This is the third in an unban fantasy series about Connor Grey. I reviewed the first one here, and see that I never reviewed the second one. These novels are set in Boston in an alternate timeline in which the walls between Fairy and Earth broke down and all sorts of fantastical creatures came though to Earth, and cannot return. Connor is one of the fey, but is young enough that he was born here. He used to be a powerful druid who worked for the Guild enforcing law among the fey. But an encounter with a terrorist elf a few years ago left Connor with a mysterious mass in his brain and lacking most of the powers he used to command.
The first two books were about Connor dealing with his bitterness over his situation and trying to move ahead with his life. I think, with this book, that Connor has turned a corner. He still cannot do most of the things he used to, but he is acquiring new talents he didn't have before, and he seems a good deal more confident that he was before. Connor does consulting work for the Boston PD on crimes the Guild isn't interested in taking on, and in this novel he is investigating a couple of murders and an attempted murder by a woman using druidic magic. He also gets called in to the Guild to testify about events in the last book, and gets very frustrated with the politics and pretty much tells a fairy queen to fuck off. Meanwhile he finds he is seeing ghosts, and the thing in his head seems to be growing more powerful.
These books follow a certain template, with Connor investigating a crime, pissing off people at the Guild, and then at the end there's some sort of giant magic showdown in which he's wielding more power than he should be able to, saves the day, and barely escapes alive. All three of the books I've read in the series follow the same pattern. Nevertheless, I'm having a blast reading them. They are a very absorbing and fun read, and I think I've read each of them in one sitting. I've got the fourth one waiting, and will read it soon.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Poets and Murder by Robert van Gulik
I've gotten behind again on blogging about the books I"ve been reading. It works best if I review a book before I get very far into the next work, but that's not always a convenient time for me to get to a computer and get my thoughts down.
Poets and Murder is another mystery novel set in ancient China and featuring Judge Dee. This is the last in the series, published in 1968, the year after van Gulik died. I enjoy these novels, which is interesting because I usually don't like historical fiction. I'd rather read actual history than someone's imagining of what history might have been like, often with characters who have anachronistically modern attitudes.
Judge Dee is visiting a neighboring province in order to meet with his superior. He stays with the justice of the province, Lo. They are returning to Lo's home one day after a meeting when they are informed of a murder. The two judges go at once to the scene of the crime and begin to investigate. Loo is an enthusiastic poet, and so he invites four well-known poets who happen to be in the area to stay with him, as well. They are Chang, the royal court's poet, who fears he has had too comfortable a life to write meaningful poetry; Shao, a retired politician and scholar; Loo, a somewhat obnoxious ex-priest who writes couplets and whom we know to be untrustworthy because he is fat (not exactly subtle characterization); and Yoo-lan, a poetess and former prostitute who is traveling through the province on her way to the capital to be tried for murder.
Lo is very much occupied with seeing to the needs of his distinguished guests, and so Dee decides to investigate the murder before he is sent back to his own province. There is another murder, and he finds himself investigating old crimes that took place before either Dee or Lo came to the area. Dee decides that the killer is one of Lo's distinguished guests, but the trouble is figuring out which one without offending anyone.
This was a perfectly acceptable chapter in the Judge Dee mysteries. I found it briefly confusing to have characters named Lo and Loo, but soon got past that. I was tired and not feeling too well while I read the last half of the book, so perhaps I missed some things, but something about Loo's motivation didn't make sense to me. He seemed to want to set a puzzle for Dee, or perhaps place a problem before him, but if he did so I missed it. I liked the book well enough without being particularly engaged. These aren't great or deep works, but they are a quick, entertaining read.
Poets and Murder is another mystery novel set in ancient China and featuring Judge Dee. This is the last in the series, published in 1968, the year after van Gulik died. I enjoy these novels, which is interesting because I usually don't like historical fiction. I'd rather read actual history than someone's imagining of what history might have been like, often with characters who have anachronistically modern attitudes.
Judge Dee is visiting a neighboring province in order to meet with his superior. He stays with the justice of the province, Lo. They are returning to Lo's home one day after a meeting when they are informed of a murder. The two judges go at once to the scene of the crime and begin to investigate. Loo is an enthusiastic poet, and so he invites four well-known poets who happen to be in the area to stay with him, as well. They are Chang, the royal court's poet, who fears he has had too comfortable a life to write meaningful poetry; Shao, a retired politician and scholar; Loo, a somewhat obnoxious ex-priest who writes couplets and whom we know to be untrustworthy because he is fat (not exactly subtle characterization); and Yoo-lan, a poetess and former prostitute who is traveling through the province on her way to the capital to be tried for murder.
Lo is very much occupied with seeing to the needs of his distinguished guests, and so Dee decides to investigate the murder before he is sent back to his own province. There is another murder, and he finds himself investigating old crimes that took place before either Dee or Lo came to the area. Dee decides that the killer is one of Lo's distinguished guests, but the trouble is figuring out which one without offending anyone.
This was a perfectly acceptable chapter in the Judge Dee mysteries. I found it briefly confusing to have characters named Lo and Loo, but soon got past that. I was tired and not feeling too well while I read the last half of the book, so perhaps I missed some things, but something about Loo's motivation didn't make sense to me. He seemed to want to set a puzzle for Dee, or perhaps place a problem before him, but if he did so I missed it. I liked the book well enough without being particularly engaged. These aren't great or deep works, but they are a quick, entertaining read.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Mind Prey by John Sandford
Yet another entry on my recent John Sandford kick. Mind Prey is one of the Lucas Davenport police procedurals, an earlier one that takes place while he was still with the Minneapolis police. A psychiatrist and her two daughters are abducted from the school parking lot, and Davenport and his associates need to find them and figure out if her family or friends had anything to do with it.
This one is a perfectly adequate read, but didn't really grab me. I started it a week and a half ago, and then set it aside to re-read a couple of Russian fantasy novels. I went back to this one only because I was over halfway through and figured I might as well make the effort to finish it.
Mind Prey has a creepy criminal and very unpleasant things happening to the victims, plus Davenport running around shouting and threatening people. There's lots of action and some innocent people are badly hurt or killed, and they save the victims just in the nick of time. So, a fairly typical Sandford. I don't mind the Davenport novels, but I like the Virgil Flowers ones better. He's a calmer and more likable character.
This one is a perfectly adequate read, but didn't really grab me. I started it a week and a half ago, and then set it aside to re-read a couple of Russian fantasy novels. I went back to this one only because I was over halfway through and figured I might as well make the effort to finish it.
Mind Prey has a creepy criminal and very unpleasant things happening to the victims, plus Davenport running around shouting and threatening people. There's lots of action and some innocent people are badly hurt or killed, and they save the victims just in the nick of time. So, a fairly typical Sandford. I don't mind the Davenport novels, but I like the Virgil Flowers ones better. He's a calmer and more likable character.
Monday, August 23, 2010
The Shaman Laughs by James D. Doss
This is volume 2 in the Charlie Moon mysteries, following The Shaman Sings. It is set in southwest Colorado on a Ute Indian reservation, and Charlie Moon is a tribal policeman. Someone is killing and mutilating livestock, and then a very unpopular man is mutilated in the same way. Charlie is assisted in his investigation by Scott Parris, a lawman from a neighboring community who is filling in while the usual chief of police is on vacation, and Charlie's Aunt Daisy Perrika, who is a shaman.
I think I liked this one somewhat better than The Shaman Sings, but I didn't actually like it that much. There is a great deal of mysticism in these books. Daisy and Parris have meaningful dreams, spirits and apparitions are walking the countryside, and for me it kind of interferes with my enjoyment of the mystery. I can tolerate some mystical stuff, but these have too much for me to really enjoy them.
The ending isn't particularly satisfying, either. We find out who has been mutilating the livestock, and we find out who killed the unlikeable guy. But neither are arrested and charged. One is shot dead and the other confesses to Charlie but he does nothing about it. Really, no one will mourn the dead guy, but it's also unfair that the person who did it gets away scot-free and the person who was accused of it doesn't have his name cleared. I realize that the world isn't always black and white and the bad guys aren't always caught, but this ending was too messy and depressing for me. I probably won't bother to read any more in this series.
I think I liked this one somewhat better than The Shaman Sings, but I didn't actually like it that much. There is a great deal of mysticism in these books. Daisy and Parris have meaningful dreams, spirits and apparitions are walking the countryside, and for me it kind of interferes with my enjoyment of the mystery. I can tolerate some mystical stuff, but these have too much for me to really enjoy them.
The ending isn't particularly satisfying, either. We find out who has been mutilating the livestock, and we find out who killed the unlikeable guy. But neither are arrested and charged. One is shot dead and the other confesses to Charlie but he does nothing about it. Really, no one will mourn the dead guy, but it's also unfair that the person who did it gets away scot-free and the person who was accused of it doesn't have his name cleared. I realize that the world isn't always black and white and the bad guys aren't always caught, but this ending was too messy and depressing for me. I probably won't bother to read any more in this series.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Rough Country by John Sandford
As I mentioned in my last entry, I've been on kind of a Sandford kick recently. I've been listening to the Virgil Flowers mysteries in the car as I drive, as well as reading some of his novels. Rough Country is the third Virgil Flowers story I've listened to. I liked it better than the previous one, which featured a Vietnamese death squad on the loose in Minnesota.
In Rough County Virgil, who is an avid outdoorsman, is on vacation, participating in a fishing tournament in northern Minnesota. He is called off the lake by his superior, Lucas Davenport, and sent to investigate a murder, since he's in the area. A well-to-do woman from the Twin Cities was shot while canoeing. She was staying at an all-women resort, and Virgil discovers that the victim, and many of the other ladies staying there, are lesbians. He is also introduced to a country group that plays at one of the local bars. The frontwoman, Wendy, is also a lesbian, and the victim had offered to help the band try to make it big.
There is an awkward love triangle going on with Wendy, her drummer, Bernie, and Zoe, an accountant who is involved with the resort. Everyone tries to hide all useful information from Virgil, but he eventually discovers the truth anyway, with all three women crying at the drop of a hat. I found that pretty obnoxious. I don't know very many lesbians, but the ones I know are pretty strong women and would be unlikely to start crying and tell a police investigator that he's an asshole every time he finds out something they didn't want him to know.
It becomes apparent that the murder, and another a few years earlier, has something to do with Wendy and her band or her family. The real question is which of the people who have Wendy at the center of their universe is the killer. It was fairly obvious some time before the police figure it out, as was something else that Virgil didn't get until close to the end. (I'm trying not to spoil it by being too specific about what Virgil figured out long after I did)
Nevertheless, I enjoyed Rough Country. It's not nearly as preposterous as the one with the Vietnamese death squad was, and I enjoy Virgil's company. There are some very funny parts, and I was frequently laughing as I was listening. As I said, I figured some things out well before Virgil did, but I didn't really mind, as he got there eventually.
In Rough County Virgil, who is an avid outdoorsman, is on vacation, participating in a fishing tournament in northern Minnesota. He is called off the lake by his superior, Lucas Davenport, and sent to investigate a murder, since he's in the area. A well-to-do woman from the Twin Cities was shot while canoeing. She was staying at an all-women resort, and Virgil discovers that the victim, and many of the other ladies staying there, are lesbians. He is also introduced to a country group that plays at one of the local bars. The frontwoman, Wendy, is also a lesbian, and the victim had offered to help the band try to make it big.
There is an awkward love triangle going on with Wendy, her drummer, Bernie, and Zoe, an accountant who is involved with the resort. Everyone tries to hide all useful information from Virgil, but he eventually discovers the truth anyway, with all three women crying at the drop of a hat. I found that pretty obnoxious. I don't know very many lesbians, but the ones I know are pretty strong women and would be unlikely to start crying and tell a police investigator that he's an asshole every time he finds out something they didn't want him to know.
It becomes apparent that the murder, and another a few years earlier, has something to do with Wendy and her band or her family. The real question is which of the people who have Wendy at the center of their universe is the killer. It was fairly obvious some time before the police figure it out, as was something else that Virgil didn't get until close to the end. (I'm trying not to spoil it by being too specific about what Virgil figured out long after I did)
Nevertheless, I enjoyed Rough Country. It's not nearly as preposterous as the one with the Vietnamese death squad was, and I enjoy Virgil's company. There are some very funny parts, and I was frequently laughing as I was listening. As I said, I figured some things out well before Virgil did, but I didn't really mind, as he got there eventually.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
The Night Crew by John Sandford
I've gotten out of the habit of blogging about most of what I read, and I'm trying to et back into the habit again. I've been on a bit of a John Sandford kick lately. I've recently read a couple of his books, and I've been listening to the Virgil Flowers stories in the car as I'm driving, and enjoying them immensely.
The Night Crew is not part of the Virgil Flowers storyline, nor of Sandford's Lucas Davenport series. Unlike those others, which are police procedurals in Minnesota, The Night Crew is about a video news chaser in Los Angeles named Anna. Anna and her crew run around the city at night, trying to get video of breaking news that they can sell to television stations and networks. The night the novel opens, they film an animal-rescue group stealing animals and a stoned high school student who fell to his death.
The next morning, one of Anna's associates is found murdered. Then one of his friends is also murdered, and someone tries to break into Anna's house. She hooks up with the father of the boy who fell to his death, and as the clues add up they realize that Anna has a crazed stalker who is killing people who get near her. She and the father work with the police a bit, but mostly decide to investigate on their own. Anna refuses to go into hiding or even vacate her home for a hotel room until the guy is found, thus aiding him in stalking her more efficiently. She and the new sidekick run around the city interviewing people and taking suicidally stupid risks, and people keep getting attacked, including Anna herself. Remarkably, for all the attempts at murder, the only people who die are characters we don't care about, and all the main characters survive the attempts on their lives.
I grew to really dislike this book as I read it. Breaking into violent drug dealers' homes in the night and going off to confront the killer at his remote home on your own without police backup? These are the actions of someone with a death wish, not of a character I could believe in or care about. Anna's actions led to other people being killed, and some of the things that happened made no sense at all. They use a police woman who resembles Anna as a decoy, have her dress like Anna and drive Anna's car and go to Anna's home, but she doesn't have any backup to nab the guy they're all thinking may attack her? What? There's no point in using a decoy if there's no one there to nab the bad guy when he acts. Anna and the sidekick have a list of suspects they think might be involved, but they don't pass it on to the police, they decide to check them all out on their own--even though there is no good reason to do it that way. Anna has been attacked by her crazed stalker and has police protection, yet she insists on going running on the beach, alone, as if nothing has changed.
All in all, a very readable book with an unlikeable and dangerous protagonist and a lousy plot. I had a somewhat similar reaction to my lone attempt at one of Sandford's novels about his Kidd character. I think I need to stick with the police procedurals.
The Night Crew is not part of the Virgil Flowers storyline, nor of Sandford's Lucas Davenport series. Unlike those others, which are police procedurals in Minnesota, The Night Crew is about a video news chaser in Los Angeles named Anna. Anna and her crew run around the city at night, trying to get video of breaking news that they can sell to television stations and networks. The night the novel opens, they film an animal-rescue group stealing animals and a stoned high school student who fell to his death.
The next morning, one of Anna's associates is found murdered. Then one of his friends is also murdered, and someone tries to break into Anna's house. She hooks up with the father of the boy who fell to his death, and as the clues add up they realize that Anna has a crazed stalker who is killing people who get near her. She and the father work with the police a bit, but mostly decide to investigate on their own. Anna refuses to go into hiding or even vacate her home for a hotel room until the guy is found, thus aiding him in stalking her more efficiently. She and the new sidekick run around the city interviewing people and taking suicidally stupid risks, and people keep getting attacked, including Anna herself. Remarkably, for all the attempts at murder, the only people who die are characters we don't care about, and all the main characters survive the attempts on their lives.
I grew to really dislike this book as I read it. Breaking into violent drug dealers' homes in the night and going off to confront the killer at his remote home on your own without police backup? These are the actions of someone with a death wish, not of a character I could believe in or care about. Anna's actions led to other people being killed, and some of the things that happened made no sense at all. They use a police woman who resembles Anna as a decoy, have her dress like Anna and drive Anna's car and go to Anna's home, but she doesn't have any backup to nab the guy they're all thinking may attack her? What? There's no point in using a decoy if there's no one there to nab the bad guy when he acts. Anna and the sidekick have a list of suspects they think might be involved, but they don't pass it on to the police, they decide to check them all out on their own--even though there is no good reason to do it that way. Anna has been attacked by her crazed stalker and has police protection, yet she insists on going running on the beach, alone, as if nothing has changed.
All in all, a very readable book with an unlikeable and dangerous protagonist and a lousy plot. I had a somewhat similar reaction to my lone attempt at one of Sandford's novels about his Kidd character. I think I need to stick with the police procedurals.
Friday, August 13, 2010
The Shaman Sings by James D. Doss
I recently got back from a short trip to Colorado to visit family, so it seemed a natural choice to pick up this mystery, set in southwest Colorado. Set in the town of Granite Creek (which, so far as I can tell, is the author's invention), it features the new chief of police, Scott Parris, a transplant from Chicago; and Daisy Perika, a Ute shaman whose dreams have meaning.
They are brought together by the murder of Priscilla Song, a physics graduate student at the local university. The police immediately suspect Julio Pacheco, the janitor, who is an illegal immigrant and takes off running when police try to question him. They waste a good deal of time on him, believing that his flight means guilt and that the simplest explanation is probably correct. But of course the reader, who is entitled to a look inside the killer's head before the crime, knows that it isn't the odious janitor, and eventually the police realize it, as well.
I have to say, I can tolerate mystical dreams and witches and animal spirits that make sure the bad guy doesn't get away, but I thought that the portrayal of the killer as insane was a cop-out. He had a real motive for the crimes he committed, and the voice in his head that was egging him on was just kind of tacky overkill for me. Let the bad guy be a greedy killer, that's fine. He didn't need to be a psycho greedy killer.
This is the first novel in a series featuring Charlie Moon, a character who makes a cameo at the end of The Shaman Sings. He seems like a cool enough character, and though this book was decidedly mediocre, I'll give the series another chance. I don't think I liked it well enough to want to pay to read the next one, though. I will see if the library has the series.
They are brought together by the murder of Priscilla Song, a physics graduate student at the local university. The police immediately suspect Julio Pacheco, the janitor, who is an illegal immigrant and takes off running when police try to question him. They waste a good deal of time on him, believing that his flight means guilt and that the simplest explanation is probably correct. But of course the reader, who is entitled to a look inside the killer's head before the crime, knows that it isn't the odious janitor, and eventually the police realize it, as well.
I have to say, I can tolerate mystical dreams and witches and animal spirits that make sure the bad guy doesn't get away, but I thought that the portrayal of the killer as insane was a cop-out. He had a real motive for the crimes he committed, and the voice in his head that was egging him on was just kind of tacky overkill for me. Let the bad guy be a greedy killer, that's fine. He didn't need to be a psycho greedy killer.
This is the first novel in a series featuring Charlie Moon, a character who makes a cameo at the end of The Shaman Sings. He seems like a cool enough character, and though this book was decidedly mediocre, I'll give the series another chance. I don't think I liked it well enough to want to pay to read the next one, though. I will see if the library has the series.
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