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Book Review – Penhallow, by Georgette Heyer

PenhallowPenhallow by Georgette Heyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Penhallow is a tour de force of psychological suspense. It’s a crime novel but not a mystery–the reader is privy to all details of the crime and its sad denouement. Its strength lies in Heyer’s masterful portrayal of her characters’ inner thoughts and emotions. Its conclusion is logical, unexpected and ironic, leaving one with bittersweet feelings about the Penhallow family members’ respective fates. Its only fault was its excessive length, generally due the repetition of facts that had been previously presented. Penhallow is a masterpiece in the English country house/gothic genre, and should not be neglected by anyone partial to that type of story.

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Book Review – Say Nothing, by Brad Parks

Say NothingSay Nothing by Brad Parks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A strong entry by popular author. Parks knows how to twist a plot, and hit all those emotional buttons to keep a reader reading. However, some of his rationalizations were weak or uninformed and the book on the whole was about five chapters too long.

View all my reviews A strong entry by popular author. Parks knows how to twist a plot, and hit all those emotional buttons to keep a reader reading. However, some of his rationalizations were weak or uniformed and the book on the whole was about five chapters too long.

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A Disappointing Opening to a Popular Series

Pietr the Latvian (Inspector Maigret, #1)Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is the first Maigret book I have read, so I started with the first book in the series, which may have been a mistake. I thought that the plot was weak and the writing terrible, which frankly surprised me, given the enormous respect Maigret and Simenon have gathered over the years. It’s possible that some of the problem was a poor translation, because I found a fair number of sentences in improper English. But the plot wasn’t affected by the translation. Some of the action was frankly unrealistic, and the big reveal at the end was meh. I’ll try another of the Maigret books when I get over this one, only because of the author’s reputation.

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Review of Lever Templar, by Matt Gianni

Lever TemplarLever Templar by Matt Gianni
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lever Templar is a tale of two eras – the 1300s during the time of the suppression of the Knights Templar by the King of France and the Vatican, and the present day, when Islamic factions and the West are still at war. The ancient story focuses on the discovery and concealment of an even more ancient scroll that contains information that could be shattering to Christianity, while the modern tale chronicles the search for that scroll by terrorists who would use it to destroy their most potent enemy, opposed by western warriors.
The two stories are told in alternating chapters, and dovetail nicely. The protagonists are noble, likeable and have considerable depth, and the antagonists are also three dimensional. Sometimes the impressive amount of historical detail causes the tension to flag, but there’s also a lot of Tom Clancy-like technical detail, both ancient and modern, for those who like such things.
I enjoyed Levar Templar, even though I thought it was a bit too long. It would have only been made better by judicious editing of some of the more arcane details, and consolidation of the last few chapters into a concise ending after the revelation of the principal mystery. Still if you enjoy historical fiction or modern techno-thirillers, give it a try. You won’t be disappointed.

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Here is the 3M Detective Agency Newsletter for June

I can no longer send .pdf files to my subscribers with Mailchimp, so I am resorting to this method to attempt to get it to you. I will send the url of this blog to all of you via Mailchimp, and you’ll have to download it from here. I’m sorry for the difficulty of this process, but I must do what I can.

I also must say that I’m very disappointed with Mailchimp and will be finding another service to host my broadcast emails soon. Mailchimp has always been difficult to use and unresponsive to their clients, and now they seem to have disabled the ability to host either .pdf or .doc files on the site. They never allowed traditional email attachments, so the only way you could send a file was to upload it to Mailchimp and send a link to the subscribers. Apparently, that no longer works.

Please contact me and let me know that you’ve recieved your copy of the newsletter by using the contact form on this website. Thanks.

3Mnewsletter-2_6-1Download

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The Natalie McMasters Mysteries Have Gone Wide!

The big news of the day is that you can now buy the Natalie McMasters e-books from many other distributors besides Amazon and in other formats besides Kindle. Stripper! and Revenge! are no longer on Kindle Unlimited, and Trafficked! will come off at the end of this month.

To celebrate this milestone, the first volume of the series, Stripper!, is available for $0.99 for a limited time from the following distributors.

Please tell all your friends who use these formats.

Stripper! is the first book of the series. It tells of Nattie’s decision to go undercover in a strip club to search for a vicious assassin who killed her best friend and critically wounded her Uncle Amos. It sets the stage for the other books in the series, Revenge! and Trafficked!

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Review of Laguna Heat, by T. Jefferson Parker

Laguna HeatLaguna Heat by T. Jefferson Parker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was the author’s debut novel, written many years ago. I picked it up after hearing him speak at Sleuthfest. It’s a fine murder mystery with many layers, very Hitchcockian. But what I found most impressive was the attention to setting – Parker obviously knows this part of California very, very well, and when you finished the book, you will too. I’m sad to say I figured it out about halfway through, but that did not spoil my enjoyment of Parker’s lyrical prose. I’ll be reading his other books soon.

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Book Review: INVIVO by Robert Brown

INVIVOINVIVO by Robert A. Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

INVIVO is part science fiction, part crime fiction and part literary fiction. That mishmash is what’s responsible for the good and the not-so-good qualities of the book.
The science involved is a little farfetched, but possible given today’s molecular genetics technology. The crime involved is horrendous, so it’s far-reaching effects on the characters is eminently plausible. The human reactions that are the ramifications of the events described are also understandable, and the author does a good job of allowing us to feel the emotions of his deep and complicated characters.
However, the story has a lot of moving parts, and the way in which these parts mesh together could have been better thought out. Some things are not well explained, for instance, how one of the characters, a college student, could effortlessly travel from Scotland to Mexico. The author switches between multiple plotlines at the drop of a hat, which can be jarring and disconcerting. I found the ending trivial, almost as if the author really did not want to answer the moral question he posed. I really wish Mr. Brown had taken more time with this book to iron out these flaws. So I give INVIVO five stars for imagination and daring and three stars for plotting and execution, which averages out to four stars overall.

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Book Review: Three Truths and Other Unsettling Tales, by Thomas O.

Three Truths and Other Unsettling TalesThree Truths and Other Unsettling Tales by Thomas O.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This delightful but unsettling collection of short stories took me back to my boyhood as a scout, sitting around the campfire, seeing who could tell the scariest story. The stories are imaginative and whimsical. It’s a quick read – I was done in about an hour and a half, but I’m a fast reader. You know there’s going to be a twist at the end of each one, and it’s great fun to try and guess what that will be. I hit about 50%. It’s too bad I’m too old to go camping with the scouts anymore, because I’d surely pack this book along if I did.

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Book Review – 365 Marks on the Wall, by Byn Always

***** – Byn Always has written a psychological thriller of the first water – a book that can stand with Robert Bloch’s Psycho or Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game. The story is a simple one – a young woman is kidnapped by a madman and kept prisoner in a basement for a year. The ensuing chain of events is simultaneously predictable, surprising, logical and warped enough to keep the reader enthralled. I read the book in a single sitting, and my hat’s off to anyone who can put it down. The story is eminently dark (how could it be anything else?) but surprisingly, it left me filled with the power of hope, friendship, loyalty and life. It’s a remarkable story that should not be missed.