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Monkeewrench #1
Want to play? hide and seek. And kill
an old couple knelt side by side in an otherwise empty small town church their heads resting on their hands in a picture of devotion. Both had a small, tidy bullet holes in the backs of their skulls.
To local police their slaying looks like a one-off act of retribution.
At the same time in Minneapolis, teams of detectives are scrambling to stop a sickeningly to stop a sickeningly inventive serial killer striking again in a city paralysed by fear.
No one makes a connection.
But when the two separate investigations converge on an isolated Catholic boarding school, decades-old secrets begin to fall away. It seems an old killer has resurfaced. But now whose identity still remains dangerously out of reach.
Cracking dialogue, pace and rich, vivid characters all distinguish this electrifying debut thriller.
Make sure you've locked your door...
To local police their slaying looks like a one-off act of retribution.
At the same time in Minneapolis, teams of detectives are scrambling to stop a sickeningly to stop a sickeningly inventive serial killer striking again in a city paralysed by fear.
No one makes a connection.
But when the two separate investigations converge on an isolated Catholic boarding school, decades-old secrets begin to fall away. It seems an old killer has resurfaced. But now whose identity still remains dangerously out of reach.
Cracking dialogue, pace and rich, vivid characters all distinguish this electrifying debut thriller.
Make sure you've locked your door...
410 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
736 people are currently reading
9468 people want to read
About the author
P.J. Tracy
24 books1,771 followersPJ Tracy is the pseudonym of mother-daughter writing duo P.J. and Traci Lambrecht, winners of the Anthony, Barry, Gumshoe, and Minnesota Book Awards. Their ten novels in the Monkeewrench series, MONKEEWRENCH, LIVE BAIT, DEAD RUN, SNOW BLIND, SHOOT TO THRILL, OFF THE GRID, THE SIXTH IDEA, NOTHING STAYS BURIED, THE GUILTY DEAD, and ICE COLD HEART have become national and international bestsellers. PJ passed away in December 2016, and Traci started a new series set in Los Angeles, featuring Detective Margaret Nolan. DEEP INTO THE DARK, DESOLATION CANYON, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, and CITY OF SECRETS are available anywhere you buy your books!
THE DEEPEST CUT, the eleventh Monkeewrench novel will be released on September 9th, 2025.
Learn more about PJ Tracy at pjtracy.com
Follow them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PJTracyAuthor/
Look them up on Amazon: http://amazon.com/author/pjtracy.com
THE DEEPEST CUT, the eleventh Monkeewrench novel will be released on September 9th, 2025.
Learn more about PJ Tracy at pjtracy.com
Follow them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PJTracyAuthor/
Look them up on Amazon: http://amazon.com/author/pjtracy.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,206 reviews
September 14, 2023
P.J. Tracy's first book, and a very good thrills, spills, kills on my read it is. The story is centred around a serial killer who appears to mimicking a beta version of an online game created by the think tank / computer software company Monkeywrench.
Tracy introduces an odd pair of police officers Leo Margozzi and Gino Rolseth, who go on to appear in later books in this series. This thriller manages to bring in myriad topics, serial killing, sexual jealousy, hermaphrodites(!), abuse, religion, the online world etc. into a pretty good and solid tale of cat and mouse between an unknown killer or killers and the two police forces. 7 out of 12, Three Stars.
2011 read
Tracy introduces an odd pair of police officers Leo Margozzi and Gino Rolseth, who go on to appear in later books in this series. This thriller manages to bring in myriad topics, serial killing, sexual jealousy, hermaphrodites(!), abuse, religion, the online world etc. into a pretty good and solid tale of cat and mouse between an unknown killer or killers and the two police forces. 7 out of 12, Three Stars.
2011 read
September 26, 2016
One of the advantages of belonging to a good book club, in addition to the camaraderie and the great food and booze every month, is that you occasionally wind up reading and enjoying very much a book that otherwise would have flown under your radar. And such is the case here.
For a long time I've been vaguely aware of the mother-daughter writing team, P. J. Tracy, but for whatever reason, I'd never picked up one of their books. Then this month, one of my book clubs picked Monkeewrench, the first in Tracy's Monkeewrench series. I was drawn into the book immediately and read it through about as fast as I could turn the pages.
The book opens with the murder of an elderly husband and wife who are shot to death in a Catholic church in rural Wisconsin. The parish pastor discovers the bodies very early in the morning and calls the local sheriff, Michael Halloran, who was formally an altar boy in the parish. The couple lived very simply, but when Sheriff Halloran learns that the couple left an estate worth more than seven million dollars, he immediately assumes that this might be a pretty good motive for the double murder. Then he discovers that the money was all left to the church, and that's one good motive out the window.
Meanwhile, police in Minneapolis are confronted with two seemingly unrelated murders of a male jogger and a young woman who is killed and ritualistically displayed in a cemetery. These killings fall to detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth who initially have no idea that the two killings might be related. But a small group of game developers known as Monkeewrench, understand from the jump that the killings are tied together because the murderer is imitating the killings in a new serial killer game that they have under development.
This poses a huge problem for the people at Monkeewrench because they have their own secrets to hide and their own very personal interests to protect. Principal among them is Grace MacBride, the inventor of the game, who is extremely reclusive, more than a bit paranoid, and who won't even sit in her well-protected back yard without a gun in the pocket of her bathrobe. There are eighteen more killings in the game; how long should Grace and her fellow developers wait to alert the police?
As the two investigations proceed, it quickly becomes apparent that a very dark force is at work here and that many more lives may be at risk. But how many of their own secrets will the Monkeewrench developers be willing to reveal in order to bring a killer down and how effective will the law enforcement officers in Wisconsin and Minnesota be when push comes to shove?
All in all, this is a very entertaining and compelling thriller, set mostly in Minnesota, the land where Owen Laukkanen and John Sandford have also set very successful series. There must be something in the water up there, or wherever these authors are writing these books. Tracy, like Laukkanen and Sandford, has created some extremely interesting and unique characters and set them loose in a page-turning plot. These more than a little wry humor here, a lot of action, and a conclusion that will have any reader on the edge of his or her seat. I've already bought the second book in the series and expect that I will be making my way through all of them at a pretty swift pace. Thanks to whomever it was in my book club that suggested we should make this a pick.
For a long time I've been vaguely aware of the mother-daughter writing team, P. J. Tracy, but for whatever reason, I'd never picked up one of their books. Then this month, one of my book clubs picked Monkeewrench, the first in Tracy's Monkeewrench series. I was drawn into the book immediately and read it through about as fast as I could turn the pages.
The book opens with the murder of an elderly husband and wife who are shot to death in a Catholic church in rural Wisconsin. The parish pastor discovers the bodies very early in the morning and calls the local sheriff, Michael Halloran, who was formally an altar boy in the parish. The couple lived very simply, but when Sheriff Halloran learns that the couple left an estate worth more than seven million dollars, he immediately assumes that this might be a pretty good motive for the double murder. Then he discovers that the money was all left to the church, and that's one good motive out the window.
Meanwhile, police in Minneapolis are confronted with two seemingly unrelated murders of a male jogger and a young woman who is killed and ritualistically displayed in a cemetery. These killings fall to detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth who initially have no idea that the two killings might be related. But a small group of game developers known as Monkeewrench, understand from the jump that the killings are tied together because the murderer is imitating the killings in a new serial killer game that they have under development.
This poses a huge problem for the people at Monkeewrench because they have their own secrets to hide and their own very personal interests to protect. Principal among them is Grace MacBride, the inventor of the game, who is extremely reclusive, more than a bit paranoid, and who won't even sit in her well-protected back yard without a gun in the pocket of her bathrobe. There are eighteen more killings in the game; how long should Grace and her fellow developers wait to alert the police?
As the two investigations proceed, it quickly becomes apparent that a very dark force is at work here and that many more lives may be at risk. But how many of their own secrets will the Monkeewrench developers be willing to reveal in order to bring a killer down and how effective will the law enforcement officers in Wisconsin and Minnesota be when push comes to shove?
All in all, this is a very entertaining and compelling thriller, set mostly in Minnesota, the land where Owen Laukkanen and John Sandford have also set very successful series. There must be something in the water up there, or wherever these authors are writing these books. Tracy, like Laukkanen and Sandford, has created some extremely interesting and unique characters and set them loose in a page-turning plot. These more than a little wry humor here, a lot of action, and a conclusion that will have any reader on the edge of his or her seat. I've already bought the second book in the series and expect that I will be making my way through all of them at a pretty swift pace. Thanks to whomever it was in my book club that suggested we should make this a pick.
July 27, 2023
UPDATE 28/07/2023 - What a spectacular reread! Love the characters so much and the layered plot!
What an absolutely phenomenal crime thriller that I could not stop listening to! At some point today one of my teenagers was talking to me and I was smiling and nodding. They looked confused until they realised I hadn't listened to a word they were saying because I was so absorbed in my audiobook and didn't want to stop it. Never fear, I paused the book after being reprimanded for my neglect and some quality parenting ensued. Then back to the book I went! What a gripping storyline and a cast of top-notch characters. I will one hundred percent continue with this series when I have cleared my current library loans. Brilliant!
CW: Violent murders
What an absolutely phenomenal crime thriller that I could not stop listening to! At some point today one of my teenagers was talking to me and I was smiling and nodding. They looked confused until they realised I hadn't listened to a word they were saying because I was so absorbed in my audiobook and didn't want to stop it. Never fear, I paused the book after being reprimanded for my neglect and some quality parenting ensued. Then back to the book I went! What a gripping storyline and a cast of top-notch characters. I will one hundred percent continue with this series when I have cleared my current library loans. Brilliant!
CW: Violent murders
September 22, 2015
I'm going to give this one full marks for a story which held me engrossed from page 1 to page 421. I loved it and read it in practically one sitting. The story was good, it was clever and it delivered. The characters were well written and interacted well. There was humour and there was suspense. What more can you ask for in a good crime novel apart from a surprise at the end. Well I got that too because the killer was not who I expected:) All in all this was a top read for me and I cannot wait to get to the next one,
November 21, 2023
Monkeewrench by P.J. Tracy
Synopsis /
Haunted by a series of horrifying and violent episodes in their past, Grace McBride and the oddball crew of her software company, Monkeewrench, create a computer game where the killer is always caught, where the good guys always win. But their game becomes a nightmare when someone starts duplicating the fictional murders in real life, down to the last detail.
By the time the police realize what's happening, three people are dead, and with seventeen more murder scenarios available online, there are seventeen more potential victims. While the authorities scramble to find the killer in a city paralyzed by fear, the Monkeewrench staff are playing their own game, analyzing victim profiles in a frantic attempt to discover the murderer's next target.
In a thriller populated by characters both hilarious and heartbreaking, a rural Wisconsin sheriff, two Minneapolis police detectives, and Grace's gang are caught in a web of decades-old secrets that could get them all killed.
My Thoughts /
PJ Tracy is the pseudonym of mother-daughter writing duo P.J. and Traci Lambrecht, winners of the Anthony, Barry, Gumshoe, and Minnesota Book Awards. Their ten novels in the cyber-crime/psychological thriller series “Monkeewrench” are national and international bestsellers and have been translated into more than twenty languages.
When I added “Monkeewrench” to my reading list for the month of November I didn't realise what that simple add would do. My first go to is always my local library. Nada. My local didn't have this title, although books 5 through to 10 in the series were listed. Nice to know. A search of Amazon AU(kindle) informed me 'this title is not currently available for purchase'. Ooookay. And not one of my local (physical) booksellers stocked it either. So instead of thinking (like a normal person) hmmm, oh well - that's that then - the bookish part of my brain - you know the part - it's the one which fights with your brain's financial sector for supreme bookish sovereignty - declared, to hell with it, I don't care where you find one but buy a copy! To be fair, at some point it became more about being able to source a copy the more times you were told one wasn't available. Searched, sourced, success, and here we are.
Grace McBride, Annie Belinsky, Roadrunner, Harley Davidson, Mitchell Cross. These five individuals comprise Monkeewrench, a software development company whose latest online game has proved a huge hit with the online gaming community. The game is called Serial Killer Detective. Players are presented with a crime scene and are provided with forensic evidence and clues which will enable them to 'solve' the crime. Once solved the player is then able to move on to the next level. Each level and crime scene are more complex and difficult to solve than the last. The game has a total of 20 levels.
When the police are called to a crime scene and begin their investigations, they discover that the murder and crime scene is an exact replica of the first level in the game, Serial Killer Detective. When a second murder occurs shortly after which is identical in all respects to the second level of the game, Minneapolis Detectives Leo Magozzi and partner Gino Rolseth realise they have stumbled onto something sinister.
Their investigations take them back to the creators of the game and all five misfits are written up as potential suspects. Digging into the background of five individuals, all of whom are highly skilled at coding will prove challenging at best. But when a third murder occurs exactly as it plays out in the game, it's a race to find the killer or killers before another murder is committed.
I have to say that this does not read like a debut novel. The plot is tightly woven and the writing, crisp and sharp. The characters are well written and develop well as the story progresses. And although there is a dark element to the theme of the book, the author(s) have interspersed humour in just the right places to defuse tension.
'You have lost weight, your muscles are more toned...which means you have finally grown weary of the solitary life and are now seeking the companionship of the fairer sex.'
'Department physical's coming up next month.'
'Or it could be that.'
Magozzi and Rolseth are wonderful protagonists - working well together in a professional capacity yet remaining human and personable. Their intuitive investigations kept the narrative propelling forward.
A strongly written police procedural with some very unorthodox characters.
Memo to my financial brain: A worthwhile purchase.
Synopsis /
Haunted by a series of horrifying and violent episodes in their past, Grace McBride and the oddball crew of her software company, Monkeewrench, create a computer game where the killer is always caught, where the good guys always win. But their game becomes a nightmare when someone starts duplicating the fictional murders in real life, down to the last detail.
By the time the police realize what's happening, three people are dead, and with seventeen more murder scenarios available online, there are seventeen more potential victims. While the authorities scramble to find the killer in a city paralyzed by fear, the Monkeewrench staff are playing their own game, analyzing victim profiles in a frantic attempt to discover the murderer's next target.
In a thriller populated by characters both hilarious and heartbreaking, a rural Wisconsin sheriff, two Minneapolis police detectives, and Grace's gang are caught in a web of decades-old secrets that could get them all killed.
My Thoughts /
PJ Tracy is the pseudonym of mother-daughter writing duo P.J. and Traci Lambrecht, winners of the Anthony, Barry, Gumshoe, and Minnesota Book Awards. Their ten novels in the cyber-crime/psychological thriller series “Monkeewrench” are national and international bestsellers and have been translated into more than twenty languages.
When I added “Monkeewrench” to my reading list for the month of November I didn't realise what that simple add would do. My first go to is always my local library. Nada. My local didn't have this title, although books 5 through to 10 in the series were listed. Nice to know. A search of Amazon AU(kindle) informed me 'this title is not currently available for purchase'. Ooookay. And not one of my local (physical) booksellers stocked it either. So instead of thinking (like a normal person) hmmm, oh well - that's that then - the bookish part of my brain - you know the part - it's the one which fights with your brain's financial sector for supreme bookish sovereignty - declared, to hell with it, I don't care where you find one but buy a copy! To be fair, at some point it became more about being able to source a copy the more times you were told one wasn't available. Searched, sourced, success, and here we are.
Grace McBride, Annie Belinsky, Roadrunner, Harley Davidson, Mitchell Cross. These five individuals comprise Monkeewrench, a software development company whose latest online game has proved a huge hit with the online gaming community. The game is called Serial Killer Detective. Players are presented with a crime scene and are provided with forensic evidence and clues which will enable them to 'solve' the crime. Once solved the player is then able to move on to the next level. Each level and crime scene are more complex and difficult to solve than the last. The game has a total of 20 levels.
When the police are called to a crime scene and begin their investigations, they discover that the murder and crime scene is an exact replica of the first level in the game, Serial Killer Detective. When a second murder occurs shortly after which is identical in all respects to the second level of the game, Minneapolis Detectives Leo Magozzi and partner Gino Rolseth realise they have stumbled onto something sinister.
Their investigations take them back to the creators of the game and all five misfits are written up as potential suspects. Digging into the background of five individuals, all of whom are highly skilled at coding will prove challenging at best. But when a third murder occurs exactly as it plays out in the game, it's a race to find the killer or killers before another murder is committed.
I have to say that this does not read like a debut novel. The plot is tightly woven and the writing, crisp and sharp. The characters are well written and develop well as the story progresses. And although there is a dark element to the theme of the book, the author(s) have interspersed humour in just the right places to defuse tension.
'You have lost weight, your muscles are more toned...which means you have finally grown weary of the solitary life and are now seeking the companionship of the fairer sex.'
'Department physical's coming up next month.'
'Or it could be that.'
Magozzi and Rolseth are wonderful protagonists - working well together in a professional capacity yet remaining human and personable. Their intuitive investigations kept the narrative propelling forward.
A strongly written police procedural with some very unorthodox characters.
Memo to my financial brain: A worthwhile purchase.
February 23, 2024
Confession time— yes, I sometimes choose books by their cover despite what Lin-Manuel Miranda and the rest of the Mary Poppins Returns cast reminded us so charmingly in song.
But in the case of Monkeewrench, it was a clear case of not liking the title (okay, the blood red cover art didn’t help). So whenever it passed my view, with a slightly wrinkled nose, I said, “No, thanks.”
What an idiot I am. Bookworms, don’t be like me. Read the blurbs and believe the reviews.
This was a strongly written mystery— a unique take on a crime procedural that has some unorthodox crime detectives.
Lots of back story here on our various characters plus I must have changed my mind on the “who” in this who-dunnit five or six times. A good sign of a keeper series.
Looking forward to more Monkeewrench… I’ve totally embraced the title happily!!
(Reviewed 11/11/21)
But in the case of Monkeewrench, it was a clear case of not liking the title (okay, the blood red cover art didn’t help). So whenever it passed my view, with a slightly wrinkled nose, I said, “No, thanks.”
What an idiot I am. Bookworms, don’t be like me. Read the blurbs and believe the reviews.
This was a strongly written mystery— a unique take on a crime procedural that has some unorthodox crime detectives.
Lots of back story here on our various characters plus I must have changed my mind on the “who” in this who-dunnit five or six times. A good sign of a keeper series.
Looking forward to more Monkeewrench… I’ve totally embraced the title happily!!
(Reviewed 11/11/21)
February 24, 2021
5★
“‘I met this really nice guy I could set you up with ...’
‘Last time you set me up it didn't exactly work out.’
Annie rolled her eyes. ‘Grace. You pulled your gun on him. He still won't talk to me.’”
Grace had her reasons, Annie. She still has her reasons, which Annie is well aware of. Grace and Annie are two of the five people who make up Monkeewrench, a company that sells their computer game where players investigate and solve a murder in order to progress to the next level – the next murder - and eventually identify the serial killer. Note that players are not killing anybody; they are playing detectives, being the good guys.
The company is based in Minneapolis, in the cold northern US state of Minnesota, where the icy weather features almost as another character, the way it does in many of my other favourite mysteries set in Ireland and Canada.
“The thin microfiber trench that had seemed like a good fashion decision in August was laughably ineffectual now. But like every good Minnesotan, except Gino, he'd wait until a near-death brush with hypothermia before he dragged out the down parka, as if wearing lighter clothing would somehow encourage the weather to adjust itself appropriately.”
Why do we do this? I suspect we want to pretend we are saving our gear until absolutely necessary so we know we have something to fall back on. But of course, that can backfire.
“He put one hand between his knees to warm his fingers and steered with the other, dreaming of his gloves at home on the closet shelf.”
Mind you, the heat of the Australian outback is another great setting which I enjoy/endure, but I digress.
When real detectives discover that a real murder is a copy of the first one in the game, they begin a real-life investigation, starting, of course, with the Monkeewrench crew themselves. The five are a colourful bunch of characters, from an OCD CEO-type to a big, tattooed biker-gang guy, a skinny, lycra-clad beanpole fellow, flamboyant Annie, and paranoid, always-dressed-in-black Grace.
“To Annie Belinsky, a day without sequins was hardly worth living; a day without makeup was unthinkable.”
The book cuts back and forth between Minneapolis and a town in neighbouring rural Wisconsin (also cold). A pastor has called the local sheriff, one of his old altar boys, whom he still calls Mikey, to take a look at a double homicide in the church.
“Scatter a few thousand people over the northern Wisconsin countryside, arm a good half of them with hunting rifles and skinning knives, throw a hundred bars into the mix, and eventually some of them are going to end up killing each other. That's just the way it was.”
This murder scene doesn’t fit that scenario, though, and searches into the background of the victims keep hitting dead ends. As the story moves back and forth, we meet the various members of both teams of police, and I found myself like a little kid at the movies saying “Listen to the news! Look what’s happening over there!” But of course, there’s no way either group of police would have considered a connection between such different crimes in different states.
Each character is a recognisable individual with personality traits familiar enough to me that I could imagine them as people I know, even the more far-fetched ones. It’s easy to understand the relationships within each group, (the Monkeewrench team and the two teams of police) and later between the three main groups.
Although the suspense and tension are high, the banter and repartee make the people seem genuine and not expendable placeholder characters that I wouldn't care about. Many authors populate their stories with someone, anyone, to move the action along. These people I liked or disliked, depending.
This was written long before the George Floyd killing by police, which set the nation’s nerves even more on edge, but the us-and-them attitudes between the black and white communities are here.
In Minneapolis, “Patrol Sergeant Eaton Freedman was in a crisp uniform custom-tailored to wrap itself around the three hundred pounds of coal-black muscle packed into his six feet nine inches.” That, plus his James Earl Jones voice gives him a presence that can’t be ignored. However, guess what?
“You put a six-foot-nine black man in a cheap suit on a boat with a bunch of Fortune 500 white people, and pretty soon some ditzy broad wearing his year's salary around her neck is going to ask him to refill the water carafe. It had happened four times in the first fifteen minutes …”
Nice one, ditzy broad.
It’s a great read with some wonderfully human moments alongside the absolutely terrifying ones, and I’m delighted that this is only the first of a substantial series. Thanks to all the Goodreads friends who have recommended it.
“‘I met this really nice guy I could set you up with ...’
‘Last time you set me up it didn't exactly work out.’
Annie rolled her eyes. ‘Grace. You pulled your gun on him. He still won't talk to me.’”
Grace had her reasons, Annie. She still has her reasons, which Annie is well aware of. Grace and Annie are two of the five people who make up Monkeewrench, a company that sells their computer game where players investigate and solve a murder in order to progress to the next level – the next murder - and eventually identify the serial killer. Note that players are not killing anybody; they are playing detectives, being the good guys.
The company is based in Minneapolis, in the cold northern US state of Minnesota, where the icy weather features almost as another character, the way it does in many of my other favourite mysteries set in Ireland and Canada.
“The thin microfiber trench that had seemed like a good fashion decision in August was laughably ineffectual now. But like every good Minnesotan, except Gino, he'd wait until a near-death brush with hypothermia before he dragged out the down parka, as if wearing lighter clothing would somehow encourage the weather to adjust itself appropriately.”
Why do we do this? I suspect we want to pretend we are saving our gear until absolutely necessary so we know we have something to fall back on. But of course, that can backfire.
“He put one hand between his knees to warm his fingers and steered with the other, dreaming of his gloves at home on the closet shelf.”
Mind you, the heat of the Australian outback is another great setting which I enjoy/endure, but I digress.
When real detectives discover that a real murder is a copy of the first one in the game, they begin a real-life investigation, starting, of course, with the Monkeewrench crew themselves. The five are a colourful bunch of characters, from an OCD CEO-type to a big, tattooed biker-gang guy, a skinny, lycra-clad beanpole fellow, flamboyant Annie, and paranoid, always-dressed-in-black Grace.
“To Annie Belinsky, a day without sequins was hardly worth living; a day without makeup was unthinkable.”
The book cuts back and forth between Minneapolis and a town in neighbouring rural Wisconsin (also cold). A pastor has called the local sheriff, one of his old altar boys, whom he still calls Mikey, to take a look at a double homicide in the church.
“Scatter a few thousand people over the northern Wisconsin countryside, arm a good half of them with hunting rifles and skinning knives, throw a hundred bars into the mix, and eventually some of them are going to end up killing each other. That's just the way it was.”
This murder scene doesn’t fit that scenario, though, and searches into the background of the victims keep hitting dead ends. As the story moves back and forth, we meet the various members of both teams of police, and I found myself like a little kid at the movies saying “Listen to the news! Look what’s happening over there!” But of course, there’s no way either group of police would have considered a connection between such different crimes in different states.
Each character is a recognisable individual with personality traits familiar enough to me that I could imagine them as people I know, even the more far-fetched ones. It’s easy to understand the relationships within each group, (the Monkeewrench team and the two teams of police) and later between the three main groups.
Although the suspense and tension are high, the banter and repartee make the people seem genuine and not expendable placeholder characters that I wouldn't care about. Many authors populate their stories with someone, anyone, to move the action along. These people I liked or disliked, depending.
This was written long before the George Floyd killing by police, which set the nation’s nerves even more on edge, but the us-and-them attitudes between the black and white communities are here.
In Minneapolis, “Patrol Sergeant Eaton Freedman was in a crisp uniform custom-tailored to wrap itself around the three hundred pounds of coal-black muscle packed into his six feet nine inches.” That, plus his James Earl Jones voice gives him a presence that can’t be ignored. However, guess what?
“You put a six-foot-nine black man in a cheap suit on a boat with a bunch of Fortune 500 white people, and pretty soon some ditzy broad wearing his year's salary around her neck is going to ask him to refill the water carafe. It had happened four times in the first fifteen minutes …”
Nice one, ditzy broad.
It’s a great read with some wonderfully human moments alongside the absolutely terrifying ones, and I’m delighted that this is only the first of a substantial series. Thanks to all the Goodreads friends who have recommended it.
November 7, 2016
As the first in a series, much of this book is spent introducing the various characters. What an assortment they are, too. It was fun, although slow going at times, getting to know them. I haven't looked at Book #2 yet and have no idea which characters will carry over. I'll let that be a surprise.
In addition to the characters, two storylines are followed. One takes place in Calumet, Wisconsin and the other in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Two police departments investigate multiple murders. Also involved is a game software company called Monkeewrench. They are developing a game called Serial Killer Detective and it's only been released to beta testers. Sounds like something we could all play, right? Well, someone is recreating the murders in real life. Well, not in real life, but you know what I mean.
Although the pacing needed to be slow, it was well done and did pick up as the ending approached. There was great dialogue and some humor and sarcasm. I enjoyed this book and will read the second book soon.
In addition to the characters, two storylines are followed. One takes place in Calumet, Wisconsin and the other in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Two police departments investigate multiple murders. Also involved is a game software company called Monkeewrench. They are developing a game called Serial Killer Detective and it's only been released to beta testers. Sounds like something we could all play, right? Well, someone is recreating the murders in real life. Well, not in real life, but you know what I mean.
Although the pacing needed to be slow, it was well done and did pick up as the ending approached. There was great dialogue and some humor and sarcasm. I enjoyed this book and will read the second book soon.
July 10, 2018
After a long waiting period, I was nudged in the direction of this series, promised that it would be full of both excitement and strong writing. I was not disappointed and think I may have found a binge-worthy series to begin the summer months. The murder of an older couple as they pray in church has Wisconsin authorities baffled, with few leads and a police force scratching their heads. Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, Detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth have a new case that has the entire Homicide Squad baffled as well. When a young woman turns up murdered in a local cemetery, Magozzi and Rolseth can only wonder if a sick killer is on the loose. Enter five computer game creators, part of Monkeewrench, a gaming company. They reveal that two recent Minneapolis murders are identical to ones in a game they are about to send onto the market, right down to the smallest detail. The detectives learn that while the game has twenty odd murder scenes, those who have purchased the beta version have not been able to make it past the seventh killing. All eyes turn to the Monkeewrench folk as potential suspects, forcing Magozzi and Rolseth to split their time between investigating them and trying to prevent the next murder. After another victim is found, perfectly matching the game’s layout, it becomes apparent that someone is playing a sadistic game and it must be stopped. Armed with their gut and intuition, Magozzi and Rolseth dig deeper into these five Monkeewrench folks, while also trying to parse through the list of those who have access to the game, in hopes of turning up a strong lead. Back in Wisconsin, the investigation into the two slain parishioners takes an interesting twist and points to a church and boarding school in upstate New York. When Magozzi places a call to the same Mother Superior, begging for information about computer use, the two cases seemed tied together, though without any apparent similarities. Could the cases converge at this point, with a killer’s spree crossing state lines? P.J. Tracy proves a masterful writer in this debut thriller, sure to keep me guessing throughout series. I have a goal and the high quality of this series will help me reach it. Highly recommended to those who love a great police procedural/thriller outside the ‘big city’ feel of most American-based novels in the genre.
While I had heard of P.J. Tracy and the Monkeewrench series before, I never had the inclination to start reading them. However, a curious publisher seeking my input on the yet to be released ninth novel and a few Goodreads friends who have been pushing through the novels in the middle of the series left me very curious. I am happy that I took the time to start, as I am hooked and need more very soon. Magozzi and Rolseth are wonderful protagonists in this opening novel, working well in a professional capacity while remaining intuitive. Their banter keeps the story moving well and the backstories offered give the reader a better connection to these men, sure to be the centre of future investigations. Other characters prove interesting, particularly those related to Monkeewrench, with their tragic pasts that have come to the surface once again. The Wisconsin storyline proved very interesting and while I was sure it would play into the central story early on, its reemergence allowed for more in-depth exploration of the facts pertaining to that case. The story moves well, constructed around some strong criminal matters and detailed exploration of medical phenomena. The narrative propelled the story forward and the well-crafted characters left the reader fully involved from the opening pages. Tracy, the amalgamation of a mother-daughter writing team, is surely a force to be reckoned with in the genre and I am eager to delve deeper to see what other mysteries come up in the numerous other cases.
Kudos, P.J. Tracy, for a debut worthy of the literary awards you’ve won. I cannot wait to get my hands on the next novel and binge the summer away!
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
While I had heard of P.J. Tracy and the Monkeewrench series before, I never had the inclination to start reading them. However, a curious publisher seeking my input on the yet to be released ninth novel and a few Goodreads friends who have been pushing through the novels in the middle of the series left me very curious. I am happy that I took the time to start, as I am hooked and need more very soon. Magozzi and Rolseth are wonderful protagonists in this opening novel, working well in a professional capacity while remaining intuitive. Their banter keeps the story moving well and the backstories offered give the reader a better connection to these men, sure to be the centre of future investigations. Other characters prove interesting, particularly those related to Monkeewrench, with their tragic pasts that have come to the surface once again. The Wisconsin storyline proved very interesting and while I was sure it would play into the central story early on, its reemergence allowed for more in-depth exploration of the facts pertaining to that case. The story moves well, constructed around some strong criminal matters and detailed exploration of medical phenomena. The narrative propelled the story forward and the well-crafted characters left the reader fully involved from the opening pages. Tracy, the amalgamation of a mother-daughter writing team, is surely a force to be reckoned with in the genre and I am eager to delve deeper to see what other mysteries come up in the numerous other cases.
Kudos, P.J. Tracy, for a debut worthy of the literary awards you’ve won. I cannot wait to get my hands on the next novel and binge the summer away!
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
February 22, 2020
“Hiding is no fun unless someone is looking for you.”
A friend recommended this book to me as a fun thriller, with some good characters. As I read the excellent opening chapter I knew that this text would elicit some smiles, and boast some good characterization. And for the most part, “Monkeewrench” held up to that promise.
The novel has some interesting and thoughtful characterization. I especially liked the priest, Father Newberry. A minor role who opens the book, he has some very good scenes in the text. There are quite a few characters like that. Minor, but very real, and thus engaging. Another example is a stunning moment where another secondary character is reminded of a parent’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. As I was reading it I was impressed by the skill with which it was relayed. This moment serves the plot, but is also written with a true human sensibility. It is well done.
The mystery took turns I was not expecting (that is always a plus) including some well-crafted false leads. I did not see the end coming either, so happy there too.
“Monkeewrench” is the first in a series. It was a fun, quirky thriller and I will read the second novel someday.
Another nice line from the text: “What a precious thing trust was; a fragile thing.”
A friend recommended this book to me as a fun thriller, with some good characters. As I read the excellent opening chapter I knew that this text would elicit some smiles, and boast some good characterization. And for the most part, “Monkeewrench” held up to that promise.
The novel has some interesting and thoughtful characterization. I especially liked the priest, Father Newberry. A minor role who opens the book, he has some very good scenes in the text. There are quite a few characters like that. Minor, but very real, and thus engaging. Another example is a stunning moment where another secondary character is reminded of a parent’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. As I was reading it I was impressed by the skill with which it was relayed. This moment serves the plot, but is also written with a true human sensibility. It is well done.
The mystery took turns I was not expecting (that is always a plus) including some well-crafted false leads. I did not see the end coming either, so happy there too.
“Monkeewrench” is the first in a series. It was a fun, quirky thriller and I will read the second novel someday.
Another nice line from the text: “What a precious thing trust was; a fragile thing.”
July 27, 2023
UPDATE 28/07/2023 - This review is also under it's alternate title Want to Play. Brilliant book even on reread!
What an absolutely phenomenal crime thriller that I could not stop listening to! At some point today one of my teenagers was talking to me and I was smiling and nodding. They looked confused until they realised I hadn't listened to a word they were saying because I was so absorbed in my audiobook and didn't want to stop it. Never fear, I paused the book after being reprimanded for my neglect and some quality parenting ensued. Then back to the book I went! What a gripping storyline and a cast of top-notch characters. I will one hundred percent continue with this series when I have cleared my current library loans. Brilliant!
CW: Violent murders
What an absolutely phenomenal crime thriller that I could not stop listening to! At some point today one of my teenagers was talking to me and I was smiling and nodding. They looked confused until they realised I hadn't listened to a word they were saying because I was so absorbed in my audiobook and didn't want to stop it. Never fear, I paused the book after being reprimanded for my neglect and some quality parenting ensued. Then back to the book I went! What a gripping storyline and a cast of top-notch characters. I will one hundred percent continue with this series when I have cleared my current library loans. Brilliant!
CW: Violent murders
February 2, 2021
I will admit I was reluctant to read this book. It was a gift from a friend who said it was one of her favorites. It's just that title - Monkeewrench - seriously? and the cover art was a bit...dodgy. Yeah, I know, I know - don't judge a book yadda, yadda, yadda... But we all do it!
The book has been sitting on my shelf. I have both read and TBR books on there and I like to "shop" for my next book - it's fun. I must have passed over this one a dozen times, but my gaze kept snagging on it and I pulled it out to re-read the cover blurb. Monkeewrench is the name of a software company - Ah! Okay, makes sense. And they're beta testing this new game where the players hunt down a serial killer by collecting clues at 20 different murder scenes (which the Monkeewrench people have staged). One problem - some one decided to play for real, leaving dead bodies in those exact same locations.
I do like mysteries and this one was very intriguing and complex. And the ending was NOT predictable - bonus!! There are a ton of characters that are very diverse and have their own quirks. And there's humor. I appreciate humor when things start getting too serious. The main characters are all very likable and I'm glad this is a series as I want to read more about Leo and Gino and Mike and Bonar.
My quibbles are minor - some head hopping as the POV switches in mid-scene - sometimes in mid-paragraph. Annoying but not too confusing.
P.J. Tracy are a mother/daughter writing team - which I think is super fun. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series!
Thanks Rachel! You were right!!
The book has been sitting on my shelf. I have both read and TBR books on there and I like to "shop" for my next book - it's fun. I must have passed over this one a dozen times, but my gaze kept snagging on it and I pulled it out to re-read the cover blurb. Monkeewrench is the name of a software company - Ah! Okay, makes sense. And they're beta testing this new game where the players hunt down a serial killer by collecting clues at 20 different murder scenes (which the Monkeewrench people have staged). One problem - some one decided to play for real, leaving dead bodies in those exact same locations.
I do like mysteries and this one was very intriguing and complex. And the ending was NOT predictable - bonus!! There are a ton of characters that are very diverse and have their own quirks. And there's humor. I appreciate humor when things start getting too serious. The main characters are all very likable and I'm glad this is a series as I want to read more about Leo and Gino and Mike and Bonar.
My quibbles are minor - some head hopping as the POV switches in mid-scene - sometimes in mid-paragraph. Annoying but not too confusing.
P.J. Tracy are a mother/daughter writing team - which I think is super fun. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series!
Thanks Rachel! You were right!!
December 19, 2021
A new computer game is out for beta testing. Serial Killer Detective is a new venture for Monkeewrench, a Minneapolis software company. The company has produced educational software for years and is attempting to expand into more adult video games. But a copy cat murderer starts killing people and posing the bodies just like the crime scenes depicted in the new game. The killer sends cryptic, threatening messages to the staff at Monkeewrench after each murder. Turns out the software nerds are hiding some pretty gruesome secrets from their past, but they join with police to investigate the case. It's no longer fun and games when someone loses their life for real..... Can they catch the killer before he re-enacts all 20 murders from the video game?
I love this book! The story grabbed my attention from the start, and I ended up binge reading it in one day. I couldn't stop reading! I like Grace McBride and her group of computer nerds. Their friendships are so strong that they are willing to risk their lives for each other. Families don't have to be biologically related! The Monkeewrench staff and police officers have to work together, despite each group distrusting the other. The plot was quite suspenseful, with plenty of interesting twistiness.
The Monkeewrench series has 9 books. The newest one just came out in September. I attempted to read and review it, as I didn't realize it was part of a series when I was offered a galley. This series really is one you have to read from the beginning for character development and past history. I was confused when trying to read The Guilty Dead without any prior knowledge. I am SO glad I backtracked to book 1 and gave this series a chance. I enjoyed this first book so much that I'm having a hard time waiting for book 2 to arrive at my local library....it has to transfer from another nearby library. So hard to wait 4 days to find out what happens to the staff at Monkeewrench next!
Flash forward to 2021 -- I lost track of this series amid life changes, other books on my TBR and review list. But....saw PJ Tracy's new series and immediately thought of Monkeewrench and how much I loved this first book. Returning to read this series.....listened to this first book on audio this time. Wonderful! The audio is just over 11 hours long and narrated by Buck Schirner. Schirner does a great job of voicing both male and female characters. Great voice. Nice pace. Excellent voice acting. Great listening experience!
Finally going to listen/read this entire series!! 1 down -- 9 to go!
I love this book! The story grabbed my attention from the start, and I ended up binge reading it in one day. I couldn't stop reading! I like Grace McBride and her group of computer nerds. Their friendships are so strong that they are willing to risk their lives for each other. Families don't have to be biologically related! The Monkeewrench staff and police officers have to work together, despite each group distrusting the other. The plot was quite suspenseful, with plenty of interesting twistiness.
The Monkeewrench series has 9 books. The newest one just came out in September. I attempted to read and review it, as I didn't realize it was part of a series when I was offered a galley. This series really is one you have to read from the beginning for character development and past history. I was confused when trying to read The Guilty Dead without any prior knowledge. I am SO glad I backtracked to book 1 and gave this series a chance. I enjoyed this first book so much that I'm having a hard time waiting for book 2 to arrive at my local library....it has to transfer from another nearby library. So hard to wait 4 days to find out what happens to the staff at Monkeewrench next!
Flash forward to 2021 -- I lost track of this series amid life changes, other books on my TBR and review list. But....saw PJ Tracy's new series and immediately thought of Monkeewrench and how much I loved this first book. Returning to read this series.....listened to this first book on audio this time. Wonderful! The audio is just over 11 hours long and narrated by Buck Schirner. Schirner does a great job of voicing both male and female characters. Great voice. Nice pace. Excellent voice acting. Great listening experience!
Finally going to listen/read this entire series!! 1 down -- 9 to go!
January 22, 2020
I highly gripping thriller, that makes you want to read the book in one sitting.
I enjoyed this book tremendously and will go for the remaining volumes of the series immediately.
------------------------------------
Ein höchst spannender Thriller, den ich kaum aus der Hand legen wollte.
Es ist natürlich total unwahrscheinlich, dass so viele außergewöhnliche Menschen sowohl auf der Verdächtigen- als auch auf der Ermittlerseite zusammentreffen. Daher haben wir hier wohl auch mehr Stereotype als unbedingt erforderlich. Andererseits macht das das Buch wahnsinnig spannend, so dass ich vielleicht fehlenden literarischen Wert ganz leicht verzeihen kann.
Besonders gut hat mir gefallen, dass über lange Strecken etliche Charaktere so gezeichnet waren, dass man sie sowohl als Opfer als auch als Killer verorten konnte.
Alles in allem fand ich dieses Buch hochgradig befriedigend, die Protagonisten originell und sympatisch und die Nachfolgebücher der Reihe für mich ein absolutes Muss.
I enjoyed this book tremendously and will go for the remaining volumes of the series immediately.
------------------------------------
Ein höchst spannender Thriller, den ich kaum aus der Hand legen wollte.
Es ist natürlich total unwahrscheinlich, dass so viele außergewöhnliche Menschen sowohl auf der Verdächtigen- als auch auf der Ermittlerseite zusammentreffen. Daher haben wir hier wohl auch mehr Stereotype als unbedingt erforderlich. Andererseits macht das das Buch wahnsinnig spannend, so dass ich vielleicht fehlenden literarischen Wert ganz leicht verzeihen kann.
Besonders gut hat mir gefallen, dass über lange Strecken etliche Charaktere so gezeichnet waren, dass man sie sowohl als Opfer als auch als Killer verorten konnte.
Alles in allem fand ich dieses Buch hochgradig befriedigend, die Protagonisten originell und sympatisch und die Nachfolgebücher der Reihe für mich ein absolutes Muss.
March 25, 2016
This debut novel is based on a clever idea which is very well executed. Monkeewrench are a team of computer game developers who have just designed a new game called 'Serial Killer Detective' in which players get to play detective by having access to all the forensic clues and crime scene evidence for a series of 20 imaginative murders. The trouble is someone has copied the first two murders and reproduced the crime scenes exactly and the police must figure out who before too many more murders are committed. The Monkeewrench team are wary of being involved as they have been hiding a mystery from their past which they do not want brought to light.
P.J Tracy is the moniker of a mother and daughter writing team. Although they don't even live close together (Minneapolis and California) and this is their debut novel their writing appears seamless. They have created some great characters between them. The cops and the game developers are all distinctive and colourful personalities and there is a lot of humour and fun in the story as well as a good dose of tension and suspense as the hunt for the killer becomes more urgent.
P.J Tracy is the moniker of a mother and daughter writing team. Although they don't even live close together (Minneapolis and California) and this is their debut novel their writing appears seamless. They have created some great characters between them. The cops and the game developers are all distinctive and colourful personalities and there is a lot of humour and fun in the story as well as a good dose of tension and suspense as the hunt for the killer becomes more urgent.
June 22, 2018
This was a very entertaining book, with a good mix of mystery, police work, technology, and humor. If not for my GR friends, I don't think I ever would have come across this winner.
I liked the people in the story, mostly, although some names were a bit unusual and it took me a while to remember who was who. The plot was tricky as nobody knows anything about the perpetrator, not even whether it was a male or a female.
There were several murders happening, and at first, the first one, in Northern Wisconsin, didn't seem related to the others, in Minnesota, which were definitely related to each other being copies from a computer game about a serial killer. It took a while to put them together, but once that happened, they were well on their way to a solution. But even then, it was not clear who it was until near the end of the book.
The name of the book comes from the name of the software company that developed the game that was being copied. The owners of this company were a strange group. There was a biker who looked like a Hells Angel, a very large woman who was apparently very sexy, a pretty young lady who always carried a gun - although apparently, they all did, just not quite as often. There was one guy who was more of a businessman and wore things like Armani suits, and a tall geeky guy. They were all pretty mysterious, having no background, and they were sort of a family. Needless to say, they were all suspects at one time or another.
I need to read another one or two right away, before I forget the names of the main characters.
I liked the people in the story, mostly, although some names were a bit unusual and it took me a while to remember who was who. The plot was tricky as nobody knows anything about the perpetrator, not even whether it was a male or a female.
There were several murders happening, and at first, the first one, in Northern Wisconsin, didn't seem related to the others, in Minnesota, which were definitely related to each other being copies from a computer game about a serial killer. It took a while to put them together, but once that happened, they were well on their way to a solution. But even then, it was not clear who it was until near the end of the book.
The name of the book comes from the name of the software company that developed the game that was being copied. The owners of this company were a strange group. There was a biker who looked like a Hells Angel, a very large woman who was apparently very sexy, a pretty young lady who always carried a gun - although apparently, they all did, just not quite as often. There was one guy who was more of a businessman and wore things like Armani suits, and a tall geeky guy. They were all pretty mysterious, having no background, and they were sort of a family. Needless to say, they were all suspects at one time or another.
I need to read another one or two right away, before I forget the names of the main characters.
February 11, 2012
It’s not bad, but I had some problems with it. It’s interesting enough to pass the time if you like murder mysteries.
STORY BRIEF:
Monkeewrench is the name of a software company that creates computer games. There are five partners. Ten years ago something happened that caused all of them to change their names, move to Minnesota, live in secured homes, and carry guns. Their new game, just released, is about a serial killer with twenty crime scenes. A real life serial killer has just killed two people and left the crime scenes exactly the same as the first two murders in the game.
The book opens with an elderly couple killed and mutilated while sitting in a church in Wisconsin. The reader suspects there is a connection between the Wisconsin and Minnesota murders.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
This book was recommended to me by a minister’s wife. There are a few religious symbols and ideas which I suspect delighted her. Although I am surprised that she didn’t complain about the volume of vulgar and religious swear words.
This is a long and complicated process of slowly uncovering clues about a killer. It kept my interest. There’s a curiosity urgency of when are you going to call this guy, or when are you going to figure this out. There is no suspense other than during the final climactic scene with the killer.
There wasn’t much police work or evidence. It was mostly conversation and speculation. And then in the ending climax, the killer explains everything in a ten minute monologue. I would have preferred learning motivations and evidence along the way rather than have the killer tell all at the end. I also would have preferred some cool police work or investigating.
I was annoyed with three stupidities during the ending climax. A cop did something stupid. The good guys were stupid to split up. And then a good guy did something stupid. It’s the kind of thing that’s typical and overdone. It reminded me of made-for-TV-movies. I would have preferred something different - unusual - unexpected.
I would have liked more showing of how the killer lured victims, talked to them, killed them, and then got away - especially the one in the store. I had a hard time figuring out how the killer could do what was done without a store clerk seeing something suspicious.
Straight mysteries are not my first choice in reading. But I enjoy them if there is something special, unique, or fun. This did not hit me that way.
I have never loved a book that was written by two people. But I try to be open to it. This book was written by a mother and daughter team.
NARRATOR:
I’m sorry but I did not like the narrator’s accent. I’m used to and prefer generic TV anchor speak. The narrator Buck Schirner used a long e sound instead of a short i. For example: detecteev, talkateev, collecteev, Wednesdeey, hees (his), heem (him).
DATA:
Unabridged audiobook reading time: 11 hrs and 12 mins. Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual content: none. Setting: current day Minnesota and Wisconsin. Book copyright: 2003. Genre: murder mystery. Ending: reasonably happy.
STORY BRIEF:
Monkeewrench is the name of a software company that creates computer games. There are five partners. Ten years ago something happened that caused all of them to change their names, move to Minnesota, live in secured homes, and carry guns. Their new game, just released, is about a serial killer with twenty crime scenes. A real life serial killer has just killed two people and left the crime scenes exactly the same as the first two murders in the game.
The book opens with an elderly couple killed and mutilated while sitting in a church in Wisconsin. The reader suspects there is a connection between the Wisconsin and Minnesota murders.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
This book was recommended to me by a minister’s wife. There are a few religious symbols and ideas which I suspect delighted her. Although I am surprised that she didn’t complain about the volume of vulgar and religious swear words.
This is a long and complicated process of slowly uncovering clues about a killer. It kept my interest. There’s a curiosity urgency of when are you going to call this guy, or when are you going to figure this out. There is no suspense other than during the final climactic scene with the killer.
There wasn’t much police work or evidence. It was mostly conversation and speculation. And then in the ending climax, the killer explains everything in a ten minute monologue. I would have preferred learning motivations and evidence along the way rather than have the killer tell all at the end. I also would have preferred some cool police work or investigating.
I was annoyed with three stupidities during the ending climax. A cop did something stupid. The good guys were stupid to split up. And then a good guy did something stupid. It’s the kind of thing that’s typical and overdone. It reminded me of made-for-TV-movies. I would have preferred something different - unusual - unexpected.
I would have liked more showing of how the killer lured victims, talked to them, killed them, and then got away - especially the one in the store. I had a hard time figuring out how the killer could do what was done without a store clerk seeing something suspicious.
Straight mysteries are not my first choice in reading. But I enjoy them if there is something special, unique, or fun. This did not hit me that way.
I have never loved a book that was written by two people. But I try to be open to it. This book was written by a mother and daughter team.
NARRATOR:
I’m sorry but I did not like the narrator’s accent. I’m used to and prefer generic TV anchor speak. The narrator Buck Schirner used a long e sound instead of a short i. For example: detecteev, talkateev, collecteev, Wednesdeey, hees (his), heem (him).
DATA:
Unabridged audiobook reading time: 11 hrs and 12 mins. Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual content: none. Setting: current day Minnesota and Wisconsin. Book copyright: 2003. Genre: murder mystery. Ending: reasonably happy.
April 2, 2019
Want To Play? (also titled Monkeewrench) is the first book in the best-selling Monkeewrench series by award-winning American mother-daughter writing duo, P J Tracy. At their office in Minneapolis, the owners of software firm Monkeewrench are almost ready to launch their new game, Serial Killer Detective (SKUD). Over five hundred gamers have been trying out the game on their test site, and advance sales are encouraging. They’re doing some final stage tweaking when they learn of a murder at Lakewood Cemetery: an exact copy of the second murder in their game.
For Detective Leo Magozzi and his partner on the homicide squad, Gino Rosleth, this is the second murder in two days, and when the Monkeewrench team contact them about the murder, they are horrified to learn that both murders are copied from the game. Worse still, a further eighteen murders comprise the game, and they are starting with a huge suspect list. They are inclined to include the Monkeewrench crew as suspects, although Magozzi’s gut feeling is that one of their number, Grace Macbride, is not involved.
Meanwhile, in a small Catholic church in Calumet, Wisconsin, a reclusive couple is discovered shot dead. To Sheriff Michael Halloran, it almost looks like a hit. The paranoia that ruled the couple’s lives, evident from a deadly stash of weapons, was apparently justified. As Mike investigates further, it seems this is not the only strange thing about the couple. Leo Magozzi and his team work around the clock trying to prevent the next murder while in Calumet, Mike Halloran tries to track down the old couple’s child. At this point, their investigations intersect.
The Tracy’s characters are appealing and their dialogue provides plenty of humour, much of it quite dark. They also use it to good effect to draw out the tension as the story heads towards an exciting climax. The story is cleverly plotted with quite a few red herrings and the odd twist that will keep readers guessing until the final, gob-smacking reveal. In itself, a novel written by two authors is an interesting concept; this one is seamless and the duo is obviously successful, if a further nine books in the series are any indication. A stunning debut novel.
For Detective Leo Magozzi and his partner on the homicide squad, Gino Rosleth, this is the second murder in two days, and when the Monkeewrench team contact them about the murder, they are horrified to learn that both murders are copied from the game. Worse still, a further eighteen murders comprise the game, and they are starting with a huge suspect list. They are inclined to include the Monkeewrench crew as suspects, although Magozzi’s gut feeling is that one of their number, Grace Macbride, is not involved.
Meanwhile, in a small Catholic church in Calumet, Wisconsin, a reclusive couple is discovered shot dead. To Sheriff Michael Halloran, it almost looks like a hit. The paranoia that ruled the couple’s lives, evident from a deadly stash of weapons, was apparently justified. As Mike investigates further, it seems this is not the only strange thing about the couple. Leo Magozzi and his team work around the clock trying to prevent the next murder while in Calumet, Mike Halloran tries to track down the old couple’s child. At this point, their investigations intersect.
The Tracy’s characters are appealing and their dialogue provides plenty of humour, much of it quite dark. They also use it to good effect to draw out the tension as the story heads towards an exciting climax. The story is cleverly plotted with quite a few red herrings and the odd twist that will keep readers guessing until the final, gob-smacking reveal. In itself, a novel written by two authors is an interesting concept; this one is seamless and the duo is obviously successful, if a further nine books in the series are any indication. A stunning debut novel.
March 7, 2009
Almost did not read this one--I got it as a gift and the title sounded odd. Glad I did not make that mistake!!!
It is a novel about a group of colorful characters who own a software development company called Monkeewrench. Branching out from their education software, the team is devising a new game--"Serial Killer Detective".
It soon becomes obvious that a serial killer is mimicking all of the murders in the game--playing with real victims. The Minneapolis police are very skeptical and suspicious--especially when they start digging in the past of the Monkeewrench team.
Meanwhile, we,the readers are wondering how a double homicide in rural Wisconsin ties into this. No fear---the mother and daughter writing team that is P> J> Tracy pulls it all together at the end very nicely.
I found the dialog espcially well written. Lota of wit and dry humor--but this is a serious suspense novel noetheless. Highly recommended for any mystery fan.
It is a novel about a group of colorful characters who own a software development company called Monkeewrench. Branching out from their education software, the team is devising a new game--"Serial Killer Detective".
It soon becomes obvious that a serial killer is mimicking all of the murders in the game--playing with real victims. The Minneapolis police are very skeptical and suspicious--especially when they start digging in the past of the Monkeewrench team.
Meanwhile, we,the readers are wondering how a double homicide in rural Wisconsin ties into this. No fear---the mother and daughter writing team that is P> J> Tracy pulls it all together at the end very nicely.
I found the dialog espcially well written. Lota of wit and dry humor--but this is a serious suspense novel noetheless. Highly recommended for any mystery fan.
October 21, 2018
So good! I want to start book two real soon!
June 20, 2019
A murderer has paralyzed Minneapolis. After two killings in as many days, the police are baffled by the lack of clues and puzzled by what evidence they find. The five owners of the software company Monkeewrench see frightening similarities between the serial killer computer game they are developing, and the murders. The game, available on the Internet, has had over five hundred players. Apparently, someone is copying the killings from the game, down to the smallest detail.
Grace MacBride, one of the owners of Monkeewrench, is on the run from her past, and has gone to great lengths to obliterate any record of it. She is heavily armed and her house is a fortress. The Minneapolis police, particularly Detective Leo Magozzi, wonder about the history of all five of the software developers. Magozzi is curious about why they are so anxious to help solve the murders and prevent more, yet refuse to answer any questions about their lives ten years earlier.
In rural Wisconsin, an elderly couple is shot while praying at church early in the morning. Sheriff Michael Halloran quickly fixes on a suspect, but the person's location cannot be traced. Are the two sets of corpses connected? Will the Minneapolis police find the Monkeewrench killer before the seventeen murders portrayed in the computer game are acted out?
In this spectacular debut novel, mother-daughter writing team P. J. Tracy has penned a winner. Monkeewrench is page-turning delight with superb character development, all wrapped together tightly with humor in just the right places to defuse tension when needed. I literally stayed up half the night reading this book. I could not put it down. The timing and pace are perfect, with just enough information given to keep the reader wondering exactly what will happen next.
Each character is well developed, and the authors avoid the extraneous characters, which often clutter plotlines. This allows the reader to carefully consider each person as the potential murderer, and not be disappointed in the end. I cannot recommend Monkeewrench highly enough, as a well-plotted thriller sure to please. I can't wait for their next book!
Grace MacBride, one of the owners of Monkeewrench, is on the run from her past, and has gone to great lengths to obliterate any record of it. She is heavily armed and her house is a fortress. The Minneapolis police, particularly Detective Leo Magozzi, wonder about the history of all five of the software developers. Magozzi is curious about why they are so anxious to help solve the murders and prevent more, yet refuse to answer any questions about their lives ten years earlier.
In rural Wisconsin, an elderly couple is shot while praying at church early in the morning. Sheriff Michael Halloran quickly fixes on a suspect, but the person's location cannot be traced. Are the two sets of corpses connected? Will the Minneapolis police find the Monkeewrench killer before the seventeen murders portrayed in the computer game are acted out?
In this spectacular debut novel, mother-daughter writing team P. J. Tracy has penned a winner. Monkeewrench is page-turning delight with superb character development, all wrapped together tightly with humor in just the right places to defuse tension when needed. I literally stayed up half the night reading this book. I could not put it down. The timing and pace are perfect, with just enough information given to keep the reader wondering exactly what will happen next.
Each character is well developed, and the authors avoid the extraneous characters, which often clutter plotlines. This allows the reader to carefully consider each person as the potential murderer, and not be disappointed in the end. I cannot recommend Monkeewrench highly enough, as a well-plotted thriller sure to please. I can't wait for their next book!
November 28, 2019
The novel started off a bit confusing with 2 murders in 2 different states. An elderly couple is murdered in a church in Wisconsin. It turns out that they had quite a bit of money, but there isn't a single relative since this couple has been in hiding. Just when I was getting into that story, we are brought to Minneapolis where a serial killer is killing people based on an online game that hasn't been released to the public yet.
The novel focuses more on the gaming murders and those that are working for Monkeewrench (the online game). I wasn't sure what the focus of the novel was - Monkeewrench, Wisconsin or Minneapolis. I found myself a bit confused trying to remember what was happening for each murder and which detective was from which state.
Later in the novel, the stories do come together and I really enjoyed the novel from there. I wasn't able to guess anything correctly and I was pleasantly surprised at the ending. I'm curious to read the next novel in the series.
The novel focuses more on the gaming murders and those that are working for Monkeewrench (the online game). I wasn't sure what the focus of the novel was - Monkeewrench, Wisconsin or Minneapolis. I found myself a bit confused trying to remember what was happening for each murder and which detective was from which state.
Later in the novel, the stories do come together and I really enjoyed the novel from there. I wasn't able to guess anything correctly and I was pleasantly surprised at the ending. I'm curious to read the next novel in the series.
June 27, 2018
Read this book some years ago and totally loved it. I would like to say a huge thanks to Scott who just reminded me that I had read this book. I highly recommend it.
June 17, 2021
I really liked it. A fast paced serial killing police procedural with some twists and turns.
February 10, 2022
The Monkeewrench is the first book in an older series, c. early 2000s. I read the latest crime fic from the author and loved it so I went back to see if the other series was any good and I actually liked this one better. The dialogue is fantastic, quick and sharp. There are a ton of characters and, at one point, I realized I was very confused regarding who was who, but it all smoothed itself out rather quickly. The plot and the twist of the story was unique and the ending was one I honestly didn't anticipate. Although the technology is dated, the story itself is not.
February 8, 2014
Forget whatever book you’re planning on reading next. Want to Play by P.J. Tracy is what you should be reading next. If it was a movie, it would’ve been a blockbuster for sure. At the risk of sounding like my mother, I’m just going to straight out declare that this is what I miss about books from them “good ol’ days”. Remember those books we read in the eighties and nineties where authors, publishers, and their editorial teams actually still took the time to create exceptional characters and intricately woven plot twists that leave you shocked and surprised with the outcome? You do? Well, this is one of those books where the reader is smack-dab in the centre of old-school gritty detective work that goes into solving a crime. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then add this to your to-read list right this minute.
Each and every character, no matter how big or small, has a significantly tangible personality; so much so, I couldn’t help but get emotionally invested and wrapped-up in the lives of just about all of them. A good example of one such a character is the nine-year-old black foster kid, Jackson, who unknowingly is a saving a grace by offering salvation with childlike sincerity. Like many of the other characters – and there are more than a handful of them to keep track of – he found a spot in my heart in the first five minutes I got to know him. But the one character who rises above the rest is without a doubt Grace’s dog, Charlie, who has a pathological fear of everything that breathes, but who all together is a genuinely adorable bundle of doggy-love! Even if you enjoy nothing else about this book, he will be the one thing you’ll remember fondly.
~He was a mess of a dog, a concoction slapped together by a blind Frankenstein. The size and bulk of a shepherd, the wiry coat of a terrier, the long, floppy ears of a hound, and a totally hairless stump of a tail that something had chewed off long before she’d met him. Charlie was a survivor, too.~
Don’t be fooled into thinking that this story is about one lone detective on a solo mission to solve a serial murder case. No, this is a whole bunch of detectives and their crews, whom you’ll indisputably come to adore, from two different states working together to find a serial killer. The plot was constructed brilliantly and I was super impressed by how everything came together so smoothly. No leaps in logic, no expecting the reader to fill in the blanks. Just a straightforward murder mystery / thriller. And up until the end where it is revealed who murdered all those people, I’ve suspected so many characters of being the villain, and still I was wrong.
The dialogue is saturated with enough humor to give the reader a moment’s reprieve from the relentless heart stopping suspense. Yet the strangest thing is that there is hardly any romance to be found in this murder mystery. Now that’s not so strange, but what is, is that I WANTED there to be romance. I wanted Grace and Detective Magozzi, the two most unlikely characters to fall in love, to hit it off romantically. Now why is that so strange? Because I don’t care for romance in books and in the one book in which there’s only a tiny bit of romance, I actually wanted there to be more. Much more. That alone should be a clear indicator of what to expect regarding character development in this amazingly magnificent novel!
Here’s a little something to pique your curiosity. The theory Detective Magozzi shares with Grace about martyrs and dead lovers being the most powerful people in the world? Very interesting. I never thought about it that way. Some good stuff right there, people.
Want to Play might mislead potential readers with its unremarkable book cover and non-descript book summary, but I assure you it is an entertaining thrill ride in every way imaginable! Who will enjoy it? Anyone who’s into murder mysteries, detective- and suspense novels, and the Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson. Fans of Karen Rose might also want to check this out.
Each and every character, no matter how big or small, has a significantly tangible personality; so much so, I couldn’t help but get emotionally invested and wrapped-up in the lives of just about all of them. A good example of one such a character is the nine-year-old black foster kid, Jackson, who unknowingly is a saving a grace by offering salvation with childlike sincerity. Like many of the other characters – and there are more than a handful of them to keep track of – he found a spot in my heart in the first five minutes I got to know him. But the one character who rises above the rest is without a doubt Grace’s dog, Charlie, who has a pathological fear of everything that breathes, but who all together is a genuinely adorable bundle of doggy-love! Even if you enjoy nothing else about this book, he will be the one thing you’ll remember fondly.
~He was a mess of a dog, a concoction slapped together by a blind Frankenstein. The size and bulk of a shepherd, the wiry coat of a terrier, the long, floppy ears of a hound, and a totally hairless stump of a tail that something had chewed off long before she’d met him. Charlie was a survivor, too.~
Don’t be fooled into thinking that this story is about one lone detective on a solo mission to solve a serial murder case. No, this is a whole bunch of detectives and their crews, whom you’ll indisputably come to adore, from two different states working together to find a serial killer. The plot was constructed brilliantly and I was super impressed by how everything came together so smoothly. No leaps in logic, no expecting the reader to fill in the blanks. Just a straightforward murder mystery / thriller. And up until the end where it is revealed who murdered all those people, I’ve suspected so many characters of being the villain, and still I was wrong.
The dialogue is saturated with enough humor to give the reader a moment’s reprieve from the relentless heart stopping suspense. Yet the strangest thing is that there is hardly any romance to be found in this murder mystery. Now that’s not so strange, but what is, is that I WANTED there to be romance. I wanted Grace and Detective Magozzi, the two most unlikely characters to fall in love, to hit it off romantically. Now why is that so strange? Because I don’t care for romance in books and in the one book in which there’s only a tiny bit of romance, I actually wanted there to be more. Much more. That alone should be a clear indicator of what to expect regarding character development in this amazingly magnificent novel!
Here’s a little something to pique your curiosity. The theory Detective Magozzi shares with Grace about martyrs and dead lovers being the most powerful people in the world? Very interesting. I never thought about it that way. Some good stuff right there, people.
Want to Play might mislead potential readers with its unremarkable book cover and non-descript book summary, but I assure you it is an entertaining thrill ride in every way imaginable! Who will enjoy it? Anyone who’s into murder mysteries, detective- and suspense novels, and the Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson. Fans of Karen Rose might also want to check this out.
June 29, 2016
This mother-daugher duo is fantastic! I absolutely love the quirky cast of characters and they are all computer geeks which is my forte so I was so excited to find a good tech based mystery series! I remember when I first read this series I was so dissapointed that they had only written four or five books so far because I just wanted to keep on reading them. If you're tried of your run of the mill mysteries and want something with a little flaire you should check this one out. I guarantee you'll fall in love with this rag tag geek squad!
June 12, 2017
In the interview at the end of this book, the co-authors, P.J. and Traci Lambrecht, declare their love for creating characters. That sentiment is evinced in MONKEEWRENCH, a thriller that connects a small-town sheriff's office in Wisconsin, a squad of homicide detectives in Minneapolis, and a tight-knit crew of computer game designers working out of a warehouse loft.
Calumet, Wisconsin is the kind of rural town where everyone is familiar with each other by name if not in person. That setting is reinforced by the comfortable banter between Deputy Bonar Carlson, his boss Sheriff Michael Halloran, and parish priest Father Newberry. Their affable relationship is a stark contrast to the event that has brought them together — the grisly murder of an elderly reclusive couple. Their mutilated bodies have been found in Father Newberry's church.
As if feeling that their readers need a breather from this shock, the authors set the next scene in an older St. Paul neighborhood where Grace MacBride, a computer game designer, lives. We gain a sense of Grace indirectly. Whereas most people would find her house claustrophobic, Grace finds its closeness comforting. The small yard is devoid of landscaping that might hide a random stalker. Grace packs a firearm 24/7. Her world is circumscribed by her computer designer colleagues, a lone magnolia tree that she vigilantly tends, and an adopted dog named Charlie. The magnolia is a survivor of the harsh Minnesota winters; Charlie is the survivor of a life of severe abuse. Grace thinks of herself as a survivor as well, but from what?
As Grace drives to work she passes a cluster of police cars along the verge between the river and the roadway. Dead jogger, she correctly surmises as she threads her way through traffic. What she doesn't realize is this is no ordinary heart attack tragedy. The police are from the homicide division, and the lead detective Leo Magozzi, and his partner Gino Rolseth will soon be interrogating MacBride and her confederates.
It requires a bit of exposition before the connections between these people is established. The apparent structure of a two-pronged police procedural is interrupted by an introduction to the outlandish non-conformist programmers working with Grace. Annie Belinsky is a rubenesque fashion diva. A skinny man in track sweats named Roadrunner is described as looking like a human pencil. Another guy goes by the name of Harley Davidson. Of course, he rides a Harley. Mitch is the anxious hand-wringing obsessive of the group, upset over the graphics of the new online game the group has been developing. Soon, a long roster of Magozzi's colleagues will also be introduced. They provide an insight into the problems the police will confront in their attempts to capture a bizarre serial killer.
I loved the extra color added by all of these secondary characters. Assigned to a major stakeout, Patrol Sergeant Eaton Freedman and Detective Johnny McLaren interrupt their mutual teasing to greet a former detective, now head of a private security firm. As might be expected, the exchanges are laced with masculine unrefined humor.
The encounters between Grace and Magozzi are equally entertaining. Grace is openly hostile. The fact that she also packs heat is another unendearing quality. However, when his partner Rolseth mentions his child is a big fan of one of the games Grace and her group have developed, there's the faintest hint of an urge to smile. “Magozzi waited for her face to crack and clatter in pieces to the cement floor.” (p.82)
Tension begins to drive the story only after the separate investigations in Wisconsin and Minneapolis come together. Up to that point the narrative adopts an almost leisurely pace.
This was a fun read with surprising plot twists, sympathetic characters, and a satisfying conclusion that left me shocked. It's always fun to encounter a new thriller as a result of Goodreads reviewers.
Calumet, Wisconsin is the kind of rural town where everyone is familiar with each other by name if not in person. That setting is reinforced by the comfortable banter between Deputy Bonar Carlson, his boss Sheriff Michael Halloran, and parish priest Father Newberry. Their affable relationship is a stark contrast to the event that has brought them together — the grisly murder of an elderly reclusive couple. Their mutilated bodies have been found in Father Newberry's church.
As if feeling that their readers need a breather from this shock, the authors set the next scene in an older St. Paul neighborhood where Grace MacBride, a computer game designer, lives. We gain a sense of Grace indirectly. Whereas most people would find her house claustrophobic, Grace finds its closeness comforting. The small yard is devoid of landscaping that might hide a random stalker. Grace packs a firearm 24/7. Her world is circumscribed by her computer designer colleagues, a lone magnolia tree that she vigilantly tends, and an adopted dog named Charlie. The magnolia is a survivor of the harsh Minnesota winters; Charlie is the survivor of a life of severe abuse. Grace thinks of herself as a survivor as well, but from what?
As Grace drives to work she passes a cluster of police cars along the verge between the river and the roadway. Dead jogger, she correctly surmises as she threads her way through traffic. What she doesn't realize is this is no ordinary heart attack tragedy. The police are from the homicide division, and the lead detective Leo Magozzi, and his partner Gino Rolseth will soon be interrogating MacBride and her confederates.
It requires a bit of exposition before the connections between these people is established. The apparent structure of a two-pronged police procedural is interrupted by an introduction to the outlandish non-conformist programmers working with Grace. Annie Belinsky is a rubenesque fashion diva. A skinny man in track sweats named Roadrunner is described as looking like a human pencil. Another guy goes by the name of Harley Davidson. Of course, he rides a Harley. Mitch is the anxious hand-wringing obsessive of the group, upset over the graphics of the new online game the group has been developing. Soon, a long roster of Magozzi's colleagues will also be introduced. They provide an insight into the problems the police will confront in their attempts to capture a bizarre serial killer.
I loved the extra color added by all of these secondary characters. Assigned to a major stakeout, Patrol Sergeant Eaton Freedman and Detective Johnny McLaren interrupt their mutual teasing to greet a former detective, now head of a private security firm. As might be expected, the exchanges are laced with masculine unrefined humor.
The encounters between Grace and Magozzi are equally entertaining. Grace is openly hostile. The fact that she also packs heat is another unendearing quality. However, when his partner Rolseth mentions his child is a big fan of one of the games Grace and her group have developed, there's the faintest hint of an urge to smile. “Magozzi waited for her face to crack and clatter in pieces to the cement floor.” (p.82)
Tension begins to drive the story only after the separate investigations in Wisconsin and Minneapolis come together. Up to that point the narrative adopts an almost leisurely pace.
This was a fun read with surprising plot twists, sympathetic characters, and a satisfying conclusion that left me shocked. It's always fun to encounter a new thriller as a result of Goodreads reviewers.
February 20, 2012
This book took me by surprise. I haven’t read/listened to a mystery for awhile and I forgot how fun they can be. The setting for this book is northern rural Wisconsin and Minneapolis/ St. Paul, Minnesota. I happen to love this setting because I know it and in books set in locations that are in a way off beat (like not in New York City or London), make the story more accessible to me. But I am also a midwest gal, so I get a giddy feeling everytime I realize the book I am reading takes place in an area near where I live. So, there is a large cast of characters that are introduced and in the beginning it was slightly hard to keep track of everyone. But within a few chapters I had everyone down because thankfully, the characters are written as distinct three dimensional people.
Monkeewrench involved some interesting murders, a few spooky and creepy moments, and great character development. There are nice little details, but not too many of them, despite being a mystery the characters take front row in this book. The humor is speckled throughout, but it is not mean spirited or overly done. The characters are both police officers and highly skilled computer programmers. The contrasting lifestyles and talents make it even more enjoyable to read. If you like audio books, then definitely listen to this one as the narration for the audio is really well performed. Oh, and one thing about this mystery book that I absolutely was so thankful for was that a certain method of storytelling was not utilized – the point of view of the murderer. I hate that story telling method and I usually end up skipping the murderer’s point of view entirely. Thankfully Monkeewrench does not use this style. So if you have an aversion to that method – you will be safe with this book.
The Monkeewrench series is written by a mother and daughter team, which I cannot help but think is a pretty cool gig for a mom and daughter to have together.
Monkeewrench involved some interesting murders, a few spooky and creepy moments, and great character development. There are nice little details, but not too many of them, despite being a mystery the characters take front row in this book. The humor is speckled throughout, but it is not mean spirited or overly done. The characters are both police officers and highly skilled computer programmers. The contrasting lifestyles and talents make it even more enjoyable to read. If you like audio books, then definitely listen to this one as the narration for the audio is really well performed. Oh, and one thing about this mystery book that I absolutely was so thankful for was that a certain method of storytelling was not utilized – the point of view of the murderer. I hate that story telling method and I usually end up skipping the murderer’s point of view entirely. Thankfully Monkeewrench does not use this style. So if you have an aversion to that method – you will be safe with this book.
The Monkeewrench series is written by a mother and daughter team, which I cannot help but think is a pretty cool gig for a mom and daughter to have together.
October 13, 2016
I started the day with a failed assault on Stephen King's Mr Mercedes, which according to the great man is his first attempt at writing a hard boiled detective novel. Unfortunately King chooses to spend too much time recounting the to and fro of the daytime tv that has his detective toying with the idea of suicide. I cracked, dropped the book, picked up another. Great decision.
Monkeewrench does nearly everything wrong but somehow turns out to be a winner. The plot revolves around a computer game that a serial killer is copying. As plots go it's a little thin and books about games or computer tech usually turn me right off and I'm a lifetime gamer. Nothing dates faster than tech. But actually the tech/gaming aspect of the book is quite thin and avoids the usual pitfalls. Multiple pov - don't like it - really don't like it in detective fiction. But it didn't seem to detract that much at all. There are way too many characters and all of them introduced very quickly. I was still sorting everybody out as I closed in on the conclusion. One of the characters comments, "Christ I hate this case. Everybody's got a million names and one of them has got two sexes." But the confusion helps disguise the plot's secrets. Mainly though the story is recounted with such a pleasing tone, filled with humour and wit that you can't help embracing the warm cosiness as cold bites in Minneapolis. Seems like following this series could be a worthwhile enterprise.
Monkeewrench does nearly everything wrong but somehow turns out to be a winner. The plot revolves around a computer game that a serial killer is copying. As plots go it's a little thin and books about games or computer tech usually turn me right off and I'm a lifetime gamer. Nothing dates faster than tech. But actually the tech/gaming aspect of the book is quite thin and avoids the usual pitfalls. Multiple pov - don't like it - really don't like it in detective fiction. But it didn't seem to detract that much at all. There are way too many characters and all of them introduced very quickly. I was still sorting everybody out as I closed in on the conclusion. One of the characters comments, "Christ I hate this case. Everybody's got a million names and one of them has got two sexes." But the confusion helps disguise the plot's secrets. Mainly though the story is recounted with such a pleasing tone, filled with humour and wit that you can't help embracing the warm cosiness as cold bites in Minneapolis. Seems like following this series could be a worthwhile enterprise.
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