Category: Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller Page 143 of 154

Happy Birthday, Archie

On October 23, 2013

In Calendar Items, Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin, News/Misc.

My annual (when I’m actually posting to a blog) tribute to one of my favorite fictional characters (if not my all-time favorite).

On Oct 23 in Chillicothe, Ohio, Archie Goodwin entered this world–no doubt with a smile for the pretty nurses–and American detective literature was never the same.

I’m toasting him in one of the ways I think he’d appreciate most–by raising a glass of milk in his honor.

Who was Archie? Archie summed up his life thusly:

Born in Ohio. Public high school, pretty good at geometry and football, graduated with honor but no honors. Went to college two weeks, decided it was childish, came to New York and got a job guarding a pier, shot and killed two men and was fired, was recommended to Nero Wolfe for a chore he wanted done, did it, was offered a full-time job by Mr. Wolfe, took it, still have it.” (Fourth of July Picnic)

Long may he keep it. Just what was he employed by Wolfe to do? In The Black Mountain he answers the statement, “I thought you was a private eye” with:

I don’t like the way you say it, but I am. Also I am an accountant, an amanuensis, and a cocklebur. Eight to five you never heard the word amanuensis and you never saw a cocklebur.

In The Red Box, he says

I know pretty well what my field is. Aside from my primary function as the thorn in the seat of Wolfe’s chair to keep him from going to sleep and waking up only for meals, I’m chiefly cut out for two things: to jump and grab something before the other guy can get his paws on it, and to collect pieces of the puzzle for Wolfe to work on.

In Black Orchids, he reacts to an insult:

…her cheap crack about me being a ten-cent Clark Gable, which was ridiculous. He simpers, to begin with, and to end with no once can say I resemble a movie actor, and if they did it would be more apt to be Gary Cooper than Clark Gable.

In case you’re wondering if this post was simply an excuse to go through some collections of Archie Goodwin quotations, you wouldn’t be totally wrong…he’s one of the fictional characters I like spending time with most in this world–he’s the literary equivalent of comfort food. So just a couple more great lines I’ve quoted here before:

I would appreciate it if they would call a halt on all their devoted efforts to find a way to abolish war or eliminate disease or run trains with atoms or extend the span of human life to a couple of centuries, and everybody concentrate for a while on how to wake me up in the morning without my resenting it. It may be that a bevy of beautiful maidens in pure silk yellow very sheer gowns, barefooted, singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” and scattering rose petals over me would do the trick, but I’d have to try it.

I looked at the wall clock. It said two minutes to four. I looked at my wrist watch. It said one minute to four. In spite of the discrepancy it seemed safe to conclude that it would soon be four o’clock.

“Indeed,” I said. That was Nero Wolfe’s word, and I never used it except in moments of stress, and it severely annoyed me when I caught myself using it, because when I look in a mirror I prefer to see me as is, with no skin grafted from anybody else’s hide, even Nero Wolfe’s.

Review: China Trade

By HCNewton

On October 22, 2013

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

China Trade

by S.J. Rozan
Series: Lydia Chin & Bill Smith, #1

Mass Market Paperback, 275 pg.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 1995 by

For everyone who’s wondered what Kinsey Milhone would be like if she were a young American Born Chinese woman living with her non-English speaking mother while resisting her family’s efforts to get her to stop being a P.I., this is the book for you (and sure, who among us hasn’t played with that thought experiment?).

I don’t necessarily thing that’s what Rozan was trying for — and Lydia Chin’s not so Milhone-eque that she’s not her own character, but that’s the thought that kept running through my mind. And I do mean that as a compliment.

This was a great first book for a series — a fascinating world, some really good characters that I could see myself enjoying spending time with, and room for the characters to grow and explore this world — and that’s really the thing I want in a first book in series. Rozan adds a pretty interesting case, with just enough twists, turns, and danger to keep the reader glued to the page. She faked me out once (but in an honest way), but on the whole it was easy to stay with the pair as they untangled this web, though Lydia’s final deduction surprised me (shouldn’t have, but that’s my fault).

An entertaining start to a series I look forward to reading more of.

—–

3.5 Stars

R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton

By HCNewton

On October 8, 2013

In Fiction, Kinsey Millhone, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Sue Grafton

R is for Ricochet

by Sue Grafton
Series: Kinsey Millhone, #18
Hardcover, 352 pg.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2004

So here we are at the 18th Kinsey Millhone mystery, and as is the case with a lot of these books, this is a really mixed bag. However, this time, it’s the non-case work that’s the most interesting (pretty sure that’s a first for me). There were some moments to the main story, but on the whole I found it dissatisfying.

Kinsey’s hired by the father of Reba Lafferty, a soon-to-be-paroled woman, to pick her up from the prison and accompany her for the first few days, help her get established on the outside — he’s too old and frail to do this himself, and there’s no other family to call upon. It doesn’t take long before she’s teetering on the verge of parole violations and seeking revenge on those from her old life that wronged her before and/or during her incarceration. Kinsey spends the book trying to minimize the damage and help out various law enforcement agencies who have an interest in Reba’s targets.

On the whole, I found this story to be wholly predictable and I couldn’t understand why Kinsey was allowing this woman to pull her around by her nose. Maybe it’s because Reba becomes the closest thing she’s had to a female friend since her days with an office in the insurance agency building. Regardless, there’s no excuse for someone with Kinsey’s experience to act like she does here.

There’s one character involved with Reba’s family that primarily serves as a giant red herring — mostly for the reader — I don’t remember Grafton doing that before. Sure, Kinsey’s investigated a dead end or two from time to time, but I don’t recall Grafton misleading the reader like this before. This was a totally useless character and source of conflict that went nowhere.

It isn’t the first time that it’s occurred to me during this series, but the back of my mind screamed about it this time: this book, especially the last 100 pages or so, would be radically different if it were set in the last decade or so rather than in the mid-80s. You put cell phones and email in the hands of Rachel, Kinsey and various law enforcement officers and this book just doesn’t play out like it does. So often this series has plot developments hinge on Kinsey returning to her home or office to check messages or make a call — or her not knowing something because she couldn’t do that. I understand Grafton keeping everything to that era, but man, it’d be fun to see Kinsey work a case now.

As I said, the part of the book that worked best for me was the personal-life stories, but I find it difficult to talk about them without getting very spoiler-y, so I’ll keep this to bullet points.

As interesting as I find the saga of Kinsey’s reconnecting with her mother’s family, I was glad to get a break from it in this book — Q is for Quarry had a lot of movement on that front, and it was good to let that settle a bit more.
I trust Grafton has an end game in mind on the Henry’s love life, particularly where his brothers are involved, I just hope we see what it is soon. I was utterly unimpressed (as I think we were supposed to be) with the behavior of William and Lewis here, not that Henry came off much better
I’m not sure what I think about the whole Chaney-romance thing. Sure, the seeds were planted a while ago, but things seemed almost too good here. Still, nice to see Kinsey happy/content/on the verge of it — and not deluded like she was with Dietz or the married cop; or self-destructive like she was with her exes.

Not my favorite in the series, but there’s enough here to keep me going. Eh, at this point I’m in through Z is for Z___, who am I trying to kid?

—–

3 Stars

Criminal Enterprise by Owen Laukkanen

By HCNewton

On October 4, 2013

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

I feel like I’ve been giving out too many 4-stars lately, and originally rated this 3-stars, but after writing this, I knew it didn’t deserve that. This is such a good read, maybe something closer to a 5, honestly. I feel strange saying this, but hopefully, I’ve got some more mediocre reads in my near future

—–

Criminal Enterprise

by Owen Laukkanen
Hardcover, 406 pg.
Putnam Adult, 2013
Series: Stevens & Windermere, #2

As much as I enjoyed The Professionals, I was unsure I wanted to read a follow-up. How tortured would the contrivances needed to bring these two investigators back together be? I was figuring pretty tortured. Would we be in for another group of criminals allllmost smart enough to get away with it all?

Laukkanen pulled it off, though — by taking pretty much everything about The Professionals and turning it on its head — the criminals aren’t nearly as professional (no pun intended); Stevens and Windermere are kept apart — professionally and personally — for most of the book; the action is all in the St. Paul area, so we see the agents in their home environment, not jet setting all over the country. What’s the same? Criminal Activity is just as gripping, just as tense, moves at the same breakneck speed.

Carla Windermere is languishing at the FBI office, an outsider even two years after the headline-making case she and Stevens cracked together. Whether its due to her race, gender, or personality is hard to say, but she’s not one of the team — and she likes it as much as she hates it. She misses the excitement, the challenge of the higher-profile case.

BCA Agent Kirk Stevens has thrown himself into his family and his work following his heroics from The Professionals. He’s very involved with his daughter and marriage. He’s still doing important work for the state — like cold case murder investigations, providing closure to families still wondering what’s happened to loved ones. He’s nice and safe, just what his wife wants, but it’s driving him crazy. He wants the excitement he got a taste of recently, he wants the sense of fulfillment that he got from stopping an active criminal.

Carter Tomlin, a formerly prosperous accountant is laid off and his debts are mounting — he’s too proud, too self-reliant to look for help, won’t bring himself to sell off possessions, or ask his wife to take a full time job. He’s essentially Minnesota’s answer to Walter White — his pride won’t let him do what he needs to do, so in a moment of panicked inspiration he holds up a bank. Not only does he get some easy money to hold off the debt collectors, he comes alive in a way he hadn’t realized he could before. So he commits more and more robberies, the rush building each time.

When the paths of these three discontented people collide, havoc ensues.

If Laukkanen’s third book in this series is half as good, I don’t care how he gets Stevens and Windermere together or what felons they are trying to take down — doesn’t matter, I’m all in.

—–

4 Stars

Review: Fun and Games

By HCNewton

On September 28, 2013

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

Fun and Games

by Duane Swierczynski
Trade Paperback, 286 pg.
Mulholland Books, 2011

I know it’s clichéd to say, but this is an adrenaline-fueled ride. The plot moves like someone who’s had too much coffee, dragging the reader along from one remarkable event to the next. This is a hyper-reality along the lines of Butch Coolidge accidentally coming across Marsellus Wallace at just the wrong time, saving him from Zed and then stumbling onto Vincent Vega (in a very strategically ineffective position) not long afterwards. Or the kind that allows John McClane to be in the right place at just the right time in the Nakatomi Plaza so he can take care of Hans Gruber’s crew.*

Charlie Hardie, who used to work with the Philadelphia police, is in the middle of a new career as a professional house sitter for the well-to-do. He flies into Los Angeles, gets to his next house and finds it fully equipped with the necessary modern conveniences: a sunbathing neighbor who isn’t all that concerned with clothing, a recording studio, and a banged-up (and high) rom-com and action movie actress. She claims that people are out to kill her, which is why she’s hiding in this empty house.

It doesn’t take long for things to get really out of control from there. Instead of a month of old movies and heavy drinking, Charlie has to try to save the actress — and his own skin, and thwart the mysterious and very persistent group that has decided these two have overstayed their welcome on this planet.

Swierczynski’s voice and style keep this entertaining — it’d be very easy for this story to get too dark, too grim. There are moments when you start to enjoy yourself here — and then someone gets stabbed with something, or something blows up. He keeps you right there with Charlie and ready to see what happens to the poor guy next.

—–

* I am capable of making cinematic allusions not involving Bruce Willis, really, I am.

—–

3 Stars

Worth Dying For by Lee Child

By HCNewton

On September 24, 2013

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

Worth Dying For by Lee Child
Series: Jack Reacher, #15

At the end of a harrying week, there’s not much better than settling down to read about Jack Reacher kicking whatever, taking names, and meting out justice.

The last couple of novels have been a little more on the cerebral side for Reacher (not that they haven’t had plenty of violence), which is fine — Reacher’s more than just brawn, he’s got a brain. But by page 43 of this book when the first fight (well, the first real) starts you can tell this us going to be a lot different than the last couple of books, there’s going to be a good deal of violence, and the reader’s blood is going to be pumping a lot. And wow, is there a lot of fighting going on — I haven’t kept notes or anything, but I don’t remember as much hand-to-hand fighting in a Reacher book in ages — if ever. Well-exectued by both Child and Reacher, I should add.

There is a misunderstanding involving one representative of the for parties that Reacher is up against here. The kind of misunderstanding that would make classic sit-com fodder, but here serves to ratchet up the paranoia and mutual suspicions between the parties. I had a lot of fun watching how one chance encounter and a million to one happening unravels something that really could’ve taken Reacher down, particularly in his weakened condition.

That weakened condition is one of the best things about this book — there’s a strong link between Worth Dying For and 61 Hours, the strongest since Tripwire and Running Blind — 11 books back — and, from what I’ve learned from a couple of TV interviews, this link continues in his latest, Never Go Back (further incentive, not that I need it, to catch up with this series). His body is still recovering from the trauma endured, and his mind is set on the officer who’s taken his old position. I really appreciated that, it’s good to see that these aren’t just random adventures, but there’s some continuity at work here, even if the novels are completely stand-alone in nature.

The villains at the center of this mess are probably the vilest that Child has yet cooked up — and that’s saying something. Once everything about their criminal activities is revealed, you’re more than ready for Reacher to do his thing. Which he — naturally — does with aplomb and efficiency.

Take your blood pressure meds, get in your comfy chair and kick back for a heck of a read.

—–

4 Stars

Smokin’ Seventeen by Janet Evanovich

By HCNewton

On September 21, 2013

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

Smokin’ Seventeen by Janet Evanovich
Series: Stephanie Plum, #17

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the best Stephanie Plum novel in quite a while. Yes, absolutely, the mystery was a piece of cake to figure out — the herring wasn’t red, it was crimson. But you know what? It worked for me. People looking for clever, twisty mysteries that leave the reader stumped shouldn’t be reading Plum novels. You read these because when Evanovich is on her game, there’s a lot of fun to be had.

Vincent’s office being run out of Mooney’s RV is good, great comedy fodder. As is having Connie moving around between temporary work spaces. Most importantly to the success of a Plum novel: Grandma Mazur and Lula weren’t too crazy.

I’m not crazy about the state of the Joe-Stephanie-Ranger triangle, but what else is new? Time for something interesting to happen to at least one of the guys, if not a permanent resolution to this.

The bad guy this time was creepy as all get out, yet he fit very well into this sit-com world.

Not a lot to say about it, I guess, but it entertained me.

Robert B. Parker’s Damned if You Do by Michael Brandman

By HCNewton

On September 19, 2013

In Fiction, Jesse Stone, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Robert B. Parker

Robert B. Parker’s Damned if You Do by Michael Brandman
Series: Jesse Stone, #12

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

At least half of one of those stars is due to loyalty to the fine men and woman (pretty sure there’s just one) of the Paradise Police Department.

Brandman knows Stone. He knows Suitcase (though you’d have a hard time proving it based on the evidence here) and Molly. He has a decent handle on the city, and the supporting characters.

What he doesn’t know is how to write a mystery. Or a police procedural. Possibly not a novel — maybe he should stick to scripts.

There are two cases that Jesse’s working on in this book — one he stumbles onto when helping a friend, he develops a hunch about conditions in a local retirement home. He talks to two citizens about it — both of whom serve mostly as exposition dumps and confirm his hunch. Jesse proceeds to harass and bully his way through bringing the retirement home in line. There’s no challenge for him here, there’s no struggle, there’s no effort, really. It does allow Brandman a chance to talk about some real problems, cite some statistics about a social ill and move on.

There’s a murder mystery also — he detects a little here. Mostly he susses out one clue, and the rest is delivered to him by Gino Fish and Vinnie Morris. Always nice for a small town cop to have a mobster and a shooter to call on for answers.

If this took me any time at all to read, I’d probably be more upset. The Stone novels for years were the best things that Parker produced. Towards the end, there was a resurgence in the quality of the Spenser novels which seemed to result in lesser Stone novels. But we’d still occasionally get one worth reading. Brandman has consistently fallen far short of even Parker’s worst. It’s really sad to see such a good franchise ruined like this.

Q Is For Quarry by Sue Grafton

By HCNewton

On September 11, 2013

In Fiction, Kinsey Millhone, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Sue Grafton

Q Is For Quarry by Sue Grafton
Series: Kinsey Millhone, #17

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This 17^th novel in the Kinsey Millhone series is the most satisfying yet — in character, mystery, and the ongoing family story, not a mis-fire anywhere. I honestly am not sure what to say beyond that.

But let me try…

Kinsey was her typical self — a little uncertain of some personal choices, proudly defiant in them though she may be; has some good moments with Henry and the other regulars. We got to spend a lot of time with Lt. Con Nolan, and his mentor (a new character) Detective Stacey Oliphant in this investigation. I’ve always liked Nolan, and just about every time Grafton deals with another cop, I’ve wanted it to be Nolan. Oliphant was fun to get to know, and I hope she teams up with them again (maybe not in “R”, but maybe by “T”).

Okay, then we got a healthy dose of the whole long-lost family thing that’s been going on for a few books. I’m about fed up with the bickering with Kinsey and the cousins. But she meets another family member this time, and has a great conversation with her. I’ve always understood the anger that informs her interaction with the family, but she doesn’t seem to do anything with the naval-gazing it brings up. This time, there’s a touch of anger, but she moves on to something else — really appreciated that.

Okay, the mystery itself was just great. I mean really great. Watching the pieces come together, like a satisfying puzzle…perfect. On the one hand, it was just a well-written Millhone mystery. But it seemed more, it seemed (frequently) like the case was more complex than usual. There’s a mental “click” I get when clues start coming together and you can start to see what happened — and this is horribly subjective, and hard to explain, but — the “click”s this time felt more like a Harry Bosch novel than a Kinsey Millhone. Maybe it was the cold case-nature of this one. And I’m not trying to knock Grafton saying her best book (so far) is more like someone else than herself. Yeah, I think Michael Connelly crafts a better mystery, that’s not saying Grafton can’t.

To top it all off, there’s the Author’s Note at the end that tells us that this was based on an actual unsolved case, and that Grafton hoped the book and the pictures of the facial reconstruction of the actual victim in the back of the book (funded by Grafton), would help turn up new leads in the investigation. Icing on a really good cake. For details, see, “Who Was Jane Doe? True Life Subject of Sue Grafton’s Q Is for Quarry Still a Mystery” by Barney Brantingham.

The Good Cop: A Mystery by Brad Parks

By HCNewton

On September 2, 2013

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

The Good Cop: A Mystery by Brad Parks
Series: Carter Ross, #4

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

From the opening pages of Faces of the Gone, I could tell that Parks could tell a good story, and a compelling mystery while making you laugh. He’s only gotten better each novel since — which hardly seems fair.

Not that I’m complaining.

There were times when I thought the mystery this time was a tad predictable, but there were enough twists to keep my interest — and the way Parks writes, plus the subplots and characters made it more than enough. Parks makes me laugh out loud frequently — without turning these books into a sit-com like Janet Evanovich would. It’s real humor in the midst of suspense — like early Robert B. Parker or Robert Crais (remember when Elvis Cole was funny?)

My biggest gripe is that Parks only puts out one of these a year.