An especially moving installment for me, because of Gabe's distress after witnessing Nemec's defenestration. Full marks to the author for conveying thAn especially moving installment for me, because of Gabe's distress after witnessing Nemec's defenestration. Full marks to the author for conveying the horror without resorting to gory description -- of course, this is possible partly because we know Gabe so well by this point, and the narrative hews so closely to his POV; but that in itself tells you how good the characterization is.
He is such an endearing character, and also his narrative style would 100% make you want to put your hand over his mouth sometimes if that was what it took to get him to stop....more
The opening scene of "Pulling Strings" has its antihero, a magic-using hitman named Fitch, nearly oversleeping for -- let's call it an appointment. ThThe opening scene of "Pulling Strings" has its antihero, a magic-using hitman named Fitch, nearly oversleeping for -- let's call it an appointment. This turns out to be his thirtieth killing, and although he's less than fully committed to his employment situation, I'd still expect a competent hitman to do a little research in advance of the job. So I did a double-take when he entered his target's office building and was "relieved to find no receptionist."
(Buildings generally have doorpeople and/or security guards rather than receptionists, anyway, but let that pass -- except, why isn't there a security guard or six?)
Once I started to pick at the plotting, more and more problems presented themselves. Fitch is notorious -- there's even a fandom, with fanart -- and people apparently know what he looks like, but for some reason it's a big problem that he's recognized while carrying out this hit. But if it's a problem for him to be recognized, then why hasn't he made any effort at disguise? (Something else that could have been planned in advance.)
The narrative then makes a point of the victim's ugliness and his PA's age (old women, ew, amirite?) and treats both of them as somewhat contemptible. I didn't love that.
Fitch sometimes seems to understand that he was coerced into joining the criminal gang run by Grimm, yet sometimes he either doesn't remember or it doesn't matter: I couldn't tell. There's a prison break during which Grimm is nearly killed; Fitch saves his life, but why? Grimm is essentially holding Fitch's younger brother hostage, and since he seems to be the linchpin of the whole enterprise, wouldn't it be expedient to let him die and thus throw the gang into disarray?
The worldbuilding was murky, too -- I didn't have a clear picture of the city where the action took place, or of the context for the politics that inform Grimm's ambitions. I wasn't even sure whether "the Capitol" was a very large building or a consequence of confusion between capitols and capitals.
Two stars because in spite of everything I did want to find out what happened next. On the other hand, I don't want to find out badly enough to continue the series.
So: Ulysses and Sam have moved in together; Ulysses's beloved brother Laz is back from somewhere in SoutheastThis series is just so underappreciated.
So: Ulysses and Sam have moved in together; Ulysses's beloved brother Laz is back from somewhere in Southeast Asia (Thailand), where he's been doing -- something? as a member of the US Air Force; Laz has PTSD and is also hurt and angry that Ulysses hasn't kept him up-to-date with Sam's existence either as romantic partner or as experimental subject/ex-deity (well, sort of ex); some shady people are pursuing Sam, and their pursuit has something to do with the deity business; oh, and the psychic bond between Ulysses and Sam has gone terrifyingly haywire.
Also, we're in Madison, Wisconsin, in around 1971, and someone recently blew up the UW physics building. And Vikram and Sita, the new neighbors, are alarming to Sam, each in their own way.
That's! a lot! of ingredients! But -- having read eaten up the first two in the series, I was well placed to keep track of them, and anyway Sam and Ulysses are so smart, so thoughtful, so funny, and so in love, that I would happily read about them just having a relationship and working through difficulties as they arise (see "haywire bond," above) even if nothing else was going on. The closing scene between them is better than any real-life event in that category (being cryptic on purpose here) I've ever attended. I'm a little jealous, TBH.
I had nits to pick in the previous books concerning plot points; this time I've really only got one, which is that I don't understand why (view spoiler)[Ulysses doesn't summon Dr. Ranganathan's ghost the minute his grandmother mentions her name in connection with the deity-making experiments that produced Sam, rather than waiting till it comes up again later (hide spoiler)]. But for all the space that spoiler took up, it wasn't such a big deal; just, we nitpickers gotta pick nits.
Laz's book is due out later this year, with a fourth Sam/Ulysses installment after that. I can't wait to find out what happened to Laz in Thailand, and how the lurking menace around Sam & U will be dispelled.
First things first: Is "Thunder Clap" an STI joke? Second things second: Why does Hastings Rock have "such a dingy little library"?
And now to the two mFirst things first: Is "Thunder Clap" an STI joke? Second things second: Why does Hastings Rock have "such a dingy little library"?
And now to the two mysteries: 1. Who killed the egregious Marshall Crowe, self-inserting author of the Chase Thunder mystery series? (Pause here to appreciate GA's gift for comic naming. Pippi and Stephen, OMG.) 2. WTF is up with Deputy Bobby, who is refusing / canceling / no-showing for all social occasions and instead doing nothing but taking extra shifts, working out, and surfing? And this after Doom Magnet ended on such a promising note? I thought maaaaaaaybe he and Dash were done pining, though since this is Gregory Ashe we're talking about, deep down inside I knew better.
Anyway, since in this installment of the Last Picks series Bobby is conspicuous mainly by his absence, the narrative spends most of its time on the mystery. This, to be fair, is perfectly entertaining -- I gulped down Broken Bird (yikes, that sounds terrible) as fast as I could, just as I do everything GA writes. There was much groan-laughing over Pippi and her true-crime ?podcasting? ?YouTubing? ambitions. But, like every other reader of Ashe's books, I've been trained to invest heavily in (read: obsess over) his couples, so the real payoff for me came not when Bobby and Dash arrested the murderer but when they finally had the conversation that cleared the air between them. -- Cleared it temporarily, I presume, because again: Gregory Ashe.
[ETA: I forgot to say how much I love it that in every book, when Dash confronts the murderer, they interrupt his analysis of the crime over and over and over again. Ugh so rude. Poor Dash never gets to lay out his analysis!]
Thanks, as always, to GA for the ARC, these are my honest blatherings, etc....more
Serious scholar of ancient history + dry, acidulous, and punning sense of humor + narrator perfectly in tune with the work. But that word "serious" isSerious scholar of ancient history + dry, acidulous, and punning sense of humor + narrator perfectly in tune with the work. But that word "serious" is crucial, because although Southon cracks a lot of jokes at the expense of upper-class Romans, she's got plenty to say about the sheer savagery of Roman civilization. I might not have thought there was a system of slavery worse than US chattel slavery, for example -- especially because freedmen were more of a thing in ancient Rome -- but wow was I wrong about that. Consider that when a US enslaver was killed by one of the people he enslaved, it was not the practice to crucify all of the people "owned" by that enslaver. Yes, crucify. Yes, all.
One of Southon's throughlines is that in the view of upper-class Romans, most people (slaves, actors, sex workers, bakers, basically anyone who wasn't one of them) had no special right to life, or more specifically to not be killed, and furthermore to not be killed in the cruelest way possible. Hence not only crucifixion but also gladiatorial "games," the killing of criminals by hungry and/or terrified beasts, and reenactments of famous battles staged for entertainment, death of combatants not optional. The portions of "A Fatal Thing" in which Southon discusses the kinds of killing that arose from elite Romans' understanding of what made a homicide murder rather than justified retribution or simple entertainment are horrific. No cracking of jokes here.
I fear that the above may make "A Fatal Thing" sound like nothing more than bloodthirsty recitation of Roman crimes. No. First of all, there's that throughline considering how murder is defined and what justifies any kind of killing, under what circumstances. Second, upper-class Romans have successfully seeded a popular image of themselves as dignified, upright, in many ways admirable and virtuous.
Think of Cicero: it's pretty well known that he had not only a talent for oratory but also a gigantic ego; now how does it affect our image of him to remember that he attended and apparently enjoyed gladiatorial spectacles and beast killings? The ever so respectable (and also radically right-wing) Cato Institute is named for, as Southon puts it, "a man so dreadful even the Romans barely liked him." Here's a quotation from a public-domain translation of his De agri cultura: "Sell worn-out oxen, blemished cattle, blemished sheep, wool, hides, an old wagon, old tools, an old slave, a sickly slave, and whatever else is superfluous." Also, when slaves are sick their rations should be cut back. What an admirable dude.
A terrific book, sharp, insightful, often appalling, excellent material to aim at anyone in danger of feeling too much esteem for those legendary "classical virtues."...more
Unlike many of GA's fans, I have always been fond of Nico -- fight me, Nico-haters! -- so am very glad to have his backstory and also to watch his relUnlike many of GA's fans, I have always been fond of Nico -- fight me, Nico-haters! -- so am very glad to have his backstory and also to watch his relationship with Jadon take shape. Now I'm sitting here itemizing all the aspects of this book I loved, but as I have a work deadline I shall say only that I bitterly resent Gregory Ashe for introducing me to Kierkegaard, whom I'm now evidently going to have to read, or at least read about. Ugh, why does Nico have to be so smart.
Four stars rather than five because this wasn't quite as polished, technically, as most of GA's books, and because there was one post-quarrel resolution that I thought came too easily. ...more
I've never read a "cozy mystery" before, and I'd never have begun except that this is Gregory Ashe, for whom I am a notorious stan. So, let's face it,I've never read a "cozy mystery" before, and I'd never have begun except that this is Gregory Ashe, for whom I am a notorious stan. So, let's face it, I'll be reading this series, and it will be fun ... but on the basis of my n of 1 so far, cozy mysteries are never going to be anything I seek out by any other writer.
The mystery here is enjoyably twisty and the mansion setting is Ridiculous Gothic turned up to 11 (secret passageways galore!). Dash x smoldering looks exchanged with brown-eyed, less than happily partnered Deputy Bobby: promise of future romance with, I assume, less mutual damage inflicted than by GA's other couples (looking at you, J-H and Emery). I loved Fox, the funniest drama llama every to drama:
“Dashiell is going to be joining us at Hemlock House, Fox. Do you have any words of wisdom for him as he settles in at Hastings Rock?”
“Never love or cherish or hope for anything,” Fox said in a broken voice. “Life is a trap.”
My chief reason for giving Mystery Magnet four stars rather than five -- because, really, even if cozy mystery is never ever going to be a go-to genre for me, I can identify good work when I see it -- is the character of Millie. Think Shaw, but minus the smarts and sensitivity: she's loud and intrusive and she comes off as frankly stupid. I quailed every time she showed up and if GA decides to kill her off, or at least put her on a regular dose of benzodiazepines, I will be glad.
Many thanks, as always, to GA for the ARC. Despite Millie....more
In theory, I should be giving this four stars rather than five. Because the premise is, holy cats, quite a stretch: Icarus's father, Angus, has raisedIn theory, I should be giving this four stars rather than five. Because the premise is, holy cats, quite a stretch: Icarus's father, Angus, has raised him to become a burglar. At Angus's behest, Icarus steals artworks from Stuart Black's mansion (he gets in by climbing up the outer wall) and replaces them with forgeries made by Angus. He's been at this since middle school. Angus's reasons are worthy of a Jacobean revenge play, which isn't a complaint but does give you an idea of the OTT-ness of it all. The really, truly, super weird version of Catholicism practiced by Angus and Icarus, ditto. They pray in Latin, for Pete's sake.
It turns out that Mr. Black has a son, whom he's keeping prisoner for reasons that are explained but that don't necessarily make, you know, all the legal sense in the world. The prince in the tower is named Helios. Is this seeming a little on the nose? Just wait till you get to the climactic events.
Besides all this there's the disjuncture between Icarus's life as a burglar and his life as a senior in high school, where he is, for the first time in his life, beginning to make friends, something that his father has forbidden him because of the need to keep their life of crime a secret. But Icarus is, among other things, a teenager, and he's begun to resent his father's control over his life.
This is bonkers, right? But here's the thing: Icarus is one of the most endearing characters I've read about in some time. He's smart, generous, lonely, unfailingly kind, brave, and hungry for human connection; all the OTT trappings are ultimately in service of the book's heart, which is the story of how Icarus begins to form those connections apart from his father and to nourish friendship and community. And, of course, to rescue the prince in the tower.
A strange, wonderful book that might remind you of a sweeter-natured sibling of Daniel May's books -- some of the dialogue, in particular, reminded me of May. File under Not for Everybody, but lucky you if it's for you.
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperTeen for the ARC....more
I could write a long review, or I could simply say that as soon as I finished Death in the Spires, I got grumpy, and the reason I got grumpy was that I could write a long review, or I could simply say that as soon as I finished Death in the Spires, I got grumpy, and the reason I got grumpy was that I could no longer read Death in the Spires for the first time.
Twisty plot: check. Extraordinarily appealing detective with morally complicated love interest: check. Broody setting: check. Satisfying and unexpected form of justice: check.
At the end of the book mention is made of "K.J. Charles's next page-turning historical mystery." Show of hands for more of brave, big-hearted Jem? -- Yes, I thought so.
Thanks to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.
I often find, with Gregory Ashe's books, that I have to work my way up to reading them or take breaks from them. What with, you know, the suspense andI often find, with Gregory Ashe's books, that I have to work my way up to reading them or take breaks from them. What with, you know, the suspense and the emotional intensity and the general rough ride.
As for The Evening Wolves, I fled for a solid week about two chapters in, because John-Henry Somerset had just been arrested for child porn. False-accusation narratives terrify me anyway, and the secondhand shame and humiliation (child porn, FFS!) just about undid me. Mantra: Greg Ashe always pulls it out of the fire at the last minute. Greg Ashe always pulls it out of the fire at the last minute. Greg Ashe ...
Yes. Yes, he pulled it out of the fire. By the way, this is also the Hazard-and-Somerset novel for anyone who might just possibly have felt that maaaaaaaaaaaybe John-Henry has gotten off a little lightly for his atrocious behavior as a teenage bully and overall golden boy whose rich, influential parents can always make his troubles go away. Here's the reckoning, folks.
*laughs weakly*
Also -- here's a teaser, because I'm a terrible person -- you know how Shaw is always going on about how he and Emery are soulmates? They are. Oh, they are.
Thanks to GA for the ARC; this is my honest, and very shook up, opinion. ...more
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