VINCENT ZANDRI - TUNNEL RATS (2018)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

Step aside Rambo, Sam Savage is in town!

For some men and women, the Vietnam War never ended....

Sky Marshal and former Army Ranger Sam Savage has just been handed his most dangerous assignment yet, and it has nothing to do with keeping a plane full of innocent people safe while cruising the friendly skies at 35,000 feet. This time, the sky marshal is on the trail of a New Viet Cong terrorist bent on wreaking havoc on a hotel full of American and Chinese businesspeople. Channy Linn is a new breed Viet Cong in that he's not just leading a band of militant irregulars who are defending their home turf. They are instead a band of terrorists, a la Al Qaeda, bent on the violent destruction of anyone or anything that doesn't follow their twisted ideology.

Along with his field asset, the beautiful but lethal Cindy, Sam will go on the hunt for Channy beginning in Bangkok, Thailand, making their way through Cambodia and finally into the jungles of Vietnam, where Sam will face one of the most terrifying ordeals of his life - being trapped inside the narrow underground tunnels of Cu Chi.

For listeners of Mark Dawson, Boyd Morrison, Lee Child, Russell Blake, and more, New York Times best-selling Thriller Award winning author Vincent Zandri invents yet another action/adventure character who most definitely should not be messed with. This novel promises to keep you glued to your seat for the entire journey.

Enjoyable escapist nonsense........CRAZEEEEEEE!

Fun, fast, frantic, far-fetched and (probably) forgetable. Which isn't to say I wasn't engaged and entertained while listening to another Audible offering.

We have Sam Savage, a sky marshal, out of his comfort zone and pro-active in seeking out a modern day VC terrorist leader. Plenty of banter, action and sex, as Savage gets close to his NVC target. There's the involvement of Cindy, either an alluring ally or a woman playing for the highest bidder, an attack, a chase, an escape - temporary, incarceration in the Cu Chi tunnel network, escape again, a bombing, and a reunion between main man Sam Savage and enemy agent Channy Linn.

It's a busy book. Sam's survival at various points of the novel defies belief, but it's the kind of book where you know the outcome before you start it, so pretty much anything goes. I quite liked the main character, his cheery attitude, his desire to do his job without ever going overboard into full-blown jingoism or patriotism, which sometimes blinds people to their own country's historic errors. He's skilled, adaptable, determined and quite good company for the duration of the book. 

Fast-paced, action driven, not too much introspection though I did like Sam's inner monologue and the dynamics betwen him and Cindy and also his nemesis Channy. Decent narration which added to my enjoyment.

I'm tempted to look up New Viet Cong to see if they are actually an entity and a threat or just a figment of the author's imagination. I've never heard of them before and I'm intrigued. Maybe Zandri's book isn't quite as forgetable as I might once have thought, now I'm pondering elements of the set-up.   

Vincent Zandri is a busy author with over fifty fiction works to his name. I have a few more on the pile, but not the two earlier Sam Savage offerings. I'm interested in reading more from him again, which is as good a recommendation to myself as I can give. 

3.5 from 5

Read - (listened to) November, 2020

Published - 2018

Page count - 244 (3 hrs 3 mins)

Source - Audible purchase

Format - Audible 

BILL JAMES - YOU'D BETTER BELIEVE IT (1985)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

Nominated for England's Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award in 1986, You'd Better Believe It introduced Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur to reader in England and the United States. Harpur's domain is a small seaport city south of London. It's not unusual for the big-town criminals to consider such a spot as easy prey. At such times a policeman must rely keenly upon his colleagues, to be sure, and also upon his retinue of narks (tipsters). This time it's a Lloyd's Bank branch that's the target. When the heist is postponed, a policeman is killed. One nark, then another, is murdered. As Harpur becomes driven to his limit, he must bypass regulations and settle things once and for all with a vicious crook named Holly. But not necessarily on his own terms.

The first in the author's thirty-plus long Harpur and Iles series and a re-read after first enjoying this one back in January, 2007. I'm guessing that the series comprises straightforward police procedurals with recurring characters as it goes on, but here in the opener we have a maverick cop trying to get to the bottom of a potential big robbery on his turf - a robbery which he views as a personal affront. So who knows what the rest of the series will bring.

A big heist, an outsider firm, planning, secrecy, informers, a false alarm, pressure from the higher-ups, a missing cop, an attractive wife, a dead body or two including a cop, a big cheese gangster, an off the cards meeting, a disagreement, breaking and entering, favour for favour, the robbery and the aftermath.

Great 80s time frame, a quirky writing style which demands you pay attention, off-beat humour, a roguish main character and a gripping story which maintained my interest throughout, before a decent conclusion. I'm interested in reading the second in the series sometime soon. (I'm definitely not leaving a 13 year gap before inevitably having to read this for a third time.) 

4 from 5

Bill James has been enjoyed before, apart from this one...... Noose, Hitmen I Have Known and The Squeeze (as David Craig)

Read - October, 2020

Published - 1985

Page count - 164

Source - owned copy

Format - hardback

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