I quite enjoyed the first in the "King Oliver" series (Down the River and Unto the Sea) for what it was, a pulpy walk down New York's mean streets. HoI quite enjoyed the first in the "King Oliver" series (Down the River and Unto the Sea) for what it was, a pulpy walk down New York's mean streets. However, the second book (Every Man A King) was too absurd and convoluted for me. So it was with trepidation I cracked open this third about the 40-something Brooklyn ex-cop turned private detective.
As with the other two books, there are two threads -- one personal, and one professional. On the personal side, his beloved grandmother has been diagnosed with cancer, spurring him to try and track down his long-estranged father. Meanwhile, he's also got a case to track down a man's missing wife and daughter -- a situation that has more to it than meets the eye. The supporting characters from the previous two books all show up, from his daughter to the psychopathic Melquath Frost, his semi-crooked NYPD buddy, and so on. Joining them in the story are a whole slew of his father's old running buddies, and various sexy ladies to banter with and bed.
Somewhere about halfway through, I started to lose interest in either storyline and set it aside for a month or so. I finally came back to finish it up, but can't say that I particularly cared about the outcomes. I'm assuming the next in the series will deal with Oliver's mother, whom the series has been carefully positioning as dead without outright saying so. On to a different series....more
I read Foley's wildly popular "The Guest List" when it came out and didn't really care for it, but since I was leading a book club discussion of that I read Foley's wildly popular "The Guest List" when it came out and didn't really care for it, but since I was leading a book club discussion of that book, I figured I'd go back and give this first thriller of hers a try. The setup is very similar -- a group of friends from Oxford and their spouses all travel to a secluded destination (here a remote Scottish hunting lodge) for a New Year's weekend. It's just them, the lodge manager, a gamekeeper, and two other guests from Iceland -- and naturally somebody gets murdered.
This is a classic "closed circle" murder mystery setup (popularized by Agatha Christie) and the author dutifully doles out the information carefully, flipping between different characters' perspectives and flipping around in time a little bit. As in the other book, this all felt too deliberate and contrived for me, and while it all "works" mechanically, it also felt very mechanical. The characters are all "types" and while I'm sure it will make a fun limited series TV show, it never really surprises. One thing that did strike me between both books is the wild levels of drinking that apparently occur among moneyed Brits in their late 20s and early 30s -- although of course, that also helps the plot tick along semi-plausibly. At the end of the day, I can see why her books are quite popular, but I certainly don't feel the need to try any others....more
The protagonist of this fast-paced and loosely written crime novel is based on the author's own experiences as a street performer in the 1970s. Poe isThe protagonist of this fast-paced and loosely written crime novel is based on the author's own experiences as a street performer in the 1970s. Poe is a juggler with a strong patter and ability to charm others. The first third of the book outlines his backstory and the mechanics of establishing himself as a very successful Philadelphia street juggler while keeping the local shopkeepers, street gang, police, and other street performers happy. He's making tons of cash, has an apartment, a girlfriend, and a fun life -- all of which comes to an abrupt end when a street magician ropes him into a dicey bank heist.
The rest of the bulk finds him on the run, winding up in Minnesota, shacking up with a sexually adventurous librarian, and making a sweet living at Renaissance festivals. Of course, as in all the classic crime tales -- the past comes knocking, and Poe has to scramble to avoid everything crumbling again. All of this is delivered in a very chatty direct address to the reader, chock-a-block with observational humor of a sort, not to mention an abundance of raunch. It's kind of fun, if completely ludicrous, and within the first five pages, you'll know if the tone is going to work for you....more
After making my way through all 26 of the "Parker" crime books last year, I was scouting around for my next American series to try out and someone senAfter making my way through all 26 of the "Parker" crime books last year, I was scouting around for my next American series to try out and someone sent me this to try out. Block was good friends with Donald Westlake, who wrote the Parker series, and I can definitely see a similar sensibility. However, while Parker is a dark, possibly sociopathic, presence, Keller is more of a damaged everyman. He lives a quiet life in his midtown New York apartment, taking long walks, going to the movies, sometimes meeting a woman in a bar, all marking the time before the next phone call from "Dot" in White Plains, asking him to come out for a visit. Each of these visits is the prelude to Keller's being sent somewhere in the U.S. to kill someone.
And so each of the ten chapters here function as short stories (seven of which were originally published in Playboy magazine) that take the reader through Keller's travel, scouting of the victim, figuring out his methodology, acquiring of his tools, the execution of the execution, and the aftermath. What's interesting about them is the tone -- there's really no drama or tension that's built up, it's more of a musing and meandering feel. Keller is far from hard-boiled, he's just a guy doing what he seems to be good at, with a solid dollop of humanity along the way. Some of the stories throw complications his way with regard to the target, or the person who's paying for the hit, or both. There can be a certain element of "whodunnit" to some of these situations, but they are generally not that complex. If there's such a thing as a "cozy" hitman genre, I guess this is it. I think there are another five or so books and some novellas, will definitely seek some out!...more
This 1937 crime novel is best remembered as being the source material for two films by legendary Hollywood directors (Nicholas Ray's 1948 "The Live ByThis 1937 crime novel is best remembered as being the source material for two films by legendary Hollywood directors (Nicholas Ray's 1948 "The Live By Night" and Robert Altman's 1973 film, which kept the book's title). The author grew up in Texas and Oklahoma, where the book takes place, and worked as a journalist, prizefighter, deckhand, and musician before hitting the rails at the height of the Depression. That experience was the basis for his first book ("Hungry Men") and presumably as waves of bank robberies caught the public imagination in the mid-1930s, he saw a chance to cash in.
The story here is an archetypal one of doomed outlaws -- we meet three criminals as they flee from a prison farm. As they hole up to hide from the manhunt, we learn of each's plan to go straight by buying a little filling station or farm or the like. Of course none of that is ever destined to pay off as they fall back into bank jobs, the lure of alcohol, and code of loyalty to their fellow cons. The focus is on the youngest, Bowie -- who falls for the cousin of another one of the criminals, but their relationship is clearly doomed from the start.
Probably the most interesting aspect of the story is the bank robbers' insistence that they never steal from regular people and that "them capitalists are thieves like us." The prison farms are described as sites of brutality and routine deaths from beating that make them effectively a death sentence. This is coupled with the various sensational newspaper excerpts about their crimes that get the facts wrong while also celebrating how the law enforcement posse shoot the robbers down in surprise attacks. While far from celebrating the protagonists, the book offers a clear critique of the system that surrounds them during the Great Depression....more
I picked up the first in the "King Oliver" series (Down the River and Unto the Sea) and enjoyed it for what it was, a pulpy walk down New York's mean I picked up the first in the "King Oliver" series (Down the River and Unto the Sea) and enjoyed it for what it was, a pulpy walk down New York's mean streets. Returning here is Oliver, a 40-something Brooklyn ex-cop turned private detective, scraping together just enough of a living to pay his child support and get by. The first book toggled back and forth between two plots quite capably, juggling one he's hired for and one that's very personal.
This one also attempts to blend the personal with a criminal investigation, but is way too convoluted. Oliver's ex-wife's slick banker husband has been hauled in by the Feds on serious fraud charges, and the ex begs him to look into it. Meanwhile, Oliver's grandmother's multi-billionaire beau asks him to look into the rendition of a notorious white supremacist who supposedly has a disc drive loaded with the dark secrets of the world's rich and powerful. Fold in the Russian mafia, private security contractors/assassins, an ex-hooker with a goldish heart, and some other nonsense, and the whole thing just got too absurd. I finished it, just because, but I still don't really follow how the solution to the ex-husband's plight would have worked out.
I guess I'll try the third in the series -- hopefully it gets back on course....more
It's been a long time since I've read anything by Mosley, but I was in the mood for a basic crime procedural and figured this first in the "King OliveIt's been a long time since I've read anything by Mosley, but I was in the mood for a basic crime procedural and figured this first in the "King Oliver" series might fit the bill -- and it did. Oliver is a 40-something Brooklyn private detective, scraping together just enough of a living to pay his child support and get by. Ten years ago he was a star NYPD detective with a strong sense of justice and the law -- all of which fell apart when he was framed for rape and sent to Riker's for three months before being suddenly releaed. Those months of isolation, violence, and the collapse of his family have left him with PTSD that he struggles to master.
Now he lives for his teenage daughter (who works as his office assistant) and some semblance of normalcy. The big case that drives the story here involves a black social activist accused of murdering two police who may have been involved in drug-running and prostitution. Meanwhile, Oliver also receives a letter from the woman who helped frame him a decade ago -- opening the door to finding out who set him up and why. Both plotlines are pretty much what one would expect, involving powerful corrupt people, crooked lawyers, bankers, and the like. The enjoyment is found in the procedural aspects of Oliver tracking things down, putting on disguises, and flirting with just about every woman he encounters.
Readers familiar with his Easy Rawlins series will find a certain familiarity in the formula, especially as a key ally/sidekick of his is an ex-con whom he developed a friendship with. Like Mouse in that series, Melquath Frost is utterly ruthless and comfortable with violence as a means to an end. Some of the stuff about family is slathered on a little thick, but it's a generally enjoyable pulpy detective story and I'll happily follow Oliver down a few more dark streets....more
This first in a promising new historical series finds Sgt. Akal Singh banished from his post with the Hong Kong police to the colonial backwater of FiThis first in a promising new historical series finds Sgt. Akal Singh banished from his post with the Hong Kong police to the colonial backwater of Fiji. At the time of the story (1914), the Fiji islands were home to approximately 90,000 indigenous people, about 6-7,000 Europeans (mainly British and Australian), and around 50,000 Indians. This latter group are the focus of the story, as the vast majority came to the islands in indentured servitude, destined to live in horrific barracks for years working on sugar cane plantations. When a young woman from one of the leading plantations is reported missing, Singh is assigned to the case.
What follows is a pretty straightforward investigation as Singh pokes around with the help of the local English doctor and a Fijian fellow officer, enduring the slights and outright racism of the planters as he uncovers their fairly predictable secrets. We also get the backstory of his downfall in Hong Kong. It ticks all the boxes for a good historical mystery, with the setting and unusual protagonist being the most compelling aspects. I'll definitely pick up the next in the series....more
This seventh in the Sean Duffy series takes the Detective Inspector into the 1990s and into his final days as a full-time officer in the Royal Ulster This seventh in the Sean Duffy series takes the Detective Inspector into the 1990s and into his final days as a full-time officer in the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The deal he made at the end of the last book was that if he agreed to assist MI5 as the handler for a high-level IRA double-agent, he could go to part-time status as a police officer and work one week a month while his family lives in Scotland. As he's wrapping up his tenure at the Carrickfergus station, he takes one last call -- a 15-year-old girl is missing from a Traveller camp site.
Of course what seems to be a pretty routine teenage runaway report gets under his skin because no one else has taken it seriously, so he uses it as an example and teaching point for the young detective who'll be taking over the CID unit at the station. As Duffy and Co. dig, they unearth her connection to several middle-aged men, including a Loyalist councilor, a minor Foreign Office official, and one or two others. They also slowly learn more about her, with each detail paying off later on in the story. What starts as a missing person case turns into a murder investigation -- or does it? Meanwhile, Duffy keeps getting calls from his nervous double-agent. In the middle of all this is a terrifying ambush and shootout with an IRA hit team.
The missing girl's case comes together cleverly at the end, with Duffy both vindicated in his conviction, but also not. Many readers will have worked out the likely truth, but it's still quite a satisfying end to his detective career. Similarly, his suspicion and attention to detail comes into play in a climactic scene with his double-agent. It's all quite good, and would be a great ending point to the series, except I think there are at least another two books to come!...more
In 1971 a young reporter wrote a feature for Newsweek magazine called "Detroit's Heroin Subculture" and was subsequently contacted by a publisher who In 1971 a young reporter wrote a feature for Newsweek magazine called "Detroit's Heroin Subculture" and was subsequently contacted by a publisher who encouraged him to write a novel based on it -- likely hoping to tap into the same audience that was developing for street lit of Iceberg Slim and Donald Goins. Three years later, the ensuing novel was published, fitting in nicely with those authors, as well as other gritty crime fiction from the early 1970s, like that of George V. Higgins.
It opens with a colorful scene to set the tone, at the wake of a mid-level Detroit drug dealer, various colleagues, pimps, players, and hangers-on are all drinking, snorting, and generally carrying on. Amidst all the braggadocio, the city's kingpin lets slip that a big shipment is coming in soon. Soon enough, word has made its way to a couple of small-time heroin dealers who decide to hijack it so they can scale up their operation. And so all hell breaks loose as the kingpin unleashes some very violent men to find out what happened and who has his drugs. Meanwhile the youngsters are trying to carefully sell off part of the goods to finance a bigger purchase from a new mafia connection. Lurking on the margins are the surprisingly adept police who are just a few steps behind the action until the climax.
The book is at its best when capturing the language and style of the characters, and the overall mechanics of the heroin distribution machine. And indeed, fans of The Wire will nod along in recognition that the game hadn't really changed much in the twenty years between 1970s Detroit and 1990s Baltimore except that there are way fewer guns in The Wire and far less effective cops. However, the book's characters lack any depth or distinguishing features beyond their clothes, outsized nicknames, Cadillac paint jobs, and preferred guns. As colorful as it all is, the book was more interesting as a historical document than a narrative I was invested in....more
This is yet another book that's sat unread on my shelves for almost 20 years -- until now! It opens with our protagonist, Scottish stage magician WillThis is yet another book that's sat unread on my shelves for almost 20 years -- until now! It opens with our protagonist, Scottish stage magician William Wilson, touching down in Glasgow and looking for a cheap bedsit in the heart of town -- clearly, his life is not on a smooth track... The narrative then skips around between three timelines across three locations: London is the earliest, followed by Berlin, and then Glasgow.
In London, it's clear that Wilson is barely scraping by professionally, forced to take the cash for two-bit gigs like a policeman's retirement party in the back of a club. However, he lives for the rush of the performance and has no other career plans, so takes what he can get. Soon after the police gig -- at which some very dodgy stuff occurs, he's booked into a cabaret in Berlin. There, prospects seem better -- but a wild American woman brings chaos in her wake. It's clear from the Glasgow section that something went very wrong in Berlin, and most readers will suss out pretty readily what that's likely to be, and so when it comes, it's no surprise.
That said, there is a twist -- but not enough of one, as again, most astute readers will have seen it coming a mile away. The book climaxes at a benefit magic show for kids with Down Syndrome in Glasgow where things are neatly resolved. All in all it's a decent crime story with a somewhat annoyingly self-destructive protagonist at its heart. The author does a very good job at crafting scenes and building out a rich cast of supporting characters, I just didn't feel the main ones were all that compelling. I would probably give another book of hers a whirl though....more
I'm reading a bunch of Angolan fiction right now, so picked this up as it looked potentially more entertaining and less serious than many of the otherI'm reading a bunch of Angolan fiction right now, so picked this up as it looked potentially more entertaining and less serious than many of the other options. The story revolves around the titular figure, a 20-something very low-level member of some kind of police or security service in Angola. The joke here is that our protagonist is known for his massive posterior, with "Bunda" translating to "Butt" and thus "James Butt" rather than the dashing 007...
The story opens with Bunda being assigned to his first case, the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl, whose body was discovered along a highway adjacent to the ocean. Despite this seemingly grim setup, it's clear that this is a farce -- unfortunately, farce is hard to sustain, and the broad humor isn't generally that funny. From the initial investigation into the dead girl, the plot spins wildly into other directions, including a Lebanese smuggler, Bunda's married girlfriend and her husband, an Algerian belly dancer, a con artist witch doctor type, plastic chamber pots, an unnamed powerful member of Bunda's own agency, and all manner of local family, acquaintances, and coworkers with their own agendas and bones to pick.
Written by a former guerilla and then Angolan Vice Minister of Education, the book's satire is clearly meant as commentary on the corrupt direction that Angolan society has taken. Everyone (Bunda included) is constantly jockeying for power, influence, and prestige (not to mention use of a car, gun, better housing, more beers, better whiskey, etc.), and truth and justice are only relevant in as much as they can be leveraged to personal advantage. Hierarchy is a key theme throughout the book, invoked in every relationship and interaction.
I found it all to be a bit of a slog, with moments of interest and color. And even as farce, the role of women (and girls) throughout the book is hard to take. I'm really not sure I can recommend it to anyone, even readers with a strong interest in Angolan fiction -- it just didn't work for me....more
It's New Year's Day 1985 and Ronald Reagan's second presidential term is about to kick off a new "Morning in America" as this book opens. Unlike most It's New Year's Day 1985 and Ronald Reagan's second presidential term is about to kick off a new "Morning in America" as this book opens. Unlike most crime novels, the inciting death has already happened, and Turnip Coogan is on the roof of the county courthouse in Meridian, Mississippi, protesting his innocence in the murder of local real estate bigwig Randall Hubbard. (This scene was inspired directly by a similar real-life one that the author's father was a part of.) Turnip winds up splattered on the pavement, and his trailer-park living mother enlists the titular agency to find out who was responsible for framing her son.
The detective agency in question is Clem, a black woman who was drummed out of the local police force, and a lanky, laconic, white Vietnam Vet named Dixon. As a second case and retainer comes their way, their ebony and ivory partnership allows them to navigate the racism-riddled waters of 1980s Mississippi, from the courthouse to road houses, and everywhere in between -- including the local country club. Their poking around soon bumps up against what may or may not be the so-called "Dixie Mafia" -- itself a quasi-reincarnation of the KKK -- building to a climactic confrontation at a rooster fight out in the countryside.
Clem's complicated personal and professional history figure largely in the story, and she's a tough and clever protagonist as she navigates the daily micro and macroagressions of being a black woman. Dixon makes for a smooth counterpoint, full of smooth and subtle banter with flashes of real anger bubbling up. They make for a fun duo, and I'm curious to see if this is the start of a series -- I could imagine a trilogy that follows their partnership, with a second book set in the 1990s and a third in the 2000s, following the changes (or lack thereof) in their hometown.
Note: Amidst all the colorful characters and conspiracies and bad choices, the one moment my suspension of disbelief was most challenged was when Clem's record collection is touched upon and she's meant to have The Clash's triple-LP "Sandinista!" -- not buying it......more
This sixth in the DI Sean Duffy series opens with him being handcuffed and marched through dark woods at gunpoint by a team that seems highly likely tThis sixth in the DI Sean Duffy series opens with him being handcuffed and marched through dark woods at gunpoint by a team that seems highly likely to execute him -- so you know that things haven't gone well. This prologue then ends and the reader is then taken back in time, and we find Duffy playing happy families in 1988 with his girlfriend and toddler. A call summons him to a strange murder scene -- it seems that someone's been shot with a crossbow.
What follows is a twisty, turny procedural, as another murder by crossbow ensues, and Duffy and his usual sidekicks pound the streets trying to make sense of it all. It's a typically elaborate story that touches upon drug smuggling via Bulgaria, some dark twenty-year-old police history from the start of the Troubles, and a heightened interest in Duffy by the IRA. It's a nice mix of traditional procedural (trawling through paper archives and library microfiche, questioning people of interest over and over), and more pulse-pounding stuff (there's a very cinematic attack on Duffy that makes good use of the series' running gag of his UVF neighbor).
As is often the case in the series, at the end of it all, once the dust has settled and case is solved -- it's neither victory nor defeat for Duffy, just more shades of grey, but perhaps a new beginning. I'm really eager to see what the next book brings!...more
This collection of twelve short stories has an interesting framework -- each of the stories has some connection to the crimes of a serial killer in soThis collection of twelve short stories has an interesting framework -- each of the stories has some connection to the crimes of a serial killer in south Australia in the late 1990s (loosely based on the real-life "Backpacker Murders"). The stories take place between 1950 and 2028, and aren't confined to Australia, with Austin, Rome, and London included as settings. It would be interesting to know the author's thinking in determining the order, as they skip around in time and the amount to which they directly connect to the murders. But it's an interesting collage approach that avoids any standard narrative rise and fall and relies on an almost subconscious accretion of detail.
Among the most direct stories are the second (Hunter on the Highway - 1996), in which we may or may not actually meet the killer, and the fourth (Demolition - 2003), in which an author who wrote a book about the case talks to a retired teacher who lived next door to the killer when he was a teen. These are creepily good, but I preferred the stories that were a layer removed. For example, in "Abroad - 2011", we spend part of a Halloween night in America with an Englishman whose sister may have been one of the victims. "Hostess - 1986" we spend time with a guy who's crashing at the cottage of a retired stewardess whose sister (or is she?) eloped with a guy whom the reader will understand will become the killer. Or "Hostel - 1995", which is a meandering story where a divorced narrator talks about her sowing her wild oats as a backpacker, and a friend's story about encountering a Swiss girl who later was one of the victims.
Not every story quite works -- "Democracy Sausage - 1998" is a brief moment with a local Australian politician whose last name is the same as the now-notorious killer's, and lacks the depth of the others. And "Podcast - 2028' is a cute idea -- the transcript of a true crime podcast hosted by two chatty friends -- but it's kind of one-note and tonally so different from the rest of the stories that it sticks out. But in the collage framework, even these do provide contrast and texture to the overall project, and have their place, albeit a lesser one.
Readers who enjoy linked stories or crime fiction should definitely give this a try as it's doing something interesting and the writing is quite good. The author creates real characters and manages to capture their psychology impressively well given the brevity. I should note that I generally don't care for serial killer plots, but this is something different and fresh....more
This fifth in the Sean Duffy series finds the Detective Inspector plugging away at crime from the Carrickfergus Royal Ulster Constabulary station. It This fifth in the Sean Duffy series finds the Detective Inspector plugging away at crime from the Carrickfergus Royal Ulster Constabulary station. It introduces a new trainee detective to the supporting cast, as well as a girlfriend on her way out of Duffy's life. Meanwhile a delegation of Finnish cell phone executives is touring Belfast to consider putting a factory there. When an English journalist who was covering their trip turns up dead inside the locked compound of the local scenic castle, it seems like a clear-cut case of suicide -- until Duffy and company start digging a little deeper.
The core of the story is the investigation into whether or not it was a suicide, or that most improbable of cases -- a locked-castle murder mystery. (Even more improbable given that a previous book in the series already had Duffy investigating a locked pub murder.) Meanwhile, there are a number of of other subplots going on -- such as trying to work out what the reporter's angle was and what happened to her notebook, the reappearance of an ex-RUC colleague who's now running a private security firm, the car-bomb death of a friendly local police chief, and beneath it all, Duffy's desperation to hold on to his relationship with his much younger ex.
As in many of the previous entries, the plot really thickens when Duffy leaves Northern Ireland -- in this case for a quick visit to Finland to question the cell-phone execs. Things get a little over the top for my taste, but it sets things up nicely for the final section of the story, as everything comes slowly together. It's definitely a dark book, and has perhaps the bleakest outcome of the series so far. I won't be surprised if the next in the series opens with Duffy in a very bad mental state....more
About once or twice a year, I pick up fiction that revolves around men and the modern American west. Last year was Maxim Lotukoff's "Old King" and BenAbout once or twice a year, I pick up fiction that revolves around men and the modern American west. Last year was Maxim Lotukoff's "Old King" and Benjamin Percy's "The Wilding" and this book is a good companion to those. Deep in the Montana mountains live Thad and Hazen, two 20something single brothers whose father recently died, leaving a mountain of hospital bills and a house and truck in dire need of repair.
Thad is the elder practical one, and handles all their affairs while Hazen is a more dreamy, romantic type, who may be slightly "simple." Their main source of income comes from selling and delivering cords of firewood, but that's backbreaking work with irregular payouts, and so they sometimes dabble in poaching for bear gall bladders and other illegal wildlife harvests to sell to a strange and menacing kilt-wearing neighbor known as "The Scotsman." The plot revolves around whether or not The Scotsman can convince them to embark on a risky expedition into Yellowstone to bring out a large load of elk horns.
This all plays out somewhat as one might expect, as things slide from bad to worse and the brothers' roles are reversed. One relatively unexplored subplot involves their mother -- a kind of hippy-type who disappeared from their lives when they were young and suddenly shows up in a camper, setting up house next to them but rarely interacting. Although more could have been done with that, I also appreciated that it didn't drag on and on. It's a relatively short book that puts the reader into the landscape and delivers a punch....more
I greatly enjoyed the first two books in the Sean Duffy series, even though each went slightly off the rails when it left the confines of Northern IreI greatly enjoyed the first two books in the Sean Duffy series, even though each went slightly off the rails when it left the confines of Northern Ireland. Set in 1983-84, roughly a year after the events of the previous book, this finds Duffy's career in the Royal Ulster Constabulary over. He's sitting at home, stoned and playing Atari when the news breaks of a massive IRA prison break, including master bombmaker Dermot McCann. Soon thereafter, MI5 comes knocking at his door with an offer he can't refuse -- find the missing bombmaker for them and get his career back. As it happens, Duffy was a schoolmate of McCann's, and MI5 is desperate.
What follows is a rock solid procedural with a ticking clock as Duffy grafts away at the basic work of interviewing McCann's friends and family, while MI5 frets about what the bombmaker is up to, and readers who know the history of the time will have a very keen idea of what's coming. (And those who don't will have an ever better surprise coming.) This leads Duffy into checking into a four year-old death that was classified as accidental, but might possibly be a locked-room murder. This contrast of classic detective plot with terrorist thriller is hugely successful and entertaining. Once you've read this, go check out Jonathan Lee's excellent 2015 novel, High Dive....more
Picked this up on a whim -- it's the first in a projected series about Quinn Farrell, an LA loner who works as a fixer for a Hollywood producer, cleanPicked this up on a whim -- it's the first in a projected series about Quinn Farrell, an LA loner who works as a fixer for a Hollywood producer, cleaning up various messes so that the show can go on. His backstory is studded with little nuggets (condescending father, teenage motorcycle thieving, college at Berkeley), but it's not enough to get any real sense of what paths in his life led to his morally dubious career. Perhaps the author is leaving that open for development in future books, but it left Farrell feeling kind of thin on the page for me.
The story here involves an up and coming movie star with a weakness for underage girls. When one of them threatens to call the cops if he doesn't provide some serious hush money, the star calls his producer, who calls Farrell, who arrives and starts trying to resolve the situation with the minimum of fuss. That plotline is all well and good and felt more or less plausible -- but when it happens a second time with the same actor, Farrell's suspicions are roused. Meanwhile, a cute new pediatric doctor just moved in next door to Farrell, and they manage to fall for each other more or less instantly, provoking him to be a better person.
If the plot mechanics are a little unsubtle, the scenes and human interactions are all well done. From Farrell's banter with the guy who runs his vending machine business, to the menacing Russian mobsters who come by for their cut, to his interactions with the woman next door and his clients -- it's all pretty good. Farrell's got a very slight edge to him, so it's not standard tough-guy stuff, but a little more interesting than that. Readers who enjoy the darker side of LA -- maybe fans of Michael Connelly, or Richard Lange, etc. might enjoy this. I'd probably give the next book in the series a shot, just to see if Farrell's backstory is fleshed out a bit more....more
Growing up, we had the Lord Peter Wimsey series all lined up on a bookshelf, right next to their contemporary Agatha Christies and P.G. Wodehouses. AnGrowing up, we had the Lord Peter Wimsey series all lined up on a bookshelf, right next to their contemporary Agatha Christies and P.G. Wodehouses. And while I started sampling the latter two in my adolescence, for some reason I never tried any of Sayers' books, even though they are all of a similar time, place, and class. So just over a century after its original publication, I finally tried this first in the hugely popular series featuring amateur gentleman sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey.
The story opens with a naked body discovered in a bathtub not his own as the initial mystery Wimsey becomes interested in, while at the same time, his friend Inspector Parker is trying to locate a missing Jewish financier. The two plots bump up against each other throughout, but the whodunnit aspect of the book isn't all that compelling. It's classic Golden Age mystery stuff that's right in line with Christie, but a little contrived.
What I found more interesting is the style and choices -- for example, there's a humorous tone and Wimsey's crackerjack butler, both of which appear to be heavily inspired by Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories. There's also the frank depiction of PTSD from Wimsey's World War I combat experience, which is a backstory I didn't expect. All in all, I'm glad to have sampled it, but don't feel the need to dive further into the series....more