Oliver Clarke's Blog: Little Slices of Nasty, page 10

Pulp Paperback: Tarnsman of Gor by John Norman #BookReview

CriminOlly thinks: Ridiculous, offensive, derivative but enjoyable pulp fantasy. 3/5

Title: Tarnsman of Gor | Author: John Norman | Series: Gor #1 | Publisher: Ballantine | Pages: 224 | Publication date: 1967 | Source: Self-purchased | Content warnings: Yes | Tolerance warning: Yes

Review

To say that John Norman’s ‘Gor’ books are problematic is an understatement. Set in a fantastic and brutal “Counter Earth”, they describe a society where slavery is a natural part of life (for both slaves and their owners) and women typically submit to men in S&M style relationships. The mix of pulp fantasy and misogynist philosophy made the books very popular in the 70s and 80s and has even spawned a Gorean sub-culture which lurks both online in places like ‘Second Life’. Despite being in his late 80s now, Norman is still writing the books, albeit at a much slower rate than he did in their heyday. The most recent, ‘Avengers of Gor’ is number 36 in the series.

I was fascinated by the books as a teenager, for reasons that will be obvious to anyone who has seen the covers of the Star books editions in the UK, but I don’t think I actually read any of them until I was well into adulthood. Like many pulp fiction works, they challenge the modern reader to answer the question – is it okay that I’m enjoying this horrible book?

Plot-wise this is typical sci fi/fantasy fare, with a definite nod to Edgar Rice Burroughs. Hero Tarl Cabot is a university professor in the USA (as was the author) who gets whisked off to Gor in a flying saucer type thing. Once there he meets his father (who had vanished when Tarl was a child) and becomes immersed in Gorean society. This involves him learning to fight and then going on a quest to steal a relic from a rival city state. Along the way there are plenty of slave girls, giant birds which people ride (called tarns), huge intelligent spiders and lots of fighting. We’re also introduced to the concept of the ‘Priest Kings’, mysterious creatures who rule the planet and restrict technology to keep it in a kind of medieval state. 

Despite the promise of those covers, there’s no explicit sex at all, although there is a lot of S&M style paraphernalia, with the slave girls wearing handcuffs and hoods. There’s also a romantic sub plot involving Tarl and a princess, who is at first his sworn enemy but who he manages to dominate to the point she falls in love with him. You get the picture.

For all it’s appalling philosophising on gender politics, it’s an entertaining read. It moves at the right pace for this kind of thing, is packed with action and colour, and has the kind of energy that makes pulp adventures fun. Whilst it’s impossible to put the misogyny completely out of your mind, it didn’t ruin the book for me. Your mileage may vary.  

Here there be spoilers!

My reviews are always spoiler-free (guaranteed, or double your money back ). Sometimes there is information about a book that potential readers might find useful, but which might give a thing or two away. Below this line you’ll find the publisher’s synopsis of the book (pretty much guaranteed to have spoilers in my experience), content warnings and tolerance warnings. Generally, I won’t not review a book just because it contains views I don’t agree with, but if it does, I will call it out.

Synopsis

Tarl Cabot has always believed himself to be a citizen of Earth. He has no inkling that his destiny is far greater than the small planet he has inhabited for the first twenty-odd years of his life. One frosty winter night in the New England woods, he finds himself transported to the planet of Gor, also known as Counter-Earth, where everything is dramatically different from anything he has ever experienced. It emerges that Tarl is to be trained as a Tarnsman, one of the most honored positions in the rigid, caste-bound Gorean society. He is disciplined by the best teachers and warriors that Gor has to offer…but to what end?

Warnings

Tolerance Warning: Misogynist.

Content Warning: Sexual violence.

The Last Dance by Ed McBain #BookReview

CriminOlly thinks: All the usual elements are here, but an unengaging mystery lets down the 50th book in the 87th Precinct series. 3/5

Title: The Last Dance | Author: Ed McBain | Series: 87th Precinct #50 | Publisher: New English Library | Pages: 278 | ISBN: 9780340728062 | Publication date: 1st December 2000 | Source: Self-purchased | Content warnings: Yes | Tolerance warning: No

Review

Even when McBain isn’t at his best, he’s still very good. With that in mind I really struggled to rate ‘The Last Dance’. It’s not as good as most of the entries in the series, so I wanted to give it a rating that differentiated if. But what would I rate it if I’d picked it up fresh and it had a different name on the cover. I think it would get a 4, but I’ve given it a 3 on the basis that I can’t always rate the 87th books 4 or 5.

This one sees Carella and Meyer investigating what at first seems to be an unexplained death, then something more, then something else again. Fat Ollie Weeks puts in an appearance, and is good value as ever, as the investigation moves to the seamier side of the city.

What lets this one down for me is that the mystery just isn’t that compelling or interesting. The incidental detail is as good as ever though, with neat forensics work, cracking dialogue and some great humour. Fat Ollie continues to develop nicely as a character, and the ongoing story of Carella dealing with the death of his father is nicely handled.

Not the best then, but still a good read.

Here there be spoilers!

My reviews are always spoiler-free (guaranteed, or double your money back ). Sometimes there is information about a book that potential readers might find useful, but which might give a thing or two away. Below this line you’ll find the publisher’s synopsis of the book (pretty much guaranteed to have spoilers in my experience), content warnings and tolerance warnings. Generally, I won’t not review a book just because it contains views I don’t agree with, but if it does, I will call it out.

Synopsis

In this city, you can get anything done for a price. If you want someone’s eyeglasses smashed, it’ll cost you a subway token. You want his fingernails pulled out? His legs broken? You want him hurt so bad he’s an invalid his whole life? You want him…killed? Let me talk to someone. It can be done. The hanging death of a nondescript old man in a shabby little apartment in a meager section of the 87th Precinct is nothing much in this city, especially to detectives Carella and Meyer. But everyone has a story, and this old man’s story stood to make some people a lot of money. His story takes Carella, Meyer, Brown, and Weeks on a search through Isola’s seedy strip clubs and to the bright lights of the theater district. There they discover an upcoming musical with ties to a mysterious drug — and a killer who stays until the last dance.

Warnings

Tolerance Warning: All good

Content Warning: Racism

Stone: MIA Hunter by Stephen Mertz #BookReview

CriminOlly thinks: An un-engaging mix of casual racism and badly written action sequences. 2/5

Title: Stone: MIA Hunter | Author: Stephen Mertz | Series: MIA Hunter #1 | Publisher: New English Library | Pages: 139 | ISBN: 9780515080681 | Publication date: January 1985 | Source: Self-purchased | Content warnings: Yes | Tolerance warning: Yes

Review

I need to find a way to remind myself that men’s adventure books are generally not as much fun as they sound. This one sucked me in with some glowing reviews and the hint of some sort of involvement from Joe R Lansdale, a writer with a good reputation and whose books (the few I have read) I’ve enjoyed. It appears that he wrote some of the later books in the series, although not this one. I’m not sure if the entries he penned are better than this one, but I don’t think I’ll bother picking them up.

Originally published in the 1980s this is almost exactly what you’d expect from its title, although it does throw in a couple of surprises. Hero Mark Stone and his sidekicks (one of whom is an unconvincing British SAS veteran) trek around Asia shooting the locals and rescuing imprisoned American soldiers. There’s the overt racism you’d expect, although Mertz does try to tone it down a bit by having some Asian characters who fight alongside the heroes, although they mostly act as cannon fodder. Stone also fights villainous non-white folk when he’s back in the USA. Tackling Latinx street gangs and drug dealers.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the action scenes aren’t great either. It’s one of those books that pays more attention to detailed descriptions of the guns the characters are using, than it does to building tension. When the main characters are basically indestructible, there isn’t a great deal of excitement to be had in putting them in dangerous situations. It’s a problem that central to any long running action series, and some books of this type manage to get away with it through decent writing or the sheer insanity of their premises, but this one failed to for me.

All in all, a bit of a damp squib then. It reads more like NRA produced porn than a thriller and is a pretty yawnsome as a result.

Synopsis

Mark Stone has a score to settle. A former Green Beret, he has only one activity that gives meaning to his life – finding American’s forgotten fighting men, the P.O.W.’s the government has conveniently labeled M.I.A.’s, and bringing them back from their hell on earth.

It’s too big a job for one man. But Stone has friends. And with Hog Wiley and Terrance Loughlin-a merc from east Texas and a crack British commando – Stone returns to the steaming jungles of Laos on a do-or-die mission: to free a captured fighter jock from the sadistic commander who has sentenced him to a fate worse than death….

Warnings

Content Warning: Racism, rape, torture, drug abuse

Tolerance Warning: Racism, sexism

Pulp Paperback: Stone – MIA Hunter by Stephen Mertz #BookReview

CriminOlly thinks: An un-engaging mix of casual racism and badly written action sequences. 2/5

Title: Stone – MIA Hunter | Author: Stephen Mertz | Series: MIA Hunter #1 | Publisher: New English Library | Pages: 139 | ISBN: 9780515080681 | Publication date: January 1985 | Source: Self-purchased | Content warnings: Yes | Tolerance warning: Yes

Review

I need to find a way to remind myself that men’s adventure books are generally not as much fun as they sound. This one sucked me in with some glowing reviews and the hint of some sort of involvement from Joe R Lansdale, a writer with a good reputation and whose books (the few I have read) I’ve enjoyed. It appears that he wrote some of the later books in the series, although not this one. I’m not sure if the entries he penned are better than this one, but I don’t think I’ll bother picking them up.

Originally published in the 1980s this is almost exactly what you’d expect from its title, although it does throw in a couple of surprises. Hero Mark Stone and his sidekicks (one of whom is an unconvincing British SAS veteran) trek around Asia shooting the locals and rescuing imprisoned American soldiers. There’s the overt racism you’d expect, although Mertz does try to tone it down a bit by having some Asian characters who fight alongside the heroes, although they mostly act as cannon fodder. Stone also fights villainous non-white folk when he’s back in the USA. Tackling Latinx street gangs and drug dealers.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the action scenes aren’t great either. It’s one of those books that pays more attention to detailed descriptions of the guns the characters are using, than it does to building tension. When the main characters are basically indestructible, there isn’t a great deal of excitement to be had in putting them in dangerous situations. It’s a problem that central to any long running action series, and some books of this type manage to get away with it through decent writing or the sheer insanity of their premises, but this one failed to for me.

All in all, a bit of a damp squib then. It reads more like NRA produced porn than a thriller and is a pretty yawnsome as a result.

Here there be spoilers!

My reviews are always spoiler-free (guaranteed, or double your money back ). Sometimes there is information about a book that potential readers might find useful, but which might give a thing or two away. Below this line you’ll find the publisher’s synopsis of the book (pretty much guaranteed to have spoilers in my experience), content warnings and tolerance warnings. Generally, I won’t not review a book just because it contains views I don’t agree with, but if it does, I will call it out.

Synopsis

Mark Stone has a score to settle. A former Green Beret, he has only one activity that gives meaning to his life – finding American’s forgotten fighting men, the P.O.W.’s the government has conveniently labeled M.I.A.’s, and bringing them back from their hell on earth.

It’s too big a job for one man. But Stone has friends. And with Hog Wiley and Terrance Loughlin-a merc from east Texas and a crack British commando – Stone returns to the steaming jungles of Laos on a do-or-die mission: to free a captured fighter jock from the sadistic commander who has sentenced him to a fate worse than death….

Warnings

Tolerance Warning: Racism, sexism

Content Warning: Racism, rape, torture, drug abuse

The Outsider by Stephen King #BookReview

CriminOlly thinks: After a painfully slow start, King manages to pull off a compelling mix of hokey horror and accomplished crime fiction. 4/5

Title: The Outsider | Author: Stephen King | Publisher: Scribner | Pages: 561 | ISBN: 9781501180989 | Publication date: 22nd May 2018 | Source: Self-purchased | Content warnings: Yes | Tolerance warning: No

Review

Stephen King’s books are too long. I say that as someone who has read and enjoyed dozens upon dozens of his novels. It’s simply a statement of fact. ‘The Outsider’ is no exception to that rule. It takes 550 pages to tell a story that ‘The X-Files’ would have handled in 50 minutes (and it does read very much like an episode of that show). I struggled with it, particularly in the first third, but by the end Mr King had won me round, as he so often does.

I’m reviewing ‘The Outsider’ on CriminOlly, because despite the fact it has a definite supernatural horror theme, it is at heart a crime novel. It starts with the arrest of a pillar of the community in a small US town. He’s a man accused of a truly appalling crime which, as the story progresses it becomes clear he couldn’t have committed, despite all the evidence to the contrary. After that blistering opening, the first third is painfully slow, as King painstakingly lays out all the evidence of his guilt. Even for a fan of police procedurals, the constant stream of people saying basically the same thing felt like a slog.

Fortunately, the book takes a turn at the end of act one. After that the pace picks up and it gripped me completely. For a love of crime fiction there is much to enjoy here. There are courtroom scenes, detailed forensics, cops (both noble and corrupt), private eyes, politically motivated district attorneys and tense shoot outs. King handles all these tropes with the skill of a seasoned pro. Like much of King’s work it’s also rich with the detail of life in small-town America. As an outside, it’s almost soothing to read. I was struck as I read the book how much of my sense of life in middle America (as opposed to LA or New York) comes from King’s books.

The horror in the book is less well handled than the crime. As noted above, it does feel an awful lot like ‘The X-Files’ at times. That’s not necessarily a huge problem, and didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book, but it does feel kinda hokey at times. In fact, I’d definitely say it’s a better crime novel than a horror one. It just feels more mature and measure when it’s focussing on the mystery and detection elements than when it slips into its b-movie supernatural mode. King does manage to make it all hang together though and the result it gripping (once it gets going), with characters whose survival you actually care about.

Here there be spoilers!

My reviews are always spoiler-free (guaranteed, or double your money back ). Sometimes there is information about a book that potential readers might find useful, but which might give a thing or two away. Below this line you’ll find the publisher’s synopsis of the book (pretty much guaranteed to have spoilers in my experience), content warnings and tolerance warnings. Generally, I won’t not review a book just because it contains views I don’t agree with, but if it does, I will call it out.

Synopsis

An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.

As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.

Warnings

Tolerance Warning: All good

Content Warning: Child abuse, child murder, drug abuse, alcoholism, suicide

My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf #BookReview

CriminOlly thinks: A truly unique graphic novel that blends true crime and coming of age memoir and is told with admirable honesty 5/5

Title: My Friend Dahmer | Author: Derf Backderf | Publisher: Abrams Books | Pages: 224 | Publication date: 1st March 2012 | Source: Self-purchased | Content warnings: Yes | Tolerance warning: No

Review

‘My Friend Dahmer’ is a completely unique work of art. Author Derf Backderf is a noted cartoonist, and also a high school classmate of Jeffrey Dahmer, who went on to kill, and in some cases cannibalise, 17 male victims. It’s hard reading at times, but also moving and thoughtful. The distinctive art style is extremely effective – I thought at first that it might be too cartoonish, but it quickly drew me in and I found myself completely immersed in the story. Unlike most true crime works, ‘My Friend Dahmer’ focuses very much on the killer as an individual, rather than on his crimes. In fact only Dahmer’s first murder is covered at all, and that comes right at the end of the book.

Instead, the book paints a fairly sympathetic picture of the life of teenagers in small town Ohio in the 1970s. Their existence is one familiar from a million American TV shows and movies, with the one exception being our knowledge of what Dahmer would become. In the book he is an oddball character, clearly disturbed but prone to acting out in ways his peers find hilarious. It is this that leads Backderf and his friends to hang out with him, forming the ‘Jeffrey Dahmer Fan Club’.

Backderf has had a few goes at telling this story, it first appeared as a one off short in an anthology, and this far lengthier volume has obviously had time to mature. It’s an assured piece, both in the pace of its storytelling and the maturity of its outlook. Backderf has used various sources (laid out in a sizeable appendix) to fact check his recollections and confirm the timeline of events. Most impressive though is the honesty with which he describes both Dahmer and the treatment he received at school – from bullies, from the Dahmer Fan Club and from the largely oblivious or downright neglectful adults around him.

The end result is far more melancholy than I’d expected. Backderf clearly has a lot of sympathy for young Dahmer, even if he rightly and unequivocally denounces the monster he became. It’s an extremely balanced and memorable work and thoroughly recommended, even if you think you don’t like comics.

Here there be spoilers!

My reviews are always spoiler-free (guaranteed, or double your money back ). Sometimes there is information about a book that potential readers might find useful, but which might give a thing or two away. Below this line you’ll find the publisher’s synopsis of the book (pretty much guaranteed to have spoilers in my experience), content warnings and tolerance warnings. Generally, I won’t not review a book just because it contains views I don’t agree with, but if it does, I will call it out.

Synopsis

You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer — the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper — seared himself into the American consciousness. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, “Jeff” was a much more complex figure: a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides.

In My Friend Dahmer, a haunting and original graphic novel, writer-artist Backderf creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche — a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a goofball who never quite fit in with his classmates. With profound insight, what emerges is a Jeffrey Dahmer that few ever really knew, and one readers will never forget.

Warnings

Tolerance Warning: All good

Content Warning: Homophobia, bullying, alcoholism, cannibalism

Edge – Ten Thousand Dollars, American by George G Gilman #BookReview

CriminOlly thinks: A brutal western that’s far more entertaining than it probably should be. 4/5

Title: Ten Thousand Dollars, American | Author: George G Gilman | Series: Edge #2 | Publisher: New English Library | Pages: 127 | Publication date: 1972 | Source: Self-purchased | Content warnings: Yes | Tolerance warning: Yes

Review

I think Edge, the vicious half Mexican, half Scandinavian outlaw hero of ‘Ten Thousand Dollars, American’ might be even more of a dislikable son of a bitch in this book than he was in his debut ‘The Loner’. It’s no surprise he fights alone, when he treats everyone he comes across with such utter contempt.

In this second slim volume in the series, Edge chases a gang of Mexican bandits led by a 5 foot tall psychopath nicknamed El Matador. They’ve stolen his life savings, and his pursuit of them also leads him to learn of a hidden treasure worth, you guessed it, ten thousand dollars, American.

In their time, the books were advertised as the most violent westerns in print and it’s not hard to see why. The action comes thick and fast and is unremittingly brutal. The bandit gang are more ruthless and sadistic than the hero, but it’s a matter of degrees really. In many tales Edge would be the villain of the piece. Here he is the protagonist and his ruthlessness makes him a delight to read.

The secondary characters in the book can be divided into three camps: people Edge actively wants to kill (and therefore does), people he doesn’t care about (who he often kills anyway) and people who fall victim to the people Edge actively wants to kill. Pretty much every named character apart from Edge ends up dead, and when it isn’t by his hand it’s generally only because someone else got there first.

Aside from the violence, there’s a smattering of humour, which is often just Edge making Bond style quips when he kills someone. As you’d expect from a 70s pulp, there’s also sex, with Edge’s masculine hardness proving irresistible to the women he meets. It all adds up to a fantastically enjoyable potboiler.

Synopsis

South of the Border, men live miserably and die violently. Ten American dollars can keep a family for months. Ten thousand dollars American is a vision of earthly paradise. A man would slit the throat of his own grandmother for such a sum.

Edge knows where such a sum is hidden. The bandits know that he knows. The shadow of death lies over them all.

Warnings

Content Warning: Racism, sexual violence

Tolerance Warning: Extremely sexist, possibly racist

Pulp Paperback: Edge – Ten Thousand Dollars, American by George G Gilman #BookReview

CriminOlly thinks: A brutal western that’s far more entertaining than it probably should be. 4/5

Title: Ten Thousand Dollars, American | Author: George G Gilman | Series: Edge #2 | Publisher: New English Library | Pages: 127 | Publication date: 1972 | Source: Self-purchased | Content warnings: Yes | Tolerance warning: Yes

Review

I think Edge, the vicious half Mexican, half Scandinavian outlaw hero of ‘Ten Thousand Dollars, American’ might be even more of a dislikable son of a bitch in this book than he was in his debut ‘The Loner’. It’s no surprise he fights alone, when he treats everyone he comes across with such utter contempt.

In this second slim volume in the series, Edge chases a gang of Mexican bandits led by a 5 foot tall psychopath nicknamed El Matador. They’ve stolen his life savings, and his pursuit of them also leads him to learn of a hidden treasure worth, you guessed it, ten thousand dollars, American.

In their time, the books were advertised as the most violent westerns in print and it’s not hard to see why. The action comes thick and fast and is unremittingly brutal. The bandit gang are more ruthless and sadistic than the hero, but it’s a matter of degrees really. In many tales Edge would be the villain of the piece. Here he is the protagonist and his ruthlessness makes him a delight to read.

The secondary characters in the book can be divided into three camps: people Edge actively wants to kill (and therefore does), people he doesn’t care about (who he often kills anyway) and people who fall victim to the people Edge actively wants to kill. Pretty much every named character apart from Edge ends up dead, and when it isn’t by his hand it’s generally only because someone else got there first.

Aside from the violence, there’s a smattering of humour, which is often just Edge making Bond style quips when he kills someone. As you’d expect from a 70s pulp, there’s also sex, with Edge’s masculine hardness proving irresistible to the women he meets. It all adds up to a fantastically enjoyable potboiler.

Here there be spoilers!

My reviews are always spoiler-free (guaranteed, or double your money back ). Sometimes there is information about a book that potential readers might find useful, but which might give a thing or two away. Below this line you’ll find the publisher’s synopsis of the book (pretty much guaranteed to have spoilers in my experience), content warnings and tolerance warnings. Generally, I won’t not review a book just because it contains views I don’t agree with, but if it does, I will call it out.

Synopsis

South of the Border, men live miserably and die violently. Ten American dollars can keep a family for months. Ten thousand dollars American is a vision of earthly paradise. A man would slit the throat of his own grandmother for such a sum.

Edge knows where such a sum is hidden. The bandits know that he knows. The shadow of death lies over them all.

Warnings

Tolerance Warning: Extremely sexist, possibly racist

Content Warning: Racism, sexual violence

The Mothers by Sarah J Naughton #BookReview

CriminOlly thinks: Unconvincing domestic noir with few thrills and some questionable politics. 2/5

Title: The Mothers | Author: Sarah J Naughton | Publisher: Trapeze | Pages: 288 | ISBN: 9781409184607 | Publication date: 9th January 2020 | Source: Self-purchased | Content warnings: Yes | Tolerance warning: Yes

Review

‘The Mothers’ is the kind of book I normally avoid, so please bear that in mind when you read my allergic reaction to it below. This sub-genre, which I’ve seen termed ‘domestic noir’,is incredibly popular at the moment, if bookshop shelves and my Instagram feed are anything to go by . The easiest way to describe it is to say that it features crime stories based around the everyday lives of normal women. Put like that it quite appeals to me, and I can certainly think of many books and authors it fits that I have really liked. Natsuo Kirino, Megan Abbott, Shirley Jackson and so on. The problem I have with this modern wave of British (and all the ones I’ve read have been British) domestic noirs is that they feel like they’ve been pushed out by publishers to satisfy the market, rather than because they have real merit. That might feel like a strange thing to say given my love of pulp paperbacks, but being a pulp fan is really about separating the wheat from the chaff. ‘The Mothers’ is definitely chaff.

The central concept is one that’s typical to the form. A diverse group of women who have met through antenatal classes and maintained their friendship over the first years of their children’s lives find themselves embroiled in a mystery. The husband of one of the women has vanished, and a plucky young police woman is on hand to investigate. Things ramp up further when a further disappearance takes place. As is often the case with this kind of thing, the story is then told largely in flashback, with a gradual build up to the crimes.

This might have been an okay read but for three major problems. Most critically, at times the mystery element feels completely forgotten about and we’re treated instead to endless descriptions of coffee dates, drinks evenings and the boring minutiae of everyday life. I get that some of this is necessary to build the characters and establish the relationships between them, but god was it dull to read.

Secondly, the eventual plot lacks any credibility at all and has some major holes. The main detective misses some pretty massive things and doesn’t seem motivated at all to crack the case. In fact there is an ongoing joke between her and her boss that she only wants to solve the mystery so that she doesn’t have to attend a diversity seminar.

Which brings me to my final point. The book is kind of nasty. When I introduced Tolerance Warnings I expected to be using them for nasty old pulps from the 60s and 70s, not crime novels from 2020. Yet I’m adding two for this book. I won’t go into details for fear of spoilers, but there is a white middle-class vibe about the whole thing which left a bad taste in my mouth.

All in all then, this is one to avoid. There is a glimmer of light at the end, with an okay twist, but even that is problematic as it relies on one of the items I’m adding a Tolerance Warning for.

Here there be spoilers!

My reviews are always spoiler-free (guaranteed, or double your money back ). Sometimes there is information about a book that potential readers might find useful, but which might give a thing or two away. Below this line you’ll find the publisher’s synopsis of the book (pretty much guaranteed to have spoilers in my experience), content warnings and tolerance warnings. Generally, I won’t not review a book just because it contains views I don’t agree with, but if it does, I will call it out.

Synopsis

Five Women.
They meet at their NCT Group. The only thing they have in common is they’re all pregnant.

Five Secrets.
Three years later, they are all good friends. Aren’t they?

One Missing Husband.
Now the police have come knocking. Someone knows something.

And the trouble with secrets is that someone always tells

Warnings

Tolerance Warning: Potential racism. Classism

Content Warning: Alcohol abuse, domestic violence, miscarriage, rape, post natal depression

The Big Bad City by Ed McBain #BookReview

CriminOlly thinks: McBain juggles three plot lines expertly in an 87th Precinct mystery that throws in the usual humour and social commentary. 4/5

Title: The Big Bad City | Author: Ed McBain | Series: 87th Precinct #49 | Publisher: New English Library | Pages: 320 | ISBN: 9780340728048 | Publication date: 1998 | Source: Self-purchased | Content warnings: Yes | Tolerance warning: No

Review

This is another entirely solid and enjoyable entry in the 87th Precinct series, albeit not on of the very best. It’s the 49th book, so I guess it’s no surprise that McBain had his formula and craft very well honed by this point. ‘The Big Bad City’ has three parallel stories running: the investigation into the murder of a nun, a spate of burglaries by a criminal who leaves his victims a plate of freshly baked cookies, and a character from a previous book on the hunt for hero Steve Carella.

The nun story is definitely the main plot and is a satisfying mystery, with Carella and Brown doing the legwork to tie the motive back to events in the dead woman’s surprising past. The burglary plot is a somewhat atypical one in that its largely told from the criminal’s perspective, with the cops only getting involved towards the end. It reads a bit like a standalone short story, albeit one without a terribly satisfying ending. The Carella story is the one with the most tension, with Steve unknowingly in peril throughout.

It’s not as funny as some of the books, but certainly has its moment, including one brilliant sequence where the narrator expresses consternation at the fact that the notoriously lazy detective Andy Parker manages to catch a suspect in a foot chase. Fat Ollie Weeks features, managing as always to be something of a hero as well as a complete tosser. There’s one particularly repellent sequence where he unsuccessfully tries to wind up a Pakistani cab driver, reminding the reader how obnoxious he can be. Matthew Hope, the lawyer hero of McBain’s other series, also makes a surprise appearance.

As always with McBain, it skilfully mixes police procedural detail with amusing characters, a smattering of liberal politics and solid plotting. If you’re a fan of the series you know what to expect and won’t be disappointed.

Here there be spoilers!

My reviews are always spoiler-free (guaranteed, or double your money back ). Sometimes there is information about a book that potential readers might find useful, but which might give a thing or two away. Below this line you’ll find the publisher’s synopsis of the book (pretty much guaranteed to have spoilers in my experience), content warnings and tolerance warnings. Generally, I won’t not review a book just because it contains views I don’t agree with, but if it does, I will call it out.

Synopsis

In this city, you have to pay attention. In this city, things are happening all the time, all over the place, and you don’t have to be a detective to smell evil in the wind. Take this week’s tabloids: the face of a dead girl is splashed across the front page. She was found sprawled near a park bench not seven blocks from the police station. Detectives Carella and Brown soon discover the girl has a most unusual past. Meanwhile, the late-night news tracks the exploits of The Cookie Boy, a professional thief who leaves his calling card — a box of chocolate chip cookies — at the scene of each score. And while the detectives of the 87th Precinct are investigating these cases, one of them is being stalked by the man who killed his father. Welcome to the Big Bad City.

Warnings

Tolerance Warning: All good

Content Warning: Racism