4 1/2 stars out of 5
John Jordan, the main character in this series, became a favorite "hero" of mine after reading two of the books (this is the 6th). This one somehow got lost in my pile of to-read books, but once I discovered the error of my [forgetful] ways, I hustled to correct it.
And after just a few chapters, I still loved the character, but the story not quite so much. I'm not sure why, exactly, except some of the subject matter - prison sodomy (Jordan is the chaplain at the Potter Correctional Institution in South Florida), gruesome lynchings and a mother on her deathbed - just isn't that appealing to me. That said, it was hard to put down.
Actually, there are several story lines going on at the same time in this one, including the impending death of Jordan's mother (to whom he isn't terribly close, but it's still his mother, for goodness sake). At the same time, someone has been sexually abusing inmates, but a new prison wardon - intent on replacing Jordan and is insisting that he stick to his chaplain's duties - has put the kibosh on nvestigating. Meanwhile, a prisoner escapes and can't be found, a couple of mutilated bodies thought to be the victims of lynching turn up, and Jordan's Sheriff father is desperately trying to win a primary election (whew!)
That's a lot to wrap your head around in one book, but believe it or not, it all comes together - in just 211 pages, no less. Admittedly, it's a little hard to keep all the players straight, but in the end, the whole thing makes sense (even a serious romantic issue gets resolved, at least for the time being). I'll also say that while this book can stand alone, I think I got more out of it because I've read at least a couple that preceded it.
I'm also a bit curious about this: According to Lister's website (http://www.michaellister.com), he's written eight books in the John Jordan series. I've found the first six, but search as I might, I haven't been able to unearth Nos. 7 or 8. If anyone out there has a clue where I might find them, please let me know!
Rivers to Blood: A John Jordan Mystery Book 6 by Michael Lister (Pulpwood Press, January 2014); 211 pp.
3 1/2 stars out of 5
After two rather disappointing precursors to this, the 32nd Stone Barrington novel, I really wasn't expecting much from this one. But after the first several chapters, I found myself rather enjoying it. That's not to say much has changed; most of the "action" is back-and-forth banter and a ho-hum attitude to most everything that happens, including real action when someone gets bumped off ("Oh say, did you know your brother has been murdered?" "Yes, I just heard - bloody nuisance. Shall we have dinner at the club later?")
The story here, though, did seem a little more interesting to me than other recent books. The Presidential election is over and the filthy rich attorney Barrington, who provided both funding and advice for his friend Kate's campaign, is tapped to help post-election (no, I won't reveal whether she won or lost). Then his old friend with a shady past Eduardo dies, naming Barrington co-executor of the will and millions to be distributed to various family members. One of those just happens to have had a long-ago relationship with Barrington - one that almost turned deadly - and now he has to deal with her once again. Thrown in the mix are a political expose that threatens to take down some heavy-hitters, highly valuable paintings that may be forgeries and a couple of murders.
Through it all, Barrington never fails to pair the perfect wine with dinner and match his necktie with his pocket handkerchief. If he's let anything slide, it's the frequency and number of his bedmates; I really didn't keep count, but I think only a couple got between his sheets this time. That's okay with me, since his sexploits are probably more boring than the conversation.
If you're among the throngs who have all but given up on this series, I think this one is a cut above the last few and you might consider having a go at it. But I'd also suggest waiting till the cost comes down or borrowing it from a library; even if you end up loving it, it's almost too short to be called a book and really doesn't seem deserving of a full-size price tag.
Insatiable Appetites by Stuart Woods (Putnam Adult, January 2015); 310 pp.
3 stars out of 5
This is the second in the series featuring Dr. Gideon Crew, whose talents range from fine art theft to a Ph.D. in something akin to nuclear physics to physical prowess that surpass just about any human I've ever known. And while the esteemed Dr. Crew comes across in this one as a man who may have a heart behind his shoulder holster, it's just not believable enough for me to ante up more than 3 stars - the same as I gave the first book, Gideon's Sword.
This one takes off with a bang - literally- when a nuclear scientist apparently goes off the deep end, holding a family hostage and killing one of them. Turns out he's been done in by radiation, and the powers-that-be conclude that he was involved in building a nuclear bomb that will be detonated in a major American city in ten days. Of course, Gideon, a special agent when he's called upon (albeit a reluctant her - he'd much rather be fishing), is coerced into investigating, finding the culprits and preventing a disaster so big the United States might never recover.
I don't think it's a spoiler to say Crew cuts to the chase and saves the day - there's a third book in the series, after all - but the investigation takes him across the country and back to places like a religious fanatic's commune in the wild and a big-city Islamic mosque. There's plenty of action, of course, with guns blasting, fists flying and objects that go boom in the day and night. In the midst of trying to identify the bad guys and fighting them off, there's even a hint of romance. As I said before, the action parts in particular aren't very believable, but at the same time, it makes for never a dull moment.
As far as I can tell at this point, there's one more book left in the series, The Lost Island. I do plan to read it, hoping that a couple of issues left dangling in this one will be resolved (and also hoping it will be at least a cut above the first two).
Gideon's Corpse by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Grand Central Publishing, January 2012); 371 pp.
3 stars out of 5
I opened this book, which pits a nearly starving writer against powerful Mexican drug cartels, with fairly high expectations. Although it's the first I've read by the author, I've been meaning to try one of his popular Nick Heller books. So when the opportunity arose to get this one, I jumped at it even though a number of reviewers said it's not one of Finder's best efforts.
The story begins as Danny Goodman, who has had custody of his teenage daughter Abby since his ex-wife's untimely death from cancer, finds himself unable to pay the tuition for her swanky private school. Then, the father of Abby's best school buddy, Jenna - who's filthy rich and wanting to keep his daughter happy as well - insists on lending $50,000 to Danny so he can keep his daughter in school. Danny is reluctant to accept, but after Abby throws tantrum after tantrum at the notion that she'll have to go to a "regular" school, he accepts - with every intention of paying it back.
But almost to the minute the money is transferred to Danny's account, he gets a visit from a couple of DEA agents, who inform him that he's accepted drug money. His only choice, they insist, is accepting an undercover assignment that will help the government nail Danny's new family friend and benefactor. If he doesn't, they threaten to indict him for accepting the money - and make it clear it's a fight he can neither afford to undertake nor win in court.
Danny also is forced to lie to his remarkably young psychiatrist girlfriend, Lucy, as well as Abby and his rich friend as he undertakes his assignments - a couple of which would mean, were he caught - possible torture and death and, perhaps, the same to Abby and Lucy. But as one might expect, nothing is as simple as it seems; as he manages to pull off one assignment after the other, Danny also uncovers far more than just drug deals - information that puts everyone involved in a whole different (and in some cases, more deadly) light.
The story moves quickly, and it's certainly not lacking in excitement. So why just 3 stars? First, some of the things that happen stretched the limits of my imagination a little too much; and second, there are too many little glitches. While I can't reveal some because it would spoil things for other readers, I offer a few examples:
Abby also had a stepfather, and it was he, and Abby's late mother, who put her in the school and willingly paid the hefty $16,000-per-semester tuition. After the mother's death, if the stepfather was a jerk who refused to continue paying the tuition (admittedly, Abby didn't care much for him), it should have been noted.
I know teenagers are prone to whining - my two long-since-grown children once were that age, for goodness sake. In fact, my daughter and I still laugh at my refusal to buy her a third pair of Jordache jeans back in the '70s because they cost $42 - a small fortune back then. But I know plenty of folks who have had to pull their kids out of private schools when the economy tanked, and it's really hard to believe Danny was unable to say no just because Abby had a hissy fit (she had another one because she doesn't have a smartphone, but that's another story...)
Despite being almost totally broke, Danny cracks open a bottle of Sancerre at home with his girlfriend. For the record, the least expensive bottle of the brand I could find online is about $20 - and even that is about twice what my husband and I are willing to pay for a bottle. Still, I accepted it - or assumed that Lucy had bought it for them - until I learned how embarrassed Danny was over having to take an under-$10 bottle from Trader Joe's to his richer-than-God friend as a gift. Hey, buddy, I'd have drunk the Trader Joe's myself and given him the Sancerre.
At one point, Danny is forced by the DEA to slip out of the swanky private home in Aspen where he's a guest of the rich guy and walk in the cold about half an hour at 6 a.m. If he's caught, he's supposed to claim he needed coffee. Excuse me, but this house stocks enough cross-country skis to outfit half the country - God forbid any of the guests would have to rent - but there's no coffeepot? Yeah, sure, I'd believe that alibi.
The rich friend's daughter is said to be vulnerable because she has no driver's license. So how is it that, a couple of chapters later, she's driving around and around the block looking for a parking place?
Anyway, you get the idea. By the end, I was having so much fun finding little inconsistencies like these that I almost didn't care what happened to the characters. Still, the book is worth reading and held my attention (even if sometimes for the wrong reason), and I'm still planning to start working on those Heller books when I get a chance.
Suspicion by Joseph Finder (Dutton Adult, May 2014); 401 pp.
5 stars out of 5
This marks the third book in the author's Dublin Murder Squad series (so far there are five). Although it's really not necessary to read them in order, when I finally decided to listen to friends and give the books a try, I opted to start with the first. I love the first two, In the Woods and The Likeness - giving them both 5 stars - and if I could give this one 6 stars I'd do it in a heartbeat.
Mostly, I continue to be amazed at how, thanks to the author's remarkable writing skills, the characters grow on you; love them or hate them, by the time you finish a book you'll know them inside out. More to the point, even the smallest detail somehow relates to the story, allowing readers to learn how what happens affects their lives past, present and future.
This one, my favorite so far, is rooted in 1985 in the Faithful Place neighborhood of Dublin. On one fateful night, Frank Mackey - now an undercover detective - planned to run away from his dysfunctional family with his girlfriend Rosie, never to return. But Rosie never shows up at the rendezvous site - nor anywhere else - and Frank has no choice but to believe she decided to head for their England destination without him. But now, 22 years later, Frank's sister Jackie calls to tell him that Rosie's suitcase has been found in an abandoned building. Did she leave it behind on purpose? Did she really go to England, or did something happen to her? Even though Frank has an ex-wife and a 9-year-old daughter, he's never forgotten his beloved Rosie - so he returns home for the first time in all those years.
And of course, all those reasons he's stayed away for 22 years - every nasty one of them - come rushing back. When Rosie's body is discovered in the same building as her suitcase, things turn even darker (if that's possible). Frank's father's alcoholism and sadistic bent, his mother's snarky attitude and apparent tolerance of his father's behavior, the hatred among the brothers and sisters - all return with a vengeance even after all those years. But even in the midst of all this turmoil and memories of the past, he's determined to find out what really happened to Rosie on that fateful night.
I may change my mind after I read the next two books in the series, but for now, I'll say if you must choose only one to read, make it this one.
Faithful Place by Tana French (Penguin Books Reprint edition, July 2010); 440 pp.
5 stars out of 5
Being a fan of both a book series and a TV show that's based on that series isn't always easy - especially when both are well done. Even though I've enjoyed the books far longer than the TV series, it's nearly impossible, for instance, to read the books without envisioning Angie Harmon as Jane Rizzoli (a perfect casting, IMHO, which of course exacerbates the difficulty in maintaining separation). And even though FBI Special Agent Gabriel Dean, Jane's husband in the book series, doesn't make much of an appearance in this one (regrettably), a mere mention of his name brings back memories of the talented Billy Burke, who played Gabriel in the show.
The other confusing issue is that the books are, for want of a better descriptor, grittier than the show. That's perfectly understandable, of course, but when things get edgy - such as with the growing tension between Jane and her good friend, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Maura Isles (played by Shasha Alexander on the show) - I found myself thinking as I read, "Ah well. In another few pages they'll be hugging each other as they dance around Jane's mother's kitchen table."
But that isn't to be here. And when it comes to whether that's for better or worse, I'll pick better; even though I enjoy the show, I much prefer the books. And this one, which seems a bit darker than some of the others, is a gem. The chapters move back and forth between events that took place during a South African safari a half-dozen years ago, when all but one of the tourists don't return home, and the present day as Jane and Maura are called to a crime scene. Well-known hunter and taxidermist Leon Gott has been murdered, gutted and strung up like an animal killed in the wild. As the investigation intensifies, possible links to similar murders turn up - leading to the suspicion that what happened on that ill-fated safari may be connected and a serial killer is out there.
Meanwhile, Maura is trying to cope with a conflicted relationship with her estranged mother, who is incarcerated and apparently now has a terminal illness and wants to see her daughter. And while Jane is no stranger to family dysfunction - her father, who left her mother for a bimbo half his age, now wants to come back home, much to Jane's chagrin - she has little sympathy for Maura's inability to shut the door to her past and move on.
That's an issue that doesn't get resolved here, nor does Jane's mother's resolve to take her husband back for the good of the family (sorry, no dancing around the kitchen table). But that leaves the door open for revisitation in the next book, and that part is fine with me. Bring it on!
Die Again: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel by Tess Gerritsen (Ballantine Books, December 2014); 353 pp.
4 stars out of 5
This is a book I've had access to since shortly after it was released, but I kept moving it down a notch or two on my to-read list for several reasons. First, it exceeds 500 pages, and anything much over 400 - unless perhaps it's by Stephen King - is daunting enough that I tend to think twice before opening. Second, I'm a huge fan of the writings of Jonathan Kellerman and his wife, Faye; their son Jesse, not so much. And last but hardly least, the reviews for the most part are bloody awful (at the time of this writing, the average from 485 customers was a pitiful 2-1/2 stars).
Still, every time I saw the title lurking on my Kindle I said to myself, "self, one of these days, you really should give it a go." That day finally came a few days before Christmas, when - quite honestly - I wanted to start a book, but not one that was too engrossing to put down when all the greeting, cooking and gift-wrapping tasks of the holidays called my name.
Well, guess what? At first blush - and half a dozen nonstop chapters later - I decided that maybe, just maybe, those naysayers got it wrong (love when that happens). As I approached the halfway point - now cursing the fact that holiday demands forced me to stop reading when I don't want to - I had reached the "What were they thinking" mindset when I recalled all those nasty reviews.
That said, I get the objections. This is nothing like the usual Kellerman fare (none of the three), even though it involves a Los Angeles detective who is the son of a rabbi. He's working a case, yes, but it quickly evolves into a thriller mixed with Jewish history and a heap of the supernatural. The chapters switch from the present and the detective's investigation to the land of Cain and Abel. While some have called that difficult, I didn't mind a bit. In the first place, it's easy to tell the "old" characters and settings from the new; in the latter, the present-day chapters are numbered while the former are names of people and places.
Moving in and out this way also is necessary for the progression of the story - and the resolution of everything as the ending nears. It's also important to understand the meaning of the title (yes, I looked it up before I started the book; I'd heard the term before, but I had no idea what it meant). A golem, according to several sources including the dictionary, comes from Jewish legend/Hebrew folklore and describes a clay figure that's endowed with life. Golems began as servants but later came to be thought of as protectors of the Jews in times of persecution.
One such legend is of the Golem of Prague, a creature fashioned in the 1500s by a rabbi who wanted to protect his congregation. The figure has lain dormant in an old synagogue since then - until now. And when Detective Jacob Lev begins his investigation of an unidentified head found in a remote house with the Hebrew word for justice burned into the kitchen counter, he sets off on the adventure of a lifetime - a lifetime that connects with his own in both satisfying and frightening ways.
Because of the mythical aspect, I certainly understand that this book won't be everyone's cup of tea. But now that I've finished it, I totally agree with Stephen King's assessment that it is a "rare collaboration where the sum is truly greater than the parts." I also agree with one reviewer who simply deemed it "weird." It's definitely out of the ordinary - but also, IMHO, well worth reading.
The Golem of Hollywood by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman (Putnam Adult, September 2014); 552 pp.
