Tag: book-review

Book Review: Never An Easy Path For Mr. Rawlins

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

A Red Death by Walter Mosley is an interesting mystery novel featuring the author’s best-known protagonist, Easy Rawlins.

It is 1953 in Los Angeles, and Easy Rawlins has become a property owner who keeps his assets a bit of a secret due to the hostility he would likely face since he is a black man living in the midst of ongoing racial strife. The secret’s out when an IRS agent has reason to file a tax evasion charge against Rawlins. An FBI agent comes to Easy’s aid, but the aid is not going to be unearned. Easy is given the task to spy on an alleged communist who has volunteered at the First African Baptist Church. The matter turns more dangerous when people start getting killed, and Easy has to protect his life as well as his livelihood.

Easy’s life becomes even more convoluted when he falls his friend’s estranged wife. That friend known as Mouse is one of the most dangerous men in the city. That’s only the beginning of the pressures gathering around Easy Rawlins.

This is the second novel in the series featuring Easy Rawlins and follows Devil in a Blue Dress. Mosley is a talented writer and seems to capture the era well. I like Easy because he is not a saint. He also has some scruples and is easy to root for.

Mosley does write in the dialect that someone like Easy and his peers likely spoke, so that could be a little tricky to interpret correctly. It does give the characters and setting authenticity, so I don’t begrudge Mosley making the effort.

It was a good book, and I will likely revisit Easy Rawlins and see how his story unfolds. I recently confirmed that Mosley still brings Rawlins and drops him in the middle of trouble. Mosley actually has quite a bibliography in his wheelhouse, and I will likely pick up some more of his works.

My literary journey which is not going to end anytime soon will continue with another iconic suspense writer. I have not read this guy before, but I am about to rectify that. The Long Lavender Look by John D. MacDonald is the next to be picked up and hopefully enjoyed.

Book Review: Lew Archer Takes The Case

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Archer Files provided me with a welcome introduction to an author I had not read before. This is apparently the definitive collection of short stories by Ross MacDonald that feature his best-known private eye character, Lew Archer.

There are several stories and other material in this volume, so I don’t have the time and patience to analyze each entry. I will just merely recommend for any mystery fans to try this volume out.

There is a rather helpful and interesting biographical profile of Archer written by Tom Nolan, who edits and reviews crime fiction and apparently has done a thorough account of MacDonald in the past. I guess he is one of these experts in crime fiction. He seems to be a pretty good writer in his own right. I had no real issues with his introduction.

There are a dozen short stories that follow. Some are better than others, as one would expect, however none stand out as being really bad. Archer himself is pretty typical of other fictional, hard-boiled, protagonists of the era of the early Cold War days and the subsequent decades. He is does have a cool blend of toughness and intelligence. Archer is no slouch when it comes to his knowledge of literature and culture, but he’s certainly no push-over. He is a likable enough hero, and I will likely peruse a novel or two before long.

A somewhat more intriguing feature of this volume is a section known as the Case Notes. These are stories that MacDonald started and either just not finished or recycled the ideas into other works. It was interesting and a little annoying t the same time in that there were several stories that I was really wanting to know the resolution.

I am not sure that Ross MacDonald really broke much new ground in the genre at the time of his publications, but I can certainly see how he earned whatever acclaim he enjoyed during his lifetime. MacDonald died in 1983, and his real name was Kenneth Miller.

MacDonald certainly was not lacking in his writing talent. From what little research I did, it does seem that MacDonald has held in quite high esteem in the world of crime fiction, and as near as I can tell from my so far limited exposure to his works, that reverence from his peer seems pretty justified.

I am moving on to another highly regarded, long-standing crime writer who is still very much alive and quite prolific. It has been a couple of years, but I think it’s time to revisit Easy Rawlins as he gets himself into a bit more trouble with A Red Death by the formidable Walter Mosley.

Book Review: Myron Nets A Killer

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Drop Shot by Harlan Coben is a pretty engaging and straight-forward murder mystery featuring that sleuthing sports agent, Myron Bolitar. It was first published in 1996 and is the second novel in the series with Bolitar as the protagonist.

Bolitar is representing a rising star in the realm of professional tennis when another former player is gunned down just outside a stadium where an important match was being played. Bolitar had missed a recent message from this young woman named Valerie Simpson, who was wanting some assistance to return to competitive tennis. She is murdered with a few yards of where Myron was seated watching his client dominate the court alongside his mysterious and dangerous best friend, Windsor Horne Lockwood III, known as Win. Win is described by a belligerent police detective as a psycho yuppie. Win has no discernible conscience or sense of mercy when crossed. He is a financial guru and enjoys the finer things in life, but he is capable of the most brutal forms of vengeance when he or Myron is threatened.

Anyway, Bolitar finds himself drawn to the investigation of Valerie’s murder when he learns that he has a talent for investigation. He has a small but successful business as a sports agent, but he has an eclectic, small group of allies and a nose for trouble.

Bolitar is an interesting and likable protagonist, but Win is the most fascinating of sidekicks. Their friendship also seems unlikely in many ways, but sometimes relationships are like that.

Bolitar’s sense of integrity when representing his clients seems a little too good to be true, but I liked Coben’s optimism in his description. I hope there are sports agent who actually care about their clients’ well-being in real life.

The murder of Valerie Simpson seems to have some roots tied to another murder six years before that concerned the con of United States senator. Bolitar finds himself coming across mob bosses, a corrupt senator, and a troublesome detective in his pursuit of the truth.

Coben planted some pretty well thought out red herrings in the plot. Although it is fairly easy to tell how early this novel is in Coben’s now lengthy writing career, it is still quite engaging. There is little about Coben’s writing style that seems uncommon among his peers in this genre, but the novel is competently written and is enjoyable.

Coben has rightfully earned the success he enjoys. He does seem to give his readers a credible glimpse in the world of professional sports. I still have yet to figure out how the scoring in tennis actually works, but I do seem a little better understanding how the business side of that industry works.

I have yet to read this series in order, so I have to fill in some gaps on my own. I recently read a more recent Bolitar novel, so I am not quite following the progression of this guy’s life journey all that well.

Drop Shot may fall short of any real literary excellence, but it does accomplish the purpose of entertaining and keeping the audience in suspense quite effectively. It’s a pretty good mystery, and I will join Myron Bolitar on another unlikely investigation in the near future.

I can’t get enough of misdeeds and murder in my literary indulgences, so I am going to try out the works of a more classic crime writer that I have never read before. I am going to peruse The Archer Files, which is a collection of short stories written by Ross MacDonald and features his best-known creation, private eye Lew Archer. This anthology was compiled by MacDonald’s biographer, Tom Nolan, who also has what I am sure will be a fascinating essay and overview of Archer’s exploits.

Book Review: London Is All Grown Up

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Edward Rutherford’s London is quite a literary feat with a page count that is over eleven hundred. It’s a great showcase for Rutherford’s prose style.

Rutherford takes his readers back to the time of Julius Caesar and creates several families as his vessels for exploring the rise and development of the great city of London. He creates quite a tapestry of historical events and personal struggles experienced by his numerous characters in his narrative.

Although this novel was not without moments of sluggishness in the plot, it is still an enjoyable reading experience on the whole. It was pretty thrilling to come across some of the historical events I recognized as not being that well-remembered. There are a lot of threads of which to keep track, and the sudden shifts in perspective kind of made things a little tricky.

There is no question that Rutherford is a talented storyteller. He also seems to have done an impressive amount of research which is laid out quite nicely.

It is a daunting book for many people, and I struggled a bit with retention of certain aspects of the novel. I think that may be more of an issue with my attention span rather than any downfall of the author.

I usually read simpler novels for my leisure time, but I like to challenge myself a couple of times a year at least, and London did satisfy that prescription. Even though I had some hurtles throughout the experience, I did enjoy the book and would recommend further examination of his other works. It may be a little while before I circle back to Mr. Rutherford, but I have no plans to avoid his other works. I was rather pleased with being able to take this on and stick with it.

I think it’s time to draw Harlan Coben out of the reading queue with Drop Shot, which features that sleuthing sports agent, Myron Bolitar.

Film Review: Something Wants To Take A Bite Out Of Sherlock Holmes

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire is a 2002 Sherlock Holmes film that is mediocre at best. Rodney Gibbons is the writer and director of this thing which originally aired on the Hallmark Channel of all places. Matt Frewer is cast as Sherlock Holmes alongside Kenneth Welsh as Dr. John Watson.’

Kathleen McAuliffe, Michel Perron, Joel Miller, Danny Blanco, and Norris Domingue are included in the cast.

It has been two years since the infamous Jack the Ripper terrorized Whitechapel district, and another round of strange murders have occurred in that same area. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are called in by an order of monks who believe that a vampire is stalking the streets. Holmes is adamant that there is nothing supernatural behind the killings in spite of appearances. Holmes is once again challenged to provide a rational explanation for something that seems to bizarre and otherworldly. He also has his agnosticism challenged as Watson begins to consider that a vampire is actually the culprit. Even if the vampire is real, he may still find Sherlock Holmes to be a very formidable foe.

There are some intriguing elements in this story. It has some potential, but it just seems a little trite and overdone. Some of these pastiche writers really focus a lot on Holmes facing something potentially supernatural when Arthur Conan Doyle just did not have that many stories like that.

Matt Frewer was a reasonable casting choice for the lead role, but he could have employed a little more subtlety in his performance. I did rather like Kenneth Welsh’s portrayal of Dr. Watson.

Not everything in this film was a failure. I just didn’t find Frewer’s portrayal of Holmes all that interesting. It just felt like it was by the numbers. Frewer physically looks quite a bit like how Doyle described Holmes in the original canon, so that did help.

There was also once again, as I have mentioned before in some of my previous critiques of Holmes pastiche stories, an element of the Scooby-Doo reveal toward the end.

I figure the reason that I had not seen this one before is because it was on the Hallmark Channel, which isn’t known for hard-hitting originality in their films.

It was not a terrible viewing experience, but it sure was not anything one should go out of their way for.

Book Review: An Abandoned House, A Missing Doctor, And A Lot of Secrets About To Come To Light

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Never Lie by Freida McFadden is an outlandish and improbable thriller that is a pretty entertaining ride for those willing to suspend their disbelief.

A newly married couple are in the market for a new house and arrive during a blizzard to an isolated manor that was once owned by a prominent psychiatrist who has been missing for a few years. Tricia and Ethan are trapped at the manor, which is curiously still completely furnished. Tricia finds a secret room containing a cache of cassette tapes that have the sessions with Dr. Adrienne Hale recorded. Tricia has an opportunity to see if the solution of the doctor’s disappearance is contained within these recordings. More old secrets and lies are about to be exposed, and Tricia learns that not everything is going to stay as buried as deeply as she hoped.

McFadden has become one of today’s most popular thriller writers, and she does have quite an imagination. However, she does rely pretty heavily on some very common tropes of the genre. Also, there is quite a lot of implausible coincidence that can be a little exasperating. Sometimes, the characters are not that believable. As mentioned before, the suspension of disbelief can feel a little taxing.

Still, I did enjoy the novel. There are some clever twists that kind of surprised even me. McFadden is not really an extraordinary writer, but she gets the job done. She might just be the ultimate popcorn writer of today. If it pays the bills, who am I to complain?

McFadden may be a bit overrated, but she at least avoids being just flat out bad, which is an impressive achievement in today’s literary climate.

This is only the second novel I have read by her, but I work in a bookstore these days, so I am aware of her popularity. I do like that she writes a lot of standalone novels, so I can dip in and out of her works without worrying too much about continuity. There are actually a lot of series that I don’t read in order, but I do recognize that it an advantage that McFadden has with her bibliography.

McFadden is at least fun to read, and I am certain that it will not be all that long before I am perusing her section on the bookshelves.

My next read has been in the queue for a while. I have been putting it off because it seems to be a daunting volume by Edward Rutherford. I am looking forward to trying it because it isn’t my usual genre of enjoyment, and I like to test my mettle a bit when it comes to my reading choices. It is also about one of bucket list destinations for travel. It is well past time that I learn the intricacies of London as only Edward Rutherford can tell it.

Book Review: Holly Has Someone to Find And Has To Play For Keeps

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Stephen King continues his literary reign of terror in Holly, which was first published in 2023. King revisits a character who was first introduced in what is known as the Bill Hodges trilogy which began with Mr. Mercedes.

Holly Gibney has inherited the Finders Keepers Detective Agency from her friend and mentor, Bill Hodges. She is coping with her mother’s death from COVID and learns some troubling secrets that were kept from her. A desperate mother has shown up at her office and wants to hire her to locate her missing daughter. The investigation places Holly on a collision course with two very old, very strange professors with horrific appetites. Rodney and Emily Harris are trying to stave off the consequences and ravages of old age and are testing out some troubling theories to do just that. Holly has already faced down some monstrous killers, but the Harrises may indeed the most horrific of the bunch.

King has indicated a deep affection for this character and is featuring her in an upcoming novel. I am, not quite as enamored with this one at first, but as the confrontation with the Harrises comes to a head, King still has me rooting for her. I had some trouble staying interested in this one for a while, however I got a bit more engage when Holly picks up their trail, and it was becoming clearer as to what the Harrises were actually doing.

King does make some of his political leanings a bit more obvious than I remember him doing in previous works, so that was also a little distracting. I, of course, know he and I would disagree sharply on many issues including decisions made during the COVID lockdowns, but I do believe him to be a talented and interesting writer.

King is good enough to keep me from actually hating his novels, and Holly herself shows some grit that I ended up ultimately respecting.

I don’t consider this to be one of King’s greatest efforts, but the climax of the story was just exciting enough to keep me from hating it. There is even some hope that I will end up liking Holly Gibney a bit more if I decide to read her next adventure.

So, the unending literary journey continues with a more recent voice as I return to the imagination of Freida McFadden through the pages of Never Lie.

Book Review: A Most Peculiar Adoption

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Unto Us a Son Is Given by Donna Leon is not one of the better novels featuring Venetian Commissario Guido Brunetti. It was first published in 2019.

Brunetti is invited by his father-in–law to a drink because he wants to lay out a concern over an old friend. An elderly art connoisseur in Venice is wanting to adopt a young man, and there does not appear to be much of a rational explanation for this move. Brunetti is asked to look into it and see if this young man has any trouble in his past. Brunetti agrees to take a look into it even though this isn’t his usual type of investigation. The old man drops dead in the street leaving the young stranger as an heir to his estate. Brunetti is back on familiar territory when another friend of the old man’s is strangled to death. He finds that the people in his life have more complicated pasts than even he realizes.

Leon describes the setting of Venice in loving and captivating detail. Brunetti is a pretty interesting protagonist with a stable family life.

Leon’s prose style is certainly distinctive and more than adequately displays her natural talent.

The problem I have with this novel is that it really seems to take a while for anything that interesting. The first death doesn’t occur until around halfway through the book. The murder takes a bit longer. It’s just kind of a slow book.

The plot itself is rather interesting, but it just takes too long to get moving. Leon herself is still a writer worth checking out, and I am sure it will not be too long before I look in on Guido Brunetti, his family, and fellow police officers.

The next selection on the reading queue is Holly by Stephen King.

Book Review: Chief Inspector Gamache Finds The Devils Even In Paris

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny is an intriguing entry into her mystery series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, who would usually be investigating all manner of violent wrongdoings in Quebec. This time, murder strikes his family vacation in Paris, and Gamache finds that he is never really off duty, especially when the devils strike too close to home.

“Hell is empty, and all the devils are here” is a line from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and I think Penny has struck gold with the title of this particular thriller. She also been writing about Gamache and his family for a lot of years. Although this is my first indulgence with this series, I elected to jump in with one of the more recent installments, so the background is not immediately clear to me.

The trouble starts off when Gamache’s ninety-three-year-old godfather, Stephen Horowitz, is struck down in the street and is sent into a coma in front of the other family members. Gamache and his wife find a key to a ritzy hotel suite where they find a body. Apparently, Horowitz has been keeping some dangerous secrets over his many decades, and it’s unclear as if he is on the side of the angels or the devils. Gamache and his whole family, some of whom have moved to Paris from Quebec, face suspicion from the Parisian investigators. Gamache finds that there may be a deep corruption rotting the souls of those he should trust the most.

Penny is without question a talented writer, and she has created a very likable character that deserves to endure through several more novels.

Her description of Paris is quite compelling. I like the family dynamics even if Gamache has an unexplained estrangement with his son, which does actually get explained in this entry. Gamache is a tough dude, but he does have a unique sensitivity not often found in many crime fiction protagonists. I love his fierce loyalty to his family and his unwavering devotion to his son, Daniel, even when there is some reason to question his intentions.

I had a little trouble following the story because there were some flashback moments that were a little hard to follow at times. Specifically, the climax of the story was apparently not related sequentially.

I also had some trouble because much of the past capers were referenced, and I was missing some context, but that was probably more due to my erratic reading habits than any fault of Penny’s.

Anyway, this is a perfectly enjoyable thriller, although the reader would probably get more out of reading the series in order. I may not follow my own advice on that, but I can pretty much guarantee that this is not my last foray into the works of Louise Penny.

It has been a while, but I think it’s time to take a literary journey to Venice and check in on Commissario Guido Brunetti who has another murder to solve in Donna Leon’s Unto Us a Son Is Given.

Book Review: A Gruesome Delivery

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith is another interesting installment in the Cormoran Strike series and is likely the most gruesome case yet. Strike is a former military investigator who has a prosthetic leg after losing his original limb to a bomb. He is a struggling private investigator who has also gained some notoriety after solving some high-profile murder cases in London. He has recently partnered with a former temp worker named Robin Ellacott, who has really been a huge assistance to the business.

Speaking of amputated legs, this little mystery begins with a severed leg showing up at Strike’s office. Strike quickly determines that one of his old adversaries is making a twisted attempt to rattle or threaten him. The reaction that Robin has when Strike comes up with four candidates capable of such a heinous act in his past is sort of amusing in a dark way.

More of Strike and Robin’s past is revealed here. Their friendship deepens until a seemingly rash decision threatens to wreck the trust they have built.

Robin’s upcoming wedding to a snarky Brit named Matthew is also on the brink of heartbreak. I am not sure if Galbraith is going to have a romantic union occur between Strike and Robin, but the progression in their relationship is compelling.

This is the third installment in the series, and Galbraith is getting better at fleshing out these characters.

Cormoran Strike is a pretty solid investigator in spite of his handicaps and hang-ups. I find him more likable and compelling with each novel. His relationship with Robin is just complicated enough to make things even more interesting.

There are some moments where the story is dragged down by a little too much exposition, but it’s not unforgivable. Most novels that come close to five hundred pages have that tendency. Galbraith’s writing style is just engaging enough to make the effort worth it.

Of course, Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling, the mastermind behind the Harry Potter franchise. I have yet to read her most well-known works, but her works featuring Strike also showcases a formidable talent behind her keyboard.

Career of Evil also features an interesting homage throughout to the music of the band Blue Oyster Cult. Rowling seems to have a quirky imagination when it comes to adding quotes or pop culture references.

This is a pretty good addition to the series, and the tumultuous relationship between Strike and Robin is often as compelling as whatever investigation is at the center of the plot.

Eventually, I will get to the fourth novel, but not just yet.

Next up, Murder wrecks the Parisian vacation of one Chief Inspector Armand Gamache in Louise Penny’s All the Devils Are Here.