BRIAN KEENE - KILL WHITEY (2008)

 

Synopsis/blurb.....

From bestselling author Brian Keene comes another novel of dark crime and

the supernatural, in the tradition of Terminal...

Larry Gibson longed for something different from his days as a dock worker

and his lonely nights spent drinking with his friends.

When Larry meets Sondra Belov, a beautiful exotic dancer, he finally gets

some excitement in his life, too much excitement.

Now, Larry's friends are dying and he's on the run from the cops, the

Russian mob, and a seemingly invincible madman.

And if Larry wants to live another day, he'll have to figure out a way to

kill Whitey...

KILL WHITEY... how can you kill someone who cannot die?

My second time with author Brian Keene's work, after enjoying his shorter piece Alone, last month. Kill Whitey for long periods reads like a crimey-revenge thriller, as our main character Larry seeks to evade the Russian mob after assisting sexy stripper-cum-masseuse-cum-prostitute, Sondra. 

For months Larry has been visiting the Russian run club, mesmerised by Sondra whenever she takes to the stage. The man has fallen for her big time. One night there's a panic in the club, Whitey and his heavies are tearing around trying to find something. When Larry leaves to go home, the search has moved outside and having spotted Sondra shaking under his car, Larry makes the impulsive decision to help her.  

Flight and violent pursuit with much bloodshed entails for the rest of the book, as Larry after witnessing the murder of his friends and narrowly escaping death himself, finally turns into Rambo and tries to act out the title of the book and Kill Whitey. It's a bit harder than it might seem. 

Whitey's survival instincts and abilities are what tip the book into a story with horror and supernatural undertones. The back story and brief history lesson involving Rasputin lend some believability to the plot. SOME!!! as some portion of my brain just doesn't cede all scepticism. I could suspend disbelief for the purposes of enjoying an entertaining, fast-paced, violent tale though.

Best writing ever? No not especially, but a decent adventure, plenty of gore and action, decent main characters, particularly Larry and Sondra. The others don't really have that much depth. We get Sondra's back story, but it is her telling it and she proves to be a little bit unreliable, a little bit deceitful and economical with the truth. Is Larry a little bit too naive and trusting. Oh yeah.

Good, escapist fun was had. I'll be back to try more of Brian Keene's work in the future.

4 from 5

Read - (listened to) November, 2020

Published - 2008

Page count - 304 (6 hrs 30 mins)

Source - Audible purchase

Format - Audible

DOUGLAS COLE - THE WHITE FIELD (2020)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

The White Field is a fast-paced journey of a man, Tom, fresh out of prison and trying desperately to rebuild his life. But he is caught by mysterious, unseen forces beyond his knowledge or control. After his release from prison, he is dropped back into the world in the wastelands of the city. In the menial work afforded the underclass, he begins his new life among characters at the edges of society, dwellers of the netherworld such as Raphael, a former cop from Mexicali singing Spanish arias in the mists of the industrial night among drug addicts and crooked cops; Tony, a stoner scholar with an encyclopedic knowledge of history based solely on the intricate study of rock and roll; and Larry, the bloated, abusive manager trapped as much as his workers in a world of tedium and repetition and machines. Think, The Three Stooges on acid. Unable to reconnect with what’s left of his family, Tom embarks on a criminal path more harrowing than the one that led him to prison in the first place. Lured in by the nefarious, Thane, he slips into a plan that will leave him with no way back. And with no place left in this world to go but prison, he makes one last run for freedom. Will he escape?

At 160-odd pages The White Field was a fast read but in truth one that didn't really set my world on fire. It's well written and descriptive and quite lyrical at times, but ultimately the story itself kind of petered out.

Tom is out of prison and working daily at a paint shop, doing hard manual graft. His wife has divorced him and has moved on. His two children don't know him and he hasn't really kept in touch with his father or brother. Apart from showing up for work and satifying the demands of his parole officer, there's nothing going on in his life.

He flirts at reconnecting with his children and reaches out. An awkward dinner ensues and he's reminded of his failings by his oldest son. He saves a woman from an awkward domestic situation by intervening. He chats regularly with his co-workers, but there's nothing outside of that environment that binds them together and offers him a sense of purpose or an outlet. 

He meets up with an old friend or two in a bar. There is a mutual attraction for his main guy, Thane's girl. They meet separately and get it on. Before we know it, Tom is involved with his old friends in a scheme to rob a diamond retailer. Things do not go well. 

There were large portions of the book I quite enjoyed, Tom's efforts with his family and his second attempt at connecting with his son after initial rebuttal. I liked the time he spent with his brother towards the end of the book. I liked his interactions with his work colleagues and the people around his lodgings. He seemed a decent sort. We learn about the circumstances of his incarceration - a kind of guilty by association thing. 

He dropped points in his hook up with his friend's girl. Who does that to a friend? He dropped points in agreeing to participate in the robbery. He didn't seem to have any real plan or ambition once he left prison. Don't get me wrong, it isn't easy for offenders to reintegrate into society, but he was totally aimless. He adopted the path of least resistance when agreeing to sign up. He was a disappointment. 

Overall I left the novel a bit puzzled as to what message the author was trying to convey. Maybe there was no message. Maybe it's about poor choices and fractional prospects for rehabilitation or redemption.

3 from 5

Read - November, 2020

Published - 2020

Page count - 158

Source - Net Galley review copy

Format - ePUB read on laptop. 

OWEN LAUKKANEN - LONE JACK TRAIL (2020)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

A veteran Marine and an ex-convict find themselves on opposite sides of the law in this propulsive new thriller from award-nominated suspense master and "damn fine storyteller" Owen Laukkanen (Kirkus Reviews).

Could your closest friend be a killer?

When a body washes up outside Deception Cove, Washington, Jess Winslow-once a US Marine, now a trainee sheriff's deputy-is assigned to investigate. But when she realizes it's "Bad" Brock Boyd, a hometown celebrity lately fallen from grace, things become complicated. The last person seen with Boyd was her own boyfriend, Mason Burke.

An ex-convict and newcomer in town, Mason is one of the only people who can understand Jess's haunting memories of her time in Afghanistan-and her love for Lucy, her devoted service dog. Finding one another in Deception Cove has been the best thing to happen to either of them in years. So Jess knows Mason could never be guilty of murder-doesn't she?

As the facts of the case point ever more squarely at Mason, Jess must face that everything she thinks she knows about him might be wrong. A thrilling sequel to Deception Cove, and a heart-pounding adventure all its own, Lone Jack Trail pushes Jess and Mason to a shocking confrontation and will test everything they've come to love and trust in Deception Cove.

Second time around for me with Owen Laukkanen and his small Deception Cove community and main characters Mason Burke and Jess Winslow. Here, the fledgling friendship-cum-romance is put under extra strain when Mason is accused of the murder of another ex-con, the hometown celebrity Brock Boyd. Boyd has a bullet in his head and Mason still has the cuts and bruises from their very public brawl days before Boyd's death. When a witness puts the two together and the gun used in the killing is found near Mason's boat, Burke moves from a person of interest to chief suspect. His close proximity to another suspicious death cements that opinion in the minds of most of the on scene law enforcement and the locals, especially when his past his taken into consideration.

There's a lot to savour here, in particular the dynamics of the relationship between our two baggage-laden, lead characters (plus the dog they kind of share). Mason is an ex-con who owns his crime and is trying to forge a future with Jess and Lucy, the pitbull he trained while inside. In fact, despite fifteen years incarcerated, Mason is actually quite well-adjusted. He likes/loves Jess, but is enough of a gentleman to go at Jess's pace and to walk away if she decides there's no future for them as friends or a couple. Jess has her own demons. She's a PTSD suffering veteran and a widow to boot. She has trust issues and few people that she lets into her life. Jess is now in the unenviable position of juggling her job as local police with the fact that the man she may/may not be considering a future with, may/may not be guilty of a couple of homicides. 

Lone Jack Trail - other main plus points ...... a decent pace without seeming rushed; a couple of murders to unravel; relationship troubles; some backstory to the first victim and our main characters, which serves well for those who might not have read the first in the series, but doesn't feel like deja-vous for someone who had; a decent support cast - eg. Rengo, Burke's only friend and another outsider, as a man living on the fringes of the community - and the sheriff and the other officers in the small town police force (names elude me); a man on the run and a manhunt; a conspiracy; some low level criminals - thinking bigger or not thinking at all; an amateur investigation, as well as an official one; a fistfight; a plausible motive for our crimes - initial and subsequent; a showdown and shoot out; an escape and a pursuit and a decent resolution. 

Excitement, tension, action, interesting setting and a bit of a slow burner love story as the two main protagonists try and figure out if they have a future together or not. 

Negatives - nothing especially. Maybe a slight stretch of disbelief as our man escapes arrest by an impulsive swim, though I suppose it wasn't totally outlandish. Far better than a convenient jet ski.

One other piece which kind of distracted me was the naming of some of the supporting characters, a few of which must have featured unnoticed in the first book of the series. I don't know whether I liked this element or not to be honest. I might be over-thinking things but I spotted ..... Joe Clifford, Ed Aymar, a Pruitt, a Winslow, a Mason, a Harper (or was it Jordan), a Hart (maybe), a Fetridge (a hat-tip to John Mc perhaps?)....... maybe some more, or maybe I just read too much crime fiction and everything in my brain just loops and circles back to other authors I've encountered? On balance, I think I liked this element, there's too many examples for it to be pure coincidence.

Overall 4.5 from 5

I'll be keen to see a third outing in the same setting with the same cast of characters, should the author choose to write one. In the meantime I have some of his earlier books on the shelf unread that ought to be given an airing. Deception Cove is the only other book I've read from Owen Laukkanen thus far.

Read - October, 2020

Published - 2020

Page count - 306

Source - Net Galley review copy

Format - ePUB read on laptop   

JIM HESKETT - WOUNDED ANIMALS (2015)

 

Synopsis/blurb.....

While nursing some drinks after a terrible day at work, Tucker Candle spits out his rum and coke when a stranger across the bar turns water into wine. But did he? Or was it just an alcohol-induced trick of the light?

This stranger has a warning for Candle: skip your planned business trip tomorrow. If you go, I won't be able to protect you any longer.

With a clear head the next morning, Candle resumes his normal life, working for a company that's about to lay him off. That barroom huckster couldn't have been magical, or prophetic. He was just some washed-up weirdo with a few tricks.

But when Candle comes back from his trip to find his pregnant wife missing and a dead man's blood seeping into his bathroom floor, the washed-up weirdo's counsel doesn't seem so foreign now.

Cops, friends, family... Candle doesn't trust anyone. As he searches for his wife, people around him keep turning up murdered. If he can't find her and uncover the mystery driving the chaos, the stranger's words might come true, after all.

Bizarrely, I quite enjoyed this despite a nonsensical absurdly weak plot and a main character who was likeable, but whose main priorities at varying phases of the book seemed arse about face.

Ok, here's the thing. Someone wants you to kill someone, so they kidnap your heavily pregnant wife and kill some people you've recently worked with, but barely know, dumping one corpse in your bathroom, and all because they want you to kill someone who you met once in a bar and who they obviously have some connection with. These people kill again, several times before actually telling Candle (our main character) what they want him to do. WTF - really? You're happy enough to kill multiple times, why not just ice the person you want dead. No need to involve a third party, someone who thus far has shown himself not to be a criminal or killer. 

Secondly, when Candle becomes aware that his wife has gone missing, at various points in the narrative it doesn't seem to be his number one priority finding her or when overcome by inertia and a lack of a plan, he's not overly fretful about her or the situation. Other times, he is interested in her fate, as if the author had an afterthought, deciding his main character ought to give a toss about his wife and unborn child.

Plus points .... a decent pace, some interesting situations and incidents - ie the initial bar scene and the the scene near the top of the mountain, to mention two. They're well written and exciting. I can't remember any awkward clunkiness in the narrative at any point. I liked the scene with the stray dog, the coyote and Candle as well. The finale was ok and did what it needed to.

Without being unduly harsh, (or maybe I am) I enjoyed the book, though the author needs major work on his plotting. Wounded Animals is the first in his Whistleblower trilogy. I have the following two, seeing as it's all one big Audible omnibus. Hopefully I'll see if he's tightened things up in the next installment.

3 from 5

Jim Heskett has been enjoyed before with Reagan's Ashes. 

Read - (listened to) October, 2020

Published - 2015

Page count - 246 (4 hrs 48 mins)

Source - Audible purchase

Format - Audible

MICHAEL HEMMINGSON - HARD COLD WHISPER (2011)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

David Kellgren is a process server, a job where everyone wants to kill the messenger and things can get a little bit dangerous and out of hand. David is attacked when trying to serve legal papers to a gang member and an angel comes to his rescue: nineteen-year-old Gabriella Amaya, trapped in a large dilapidated house, caring for her dying aunt. This elderly aunt has money, diamonds, and real estate, promised to Gabriella when the aunt dies. Is there any way the sultry caregiver can get her crafty hands on that wealth sooner? And share it with her new lover, the unsuspecting process server who starts to wonder if he's become a patsy in a elaborate murder plot, or if he simply cannot allow himself to trust any woman who says, "I love you." Set in San Diego, Chula Vista, and Tijuana, Hard Cold Whisper is Michael Hemmingson at his finest, most terse and torqued prose in the crime genre.

Hard Cold Whisper is a book I had wanted to read for a long time after seeing a couple of reviews for it over on Goodreads. It was a tricky one to get hold of, but eventually I managed to get an Audible copy. It was well worth the effort.

It's one man's tale of a fast, slippery descent into darkness, as David Kellgren, an honest process server falls for the sultry Gabriella Amaya. With hooks into his loins and soon his heart, he doesn't stand a chance.

I really enjoyed this one. Pace, plot, characters, setting and outcome were all massive ticks in the box. There was a point in the story where I kind of guessed what was happening to our man, but Hemmingson added unforeseen layers to the twist which had me marvelling at the outcome.

I don't want to give too much away about the plot and how it unfolds, but it's dark, funny, exciting, interesting and highly recommended to anyone who reads in the crime genre and crosses paths with this little gem.

4.5 from 5

I'll be keeping an eye out for other Hemmingson books in future. Sadly the author passed in 2014, at the young age of 47.

Read - (listened to) October, 2020

Published - 2011

Page count - 154 (2 hrs 56 mins)

Source - Audible purchase

Format - Audible

FRANK ZAFIRO - CHISOLM'S DEBT (2013)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

After two tours in Vietnam and 25 years as a police officer, Thomas Chisolm is looking forward to a quiet retirement. That hope is quickly shattered when Mai, a ghost from his past, finds him and demands justice for the horrors she suffered during the Vietnam War...horrors Chisolm couldn't save her from. Now Chisolm must find the man responsible and bring him to justice to repay an old debt and in the hopes of putting his own demons to rest...once and for all. 

Chisolm's Debt is written by River City author Frank Zafiro and features one of River City's most iconic characters. Follow Chisolm on his search as he explores the nature of moral debt, war, forgiveness, and guilt on his way to an explosive ending.

Way back when, before I discovered the joys of crime fiction, I was a massive reader of all things related to the Vietnam War, both fact and fiction. Reading a book which was a blend of both was for me then a double win.

Chisolm's Debt serves up a dual time narrative, with newly retired police officer Frank Chisolm featuring both back in the 70s as a grunt in Vietnam and in near present day as he is emotionally blackmailed into tracking down a fellow US veteran responsible for the rape of a young Vietnamese woman. 

I thought the re-emergence of the same woman, Mai from Chisolm's past, the one he tried his best to save but failed was a slight stretch for me plot-wise, but that said I really enjoyed the story.

The scenes set in Vietnam were tense and troubling ....... young men - barely men, thrust into an alien environment and landscape, trying their best to survive, some thrive, some become dehumanised and view everything and everyone as an enemy to be conquered. Friendship, loyalty, trust, camaraderie, bravery, duty, loss, a sense of right, contrasts with savagery, barbarism, cruelty, rape, entitlement, and a total abandonment of decency.

In the early 2010s we have the reconnection between Chisolm and Mai and Chisolm's subsequent search for the rapist veteran. This part of the narrative was enjoyable also. I liked the way Chisolm went about his task, utilising organisations with access to information on former serving members of the armed forces. I liked the less than straightforward path to his target, with some interesting events and diversions which this threw up.

Inevitably we get to a confrontation between Chisolm and the guilty man. It's less of a surprise to learn that time has not improved the demeanour or outlook of the rapist. He's a miserable, embittered man with little or no redeeming qualities. There's a skewed sense of pride in his boasting of showing his victim probably the best time of her life. 

Events take a further twist and reinforce the portrayal thus far of Chisolm's character as a decent man, brave, tenacious and determined; one imbued with a strong sense of right and wrong. Again, there's a wee suspension of disbelief as Chisolm, a man in his 60s belies his age to perform some physical feats way beyond the ken of most normal beings half his age.

Overall though, I really liked it.

4 from 5

Frank Zafiro's books have been enjoyed before, In the Shadow of El Paso and The Hardest Hit (a YA novel as Frank Scalise) and a couple of his co-authored works with Colin Conway - Charlie 316 and Never the Crime. He's one of my best reading discoveries of 2020.

Read - (listened to) October, 2020

Published - 2013

Page count - 230 (4 hrs 7 mins)

Source - Audible purchase

Format - Audible

BRIAN KEENE - ALONE (2011)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

When Daniel Miller wakes up one morning, something has gone terribly wrong. The power is out. The phones are dead. The house is silent. The street is shrouded in fog. Both his partner and their adopted daughter are missing. So are their neighbors. And so is everyone else in the world. Daniel Miller is the last person left on Earth... or is he?

From award-winning, best-selling horror writer Brian Keene comes this quiet, chilling, supernatural short tale.

A slow-burner of a long short story.

A man wakes alone in his bed and irritation and annoyance at his partner for not waking him, soon turns to puzzlement - the house is empty, the power is out, the cell phone doesn't work, he can't pee. This puzzlement escalates to fear and despair over the next few days - or is it days? How can he tell? The clocks have stopped. His food has no taste. The neighbours are missing. Dropped things make no noise. 

A hopeful encounter with his adopted daughter sows further confusion, as he can't connect with her. Eventually all is revealed through a conversation with a neighbour's troubled child.

I really enjoyed this one, maybe because it was so different from my staple reading preferences of the past 30 years or so. I don't honestly know whether I tried to solve the mystery of what was happening or whether I didn't bother to try, just content to follow Daniel's efforts to discover what had happened to him and the world he knew. What sort of post-apocalyptic nightmare he had woken from?

In hindsight the ending was all so obvious and fitting.

Great writing, an interesting story, one with ever-increasing tension as Daniel learns his fate.

4 from 5

I've a couple more from Brian Keene in the Audible library which I will look forward to in future.

Read - October, 2020

Published - 2011

Page count - 54 (1 hr 20 mins)

Source - Audible purchase

Format - Audible