Category: C-E Page 3 of 20

Authors C-E

In DC Maggie Jamieson, Lee Goldberg, M. W. Craven, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, News/Misc., Nick Kolakowski, Noelle Holten, The Stonebridge Mysteries

Finally, we’re at the end of my 2021 wrap-up, it feels like I’ve been at this for a month. I really need to get faster at this.
2021 Favorite Crime Fiction
38% of what I read last year falls into the category of “Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller,” so I have to consider it apart from everything else when I put together my Best-Of Lists, or just about everything else would get ignored. Even if I went with a Top 15-20 instead of a Favorite 10, maybe 2-3 books from the previous lists would’ve made it along with all of these (and a couple that just missed this list).

Once again, I’ll note that I limit my lists to things I read for the first time. I’d be willing to guarantee anyone reading this page will enjoy at least 6 of these (which six will vary from reader to reader, however). I’m tempted to say that all the listed books are guaranteed for everyone, but people’s tastes are too varied, so I’ll hedge my bet. Try these, and you’ll be glad you did.

(in alphabetical order by author)

Born in a Burial Gown

by M. W. Craven

My original post
Should I just start calling this list An M. W. Craven Novel and 9 Others I Loved Last Year? This just narrowly beat out the latest Poe/Tilly for this spot. This novel introduces a very damaged detective trying to prove that he deserves to be where he is (and his team does, too). DI Fluke is a great character—well, they all are. The prose just sings, the novel’s well-paced and cleverly put together. The killer, the motive, the victim, the reveals (both in the way they were handled and what was revealed), the fairly satisfying (by design) ending, the sweet and then very satisfying denouement—and anything else I didn’t mention—it’s all just as good as you could hope for.

5 Stars

Gated Prey

by Lee Goldberg

My original post
It was only after I narrowed down this list that I realized that Eve Ronin showed up on last year’s list, too. I clearly have a thing for this series. Eve is still learning how to be a detective while making headlines by being involved in high-profile cases. This book mixes observations about celebrity culture, a couple of great mysteries, continued problems in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and Eve (once again) failing to balance work and life (or at least work and health). Rookie detectives aren’t the typical focus of a series, but really should be (at least if this series is any indication)

4 1/2 Stars

The Appeal

by Janice Hallett

My original post
The reader is on the same level with the characters who are trying to solve things in this epistolary mystery—we get to read the evidence at the same time as the trainee lawyers that we focus on do. That alone makes this an inventive read. Then Hallett adds in a fantastic cast of characters involved in a small town’s local community theater and a crowd-funding effort for a small child’s cancer treatment. You start out knowing something criminal happened, and gradually start to figure out what the crime was and how it involves those characters. It’s a truly inventive way to tell this kind of story and a great story. It’s the kind of book that’s easy to overhype as you talk about it, so I’m shutting up now.

5 Stars

August Snow

by Stephen Mack Jones

My original post
Readers here know that one of my greatest weaknesses is a good P.I. novel, and “discovering” August Snow was just a treat for me. There’s something about this book—one of those ineffable things that just sang to me—that reminded me of the first time I read a Dennis Lehane Kenzie and Gennaro book, or Joe Ide’s I.Q., or Crais’ Elvis Cole. There’s something just so right—so absolutely classic P.I. and incredibly fresh about the voice—that I felt at home.

From an atypical beginning with the prospective client that ends up without anyone being hired, through the morass of financial crimes and murder, to the explosive ending—with the increasing sense of dread and apprehension of an ensuring emotional gut-punch—August Snow is a fantastic series debut, that would be an equally fantastic tenth novel in a series. It’s fantastic, period.

5 Stars

Love & Bullets: Megabomb Edition

by Nick Kolakowski

My original post
This is technically a violation of my “only new to me” books, Kolakowski took his three Love and Bullets novellas and added a little new material to turn them into a novel. I found the experience different enough reading them as a novel, that I’m going with it. It’s just a blast to read. I had fun with every novel on this list, but for sheer entertainment value, I think this one tops the rest.

Love & Bullets is a fast-moving thrill ride. It’s funny. It has occasional moments of sweetness (very transient). The story and characters are visceral—you can see the action, you can practically hear Bill’s quips and feel Fiona’s patience evaporating at them (while she does love him for them). It will get a much-beloved (or much-disparaged) band’s music stuck in your head during one fight scene. Really, it covers almost all the senses—and given where they spend a lot of time, you’ll be glad it leaves the other two out.

4 1/2 Stars

The Jigsaw Man

by Nadine Matheson

My original post
DI Anjelica Henley is your typical detective so focused on the job that everything else in their life is a tertiary concern at best, she makes horrible choices in her personal life, and seems to make enemies wherever she goes. One such enemy is a serial killer she put away some time ago, but then new bodies start showing up that look like the work of that killer. Did she put the wrong man away? Is this a copycat? Or something worse? The Jigsaw Man is a dark, unsettling read—there are two pages toward the end that may be the most disturbing pages I’ve ever read. And yet…there’s something very appealing about the novel—it’s gripping and compelling, it’s also entertaining. The pacing was perfect. The characters were well-drawn and felt fresh. It’s the kind of book that makes you ignore responsibilities–and possibly food and hygiene–or at least want to until you finish.

5 Stars

The Curious Dispatch of Daniel Costello

by Chris McDonald

My original post
(really this spot belongs to all Series: The Stonebridge Mysteries, but we’ll use this as a synecdoche (or did I mean metonym? I’m can’t remember)). I’ve been calling this a Cozy for People Who Don’t Like Cozies. It’s about a pair of guys in their twenties, trying to figure out their lives. They’ve spent too much time watching Sherlock and the like, and when one of them discovers a dead body at a wedding they’re attending, they take it upon themselves to solve the murder. Which leads to them doing that again in a few months—and again, and again. They really don’t have any business doing this kind of thing, but it turns out that they have a knack for it. This novella (and those that follow) is a quick burst of fun—a witty whodunit with a couple of unlikely amateurs on the case.

4 Stars

Suburban Dicks

by Fabian Nicieza

My original post
A disgraced journalist struggling to find some sort of professional redemption (not to mention a better paycheck) and a pregnant mother of four (who gave up her lifelong dream of being an FBI profiler to raise a family) pair up to investigate their suburb’s first murder in decades because the police department just isn’t up for it (assuming they’re not too crooked to do the job right). You get a great mix of dark comedy, social commentary, and clever mystery as the pair unearth secrets that have been buried for generations on their way to solve the murder of a gas station attendant. From the great opening scene to the fantastic last line (probably the best I read last year), and all points between, this was easily one of my top reads of the year.

5 Stars

Dead Secret

by Noelle Holten

My original post
Like Eve Ronin (above), DC Maggie Jamieson, is driving herself to exhaustion. She’s just that driven. This book features Maggie and the rest of the team on the hunt for a killer and trying to find (hopefully in time) their missing DCI, which means no downtime for Maggie or anyone else. You’ve got a pretty grizzly beating death to start off with and then you the police’s natural inclination to focus all resources on the missing DCI. Just those two storylines would be enough. But then Holten throws in a third storyline—a person in desperate need of help, a survivor of (as far as anyone can tell) of domestic violence—a reminder that policing isn’t about arrests, it isn’t about only maintaining social order—it’s about people like this woman who showed at Lucy’s front door, it’s protecting and serving the public. This is the kind of thing that both (fictional and real) civilians and the (fictional and real) police need to be reminded of, and here it elevates the rest of the novel by its presence.

4 1/2 Stars

The Thursday Murder Club

by Richard Osman

My original post
What can I possibly say about this that hasn’t been said before? This book is just great—it’s about a group of friends in a retirement community who spend a few hours a week looking over police cold cases (one of the group is a retired police officer, and these are her files) and then a murder happens in their community. They trade in their cold cases for this very warm one right away. I can’t think of a thing about this novel I didn’t like—it was touching, amusing, honest about the circumstances that these characters found themselves in, but life-affirming, too. There’s a lot of profundity mixed in with the amusement—and a clever mystery, to boot! This is not one to pass up.

5 Stars

My Favorite Non-Crime Fiction of 2021

By HCNewton

On January 7, 2022

In Alex Verus, Benedict Jacka, Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, Jo Perry, Mike Chen, News/Misc., Roddy Doyle, Science Fiction, Seanan McGuire, Toby Daye, Urban Fantasy

2021 Favorite Non-Crime
Back when I started this site, I knew the content would be largely “genre”-oriented. I’d have wagered the content would be roughly 1/3 Mystery/Detective fiction, 1/3 Urban Fantasy, and slightly less than 1/3 SFF, with “non-genre” fiction, humor, and non-fiction being enough to make my one-thirds just an approximation (honestly, if you asked me what I read regularly, that’s pretty much how I’d describe it today). Actual numbers show that’s wrong—it’s almost 40% Crime/Thriller Fiction, and Urban Fantasy has only topped 20% once in the last decade—it was 16% the last two years, SFF combined for about 14% in 2021.

Which is just a long-winded way to get to these two points: because Crime Fiction takes such a big chunk of my reading, it gets its own “Favorite” list, but none of the others really garner enough numbers for their own.

As always, re-reads don’t count—only the works that were new to me.

(in alphabetical order by author)

We Could Be Heroes

by Mike Chen

My original post
A super-hero and a super-villain become friends after meeting (as civilians) at a support group meeting and delve into their shared past to figure out how they got their powers and who they used to be. That old story. 🙂 In typical Chen fashion, the SF/super-hero elements are just an excuse to tell a story about friendship, memory, and identity. It’s a story about people, who just happen to be super-powered.

4 Stars

Love

by Roddy Doyle

My original post
This is about as close as you can get to a novel without a plot. You’ve got a pair of old friends, getting together for drinks (many, many drinks) and to catch up on each other’s lives. They end up revisiting their past (as you do), arguing about what really happened then, and seeing how it’s impacted where they are now. There’s more to it, but that’ll do for our purposes. The novel is primarily told through dialogue (although we do get memories and internal commentary from one of the men). As is to be expected from Doyle, that dialogue sings. You can practically hear it jump off of the page–I’m not sure I could conjure up a mental image of anyone in the book, but I know exactly what they’d sound like.

4 Stars

The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling

by Henry Fielding

My wrap-up post for the project
I read most of this in 2020, but didn’t finish it until 2021, so it goes on this list. Just for the (mostly rewarding) time spent on this book, it deserves a spot on this list. It’s not really the kind of book I thought it would be, but it’s so much more interesting. I’ve said enough about this book, I don’t really have it in me for more–it’s a classic, anyway, what can I say that hasn’t been said for hundreds of years?

5 Stars

All the Lonely People

by Mike Gayle

My original post
This is nothing but an all-out attack on the cockles of your heart. I described it to a friend, “Imagine a book by Fredrick Backman–but instead of a crotchety old Swedish man, it’s about a lonely man who left Kingston for London in the 50s.” It’s so heartwarming, so Capra-esque, so…eh, you get the point.

5 Stars

Not Awkward

by Matthew Hanover

My original post
Hanover’s third Wallflowers novel came out last year and shows real growth as a writer, while not losing any of the charm, heart, and likability of his previous novels. Just before his wedding, Scott goes to the funeral for his ex’s father, and somehow ends up spending a few days with the family. Not Awkward is a warm and heart-filled story about revisiting the past, finding healing (whether or not you thought you needed it), and embracing a future that doesn’t look like you expected it would (and is probably better). It’s the kind of book that’ll make you feel a little better about life for a while—and who doesn’t want to read something like that?

4 1/2 Stars

Risen

by Benedict Jacka

My original post
The twelfth and final book in the Alex Verus series blew me away. It’s one of the best series finales I remember reading. It was hard to say good-bye to this world and these characters, but Jacka did such a satisfying job with this novel that it took some of the sting out of it.

5 Stars

When Sorrows Come

by When Sorrows Come

by Seanan McGuire

My original post
If (and that feels like a big “if”) October Day is going to get a Happily Ever After, it’s going to be years down the road. Thankfully, she got a “Happy Right Now” by marrying Tybalt. That’s pretty much what this novel is–a big dollop of happiness (with Toby putting down a palace coup along the way). It was so nice seeing that.

5 Stars

Headphones and Heartaches

by Wesley Parker

My original post
Percy’s a teen who gets put into Foster Care after his mother’s latest OD. While she’s in a treatment program, Percy comes to trust and love his foster mother–a woman with a huge heart, who takes in this boy and gives him a safe place to be for the first time in his life. This is a sweet book, a touching book—an occasionally hilarious book (with some truly cringe-worthy beats)—I guess it’s best summed up as a very human book. Parker got me to feel all sorts of things for these characters, to a degree I didn’t expect or was prepared for.

5 Stars

Pure

by Jo Perry

My original post
(sure, you could make the case that this is Crime Fiction, but I don’t buy it) After Ascher gets quarantined in her late aunt’s retirement condo during the early days of COVID. She sneaks around volunteering for a Jewish Burial Society, and then becomes convinced that one of the women she helped with was the victim of foul play. So Ascher tries to figure out what happened and who is responsible–again, while sneaking around the retirement community’s quarantine. This is a mystery novel about something—it’s more than a whodunit (assuming there was something for a “who” to have “dun”). It, like pretty much everything Perry writes, is about death and how we deal with it as humans (and one neurotic and grieving Mini-Pinscher). THere’s more to chew on, too, but that’d be telling…

This is one that’s going to stay with me for a while.

4 Stars

In Ten Years

by Ian Shane

My original post
A contemporary When Harry Met Sally that makes me just as happy as the movie ever did. Tried and true plotlines that felt fresh thanks to Shane’s light touch and ear for dialogue. It contains what’s probably my favorite chapter of 2021–and more than a couple of my favorite lines. I wanted to race through it to see how it ended, and I wanted to slow down to savor it (the impulse control side lost–what do you expect from someone who tagged himself “Irresponsible”?).

5 Stars

Fortune and Glory: Tantalizing Twenty-Seven by Janet Evanovich: Stephanie’s on a Treasure Hunt

By HCNewton

On December 30, 2021

In Fiction, Janet Evanovich, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Stephanie Plum

Fortune and Glory:
Tantalizing Twenty-Seven

by Janet Evanovich
Series: Stephanie Plum, #27

Paperback, 332 pg.
Pocket Books, 2021

Read: December 25-27, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

Ranger stopped for a light and looked at me. “How about you? What’s in your bucket list?”

I was stumped. I didn’t have a bucket list. My bucket was empty.“I haven’t gotten around to making a bucket list,” I said. “Do you think that’s a personal failure?”

“No. You’re busy living every day. That’s a personal triumph.”

“It doesn’t feel like a triumph. It feels like I’m moving through my life with no important goals or aspirations.”

“What do you consider to be an important goal?”

“Being a doctor or a vulcanologist or a marine biologist or finding the Ark of the Covenant.”

What’s Fortune and Glory About?

Fortune and Glory continues the storyline kicked off in Look Alive Twenty-Five, this time Stephanie and Grandma Mazur are hunting for the treasure—whatever it may be (no one is telling) that the La-Z-Boy Gang had tucked away. Two of the surviving members are on the hunt for the clues that lead to it, too—and they’re not playing by Marquess of Queensberry Rules.

Naturally, Stephanie also has three skips to track down for Vinnie’s Bail Bonds—one of whom decides that Stephanie needs a bodyguard and devotes himself to that. Sure, Stephanie could use a bodyguard, but probably not one who has a handful (or more) of anxiety disorders that prevent him from doing much of anything.

Dodging gangsters and chasing down FTA’s, just another day in the ‘Burb for Stephanie Plum.

A Backdoor Pilot?

Evanovich has a new series starting next year about a recovery agent, Gabriela Rose. We get to meet Gabriela here because she’s been hired to recover the same treasure than Stephanie and Grandma are on the hunt for.

She’s slick, she’s skilled, she’s apparently successful—she’s pretty much the anti-Stephanie. She’s what Ranger could be if he didn’t have his whole company, either.

Gabriella’s not in the novel much, just enough to introduce her to Evanovich’s readers. But she plays a vital role when she’s around.

I enjoy it when there’s overlap between an author’s series/works, but this felt cheap.

A Change in the Offing?

Stephanie spends a lot of time considering her life, her career, her future…nothing she hasn’t done before, but it felt a bit more serious this time—going so far to ask herself “Who am I?”. Even her newfound bodyguard sees that she wants to change her life.

The presence of Gabriela and some new turmoil in her relationship with Morelli adds fuel to this self-reflective fire.

So, what did I think about Fortune and Glory?

This was fine. This was okay. It was amusing. I appreciate the ambition of the storyline (but glad Evanovich wasn’t ambitious enough to try to extend it). For a series this old, to try something like this for the first time? Pretty impressive.

I don’t know that I found anything funny, though—which isn’t good for a comedic series like this.

It’s not quite as good as the last couple of Plum novels, but not as weak as some of the others. Good enough to read and recommend, but just that good. If I actually believed this round of self-reflection was going to result in a change, I might be more optimistic about things, but I expect that #28 will be more of the same. Which isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just nothing to be excited about.

3 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Better Off Dead by Lee Child and Andrew Child: Readers Would Be Better Off Without this Reacher 2.0 Mess

By HCNewton

On December 14, 2021

In Fiction, Jack Reacher, Lee Child, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Better Off Dead

by Lee Child and Andrew Child
Series: Jack Reacher, #26

Hardcover, 325 pg.
Delacorte Press, 2021

Read: December 7-9, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

What’s Better Off Dead About?

Continuing the westward journey he started back in Past Tense, Reacher finds himself about as close to the US/Mexican border as you can get in one of the smallest towns we’ve seen him in.

He encounters an Army vet hunting for her twin—who has gotten himself mixed up with some sort of smuggling operation—that might be getting into something more serious. Michaela Fenton gets Reacher to help out with a scheme to put her face-to-face with the head of the operation.

Things go south, and before you know it, it’s Reacher against this shadowy organization trying to save the Fenton twins and put an end to a plot that’s either an act of political protest or deadly attack (Reacher’s assuming the latter).

That doesn’t make a lot of sense—but trust me, something as convoluted as this plot doesn’t make it easy to summarize in a coherent fashion.

So, what did I think about Better Off Dead?

I strongly considered listing all my problems with this—but why bother? Venting my spleen might make me feel better, but I don’t want to spend the energy on it.

Let me try to be concise—it was a giant, implausible, mess. The original plan that Reacher and Fenton come up with to take down the bad guy makes every single machine that Rube Goldberg drew seem efficient and straightforward. I couldn’t believe that Reacher would sign on to it—and even after he started voicing concerns, he still went along with it. Reacher’s known for his brawn, but his brain has always been—up to this point, anyway–just as important (if not more so). This was just dumb.

I was annoyed very early on, texting a friend, “Worst.Reacher.Ever.” Although I noted that the Child brothers had 250 or so pages to make me change my mind. I really wanted them to. But man, those short stories about pre-teen/teenager Reacher in New York City or Okinawa look really good to me now.

The least troublesome part for me was the voice—Lee Child tended toward the third-person, but occasionally used first to great effect. This time, first-person didn’t help matter—and while I haven’t read any readers complain about it, a lot of what I have seen people complain about I think would’ve worked if it was in the third-person (and/or wouldn’t have been part of a third-person narration).

There were some good scenes, a handful of chapters that worked for me, in fact.* But they were a distinct minority. Still, in trying to be fair, I’d say if this was a thriller by a relative newcomer? I’d be more positive about it (not much more, but more). But Andrew Child (née Grant) has a dozen novels under his belt and Lee Child has twice that—also this is a Jack Reacher novel. There are standards that must be upheld.

*I’d planned on talking about some of those, but this post is longer than I’d intended it to be already, so let’s leave it at “the whole thing wasn’t a dumpster fire.”

I knew that there’s be some growing pains as Lee backed off to let Andrew take over, but this was worse than that. The Sentinel wasn’t perfect, but it was something to work from. Better Off Dead was a major setback and will take some work to recover from. Sadly, I bet that no one’s going to make Andrew buckle down and do that work (please, please, someone prove me wrong).

I walked away from the interview I heard with them a few weeks ago with the impression that Andrew doesn’t typically work with the “no outline” approach of Lee—maybe if he didn’t try to ape that style, he’d be better off. There were a few times in my notes I wondered if they’d changed their minds about where the plot was going.

Give this one a pass—go back and read/reread 61 Hours, Nothing to Lose, Personal, or…you know what? Anything from The Midnight Line or earlier. It’ll be time better spent.

2 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly: Ballard Tackles a Pair of Tough Cases in this Timely Novel

By HCNewton

On December 2, 2021

In Fiction, Harry Bosch, Michael Connelly, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Renée Ballard

Finally…I’d hoped to get this posted no later than November 17th. But every time I started writing something, I ended up overthinking or was distracted. I’m not sure the end result is that coherent, but…it’s finished. I can live with that.

The Dark Hours

by Michael Connelly
Series: Harry Bosch, #24/Renée Ballard, #4

Hardcover, 388 pg.
Little, Brown and Company, 2021

Read: November 12-15, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

It was like a bag of popcorn cooking in a microwave. A few pops during the final countdown of the year and then the barrage as the frequency of gunfire made it impossible to separate it into individual discharges. A gunshot symphony. For a solid five minutes, there was an unbroken onslaught as revelers of the new year fired their weapons into the sky following a Los Angeles tradition of decades.

It didn’t matter that what goes up must come down. Every new year in the City of Angels began with risk.

The gunfire of course was joined by legitimate fireworks and firecrackers, creating a sound unique to the city and as reliable through the years as the changing of the calendar.

What’s The Dark Hours About?

It opens on December 31, 2020—Renée Ballard and a fellow detective are partnered up for the night—it’s a kind of all-hands-on-deck kind of night. These two are also part of a team on the trail of a pair of serial rapists that they’re calling the Midnight Men.

But on this night, they’re called out to a shooting death. Ballard’s role is to be the initial investigator and then pass off the case to the homicide detectives after the weekend—but she’s hoping she can keep it longer (their work on a different case could allow for that). There’s a match for the bullet—the same gun was used in an old unsolved case, investigated by Harry Bosch.*

Isn’t it always reassuring to see that no matter what kind of super cop he is, there are cases that Bosch couldn’t close?

The two put their heads together and quickly find a new angle for Bosch’s case as well as a promising line of investigation for Ballard’s.

Meanwhile, the Midnight Men strike again, and this time, there’s something a little different that Ballard picks up. A string she starts pulling that proves to be instrumental.

With Bosch to bounce her ideas off of, as well as a backup she can trust, Ballard gets her chance, once again, to bring a little light to the dark hours of the night.

Bosch

While this is by and large a Renée Ballard book, there’s enough about Harry Bosch to keep a fan satisfied. He’s doing okay with his medical condition, Maddie’s well (and is dating someone, so isn’t spending as much time with Bosch), he’s pretty much holed-up during COVID, studying old case files.

Not at all-surprisingly, when Renée’s path crosses with his, he’s ready to jump into action. Sure, he always is, but add in a lockdown-induced cabin fever? It’s a wonder that Harry wasn’t calling his mentee daily to see if she needed help with anything (although it’s clear that the two have kept in touch).

In the past, the pair have done a better job of keeping Harry’s involvement under the radar, but between Bosch’s Cabin Fever, Ballard’s need to make fast progress on the cases, and her lack of trust for any other detective at the moment they throw that out the window. Which does come back to bite Ballard (as it should).

The 2021-ness of It

… this was the new LAPD—officers stripped of the mandate of proactive enforcement and waiting to be reactive, to hit the streets only when it was requested and required, and only then doing the minimum so as not to engender a complaint or controversy.

To Ballard, much of the department had fallen into the pose of a citizen caught in the middle of a bank robbery. Head down, eyes averted, adhering to the warning: nobody move, and nobody gets hurt.

I don’t remember Connelly’s books being so obviously of the moment until last year’s The Law of Innocence which ended just as lockdowns were starting in California.

Connelly’s books have always felt contemporary—other mystery series might feel 5-10 years out of step, but not Connelly. Although, even the older books largely felt like they could’ve taken place a couple of years ago (except for the technology involved). But The Dark Hours has to be a 2021 novel—Ballard, Bosch, and the city are going through things that could only have happened after the protests of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic.

It makes things feel more immediate, but does it hurt readers in 5-10 years? Fair Warning, also published last year, could take place anytime after 2010 (maybe earlier). A lot of the other books felt timely to their context, but even now they don’t feel that dated. Will these?

I don’t know if this is a strength or a long-term weakness, but it is, as far as I can remember, a change.

However, seeing Renée having to adapt to COVID restrictions (no more living on the beach!) and struggling with the changes (temporary? long-lasting?) that the protests of Summer of 2020 about policing in America have brought to the LAPD is great to see. Connelly is able to show a department in flux, which can’t have been an easy tightrope to walk.

So, what did I think about The Dark Hours?

Ehhh…I’m not sure what to say here.

In the moment, while I was reading, it was typical Connelly—I was gripped, I was riveted, I couldn’t wait to see the murder solved. I was less invested in the rape case because once Ballard starts to get a little traction, once she starts to learn a little bit about these guys, I was repulsed. I really didn’t want to learn more—I just wanted them locked away—I even said something to a friend like “can’t we just get a quick, miraculous, resolution to this by page 180 and spend the rest of the book focusing on the murders?” Great job by Connelly creating some very horrible criminals, but I don’t want to spend time thinking about them.

But it’s not his best work—I’m not sure it’s not up to his par, even. The more I think about it, the more I’m bothered by parts of the story and storytelling. The Epilogue, by the way? It’s a scene from a TV show. Working on Bosch, Lincoln Lawyer, and Bosch: Legacy have impacted Connelly at least a little and it shows here.

I thought the stuff about the impact of COVID and the protests was fantastic—and you get no simple answers about the past/present/future of policing in LA. I’m just not sure the rest of the novel was as good as we’ve come to expect from Connelly (I’m open to being corrected by others who read it, though).

Good—but not good enough—I guess is my takeaway. Still, time with Bosch and Ballard? Always time well spent.

3.5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Love by Roddy Doyle: Pull Up a Stool, Order a Pint, Listen In on This Conversation

By HCNewton

On August 30, 2021

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, Roddy Doyle

Love

by Roddy Doyle

Hardcover, 327 pg.
Viking, 2020

Read: August 19-20, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

—Well, that was how it felt, he said. —Like we’d never been apart.

—But—.

—I know, he said. —I know. We’d never been much together. But I’m talking about feelings here, not facts. Feelings. The feel of the thing.

It sounded like something he’d said before. More than once.

What’s Love About?

Joe and Davy are men in their 50s—in their 20s, they were drinking buddies, spending every weekend together at as many Dublin pubs as they possibly could. Eventually, they grew out of it. Davy moved to England with his wife. Joe settled down, too.

Now they see each other once or twice a year when Davy comes over to visit his father. It’s really the only time Davy drinks anymore. And, boy howdy, do they drink a lot.

This novel takes place over the course of one night/early morning, starting after dinner when they have a couple of drinks. Joe has a story he wants to tell Davy, he needs to unburden himself. Davy has something he needs to talk about, too, but he won’t let himself.

And that’s the novel—the two going from pub to pub, having a couple of drinks, and moving on. Sometimes out of choice, sometimes because they got a little too loud and are asked to leave. They walk a bit, sober up a touch (while continuing their conversation), and find a new pub to have a pint or two in before being asked to leave.

And if that doesn’t sound that interesting to you, have you ever listened to a couple of Irish people telling stories?

The Title

In the cleverly titled book, The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis posits that there are four different types of love and spends some time describing each.* Others have come up with different numbers, different categories. Which is just to say that the concept of “love” is a tricky one to nail down. To borrow Justice Stewart’s phrase, most of us know it when we see it, and most of us settle for that.

* It’s beside the point, but I feel compelled to list them: Affection (storge), Friendship (philia), Romantic (eros), Charity (agape).

All this is to say, it’s really impossible to know precisely what the title refers to—there are several types of love displayed in this book, and I can see some people trying to argue for which one is most fitting.

After a little thought, I’ve decided that Doyle is referring to them all (and I don’t think that’s a cop-out). It’s about two men struggling—and aided by several of the pints in the cover image—to find ways to talk about love.

Feelings

There is a reason why men don’t talk about their feelings. It’s not just that it’s difficult, or embarrassing. It’s almost impossible. The words aren’t really there

That’s from the beginning of the book, Davy’s narration noting the difficulty that Joe’s having getting his story started. It’s seen a few times after that (I should point out that at least Joe is trying, Davy’s avoiding it entirely).

Which is where beer comes in, I guess. Joe never quite expresses himself the way he wants—Davy doesn’t help that much, really—but he gets asymptotically close. The number of pints they consume to get him to the point where he gets close is enough to make my liver sick. Part of the enjoyment of this novel is watching these two try to get the words right.

—The drink is funny, though, isn’t it? You see things clearly but then you can’t get at the words to express them properly.

—Or somethin’.

—Or somethin’, yeah.

Conventional wisdom suggests that two women wouldn’t need that much alcohol—or any, really—to achieve the same ends, if not do a better job of expressing and understanding the emotions being discussed. I expect that wisdom is right (but wouldn’t die on that hill)—and the ensuing novel might be less entertaining. Still, I’d like to see someone give it a shot.

So, what did I think about Love?

—It’s a thing abou’ gettin’ older, he said. —At least, I suppose it is. So many memories, you know. It become, harder to separate wha’ happened from wha’ might’ye happened an’ wha’ didn’t happen but kind o’ seemed to.

He was looking at me.

—Is it? he asked.

—Is memory reliable? I said. —Is that wha’ you mean?

—I think so, yeah. yeah.

This is a novel about love—obviously—and old friends, memory, nostalgia, the power of reminiscing, aging, dealing with the past (whether it happened or not), family, forgiveness, trust…and a few more things, too. All discussed in the story that Joe’s telling and the stories that Davy isn’t telling.

When I read this in a couple of years, it wouldn’t surprise me if I come up with a different list of subjects.

But in a sense, it really doesn’t matter what you think the novel is about—it can be enjoyed and chewed on just with the surface. A couple of old friends talking.

Doyle’s dialogue is as strong as it ever was. The dialect makes it jump off the page, you don’t so much read this book as hear it with your eyes.* It is funny, it is tragic, it’s heartbreaking, it’s wistful, and occasionally silly. It runs the gamut—both for the characters and the reader.

* Yeah, I know, I know. Roll with it, will you?

If you haven’t read Doyle before—this is a pretty good ice-breaker. If you know his work, this is exactly what you expect (a little closer to the feel of The Barrytown Trilogy than A Star Called Henry or Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha). His idiosyncratic punctuation and approach to dialogue tags and paragraphs might cause you to stumble at first—but once you catch on, you won’t even notice it.

It’s like you’re sitting there on a night on the town with these two, just catching up with old friends and enjoying the conversation with them (even if you’re not holding up your end). And who doesn’t think that sounds like a fun time?

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

The Bounty by Janet Evanovich with Steve Hamilton: Fox and O’Hare are on the Hunt for Nazi Gold

By HCNewton

On June 24, 2021

In Fiction, Fox and O'Hare, Janet Evanovich, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

The Bounty

by Janet Evanovich with Steve Hamilton
Fox and O’Hare, #7

Hardcover, 305 pg.
Atria Books, 2021

Read: May 26-28, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

“Yeah, it’s a pickle, all right,” Jake said. “We used to call missions like this one-percenters.”

“Meaning one percent chance of success?” Quentin asked. “I’ve been on a few of those myself.”

Jake smiled. “I’m not being trying to be pessimistic. As a matter of fact, one-percenters are usually the most fun. There’s no pressure when you’re trying to do the impossible.”

What’s The Bounty About?

The day has gotten away from me, so I’m not going to come up with my own synopsis for this one, but I’ll borrow the description from Evanovich’s site so I can get a little shut-eye:

Straight as an arrow special agent Kate O’Hare and international con man Nick Fox have brought down some of the biggest criminals out there. But now they face their most dangerous foe yet—a vast, shadowy international organization known only as the Brotherhood.
Directly descended from the Vatican Bank priests who served Hitler during World War II, the Brotherhood is on a frantic search for a lost train loaded with $30 billion in Nazi gold, untouched for over seventy-five years somewhere in the mountains of Eastern Europe.
Kate and Nick know that there is only one man who can find the fortune and bring down the Brotherhood—the same man who taught Nick everything he knows—his father, Quentin. As the stakes get higher, they must also rely on Kate’s own father, Jake, who shares his daughter’s grit and stubbornness. Too bad they can never agree on anything.
From a remote monastery in the Swiss Alps to the lawless desert of the Western Sahara, Kate, Nick, and the two men who made them who they are today must crisscross the world in a desperate scramble to stop their deadliest foe in the biggest adventure of their lives.

The State of the Series

Books 1-5 (co-written by Lee Goldberg) were comedic heist/con adventures, with a goofy (slightly over-the-top) supporting cast—that were just so fun to read. The sixth book (co-written by Peter Evanovich) tried to match that and just failed.

Now, Steve Hamilton has stepped into the co-writer spot and the series has shifted a bit. The Bounty is more of a straightforward thriller—sure, it’s lighter than most thrillers, but it’s not a comedy. Almost all of the supporting cast is absent, we only get Kate’s father, Jake (frequently the best part of the early books) with Nick’s father, Quentin, being introduced. Quentin isn’t goofy at all, he’s not over-the-top, but he’s a fun character. Nick’s sleight-of-hand antics and thievery are on display—but we don’t get any hint of a con job. I missed that.

I don’t know if Book 8 will get back to the early roots (my preference) or if it’ll keep going in this path. But at the very least, I can look forward to the next book again, something I feared wouldn’t happen again.

There’s a parallel to this and my mini-rant about the cover designs from a couple of weeks ago. Which you might want to give a read if you didn’t see that.

So, what did I think about The Bounty?

This was a make-or-break entry in the series for me, if I didn’t enjoy this one, I was going to walk away from these. But Evanovich and Hamilton have reassured me. This is just so much better than the disaster that was The Big Kahuna that I’m willing to embrace (at least temporarily) this new style. I hope it continues.

If you like light thrillers with a semi-Indiana Jones feel, with a dash of flirtation between the leads thrown in, you should give this a try. The first five books in the series are better, but this is a good entry point.

3.5 Stars

Cover Reveal: The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly

By HCNewton

On May 28, 2021

In Fiction, Harry Bosch, Michael Connelly, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Renée Ballard

I’m excited to take part in the UK Cover Reveal for the new Harry Bosch/Rene Ballard thriller, The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly this morning. Before we get to the cover, let’s talk a bit about the book, okay?

Book Blurb

Has a killer lain dormant for years only to strike again on New Year’s Eve? LAPD Detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch team up to find justice for an innocent victim in the new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly.

There’s chaos in Hollywood on New Year’s Eve. Working her graveyard shift, LAPD Detective Renée Ballard seeks shelter at the end of the countdown to wait out the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revelers shoot their guns into the air. As reports start to roll in of shattered windshields and other damage, Ballard is called to a scene where a hardworking auto shop owner has been fatally hit by a bullet in the middle of a crowded street party.

It doesn’t take long for Ballard to determine that the deadly bullet could not have fallen from the sky. Ballard’s investigation leads her to look into another unsolved murder-a case at one time worked by Detective Harry Bosch.

Ballard and Bosch team up once again to find out where the old and new cases intersect. All the while they must look over their shoulders. The killer who has stayed undetected for so long knows they are coming after him.

Book Details:

Book Title: The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly
Publisher: Orion (UK)/Little, Brown and Company (US)
Release date: November 9, 2021
Format: Hardcover/Ebook/Audiobook
Length: 416 pages

And now…

The Cover

The Dark Hours UK
If that doesn’t grab your eyes, call your optometrist/ophthalmologist, there’s something wrong with them.

My thanks to The Orion Publishing Group for the invitation to participate in this reveal.

Born in a Burial Gown by M. W. Craven: Before Washington Poe, There was Avison Fluke.

By HCNewton

On March 23, 2021

In M. W. Craven, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Born in a Burial Gown

by M. W. Craven
Series: Avison Fluke, #1

Paperback, 331 pg.
Constable, 2020 (revised and updated edition)

Read: March 12-16, 2021

Find out how the victim lived and you’ll find out how they died.

Here We Go Again

You may be asking yourself, is this just another instance of The Irresponsible Reader raving about a book by M. W. Craven? Yup. This is the fourth novel that I’ve read (of the five published to date), and I’m not sure there’s another acceptable response to his books.

What’s Born in a Burial Gown About?

I have no idea if that sentiment about how the victim lived would be shared by actual detectives, but it works pretty well for Detective Inspector Avison Fluke and his team—which is why Fluke keeps repeating it.

In this particular case, a homeless drug-addict sees someone burying a golf bag at the construction site that he’s using as a temporary shelter. He leaves a note for the construction manager and bugs out. When Fluke and the other police arrive, they find a woman in a golf bag, buried in a way that will soon be covered by the construction. If it hadn’t been for the unexpected witness, no one would even know there’d been a body left there.

What’s worse, she has no identification on her. Then during the autopsy, it’s discovered that she’s had major cosmetic surgery to the extent that it’s impossible to know what she really looked like. So, no ID, no reliable way to describe her to anyone who knows her, nothing to tie her to a residence or employer. Before the team can really figure out who killed her, they have to figure out who she was. Put in the terms of Fluke’s motto—they have to find out how she lived to find out who she was so they can find out how she died. No easy task.

Throw in mounting pressures from some of the things in Fluke’s life—and you have a ticking time clock on this beyond the need to close the case quickly. And almost everything they learn about this woman makes the rest of the investigation more difficult.

Meet Avison Fluke

Some detectives tried to keep things impersonal so they could maintain objectivity. For Fluke, it was the opposite. He worked at his best when he made a personal connection with the victim.

She’d been tossed away like garbage, he thought. He could feel the anger building in his stomach.

I assumed going in that I was going to like Fluke, but you never know, do you? Often a new character from an author you love just doesn’t work. But on page 16, Fluke gets a belligerent and grumbling construction manager to stop his ranting and help out by lying to him and saying they could be out of his hair and let construction resume in “maybe an hour.” Right then, I knew that I was going to like this guy.

Like your typical Detective Protagonist, Fluke has issues. Not that long ago, he was undergoing aggressive treatment for a rare form of cancer, which has taken its toll on his health and vigor. Still, he’s back to work (for his own sanity, if nothing else), even if he had to cut a corner or two to get there. The city is on the verge of kicking him out of his freshly-built house because he cut a corner to get it built. He and his Detective Chief Inspector don’t get along and don’t seem to respect each other much. Professional Standards are sniffing around him. Oh, and early on in this book, his girlfriend dumps him.

Okay, that last one isn’t an issue, it’s a blessing, really.

So, what’s on the plus side? He’s smart. He’s determined. He has a team of loyal detectives—whose skills are frequently underestimated. Fluke’s approach to interviewing suspects is pretty interesting, and I wonder how well it works in reality. As a fictional character, Craven has taken all of what I’ve enumerated, a few things I forgot to list, mixed it together, and uses it to fuel his deeply personal need to find the killer—to take that connection that he made and dodge all the obstacles that are thrown at him so he can find a target for that anger. He’s just fun to read, too. Something about the chemical reaction that Craven produces from the mixture of these elements just makes Fluke an entertaining character.

Also, he has heterochromia. Which is an odd thing to give a character. If this were SF or Fantasy, you could pretend that’s a sign of X ability. Or in a visual medium, I could see doing something like that to make an impression. But in print, I’m not sure I see the point, it doesn’t seem to be all that helpful in creating a character. Craven gets some interesting use out of it, so what do I know?

And We Shouldn’t Forget Fluke’s Team

Like any good procedural, the investigative team is vital to get right. Craven does that for sure. There’s DS Towler, Fluke’s right-hand man and close friend—he’s a little on the wild and violent side, but seems to be careful about that and uses it safely. There’s the computer expert who’s on an UK/China exchange program—brilliant and has a very strange hobby. Also, the Ph.D. student working on forensic entomology—who is vital to making a couple of early deductions (you don’t introduce a forensic entomologist and not make them pivotal). And several more, and you get an efficient and effective team—great for police work, and just quirky enough to be great for entertainment.

Throw in Fluke’s doctor and a few other people in his personal life and…it’s a perfectly winning cast.

So, what did I think about Born in a Burial Gown?

‘She was born in a burial gown,’ he said.

He didn’t expand and Fluke didn’t need him to. He was right. It was a term he’d heard once or twice in the Marines, referring to who seemed to have a death wish. Someone who relished doing the things other people were terrified of. They were the first through the door and the last one to take cover. They appeared fearless, even reckless. And maybe they were.

Born in a burial gown seems to apply to many of the characters in this novel, not just the victim. Fluke, certainly; the killer, too; at least one of the suspects seems to fit the bill, too—even Fluke’s task force, collectively speaking, seems to fit this. This quotation comes pretty late in the novel, but once I read it, the ways that this applies to so made the book’s title resonate, and helped me think about the characters and some of their actions.

In case there was much confusion after the first paragraph. I just loved this book. The prose just sings, the novel’s well-paced and cleverly put together. The characters (major and minor), the killer, the motive, the victim, the reveals (both in the way they were handled and what was revealed), the fairly satisfying (by design) ending, the sweet and then very satisfying denouement—and anything else I didn’t mention—it’s all just as good as you could hope for.

I’m clearly just a raving Craven fanboy at this point, so let me just leave it like this—go buy this. Go buy anything you see his name on—you won’t be disappointed. Born in a Burial Gown is my favorite read of the year*, and I bet it’ll rank pretty high for everyone who reads it.

* So far, anyway, it’s early enough in the year that I figure a few new upcoming releases—including Craven’s—will make a case for that spot.

One last note—if you happen to have a contact in the US publishing industry, get him a deal over here, so I don’t have to pay so much for shipping, will you?

5 Stars

A Two-Fer: Twenty Palaces and Child of Fire (Audiobooks) by Harry Connolly and Daniel Thomas May

By HCNewton

On February 17, 2021

In Audiobook, Harry Connolly, Twenty Palaces, Urban Fantasy

Twenty Palaces

by Harry Connolly, Daniel Thomas May (Narrator)
Series: Twenty Palaces, #0
Unabridged Audiobook, 8 hrs., 14 min.
Tantor Audio, 2020
Read: July 29-30, 2020
4 Stars

Child of Fire

by Harry Connolly, Daniel Thomas May (Narrator)
Series: Twenty Palaces, #1
Unabridged Audiobook, 10 hrs., and 9 min.
Tantor Audio, 2020
Read: September 8-10, 2020
4 Stars

What is The Twenty Palaces Series?

The Twenty Palace Society is a secretive and ancient group that has devoted itself to the regulation of magic in this world for the benefit of humanity. Those who use magic outside of the Palaces control have a tendency to unleash disaster—and by disaster, I mean things with the potential to destroy the world—and the Society stops them with extreme prejudice (and if collateral damage happens, so be it—we’re talking about the survival of the human race here).

Most of these threats come by way of unleashing Predators—beings from the “Empty Places” between dimensions. Their main drive seems to be coming into this (or any) reality and snacking on whatever life forms they can find. They typically begin by seeming to obey and/or help the humans who summoned them. But eventually, they turn on their summoners and exact a horrible price.

The Society’s methods, structure, and personnel largely lie in darkness, but we know a little bit—there are peers (magic users of impressive strength, but not as strong as others in the Society), investigators (whose purpose is to look for magical/Predatory activity), and wooden men. Wooden Men are cannon fodder. They’re the designated redshirts whose purpose is to draw the attention of the humans or Predators the Society is attacking so their peer can come in and eliminate the threat while they’re focused on the Wooden Man. It’s obviously not a place to be if you’re all that concerned with living a long and quiet life.

Our protagonist, Ray Lilly, is a Wooden Man (or becomes one in TP). In that book, he stumbles upon some unauthorized magic use, casts one spell himself (which would be enough to kill him over, but he proves useful to Annalise so she delays that), and then stumbles upon a group of predators and helps Annalise stop them from turning Seattle into a home base to bring in others of their kind and then to destroy humanity.

In Child of Fire, the two find themselves in a small town, where a man/company (it’s hard to tell at first) seemingly has made a deal with a Predator for some benefit to the town, but at the cost of the children of the town—and it happens in such a way that the memories of parents are affected enough that they don’t remember their children ever existed.

Publication/Listening Order

While I do think a good prequel can be fun, by nature they are wholly unnecessary. If you don’t have everything you need in the books/movies/whatever as they were published, the author/creators failed. Also, you probably don’t get something successful enough to generate a prequel.

Again, they’re fun. It can be entertaining to get an explanation for something in the original work (“Oh, so that’s why there’s a lampstand in the middle of the wood”), occasionally it gives you a new perspective on the series, that kind of thing. I was more than happy to read Twenty Palaces when the series had been mothballed, but I wasn’t clamoring for it.

But last year, when Tantor started putting out the whole series in audiobook form (the first book had been already, but the rest hadn’t been), I went with the order that Tantor published—Twenty Palaces first and then moving on to the rest.

I was surprised at how well it flowed. There’s very little time between Twenty Palaces and Child of Fire and it really felt like CoF was a sequel. There were just so many throwaway details in CoF that were there to make it seem like Ray had a past (not that we learned much about it), that there was a little bit of history with Ray and Annalise (but not much of one). As you read it (assuming you read in publication order), there’s a mysterious, violent past—one that it’s good to know Ray has, but we don’t need to know it.

Connolly did a great job of taking those details and building events in Twenty Palaces around them. I’m not saying this is the best way to listen to the books—but it makes them a lot more approachable. I can see why Tantor went the way they did.

Ray Lily

Yes, Ray Lilly is an ex-con with a violent streak. But he sincerely wants to live a straight life—while he admits to himself that he enjoys the rush of violence. He also likes the fact that his work for the Society matters. He tries to be a good, law-abiding citizen as much as possible. He works hard to prevent injury to those who have nothing to do with the Predators.

He’s incredibly loyal to Annalise—which is not a little twisted because Annalise has told him repeatedly that she will kill him.

He’s essentially what you expect in a male UF protagonist—but he’s as close to powerless as you can be in this world and yet survive. Which definitely marks him out as different. He also has a real talent for getting people (many people, anyway) to trust him and is better at inspiring bystanders to action than most UF protagonists (although most of them don’t need to recruit help, and Ray does). There’s a very human quality to Ray that makes you like him.

Annalise Powliss

Annalise is old (well over one hundred years old), but looks younger than Ray. She has a high voice and looks like she hasn’t had a decent meal in ages. But that’s deceptive—she’s supernaturally strong and magically powerful. While she doesn’t relish the prospect of collateral damage/fatalities—she’s familiar enough with the treat posed by Predators that she’s more than willing to let a town’s worth of citizens die to prevent all of humanity from being consumed. Still, she’s largely willing to indulge Ray’s compassion—up to a point.

Annalise has all the powers of your typical UF protagonist—maybe even more. But none of the wit, sarcasm, or optimism. For her, this is a duty, not one she particularly enjoys, but it’s something that has to be done.

Daniel Thomas May

I admit that I was worried about Daniel Thomas May as the narrator for these audiobooks. All I know him from is the Venators series, and this is about as far from a YA Portal Fantasy as you can get. But my worries proved groundless and he does a bang-up job portraying Ray Lilly and the horrors that this world holds.

More than that, I’m glad I listened to these if only for Annalise’s voice. It’s both exactly what Connolly says it sounds like—and is about 3.4 million miles away from what I’d imagined.

So, What Did I Think about these Audiobooks?

They’re just great—I thoroughly enjoyed being back in this world and I still don’t understand why the books weren’t bigger sellers. I hope they find a new audience in audiobook. I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about the series on this blog without using the phrase “criminally underselling,” (or words to that effect). It comes to mind once again, I just don’t get why readers didn’t get behind this.

They’re dark, they’re grim, they’re on the violent end of the UF spectrum (but I can easily find darker, grimmer, and more violent series)—but there’s a glimmer of hope throughout them all. Not just from Ray’s undaunted trust in humanity, but that’s where most of it comes from. Even with all the death and destruction, they’re entertaining reads and you get immersed enough in the world that you don’t want to come out of it.

You really should get these in your earbuds or in front of your eyes.