Jennifer Sheridan needs detective Elvis Cole’s expert talents. She’s worried about her fiance, a cop who has recently moved up to an elite investigati Jennifer Sheridan needs detective Elvis Cole’s expert talents. She’s worried about her fiance, a cop who has recently moved up to an elite investigative unit. He has grown very distant from her lately, and she is convince the problem isn’t another woman—Cole’s first thought—but instead that there is something wrong with the police unit itself. Cole begins to investigate, and at first it looks as if the problem may just be a woman, but Jennifer presses him to continue, and Cole becomes convinced that she may be right after all.
Soon Cole and his partner Pike become enmired in a difficult situation involving a “righteous” police shooting, drug-dealing gang-bangers, and before long our two heroes are fugitives from justice, trying to solve a murder before they are arrested for murder themselves.
I liked this book a lot. It was exciting, perfectly pitched, with just the right blend of snappy dialogue, genuine sentiment, excitement, and vicious violence. Still, there is something about this book that did not please me. Like Connelly’s Bosch books, Crais’ novels seem a little too calculated, too perfectly targeted toward their audience. And even though that audience includes me, still a part of me keeps wondering: who is Robert Crais, anyway?
My favorite mystery writers--Ross McDonald, Bill Pronzini, Robert B. Parker, Lawrence Block--reveal their personalities as they tell their tales. But after four Elvis Cole books, I'm still waiting for Crais....more
After I finished the first chapter of Block’s first “Burglar” adventure, I experienced the same rush of anticipatory pleasure I felt when beginning Mi After I finished the first chapter of Block’s first “Burglar” adventure, I experienced the same rush of anticipatory pleasure I felt when beginning Michael Connelly’s first “Lincoln Lawyer” mystery. What a joy to discover that a master of the grim detective tale was not only capable of writing a more light-hearted mystery, but also capable of creating a breezy, amusing narrative voice to go with it!
Just as Connelly’s character Mickey Haller is one of the principle charms of his series, so Bernie Rhodenbarr—the accomplished picklock and pilferer—is what will lead me to read more “Burglar” books in the future. I am always interested when he talks about his chosen profession, and I like the fact that the man has a moral code. A flexible code, to be sure, but a code nonetheless.
The book begins with an interesting premise. Bernie is hired by a man he has not met before—but somehow knows what he does for a living—to steal a blue box from a desk drawer in the apartment of a wealthy patron of the arts. But things do not go well. First, he cannot find the box, then police arrive, and then—even worse—the owner of the apartment is discovered dead in his bed. Bernie manages to flee, and finds a place to hide, but he is clearly the prime suspect, and in order to clear himself he must solve the murder.
The plot has more than a few twists and turns, and Bernie encounters a few suspects—and a few attractive women along the way before eventually managing to clear his less-than good name.
And the solution? Both surprising and inevitable. Which is exactly the way I like them to be....more
Night of the Toads is the most disappointing of the three Dan Fortune adventures I have read so far. It begins well: Fortune vists Broadway star/produ Night of the Toads is the most disappointing of the three Dan Fortune adventures I have read so far. It begins well: Fortune vists Broadway star/producer “Rey” Vega to tell him to lay off the Harvey Weinstein act with his girlfriend Marty—an up-and-coming actress featured in Vega’s current production. The meeting does not go well, but while Fortune is there he meets Ann Terry, another actress who has her own problems with Vega. When Terry is later reported missing, Fortune decides to look into it, partly because he’s wants leverage to help Marty, but also because he admires the missing woman's spirit and determination and wants to know what happened to her. Soon—you guessed it—the investigation leads to a murder, and Fortune finds himself deep in the secrets of New York’s theatrical world.
Sounds good, doesn’t it? Somehow, though, the plot is slow to click, and by the time it becomes interesting it is still needlessly complicated, filled with slack scenes that go on too long. It is a short book even by detective novel standards, but it seems to take forever to resolve itself.
And yet … I still enjoyed most of it. Fortune himself—the one-armed petty criminal turned shamus—is a likable fellow, equally entertaining whether he is discussing people's motivations or describing the many neighborhoods of NYC. And there’s one great scene here—involving two little girls—that moved me to tears.
Bottom line: I didn’t love it, but it was good enough to send me on to novel #4....more
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