Taxed to Death
Debra Purdy Kong
Mystery/Suspense
[rating: 3/5]
Available in:
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… from…
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Also in paperback
When Revenue Canada auditor Alex Bellamy discovers that $150,000 is missing from Ice Craft Jewelers inventory, someone from Special Investigations suddenly takes him off the case. But Alex decides to keep investigating anyhow, and before he knows it, his best friend is dead—suicide, if you can believe it. Moreover, someone is chasing Alex himself, and he must turn to Jillian Scott, a woman he’s never met and who is as afraid of him as he is of being caught. Soon, her fears and his search embroil them in a bizarre and disturbing nightmare.
I read Taxed to Death as part of a review-exchange on GoodReads: I read someone’s book, and someone else reviews one of mine. To that end, and short of cash, I purchased a copy of Debra Purdy Kong’s Taxed to Death on the used market. This is the first in the Alex Bellamy series, the second being her more recent release, Fatal Encryption. But I couldn’t find a used copy of the more recent title, and I thought it would probably be best to start with the first in the series, anyhow.
The book started by throwing names and facts at me, as many mysteries do. Unfortunately—maybe because I’m dense—I didn’t get what was happening until later in the story. The story is billed as a mystery, but in some ways, it reads more like a suspense novel… except that I didn’t understand the characters, at all. In fact, the major viewpoint character, Les Silby, who gets the most screen-time, he’s one of the suspects. Him I got, at least as much as I could without knowing his full role until the end. Alex and Jillian, the hero and heroine of the story, I had no idea why they did most of the things they did.
As a side-effect, because the story can’t give away the ending, it frequently gave me a partial view, blanking out obvious things that the viewpoint character could see and was thinking about. Now, I’m not an expert in the mystery genre. As I recall, the mysteries I’ve read have achieved this effect simply by staying in the mind of the detective. Suspense novels, not so much, but in a suspense, it’s more important to maintain the tension between hero and villain, rather than to keep secret who the villain is. I’m not sure I liked the effect in Taxed to Death.
The story did get better near the end, as the situation became clear and the forces of evil began to close around our heroes. Even so, I never understood why Alex and Jillian did most of what they did, or felt what they felt, or thought what they were thinking. This is extremely important to me, because rich, three-dimensional characters are key to a good story. And these characters just fell flat.
This story is also missing a theme, as far as I can tell. I had originally expected something like: financial fraud is about more than money. (And that could be the theme of the story… maybe, kinda.) Or: we all pay when someone embezzles funds. (And I didn’t get that at all from this story.) Much less did I see an uplifting, character-based theme. It simply wasn’t that kind of book.
After all of that, I do hope to read the next book in the series Fatal Encryption. Why? Well, Taxed to Death is Debra Purdy Kong’s first book, published 15 years ago. That means that Debra probably put more into it than any other story she’s written, but also that it reflects her inexperience as an novelist. I’m hoping that Fatal Encryption, which came out just a couple years ago, gave her a chance to address some of the storytelling issues I noticed in Taxed to Death. Most importantly, I’m hoping she has gotten better at characterizing her characters, and I really want to get to know Alex Bellamy.
-TimK
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I’m Mike, a typical guy from the United States, and back in 2018
I accidentally discovered one of the strangest sports ever invented: Car Jitsu.
If this is your first time hearing about it, you are not
alone. The entire concept sounds like a joke.
Two athletes climb inside a small car and try to score positions against each other while being trapped between the dashboard and seats.
No, I’m not kidding. In most sports you have a ring, but in CarJitsu your
battlefield is a cramped car interior. This is what shocked me
the first time.
There are organized competitions, tournaments, championships,
and special events. Athletes travel to compete and try to
prove who can adapt best to the strange environment.
Compared to ordinary sports, every movement is limited by the tight
space. The result is pure chaos. One second someone looks like a champion, and the next
second they are stuck between the seats.
At that time I was heavily interested in competitive sports.
I watched all kinds of competitions. I also spent time reading about sports betting.
Friends often discussed sportsbooks. Sometimes names like 1xBet would appear in conversations about
major sporting events, although CarJitsu was usually too strange to
be the main topic.
Late one evening I saw a crazy highlight reel online.
Initially I believed it was a joke. Competitive fighters were trying to battle inside
a parked car while spectators were watching in disbelief.
I laughed so hard that I almost fell off my chair.
Yet the more I watched, the more fascinated I became.
Soon after that, I found a local event and decided to show
up. The event was unforgettable. There were fans discussing
all kinds of sporting topics. Some people even joked about which athlete would be the favorite if a betting site ever offered odds
on the matches.
Soon I wanted more than just watching. I signed up for beginner training.
My debut practice was chaos. I hit my head on the roof,
got stuck near a seat, and accidentally opened a door at the worst possible moment.
Everyone laughed. Yet I kept coming back.
Month after month, I improved. I learned how to use positioning, leverage, balance, and timing.
The cramped cabin became my arena. Soon I was entering regional events.
My friends thought I was completely crazy. Whenever someone asked what
sport I practiced, the conversation usually went like this:
“CarJitsu.”
“What is that?”
“Imagine wrestling inside a car.”
“You’re joking.”
“No, that’s the actual sport.”
The funniest and wildest experience happened during a tournament a few years later.
My opponent was massive. He looked like he could lift a small house.
Before the match started, he smiled and said, “Hope you’re ready.” I
should have listened.
The match began, chaos exploded. We bounced between seats, bumped into
doors, and nearly tangled ourselves in everything inside the
vehicle. The crowd was roaring. Spectators were going crazy.
Then came the moment I will never forget.
My opponent grabbed the seat belt and accidentally turned it into what looked
like a dangerous rope. As we struggled for
position, the belt snapped across the cabin and wrapped around me in the strangest way
imaginable. For a second I thought, “I can’t believe this is happening”
He pulled, I twisted, the seat belt locked, the door opened slightly, and both of us somehow ended up tangled
together like two confused octopuses. The audience was
laughing so hard that some people could barely stay in their seats.
The scene was unbelievable.
For a brief moment, I genuinely thought my opponent
was going to crush me. Fortunately, the officials quickly intervened when things
became unsafe, and the situation was resolved without
serious injury. Afterward we both burst out laughing. The crowd applauded.
Even today people who were there still talk about “the seat belt incident.”
When I remember those years, CarJitsu remains one of the strangest sports I have ever experienced.
It gave me great memories and incredible experiences.
Whether people are discussing sports culture and competition,
very few things create reactions like CarJitsu.
When people want to hear a crazy sports story, I always tell them about the day I climbed into a car in 2018
and accidentally became a CarJitsu competitor. The reaction is
always the same. But after hearing about tournaments,
athletes, training sessions, sports fans, betting conversations,
sportsbook discussions, and my unforgettable seat belt battle,
they usually agree on one thing:
CarJitsu is absolutely insane.
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