Inherent Vice Review

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Inherent Vice Review4.5 out of 5: Cloaked as a detective thriller, Inherent Vice contains the snappy dialog, complicated plot, and criminal underworld types typical of the genre. Don't be fooled by the packaging, though. This novel is pure everything-including-the-kitchen-sink Pynchon with satirical song lyrics, paranoia, drugs, pop culture, lawyers, sex, politics, zombies, more drugs, and a side-trip to Vegas. The neat resolution of a convoluted plot is not really the point. Instead, let go of your need for closure and join Pynchon for a buoyant romp through the psychedelic haze that was L.A. in the late 1960s.
Doc, an amiable, drug-addled personal investigator, stumbles onto a vicious international crime ring as he works on a case brought to him by his ex-girlfriend. By turns brilliant and bumbling, Doc exudes a kind of humble innocence and is the likeable center of this novel. He's both trustworthy and trustful and never far from questioning his own abilities and actions ("Did I say that outloud?"). In a typical example of the endearing workings of Doc's logic, he tries to deduce the origin of a postcard he receives "from some island he had never heard of out in the Pacific Ocean, with a lot of vowels in its name":
"The cancellation was in French and initialed by a local postmaster, along with the notation courrier par lance-coco which as close as he could figure from the Petit Larousse must mean some kind of catapult mail delivery involving coconut shells, maybe as a way of dealing with an unapproachable reef."
In Doc's world, postcards delivered via coconut catapults make perfect sense.
Clearly, Pynchon is having fun with the detective genre. In one scene, Doc drives to a mansion protected by a moat with a drawbridge. After the drawbridge descends "rumbling and creaking," "the night was very quiet again--not even the distant freeway traffic could be heard, or the footpads of coyotes, or the slither of snakes." Beneath all the humor and satire, there's a darker message here. The fun is almost over for Doc and his fellow hippies as paranoia, the harbinger of future oppression, overtakes the fun-loving sixties "like blood in a swimming pool, till it occupies all the volume of the day."
At times Inherent Vice is overly constrained by its purported genre as Pynchon weaves together the complicated plotlines of a detective story, maintaining too tight a grasp on a linear reality. The excessive plotting hampers some of the book's whimsical exuberance. But, unlike much of Pynchon's previous work, Inherent Vice is eminently readable and even, at times, actually suspenseful. At under 400 pages, Inherent Vice is also one of Pynchon's shortest novels. If you've been too intimidated to attempt a Pynchon novel up to now, try this one.Inherent Vice Overview

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Never Look Away: A Thriller Review

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Never Look Away: A Thriller ReviewI have read all of Linwood Barclay's back-list and I must say that this one is better than the last two and I'm relieved that he's pulled back a little with the unbelievable endings and returned to writing a taut mystery thriller that is both fast paced and suspenseful. I found both Fear the Worst: A Thriller and Too Close to Home: A Thriller to be just way too over the top and am glad that Barclay has returned to a style similar to the one used with what I consider to be my favorite of his novels, No Time for Goodbye. Yeah, all his books require a bit of suspension of disbelief at the scenarios, but the main character -- almost consistently a family man with a wife and child -- is usually a sympathetic protagonist and one whom you want to see get to the bottom of the mystery.
In this novel, newspaper reporter David Harwood is investigating what might be corruption with regard to a new privatized prison that is being hawked as the next best thing for the small town of Promise Falls, New York. He's married to Jan and they have a 4 year old son named Ethan. One day, while they're at an amusement park, one of them disappears!! David races from place to place to figure out what is going on and, although several subplots are brewing simultaneously, the energy and the narrative keep the reader glued to the pages. Even though the reader knows what is happening and why, it's a fun romp to the end.
If you like a good mystery thriller, you'll enjoy this one. Recommend.Never Look Away: A Thriller Overview

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Altar of Eden: A Novel Review

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Altar of Eden: A Novel ReviewI love James Rollins' SIGMA novels, but after a while, all series start to feel a bit old to me. Like many other readers, I've really been hoping for a return to the stand alone thrillers with which he began his career. My wish has been granted with his latest work, Altar of Eden, and it was everything I could have hoped for.
Some books can be summarized with a single, high-concept sentence. That's never the case with Rollins, though this book is structured differently and is in many ways simpler than the SIGMA novels. More on that in a moment. The novel opens in the wake of a hurricane. Research veterinarian, Dr. Lorna Polk, is collected from her workplace by a Border Patrol helicopter and ferried out into the Louisiana swamplands. She can't fathom who has requested her or why she is being brought here. The "who" turns out to be Field Operations Supervisor, Jack Menard, a painful ghost from her past. The "why" is a shipwreck. A shipwreck that looks like a nightmarish crime scene, and which holds a most extraordinary living cargo. Her first guess is that they've stumbled upon an exotic animal smuggling ring, but as Rollins writes: "Jack turned and shone his flashlight into the nearest cage. She stared inside--and knew she was wrong about everything." James Rollins is great about writing these hooky endings to his chapters. They're sort of textbook, but irresistible! I know they keep me turning the pages.
I noted the structure of this novel above. The SIGMA novels all contain multiple narrative threads and stories. They're notably complex thrillers. Altar of Eden has a single narrative thread throughout. It is the story of where this discovery takes Jack and Lorna, and it's broken into three discrete parts.
Act One encompasses the first third of the novel, and it reminded me of nothing so much as those old creature feature films from the 70's. You remember the ones? Where the mutant piranhas are heading upstream to the summer camp? That's just a nostalgic example, there are absolutely no mutant piranha in this novel (though if that's your cup of tea, definitely check out Rollins' Amazonia), but SOMETHING has escaped that shipwreck, and it's stalking the bayou. The hunt is on!
Act Two is the shortest of the three. Here, the protagonists have a chance to catch their breath--for like a minute. It's a chance for Lorna and her colleagues to strut their scientific stuff. And this is the part that I have to assume other Rollins fans like me love. Every Rollins novel features at least one element of mind-blowing science. My favorite part of this one involved magnetite crystals in the brain, but the fractals were really cool too! There are tantalizing tidbits from any number of scientific disciplines, but don't worry if you're not as geeky as me. Rollins doesn't go too deeply into anything. His explanations are brief, clear, and intriguing. (As always, he has an author's note at the end to separate fact from fiction. And as always, there's more fact than you might expect.) Unfortunately for our protagonists, the bad guys that were in the background of Act One come front and center in Act Two.
Act Three is the lengthiest of all. It's the endgame. Dr. Polk discovers that what she found in the Mississippi Delta was just the tip of the iceberg. I have to admit that I had a few small quibbles with the end of this novel that I can't discuss without massive spoilers. Nonetheless, those quibbles did not take away from my total enjoyment of this excellent page-turner. I read much of it on an airplane and it kept me compelled for 3,000 miles.
Amusingly, I listened to a large section of this novel on my Kindle while wandering the National Zoo. There are a lot of animals in this novel, so I could read about alligators and monkeys while visiting alligators and monkeys! (Yes, I really AM a huge geek.) I've heard former-vet Rollins discuss why he's never written about a veterinarian before. "Not enough people die," he always says. Well, he finally found a way to make it work. I'm looking forward to more stand alone adventures!Altar of Eden: A Novel Overview

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The 9th Judgment (Women's Murder Club) Review

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The 9th Judgment (Women's Murder Club) ReviewI've read all of the Women's Murder Club novels - some were excellent (books 1-5 and book 7), some were awful (books 6 and 8) and I'm so glad I went with my gut on this one and bought it as I thoroughly enjoyed it, in fact I'd go as far as saying that this was my favourite of the whole series.
Like most of the others in the series, there's two main cases going on - the first is a psychopath known as "The Lipstick Killer" who is terrorising San Francisco by murdering mothers and their babies on the street and at random. The next is a cat burglar called "Hello Kitty" who is being framed for murder when a well known movie star shoots his wife following a robbery at their home. Lindsey and the gang have their hands full in this one, so there isn't a slow moment. Some of the scenes were so exciting I was flying through the pages as I just couldn't stop reading - a quick hour's read turned into a whole evening's binge and I had the book finished in 4 hours! Some bits of the story were a little predictable, maybe because I read a lot of James Patterson novels so I am very familiar with his formulas now, but that didn't stop it from being one of the best I've read from him for a while.
One thing I noticed in this book was that the main attention has been turned to Lindsay again, which is great as some of the other characters - Cindy and Yuki in particular - make the stories in the previous novels quite dull and I find these characters to be too arrogant and generally annoying, so didn't enjoy the ones when they were in the spotlight so much.
Although it is the ninth in the series, this could still be picked up by someone new to the Women's Murder Club novels and easily get into the characters and the gripping story. Fans of the series, like myself, should find this very satisfying and will have their faith in the series restored after the below average attempts over the past few years (excluding 7th Heaven (The Women's Murder Club)). I definitely recommend reading this book!The 9th Judgment (Women's Murder Club) Overview

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The 5th Horseman (Women's Murder Club) Review

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The 5th Horseman (Women's Murder Club) ReviewThe 5th Horseman, which is the fifth book in Patterson's best-selling Women's Murder Club books. It's hair-raising. It's fast paced, it's James Pattersons's continuing to string out best-sellers faster than we write checks. Lately his books have been hit or miss. This one is no different, but I'm sorry to say the things that still bug me about Patterson continue to bug me here and they probably always will so long as he keeps pumping out four or five books a year.
At the San Francisio Muncipal Hospital, people have been receiving the wrong medication which induces a heart attack. The latest victim to this string of "accidents" is Yuki Castellano's mother Keiko, who suddenly collapses. After she's taken to the medical hospital, she's given the wrong medication and suddenly dies. Just like several others. Lindsay Boxer decides it's time to investigate. It's been happening too much to be just an accident.
It isn't such a bad book. For the most part, it'll keep you on the edge of your seat. If you like fast-paced movie-like books, The 5th Horseman is perfect. It instantly grabs your attention and takes you away.
Again, however, this book is plagued by what just about every James Patterson book is plagued with these days. Where's the meat? The substance? There's a lot of plot, but what about characters and steady pace? The book, like many of his previous books, moves much faster than it has to. And because it moves so fast, there's little time to feel for these characters.
Look at it like this, Yuki Castellano was introduced in 4th of July, the previous book (which was much better than this one). We learned very little about her. Here, her mother is introduced right after the prologue. When the mother dies, Patterson tries to make us feel sorry for Yuki Castellano. And I probably would've if I actually KNEW Yuki. The reader doesn't feel for these characters anymore. Lindsay Boxer is perhaps the only character who gets developed. But the other characters of the Women's Murder Club (who ARE major characters) receive very little. Being stuck with these characters for 400 pages calls for some kind of development for these otherwise, underdeveloped characters.
The overall plot is pretty good, at least. Like I said, you'll be on the edge of your seat, but again, it feels very movie like. Everything happens so fast that there are times when the reader is left behind.
If I were to write a letter to James Patterson, I'd tell him to slow down. Ever since he began pumping out four or five books a year he's had to call on numerous co-authors, and his books have gotten shorter, despite them being 400 pages long (as many reviewers have pointed out, the formatting makes it that way). And along with being shorter, they're moving faster. Not only do things happen unrealistically fast, but they become unbelievable, and his characters are beginning to suffer as a result.
The 5th Horseman is a good book, but it lacks substance. Put simple, there's no character development anymore, and nothing falls into place logically. It's time Patterson slow down a little. Take time to flesh out his characters and his stories. He's established his credibility as a writer, it would be a shame for him to ruin it. I don't know about you, but I like a few spices on my book... the kind of spices that make me glad to be with these characters. The kind that make me say, "I sure hope nothing bad happens to her!" It's not here.The 5th Horseman (Women's Murder Club) Overview

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Pursuit of Honor(Mitch Rapp, No. 10) Review

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Pursuit of Honor(Mitch Rapp, No. 10) ReviewAs a huge Vince Flynn fan, I ran out and purchased this the minute the bookstore opened this morning and then sat and read it for most of the day. I think this is his best book in the last five years or so.
If you read Vince Flynn, then you know you can depend on him to tell it like it is with regards to Washington politics and terrorism through his political thrillers and in particular his hero Mitch Rapp. This book is off and running from the first sentence and doesn't stop until the end.
The book continues where Flynn's Extreme Measures: A Thriller (Mitch Rapp Novels) left off and opens after 185 people are killed in Washington DC; many at the National Counterterrorism Center and they include senators, staff, and cabinet. Mitch Rapp has rounded up the terrorists, but three escape and the chase is on. While Rapp is trying to find the escaped terrorists before they kill again, he is being investigated over his interrogation methods in Extreme Measures. Rapp also has to contend with Glen Adams, Inspector General of the CIA who wants to bring Rapp down via a Deep Throat scheme.
Mitch Rapp is both a simple and yet a complicated hero. He is single minded in his pursuit of America's safety. He is a pragmatic operative in terms of how he looks at terrorism and has little time for the games politicians play. Vince Flynn has developed a strong hero with many layers that when delicately pulled back reveal a complicated man on a mission to counteract terrorism; sanctioned or not. He'll do what is necessary to keep America safe.
I hate to get too specific since this is a thriller and it is easy to give spoilers that will ruin the read for folks, but this book rocks! Flynn has really managed to revitalize the series with this offering!Pursuit of Honor(Mitch Rapp, No. 10) Overview

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Forgive Me, Alex Review

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Forgive Me, Alex ReviewThis book is gruesome and emotional right out of the gate. The main character, Tony, goes through some monumental losses throughout the story. These aren't the kind of losses that you can just blow off as insignificant because Lane's writing makes you really care about these people and what's going on. Lane excels in this area of sympathetic characters.
The sympathy you have for the characters makes this a tough read at times. I blazed through the first half in one or two days, which for me is saying a lot, especially with other books already in my queue. But, I got to a point where the gruesome scenes with the serial killer made me put it down. I give Lane credit for painting a very real picture of what it would be like to be Tony, to be the serial killer, and to be all the other people that suffer and were involved with this monster--even to the point that you sympathize with the monster himself.
Even though I didn't really "enjoy" reading the scenes with the serial killer, I was intrigued to get into the killer's mind, and they were very well written. This is the kind of book you can see playing out in your head as if you were there. Lane uses the first person to masterfully get you into the character's minds so that you can feel everything as if it were happening to you. I could see how and why this guy did these awful things, and it made the story more horrific because of how real it seemed.
In the end, I was pushed to find out what happens to the main character's girlfriend. As usual, Lane wrote a compelling love story for Tony and Dianna that really pulls you in at the beginning of the story. This is the hook that will keep you reading in spite of the gruesome actions by the serial killer because you want to know what happens between Tony and Dianna. Even though much of the book is written from 17 years after Tony first met the serial killer, you still don't quite know what happens until the end; and even then, he leaves you wondering and needing to know what will happen in the sequel.
Between 50% and like 70% I was thinking this would be a 4 star review because I figured I had Lane pegged on what would happen to Diane. I was partly right, and partly wrong. The conclusion left me realistically satisfied and very impressed with Lane's story telling. Life isn't a fairy tale, and I commend Lane for his conclusion. That, combined with Lane's excellent writing, makes this a 5 star book. I walk away with a deep emotional connection to these characters and their plight. They are like old friends, and any time a book can create that bond with characters, I say well done. He also did an excellent job with the moral question of what you would do if you were in Tony's place and life has been so traumatically difficult. How many loved ones could you see die before you justified vengeance?
The only problems I had a few problems with this book: a little bit of a lull after the middle, which is hard to avoid when you are setting up the ending, and in order to be real; and some of the sex and violence was more than I wanted to experience, but in the end, that's the ugly truth that Lane had to portray to tell this story right. As he warns in the intro, this book is not for kids.
If you are willing to experience some of the darker sides to life, you'll walk away with new "friends," and a deeper understanding of life and appreciation for the loved ones you still have.Forgive Me, Alex OverviewTony Hooper stands in shadow across the street, one amongst many in the crowd of curiosity-hounds gathered to watch a monster's release. Seventeen years after Mitchell Norton, "the devil," terrorized Algonquin, Illinois on a spree of kidnapping, torture and murder, the authorities release the butcher from psychiatric prison.Tony longs to charge across the street to destroy Norton-no remorse-as if stepping on a cockroach. Only sheer force of will prevents his doing so."The devil" walks the world again. What shall Tony do about it? Aye, what indeed.After all, this is what Tony does. It's who he is. "The devil" himself long ago made Tony into this hunter of monsters. What a sweet twist of fate this is, that he may still, finally, administer justice.Will FBI Special Agent Linda Monroe stop him? She owes him her life, so how can she possibly put an end to his?Tony Hooper and Mitchell Norton battle for supremacy, with law enforcement always a step away, in this story of justice and vengeance, evil and redemption, fear and courage, love and loss.

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