Skip to main content

Mini Reviews Galore

A few books have passed through these fingers in the last few months.

The Pale Blue - Louis Bayard
I have mentioned this book on a few occasions. It got stellar reviews and was nominated for an Edgar. I picked this book up in LA. I decided I would read because I wanted to read at least one of the nominees, plus the story sounds killer. Edgar Allen Poe at West Point.... yeah! Unfortunately, this book went no where... slow. Some could call this character development..... this book was not that..... plus the ultimate solution to novel is pinched from perhaps the best crime novel of all time. The only negative review I read of the book came as I was 3/4 of the way through it. I was pot committed by that point.

Die A Little - Megan Abbott
Another book from my LA sojourn. Enjoyed this book immensely. A sharply written, sharply observed first novel from Ms. Abbott. It reminded me of James Ellroy.... only with proper sentence structure.

One Last Breath - Stephen Booth
A good to great UK police procedural, and one of the more dependable series we read here at THD. Booth writes a well crafted scene with believable a characters and situations. My tiny gripe is that the relationship between our protagonists feels like it has plateaued. The antagonism between the two just got tiresome during this book.

Big City, Bad Blood - Sean Chercover
Hard not to compare this novel with Marcus Sakey's The Blade Itself. Released the same month, possibly the same day, both novels are set in Chicago. And much like Blade, BCBD is a winner. A lot of time the criteria I apply to weather a book ultimately works or not is; Do I want to be this guy? I totally want to be Ray Dudgeon. Next book please!

Whack-A-Mole - Chris Grabenstein
I bought this book on Friday (5-25-07) and finished it on Saturday. I love this series. I can't wait until May '08. My criteria definitely applies here as well. I would kill to be John Ceepak..... but I am the Danny Boyle character... desperately trying to be the John Ceepak character.

The staff of The Hungry Detective wishes you all a safe, happy, and peaceful Memorial Day.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Very Best of Mr. Dennis Lehane

I thought this post would appear in October. Ya, know when SHUTTER ISLAND: THE MOVIE was supposed to be released. And then it wasn't. Something about Leo not being able to do 'press' for the movie. Doesn't really matter the reason, a February release date has one of those fancy Hollywood meanings: Not Good. Look I'll be honest, I didn't connect with SHUTTER ISLAND. I loved the fifties setting, the haunted house atmosphere, and impending doom of the Hurricane. Even the set-up of the story was intriguing but how it played out just didn't work for me. Some interesting characters, a bunch of great set pieces, but the ending announces itself with an expected, thud that went nowhere. Am I still going to the movie? Its Lehane, Scorsese, Leo, and Ruffalo of course I am. Anyway the list. 8. Prayers for Rain - 1999 The last Kenzie-Gennaro book follows our heroes as they investigate a guy who is terrorizing women into committing suicide. The book played like an episo
4 comments
Read more

Small Mercies - The Return of Dennis Lehane

 A time honored tradition at The Hungry Detective HQ is to perform the twice annual, and largely ceremonial, 'Dennis Lehane New book 20XX" Google search. Nothing comes up on his long abandoned Website, except notification of the script work for his television and film projects.  Grousing aside, 2022 was a big year for Mr. Lehane. BLACK BIRD, a show he created, played on Apple+ to solid acclaim. The show's star, Paul Walter Hauser, won a Golden Globe. But despite that I have yet to watch it. Not for any other reason than I am a movie person more than a TV person. The TV I do watch is watched in an arcane order that is difficult to decipher and even more baffling to explain. Short story, I need to watch ANDOR [Editor's Note: Slow going on ANDOR despite everyone telling me it is amazing.] And then BLACK BIRD, or maybe SLOW HORSES. I'll get there...  Anyway at the dead end of 2022, I did the search. Found out he wrote a book. SMALL MERCIES . I was excited to hear it. I
Post a Comment
Read more

A Fogotten Post: A Remembrance

[Editor's Note: Started this missive, never came back to it. Still relevant, I suppose.] I am reading MURDER IN OLD BOMBAY by Nev Marsh. This was... technically still is... on my to buy pile. In the before time... the overwhelming to be read pile time... I would have bought this and thrown it on the shelf to read in the near or more likely distant future. I hope I like it enough to buy the second in the series. Buying a book is fun, buying a book that is good is better. [Editor's Note: Abandoned this book, unfinished.] BLACKTOP WASTELAND - S.A. COSBY So glad I didn't buy this last summer. Good decision to put off buying and reading what would have certainly been one of the best books of the year. New goal for the remaining 2021 calendar. Don't be dumb. Buy Mr. Cosby's follow up and read day one! [Editor's Note: I did buy a signed copy of RAZORBLADE  TEARS, meanwhile B.W. won every award, except the Edgar where it wasn't even nominated!? Also Signed firsts of
Post a Comment
Read more