Tom Bentley

Sticky Fingers – Confessions of a Marginally Repentant Shop Lifter is an autobiographical adventure story covering Tom Bentley’s late teens during the nineteen sixties and early seventies.

With a moral compass on the blink and a never ending need for candy, Tom took to using his ‘five fingered discount’ to satiate his sugar craving and very soon escalated to stealing anything he wanted or could sell to his school friends.

Bentley takes his ‘skills’ on the road and causes havoc from California, Las Vegas and Washington then across the border to Canada.

What starts with the pilfering of confectionary quickly gets more serious when he and his cronies start lifting gasoline from parked cars using a homemade pumping device and eventually to stealing carburettors.

Tom’s methods vary from the downright sneaky with hidden pockets in his jacket, to the much more brazen dribbling of a basketball out of a store.

Not deterred by a short stint in the police cells when he underestimated the observation skills of an undercover security guard, Tom embarks on a drug filled kleptomaniacal road trip with a succession of friends as he seeks to make sense of his teenage years.

Subsidising his trips with short term jobs as a mechanic on an oil refinery, an apple picker and ironically as a shop assistant Bentley regales the reader with a series of tales that both shock and entertain in equal measure.
Years later, the author realises the error of his ways during his teens and uses this platform to explain why he did what he did and to show a bit of remorse for the more serious acts he perpetrated.
Written in an easy style and with great descriptions of the times and places the Tom inhabited, this is a fun delve into the past for those of us of a certain age and a voyage of discovery for those who don’t remember the 60’s and 70’s.

Despite the seriousness of some of the author’s antics, you can’t help but get attached to him as the account of the period unfolds and it is nice to see that the repentance is real and not just there for the title by-line.

A thoroughly entertaining tale that gives a snapshot of times past, when things were very different to what they are today. As someone much more intelligent than me once said ‘The past is a foreign country’ and you wouldn’t imagine any of this to be possible in our modern era especially with CCTV, barcodes and security tags.

In summary, if this were fiction it would be a great story but with it being true it adds that extra edge that sometimes leaves the reader going ‘you did WHAT!’ For me this was a fun and entertaining biographical look at the author’s late teens and I would recommend it to anyone… (altro)

Kindle Unlimited {sometimes here and there one may be through freebie day from some site} Had already pulled on ku before got the 3 set {last 3} and already had prequel.

{This space is talking about the prequel Dust and Ashes that used to be called The Second Coming but it only shows that one and will not pull up for review}
For a hundred years the Alien Corps has searched the galaxy for the Son of God. In the 22nd Century, an ancient prophesy reveals that a Messiah will appear on an alien planet at the end of days. The Alien Corps is formed to search the Galaxy for signs. A hundred years on, their quest is floundering... {0.5/prequel}

Book 1: Avanaux Commander Hickory Lace is sent to the planet Prosperine to investigate rumours of a miracle worker known as the Teacher. Before she can complete her mission, she discovers a plot by the non-aligned planets to seize Prosperine's priceless resources for faster-than-light travel. Hickory must find a way to stop the aliens and at the same time determine who the Teacher is.

Book 2: Rise of the Erlachi Six months after defeating the rebel alliance, Commander Hickory Lace and her team are back on the alien planet, Prosperine. The Sword of Connat-sèra-Haagar is missing and Hickory must find and return it to the temple in Avanaux. The quest takes Hickory to the rugged country of Erlach where she faces the fearsome Riv-Amok, then deep into the mountains where the rebel leader, Sequana, has overthrown the rightful king and is rallying the northern clans to war. Hickory must find a way to restore the king to his throne, and rescue the mysterious Teacher from Sequana’s dungeons. Only then can she hope to defeat Sequana and win back the Sword.

Book 3: The Scarf Commander Hickory Lace and her team are back. This time, their destination is the Scarf – a six hundred miles band of floating islands and reefs on the equator. The islands are covered with swamp and jungle and connected by a thick blanket of floating creepers and vines. Alarm bells are set ringing when a Bikashi jet is sighted in the area. The Agency fear that alien forces may be on a mission to retrieve the legendary sword of Connat-sèra-Haagar. In the hands of the Bikashi, it would pose a threat to the Agency's plans. But does the sword have another purpose? In this, the final episode of The Prosperine Trilogy, Hickory faces her greatest fear, discovers the secret to the planet's past, and unravels the mystery of the Teacher.

Dust And Ashes {Prosperine Trilogy 0.5} revised/extended of previously published The Second Coming
Avanaux (Prosperine Trilogy #1)
Rise of the Erlachi (Prosperine Trilogy #2)
The Scarf: A Scifi-Fantasy Adventure (The Prosperine Trilogy Book 3)
The Prosperine Trilogy Box Set: Dust and Ashes, Avanaux, Rise of the Erlachi
Prosperine: The Adventures of the Space Heroine Hickory Lace: (Box Set)… (altro)