Tag: fiction

Book Review: Calamity In The Catskills

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

An Unwanted Guest is a thriller that has one of my favorite scenarios in that a small group of people is stuck in a remote location with a murderer in their midst. Shari Lapena first had this published in 2018 and has written several novels since then.

The setting is a luxurious inn in the Catskill Mountains where a group of guests who apparently do not know each other gather to escape the mundaneness of their daily lives. There is a troubled married couple, a traumatized war journalist, and a defense attorney with an unusual past. That is just the beginning. A young woman is found dead at the bottom of the staircase. The inn loses power during the height of a snowstorm, so help from the police is not forthcoming. Then, a second body is found. The group has to wonder if there is someone else in the inn secretly or if one of them is a murderer.

As much as I love this sort of mystery, Lapena really proves how overdone it could really get. She isn’t a terrible writer, but there is not much that makes it stand out. None of the cast of characters was uniquely interesting. When the investigator finally is able to get there, she is not that compelling.

Much of the motivations behind the killings rely on some unlikely coincidences.

Lapena is another one of these current female writers being compared to Agatha Christie. Christie had considerably more skill in her plotting. I don’t mind today’s author paying some homage to the Queen of Crime, but Lapena seems to try a little too hard here. I could not muster much sympathy for any of the characters, even the victims. I just found the novel to be a little bland.

In spite of some misgivings about this particular novel, I will likely give Lapena another chance down the road. She is not a hopelessly awful writer, but she seems a little too attached to the formula. Still, Lapena is a bestselling author, so my criticism may be in the minority. I just found the mediocrity of this literary contribution to be mildly soul crushing.

Ironically, my next read is going to once again have a group of people isolated on a snowy mountain with a killer lurking in the forest. I will see if Darcy Coates can do a better job with Dead of Winter.

Book Review: The Dark Hours Belong to Ballard

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Dark Hours is a pretty intriguing novel by Michael Connelly and features Harry Bosch and his most recent series character, Renee Ballard. Bosch has been retired from LAPD for some time, but Detective Ballard still manages to draw him back into an investigation or two.

This thriller takes place during the thick of COVID lockdowns and mask-wearing. Ballard has been called out in the middle of the night to look into a fatal shooting. Evidence leads her to look into an unsolved case that was once investigated by Harry Bosch. Meanwhile, a pair of rapists have been stalking the streets of Los Angelos and have also attracted Ballard’s attention and ire. Bosch once again provides some invaluable support and insight even though he no longer carries a badge. Ballard also has to navigate the treacherous waters of department politics as well and finds her pool of allies getting smaller. It’s another cluster of tense situations provided by the prolific Michael Connelly.

I would have been fine if Connelly ignored the pandemic situation in his novels, but it’s not my call. Once thing that adds a dose of reality to his crime fiction is that his characters are often working more than one case in a particular novel. There is usually a primary plot, but Connelly will often have a side project for his protagonists going on and manages to skillfully weave in and out of them quite skillfully.

I don’t know if Connelly is really a master of the craft, but I don’t begrudge him his current popularity and success. Connelly is consistently good, and this particular novel isn’t the one to change my mind. I was pretty well hooked and inwardly cheering when Bosch would appear. This was still mostly a Ballard story, but I was fine with that. I enjoy the friendship that Connelly has developed between them. I found it interesting that Ballard acknowledged that Bosch has become sort of a mentor because that was not immediately obvious since Ballard is pretty sharp on her own. I thought it was pretty cool when she actually verbalized that aspect of their relationship. I also appreciate that Connelly has also chosen to not shoehorn in some romantic spark between them. Since there is a significant age gap between the two detectives, it would just seem tawdry and unnecessary, and Connelly seems to agree.

Overall, I enjoyed this one quite a bit, but I haven’t come across a Connelly novel that I did not enjoy in some degree. It was pretty good and should be one that crime fiction enthusiasts add to their reading lists.

Next up, I am reading my first J.K. Rowling novel, however it’s not her Harry Potter series. Time to meet Cormoran Strike in The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith. Yes, Galbraith is really J.K. Rowling. Anyway, that’s the next step in my path of literary indulgence.

Film Review: Possession Or Insanity…Who Can Say?

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Nefarious had an intriguing idea, but this supernatural thriller didn’t quite pull off the execution onscreen. More than likely, the book written by Steve Deace is considerably better.

Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon wrote and directed this film. Sean Patrick Flannery and Jordan Belfi are the leads alongside Tim Ohmer and Glenn Beck, who makes a special appearance toward the end of the film.

The film starts off with a psychiatrist who commits suicide by throwing himself off a building for some inexplicable reason. His protégé, played by Belfi, takes his place interviewing a death row inmate to determine if a notorious killer is legally sane, which would allow the execution to proceed. Flannery offers a fairly chilling performance as the killer known as Edward Wayne Brady. Beady explains that he is actually a demon in possession of this body. Brady was actually coerced into committing the murders that have landed him in this predicament. Of course, the shrink is an atheist, and what follows is a pretty lengthy match of verbal jousting which ended up being somewhat predictable and rather clumsily written.

Anyway, the film is apparently billed as a Christian film, which becomes more evident when social issues such as abortion come up. I don’t actually disagree with the position the writers and producers apparently take. I do sort of question the whole demonic possession angle, but some of the theological points made did resonate with me. I just wish there was some better skill in the writing.

I will say that the transformation Flannery undergoes for his character is actually quite impressive. I actually had to recognize his name to realize that I had seen him quite often before. Flannery is a pretty good actor, but I always kind of considered him a pretty boy. That wasn’t there in this one.

Overall, I appreciate the effort for some of these studios to put out some more faith-based content, and this film is not that bad. It just isn’t that great either. It had a low-budget feel to it, and the writing just wasn’t strong enough to overcome that.

Book Review: A Strange Professor With A Strange Mind

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The House of Love and Death is the third intriguing novel by Andrew Klavan to feature Cameron Winter, a college professor with a dangerous path and something he calls “a strange habit of mind”. Winter has the sort of imagination where he can place himself in a horrific crime scene and mentally dissect it with more detail than most people could fathom. Winter currently works as an English professor at a university; however, he was once a government operative who manipulated others into their own demise.

Klavan has an interesting set-up in these Winter novels. The good professor has been seeing a therapist. The book is usually divided into four parts. The beginning of each section reveals a first-person narrative as Winter discusses some aspect of his troubling past with this therapist. The subsequent chapter will then chronicle the therapist’s reaction to what she has just heard and how she guides Winter into some personal epiphany.

Winter also has the peculiar tendency to insert himself into cases that intrigue him uniquely. This time, a family just outside of Chicago had been shot, and their house was set on fire. Some details of the matter bother Winter enough to motivate him to a closer look at the situation where he finds supposedly well-respected people engaging in some pretty shady and lascivious behaviors. Although there are some dangerous people coming to light by Winter’s investigation, they have little idea that Winter himself could very well be more dangerous than they imagine.

This is the third and most recent novel in this series. Klavan has set a pretty predictable pattern on how his plots unfold. There is quite a bit of imagination when it comes to this story. I am getting to know Cameron Winter a little better, and he is an interesting and likeable character, although it’s a little far-fetched. Winter is described as basically being ethereally handsome, which makes him a little hard to picture in the mind’s eye. The relationship between Winter and his much older therapist sometimes seems just a little odd and distracting. There is nothing really inappropriate going on there, but there are some thoughts being revealed which are not quite as professional as expected at times. Still, the therapist seems to have some pretty sharp insights herself which does make her interesting to this reader.

I think I am starting to understand this “strange habit of mind” concept a little better. Klavan isn’t really trying to convey that Winter has some sort of supernatural ability, but that this gift is more of a strange sort of deduction and imagination. Klavan isn’t likely going to be considered to be some master of the mystery genre, but he manages to tell a pretty compelling tale. Also, I am already looking forward to following Cameron Winter’s next caper.

I think it’s time to revisit 221 B Baker Street with the help of author Frank Thomas, who has tried his hand at continuing the exploits of Sherlock Holmes. In 1980, Thomas managed to get Sherlock Holmes and the Sacred Sword on the shelves, and a copy has recently found its way to my hands..

Book Review: Someone Has Been Skinning Something More Than Big Game

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Trophy Hunt by C.J. Box is the fourth thriller to feature game warden Joe Pickett and turns out to be pretty good but not groundbreaking. The novel was first published in 2004.

Joe Pickett finds the mutilated corpse of a moose and learns of some ranchers having similar discoveries among their cattle. Two men are killed and inflicted with similar gruesome wounds which prompts the local law enforcement in Wyoming to form a task force. Pickett is a somewhat controversial inclusion in this, but his instincts and experience with unexpected murder investigations manage to help them land on the proper solution.

I like Joe Pickett because he’s not a disheveled alcoholic or a social misfit. I don’t mind characters like that, but the trope gets a little overused by many crime writers. Pickett is a bit of an odd one out in today’s detective fiction for being quite conventional. He is a loving husband and father, and his wife, Marybeth, supports him and worries about him when he’s the midst of a misadventure. He has two daughters who are depicted quite charmingly as well. Pickett is a character who is easy to root for because he remains steadfast in the midst of often tragic challenges. His family has already endured a pretty serious tragedy so early in the series.

Anyway, there are some pretty decent twists in the story. The other thing I appreciate about Pickett is that he sometimes makes mistakes during an investigation, and Box is not afraid to show that his protagonist is not an experienced detective. Indeed, Pickett seems to be a reluctant detective at times. Some of these elements does make Pickett a bit more endearing and relatable.

Box is not really an extraordinary writer, but he is competent. I am still reading the earlier entries in this series, so I look forward to seeing how the characters and plots evolve. Basically, Box is good enough to keep me interested enough to try out some more Pickett novels.

I have watched some of the television series, but it’s now time to meet the print version of Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope in the first novel, The Crow Trap, by Ann Cleeves.

Book Review: Arts And Spycraft

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The English Spy is a thriller written by the prolific Daniel Silva and features his best-known character, Israeli spy Gabriel Allon. It was published first in 2015 and definitely not the first in the series. It is the first novel by Silva that I have read, so I am missing a lot of background knowledge about Mr. Allon.

Gabriel Allon is a spy and sometimes assassin for some unspecified Israeli agency, which he is about to take command of in this installment. Allon is also an accomplished art restorer, which brings a compelling irony to his fictional credentials. He can act with brutal efficiency against an enemy of his nation or bring back profound beauty to various damaged works of art. After perusing some of the blurbs about some of the other novels, it seems his work as an art restorer often leads him into more ominous endeavors. Allon is a typical deadly gentleman with a conscience and deep loyalty to his beloved nation of Israel. He also apparently works as a freelancer for England as he does in this novel.

In this particular book, Allon is on the trail of an Irish mercenary and bomb maker after a former member of British royalty is killed. Allon works with a British assassin named Christopher Keller, who apparently has been featured in other entries in the series, and they proceed to travel to some pretty exotic locations to find the elusive, ruthless Eamon Quinn.

I have not read any of the earlier novels, however this was still pretty enjoyable. Silva does reference events from earlier in the series, but he does not provide much detail, which is actually fine with me. I may very well take the time and fill in those gaps myself. The research that Silva puts in is laudable, but he does sometimes let the exposition slow down the pacing.

Allon has an interesting domestic situation going on while he is engaged in this pursuit. He has remarried, and his wife is on the verge of birthing twins. An attack has forced Allon to remain separated from his wife during a very crucial time. He is about to take a director’s seat over the agency where he has worked for many years. It’s not the most convenient of times for Gabriel Allon to be chasing bomb makers all over the place. It is convenient for the readers to get drawn into a pretty suspenseful story, so I am sure they’re fine with it.

Gabriel Allon himself doesn’t really stand out from other fictional protagonists in this genre, other than his side work as an art restorer, however Silva’s popularity is still well-earned. Silva is a very entertaining storyteller, and he also seems to be an enthusiastic researcher. He has a pretty courteous tradition writing an author’s note which specifies the imaginative locales in the various settings visited by Allon and Keller. This really does showcase Silva’s perspective and wit.

Overall, I enjoyed being introduced to Silva’s writing even though this doesn’t really introduce Gabriel Allon. It’s obviously not Silva’s fault I don’t always start reading series at the beginning. Spies, murder, and global pursuits generally thrive in the literary universe, and Silva’s contributions to this genre of literature are worthy of attention and not difficult to enjoy. The nuggets of knowledge concerning art restoration and various locations have some value. Gabriel Allon may not be the most fascinating of characters, but he is interesting enough for me to be willing to return to this series.

It probably will not be too long before I revisit the writings of Daniel Silva, but I will next be reading the first novel in a new series written by Andrew Klavan. Christmas has passed yet again, but I am revisiting the holiday through the lens of Klavan’s When Christmas Comes.