Tag Archives: Rodney Riesel

Fiction, Reviews

‘The Maine Events,’ by Rodney Riesel

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What a weird reading experience this one was.

Rodney Riesel’s novel The Maine Events begins with our hero, bestselling mystery writer Allen Crane, arriving in York Beach, Maine. Blocked in his creativity since the loss of his wife 3 years ago, he’s hoping a couple weeks at a motel by the beach will help him find his creativity again. With him comes his faithful mutt, Frankie.

On the first day, at a restaurant, he stumbles in on a couple guys fighting in the men’s room. He intervenes, and the bigger guy suddenly collapses with a mild heart attack. However, the next day the guy himself shows up at Allen’s room to assure him there’s no hard feelings.

In fact, everybody seems to be nice in York Beach. There’s the pretty waitress who goes out with Allen, the friendly family staying next door, the elderly couple from Oklahoma, and the gay guy who makes a pass at him (but whom Allen befriends anyway, just to show how openminded he is). For about half the book, nothing much really happens, though the character interactions are pleasant enough. Then a couple young boys disappear, and Allen starts putting clues together.

And at the end of a relatively implausible final action scene, the author comes in out of left field and turns the story in a whole different direction than it had been going up to then.

I did not like the ending. I do not recommend this book.

Also, the author has trouble with his characters. There’s a difference between giving your characters quirks and just throwing in weird behavior that makes no sense. That sin is committed now and then in this book. The writing isn’t actually bad – not great, but passable – but the author is capricious.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Most Likely To Die,’ by Rodney Riesel

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The saga of Dan Coast, Rodney Riesel’s self-destructive, alcoholic lottery winner living in Key West, continues with Most Likely To Die, in which Dan tries to clear a man unjustly accused of murder. Unless Dan is wrong. Which he often is.

Dan Coast doesn’t like the nurse Reatha Davis. She spoke condescendingly to him once, and corrected his grammar. But she works with Dan’s girlfriend Maxine, and Maxine likes her. So when Reatha asks Dan to find evidence to clear her husband, who’s been arrested for murder, Dan reluctantly agrees. Her husband, Reatha says, is a good man and had no enemies. And neither did his old friend, a schoolmate, who was murdered. Dan figures nobody gets murdered if they have no enemies, so he’s pretty sure somebody’s lying.

With the help of his ever-expanding posse, his big friend Rick, his surfer dude friend Skip, and now his childhood hero, astronaut Kip Larson, Dan runs around annoying people and interfering in the police investigation. Eventually they’ll figure it out, but only by crossing some legal lines.

I think I’m beginning to weary of Dan Coast’s act. The books are fast, and they have some laughs, but they’re not well-written (this one brings in a character from a previous book at one point, then forgets about him completely). They’ve never quite found their balance between comedy and tragedy, but this one was pretty much farce from the git-go. And not very believable.

Still, I won’t pretend it wasn’t fun. I’ve got something more serious to read now, but I may go back to Dan Coast when I need to rest my brain. Cautions for language and juvenile humor.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Double Trouble,’ by Rodney Riesel

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Book 5 in the Dan Coast series by Rodney Riesel is Double Trouble. Dan starts out doing a divorce case with the help of his friend Red (who still has to drive him around until he gets his license back after a DUI). They are discovered snooping, and have to make tracks.

Then Dan’s dog finds a body buried in the sand in front of his Key West house. Dan calls the police, but leaves the scene, and when the cops get there the body has vanished.

That mystery is explained (partly) when a man shows up looking for his missing sister. He had come to the Keys with his twin brother, who has also disappeared. Dan recognizes him as the spitting image of the guy in the sand. The surviving brother hires Dan to help him find the sister.

I keep complaining about the writing in the Dan Coast series, but then I keep buying the books. So they can’t be that bad. I still have some trouble with the tone – it alternates between buffoonery and deep tragedy. Often the characters don’t seem to be realistically affected by death, even deaths of people close to them. Author Riesel seems to have trouble hitting any notes in between Bottom and Othello. It can be disorienting for the reader.

Also, the big surprise in the book was kind of a chestnut. I saw it coming a mile off.

But I’m continuing reading the series. Cautions for language, inappropriate jokes, and misspelling.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Coasts of Christmas Past,’ and ‘Ship of Fools,’ by Rodney Riesel

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Dan yanked his pistol from his waistband, ejected the magazine from the grip, and looked at the bullets. Then he jammed the magazine back into place with the palm of his hand.

“What was that for?” Red asked.

“I have no idea, but they always do it on TV.”

(Coasts of Christmas Past)

I’m just tooling along through Rodney Riesel’s Dan Coast novels, because they’re short, mostly likeable, and not too demanding. I’ll do two books tonight – Coasts of Christmas Past and Ship of Fools.

Dan Coast, Key West lottery winner and dilettante private investigator, aims for a life of quiet self-destruction on the beach, drinking heavily to suppress memories of his great personal loss. However, in Coasts of Christmas Past, his friend Red and his parents have different plans. His parents show up unexpectedly, organizing a big Christmas for him, whether he wants one or not. Christmas was once his favorite time of the year. But that was before…

The preparations get interrupted when a close friend gets injured. The police believe he was hurt in a botched drug deal, but Dan and Red know better than that. So they ride to the rescue in Red’s borrowed pink Volkswagen. There’s also a touching subplot in this book that will break your heart.

Ship of Fools finds Dan where he’s been headed for some time – confined in a mental hospital, drying out at a judge’s orders. That’s how he gets to know “Officer Mel,” a fellow patient who wears a cardboard badge and thinks he’s a policeman. Nobody believes Mel when he says that somebody has kidnapped his sister, but Dan starts to think there’s something there. So, ruthlessly using his money and snooping skills, he orchestrates his own release and takes Mel with him. Thus begins a madcap adventure with some interesting twists.

I liked the serious aspects of these stories better than the humor. Humor is hard to do, especially the wisecracking kind. One expects drunks to be inappropriate, but even when he’s sober, Dan can be a real jerk. On the other hand, when he gets his priorities straight, he can be a pretty good guy.

The author still needs a proofreader.

Mild cautions for language and adult themes. Good light entertainment, if you can get through the annoying parts.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Ocean Floors,’ by Rodney Riesel

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Rodney Riesel is in no danger of soon winning any major prizes for his prose. But so far I’m enjoying his somewhat uneven Dan Coast mysteries, set in Key West. Ocean Floors is the second.

Dan Coast is an unusual hero in that he’s a lottery winner, but his greatest distinction would seem to be that he’s a degenerating alcoholic. Many chapters begin with him waking in a chair – or even on the ground – after a night-long bender. He has reasons for drinking. This might well alienate readers, though Dan can be admirable when he’s on his game.

Ocean Floors begins with Dan driving north to Miami. He stops for lunch at a roadside bar and grill, where he observes the thuggish bartender bullying a waitress. It’s none of his business, but when he gets back to his decrepit Porsche he finds the waitress huddled in it, pleading with him to take her away. His chivalry kicks in, so they zoom off together.

He soon discovers that this is no mousy little waitress. Also, the bartender was no bartender, but somebody Dan has heard of, somebody very dangerous to cross. As the seductive girl worms her way into his affections, a series of crimes begin, including murder and kidnapping. Dan and his big buddy Red will get in very nearly over their heads.

Author Riesel would profit from a good copy editor, or at least a subscription to Grammarly. He is prone to homophone confusions. I thought he handled the humorous banter slightly better this time out than in the last book, but he’s still learning on the job.

One very intriguing addition here is his neighbor across the street, an old lady named Edna McGee. We are told that Edna is the widow of a “marine salvage expert” in Fort Lauderdale who died in the 1980s. Obviously, we are intended to believe this is the wife of the late Travis McGee. I never knew Travis ever got married, but I kind of like having Edna in the stories, though she’s only a tertiary character so far.

Not great literature, the Dan Coast books are fun to read, so far. I think I’ll keep on with them until I get my mind changed. Cautions for language and mature themes.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Sleeping Dogs Lie,’ by Rodney Riesel

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Believe it or not, I’ve got yet another beach bum private eye for you today. Rodney Riesel’s Sleeping Dogs Lie is the first in the Dan Coast mystery series. Not quite professional quality stuff, but promising.

Dan Coast lives in a house on the beach in Key West. He doesn’t need to work, and most of the time he stays drunk. Years ago, he had a moment of tremendous good luck, followed shortly by a moment of tremendous tragedy that left him cynical and demoralized. He keeps a dog with whom he has a love/hate relationship, something that is eventually explained to the reader.

However, from time to time, as a favor to friends, he investigates mysteries. In Sleeping Dogs Lie, an attractive woman comes to him and asks him to find her missing boyfriend. Shortly thereafter she disappears herself. With the help of his dangerous friend Ray, he hunts for the answer.

Sleeping Dogs Lie provided an enjoyable story. Like so many fictional detectives, Dan Coast is unaccountably attractive to women (though sometimes, he admits, they have ulterior motives). He engages in a lot of banter, especially with Red, but sometimes with his dog. Sometimes the banter works, but fictional banter involves a delicate touch. Now and then it gets heavy-handed. Sometimes the tone of the prose doesn’t match the seriousness of the action. Still, there’s promise here, and I’ll probably read the second book.

Cautions for language and mature situations.