Tag: fiction

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.

Doctor Who Audio Review: Ghost Safaris And Stolen Memories

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The range of Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas featuring the Fourth Doctor continue with the latest satisfying release entitled The Hellwood Inheritance. Tom Baker and Louise Jameson reunite as the Doctor and Leela, respectively, for two stories contained in this set. Ken Bentley and Jamie Anderson share directing duties. Both stories turn out pretty well, but with Baker and Jameson in the lead, that’s going to be a likely outcome.

Alan Barnes starts off with a bit of spookiness in The Hellwood Inheritance. The guest cast includes Rosie Day, Chris Jarman, Richard James, James Meteyard, and Tamzin Outhwaite.

The Doctor and Leela arrive on the grounds of Hellwood Manor where they have a troubling encounter with a headless knight that pursues them through the grounds. After that escape, they meet the architects of what is planned to be a ghost safari and shown the “ghost catcher”. The Doctor is not sure that he is being told the whole truth about what powers the device, and a more sinister plot than a mere supernatural entertainment park is revealed.

I wouldn’t call this a real standout story, but it gets the job done as far as being entertaining. Tom Baker still sounds strong and engaged in the role even though he is close to his ninth decade at the time of recording. Jameson still slips into her most well-known character with ease.

I love a good ghost story in Doctor Who, and this fits the bill. There are not many scares or chilling moments, but the humor makes up for it. The performances are solid enough. The writing is not all that bad. Barnes has been associated with Big Finish and Doctor Who for some time, and his reliability as a writer remains evident here.

The episode still falls a little short of what I think would be among the more highly regarded stories in the range, but it still shouldn’t be overlooked. Tom Baker is well into his nineties here, so I am cherishing every new performance I can get.

The Memory Thieves is written by Phil Mulryne. The guest cast includes Daisy Ashford, Ayesha Antoine, and Wayne Forester.

The TARDIS arrives on a colony world in the future where strange pulses emanate from the forest, and the colonists lose their memories. The Doctor and Leela are separated by an earthquake. They have to earn the trust of the colonists in order to help them stop the force known as the Abeyance.

I had some trouble getting into this one. Baker and Jameson are still worth the time, but I didn’t find the story all that interesting. It’s not a terrible effort by Mulryne, but I did not find this particular contribution all that memorable.

It’s always fun to get some new stories with the Fourth Doctor and Leela, and this particular set was entertaining enough for me to still recommend to my fellow Whovians to give it a go.

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.

Book Review: No One Swings The Hammer Like Spillane

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Vengeance is Mine by Mickey Spillane has Mike Hammer in a dangerous predicament from the first line of this classic crime novel from one of the acclaimed masters of the genre.

New York gumshoe Mike Hammer starts off the story with a nasty hangover and a corpse in a hotel room with police already scrutinizing him. The victim is a friend of Hammer’s named Chester Wheeler. The police determine that Wheeler committed suicide with Hammer’s gun after the two of them went out drinking. The district attorney does use the mess to pull Hammer’s private investigation license and gun permit. Hammer has reason to believe that his friend was actually murdered and is motivated to start his own investigation that takes him to a suspicious modeling agency and a blackmail scheme. Wheeler is not the only one to lose his life, and the subsequent murders seem to confirm that Hammer’s instincts are dead right.

The novel was first published in 1950, so there is a bit of adjustment to the writing style of the time. Of course, Spillane’s works was seen as quite raw for that time. This period was the height of noir crime fiction, and Spillane has earned his crown quite legitimately here.

Hammer is one of the more brutal protagonists in the genre. He is also a bit conflicted when it comes to matters of love. He has women who want something more from him than he feels he has. There are some fictional detectives that are a bit more compelling, but Spillane does a pretty good job. I can see why he is so popular among the crime fiction enthusiasts.

This novel was an enjoyable literary diversion, but I don’t know if this is one of the masterpieces in Spillane’s bibliography. It’s a fun read but not for the squeamish.

Next up, murder has struck Ireland in the 1950’s, and the matter falls on Detective Inspector St. John Strafford to resolve in John Banville’s Snow.

Book Review: A Wounded Sheriff In Hiding Catches A Case

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Copper River is my first sampling of William Kent Krueger’s writing and is unlikely to be my last since I enjoyed this novel quite a bit.

Krueger has a protagonist named Cork O’Conner, a sheriff in Minnesota. O’Conner has apparently had quite a difficult time in the previous novels that I have yet to read. He starts off this story with a bullet in his leg and in hiding from a crime family who believe that he had killed one of their members. He ends up in Bodine, Michigan where he has a cousin that is able to meet some of his medical needs. The cousin, Jewell, is a widow with a young son, who is able to help with the bullet wound.

Cork’s investigative instincts awaken when a body is discovered in the river. A young girl has been murdered, and Cork needs some help when it appears that there is a conspiracy involving runaway teens. The killing doesn’t stop with one girl in the river. Cork has his own troubles and needs to get back to his wife and children, however he is not going to leave his cousin and her to face their threats without him.

Krueger is a pretty good writer and is not afraid to put his main character through the wringer. O’Conner is a typically pragmatic and likeable law enforcement officer. Of course, I am meeting this character in the middle of the series, but Krueger does a decent job of catching up the reader on events in the more recent novels without it seeming too clunky.

Apparently, Krueger also has some interest in Native American culture and history which he peppers in quite effectively.

Anyway, Krueger is a writer I am going to revisit in the not-too-distant future.

Next up, I haven’t read a Mickey Spillane novel in a while, but I do happen to have “Vengeance is Mine” in my stack of books on the dresser.

Book Review: Russians And Rapp In Syria

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Code Red is a recent continuation of the Mitch Rapp series of thriller novels originated by the late Vince Flynn. Kyle Mills has written his final contribution to the series and leaves the franchise with a pretty decent addition.

Mitch Rapp is a top counterterrorism operative for the CIA, and yet he owes a favor to someone who is rather despicable. A Mexican cartel leader has called in a marker and wants Rapp to travel to Syria to look into the creation of a powerful narcotic that is interfering with business. Rapp poses as a Canadian lawyer and has to behave a bit more civilized than he is used to operating. Rapp is a stone-cold killer when hunting for terrorists or anyone who poses a threat to the United States. He soon discovers that the proliferation of this drug is actually a form of attack from the Soviet government. Rapp is basically on his own since his latest mission isn’t really sanctioned by the US government. He also has good reason to not trust the man for whom he is working this time. He is quite well that he is seen by the crime lord as being very expendable. None of these obstacles will deter Rapp from protecting his family and those he has come to love. That also means there is going to be quite a bit more killing that will be done.

Mills does pretty well here. I was rather amused at the scenes where Rapp has to pretend to be paralyzed with fear when he is abducted while in his guise. Little do the bad guys know that their victim is the most dangerous man in the room. Rapp doesn’t really do undercover gigs, so it was refreshing to have him employ a tactic that he so rarely uses.

The villains are typical of this series. I do find it interesting when Rapp ends up going after someone other than another Middle Eastern terrorist. I believe this is the second recent novel that Russians were more of a target of Rapp’s lethal talents, and I sort of like the change of pace.

Also, the recent novels have Rapp basically in a stepfather role, and it’s pretty cool to see a paternal streak revealed.

I miss the original creator, Vince Flynn, but Kyle Mills was a solid choice by the publishing house to continue the series. He is a competent enough writer and was courageous enough to place Rapp in situations that may not have been explored by Flynn. Still, Vince Flynn was taken too soon. and too young. I would have loved to have known which direction he would have taken Rapp, but I think Mills does well enough honoring the legacy.

Don Bentley is now the successor for continuing Mitch Rapp’s bloody mission in protecting America from its numerous enemies.

Next up, I will be reading The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill.

Book Review: Joe Pickett Gets Back On His Game

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Free Fire by C.J. Box continues the compelling saga of now former game warden Joe Pickett and his family as he is given another chance to regain his job when he accepts a confidential assignment from the governor that takes him to Yellowstone National Park.

Pickett had been dismissed from his game warden position in the previous novel and starts off this one working as a ranch hand for his mother-in-law’s new husband. A case has broken when a murderous lawyer slays four people in a corner of Yellowstone National Park that is some kind of legal free fire zone. There may not be a way to prosecute this attorney, but Pickett is tasked with uncovering a motive. When some of his new colleagues are attacked or killed, Pickett starts to understand that there are some secrets that threaten many people, and some of those are willing to add him to the body count.

Box hits on an interesting idea that one can lure his intended victims to some zone where the normal laws prohibiting murder don’t apply as they would in anywhere else in the country.

Anyway, I found the novel enjoyable, but I am likely a pretty consistent C.J. Box reader. There isn’t much that’s groundbreaking, but it remains interesting. Pickett and his family remain compelling because they try so hard to be conventional and normal in many ways, but they keep getting thrust into dangerous situations because of his career.

It’s a pretty enjoyable and interesting entry into the series, but it’s not quite a homerun.

Next up, I am returning to the realm of the supernatural with House of Secrets by Darcy Coates.

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.