I’ve been following Christopher Greyson’s Jack Stratton series for some time, with considerable pleasure. They’re not great literature, but they’ve been fun mysteries with appealing characters, friendly to Christianity.
Sadly, I didn’t much care for the latest, Captain Jack.
This book would seem to initiate a new stage in the series. Jack has at last married his sweetheart Alice, and they’re honeymooning in the Bahamas, which were devastated by a recent hurricane, but are all the more welcoming to tourists for that. They book a diving trip with a guide, and while they’re underwater, another boat approaches. By the time they’ve surfaced, the guide is dead, stabbed to death. They alert the police, who immediately tag them as the most likely suspects in the murder.
Before long they’re running (and swimming, and flying) all around the islands, closely pursued not only by the (mostly corrupt) police, but by Bahamian drug smugglers and mysterious Russians, all after the location of a lost Russian nuclear sub.
If it sounds far-fetched, it is. What’s worse, author Greyson seems to have succumbed to Hollywood Action Flick Disease. It’s all action and chases and gunfights, all the time, each chase more improbable than the last. And our hero shakes off all injuries and carries on with minimal first aid assistance and no apparent need for sleep. And let’s not forget the obligatory female sidekick (Alice) who don’t need no steenking protecting.
I didn’t believe a paragraph of Captain Jack. I only finished it because of my residual fondness for the series.
It’s always awkward reviewing a book in a genre (or sub-genre) you’re not very familiar with. If you criticize something, you don’t know whether it’s a routine feature of the form or not. If someone were to criticize my Erling books because they include magic, for instance, they’d be kind of missing the point.
Christopher Greyson is the author of the Jack Stratton novels, which I like very much, and he was kind enough to provide a free review copy of One Little Lie, which is a departure for him. It’s a women’s thriller.
Now writing women’s thrillers is a shrewd business move. I haven’t seen the statistics, but judging from the titles I see, women’s thrillers are a growth market. Women, after all, are by far the largest reading demographic. And (here I judge by the scripts I see as a translator) women have an insatiable thirst for stories with strong female lead characters, who overcome danger on their own. No rescue by knights in shining armor allowed. A hunky male love interest is acceptable – even desirable – but he has to be taken out of play in some way so the woman can discover her own strength and triumph independently.
That’s the kind of story One Little Lie is.
Kate Gardner has been a doormat all her life. She gave up her career aspirations when she married Scott Gardner, scion of a wealthy family in a small town. Then he dumped her for his high school sweetheart, manipulating her into accepting minimal child support. She is working as a receptionist, a job she hates, and trying to keep up with caring for her two young children. But lately she’s been troubled by depression and memory problems, and the medications she’s been prescribed haven’t been helping. And now Scott wants full custody of the kids.
As a side gig, she got an assignment from a friend to write a review on a new, sophisticated flying drone that can be controlled from her mobile phone. One night at her son’s football game, she tries the drone out, but then gets distracted. When the battery runs down, the drone homes in on her and lands on her head. When people come to help her, they find the drone, with footage on it showing a man stalking her. When the police come, Kate is embarrassed to admit that she was controlling the drone herself. Everyone assumes it belongs to the stalker. Later, Kate’s best friend and her ex-husband both tell her not to admit the omission to the police. If they catch you in “one little lie,” they won’t believe you. This is hard for Kate, a basically honest person, especially because she’s attracted to Ryan, one of the detectives, who seems to return her interest.
From that point, Kate’s life descends into chaos. She loses her job, her best friend disappears, a slut-shaming campaign is launched against her, and she’s physically attacked in her home. All the while, memory lapses have her wondering if she’s losing her mind. Her wealthy mother-in-law, who claims to be on her side, gives her an ultimatum – she has to learn to stand up for herself. But if she fails, she’ll lose everything.
One Little Lie was an engaging read. I did have problems with some elements in the story, but I’m not in a position to know if these are standard tropes or weaknesses in this particular plot. A book of this kind calls necessarily for a final crisis where the woman is forced to discover her strength all on her own. But it seemed to me the resolution here was kind of contrived, depending too much on sheer coincidence.
Aside from that, it was an enjoyable read. Recommended, especially for female readers. Subtle Christian messages.
I have enjoyed the Jack Stratton series by Christopher Greyson, well-written and well-conceived mystery/thrillers suitable for a Christian audience, but better in quality than the average Christian fare. An admirable hero you can root for. Good values.
Jack of Diamonds marks a milestone in the series – it’s about Jack’s wedding to his girlfriend, Alice. Something he’s been working up to for a while.
But of course, in the world of fiction, such an event can’t
go off smoothly. Jack, who is operating as a bounty hunter since losing his
police job, catches a distress call from a cop at a rural location. Being
closer to the spot than the real cops, he drives in to help. He finds the
policeman suffering from a head injury, and inside the house he finds a room
decorated with drawings of women. Among them is a picture of Alice – plus a
wedding invitation.
Obviously the wedding needs to be postponed. But explain
that to Alice, who’s being nearly driven to distraction by the pressures of
preparation. She and Jack had wanted a simple ceremony, but a wealthy former
client whose life they saved insisted on paying for a production worthy of the
Kardashians, complete with a relentless wedding planner.
Meanwhile, seemingly random women are disappearing, and Jack is convinced their vanishings are connected to the wedding stalker. And when an abandoned church is found filled with corpses, the weirdness goes off the scale.
I liked Jack of Diamonds, as I’ve liked all the books in the series. But I have to admit I found the premise of this one pretty implausible. It spoiled it somewhat for me.
Still, it’s a fun read. Recommended, but on a lower level than the previous Jack Stratton books.
I’ve been following Christopher Greyson’s Jack Stratton mystery series with great pleasure. The latest entry, Jack Frost, is exciting and entertaining.
Private eye Jack Stratton and his fiancée/business partner Alice are hired by an insurance company to investigate the death of a sound man on a popular reality show. The show’s premise is that the contestants have to compete in survival games on a treacherous mountain. But there have been accidents, the worst of which killed a sound man. The insurance company won’t underwrite another season without someone undercover to keep an eye out. That will be Jack, who has climbing experience. Alice will have to stay home with their dog – which she hates. But there’s work for her to do too, mainly background research on the contestants. On top of that, she just learned that her childhood trauma, the death of her parents in an auto accident, may not have been accidental after all.
Meanwhile on the mountain, Jack endures the indignities of his cover job – gopher to the technical crew – as one after another “accident “ occurs. Before long people start dying, followed by a monster blizzard, which puts him and the cast and crew in a genuine Agatha Christie “and then there were none” situation.
The Jack Stratton books aren’t the best written novels out there, but they’re well above average, especially for books where the heroes pray without embarrassment. Author Greyson builds interesting characters and puts them in exciting peril. I enjoyed Jack Frost very much, and recommend it.
I’ll just start by saying that I really enjoyed this book. Christopher Greyson has shown great promise in producing his series of “Jack” thrillers, all of which I’ve reviewed. But he’s knocked it out of the park with The Girl Who Lived, a stand-alone novel.
Faith Winter’s thirteenth birthday party turned into a life-altering nightmare. At her family’s vacation cabin, her father, her sister, her best friend, and the friend’s mother were slaughtered, and Faith barely escaped. She told the police the killer was a “rat-faced man” who chased her through the woods, but they don’t believe her. They call it a murder-suicide, and blame her father as the culprit.
Faith’s life spiraled into a maelstrom of dysfunction after that. She became an alcoholic and spent time in mental hospitals and prison. Now, ten years later, she is being released on parole, required to attend AA and survivors’ group meetings, and to look for a job. Continue reading ‘The Girl Who Lived,’ by Christopher Greyson→
I’ve been following Christopher Greyson’s entertaining series of mystery thrillers starring Jack Stratton. They are both exciting and wholesome, a rare combination.
Jack of Hearts, for my money, was not among the best in the series. It’s certainly worth reading, but I didn’t think it entirely worked.
Jack Stratton and Alice, his girlfriend, take a flight to Florida to visit Jack’s adoptive parents. Due to unexpected circumstances they have to bring along Lady, their gigantic German Shepherd. This turns out to be both a good and a bad thing.
In the retirement community where Jack’s folks live, the chief topic of conversation is “the burglaries.” Someone has been stealing fairly worthless stuff from people’s lawns and homes. The retirees are delighted by the excitement, and a group of them, including Jack’s mother, have started their own investigation. They’re all mystery readers and eager for adventure.
Unfortunately, amid the petty crime, there are a couple real criminals, people without scruples or mercy, who will pose a deadly threat to Jack’s family.
Much of the book is taken up with the antics of the retiree-detectives, which are intended to be funny. For me that element just didn’t work. Broad humor isn’t author Greyson’s forte. Most of the comic situations seemed to me contrived and improbable.
The darker elements worked better. Once the light stuff was out of the way, the story actually got going and had me by the throat. Also there’s a new (and moving) development in Jack’s and Alice’s relationship.
If you’re looking for clean adventure with romance and an understated Christian element, the Jack Stratton books are definitely worth reading. You may even enjoy the “cozy” humor in this one more than I did.
I’ve been enjoying Christopher Greyson’s Jack Stratton series of mystery/thrillers. And Then She Was Gone is another Jack Stratton book, but unlike the others it doesn’t include the word “Jack” in the title. That seems to be a purposeful change, because unlike the other books, this one is really a young adult novel. It jumps back in time to the period between Jack’s high school graduation and his induction into the Army.
A young wife, joyful at the news that she will be a mother, is murdered in a park after dark. Evidence points to a young black man, a neighbor of Jack’s old foster family, from the time before his adoption. Jack doesn’t even like the guy. But his Aunt Haddie, his foster mother, whom he loves, insists that he try to find evidence to clear the young man – because he plans to be a policeman after his Army hitch. He reluctantly makes the attempt, but soon finds himself in trouble with the police, who do not like his interference. But Aunt Haddie’s faith keeps him trying, even after he screws up. Someone gave up on Jack once, long ago, and he just doesn’t have it in him to “throw anybody away.”
I’ll have to admit I liked this book less than the others in the series, but I blame that on my personal issues. It’s a story about a young man defying authority, and that simply makes me uncomfortable. Author Greyson has actually done a remarkable thing here – writing a “young rebel” story that in fact upholds traditional values. These stories are Christian novels in the better sense – the Christianity is folded in naturally, and there’s no preaching. Several of the characters here will be dead in the following books, so a certain poignancy is built in too.
I recommend And Then She Was Gone, especially for young adult readers. I will continue to follow the Jack Stratton series with pleasure.
It’s a rare treat to discover an author and a series of books I enjoy very much, and which I can recommend to our readers almost without reservation. But that’s the case with Christopher Greyson and his Jack Stratton novels.
Jack Stratton, the hero of the series, is a cop in a South Carolina town. He’s a good man, but wound tight. As a boy he was abandoned by his prostitute mother, but found refuge in a loving mixed race foster home before being adopted by a good family. As a young man he served in Iraq beside one of his foster brothers, Chandler. He saw Chandler die, and because of survivor’s guilt he hasn’t contacted his foster family since.
That’s until Replacement invades his life. “Replacement” is the nickname of a young woman who grew up in his old foster home, though after his time there. She shows up in his apartment and tells him Michelle, a foster sister to whom he was always close, has disappeared. She’d been studying in a local college, but supposedly transferred to a California school. Only she hasn’t gotten in touch with her family, and she wouldn’t do that.
