Publications:

Long Island Pulse Magazine – 27.08.13

It also seems that everyone’s fascinated with the ferocity of sharks, a squirm that author J. Kent Messum uses to its blood-and-guts fullest here. Written with a biting wit, sharp characters that are curiously likeable, greed, horror, and a surprising ending, this novel comes from beneath, seizes you in its teeth, and shakes. Really: What more could you want?

New York Journal Of Books – 27.08.13

Using a similar tactic, J. Kent Messum unites six addicts under a common goal: feeding their drug habit. Though they are considered burned out junkies in the eyes of society, faced with their own mortality the addicts prove to have ingenuity and empathy for their fellow man.

  Online Reviews:

Bewitched Bookworms – 12. 09. 13

This isn’t simply a story about bad versus good, not when the protagonists have done a decent amount of bad things in their addicted lives. Bait is shades of grey and black, a social commentary on good people done wrong and turning against the establishment in the worst way possible…

Busty Book Bimbo – 01.09.13

oh yes ladies and gentlemen, this is a winner, a white-knuckled page-turner with a gaping maw of shark’s teeth ready to take a chomp out of your ass at any moment. I’d love to see this as a movie, and its length would also have made it the perfect one hour Twilight Zone or Night Gallery episode…

Tina’s Book Reviews – 30.08.13

Bait not only recreates a Jaws nightmare, but also adds contemporary drama by adding each persons background story with sharp writing and well developed personas…

Florida Book Review – 29.08.13

Part Jaws and part Saw, with a little bit of The Most Dangerous Game thrown in for fun, J. Kent Messum’s Bait is a thrilling debut; it provides a terrifying look at the lengths to which addicts will go to get high, even when they know the odds have been stacked against them.

Tiffany’s Bookshelf – 26.08.13

You know within the first few pages that this is not going to be your average thriller.  This book means business.  Sex, drugs, betrayal, violence, there is absolutely nothing dull in this story.  The plot rockets from the very beginning.  While the premise of the story is a little appalling, that is the very thing that keeps you glued to it…

Beauty In Ruins – 22.08.13

Beneath the cruelty of its Survivor type challenge, shark-infested waters, and crippling withdrawal pains, this is a story of human beings at war as much with themselves as one another…

A Librarians Take – 12.08.13

Readers sympathize a little, despise a lot, and gasp often. This is no gentle tale of vigilantes turning addicts into proper people again. This is a fast-paced story of intense emotions and hair-raising action

Rep Reads – 12.04.13

As they plumb their drug-addled brains for clues to what happened, you get a glimpse into their seemingly worthless lives and wonder how you could ever root for these people – until you meet their tormentors.

Order ‘BAIT’ Today

ISBN 9780142180259 | 288 pages | 27 Aug 2013 | Plume | 18 – AND UP