{"id":13211,"date":"2019-12-26T18:51:25","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T23:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=13211"},"modified":"2019-12-26T18:51:25","modified_gmt":"2019-12-26T23:51:25","slug":"only-the-details-and-good-girl-by-alan-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=13211","title":{"rendered":"‘Only the Details’ and ‘Good Girl,’ by Alan Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He stood taller than me, which isn\u2019t easy, and he was much wider, which is silly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Two more reviews<\/strong> of Alan Lee\u2019s Mack August novels. Then I\u2019m done for a while. There are a couple more books to date, but they\u2019re a side series starring Mack\u2019s US Marshal friend, Manny. I\u2019ll save them for later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not every man who suddenly finds himself \u2013 to his complete surprise \u2013 married to the woman of his dreams, who also happens to be filthy rich. But that\u2019s the situation of Roanoke, Virginia private eye Mack August at the beginning of Only the Details<\/a><\/em>. Which makes it a pretty good day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right up until a potential client injects him with a soporific, and he finds himself loaded on a jet headed for Naples, Italy. A disgruntled crime lord has put out a contract on Mack, but that contract has been bought up by a different crime lord, who has a use for him. He wants Mack (who used to be an underground cage fighter) to represent his criminal family in an annual international tournament in Naples. Elimination in this tournament means actual elimination<\/em>, but the winner becomes a hero in the underworld. Except that, as his captor explains, he\u2019s promised to kill Mack when it\u2019s over, regardless of the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Mack August, such setbacks are only obstacles to be overcome. Half of Only the Details<\/em> involves Mack\u2019s never-say-die conduct during the tournament. The other involves the efforts of his Virginia friends to rescue him. It\u2019s all preposterous fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Good Girl<\/a><\/em>, the next book (and I realize the fact that there is a next book constitutes an unavoidable spoiler), Mack is asked to work for a man who suffers anteretrograde amnesia \u2013 the condition where one remembers the past, but can make no new memories. Ulysses Steinbeck survives by keeping copious notes, depending on the assistance of his housekeeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steinbeck lost his memory in a car accident several years back. One memory he has from the very end has to do with a dog he bought \u2013 something even he doesn\u2019t understand, because he doesn\u2019t even like dogs. But the dog is important\u2026 for some reason. Can Mack find the dog and figure out the secret?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mack goes to work, acquiring the dog, a mature and well-behaved Boxer. He learns that someone else is looking for the dog too, and some exercise of his fighting skills will be required before the conclusion, which is a highly satisfying one. Author Lee says in a note that he felt that Only the Details <\/em>was pretty intense, and it was time for a warmer and fuzzier sequel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I liked both these books a lot, and recommend them, if you\ncan handle the language (see my previous reviews). The author also needs to\nwork on his vocabulary \u2013 he generally does pretty well with Robert B.\nParker-esque erudite vocabulary, but now and then he stumbles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Realism is not strong in this series \u2013 I\u2019m thinking\nparticularly about Mack\u2019s relationship with his fianc\u00e9e\/wife \u201cRonnie,\u201d who seems\nto me more a figure of male fantasy than a plausible character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s all a lot of fun anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He stood taller than me, which isn\u2019t easy, and he was much wider, which is silly. Two more reviews of Alan Lee\u2019s Mack August novels. Then I\u2019m done for a while. There are a couple more books to date, but they\u2019re a side series starring Mack\u2019s US Marshal friend, Manny. I\u2019ll save them for later. … Continue reading ‘Only the Details’ and ‘Good Girl,’ by Alan Lee<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[127,1091,1731,2099],"class_list":["post-13211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-alan-lee","tag-good-girl","tag-mack-august","tag-only-the-details"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}