Tag: book-review

Book Review: Spike Brings More Than An Umbrella

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Bad Weather Friend is one of Dean Koontz’s more bizarre additions to his bibliography, but it’s pretty entertaining and not without some creativity.

An amiable realtor named Benny Catspaw suddenly has his life come apart at the seams when he loses his job inexplicably. Even more troubling is when his fiancée ends their relationship. As Benny is trying to understand this onslaught of misfortune, he suddenly receives an unexpected message from a man claiming to be a previously unknown uncle. A crate is delivered which Benny later finds contains a giant of a man called Spike who says that he is a being who is assigned to people who are apparently too nice for this world. Benny also meets a waitress who is an aspiring private eye, and she is an enthusiastic ally. During the present-day adventure, Benny recalls his peculiar family history and his time at an unusual boarding school where he did have a couple of friends. Benny finds that he has been targeted by a powerful group, but he has a rather interesting being known as a craggle working on his behalf as well. Spike is sworn to keep Benny from the worst the world is able to throw at him and will employ some unusual and fantastic tactics to do just that.

Koontz remains an imaginative and witty author. This story is rather strange but pretty entertaining. Koontz is pretty skilled at the art of witty banter. The protagonists are likeable enough. Spike is a rather unique creation, but the story sort of loses some sense of suspense because he is pretty invulnerable.

The themes in this novel are little too familiar in Koontz’s works. Once again, it is someone with an ideal sense of morals and outlook on life. The villains that are revealed are a little too cartoonishly narcissistic to be really believable, but I suppose such people do exist. Koontz also is back into the realm of strange conspiracies and shadow organizations, which feels annoyingly repetitive.

Koontz does have a distinctive turn of phrase which keeps the story compelling. There are some pretty amusing passages throughout the novel.

Koontz does seem to be a literary one-trick pony sometimes, but this novel still is worth the time. I read a lot of Koontz in my younger years, and I don’t regret revisiting his prose this time in spite of mixed reactions to this particular novel.

The lifelong reading binge continues with C.J. Box’s Free Fire.

Book Review: Retirement Gives People Plenty of Free Time To Solve Murder Cases

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman is an amusingly implausible mystery that may be a little overrated, but not by much.

A group of friends in an English retirement village meet on Thursdays to discuss and work on unsolved murders. When a developer is killed in their community, they get the opportunity to test their mettle in a current case. It’s a motley little group led by a woman named Elizabeth Best with a somewhat enigmatic past. A newcomer named Joyce gets invited to the group and seems to have the right kind of enthusiasm for these shenanigans. Interestingly enough, some of the chapters are Joyce’s diary entries, and the sudden changes in perspectives sort of work here. A couple of police officers become entangled with this unorthodox group as well.

Anyway, another murder adds to the mayhem, and the Thursday Murder Club have the chance to add some adventure into their retirement.

Osman creates a pretty good, diverse group of characters here. He doesn’t give too much away about the past of the four protagonists and manages to keep them interesting. Elizabeth is the determined, practical leader of this group and seems to have some unexpectedly useful connections. I don’t remember if her past was ever fully explained, and I kind of like that for some reason.

Older characters being in the lead solving crimes is not really a new idea in crime fiction, but Osman brings enough creative plotting and character development to be a welcome addition to the trope.

It is one of those books with chapters of widely varied lengths, which kind of makes the story seem a little too choppy. The shifting perspectives also threaten some distraction from the story, but Joyce Meadowcroft’s meandering diary entries were pretty funny.

The solution was a bit of a surprise but too far out of left field to be disappointing. I am not a big fan of stories like this being related in the present tense, but I am getting used to it being more common in today’s literature.

Overall, Osman is a welcome addition to the world of recent crime fiction, and I will likely peruse the other books in this series. If I ever end up in a retirement community, hopefully there will be a Thursday Murder Club I can join.

Next up, I will be returning to an old favorite author who I have not read for some time. I will allow author Dean Koontz to introduce me to The Bad Weather Friend.

Book Review: Hercule Poirot Unwraps A Killer For Christmas

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night is another novel featuring the Belgian detective initially created by the late, great Agatha Christie but resurrected by Sophie Hannah. It’s a pretty good addition to the series, but no one can match the style of the Queen of Crime.

Hannah has provided her own narrator in the shape of Scotland Yard Inspector Edward Catchpool, who is a fine ally and foil for Poirot. Anyway, Catchpool is visiting Poirot when his mother shows up and begs them to look into the murder of a hospital patient who was apparently one of the happiest men one could ever hope to meet. Catchpool has some resentments toward his mother and is reluctant to spend his Christmas with her as he and his Belgian friend solve a murder. They meet an unusual family, and a woman is frightened for her husband who wants to solve the murder alongside Poirot before he succumbs to a terminal illness. Poirot and Catchpool agree to look into the matter and head out to the estate. Poirot unleashes his little grey cells yet again to solve one murder and perhaps prevent a second one.

Hannah is a pretty good writer and does capture the spirit of the Christie novels well enough. I am not one of those who will just spout off some sycophantic exclamation that Hannah is just as good as Christie, but she isn’t bad. It’s pretty fun to read new exploits of Poirot. Catchpool is fine as a sidekick and narrator, although there isn’t much that’s terribly unique or interesting about him. The complicated relationship with his mother kind of moves the needle in that area though.

The mystery itself is fine. The somewhat strange or crazy family members is typical of a Christie novel. Hannah is overall a good choice by the Christie estate to bring back Poirot. She is a talented writer, so I may look at her other works. I do read some of these pastiche works, and I have no real objection if Hannah continued with her version of Hercule Poirot.

This latest novel is interesting but not much else.

Next up, I am joining The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.

Book Review: Myron Bolitar Is Welcomed Home By Murder

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Final Detail is a reliable and interesting mystery novel by prolific author, Harlan Coben, which features a sleuthing sports agent, Myron Bolitar.

Bolitar has been hanging out with a new lady friend on a Caribbean island when his best friend, Windsor Horne Lockwood III, tracks him down and informs him that his business partner has been arrested for the murder of a client. A baseball player who was attempting a comeback has been shot, and Myron’s other best friend is on the hook. Bolitar already has some practice with solving troubling crimes. Win, his wealthy and somewhat psychotic sidekick, is willing to assist as well with his usually morally questionable methods. Myron has to explore the past and figure out how a vanished daughter of the owner of the victim’s baseball team factors in.

I have read a few of Coben’s novels, but I had yet to meet Myron. I enjoyed this one. The plot was interesting, and there were a few effective twists. I thought Win was a bit of a scene stealer, but who doesn’t love a psychotic best friend who will break the rules that the hero won’t?

I thought Bolitar was pretty intriguing.as well. He surrounds himself with some eccentric cohorts. He is rather unlucky in love, but he does seem to be a decent guy with a nose for trouble.

This was a pretty enjoyable read, and I doubt that it will be very long before I am immersed in another Coben novel.

Time to welcome the Christmas season with a certain Belgian detective. Sophie Hannah has resurrected Agatha Christie’s most famous sleuth, and another murder needs to be addressed in Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night.

Book Review: Cormoran Strikes Again

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Silkworm is a decent continuation of the Cormoran Strike mystery series by Robert Galbraith, who is really J.K. Rowling. This is the second outing for the one-legged gumshoe.

Strike’s detective business has received a bump since his highly publicized murder case was solved in the debut novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling. One of his clients is a distraught wife who is wanting to find her husband who walked out of the house in a huff. The husband is moderately well-known novelist and was apparently planning to publish a novel which would be rather embarrassing for some of his associates. Strike eventually finds the writer after he has been eviscerated in an abandoned house. Suspicion falls on Strike’s client, which doesn’t sit well with the detective. Strike gets an up-close look at the publishing industry as he proceeds to uncover the truth.

Cormoran Strike is getting a little more interesting as the reader rides along on a new case. Strike also is contending with the news that his ex-girlfriend is getting married. He has a bit of an erratic psyche, but I am finding him more likeable, and he seems to be a sharp investigator. His new assistant, Robin, wants to learn more about investigating crimes, but she has a fiancée who is not quite on board with her current job.

The case itself is kind of interesting, but Galbreath seems to be indulging in a bit of overdone gruesomeness. The book in question that was written by the victim is pretty explicit and gross. I found the gorier aspects of the plot to be somewhat distracting.

The plot was pretty average, but it did the job as far as holding my attention. I think Galbraith’s strength lies in the creation of interesting protagonists. Some of Strike’s struggles with getting around on a prosthetic leg does make him rather unusual among fictional detectives.

The Silkworm isn’t likely to set the genre on fire with its greatness, but it’s not without any merit or interesting features. Galbraith is a talented writer, so I have some expectations that each novel gets better in this genre. I will see once I get to the next installment.

Time to delve into a newer author in both my book collection and the literary scene as a whole. Amiee Gibbs kicks off her novel writing career with The Carnivale of Curiosities.

Book Review: Lonesome Dove Isn’t For The Faint Of Heart

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Lonesome Dove is a western novel by Larry McMurtry that does often feel as long as it is, but it’s still easy to see why it has become so acclaimed. It was written by the now deceased author in 1985 and was the basis for one of the most highly regarded mini-series in television history.

Lonesome Dove is a name of a small Texas town, and the story takes place not long after the Civil War. Two former Texas Rangers have a cattle ranch together and are tasked with herding number of cows to Montana. Along the way, they encounter all kinds of dangers ranging from the wrath of nature to Indian attacks. A ruthless outlaw has caused a fair bit of trouble as well. Plenty of bullets and arrows are let loose on the journey, but grit and courage are displayed as well.

I have probably over-simplified the story because McMurtry delves into some pretty intense emotional journeys as well for all sorts of characters. The two Rangers are pretty fascinating, but McMurtry does not stay limited to their perspective. There is a sheriff from Arkansas who finds that his wife has run off while he was pursuing a fugitive. A former prostitute has joined one of the Ranger on the cattle drive. The reader is not quite sure which character is going to feature in the next chapter for a while.

Sometimes, the novel seems a little unfocused as various threads are laid out. It is almost 860 pages long, so it does drag at times, but I was still determined to get through it and was not disappointed.

McMurtry’s prose at times feels long-winded, but there is undeniable eloquence in his style. I didn’t mind the unpredictability as to which element of the story I was going to land as I progressed through the chapters.

The Rangers, Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call, were a fascinating pair and typical of the rugged, no-nonsense western archetypes of the genre. McMurtry displays a vivid and creative imagination when it comes to the threats the cowboys face on their long journey.

The title also has some metaphorical meeting which is explained in a foreword written by McMurtry, but I won’t spoil it. I still found it amusing that very little of the story actually takes place within the town the bears the name.

The story does suffer a little from being as long as it is, but it’s still a rewarding journey for the reader to take. I don’t usually read westerns, and I doubt that I will devour the genre as voraciously as I do when it comes to crime fiction, but I doubt this will be my last visit to the world of Larry McMurtry or to westerns.

Next up, private detective Cormoran Strike has a missing novelist to find in Robert Galbraith’s The Silkworm, and I am going along for the ride.

Book Review: Sophie Meets The Spirits Of Northwood Mansion

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

House of Shadows by Darcy Coates is a supernatural thriller that does little to provide thrills.

This is basically a haunted house story that pulls out the standard tropes such as a very unlikely romance with character types that are too familiar and overused.

The reader is introduced to Sophie, the daughter of a wealthy businessman who finds himself bankrupt. It’s not immediately clear as to the era where this novel takes place, but it seems to be somewhere in the nineteenth century. Anyway, Sophie’s family may receive salvation because of a sudden marriage proposal from the mysterious Joseph Argenton. Sophie agrees to the marriage; however, she has some concerns when she learns that she is to be the mistress of a foreboding and isolated estate known as Northwood. She also meets her new husband’s aunt, uncle, and cousin who reside in the house with a handful of servants. Strange sounds and shadowy figures serve to heighten her anxiety until she is attacked by a malevolent force, which confirms she has a serious problem now.

To be fair, the novel gets a little more interesting once the nature of the curse plaguing Northwood is actually explained. I just had a hard time caring about the lead characters because they just seemed so stereotypical and trite. Joseph is the most mysterious and richest guy ever. Sophie is the most sheltered and inexperienced woman in high society. Of course, she seems much younger than her unexpected suitor, which I guess is all relative. The relatives of Argenton are really odd but not in a creative way. It wasn’t a torturous reading experience, but it falls short when it comes to actually being thrilling.

The monster presented in the climax kind of has a cool name, but that’s about all that it has going for it, in my eyes.

Darcy Coates has quite a lengthy bibliography and seems quite popular. I still enjoy a good haunted house yarn, and Coates manages to be a competent enough writer. I also discovered there is a sequel to this novel, and I am just curious enough to see how this supernatural saga comes to an end. I suppose since I am interested enough to eventually get to the second novel, Coates did accomplish something with this particular reader despite some misgivings and criticisms.

Before I return to the supernatural tentacles reaching out from Northwood, I will return to the world of the late Steig Larsson. Mr. Larsson may be long gone, but Lisbeth Salander has managed to live on to become The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons, written by Karin Smirnoff.

Book Review: There Is No Getting Away From Murder For Jessica Niemi

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Ghost island is a pretty decent Nordic Noir thriller written by Max Seeck that takes place in Finland. He has returned to the investigations of Detective Jessica Niemi of the Helsinki Police Department.

Jessica has gotten in some trouble when an altercation with a man goes viral. She has some mental health issues anyway. Although she is a very capable investigator, her boss has some concerns and places her on leave. Jessica takes some time off on a remote island. Three elderly friends have shown up for their annual visit. They were one-time residents of an orphanage on the island during the Second Word War. Jessica also learns of a local legend concerning a haunting by a girl who had disappeared from the orphanage decades ago. Jessica is also drawn into the mystique of the island when one of the visitors is drowned at the beach. Jessica then learns of two previous deaths that had some similar elements. She also sees what appears to be the spirit of the long-missing girl with a blue coat. Her grip on reality is somewhat tenuous, but she does know that a killer has found their way onto the island and has to find the connection between her present danger and what happened many decades before.

The setting of an isolated island with a small group of people who has a killer in their midst is well used, but Seeck is talented enough to make it work. Jessica Neimi, the lead protagonist, is pretty interesting. This is apparently the fourth installment in a series. Neimi was introduced in the Seeck’s novel, The Witch Hunter and apparently is repeatedly traumatized over the course of the series so far.

There isn’t much humor to help lighten the mood here, but I guess that’s the way it goes for these Nordic mysteries. Seeck does provide a bit of a roller coaster on the way to the resolution. He’s not a remarkable writer, but he is competent enough. Jessica is one of many very morose and troubled detectives in crime fiction. There is nothing all that extraordinary about her in spite of her apparent mental illness, but she is not without some interesting features.

The novel is pretty good with a unique setting in that it takes place in Finland. Seeck does throw pretty good curveballs at his heroine. Murder on an isolated island is something that always piques my interest even if it is a somewhat well-worn trope. I would still recommend any fellow mystery fan to give this one a try. I ended up liking the novel even if it wasn’t quite a homerun.

The literary journey continues as I decide to accept the invitation from Darcy Coates to visit the House of Shadows.

Book Review: Some Family Dramas Can Turn Deadly

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

In Plain Sight is another thriller from C.J. Box, featuring Joe Pickett and his family, and is a compelling, enjoyable addition to the genre.

Joe Pickett has been a Wyoming game warden for a few years now and is happily married with two daughters. Since this is a crime novel, he and his family have endured more than their share of unwanted attention from some nasty characters. In this novel, it gets a little more personal when some threatening and gruesome pranks are being committed against the stalwart and dedicated game warden. Also, Pickett is keeping his eye out for a missing ranch owner who has left behind three peculiar sons at odds over her property and legacy. He also is getting a tough serving of Wyoming politics when his new director has little appreciation for what could be a little too much of Pickett’s honesty and integrity. Pickett is getting tested in a variety of unpleasant ways, but none of that is going matter if he cannot keep himself and his family alive.

Box is a very solid and reliable writer, and this novel helps to cement that impression. I am enjoying my occasional figurative visits to Pickett’s neck of the woods. I found the plot with this strange yet influential family rather interesting. The Joe Pickett series is best read in order of release since there is a progression in his professional and marital life. I have mentioned this before, but I like reading of a protagonist who remains committed to his wife and children in the midst of perilous people and circumstances swirling around his homestead.

There are some pretty good twists and turns that get pretty gruesome at times. This novel was released in 2006, so I have a ways to go before I am caught up to the current entries into the series, and so far, I plan to stick with this.

As for now, my journey of literary indulgence will detour back to the twenty-fourth century to visit some old friends aboard the USS Enterprise-D in the latest Star Trek: The Next Generation novel by Dayton Ward entitled Pliable Truths.

Book Review: Trapped In Luxury With Count Rostov

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is one of the most elegantly written novels I have read in some time filled with all kinds of interesting Russian history and culture seen through the eyes of an aristocrat who is placed under house arrest at the luxurious hotel in Moscow where he resides.

Towles takes us readers back to 1922 Russia where Count Alexander Rostov faces a Bolshevik tribunal over some poem that was attributed to him. Apparently, the tribunal found that the Count was a little enamored with his aristocratic position in society. The Count has spent some years living at a luxury hotel known as the Metropol in Moscow. He is sentenced to house arrest and is not allowed to leave the hotel. To add insult to injury, the Count is moved out of his usual suite and has to take up residence in the old servants’ quarters in the attic. During his years there, the Count does manage to cultivate some friendships with some of the staff and guests. He also has the opportunity to raise a child that has come into his care. History is made in Moscow outside of the doors of the Metropol, and the Count keeps up as best he can. The unexpected blessing that he receives over the years is a sense of purpose that was missing for much of his life. Although there are worse places to be confined, the Count still has to adapt to a loss of freedom and manages to actually thrive in some ways.

Towles chooses to create a character who sort of rolls with the punches in a strangely whimsical manner. The Count even manages to adjust to his new lodgings in the attic with a certain impressive stoicism. Some may read this and believe the Count to be a rather boring protagonist, but he is anything but. The Count is a fascinating character because many of his reactions are atypical to the circumstances.

The story unfolds over a pretty long span of time. The Count has had some heartbreak in his past and does care more deeply about family. He even manages to become an adoptive parent when a child is left in his care.

Towles can appear a bit wordy at times, but I find his style reminiscent of authors from late nineteenth to early twentieth century. Sometimes the exposition slows the plot down at times, and there is still a temptation to skim over some of the heavier passages. I would encourage other readers to take their time and enjoy the prose as much as possible.

This novel was published in 2016 and has enjoyed quite a bit of acclaim over the past several years. The applause is well-earned here. Towles does well to recreate the setting. Although Count Rostov is a product of Towles’ imagination, the Metropol is actually a real place. Maybe if Moscow appears more welcome to tourist within my lifetime, it would be tempting to check this place out. I would likely also need to experience an improbable financial windfall to afford such a venture.

Anyway, there is not much to criticize this novel. It is very entertaining and enlightening. Amor Towles is likely becoming a writer who I intend to follow a bit more intently.

The next indulgence is a return to the crime thriller genre, but this is another author I have not read before. I am looking forward to allowing author Danielle Trussoni to introduce me to The Puzzle Master.