Category: Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller Page 115 of 154

The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

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On December 30, 2016

In A-F, Authors, F-J, Fiction, Fox and O'Hare, Janet Evanovich, Lee Goldberg, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Why this took me so long to post, I’ll never know…it’s bad enough that it took me a month and a half to read it.
—

The PursuitThe Pursuit

by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Series: Fox and O’Hare, #5

Hardcover, 304 pg.
Bantam, 2016

Read: September 2, 2016

“I’ll send your money, but don’t think about running out on me,” Dragan said. “Or I’ll torture and kill both of you.”

Nick shook his head. “You can’t go ten minutes without making a threat, can you?”

“It’s called leadership,” Dragan said. “Stay in touch.”

Following the cliff-hanger ending to The Scam, I wondered if this book would shake off the fairly well-established outline for these books and instead, we’d get Kate globe-trotting from exotic locale to exotic locale hunting them down. Thankfully, Evanovich and Goldberg had something better in mind (not that something like my idea wouldn’t have been fun), while pretty much sticking to the typical outline.

Nick’s kidnapping ends up setting the stage for taking down an international thief and would-be terrorist. This thief, Dragan, is the anti-Nick. He’s about profit, violence, and more profit. There’s no style, no fun, no zest . . . But Dragan knows what he needs to accomplish a couple of his biggest heists: Nick.

Naturally, he gets more than he bargains for (and I don’t just mean Kate). Of the various criminals, masterminds, thieves and all around nasty folks that these two have taken down or encountered, Dragan is the worst. Thankfully, Evanovich and Goldberg are able to balance the threat and the humor, the romance and the robbery.

It all comes down to relationships: which is really why we come back to this series. Kate and Nick (I’m gladdened/relieved/a little surprised by where they have the relationship now). Nick and Jake. Kate and Jake. The rest of the team with Nick and/or Kate. Jake and anyone he comes into contact with (if we could get some young, active duty Jake stories, that’d be awesome). I like the way that their team is doing non-con work together — despite their best intentions, Nick and Kate have formed an actual team. There are a couple of additions this go-around (one is a blast from the past, but still, new to this side of the road).

I think there’s a misfire here — there’s a new foil introduced into Kate’s life, an FBI agent who is to work with her without knowing about this little side-project. He’s a little humorous, but mostly annoying. And his existence seems to run counter to the people at the top of the FBI sanctioning (however unofficially) what’s going on here. I’m prepared for them to convince me otherwise, but until they do, I’m going to groan whenever he shows up.

The writing is crisp as ever, it seems so smooth and effortless that it has to take a lot of work. There’s a great info-dump (because that’s actually a thing, rare as it may be) about an infectious disease. Not only does it inform the reader, but it’s written in a way to flesh out a character and add a sense of threat to the narrative.

There’s an editing blunder in the final few chapters that took me out of the moment (using Kate’s name instead of one of Dragan’s crew), that was oddly reassuring to me — even the big publishers stumble, not just the small press/self-pubbed guys like I’ve been reading so much lately.

I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned Harry Harrison’s Slippery Jim diGriz when talking about this series, but this is Nick Fox at his Slippery Jimmiest (Kate is a little like Angelina diGriz, too, come to think of it — but not as much). Fans of either should look into the other. The Pursuit is another solidly entertaining adventure in this series. Really looking forward to what’s next.

Oh, I should add that if you’re a fan of eggs, you might want to eat a few extra before reading this book, because it’ll be tough to eat one for a while. Trust me on this one.

—–

4 Stars

Follow the Dotted Line by Nancy Hersage

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On December 27, 2016

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Follow the Dotted LineFollow the Dotted Line

by Nancy Hersage

Kindle Edition, 326 pg.
Kindle Press, 2016

Read: December 17, 2016


Mitch’s assistant opens the mail one day and finds a styrofoam container (the kind fast food joints used to widely use) holding the remains of Mitch’s father. His fairly new wife had sent them via the USPS with a note saying, leave me alone. So Mitch calls his younger brother — a guitarist for a country band to tell him the news. Ian calls one sister, who calls the other, who calls their mother, Andy. Clearly a close-knit family. Mark was a jerk, dumped his family and did little for them afterwards. They responded in kind.

Still, your ex- (that you really never got over) or your father dies, and it gives you pause. Particularly when you’re mailed his ashes with no details about his death. Eventually, curiosity (and the slight possibility of an inheritance gets the better of the kids and they decide to investigate a bit, and get Andy to do it. Andy dives in with both feet — eventually bringing her best friend/accountant, Lorna and her nephew, Harley Davidson (long story). There’s really nothing to commend Andy for this gig — she’s a TV movie writer in-between projects/facing retirement. But, there’s something to say for availability and commitment, I guess.

This is a comedic mystery — heavy on the comedy. It is easy as pie to correctly guess/predict every beat in the mystery once Andy gets underway. But Hersage is a competent writer, and hits her marks well, tells them in an entertaining way and keeps the reader engaged. So who cares if it’s that easy?

The characters of Andy, Lorna, and the children are a lot of fun — and its with them that Hersage shines. I liked them all, enjoyed their interchanges, etc. Even the villain was told in an entertaining way — was a villain, did evil things and got some just desserts, but still fit tonally with the whole. I wasn’t crazy about Harley — it’d be very easy for people belonging to a couple of religious groups to be offended by him, but he was clearly written to be the object of mockery. So I wasn’t offended (even if I am , but I couldn’t care about him as a character, you know?

On a very minor note, one of the locations for this story was a city about 10 minutes away from my home — nice to see it in a novel and not used as a punchline. Thanks for that, Ms. Hersage!

I’m not really that convinced that this was a good book — but it entertained me, and I think it’ll entertain most readers. So, if nothing else there’s that. It’s funny, it has some well-executed (if predictable) twists, and for something in this genre, it’s pretty violence-free (I’ve read bloodier cozies).

Disclaimer: I received this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion, it had no bearing on anything I said. This is very overdue, and I’m really sorry about that — and that had no bearing on anything, either.

—–

3 Stars

To Kill a Shadow by Nathan Ronen

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On December 27, 2016

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

To Kill a ShadowTo Kill a Shadow

by Nathan Ronen

Kindle Edition, 269 pg.
2016

Read: December 19 – 21, 2016


(other than the author link, the links above don’t work, because I wasn’t given any and can’t pull up anything on google other than goodreads or amazon pages — I’ll fix them if possible)

Ostensibly, what we have here is an espionage thriller from the point of view of a Mossad operative, juggling intelligence operations, internal politics, revenge, and a messy personal life. I liked that idea, I like the concept, and think I could’ve liked this book if that’s what it delivered. Instead we get a collection of half-baked ideas, story snippets scattered around with an attempt made to squish them into a coherent whole.

Arik Bar Nathan is a Mossad agent — and apparently can’t tell anyone in his family that. His marriage and relationships with his son and daughter have been the major casualties of that. Not that his relationship with his younger sister and mother have fared all that well, either. Events conspire to get him to realize just how badly he’s messed things up, and some Oprah-level advice enabled him to start the process of rebuilding things with his kids. This is quite possibly the most successful part of the book.

The heads of Israeli Intelligence (and those close to them) and the Prime Minister all apparently have the emotional maturity of middle-school girls — they fly off the handle for no reason, have the shortest fuses you can imagine, yell and scream at the drop of a hat, and play petty political games dealing with pettier personal gripes. If people were this mercurial in the real world, the Middle East would be in worse shape than it is. Somehow, these characters are able to pull off a couple of major operations without major loss of life and stability.

There are a few other storylines, too. Like a love story that defies logic, and can only work because this super-spy is super-gullible when it comes to this woman, and because the reader is willing to suspend every once of disbelief.

There is no sense of urgency to anything, really. Well, I take that back — if there’s an event, say, Arik’s mother having a medical crisis, or someone being shot — there’s a lot of hustle and bustle surrounding that. But as soon as the immediate situation is addressed, the issue is put on the back burner and ignored. I understand that a lot of intelligence operations are about timing, patience, waiting for dots to be connected and opportunities to arise. But can you tell as story about that without seeming to ignore the issues while waiting for opportunities? Absolutely. If you know there’s an assassin in a small country targeting one man, you should maybe, I don’t know…hunt for him. Especially if the target is supposed to be a cracker-jack spy.

There is a subplot that shows up for one chapter centering on a secondary character and then disappear — other than offering a distraction from the story, there’s no purpose for its inclusion. Even that secondary character acts pretty differently in this chapter than he does throughout the novel.

Most of the characters are not much more than sketches — there’s no life to them. They’re almost well-developed, a few are almost complex — but Ronen leaves them at almost. Those characters at the beginning of NCIS or Bones that find the dead bodies to kick off episodes are better drawn than just about all of these.*

I do think that Ronen had a bunch of cool things running around in his head — some to do with espionage, some to do with a spy putting his personal life back together, some to do with descendants of the Holocaust finding peace — but he didn’t know how to execute them in a narrative. I couldn’t connect with anyone or any story, but I really wanted to. I honestly didn’t know what I was going to say about this book when I started writing this post — I’ve been trying to come up with a reason to recommend this one, but I can’t.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion — it clearly didn’t impact things.

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* That’s not a huge insult, really. They pack a lot of character into those couple of minutes.

—–

2 Stars

October 32 by Larry Rodness

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On December 20, 2016

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

October 32October 32

by Larry Rodness

Kindle Edition, 230 pg.
Deer Hawk Publications, 2015

Read: December 13, 2016


Alexander Malefant is a traveling life insurance agent who comes into a small town on October 31st. He witnesses a few events in a local county festival — pie competitions, largest pumpkin contest, apple bobbing, and so on — an exercise in small-=town civic pride and rivalry. The first person he meets in town intrigues him, especially when she’s accused of being a witch by a kid.

It’s not like he took it seriously, it just struck him as odd. Not long after that, he sees an apple-bobbing child being held under the water by something/someone that no one can see. The “witch” rescues him (no spells involved), and issues a warning about something happening in town. She’s promptly ignored by everyone and the festivities resume, as does Alexander’s sales day.

Once evening comes, a sales visit ends strangely when the family’s children go missing. It doesn’t take long to discover that other children are missing — not just a few, but every child (including teenagers). Alex (like everyone in town), gets wrapped up in the search. He’s also a suspect in the disappearances (like many people — especially the strangers).

To the reader, it’s pretty clear that no one is going to find a mundane explanation for the disappearance — it takes the people going through it longer. Which makes sense.

This is well-told, well-paced with a strong voice. Rodness took a bunch of long-standing ideas and combined then in an effective, creepy and entertaining way. The characters were well drawn, and I regretted not getting to spend more time with some of them. I wanted a couple of more chapters at the end (not that we were cheated in the ending, I just wanted a bit more following it). All in all, a fun read.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion about it. Note that the word is “honest,” not “timely” — I should have read this months ago, sorry, Mr. Rodness.

—–

3 Stars

Dead Down East by Carl Schmidt

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On December 15, 2016

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Dead Down EastDead Down East

by Carl Schmidt
Series: Jesse Thorpe, #1

Kindle Edition, 244 pg.
Carl Schmidt, 2016

Read: December 8 – 9, 2016


Jesse Thorpe is a carpenter and member of a local band, who happens to be a P. I. on the side. The P. I. part doesn’t seem to take up too much of his time or draw much attention to itself, few people in his life know that’s one of his professions. Still, he’s had a few clients, taken care of a few cases — enough to give him some confidence in what he does. Then one day, a fishing trip is interrupted by a former client, who just found herself in the middle of circumstances surrounding the murder of her married lover. Who happens — well, happened — to be the Governor of Maine.

Maybe Jesse could use a little more experience.

It doesn’t take long before Jesse is working for his former client and two other people to investigate the murder, while the FBI and local police are stymied. Jesse’s client isn’t the only one that the Governor had an affair with, and the investigation into the affairs keeps Jesse busy and turns up plenty of motives for murder. It’ll take all of Jesse’s creativity, and the efforts of a motley crew of clients, bandmates, his sexy girlfriend, a friendly policeman, and a lotta luck for Jesse to clear the innocent and make sure the guilty pay.

I really don’t think the psychic adds anything beyond a chuckle or two, but that could just be me.

There were a few places where the book could’ve used some editing and proofreading — but only one that took me out of the scene, so I’m not going to get into it. Well, there was also the repeated use of “FBI Officers” instead of “Agents,” but that was easy enough to chuckle about and move on.

The first couple of chapters were difficult to wade through — dialogue seemed to be more about short speeches than anything, and the first few people talking about the murder sounded like they were contributing to or reading a news release about it. But once Jesse gets hired and things start to happen, Schmidt settles in and the writing improves. The only complaint I have after this is that he tends to over-explain things — especially the humor. He needs to trust himself and his readers a bit more and dial that back.

There’s not much more to say, Dead Down East is a pretty good mystery with a cast of characters that I’d enjoy seeing more of. Give Jesse a shot.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion — which influenced me not one whit, but I do appreciate it. I’m sorry that I filed it under “December Reads” and not “October Reads” like I’d said I would.

—–

3 Stars

A Few Quick Questions With…Nicky Peacock

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On December 12, 2016

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Urban Fantasy, YA/MG/Children's Books

Earlier today, I blogged about Nicky Peacock’s Lost in Wonderland, not only did she send me her book, she agreed to take part in the little Q&A. Not only does she write a fun book, but she helps me generate content — a couple of my favorite traits in people. Hope you enjoy her answers, I did.

Tell me a little about your road to publication.
It’s been a long and bumpy road and, to be honest, I’m still not at my final destination yet. I’d like to write for a living, and right now that’s not a reality. I have to fit in writing with a full-time job. My dream would be to wake up every morning and know that I had all day to write and plot and socialise online with readers and other authors.

I’d always wanted to be an author; I can’t remember a time I didn’t. I’m passionate about stories, but unfortunately, I tended to lose excitement before I finished anything! I wrote a lot of beginnings and not many endings, so never sold anything. I then found the short story market. Thanks to eBooks it’s thriving and finishing a short story is much easier than a 90,000-word novel, so I wrote them for a few years. Next thing I knew I had over 35 stories published and thought I’d better start writing something longer and my first novella, Bad Blood came tumbling out of my imagination.
What was the genesis of this book/novel? Of all the dozens of ideas bouncing around your cranium — what was it about this idea that made you say, “Yup — this is the one for me.”?
It was always in my head, but last year was Alice in Wonderland‘s 150th anniversary, so I thought the time had come to get Lost in Wonderland out and set it free upon the unsuspecting world. I write YA fiction and had read lots of books about spies and the like, but wanted to take it one step further with teens who bait and catch serial killers. There’s a rather disturbing statistic that, right now, there are at least 3 active serial killers in the UK every year (The UK is about the size of just one US state, so that’s even scarier math!) and very few are caught. It boggles the mind to think of how technological advanced we are, but still can’t nail down these devils preying on the innocent. In my book, Wonderland is a vigilante agency set up to do just that, to work above the law and sometimes even under it, and to do whatever it takes to stop serial killers. The Lewis Carroll connection is through the founders of Wonderland, their daughter Alice was murdered, and the killer was only caught when they took the law into their own vengeful hands.
What’s the one (or two) book/movie/show in the last 5 years that made you say, “I wish I’d written that.”?
I’d probably have to say Twilight. Vampires are my favorite monster, and although it didn’t break the bank with uniqueness, the author really developed her world and the characters in it. This is something that can be lacking with vampire stories as they are so larger than life, the creatures themselves can act as a crutch for a storyline so the writer doesn’t bother to delve any deeper. Also, it made a tonne of money, and I’m not too proud to say that I could really use even a fraction of that right now!
What is it about YA/”Teen” fiction that attracts you? Are all your works targeted to that audience?
I do some work for adult audiences (wait, does that sound rude? LOL) But I enjoy writing for teens. Their books have come a long way since The Famous Five and to be honest, you don’t even need to pull your punches that much when it comes to violence anymore. I’d hate to think that I’d written anything patronizing to my readers or even unrealistic – even when my subject matter is anything but real. There’s also the double dip effect in this market where adult readers will buy teen books too so you can gain more exposure an author.

The YA market is very loyal. I’d like to think that my readers, as they get older will still want to read my books.
I’ve often heard that writers (or artists in general) will forget hundreds of positive reviews but always remember the negative — what’s the worst thing that someone’s said about one of your books, and has it altered your approach to future books?
I’m very lucky in that the majority of my reviews are good. It can be frustrating when reviewers effectively ‘mark you down’ for opposite opinions, for example saying the book was too descriptive and then saying it wasn’t descriptive enough. I also get annoyed when someone gives me a low star rating but doesn’t put a review with it, that way I never know why they didn’t like it and what I could change in the future to help my work.

One of the things that reviewers have said about Lost in Wonderland is that they wish it had been longer. I’m currently writing the second book in the series, The Assassin of Oz and am making this longer now to make up for it.
Thank you so much for having me here today. If you’d like to find me online:

Blog:   Twitter: Y A Facebook Page:   UK Amazon Author Page: 

US Amazon Author page:   Good Reads: Tumblr:  Authorgraph:
Thanks for your time — and the book. Looking forward to what happens next.

Lost in Wonderland by Nicky Peacock

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On December 12, 2016

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, YA/MG/Children's Books

Lost in WonderlandLost in Wonderland

by Nicky Peacock
Series: The Twisted and The Brave, #1

Kindle Edition, 124 pg.
Evernight Teen, 2016

Read: November 30, 2016


This story focuses on Kayla — a young woman who looks years younger than she is (young enough to be appealing to the Humbert Humberts of the world as well as old enough to come across as a young co-ed), which is helpful in her vocation. She’s basically bait for serial predators (who the authorities can’t/haven’t done anything to) as part of her work with Wonderland. Wonderland is a group run by former federal agents bankrolled by a largely mysterious billionaire. Each “Wonderlander” goes by a code name derived from the Lewis Carroll book, and can quote sections relevant to their moniker (and recognize others quoting their parts). She and her colleagues — Rabbit and Chesire (Kayla’s Mouse) — lure the killers/molesters somewhere, take them out and then have someone come in clean up after them.

Her brother, Shilo, is locked up in a Mental Health facility for a handful of reasons, but the largest is his insistence that a man who dresses in orange is his constant companion who tells him what he should do. No one else can see or hear Mr. Custard, naturally, so Shilo is on the receiving end of all sorts of treatments. Neither the drugs, the talk therapy, or anything else seems to be working — Mr. Custard is still there, as much as Shilo might try to pretend he’s not.

Both siblings are reacting to the disappearance/abandonment of their mother while they were young and the suicide of their father not long after in very different ways, but both of their atypical lives can be traced to these incidents. Now it seems that someone is killing women near their childhood home, and there’s something drawing both of them back their to confront the killer.

The story is an interesting mix of Supernatural and Thriller stories, and once I saw that’s where she was going, I wasn’t sure that Peacock was going to be that successful with it — very few are. I’m not talking straight-up Urban Fantasy, I’m talking about a Suspense/Thriller that mixes in some sort of magic/monster where bullets and explosions should be. The last time I read a mystery where the author tried this, it ruined the book — it’s tricky. The heightened reality that she was using already helps, but it doesn’t guarantee success, Peacock tried a tricky thing and made it work, that’s no small feat.

Still, there’s only a little supernatural to this — there’s a human villain, human protagonists, human costs, human relationships at the core of this novel. Peacock’s up to the challenge of writing them, no doubt about it.

I liked the characters — especially Kayla. The story moved along well, the action was convincing — and the predators were just horrible enough that you didn’t really care that much that vigilante action took care of them rather than the law. Sure, the book could really have used one more thorough edit. More importantly, the facility that Shilo lives in draws more from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or Gotham‘s depiction of Arkham than reality — and as annoying as that is, really, if you’re looking for realism, you’ve dropped this book before it gets to that.

Can she follow this up with an equally successful sequel? That might be trickier, but I’m looking forward to seeing her try.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for my honest opinions.

—–

3 Stars

What You Break by Reed Farrel Coleman

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On December 7, 2016

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

This is one of those I spent a couple of days futzing around with — not sure I made it better (or worse) by doing so — I re-arranged a lot, that’s the best I can say. Both Murphy novels are tough to talk about in the abstract, which I think is a pretty good thing. There’s not a lot of fat on them — just good lean prose.

What You BreakWhat You Break

by Reed Farrel Coleman
Series: Gus Murphy, #2

eARC, 368 pg.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2017

Read: December 1 – 5, 2016


Why? It’s three letters that permeate this novel. We’re all familiar with the need for an answer to that question. From the time that a toddler starts ever so persistently asking that question until the end, we keep wondering, “why?” Few need the answer as much as someone who has to deal with the unexpected death of a younger family member. In Where It Hurts, we saw just what the lack of an answer did to Gus Murphy and his life. So when a grandfather comes to Gus for help finding out why his granddaughter was brutally murdered, there’s no way that he can turn his back on the request. Especially given the inducements being offered.

He wasn’t recruited to solve the murder — the police have a man awaiting sentencing for the crime. But he won’t tell anyone anything about the crime or his relationship (or lack thereof) to the victim. The grandfather, Micah Spears, rubs Gus wrong from the get-go — if it weren’t for Father Bill’s endorsement, and his understanding of Spears’ deep need to know, Gus would’ve walked. It probably would’ve been better for him if he had. Almost no one — especially her family, the police (many of whom are still angry for what Gus turned up in the last book) — wants him to pursue this. The more Gus learns about Linh Trang (she preferred “LT”), the more he becomes convinced that there’s no reason for the killer to want her dead, which just makes the “Why?” even more pressing.

Before he can really start to work for Spears, Gus has a few other why’s to answer — why did his friend/co-worker, Slava, just drive off with the mysterious new guest at the hotel? Why did a Russian gangster get assassinated before Gus’ eyes shortly after Slava and the guest talk to him? Why is there a very formidable Russian running around Long Island looking for Slava? The focus of the novel is on the Spears case, but this storyline casts a shadow over everything. I didn’t really spend too much time in Where It Hurts worried about what would happen to anyone, and the Spears case is more of a puzzle than anything — but there’s peril to this Russian story, and the reader will become convinced that whatever happens in it, will have a large impact on Gus (and not just because of Slava’s involvement).

Gus has grown a bit, made some steps toward health since we last saw him, but he has a lot of work to do. Things with his ex- are about where they were previously, but with less anger (mutually), his romance is progressing with Maggie, and so on. Basically, Gus is becoming someone different from just the ex-cop with a dead son. That sill the core of his being, but there’s something more to it than that — maybe even some room for happiness. It’s hard to discuss briefly, but simply: Gus was better off by the end of Where it Hurts than he was at the beginning, and at the start of this novel, he was better off yet. As for the ending of this book? Well, read it and decide for yourself.

This book deals with some pretty potent things — as Coleman did when we met Gus — there’s love, friendship, loss, grief, confusion and resentment, to name a few of the ingredients in the emotional cauldron everything in the novel is steeping in. Not just from Gus, Slava and Spears — but everyone in the book is dealing with things that no one should have to, but most of us do. I’d like (but cannot expect) to circle back around and see how LT’s friends are doing in a couple of years, ditto for her sister and ex-step-grandmother. I’d like a lot more time with a judge that Gus interviews, as well as Gus’ lawyer. I expect the latter, at least, will be granted to me.

Spears and Gus do get some answers as to why LT was killed — but, as is so often the case, really those answers don’t satisfy much and lead to further questions. No tidy bows here for anything — which isn’t to say the concluding scenes of the novel won’t satisfy the reader, just that there’s no pat endings or rides off into the sunset. Just survivors (not saying how many of them there’ll be) moving on. The Epilogue will stay with you. That’s really all I can say.

This book put me through the wringer — not as much as Gus and Slava were, but still — Coleman has really topped himself from Where it Hurts, we know these people better now, so he can push them further. I lost sleep with this one, which isn’t that unusual, but I lost more sleep staying up to get through this than I have in a long time. There’s a darkness, an emptiness throughout that wasn’t there in our first encounter with Gus — or if it was, it’s changed in source and intensity. I’m not sure many readers will like where Gus is by the time we get to book 3 or 4 (including me) — but I’ll understand it. Coleman’s making sure his writing and characterization is honest, as real as fiction can get.

Once again, he delivers a crime novel that could be mistaken for a non-genre novel (as if such a thing exists), suitable for thoughtful crime readers or those who don’t mind crime to show up in a novel about a parent redefining himself after the death of a child.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from G.P. Putnam’s Sons via NetGalley in exchange for this post — thanks to both for this. It didn’t change my opinions on the book, I was simply able to form them a couple of months early.

—–

4 1/2 Stars

Titanborn by Rhett C. Bruno (revised)

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On November 30, 2016

In Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

TitanbornTitanborn

by Rhett C. Bruno

Kindle Edition, 246 pg.
Hydra, 2016

Read: November 28 – 29, 2016

I’ve been to the rotting sewer tunnels submerged beneath the Martian domes. I’ve been to the most remote slums on Earth, and to the depths of asteroid mining colonies where being able to see the outline of your own hand in front of your face was considered bright. I’ve seen death all over and been on the end of the killing more times than I cared to count . . .

When he’s not reminiscing like an inverse-Roy Batty, Malcolm Graves is a bounty hunter of sorts — working for one of the handful of corporations that really run the solar system. He’s been at it longer than most, and has no intention of retiring anytime soon. His body, however, might have other things in mind — he’s slowing a bit, both in reflex and thought — add in a little bad luck, and Malcolm’s starting to worry about his future.

So when he’s near the site of a terrorist attack during Earth’s biggest celebration, he seizes the opportunity to get some justice and re-establish his position with the company. Sure, they’re saddling him with a partner rather than letting him work alone, but if that’s what it takes. . . . Only it’s not just a partner, it’s a young guy, fresh from an elite training program for exceptional cadets. Zhram is almost an android, it seems.

Their investigation brings them into contact with a seditious group, trying to overthrow the ruling forces on Saturn’s moon, Titan, so that the descendants of the original colonists (Titanborn). It soon becomes a race against time — can the duo find those responsible for the crime on earth and bring them in before the movement can grow and begin to make inroads against the ruling powers? Why they attempt to do so, their partnership grows and the two being to trust and learn from each other. Zhram is one of the more promising characters in the Lt. Commander Data/Odo/Sheldon Cooper-vein of people trying to learn to be more human that I’ve seen recently.

At its core, the central relationship is the classic mismatched police partners (see the Aykroyd/Hanks Dragnet, Lethal Weapon), but with a SF twist (see The Caves of Steel and Almost Human). The book is full of themes, tropes and scenarios straight from these (and similar) sources. Which isn’t to say that Titanborn is derivative — it’s part of the tradition, reflecting the best parts of its antecedents, shaping them to tell Bruno’s story.

The writing was strong (I thought a couple of times early on that he overwrote a line or two, but nothing too horrible) — the fight scenes good, the tech was believable, etc. An all-around well constructed novel.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again — it doesn’t matter if you tell a story that’s been told before, or using tropes commonly used — it’s how you use those tropes, how you tell the story — and Bruno did it in a very satisfactory way. I liked Malcolm from the get-go, I enjoyed watching the budding partnership between he and Zhaff, and even though I pegged (most of) the solution very early on, I really dug the reveal. I liked the characters, I appreciated the way that Bruno paced things and guided us through the shaky political landscape (and at least some of the reasons for the instability). I’d gladly read another half-dozen (at least) novels about these two racing around the solar system.

Disclaimer: This was provided to me by the author in exchange for my honest take on the book — note that I said “honest” and not “timely.” I was supposed to have this done months ago. My thanks for the book and apologies for the tardiness, Mr. Bruno.

—–

3 Stars

INVIVO by Robert A. Brown

By

On November 28, 2016

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

INVIVOINVIVO

by Robert A. Brown

Kindle Edition, 233 pg.
Denro Classics, 2016

Read: November 24 – 26, 2016


I’m not sure I can list the problems with this book without hitting the character limit on a post (not sure if WordPress has one, Goodreads does, though). Were this only the story of a grieving scientist driven to some sort of insanity (temporary or otherwise), I might have been able tolerate it. But no, it’s so much worse.

    I’m just going to do this one in bullet points because I can’t muster enough will to really write anything.

  • The book promises to be about X, quickly becomes about Y (with a hint of Z) and then ends up being about R and S. I can live with that kind of things sometimes (maybe even enjoy it), but since X and S are so far removed from each other I had no tolerance for it with this novel.
  • The dialogue is wooden, clunky, and far too wordy.
  • The characters act more due to authorial fiat rather than organically (this isn’t 100% true, but it happens enough that I can list it here in good conscience.
  • There’s a mystery here “solved” in a ridiculous and fanciful way — the police were so useless that a medical doctor and genetics researcher is able to read a couple of books (that he received in record time) about sociopaths and is equipped to solve. And he does so in ridiculously short manner.
  • Maybe I’m wrong — I could be — but the science here is so outlandish that Jules Verne wouldn’t buy it. It’s so far beyond “fringe” science that Walter Bishop would scoff at it.

This is just poorly constructed, and I just can’t buy any of the plot-lines. The writing is stiff, lifeless and yet sloppy. For example, one scene starts in a staff meeting with the main characters and his assistants, and mid-conversation it jumps to another mid-conversation with his wife. Also, I’m not sure if the repeated use of a racial slur was because Brown was trying to show just how despicable a character was or if Brown was showing us how despicable he was (given the fact that the character seemed to be being shown in a redemptive light while using the slurs, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that). Even the stuff that I could say was better about this book seemed too contrived — the romances, the scientific breakthroughs, the friendships, and so on. It just was lousy.

Disclaimer: Actually, this probably doesn’t need a disclaimer, because I clearly wasn’t influenced by anything — but I received this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion. Sorry about that, Mr. Brown. Also sorry that it took me 8 more months than I expected to get to it, but . . . something tells me you wouldn’t have minded me waiting longer.

—–

1 1/2 Stars

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