Category: Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller Page 126 of 153

Cursed Moon by Jaye Wells

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On October 8, 2015

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

TITLECursed Moon

by Jaye Wells
Series: Prospero’s War, #2

Trade Paperback, 370 pg.

Orbit, 2014

Read: February 6, 2015


I…just don’t know. In theory, this series is right in my sweet spot — Urban Fantasy, Police Procedural (ish) — but it’s just not working for me. It feels like Wells is trying to get gritty and dark, but the results aren’t there. The same goes with the addiction storyline. It didn’t ring true for me, she seemed to be trying, her characters seem more like characters from a bad made-for-TV movie, not actual addicts.

While I’m complaining, I should mention that the Rape magic in the beginning — and the resulting bacchanal — was far too graphic, went on far too long. Then to follow it up with the trip to the sex coven with all the details given there? Overkill — especially because almost none of these details are important to the story. Take out those scenes, or tone them down, and you lose nothing.

The whole Pen story just annoyed me — Pen’s character seemed inconsistent throughout — her mood/actions/attitude fluctuating to serve the needs of the moment, but not arising organically from the situation or character.

And Danny? I don’t know where to start.

So what did work? The MEA stuff, the investigation, the world. Basically the major story, the core of the book was good enough to keep me going — it’s all the surrounding material that drove me nuts.

This has been brief and vague because it’s been so long since I read it, and because I just didn’t care one way or the other. Vaguely dissatisfied with a few significant beefs, would be a good way to summarize my take on this book. I might give this series one more shot, but I doubt I’ll go out of my way for it.

—–

2 1/2 Stars

The Devil Wins by Reed Farrel Coleman

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On October 6, 2015

In Authors, Fiction, Jesse Stone, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, P-U, Reed Farrel Coleman, Robert B. Parker

The Devil WinsRobert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins

by Reed Farrel Coleman
Series: Jesse Stone, #14
Hardcover, 342 pg.

G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2015

Read: September 11, 2015


There’s no good reason for me to have difficulty writing about Coleman’s Jesse Stone, but I twice in a row now, I have. It looks like it’ll take me less than a month to get this up, so that’s something I guess (but it should’ve taken me less than a day!) But man, I love these books!

In this one, on page 3 there was a line I wanted to read to my wife, on page 4 I was grinning. It was so good to be back in Paradise, MA. Chapter 2 served as a a reminder this wasn’t Parker’s Stone, this was Coleman’s. Which is not necessarily better or worse, just different — it’s still the same world, populated with the same people, it’s just told differently. The Devil Wins started strong and stayed that way.

One of the things that distinguished this series from the Spenser series (and later, Randall — which felt like Spenser) was the atmosphere — this was a gray world (so well captured in the movies). Not just morally (and that could be argued, I think), but weather, mood, outlook on life of the characters — economy of the community, even. Later, Parker seemed to pull back on that — either deliberately, or for the same reason that Spenser’s backstory changed. Coleman has returned to the gray, and amped it up a bit, his style brings that into focus. His dialogue might not be as snappy (and it’s not), but it’s thoughtful, as is the narrative and his descriptions. You can almost feel this world as much as see it.

Every town has its dark secrets, the events people don’t like to remember, or discuss, or admit they happened. Paradise has a few of those, I’d wager — one of them was that about twenty-five years ago, two high school girls disappeared without a trace. While most presumed (maybe hoped) that they’d been killed, there were no suspects, no motive, no evidence. Eventually, time moved on and the town collectively repressed the events. A fresh homicide investigation leads to the discovery of two much older bodies — everyone assumes (and it’s quickly confirmed) that it’s these two girls. Now Jesse has to deal with two investigations — one fairly low-priority, and one that is bringing back ghosts for everyone in Paradise (and is attracting plenty of attention from the rest of the world).

After putting his own mark on Jesse in Blind Spot, Coleman moves on to Suitcase Simpson and Molly. Don’t get me wrong, this is still Jesse’s book, and his presence dominates the narrative. But it’s in these pages that Coleman plants his flag on Suit and Molly. Suit is possibly at his most self-aware here, almost dying can do that to a person (making Coleman’s tweak totally justified), we don’t get as much time with him as we do with Molly, but what we do is golden. More importantly, Jesse has to be honest with himself about Suit — and that clarity will drive their relationship going forward. If Coleman hadn’t delivered with the rest of the book, but had with this? It’d have been worth it.

Parker, Coleman (and Brandman) hadn’t given us too many details about Molly outside of her outstanding work as Jesse’s conscience, aide, and friend. We got the little fling with Crow, and some references to her family, and that’s it. Which is exactly the way that Officer Crane wants it. But sometimes, you can’t keep that wall between your personal and professional as high as you want to — sometimes the past comes back to haunt you — and it does in spades for poor Molly. In the end, we don’t learn that much about her that we didn’t know, but it’s easy to see how what Coleman shows us helped shape her into the woman she is. (Minor spoiler ahead, skip to the next paragraph if you want) One of the two girls was Molly’s best friend, and by all rights, she should’ve been with her the night they disappeared. The discovery of the bodies, what they learn during the investigation, shake the seemingly unflappable Officer Crane to her core.

One more reason for her boss to take care of business. Not that he really needs it. Especially when more bodies start to show up.

Best part of this book for me? There’s no Gino Fish. There’s no deus ex mafia providing the solution for Jesse. It’s procedure, dogged determination and criminal stupidity — plus a little dumb luck that helps Jesse conclude what happened twenty-five years ago and today.

In addition to the great character work with our old friends, we get to focus on three new friends of Jesse’s in this book — two of whom are long-time residents of Paradise that we haven’t encountered yet, one is new to town. Jesse enlists the assistance of the editor of Paradise’s newspaper with the historical elements of his case (the police files were not up to snuff) in exchange for exclusives on a story starting to get some national attention. An insurance agent/city councilman who has been Jesse’s biggest supporter in Paradise’s government encourages him to keep on track and solve the crimes in a hurry (and when that fails, turns to threats). There’s a new Medical Examiner in the area (whose departure from NYC is similar to a certain LAPD detective’s) who befriends Jesse — she’s smart, attractive, and interested in more — but for now they decide on friendship.

I guess I should quickly mention the other women in Jesse’s life, having talked about Tamara Elkins. She’s talked about a couple of times, but we don’t get to see the new character from the Blind Spot, Diana Evans, which is a shame. I hope that changes soon, Coleman certainly leaves the door open for it, although Coleman’s going to have to start using surnames that don’t sound so similar. I thought Jen was around juuuuuust enough for my taste (I also appreciated the talk about Sunny Randall).

I find it amusing how many people I’ve seen complain about Jesse’s drinking being talked about so much. His battle with the bottle was a focus from Day 1 — sometimes more successful, sometimes less so — but always, always a presence, often discussed no matter if he was drinking or not. It’s there, it’s looming, Stone battles it as he does the rest of his demons (the “it could have been” of baseball, and Jen) — while doing what he can for these girls and the community.

Once again, Coleman strikes the right atmosphere and mood, captures the essence of the characters — while not keeping them frozen in amber, tells a very Parker-esque story in his own manner, and makes me seriously consider moving to a fictional Massachusetts town, despite the troubling homicide rate. It wasn’t as good as his first foray into this world, but I’m not sure it could’ve been, and it was close enough to justify reading it a few times anyway. Please, sir, I want some more.

—–

4 1/2 Stars

Make Me by Lee Child

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On October 2, 2015

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

Make MeMake Me

by Lee Child
Series: Jack Reacher, #20
Hardcover, 402 pg.

Delacorte Press, 2015

Read: September 22 – 23, 2015

“We should get a cup of coffee.”
Chang said, “I don’t understand how you drink so much coffee.”
“Law of gravity,” Reacher said. “If you tip it up, it comes right out. You can’t help but drink it.”
“Your heart must be thumping all the time.”
“Better than the alternative.”

I’ve got to get that embroidered on a pillow or something…

I’ve said it before, I’ll very likely say it again — it’s really hard to write about Jack Reacher books after a certain point. What can you say? Reacher comes into a town/city/locale, finds himself in the middle of a mess (or sees a mess and puts himself in the middle of it), beats some people up, probably shoots some others, makes sure the bad guys are punished (in one way or another), tries to save as many of the good guys as possible, probably has a brief affair, and then moves on. Same ol’, same ol’ — told in a tight, fast-paced, almost always exciting way. Lather, Rinse, Repeat as needed.

Every now and then you get something a little different — he’s hired to right a wrong/prevent a wrong, we get a flashback to his time in the military, or whatever. But by and large the books follow that pattern. And for the first 200+ pages, that’s exactly what Make Me gave us.

Curious about the name of the town, Mother’s Rest, and full of theories, Reacher rides in on a train to poke around for a couple of days and indulge his curiosity. It’s not like he has anything else to do. He’s briefly mistaken for a retired FBI agent turned private investigator, Keever, who has gone missing. A colleague, Michelle Chang, is also in Mother’s Rest looking for Keever (who she’s never seen in person, obviously). Now Reacher’s curious about a couple of things, and he starts working with Chang to find Keever. The locals don’t like this and threaten violence (naturally, they need to do so en masse for it to work). Par for the course, right?

But then when they start to learn what prompted Keever to be in Mother’s Rest, things get darker than usual. Don’t get me wrong — there’s a lot of real evil to be found in your typical Lee Child villain. But on the whole, they’re nothing that you can’t find in many mystery/thriller novels/tv shows/etc. Every now and then, however, you get something worse. While it takes a really long time to find out what’s worse about the villains in this novel, once the pieces start to come together — scratch that, when you start to see the pieces, you can tell there’s something twisted and vile going on here. That hunch gets more and more intense each chapter. Until all is revealed and you start to wonder if you left Lee Child behind and wandered into a Thomas Harris or Val McDermid novel.

There will be extended descriptions in a Reacher novel that are this strange mix of repugnant and fascinating — whether he’s describing the mechanism of a particular gun firing, the way a certain punch will affect both the puncher and the punchee, how a particular bone will break, or what have you. But the symposium on suicide methods and Internet culture around them just might have set a new high (or is it low?). Riveting and horrifying.

This book also contains something I’ve never seen in a Reacher novel before. I can’t get into it, but that Child would put Reacher in a situation like this impressed me almost as much as it surprised me.

I’m not 100% convinced this is a 5-star book, but if any Reacher novel is worth it, it’s this one. There are so many of the typical Reacher elements that are tweaked, played with, or broken here — all while telling a heckuva tale, remaining consistent with the character and world. Long time fans will really enjoy this. New readers will want to get their hands on as many of the rest as they can. And all of us will get really frustrated that we have to wait 12 or so months for Jack Reacher #21.

—–

5 Stars

As the Crow Flies by Craig Johnson

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On September 29, 2015

In Authors, Craig Johnson, F-J, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Walt Longmire

As the Crow FliesAs the Crow Flies

by Craig Johnson
Series: Walt Longmire, #8
Hardcover, 308 pg.
Viking Adult, 2012
Read: September 26, 2012

…trying to remember when I’d last prayed for anything. My mind went back to the spring before last, and a time in Philadelphia when I’d sat in a hospital at my daughter’s side. I’d prayed then-like a theological car salesman, I’d made deals, counterdeals, and threatened the very heavens themselves if they didn’t release my daughter from the swollen solitary confinement to which a terrible accident had sentenced her.

After the high of Hell is Empty, it makes sense that this would be a little bit of a step down. And it was — at least as far as intensity, depth, and so on. It was just as entertaining, just as engaging…just not as ambitious.

Walt and Henry are out doing some last minute arranging for Cady’s pending nuptials when they witness a woman falling/jumping/being pushed to her death in a very scenic location on the Reservation. Which leads, naturally to Walt getting involved in the investigation — this time, he’s also shepherding an inexperienced Rez Police Chief (Lola Long) through dealing with police procedure, community relations and dealing with Federal bureaucracies. Lola reminds Walt (and most readers, I’d wager) of Vic — who is conveniently out of state for most of this book — and he does what he can to steer Lola away from some of her more destructive habits into something that’ll make a good police officer.

There’s a lot of ugliness involved in this investigation — there’s abuse, PTSD and other fallouts of military service, drug dealing, welfare fraud, and so on. Not to mention history — family history, personal history, familial squabbles (intra- and inter-).

One of the highlights for me is the hate-hate relationship we see between Walt and Henry’s ancient truck, Rezdawg. I seriously now want a short story – if not a series of them – featuring the adventures of Rezdawg confounding and infuriating Walt. I promise to buy every single one of them, if Mr. Johnson would only write them.

Walt as mentor to Chief Long was good, too. Demanding, yet understanding. Lola responded well to him, too — once she let herself. I hope we see her from time to time in the future. Same goes for all the non-murderers on the Rez that we ran into in these pages.

Naturally, the emotional beats around Cady and her wedding, whether she’s in the scene or if this just Walt thinking about what her marriage means for his role in her life, her future, and so on — just perfect. The book is about the murder of this woman, who did it and why — but Cady’s wedding is in the background of it all.

As the Crow Flies features a good mix of humor and mystery — a pleasant change after Hell is Empty. There’s no real danger to any of our friends from Wyoming, just good procedure, banter, and character moments — the stuff that keeps mystery series readers coming back. This one did it’s job.

—–

3.5 Stars

The Scam by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

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On September 25, 2015

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

The ScamThe Scam

by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Series: Fox and O’Hare, #4
Hardcover, 286 pg.

Bantam, 2015

Read: September 24 – 24, 2015

“You can never have too many weapons,” Jake said.
“Does that mean you brought your rocket launcher?”
“It’s in the trunk of my car in case of a roadside emergency.”
“What kind of roadside emergency would require a rocket launcher?” she asked.
“You don’t want to find out and not have one hand,” Jake said. “It’s also why you should always have a paper clip in your pocket. You can do just about anything with a paper clip.”

I was prepared — even half-way expected — for this to underwhelm me. There wasn’t anything driving me to that expectation, maybe it was just my mood. Thankfully, this surpassed my expectations/fears — not for one second. This was another breezy, fun, adventure for Nick, Kate and the crew.

From page 1, The Scam was firing on all cylinders. The main mission was a lot of fun, with a believable target, just dangerous enough. The side missions were interesting and did a good job pushing the plot forward, not just being B stories.

There was even some tie-ins to previous cases — up to and including a recurring character that’s not part of the team.

Boyd is pretty much the most annoying character in the series, but this time, they struck the right one with him. He was insufferable as always, but he didn’t get on my nerves at all. Which means the book probably deserves a bonus 1/2 star rating just for that. The rest of the team was used only minimally — just little tastes of them all. I don’t think I’d want that all the time, but it worked here. Kate and Nick were…well, Kate and Nick. I think Kate was a bit more honest with herself about her motivations — both professional and personal — than we’re used to seeing her. Maybe the same could be said for Nick, too.

The ending (always the trickiest part of a con story) worked — Kate’s improvised weaponry was just great. Even if we didn’t get to see either the roadside emergency rocket launcher or pocket paper clip (which doesn’t mean it wasn’t a great line), sorry Chekhov.

There were a couple of things in the closing pages that floored me. I didn’t think Evanovich would do either of them, just doesn’t seem her style. I like the fact that she can surprise me (maybe it’s Goldberg’s influence — maybe not, but I like the guy, let’s give him the credit). Anyway, there were things in these pages I never expected that I’d get out of Fox and O’Hare. Bravo.

Book five needs to arrive soon. I realize my saying so isn’t going to make it happen. But just in case I’m wrong about that, I should get it on the record.

—–

4 Stars

Last Words by Michael Koryta

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On September 16, 2015

In Fiction, K-O, Michael Koryta, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Last WordsLast Words

by Michael Koryta
Series: Mark Novak, #1

Hardcover, 420 pg.

Little, Brown and Company, 2015

Read: September 7 – 8, 2015


There’s part of me that still hasn’t gotten over the fact that Koryta stopped writing Lincoln Perry novels, enough so, that I’ve only read 2 of his stand-alones. But I was intrigued by the idea that he was starting another series featuring a P. I. It took about 3 seconds of reading the Publisher’s Description to see that this was going to be pretty different than any other P. I. series around.

This book centers on two men haunted by their pasts and a pair of deaths that happened on the same date, a few years apart — coincidence? That depends who you ask.

Our P. I. is Mark Novak, who works for a group of lawyers trying to clear men on death row. Before she was killed, his wife worked for them, too. She was killed during an investigation, after a fight with Mark. No one has come close to catching her killer. It’s understating things to say that before Mark met Lauren, his life was a mess, and she helped him get things together. Without her, things are starting to fall apart for him.

Ridley Barnes never really fit in anywhere or with anyone in the small Indiana town of Garrison, except the caves nearby. Something about the caves calmed him, centered him, gave him a purpose — he knew those caves better than anyone alive. So when a teenage girl gets lost in them, he’s the perfect candidate to lead the search. And then, when he recovers her body, but can’t account for his time during the search, or really remember where he found her, or where he’d been at all — he suddenly becomes the top suspect in her murder. There wasn’t enough evidence to convict or even arrest him, but for some small towns that kind of thing is just a formality. He was convicted almost immediately in the court of public opinion, and has been even more ostracized than before. More than a decade later, Ridley just wants to know what happened — if he killed the girl, he’s willing to do the time. If he didn’t, he’d like to have his name cleared.

This is not the type of thing that Innocence, Inc. does. They take on convicted murderers clients, not suspects. Especially not suspects in very cold cases that will never go to trial. But Mark’s boss sends him to do a preliminary investigation anyway, mostly to keep him busy. Mark isn’t exactly welcomed to Garrison with open arms, people just assuming he’s there to clear Ridley, and not quite believing him when he says that he isn’t.

Mark commits a few missteps right out of the gate, which turn public opinion against him even more. But something has flipped a switch in his brain and he’s not going to let go until he gets some resolution for the girl, clears his name from the problems he’s caused, and demonstrated to his boss that he can be trusted still/again. Not necessarily in that order.

That’s a very sketchy overview of the set up. I don’t think I’ve read anything quite like that before. If you were to draw the plot as a map, it’d look like some deranged roller coaster — tight corners, backtracks, loops, big dives into darkness. Unlike an actual roller coaster, I was able to get through this without losing everything I’d eaten since February.

Koryta tells this story with his typical skill, you can tell that he’s built Mark Novak to last a few novels. There’s more of his story that needs to be told than is here, and the character can be used in different settings. Unlike just about everyone in last years’ Those Who Wish Me Dead — which I thought was great — I don’t think there was a single character in that novel that I could see being interested in for another novel. Ridley is almost as complex, and you want him to get the answers he needs just to get a little peace (most of the time — there’s a time or two where you don’t mind him suffering).

Garrison, IN is pretty much every small town in mystery/thriller fiction, and its citizens are pretty much stock characters. On the whole, neither the town nor the people feel that way. Which is entirely due to Koryta’s skill and Mark’s voice.

And then there’s the cave, or caverns — I’m not familiar enough with the geology to nail the distinctives between the two. There’s a strong sense of place, of foreboding, of danger to it. Especially in Ridley’s mind, the cave is almost a Byronic character — dark, mysterious, dangerous, yet attractive. Yes, there was a time or two I was glad to be reading about the cave in a very wide and open room.

Oh, sure, and it’s a real handy metaphor for the depths of the human mind, psyche, soul, etc.

This is a very well constructed mystery novel, the writing is excellent, the characters are keepers, you can almost feel the winter air — really, there’s very little to not rave about with this. It’s pretty clear what book 2 holds, but I’m really not at all sure what a third would bring. But I’m eager to find out.

—–

4 1/2 Stars

The Fraud by Brad Parks

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On September 11, 2015

In Authors, Brad Parks, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, P-U

The FraudThe Fraud

by Brad Parks

Series: Carter Ross, #6

Hardcover, 342 pg.
Minotaur Books, 2015
Read: September 9, 2015

The ethical dilemma posited aside, I hated the first chapter. If I’d never read a Brad Parks book before, it might have caused me to move on to the next thing on my reading list. The cheap “in 43 hours, X, Y, and Z are going to happen…” ploy irritates me. Just get me invested with setting, plot, or character. Present one or all of these in an interesting manner and I’ll get invested. Don’t force the investment. Don’t jam it down my throat. Also, there was a perfect point 300 or so pages later that it would’ve fit.

Thankfully, Chapter 2 was much better, as was the rest of the book. This was the typical Parks mix of darkness and light, grim stories told with a light touch. A newspaper reporter trying to live up to the tradition of the great investigative journalists of the past in the midst of an industry that’s dying and doesn’t care about that tradition.

Carter seems to be off his game a little here, making a couple of blunders that seem out of character — but given that he spends the whole novel waiting for That Call from his pregnant girlfriend, it’s understandable. It also helps move the novel along nicely, so, it’s easier to swallow (especially while reading).

There’s a string of carjackings in Newark, and a couple have proved deadly. Naturally, the one that makes people pay attention is a well-off middle-aged white man. Carter just can’t write about him though, he seeks out another carjacking that resulted in a murder, this time of a less well-off black man. It doesn’t take long before Carter’s sure it was the same carjackers, and that there’s something else going on besides Grand Theft Auto.

There’s not much (beyond the strange relationship between Carter and Tina) that really seems to be the same from novel to novel in this series. The cases don’t overlap really, which is refreshing. Carter can’t rely on the same sources of information all the time — which doesn’t preclude some returning supporting characters, but also keeps things fresh on that front. The corner bodega shop owner in The Fraud was entertaining, and I hope we see him again down the line. Other characters here — friends and family of the victims, sources of information, and so on — were well-drawn and engaging as usual.

Easily one of the more entertaining aspects of the Carter Ross books are the interns — from savvy to naive, hapless to ruthlessly efficient, these characters make you fear for the state of journalism (or give you great hope). This books’ intern, Chillax, annoyed me greatly in the first couple of pages we spent with him. He clearly rubbed Carter the wrong way, too. Which did provide a grin or three. Case in point, we first meet him like this:

“Hey, what’s up, brah?”

I am unsure what youthful genius decided that the word “bro”–which is already an effective truncation of the word “brother” – – needed to be further morphed so it was pronounced like a woman’s undergarment. But it was my hope this linguistic pioneer developed some affliction that was similarly annoying. Like a permanent hangnail.

In the end, Chillax proved to be a little bit more than comic relief, but when we see past interns in this book, we see how little.

The comedic elements, as always, separate this from the pack, they season, but don’t overwhelm the mystery. There was one big joke moment (maybe two, actually) that any reader is going to see coming 5 miles off — but Parks is such a pro that even they work. The more elaborate of them (you’ll know when you read it) is cringe-worthy, totally expected and totally chuckle inducing. The Fletch joke was nice. This summer we’ve had jokes about the movie from Parks and Kuhn, one more and we’ve got a trend.

Parks threw a couple of curve balls that I whiffed on. There’s one shadowy figure that I had pegged to be character type X. Not only was he not X, Y or Z, he was more like D. I was that far off. I also did not see the ending coming (well, the solution to the criminals’ identities I saw because I knew more than Carter), but the rest? Didn’t expect that from a Carter Ross book.

There’s one thing that doesn’t make any sense to me, one character’s motivation and actions that made sense with one interpretation of the facts, are just irrational when looked at in the light of the way Carter finally puts the pieces together. The way that Parks wrapped up the action and provided glimpses into what happened with the major players didn’t allow for him to get into details about the red herrings he chased, but this one was big enough that an explanation would’ve helped.

Good characters, entertaining plot; actually, the mystery itself might be pretty weak, the more I think about it, but it was fun watching Carter figure it out, which is the point. The Fraud, solidifies the Carter Ross series as a reliable mystery series.

—–

3.5 Stars

Who Let The Dog Out? by David Rosenfelt

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On September 8, 2015

In Andy Carpenter, Authors, David Rosenfelt, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, P-U

Who Let The Dog Out?Who Let The Dog Out?

by David Rosenfelt
Series: Andy Carpenter, #13
Hardcover, 324 pg.
Minotaur Books, 2015
Read: September 4 – 5, 2015

As Michael Corleone said in The Godfather, Part Ill, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” The fact that it was the worst movie in the history of movies does not take away from the truth of that statement, as it relates to my legal career.

Poor, beleaguered Andy Carpenter. Dragged, kicking and screaming back into the courtroom to defend someone he really doesn’t care about, but by doing so he gets to investigate a crime he’s really concerned with.

As we all expect, that crime involves a dog.

The Tara Foundation, the dog rescue shelter that Andy runs with his former client, Willie, is broken into. The thief does a very professional job and takes off with one dog. Professional or not, the thief didn’t take into account how devoted Andy and Willie are to these animals and how obsessive they can be about them. It doesn’t take them long at all to track down the dog…and the corpse he’s next to.

Andy wants to know more about the dog, and the dog’s owner who turns out to be a fugitive, suspected of murder. The only way he can keep his foot in this case is to defend the man accused of the killing. He eventually does figure out who kills the thief, but it’s almost accidental — it’s certainly incidental to anything else going on. Just one of the little bits of pleasure this provided was that “ah ha” moment.

During the trial — the stage of many of this series’ highlights — Andy treats us to an amusing clinic on all the ways that a couple of lawyers (and people in other professions) can use the word “frankly,” including all the shades of meaning that word can provide. Like so many of Andy’s lessons, this was worth the ticket price.

Rosenfelt brings us yet another storylines that could summed up as: It looks like a simple crime, but is actually the linchpin to uncovering a major terrorist plot/international crime syndicate (minor spoiler that if you read more than a couple of chapters you’d see for yourself). I’m getting a little sick of these. The terrorist plot, by the way, makes me reconsider the plausibility of a similar plan in Robert B. Parker’s Night Passage. I’d always thought that the weakest part of an otherwise compelling read, seeing it now in light of this book makes me think there was something there. Still, for crying out loud, Mr. Rosenfelt, let major criminal enterprises and terrorist organizations figure out that a trip through Patterson, NJ is asking for trouble. Local conspiracies, okay. But major international conspiracies? You’ve got to stop going to that well so often. Or period.

My other worry about this is Ricky. If you haven’t read this far in the series, you may want to skip the rest of this paragraph. About half of the material around Ricky was cute and fun — just like it was in Hounded. The other half (mostly involving stale sit-com like bits about kids’ sports) teetered on painful. I fear that this series might be like the older comedies who felt compelled to add the cute little kid late in the run (Andy on Family Ties, Cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunch, Olivia on The Cosby Show, Chrissy on Growing Pains, etc., etc., etc.). If that’s the case, I worry about the future of the series.

Don’t get me wrong — I enjoyed this overall. I can suspend my beefs with this series as it goes on and enjoy Andy’s laziness, his awe of Marcus, Marcus’ awe-inducing self, the hacking seniors, and all the rest. I don’t open up an Andy Carpenter novel expecting to be hanging in suspense, to be chilled, to be challenged in any way; I expect to spend a couple of hours in some pleasant company and sometimes to get a fun puzzle. In that sense Who Let the Dog Out? delivered enough.

—–

3 Stars

John Scalzi and Shane Kuhn in Boise

By

On September 7, 2015

In John Scalzi, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, News/Misc., Science Fiction, Shane Kuhn, Urban Fantasy

If you’d asked me, I would’ve said I’ve written and posted this already. Apparently not. Whoops! Thanks for letting me know, Paul. So, I’ll take a quick break from packing up all my white clothes and get this up now. Better late than never, I guess. . . .
At the end of August, the best bookstore in Boise, Rediscovered Books, brought two authors to town for Readings/Signings. Back in college, I went to readings fairly frequently*, but since then I could count the number on one hand.

Shame on me. I need to do better at this. A good reading is one of the best forms of entertainment around. A less-good reading is pretty bad, but hey, at least you’re supporting the arts.

Anyway, the first author was John Scalzi. Perhaps you’ve heard of him — SF author extraordinaire, blogger, tweeter, etc., etc. Back on August 20, Rediscovered Books brought him to the auditorium of the Boise Public Library! (yes, the exclamation point is necessary). I wondered if that wasn’t overkill for SF in Boise. Not surprisingly, I was wrong and the people that do this stuff for a living were right. If they’d brought him to the bookstore, there’s no way we all could’ve fit, the audience packed the auditorium.

After a little chit-chat, he read a little from his upcoming novella The Dispatcher, his first foray into Urban Fantasy. He asked not to provide any details, as the only people getting this preview were those who came to this book tour. He did give us permission to — maybe even encouraged — gloat about hearing it. So, here we go: neener neener my wife and I got to hear the first chapter of The Dispatcher and most of you didn’t. It was pretty good, and I’ll be grabbing it as soon as I can.

He then read a couple of short humor pieces he wrote for AOL.com back in the 90’s that were appropriate for the Back to School season, and a pretty popular (and funny) blog post, Standard Responses to Online Stupidity. He then he spent 20 minutes or so doing Q&A — he was polite and friendly to the people asking questions, turned even awkward questions into something interesting in his answers (he’s been doing this for awhile).

What didn’t he read? Anything from the book that the tour was promoting — The End of All Things — which I found odd, but I was okay with because I’m way behind on that series. Very entertaining evening — the dude’s a pro.

During the signing, he was again friendly and pleasant and didn’t seem to mind people fanboying/fangirling all over him (which didn’t happen too much or without restraint on the part of the fans). When it was my turn, he laughed at my attempt at humor (which I’m going to believe was because I was moderately funny and not just because he’s sooper polite), gave me a nice, personalized autograph in my copy of The Android’s Dream that went with my joke.

And here’s photographic proof that I met John Scalzi:

A week later, things were a bit different for Shane Kuhn, a favorite around these parts, but largely unknown. Now, Rediscovered Books has been pushing Kuhn lately — he’s a Staff Pick, one of their book clubs read The Intern’s Handbook recently, etc. But a whopping 4 people showed up. Which, sure, provided a nice, intimate setting — but 4? Oh, wait, there were 2 bookstore employees there, too.

That had to be discouraging, but he went on with the show. After taking a poll of who’d read what of his (my wife hadn’t read anything yet, 2 were in various stages of Hostile Takeover, and I’d finished it earlier in the week), he read an early section of Hostile Takeover — the wedding — quitting at just the right spot — it was a good tease, you wanted to know what happened next; and I think the next part would’ve been very, very tricky to read aloud. He then took some questions, it was more of a chat, really. He had this annoying tendency to answer questions I wanted to ask in the middle of another answer, so I ended up not saying anything. Highlights included him talking a little bit about his next book, more of a mainstream thriller; and the process of getting The Intern’s Handbook to the Big Screen. He read another bit from the beginning of The Intern’s Handbook (after teasing my wife about reading the ending), where Alice and John first met.

Despite the low turnout, he didn’t (that I could tell) cut corners or half-ass his way through the reading, and was more than friendly to those of us who were there. If he comes back, we’ll do a better job strong-arming friends and family to come so that his audience will be bigger.

Here’s photographic proof that I saw Shane Kuhn (better angle on me than the other). If you go to Rediscovered’s Facebook page and see the photograph I appropriated, you can see 75% of the audience for the reading)

* And not just for the extra credit either. Although that probably kept me at some until the end.

Hostile Takeover by Shane Kuhn

By

On August 26, 2015

In Blog Series, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Opening Lines, Shane Kuhn

Hostile TakeoverHostile Takeover

by Shane Kuhn
Series: John Lago Thriller, #2

Hardcover, 246 pg.

Simon & Schuster, 2015

Read: August 24, 2015


John Lago is back, folks — and he picks up right where he left off, with some of the most adrenaline and testosterone-fueled writing you’ll come across this year. That may not be your cup of tea.

Hostile Takeover is one of those sequels I didn’t think needed to exist. Seriously, who was dissatisfied with where things ended up for Lago? It was narratively sufficient as it was — but as the opening lines of this book could’ve literally been the next page in The Intern’s Handbook, it’s hard to complain.

So, John decides to tie up two loose ends: 1. Alice and 2. HR, Inc. He marries Alice and the two take over HR but it doesn’t take too long (at least not many pages) before both of those go wrong — they break up and she kicks him out of the company (not really spoiler material, folks, it’s in the Jacket Copy). John switches to Plan B, the complete destruction of both. Which is not the most mature of plans, you’ve got to admit.

Which is the bulk of the book — John going undercover again, John trying (and/or being the target of) elaborate assassination schemes, great fight scenes and enough munitions used to make Michael Bay choke. All delivered in that movie-obsessed, rapid-fire (no pun intended) narration that won over so many fans before.

I thoroughly enjoyed, have used already, and will continue to do so, Lago’s comments on the movie Fletch. It was that line that reminded me how much I liked the first book.

Did I enjoy this as much as The Intern’s Handbook? Nope. Only because it didn’t blow me away with it’s freshness. But it’s a worthy sequel, as good as it’s predecessor and leaves me wanting more. An intense, fast read — buckle up and enjoy the ride.

—–

4 Stars

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