David Schwinghammer's Blog, page 3
January 24, 2020
No Place Like Home
At the beginning of NO PLACE LIKE HOME, Celia's Nolan's husband surprises her with a new house. It just happens to be the same house where Celia (really Liza Barton) accidentally shot her mother, whom she was trying to protect from her stepfather who was abusing her mother.
The same day she sees her new/old house for the first time, someone vandalizes it with red paint. Lizzie had always been associated with Lizzie Borden, who was accused of murdering her mother and father, and the vandalism referred to that famous murder case.
Throughout the novel there seems to be one suspect in the many murders that occur, Ted Cartwright a local real estate developer, who is also Celia's stepfather, having survived the bullets Liza put in his leg after killing her mother.
I kept thinking “This is too easy; he obviously did it.” When do we get the twist? The first dead person is Liza's real father who supposedly died in a horse riding accident. In short order a real estate agent and a caretaker are also killed. One of the detectives thinks Celia is responsible and follows her around trying to intimidate her.
We get the twist I was expecting towards the end of the book, and it's really too much to believe. Just about everybody Celia knows is either a murderer or aiding and abetting a murder or murderers.
Writers call this author intrusion. The author needs a certain person to be guilty and he/she sometimes goes a bit to far, towards incredulity. For one thing, Celia has never told her second husband who she really is. Why not? Because it adds suspense. What will Alex do when he finds out? You won't believe how Clark handled that little dilemma.
I used to read a lot of Mary Higgins Clark's books, probably because I belonged to a book club, and she almost always had a selection. I don't think they were mysteries per se. They weren't exactly romances, but they leaned that way and were about everyday experiences. I preferred those to this.
The same day she sees her new/old house for the first time, someone vandalizes it with red paint. Lizzie had always been associated with Lizzie Borden, who was accused of murdering her mother and father, and the vandalism referred to that famous murder case.
Throughout the novel there seems to be one suspect in the many murders that occur, Ted Cartwright a local real estate developer, who is also Celia's stepfather, having survived the bullets Liza put in his leg after killing her mother.
I kept thinking “This is too easy; he obviously did it.” When do we get the twist? The first dead person is Liza's real father who supposedly died in a horse riding accident. In short order a real estate agent and a caretaker are also killed. One of the detectives thinks Celia is responsible and follows her around trying to intimidate her.
We get the twist I was expecting towards the end of the book, and it's really too much to believe. Just about everybody Celia knows is either a murderer or aiding and abetting a murder or murderers.
Writers call this author intrusion. The author needs a certain person to be guilty and he/she sometimes goes a bit to far, towards incredulity. For one thing, Celia has never told her second husband who she really is. Why not? Because it adds suspense. What will Alex do when he finds out? You won't believe how Clark handled that little dilemma.
I used to read a lot of Mary Higgins Clark's books, probably because I belonged to a book club, and she almost always had a selection. I don't think they were mysteries per se. They weren't exactly romances, but they leaned that way and were about everyday experiences. I preferred those to this.
January 13, 2020
The Institute
THE INSTITUTE is about children who are tested for telepathy and telekinesis at birth and late kidnapped by these crazies who think they can prevent nuclear war by using the collective minds of the kids to off potential monsters.
The book starts a little cumbersomely with a guy in South Carolina who takes a job as a kind of night watchman also called a Night Knocker. Later on that connects to the main story about the kids who've been kidnapped, but not until late in the story. I didn't even recognize him until I read the term “night knocker”.
One of the kids, Luke Ellis, is only twelve years old but he's got a scholarship in two different schools, MIT for engineering and Emerson for English Literature. But THE INSTITUTE wants him because he's got minimal telekinesis. That proves to be a mistake.
There are two parts to The Institute, the front half and the back half. Once you get to the Back Half they start showing the kids movies that enhance their extra sensory abilities, but it also turns them into zombies, or Gorks as the kids call them. The Back Half is called Gorky Park, after the book.
Luke establishes a relationship with a black girl named Kalisha, a rebel named Nick, who fights back, and Avery, a ten-year-old with strong telepathic powers. He also finds an actual human being among the staff, a maid named Maureen. He helps her pay off her husband's credit card debts. Bill collectors have been hounding her, despite the fact they're separated. She helps him escape. Once he escapes, the book picks up speed with a lot more suspense. Turns out The Institute has spies everywhere called stringers who help trace Luke's escape route.
One thing I've always liked about King's books is that he grabs you right away. I've never been thrilled with the horror genre, but he'll get you anyway. My favorites are those that are more realistic like MISERY and the three recent mysteries. This one is somewhere in between. He doesn't go overboard with the extra sensory stuff until we get to the Back Half where the kids are beyond help.
The book starts a little cumbersomely with a guy in South Carolina who takes a job as a kind of night watchman also called a Night Knocker. Later on that connects to the main story about the kids who've been kidnapped, but not until late in the story. I didn't even recognize him until I read the term “night knocker”.
One of the kids, Luke Ellis, is only twelve years old but he's got a scholarship in two different schools, MIT for engineering and Emerson for English Literature. But THE INSTITUTE wants him because he's got minimal telekinesis. That proves to be a mistake.
There are two parts to The Institute, the front half and the back half. Once you get to the Back Half they start showing the kids movies that enhance their extra sensory abilities, but it also turns them into zombies, or Gorks as the kids call them. The Back Half is called Gorky Park, after the book.
Luke establishes a relationship with a black girl named Kalisha, a rebel named Nick, who fights back, and Avery, a ten-year-old with strong telepathic powers. He also finds an actual human being among the staff, a maid named Maureen. He helps her pay off her husband's credit card debts. Bill collectors have been hounding her, despite the fact they're separated. She helps him escape. Once he escapes, the book picks up speed with a lot more suspense. Turns out The Institute has spies everywhere called stringers who help trace Luke's escape route.
One thing I've always liked about King's books is that he grabs you right away. I've never been thrilled with the horror genre, but he'll get you anyway. My favorites are those that are more realistic like MISERY and the three recent mysteries. This one is somewhere in between. He doesn't go overboard with the extra sensory stuff until we get to the Back Half where the kids are beyond help.
December 26, 2019
Cari Mora
I read a review of CARI MORA in the MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE. The reviewer hated it. He thought there was too much gratuitous violence. I almost didn't buy the book because of that review. But this is Thomas Harris, author of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, which I believe was an academy award winner; Hannibal Lector, one of the main characters, is a cannibal.
There is a brief reference to cannibalism in CARI MORA, but it's mostly a suspense novel with a great central character. Cari Mora is as tough as nails, and she shows it during the climax. Cari was kidnapped when she was only twelve years old to fight as a child solider for revolutionaries in Columbia. These were Marxist revolutionaries, and they would attack villages where the para-military was strong. Cari's leader was about to shoot a child hiding under a house when she shot him in the back of the head. She had to run for it or die a horrible death. She wound up working as a cook in Miami for some crooks who were trying to find twenty-five million in gold hidden under a mansion owned by a drug lord.
There are two central villains, Hans Peter Schneider, who also sells human organs. Sometimes his victims are still alive when he harvests them. They end up in a crematorium. Hans Peter wants to do the same thing to Cari when she kills two of his men after they killed one of Don Ernesto's men, Antonio, a potential lover of Cari's, whom she'd been giving the cold shoulder.
Dan Ernesto, the second-semi villain, has his own men cruising off shore disguised as fisherman. But Hans Peter knows they're there. Dan Ernesto runs a school for pick pockets among other nefarious affairs. But at one point he tries to save Cari, although he eventually uses her as a ploy to get the gold.
Antonio, Cari's ersatz lover, finds a hole leading to the patio of the mansion but the area beneath the patio is flooded and Antonio takes a picture of what's down there. It's a refrigerator-like safe. Don Ernesto finds out from a source in Columbia that's it's rigged to blow if anybody moves it. That's where the gold is.
I read the last fifty pages in one sitting, unusual for me because of my back, but I couldn't wait to find one what happened to Cari, whom Hans Peter has located and plans to grab. Cari has led a violent existence; she's not afraid of these people, she's loaded for bear. I'm glad I didn't listen to that reviewer. It's food for thought. How often are reviews right? Let your prior relationship with the author rule.
There is a brief reference to cannibalism in CARI MORA, but it's mostly a suspense novel with a great central character. Cari Mora is as tough as nails, and she shows it during the climax. Cari was kidnapped when she was only twelve years old to fight as a child solider for revolutionaries in Columbia. These were Marxist revolutionaries, and they would attack villages where the para-military was strong. Cari's leader was about to shoot a child hiding under a house when she shot him in the back of the head. She had to run for it or die a horrible death. She wound up working as a cook in Miami for some crooks who were trying to find twenty-five million in gold hidden under a mansion owned by a drug lord.
There are two central villains, Hans Peter Schneider, who also sells human organs. Sometimes his victims are still alive when he harvests them. They end up in a crematorium. Hans Peter wants to do the same thing to Cari when she kills two of his men after they killed one of Don Ernesto's men, Antonio, a potential lover of Cari's, whom she'd been giving the cold shoulder.
Dan Ernesto, the second-semi villain, has his own men cruising off shore disguised as fisherman. But Hans Peter knows they're there. Dan Ernesto runs a school for pick pockets among other nefarious affairs. But at one point he tries to save Cari, although he eventually uses her as a ploy to get the gold.
Antonio, Cari's ersatz lover, finds a hole leading to the patio of the mansion but the area beneath the patio is flooded and Antonio takes a picture of what's down there. It's a refrigerator-like safe. Don Ernesto finds out from a source in Columbia that's it's rigged to blow if anybody moves it. That's where the gold is.
I read the last fifty pages in one sitting, unusual for me because of my back, but I couldn't wait to find one what happened to Cari, whom Hans Peter has located and plans to grab. Cari has led a violent existence; she's not afraid of these people, she's loaded for bear. I'm glad I didn't listen to that reviewer. It's food for thought. How often are reviews right? Let your prior relationship with the author rule.
December 20, 2019
wyoming
I don't remember Wyoming ever being a setting in this book. The main character Shelley (Sheldon) Cooper is a Colorado house framer who's really hard to like. But he doesn't understand why he does what he does either, so I guess author JP Gritton is trying to say something about humanity in general.
At one point he is reduced in work time to three days a week. He sets fire to the company truck and lets his best friend take the blame.
The main plot point is when he takes a job delivering pot for his brother who was growing it on his grandfather's farm. He's only getting $2500 for a dangerous job and there's a padlock on the box with the money he gets paid with. He breaks in and finds $50,000. He decides to keep $15,000 for himself, but a hooker steals most of the money.
At one point he tries to pay his brother back by giving him his paycheck after getting back on with the framing company. He manages one payment before this new kid breaks into the office and steals the owners checks. Everybody thinks Sheldon did it.
It's hard to keep track of what's going on. Author JP Gritton is jumping back and forth filling in the gaps. For instance, Shelley hides the $15,000 in a broken TV before the hooker can steal the rest and we don't find out how or if he got it back until near the end of the book.
His brother, the pot dealer, keeps helping out the family. He gives money to Mike, Shelley's best friend, whose little daughter is dying; he helps his grandfather when he gets kicked off the farm when the DEA finds pot growing there, and he forfeits the property. It's actually harder to tell who's the real jerk, here, Clayton, the brother or Sheldon.
At one point he is reduced in work time to three days a week. He sets fire to the company truck and lets his best friend take the blame.
The main plot point is when he takes a job delivering pot for his brother who was growing it on his grandfather's farm. He's only getting $2500 for a dangerous job and there's a padlock on the box with the money he gets paid with. He breaks in and finds $50,000. He decides to keep $15,000 for himself, but a hooker steals most of the money.
At one point he tries to pay his brother back by giving him his paycheck after getting back on with the framing company. He manages one payment before this new kid breaks into the office and steals the owners checks. Everybody thinks Sheldon did it.
It's hard to keep track of what's going on. Author JP Gritton is jumping back and forth filling in the gaps. For instance, Shelley hides the $15,000 in a broken TV before the hooker can steal the rest and we don't find out how or if he got it back until near the end of the book.
His brother, the pot dealer, keeps helping out the family. He gives money to Mike, Shelley's best friend, whose little daughter is dying; he helps his grandfather when he gets kicked off the farm when the DEA finds pot growing there, and he forfeits the property. It's actually harder to tell who's the real jerk, here, Clayton, the brother or Sheldon.
December 11, 2019
The Siberian Dilemma
Usually Arkady Renko is dealing with some non-political skulduggery in the Russian capital, Moskow, working as an inspector for the political hack of a prosecutor.
But Arkady is in love, and his girlfriend Tatiana Petrovna, a renowned journalist, isn't answering his phone calls or his text messages. She's in Siberia trying to figure out whether noted dissident, Mikail Kusnetsov, is the real deal or just another Putin enabler. Kusnetsov has spent five years in prison, testifying to the veracity of his claims. When Arkady arrives in Irkutsk he joins hands with a fellow passenger who informs Arkady he will be his factotum, or jack of all trades. Bolot is a native Buryat, or Siberian native and he knows Lake Baikal, where most of the action takes place, like the back of his hand. He can even tell when the ice is about to crack and plunge them to their deaths. There's another oil baron or oligarch, if you will, who's supposed to be in league with Kusnetsov named Benz, but Benz thinks Kusnetsov is not the person he claims to be and is stealing from him. He has one of Kusnetsov's wells capped with cement.
Bears are also central to the action and Benz convinces Arkady, Bolot and Tatiana to go with him on a hunt near Lake Baikal where Kusnetsov's well was capped. The bears are treated like white tail deer in Minnesota; when they begin to become a hindrance, the herd is thinned. But you don't want to make one of them mad. They are faster than human beings and really quick. Arkady's father has cautioned him to play dead when confronted with a vicious bear. That advice will come in handy.
The political situation is surprisingly open and on the mark. Usually in a fictional account, Putin wouldn't be called Putin, but in this novel, Putin owns four estates and two ocean going yachts. I was tempted to search the Internet, but it's not surprising since the Russian people demonstrated when they found out that Medvedev, the prime minister, had an estate that make Versailles look ramshackle.
Okay, there are two more characters you need to know about: Zurin, the prosecutor who turns up for the funeral of one of the oligarchs, is the first. He hates Arkady because Arkady is an honest man, but Arkady has something on Zurin; he knows Zurin has a Cuban mistress, apparently a no-no in Putin world. And we need to know that Zurin is threatening Arkady's chess genius ward and his girlfriend unless Arkady is willing to kill the dissident oligarch. This threat is also pretty realistic; in real world Russia, the number one dissident was charged with a trumped up crime and not allowed to run against Putin in the last election. He has also been known to eliminate critical journalists, former spies (see a recent English incident) and opponents of his puppet president in the Ukraine. In that case he used a plutonium cocktail. I don't mean to say Putin does this stuff personally, but he puts out the word, and it gets done.
This is a short book, only 274 pages, and it comes to an abrupt ending, but the Siberian setting, the unique factotum character, Arkady's Tatiana, and the world of the Siberian oligarchs should make worthwhile reading for Arkady Renko fans.
But Arkady is in love, and his girlfriend Tatiana Petrovna, a renowned journalist, isn't answering his phone calls or his text messages. She's in Siberia trying to figure out whether noted dissident, Mikail Kusnetsov, is the real deal or just another Putin enabler. Kusnetsov has spent five years in prison, testifying to the veracity of his claims. When Arkady arrives in Irkutsk he joins hands with a fellow passenger who informs Arkady he will be his factotum, or jack of all trades. Bolot is a native Buryat, or Siberian native and he knows Lake Baikal, where most of the action takes place, like the back of his hand. He can even tell when the ice is about to crack and plunge them to their deaths. There's another oil baron or oligarch, if you will, who's supposed to be in league with Kusnetsov named Benz, but Benz thinks Kusnetsov is not the person he claims to be and is stealing from him. He has one of Kusnetsov's wells capped with cement.
Bears are also central to the action and Benz convinces Arkady, Bolot and Tatiana to go with him on a hunt near Lake Baikal where Kusnetsov's well was capped. The bears are treated like white tail deer in Minnesota; when they begin to become a hindrance, the herd is thinned. But you don't want to make one of them mad. They are faster than human beings and really quick. Arkady's father has cautioned him to play dead when confronted with a vicious bear. That advice will come in handy.
The political situation is surprisingly open and on the mark. Usually in a fictional account, Putin wouldn't be called Putin, but in this novel, Putin owns four estates and two ocean going yachts. I was tempted to search the Internet, but it's not surprising since the Russian people demonstrated when they found out that Medvedev, the prime minister, had an estate that make Versailles look ramshackle.
Okay, there are two more characters you need to know about: Zurin, the prosecutor who turns up for the funeral of one of the oligarchs, is the first. He hates Arkady because Arkady is an honest man, but Arkady has something on Zurin; he knows Zurin has a Cuban mistress, apparently a no-no in Putin world. And we need to know that Zurin is threatening Arkady's chess genius ward and his girlfriend unless Arkady is willing to kill the dissident oligarch. This threat is also pretty realistic; in real world Russia, the number one dissident was charged with a trumped up crime and not allowed to run against Putin in the last election. He has also been known to eliminate critical journalists, former spies (see a recent English incident) and opponents of his puppet president in the Ukraine. In that case he used a plutonium cocktail. I don't mean to say Putin does this stuff personally, but he puts out the word, and it gets done.
This is a short book, only 274 pages, and it comes to an abrupt ending, but the Siberian setting, the unique factotum character, Arkady's Tatiana, and the world of the Siberian oligarchs should make worthwhile reading for Arkady Renko fans.
December 4, 2019
The Doll Factory
Perhaps the best thing about the DOLL FACTORY by Elizabeth MacNeal is the setting, 1850 Victorian England. It has that Jack the Ripper environment where nobody seems to be in charge of keeping the city, or at least this part of the city clean. Also poor abandoned children who live anyway they can are referred to as urchins.
The title refers to a shop owned by a woman her two employees refer to as Mrs. Satan. Iris and Rose are twins. Iris has a mild hunchback, but Rose who was once a beauty, has smallpox scars that have disfigured her. Iris has no idea how beautiful she is. She's a prisoner here in this doll shop with no future that she can see. It's her job to pain the dolls; her sister adds ornamentals to the tiny doll dresses brought to them by one of the street urchins.
This is where we meet my favorite character, street urchin, Albie. He apparently sews the little doll dresses himself. He love Iris because she gives him more money than the dresses are worth. He has a couple of sidelines; he sells “curiosities” to any shop owner, Silas. One is conjoined puppies that Silas will skin, stuff and disarticulate, showing the skeletal remains of one of the dogs. He will submit the results to one of the first world fairs that is currently being built in London. Three of his curiosities are accepted. Albie also steals small items from well off women. Iris catches him stealing a rather nice scarf. But he won't steal the really valuable stuff like suitcases he could snatch at the train station. He has a code. He also has a sister who's a prostitute. Albie only his one tooth and he'd like to buy dentures, but he'll never be able to save four pounds to buy them. When he does luck out, he thinks of his prostitute sister first and tries to rescue her from her unfortunate profession.
Iris also lucks out. She's chosen as a model by Louis Frost a rising young painter who's willing to pay her a shilling an hour to sit for him. She also wants to be a painter herself and only takes his offer when he promises to teach her. Modeling is only a touch above prostitute and her parents abandon her. Ruth also feels abandoned and won't answer Iris's letters.
Now for the plot. It's about Silas and his habit of kidnapping and sometimes murdering young women who have rejected him. He's so crazy he blocks out the murders. Then he meets Iris and he's immediately obsessed with her; he watches her all the time, at the expense of his occupation. He knows she's fallen in love with Louis and is jealous. Then there's a tiff between Louis and Iris and she runs away. Silas has been planning for months on how he'll take her, despite Albie's efforts to warn her.
Albie is trying to save her when MacNeal takes the easy way out and makes Iris situation even more deplorable. She keeps adding to the suspense. Will Iris escape Silas's basement? Sometimes he pouts and doesn't feed her. He even forgets the possibility that a beauty like Iris might have to use the bathroom. So then then the story becomes about determination and the will to survive. It is modernistic in that Iris must save herself. Twice others come looking for her or one of the other missing girls, but Silas is able to talk his way out of it, avoiding a search which would have revealed Iris in the basement. So how does she do it. It will keep you turning pages and leave you wanting an epilogue when the story comes to a screeching halt.
The title refers to a shop owned by a woman her two employees refer to as Mrs. Satan. Iris and Rose are twins. Iris has a mild hunchback, but Rose who was once a beauty, has smallpox scars that have disfigured her. Iris has no idea how beautiful she is. She's a prisoner here in this doll shop with no future that she can see. It's her job to pain the dolls; her sister adds ornamentals to the tiny doll dresses brought to them by one of the street urchins.
This is where we meet my favorite character, street urchin, Albie. He apparently sews the little doll dresses himself. He love Iris because she gives him more money than the dresses are worth. He has a couple of sidelines; he sells “curiosities” to any shop owner, Silas. One is conjoined puppies that Silas will skin, stuff and disarticulate, showing the skeletal remains of one of the dogs. He will submit the results to one of the first world fairs that is currently being built in London. Three of his curiosities are accepted. Albie also steals small items from well off women. Iris catches him stealing a rather nice scarf. But he won't steal the really valuable stuff like suitcases he could snatch at the train station. He has a code. He also has a sister who's a prostitute. Albie only his one tooth and he'd like to buy dentures, but he'll never be able to save four pounds to buy them. When he does luck out, he thinks of his prostitute sister first and tries to rescue her from her unfortunate profession.
Iris also lucks out. She's chosen as a model by Louis Frost a rising young painter who's willing to pay her a shilling an hour to sit for him. She also wants to be a painter herself and only takes his offer when he promises to teach her. Modeling is only a touch above prostitute and her parents abandon her. Ruth also feels abandoned and won't answer Iris's letters.
Now for the plot. It's about Silas and his habit of kidnapping and sometimes murdering young women who have rejected him. He's so crazy he blocks out the murders. Then he meets Iris and he's immediately obsessed with her; he watches her all the time, at the expense of his occupation. He knows she's fallen in love with Louis and is jealous. Then there's a tiff between Louis and Iris and she runs away. Silas has been planning for months on how he'll take her, despite Albie's efforts to warn her.
Albie is trying to save her when MacNeal takes the easy way out and makes Iris situation even more deplorable. She keeps adding to the suspense. Will Iris escape Silas's basement? Sometimes he pouts and doesn't feed her. He even forgets the possibility that a beauty like Iris might have to use the bathroom. So then then the story becomes about determination and the will to survive. It is modernistic in that Iris must save herself. Twice others come looking for her or one of the other missing girls, but Silas is able to talk his way out of it, avoiding a search which would have revealed Iris in the basement. So how does she do it. It will keep you turning pages and leave you wanting an epilogue when the story comes to a screeching halt.
November 22, 2019
Opioid, Indiana
OPIOID, INDIANA is a literary novel based on the trial and tribulations of an orphan named Riggle. His father was a truck driver killed in an accident; his mother committed suicide. He is handed around various guardians on the border between Mexico and Texas until his uncle in Indiana agrees to take him.
At first it's like being on another planet for Riggle. Everybody seems to be on drugs, including his uncle, and people are flying the Confederate flag in a Midwestern state, which really offends Riggle. It offends me too when I see them do it in Minnesota.
Then Uncle Joe disappears and Peggy, his sexy girlfriend, is worried about the rent. Riggle just happens to get suspended from school at the time for a week. He has one talent that he's aware of, making the perfect omelette. He applies for a job at an upscale restaurant; he cooks an omelette for the Chef; she eventually gives him a job as a dish washer at ten bucks an hour. It's hard work but he gains a great deal of pride in doing a good job.
There are a couple of weirdos hanging out in downtown Opioid, one called the Bicycling Confederate. This guy has a few screws loose and doesn't even know why he's flying that demeaning flag, but Riggle punches him out and steals his bike. Coincidentally one of the waiters knows his uncle and gives him a hint as to where he might be. He finds him. Guess what. At least he has the rent in his wallet, which is Riggle's money anyway.
There's also some weird stuff going on about hand shadows; Riggle's mother used to tell him stories about how the days of the week got their names. She does it using a hand shadow named Remote who looks like a goose. Throughout the book Riggle is weirded out when he sees other people use the hand shadow gesture.
Right away I was reminded of a low-rent Holden Caulfield and CATCHER IN THE RYE, but this kid seems to have a work ethic Holden didn't seem to have, that I remember anyway, and if I had to predict what was going to happen to Riggle in ten years, I'd say he'll either be a chef in that restaurant or he'll own it. As far as Indiana goes, it seems to be circling the drain. But this is where Dan Quayle was from, and they somehow never got over it. Remember him criticizing Murphy Brown for being an unwed mother on a sit com? That's all there is. It was a short book and I'm not sure what the author had in mind or if he knew what it was.
At first it's like being on another planet for Riggle. Everybody seems to be on drugs, including his uncle, and people are flying the Confederate flag in a Midwestern state, which really offends Riggle. It offends me too when I see them do it in Minnesota.
Then Uncle Joe disappears and Peggy, his sexy girlfriend, is worried about the rent. Riggle just happens to get suspended from school at the time for a week. He has one talent that he's aware of, making the perfect omelette. He applies for a job at an upscale restaurant; he cooks an omelette for the Chef; she eventually gives him a job as a dish washer at ten bucks an hour. It's hard work but he gains a great deal of pride in doing a good job.
There are a couple of weirdos hanging out in downtown Opioid, one called the Bicycling Confederate. This guy has a few screws loose and doesn't even know why he's flying that demeaning flag, but Riggle punches him out and steals his bike. Coincidentally one of the waiters knows his uncle and gives him a hint as to where he might be. He finds him. Guess what. At least he has the rent in his wallet, which is Riggle's money anyway.
There's also some weird stuff going on about hand shadows; Riggle's mother used to tell him stories about how the days of the week got their names. She does it using a hand shadow named Remote who looks like a goose. Throughout the book Riggle is weirded out when he sees other people use the hand shadow gesture.
Right away I was reminded of a low-rent Holden Caulfield and CATCHER IN THE RYE, but this kid seems to have a work ethic Holden didn't seem to have, that I remember anyway, and if I had to predict what was going to happen to Riggle in ten years, I'd say he'll either be a chef in that restaurant or he'll own it. As far as Indiana goes, it seems to be circling the drain. But this is where Dan Quayle was from, and they somehow never got over it. Remember him criticizing Murphy Brown for being an unwed mother on a sit com? That's all there is. It was a short book and I'm not sure what the author had in mind or if he knew what it was.
November 18, 2019
The Girl Who Lived Twice
THE GIRL WHO LIVED TWICE is primarily about a battle for their lives between Lisbeth and her twin sister, Camilla, who leads a crime syndicate.
Once again Michael Blomkvist plays a central role, but Lisbeth is acting really crabby and not communicating much. Blomkvist is also having a hard time writing his latest article about Russian trolls interfering in elections.
Lisbeth is preoccupied. She knows she's in a death match with her sister, and she corners Camilla and has her in her gun sites when she's unable to pull the trigger. She blames herself for what happened to Camilla as a child. She didn't realize what was happening when her father would take Camilla away late at night. He also beat her mother and Lisbeth took her mothers side; although she was being molested Camilla supported her father.
Due to her expertise with cybernetics, Lisbeth is able to keep her locality hidden from Camilla, who has no sentiments regarding Lisbeth; since she can't find Lisbeth she takes aim at Lisbeth's friends, mostly Michael Blomkvist. This is when Lagercrantz starts the author intrusion. Blomkvist knows Camilla's thugs are after him, but he's acting like it's a walk in the park and walks right into their hands. Lagercrantz needs him to do that to keep his plot pointed in the right direction.
There's a secondary plotline about a beggar Blomkvist passes dozens of times without noticing him, although the beggar tries to tell him something. The beggar has gone through hell on Mt. Everest and has lived in a sanitarium the last few years; he has trouble communicating. Eventually we realize he's talking about the Swedish Minister of defense, Forsell, and what happened on Mt. Everest when several people died, one of whom the Sherpa bore special responsibility for.
Lisbeth has no idea where they took Blomkvist, but she concentrates on the gang members, one of whom has a reputation as a loose cannon. He's using his phone. So we reach the conflict when Blomkvist is being tortured and Lisbeth tries to save him. It's not even remotely believable, especially what the gang is doing to Blomkvist, not that they'd do something like that, but that'd he'd survive. The whole gang is there, including Camilla, but Lagercrantz needs the good guys to win. How he does it is almost hilarious.
Prior to his kidnapping Blomkvist falls in lust with a conservative journalist. This, too, is unrealistic. Not only is she his opposite politically but Erika, his boss, is divorcing her husband and Michael has been in love with her for years. Ultimately she ends up writing the story for MILLENIUM, something that flabbergasts the staff.
I've read the first couple Lagercrantz replacements for Stieg Larsson and never had much of a problem until this one. It doesn't do Larsson justice and somebody should have made him rewrite it. The Mt. Everest scenario is almost as unbelievable.
Once again Michael Blomkvist plays a central role, but Lisbeth is acting really crabby and not communicating much. Blomkvist is also having a hard time writing his latest article about Russian trolls interfering in elections.
Lisbeth is preoccupied. She knows she's in a death match with her sister, and she corners Camilla and has her in her gun sites when she's unable to pull the trigger. She blames herself for what happened to Camilla as a child. She didn't realize what was happening when her father would take Camilla away late at night. He also beat her mother and Lisbeth took her mothers side; although she was being molested Camilla supported her father.
Due to her expertise with cybernetics, Lisbeth is able to keep her locality hidden from Camilla, who has no sentiments regarding Lisbeth; since she can't find Lisbeth she takes aim at Lisbeth's friends, mostly Michael Blomkvist. This is when Lagercrantz starts the author intrusion. Blomkvist knows Camilla's thugs are after him, but he's acting like it's a walk in the park and walks right into their hands. Lagercrantz needs him to do that to keep his plot pointed in the right direction.
There's a secondary plotline about a beggar Blomkvist passes dozens of times without noticing him, although the beggar tries to tell him something. The beggar has gone through hell on Mt. Everest and has lived in a sanitarium the last few years; he has trouble communicating. Eventually we realize he's talking about the Swedish Minister of defense, Forsell, and what happened on Mt. Everest when several people died, one of whom the Sherpa bore special responsibility for.
Lisbeth has no idea where they took Blomkvist, but she concentrates on the gang members, one of whom has a reputation as a loose cannon. He's using his phone. So we reach the conflict when Blomkvist is being tortured and Lisbeth tries to save him. It's not even remotely believable, especially what the gang is doing to Blomkvist, not that they'd do something like that, but that'd he'd survive. The whole gang is there, including Camilla, but Lagercrantz needs the good guys to win. How he does it is almost hilarious.
Prior to his kidnapping Blomkvist falls in lust with a conservative journalist. This, too, is unrealistic. Not only is she his opposite politically but Erika, his boss, is divorcing her husband and Michael has been in love with her for years. Ultimately she ends up writing the story for MILLENIUM, something that flabbergasts the staff.
I've read the first couple Lagercrantz replacements for Stieg Larsson and never had much of a problem until this one. It doesn't do Larsson justice and somebody should have made him rewrite it. The Mt. Everest scenario is almost as unbelievable.
November 6, 2019
Ice Cold Heart
Minneapolis Police Department detectives Gino Rolseth and Leo Magozzi investigate the torture and murder of Kelly Ramage who was last seen at an eccentric art museum.
In junction with a cyber security company, Monkeywrench, the detectives match up this murder with another similar one in Los Angeles. The same artist was displaying his work in LA.
There are lots of demonstrators outside the museum complaining about exploiting the brutalization of women. One of them is kidnapped; she just happens to be the sister of the dead woman in LA.
One of the problems I had with the book was that so many characters are introduced in the first part of the book that they're hard to keep track of. One of them was Petra who was so depressed she went out into the Minnesota Winter, ignoring the warning not to stay out for longer than thirty minutes. She almost dies of hypotermia; she is saved by one of the Monkeywrench hackers. But I had no idea how she connected to the main plot line. Turns out she's investigating a Bosnian thug who's in the country illegally.
One of the conventions of mystery writing is that the author must show the killer or killers well before the actual resolution. P.J. Tracy does a fantastic job hiding this guy via his oddball personality. He can't possibly be a Bosnian murderer. We also don't know he's got help. One of the red herrings is that the murderer is a good looking charmer who gets the women to go with him willingly. That's not the Bosnian thug. Gino and Leo even know the helper and are completely fooled, as most readers will be.
Leo is also married to one of the cyber experts, Grace MacBride, and they have child together, which also threw me off until it was further explained. This gives the story an added dimension.
If you don't mind paging back and forth trying to find out who a certain character is, this is a great who-done-it. You'll have a hard time ferreting out the killer.
In junction with a cyber security company, Monkeywrench, the detectives match up this murder with another similar one in Los Angeles. The same artist was displaying his work in LA.
There are lots of demonstrators outside the museum complaining about exploiting the brutalization of women. One of them is kidnapped; she just happens to be the sister of the dead woman in LA.
One of the problems I had with the book was that so many characters are introduced in the first part of the book that they're hard to keep track of. One of them was Petra who was so depressed she went out into the Minnesota Winter, ignoring the warning not to stay out for longer than thirty minutes. She almost dies of hypotermia; she is saved by one of the Monkeywrench hackers. But I had no idea how she connected to the main plot line. Turns out she's investigating a Bosnian thug who's in the country illegally.
One of the conventions of mystery writing is that the author must show the killer or killers well before the actual resolution. P.J. Tracy does a fantastic job hiding this guy via his oddball personality. He can't possibly be a Bosnian murderer. We also don't know he's got help. One of the red herrings is that the murderer is a good looking charmer who gets the women to go with him willingly. That's not the Bosnian thug. Gino and Leo even know the helper and are completely fooled, as most readers will be.
Leo is also married to one of the cyber experts, Grace MacBride, and they have child together, which also threw me off until it was further explained. This gives the story an added dimension.
If you don't mind paging back and forth trying to find out who a certain character is, this is a great who-done-it. You'll have a hard time ferreting out the killer.
October 26, 2019
Chances Are
Three old friends meet for a reunion forty-four years after graduating from an elite New England college. This is not your EMPIRE FALLS Russo type work. No Paul Newman type characters, in other words.
The three boys were all in love with Jacy, the spirited young sorority sister, who was one of the boys. The three guys were hashers in what must've been a pretty big sorority. Lincoln was “Faceman”, a waiter. Teddy was a cook, and Mickey washed pots and pans. Jacy was engaged to another guy. Then, just when they were about to split up, she disappeared.
Lincoln has another reason for returning to Minerva; it's the Great Recession, and he may need to sell his mother's house. His next door neighbor wants to buy it, but he was a principal suspect in Jacy's disappearance and Mickey, who's six foot six once punched him out for trying to grope Jacy.
Back when they were young, they were all draft eligible and they waited with bated breath by the radio to hear their respective numbers. Mickey drew a nine; Lincoln was in the middle hundreds and Teddy was in the middle three hundreds. Mickey promises his dad he will serve. Teddy and Jacy try to talk him into going to Canada.
Look at that last paragraph. A hint as to what happened to Jacy is buried within. I hope that's not a spoiler.
Lincoln can't help but look for what he believes is a murder. He finds a retired cop named Coffin who investigated the case; he just happened to play football with Troyer, the neighbor The old guy seems to think Jacy is buried in Lincoln's mother's backyard and the three boys were suspects, but he was drunk while speculating.
Russo does a great job characterizing the three guys and Jacy, but there isn't a lot of traditional Russo humor, other than Mickey's rock star personality. The main page-turner is Jacy's disappearance. There are quite a few unique twists.
The three boys were all in love with Jacy, the spirited young sorority sister, who was one of the boys. The three guys were hashers in what must've been a pretty big sorority. Lincoln was “Faceman”, a waiter. Teddy was a cook, and Mickey washed pots and pans. Jacy was engaged to another guy. Then, just when they were about to split up, she disappeared.
Lincoln has another reason for returning to Minerva; it's the Great Recession, and he may need to sell his mother's house. His next door neighbor wants to buy it, but he was a principal suspect in Jacy's disappearance and Mickey, who's six foot six once punched him out for trying to grope Jacy.
Back when they were young, they were all draft eligible and they waited with bated breath by the radio to hear their respective numbers. Mickey drew a nine; Lincoln was in the middle hundreds and Teddy was in the middle three hundreds. Mickey promises his dad he will serve. Teddy and Jacy try to talk him into going to Canada.
Look at that last paragraph. A hint as to what happened to Jacy is buried within. I hope that's not a spoiler.
Lincoln can't help but look for what he believes is a murder. He finds a retired cop named Coffin who investigated the case; he just happened to play football with Troyer, the neighbor The old guy seems to think Jacy is buried in Lincoln's mother's backyard and the three boys were suspects, but he was drunk while speculating.
Russo does a great job characterizing the three guys and Jacy, but there isn't a lot of traditional Russo humor, other than Mickey's rock star personality. The main page-turner is Jacy's disappearance. There are quite a few unique twists.
