if the silly humor had just carried on.

Disclaimer: I received a copy from the publisher in the hopes I’d review it.

My Rating: 4 stars

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Author Biography:

Little is known of Marco Ocram’s earliest years. He was adopted at age nine, having been abandoned in a Detroit shopping mall—a note taped to his anorak said the boy was threatening the sanity of his parents. Re-abandoned in the same mall a year later, with a similar note from his foster parents, he was homed with his current Bronx mom—a woman with no sanity to threaten. Ocram first gained public attention through his bold theories about a new fundamental particle—the Tao Muon—which he popularized in a best-selling book—The Tao Muon. He was introduced to the controversial literary theorist, Herbert Quarry, who coached Ocram in a radical approach to fiction, in which the author must write without thinking—a technique to which Ocram was naturally suited. His crime memoir, The Awful Truth about the Herbert Quarry Affair, became the fastest selling book of all time, making him a household name. It was translated into every known language—and at least three unknown ones—and made into an Oscar-winning film, a Pulitzer-winning play, a Tony-winning musical, and a Golden Joystick-winning computer game. Ocram excelled at countless sports, until a middle-ear problem permanently impaired his balance. He has yet to win a Nobel Prize, but his agent, Barney, has been placing strategic back-handers—announcements from Stockholm are expected imminently (and, according to Barney, we're not just talking literature and physics). Unmarried, in spite of his Bronx mom’s unceasing efforts, he lives near his foster parents in New York.

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Reviewed by: Mr. N

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