Monthly Archives: January 2014

Clanged Together Effortlessly

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17079624 by
My Rating: 3/5 Stars

You might say destiny brought this book and me together. I certainly didn’t discover it in the usual manner. Instead of purchasing it online, discovering it in a conference gift bag, requesting it on NetGalley, or snapping it up for free online via some form or fashion, it stared up at me from a pile of books next to the sink in the men’s bathroom in Albany, NY. Crazy, right? Well, I didn’t have to think too long and hard about it, since free books and I go about as well together as sugar and cocoa beans.

This book proved to be more thriller than suspense, and it certainly managed to hold my attention with a heroine that has a bit of a backbone and a quirky nature. Sydney Fitzpatrick may fail at relationships, but she’s not going to fail when it comes to protecting colleagues and individuals, and that’s why it was rather easy to rally behind her, even if she did make a mistake or two along the way. The world may have Armageddon on its doorstep, but she’s not about to back off. And I wasn’t about to back down from THE KILL ORDER.

It captured my attention right away, and I managed to hold on to the side of the cliff with what was left of my fingernails. Dangling on the side of a precipice, I could have used a string of random numbers and possibly a rope and a woman with more than a bit of gumption on the other end who has enough wherewithal to accept the challenge of pulling me back to safety.

Piper Lawrence proved to be an intriguing character. Saddled with eidetic memory, this allows her to remember strings of random numbers as soon as she reads them, more than a dozen license plates with effortless ease, or recite entire pages from Shakespeare after one perusal, which makes her an absolute hit at drinking parties. Even if she has few friends and even fewer people who understand her true talents, it’s hard not to soften your heart when she enters the picture and rally behind her with both hands placed firmly in front of you.

The dialogue punched and sang and clanged together effortlessly and easily; the story railed away at my senses; the characters fit together rather seamlessly. But I did find myself questioning the likelihood of the storyline, and I would have preferred more jagged edges, instead of the pieces fitting together a bit too easily.

I received this ARC for free at Bouchercon (via the men’s bathroom).

A Firm Salute

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13718967 by
My Rating: 3/5 Stars

Few things bring me greater pleasure than stumbling across free books. One might even say I have a sickness or disease for which there is no cure in this life or the next. But I’ve learned to live with my disease and so has my wife. So when I happened upon THE DROP on the other side of the TSA line as it sat on a metal table and as I picked through my luggage before I headed toward the pearly gate and a destination that was not New Mexico, one might say I was giddy. I took a quick look around and then stuffed this gem of a novel in my backpack before I received a TSA pre-approved pat down and body cavity search.

Did it turn out to be a great novel? Not exactly. Would I have done it again if I could go back in time? Absolutely. Do I like TSA? We have a love-hate relationship, although recent traveling events have leaned me a little more in the love direction.

Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch has had a long and distinguished career within the confines of the LAPD, and I’ve entered the confines of his world from time to time to say hello and offer up a firm salute. Michael Connelly knows his crime fiction, and he knows how to offer up more than a few thrills for even the hard-to-thrill individuals. The cast of characters spans an entire precinct, and the two crimes placed firmly on Harry’s lap span decades forcing him in the middle of a political and criminal quagmire where the scales start to pile up against our aging hero.

The story holds firm even if it feels a bit forced at times, and it’s nice to visit in on an old friend, even if the surroundings feel just a bit too easy and familiar. There’s retribution and hate and animosity and enough of a story to keep the kiddos entertained, but I would have preferred a better meshing of the two crimes and more hard-hitting elements contained within this gritty tale.