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Book Reviews – Blue Moon, by Lee Child

Blue Moon (Jack Reacher, #24)

Blue Moon by Lee Child

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series is suffering the fate of too many long-running series. It’s becoming predictable. Of course, that may be exactly what Reacher’s fans want. In this installment, Reacher wars against the Albanian and Ukrainian mobs in an unnamed American city, to right wrongs done to an elderly couple who are fighting to save their daughter from cancer. Early on, Reacher finds a sweet young thing working in a bar to share his bed and adventures, and we’re off and running. Fine if you like that sort of thing.
My biggest problem with the series these days is that all the suspense is gone. Reacher’s not only gonna win, there’s no one or nothing that’s even gonna challenge him. He just mows through the bad guys like they’re not even resisting. It’s pure catharsis, again, which may be exactly what Reacher’s fans want. Will I buy the next one? I swore after I read the last book that I wouldn’t, but guess what? At least I didn’t pay full price for it. Child’s still doing something right, but I wish he’d take a chance and change the formula.



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Book Reviews – Faithless, by Karin Slaughter

Faithless (Grant County, #5)

Faithless by Karin Slaughter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Faithless is the penultimate book in Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series. When I began this series, I really wanted to like it, but each successive installment keeps hitting me as meh. Slaughter is a superb writer–her plotting, pacing, scene construction and word choice are all very good. She is a master at building suspense. I think I’ve finally identifies the problem I have with the stories–I don’t like the characters. All of them are flawed, which seems to be the trend these days, and I’m a romantic at heart, so that rubs me the wrong way. But they also make poor decisions vis a vis their work–decisions that would likely get one severely reprimanded, if not fired, had they occurred in real life. Naturally, the results such decisions are responsible for many of Slaughter’s plot twists, and her characters don’t seem to learn from their mistakes. I just can’t gin up much sympathy for people like that.
In Faithless, protagonists Police Chief Jeffery Tolliver and county coroner Dr. Sara Linton discover the body of a young woman who was entombed alive in a box with an air pipe attached, only to be killed later by cyanide poured down the pipe. The investigation leads to a rural religious cult. However, as much or more of the action in the books come from the characters personal demons–Jeffery and Sara’s on-again, off-again relationship, Detective Lena Adams abusive relationship and Sara’s sister’s involvement with the cult. I figured out the mystery pretty early on, so most of my reading was done just to prove I was right while shaking my head at the characters’ ill-considered actions.
I’ll read the last book in the series just to finish what I’ve started, but I don’t hold out great hope. Of course,these problems might be why the author chose to end the series after just six entries.



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Book Review – The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler

The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1)The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After many years, I’ve reread this classic P.I. novel by Raymond Chandler, and it did not disappoint. Yet I wonder if if it was submitted to an agent today whether it would even see the light of day.
The Big Sleep breaks many of the so-called rules for good writing so popular today. It does a lot of telling rather than showing, and contains many info dumps – Chandler’s impeccable descriptions of 1940s Los Angeles for which the book is justly famous. Protagonist Phillip Marlowe is a man’s man, and the female characters exude sex, decadence and duplicity – surely such a lack of political correctness would never make it into print today. The language is chock full of period slang that you’d encounter in a noir film – did the average person really speak like that in 1939? The plot is somewhat contrived, the characters larger than life. But somehow, it all works so wonderfully! Thank goodness Raymond Chandler did not have to adhere to today’s publishing standards.

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Book Review – Two Girls Down, by Louise Luna

Two Girls DownTwo Girls Down by Louisa Luna
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Louise Luna’s Two Girls Down is an excellent, thrilling P.I. novel. Both protagonists, Cap and Vega, are well-drawn, complex characters. Cap, a disgraced former cop, is likeable and serves as the voice of reason for Vega, an ex-bounty hunter who now specializes in finding missing persons, mostly kids. Vega is has her demons, but Cap may just be the one to exorcise them in time. The plot begins as mundane but horrifying–two sisters, eight and ten disappear from a strip mall in a small Pennsylvania city. Vega, the specialist, is called in by the family who don’t trust local law enforcement, and she recruits Cap for his local knowledge. The action is believable for the most part, although Vega’s nebulous hacker, who provides the team with key info just as needed, every time, is a bit of stretch, as is the willingness of the local cops to accept Cap and Vega as partners in the investigation. The twist at the end also strains credulity a bit, but the writing is so damn good that I’m willing to let it slide. I see that Cap and Vega are going to return for a second outing in 2020, and I’ll definitely be buying that book as well.

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Book Review – The Fisherman, by John Langan

The FishermanThe Fisherman by John Langan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wanted to like the Fisherman more than I ultimately did. I enjoyed Langan’s conversational style, which added the intimacy that a successful horror story must have. I enjoyed his imagery, and how he related those images to his characters’ personalities. I found the imagery very Lovecraftian, because it dealt with issues much greater than individual human lives, and tended to illustrate how universally insignificant a human life is. Langan’s principal topics, death, grief and the hereafter, were the perfect ingredients to evoke terror.
Then why didn’t I rate The Fisherman at five stars? Because it was too long, and it was fractured. The bulk of the story was historical, and did not directly involve the protagonist. It was a good story, a great story,but it was in fact, a prologue, and it took up more of the book than the protagonist’s story did. So when we finally got to that, it felt anti-climactic.
That said, I still think the book is worth reading, and I recommend it.

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THE GREAT STRIPPER! AUDIOBOOK BLOG TOUR

To kick off the Stripper! Audiobook in a professional manner, I’ve organized a blog tour during the months of November and December. I’ll have different guest posts on each blog, so be sure to check them all out. I’ll edit this post to add more dates as I get them, so be sure to revisit it periodically.

10/29/19
Mysteristas
https://mysteristas.wordpress.com/

11/1/19
Mystery Writing is Murder
https://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/
 
11/2/19
Type M for Murder
http://typem4murder.blogspot.com/
 
11/3/19
Auntie M Writes
https://auntiemwrites.com/
 
11/4/19
Your Tax Matters Partner
https://yourtaxmatterspartner.com/#

11/6/19
Maggie King’s Blog
http://maggieking.com/blog/
 
11/11/19
Judy Penz Sheluk Blog
http://www.judypenzsheluk.com/blog/
 
11/14/19
Heather Weidner’s Blog
http://www.heatherweidner.com/
 
12/4/19
Chicks on the Case
https://chicksonthecase.com/
 
Date TBD Dec-19
Do You Write Under Your Own Name
http://doyouwriteunderyourownname.blogspot.com/
 
Date TBD
Vox Lit
http://www.voxlit.co.uk/
 
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Book Review – A Test of Wills, by Charles Todd

A Test of Wills (Inspector Ian Rutledge, #1)A Test of Wills by Charles Todd
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Test of Wills is as fine an English country mystery as I’ve ever read. Inspector Ian Rutledge is an enigmatic protagonist, broken by horrible experiences in the Great War, voices speaking in his head, now returned to Scotland Yard to pick up the scattered threads of a life he once had. An envious superior has Rutledge assigned to a case that is a political minefield, hoping it will bring him down once and for all. But of course, Rutledge proves equal to the challenge.

The best part pf the book is the author’s meticulous characterization of the village of Streetham and it’s inhabitants. Everyone has a secret and all of them are revealed over the course of the story. The identity of the culprit is clear, but if Rutledge arrests him, he dooms himself. The author neatly resolves the conundrum his hero faces.

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Book Review – Dead End Girl, by L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain

Dead End Girl (Violet Darger #1)Dead End Girl by L.T. Vargus
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a quotidian account of a hunt for a serial killer, who dismembers his female victims, by two FBI agents and a host of police officers in rural Ohio. By and large, the writing was good, but the major flaw in the book was that it was much, much too long. Every minute of every day of the investigation is chronicled, sometimes from multiple POVs, and, as in real life, much of it is unnecessary or fruitless. It seems like the authors forgot the first principle of storytelling-leave out the uninteresting parts. For example, a memorial for one of the victims, conducted to lure the killer, was described in excruciating detail over several chapters. He didn’t show. There is a difference between suspense and reader frustration. The authors also left some plot points unresolved, notably, a romantic liaison between the main character and one of the police officers. Ultimately, I had to struggle to finish the book.

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One Door Closes, Another Door Opens

In my mind, one of the most important characteristics of Natalie McMasters is her exuberance and unbridled optimism (true, it often gets her in trouble, but that only makes for a good story). So when the narrator for the audiobook of Stripper! quit last week in the middle of the project, I had to channel Nattie to summon the optimism to deal with adversity.

I went back on the ACX website and started hunting narrators again. I contacted over a hundred to find the first one, and I was sure that I’d have to do the same thing again. Only this time, I had a release date and I was already scheduling a blog tour.

Luckily, it only took a few days to receive an audition from Lisa Ware, of Voices from LSWARE. (Check out her website https://lswareonline.com/) Listening to her narration, it was like I was sitting in the 3M office with Amos, Danny and Nattie! I immediately contacted her to propose that she narrate Stripper!, and she accepted!

Ms. Lisa S. Ware – Storyteller Extraordinaire

So the audiobook project is back on track. When it’s released in November, I will have have codes for listeners to get a free copy in exchange for a review on Audible. The number of codes is limited, so sign up early to make sure you get one. I’ll soon be making an audiobook page for the website with the sales info and other material–watch for it.