MARY KELIIKOA - HIDDEN PIECES (2022)

Synopsis/blurb ...

Sheriff Jax Turner is staring down the barrel of his broken past. On the brink of ending it all, he feels like a failure following his daughter’s tragic passing and his subsequent divorce. But when a schoolgirl vanishes and her backpack is found in a sex offender’s backseat, the weary lawman drags himself into action and vows to nail one last sociopath.

Shocked to discover the teen’s aunt had lost her life in an abduction years prior, the devastating outcome that he’s taken personally, Jax believes the killer has returned with a vengeance. But as the desperate cop frantically hunts down a mysterious relative in search of a suspect, the girl’s time keeps ticking away…

Can the jaded sheriff take down the culprit in time to bring the young girl home alive?

An enjoyable enough read which got better as it went along. I had a bit of trouble gettting into the book, which might have been me and the mood I was in, or it could have been that the book was slow to get going and didn't immediately grab my attention. Probably a bit of both.

The main character, Sheriff Jax Turner has his issues and in fact is just about to kill himself when he gets a call about a missing girl. I suppose it made a change from the usual narrative of the hard-drinking, troubled protagonist, but it was still a bit of a cliche. As the book goes along we get his backstory of grief and loss with child bereavement and divorce.

A teenage girl has disappeared on her way to school. The clock is ticking. An urgent investigation kicks off involving family, friends, and community. Everyone seems to have secrets, including the missing girl and everyone including the girl's mother is less than straight with Turner. Information is not readily forthcoming. Turner also has to contend with the small town big man, the guy with money, power and influence who isn't happy with Turner questioning his son, a boy who has a connection to the missing girl. Threats are issued over Turner's badge, all of which is a distraction from the man doing his job.

There's some history involved as well, with a connection to an unsolved murder years ago when Turner was a homicide detective with a different police force. Obviously it's the case that haunts Turner, the one that was never resolved where another girl was failed. Or so he feels. The previous case impacts on the present and Turner believes it's a solve one, solve both situation, only this time the imperative is that the girl is saved.

I liked the book better the more I read. There were several twists and turns to the narrative with different suspects coming to prominence, then fading as the book went on. One of the twists completely blindsided me - hats off to Keliikoa; the other I saw.   

The main character grew on me as the book progressed, I sympathised with him a bit more, maybe because his head came out of his ass and he was focussing on other things as opposed to wallowing in self pity. He actually manages to let go of the past a bit. 

Overall it was a decent read, one which I enjoyed and came away from thinking... yeah that was a bit different, a bit better than I initially thought. 

3.5 stars from 5

Read - October, 2022

Published - 2022

Page count - 300

Source - review copy from Net Galley

Format - Kindle

B. S. DUNN - HIGH VALLEY MANHUNT (2016)

Synopsis/blurb ...

All Laramie Davis wanted was a hot meal. What he got was a plate full of trouble. It started with the killing of a Deputy Sheriff in Rock Springs and went downhill from there. Laramie tangled with outlaws, blood hungry Indians, and a murderous posse led by a family of killers. Before it was over, many men would die and Laramie would be lucky if one of them wasn't him!

Another day and another Audible listen in the company of favourite narrator, Theo Holland. To be fair, he's only as good as the material he's reading and here it's a Western from author, B. S. Dunn. And it's pretty good.

One man, Laramie Davis, a gunfighter comes up against a corrupt but powerful family, after one of them, a deputy sheriff idiotically tries to steal his horse.

Davis after shooting him dead, has to flee town. The family - the sheriff, the town judge and another deputy - pursue him. Needless to say there are further complications in the book, as we cross paths with more villains, a kidnapped woman and a tribe of Native American braves. 

Lots of action, decent storyline - its busy, with an interesting main character - he's part of a series from Dunn, and I can see how you could get a good bit of mileage out of the character. 

Entertaining and satisfying. If I get the chance to read more in the series, I will.

4 stars from 5

Read - (listened to) September, 2022

Published - 2016

Page count - 323 (4 hrs 7 mins)

Source - Audible purchase

Format - Audible

LAWRENCE BLOCK - NOTHING SHORT OF HIGHWAY ROBBERY (2013)

 

Synopsis/blurb ...

Every writer finds the question "Where do you get your ideas?"annoying, even insulting in its presupposition that the idea's all there is to it. Shakespeare got most of HIS ideas from other writers; do you think it was the idea of it that enabled him to write, say, "Romeo and Juliet?" Or that the same idea, a couple of centuries later, guaranteed success on Broadway for "West Side Story?"

Right.

Besides, we never know where ideas come from, or how they reach us. Something blooms in the garden patch where dwelleth the unconscious mind, and it doth or doth not engage on, and when everything works it takes root and groweth into thomething. (Sorry, I meant something.)

Of course, there are exceptions. In the summer of 1976 I was driving east across the Arizona desert with my three young daughters, who'd flown out to spend the summer with me. I had a '68 Chevy, old enough to give trouble, although thus far it hadn't. I stopped for gas in the middle of nowhere, and the helpful station owner kept spotting potential problems, one right after another, and...

Couple of hours later I was back behind the wheel, fuming more than the engine ever could. I fell silent, and after a few minutes I straightened up and said, "Okay."

One of the girls asked what exactly was okay.

"That just cost us $200 I can't afford," I said, "and I don't know whether the son of a bitch saved us or screwed us. But if I write the story and run it to 4000 words, and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazines takes it and pays their princely nickel a word, at least we come out even."

Which happened. I wrote it a few days later, AHMM snapped it up, and published it the following March. And then, a couple of years later, it got dramatized on TV for Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected. I figure Dahl had about as much to do with the program as Hitch did with the magazine, but who cares? That highway stop had paid off nicely.

And I still don't know for sure if we got saved or screwed...

Another wee bump to the reading stats and a bit of a pick me up as I do like a bit of Block and I've been struggling with my reading of late.

A short story and funny enough a first chapter intro to a Bernie the Burglar book - Spoons - which I'm just about to start soon anyway.

Two brothers stop at an isolated gas station for fuel and a coffee. The two are on their way elsewhere to meet a guy and pull a job and their funds are low.

The gas owner and his wife who runs runs the cafe/diner opposite his joint use the isolated location to charge an optimum price for their wares. The gas fill up leads to a repair job, then another fix, and another ... a $10 fill up runs to nearly $300.

Who's robbing who?

Enjoyable, if a little predictable. I liked where it went and how we got there. The ending is under-stated which is pretty much bang on.

Short, long, fact, fiction, dark or light - Block can do it all well. 

4 stars from 5

Read - October, 2022

Published - 2013

Page count - 22

Source - Kindle Unlimited

Format - Kindle

Note to self. See if I can find the TV show which was drawn from it. You Tube here I come.

SCOTT TUROW - SUSPECT (2022)

Synopsis/blurb ...

The scandalous new novel from the godfather of the legal thriller.

Lucia Gomez is a female police chief in a man’s world and she’s walked a fine line to succeed at the top. Now a trio of police officers in Kindle County have accused her of soliciting sex for promotions and she’s in deep.

Rik Dudek is an attorney and old friend of Lucia’s. He’s the only one she can trust, but he’s never had a headline criminal case. This ugly smear campaign is already breaking the internet and will be his biggest challenge yet.

Clarice ‘Pinky’ Granum is a fearless PI who plays by her own rules. Her 4-D imagination is her biggest asset when it comes to digging up dirt for Rik but not all locks are best picked.

It’s cops against cops in this hive of lies. And it will take more than honeyed words from the defence to change the punchline and save the Chief from her own cell.

I do like a legal thriller and author Scott Turow is well known for crafting them. Win/win when the opportunity to enjoy his latest offering, Suspect came a calling.

Great story with plenty of twists, turns, tangents and off-shoots. A cracking cast of characters, not least the lawyer's PI, Pinky who is at the centre of the narrative. She's capable, quirky, irrational and definitely one of a kind. Her personal life kind of spills over into the case, albeit at one step removed, as she doesn't know how her interactions with her neighbour have a connection with the guy, who Gomez fears has set up the sting operation against her - former police officer, now billionaire tycoon, Moritz Vojczek.

I loved the way the tale unfolded. I do like a bit of confrontation in a courtroom and we get this when the first witnesses are cross examined by Chief Gomez's defence. I think actually it's a kind of pre-trial hearing/inquiry, as opposed to a full-on trial, buit the to-ing and fro-ing and dissembling of testimony is really enjoyable.   

As the book progresses, more factors comes into play, with murder and the involvement of the FBI. Gomez ends up fighting for more than just her job and reputation. Surveillance techniques, recording devices, gadgets, gizmos and new-wave tech also feature prominenntly.

Really satisfying, really interesting, very clever.

There's also a cracking narration from Robert G. Slade. 

4.5 stars from 5

 

Read - (listened to) October, 2022

Published - 2022

Page count - 449 (14 hrs 20 mins)

Source - review files from Isis Audio

Fornmat - Audible

DARWYN COOK and DONALD E. WESTLAKE - RICHARD STARK'S PARKER VOL.1: THE HUNTER (2012)

Synopsis/blurb ...

Darwyn Cooke, Eisner-Award-winning writer/artist, sets his artistic sights on bringing to life one of the true classics of crime fiction: Richard Stark’s Parker. Stark was a pseudonym used by the revered and multi-award-winning author, Donald Westlake. 

The Hunter, the first book in the Parker series, is the story of a man who hits New York head-on like a shotgun blast to the chest. Betrayed by the woman he loved and double-crossed by his partner in crime, Parker makes his way cross-country with only one thought burning in his mind - to coldly exact his revenge and reclaim what was taken from him! 

The Hunter is the first of four graphic novels from Richard Stark's Parker series. I read the original book by Stark (aka Donald Westlake) years ago, so it was a bit of a trip down memory lane for me.

Great tale, great artwork. Like previous encounters with graphic work, I struggled on occasions to decipher the block text accompanying the art. More a me problem than anything with the book. I did end up reading it on my work breaks, where I could have it on a larger screen. A slight inconvenience, but nothing to bump me out of the story.

I really enjoyed this series a long time ago and have re-acquired copies of all the books. I'm hoping to go first to last next year, having previously stopped at #16, which was the last of the original series, before Westlake brought Parker back after a twenty year hiatus.

My kind of reading. A tough guy outlaw, determined, violent if he has to be, but taking no pleasure in the act, ruthless, economical, logical, a good investigator, able to follow a chain from A to B to C, capable and committed. He has his rules and ethos and he's not someone to suffer fools gladly. Here it's a tale of revenge for being double crossed and left for dead after a job. 

Do I like him? Tough one. I admire him and I probably wish I had a bit more of his steel and conviction in my own make-up. I find him interesting to read about.

4.5 from 5

Darwyn Cooke adapted four of the Parker series. Hopefully I'll read the other three.

Read - September, 2022

Published - 2012

Page count - 141

Source - Kindle Unlimited

Format - Kindle

MICHAEL CRAFT - DESERT GETAWAY (2022)

 

Synopsis/blurb ...

Dante O’Donnell is white, gay and getting older every day. He has wasted his better years on starstruck dreams and the wrong men, so now he's working as a concierge for a vacation-rental outfit in Palm Springs, where the guests have far more baggage than what's packed in their suitcases. But when he finds a dead body floating in the swimming pool at one of his rentals, his own troubled past comes back to haunt him. So he turns for help to Jazz Friendly, a Black woman who, when she was a Palm Springs cop, nearly arrested him for murdering his husband, which he didn't do...not that he knows who did. Now Jazz is a struggling PI, her career derailed by racism. And with her marriage broken by booze, she's desperate to get custody of her kid. Dante and Jazz need each other to solve this murder...and to save themselves from personal and professional disaster.

"Michael Craft is bound to nab accolades for his new novel...one that weds the shadowy mystique of noir and the sunny beauty of the desert to winning ends." The Desert Sun

"Craft, as always, mixes plot and dialogue deftly, stirring humor, humanity, and mayhem to create believable characters that go about the business of solving crime with a twist of wry. You’ll beg to see more of these two." Lavender Magazine

Desert Getaway was a quirky, enjoyable murder mystery featuring an unlikely couple of investigators. 

Dante O'Donnell discovers a dead body in the swimming pool of a rental property. Elements of the story have dimmed in my memory in the six weeks or so since I read it, so how he ends up as an unofficial assistant to a PI looking into the crime eludes me now. I'm sure it was plausible and made sense at the time. There's a certain irony to the situation, insofar as he is working closely with Jazz Friendly, a down-on-her-luck PI. Their paths crossed previously when she arrested him for the murder of his husband, something he was totally innocent of.

It's quite a light mystery with lots of humour in the narrative and the situations. Dante is gay, footloose and fancy free and has more than a few liaisons during the course of the book. A near neighbour is a regular hook-up as is one of the suspects in the murder case. Jazz Friendly is slightly more serious minded. The pair bond and Dante helps and encourages her in her sobriety, as well as supporting her efforts to remain close to her child, which her ex-husband has custody of. He also helps furnish her dull office. Is it a given that gay men know how to decorate?

I enjoyed the relationship dynamics, probably a bit more than the murder investigation. I can't really remember too much about the victim. I cared insofar as how it impacted on O'Donnell. 

Answers are arrived at after some amateur sleuthing and snooping, and the outcome stacked up and made sense. There are more than a few suspects or persons of interest. The motive for the crime needs establishing before too much progress can be made. An event from the past also gets settled. The setting of Palm Springs was also a plus.

This one has been badged as the first in Craft's Dante and Jazz series. If there's a second at some point I'll be interested in reading it, assuming time allows. That's one yardstick for measuring my enjoyment of a book - would I want to read more from the author and about the same main characters in the future? In this case, yes.    

3.5 from 5

Read - September, 2022

Published - 2022

Page count - 282

Source - review copy from publisher Brash Books

Format - Paperback

MARK ROGERS - TJ99 (2022)

Synopsis/blurb ...

Back a man into a corner. Take away his ability to earn a living. Imperil his family. Do these things and a man will either stand down or stand up.

It’s happening all over America. First, a guy loses a job. Then his unemployment dries up and he becomes a 99er. Rafe is one of these unfortunates. He coasted through life until the bottom fell out. Instead of slowly circling the drain, Rafe and his Mexican-born wife Paloma decide to leave Southern California behind and make a new life in Tijuana, Mexico.

Life is humming along south of the border until one bad move finds Rafe sucked into the Tijuana underworld of drug cartels. Years of laidback living have ill-prepared Rafe for life or death stakes.

Rafe has to up his game in a big way—and fast.

TJ99 is the first in Mark Rogers series of Tijuana Noir novels. He's published five to date.

Like my previous encounters with Rogers' work, I enjoyed it.

America has eaten up and spat out another victim. The job has gone and the bank is taking back the home. Estrangement from grown family, makes a move south a slightly more attractive option for Rafe and his wife, especially as they can crash with her family until Rafe finds work and things improve.

So far so good, until a detestable and feckless family member gets Rafe involved in drug cartel business. Danger, escalation, kidnapping, cross border smuggling - people and drugs and an unlikely fightback. 

I enjoyed the story. It's a tough read in places, especially one man's desperation as the economy and circumstances and life have ground him down. Its an increasingly common tale, as not just in the US and even the UK, the rich and powerful seem to want a bigger slice of the cake to the detriment of those at the lower end of the food chain. Don't you hate bankers and big business and enabler politicians that rig the game in favour of those who always have more than they could ever need?

I liked how Rafe wasn't quite broken and had enough spirit to fight for the women he loved. There is also an uplift, in a form of reconciliation with his son.

Hope and optimism, sometimes in short supply is never quite extinguished. 

4 from 5

   

Gray Hunter, The Death Dealer (with Adam Rocke) and Red Thread have been enjoyed before.

Read - September, 2022 

Published - 2022

Page count - 240

Source - Kindle Unlimited

Format - Kindle