Category Archives: Reviews

Fiction, Reviews

‘Death Deserved,’ by Jorn Lier HOrst and Thomas Enger

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As I never tire of telling you, I’m not a huge fan of Scandinavian Noir as a literary genre. My samplings indicate that most such books ought to be classed as depressants and dispensed only with a doctor’s prescription. However, I make an exception for Jørn Lier Horst’s William Wisting novels. (I first discovered Wisting, as I also never tire of telling you, while helping to translate the Wisting TV series, now available on the Sundance Channel).

It’s been a while since a new Wisting book has been released in English, though. But I was happy to discover that author Horst has teamed up with another Norwegian mystery author, Thomas Enger, to produce a new police series, about an Oslo detective named Alexander Blix. The first book in the series is Death Deserved.

Alexander Blix is a top-notch detective, but somewhat the worse for wear. Years ago he was involved in a shooting that’s still studied at the police academy. He was exonerated, but his career has always been under a shadow. His former partner (and former friend) is now his boss.

When a legendary female long-distance runner disappears from her home, almost the only clue left behind is a race number (1) taped to the TV. Since the woman had recently published a memoir entitled, Always Number One, that number seems to have something to do with the criminal’s motives.

Over the next few days famous people start disappearing or being murdered all around the city, each of them associated with a particular number. It looks like somebody is doing a macabre countdown.

The first person on the original crime scene was a young celebrity reporter, Emma Ramm. Suddenly she’s covering her very first hard news story – and Blix can’t resist helping her out a little. He has a secret reason for this, which the reader will learn in time.

Meanwhile, Blix is dealing with having a celebrity in his own family. His daughter, of whom he has seen little since her mother left him, is currently a contestant on a big Norwegian reality show along the lines of Big Brother. And gradually he begins to suspect that the celebrity-hunting murderer may have his eye on whoever wins that show.

I liked Death Deserved, though not as much as the Wisting books. It suffered (in my opinion) from the natural defects of the criminal mastermind story – this sort of thing never happens in the real world, and gets pretty implausible as the plot works itself out.

But the final showdown was exciting and well crafted, with a certain emotional resonance that pleased me.

There’s one excursion into the world of big evangelicalism – a sequence involving a venal celebrity pastor. Not surprisingly, they don’t get the jargon right – but the man’s a plain grifter, so I suppose it doesn’t matter much. I was pleased that the translator, Anne Bruce, translated “prest” as “pastor” rather than “priest,” which is my preferred interpretation. In fact, the translation as a whole earned my coveted admiration.

I also note, with appreciation, that the translator got a thank you in the Acknowledgements (which are otherwise too long and too cute).

Not a bad book. I’ll be reading the next.

Reviews

Netflix film review: ‘The Dig’

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A very recent addition to the Netflix film lineup is the fact-based film, The Dig, about the excavation of the Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxon ship burial beginning in 1939. This was, needless to say, of considerable interest to me. And it’s a pretty fair movie.

Ralph Fiennes plays Basil Brown, a self-taught archaeological excavator who is hired by the widowed Mrs. Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) to do a dig of a grave mound on her property. The nearby Ipswich Museum tries to lure Brown away to excavate some Roman ruins, but he stays on the Sutton Hoo dig, convinced that it might be Anglo-Saxon rather than Viking, a significant rarity. When Brown uncovers the distinct traces of a ship burial, the site suddenly becomes an archaeological sensation. Noted British Museum archaeologist Charles Phillips (Ken Stott) stomps in to take control, causing Brown to withdraw in offense for a time. He is drawn back, however, by Edith’s young son Robert (Archie Barnes), who sees him as a father figure. Soon progress on the dig turns into a race against time, as war approaches and all non-essential public works will have to be shut down.

The film is beautifully filmed and emotionally touching. The sense of impending death hangs over all, the idea of robbing a grave offering counterpoint to portents of the bloodbath that’s approaching for the whole country. Edith herself suffers from heart disease, and knows she hasn’t long to live (she’s portrayed as a woman in her 30s in the film, though the real Edith Pretty was in her 50s. Nicole Kidman was originally slated for the role).

Contemporary glosses are obligatory of course, especially in the case of female archaeologist Peggy Piggott (Lily James), who is portrayed, with an eye to the feminists, as a sort of insecure nerd-babe in a loveless marriage, hired solely because she’s light in weight and less likely to crush artifacts. In fact (according to Wikipedia), she was an experienced and accomplished team member. A fictional adulterous romance is invented for her (with Edith’s fictional brother Rory, played by Johnny Flynn).

The ending is slightly anticlimactic, and melancholy. It saddened me that, even in a portrayal of a more Christian England, no reference is made to Christian hope in the many conversations about death and the afterlife. The lesson of the film seems to be that we’re all part of a great chain of lives stretching back into infinity, and forward, who knows how far? No doubt that’s comforting to some people.

Good movie, and sometimes educational, though I wish they’d told us more about the Anglo-Saxons, their culture, and the artifacts. Still, recommended.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Prodigal Son,’ by Gregg Hurwitz

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“That’s the point of dating,” she said. “To, like, get to know someone.”

“The guy’s a communications major—ironic given his lack of verbal acuity—and he barely maintains a two-point oh. Been on academic probation twice. And he had a jaywalking ticket—”

“Uh, you just butchered six dudes in an impound lot.”

“Context is everything.”

Imagine you finished reading a James Bond novel, and felt you’d been made a wiser and better person.

That’s the effect (at least for this reader) of reading Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X series of thrillers. It’s a pretty neat trick, one any author ought to admire.

As you may recall, our hero, Evan Smoak, has lived three lives so far. First he was an orphan in a group home, abandoned and hopeless. Then he was recruited into the government’s super-top-secret Orphan program, becoming a deadly covert assassin. Then, after extricating himself from that life, he became The Nowhere Man, living in a luxury condo in LA, answering calls for help from the desperate, saving them if he can. But as Prodigal Son begins, he’s transitioned to yet another new life. Pardoned through a special deal with no less a personage than the president of the United States, he has given up his vigilante career, and he finds himself untethered in the cosmos. He is a physically fit minimalist with OCD. His human contacts are few. There’s Joey, a 16-year-old girl he rescued from the Orphan project, who does computer hacking for him and has become a sort of surrogate daughter. There’s his neighbor Mia, the single mother of a boy who desperately wants a father figure. There’s real chemistry with Mia, but she works for the DA’s office, and has figured out she doesn’t want to know too much about his life.

Then Evan gets a call over his secure phone, from a woman who claims to be his mother. He refuses to believe it at first, but finally he goes to meet her in Buenos Aires. She wants him to save the life of a man named Andrew Duran, a man who owes money to loan sharks and is working at a city impound lot, trying to make his child support payments. Evan can’t figure out why she cares about this guy, but it’s something he can do for his mother. Of course, that means breaking his deal with the president. And it will put him in the sights of a lethal brother-sister assassin team and the richest man in the world, who has lots of high-tech military-industrial-complex toys.

The stakes keep rising, the twists and turns and setbacks escalate to impossible levels. And yet, the really compelling thing about Prodigal Son is Evan’s personal journey. Meeting his mother after all these years sets him to contemplating what it means to be human, realizing that he has to find some way to connect with humanity. And step by step, he starts doing just that. It’s touching and inspiring – and sometimes funny.

Loved this book, in spite of the slightly preposterous plot (standard in the series) and the cliff-hanger ending (to be fair, all the plot threads had been tied up, so this was more of a cliff appendix). Highly recommended. Cautions for language and violence.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Chain Reaction,’ by Bill Kitson

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After workmen discover a pair of mummified human fingers (female) while remodeling a country hotel, the local police begin a search for some missing person who could possibly belong to them. Meanwhile various prostitutes are disappearing, possible victims of a serial killer.

The timing could have been better for Detective Mike Nash. One of his best team members has just left on vacation (or holiday, as they say over there), and he himself is having trouble handling the absence from his life of the woman he’s fallen in love with. But he’ll need to bring his best game to handle what’s going to be the most horrific case he’s seen in his whole career.

The book is Chain Reaction, by Bill Kitson. I found that I’d already read one of the books in this series. At the time it didn’t impress me enough to continue with the next, but I found Chain Reaction quite enjoyable, after a string of disappointing reads lately. Mike Nash is a relatable cop, and the story was well told, with a nice twist at the end. Too many woman cops in the cast, as is the custom these days, but the book was good.

Recommended. The main cautions are for disturbing themes.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Murder Revisited,’ by William Coleman

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Jack Mallory is a police detective in (as far as I could tell) an unnamed American city. In William Coleman’s Murder Revisited, first in the series, he is called off the investigation of a murdered young woman when the chief of police (whom he hates, and it’s mutual) orders him to investigate a cold case. 20 years ago, Timothy Waters was convicted of murdering his girlfriend, whose father is now governor of the state. Recently he was released from prison, because all the evidence against him disappeared. Jack is ordered, literally, to find evidence that will send Timothy back to prison, and to look no further. Jack has no intention of railroading anybody, and goes to work doing a real investigation.

Meanwhile, Jack is approached by the cop assigned to assist the detective investigating the first murder – that detective is notoriously lazy and sloppy at his work, and the cop is concerned another miscarriage of justice is coming. So Jack agrees to look into that one too.

Those are just two of the multitudinous plot threads that entwine to make up this unusually complicated story. There were too many coincidences in it for this reader’s taste. Also, author Coleman attempted to make his characters human and complex, but only succeeded (in my perception) in making them one-dimensional in complicated and sometimes contradictory ways.

The chapters were very short, the writing undistinguished. I didn’t care for this book. Maybe smarter people will find it easier to follow along.

Fiction, Reviews

‘One Last Lesson,’ by Iain Cameron

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A dog walker finds the corpse of a young woman hidden in the bushes at the edge of a golf course. The girl was a student, beautiful, smart and popular. But Detective Inspector Angus Henderson of the Bristol police learns she had a dark side. She’d been a model and actress for a popular porn site. Not only that, but one of her university instructors was among the site’s owners.

That’s the highly colored premise of One Last Lesson, the first volume in a mystery series starring DI Henderson, a native of Scotland relocated to the south of England. The story follows relatively predictable lines, and the characters never really came to life for this reader. Also, the final resolution kind of came out of left field.

There were hints, however, of relatively conservative views on certain issues on the author’s part. So points for that.

My main problem with the book had to do with punctuation. I’ve seen the same thing in a couple books I’ve read recently – a deficit of commas. I’m not talking about omitting the Oxford Comma (though I have opinions on the subject), but about ordinary commas the kind that separate clauses making it necessary for the reader to read the sentence twice in order to sort the thoughts out. No author should do this. One of the things the reader pays you for is to separate those thoughts out for them.

Verdict: It was OK, but it won’t ease your bereavement over the loss of Colin Dexter.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Fighting Dirty,’ by Blair Denholm

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It’s not often I read a book that I actually dislike. Fighting Dirty, by Blair Denholm, is one of that elite group. I usually drop books that fail to please me, but this one sprung its trap at the end.

Technically, Fighting Dirty is not a book. It’s a short story, a prequel to a series about Jack Lisbon, a London police detective and former boxer who relocates to Australia. In this story we learn how Jack came to make the move.

Jack fixed a case for an old trainer friend, who promised him a large bribe, then failed to pay it. Jack threatens him. His “friend” then retaliates by sending some toughs to beat him up while he’s drunk (which he generally is). Then we see Jack going through recovery, during which time he cleans his act up somewhat. Then he decides to move to Australia, and we see a new, more likeable Jack – until the sucker punch at the end, which turned the tale, for this reader, into a horror story.

Not recommended.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Trouble In Paradise,’ by Robert B. Parker

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This is the cover of Trouble In Paradise. There are no flamingos in this book. I can only assume the artist worked from the title alone, and figured it took place in Florida.

“You don’t act like a jerk too often anymore,” Jenn said.

Jesse grinned at her without any happiness in the grin.

“I’m not sure I like the ‘anymore’ part,” he said.

“How about, you never act like a jerk when you’re working,” Jenn said.

“Jesse nodded. “It’s why I work,” he said.

I have a problematic relationship with the late author Robert B. Parker.

I thought his early Spenser books were worthy successors to the high tradition of Hammet and Chandler. But as the series went on, it “evolved” more and more. Spenser became increasingly enlightened in his relationship with his girlfriend, and it seemed to me he let her walk all over him. Also, his contempt for the unenlightened grew more and more apparent. So I dropped the series.

But I’ve enjoyed the Jesse Stone movies, starring Tom Selleck, that I’ve seen on TV. So when a deal for one of the Jesse Stone books, Trouble In Paradise, showed up, I figured I’d give it a shot.

It wasn’t bad.

Jesse, our hero, is settling is as police chief in the coastal Massachusetts town of Paradise. He’s an excellent cop, though not everyone likes him (which proves he’s doing something right). When three teenagers set fire to a homosexual couple’s house, he can’t prove their guilt, but finds a way to make sure they suffer consequences.

Meanwhile, a career criminal named James Macklin is in Paradise with his girlfriend, checking out the possibilities. He has a plan to isolate and loot a gated community on a nearby island, and assembles a team of criminal experts to help out. The stakes are high, and he doesn’t mind a few casualties along the way.

According to my reading, author Parker considered the Selleck TV movies the best adaptations of his books that had been done. I myself was struck by the differences. The Jesse of the books is younger than the one in the movies, and drinks more – he seems to be a maintenance alcoholic relying on his will-power to keep it from affecting his work. I haven’t watched all the movies, but his ex-wife Jenn is always just a voice on the phone in the ones I’ve seen. Here she’s moved to Boston from California, and she and Jesse are cautiously trying to re-establish their relationship, though in a non-exclusive way. This Jesse has no dog (at least yet), and lives in a condominium, not a shoreline house.

For my own part, I detected some of what I’d call the Spenser disease here. Jesse’s relationship with Jenn is so modern and enlightened, with the male in such a supplicant role, that it annoyed me. I don’t think I’ll read any more of these.

I was ambivalent with the ending too (probably because it was ambivalent).

Cautions for language and grownup stuff.

Fiction, Reviews

‘The Man In the White Linen Suit,’ by David Handler

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It’s 1993, and Addison James, The Man In the White Linen Suit, is the most popular novelist in the world (think James Michener), an industry in his own right. A wounded veteran of OSS operations in World War II, he is a foul-tempered, cruel-hearted octogenarian, married to a sexy, manipulative gold digger young enough to be his granddaughter. He treats his lumpish adult daughter with contempt; she in turn is the most hated and unscrupulous editor in New York. His memory is failing, so he employs an assistant, Tommy O’Brien, to do his research and most of the writing. Without credit or a percentage, of course.

But Tommy has disappeared, and with him the only copies of Addison’s latest manuscript. The publishing company asks Stewart Hoag, celebrity ghost writer, to find them, because Tommy is an old friend of Hoagy’s. Hoagy doesn’t believe for a minute their theory that Tommy is holding the manuscripts for ransom. Which is justified when Tommy shows up at his apartment, soaked with rain and terrified. The manuscripts were stolen from him, he explains, and the guys who stole it threatened his life. Hoagy gives him shelter, and gets to work trying to find out where the documents really are – but there will be bodies hitting the ground before the whole thing is unraveled.

What I liked about The Man in the White Linen Suit was that one of author David Handler’s great strengths is on prominent display. The characters are complex. There are some very nasty people in this story, but they’re three-dimensional. They have moments when you actually sympathize with them. I was entirely fooled by the solution too, so high points for the mystery.

Recommended. Minor cautions for the usual grownup stuff. One political comment, but that’s not too bad in today’s climate.

Fiction, Reviews

‘The Man Who Couldn’t Miss,’ by David Handler

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Those eyes glared at me disapprovingly. “You’re a bit of a sneaky customer, aren’t you?”

“I don’t mean to be. It’s just that I’ve spent the past several years hanging around with the wrong sort of people.”

“What sort of people would that be?”

“Famous people.”

A cozy mystery. A clever narrator with a scene-stealing basset hound sidekick. Witty narration, and lots of name-dropping. Stewart Hoag, celebrity ghost-writer, is back in The Man Who Couldn’t Miss. Like the other recent books in the series, it’s set back in time, in the early 1990s, when Hoagy is getting his act back together after ruining his writing career (and his marriage) with drugs. Now his actress ex-wife Merilee is allowing him to live in the guest house on her Connecticut farm and he’s working on his long-delayed second novel. Meanwhile, she’s overwhelmed with producing a one-night, benefit production of Noel Coward’s Private Lives, to try to save the local small theater, a kind of shrine where many big actors got their starts. She’s got a cast made up of old friends, now big movie stars, who studied with her in college.

But one more old “friend” shows up – R. J. Romero, the most talented actor of their whole circle, who utterly wrecked his own life and is now a petty criminal. He’s holding something over Merilee’s head, and blackmailing her – and he pulls Hoagy in as a go-between.

Also, there’s unease in the theater. Aside from the challenge of a leaky roof and a stormy forecast, there are tensions between the cast members. It all looks like fairly normal group dynamics – until somebody gets murdered.

I liked The Man Who Couldn’t Miss, though author Handler didn’t go as deep into his characters as I would have wished – it’s not that they don’t surprise you, but we didn’t see the layering here that was on display in some of the other books.

There’s also the issue of Hoagy’s risk-taking. He has a penchant for walking into mortally dangerous situations with no more back-up than his witty dialogue and his dog’s loud barking. Very politically correct, but stupid in the real world.

Nevertheless, all in all, it’s a fun book in an enjoyable series.