The Hunter

This is the 2nd installment in Tana French's "Cal Hooper" series.  See my post on The Searcher for quick background on the main character. It's been about 2 years since the events of the first book and Cal and Lena are now officially an item in the small Irish village of Ardnakelty where Cal is restoring a run down cottage and teaching a local teenager, Trey (short for Theresa), how to be a carpenter so she'll have future possibilities outside the townland. In other words, things are going well until Trey's long absent father swans back into town towing a London "millionaire" who claims to have information about gold depositss on the local area. Of course the pair are planning to scam the village inhabitants of "investment" money when planted gold is "found" and Trey is more than willing to help in the scheme to get revenge for the death of her older brother and the way the village has treated her family for years. Suddenly everthing the three have been working toward is at risk. Cal and Lena want to protect Trey at any cost, especially when she finds the money man dead on a mountain road. Tray has other ideas and is heedless of the potential consequences of her actions. the book is a slow start but a tense wind-up at the end. French''s writing and characters are worth the time it takes to reach the climax. 

Publishers Weekly calls this a "slow burn sequel" that is a "cut above similar fare." Booklist gushes "French's characterizations are brilliant, as always," and says the book is "masterfully written." Kirkus closes their review with this: "The book abounds in local color and lively dialogue. An absorbing crime yarn."

The Coroner

This is the debut entry in Jennifer Graeser Dornbush's "The Coroner's Daughter" mystery series. It is a decent although fairly predictable plot. Dr. Emily Hartford, a surgical resident in Chicago is called home when she learns that her estranged father has had a heart attack. Here's the plot summary and lukewarm recommendation from Kirkus : When Dr. Emily Hartford learns of her father's heart attack, she leaves her promising Chicago surgical career and new fiance, Brandon, to return home only to be pulled into a murder investigation led by her old high school sweetheart.Emily had abruptly left Freeport, Michigan, as a teenager after her mother's death. She felt that her father, Freeport's medical examiner, either couldn't or wouldn't tell her the truth behind the death. And although she had left a note for her boyfriend, Nick, who is now the sheriff in Freeport, he never found it. Now, shortly after arriving to take care of her father, Emily gets pulled into the case of Julie Dobson, a state senator's daughter. Julie was a brilliant horsewoman with a promising career until she was found thrown from her horse, dead from a head wound. Standing in for her father, Emily does Julie's autopsy, and when signs point to murder, both Nick and Emily struggle to find the truth. Meanwhile, Emily weighs her feelings for the almost too-perfect Brandon against her rekindled feelings for Nick, a quandary whose outcome the reader will never doubt. Although we are repeatedly told of Emily's many struggles, the reader is held at an emotional distance by prose that is adequate but not polished. Too, the use of "gonna," "wanna," and "gotta" may be phonetic depictions of how people speak, but its constant use in print is annoying. If Dornbush will trust her own ability to convey insights via actions instead of explanations, readers might want to find out what happens next in the obviously planned sequel."

If you like Patricia Cornwell but want something less grisly, this should fill the bill. I did find the lack of good editing very annoying, however.  

 

My Friends

This novel by Fredrik Backman is certainly touching in some ways but none of the characters really engaged me. The Washington Post calls it "an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger's life twenty-five years later." 

Kirkus summarizes the plot as follows: "Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it."And they close their review with this praise: "The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. ...A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship."

Publishers Weekly gushes that "The author is at the top of his game." I have to admit that I only read the first and last thirds of the book.  

 

The Searcher

Now that the third installment has hit the shelves, I finally got around to reading the first in Tana French's "Cal Hooper" series. I always try and go back to the original book when I am interested in a new series. I have already put the next two books on hold at the Library: The Hunter and The Keeper.  Cal Hooper is a retired police detective from Chicago who,  after a painful divorce has bought a small run down house on the outskirts of a small village in west Ireland--the perfect escape from a job and a city he has gone sour on.  Or so he thinks. Then a ragged looking teenager, Trey,  comes to Cal and cajoles him into finding his missing older brother. Everyone claims to think that Brendan was full of big ideas and just ran off, but Trey is convinced he wouldn't run off and cut off all communication. Whether it's because Cal is an interloper in this insular community or because something more sinister is going on, Cal meets a wall of silence when he starts asking questions.

Publishers Weekly calls this book superb and closes their review by saying "Insightful characterizations, even of minor figures, and a devastating reveal help make this a standout. Crime fiction fans won't want to miss this one." Library Journal offers this: "Though neither the expected crime novel nor a quaint mystery, this work brilliantly meshes the two as it touches on belonging, morality, and the jarring way criminality seeps into almost all crevices of society. A thought-provoking ending provides opportunities for reflection on self and community." Booklist praises French by saying she"displays impressive versatility. ... a variation on country noir..." and continues, "This is a fine thriller, but it's also a moving story of an unlikely friendship that grows from refinishing a ramshackle desk to rebuilding two nearly broken lives."  Finally, Kirkus concludes, "Cal is a complex enough character, though, and it turns out that the mystery he’s trying to solve is less shocking than what he ultimately discovers. French's latest is neither fast-paced nor action-packed, and it has as much to do with Cal’s inner life as it does with finding Brendan. Much of what mystery readers are looking for in terms of action is squeezed into the last third of the novel, and the morally ambiguous ending may be unsatisfying for some. But French’s fans have surely come to expect imperfect allegiance to genre conventions, and the author does, ultimately, deliver plenty of twists, shocking revelations, and truly chilling moments. Slow moving and richly layered."

The Correspondent

This epistolary novel by Virginia Evans was a engaging read with it's slow evolution of secrets and relationships. It would be a spoiler to name all the characters with whom our 73-year-old protagonist exchanges a voluminous number of letters and emails, but they include a best friend, a neighbor, numerous famous authors, a stalker and her ex-husband. Sybil is going blind from a hereditary disease and fears losing the ability to continue her correspondence as well as the sense of permanence the letters gave her. She never knew her real mother, who put her up for adoption when Sybil was 14 months old. Her adoptive parents also adopted a boy, Felix, who Sybil considers her brother. Sybil pursued a career in law, both privately as a distinguished attorney and as a lowly clerk to her law partner when he was appointed as a federal judge, because the law was orderly, "black and white." That's also part of why she writes letters, to put her thoughts in order and be absolutely clear about what she wants to say. But it is also how she develops her relationships, finds her place in the world, comes to terms with her past, and discovers an unexpected future. 

Publishers Weekly calls the book a "charming debut" and concludes, "As the years go on, Sybil's relationships brim with tension waiting to be released, and the detailed connections between each character are brilliantly mapped through the correspondence. It adds up to an appealing family drama."

 Kirkus writes this summary and review "A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character. Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters ... Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth. An affecting portrait of a prickly woman."

A Morning for Flamingos

In this 4th Dave Robicheaux installment, Dave is approached by a DEA agent and asked to go undercover back in New Orleans for a sting operation to help catch drug lord Tony Cardo. He'll be presented as a disgraced and dismissed cop who's trying to make some money selling drugs. In the process, Dave hopes to locate and take revenge on a prisoner, an assassin named Boggs, who shot his partner and left Dave for dead in a muddy coulee. Therefore Dave agrees but wants to speed up the process and is soon in the good graces of Cardo himself. What no one predicted is that Dave would come to have some sympathy for Cardo who is the sole caretaker of a disabled son. Here is how Kirkus addresses this conflict: "Dave takes to him and his crippled son Paul much more deeply than to no-good guys like bullying, treacherous Vice Lt. Nate Baxter, who threatens to blow Dave's cover if he doesn't play the game his way. Multiple betrayals force Dave to choose between ... bagging and protecting Tony, between playing by the rules and going all out for Boggs. Another robust study of powerfully shifting motives disguised as an action yarn—thick and strong as southern gumbo."

Here are excerpts from the favorable review by Publishers Weekly: "...proceeds to balance the ... self-doubts of his tough, sympathetic hero with a complex, credible plot in his latest Cajun mystery. Robicheaux, a widower, leaves his small town for New Orleans, where he used to be a cop, to run a sting operation for the DEA. He engineers drug buys aimed at incriminating the local drug lord, an ex-Marine with nightmares and a habit from Vietnam, while trying to ferret out Jimmie Lee Boggs, the killer responsible for the coulee incident.... Attentive to language and atmosphere, Burke delivers action on churning Gulf waters, in city streets, in deserted fields and within the souls of his memorable characters--and a fully satisfying resolution." 

Booklist speaks to the strong sense of place created by Burke and it's meaning for the story and the characters. " James Lee Burke's interest in New Orleans...extends well beyond the travelogue surface. Burke's Cajun detective, Dave Robicheaux, is once again battling personal demons--questions of fear and bravery, violence and compassion, pleasure and pain--and as he stalks an escaped killer and infiltrates the world of a Mafia drug lord, he finds reflections of his own torment wherever he looks. What it means to be Cajun is at the heart of Robicheaux's dilemma: he treasures the easy-living side of his heritage, but with the po' boy sandwiches and the pulsing beat of Zydeco music come the lure of violence and an obsession with bravery and personal honor that consistently puts himself and his loved ones at risk. Can you enjoy beignets at the Cafe du Monde, or hum a chorus of "Jolie Blonde," or sip a Dixie beer without at the same time wanting to bash the head of anyone who smiles at your girl? And when you do bash a head, are you really doing it to protect the things you love or because the simple act of bashing something gives you such a kick? Robicheaux's ongoing attempt to resolve these questions brings new levels of meaning to the way we see New Orleans in particular and the pursuit of pleasure in general. Is the Big Easy really all that easy? Can any of us ever get free enough from our own demons to really experience the pleasures that New Orleans--or life--offers? "

Black Cherry Blues

This Edgar-winning 3rd installment in James Lee Burke's "Dave Robichaux" series. Enemies have already come after Dave and murdered his wife Annie. Now a new threat appears when an old friend confides in Dave that he overheard talk of a murder. This time the bad guys, who work in the oil lease business in Montana, are threatening his adopted daughter, Alafair. Dave goes after them and leaves them beaten but alive. One of the men kills the other and makes it look as though Dave is the killer. Now Dave must travel to Montana with Alafair in tow to clear him name or end up in Angola prison.  While Kirkus is once again less than laudatory of Burke's writing style, they still conclude that "Burke tells an evocative and compelling story of a good man's struggle with the vigilante inside him."

Publishers Weekly is more favorable, opening their review by saying "Burke pits a land-hungry oil company against a Blackfeet Indian reservation in a stunning novel that takes detective fiction into new imaginative realms.." and they continue "Robicheaux's dogged investigation...sets him on a collision course with Mafia thugs and oil interests...All the main characters in this darkly beautiful, lyric saga carry heavy emotional baggage, and Robicheaux's sleuthing is a simultaneous exorcism of demons of grief, loss, fear, rage, vengeance. Burke's fictional terrain--stretching from the Louisiana bayous to Montana's red cliffs and pine-dotted hills--is uniquely his own, yet also a microcosm of a multi-ethnic America. He writes from the heart and the gut."  

The Neon Rain

I was looking for a good mystery series to recommend to my brother-in-law and went down a rabbit hole with author James Lee Burker, reading 3 of his 4 first novels while on a trip to Nevada for a wedding. This is the first in the "Dave Robicheaux" series. In this debut, Robicheaux is still a detective with the New Orleans Police Dept and partnered with Clete Purcell, a continuing character in the series.  Dave is constantly battling old memories from his VietNam days, his cravings for alcohol, as well as police bureaucracy that prioritizes expedience over justice, so it's not surprise that he wants to find the killer of a young prostitute whose body was dumped in the bayou even though his superiors want to write it off. Now Dave is facing off against organized crime and his hot-headed partner is not consistently supporting him in trying to solve the case. What saves Dave from a total relapse to his alcoholism days is the constant care of Annie Ballard, who he eventually marries. As usual the writing is atmospheric and gritty. Richly developed characters are not always likable but they are compelling. 

Kirkus calls it a "bloody, ripsnorting suspenser" and offers in their review that the book is weak on storyline, overdrawn in the violence but still offers "some fine scenes that fairly crackle with menace." 

The Storm

Another book by Rachel Hawkins that will keep you guessing til the very end about who actually murdered the governor's rich and philandering son 40 years ago.  Lo (short for Gloria) Bailey is back in the tiny coastal town of St. Medard's Bay, Alabama, after being exiled by gossip and rumors that she was the one responsible. Even though she was found not guilty of the murder, popular opinion remained against her; but now she says that she has come back to clear her name once and for all. She is accompanied by a journalist, August, who says he wants to write her story. Geneva Corliss is the struggling owner of the Rosalie Inn, the only structure in town that has survived the periodic hurricanes that seem to seek out this otherwise out-of-the-way corner of the coast. The arrival of August and Lo promises to be a boon to the flagging business prospects of the Inn but everything turns out to be more complicated than that as Rachel learns secret after secret about her mother who is now forever silenced by Alzheimer's. 

Publishers Weekly says of this "sleek suspense novel" that "Hawkins toggles back and forth between Lo's return to St. Medard's Bay and the days leading up to Landon's death, marking each timeline with the name of a contemporaneous hurricane. She shrewdly orchestrates the plot twists in each story line, folding in letters, emails, newspaper articles, and excerpts from August's unfinished manuscript to raise new questions and ratchet up suspense. When the pieces finally click into place, readers will be more than satisfied." I personally found this structure to be disjointed and a bit off-putting as some of the reporting is not identified with an author and you have to figure out from the context who is speaking. Library Journal calls the novel "fast-paced" and "atmospheric" and indeed the weather plays a key role in both structuring the storyline and ratcheting up the suspense as chapter titles count down the days until the next hurricane is going to hit. Booklist concludes their review with this positive note: "Hawkins uses her mastery of multiple time lines and characters to great effect in this quick and enjoyable read." Similarly, Kirkus closes with "the story is gripping from beginning to end."

Gone Before Goodbye

This thriller from Reese Witherspoon and Harlen Coben will keep you guessing what's real in the world of uber wealthy clients who demand ultimate discretion from their medical providers. And Maggie McCabe is the one called upon to provide the skills and the willingness to go to an opulent palace in the wilds of Russia to perform some unique plastic surgery. Having always served the poorest patients in the most dangerous places, Maggie has lost her medical license and is thrown a lifeline by a former professor who has connections with this rarified clientele. It will wipe out the debts left behind after her mother died of cancer. Kirkus summarizes "A whirl of surgeries, chases, and escapes ensues as Maggie gradually comes to understand who these people are and what they have in mind for her, and how it connects to [her deceased husband] Marc and their missing friend and business partner, Trace Packer. She is aided by her delightful father-in-law, Porkchop, owner of a biker bar in New York City and a very handy guy to have on your team if you've run afoul of an international criminal organization. From the palace in Rublevka the action moves to Dubai and then Bordeaux, climaxing in a high-stakes illegal heart transplant. But wait—is Marc really dead? What happened to Trace? Who is Nadia really?" And they conclude: "Maybe not the most thrilling thriller, but the role of AI in coping with grief gives this novel pathos and interest." The Los Angeles Times calls it a "fun ride about the super rich...at the same time that it ponders real questions about the ethics of social engineering via medical advances in organ regeneration." Read the rest of their review for a more detailed story line.