Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "police-procedurals"
Book Review: Mistletoe and Murder: The Fourth Pete Culnane Mystery
Mistletoe and Murder: The Fourth Pete Culnane Mystery
S.L. Smith
Paperback: 262 pages
Publisher: Sightline Press; First edition (July 26, 2017)
ISBN-10: 0996464050
ISBN-13: 978-0996464055
ASIN: B074BHD1TK
https://www.amazon.com/Mistletoe-Murd...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
While this series is billed as “The Pete Culnane Mysteries,” actually the buddy cop duo of St. Paul police detectives Pete Culnane and Martin Tierney deserve equal billing. Throughout the series, their bantering adds a touch of humor while each book touches on one social issue or another. In book one, Blinded by the Sight, it’s homelessness; book two, Running Scared, deals with the impact of a failing marriage on the children; book three, Murder on a Stick, looks at assisted living and other plights faced by the elderly.
Book four continues this theme by looking at perhaps the most important social issue of our times, drug addiction. Smith also returns to his interest in the homeless and family relationships shared by the two policemen. In the new story, Collette Hammond orchestrates a New Year’s Eve wedding reception for her brother before collapsing just before midnight. Does a fresh needle mark suggest this recovering addict, allegedly clean for a year, have an unexpected relapse? Or did something more sinister occur that might make this death a possible homicide?
It takes a long part of the book before we know for certain a crime has indeed occurred. As the story progressed, I often thought of TV dramas created by producer/actor Jack Webb where the main characters were straight-laced, upright, moral paragons. Webb’s shows like Dragnet and Adam-12 also emphasized the procedural day-to-day work of police officers stressing the workaday roles of typical cops with usually everyday investigations.
We see exactly such circumstances in the low-key first half of Mistletoe and Murder as Culnane and Tierney seek out and interview potential witnesses to Hammond’s collapse, looking for a motive for someone wanting to do her harm. It’s all “gum shoe” work, as they used to say, until unexpectedly they run across a pair who try to kill a witness and then start a shoot-out with the cops. Everything changes, naturally, after that.
I admit, I never really understood the book’s title. The action begins on a New Year’s Eve and progresses through an extremely cold Minnesota winter. Christmas mentions are passing and only referred to in the past tense. Should you Google for the title, you’ll discover it’s been used several times before, for whatever that note is worth.
Mistletoe and Murder is a book for readers who want their cops likeable, professional, methodical, and very human. It’s for readers who like their stories extremely believable, based on obvious research to validate the smallest of details, and books that include behind the scenes passages that develop the protagonist’s personal lives. It’s for readers who like their leads the sort of characters we could easily encounter anytime, anywhere. That includes the bad guys whose motives are not farfetched nor outlandish.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 9, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/Bq0iQK
S.L. Smith
Paperback: 262 pages
Publisher: Sightline Press; First edition (July 26, 2017)
ISBN-10: 0996464050
ISBN-13: 978-0996464055
ASIN: B074BHD1TK
https://www.amazon.com/Mistletoe-Murd...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
While this series is billed as “The Pete Culnane Mysteries,” actually the buddy cop duo of St. Paul police detectives Pete Culnane and Martin Tierney deserve equal billing. Throughout the series, their bantering adds a touch of humor while each book touches on one social issue or another. In book one, Blinded by the Sight, it’s homelessness; book two, Running Scared, deals with the impact of a failing marriage on the children; book three, Murder on a Stick, looks at assisted living and other plights faced by the elderly.
Book four continues this theme by looking at perhaps the most important social issue of our times, drug addiction. Smith also returns to his interest in the homeless and family relationships shared by the two policemen. In the new story, Collette Hammond orchestrates a New Year’s Eve wedding reception for her brother before collapsing just before midnight. Does a fresh needle mark suggest this recovering addict, allegedly clean for a year, have an unexpected relapse? Or did something more sinister occur that might make this death a possible homicide?
It takes a long part of the book before we know for certain a crime has indeed occurred. As the story progressed, I often thought of TV dramas created by producer/actor Jack Webb where the main characters were straight-laced, upright, moral paragons. Webb’s shows like Dragnet and Adam-12 also emphasized the procedural day-to-day work of police officers stressing the workaday roles of typical cops with usually everyday investigations.
We see exactly such circumstances in the low-key first half of Mistletoe and Murder as Culnane and Tierney seek out and interview potential witnesses to Hammond’s collapse, looking for a motive for someone wanting to do her harm. It’s all “gum shoe” work, as they used to say, until unexpectedly they run across a pair who try to kill a witness and then start a shoot-out with the cops. Everything changes, naturally, after that.
I admit, I never really understood the book’s title. The action begins on a New Year’s Eve and progresses through an extremely cold Minnesota winter. Christmas mentions are passing and only referred to in the past tense. Should you Google for the title, you’ll discover it’s been used several times before, for whatever that note is worth.
Mistletoe and Murder is a book for readers who want their cops likeable, professional, methodical, and very human. It’s for readers who like their stories extremely believable, based on obvious research to validate the smallest of details, and books that include behind the scenes passages that develop the protagonist’s personal lives. It’s for readers who like their leads the sort of characters we could easily encounter anytime, anywhere. That includes the bad guys whose motives are not farfetched nor outlandish.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 9, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/Bq0iQK
Book Review: THE EULOGIST by Jeffrey B. Burton
THE EULOGIST
Jeffrey B. Burton
Hardcover: 360 pages
Publisher: Permanent Press (September 30, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1579625029
ISBN-13: 978-1579625023
https://www.amazon.com/Eulogist-Jeffr...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
The Eulogist is the latest FBI special agent Drew Cady mystery following The Chessman (2012) and The Lynchpin (2015). If the preceding novels are anything like The Eulogist, readers should expect surprising and fresh twists to well-established murder mystery formulas.
In The Eulogist, the strangeness starts with the very first pages when we see Senator Taylor Brockman tied to a chair, forced to listen to his murderer deliver the senator’s pre-mortem eulogy. Shortly afterward, druggie Thaddeus Jay Aadalen—known as T.J. -- is found dead in his car, stabbed through the heart just like Brockman had been. He too has an eulogy for detectives to find, in his case a Thomas Gray poem hidden in his glovebox.
Agent Cady is drawn into investigating these two cases even though he’s only in Washington D.C. as the FBI liaison for the Medicare Fraud Strike Force out of Minneapolis. Along with representatives from other like groups, Cady is there to assist testimonials before the United States Senate Committee on Finance. But the FBI pulls Cady away from such tedious duties and pairs him with agent Liz Preston to look into the murders which don’t end with the senator and the druggie.
Like most contemporary mysteries, things get very complicated very quickly. We meet the hired assassin known as the Canadian who reveals much about their background, notably his, or her, admittedly being an adrenalin junkie. Threads of the investigation dig into a breakthrough Alzheimer's drug, a reluctantly helpful hacker, two potential heirs to a drug fortune, and alternating points of view showing just how the Canadian and the investigators go through their various procedures.
One distinguishing aspect of the novel is an often sarcastic streak of humor. One example is a moment where a character reflects on the concept of someone dying “doing so while doing what they loved.” The character wonders how that idea makes any sense when most people would rather live and not die at all, whatever the circumstances. Few people are likely thinking “At least I’m doing what I love” as they crash into a cliff, are eaten by sharks, or the like.
Burton mixes in some obligatory murder mystery tropes including a number of red herrings, very unexpected twists, and surprises that seem to come out of the blue in the final pages. In short, murder mystery fans should feel very comfortable with The Eulogist while they enjoy the inventiveness of Jeffrey Burton.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 31, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/L6iyEi
Jeffrey B. Burton
Hardcover: 360 pages
Publisher: Permanent Press (September 30, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1579625029
ISBN-13: 978-1579625023
https://www.amazon.com/Eulogist-Jeffr...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
The Eulogist is the latest FBI special agent Drew Cady mystery following The Chessman (2012) and The Lynchpin (2015). If the preceding novels are anything like The Eulogist, readers should expect surprising and fresh twists to well-established murder mystery formulas.
In The Eulogist, the strangeness starts with the very first pages when we see Senator Taylor Brockman tied to a chair, forced to listen to his murderer deliver the senator’s pre-mortem eulogy. Shortly afterward, druggie Thaddeus Jay Aadalen—known as T.J. -- is found dead in his car, stabbed through the heart just like Brockman had been. He too has an eulogy for detectives to find, in his case a Thomas Gray poem hidden in his glovebox.
Agent Cady is drawn into investigating these two cases even though he’s only in Washington D.C. as the FBI liaison for the Medicare Fraud Strike Force out of Minneapolis. Along with representatives from other like groups, Cady is there to assist testimonials before the United States Senate Committee on Finance. But the FBI pulls Cady away from such tedious duties and pairs him with agent Liz Preston to look into the murders which don’t end with the senator and the druggie.
Like most contemporary mysteries, things get very complicated very quickly. We meet the hired assassin known as the Canadian who reveals much about their background, notably his, or her, admittedly being an adrenalin junkie. Threads of the investigation dig into a breakthrough Alzheimer's drug, a reluctantly helpful hacker, two potential heirs to a drug fortune, and alternating points of view showing just how the Canadian and the investigators go through their various procedures.
One distinguishing aspect of the novel is an often sarcastic streak of humor. One example is a moment where a character reflects on the concept of someone dying “doing so while doing what they loved.” The character wonders how that idea makes any sense when most people would rather live and not die at all, whatever the circumstances. Few people are likely thinking “At least I’m doing what I love” as they crash into a cliff, are eaten by sharks, or the like.
Burton mixes in some obligatory murder mystery tropes including a number of red herrings, very unexpected twists, and surprises that seem to come out of the blue in the final pages. In short, murder mystery fans should feel very comfortable with The Eulogist while they enjoy the inventiveness of Jeffrey Burton.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 31, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/L6iyEi
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“The Blind Alien is a story with a highly original concept, fascinating characters, and not-too-subtle but truthful allegories. Don’t let the ...more
“The Blind Alien is a story with a highly original concept, fascinating characters, and not-too-subtle but truthful allegories. Don’t let the ...more
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