Category: Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller Page 40 of 153

Fortune Favors the Dead (Audiobook) by Stephen Spotswood, Kirsten Potter: Female Sleuths Buck Convention in this 1945’s Adventure

By HCNewton

On January 4, 2022

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

Fortune Favors the Dead

by Stephen Spotswood, Kirsten Potter
Series: A Pentecost and Parker Mystery, #1

Unabridged Audiobook, 8 hrs., 31 min.
Random House Audio, 2020

Read: December 1-2, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

The Oversimplified Setup

It’s a gender-flipped Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin. Instead of staying home habitually because of eccentricity, detective Lillian Pentecost has multiple sclerosis. Her assistant, Willowjean “Will” Parker has a much more colorful history than Archie Goodwin—she spent years in the circus after running away from a terrible home in her teens. Will is game to get physical with suspects if necessary, but she’s not up to Archie’s level and doesn’t necessarily give as good as she gets.

Pentecost is much more active outside the home than Wolfe, and the pair are more socially active—with social consciences that would be far more at home in Twenty-First century American than in the 1940s. But largely the duo operates like their archetypes.

What’s Fortune Favors the Dead About?

The book begins with how the two met and started working together, then it jumps three years to after the partnership had been established and prospective clients show up.

A year ago, Abigail Collins’ husband shot himself when it looked like everything was going the way the steel magnate wanted it to (in the mid-1940s, selling steel to the U.S. Government was a license to print money). Now, she’s been murdered, and her body was found in the same chair as her husband. Her son, daughter, and an old family friend (now head of the company) come to Pentecost to do what the police have been unable to—find the killer and assuage the worries of the company’s stockholders.

It’s practically a true-locked room mystery, which gets Pentecost’s attention. As an added bonus for the detectives, hovering around the case is a famed spiritualist that Pentecost has been wanting to expose for a fraud.

So, what did I think about Fortune Favors the Dead?

When it comes to re-imaginings, or characters based on Wolfe/Archie, I thought this was one of the more inventive and successful (DeAndra’s Lobo Black/Quinn Booker might be better, but it’s been so long since I read it, I’m not sure). Don’t take anything negative I say—or if I’m not that enthusiastic about it—as being a reaction to being a Wolfe purist.

When you think of Stout’s works—it’s about the case, the mystery. Sure, you stick around because of the characters—but it’s about watching the characters at work in and around the case. This was about Will Palmer first and foremost—with Pentecost clearly a secondary character—and her relationships/interactions with the principals related to the case and her background. The next priority of the novel was in creating and revealing the world of Pentecost and Palmer—how they were active in it and related to people in the world. The case—and everything else—came in as a tertiary concern.

This is all fine and good for a first novel—but it didn’t seem to fit the setup either as something modeled on Wolfe/Archie novels, or as something in a vaguer 1940s detective mold. That’s me carrying in assumptions to the text, I realize. But it still felt like Smallwood’s emphasis was misplaced.

The mystery/mysteries were clever enough and the plotlines were well-executed, and the emotional beats—particularly in the final chapter—were handled perfectly by both Spotswood and Porter.

Fortune Favors the Dead was not the novel I expected, but it was good enough to get me to come back for the second in the series.

3 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Anonymous by Elizabeth Breck: This PI Will Fill the Kinsey Millhone-Shaped Hole in Your Heart

By HCNewton

On January 3, 2022

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

Anonymous

by Elizabeth Breck
Series: Madison Kelly, #1

Hardcover, 309 pg.
Crooked Lane Books, 2020

Read: December 28-30, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

The thing about being a private investigator was that she liked to investigate things. Madison had never been able to interpret whether she liked mysteries or she hated them; all she knew was that she was compelled to solve them.

What’s Anonymous About?

Madison Kelley is a freelance PI who has been between jobs for a while (we’re never told exactly why, a little touch that I loved more than I was annoyed by it being left dangling to tempt me). So she does what any mystery junkie would do when she’s not being paid to investigate—she listens to True Crime podcasts, and with her favorite focusing on a local investigation (or two, as we join the action it’s unsure if they’re connected) she spends a lot of time thinking about the case(s) and tweeting the hosts with her ideas.

Madison starts receiving threats telling her to stop her investigation. But she has no idea what investigation the threats are referring to—it can’t be her tweets to the podcast, can it?

Madison has to move from fan-interest in the crime to actually investigating it, just to find out who is threatening her. Assuming it’s not someone from a previous case, a prank, or a case of mistaken identity. I know I’m not in the evaluative portion yet, but I have to say that I don’t remember the last hook that got me like this one. So, so, clever.

Kinsey 2.0?

By page 10, I’d already put in my notes, “She’s Kinsey, but not.” The sentiment just grew. I’m not really suggesting that Breck designed Madison to be a Kinsey Millhone clone/knock-off, but if someone was to design a contemporary version of Grafton’s protagonist, the result would look just like Madison Kelley.

So here are just a few things that made me think of Kinsey over the course of the book: she’s from California (although Breck uses San Diego without a fake name); her PI work (up until this novel) has primarily been as an insurance investigator; she has a strange not-really-romantic relationship with a married cop; she’s not afraid to stand up for herself or to take on situations she might be wise to avoid; she refuses to let being a woman in a male-dominated field hold her back; she’s interested in romance but needs her space/independence. Frankly, a lot of these will apply to several other female PI’s—I realize that. But there’s just something about the way that Breck showed Madison to the reader that screamed Kinsey, but not.

How is she not Kinsey? A few quick notes (I expect this list will grow in subsequent novels—and could be longer now if I took more time to compile it/didn’t mind spoiling anything): Madison doesn’t once resort to/mention a Little Black Dress (and I don’t see her donning one), Madison eats so much better, she seems better with people naturally, I can’t imagine Kinsey listening to the 1980s equivalent of True Crime Podcasts—and being on Twitter? No way.

Investigative Tips

One of the best parts of Detective novels is when you get some insight into PI/Detective methods—sometimes it’s in a didactic way like Michael Westen would do on Burn Notice, sometimes it’s just in the narration like Archie Goodwin would do. It’s what convinces people like Harvey Mapes, Adam Whyte/Colin McLaughlin, Cat Caliban, or me that we can handle a murder investigation when one drops in our laps.

The descriptions of Madison tailing someone, noticing someone tailing her, shaking the tail, and so on are just great. I assume given Breck’s résumé that they’re authentic (and if I’m wrong, she pulls it off in such a way that you’d never know). Not only do you feel like you’re in the moment in a way you sometimes don’t when reading about someone tailing another car (even when reading really good novels), but you walk away convinced that you could follow a random stranger for a while without them noticing and seeking a restraining order against you.

She has Good Taste, Too

The coincidences were stacking up. Her favorite fictional detective, Nero Wolfe, always used to say, “In a world of cause and effect, all coincidences are suspect.” She agreed.

Like other detectives I’ve read recently, Madison reads Mystery/Detective Fiction—although it hits me, that I can only think of female detectives that fit this bill (or amateurs). Why is that? Are male detectives illiterate or are do they only read intellectual fare (see: Spenser)?

Anyway, I had noted that Madison had some good tastes in reading when I came across the above quotation—and knew we were going to be friends for a long time to come. Sure, I’d already decided to read the next novel by this point, but this cemented it. Nero Wolfe is her favorite? That’s worth me picking up at least three sequels.

So, what did I think about Anonymous?

Madison had had a supervisor at one of her first investigation jobs tell her, “Being a good investigator is fifty percent technique and fifty percent luck. And Madison, you have good luck.” She had thought about that a lot. She did have good luck.

Never underestimate luck—that’s pretty much always true of fictional detectives (private, police, or amateur)—at least Breck’s upfront about it.

This was my last novel of 2021, and what a novel to go out on! Madison’s a great character—who makes one pretty big error in judgment but is otherwise sharp as a tack. And you can’t beat her kind of luck.

I really liked Breck’s prose and pacing—she kept things moving while giving us enough background on Madison to really get a good feel for her (and I have to know more about the lawyer, Haley—I think she promises to be fun). Also, of all the ways to bring in True Crime podcasts and social media into detective fiction, this is my favorite.

Clearly, I had a blast with this. Anonymous starts with a killer hook, has enough twists and turns to keep things interesting and the reader invested, has some good emotional subplots, a great setting (and we get a decent feel for Madison’s little corner of it), and a bang-on ending. It’s hard to ask for more from a debut.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Catch-Up Quick Takes: A Few 2021 Books I Can’t do a Full Post About

By HCNewton

On December 30, 2021

In Audiobook, C. J. Box, Fiction, Joe Pickett, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Non-Fiction, Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy

The point of these quick takes posts is to catch up on my “To Write About” stack—emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness.

Super Powereds: Year 1

by Drew Hayes, Kyle McCarley (Narrator)
Series: Super Powereds, #1
Unabridged Audiobooks, 26 hrs., 11 min.
Tantor Audio, 2016
Read: November 19-25, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
Lander University has a program that most universities don’t. They offer a Hero Certification Program—a way for super-powered students to become qualified to be a super-hero. This book focuses on five particular students—they’re not just super-powered, they’ve got a secret, too.

As the title suggests, this book follows them over the first year—as they grow, increase in power and ability, develop bonds, and so on. The book is a nice mashup of superhero training and dumb college kids being dumb college kids.

I went into this expecting something that felt a lot like Fred, the Vampire Accountant. This was less like it than I thought possible—it’s much longer, it doesn’t feel like a collection of interconnected short stories, it’s a novel.

I was impressed at how different it is, sure. But I liked the story, world, and characters. I’m not sure I’m up for four more in this series, but I have a feeling that Hayes will change my mind.

3.5 Stars

Master of Formalities

by Scott Meyer, Luke Daniels (Narrator)
Unabridged Audiobook, 14 hrs., 58 min.
Brilliance Audio, 2015
Read: November 12-17, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
Thousands of years in the future, elaborate rules of honor, etiquette, and form have been imposed on the planetary governments to preserve order—even in the midst of war. We’re talking rules that Downton Abbey’s Carson would find overly elaborate and restrictive.

Two planets have been at war for decades—but things have come to a tipping point. It’s up to the two arbiters of these rules on these planets to keep things under control.

This book did something I didn’t expect—I would have admitted it was possible, but wouldn’t have expected that Scott Meyers and Luke Daniels produced something that left me frequently bored and that I had a hard time connecting with at all. It was clever, but that cleverness strayed into convolutedness in the plot. Good enough to listen to, but by a hair.

3 Stars

See Her Die

by Melinda Leigh
Series: Bree Taggert, #2
Kindle Edition, 315 pg.
Montlake, 2020
Read: September 30-October 2, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
I don’t have much to say about this book, which is why it’s here, but I wish I did. There’s just something nice about this series, and I’d like to talk about it more.

This is really a follow-up to the first in the series—okay, so Bree got herself the job, what’s she going to do with it? How are the vets in the department and the community as a whole going to handle her coming in? How is she going to do with the whole parental figure for her niece and nephew? Etc. We don’t get definitive answers, but we get some good ideas.

But more importantly, there’s a creepy killer on the loose. In the end, that story is both too outlandish to buy, and I can actually imagine reading about this happening.

I’m coming back for more.

3 Stars

Cold Wind

by C. J. Box, David Chandler (Narrator)
Series: Joe Pickett, #11
Unabridged Audiobook, 11 hrs., 13 min.
Recorded Books, 2011
Read: August 23-24, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
Wow. There’s a lot going on in this one. The events of the Nate story were horrible, but Box pulled it off in a way that will be good for the character/series long-term.

Killing Missy’s husband Earl on the other hand…well, like Joe himself, I’m not crazy about any time we spend with Missy, so making her a focal point of a novel isn’t going to make me thrilled with it. But, I ended up really liking this one, too.

These books don’t inspire a lot of thought or writing from me—and maybe they should—but I do consistently enjoy them. Chandler’s narration is solid as ever. At this point, I don’t think I can switch to the print version of the series—I need his voice for Joe and the gang.

4 Stars

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses

by Kristen O’Neal
Hardcover, 379 pg.
Quirk Publishing, 2021
Read: June 2, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
It’s really bothering me that I haven’t gotten a full post out of this yet—and it’s been long enough (and I lost my notes) that anything I end up saying will be super vague and would be too much work to get a longer post.

In a Discord support for chronic illnesses, a group of people from around the world from a variety of age groups, come together to share struggles common to people with a variety of ailments and disorders. A couple of them realize they live nearby and strike up a friendship. Eventually, one of them disappears from contact for too long, so the other takes it upon herself to go try to find her friend IRL.

It turns out that this friend’s chronic illness is a case of lycanthrophy—things get strange and heartwarming from there.

A lot of this is told in modern-epistolary: texts, emails, Discord chats, tumblr posts, etc., etc. I loved the jumble of methods used to tell the story. It really captures the feel for these characters and their lives.

If you look at places like Goodreads, you’ll see a lot of controversy about elements of this book. I didn’t know about any of it until I’d read the book. 96% of what I saw doesn’t reflect the book, and seems to stem from one or two people who hadn’t read the book. Ignore it all.

This was a fun, earnest story that addresses serious things like living with chronic disease and finding your place in the world along with silly things like Lycanthropy and excessive binge-watching with friends. A nice break from reality that maybe helps you think about some things.

3 Stars

Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives

by Tim Hartford, Nicholas Guy Smith (Narrator)
Unabridged Audiobook, 9 hrs., 45 min.
Penguin Audio, 2016
Read: December 16-17, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
I think I’m going to have to make a point to listen to more Hartford books—between the time I put this on my TBR list and picking it up, I’d forgotten it was by the man behind The Data Detective.

The basic premise is this—people who are messy (not those full of utter chaos in habits or possessions), function better than those who are ruled by rigid standards—either metaphorically or literally. When rules (primarily at work) are too inflexible it hurts productivity and satisfaction in the work.

So let people organize their work and workplaces as they will, don’t impose a filing system on people who don’t want it, etc. Sure, keep things tidy, but beyond that…let the individual reign. That’s a horrible oversimplification, but to do it justice would take…well, most of this book. Just go with that as a thumbnail and read/listen to it. It’s entertaining, thought-provoking, and empowering.

I think this went on a bit too long—perhaps if the last couple of chapters had been excised, it would’ve been better. But I might change my mind on a re-read/re-listen.

3.5 Stars

Stuff You Should Know:
An Incomplete Compendium
of Mostly Interesting Things

by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant
Unabridged Audiobook, 9 hrs.
Macmillan Audio, 2020
Read: December 27-28, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
Very little (if any) of this fits into things I should know, and I’m glad the subtitle talks about “Mostly Interesting” things. It’s a strange hodgepodge of in-depth look at topics like…the history of facial hair, Murphy beds, Mezcal, and child prodigies.

It was fine, but nothing special. Before I started it, I figured this would end up turning me into a subscriber to the podcast. It didn’t, but I can see why people would listen to it—the narrators/hosts are pretty engaging and had an interesting approach to their explanations. Maybe it was these topics, the randomness of the topics, or…I don’t know. I just didn’t see the point. It made for a good soundtrack to my workday, but within two days, I’ve pretty much forgotten everything I heard.

2 1/2 Stars

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase from any of them, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Fortune and Glory: Tantalizing Twenty-Seven by Janet Evanovich: Stephanie’s on a Treasure Hunt

By HCNewton

On December 30, 2021

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

Fortune and Glory:
Tantalizing Twenty-Seven

by Janet Evanovich
Series: Stephanie Plum, #27

Paperback, 332 pg.
Pocket Books, 2021

Read: December 25-27, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

Ranger stopped for a light and looked at me. “How about you? What’s in your bucket list?”

I was stumped. I didn’t have a bucket list. My bucket was empty.“I haven’t gotten around to making a bucket list,” I said. “Do you think that’s a personal failure?”

“No. You’re busy living every day. That’s a personal triumph.”

“It doesn’t feel like a triumph. It feels like I’m moving through my life with no important goals or aspirations.”

“What do you consider to be an important goal?”

“Being a doctor or a vulcanologist or a marine biologist or finding the Ark of the Covenant.”

What’s Fortune and Glory About?

Fortune and Glory continues the storyline kicked off in Look Alive Twenty-Five, this time Stephanie and Grandma Mazur are hunting for the treasure—whatever it may be (no one is telling) that the La-Z-Boy Gang had tucked away. Two of the surviving members are on the hunt for the clues that lead to it, too—and they’re not playing by Marquess of Queensberry Rules.

Naturally, Stephanie also has three skips to track down for Vinnie’s Bail Bonds—one of whom decides that Stephanie needs a bodyguard and devotes himself to that. Sure, Stephanie could use a bodyguard, but probably not one who has a handful (or more) of anxiety disorders that prevent him from doing much of anything.

Dodging gangsters and chasing down FTA’s, just another day in the ‘Burb for Stephanie Plum.

A Backdoor Pilot?

Evanovich has a new series starting next year about a recovery agent, Gabriela Rose. We get to meet Gabriela here because she’s been hired to recover the same treasure than Stephanie and Grandma are on the hunt for.

She’s slick, she’s skilled, she’s apparently successful—she’s pretty much the anti-Stephanie. She’s what Ranger could be if he didn’t have his whole company, either.

Gabriella’s not in the novel much, just enough to introduce her to Evanovich’s readers. But she plays a vital role when she’s around.

I enjoy it when there’s overlap between an author’s series/works, but this felt cheap.

A Change in the Offing?

Stephanie spends a lot of time considering her life, her career, her future…nothing she hasn’t done before, but it felt a bit more serious this time—going so far to ask herself “Who am I?”. Even her newfound bodyguard sees that she wants to change her life.

The presence of Gabriela and some new turmoil in her relationship with Morelli adds fuel to this self-reflective fire.

So, what did I think about Fortune and Glory?

This was fine. This was okay. It was amusing. I appreciate the ambition of the storyline (but glad Evanovich wasn’t ambitious enough to try to extend it). For a series this old, to try something like this for the first time? Pretty impressive.

I don’t know that I found anything funny, though—which isn’t good for a comedic series like this.

It’s not quite as good as the last couple of Plum novels, but not as weak as some of the others. Good enough to read and recommend, but just that good. If I actually believed this round of self-reflection was going to result in a change, I might be more optimistic about things, but I expect that #28 will be more of the same. Which isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just nothing to be excited about.

3 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

2021 While I Was Reading Challenge

By HCNewton

On December 28, 2021

In Miscellany, News/Misc., The Thursday Murder Club

Earlier today, I finished my fourth annual While I Was Reading Challenge. Well, I thought I did, anyway. As I was putting this list together, I realized that the entry I’d pencilled in for “An essay or short story collection” was published last Fall. In fact, every short story collection I thought of as “recent” was from 2020. I somehow managed to make it through this year without a single short story collection, same with most of the essay collections I could think of. I guess this is why I keep a reading log, I just need to pay more attention to it.

Oh, well the important thing is, that it’s done, right?

2021 Reading Challenge Categories

A book published before 2000: The Case of the One-Eyed Witness by Earle Stanley Gardner
An essay or short story collection: Nothing Like I Imagined (Except for Sometimes) by Mindy Kaling
A book you’ve been looking forward to: Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby
A book you’ve been avoiding: The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, translated by Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
A book of magical realism: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
A book with alliteration in the title: Headphones and Heartaches by Wesley Parker
A book with food or drink on the cover: Love by Roddy Doyle
A cozy mystery: The Curious Dispatch of Daniel Costello by Chris McDonald
A book with a dog on the cover: The Keepers by Jeffrey B. Burton
A memoir: A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons by Ben Folds
A book by an author who has written more than 10 books: Gated Prey by Lee Goldberg
A debut novel: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

The Case of the One-Eyed Witness by Erle Stanley Gardner: A Dose of Nostalgia Delivered in a Twisty Whodunit.

By HCNewton

On December 22, 2021

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

The Case of the One-Eyed Witness

by Erle Stanley Gardner
Series: Perry Mason, #36

Mass Market Paperback, 210 pg.
Pocket Books, 1963

Read: October 19-20, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

What’s The Case of the One-Eyed Witness About?

While out for dinner with Della Street, Perry Mason gets a call from an unidentified person wanting to hire him for a job. She’s even arranged for some money for a retainer to be delivered to him at the restaurant—she just needs him to act on some information included with the cash. It’s a matter of life and death, she says, before the call ends.

Trying to earn his (pretty small) retainer, after he gets the delivery, Mason tries to track down his new client—and then he completes his assignment.

In the course of trying to figure out who his client is, Mason comes across a murder, and then another. He finally finds someone who he thinks is the client—and she denies that up until she gets arrested for murder, and then she’s more than ready to hire him.

Mason goes up against the Washington Generals of the legal system, Hamilton Burger and Lt. Tragg, as well as some pretty clever witnesses in his efforts to get to the bottom of this mystery. But while things frequently look grim for his client, it’s a sure bet that Mason will make sure justice is done.

Perry Mason, Micromanager

So Paul Drake is supposedly one of the best P.I.’s around—he’s got a sizeable agency of capable detectives, too. But you wouldn’t know it, the way that Mason ordered him around the investigation. I was taken aback by it, I have to say. It’d be different if this was Drake’s first case for Mason—or at all—but for a guy with his kind of experience? Sorry, Perry, trust the man to do it right.

There’s A Lot of Ugly Here

This was originally published in 1950, and you can tell in many ways. One of which is the casual usage of ethnic slurs about Japanese people. It’s not the first time I’ve read a book from this era (or earlier), I know this stuff is there—and I normally wince and move on. But it seemed a bit heavy in this book. I think—I don’t know, but I think—it’s there purposefully. That doesn’t make it easier to read. But if I’m right, it allows me to want to read more Gardner.

The reason I think the racist language is intentional is that prejudice against Japanese people is at the core of the plot—I’m not saying it’s a hate crime. But this story is only possible in a society where this prejudice is this prevalent.

I don’t know why I’m being cagey with spoilers for a book seven decades ago, but old habits, I guess.

At the end of the day, I can still enjoy this and see the racism as a disturbing cultural relic. And maybe as a sign of how far we’ve come (though, we obviously have further to go).

Nostalgia Trip

As best as I can remember, a few months after I fell in love with the Perry Mason show in syndication, I girded my loins and crossed that line between the “Juvenile” and “Adult” shelves at my library for the first time to see if I could find some books by the guy listed in the credits. They didn’t have a complete set—but boy howdy, they had a lot of them. A few years later, when we moved to a new city, I was disappointed to see that their Gardner collection was smaller—but at least they had a couple I hadn’t read.

For some reason, about the time I left college, I stopped hunting down unread novels and stopped re-reading them, too. I’ve thought about dipping my toes back in, but hadn’t gotten around to it. Until a couple of months ago and I found myself in front of a large selection of used paperbacks—including one that was new to me.

Reading this took me back—from the list of the Cast of Characters through to the end, it was like stepping back into a world I’d forgotten. I remembered the characters (and how they differed from their TV portrayals), the snappy dialogue, and quiet humor. I got a huge hit of nostalgic warm and fuzzies from reading this one.

So, what did I think about The Case of the One-Eyed Witness?

I don’t think this was one of Gardner’s best, but it’s like what they say about pizza. Even if it’s bad, it’s still pretty good. And this wasn’t bad—it just wasn’t great.

I do think the plot was unnecessarily convoluted, but it was necessary to get Mason exposed to everything he needed to lead up to the big gotcha moments in the courtroom, and to Mason solving it. It was a satisfying conclusion, too. Enough that I don’t care about how complicated the trip to the conclusion was.

I had a great time reading this—and I think anyone who loves a good bit of courtroom drama will, too. If you haven’t read a Perry Mason novel before, this might not be the best one to start with. But you should give one of them a shot—I can’t imagine it’ll be another two-and-a-half decades before I try another.

3.5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Fools Gold by Ian Patrick: The Batford Trilogy Ends with a Bang

By HCNewton

On December 21, 2021

In Fiction, Ian Patrick, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Sam Batford

Fools Gold

by Ian Patrick
Series: Sam Batford, #3

Kindle Edition, 237 pg.
Fahrenheit Press, 2020

Read: August 25-26, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

I love remote working. It means I can be where I need to be, doing what I need to do, when I need to do it. After that there’s whatever time’s left for police work. I don’t regard myself as a criminal. I’m just a disgruntled public servant supplementing my meagre living. Most criminals I despise but there are a few who break the mould.

I’m one of them, after all.

What’s Fools Gold About?

After recovering from Stoned Love, Batford’s thrown back into the field. This time, he’s answering directly to Klara Winter and she’s got two things on her mind—shutting down an armed robbery team and exposing Batford.

Batford has three missions—stopping the robbery team; finishing cleaning up after his former boss/mentor—including getting what cash he can; and staying clean in front of Winter. Note the qualifier there, clean “in front of” Winter, not clean.

Typical police procedural stuff, right?

The UC work is great—and Batford ends up finding more criminal activity than the police were aware of when the operation started. I don’t want to get into it, because it’s better for you to read it. But like so many of the police actions in Patrick’s works, it screams authenticity.

So, what did I think about Fools Gold?

There was a time the police were viewed as protectors and defenders. In a way that still applies: Terrorists denied their spoils, criminal networks disrupted, drugs and guns seized. I’m part of all that but no longer feel like crew on the good ship, Justice.

I’m pretty sure I’ve said something like this before, but it’s worth repeating. It takes a special skill to make readers get behind a crooked cop—a reader will accept a Bosch or a Rebus bending the rules a bit to get the murderer to confess or get convicted. But that’s not Batford. Well, okay, it is. But that’s not all that Batford does—while he gets results/arrests/stops whatever crime he’s been sent to investigate, he also makes sure he profits off it. And somehow Patrick gets his readers to hope Batford gets away with it. At least a little bit.

It drives me crazy—I want him to succeed and I hope he spends the rest of his life behind bars. You figure that out, I can’t.

Patrick’s prose here is as lean as ever—and once the momentum builds up, it doesn’t stop. There’s a ticking clock on Batford’s investigation, and it carries over to the novel. The action propels you from one scene to the next.

There’s real growth in Patrick’s plotting—with no disrespect intended to his previous work—but this feels so much tighter, he doesn’t waste a moment.

And that ending? I don’t have words for it. It’s both a great launching pad in the (seemingly unlikely) case that there’s a fourth Batford novel, and a great way to conclude the trilogy.

Get them all—this would work okay as a stand-alone, but as the end of a run? It’s great. It’s a trilogy that goes from strength to strength, and you’d be smart to pick it up.

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Pure by Jo Perry: A Murder Mystery and So Much More

By HCNewton

On December 17, 2021

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

Pure

by Jo Perry

Paperback, 289 pg.
Fahrenheit Press, 2021

Read: October 6, 2021

Doctor Christiansen waited a moment after the final shudder and wheeze. “She’s gone,” he said and to make sure I understood, and added, “I and everyone here at Sunny Morning Elder Care Living are deeply sorry for your loss.”

Well, my aunt wasn’t “gone.” She was right there, her small, cold hand in mine.”

What’s Pure About?

Ascher Lieb, arrives at her dying aunt’s bedside too late to say goodbye, she’s not going to wake up again. But she’s present when they turn off the ventilator keeping her lungs working. Ascher returns to her aunt’s apartment to check on her dog and go through her belongings just in time for the facility to be quarantined with her in it.

This is the early days of COVID-19 in Los Angeles, and no one is playing around. Ascher has to present herself twice daily for temperature/symptom checks, where she’s given some food to supplement the groceries her aunt had left behind—which Ascher supplements, in turn by frequent use of delivery apps. With most of the U.S. now out of lockdown—or anything resembling it—it might be hard to remember the early days—sanitizing everything, masks, gloves, shutting yourself away from everyone you can. A lonely, isolating, claustrophobic existence—made the worse for Ascher as she’s alone in someone else’s house with few of her own possessions, just a dog who doesn’t understand why his owner isn’t coming home.

And I’m going on far too long—how do I summarize this? Gross over-simplification:
Ascher volunteers briefly at a Jewish Burial Society. She’s convinced there’s something suspicious about the death of one of the people she attends to. Driven by impulses and emotions she’s not sure she can identify, Ascher seeks to discover this woman’s identity and learn what caused her death.

Ascher also has to come to terms with her aunt’s death (which opens a can of worms about other deaths in her family, too), dodge the officials at her aunt’s facility while she’s breaking quarantine, try to hew close to COVID restrictions, deal with a bunch of personal issues arising from her being quarantined away from her apartment/roommate, cope with the dumpster fire that was 2020, and…there’s a possible (probable?) supernatural element, too. That sounds like a lot going on—and it is—but it never feels that way. At least for the reader—Ascher feels it.

“Everything Else”

The mystery at the core of this novel is a pretty good one—and Ascher’s not a sleuth by any means, her attempts at being an amateur sleuth are as amateur as they come. It’s worth reading Pure for this aspect alone.

But for me, it was the least interesting part of the novel. Everything else going on (except maybe the stuff with her roommate) was much more interesting and worthy of reflection. For one: Ascher’s reaction to death—her aunt’s and others—have shaped her more than she realizes. Her coming to grips with it, her seeing how death has affected important choices she’s made throughout her life—and seeing what she does with these realizations? That’s what separates Pure from other mystery novels.

So, what did I think about Pure?

This is a great novel, an immersive read—I had a hard time putting the book down, and a harder time not thinking about it when I had put it down. And I was on vacation when I read this—I had plenty of things to do, see and think about when I wasn’t reading. If I only had routine day-to-day things to think about, I’m not sure I’d have been able to focus on work/home life instead of the book.

The characters who aren’t Ascher are interesting enough—and there’s a couple I can think of that I would’ve liked to spend more time with. But that’s not possible in this book—Spring of 2020 was not a time to meet people and spend a lot of time with them. But your appreciation for this book is going to come down to what you think of Ascher and her actions.

This is a mystery novel about something—it’s more than a whodunit (assuming there was something for a “who” to have “dun”). It, like pretty much everything Perry writes, is about death and how we deal with it as humans (and one neurotic Mini-Pinscher). THere’s more to chew on, too, but that’d be telling…

It’s trite to say “this moved me.” But it did, and I can’t think of a better way to phrase it, so trite it is. Pure is the best thing I’ve read by Perry—it’s not the most entertaining, but it’s the best, and will likely stay with me in more detail than the rest. You won’t be sorry if you pick this up. You may regret not doing so. So, why take the chance?

4 Stars

Leaving the LAW by Robert Germaux: Looking at JB’s Past as He Tries to Save a Kid’s Future

By HCNewton

On December 16, 2021

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

Leaving the LAW

by Robert Germaux
Series: Jeremy Barnes, #4 (Chronologically #2)

Kindle Edition, 208 pg.
2021

Read: November 25-26, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

As I drove away from the center, I thought about Asaan and Anthony and Franklin High School and the gangs. And scones. Food is never far from my mind, and I didn’t have anything else to do at the moment, so I drove home and parked the Camry in my driveway and walked to Starbucks. I can think and eat at the same time, a skill that I have demonstrated on numerous occasions. No need not to do so again.

What’s Leaving the LAW About?

Before Jeremy Barnes became a P.I., he was a teacher—a dedicated and idealistic one. Which is largely why he left the profession. The American education system is not a place for idealists. One student that he made an impact on comes back into his life fifteen years later.

Laretta Warren is now a single mother, doing her best. Laretta’s son, Anthony, is in a gang and is in real danger of legal problems if he doesn’t change direction. He’s also in real danger period. Laretta remembered how JB inspired her to keep going—now she wants him to inspire her son to get out of the gang and get on a better path.

JB has no illusions that he’s going to be able to make any difference. But he remembers Laretta’s spirit. He respects that, he wants to honor her wishes, and do what he can for her. Even if it’s to take on a Quixotic task.

While he tries to talk Anthony into wanting to leave, he knows it’ll take more than gaining his trust and then convincing him. So he sets out to gain leverage against the leader of the gang. As difficult as it will be to get Anthony to want to leave, that’s simpler than getting him out. He also needs to understand the gangs better—the landscape has changed a lot in the years since he taught high school.

This leads him to reconnect with the school’s Vice Principal, and his friends in the police department connect him with the officer who’ll be the most helpful—both the V.P. and police lead him to a community activist who is instrumental in keeping the peace between rival gangs in the area. JB learns a good deal about them and the way the leadership thinks—now, will it be enough?

JB and Laura

So, if you read this in order of publication, you already know where the relationship between JB and Laura is going—if you’re reading this chronologically, you met her in the previous book, and have a pretty good idea where it’s going.

Either way, their relationship is beyond the establishment stage, but they’re still figuring themselves out as a unit. One of the biggest things for Laura to reckon with is the violence that JB occasionally runs into. Is she prepared to deal with the stress and worry? Is it worth it? She’s still working her way through that—and it should take a little while.

Laura doesn’t often remind me of Susan Silverman (unlike JB, who constantly reminds me of Spenser), but she really does sound like her as she works her way through the danger inherent in JB’s work with Anthony. For what it’s worth, I think Laura deals with it a little better than Susan does early on, but it’s obviously a struggle for her.

So, what did I think about Leaving the LAW?

Once again, Germaux has delivered a thoroughly entertaining PI novel. Spending time in a Germaux novel (Jeremy Barnes or Daniel Hays) is a guaranteed good time with characters you can’t help but like.

I enjoyed getting more of a glimpse into JB”s past than we’ve gotten before—and the way he reacts to Laretta (both as he remembers her and as he observes her) is exactly how you want a teacher to respond to a student. It just makes a PI you already were invested in and was rooting for all the more likable.

I halfway expected the final reveal—but that didn’t stop it from being effective, it just made the most dramatic sense. I’d much rather a scene to be justified and successful than an out-of-blue surprise, anyway. Germaux satisfied that preference while delivering what I expected with a motivation that I didn’t expect.

I had a lot of fun with this book—good characters and prose that’s just smooth and easy reading. I’m about done with Germaux’s detective fiction—while I’m all for being a completionist, I’m not crazy about crossing that last one off my list. Thankfully, I have a few other books by him to get to.

3.5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest: Move Over Shawn and Gus, It’s Time for the Real Deal

By HCNewton

On December 15, 2021

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

Grave Reservations

by Cherie Priest
Series: Booking Agents Series, #1

Hardcover, 289 pg.
Atria Books, 2021

Read: December 10-13
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

“I’m not looking for a séance, Ms. Foley. I’m just telling you that I know there’s more to the world than what we can always see right in front of us. And I believe you when you tell me that you had a premonition, or a bad feeling, or a bad certainty—if that’s more like it. I believe you saved my life. Saved me a hell of a story and some smoke inhalation, that’s for damn sure. And now I want to hire you. Not to book any travel, and not to talk to my dead mother. I’ve got a case I’ve been beating my head against for a couple of years, and I’m all out of leads. I’m ready to try anything, which means I’m willing to try a psychic, Ms. Foley, I want you to help me solve a murder.”

What’s Grave Reservations About?

It’s pretty much about that quotation—Leda Foley is a travel agent* and self-described “inconsistent psychic.” Her intuition (or whatever you want to call it) leads her into changing the flight of a Seattle PD detective which prevents him from ending up in a plane that skidded off the runway during takeoff. Now he’s back in Seattle, grateful, and wants to use Leda to help him get a break on a cold case. Det. Grady isn’t that convinced this is going to work (Leda’s sure it won’t), but he doesn’t know what else to try.

* I’m as surprised as you to learn they still exist.

She agrees—not just because her agency is struggling and she needs pretty much any money she can earn, but because she wants to get on Det. Grady’s good side, because she wants his help on a cold case of her own—her fiancé was murdered and the police got nowhere with that investigation.

So, Leda, her bartender best friend, and Detective Gracy set out to see if her psychic abilities are at least a little more consistent than she thinks.

Leda’s Other Side Hustle

Leda’s had a large number of day jobs, none of which worked out for long. Her travel agency, Foley’s Far-Fetched Flights of Fancy, is an effort to make it on her own—and it’s pretty shaky. Leda also wants to strengthen and improve her psychic skills, so she gets on stage at a local bar for what she calls klairvoyant karaoke, but the bar’s owner prefers calling her a psychic psongstress.

Basically, she gets on stage, holds an object given to her by an audience member, and uses the impressions her abilities give her about the owner to sing a song that will be meaningful to the owner. In exchange, she gets free drinks. She’s gaining a little notoriety from this and the bar is having its most successful nights ever.

Tricky Tonal Balancing Act

This is not your typical murder mystery, that’s probably pretty clear. In her acknowledgments, Priest says she was aiming at “something lighter and funnier than my usual fare.” She hit what she aimed for. It’s comedic (sometimes very comedic), but not at a goofball level. It’s closer to Castle at its best. Or to stick to novel comparisons, think The Spellman Files (especially the slightly more serious last couple), Max Wirestone’s Dahlia Moss books or David Ahern’s Madam Tulip books. The latter is the best comparison (not just because Leda’s psychic abilities made me think of Derry more than a few times), but Leda’s friends remind me of Derry’s—but I threw in the others because too few people know anything about Madam Tulip.

Back to Grave Reservations—Priest walks the tightrope between too silly for a mystery and too serious for a story about a travel agent/inconsistent psychic–—which cannot be anywhere as easy as she makes it look. With all of the above comparisons, I occasionally wasn’t sure about the consistency of the tone (or the appropriateness of it when the creators weren’t on the top of their game). Priest didn’t have that problem at all. Which is a tribute to her skill.

So, what did I think about Grave Reservations?

I don’t have a lot to say here–it’s really good. Priest surrounds Leda and Det. Grady with a bunch of characters that bring the comedy on the personal side and suspects, victims, and witnesses that keep the serious side of the story working. Either set of characters make this a fun read—put them together and you have something special.

The mystery itself was pretty good—and having Leda’s abilities providing the leaps of logic that allow Grady to start looking in the right places is a great idea. Priest doesn’t have to “play fair” like most mystery novelists and she can just wave the Psychic ex Machina wand to get her out of tricky places.

Grave Reservations is a great bit of light escapist reading—and the way Priest set it up for a series suggests that we’ll be able to escape into this world for a little while longer. And we all could use something like that right now, can’t we?

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.