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In 2018, I read my first book by Nick Kolokowski, Boise Longpig Hunting Club, which is pretty much everything you think it is from the title. In the two years and change since then, I’ve read five other books by Kolokowski—well, six now. That alone should be an indication of what I think about his stuff.
What’s Rattlesnake Rodeo About?
This is the sequel to Boise Longpig Hunting Club, taking up minutes after it. Spoilerly talk about BLHC—bounty hunter, Jake; his sister, Frankie (a gun smuggler); and ex-wife/fiancé, Janine (who has nothing to do with criminals); are kidnapped by a group of super-wealthy people, and set loose in an Idaho forest while they’re being hunted. Jake and Frankie are a lot more resourceful than anyone expected—and Janine has depth that no one expected—and they end up killing all the hunters.
We rejoin them in this book headed back to Boise. They have a number of emotions and thoughts running through their minds at this time—as they should—the most prominent of them is: how are we going to get away with this? There’s no way that they didn’t leave all sorts of DNA, fingerprints and other sorts of evidence behind that’ll make forensic techs happy. And there will be scores of techs, investigators, agents and what have you at the crime scene—very rich, very important people died up there and someone is going to have to pay for that. Oh, and Frankie wants fries. You work up an appetite fighting for your life.
Karen
They quickly learn about one person who not only has links to the Longpig Hunters, evidence about Jake and Frankie’s involvement, and a reputation to make people quake in their boots. Like Prince, Madonna, or Hawk (to bring it back to crime fiction), she’s known by one name: Karen.
Quick aside: I wonder if in early drafts, she was called something like Margo or Helen, but given, well, all of 2020, Kolakowski decided to go back and change it. Or did he have enough foresight months ago to go with that?
Back to the book: Karen offers them a deal, they do one incredibly horrible task for her, or she ruins the lives and reputations of Jake, Frankie, and Janine. They have no choice…they have to find an Option C.
Gunfights, treachery, and (obviously) rattlesnakes ensue.
Frankie and Her Troops
In almost every novel I’d normally read, Frankie and her employees would be the targets of the protagonist, not their ally. But I’ve gotta say, for a bunch of gun-running criminals, benefiting from the miseries of others (and being a means to innocents being killed at the hands of their customers), they’re a lot of fun. There’s a fun sense of camaraderie and some good banter among them. They’re a pretty effective squad, too. Kolakowski could write a pretty entertaining series featuring these guys. And not just because they’re led by a man who always wears a rubber gorilla mask.
Which is fitting, considering how cool their boss is. Spenser has Hawk, Kenzie and Gennaro have Bubba, Elvis Cole has Joe Pike, Walt Longmire has Henry Standing Bear, Joe Pickett has Nate Romanowski, Sunny Randall has Spike, and Jake has Frankie. The “not-bound by the same laws and ethics that the series protagonist is” so that the protagonist can keep his/her nose clean and still get the job done. They’ll cut the corners, they’ll take and make the shots that no one else will, they’ll be the ones to use lethal force when their friend just can’t bring themselves to do it—and they won’t feel guilt (at least not enough to interfere with their ability to get things done).
Frankie is, as far as I know, the only female lethal sidekick, in crime fiction. Through grit, determination, skill, and panache—Frankie is what ultimately keeps her brother and sister-in-law breathing. It’s just fun to see a female in this role, particularly one that fits. I could never see Sunny Randall go toe-to-toe with some of the dudes she needs to without Spike (or Jesse, or Richie, or Richie’s family)—but I can see Frankie (like Lori Anderson or Charlie Fox) do it without blinking.
The Setting
I’ve talked a little about this in the other book, but it’s fun for me to see the region I’ve lived my whole life in depicted so well in these pages. I enjoy anyone finding a way to bring a crime novel to life outside of Boston, NYC, New Jersey, Chicago, Miami or LA—Elmore Leonard, Jason Miller, Craig Johnson, C. J. Box, Darynda Jones, and G. M. Ford have/continue to do a good job of that, but there needs to be more*. Kolakowski brings my corner of the world into that fold (Jayne Faith did it in Urban Fantasy, and Wesley Chu set a Tao book near where the climax of this novel took place). It’s nice not having to use my imagination much when picturing a scene, at the same time—if I’d never been anywhere near this place, Kolakowski depicts it well enough that someone from Michigan, Mississippi, or New Mexico would have no problem seeing what he’s going for.
* I don’t pretend that’s an exhaustive list, still feel free to add others I should get to know.
So, what did I think about Rattlesnake Rodeo?
You could feel the dread coming off of Jake and Frankie as they thought about the police and (probably) feds coming for them after surviving the last novel, you could feel their hatred (for Karen) and revulsion for their task for her, and you could sense the chaos, smell the smoke, and taste the air from the big scenes at the end of the novel. There are significant portions of this novel you experience as much as you read. You’ve gotta love that.
There was one death that totally caught me unprepared and left me stunned. The violence felt a little more grounded than the genre demands, but Kolakowski knows when to loosen the reins and let things go a little over the top. Which is just fun.
At the same time, there’s a great sense of enjoyment to this novel—to the characters, what they do, and how they go about it. It’s the kind of action novel that gets your fists pumping as much as anything else.
Just the fact that the novel starts with the trio worried about all the evidence they left behind made this a winner—how many characters in novels worry about that sort of thing? Add in the characters—from the oddity of Monkey Man, to the implausibly competent Frankie, to the quiet strength of Janine, to the terror that is Karen—and the great balance of tones, and you’ll see why Kolakowski is my favorite US indie Crime Novelist.
I strongly recommend Rattlesnake Rodeo, whether or not you read BLHC first, it’s a fun ride.
Disclaimer: I received this eARC from the author in exchange for this post and my honest opinion, I appreciate the opportunity.
Like last year, while trying to come up with a Top 10 this year, I ran into a small problem (at least for me). Crime/Thriller/Mystery novels made up approximately half of the novels I read this year and therefore dominated the candidates. So, I decided to split them into 2 lists—one for Crime Fiction and one for Everything Else. Not the catchiest title, I grant you, but you get what you pay for.
These are my favorites, the things that have stuck with me in a way others haven’t—not necessarily the best things I read (but there’s a good deal of overlap, too). But these ten entertained me or grabbed me emotionally unlike the rest.
Anyway…I say this every year, but . . . Most people do this in mid-December or so, but a few years ago (before this blog), the best novel I read that year was also the last. Ever since then, I just can’t pull the trigger until January 1. Also, none of these are re-reads, I can’t have everyone losing to books that I’ve loved for 2 decades that I happened to have read this year.
Enough blather…on to the list.
(in alphabetical order by author)
by Fredrik Backman, Henning Koch (Translator)
My original post
I’ve been telling myself every year since 2016 that I was going to read all of Backman’s novels after falling in love with his My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry. The closest I got was last year when I read his first novel, A Man Called Ove (and nothing else). It’s enough to make me resolve to read more of them, and soon. The story of an old, grumpy widower befriending (against his will, I should stress) a pretty diverse group of his neighbors. It’s more than that thumbnail, but I’m trying to be brief. The story was fairly predictable, but there’s something about the way that Backman put it together that makes it perfect. And even the things you see coming will get you misty (if not elicit actual tears).
by Pierce Brown
My original post
When I started reading this, I was figuring that Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga was on the downward trend. Boy, was I wrong. Dark Age showed me that time after time after time after time . . . Entertaining, occasionally amusing, stress-inducing, heart-wrenching, flat-out captivating. It was brutal and beautiful and I can’t believe I doubted Brown for a minute.
by Mike Chen
My original post
One of the best Time Travel stories I’ve ever read, but it’s so much more—it’s about fatherhood, it’s about love, it’s about friendship. Heart, soul, laughs, and heartbreak—I don’t know what else you want out of a time travel story. Or any story, really. Characters you can like (even when they do things you don’t like), characters you want to know better, characters you want to hang out with after the story (or during it, just not during the major plot point times), and a great plotline.
by Sarah Chorn
My original post
Chorn’s prose is as beautiful as her world is dark and disturbing. This Fantasy depicts a culture’s collapse and promises the rebirth of a world, but getting there is rough. Time and time again while reading this book, I was struck by how unique, how unusual this experience was. As different as fantasy novels tend to be from each other, by and large, most of them feel the same as you read it (I guess that’s true of all genres). But I kept coming back to how unusual this feels compared to other fantasies I’ve read. The experience of reading Seraphina’s Lament isn’t something I’ll forget any time soon.
by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne
My original post
Having established their off-kilter world, strong voice, and approach to the stories of Pell, Dawson and Hearne have come back to play in it. The result is superior in every way that I can think of. I lost track of how many times I said to myself while reading something along the lines of, “how did they improve things this much?” These books are noted (as I’ve focused on) for their comedy—but they’re about a lot more than comedy. The battle scenes are exciting. The emotional themes and reactions are genuine and unforced. And tragedy hits hard. It’s easy to forget in the middle of inspiring moments or humorous aftermaths of battle that these kind of novels involve death and other forms of loss—and when you do forget, you are open to getting your heart punched.
(but mostly you laugh)
by Matthew Dicks
My original post
It’s an unconventionally told story about a man figuring out how to be a businessman, husband, and father in some extreme circumstances. The lists are the star of the show, but it’s the heart behind them that made this novel a winner.
by Nick Hornby
My original post
This series of brief conversations held between a married couple just before their marriage counseling sessions. At the end of the day, this is exactly what you want from a Nick Hornby book (except the length—I wanted more, always): funny, heartfelt, charming, (seemingly) effortless, and makes you feel a wide range of emotions without feeling manipulated. I loved it, I think you will, too.
by Lisa Lutz
My original post
This is not my favorite Lutz novel, but I think it’s her best. It has a very different kind of humor than we got in The Spellman Files, but it’s probably as funny as Lutz has been since the third book in that series—but deadly serious, nonetheless. Lutz puts on a clinic for naturally shifting tone and using that to highlight the important stories she’s telling. From the funny and dark beginning to the perfect and bitingly ominous last three paragraphs The Swallows is a winner. Timely and appropriate, but using tropes and themes that are familiar to readers everywhere, Lutz has given us a thrilling novel for our day—provocative, entertaining, and haunting. This is one of those books that probably hews really close to things that could or have happened and you’re better off hoping are fictional.
by Ian Shane
My original post
This has the general feel of Hornby, Tropper, Norman, Weiner, Russo (in his lighter moments), Perrotta, etc. The writing is engaging, catchy, welcoming. Shane writes in a way that you like reading his prose—no matter what’s happening. It’s pleasant and charming with moments of not-quite-brilliance, but close enough. Shane’s style doesn’t draw attention to itself, if anything, it deflects it. It’s not flashy, but it’s good. The protagonist feels like an old friend, the world is comfortable and relaxing to be in (I should stress about 87.3 percent of what I know about radio comes from this book, so it’s not that). This belongs in the same discussion with the best of Hornby and Tropper—it’s exactly the kind of thing I hope to read when I’m not reading a “genre” novel (I hate that phrase, but I don’t know what else to put there).
by Abbi Waxman
My original post
This is a novel filled with readers, book nerds and the people who like (and love) them. There’s a nice story of a woman learning to overcome her anxieties to embrace new people in her life and heart with a sweet love story tagged on to it. Your mileage may vary, obviously, but I can’t imagine a world where anyone who reads my blog not enjoying this novel and protagonist. It’s charming, witty, funny, touching, heart-string-tugging, and generally entertaining. This is the only book on this particular list that I know would’ve found a place on a top ten that included Crime Novels as well, few things made me as happy in 2019 as this book did for a few hours (and in fleeting moments since then as I reflect on it).
Books that almost made the list (links to my original posts): Not Famous by Matthew Hanover, Circle of the Moon by Faith Hunter, Maxine Unleashes Doomsday by Nick Kolakowski, In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire, The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion, and Lingering by Melissa Simonson
Man…this is the third time I’ve got to pick Nick Kolakowski’s brain (the first and the second, for you completists). I can’t believe he keeps coming back for more — but when I get great answers like these, I’ve gotta keep asking, you know? Do read the others if you’re wanting to learn more about him in general — I stuck to Maxine Unleashes Doomsday (I posted about it earlier today, in case you missed that) this time.
Hope you enjoy!
| Did you set out to write Science Fiction or is that something that came about as you started the project? |
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I’ve always wanted to write a dystopian novel, but all my early attempts were ignoble failures; they were Diet Cormac McCarthy, pastiches of “The Road” that were just retreads of what everyone else was trying to do. It’s only when I mashed the concept onto a noir framework that it started to work for me—a heist novel was the grounding that I needed, even if the target of that heist, in this post-apocalyptic context, is really, really weird. |
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| What were some of the new challenges (and/or freedoms) compared to your earlier works given this setting/genre? |
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I’ve never written a book that covers the whole scope of someone’s life. Any novel comes with its share of continuity challenges; even if the timeframe is really short (i.e., a few hours or days), you need to keep all of your pieces and characters aligned and consistent. But keeping the details of a character’s life aligned across decades can prove much more difficult—did this happen to her left or right arm when she was a teenager, etc.
In terms of freedoms, though, you can create an incredible character arc if you have that kind of super-expansive timeframe to play with. There’s a real poignancy to tracing someone’s life from their teenagehood to the very end, especially if the country is radically changing around them at the same time. |
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| What came first—the story or Maxine? Is that your typical approach, or does it vary from project to project? |
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Maxine came first: I had a vision of a badass woman, bitter and chain-smoking but refusing to give up no matter what life threw at her. From there, I wanted a story that put her in worse and worse circumstances. What happens to someone who loses everything? What’s left?
In terms of actual writing, this book started in the middle. Then I wrote Maxine’s childhood and teenage-dom. Then I stalled for about a year because I couldn’t think of where to take her from there; it was only when I came up with the broader framework—of academics discussing her life and her impact on society—that I figured out where to take everything. |
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| In this book, Preacher reminded me a lot of Main Bad Guy’s Walker—but a very different take on the character type. Is 2019 your Year of the Aging Badass, or is that just a coincidence? I’m having a hard time not asking a spoiler-laden question about him, so let me take the easy way out – what would a prospective reader want to know about Maxine’s very disfunctional paternal figure? |
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That was a coincidence, but now that you mention it… yeah, Preacher and Walker are brothers of a type! I didn’t mean it that way; Preacher made his first appearance in my head circa 2014, while Walker emerged around 2017-18, when I was writing “Main Bad Guy.”
Not to spoil too much, but Preacher isn’t the badass that Maxine thinks. He’s ultra-tough, and he deserves his fearsome reputation in the ruined part of the world where Maxine and her family lives. But his weaknesses—and frankly, his lies—eventually force Maxine to step up. The thing about badasses like Preacher and Walker, they can serve as crutches for your main character; at some point, you need to neuter them or take them away if your protagonist is truly going to move on and grow. |
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| Are you far enough into your next book to talk about it – are you sticking with SF, going back to Crime Fiction, or trying your hand at something like Wizards? |
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Haha! Noir-ish wizards would be pretty cool, although I’m sure someone has already covered that arena already. Up next is actually the sequel to “Boise Longpig Hunting Club,” so it’s back to crime fiction (and Idaho!). The as-yet-untitled sequel is actually giving me a bit of trouble, because I’m trying to ratchet up the tension as tightly as possible on Jake and Frankie, my two main characters (and siblings). They survived some insane crap in the first book, so I have to figure out a way to make things even crazier. |
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| Thanks for your time—and thanks for introducing me to Maxine |
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Thank you! I love her. I hope readers will, too. |
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