4.5 stars out of 5
The author has done a commendable job taking over the late, great Robert B. Parker's Spenser series, IMHO. Most of what I've missed is the snappy banter between Spenser and his faithful sidekick Hawk (and to some extent, between Spenser and his main squeeze, Dr. Susan Silverman). That, and the occasional interjections of humor, seem better here. When Spenser visits a service in a Georgia mega-church and listens to the music from a rock band and a gospel choir, for instance, he quips that it "was a bit like Andrew Lloyd Webber meets Three Dog Night."
The adventure begins when Spenser gets a visit from Connie Kelly, a woman not only scorned, but ripped off. Her handsome and much older lover - whom she met online and trusted because he's a "talking head" TV networks - has flown her coop along with the nearly $300,000 she gave him to invest in a "sure thing." Distraught, she discussed her feelings with her shrink - you guessed it, Susan - who in turn recommended that she bring the matter to Spenser's attention.
All Connie wants is for Spenser to find the man who done her wrong, M. Brooks Welles, and get her money back. But almost immediately, Spenser learns Welles is far from what he claims to be; his hot-shot military and espionage experience, Harvard degree and even his name are nothing more than hot air. But wait, there's more: it seems he's to in cahoots with some very dangerous characters from the Atlanta area who don't take kindly to a Boston private eye poking around in their territory. What's more, they, too, have set their sights on finding Welles; apparently, Connie isn't the only person he ripped off.
Even after some twists and turns that mean he could turn his back on the whole mess and walk away, Spenser remains determined to carry out Connie's directive and recoup her money. To help, he calls in the super-capable Hawk and even his old pal Teddy Sapp; but will they be able to get to the bottom of things before at least one of them gets seriously wounded or even killed?
Ah, you'll just have to find that out for yourself. It's short, sweet and snappy - what I call perfect summer reading.
Robert B. Parker's Little White Lie by Ace Atkins (G.P. Putnam's Sons, May 2017); 310 pp.
4 stars out of 5
"...one step ahead of the shoe shine
Two steps away from the county line..."
From the start of this one, those lyrics from Simon & Garfunkel's "Keep the Customer Satisfied" ran through my head in this fast-paced, exciting book that I read in a single day (partly because it's only 318 pages long and mostly because it was very hard to put down).
You see, Casey Cox is a woman on the run; her DNA has been found at the scene of the stabbing murder of her best friend Brent, a journalist. In truth (or truth as she tells it), she really was at the scene - meeting him at his apartment at lunchtime at his request - but what she found was his bloody body. Believing her story wouldn't be convincing to the police, she ran away in hopes of finding a new identify and a new life. She's also trying to escape some haunting memories of her own youth - memories that comprise another reason to be wary of talking to the police.
Enter Dylan Roberts, a former Army cop with three deployments and a nasty case of PTSD who'd love to get a job on the local police force. Turns out he also was a good friend of Brent, and when Dylan attends the memorial service, because of his background he's hired to track down Casey (with approval from the time-challenged local police). As the chase ensues, chapters shift from Casey's perspective to Dylan's; in most instances, I'm not a big fan of that technique - nor of first-person writing - but they really do work well here.
Despite her efforts to stay off the grid, Casey leaves a trail that's almost amazingly easy for Dylan to follow. The closer he gets to finding her, though, the more he begins to realize there's far more to her story than he's being led to believe - bringing into question what happened to Brent, who actually did him in and why.
Meantime, a second story line comes into play as Casey - who now has a new identity - tries to get her new act together in an Atlanta suburb. A new friend, it seems, has a daughter who went missing a couple of years earlier. In the course of her new job, Casey inadvertently uncovers clues that could mean the daughter is still alive. Risking the loss of her precious anonomity, she sets out to learn the truth. The book comes to a riveting conclusion that brings closure to one of the two story lines (but I won't reveal which).
Overall, I very much enjoyed this book - but with two reservations. The first is that there's a doozy of a cliffhanger ending. This is the first of a two-book series (which I knew ahead of time and, under those circumstances, certainly expected some carryover business). But this goes far beyond that, literally forcing readers to get the next book (If I'm Found) if they want closure. And not knowing that was gonna happen till the end of this one made me very grumpy.
The second is that it's in-your-face clear from the beginning that this book belongs in the category of Christian fiction (which I didn't know at the time I accepted an advance review copy from the publisher based on what sounded like a great story). Mind you, I have nothing against organized religion; in fact, I consider myself to be somewhat of a student of it. Over the years, I've enjoyed, and learned much from, books on the history and beliefs of faiths from Baha'i to Judaism to the Society of Friends to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
What I do not want to read about, however, is some character's "search for the God I used to believe in" or, God forbid, proselytizing. Both are in here from the beginning, though thankfully, not in large doses (with a couple of exceptions). Still, it's more than I want to encounter, and I firmly believe potential readers should be made aware of this ahead of time.
If I Run by Terri Blackstock (Zondervan, February 2016); 318 pp.
4 stars out of 5
Overall, my feelings about this book are mixed, quite honestly, but one thing I'll say for sure: It takes codependency to a whole new level. Normally, that would drive me more than a little bit crazy; but the "hero," Will Trent, is so likable that for the most part I just want to hug him (that is, when I'm not wanting to give him a good whack on the head).
Not so, however, for his relationship partner, Angie Polaski, who's worse than despicable and a sorry excuse for a human being. Yes, I know she had a traumatic childhood - as did Will; if you've been following this series (this is the eighth book), you know a good bit of the background. And if you don't, you'll get an eyeful here in almost excruciating detail. But in a nutshell, once Will and Angie hooked up as kids some 30 years ago, they formed a virtually unshakable and extremely unhealthy bond that's been impossible for Will to break (in fact, they once got married and remain legally attached to this day).
The book begins with the discovery of a dead body - a former cop - in a construction site for a soon-to-be big-money development project. There's plenty of blood, but Sara Linton, medical examiner and Will's love for the past year or so, determines that most of it didn't come from the victim. Apparently, there was a female victim here as well, but she's nowhere to be found. Then comes awareness that the site belongs to a rich, powerful and connected pro basketball player who was exonerated of rape charges a few months earlier despite efforts by Will, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
That deep South setting, in fact, served up a delightful quote to which I, a person who turns into a shrew when temperatures climb much beyond 75 degrees, can relate:
"Going outside was like walking straight into the mouth of a yawning dog."
Well yes. Yes it is. But I digress.
The case herein takes still another turn for the worse when evidence links the crime scene to Angie, who for the most part has been staying under the radar ever since Will and Sara got together (a relationship Angie's clearly not happy about). That's about to change, though, forcing Will to deal with memories he's tried to sweep under his rug for years and now threatens to break the bonds that have tied him to the seriously messed-up Angie. Much of the rest of the book, I'll add, focuses on Angie and her background; Will is there, of course, but he almost seems to play second fiddle as her current actions and layers of the horrors of her past are peeled away.
And I wish I could work up some sympathy, but after all these years of Will Trent books, that's not gonna happen. Throughout the whole thing - which not insignificantly is fast-paced, action filled and hard to put down - I kept the fingers crossed on the hand that wasn't turning pages on my Kindle that Angie would finally get her comeuppance (getting bumped off works for me) and Will would grow a backbone.
If you want to find out whether either of those wishes became reality, though, you'll just have to read the book.
The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter (William Morrow, September 2016); 485 pp.
5 stars out of 5
Ever since the first book I read in the John Jordan series by Michael Lister, I've been a huge fan. Admittedly, I've read only three prior to this one, but I'm far from done. This one, which is the seventh in the series, easily gets 5 stars from me once again - and it also has the distinction of being one of the saddest books I've ever read.
Although the author says it's best to read them all in order (a piece of advice with which I always agree), he adds that each can stand alone (I agree with this as well). That's perhaps even more true of this one; it's written as a prequel that takes readers back to Jordan's very first investigation - one that had a profound impact on the who and what he was to become. We see Jordan as a young man trying to sort out his intense interest in becoming a chaplain or a law enforcement officer and exploring whether combining the two would be a possibility. For the time being, he's left home for Atlanta - in the progress ignoring his police officer father's wishes for the first time in his life - to enroll in a church-run school for ministers.
Actually, the story began when John was 12, when he bumped heads with a man who was convicted of murdering some children in Atlanta. Never quite certain of the man's guilt, when John returned to Atlanta for school, he vowed to investigate further. As he gets started, he gets a call and a bit of advice from none other than Harry Bosch, a friend of his father (and, for those who might not know, the character in a best-selling series by Michael Connelly).
In Atlanta, he befriends a couple of disadvantaged boys as well as the owner of a local daycare center whose young son was snatched from her back yard and murdered several years earlier. Her daughter, the boy's older stepsister, also works at the center; all I'll say about that is that the course of true love never runs smooth. As he learns more about the situation - including a suspicion that all the murders may be somehow connected - John vows to keep investigating until he finds the murderer. The course of that, too, is far from smooth, putting him at odds with some nasty characters and taking his mind to some very dark places.
The ending is both surprising and definitely not pleasant for readers and disturbing, to say the least, to John. All in all, the book is a crucial part of the series and one that shouldn't be missed.
Innocent Blood by Michael Lister (Pulpwood Press, February 2015); 264 pp.
4 stars out of 5
Since I've been keeping track at Goodreads.com, I've read five other books by Karin Slaughter - all Will Trent novels. The most recent, Unseen, was less than great, but I enjoyed the others well enough to try this book, her first stand-alone novel. And by the time I'd reached a quarter of the way through, I was pretty sure I was going to struggle to finish it.
It really wasn't the writing; rather, it was the subject matter and time period. The 1970s was not my favorite decade, although I was rather happily distracted from all the nasty things going on in the world by trying to take care of a husband, two young children and returning to the workforce once our younger child, born in 1968, reached kindergarten age.
And this book is set right in the middle: 1974 in Atlanta, where clear lines are drawn among men and women, blacks and whites, gays and straights, Jews and everyone else; there's no air conditioning, no cell phones and men keep their women in line by beating the crap out of them. All in good fun, eh?
Not. I'm not entirely sure why, except maybe it brought back somewhat uncomfortable memories of my own years in college in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Jews and blacks (and no, they weren't called "blacks" back then) had separate fraternities and sororities and Women's Lib was just a glimmer in Betty Friedan's eye. At any rate, the story centers on Kate Murphy, a young widow who has joined the Atlanta Police Department just after the brutal murder of one of their own - the latest in a string of similar murders. She's got three strikes against her: She's new, she's female and she's beautiful. The women on the force can't relate to her - they're having enough trouble taking the heat from the men themselves - and the men make it clear they don't want her there.
Forced to wear ill-fitting uniforms and accept insults hurled at her from every angle, Kate isn't sure she'll make it right from the start. Still, she manages to develop a bit of camaraderie, albeit grudgingly given, with the sister of the cop who was with his partner - the most recent officer killed - when it happened. Together, the women form a sort of alliance to investigate on their own, risking the ire of other officers if their behind-the-scenes efforts are discovered (if not outright dismissal from the force). Those efforts take on even more relevance when the evidence takes them to surprising places and revelations that will rock their own belief systems and the police department to the very core.
Obviously, I kept going despite my hesitation early on - and I'm very glad I did. No, I never quite adjusted to all the negative attitudes and scenarios, but at the same time they were crucial to a story that got much more interesting the closer I got to the end - the last quarter I polished off nonstop just because it was that good. Was I happy with the ending? Well, yes and no; but all I'll say is some things take longer to change than others.
Cop Town by Karin Slaughter (Delacorte Press, June 2014); 417 pp.
