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RESIDUE + THE LAST TOURIST + DEVOLUTION - Review

In between RESIDUE and THE LAST TOURIST, I read DEVOLUTION: A FIRST HAND ACCOUNT OF THE RAINIER SASQUATCH MASSACRE. Low key, I think Max Brooks's WORLD WAR Z is a straight up masterpiece. DEVOLUTION was not as finely detailed and I found the opening chapters a little rough, but otherwise this is FANTASTIC. A grounded and compulsively well told story. Exceptional stuff.

RESIDUE - Michael McGarrity

There has always been a bit of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct in the Kevin Kerney series. Lots of characters moving in and out, occasionally taking over for a chapter or two, but the story is always ably lead by now retired Sheriff Kevin Kerney. RESIDUE certainly gets off on the right foot with the discovery of a long missing girl's body with a connection to Kerney. That connection turns Kerney into a murder suspect, and we are off and running with this compelling first act. The promising start is squandered, however, as the story veers from the girl and Kerney. Indeed, Kerney is more or less absent from the back half of the book, and even his son, Clayton, disappears for long stretches as the books shifts into tracking down a long missing DEA agent. It felt like Mr. McGarrity had the first half of one story and the back half of another. The threads that tie these two stories together were stretched to make one. It just was not successful for me. Despite this I was happy to have these characters back after a significant break and look forward to Mr. McGarrity's next book and farewell to Sheriff Kerney, HEAD WOUNDS, releasing on November 10th.

THE LAST TOURIST - Olen Steinhauer

Mr. Steinhauer's previous book [Editor's Note: RIP Berlin Station. RIP. Daniel] THE MIDDLEMAN was essentially book 3.5 in the The Tourist series. Elsewhere on this blog I said that I was not a fan. THE LAST TOURIST does not suffer the same fate. THE LAST TOURIST is terribly prescient and true about the current state of the world and our future. Spoiler alert: It's not great Bob! This is first class storytelling and one of the best of the year.

Current Read: CRY BABY - Mark Billingham
To Be Read: 5
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