It’s time for this week’s installment on the 2013 Crime Fiction Alphabet Journey hosted
by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. Visit her website and see what other
blogging participants in the journey have selected for their choice this week.
The Q’s are up for scrutiny this week and it’s fair to say
I’m not overly spoilt for choice here. Racking brain frantically for a couple
of days, I’ve been unable to find 3 qualifying reads I have made in the genre.
Quirk,
Quinlan.........2 enjoyed
Joe Quirk – The
Ultimate Rush

As the sole
rollerblade courier at a San Francisco delivery service, Chet Griffin is the
fastest messenger in town. Every day, he delivers critically confidential
packages, but when he hands over an already-opened envelope containing a floppy
disk with billion-dollar information, a deadly serious customer demands
satisfaction. On a routine run, Chet's co-worker gets killed, the finger's
pointed at him, and Chet finds himself on a rush job to save his own life.
Patrick Quinlan –
Smoked

Smoke Dugan is on the
run. An aging bomb-maker, he was a prized asset to organized crime for most of his
life. But when he finds out that one of his bombs was used to take down a plane
with innocent women and children aboard, he is furious. He takes his revenge,
killing the mafia boss and taking his 2.5 million. Now he’s the most wanted man
on the east coast. Hiding out in Portland, Maine, only delays the inevitable as
one by one, some of the most memorable killers, hit men and lowlifes in recent
fiction take their shot at Smoke and his tough-as-nails girlfriend, martial
arts expert Lola Bell. As the cat and mouse game plays out, the only thing left
is a violent showdown on the streets of Portland in a conclusion that will
leave readers gasping for breath.
Quigley, Quinn, Quirk,
Quammen..............4 unread
Sheila Quigley – Run
For Home
This one came out in 2004, the first in a 5 book series
featuring Lorraine Hunt. My wife read and enjoyed the first 3. All her books,
including her current second series featuring a male DI this time, carry song
titles as the name of the novel. My wife enjoyed the ones she read, so at some
point I should try a new female author, with a strong female lead. The series
runs as follows:
Lorraine Hunt
1. Run for Home (2004)
2. Bad Moon Rising (2005)
3. Living on a Prayer (2006)
4. Every Breath You Take (2007)
5. The Road to Hell (2009)
It's 1985. A man is
hunted down and killed by a woman assassin known as The Head Hunter. Sixteen
years later, his body turns up and Detective Inspector Lorraine Hunt is called
in to investigate. The day the body is found, Claire Lumsdon is the victim of a
violent kidnap - the fourth in a series of abductions of young girls. For
Claire and her sixteen-year-old sister Kerry, it's the beginning of a
nightmare. Convinced the police can't help, Kerry sets out on a frantic search
for her sister. But her hunt leads her to much more than she'd bargained for: a
violent underworld; a sixteen year old murder; and, finally, the secrets about
her past - and her father - which her mother hoped she'd never have to face.
And all the time, the clock is ticking for Claire –
Peter Quinn – Hour of
the Cat

On the eve of World
War II, "just another little murder" in New York City draws two
vastly different men - an American detective and a German admiral - into the
Gathering Storm. Hour of the Cat is a stunning achievement: tautly suspenseful,
hauntingly memorable, and brilliantly authentic.
Matthew Quirk – The 500
Matthew Quirk – The 500

Mike Ford is a former
con artist who's been plucked from his Harvard Law School classroom to be an
associate at The Davies Group, Washington's most high-powered and
well-respected strategic consulting firm. Their specialty: pulling strings and
peddling influence for the five hundred most powerful people inside the
Beltway, the men and women who really run Washington -- and by extension the
country, and the world.
The namesake of the
firm, Henry Davies, knows everyone who matters; more importantly, he knows
their secrets. Davies' experience goes back 40 years -- he worked for Lyndon
Johnson, jumped shipped to Nixon, then put out his own shingle as the Hill's
most cut-throat and expensive fixer. Now he's looking for a protégé to tackle
his most high-stakes deal yet, and Mike fits the bill.
Quickly pulled into a
seductive, dangerous web of power and corruption, Mike struggles to find his
way out. But how do you save your soul when you've made a deal with the devil?
David Quammen – The Soul
of Viktor Tronko

Peacefully engrossed in writing a biography of a termite
collector, Kessler gets a surprise visit from an old friend. Mel is a one-time
CIA agent now ready to reveal an espionage event that occurred two decades
earlier. When Mel is murdered, Kessler is seduced by the whiff of a really big
story. He pursues the leads that suggest one Victor Tronko was a fake defector
let loose to mask the presence of a KGB mole in the CIA's highest levels. When
Kessker dislodges the wasps' nest, retribution strikes. Sinuously intricate and
compellingly realistic, this cloak-and-dagger caper will be as well received as
The Zolta Configuration. While most thrillers let the reader bob like a cork on
the surface, this author's knack is to draw down a reader's full attention with
complicated dialogue, shifts in narrative, and intense activity. Barbara
Conaty, Medical Coll. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Next week it’s the turn of the R’s.
Col - Isn't it interesting how some authors do just seem to appear, and then as mysteriously disappear (I'm thinking of your comments about Patrick Quinlan). I'm had that happen, too. I hope you'll enjoy the one of his you've still got on your shelf.
ReplyDeleteThanks Margot - it's something I've encountered a few times with authors I have grown fond of.
DeleteI don't keep too up to date on the machinations of the large publishing houses, but I seem to recall some chat about "mid-listers" getting crunched in favour of keeping big-name big-sellers sweet and generating the sales. Though this revolving door has maybe always been in place. Probably other reasons as well, but it does make me curious.
Not being rude, but slim pickings on the letter Q? Nothing I've even heard of here, but then in my own library I can think of Patrick Quentin and not much else.... I'm guessing R will be more productive.
ReplyDeleteMoira, you can be as rude as you like, but yes - slim pickings. Quinlan I have enjoyed in the past. The next most interesting for me is Quammen, but none of the mentioned are household names really.
DeleteI have read a book by Joe Queenan, a commentator/journalist/critic/satirist who spent a year travelling the US in the 90's immersing himself in lowbrow culture like Cats - the musical and Kenny G and Michael Bolton. That wasn't that great either.
I'll look up Quentin as he's no-one I'm familiar with.
I'll try harder next week!
Of the authors you mention here, the series by Sheila Quigley and Peter Quinn sound the most appealing. I have heard of the Matthew Quirk book, but I would wait until you reviewed it to see.
ReplyDeleteI will hopefully try Quigley in the next 12 months, as I need to improve on my quota of females I read. The Quinn book grabbed me and the Quirk was too cheap to pass by. It's dangerous to my finances to let me out book browsing!
DeleteNary a one of your Q's have I read. I had enjoyed The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick but could neither figure out how to claim it was a mystery nor identify a plausible personal connection with the book.
ReplyDeleteBill, back to square one then! Maybe next time around.
Delete