Read Any Good Books Lately?

Thursday, September 13, 2001

Blind Instinct by Robert W. Walker

FBI forensic pathologist Jessica Coran is flown to the U.K. to look at a bizarre series of crucifixion deaths. Each of the victims is found on a cross with their tongues branded with a Latin phrase. As the body count rises, Jessica and the detective in charge of the case, Richard Sharpe, start encountering roadblocks within Scotland Yard as well as a distinct lack of clues.

Various other reviews I'd read of this book led to me buying it. They commented on how literary it was and how well-written it was. In my opinion, it wasn't either of these things. The dialogue was atrocious, characters were flat and uninteresting, the writing was plodding and difficult to get through in places, and the plot was so unbelievable at times I couldn't suspend any kind of disbelief.

I don't know where Mr. Walker got his sense of dialogue, but he should return it and get his money back. "So, Jessica. Will you help them on this most troubling case?" Jessica's boss asked. "A most troubling case, indeed!" Sharp said. Ew. Also, the British characters either talk like they've escaped from a bad Victorian melodrama, or like they've stepped out of a reference work on British slang. At one point we even get a two page treatise on what words mean what in the U.K. and in the U.S. In many cases, when Jessica and Richard are talking they have to explain every slang term they use. Richard is also fond of saying, "Something is afoot!" which grated after 300 pages. Also, Jessica and Richard are given short shrift in the characterization department. We know very little about them except about their failed relationships and we don't get any other characterization for the rest of the book. The other characters are just cardboard cutouts moving the plot around.

The plot was your usual serial killer thing, but as the book plodded along things just seemed to become that much more unbelievable. Couple that with both Jessica and Richard separately going into the killer's hideout, knowing full well that's what it is, without backup of any kind made me scratch my head. Huh? These are trained professionals? The Tattoo Man plot was much more interesting to me, but it only encompassed about twenty pages of the book. I was wishing that that was the plot of the book, not the crucifixion deaths.

In the end, I found myself just rushing to finish this so I could say I actually did finish it because I really didn't care. When the killer was revealed, it was no big shock or surprise as I saw it coming about thirty pages before that. Also, there were too many coincidences and not enough detection to suit me in the ending. They just happen to come across the location where the crucifixions happen on a hunch. No reason to go there, they just felt like checking it out.

I can't bring myself to recommend this. If you liked his previous books, you might enjoy this, but if you're new to Robert Walker, try a different novel to start with than this one.
posted by Jeffrey Hitchin 9/13/2001 11:01:45 AM

Monday, August 20, 2001

Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie

Nell Dysart is freshly divorced, picking up the pieces of her identity and trying to get on with her life. Her ex-husband's family gives her a reference to a local detective agency run by Gabe McKenna, where she's hired to be the secretary. As she gets back on her feet and remakes her life, she tries to remake the office, which causes Gabe no end of consternation. As the two start fighting with each other (and get closer to not being able to resist each other any longer), secrets about Nell's divorce crop up, an embezzlement case balloons into murder and Nell's next on the list to go.

I really enjoy Jennifer Crusie novels. I never thought I'd ever read contemporary romances just because of the reputation they have, but Jennifer Crusie creates interesting characters, some odd situations for them to get into and she is howlingly funny. The scene later in the book where Nell and her friend Suze start making up a love affair between them is a scream.

The plot takes a back seat to the romance, which turned out to be a bad thing. Things wrapped up way too quickly with little explanation at the end. I still had questions about the characters and exactly what did happen in the gigantic web of plot this book had. I re-read the last few pages several times checking to see if I'd missed something. Also, within this convoluted plot, a few characters also got short shrift. Margie and Budge, for example. Margie was sort of there for most of the book until last third when we started getting glimpses of what lay under the surface. Chloe was also too stereotypical and flat for my taste.

Still, I enjoyed it immensely and would recommend it to anyone who wants a good, breezy book to enjoy.
posted by Jeffrey Hitchin 8/20/2001 11:10:07 AM

Sunday, September 17, 2000

Probability Moon by Nancy Kress

I mostly know Nancy Kress through her short fiction and the columns she has written about writing (which are worth reading if you run across them). I haven't read a novel of hers since Brain Rose and when this came across the new releases on my local library's shelf, I thought I'd give it a try.

It's a fascinating study in sociology, cultural anthropology and the intermingling of two totally disparate groups of people. Earthers come to World to do a study on their culture, their brain physiology and their "shared reality" mechanism. What the Earthers don't know is their government is carrying on a secret study on one of World's satellite moons as they've discovered that it's artificial, and it could be a weapon. When this comes out, the relations between World and Earth start to degrade badly until all hell breaks loose.

The book was very good for about the first 300 pages. The last 30 were a bit hard to follow and the ending had me scratching my head a little bit. Still, I liked the main World character (Enli) and the group of Earthers staying on World. The plotline about what was going on in orbit seemed a bit superfluous and didn't make a whole lot of sense. Still, considering I don't read much science fiction, I did enjoy it and it was worth reading for the alien culture ideas she's woven into the novel.
posted by Jeffrey Hitchin 9/17/2000 01:03:41 AM

Sunday, September 10, 2000

Last Call by Tim Powers

My friend, Eric Lane Barnes recommended this one to me. I don't normally read urban fantasy, but I liked the tarot and playing card imagery in it so I persisted in reading through it. The plot is apparently of the son of the Fisher King near the time where a new Fisher King will ascend, and there are those who are trying their damndest to make sure that the son, Scott Crane, doesn't get the throne. The novels rambles from California to Las Vegas with Scott and his foster father running from the forces that would usurp Scott's right to the throne, which as it turns out Scott really isn't all that thrilled to have.

The book itself was rather disjointed for me. I had trouble following the plot in places and near the end I was just finishing it so I could discuss it with Eric. I was actually rather bored with it. Some parts of it I could see coming a mile away, other parts of it surprised me. It did impress me enough with some of the imagery that I'm likely to search out The Anubis Gate by Tim Powers and see how good that book is as Eric assures me that it's much better than this one.
posted by Jeffrey Hitchin 9/10/2000 10:27:03 PM

Wednesday, July 05, 2000

Gideon by Russell Andrews

I saw this one in the grocery store, read the back of it, and it seemed to be your regular political thriller, so I put it back down. I then saw an unabridged audio copy of the book in the library so I picked it up and checked it out. It was the regulation plot: Carl Granville has been hired to write a fictionalized account of information out of someone's diary. As he gets into the writing of the book, his publisher is beaten to death, and the woman he was just starting to date is killed as well. He's now on the run, with his old girlfriend Amanda Mays. She joins him on the run as they start searching for the truth behind the diary and what happened in it, and why someone seems willing to kill practically anybody to keep it secret.

This book reminded me of The FIrm in that after fifty pages or so, I wanted to thump the protagonist on the head and say, "What were you thinking?" Obviously, they haven't heard of the saying that says that if looks too good to be true, it probably is. I'm also a little tired of the novels where some poor innocent person gets majorly screwed over by some political conspiracy and then he manages to take down the whole conspiracy almost single-handed. Still, I finished the book, which is more than I can say for The Firm. When the secrets are finally revealed near the end, it made all the rest of the trip worthwhile.

The minor characters felt flat to me for some reason. Lizzy in particular felt very one-dimensional. I also noticed a couple of minor mistakes in the novel (such as an internet cafe that uses modems for its connections), but they weren't integral to the plot so I just have to assume that these were felt to be toss-off scenes and didn't merit research to be sure some of the details were correct. As I said, I at least finished the book, so it kept my attention to the end which is more than I can say for John Grisham.
posted by Jeffrey Hitchin 7/5/2000 10:56:45 AM

Wednesday, June 28, 2000

Batman: No Man's Land by Greg Rucka

I know, I know, it's a Batman novel. Well, I stopped reading Batman comic books a long time ago and had not heard of the No Man's Land storyline that had apparently run eighteen months, and also since I'd heard great things about Greg Rucka, I thought I'd give it a try. Gotham has been cut off from the rest of the United States. A No Man's Land has been declared and the bridges that connect Gotham to the rest of the country (a la Manhattan) have been blown up restricting access in or out of the city. Batman has disappeared and people are choosing sides and creating territories. Arkham Asylum is abandoned and the inmates are running loose. Basically everything's gone straight to hell and Comissioner Gordon is going to try and bring peace back to the city, only now without the help of Batman.

I had some problems with this book. Trying to pack about fifty comic books into a 400 page novel is a feat, so there's a lot of plot in here, which sometimes can leave character development and other such depth creating elements in the dust. Rucka does what he can (Renee Montoya is especially good in this book) but some of the lesser characters are cardboard cutouts.

I also disliked the treatment of Jim Gordon in this book. First off, his daughter is paralyzed by the Joker years ago, and now the people who plotted this whole thing decide to do some really awful things to him. Let the man have some good luck, okay? Stop beating him up!

Still, Rucka managed to hold my attention. I wanted to finish the book to see what would happen, and that's really the best recommendation an author can have, really. He made me want to finish the book rather than just finishing it because I started it.
posted by Jeffrey Hitchin 6/28/2000 12:49:22 PM

Thursday, May 18, 2000

Monster by Jonathan Kellerman

Claire Argent, a psychologist at the Starkweather hospital for the criminally insane, is found dead in the trunk of her car. Her eyes have been removed. Milo Sturgis tries to put the pieces together with the help of his friend Alex Delaware. As the case progresses, a nurse at the hospital tells them that before Claire was killed, a madman at the hospital predicted her death in a cryptic manner. He predicts another two deaths later. Alex is a tad wary about the whole thing, and both he and Milo delve further into the case, uncovering a nasty conspiracy and an awful string of murders.

Jonathan Kellerman's last few books have been up and down quality-wise. This one is somewhere in the middle. Milo and Alex are well done, but the rest of the characters take a backseat. Robin is almost non-existent and very permissive of Alex's comings and goings at odd hours considering a few books ago she left him because of it. The plot itself was good. It's interesting to try and figure out why people go insane and do what they do. Then, when you find out other forms of madness come into play, it tangles up and then neatly smooths out at the end. The writing is overly done, which seems to be normal. After a while I got sick of hearing someone's tongue described as a purple lump of flesh. Yes, thank you, I pictured it just fine the first time. Still, it held my attention and made me want to finish the book, so that in and of itself is recommendation enough. If you're looking for important fiction, pass this up, but it's a fun ride if you're looking for some entertainment.
posted by Jeffrey Hitchin 5/18/2000 11:06:43 AM

Thursday, April 20, 2000

murder@maggody.com by Joan Hess

Maggody's school is getting computers and the town elders are upset. These precocious children could be looking at PORN!! Oh, no! Ban it! Ban it! In the meantime Daisy and Kevin are having some marital problems (do they ever not have marital problems?), town tempers raise to fever pitch, and of course, someone gets killed leaving Arly Hanks to step in and solve the murder.

I used to really like Joan Hess, but this book just turned me off completely. I think it's just that over the years, it doesn't appear that much has changed in the sleepy town of Maggody. People are exactly the same as they were several books ago. Brother Verber is still a dirty old man who hides it well, Mrs. Jim Bob still has that stick up her rear end, and Kevin and Daisy still fight. In fact, it was Daisy and Kevin's first fight in the novel that really started the downhill slide for me. I felt like I was sitting in the audience of The Jerry Springer Show. They may have produced children, but they're still the same old kids. I started to care less and less until I just didn't care at all about these people. I was probably wanting a book with more depth and just picked the wrong book to read. It's vintage Joan Hess, so if you like her books, you will more than likely want to read this one. I guess I just wasn't in the mood for it.
posted by Jeffrey Hitchin 4/20/2000 10:03:47 AM

Wednesday, April 19, 2000

The Mystery of the Moaning Cave by William Arden

Ahhh, nostalgia. I remember reading this puppy when I was about ten years of age. Twenty years later, it's dated, and not as enthralling as it used to be, but it still has a certain kind of charm that no other juvenile series ever did.

In this adventure, Jupiter, Pete and Bob are on a ranch where the nearby cave moans at night. They're determined to figure out what causes it since it's scaring away all the ranch hands, and end up stumbling onto jewel robbery. It's almost a classic Scooby-Doo plot without the ridiculous ghostly stuff. I remember growing up with these books, and taking the character of Jupiter to heart quite seriously. I always wanted to be like him, and the decision to make him stocky, or at least a tad chunky was a good one. He may not have been athletic, but he had brains.

Do your kids a favor and introduce them to these books.
posted by Jeffrey Hitchin 4/19/2000 02:44:47 PM

Tuesday, April 04, 2000

Murder on St. Mark's Place by Victoria Thompson

Sarah Brandt, widow and midwife in turn-of-the-century New York, has been called to see one of her patients, but when she gets there, she finds out that the girl's sister Gerda has been found dead, apparently murdered, and she's asked to find out who the killer is. She asks her friend Frank Molloy to help out as he's a police detective, but he's unsure that the police will even care since the girl gave her favors freely to men who bought her gifts and took her to Coney Island. But Sarah won't let it drop, and eventually uncovers a serial killing of young girls, which again the police have no interest in since the girls were simply whores for gifts and a good time. This makes Sarah determined to find the killer herself, even though it could end up getting her killed.

This is the second novel in the Gaslight series by Victoria Thompson, and I was thrilled that a second book had come out. Turn of the century New York is not a well-visited area in mystery fiction, unlike the same time period in England. Mixed in with the mystery plot was some well-researched history lessons that did not intrude on the narrative (unlike other authors that insist on showing off everything they've learned in their research), and that gave a wonderful flavor to the book. Some of the characters were a little flat (Frank's mother, for example who only seems to screech at the top of her lungs), though. I didn't care for the solution to the mystery as it seemed rushed and too pat, and I had it figured out a while before Sarah had. However, the novel is still worth reading for the wonderful flavor of the time period and of New York. The depiction of Coney Island was particularly entertaining as well as the indiscreet behavior of some of the couples in the tunnels of rides. The relationship between Sarah and Frank deepens a little, and I presume we'll see more of this in future books, which I personally cannot wait to read.
posted by Jeffrey Hitchin 4/4/2000 11:59:45 AM