Reviews

Carl Hiaasen: Flush

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Unlike my friend Shelly Kelly, owner of the late, lamented Afterwords bookstore, I am not an expert on kids’ books or kids’ mysteries, and we sell only a very small slice of what’s available. Most of what we sell is stuff we like and remember from when we were kids, like Harriet the Spy, or kids’ series books like Nancy Drew, Goosebumps, etc., and there is now a new category – books by authors who also write adult fiction. If you’ve read any of Carl Hiaasen’s books for adults you might be surprised that he would be writing for kids – no swear words or violence? – but what he is at heart is a wonderful storyteller and he certainly remembers what it’s like to be an adolescent boy. In a market glutted with fiction aimed at girls this is a breath of fresh air. Stripped of the above mentioned violence and swear words, Hiaasen writes a great story, and he retains the humor that is so happily laced throughout his adult novels. His first outing, Hoot, won the Newberry Medal, and Flush is every bit as good. read more

Jessica Speart: Winged Obsession

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“Butterflies are sensitive indicators as to the overall health of the environment. They’re the above ground equivalent of canaries in the coal mine.”

Technically, this isn’t a true crime book, as the crimes perpetrated are against butterflies, but the point Speart makes clear in her compulsively readable book is that crimes against wildlife are indeed a serious matter. A well researched, very inside look at the world of butterfly collecting and smuggling, Speart even supplies the reader with both a hero, Fish & Wildlife newbie Ed Newcomer, and a villain, Japanese butterfly smuggler Yoshi Kojima. Her threads are obsession; the virtual futility facing Wildlife enforcement officers, who are understaffed and whose punishments have little teeth; and the point that even the extinction of a butterfly causes an environmental ripple that affects us all. While the interactions between Ed and Yoshi take on the structure of an elaborate game, the stakes are high. read more

Steve Hamilton: Misery Bay

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Mystery fans like to kvetch when an author takes a break from a beloved series in order to write a stand alone. At our signing for The Lock Artist, his fans practically wouldn’t let Steve out of the store until he promised that his next book would be an Alex McKnight.

But the fact is that there are many upsides to stand alones. One, of course, is the possibility that the book in question is an instant classic that, say, wins the Edgar award for best mystery novel of the year. (To put it in sports terms, Steve has now won the equivalent of Rookie of the Year and MVP.) Another is that writers are often able to return to their beloved series refreshed after a stand alone, gaining a new focus and perspective after stepping away for a while. read more

Elly Griffiths: The Crossing Places

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When authors mention another author as someone they enjoyed discovering, I take notice. Libby Hellmann asked me on a recent visit who I had enjoyed reading recently and I mentioned S.J. Bolton, and she countered with Elly Griffiths (Libby is also a fan of Bolton’s). Recently Griffiths won the Mary Higgins Clark award and this spurred my curiosity even more, and I could put off reading The Crossing Places no longer. I read it through in a day, with the kind of growing enjoyment that made me wonder “Are there more?” (Yes, one more, and another due in January.) One reason the book is so wonderful – though only one of them – is the heroine, archeologist Ruth Galloway. read more

Marcus Sakey: The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes

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Marcus Sakey’s strengths as a writer are many, and all are on display here. This may be the strongest entry yet from this gifted suspense writer (though I still have a real soft spot for At the City’s Edge). His ability to set a hook is first up. In this book, the main character finds himself almost drowned on a Maine beach, freezing, alone, and without his memory. Luckily he climbs into a nearby BMW, cranks it up to get warm, finds some clothes that seem to fit, and he takes it from there. read more

Ken Mercer: East on Sunset

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Ken Mercer wrote one of my favorite debut novels of last year, Slow Fire, about damaged cop Will Magowan who had taken on the job of sheriff in a tiny California town. It felt very new and original to me. In this outing, Mercer returns Will to LA, which simply by default is a less original proposition, already being seriously occupied by Michael Connelly and Robert Crais, among many others. Mercer has the chops of these better known folks, though, and his narrative skills are the equal to the big boys. The book has a type of creepy Marcus Sakey type premise (another writer Mercer has some kinship with). Will has returned to his wife as they continue to heal their damaged relationship after the death of their son, Will’s drug addiction and recovery, and his dismissal from the LAPD, something that continues to have a long tail in his life. The Sakey-esque part is taking the somewhat “normal” couple of Will and Laurie and introducing a stone psycho into their relationship and family life. read more

Camilla Lackberg: The Ice Princess

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Lackberg is getting the big push in the wake of hugely popular fellow Swedes like Henning Mankell and Steig Larsson, and apparently she’s wildly popular in her native Sweden. Like Mankell, her work owes a debt to some of the great British writers of contemporary crime fiction – Ruth Rendell and P.D. James spring to mind – but she doesn’t quite have their tight pacing skills. While I enjoyed this novel very much I was conscious as I read it that I was reading it in translation, and I was often wanting her to hurry things up a bit, though I wouldn’t really call her story telling style languid. She’s capable of some stunning bits of psychological insight, however, thus the comparison to James and Rendell. read more

Thomas Kaufman: Drink the Tea

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Winner of the prestigious St. Martin’s Private Eye Award contest, Kaufman joins other winners like Steve Hamilton and Michael Koryta with this novel. He’s a worthy addition to the roster. St. Martin’s has a definite niche in the marketplace – not as easy to define as the one occupied by Berkley’s dominance of the cozy sub genre – but an editorial bias is apparent in that they tend to publish books that embrace the quirky and original side of life, and their editors seem very fond of a well defined and unusual main character. Some of their heavy hitters – S.J. Rozan, Steve Hamilton, Julia Spencer-Fleming – all share this quality, but it percolates through to every Minotaur author in one way or another. And the defining quality of this debut novel is certainly the fascinating, troubled, and yes, quirky main character, Willis Gidney. read more

Loren D. Estleman: Infernal Angels

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The voice of experience should be a basso profundo, like Tennessee Ernie Ford’s. Instead it’s a mealy little whisper, like the teller’s at a window informing you your account’s overdrawn.

Some writers (and no doubt their editors) feel the need to begin a book with an ostentatious bang, something along the lines of a graphic torture killing or a dramatic explosion. True masters like Loren D. Estleman know how to ease into a narrative, gradually turning up the heat until things are at an irresistible boiling point. read more

S.J. Bolton: Now You See Me

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S.J. Bolton is a strikingly original writer, and this book, while being something of a change up from her previous three, is no different in its originality. The change up involves moving the story to the big city of London – the other books were in remote areas of Britain – and making it pretty much a straight up police procedural. She carries over a character, Dana Tulloch, from Blood Harvest, but this novel is in no way a sequel. What does remain the same is a very interesting, flawed, central female character, in this case one Lacey Flint, a member of the police force who has the bad luck to have a woman die in her arms in the opening scene. Lacey, it develops, has many secrets, and they are only slowly teased out throughout the book. read more