It is with tears in my eyes that I finish this novella.

As an important church vote looms, Dennis suddenly remembers with clarity an incident from his childhood. All of a sudden, the reader is transported to the Black Mountain Camp for Boys.

During this one week summer camp, an atrocity is committed. One that will haunt Dennis, the other boys, and this reader. I doubt I will ever be able to forget Dennis or his former best friend, Wesley. Maybe I am not meant to. You're not meant to forget it either.

"We build walls to keep us separate, and when those walls eventually crumble and fall we blame the other for chipping away at the foundations. We point fingers right up until the moment we are crushed beneath the weight of our own intolerance. Everyone loses. In the end we all bleed red."

Timely quote there, isn't it?

Odd Man Out gets my highest recommendation. You should read it.

You can buy your copy here: Odd Man Out ( )

As a student at Queens University Belfast in the mid 70's I was privileged to be selected to act as a "counsellor" on the Camp America scheme. I spent a very happy 10 weeks working with underprivileged kids at Camp Sebago just south of Portland in the Pine Tree State of Maine. This was a very closed environment and it offered city kids the opportunity to mature and grow and hopefully develop into exemplary adults. In such an idyllic setting it was very obvious to me who the trouble makers were, who sought attention, who craved companionship, and who simply wanted to be left alone.

It all came flooding back to me in this excellent short story "Odd Man Out". That is certainly not to say that I encountered extremes of behaviour but I can appreciate how James Newman skilfully used the summer camp setting to show the ugly side of human nature. Dennis Munce "D-Man" is spending the summer at Black Mountain Camp for Boys with his best childhood friend Wesley Westmore. It is indicated that Wesley has a secret, and something that he wishes to remain hidden in this boys will be boys setting...."We knew Wesley was not like us, even though we couldn't explain what we meant when we were nine or ten" In any group there are those egotistical individuals who seek to strengthen their peer standing by searching out those they see as weak or "different" and quite simply destroying them. What follows is a shocking example of the lowest form of human behaviour, why sometimes it is best not to remain silent in the face of evil, to act and put right and not just to follow!

James Newman is certainly one of the best authors I have been introduced to in my long association with "goodreads" a social networking site for booklovers. His writing is thoughtful, articulate and a joy to read quite simply he is an excellent story teller. Odd Man Out is one of best novellas I have had the pleasure to read this year, a story that paints a bleak picture of humanity but one that needs to be read if we are to fully understand and alter the way we view those who do not adhere to what we perceive as the norm. ( )

Review copy

Odd Man Out was originally released as a signed Limited edition from Thunderstorm Books, but this truly is a book everyone should get to read and so now it's deservedly getting the wide release treatment from Bloodshot Books.

It's been a few years since The Boy Scouts of America changed their policy to allow gay members. In Newman's Odd Man Out a conservative Christian Church is struggling with allowing the scouts to continue using their building as a meeting place.

There's a vote that does not go in the scouts favor and this brings back memories Dennis Munce has managed to block out for nearly three decades.

What follows is the story of of what happened during a trial run of the Black Mountain Camp for Boys in the Summer of 1989.

James Newman is a gifted storyteller with an eye for detail. Alongside the tables sat about thirty beige metal folding chairs, like the ones my favorite wrestlers were always hitting each other over the head with on WCW Saturday Morning. It's not like I'm reading an account of events, but more like I've been transported to the actual place and time.

The banter among the teenage boys was much like what I heard from my cruder friends growing up. Although the campers in Odd Man Out were wonderfully diverse, there was one in their midst who was decidedly different. Wesley Westmore.

When you're young there is no greater sense of relief than when the bullies' sights are no longer turned on you.

By now, I think you might have a pretty good sense of where Newman's tale is headed. There are monsters in Odd Man Out, but they are not the monsters of fiction. Here the monsters are real. Just as real as you and I.

It's as if the writer anticipated the fallout from the recent Presidential election. True, these behaviors have existed for a long time, but this story could not be more relevant. It's a tale that had a profound effect on me. If you're willing to keep your mind open and experience the true horror of this novella you might just be in for a mind-altering read.

I give Odd Man Out my highest recommendation.

James Newman's Odd Man Out will be available from Bloodshot Books on November 21, 2016,for the Kindle, and in paperback soon after. If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited you can read it at no additional charge. Also, if you are an Amazon Prime member you can read it for FREE using the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

From the author's bio - James Newman lives in North Carolina with his wife and their two sons. His published works include The Wicked, Animosity, and Ugly As Sin, and the collection People Are Strange. ( )