{"id":2925,"date":"2025-05-19T11:03:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T11:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=2925"},"modified":"2025-05-19T11:03:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T11:03:02","slug":"book-review-austin-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=2925","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Austin Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Austin Blues<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Gary A. Keith<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Literary Fiction \/ Legal<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9798891326361<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 268 pages<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Atmosphere Press<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reviewed by Josie Prado<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Blues, love, and litigation in 1970s Austin<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u00a0Sandy is a temperamental, music-loving lawyer who has traded in physical fights for epigrammatic debates in the courtroom. He\u2019s a Vietnam veteran who has found peace in his civilian life being surrounded by the bustling music scene in Austin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While attending a music club, he meets his best friend, Dude, a bassist who can measure up to the best players. After a failed relationship, he meets his soulmate, Beverly, an English professor. His relatively calm life is interrupted when Sandy is launched into stardom after taking on a big settlement case. His firm is inundated with requests, but one particular case stands out amongst the rest: a history-making, whistleblower case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dean Keaton, an accountant, is unlawfully terminated after trying to expose the comptroller and lieutenant governor for mishandling funds. Luckily, Sandy takes on the case. This is the messiest yet most exciting litigation battle you\u2019ll read this year.<\/p>\n

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Austin Blues <\/em>is a smooth, enjoyable read akin to a sonorous jazz track. Readers are going to love Sandy\u2019s vibrant personality. His voice is biting and fun, but he\u2019s got some nice moments of vulnerability mixed in too. He\u2019s still dealing with triggering memories from the war and his previous relationships, and he depends on the bottle to soothe them. Beneath the bravado, Sandy is someone who works hard to get where he wants to be and who works even harder to stay there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beyond Sandy, we\u2019re also given a couple different perspectives like Beverly and Dude. Author Gary A. Keith does a great job of introducing us to other characters when the point of view changes without making us overwhelmed with just how much we are learning about them. A skilled hand like that is important. The novel feels realistic and immersive in the time period. There\u2019s real knowledge and research here. Every detail is included with thought and care.<\/p>\n

While the other characters are given adequate time and space to develop, I mostly just wanted to spend more time with Sandy and his explosive character. Beverly and Dude do add things to the story, but some of their chapters can feel like deviations and not nearly as satisfying.<\/p>\n

Fresh, exciting, and musical\u2014Austin Blues<\/em> is a great time in Old Austin. Follow along with a group of Austinites as they fight to protect their city from corruption in a truly engaging novel.<\/p>\n

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Thank you for reading Josie Prado\u2019s book review of Austin Blues <\/em>by Gary A. Keith! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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The post Book Review: Austin Blues<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Austin Blues by Gary A. Keith Genre: Literary Fiction \/ Legal ISBN: 9798891326361 Print Length: 268 pages Publisher: Atmosphere Press Amazon Bookshop Reviewed by Josie Prado Blues, love, and litigation in 1970s Austin \u00a0Sandy is a temperamental, music-loving lawyer who has traded in physical fights for epigrammatic debates in the courtroom. He\u2019s a Vietnam veteran […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}