Book Talk: Penner, ‘The David Brunelle Series’

In my continuing quest to discover new authors, I came across “Presumption of Innocence” (2012, 226 pages in paperback format), an interesting, mostly courthouse drama by Stephen Penner, an author, artist, and attorney from Seattle. It is the first of the “David Brunelle Legal Thriller” series. 

His books are all self-published through Amazon.com. When ordering a self-published book, it’s always a crap-shoot. I had the worst luck with a book by a retired NASA engineer. I only read 15 pages, so there was no book review. 

Mr. Penner is on the other side of the coin. His novels are well written, and the story is well told. And you knew that there was a “but” coming. In his first five short books, actually novellas, the protagonist seems unable to control his thirteen-year-old sexual fantasies every time he gets near an attractive woman. I think this is insulting to women and very distracting to a serious reader.