Category: Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller Page 143 of 153

Non-Fictional Feelings for Fictional Characters

On August 15, 2013

In Dogs, Harry Dresden, Harry Potter, Iron Druid Chronicles, Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin, News/Misc., Spenser

A slightly different post this morning, I’ve been trying some behind-the-scenes work here on the blog this morning — composition, infrastructure, design, etc. The books that I’m overdue to review are hard to write about, I’m plugging away at 4 different reviews right now that I absolutely want to get right , and that’s time-consuming. Also, Grossman’s YOU: A Novel took 2 or 3 days longer to read than I’d expected — worth the time, but it did sort of mess up my schedule. So, like I said. Something different.

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I saw that picture on Grammarly.com‘s facebook page*, and as one does, shared it, which prompted a friend to ask what some of my favorite fictional characters were. I decided to limit the list to fictional characters from books (a. see the picture and b. see this blog), and to characters I had “non-fictional feelings” for — Hannibal Lecter was a favorite (for 2 books, anyway), but I had no emotional attachment to him, or Evanovich‘s Ranger — fun character, but don’t really care about the guy. Here, with added commentary, is my list.

Archie Goodwin — this is the name that jumped immediately to mind. Archie’s the big brother I never had — the quick, agile wit; the athleticism; the way with the ladies — and the rest of the things that older brothers so often exemplify to those of us who never had one (on the other hand, we didn’t have to share a bedroom). ‘Course he makes the list.
Spenser — it’s almost impossible to spend as much time in a guy’s head as I have Spenser’s (or Archie’s) and not have some sort of emotional bond there. Everything I said about Archie applies here too, actually.
Harry Dresden — Chicago’s resident Wizard P. I. He feels like a friend. Hanging with Harry for a night of RPGs, Double Whoppers, and McAnally’s beer sounds ideal.
Scout Finch — she’s plucky, honest, a born-reader, and loves her pa (even when she doesn’t understand him). She’s had a soft spot in my heart longer than most of the people on this list.
Hermione Granger — sure, her famous buddy still gets all the press. But it’s this brave, clever, stubborn and resourceful gal who’s the most consistent hero in the series — and the one you can count on for genuine emotional moments. (this isn’t to take away anything from Ron, Luna, Albus, Neville, Sirius, Dobby, etc. — but Hermione alone manages to do it in every book in the series)
Chet Little / Oberon — it felt like a cheat listing these separately, and it just looked wrong to leave one of them off the list. So…I cheated. Both of these charming gentlemen will win you over within a few pages (in Dog On It and Hounded, respectively), and after you spend a few books with them, they’ll have stolen your heart. They make you laugh, they make you worry — and in Hunted, Oberon commits himself to one of the bravest acts I’ve seen, and choked me up a bit. The humans these guys live with almost make the list just on their testimony.
Angela Gennaro — if you hadn’t grown attached to Angie already, especially after Darkness, Take my Hand‘s events, there’s just no way you can’t fall apart with her at the end of Gone, Baby, Gone

Let me hear from you, reader/follower/happener-upon-this-post — who do you have non-fictional feelings for?

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* I looked but couldn’t find the source for this, otherwise I’d have cited it. If you know who should get the credit, please let me know.

Archie Meets Nero Wolfe: A Prequel to Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe Mysteries by Robert Goldsborough

By HCNewton

On August 14, 2013

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin

A slightly briefer version of this appears on Goodreads.

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Archie Meets Nero Wolfe: A Prequel to Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe Mysteries by Robert Goldsborough

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Back in Junior High when I first discovered the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin books, I was quite relieved to learn that his family had approved a new author to write new books in the series. Murder in E Minor was pretty good — even if it sort of spoiled A Family Affair, it read like Stout on an off-day. His follow-up, Death on a Deadline, did some interesting things and was good enough. But from there, the quality really started slipping, and I can honestly say I really didn’t enjoy Silver Spire or The Missing Chapter at all — not because the latter was about an author continuing a popular series and dealing with backlash from the fans (that was actually sort of amusing). The passion and drive Goldsborough had initially was clearly gone — it’s this experience that keeps me from wholly embracing Ace Atkins as Spenser’s new scribe (as much as I really want to).

So why did I pick up Archie Meets Nero Wolfe? Well, it’d been eighteen years — so for Goldsborough to come back, there had to be a good reason — a story he cared about. He had time to get the voice right, the details “just so.” I was more than a little curious, too, just how did he see this initial meeting?

Oh, and, fine — I’ll be honest. You put out anything with the label “Nero Wolfe” on it and I’ll read it. Janet Evanovich, Nick Hornby, or Richard Russo wants to take a crack at it? I’ll bite.*

But, I did put it off for months. Take that, Goldsborough.

But I had hope. And that hope was buttressed after a few pages when I read:

…I got grilled by a surly lieutenant named Rowcliff, who had bulging eyes and a snarling voice that broke into a stutter when he got excited, which seemed to be much of the time.
He kept trying to get me to say that I fired at the robbers first. I was nervous, but when I wouldn’t budge off my story, his stuttering got worse, which would have been funny under different circumstances.

. That was a nice character moment. I looked forward to more of them. I even had Evernote ready to capture them like that one. That’s the only quotation I bothered grabbing.

There are two things you have to have (at this point) for an acceptable (if not good) Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin book. You need the characters we know and love and an interesting plot. Here, Goldsborough falls short on both counts.

To be fair(-ish), I thought he got Saul Panzer and Fred Durkin fairly close to right. Fritz and Rowcliff were pretty dead-on (and not really that present), maybe Stebbins, too. Cramer, Orrie and Bill were off. It was nice to spend some time with Del Bascom — and given how little time we spend with Bascom in the books, you can’t really judge how Goldsborough did with him.

Archie’s a tough one to peg — he’s new to New York at this time, fresh out of Ohio — so we can understand he’s not the detective we meet in Fer-de-Lance yet. He has to learn the city, learn more about being a detective — especially doing it Wolfe’s way, and essentially grow up. Sure, there’s traces of our man here — his attitude, his smart-mouth, his ability to handle himself in a moment of crisis. We see Archie’s appreciation for non-gourmet, but well-prepared, food — and a palate ready for education once he comes into Fritz’ influence. I don’t remember him being so fixated on coffee, either. I think there’s enough of Archie there to give Goldsborough credit for his characterization, but something’s holding me back.

I didn’t buy Wolfe at all — this is the big one. The others are seen in different lights than we normally are exposed to them, which can explain away a lot of the weaknesses of their portrayals — but you have to nail Wolfe or the whole thing is a waste of time. And beyond the beer, the dramatic entrance, his provision for guests . . . it was just a fat guy in a suit playing a part.

And as for plot? Pfui. This wasn’t much of a mystery, the bad guys do most of the work. Saul does almost everything commendable (and yes, you could make the argument that this is often the case) — Wolfe himself doesn’t solve much at all. He still holds the big gathering in his office — pretty much because he has to.

A lot of the attitudes expressed — say, for the child’s emotional well-being following the kidnapping, for example — seemed anachronistic. As did the language the characters used to describe that and similar ideas. I’d stopped caring by the point I noticed these piling up, so I didn’t take notes.

Lastly, I don’t buy at all the explanation Wolfe gives for hiring Archie. It’s just we’re at the end of the book, and it has to happen, so he makes up an excuse with no real justification behind it.

In the end, I’ve got to call this one unsatisfactory

If Robert Goldsborough dips back into this well? Will I read his next one? Yes, absolutely. I’ll hate myself, but I will.

I might wait a year or two, first.

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* I have nothing against any of these authors, at all, I like them a lot. I just don’t think they’re right for the books. Lee Goldberg, on the other hand…

In Medias Res: The Cuckoo’s Calling

By HCNewton

On August 8, 2013

In Authors, Currently Reading, F-J, Fiction, In Medias Res, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, News/Misc.

as the title implies, I’m in the middle of this book, so not a review, just thoughts mid-way through

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The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

Without knowing what name is on Robert Galbraith’s birth certificate, I’m not sure if I’d have picked this up off of a bookstore shelf — can’t imagine I would’ve nabbed it at Amazon or Kobo, etc. Maybe, maybe, I’d have grabbed it off of the library‘s New Book Shelf. But at 47% of the way through? I’d be waiting for the sequel. Really enjoying this.

This is not the Rowling of Harry Potter — as it should be, that wouldn’t work for this audience. Even better — this isn’t the Rowling of The Casual Vacancy — thankfully, mercifully, not that Rowling.

Dusted Off: Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane

By HCNewton

On August 5, 2013

In Authors, Dennis Lehane, Fiction, K-O, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

better than Sacred, but not as good as the rest of the series. Some of the character development was more of a reset to pre-Gone, Baby, Gone status. How odd was it that Bubba was the only character to really have any growth?

Patrick Kenzie talks often of his tiring of the PI biz, not sure if he had it in him any more, it wasn’t fun. How much of this is Patrick and how much is Lehane speaking through him? Tough call. ‘tho the decade or so that Lehane took away from the series is a pretty good hint, I think.

Good read, creepy bad guy, with an iffy ending. Still better than many things I’ve read this year, while not Lehane’s best.

Dusted Off: Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane

By HCNewton

On August 5, 2013

In Authors, Dennis Lehane, Fiction, K-O, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don’t think I’ve the original context of the remark, but I’ve seen it often enough that I don’t doubt the veracity. But at some point Dennis Lehane characterized his Kenzie/Gennaro series as the kind of books that a guy in his twenties would write, as an explanation for why he’d moved on. Now, first of all, I don’t blame a guy for not wanting to get stuck in a rut, to only write one thing his entire life (no matter how good he is at it). But that always struck me as an uncharacteristically dumb thing to say. What’s that say about 1. the authors outside of their 20s who are writing the same kind of thing and 2. those of us out of our 20s who like to read that kind of thing.

Frankly, I thought that Shutter Island was more like something a guy in his 20s would write (particularly the ending) than anything else he wrote.

But hey, it’s his opinion, and he’s entitled to it — as long as he writes things more interesting than The Given Day (which, to be fair, I haven’t been able to get too far into, it’s fully possible that if I’d read another two pages, I’d have loved it).

Still, imagine my surprise when I learned that a new Kenzie/Gennaro book was coming out.

It’s a lighter read than the previous five books in the series, but it still carries that trademark Lehane punch. This book sure seems like a self-conscious attempt to stress the fact that our heroes, like the author, aren’t in their twenties. They’ve aged, matured, get tired more easily want nothing to do with the violence that so marked their younger years. They’re not the only ones who aged, Amanda McCready, the kidnapped girl from Gone Baby Gone is missing again, and again, he aunt calls upon Kenzie to find her.

By the end, Lehane takes his characters to an interesting (and predictable place) that probably closes the door to future installments — not unlike what Riordan did to Tres Nevarre and what Koryta may have done to his PIs. I hope it’s not the last I see of these two, but can understand why it would be.

In the end, a satisfying read. Better than many PI novels that came out this year, but not as good as it could’ve been.

Dusted Off: Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane

By HCNewton

On August 5, 2013

In Authors, Dennis Lehane, Fiction, K-O, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Kenzie and Gennaro are hired by the aunt of a missing 4 year old girl, who’s been missing so long that good news is almost impossible. Following a trail started by her worthless mother leads the pair and the police to drug dealers (small time and large), child molesters and other monsters and a tangled web so intricate that it makes what the protagonists have been through before seem like a picnic.

This book was my first exposure to Lehane, and turned me into a devotee for life (probably). Even though I’ve read this 4-5 times, it had me on the edge of my seat, and got me choked up and horrified by the evil depicted.

Best.Thing.He’s.Written. (not that I’ve read the new one yet)

Dusted Off: Sacred by Dennis Lehane

By HCNewton

On August 5, 2013

In Authors, Dennis Lehane, Fiction, K-O, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Sacred by Dennis Lehane
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Easily the weakest Kenzie/Gennaro book, and I don’t know why. On this, like every other, re-read, I’ve tried to a. convince myself I really like this one or b. put my finger on what seems wrong with this one, and I can’t do either.

Drives me crazy.

Oh well, Gone, Baby Gone is up next.

Dusted Off: Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane

By HCNewton

On August 5, 2013

In Authors, Dennis Lehane, Fiction, K-O, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve read this 4 or 5 times now, still got tense at all the right spots (thankfully, it was the middle of the day this time so I wasn’t quite as jumpy as usual). Pretty sure that’s a sign of an author who knows what he’s doing. Not the best of the series, which isn’t taking away anything from this one, just saying how good some of the others (like Gone, Baby Gone) are.

Dusted Off: A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane

By HCNewton

On August 5, 2013

In Authors, Dennis Lehane, Fiction, K-O, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

wanted to read these before #5 comes out next month, just to get back in that world–it’s been too long since I’ve read a Lehane I liked. Took me less than a page to remember why I got into Kenzie/Gennaro, and within 5 it was like I’d been reunited with a long-lost love. This is a great read–the language, the plot, the characters…really can’t ask for more.

61 Hours by Lee Child

By HCNewton

On July 31, 2013

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

61 Hours by Lee Child
Series: Jack Reacher, #14

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It struck me while reading 61 Hours that the Reacher series is the literary equivalent of those wandering hero TV shows that we don’t seem to have any more, like Route 66, The Incredible Hulk, Knight Rider, and even Highway to Heaven — hero wanders into a town, sees some sort of injustice afoot, takes it upon himself (and/or is forced to) confront the source of the injustice, cleans up town and leaves. I started off thinking about the Hulk, but expanded it a bit the further I got in the book. Reacher is both Banner and the monster (don’t make Reacher angry, you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry). I think I’m going to start listening to “The Lonely Man Theme” during the last chapter of all future Reacher books.

Yeah, that’s a bit rambling, sorry. But I think the same impulse that kept people coming back to those shows is what brings us to Reacher. The outsider who saves the day and moves on. What we might be powerless to see, or incapable of doing — he can, with no fear of consequences. There’s something totemic about that.

That’s exactly what 61 Hours promises and delivers. The villian was a bit more villainous than some (but he’s not the worst human being Reacher’s faced off with, just the worst lately), the mystery’s a bit of a gimme –but no one’s ever confused Reacher with Nero Wolfe, and it’s easy to see why Reacher doesn’t put the pieces together as early as the reader does. It’s possible that this is the least violent novel in the series, but you know that violence is on the way –and when it arrives, Child makes every bullet and hit count.

The title/hook is something different for Child. He basically starts a countdown at the end of the first chapter — 61 hours until something’s going to happen. And then we get frequent updates — “Fifty-four hours to go”, “Thirty-one hours until it starts”, and that sort of thing (not real quotations, just examples). Really ratchets up the tension — I can’t imagine it’d work more than once, but it really worked well this time.

Frequently, the relationships that Reacher develops/finds with people are the weak areas of the book, but Child gives us three strong ones this time around — the Deputy Chief of a small police department who knows enough to see that Reacher is a resource, the spunky elderly woman who’s the target of Big Bad, and the Major sitting in Reacher’s old desk at his old command. With each of them we see different facets of our hero at work — and seeing both what they respond to in Reacher, and what he is drawn to in them helps flesh out all four characters, but Reacher more than the rest. I’m not sure we learn a lot more about our favorite wandering ex-MP through this, but we know it better.

61 Hours is one more piece of evidence proving that Lee Child is one of the (if not the) best, the most consistent writers working today. Long live the king.