Category: Authors Page 29 of 116

A Quick Look at the Wonderful The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Illustrated Edition by Douglas Adams, Chris Riddell (Illustrator)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
The Illustrated Edition

by Douglas Adams, Chris Riddell (Illustrator)

Hardcover, 291 pg.
Del Rey, 2021

Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

As soon as I picked up this book this weekend, I just knew that I had to talk about it today on Towel Day. And then I sat down to write about this—and I’m not really sure what to say. Anyone who’s read this site much knows how bad I am at describing art. But, what else am I going to talk about today?

For the 42nd Anniversary of the publication of the novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the publishers commissioned noted illustrator and political cartoonist Chris Riddell to tackle this classic. And wow, what a great choice.

Contents

The book starts off with “A Guide to the Guide” a short piece Adams wrote about the series in its various forms shortly after the release of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. Then we get the text of the novel—attractively laid out, with illustrations scattered throughout.

One of the best things included in this edition is a large, full-color illustration on the inside cover—it’s a collection of some of the more obscure characters mentioned (largely in passing) throughout the novel—and the book ends with a key to that illustration. Which is just great, I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t give almost any of these any thought. And now I don’t have to, Chris Riddell did it for me.

Some of the Characters and Scenes Depicted

By and large, the illustrations don’t really match what I had in my head (although the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal was pretty close), but almost every time I look at one, my reaction is “yeah, he’s nailed it, that’s what _____ should look like.”

I’m not going to go over all of them, but I’ve had a blast flipping back and forth through the book looking at the pictures. The small furry creature from Alpha Centauri (a real one) was adorable, Slartibartfast was…perfect, Marvin looks nothing like the TV show or movie—thankfully. Eddie the Shipboard Computer is odd, but I can buy it. Eccentrica Gallumbits looks, well, you know. Trillian’s mice and (particularly in their native universe) and The Heart of Gold was just great. Deep Thought was another surprise but absolutely worked. Gag Halfrunt looks just like a private brain-case specialist should look. Last, but not least, the falling sperm whale and the poor bowl of petunias got a two-page spread, and I’d absolutely love to have a print on my wall of it.

Trillian

My biggest beef about the book is the small number of illustrations of the core characters—I liked what I saw, but we really only got more than one illustration of Trillian (although Zaphod, or should I say…Phil? is in the background).

I’m sure most of us can figure out why they’d include another picture of the attractive mathematician and astrophysicist, rather than the bumbling human, the two-headed egomaniac, the oddball researcher, or the morose android.

Some examples

So, I wasn’t really sure what I could get away with as far as showing samples from the book, so I didn’t want to just take some pictures of a few of the illustrations (besides, it’s clear that my photographic ability isn’t that great). But I was able to find this drawing for some original art to celebrate the publication. The art shown isn’t exactly what you find in the book (the book version of Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz, for example, is far more disgusting), but these sketches give you an idea of what you’ll find here. That’s about the best I can do.

It’d take a lot for me not to like an edition of this novel, I realize, but I absolutely love Riddell’s work on this. Which is great for me—if I’m going to bring another edition into my house, it’d better be great. It is, the illustrations capture the feel and flavor of the novel, and make it feel fresher. I strongly recommend it for fans new, old as well as those who are still on the verge of being fans.

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.

Towel Day ’21: Do You Know Where Your Towel Is?

(actually updated and slightly revised this 5/25/20!)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

Towel Day, for the few of who don’t know, is the annual celebration of Douglas Adams’ life and work. It was first held two weeks after his death, fans were to carry a towel with them for the day to use as a talking point to encourage those who have never read HHGTTG to do so, or to just converse with someone about Adams. Adams is one of that handful of authors that I can’t imagine I’d be the same without having encountered/read/re-read/re-re-re-re-read, and so I do my best to pay a little tribute to him each year, even if it’s just carrying around a towel.

Some time in 7th or 8th grade (I believe), I was at a friend’s house—his brother let us try his copy of the text-based Hitchhiker’s Guide game, and we were no good at it at all. His brother had a copy of the novel, however, and we all figured that the novel held the keys we needed for success with the game (it did not). It was decided that I’d be the one to read the book and come back in a few days as an expert. Adams’ irreverent style rocked my world—could people actually get away with saying some of these things? His skewed take on the world, his style, his humor…and a depressed robot, too! It was love at first read. One of those experiences that, looking back, I can say shaped my reading and thinking for the rest of my life (make of that what you will). If carrying around a (massively useful) piece of cloth for a day honors his memory? Sure, I’m in.

One of my long-delayed goals is to write up a good all-purpose Tribute to Douglas Adams post, and another Towel Day has come without me doing so. Belgium.

Next year . . . or later. (he says for at least the 7th straight year, a work ethic I like to believe Adams would recognize).

In the meantime, here’s some of what I’ve written about Adams. A couple of years back, I did a re-read of all of Adams’ (completed) fiction. For reasons beyond my ken (or recollection), I didn’t get around to blogging about the Dirk Gently books, but I did do the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy:
bullet The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
bullet The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
bullet Life, The Universe and Everything
bullet So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish
bullet Mostly Harmless
bullet I had a thing or two to say about the 40th Anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
bullet (this link will go live later in the morning of 5/25/21) I took a look at the 42nd Anniversary Illustrated Edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Also, I should mention the one book Adams/Hitchhiker’s aficionado needs to read is Don’t Panic by Neil Gaiman, David K. Dickson and MJ Simpson. If you’re more in the mood for a podcast, I’d suggest The Waterstones Podcast How We Made: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—I’ve listened to several podcast episodes about this book, and generally roll my eyes at them. But this is just fantastic. Were it available, I’d listen to a Peter Jackson-length version of the episode.

I’ve only been able to get one of my sons into Adams, he’s the taller, thinner one in the picture from a few years ago.

TowelDay.org is the best collection of resources on the day, recently posted this pretty cool video, shot on the ISS by astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

Even better—here’s an appearance by Douglas Adams himself from the old Letterman show—so glad someone preserved this:

Love the anecdote (Also, I want this tie.)

COVER REVEAL: Meat is Murder (Stonebridge #3) by Chris McDonald

Welcome to The Irresponsible Reader’s part in the Cover Reveal for Chris McDonald’s Meat is Murder! (which means we’re about a month away from me having a pleasant day with the book and probably saying some complimentary things about it). Like the first two books in the Stonebridge Mysteries, it looks pretty sharp. But before we get to the cover down below, but before the picture, I’ve got a few words to share about the book.

Book Blurb

McNulty’s Meats, one of Stonebridge’s oldest businesses, is about to be taken over in a lucrative deal that would make brothers Ron and Kevin very rich men indeed. Unfortunately for them, local activist Tyler Love has other ideas. Convinced that the deal would be bad for the town, he burns the place to the ground and inadvertently kills himself in the process.

At least, that’s what the police think.

Tyler’s mum disagrees and pleads with amateur sleuths Adam and Colin to investigate. Although, going up against the psychopathic McNulty brothers, a rival businessman, a group of hippies, and a girlfriend with secrets of her own might not be such a good idea… Someone has something to hide, and will go to great lengths to keep that secret buried.

Meat is Murder
is the third book in The Stonebridge Mysteries series of Cosy Crime novellas.

Publication date: June 8, 2021

About the series

Stonebridge is a small town on the north coast of Northern Ireland. Most of its inhabitants are friendly, happy people. Most of them… Because bad things happen even in the happiest of places. It’s a good thing, then, that Adam Whyte and Colin McLaughlin call Stonebridge home.

Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of detective shows, a misplaced sense of confidence and a keen desire to see justice done, these two are the closest thing the town has to saviours. Which isn’t that reassuring…

About the Author

Chris McDonaldOriginally hailing from the north coast of Northern Ireland and now residing in South Manchester, Chris McDonald has always been a reader. At primary school, The Hardy Boys inspired his love of adventure before his reading world was opened up by Chuck Palahniuk and the gritty world of crime. A Wash of Black is his first attempt at writing a book. He came up with the initial idea whilst feeding his baby in the middle of the night, which may not be the best thing to admit, considering the content. He is a fan of 5-a-side football, heavy metal and dogs. Whispers in the Dark is the second installment in the DI Erika Piper series, and Chris is currently working on his latest series, The Stonebridge Mysteries, published by Red Dog Press in 2021.


And now…

The Cover

Meat is Murder
The cover designers at Red Dog have done it again.

Again, this book comes out on June 8th, but you can pre-order this now at: Red Dog Press, Amazon, Kobo, or Google (but you should absolutely order from Red Dog directly, the Bezos retirement fund is big enough, help out the publisher).



My thanks to Red Dog Press for the invitation to participate in this reveal and the materials they provided.

Meat is Murder Cover Reveal Banner

The Friday 56 for 5/7/21: A Wanted Man by Rob Parker

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it

from 56% of:
A Wanted Man

A Wanted Man by Rob Parker

We go through all the names quickly, and Jack identifies each one as one of his father’s friends or family members. He can’t identify a couple of them, but the picture is already clear. The first phone is for personal use only – a useful tool for organising the dualities of the life he had chosen.

That poses the inevitable question of the twenty-six names on phone two. Call signs or numeric pseudonyms for twenty-six people who clearly got the special treatment. How best to find out who they are, though? And of course, what was that third phone used for, if not for business or personal? That makes me question if there’s a fourth, that perhaps he had one with him when he was taken. I could ask Jack, but all three phones are identical. ‘IPhone 4S’ in black, ‘32GB’ it says on the back of each. There’s no telling them apart. Even the home screen wallpapers are the same.

PUB DAY REPOST: Robert B. Parker’s Payback by Mike Lupica: Sunny Does Some Dangerous Favors for Some Dear Friends

Payback

Robert P. Parker’s Payback

by Mike Lupica
Series: Sunny Randall, #9

eARC, 352 pg.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2021

Read: April 14-15, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

What’s Payback About?

Sunny’s closest friend, Spike, has got himself in trouble—he needed some financial assistance to keep the doors of his restaurant open (like just about every restaurant in 2020) and let a long-time customer and friend, a hedge fund manager, loan him the money. But when Spike tried to pay off the loan, he learned the hard way that Alex Drysdale wasn’t so much a friend as he was an opportunistic toad, and thanks to clever work on the contract, Spike had defaulted on the loan almost immediately.

Spike has already let his fists do the talking (and broken Drysdale’s nose), but oddly enough, that didn’t help. So, Sunny decides she’s going to figure out a way to get Drysdale to release him. Financial crimes aren’t really Sunny’s forte—much less shady, but not criminal, financial deals—but Spike is family and she figures she can learn as she goes.

She’s barely begun digging into Drysdale and his practices when she gets a call from Lee Farrell who needs a favor. His niece, a student at Taft*, was assaulted and she refuses to talk to the police or Lee. Can Sunny help? Sunny tries to talk to her, but Emily keeps saying it was just a misunderstanding and refuses to explain anything. Lee’s worried about her, Sunny’s concerned and nosy. So while Lee deals with a major homicide investigation, Sunny starts digging into Emily’s life.

* Yup, Taft, the Parker-verse’s all-purpose university for people who don’t go to Harvard.

Before Sunny can really get anywhere with the Drysdale investigation, she’s warned off. THat warning quickly becomes direct threats against her, Spike, Richie’s son, and her father. You have to admit, that’s really not the most clever approach. Sunny warns them all to be careful and works harder to find something. One of the biggest things she finds is a link between the two cases.

Ahh, a Little COVID-19 Fiction

Early on, we’re told that this starts shortly after the pandemic is over and life has gone back to something akin to normal. But vaguely so, especially when this was written, no one had an idea when exactly this would be, so Lupica left things vague.

Also, Spike’s is in trouble because of the impact that COVID has had on restaurants.

I lost count of how many times that Sunny talked about the world falling apart and getting worse. Clearly, this is a product of 2020 (and 2021). I remember hearing and reading authors last year talking about not being sure how to address COVID in their works—if they were even going to. This is probably the best way to do it—acknowledge it happened, look at the changes/difficulties it brought about—and don’t get into the details.

Poor Lee Farrell

This is my biggest beef with the novel—and the more that I think about it, the more it bothers me.

So, Lee’s got a big case that he’s dealing with and a family member in trouble—and he’s still not in the book that much. Belson plays a bigger role than Lee does in the book, which is fine because it’s not like Belson gets a lot of use in the Atkins novels, and he shouldn’t be put out to pasture. But this was a chance for Lee to get to shine and Lupica let it pass by.

I like Lee, and have since Paper Doll (he was one of the few good things in that novel), but Parker never used him all that much—and Lupica does the same. It’s time for Lee Farrell to really get a moment.

Sunny and The Men in Her Life

There are two other things that Lupica inherited from Parker that he’s maintained—but I’d like him to move on. From Family Honor on, there’s been this tension between Sunny’s independence, being able to make it as a female in a male-dominated world/industry and her being dependent on men like Richie and Spike (and a couple of others) to help out when things get dangerous. I can see revisiting the issue from time to time, but the authors have spent so much time on it, the reader has to wonder—why doesn’t Sunny do something about it? Either step up her fitness and martial arts training, or partner up with a female who can handle the shooting and hand-to-hand stuff. They exist.

Similarly is her seemingly everlasting tie to Richie, being unable to let him go—even as it’s clear she needs to, for at least his son’s sake. Her level of commitment to Jesse Stone could use some definition as well, but that’s not going to happen as long as Richie’s around (and, I’m not sure Jesse’s capable of it). Coleman was able to get Jesse to the point where he was able to let go of Jen (a move that was more overdue than Sunny and Jesse). I’d like to see Sunny do something similar, all that therapy she’s received should be enabling her to make some tough choices.

All that said, again, these are inherited themes, ideas, and characteristics. I’m not holding them against Lupica for maintaining it (he can only do so much without getting the fans to rebel). I just think it’d be nice to see.

So, what did I think about Payback?

Lupica is locked-in on this series, he’s got a handle on the characters and the stories he wants to tell and gets it done confidently, smoothly, and with just enough flair to keep the reader hooked and turning pages. This was his best yet. I’d describe his first two novels in this series as “good, for a Sunny Randall novel.” Payback. is doesn’t get the modifier. It’s good, period.

* I’ve got both hardcovers on the shelf next to me, after getting the eARCs from NetGalley. So if that sounds a little more back-handed than I mean that to be, maybe the fact that I shelled out for them takes a bit of the sting out of it.

The prose is crisp. It’s engaging and filled with a Parker-esque clarity and wit. The story is compelling and an interesting reaction to things in the zeitgeist, and the characters are as solidly drawn and executed as they were over two decades ago when Sunny debuted. New readers or established Sunny fans alike will find enough to entertain them and will likely come back for more—just like me. I recommend Payback to you.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from PENGUIN GROUP Putnam via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.


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.

Below Zero (Audiobook) by C. J. Box, David Chandler: Joe Pickett’s 9th Adventure is Almost Impossible to Believe

Before you read on—if you haven’t read the third book in the Joe Pickett series, Winterkill, you probably shouldn’t read anything else in this post. Really, it’s impossible for me to not ruin Winterkill and talk about this book.


Below Zero

Below Zero

by C. J. Box, David Chandler (Narrator)
Series: Joe Pickett, #9

Unabridged Audiobook, 10 hrs., 22 min.
Recorded Books, 2009

Read: March 24-25, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!


Don’t say I didn’t warn you if you haven’t read Winterkill…

What’s Below Zero About?

Joe Pickett’s daughter starts getting text messages from a very unlikely source: April, her foster sister. The sister that Joe watched die in a fire during a horrific FBI raid on a group of survivalists. Joe and Marybeth are skeptical at first—Sheridan is a little skeptical, but she wants to believe. Eventually, they provisionally accept that it is April texting them and Joe heads off to rendezvous with her.

The difficulty comes with April’s traveling companions—she’s fuzzy on the details, but the men she’s with are hurting people. Joe’s able to construct a path of where they’ve been (where they’re headed is pretty murky, though) and pieces together some sort of motive. The victims have been significant polluters in their own way—and he’s pretty sure that one of the killers is an environmental activist and the child of a notorious mobster, who might have been learning a lesson from his father.

Joe now has two goals—track down the person claiming to be April and see if she really is who she claims to be—and learn how she survived, and stop the killings.

The Balancing Act

Behind the murders stands a discussion about environmental concerns vs. real-world solutions vs. way of life in West. This is a theme of the last few books in the series (probably all of the books, it just feels more pronounced). Generally, when I’ve encountered this kind of thing it’s not dealt with very well—the novel preaches at readers about the environment, an unrealistic solution is approved/implemented, or the whole concern is shrugged off (either because it’s too late to do any good* or because the characters don’t accept the legitimacy of the concerns. I love the way Box does this and I wish more authors would learn from him.

* Yes, I realize that it might be too late, but we’re not going to focus on that right now.

Poor Old Lu

I don’t want to say that I’ve disliked Lucy, Joe’s younger daughter. But I’ve never been taken with her as I have been with the rest of the family. She’s too much like her grandmother I guess. She’s about clothes and nice things, not about wildlife or her family or whatever it is that makes Sheridan an interesting character.

But her reaction to the possibility of April being alive? What’s more, her reaction to Sheridan being the sole point of contact between Joe and April? It just broke my heart. I actually wanted her to get to tag along with her dad and sister for a change. I hope this is a sign of things to come and that I finally get the chance to get invested in the character.

David Chandler

I’ve got nothing to say here that I haven’t said before. Chandler is Pickett in my mind. When the TV series starts, I’m going to be comparing Michael Dorman to him (and I think Dorman’s not going to fare too well).

So, what did I think about Below Zero?

I hated, hated, hated the way that Box brought April back. This isn’t General Hospital or Days of Our Lives, after all. Also, it ruined some of the gut-punch of an ending of Winterkill. But by the end, Box had won me over and convinced me that it wasn’t the worst idea he’d ever had.

I do wonder how the traveling murderer story would have worked without the April aspect—part of me would have liked a closer focus on that. But I don’t know how much I’d have cared about them without April as a point-of-entry into that story.

I’m curious about where Joe and the family go from here. It’s possible I’ll totally get over my antagonism toward the April story within a book or two, it all depends on what Box does from here.


3.5 Stars

2021 Library Love Challenge 2021 Audiobook Challenge

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.

Dead Secret by Noelle Holten: Maggie Has to Juggle Several Balls at Once—Can She Keep it Up AND Catch a Killer?

Dead Secret

Dead Secret

by Noelle Holten
Series: DC Maggie Jamieson, #4

Kindle Edition, 448 pg.
HarperCollins Publishers, 2021

Read: April 23-26, 2021


Before I dive in, I’d fully intended on having this posted five days ago, but I had to keep trashing paragraphs because I’d wander into a spoiler or three, and by the time I’d sanitized them enough to post, they were worthless. This has resulted in a shorter post than I expected, and one that may not feel up to my typical thoroughness for this series. There’s a lot to chew on in this novel—more than anything since Dead Inside—but this isn’t the place to talk about it.

The team were deflated – long nights, no solid leads – morale down – they needed to catch a break.

While they waited for more information, Maggie spent the majority of her day chasing up the curfew company, cross-referencing the prison tattoos – which was proving to be a very tedious job – and chasing up Social Care.

While waiting on hold, she recalled a conversation she’d had with her brother about how funny she found it that a large majority of the public believed that everything in a murder investigation was so exciting and moved quickly because of the way that it was portrayed in movies and TV – however a big part of her job focused on calls, computer work, research, and reports. She wished it was the opposite!

What’s Dead Secret About?

The book opens in the final fleeting moments of a young man’s life, he’s scared, beaten, bloody, and desperate for help. And then he’s no longer scared or desperate again. Found in a woody area near an industrial estate, his face has some dots drawn on it, but aside from that, there are no other clues—assuming they are one.

Maggie and the rest of her team have barely begun to get into this investigation when their DI drops a bomb on them—their DCI has gone missing. It’d been a couple of days since anyone had heard from him, so some officers went to check him—they found no one at the home but did find evidence that a violent crime had been committed there. Given their staffing levels, they couldn’t have some detectives work the missing persons cases and others focus on the homicide, so each detective on the team would be involved in each. Watching the detectives try to balance these cases—which primarily means not dropping everything to focus on DCI Hastings and his family—is good to see, and a needed reminder that actual detectives frequently have to juggle multiple cases at once—unlike their fictional counterparts.

Meanwhile, the domestic abuse shelter that Lucy Sherwood has been trying to start is on the verge of opening. But days before, a “battered and semi-conscious woman in her doorway” led her to get an early start. The young woman doesn’t speak at the beginning and appears to be reading lips when dealing with the paramedics. She won’t interact with the police, however. It is impossible not to feel all kinds of sympathy toward this woman—and Lucy definitely feels that way. This storyline is a fantastic way to follow up on Dead Inside, the first book in the series, and show how far Lucy’s comes since then and why her center is needed.

Realism

One thing that seems to jump out at the reader of this series is how authentic the procedural elements feel. Sure, events and characters are heightened, clearly played for greater narrative tension, and the like. But you can’t avoid how real this world, characters, and situations seem. Like the general public in that quotation above, novel readers are frequently given just “the exciting” portions of the procedural, but here, we see the drudgery, the combing through reports, and endless research before substantial advances in the investigation are made. While showing the reader that research and paperwork characterizes modern policing, Holten still allows her characters to have small maverick streaks that propel the action forward a little faster than the actual procedure can.

Along the same lines, all I know about the British probation system comes from this series and Helen Fitzgerald’s Worst Case Scenario. I think if I did, I’d have a better appreciation for scenes in each of these novels. Lacking that (and the drive to do research), I just have to assume that Holten was paying attention during the almost two decades she worked as a probation officer and is giving us something fairly reality-based.

One Random Thought

There are six times in the novel that “youths” is used, like: “youths in the area”, “gang of youths”, and so on. Maybe it’s a cultural thing, but I couldn’t help but laugh. It was like Maggie had been replaced by Schimdt. It’s not worth mentioning, really. But in a book as grim as this, you take the smiles where you can get them.*

* See also two surprising, but effective, TV references. I don’t remember this series doing that.

Give Her a Break

Several times throughout the novel, Maggie thinks about how tired she is—and how little downtime she’s had between major cases. She didn’t get a lot of time between these cases and the previous books (although she had even less between Books 2 and 3). Maggie needs to catch her breath if she’s going to be any good to anybody. Her personal life is a mess, and I’m worried that her professional life is close it one, too. Her physical and mental reserves have to be beyond spent—and you can’t help but wonder as you read this book (and the previous one) if she wouldn’t have picked up on something sooner if she’d been coming at things with a fresh mind.

It’s not much of a spoiler to say that Maggie isn’t going to get a whole lot of downtime before Book 5’s case takes over her life. But what comes after that? As far as I can tell*, this is intended to be a five-book series—so hopefully Maggie gets to take that holiday she’s been thinking about. Even more hopefully, we get to have at least a few more books with her.

* I’m prepared to be shown that I’m wrong—and hope I am.

So, what did I think about Dead Secret?

I’m a fan of this series—so obviously, I went into this book expecting to like it. But any reader knows that sometimes those expectations aren’t met. Thankfully, it wasn’t long at all before I knew Holten had, once again, provided her readers with a great read.

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—and them not necessarily wanting to follow all the evidence that points to the DCI not being the kind of man they all thought. Just those two storylines would be enough. But then Holten throws in that third storyline—here’s 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.

I’d largely figured out who the killer was and how it was happening pretty early on. I wasn’t prepared for the motive behind the killing until it was clear. Holten also did a good job of revealing enough for readers who wanted to identify the killer early while at the same time writing things clearly enough that even people who didn’t want that revelation would be able to enjoy the novel.

This is Holten at her best—I also see this having better commercial appeal than the previous novels in the series and I hope I’m right. Can you read this without having read the previous three novels? Yes. I think you’d be better off starting with the first book, but the important thing is that you start somewhere with this series.


4 1/2 Stars

The Art of Violence by S. J. Rozan: Bill Smith is Hired to Prove His Client IS a Murderer

The Art of Violence

The Art of Violence

by S. J. Rozan
Series: Lydia Chin & Bill Smith, #13

Hardcover, 275 pg.
Pegasus Crime, 2020

Read: April 7-8, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

… he said, “Aren’t you going to tell me I’m not the serial killer type?”

“I don’t know that.”

“I guess in some weird way that’s a compliment.”

“It’s not. Why did you come here, Sam? Anyone else, I might think he was trying to impress me, but not you.”

“I’m not the type?” A sly smile.

“I hope you didn’t come for help leaving town, laying low, something like that. If you killed those women, you know I’m going to have to turn you in.”

“Good luck.”

“I have the guns,” I reminded him.

“You won’t need them but they won’t help. I already tried it.”

“Tried what?”

“Turning myself in. The detective told me to get lost. She said I wasn’t the type.

What’s The Art of Violence About?

Five years ago, Sam Tabor was sentenced to prison following a homicide. Bill Smith worked for Sam’s lawyer during the case, and was convinced Sam should’ve been put in a treatment center instead of prison—but Sam refused.

Now that he’s been “discovered” as an important artist, several agents and arts worked to get him released from prison. That happened a few weeks ago, and now two women have been killed. Sam’s convinced that he’s the killer, although he doesn’t remember killing these women—or even encountering them. He hires BIll to prove that he did commit the murders, so he can be sent back to prison for life where he can’t hurt anyone. Bill’s skeptical (as is the investigating detective) about Sam’s guilt, but takes the case so he can make sure Sam’s treated right and that his fears are investigated correctly.

So instead of looking for evidence to exonerate Sam, Bill’s looking for things to implicate him (technically, Bill’s still looking for ways to exonerate him, too). This is a very strange reason to hire a PI, and I loved this premise.

PI/Client Relations

Most people in Sam’s life treat him as two things—a murderer with psychological issues and an artistic genius (with shades of a cash cow). His brother and sister-in-law see him as a burden/obligation as well as a murderer with psychological issues. The police are looking for an excuse to lock him up again, hopefully for forever this time.

Bill Smith (and later, Lydia), on the other hand, treats him as a person. He doesn’t dance around Sam’s past, but Bill has always figured he’d paid a dearer price for that than warranted. He doesn’t want Sam to be railroaded by a vengeful detective or his own guilt. He certainly has no ideas about taking advantage of Sam’s wealth, status, or fame. He simply wants to find out what happened to these women.

In this light, Bill reminded me of Elvis Cole with Peter Alan Nelsen and Spenser with the various sports stars he’s worked for or Jill Joyce. They’re clients first and foremost, people who deserve to be treated right—and being celebrities is so far down the list of things they care about, that it almost doesn’t matter. Bill stands in good company there, and something about that way of dealing with a VIP has always appealed to me.

The Role of Art

Lydia and Bill find themselves involved in a crime involving the art world yet again, I can’t think of another detective that spends as much time in this world as these two. Typically, novels focusing on artists, galleries, and so on don’t do much for me. But the way this pair brushes up against this world, not only do I not mind, I find it appealing. I can see why Rozan or other authors find this world appealing.

One of Sam’s few friends in this particular case is a photographer. As hard as it is to give the flavor or an impression of a painting in prose, it seems more difficult to capture a photograph (aside from saying “it was a photo of X”), and Rozan doesn’t spend a lot of time describing individual photographs but she does a great job on the subject and tone of them, instead. I’m pretty glad that there were no pictures included I’m not sure I could’ve taken it (the novel’s title gives a hint about the direction of the photos). A picture may be worth a thousand words, but Rozan doesn’t need that many to get the reader to have the reaction she needs.

By now, it was half past eight. Traffic choked the streets, and pedestrians wove complex patterns on the sidewalks. All traces of last night’s mist had burned away under the April sun. The slanting whiteness of the light, the thin freshness of the day, dazzled me.

Lydia’s suggested any number of times that I consider changing my ways, getting up earlier, taking this in more often. She thinks it’s laziness and old habs that keep me from it. But she’s wrong. This unsullied light, this bright vision, they’re beautiful, but they’re false. They paint over the truth. They promise something they can’t deliver. It’s not until the day gets older, wearier, that it stops making the effort to lie.

The Subtle Slow Burn

Rozan says so little about the non-P. I. relationship between Bill and Lydia, and yet says so much. It’s been clear how Bill has felt about Lydia since the first book in the series, but it’s been a little harder to read Lydia. And Rozan hasn’t been as forthcoming as other mystery novelists when it comes to that sort of thing—and by other, I mean “every other one I can think of.” The Lydia/Bill romance arc is definitely a “less is more” kind of thing. Which is pretty much how Lydia would prefer it, I think.

I’d really prefer that she was less circumspect about it, but I really appreciate her approach to it. Which seems like a contradiction, but it’s not. If I were calling the shots, we’d get a lot more detail about what’s going on between them—and how long that’s been the case. That said, the way that Rozan plays with the audience’s desires/expectations, and instead just gives the reader hints, winks, and nudges work so well. Not just because it is so clearly what Lydia would like and leaves it all to the reader to piece things together. Yet, there have been developments in the relationship and we learn a lot about it (at least by Ronzan’s standards) in this book.

Yet again, the angel on my right shoulder told me to call Grimaldi, and the guy on the other side said I’d get more accomplished on my own. The right-side guy wanted to know if this was about getting things accomplished, or if it was personal. The left-side guy told him to guess.

So, what did I think about The Art of Violence?

The fact that this is the thirteenth book in the series that I’ve read, you probably have a pretty good idea of what I was thinking going in—I fully expected to like this one and I did.

First off, it’s from Bill’s perspective this time, and those usually feel a little different, and we get different details reported than we would have were the shoe on the other foot. I always enjoy the bouncing back and forth between the two narrators. Particularly if the police are involved, Bill has a strange relationship with the police, and it’s always good to see.

There’s a good puzzle to chew on here*, while watching Bill make a nuisance of himself with the people in Sam’s life who are convinced they’re far too good to deal with a P.I. Lydia’s around to smooth things over a bit, but not enough. It’s a dynamic I don’t imagine I’ll get tired of seeing. The (too few) scenes where it’s just Bill and Lydia talking to each other, are again, the highlight of the novel—I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again I don’t care what these two are talking about I’ll gladly read it. The Art of Violence would make a good jumping-on point to this series (almost all of them would be, come to think of it).

* Okay, I pegged the guilty party pretty early on, but not all the whys and hows involved. This is about the journey Bill and Lydia take to get the answers, more than it is the puzzle. Either way, the book scored pretty high on those).

These are characters you like to see in action, with a client who’s more interesting than most of those in a P.I. novel. you get a couple of good surprises out of Lydia’s mom, too. There’s really a lot to commend this book, as is to be expected from this series. You should give it a try.


4 Stars

2021 Library Love Challenge

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 Friday 56 for 4/21/21: Dead Secret by Noelle Holten

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it

from Page 56 of:
Dead Secret

Dead Secret by Noelle Holten

(a little long, but couldn’t see a way to shorten it)

When the steam came out of the spout, Ronnie picked up the kettle and then poured the boiling water on her arm.

What the hell?

Ronnie didn’t even flinch. It was like she didn’t feel any pain. She placed the kettle back, used a tea towel to dry her arm, and covered it up with the sleeve of the cardigan. Vicki turned and looked at Lucy. They waited until they saw Ronnie leave the kitchen, and Lucy stood and headed to the kitchen.

Maybe I was wrong.

At the counter she touched the kettle.

Ouch!

She sucked her index finger and turned on the cold tap, holding the sore digit beneath the running water. Lucy looked up at the camera and raised a brow. She knew Vicki would be watching.

Blood Trail (Audiobook) by C. J. Box, David Chandler: Who Hunts the Hunters?

Blood Trail

Blood Trail

by C. J. Box, David Chandler (Narrator)
Series: Joe Pickett, #8

Unabridged Audiobook, 9 hrs, 5 mins.
Recorded Books, 2008

Read: February 10-12, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

What’s Blood Trail About?

Since Governor Rulon re-hired Joe Pickett and made him sort of a Game Warden-at-Large, his life has improved—he and Marybeth have their own home, no longer living in State housing, or at his father-in-law’s. Nor is he really as subject to the whims of Randy Pope, his director. But there’s a price to be paid for this: he’s pretty much at Rulon’s beck and call.

This time, thankfully, he’s called to his former territory—a hunter has been found dead. It’s the beginning of Elk Season, so it’s not that surprising. But…this isn’t your typical dead hunter. This man has been shot and field dressed like an elk. Joe’s garnered a reputation for stumbling into a solution for things like this, and Rulon needs that quickly—people are getting antsy about the killings and pressure is mounting to cancel Elk Season (which would have horrible consequences on Wyoming’s economy). Joe’s been named to a task force with the FBI, and the local sheriff. Not only are they out to preserve hunting season, but they also need to head off a mounting anti-hunting protest movement that is taking advantage of this situation.

Randy Pope decides that this is important enough that he comes to supervise Joe personally—and takes an oddly active and proactive role in fieldwork (which no one has ever accused him of being fit for). I don’t know about anyone else who reads this series, but there isn’t a time that Randy Pope has been around when I haven’t wanted Joe to punch him in the nose (or Marybeth, or Sheridan even), and that’s taken to the nth degree for most of this book.

So not only does Joe have to find a killer (not really his job, ubt he seems good at it) for political and social reasons, he has to put up with antagonism from local law enforcement who resent his role, get micromanaged by an officious twerp who is even less suited for this than he is, and he ends up having to deal with two individuals from his past that he’d rather expected never to have to deal with again over the course of the investigation. I’m not going to identify these people, but neither Joe or Marybeth are prepared to have them in their lives again, frankly, I wasn’t ready either.

We Should Talk About Nate

I get into a spoiler in a vague way here. Feel free to skip to the next header.

For various and sundry spoilery reasons, Joe decides that he needs Nate Romanowski’s tracking help. Now, Nate’s been in FBI custody for a few months, ever since the FBI double-crossed Joe at the end of Free Fire. Given the urgent nature of things, Rulon is able to finagle a release into Joe’s custody.

And then Nate ditches Joe for days. Joe, the good friend, covers for him (he’s also covering for himself and his own ability to maintain custody). Sure, he ultimately comes back and pitches in. But it’s pretty clear he didn’t need that much time to do his thing—I get that Nate has his own way of working and that Nate isn’t that terribly concerned with people who aren’t him (what does he care if someone’s killing hunters?)—but he should care about his friend and the deal that got him out of custody, right?

I lost a lot of sympathy for Nate here. And a good deal for Joe, too, later in the book when it comes to Nate.

A Low-Stakes Antagonist

Now that Joe lives in town, in a normal house with a yard and no need to consult a government budget officer for upkeep on his home, it falls to Joe to take care of things. He has a neighbor now (I forget his name, one of the hazards of audiobooks is that I can’t look it up easily). This man is retired and is far too concerned with his own yard and upkeep, and carries that over to Joe’s.

We don’t spend a lot of time with him, but it’s easy to see that he’s a burr in Joe’s side—a constant problem, a constant annoyance. Sure, Joe’s off working for the governor and trying to stop a killer, but surely he could take the time to mow his lawn, like a decent citizen.

This book needed a little lightness, and this crank delivers it.

A Word About the Narration

At this point, I really don’t know what to say about David Chandler, he’s great at this.

However, ,I have one thing to say. For most of the book, I assumed the killer was one of two people. And despite the fact that we get the killer’s POV frequently, it was still pretty unclear which one of the two it was (assuming I was right). Until about halfway through in one scene, Chandler makes 1 choice when he reads one line. And we “hear” the character in a voice Chandler would use for that character, not just the generic Killer’s POV voice he’d been using throughout. And then I knew exactly who it was.

I understand why he made that choice. But, man. It ruined things a little bit for me.

So, what did I think about Blood Trail?

This was, hands down, my favorite entry in the series. The tension, the huge character events, the motive for the crime, and the way it ended…I can’t explain all my reasoning without ruining the novel.

But man…this is the standard I’ll be judging books in this series by. Is it going to be that impactful for new readers? No, but it would work as a jumping-on point if you’re not in the mood to read the seven previous books.

Blood Trail is a great entry in this solid series, with entries like this, it’s easy to see why it’s lasted for twenty-one (so far) books. Check it out.


4 Stars

2021 Library Love Challenge 2021 Audiobook Challenge

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.

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