With Her Fists by Henry Roi

When a boxing champion is falsely accused, you can bet her fists will fly in this prison drama.

Clarice ‘The Shocker’ Ares quits professional boxing at the top of her game, to live out a happy retirement with her husband, Ace, their son, and her combined custom car design shop and tattoo parlor. Unfortunately, when Clarice finds drugs in a car that calls into her shop looking for mechanical assistance, the corrupt cops escorting the drug runners pin the blame on her and Ace, who both end up imprisoned for a crime they didn’t commit.

How will the husband and wife team cope in their respective prisons? Will they find justice? Will the Shocker have to come out of retirement if Clarice is to survive?

The depiction of The Shocker’s fights were exciting and well written. Ireland has a record for producing world class boxers, but, despite this, I know very little about the sport. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of Clarice’s fights, but they are described well and I enjoyed reading about them.

I incorrectly assumed from the description that this book was a prison escape rather than a prison drama, and while an escape does enter into the equation near the end of the book, the majority takes place within the big house, depicting Clarice and Ace’s daily lives as inmates. There is nothing wrong with this, I know prison dramas are extremely popular, it’s just that I’ve never understood the appeal. I don’t like The Shawshank Redemption, I never bothered with Wentworth or Orange is the New Black, and I couldn’t understand the allure of Prisoner Cell Block H (in case you think I’m singling out the girls, Oz and Prison Break have even less interest for me).

Therefore, I am not the target audience for this book. I’m sure those who enjoy jail house adventures will love the mixture of action and comedy contained within With Her Fists.

However, I will say that the story stretched my willing suspension of disbelief to breaking point multiple times. Such a successful fighter as Clarice would not have been jailed without intense media coverage. While I enjoyed the aspects of the story that showed there is corruption among those supposed to defend society, and diamonds are to be found in the rough, I was disappointed that the drug dealers were not held responsible for their role in the plot, with all of the blame falling onto law enforcement. Ace and Shocker were too perfect to be realistic characters, making them slightly cartoonish. An example of this is Clarice manufacturing a professional quality tattoo machine so that she could make money giving her fellow inmates safe, sanitary and stunning ink.

I award With Her Fists…

With Her Fists is available for $2.59 ebook and $16.99 print book on Amazon.

I received a free copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.