Tag: Deep Dark Night

Finally, we’re at the end of my 2020 wrap-up, it feels like I’ve been at this for a month, not just 11 days. Like I’ve said previously, my intention was to be done three or four days ago, but oh, well.

In a real sense, this was a challenging list to come up with, but the first 7 jumped to mind instantly, even back in December when I started to think about what might show up. It was those last three that I had to labor over—there were so many good candidates (see the list at the end of this post for the six-way tie for 11th place).

Once again, I’ll note that I limit my lists to things I read for the first time (so the nine Robert B. Parker books I re-read last year didn’t make up most of this list). I’d be willing to guarantee anyone reading this page will enjoy at least 6 of these (which six will vary from reader to reader). I’m tempted to say that all the listed books are guaranteed for everyone, but people’s tastes are too varied, so I’ll hedge my bet. Try these, and you’ll be glad you did.

(in alphabetical order by author)

The Revelators

by Ace Atkins
My original post
Here, in book 10, Ace Atkins wraps up storylines he’s been building up for ages, characters move on (some are even still alive when that happens), and what comes next for Quinn Colson and his community is anybody’s guess (although, I’m pretty sure there’ll be a white, corrupt politician behind it, because…well, it’s Tibbehah County). A dynamite novel.

5 Stars

Deep Dark Night

by Steph Broadribb

My original post
Lori and JT are finally pressured to do the shady work for the FBI Agent that’s been looming over her head forever, and it goes horribly, horribly wrong. Which is a treat for the reader. You’ve got the JT, Lori, and a whole bunch of unsavory people trapped on the top floor of a Chicago highrise, and the thrills start from there. Strong character development in the middle of some of the tensest action you can imagine. Great ride.

4 1/2 Stars

The Law of Innocence

by Michael Connelly

My original post
I was slightly afraid of that when I read the blurb for this—did we really need two books from Connelly in 2020 where the protagonist is suspected of a murder that there’s no chance at all that he committed? By the beginning of Chapter Two, any trepidation had vanished. By the end, this may be my favorite Lincoln Lawyer book yet. The courtroom action was fantastic. I absolutely loved it.

4 1/2 Stars

The Curator

by M. W. Craven

My original post
What a great hook. What a fantastic series of twists. What a wonderful concept for a killer and modus operandi. Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw are a couple of my favorite characters and they got to shine here. I just want to rave and rave and rave about this book, but I have things to do, so I’d better move on.

5 Stars

King of the Crows

by Russell Day

My original post
There’s no way I can sum up my appreciation for this book in this post. Set in a world recovering from a pandemic, there’s a straightforward crime story at the heart of this novel—it’s just surrounded by so many layers, that you can miss it—there’s the disease, there’s the horrible social and political context (both mid- and post-Outbreak), there’s what the characters are going through otherwise—and the whole thing is drenched in social commentary about 2020 society, e.g., sexism, economics, medical care. Yeah, it was bad timing that this book came out in 2020 when the last thing that many people want to read is a novel about a disease that’s out of control. But this had been in the works for months before anyone had heard of COVID-19. I’ve wondered what I’d think of this book if I’d read it last Fall. I’d still like it, I’d still be impressed by it—but I don’t know if it would resonate with me the same way. There’s almost nothing about Gondii that’s comparable to COVID-19. But the way that people and governments respond—well, that’s pretty different, too. but if you can’t see what’s going on around us reflected in this novel? You’re not paying attention. That Day appears so prescient says something about his skill and observation (and a lot about Western culture, too).

5 Stars

Lost Hills

by Lee Goldberg

My original post
A young detective takes advantage of Social Media stardom to get herself a promotion she’s not quite ready for. But she’s determined to get there. She has to overcome her own lack of experience and a department that resents her. Eve Ronin’s first homicide case starts with a grizzly scene and the apparent murder of a woman, her two children, and a dog. Soon, she’s finding herself racing with an out-of-control wildfire that’s about to wipe out any evidence related to the case and the killer’s last victim. A great start to what promises to be a fun series.

4 1/2 Stars

Luck and Judgement

Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson (Narrator)

My original post
DC Smith and his trainee are brought along with some other government investigators to look into a missing person/death on an oil rig. Smith’s the only one who doesn’t think it’s an accident. He begins to investigate the death as a murder and uncovers a lot more than he bargained for. Humor, heart, and humanity are the bedrock of this series and all of them shine forth in this procedural.

4 Stars

A Bad Day for Sunshine

by Darynda Jones

My original post
This is pure, escapist fun. Think Gilmore Girls mixed with Veronica Mars. A single mom is a new sheriff of a quirky little New Mexico town, with a spunky daughter. There’s a kidnapping, an escaped convict, a missing deputy, and cursed cupcakes. Great dialogue, witty repartee, a mother-daughter relationship that will earn Jones many fans. This is as much fun as you can pack into a police procedural without making it a comedy, but still full of grim, grisly, depravity and darkness. It’s a nice serving of literary comfort food. There’s a freshness to this voice that I just loved, but my appreciation for this book (and the series it launches) goes deeper.

4 1/2 Stars

How the Wired Weep

by Ian Patrick

My original post
There are two protagonists here—one is a small-time criminal, the other is a London Detective Sergeant who recruits and handles informants—excuse me, Covert Human Intelligence Sources. The criminal is fresh out of prison and is being used to get information on an up-and-coming local gang leader. There’s plenty of moral ambiguity to go around here, which is probably pretty realistic for this line of work (on both sides of the law). Patrick gives a more intimate, more powerful novel than he has with his Sam Batford series with this fascinating look into a side of policing most novels don’t.

4 1/2 Stars

Of Mutts and Men

by Spencer Quinn

My original post
I’ve been a fan of this series since chapter 3 or so of the first book. Here in the tenth novel, Quinn is better than ever. There are some really strong emotional moments in the novel, some character growth (not in Chet, our animal narrator, never fear), and a mystery even more complex readers are used to from Chet and Bernie. Still, this is a series about a down-on-his-luck PI and his canine partner—a mix of goofy fun and solid PI fiction, fun, fun, stuff.

4 1/2 Stars

Books that almost made the list—and did in various drafts (links to my original posts): The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes; The Finders by Jeffrey B. Burton; The Ninja Daughter by Tori Eldridge; Rattlesnake Rodeo by Nick Kowalski; Far from the Tree by Rob Parker, Warren Brown (Narrator); and Light it Up by Nick Petrie

Deep Dark Night by Steph Broadribb: High Stakes Danger for Lori Anderson in the Windy City

By HCNewton

On January 23, 2020

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Steph Broadribb/Stephanie Marland

Deep Dark Night

by Steph Broadribb
Series: Lori Anderson, #4

Kindle Edition, 320 pg.
Orenda Books, 2020

Read: January 16-17, 2020
Grab a Steph Broadribb book from your local indie bookstore!

I’ve always felt an element of fear about the jobs I do. In the right dosage it can help you. It gets your adrenaline firing, makes you think clearer, faster—gets you alert and ready to tackle anything that comes your way. But if the fear builds too much, all that good stuff swings things around; the nerves make you hesitant, jumpy and too cautious. That’s when you start making mistakes. And mistakes, in my world, can be fatal.

After barely getting to take a breath following the events of Deep Dirty Truth, Lori finally gets the chance to work off her debt to FBI Agent Monroe. This puts Lori and JT in Chicago trying to get the mobster Cabressa to take possession of some stolen goods. Once that’s done, a series of dominoes will fall and Monroe will be able to put him away for a very long time.

So he insists, anyway.

Step one involves Lori getting an invite to an incredibly exclusive Poker game, Step two involves giving her a crash course in playing Poker so she seems mostly credible in the game. (this isn’t presented as a comedic segment, but I chuckled at this part of the book—also, I’m jealous, I wish I could learn how to play like this).

Now, every thriller reader knows what will happen next—no plan, no matter how thorough, how well-thought-out no matter who’s involved, will work. If for no other reason than it would produce a dull novel. But also, every thriller reader has heard the line, “no plan survives first contact with the enemy” and knows it to be true. The questions that need to be answered are: how badly will the plan go awry? and How will Lori and JT react to it?

So let me assure you, when this plan is derailed, it’s derailed in a spectacular fashion, providing a lot of danger for our heroes, peril for those around them, and more than enough tension to satisfy a hungry reader. Lori and JT respond appropriately, not perfectly (which would be boring), but they display the stamina, resourcefulness, and tenacity we’ve come to expect from them.

The poker game collected quite the interesting mix of players—sports figures, politicians, as well as shady characters like Cabressa. When things go wrong during the game, it opens things up for a lot of drama and conflicting interests causing trouble for all involved. Suddenly, Lori and JT can’t focus solely on getting Cabressa to fall into Monroe’s trap—they have to worry about survival—their own, and as many others that they can help. Sure, Cabressa is still their target, but there’s a lot they have to go through before they can make him a priority.

I’m not going to get more in-depth than that, I’ll leave it there and say there’s more than enough going on plot-wise to fuel a book at least half again as long as this one. Broadribb has stacked the deck against the pair and it’s great to watch them try to navigate the situation.

The game takes place at the top of a pretty high building in Chicago and the action centers around that location, stories above the ground. In the real world, I’m pretty acrophobic—and occasionally (okay, more than occasionally), a movie can get me to feel the anxiety that heights can bring out in me. I don’t remember ever feeling symptoms while reading a book, but I did here. It’s not like Broadribb focused all that much on the height and risk of falling (it was there, but she didn’t belabor the point), but something about the way that she told the story, flicked that particular switch in my brain. There’s something very disconcerting about sitting in a comfortable seat (on the ground level like a sane person) but feeling like I was standing in a precarious* location several feet off the ground. I’m not promising that anyone else will experience what I did, I assume the rest of humanity is a bit better adjusted than I am, but for me that was an unexpected “bonus” to the book.

* Yeah, fine, my definition of a precarious location applies to perfectly safe—even benign—spots.

I’m a little worried about the long-term health of Lori’s elbows. She uses them so often as weapons, she probably heads back to Florida with at least one of them horribly bruised. I don’t remember this being the case in the previous novels, maybe I just forgot—or maybe she’s just relying on the technique in these circumstances (I remember more than once the narration in a Jack Reacher novel talking about the usefulness of that tactic compared to the use of a fist).

As far as long-term character development goes, Lori and JT start a conversation they’ve needed to have since, well, since we met the two of them about Dakota and why Lori didn’t tell JT about her before she did. This will prove helpful in the future and provide the opportunity for the relationship to grow and change. The two of them have some sort of plan going forward about their careers and daughter, but we’re going to have to come back to find out what they have in mind. Seeing these two deal with each other and their daughter is almost as rewarding to me as the action-hero kind of thing is, and Broadribb’s featuring both sides of Lori like this is a real strength of the series.

For my money, this is the best of the series—she’s got a real handle on these characters by now and knows just how to put them through the wringer in a way that provides real tension and thrills. I got more wrapped up in this than I expected to (and I had pretty high expectations at this point in the series), and it was absolutely worth it. Book five cannot arrive soon enough for me.

If you haven’t met this bounty hunter yet, you need to—either in the pages of this book or the beginning, either would work (but you might as well just buy the set all at once, you won’t be satisfied until you read them all). Deep Dark Night will win Broadribb some new fans and confirm those readers already along for the ride.

4 1/2 Stars

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