The tagline for We Were Liars promises a huge twist and then admonishes readers, if anyone asks you how this book ends, lie. Wut. No, really. LOL. How do you expect to drum up business for a book with such a cheap trick? It’s one thing to vaguely allude to the shocking twists that occur in a book, and it’s quite another to forecast it and then try to get readers so hyped up about that you JUST have to read it for YOURSELF so […]
A complicated who-dun-it with too many suspects
Lake Tahoe lawyer and single mom Nina Reilly is desperate for new clients when one drops into her lap—a sulky and rebellious 16-year-old girl named Nikki who is arrested for the murder of her wealthy uncle. Nikki is a friend of Nina’s son Bob, who is determined that his mother prove Nina’s innocence at all cost. Nikki had been skulking on her uncle’s wealthy property the night he was killed, stole something from his underwater hiding place, and left a bloody handprint on the wall […]
Tough Guys, Tough Talk, and Treasure
I’m a fan of film noir. For my money, it doesn’t get much better than Fred MacMurray “Hey, Baby”-ing Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity or Humphrey Bogart talking tough in The Maltese Falcon. But even though I’m a fan of the detective film and I love to read, I had yet to pick up anything by Dashiell Hammett, the master of the hard-boiled detective novel. Time to remedy that, I decided. The Maltese Falcon is the story of archetypal detective Sam Spade who, along with […]
This would have been better as just one case history.
Three unsolved and unrelated cases are introduced in the first three chapters of the book. Jackson Brodie, our detective protagonist who, of course, has ex-wife issues and a precocious daughter, goes about solving each of these cases, which slowly are revealed to be connected. This book starts out really well. Atkinson has a real gift for characterization, especially when she describes loss, grief, and frustration–and after the third chapter I was hooked, and curious to see where she’d go from that great set-up. There were […]
Another tangled web of suspense by a true master
Lescroart has managed to produce another masterpiece of murder, corruption, and deceit in The Keeper, with the action this time centered around the character of Abe Glitsky in a brand-new role. Los Angeles prison guard Hal Chase’s wife has gone missing, and Hal—as the lead suspect in the as-yet unproven murder—hires defense attorney Dismas Hardy. It turns out Hardy’s wife had been the missing woman’s therapist and knows a few things about the marriage that she’s not allowed to tell. The tension ratchets up very […]
McSweeney’s #10 (McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #10)
I saw the cover of this book at a book sale and I fell for it, hard. It’s a compilation of “genre” short stories: westerns, sci-fi, horror, crime, etc. The reason for my instant need to own? Contributing authors include: Michael Chabon (who also edited), Elmore Leonard, Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby, Stephen King, Michael Crichton (who sadly contributed a rather lame tale), Dave Eggers, Harlan Ellison, and more. Love at first sight, I’ll tell you. It mostly lived up to my expectations as well. The majority […]
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