Category Archives: Reviews

Fiction, Reviews

‘The Silent Hour,’ by Michael Koryta

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“I’ve got to live with that,” he said, “and all I can do, the only way I know to cope with it, is by looking for atonement. Because while his blood might be on my hands, I didn’t kill him—and if I can see that whoever did kill him is punished? Perry, that’s the closest thing I’ve got to redemption.”

The Lincoln Perry detective series by Michael Koryta comes to an end with The Silent Hour – though the conclusion is open-ended, and I imagine there could be more coming down the line.

The great pleasure in these books, I think, is the plotting – these are the kinds of stories where you think you have the solutions, and then further mysteries open up, like petals in a flower, till you finally reach the shocking heart of things. In this case – and I may be being pretentious here – I thought I saw the same thing going on, on a subtextual level, making this a meta-mystery.

Lincoln Perry has had a rough time in his most recent big cases. He got his partner shot and nearly killed. He got his girlfriend into danger. He isn’t much interested when a quiet man named Parker Harrison comes to him – repeatedly – asking him to look into a twelve-year-old mystery. A couple named Cantrell had run a rehabilitation program for ex-convicts – one of whom was Harrison himself. Twelve years ago they disappeared. Harrison wants to find out what happened to them.

Lincoln isn’t much interested in the case – even less so when he learns that the missing wife was sister to one of Cleveland’s chief crime lords. But Harrison gets through to him at last. He agrees to look into it.

Before too long, someone Lincoln likes is dead. Lincoln goes sour, not only on the case, but on the very idea of being a private investigator. Should he just pack it in? Is the game worth the candle?

The question is an existential one – why do we feel the need to solve mysteries? To learn the truth? At what cost? Is it worth people’s lives?

I wish there were more Lincoln Perry novels to read after The Silent Hour. As it is, I’ll go on to other Michael Koryta novels, as well as his Scott Carson books.

I wish he’d work out his paragraph protocols, though. The breaks in the text are unnecessarily confusing.

Fiction, Reviews

‘A Welcome Grave,’ by Michael Koryta

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I’ve reached Book 3 in Michael Koryta’s Lincoln Perry detective series, A Welcome Grave. Lincoln, our hero, has a girlfriend whom he loves, but he also has a past. Once he was engaged to a woman, but she broke it off, later marrying an older, millionaire lawyer. Lincoln responded in character – he punched the guy in the face, ending his own police career.

Now, years later, that man is dead – tortured to death. Lincoln gets a call from the widow, who wants him to locate her stepson, who ran off some time ago and has a substantial inheritance coming. Lincoln isn’t happy about the job, but feels obligated to take it. He finds the young man, too – but he’s not prepared for his shocking reaction. Nor is he prepared for the local cop who decides that Lincoln Perry will be the chief suspect in the father’s murder case. Suspicions are increased as clue after clue pops up to frame him, neatly orchestrated. Lincoln will have to work fast, and be very smart, to keep out of jail. And then the stakes will be raised yet again.

The Lincoln Perry books are simply very good. Well written and engaging. There’s plenty of action, but the emphasis is on the characters.

A Welcome Grave is highly recommended, with the usual cautions for grownup stuff.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Sorrow’s Anthem,’ by Michael Koryta

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I am finding, in Michael Koryta’s Lincoln Perry novels, a pleasure I haven’t enjoyed (at least to this extent) since I first read Andrew Klavan’s under-appreciated Weiss/Bishop novels – a series of free-standing stories that nevertheless form a larger, coherent narrative in which the main characters develop. Sorrow’s Anthem is the second book in the series.

Ed Gradduk and Lincoln Perry were best friends as boys. They lived in the same neighborhood, played together, made mischief together. But Lincoln grew up to be a cop, then a private investigator, while Ed got into trouble and went to prison. Worse than that, it was Lincoln who sent him down. He didn’t mean to – he offered him a chance to get off if he’d testify against his associates, but Ed kept mum and did his time.

But now he’s out and in trouble again, charged with murder and arson. Lincoln goes to look for him, and finds him. But Ed has something he wants to explain before Lincoln takes him in. Except that he’s dead before he can finish his story. Agonized by his guilt over failing his old friend, Lincoln sets about discovering Ed’s secret, and the reason why someone thought he had to die. He’ll find himself up against crooked cops, crooked politicians, and organized crime before he blows it all open.

Koryta writes a great story. He generally doesn’t produce the kind of memorable prose that makes Raymond Chandler or John D. MacDonald so quotable, but every line does its job and the final effect goes directly to the heart.

My only quibbles are first (as I’ve mentioned before) paragraph breaks are inconsistent and confusing. Prose of this quality deserves better page setup. Also, Koryta is one of those writers who thinks a semiautomatic pistol uses a “clip” rather than a magazine.

Doesn’t matter, though. These are great books, and Sorrow’s Anthem is a great (and memorable) read.

Fiction, Reviews

‘His Last Lie,’ by Erik Therme

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Ryan Driscoll, point-of-view narrator of His Last Lie, by Erik Therme, is a young man in difficulties. He wants to get married to his live-in girlfriend, but has lost his job and is having trouble getting another one. He gets little support from his parents – his mother is distant and disengaged, and his father has never said a kind word to him in his life. Yet Ryan still does them favors, out of a sense of obligation.

He’s just given his father a ride home when the old man shoots himself to death. All he leaves Ryan is a shoebox, which turns out to be full of money. Only it’s not for him. It’s for somebody named Jamie Norton, of whom Ryan has never heard. When he starts asking family and friends about this person, it starts him on a journey of confrontation and discovery, in which everything he ever believed about his life will be turned upside down.

I never entirely made up my mind about His Last Lie. The writing was quite good (in spite of the present tense narrative). My problem with it was that it was highly psychological, and I had trouble judging how realistic the portrayals were. It gets pretty extreme, and maybe implausible in some parts – though I’m not sure.

But all in all, I thought it was pretty good for a small, family mystery story. It certainly kept me guessing. I think I can recommend it, with cautions for language and very disturbing themes.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Tonight I Said Goodbye,’ by Michael Koryta

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I’ve been pretty impressed with the novelist Michael Koryta, and have enjoyed several of his novels now. Tonight I Said Goodbye is, apparently, his first published novel, and first in his Lincoln Perry detective series. As I read it, I thought – condescendingly – that this was well done, but fairly elementary stuff. I was pretty sure I knew how the plot was going to be resolved.

And all the time I was being taken in. What I thought was happening wasn’t what was happening at all – and the conclusion shocked me like ice water in the face. I was being played by a master.

Lincoln Perry, along with his partner, Joe Pritchard, runs a successful private detective agency in Cleveland, Ohio. They’re not much interested when old John Weston asks them to find his missing daughter-in-law and granddaughter. The case has been all over the media – Weston’s son Wayne (who was, as it happened, a private investigator himself) was found shot to death. The assumption is that he murdered his wife and child, hid the bodies, and then killed himself. John Weston is certain that’s not true. Finally, he goads Lincoln into taking the case.

Wayne Weston, as it turns out, was not as clean as his reputation would have it. He worked almost exclusively for a predatory local property developer, and the names of Russian gangsters keep popping up in the investigation. But it isn’t until Lincoln follows a clue to South Carolina that the case starts exploding around him, and the stakes soar into the sky like rockets.

Tonight I Said Goodbye was a classic detective novel, but better written than most and delightfully unpredictable. I recommend it highly, and look forward to reading the next book in the series.

My only real quibble is poor manuscript setup. For some reason, paragraphs often run together, which can confuse the reader when it happens in dialogue. But that’s probably not the author’s fault.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Blind to Sin,’ by Dave White

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I’m not entirely certain why I had so much trouble reading Dave White’s Blind to Sin. It’s a complex book, and demanded some effort in the reading – and I wasn’t entirely certain I was enjoying it enough to make it worth the work.

This is the second book in a series, starring former private detective Jackson Doyle and current private eye (and part-time high school basketball coach) Matt Herrick. Doyle is now serving a stretch in prison, having confessed to murder. He has many enemies in the prison, but has a protector in Kenneth Herrick, Matt’s convict father.

Years ago, Kenneth was part of a successful trio of bank robbers – he and his wife Tammy, plus their driver, Elliot Cole. But when a job went bad and Kenneth sacrificed his freedom to let the other two get away, their family was broken up, and son Matthew was left resenting both his parents, and determined to live a positive, law-abiding life.

When Doyle and Kenneth are released from prison early, though bribery by Elliot Cole, the two freed men are pressured to join Elliot in an audacious scheme to steal a fortune in government money – and Elliot wants to bring Matthew in as well.

What was my problem with Blind to Sin? I guess one difficulty was that – at the beginning – I had trouble telling the characters apart. I found them very similar in their dialogue (and physical descriptions were doled out parsimoniously). Also, the plot seemed to me far-fetched, and the character motivations, if not impossible, at least highly implausible.

And there’s the running theme that Doyle feels a moral obligation to protect “innocent” Matthew, who as a private eye never carries a gun and therefore requires a ruthless killer to defend him. (In the real world, I’m pretty sure,  being a private eye isn’t all that dangerous, and lots of P.I.’s work without guns.)

In any case, I found Blind to Sin heavy going and joyless to read. There are some interesting themes at work here, but it left me flat.

Fiction, Reviews

‘The Bind,’ by Stanley Ellin

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I’m still trying to get a handle on mystery writer Stanley Ellin. And I must admit that his 1970 novel The Bind kind of blindsided me. It’s unlike the previous Ellin books I’ve read, less reflective – this one is genuine hardboiled, in the old tradition. The way they wrote before Political Correctness.

Jake Dekker is a freelance insurance investigator, the kind who works with the companies to identify fraud, and keeps half of the payout value if he can prove it. He flies into Miami Beach with Ellie, a sexy young actress recruited at the last minute to pose as his wife. They move into a beachfront home next to Mrs. Thoren, wife of the deceased. Mr. Thoren died in an auto crash, but the insurance people suspect he committed suicide, which would invalidate the claim.

Getting to know the Thorens and their neighbors, Jake grows increasingly suspicious that the dead man had a secret, and was being blackmailed. If he can uncover the guilty secret, he may have leverage to pressure the widow to fess up.

Meanwhile, Ellie is falling in love with Jake, and he’s not immune to her charms. But that will make both of them more vulnerable when pressure is applied from an unexpected quarter.

The Bind was closer to a Mickey Spillane novel than I looked for in a Stanley Ellin story. Jake Dekker is a very hard case, a business-first guy who can be really brutal when it’s called for. Sensitivity is not in his toolbox. His relationship with Ellie is completely pre-feminist – there’s no question here who wears the pants, or who needs protecting. Reading it after all these years, I found that element a little shocking, but… let’s say, I didn’t hate it.

There was more sex than violence in this story, just the opposite of the way a mystery adventure would be done nowadays. And as for the conclusion – well, I think I can say that it’s not a good idea to look for happy endings in an Ellin book.

By the way, The Bind was filmed, after a fashion, in 1979, under the title of “Sunburn,” as a vehicle for Farrah Fawcett, fresh off her breakout role on “Charlie’s Angels.” Charles Grodin played Jake. The studio made the decision to turn it into an adventure comedy (which the book most definitely is not), and it flopped badly. Even Art Carney in a supporting role couldn’t save it. (I saw it myself, and was perfectly satisfied to watch Farrah under any circumstances).

I wouldn’t say I loved The Bind. It’s too much in the Mike Hammer mold for my taste. But it was well done after its kind.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Very Old Money,’ by Stanley Ellin

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So, thought Mike, if a tree crashes down in Durie Forest with only servants in earshot, does it make any sound? No, it does not.

Working my way through the works of Stanley Ellin, my new enthusiasm, I come to Very Old Money, a rather odd book that’s kind of an Upstairs, Downstairs comedy (or tragedy) of manners, though a murder is involved.

Mike and Amy Lloyd are our main characters; Amy is actually the center of the story. When they lose their jobs teaching at a posh private school, a friend refers them to a placement service that recruits servants for the very rich. The job Mike and Amy get is a strange and challenging one – they are to work for the Durie family, who are “very old money.” The Duries’ wealth goes back to colonial times. To the Duries, the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers are nouveau riche. The Duries do nothing ostentatious. They live in a vast mansion off Fifth Avenue, but they keep out of sight and out of the newspapers.

Mike is to be their chauffeur. Amy is to serve as assistant to the chief housekeeper, and also as a companion to Miss Margaret, the family’s honorary matriarch, who went blind during her youth, when she was a famous beauty and an aspiring painter. Miss Margaret lived in bitter retirement until just recently, when she suddenly took new interest in life. She asked that a companion be hired for her, specifying that the woman must be very tall – which Amy, conveniently, is.

They soon find themselves embroiled in intramural intrigue. The housekeeper instructs Amy to report to her everything Miss Margaret does, while Miss Margaret insists that she tell no one about her secret visits to a hotel, and the cash she regularly withdraws from her bank account. This places Mike and Amy in an increasingly untenable position, but that’s nothing to what’s going to happen when Miss Margaret brings her plans to a conclusion.

Very Old Money is an unusual crime novel, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. Ellin’s writing and characters are consistently superior. I was particularly impressed by the fact that I was sure I knew where the plot was headed, and was completely wrong (as well as somewhat shocked).

Not a book you’re likely to fall in love with, but well worth reading.

Fiction, Reviews

‘The Eighth Circle,’ by Stanley Ellin

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“Perish the thought,” Ruth said. The tapping of her high heels made a quick obligato to his footsteps as they moved off down the street, and he observed, she walked careful inches apart from him. “Perish radar. Perish everything that does away with witches and warlocks and wonders. Step on a crack, break your mother’s back,” she singsonged cheerfully, picking her way across a stretch of broken pavement, and then let out a small yelp. “Oh, poor mother! But that wasn’t my fault, was it? There are more cracks than pavement here.”

I have an idea I may have read this book already, many years ago, because one scene in it had stuck in my mind over time – though it’s possible someone else could have written a similar scene in another book. But the name of the author, Stanley Ellin, seemed familiar to me. So I bought The Eighth Circle. And I’m very glad I did. I have a new author for my short shelf of favorites.

The hero of The Eighth Circle (published 1958) is Murray Kirk, proprietor of a high-end New York detective agency. Their approach is pure business – no toughs, no guns, no rough stuff. Just the discreet gathering of sordid information. Murray is a cynic; he’s seen enough private dirt to be convinced that everybody’s corrupt. There is no idealism left in Murray Kirk.

So when a lawyer friend approaches him with a case involving a policeman accused of corruption, Murray isn’t interested at first. Until he catches sight of the lawyer’s beautiful sister, who’s engaged to the accused cop. Murray is suddenly head over heels in love, and he has a plan – take the job, but undercut the case. Prove the cop’s guilt. Then the girl will throw him over, and Murray will be there to comfort her.

But in the event, worldly, disillusioned Murray Kirk has a few things to learn about life and the human heart after all.

The Eighth Circle (the reference is to the eighth circle of Hell, where liars, flatterers, and grifters find their doom) is not only an interesting mystery story, but a very fine novel in its own right. The prose resonates, the characters are complex, and the dialogue sparkles. The ending even surprised me. Reading this book was an unalloyed pleasure, and I recommend it to one and all.

I’m embarrassed I wasn’t better aware of Stanley Ellin – particularly if (as is likely) I’d read this book before. He’s highly regarded by critics, and I’ll be reading more of him.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Gangster,’ by Dan Willis

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I saw a new book in Dan Willis’s Arcane Casebook series, and recalled that I hadn’t read one in a while. So I bought Gangster. I enjoyed it, until I was reminded why I’d stopped reading the books.

Alex Lockerby, hero of 11 previous novels, is a “runemaster” working in an alternate universe version of New York City, where magic works. Alex designs elaborate runic patterns that do various kinds of magical jobs for people. He’s so successful that some of the most powerful people in the city are his clients, and he’s dating the most feared sorceress in the world.

At the start of Gangster, Dan is framed for the murder of a friend who is a reformed gangster. His influential associates get him released on bail, but he has to figure out who has laid such an elaborate plan to frame him, and why.

Also, somebody is doing duplication magic, turning small bills of currency into large ones. Alex is baffled, because this is a trick he didn’t think was possible, and anybody with such potent magic shouldn’t need to be counterfeiting money. Occasional character Bill Donovan, soon to create the OSS for the government, is hanging around the edges of that mystery.

I’ve tried to figure out why I enjoy Dan Willis’s magical mysteries more than Jim Butcher’s, and I really can’t explain it. I just do.

But – and I’d forgotten this – author Willis has adopted the literary stratagem of ending each book with a cliffhanger. As I’ve frequently told you, I hate cliffhangers. I consider them a breach of the author-reader contract. I’ll admit the major mysteries in this book were explained, but the cases weren’t properly closed. And a new mystery was introduced on the last page, to lure us on to the next book.

Well, I’m not biting. I’m onto you, Dan Willis. If I follow this new thread, it will just lead to another cliffhanger. No sale.

Otherwise, the book was pretty good.