Michael Connelly has done it again! Trunk Music, the 5th Harry Bosch novel, has everything that Connelly is famous for. Complex characters. An intricate plot. Setting as character. Twists and turns. Harry Bosch continues to grow as a hero, with all of his foibles and flaws. One of Connelly’s great strengths is his ability to provide half a dozen perfectly reasonable explanations for the same chain of events, getting the reader to buy into one of them before tearing it down and selling the reader on another. And another. And another! Don’t miss this book.
The Guardians is a typical John Grisham novel. That is to say, it is well-written and the legal acumen is superb. This book is the story of a storefront legal office in Savannah that scours the prisons for innocent inmates – not only innocent, but who have a decent chance of exoneration by a group of limited manpower and means. The protagonist is Cullen Post of Guardian Ministries, a lawyer who is also an Episcopal priest. He takes on a client, Quincy Miller, who was railroaded on a murder charge in a corrupt Florida town and has been languishing in prison for over twenty years. As the story commences, it becomes known that there are still some bad guys around who would like to keep Miller in jail and the murder case closed. So an atmosphere of danger has been established. The book faithfully chronicles Post’s investigation of Miller’s case, which takes him back and forth across the southeastern US, where he meets many interesting and well-drawn characters. In the early stages of the investigation, no one outside of Miller and Guardian Ministries even knows someone is looking into the case, so the impending sense of doom is still present, but not imminent. However, Post knows that at some point, the people who engineered Miller’s conviction will become aware of Guardian’s activities, and consequences may ensue. The climax comes in an unexpected manner about two-thirds of the way through, but then Post and Guardian get the almighty FBI involved, who bring the bad guys are swiftly to heel. So the last third of the book is simply a detailed account of Miller’s exoneration (a foregone conclusion by now), which isn’t really very suspenseful. Grisham has had a problem with endings since he began writing, and he can also become immersed in the legal details that he knows so well, at the expense of the story. That’s why I’ve docked the book a star. However, the Guardians is still a fascinating read, well worth the time.
American Dirt is one of the best novels I have read. It’s realistic, poignant, beautifully written and well-researched. It’s the story of an affluent Mexican woman from Acapulco who is driven from he home when her family is massacred by a drug cartel, because her husband, a journalist, wrote a newspaper article about a local drug lord. The woman, Lydia, and her eight-year old son Luca find themselves a part of the great horde of migrants making their way to the United States in search of a better life. Along the way, they meet many memorable characters, most good, some evil. Most importantly, I gained a deep and lasting appreciation of the migrant experience. American Dirt has been pilloried by some in the media who think that the author did not have the qualifications to write it, i.e., she is not Mexican, not a migrant, and did not live the experience herself. This is extremely wrong-headed. Ms. Cummins has done a great service for Mexican, Central American and South American migrants by popularizing their tragic experiences, much as John Steinbeck did for American tenant farmers during the dust bowl in Grapes of Wrath, and Herman Wouk for victims of the Holocaust in Winds of War. One does not have to be a member of an ethnic group to empathize with its members or accurately recount their experiences-basic humanity and a talent for writing and research is all that’s required. The book has also been criticized for fictionalizing a great tragedy of our times, but the novelist Ayn Rand knew that popular fiction is often a much more effective means of promoting social change than mere journalism is. The author has been accused of stereotyping Mexicans, but all I found here were well-drawn, complex characters. I verified her research continuously as I read the book, and I found no inaccuracies, from the destruction of the beautiful city of Acapulco by the cartels, the pestilence of gangs and warlords haunting the Mexican highways, or the horrors of riding La Bestia, the freight trains that carry the migrants on top of them, between borders. I was particularly heartened by Cummins’ descriptions of the services provided for migrants by ordinary Mexicans, who donate food, water, shelter and support to them in sympathy with their plight. Of course, some may say that my opinion is invalid, because I am not Mexican. But I say kudos to Ms. Cummis for her bravery, which is already resulting in unjust repudiation. No book is perfect, including this one. The story did lag in places due to over-description. And perhaps Ms Cummins should have chosen a more plebian tragedy that caused her protagonist to be uprooted, although the murder of journalists, law enforcement and government official by cartels is rampant in Mexico. But these are minor quibbles about a very great and important book.
Where the Crawdads Sing is an excellent book, but it could have been better. The author’s expertise as a naturalist really shines throughout it, but sometimes, things get lost in that light. The novel is many things — a coming of age story, a murder mystery, a commentary on human relationships in a small town, and a lyrical description of life in eastern North Carolina — and perhaps, the author tried to do a little too much. There are times that her descriptive passages obscure the plot, causing me to gloss over passages that maybe I shouldn’t have to, to get to the meat of the story. And as a North Carolina resident, I found inconsistencies. Owens has her characters traveling to Asheville quite a bit. Sometimes there is a solid reason for this, but sometimes it’s just to visit a city. Problem is, Asheville is just about the furthest NC city (7-8 hours, by car) that they could choose — there are many closer alternatives. Owens occasionally writes in dialect, but the dialects in Crawdads are not those I’ve heard spoken in that part of North Carolina – nowhere did I find a trace of the Elizabethan “hoi toider” speech commpn to that area. I also thought that the story ended quite abruptly – I would have appreciated more time with a middle-aged and older Marsh Girl. Lest you put these criticisms down to mere quibbling, I still think the novel is exceptional, but I also think the points mentioned above justify docking it one star. Read this book. You will be doing yourself a great injustice if you don’t.
There are many reasons to like The Quaker. Chief among them are the meticulous descriptions of Scotland, Glasgow, and Scottish life and culture. I also greatly enjoyed the Scottish dialect throughout the book. The novel also does a good job of reflecting the frustration that law enforcement officials must feel when an investigation proves intractable. It also depicted how random events can be construed as important, and how this can further obfuscate things. However, I docked The Quaker a star because I felt that the police were portrayed as a little too unobservant, and the facts that the protagonist uncovered to solve the case arose a little too conveniently. Nevertheless, I think Liam McIlvanney deserves kudos for his work, and that my reading this novel was time well spent.
The latest offering of new Sherlock Holmes stories from Belanger Books, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson – The Early Adventures, is out as a three-volume set. Volume 1 contains my latest story, The Adventure of the Persistent Pugilist. Set immediately after the events chronicled by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in A Study in Scarlet, it’s an offbeat tale of Holmes’ investigation of the murder of a sitting member of the House of Lords. It gives insight into Watson’s state of health in those early days, as well as his first exposure to some of Holmes’ more unusual methods of investigation. It’s available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Dr-Watson-Adventures-ebook/dp/B081V29MFD/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2SGQ0X9Z4LAS7&keywords=sherlock+holmes+and+dr.+watson+the+early+adventures&qid=1578405207&sprefix=Sherlock+Holmes+and+D%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-1 .
Sinner or Saint is the first installment of Brenda Donelan’s University Mysteries that I’ve had the pleasure to read. I’m not generally a cozy fan, but I must say that this one has all the elements that true aficionados seek. Criminology professor Marlee McCabe is an interesting and engaging protagonist, and her hometown of Elmwood, South Dakota and it’s Midwestern State University are well-drawn. The book has plenty of offbeat characters – Marlee’s Supper Club of her college cronies, as well as old boyfriends, cops and townspeople. The mystery is puzzling with many twists and turns, and the solution is unexpected but satisfying as an evildoer gets his (or her!) just desserts. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series, and to future installments. I did drop the rating by one star because of the slow pace and lack of tension.
An excellent book about broken people and their animal companions. The stories tell of life, and life is not always pretty, or elegant, or even worth living sometimes. You will find pathos here, but the author is well aware that there is beauty in pathos, even though it may be difficult or uncomfortable to notice. Her message is that there is primal bond between people and their pets, and sometimes an animal can give a person things that another human cannot, or will not. Some of the stories also depict the cruelty towards animals of which humans are capable, and it is hard to read these passages, but it is noteworthy that there’s never any cruelty towards the people from the animals. There’s a lesson in that.
Karin Slaughter loves broken characters. Maybe too much. And maybe that’s why I can’t give five stars to this book. There’s a lot of good in it–the plotting, the pace, the wordsmithery and the suspense. But the characters, especially those in law enforcement, are so broken that I just can’t suspend disbelief enough to imagine they’d even be there. The characters’ flaws end up taking me out of the story again and and again, distracting me from the rest of the good about the book.
Today my friend Heather Baker Weidner visits the 3M Detective Agency for a guest post. Please welcome her.
Author Interview
Tell our readers a little about yourself and your writing. Thanks, Thomas for letting me visit your blog. My name is Heather Weidner, and I write the Delanie Fitzgerald mystery series. I also have short stories in the Virginia is for Mysteries series and in 50 Shades of Cabernet and Deadly Southern Charm. And I write novellas for the Mutt Mystery series.
What are you reading now? I love to read, and since I’ve started writing, I consider reading as research. Right now, I’m reading Lee Childs’s Blue Moon.
What writing projects are you currently working on? I just published
the third mystery in the Delanie Fitzgerald series, Glitter, Glam, and
Contraband. I am working on edits to a new cozy series set near
Charlottesville, VA, and I have a novella, “The Fast and the Furriest” that
comes out in March in the next Mutt Mysteries.
Who is your favorite author and why? I have way too
many to list. I love a good story and a good mystery, so my favorites are Lee
Child, John Berry, David Baldacci, John Grisham, Janet Evanovich, Agatha
Christie. Lisa Scottoline, Louise Penny, Sherry Harris, and May Corrigan.
When did you know you were a writer? And how did you
know?
I have always loved to write. I wrote stories, a teen romance, and a lot of bad
poetry in high school. I had written several mysteries through the years, but I
didn’t start writing seriously and thinking about publishing until after I
joined the writing group, Sisters in Crime.
What’s the number one item on your bucket list and
why?
I would love to go to New Zealand. I have had a pen pal there since 1975, and I
would love to meet her in person.
What’s in your “To Be Read” (TBR) pile right now? And
how many TBR piles do you have? My TBR pile became a TBR bookshelf in my
office. There is also another pile on my nightstand. I love to read.
What are some things you know now that you wish you
knew when you started writing? Writing is a business, and you need to
treat it as such. It’s also a tough business. You need to develop thick skin.
Seek and take advice that will help you improve your craft. And keep writing.
Don’t give up.
Where is your favorite place to write? Why? My new office has
a big window behind my monitor. It faces the woods, and I can see the sunrise
through the trees. It’s my treehouse view.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a writer? Don’t give up. If you want to get published, keep writing. Don’t get discouraged. And learn to take advice that will help you improve your writing.
Author Biography
Glitter, Glam, and
Contraband is Heather
Weidner’s third novel in the Delanie Fitzgerald series. Her short stories
appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series,
50 Shades of Cabernet, and Deadly Southern Charm. Her novellas
appear in The Mutt Mysteries series. She is a member of Sisters in Crime –
Central Virginia, Guppies, International Thriller Writers, and James River
Writers.
Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a
mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with
her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.
Heather earned her BA in English from Virginia Wesleyan University and her MA in American literature from the University of Richmond. Through the years, she has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager.
Private investigator, Delanie Fitzgerald, and her computer hacker partner, Duncan Reynolds, are back for more sleuthing in Glitter, Glam and Contraband. In this fast-paced mystery, the Falcon Investigations team is hired to find out who is stealing from the talent at a local drag show. Delanie gets more than she bargains for and a few makeup tips in the process. Meanwhile, a mysterious sound in the ceiling of her office vexes Delanie. She uses her sleuthing skills to track down the source and uncover a creepy contraband operation.Glitter, Glam, and Contraband features a strong female sleuth with a knack for getting herself in and out of humorous situations like helping sleezy strip club owner, Chaz Smith on his quest to become Richmond’s next mayor, tracking down missing reptiles, and uncovering hidden valuables from a 100-year-old crime with a Poe connection.
