Monster
Walter Dean Myers
Amistad
Fiction, YA Crime/Suspense
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Sixteen-year-old Steve knows just how he'd film his life if it were a movie. He tries to keep thinking of it that way, as a movie, because the reality - sitting in prison, on trial for felony murder, facing the very real possibility of life in jail or even the death penalty - is just too much to bear. The law says everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but even his own defense attorney seems to have doubts, and half the jury probably took one look at the Black kid at the defense table and made up their minds on the spot. As the trial unfolds, testimony and flashbacks fill in the story of how Steve found himself here, with his fate resting on the competence of a lawyer and the judgement of twelve strangers and a system that has sent so many other young Black men away.
REVIEW: As one might expect from the title alone, let alone the description, this is a harrowing and often bleak tale of a young future gone awry - not just in a single fateful moment, but in the many steps leading up to that moment, for all that Steve himself never touched a gun or pulled a trigger. Using the ongoing film script format to show his current life moving between the courtroom and prison and the past that led up to the incident in question, he may not be an entirely reliable narrator in a story where there are few absolute villains or heroes. Society itself has failed on some level, for this to be happening at all, but society itself is not on trial: Steve and a co-defendant are, for the robbery that turned into a murder. What emerges is a stark picture of the dehumanizing nature of the incarceration system, and the slender, imperfect promise of the justice system that decides guilt and punishment with a less than impartial hand. Guilty or not, Steve will never be the same boy he was before, indelibly marked by his experiences. Once in a while, the interrogations, and particularly the summations, in the trial room felt a little long, but overall it's a powerful and unflinching look at a part of modern society many would prefer not to examine.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Under an Outlaw Moon (Dietrich Kalteis) - My Review
Long Way Down (Jason Reynolds) - My Review
The Hate U Give (Angie Thomas) - My Review
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Friday, May 12, 2023
Thursday, March 2, 2023
Cast the First Stone (David James Warren)
Cast the First Stone
The True Lies of Rembrandt Stone series, Book 1
David James Warren, Susan May Warren, James L. Rubart, and David C. Warren
TriStone Media
Fiction, Crime/Sci-Fi/Thriller
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Rembrandt Stone was a best-selling novelist and a top detective with the Minneapolis Police Department... once. After a case hit too close to home, he walked away, though his wife Eve is still working as a forensic examiner. He told everyone, even himself, that he was going to renovate his fixer-upper home, spend time with his daughter Ashley, and write his next bestseller. Instead, two years later, he feels stuck, plagued by nightmares of the cold cases he never cleared before giving up the badge.
When his old boss passes away, the man inexplicably leaves him a cardboard box full of old cases and the strange watch he always used to wear, which doesn't even seem to work. But when Stone straps the watch on, suddenly it leaps to life - and he finds himself in 1997, at the scene of a coffee shop bombing. He remembers two more bombings in forty-eight hours before the perpetrator mysteriously vanished, never to be caught. This time, he's determined to do things right, and not just the investigation: there are so many things in his life that he could use a do-over on, from his family matters to his friendships and career decisions and especially his fumbling courtship of Eve. But changing the past always has consequences, and his determination to set right one wrong may cost him more than he realizes.
REVIEW: This has many familiar crime thriller building blocks with the light sci-fi twist of time travel. Rembrandt Stone may have turned his back on the job (and his ex-partner, who still feels betrayed by his abrupt departure), but just because the detective walks away from the case doesn't mean the case leaves the detective. He tries to build a new life, and knows objectively that he has a lot to be grateful for - a wife who loves him, a daughter he adores, even a restored Porsche in the garage - but can't let go of the things that have gone wrong and the crimes he never solved, in his professional life and his personal one. This brooding has led to writer's block and overall life block, and even his patient literary agent is about to give up on him. The box of cold cases only dredges up more nightmares and feelings of regret. The story wallows in this a little long before he finally straps on the old leather "watch" and gets a trip back to the bombing, a case that holds significance as more than just his first major cold case with the department; it was also the case where he first met Eve. At first, he's convinced it's some sort of elaborate dream (another conceit that lasts far too long), and is determined to make things go right for the sake of his subconscious and hopefully putting another of his myriad nightmares to bed. Eventually, he clues into the fact that the time travel is all too real. By then, even if he thought much about the consequences of solving a case that went unsolved in his memory, he's in too deep and has changed too much (though his memories are not as reliable or clear as he might hope, meaning it's not just a matter of him recalling word-for-word the cold case file in a future cardboard box). Alternate chapters show Eve's experiences, as she is intrigued by the prodigal detective whose reputation well precedes him; her police captain father minces no words in expressing his disapproval of a man who dared publish a book about his rookie year, convinced Stone "spilled secrets" (though, of course, he hasn't apparently bothered reading Stone's book himself, because why would police want to examine evidence before passing judgement?), and also convinced that his daughter is still his property despite it being 1997. Between her dad policing (literally) her dating life and a co-worker with an obvious crush who does everything but mark his territory when Stone turns up (and the fact that there are no other women involved in the story, or even mentioned on the force, aside from the obligatory plot device of a cutesy daughter), there's a distinct whiff of overactive testosterone about the story, reducing Eve - despite her ostensible skills and "independence" in her career - to trophy status for the men to fight and posture over. Of course, there's also the bombing plot to investigate, which is indeed investigated, but it almost drowns over other tragedies that pile on... tragedies that start to become repetitive, and are so clearly hooks for future things Stone will have to deal with/solve that it almost becomes humorous. That said, things do generally move fast, and nobody's entirely stupid (save Stone taking far too long to clue into his own time travel and, later, to the consequences). It has the overall feel of a pilot episode for a TV series, complete with the mildly forced introduction of the concepts and the characters and the greater story arc. As I find myself saying far too often, I've read worse, but I don't really feel compelled to read more in this series, and it ultimately just wasn't my cup of cocoa.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Recursion (Blake Crouch) - My Review
11/22/63 (Stephen King) - My Review
The True Lies of Rembrandt Stone series, Book 1
David James Warren, Susan May Warren, James L. Rubart, and David C. Warren
TriStone Media
Fiction, Crime/Sci-Fi/Thriller
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Rembrandt Stone was a best-selling novelist and a top detective with the Minneapolis Police Department... once. After a case hit too close to home, he walked away, though his wife Eve is still working as a forensic examiner. He told everyone, even himself, that he was going to renovate his fixer-upper home, spend time with his daughter Ashley, and write his next bestseller. Instead, two years later, he feels stuck, plagued by nightmares of the cold cases he never cleared before giving up the badge.
When his old boss passes away, the man inexplicably leaves him a cardboard box full of old cases and the strange watch he always used to wear, which doesn't even seem to work. But when Stone straps the watch on, suddenly it leaps to life - and he finds himself in 1997, at the scene of a coffee shop bombing. He remembers two more bombings in forty-eight hours before the perpetrator mysteriously vanished, never to be caught. This time, he's determined to do things right, and not just the investigation: there are so many things in his life that he could use a do-over on, from his family matters to his friendships and career decisions and especially his fumbling courtship of Eve. But changing the past always has consequences, and his determination to set right one wrong may cost him more than he realizes.
REVIEW: This has many familiar crime thriller building blocks with the light sci-fi twist of time travel. Rembrandt Stone may have turned his back on the job (and his ex-partner, who still feels betrayed by his abrupt departure), but just because the detective walks away from the case doesn't mean the case leaves the detective. He tries to build a new life, and knows objectively that he has a lot to be grateful for - a wife who loves him, a daughter he adores, even a restored Porsche in the garage - but can't let go of the things that have gone wrong and the crimes he never solved, in his professional life and his personal one. This brooding has led to writer's block and overall life block, and even his patient literary agent is about to give up on him. The box of cold cases only dredges up more nightmares and feelings of regret. The story wallows in this a little long before he finally straps on the old leather "watch" and gets a trip back to the bombing, a case that holds significance as more than just his first major cold case with the department; it was also the case where he first met Eve. At first, he's convinced it's some sort of elaborate dream (another conceit that lasts far too long), and is determined to make things go right for the sake of his subconscious and hopefully putting another of his myriad nightmares to bed. Eventually, he clues into the fact that the time travel is all too real. By then, even if he thought much about the consequences of solving a case that went unsolved in his memory, he's in too deep and has changed too much (though his memories are not as reliable or clear as he might hope, meaning it's not just a matter of him recalling word-for-word the cold case file in a future cardboard box). Alternate chapters show Eve's experiences, as she is intrigued by the prodigal detective whose reputation well precedes him; her police captain father minces no words in expressing his disapproval of a man who dared publish a book about his rookie year, convinced Stone "spilled secrets" (though, of course, he hasn't apparently bothered reading Stone's book himself, because why would police want to examine evidence before passing judgement?), and also convinced that his daughter is still his property despite it being 1997. Between her dad policing (literally) her dating life and a co-worker with an obvious crush who does everything but mark his territory when Stone turns up (and the fact that there are no other women involved in the story, or even mentioned on the force, aside from the obligatory plot device of a cutesy daughter), there's a distinct whiff of overactive testosterone about the story, reducing Eve - despite her ostensible skills and "independence" in her career - to trophy status for the men to fight and posture over. Of course, there's also the bombing plot to investigate, which is indeed investigated, but it almost drowns over other tragedies that pile on... tragedies that start to become repetitive, and are so clearly hooks for future things Stone will have to deal with/solve that it almost becomes humorous. That said, things do generally move fast, and nobody's entirely stupid (save Stone taking far too long to clue into his own time travel and, later, to the consequences). It has the overall feel of a pilot episode for a TV series, complete with the mildly forced introduction of the concepts and the characters and the greater story arc. As I find myself saying far too often, I've read worse, but I don't really feel compelled to read more in this series, and it ultimately just wasn't my cup of cocoa.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Recursion (Blake Crouch) - My Review
11/22/63 (Stephen King) - My Review
Friday, February 17, 2023
Under an Outlaw Moon (Dietrich Kalteis)
Under an Outlaw Moon
Dietrich Kalteis
ECW Press
Fiction, Crime/Historical Fiction/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In 1930's Kansas, young Stella Mae Irwin isn't even sixteen years old when she meets Bennie Dickson at the roller rink. In his twenties, Bennie already has a record and prison time under his belt, offshoot of youthful missteps, though he's trying to turn his life around by driving a taxi and training as a boxer, with an eye on law school. The two fall head over heels at first sight, and before long have promised to marry each other (even though she's too young for a formal engagement). But when Bennie finds himself on the wrong side of the law again, Stella willingly risks everything to join him. Together, they become bank robbers in the vein of Bonnie and Clyde - and also find themselves at the top of the FBI's Most Wanted list.
REVIEW: Based on the real-life story of Bennie and Stella Mae Dickson, this is a novel about lives gone wrong and the blind faith of young love, as well as how the law sometimes creates its own monsters to justify its own draconian responses. Bennie isn't necessarily a bad person or even a sociopath, but is branded as a criminal from an early age and pushed until he decides to simply embrace the label, putting his talents to use in robberies when doors to a more legitimate future are slammed shut in his face. Stella may be young, but she's not a fool; she knows full well Bennie is dangerous, but knows too that there's more to him and his story, and is all too willing an accomplice in the name of love. As for their crimes, their two bank robberies - the first on Stella's sixteenth birthday, to fund their newlywed life - are handled in an almost benevolent fashion, without a shot fired or life endangered. Still, FBI director Hoover makes it his personal mission to hunt them down and turn the public sentiment against them, setting up a disproportionately drastic response to their relatively minimal crime spree; the field agent charged with tracking them down grows rather disillusioned with the bureau and the whole process (and the heavy propaganda angle, fed by a compliant press) as he watches it play out. Meanwhile, Bennie and Stella, driven as much by the endorphin rush as by the need for cash, veer from the giddy triumph of a successful heist to the struggles of life on the run and the necessity of using more crimes to escape the ones they've already committed, chasing an ever-more-elusive dream of someday going straight and putting it all behind them to raise a family in a nice house. Stella seems to recognize it as a lie they're telling themselves long before Bennie, but the two also realize that some roads can't be turned back from, especially not when the entire federal government's bound and determined to make an example out of them. The ending is as tragic as it is inevitable, as is the spin put on it for the public eye. The novel manages to humanize the characters and bring the era to life while also working as a solid story of doomed love and a crime thriller. Given my somewhat iffy reading luck of late, I enjoyed it all the more.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Boys in the Boat (Daniel James Brown) - My Review
Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen) - My Review
Seabiscuit (Laura Hillenbrand) - My Review
Dietrich Kalteis
ECW Press
Fiction, Crime/Historical Fiction/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In 1930's Kansas, young Stella Mae Irwin isn't even sixteen years old when she meets Bennie Dickson at the roller rink. In his twenties, Bennie already has a record and prison time under his belt, offshoot of youthful missteps, though he's trying to turn his life around by driving a taxi and training as a boxer, with an eye on law school. The two fall head over heels at first sight, and before long have promised to marry each other (even though she's too young for a formal engagement). But when Bennie finds himself on the wrong side of the law again, Stella willingly risks everything to join him. Together, they become bank robbers in the vein of Bonnie and Clyde - and also find themselves at the top of the FBI's Most Wanted list.
REVIEW: Based on the real-life story of Bennie and Stella Mae Dickson, this is a novel about lives gone wrong and the blind faith of young love, as well as how the law sometimes creates its own monsters to justify its own draconian responses. Bennie isn't necessarily a bad person or even a sociopath, but is branded as a criminal from an early age and pushed until he decides to simply embrace the label, putting his talents to use in robberies when doors to a more legitimate future are slammed shut in his face. Stella may be young, but she's not a fool; she knows full well Bennie is dangerous, but knows too that there's more to him and his story, and is all too willing an accomplice in the name of love. As for their crimes, their two bank robberies - the first on Stella's sixteenth birthday, to fund their newlywed life - are handled in an almost benevolent fashion, without a shot fired or life endangered. Still, FBI director Hoover makes it his personal mission to hunt them down and turn the public sentiment against them, setting up a disproportionately drastic response to their relatively minimal crime spree; the field agent charged with tracking them down grows rather disillusioned with the bureau and the whole process (and the heavy propaganda angle, fed by a compliant press) as he watches it play out. Meanwhile, Bennie and Stella, driven as much by the endorphin rush as by the need for cash, veer from the giddy triumph of a successful heist to the struggles of life on the run and the necessity of using more crimes to escape the ones they've already committed, chasing an ever-more-elusive dream of someday going straight and putting it all behind them to raise a family in a nice house. Stella seems to recognize it as a lie they're telling themselves long before Bennie, but the two also realize that some roads can't be turned back from, especially not when the entire federal government's bound and determined to make an example out of them. The ending is as tragic as it is inevitable, as is the spin put on it for the public eye. The novel manages to humanize the characters and bring the era to life while also working as a solid story of doomed love and a crime thriller. Given my somewhat iffy reading luck of late, I enjoyed it all the more.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Boys in the Boat (Daniel James Brown) - My Review
Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen) - My Review
Seabiscuit (Laura Hillenbrand) - My Review
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Good Guys (Stephen Brust)
Good Guys
Stephen Brust
Tor
Fiction, Action/Crime/Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since at least the Middle Ages, the secretive order of the Mystici helped the world's sorcerers - people sensitive to the forces known as magic, the power lines encircling the earth that can be manipulated to perform spells and wonders - stay safe from the mundane majority, but it's only been since the early 20th century that the Foundation rose to rival them, a breakaway group that works to enforce secrecy and rein in those who risk exposing magic. Usually, they maintain a tense standoff, but when a series of murders targets Mystici operatives across America (and risks exposing the existence of magic with very public displays of power), one Foundation investigation team finds themselves stepping on all sorts of toes, and unearthing all sorts of trouble.
Donovan may have no magic himself, but he owes his life to the Foundation after he was shot four times by a police officer for a petty violation. With his photographic memory and prodigious detection skills, he quickly became one of their top investigators. Along with trained muscle Susan and his newest assistant, the sorcerer Marci on her first field assignment, he catches the first in what turns into a string of increasingly public and grisly deaths, each involving the use of magic. Donovan finds himself of mixed mind about the affair: while the killer is no doubt dangerous and only getting moreso with each murder, none of the people they have killed are what anyone would call good. There are also disturbing signs that the killer may have ties to his own organization. But the Foundation is supposed to be the good side, opposing the morally gray-to-black sorcerers of the Mystici... aren't they?
REVIEW: Good Guys uses urban fantasy to probe the oft-explored question of what happens when great power comes without great responsibilities or moral restraints, and how easily the line between good and evil, that seems so clear in theory, blurs in the real world. Donovan in particular already has a sizeable chip on his shoulder, not entirely unjustified, for a life made far harder than it needs to be because of racism. He, of all the investigators, understands the frustrations that can lead an otherwise ordinary person to become consumed with the need for vengeance and the temptation to suspend personal moral codes when the opportunity to end an injustice arises. The Foundation doesn't exactly do itself any favors, either, having become half-paralyzed by its own bureaucracy and refusal to trust even its own agents with information they need to know; being a half-paranoid organization lends itself to hiring half-paranoid people who keep secrets from each other as much out of habit as out of actually having anything to hide. The investigation unwinds through a thicket of names and motivations that sometimes grows a bit dense, but eventually comes together, if rather circuitously and after a fair bit of death and danger and action of the magical and mundane varieties.
While the story is decent enough for what it is (for the most part), what cost it the half-star in the ratings is a sense that it was trying to set up a series that apparently never happened. Time is wasted on establishing characters who never reach their potential in this volume and plot points that never quite tie up, and I kept feeling like there was some bigger twist or resolution just a few pages ahead that I never reached by the time the book ended. The characters also tended to be somewhat flat and unchanging. It all left me with a vaguely unsatisfied feeling by the end, for all that it moves decently and parts of it work rather well. Even if there were a sequel, I don't expect I'd be pursuing it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Borderline (Mishell Baker) - My Review
Brimstone Bound (Helen Harper) - My Review
Three Mages and a Margarita (Annette Marie) - My Review
Stephen Brust
Tor
Fiction, Action/Crime/Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since at least the Middle Ages, the secretive order of the Mystici helped the world's sorcerers - people sensitive to the forces known as magic, the power lines encircling the earth that can be manipulated to perform spells and wonders - stay safe from the mundane majority, but it's only been since the early 20th century that the Foundation rose to rival them, a breakaway group that works to enforce secrecy and rein in those who risk exposing magic. Usually, they maintain a tense standoff, but when a series of murders targets Mystici operatives across America (and risks exposing the existence of magic with very public displays of power), one Foundation investigation team finds themselves stepping on all sorts of toes, and unearthing all sorts of trouble.
Donovan may have no magic himself, but he owes his life to the Foundation after he was shot four times by a police officer for a petty violation. With his photographic memory and prodigious detection skills, he quickly became one of their top investigators. Along with trained muscle Susan and his newest assistant, the sorcerer Marci on her first field assignment, he catches the first in what turns into a string of increasingly public and grisly deaths, each involving the use of magic. Donovan finds himself of mixed mind about the affair: while the killer is no doubt dangerous and only getting moreso with each murder, none of the people they have killed are what anyone would call good. There are also disturbing signs that the killer may have ties to his own organization. But the Foundation is supposed to be the good side, opposing the morally gray-to-black sorcerers of the Mystici... aren't they?
REVIEW: Good Guys uses urban fantasy to probe the oft-explored question of what happens when great power comes without great responsibilities or moral restraints, and how easily the line between good and evil, that seems so clear in theory, blurs in the real world. Donovan in particular already has a sizeable chip on his shoulder, not entirely unjustified, for a life made far harder than it needs to be because of racism. He, of all the investigators, understands the frustrations that can lead an otherwise ordinary person to become consumed with the need for vengeance and the temptation to suspend personal moral codes when the opportunity to end an injustice arises. The Foundation doesn't exactly do itself any favors, either, having become half-paralyzed by its own bureaucracy and refusal to trust even its own agents with information they need to know; being a half-paranoid organization lends itself to hiring half-paranoid people who keep secrets from each other as much out of habit as out of actually having anything to hide. The investigation unwinds through a thicket of names and motivations that sometimes grows a bit dense, but eventually comes together, if rather circuitously and after a fair bit of death and danger and action of the magical and mundane varieties.
While the story is decent enough for what it is (for the most part), what cost it the half-star in the ratings is a sense that it was trying to set up a series that apparently never happened. Time is wasted on establishing characters who never reach their potential in this volume and plot points that never quite tie up, and I kept feeling like there was some bigger twist or resolution just a few pages ahead that I never reached by the time the book ended. The characters also tended to be somewhat flat and unchanging. It all left me with a vaguely unsatisfied feeling by the end, for all that it moves decently and parts of it work rather well. Even if there were a sequel, I don't expect I'd be pursuing it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Borderline (Mishell Baker) - My Review
Brimstone Bound (Helen Harper) - My Review
Three Mages and a Margarita (Annette Marie) - My Review
Friday, July 29, 2022
Billy Summers (Stephen King)
Billy Summers
Stephen King
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, Crime/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The war in Iraq may have trained Billy Summers to be a sniper, but he was a killer long before then, ever since one of his mother's string of loser boyfriends murdered his kid sister in front of him. After the war, it seemed only natural that he'd fall into life as an assassin, one of the best in the business. He told himself that it's not so different from what he did in the war, that the people he kills are bad themselves, but there's only so long he can repeat that and believe it. After this last hit, he's decided it's time to hang up his gun for good. Perhaps that's why he didn't ask the questions he should have asked: why this job needs such an extensive setup, months embedding himself in a small Southern town with an elaborate cover story about being an aspiring novelist under a tight deadline... or why the payout was so large for a target who, while no angel, hardly seemed to deserve the kind of attention he was getting. But something's sour about this whole deal, something that leaves him a fugitive from both the police and his former employers.
A man in Billy's position would be a fool to stick his neck out to help anyone, let alone the young woman dumped in the vacant lot one evening after a brutal attack. But he can't look away, not if he wants to believe that there's still a good person under all the bad he's done. Now, his quest for revenge and the money he's owed, as well as the truth about the hit he was hired for, carries the added complication of Alice, who could all too easily be pulled down by his bad life.
REVIEW: This is the first King title I've read without overt supernatural elements (aside from a few nods to his previous titles), but Billy Summers hardly needs demons or ghosts to live a haunted, cursed life. Scarred from a young age, every step he takes seems to carry him further from the normal, happy life other people appear to live, into a future where the best he can manage is to rationalize life as a hired gun by only taking hits on murderers or child rapists or other objectively terrible people. The cover story provided by his handler, that of a writer, taps into a latent dream of his own, and once he discovers the power of writing to relive (and rewrite) his past, he comes to understand what kind of life he might have had had he never had to pick up a gun to defend himself from the man who murdered his sister, or learned to snipe in a war zone. Even as he plans for his own escape from the dark side, though, he has to wonder if it's too late to ever be that other person or live that other life, and though not overtly superstitious, he keeps seeing signs of his own impending doom. Rescuing Alice marks a turning point, one (possibly last) chance to do the right thing. She repays that kindness by becoming the ally he didn't realize he needed - though, touched by her own trauma, she could too easily fall into the sort of life he himself is trying to escape from. Meanwhile, Billy can't seem to stop writing the story of how he became who he is, though even he isn't sure if it's the beginning of a new page or an epitaph. As usual, King delivers complex characters going through various levels of Hell, struggling and often failing yet unable to give up or walk away, even as tragedy seems all but certain. There are a few lulls and sidetracks, and one or two elements feel a little too coincidental, but it's always interesting, if often dark and sometimes brutal.
You Might Also Enjoy:
And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie) - My Review
The Shining (Stephen King) - My Review
I Am Still Alive (Kate Alice Marshall) - My Review
Stephen King
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, Crime/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The war in Iraq may have trained Billy Summers to be a sniper, but he was a killer long before then, ever since one of his mother's string of loser boyfriends murdered his kid sister in front of him. After the war, it seemed only natural that he'd fall into life as an assassin, one of the best in the business. He told himself that it's not so different from what he did in the war, that the people he kills are bad themselves, but there's only so long he can repeat that and believe it. After this last hit, he's decided it's time to hang up his gun for good. Perhaps that's why he didn't ask the questions he should have asked: why this job needs such an extensive setup, months embedding himself in a small Southern town with an elaborate cover story about being an aspiring novelist under a tight deadline... or why the payout was so large for a target who, while no angel, hardly seemed to deserve the kind of attention he was getting. But something's sour about this whole deal, something that leaves him a fugitive from both the police and his former employers.
A man in Billy's position would be a fool to stick his neck out to help anyone, let alone the young woman dumped in the vacant lot one evening after a brutal attack. But he can't look away, not if he wants to believe that there's still a good person under all the bad he's done. Now, his quest for revenge and the money he's owed, as well as the truth about the hit he was hired for, carries the added complication of Alice, who could all too easily be pulled down by his bad life.
REVIEW: This is the first King title I've read without overt supernatural elements (aside from a few nods to his previous titles), but Billy Summers hardly needs demons or ghosts to live a haunted, cursed life. Scarred from a young age, every step he takes seems to carry him further from the normal, happy life other people appear to live, into a future where the best he can manage is to rationalize life as a hired gun by only taking hits on murderers or child rapists or other objectively terrible people. The cover story provided by his handler, that of a writer, taps into a latent dream of his own, and once he discovers the power of writing to relive (and rewrite) his past, he comes to understand what kind of life he might have had had he never had to pick up a gun to defend himself from the man who murdered his sister, or learned to snipe in a war zone. Even as he plans for his own escape from the dark side, though, he has to wonder if it's too late to ever be that other person or live that other life, and though not overtly superstitious, he keeps seeing signs of his own impending doom. Rescuing Alice marks a turning point, one (possibly last) chance to do the right thing. She repays that kindness by becoming the ally he didn't realize he needed - though, touched by her own trauma, she could too easily fall into the sort of life he himself is trying to escape from. Meanwhile, Billy can't seem to stop writing the story of how he became who he is, though even he isn't sure if it's the beginning of a new page or an epitaph. As usual, King delivers complex characters going through various levels of Hell, struggling and often failing yet unable to give up or walk away, even as tragedy seems all but certain. There are a few lulls and sidetracks, and one or two elements feel a little too coincidental, but it's always interesting, if often dark and sometimes brutal.
You Might Also Enjoy:
And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie) - My Review
The Shining (Stephen King) - My Review
I Am Still Alive (Kate Alice Marshall) - My Review
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Ten Things to Remember When: Committing Murder (Michelle Lord)
Ten Things to Remember When: Committing Murder
(The Ten Things to Remember series, Book 1)
Michelle Lord
Amazon Digital Services
Fiction, Crime/Humor
** (Bad)
DESCRIPTION: So, you've decided to kill someone. Be it an unfaithful and heavily-insured husband, the neighbor who won't turn down her stereo, or just that weirdo who looked at you funny, murder brings with it a host of complications that tend to trip up the amateur. A little common sense can go a long way toward keeping you out of jail.
A Kindle-exclusive title.
REVIEW: Another vaguely amusing premise that fails in the execution, this little handbook at least knows better than to overstay its welcome, being well under 50 pages long. Lord offers advice gleaned from years of crime TV, both dramatized and true-life accounts, with an overall tongue-in-cheek flair. Though clearly a satire, she goes out of her way to restate that it's only a joke... more than once. She also inexplicably plans to write other Ten Things titles that are serious, as well as more humorous entries. This seems like brand confusion waiting to happen, another sign that Lord doesn't quite seem to know where she wants to go. The humor wavers between flat and almost amusing, often overwritten and just plain inconsistent. There were also numerous small yet annoying editing errors, adding to the amateur feel. Had it been any longer, it would've lost another half-star in the ratings. As it was, being a freebie download and a fast read kept it hovering at the two-star level.
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The Detective Guide Book (Albert John Peebles) - My Review
(The Ten Things to Remember series, Book 1)
Michelle Lord
Amazon Digital Services
Fiction, Crime/Humor
** (Bad)
DESCRIPTION: So, you've decided to kill someone. Be it an unfaithful and heavily-insured husband, the neighbor who won't turn down her stereo, or just that weirdo who looked at you funny, murder brings with it a host of complications that tend to trip up the amateur. A little common sense can go a long way toward keeping you out of jail.
A Kindle-exclusive title.
REVIEW: Another vaguely amusing premise that fails in the execution, this little handbook at least knows better than to overstay its welcome, being well under 50 pages long. Lord offers advice gleaned from years of crime TV, both dramatized and true-life accounts, with an overall tongue-in-cheek flair. Though clearly a satire, she goes out of her way to restate that it's only a joke... more than once. She also inexplicably plans to write other Ten Things titles that are serious, as well as more humorous entries. This seems like brand confusion waiting to happen, another sign that Lord doesn't quite seem to know where she wants to go. The humor wavers between flat and almost amusing, often overwritten and just plain inconsistent. There were also numerous small yet annoying editing errors, adding to the amateur feel. Had it been any longer, it would've lost another half-star in the ratings. As it was, being a freebie download and a fast read kept it hovering at the two-star level.
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The Detective Guide Book (Albert John Peebles) - My Review
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The Detective Guide Book (Alfred John Peebles)
The Detective Guide Book
Albert John Peebles
Amazon Digital Services
Nonfiction, Crime
* (Terrible)
DESCRIPTION: With more people, a worsening economy, and law enforcement agencies facing greater cutbacks, crime is on the rise, and the demand for private investigators is higher than ever. Learn how to investigate crimes with this quick-reference guide.
A Kindle-exclusive title.
REVIEW: I don't often resort to direct quotations from the books I read, but in this case I feel I must make an exception. First off, I downloaded this on the mistaken presumption that Peebles was some sort of private detective or law enforcement official. He isn't. So, how did he come up with this manual? His wife suggested he write it. To quote Peebles (and, yes, this is verbatim as it appears): "Well I watched hundreds of crime shows on the tube for months on end. Sometimes we watched movies and crime stories from morning to night. ... What I did was write notes and summaries statements. This went on for a while, because not only was I gaining information, but also I taught myself the field of detective work from the TV!" Now, I'm hardly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but even I know that crime dramas and "true life" crime television are at best skewed portrayals of the reality of criminal investigations. Claiming the authority to write a detective guide after watching TV is like applying for a job as a surgeon after an ER marathon.
As questionable as his research methods are, however, I can respect Peebles's intentions, offering people the tools they need to survive in an increasingly crime-ridden world, where even our police officers seem incapable of solving anything. He goes on to assert: "Most of our law enforcement people can become like our comic book super heroes if given the right tools, and that is what I want to do with this crime fighters Manuel." Who is this Manuel, who can solve any crime better than trained investigators? He must be a super hero, indeed! Maybe, someday, he can take a break from his crime-fighting schedule to visit Peebles and teach him basic English spelling and grammar, as the author tells would-be private eyes to watch for "plands of murder" and "people with bad boundary sysems; not respected of privacy or personal body space." Sound advice, I'm sure. In addition, "When you follow leads, and lead the evidence, take you places somewhere along the way a pattern will emerge." Yes, that was written exactly as it appeared in The Detective Guide Book - and, yes, typing it made my inner editor cry. Of course, my inner editor was already curled up in a fetal position after reading endless chapters and repetitive, all-caps lists stuffed to the gills with references to "preceived sociopaths" and "extreme skitzophrenics," admonishing investigators to "what closely for lies."
Now, understand that, in addition to watching hundreds - hundreds! - of hours of TV, Peebles states that he also attended college: "I have taken courses at college in assertiveness training, studied doctorate level psychology, and have taken a number of courses." Either English wasn't one of them, or he took the advice of those eBook publishing manuals that advocate outsourcing the actual writing portion of producing an eBook - to someone in a non-English-speaking country, I suspect. There is a third possibility, one that Peebles himself offers in what may be a "Fruedian" slip: "Guilty parties often act and talk in strange ways."
With luck, someone in the law enforcement community will read The Detective Guide Book and turn up on Peebles's doorstep. If nothing else, he's guilty of felony-level crimes against the English language.
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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) - My Review
Albert John Peebles
Amazon Digital Services
Nonfiction, Crime
* (Terrible)
DESCRIPTION: With more people, a worsening economy, and law enforcement agencies facing greater cutbacks, crime is on the rise, and the demand for private investigators is higher than ever. Learn how to investigate crimes with this quick-reference guide.
A Kindle-exclusive title.
REVIEW: I don't often resort to direct quotations from the books I read, but in this case I feel I must make an exception. First off, I downloaded this on the mistaken presumption that Peebles was some sort of private detective or law enforcement official. He isn't. So, how did he come up with this manual? His wife suggested he write it. To quote Peebles (and, yes, this is verbatim as it appears): "Well I watched hundreds of crime shows on the tube for months on end. Sometimes we watched movies and crime stories from morning to night. ... What I did was write notes and summaries statements. This went on for a while, because not only was I gaining information, but also I taught myself the field of detective work from the TV!" Now, I'm hardly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but even I know that crime dramas and "true life" crime television are at best skewed portrayals of the reality of criminal investigations. Claiming the authority to write a detective guide after watching TV is like applying for a job as a surgeon after an ER marathon.
As questionable as his research methods are, however, I can respect Peebles's intentions, offering people the tools they need to survive in an increasingly crime-ridden world, where even our police officers seem incapable of solving anything. He goes on to assert: "Most of our law enforcement people can become like our comic book super heroes if given the right tools, and that is what I want to do with this crime fighters Manuel." Who is this Manuel, who can solve any crime better than trained investigators? He must be a super hero, indeed! Maybe, someday, he can take a break from his crime-fighting schedule to visit Peebles and teach him basic English spelling and grammar, as the author tells would-be private eyes to watch for "plands of murder" and "people with bad boundary sysems; not respected of privacy or personal body space." Sound advice, I'm sure. In addition, "When you follow leads, and lead the evidence, take you places somewhere along the way a pattern will emerge." Yes, that was written exactly as it appeared in The Detective Guide Book - and, yes, typing it made my inner editor cry. Of course, my inner editor was already curled up in a fetal position after reading endless chapters and repetitive, all-caps lists stuffed to the gills with references to "preceived sociopaths" and "extreme skitzophrenics," admonishing investigators to "what closely for lies."
Now, understand that, in addition to watching hundreds - hundreds! - of hours of TV, Peebles states that he also attended college: "I have taken courses at college in assertiveness training, studied doctorate level psychology, and have taken a number of courses." Either English wasn't one of them, or he took the advice of those eBook publishing manuals that advocate outsourcing the actual writing portion of producing an eBook - to someone in a non-English-speaking country, I suspect. There is a third possibility, one that Peebles himself offers in what may be a "Fruedian" slip: "Guilty parties often act and talk in strange ways."
With luck, someone in the law enforcement community will read The Detective Guide Book and turn up on Peebles's doorstep. If nothing else, he's guilty of felony-level crimes against the English language.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) - My Review
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