Been in sort of a mini-slump lately reading-wise and while both of these books had moments, neither was able to break it…
Frank Sinatra in a Blender
When you dial up the alcoholic ex-cop PI routine up to a 10, add a heavy dose of slapstick comedy and stupid criminals, this is what you get. Parts of this book are so much fun and very relatable, particularly the references to White Castle (my stomach churned just reading them). But this book desperately need a better editor. The first person perspectives from our protagonist were well-written but the 3rd person narratives from the bad guys felt too similar. There’s a really good crime novel in here, a funny one. McBride could have used someone to help him find it. I’ll read more of his stuff.
Also, definitely DO NOT read this if you love dogs. I’m not kidding.
The Nightrunners
There’s not much more to say about the Dan Fortune books that I haven’t said in my last few reviews. This one is slightly better than the previous few I panned, but it again suffers from the writer biting off a little more plot than he can chew. When I started these, I expected Dan to be romping around New York. That was part of the appeal. Instead, Collins continues to introduce new locations, this time suburban Connecticut and Mexico, the latter probably the weakest part of the book. Also, for a book this size, there are way too many characters. Again, it’s fine. I just was really hoping for more from this series after a promising start.