More Books than Time

Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Murder in Missoula – Hunting Down a Serial Killer

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Murder in Missoula starts off with a bang.  We are with Charles Durbin, loner, dog groomer, obsessed with Marie-Justine, as he sneaks into her home for erotic fantasies.  He has stalked her for weeks, trying to decide whether he prefers her or her best friend Anne.  Now he has decided.

Meanwhile former DEA agent Joe Nicoletti is in town interviewing for a professorship at the university.  Nicoletti is a widower and lonely.  He meets Marie-Justine at a faculty gathering and the two connect immediately.  Durbin sees them together and decides he must make sure that Marie-Justine is his and kills her.

Of course the police find evidence that Nicoletti murdered her, though he is grief-stricken.  He must clear his name and find the real killer before other women die.

What Works

Murder in Missoula is at its best when we follow Durbin through his fantasy love life, but I felt the last third, where we tag along with Nicoletti as he ties Durbin to other murders in Colorado was weaker.  The novel went from the suspenseful stalker to a more traditional whodunit, where Nicoletti uses his intuition, connections and plain old luck to solve the crime.

The novel remained well written even after we took a left turn from the serial killer to the detective, but it lost some of the suspense.

Author Laurence Giliotti did a fine job showing us the real person inside the evil killer, as Durbin interacts with others in a more-or-less normal fashion while he grooms dogs, chats up the realtor (in order to get to the pass key on Marie-Justine’s new house).  Even serial killers need to eat and need an income, so why not groom dogs while you stalk the ladies?  Giliotti intermixed horror with the normal day-to-day, as when Durbin made sure to keep the realtor from seeing his kitchen that recreated Marie-Justine’s.

The police chief Garland is an interesting character as he moves from Nicoletti’s adversary to his ally, from political to professional.  We didn’t see much of Garland, too bad as he could be an interesting lead character.

What Didn’t Work So Well

Nicoletti is more of a stock character than is Durbin.  Obviously smart, well-schooled in handling evil men, not looking for but delighted to find possible love.  He seems more in the book to provide a counter to Durbin, there to fill a role.

Setting was a little weak too.  The action took place in Montana with brief trip to Colorado Springs but there wasn’t anything to tie the story to either locale.  It could have happened anywhere.

Summary

Overall this is a fine novel if you enjoy mysteries with a bit of suspense and like to get inside the mind of a killer.  4 Stars

I received a free copy through NetGalley in expectation of an honest review.

 

Front Runner by Felix Francis – A Darker Novel in Dick Francis’ Tradition

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Felix Francis helped his father, Dick Francis, research several novels, eventually co-authoring four, and assumed full authorship for four more novels after Dick Francis died.  Front Runner uses the same character and plot formulae his father made successful:  Strong male lead physically and morally brave, lonely and wistful about love; villain willing to kill; British horse racing setting; guy meets attractive lady early in the novel; extreme danger.

The author’s genius is that even though the plot is familiar, we get intrigued and have to keep reading.  Francis adds enough twists and false trails that we can’t be sure we spot the villain.  (In fact, I thought it was someone else.)  We can admire the main character and Francis shows him with enough failings to be realistic, not a flat 2D hero type, and the villains are also well done, complete people with good points and bad.

I enjoyed Front Runner but Felix’s novels are darker, with more nuanced heroes, more moral ambiguity than his father’s were.  I can’t read more than one Felix novel every year or so and don’t care to purchase any, but have his dad’s oeuvre on my shelf downstairs.

For example, Jeff Hinkley, investigator for British horse racing authorities, asks matter-of-factly  why someone hadn’t gotten an abortion.  Later he kills a man in self defense.  His father’s heroes managed to win without killing their adversaries and every one of them had a strong sense of hope.  These differences seem small but are part of an overall darker, less engaging mood and less enjoyable sense of place and character.

4 Stars

Broken Homes – Supernatural Mystery Suspense Fantasy – Ben Aaronovitch

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Picking favorite books is a little picking favorite kids; you can’t.  So far I’ve loved all of Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant/Rivers of London series; Midnight Riot was grand, introducing us to Peter, his buddy Lesley, boss Inspector Nightingale, crypto-pathologist Dr Walid, assorted semi-supernatural rivers and semi-dead bad guys.  Moon Over Soho gave us jazz vampires and introduced the Faceless Man.  Whispers Underground was just a tiny step down the wow! scale as we plodded through London’s sewers and discovered the Quiet Folk.

Now we’ve Broken Homes, combining the best of the first three with more suspense and mystery.  Inspector Nightingale goes into action, Peter and Lesley chase bad guys, and best of all, Peter does his usual intuitive/random/unfocused policing.

I enjoy Peter’s curiosity and intuitive feel for hidden problems.  Combined with his talent for messing up, his unique approach to problems makes him feel like someone I know.  Peter tells the story himself, using his own colloquial slang grammar (“me and Lesley”) and shares his thoughts as he goes.  He is refreshing, honest with himself and it’s fun to ride along inside his head.

The book works on multiple levels.  It’s a police/mystery/suspense story as Peter discovers the plot and sleuths connections that are as wispy as cobwebs, a character story, and a wizard/magic fantasy.  Peter is the common element and he’s a great character, well thought out, rounded, real.

Broken Homes ramps up the stakes for Peter and Nightingale.  Earlier we danced around small disasters and caught glimpses of a larger threat; this time we can see more.  The Faceless Man is an example. Inspector Nightingale calls the Faceless Man a criminal, and so he is, but his aims are hidden until the end when he tells Peter he is pursuing power, more magic power than he can safely use within himself.

Broken Homes has great secondary characters, Betsy and Kevin of the slightly shady Tankridge family and Jake Phillips, socialist activist and balcony gardener.  (His garden sounded wonderful.)

Aaronovitch uses tiny details to make bit players real.  Example is how he presents Jake Phillips as dignified, older, dedicated in just a short paragraph.  Jake is completely unembarrassed when Peter catches him stooping to put a notice in Peter’s Skytower mail slot – a vastly undignified position.  Jake needs help to stand up, so we feel his age and arthritic back.

These encounters make the story richer, more real and add humor.  In fact Broken Homes had several laugh out loud scenes, particularly Peter’s comments on architecture and decorating.  Plus we got a rich list of new British slang terms and food types; I particularly liked reading about suet jam pudding.  For the uninitiated it is not the English version of Eskimo ice cream but a cross between a shortening-rich pastry, a steamed bread and jelly roll.  Maybe someday I’ll make one.

Broken Homes took the Rivers of London series on a slight turn that should result in better stories, a longer series, more difficulties and more realistic suspense.  Earlier we tiptoed through the tulips with Peter – despite horrible moments and murders in Midnight Riot it mostly seemed like magic was fun – but now it’s serious.  There are ethically-challenged wizards who don’t care whom they hurt (even if they do draw the line at mass murder) and there is something in the Folly basement…

Five Stars.

 

Moon Over Soho – Intuitive Wizard’s Approach to Police Work – Ben Aaronovitch

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Last week I found the delicious Peter Grant series of London copper/wizard adventures by Ben Aaronovitch (read review of Midnight Riot here) and quickly requested the next book, Moon over Soho.  Wow.  What an excellent piece of fun/fantasy/true crime/romance/interior design critique!

Our hero, Peter Grant, gets deeper into magic and stumbles across the dark side.  We have at least 3 mysteries happening:

The jazz vampire
The gonad gourmet
The repulsive faceless guy
And if not already covered by one of the above, the magician behind the Strip Club of Dr. Moreau

The complex plot fits together and I didn’t have to go back and forth to clear up loose points.  Once again Aaronovitch brings us quirky, interesting characters and bit players, with lots of London tourist guidance all carefully layered into a fast, nifty plot.  I won’t spoil the story but be aware that Peter manages to cause tens of thousands in damages when he dragoons an ambulance and dumps the ambulance-ee into the Thames.  Then there’s the helicopter problem, the demon traps, his girlfriend’s missing face, his other girlfriend’s obsession with jazz….

Happiness is Learning Latin While Catching Bad Guys

Several Amazon reviewers compared the Peter Grant series to Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books, I suspect because both series have the wizard-in-the-big-city motif, but the two are completely different.  Aaronovitch’s book has darkness and evil (the jazz vampires were bad by accident) but they are happier and happy-go-lucky Peter relishes the good and is joyfully ensconced  in the police, apprehending bad guys.

Detective Inspector Nightingale, Peter’s boss, is training him to be a wizard and we get a glimpse of the not-much-like-Hogwarts school for magically inclined folks that Nightingale attended back before WW1.  The school is long closed and Peter has to learn the magic formae with Nightingale’s help, hundreds of hours of practice, with the aid of obscure Latin texts.

Peter is a bit scattershot.  His friends and bosses all tell him to focus, but I think he is focused, he just lets his mind wander down the side tracks and dusty alleys of everything else that’s going on.  He works by intuition.  I like the guy.

Architecture and Bad Interior Design

One thing I loved about all the Peter Grant books so far are the asides and running commentary on the quality (dismal) of the architecture and interior furnishings where Peter goes.  We see nightclubs with gold and crimson flocked wallpaper, interview rooms shoehorned into former closets, offices with cheap wallboard and stack box (I assume another term for knocked down/you assemble) furniture, not to mention Tupperware office buildings.  I notice buildings and the art – or lack of it – in offices and it makes me queasy to see some of the atrocious decorating.  (Where I used to work replaced their modest wall art including a couple very nice paintings with enormous photographs of unhappy looking people.  No idea why but it was depressing.)

Summary

If Moon Over Soho intrigues you, then stop now and start with the first novel with Peter Grant, Midnight Riot (aka Rivers of London.)  You can catch up on the characters and back story if you start with Moon, but you’ll enjoy the book more if you read them sequentially.  Besides Midnight Riot was wonderful, so do yourself a favor and read it.

To Catch a Bad Guy by Marie Astor – Fun, Romantic Suspense

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Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble offer To Catch a Bad Guy (Janet Maple Series Book 1) for free (always an attractive feature) but what caught my attention was the cover.  Who could resist such a cute dog?

Janet Maple has a new job as Assistant General Counsel at Bostoff Securities, working for her old friend and semi-rival Lisa.  Once Janet arrives she quickly wonders why the company hired her.  Lisa herself isn’t busy and Janet has nothing to do.  Then external lawyer Tom Wyman shows up to zip her through Bostoff’s legal structure – which is extraordinarily complex – and Janet begins to wonder just what is going on at Bostoff.

Janet does not want to rock the boat, but being a smart lady recognizes that she, as a lawyer for the brokerage, is on the hook for the firm’s legal actions and discovers the firm is missing client paperwork.  Management tells her to to forget about it, but Janet suspects something is wrong, and with her sense for crooked books honed after years in the New York District Attorney’s office she senses things aren’t quite as rosy as they appear.

Janet quickly finds herself embroiled with the cute IT guy, dodging  Tom Wyman, digging just a bit under the surface, and worried sick about her friend Lisa and Lisa’s fiance.

Overall To Catch A Bad Guy is cute, fun, a fast read that catches your imagination.  The characters are interesting and I felt for Janet once she realized she was in a sticky situation.  Don’t expect deep character building or complex themes but do expect a fun couple of hours.

Author Marie Astor used To Catch a Bad Guy (Janet Maple Series Book 1) to set the stage for a couple of sequels featuring the same characters, the budding romances and have our friends take care of the bad guys.  I enjoyed To Catch a Bad Guy enough that I purchased two of the follow up novels.

Creepy Scary Snoopiness – The God’s Eye View by Barry Eisler

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The God’s Eye View starts off mild, then builds suspense at the same time we start caring about the characters.

Evie Gallagher like any mother, wants to take care of her young son, Dash.  Dash is deaf and Evie is divorced, with her ex-husband only peripherally involved so Evie needs her job.  Evie is good at her work and enjoys the technical challenges and the trust and access to her boss, Anders.  Evie’s job?  She’s an analyst at the NSA and her boss is the director.

Anders is also fanatical about building complete surveillance, complete information access on everybody and complete ability to track and monitor everyone.  He’s amoral and manipulative and sees everything he does as good for the country.  In other words he is one scary, creepy menace.

The Plot

Evie keeps her head down and does her job developing a tracking system that leads her to discover a high up NSA stationed in Turkey has contacted a “subversive” journalist.  Evie reports that contact to Anders and also asks him whether her report about a CIA analyst in contact with a different “subversive” had anything to do with the analyst’s reported suicide the next day.  Anders denies it, but she can’t quite trust him – but she does not want to suspect him.

The plot builds from here.  Anders calls in his favorite nasty guys to take down the two men in Turkey, but one of the take downs, meant to be a straightforward kidnapping/murder, backfires when the kidnappers go public with their captive.  Meanwhile Anders discovers that the high NSA official, now dead, very likely knew of his pet project, God’s Eye.  Anders goes into high gear to stomp out any possibility of his project becoming public.

The book moves fast.  Evie is smart and connects the dots all too soon for Anders who orders her death.  Unfortunately for him, one of his nasty guys, Manus, has fallen for Evie and protects her.  Anders spins out of control, not caring who or how many people he has to kill in order to protect his big secrets.

The end is satisfying but not conclusive.  Big Brother is still out there, just a bit less virulent.

Characters

The people are well done, especially the main antagonists, Evie and Ander.  Eisler shows how someone like Anders, a decorated veteran, patriot, dedicated to serving his country, could go so far into the dark side.  Evie is easy to understand.  She’s smart, she enjoys being good at her work, she loves her son and needs the best job she can get in order to send him to the special school.  The two nasties are less detailed, sufficient for the story.

Backstory

The God’s Eye View is darn scary.  We know we don’t get the full story in the news and we know we can’t trust the government to be the shining city on the hill we all hope it to be.  Author Barry Eisler uses headlines and the fallout from the Eric Snowden affair to craft an excellent story.  With luck it will help us all question what we read and see.

Overall I’d give The God’s Eye View 4 stars.  Very well done, reasonably enjoyable and scary as heck.

The Knowing by Ninie Hammon Supernatural Suspense With a Bang

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I was skeptical when I read author Ninie Hammon’s description of her novel The Knowing,  it will “grab you in a reality so gripping you’ll decide you can fold the towels later and the lawn will still be out there to mow tomorrow”.  About 50 pages in I realized it was way past bedtime and 50 pages more finally decided to put it down.  It truly is that good.

The author describes it as supernatural spiritual warfare, or a paranormal thriller with a backstory that depends on “scriptural realities, though, that most Christians say they believe–but really don’t”, dealing with demons, hell, foolish and evil people that knowingly invite in the devil.  Despite this there is no religion in it, no preaching, no reason that non-believers won’t enjoy the story and characters.

Characters

Jack is a cop called in to stop a school massacre.  Daniel is a Protestant pastor who lost his belief but has his wife and daughter to care for.  Theresa is an older lady, a crossing guard, whose husband died in the school shooting.  These three struggle to understand what is happening to them, what happened about 20 years before when Jack and Daniel were 14 and best friends, what the evil is that threatens them and their families.

Author Hammond makes her people so real that you feel as if you know them.  She lets us into their hearts and minds as we ride along, as bewildered and over matched as they feel.  She builds sub plots, such as Daniel’s wife’s infidelity and Daniel’s struggle to understand his faith and its loss.

The bad guys are believable too, what appear to be normal (more or less) guys driven by demons.  Hammond shows us what happens today and what happened 20 years before, and we see pain and fear and misery, that Jack and Daniel and the mystery girl Becca.  Now the demons are back and want to pick up where they left off.

Be Aware

The bad guys are racist and cruel.  Know going in you will hear some disgusting terms for people and animal cruelty.  Several characters have horrible grammar; don’t use this book as a guide to the English language.

The Knowing: Book One launches a series, total book count unknown.  You can read this as a standalone novel as it has a beginning, middle and end, but it’s easy to see where Book 2 will start.

I’ve not read anything by this author before and am fast changing that.  She is exceptionally strong at building characters that are people and fast moving plots.  Five Stars.

Surveillance – Ghost Targets Futuristic Suspense and Crankiness

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Let’s get the crankiness over first.  Have you noticed the trend towards eliminating irregular verbs?  “Dived” instead of “dove”, “lighted” instead of “lit”, “shined” instead of “shone” and more?  I like irregular verbs.  They link our English back to its Anglo Saxon roots and it annoys me when authors don’t use them.

I’m also annoyed when authors uses the name of the Lord as a throwaway exclamation or curse.  This is wrong.

On to the book review…

Surveillance (Ghost Targets Book 1)

Surveillance is a near future suspense novel set in a world where everything is recorded and tracked.  Walk into a building?  It’s on the video record.  Speak in a public place?  Recorded, voice print identified to you and logged.  The basic system, called Hathor, handles everything and connects seamlessly to services like Hearth (housing) and Midas (finance).

The novel occurs about 20 years after the first systems were challenged on privacy grounds and after the benefits and relatively benign uses have made almost everyone accept them.  For example Katie was able to find, lease and decorate an apartment while walking out of work using the Hearth system. Most criminal trials now happen before a judge who uses the evidence collected by Jurisprudence and assembled by law enforcement into a coherent story virtually guaranteed to be accurate.

Katie Pratt is brand new to the FBI Ghost Targets group, assigned to a murder investigation on her first day.  The Ghost Targets group exists because some people have been able to ghost themselves right out of the records.  Since Jurisprudence cannot see the ghosts, the FBI team develops other methods.

Surveillance is interesting and somewhat thought provoking.  Would people really give up their privacy in exchange for great convenience and benign, almost invisible oversight?  And of course we have the perennial question.  If the watchers watch everything, who watches the watchers?

I enjoyed the idea and the plot but found the characters were a bit flat.  We never learn the connection between the murderer and his victim, why they were together.  Katie doesn’t show much personality and Martin Door, one of the original Hathor developers, is two-dimensional.

Overall this was an OK book, worth reading but not worth keeping.  I don’t plan to look for the sequels.

Review: The Human Division by John Scalzi, Vignettes in the Old Man’s War Series

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The Human Division is listed as the fifth book in the Old Man’s War series, but you can enjoy it even without having read the other books in the series.  John Scalzi does a good job filling you in on the background and who’s who while telling the story.  I’m speaking from personal experience here as I read only one of the other books and that was several years ago.  I didn’t recall the story except that it was good, and of course Scalzi is the same guy who wrote the wonderful Agent to the Stars. Those were good enough to make this book a must-read.

Scalzi is so talented a writer he was able to take 13 semi-related vignettes that seemed written for a television series, and turn them into a novel that flowed well.  That is not easy.  Each episode was loosely connected with most of the characters repeating and there was a loose time sequence.  (The introduction mentions the publisher released these as individual episodes electronically.

I enjoyed this book.  Each vignette was interesting and had characters with a few quirks and habits that added a bite of humor.  The plot was deadly serious.  The Colonial Union got found out for its bad habit of keeping Earth in the dark and using the home planet as a source of people for colonists and army.  At the same time several hundred other races banded together in a Conclave that detests the Colonial Union.  (Since I didn’t read the prior books I’m not sure what the CU did to these other races to warrant this ill will.  It’s clear the CU had a penchant for aggressive, in-your-face behavior and managed to come out on top in prior conflicts.)

The book focuses on the B diplomat team led by Abumwe and helped greatly by Harry Wilson, Colonial Defense Force (the CU military) liason and his good friend Hart Schmidt.  The CU leaders view Abumwe as a second tier diplomat but after her team performs heroically and brilliantly to save the Utche agreement the leadership decides to upgrade her – but doesn’t tell Ubumwe or anyone else.  Instead they will use her team for those miserable situations that need initiative and off-the-cuff solutions.

In the first episode one of the A teams is destroyed by an unknown force when it arrives early to meet with the Utche.  Ubumwe’s team is tossed in as back ups with virtually no notice.  Wilson discovers five missiles primed to attack the Utche upon their arrival.  Wilson manages to decoy four of them to attack his shuttle and the ship captain gets the last one to attack the ship.  This of course makes the Utche feel pretty good and the diplomacy succeeds.

Each episode was like the first.  Present a problem, let the characters deal with it the way they would, and pull victory from defeat.  By the end of the book it is still far from certain that the CU will survive and even more uncertain whether Earth and the CU will become buddies again.  But there is hope.

Scalzi left the stage wide open for future books, whether conventional novels or this type of episodic story.  No one is able to identify who the mystery attackers are that destroyed the first Utche mission team and that mystery enemy pops up in several later episodes.

If Scalzi decides to write more in this series I’d like to see the stories done in this vignette style.  It was a very successful way to show the situations and characters and most enjoyable.

 

The Sedona Files Christine Pope, Books 1-3, Bad Vibrations, Desert Hearts, Angel Fire

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I found Christine Pope in the omnibus Gods and Mortals.  (Don’t ask.  Most of the stories were atrocious, muddled teen things.)  Her novel was fun despite the ridiculous premise and worse theology, and I looked for more. The Sedona Files: Books 1-3 collects the first three books in her science fiction / fantasy / suspense / romance novels set in the Arizona town of Sedona, about 10 miles from an alien outpost meant to conquer the Earth.

The premise of the books is a bit silly, but if you overlook the basic plot framework and enjoy the characters, setting and the story, these are fun, fast reads.

In Bad Vibrations (The Sedona Files Book 1) psychic Persephone O’Brien gets into a real mess when a new client asks about his wife, whom he is convinced has been taken over by aliens.  One thing leads to another and pretty soon Persephone and her new friend Paul Oliver have escaped from LA to Sedona Arizona to get help from a bunch of UFO nuts.

Unfortunately the nuts (and her would-be client) are right.  Aliens have a base near Sedona and are trying to take over the world by embedding obedience messages into new films and television shows.    Persephone manages to kick over the alien’s sand castle but not before we readers get entranced with the UFO nuts and the growing bond between Persephone and Paul.

I found this wacky novel with a goofy plot a lot of fun.  It was fast paced, well written and the descriptions of Sedona made me want to hop in the car and go visit.

Desert Hearts (The Sedona Files Book 2) was the weakest of the three.  Christine Pope did a good job on her heroines except this particular one, Kara, had a problem knowing which guy she loved.  She fell for Greyson, the stranger who collapsed in her living room, but dumped him cold when she found long-loved-but-despaired-of Lance was in love with her.  She treated Greyson horribly, it’s plain rude to throw up just because you find out your boyfriend is half alien, and even ruder to have a fling then dump the guy the minute your real heartthrob shows interest.

It is more than rude, it is just plain wrong to treat people the way Kara treated Greyson. In the end it is Greyson, not the intrepid band of UFO nuts who blow up the alien’s rebuilt fusion reactor and base. Pope made Greyson likeable and real, and having Kara just dump him made me dislike her.

Angel Fire (The Sedona Files Book 3) is a good ending for the series.  Kirsten, Kara’s younger sister, is the star of this book along with her “Man in Black”, Martin Jones.  This was tightly written with fast action and more suspense than the others.  We aren’t sure whether Kirstsen will be able to do what she needs to, nor are we really sure what Agent Jones is about.

The aliens attack Kirsten physically and mentally and she must develop strengths she never realized.  One thing I liked was her down-to-earth view of the UFO nuts and New Agers.  She knew the UFOs were real and she knew the tourists would be horrified if they realized how dangerous and threatening the aliens were.

I liked the way the other characters got a chance to shine in Angel Fire, including geeky Jeff, and the fact some of the characters have to sacrifice something to win.  Perhaps that’s what bothered me so much about Kara and Lance in Desert Hearts, they sacrificed nothing but Greyson gave up his life.  The other character who got a free pass was Otto, although he threw the book at Martin Jones.

Summary

In all the books the central character is a woman, a different one each time although all three are present in all three novels.  All three books are fast paced, where the characters don’t know where they are going until they arrive, nor do they have time to stop and whine.  I like reading books with strong female leads and by the time the books ended I felt like we were friends.  I’m sure I’d recognize Kirsten if I met her on the street!

I didn’t like how the ladies in each book fell so quickly in love and into bed but the good dialogue, neat plot, tight characterization and great setting more than made up for the immoral behavior.  Another point that made the books believable was the day-to-day events, things like cooking supper, minding the store, arranging for a helicopter ride.  Lots of books breeze right by these but the humdrum day in and day out stuff makes the stories more believable and the characters more like people.

Definitely I will look for more by Christine Pope.