Tag: thriller

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: 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: Even The Perfect Son Has Some Dangerous Secrets

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Perfect Son by Freida McFadden is an interesting and competent thriller about how far a mother can go to protect her son even if she is not sure of his innocence of a horrific crime.

The Cass family seem to be a typical American family. The older son, Liam, is a popular, charming teen-ager, however the Erika Cass has picked up a strange distance in him. Liam may be a dangerous sociopath who is getting too old her his mother to control. When one of his classmates goes missing, Erika fears the worst, especially when the police show up on their door.

This has been a plot that has had a few iterations over the years. The seemingly perfect child who is more dangerous than he appears is kind of overused. McFadden is a competent writer though, so it’s no worse than anything else with this type of story.

It’s told in first person with most of the narration alternating between the mother and a classmate of Liam’s who has a pretty intense crush on him. It’s a pretty quick read, and McFadden does well with ratcheting up the tension throughout. Unfortunately, her plot twist isn’t that hard to predict, but it’s still a pretty good read for us thriller aficionados.

Vince Flynn was a novelist who died several years ago, but his creation Mitch Rapp lives on with the continued writing talents of Kyle Mills. Mills has moved on from the series since writing my next read, but Rapp is not going anywhere as another writer steps up to continue. I have one more Mills installment to read, and that would be Code Red.

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.

Film Review: Even Gangsters Can’t Fight The Ravages of Time And Disease

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Absolution is a slow-moving, yet interesting crime thriller directed by Hans Petter Moland and written by Tony Gayton. Liam Neeson is in the lead role and is joined by a cast which includes Yolanda Ross, Ron Perlman, and Daniel Diemer.

Neeson plays an aging gangster who learns that he is afflicted with a degenerative brain disease and is motivated to reconnect with his daughter and her son. He also has to dodge other gangsters who want to kill him. He also wants to make some amends for his violent past before he totally loses his mind.

It’s not a terrible film, but I would not call this one of the better additions to Neeson’s credits. It’s kind of slow, but it picks up in the second half when the bodies start piling up. Neeson is compelling enough to make this a little better than watchable. There is a repeated dream sequence with Neeson’s character talking to his deceased father on a boat, which seemed an awkward fit.

Also, this was one of those films where some of the lead characters apparently didn’t have proper names. Yolanda Ross plays someone just credited as Woman. Neeson’s character isn’t named either. I just find that a little distracting and frustrating.

This may be a film I need to watch again in order to appreciate it better. It was just interesting and unique enough for me to revisit eventually, but I suspect there are plenty of legitimate criticisms as well.

Book Review: Rocky Mountain Murder

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Dead of Winter is a pretty decent thriller written by the prolific Darcy Coates. Coates often writes supernatural story, but this story doesn’t fall into that territory. It does get pretty gruesome and far-fetched, but I ended up enjoying the ride that was meant to terrify me. I don’t really get terrified that easily by a book, but I can still appreciate the attempt.

The story is told from the point of view from a young woman named Christa, who has joined her boyfriend on a winter vacation to the Rocky Mountains where they plan to stay in a luxurious lodge with other guests. The bus breaks down, and a wicked storm is on the way. The passengers make their way to small, abandoned cabin where they plan to wait out the storm. The situation gets more dire when the tour guide is killed and then beheaded. As the days and nights start to pass, the group is rapidly shrinking as the heads are left on display outside the cabin being punished by an unrelenting, violent snowstorm. Christa has reason to start believing that the group was not gathered at random, and there is a more precise motive than just some random bloodthirsty psycho satisfying a dark compulsion.

This is the second novel in a row I have read with the too familiar plot of a small group of people trapped in a tight, claustrophobic locale with a seemingly crazed killer stalking them. Coates does a pretty good job with a very common plotline. The motivation behind these killings is a bit far-fetched, but Christa is a compelling enough heroine for me to forgive that.

The revelations are pretty well placed. Coates has a pretty engaging prose style as well. The characters are pretty interesting for the most part. Coates apparently doesn’t mind leaving a couple of loose threads when she ends a story.

This is my first time reading a novel from this author, and she already has a pretty significant catalogue. I am sure it will not be too long before I try another one.

It has been a while since I have indulged in a Star Trek novel, so I think I will make a return trip to the twenty-fourth century and visit with Captain Picard’s crew aboard the Starship Enterprise. Next up, Shadows Have Offender by Cassandra Rose Clarke.

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: An Avalanche Of Murder

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Ruth Ware’s thriller, One By One, does have a bit of an overused setting and mystery plot device, however it still ends up being an effectively hair-raising literary roller-coaster ride.

A group from a popular app company decide to get away for a ski trip on the French Alps and rent a chalet nestled in the mountains. They meet the two employees, a chef and a housekeeper, who turns out to have complicated past. An unexpected avalanche traps them within the luxurious cottage, however one of the guests has gone already gone missing, and others soon start dying as buried secrets come to the surface.

Ruth Ware has been called today’s Agatha Christie, which may be a little too generous, however she is a talented and engaging enough writer for me to not be too critical of the comparison. The novel is told from a first-person perspective with two characters alternating chapters on relating the story. The housekeeper, Erin, turns out to be a bit more than one would usually expect from a housekeeper is one of the narrators. Liz, a former employee and current shareholder in the company known as Snoop, is the other narrator. Liz is awkward and shy, easily able to fade into the background. I am not usually a fan of this idea of having more than one first-person narrator, but Ware makes it work pretty well once the story takes off, and corpses are discovered.

There are some coincidental and unlikely occurrences that are somewhat distracting, but the plot and setting are strong enough for me to be forgiving of those minor lapses. To be fair, I am like most mystery fans and cannot turn away from a good, claustrophobic thriller where the characters are isolated and cannot get any outside assistance as they contend with a murdered in their midst. As I mentioned before, it’s a pretty common set-up, but that’s because it can work so well. The characters are unique and interesting enough for me to want to see it through to the last word of the last page.

I actually doubt that Ruth Ware herself would consider herself to be the new Agatha Christie, however her rising popularity does appear to be well-deserved if this novel is anything to go by.

Next up, I will be checking in on game warden, Joe Pickett and his family, with Trophy Hunt written by the prolific and reliable C.J. Box.