Welcome to our August, 2008 fiction and mystery book reviews. As
we say, good fiction is mastery of the art of storytelling, where the imagination soars, the intellect is
broadened, and the heart yearns for more. We try to review the best mystery books, sharing amusing works of
fiction and other novels that you probably won't find covered in your local newspaper. Here are some
fiction books we know you'll enjoy. We hope you enjoy this look back at our August 2008
fiction and mysteries reviews.
Pyr
Paperback
ISBN# 978-1-59102-648-8
Suggested Retail Price: $15.98 or as low as $5.00 from Amazon.com!
P.I. John Justin Mallory is a throwback to the noir detectives we all love.
He's had a bad year, which exmplains why he's pouring one burbon after another
as we meet him. He's lost his wife - or rather, his former partner
ran off with her, and he's behind in his rent. But his train of thought goes
off the rails when an elf pops up in front of him, pleading for his help in
finding a unicorn that the elf was supposed to be caring for, and the elve's
guild is sure to send him to that big rainbow in the sky if he doesn't find the
unicorn soon.
In the words of the late, great Johnny Carson, "If you buy the premise, you buy
the bit". Yes, it's a fun fantasy ride that crosses the world of fairies and
magic with your typical gritty detective. Lots of fun that will keep your
attention from beginning to end.
Swedish attorney Rebecka Martisson is back, investigating the case of a woman found
murdered on a frozen lakebed. Drawn into the case by Inspector Anna-Marie Mella
in order to sort out the legal issues, Rebecka is still feeling the pain of her last
case. Here, the victim was an executive with an international mining company and
her brother suspects the company's shady business practices are at the root of
the crime.
Larsson excels at giving us access to the internal conflicts of her characters.
This isn't a psychological thriller, per se', but it does deal more with
the emotions of the characters than your basic police procedural. This grim mystery
will hold you in suspense until the very end.
In this engaging thriller, Karin Slaughter brings back Abigail Campano, whose posh life
in an exclusive Atlanta neighborhood is once again thrust into chaos when a teenaged girl
is found murdered. A neatly drawn plot keeps you turning pages of this mystery until
the very end.
This re-release of the third in the Myron Bolitar series finds the sports agent and former FBI Agent drawn back into the world of basketball. His arch-rival from college, Greg Downing, a player on the New Jersey Dragons professional basketball team, is missing and the team's owner is so anxious to find him before the press gets wind of his disappearance that he offers to sign Myron up as a player to let him investigate the whole mess. The mystery takes Myron back to the worst day of his life when his knee was injured so badly that it ended his dream of a basketball career before it even started, and the worst regret of his life - an affair with a freind's wife.
Myron uncovers a woman's body in Greg's basement, which leads him down a sordid path of gamblers and crooks, and ultimately a second murder. The dialog seems a bit dated now, but it adds a bit of spice to the gritty mystery. It's a bit too over-the-top with machismo for my taste, and Myron's personal demons bog things down here and there, but its still a fine mystery that keeps its secrets to the very end.
In the latest from author Lee Child, Jack Reacher is on a sort of hitchhiking trip across
America. Near the midpoint in Colorado, he comes to a pair of towns named "Hope" and
"Despair". And the two are aptly named. Hope is a thriving little community, bustling with small town business. When Reacher goes into the local diner for a cup of coffee, he's accosted by four thugs who question him about what he's doing and where he's going, and get him thrown in jail for vagrancy. Ultimately, the local cops kick him out of town and tell him to never come back. Of course, the ever-obstinate Reacher can't resist wondering why everyone in Despair is so anxious to keep outsiders away and begins to investigate. He discovers that the town's sole employer has an enormous processing plant on the outskirts of town, alongside a military base. The combination of the MPs, the local police, the entire population of Despair, and an enormous wall surrounding the plant makes for too much security for a legitimate business. Is the plant polluting or is it a distribution center for drugs? Jack needs to know before he can move on. He's befriended by a female police officer from Hope, whose husband was severely disabled in Desert Storm. It takes a total commitment from both of them to discover the truth that lies hidden behind those walls.
This book was a disappointment. The plot takes more than half the book before we come close to finding anything significant. Jack's multiple surreptitious forays into Despair, the non-stop Alpha Male attitude, and the implausible fight scenarios were just so much boilerplatemilitary fiction that distracted from the story. And then, the final payoff was a let-down. I've enjoyed several Jack Reacher novels, but this one never made me care.
Pyr
Hardcover
ISBN# 978-1-59102-649-5
Suggested Retail Price: $25.98 or as low as $7.44 from Amazon.com!
In the latest of the John Justin Mallory series by Mike Resnick, we're treated to a festival of the supernatural. It's Halloween night in an alternate Manhattan, when PI Mallory spots two puncture marks on the neck of his new partner, Colonel Winnifred Carruthers. Gee, I wonder what *that* means. Yes, it's all played for fun. I mean, you can't help but giggle over things like Creepy Conrad's Cut-Rate All-Night Mortuary. But there's still some great thrills in this crazy quilt of ghoulies, goblins, and things that go bump in the night. If you're looking for something definitely off the beaten path, give this new mystery a try.
Be sure to visit us again next month when we'll
review more helpful fiction and mysteries. Our
fiction book reviews are written by our Editor, Richard L. Trethewey.
Rainbo Electronic Reviews' fiction book reviews are published monthly. Back issues of our
reviews are available from the Rainbo Reviews Backissues Archive.
We're proud to announce that the reviews archive is now searchable by category so you can find great mysteries we've reviewed in the past.
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