Efficient and Divine: Honey Locust in Review / Write / Read Club (Indie & Self-Published)

Aug 01, 2023 Juliette Godot rated it it was amazing

Efficient and Divine: Honey Locust is a story about Mason, a man with a sordid past, and his ex, Natalie Martinez, a detective whose career was negatively affected by their relationship. This is book two of a series and I didn't read book one, but it didn't matter. Everything is described and I could jump right in.

Natalie, a goodhearted detective, signs up to mentor a young boy to keep him out of trouble, but the boy gets caught up in a drug ring. Natalie cares more about the young man than his ...more

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Apr 21, 2024 Sean DeLauder rated it it was amazing

A fascinating look at the workings of a mass murderer who finds an amenable accomplice and rationalizes behavior as a vigilante in order to satiate a compulsion to kill.

I am unfamiliar with the first book in this series, which may have offered more insights about the characters (e.g., recognizing existing and significance of connections between characters sooner), but starting this book felt no different than being dropped into a scene in the middle of the action--it just took a moment to orient A fascinating look at the workings of a mass murderer who finds an amenable accomplice and rationalizes behavior as a vigilante in order to satiate a compulsion to kill.

I am unfamiliar with the first book in this series, which may have offered more insights about the characters (e.g., recognizing existing and significance of connections between characters sooner), but starting this book felt no different than being dropped into a scene in the middle of the action--it just took a moment to orient myself. Author Kendall starts his story with the faintest hints to tether this book to the previous one (Efficient and Divine: Almost Heaven), connecting them with a few slender threads rather than a cumbersome 10-lane overpass. Throughout the book references are made to further tighten the stitching between the two stories, to the degree that it felt the first book was a nebulous extension of this one rather than a completely separate work.

The story's ostensible main character, Mason, is an interesting one. He's a protagonist in the most basic sense of the word, but without the redemptive connotations. Mason is by no means a good guy, nor is his business partner, Sebastian. The two run a high-priced human hunting program that sells itself as an opportunity for people to pay to do what the justice system cannot: remove purported criminals from society in the most definitive way possible.

The scheme is not a new idea, as paying to kill humans is a familiar egalitarian sport has appeared in other forms of entertainment media criticizing how loosely rules apply to the extremely wealthy, but these are usually events that remove the participants from their regular venue to some remote wilderness and the victims know they are being hunted as part of some dystopian game show or private event. Kendall has chosen to place these hunts in the very environment where the criminals live and broadened their appeal to citizens interested in taking the law into their own hands in the form of small, lightning raids on individual residences.

These activities are nested within the dubious auspices of reducing crime, but there are inevitably innocent bystanders, and this is where the police (well, one, who has an intimate past with Mason) involve themselves.

Kendall avoids opining on the morality of his main character's compulsions or the excuses used to indulge them, or to encourage them in others (though Mason does view them with a cynical and exploitative eye). For the most part he lays out the scene and allows the reader to make that decision. As an author, Kendall cleaves to the Gustave Flaubert recommendation that authors in their work be "present everywhere and visible nowhere."

In all the book is a compelling and unsettling look into the mind of an intellectual murderer who takes pleasure in killing rather than publicity, his victims, a situation that allows him to survive, and the few forces arrayed against him. I can recommend this book and, even without having read it, the precursor as well in order to get a fuller understanding of the larger, and ongoing, story. ...more

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May 08, 2024 Leisl Kaberry rated it really liked it

Gene Kendall does an excellent job of sucking me in to rooting for the bad guy and he’s done it again in Honey Locust. What I really enjoy is being let into the POV of the antagonist, understanding what’s going on in his head and why he does what he does makes for a really interesting story and character development.
I find I never know where the story is heading and I couldn’t even try to predict what would happen next. I especially enjoyed the ending and the little twist with Ryder.
All in all ...more

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Dec 17, 2024 Seth Hobbs rated it really liked it

This is the next book in the Efficient and Divine Series, and while this book wasn't necessarily anything extra, it is a pretty solid addition to its predecessor. Basically, Mason's story continues, as he goes around on his quest like Dexter from the TV show, doing what he thinks is right and cleansing some of the dirt from a nasty world of bad people. There is some interesting exploration with more activity from the female characters, and it is funny that Mason's ex-girlfriend is a cop, which a ...more

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Aug 02, 2023 Sotto Voce rated it really liked it

Honey Locust is a sequel to the tale of Mason MacKay. Having read the first book quite recently, the plot flows without any hiccup for me as most details are still fresh in my mind.

I like this book better than the first one, although I still feel indifferent to the main characters. Imho, all the side characters have better developments, while the main character remains almost the same throughout this book. However, all characters are more consistent and feel more personal, well rounded with clea ...more

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Jun 13, 2023 Rik Ty rated it it was amazing

MILD SPOILERS
Very cool work! I’m trying to sum up my feelings about the experience of reading this book, and an odd idea keeps coming to mind. Imagine you are with some friends in the woods. You’ve taken the engine out of an old car and placed it at the top of a mountain path. You put on a helmet, get in the car, and your friends give the car a push. That ride is what this terrific book felt like to me — only the book is safer for your bones. This is a wild, sun-lit noir. It’s the second book in MILD SPOILERS
Very cool work! I’m trying to sum up my feelings about the experience of reading this book, and an odd idea keeps coming to mind. Imagine you are with some friends in the woods. You’ve taken the engine out of an old car and placed it at the top of a mountain path. You put on a helmet, get in the car, and your friends give the car a push. That ride is what this terrific book felt like to me — only the book is safer for your bones. This is a wild, sun-lit noir. It’s the second book in a continuing series (maybe just a trilogy? IDK). I haven’t read the first novel in this series. I just came in cold. The main character almost does as well—he comes into town with no real plan, something compels him to stay (I won’t tell), and then the car goes down the hill, well, not literally. No car goes down the hill. The book starts rolling. Kendall seems to have done a lot of work behind the scenes—every junction point comes around from choices the characters make. The results are plausible but unexpected. The book is set up with very small chapters, and every collision point causes you to consider the upcoming trouble that will result—and it’s almost NEVER what you thought it might be. But with chapters so brief, you just want to gallop along and see where things go next. The book is a lot of fun - it’s dark fun - emotionally harsh fun - but great reading.
Here is something I hope Kendall knows he can brag about—even with chapters so brief, and a story structure so propulsive and economically achieved, he still manages to give the reader great character moments. He has a detective with a quirk about salty and sweet snacks, and its inclusion in the novel is like a master class for other writers. He has one character who he allows to break the whole structure of the book. The book is written in third person, but when the text is about this character, she speaks directly to the reader in first person. She’s emotionally detached from the world and interested in unvarnished truth. For her part, she attempts to deliver it. The book doesn’t suffer from this at all. Well, except for one scene. The character, Ryder, has to make her way across a parking lot. The scene would definitely be featured in a movie trailer, but there is no good way to have Ryder tell you about it while it is happening; it gets mentioned later, but it’s just another wild bit of business in a book that swings from one wild bit of business to another.
The book is so intense that one chapter that opened conventionally had me panic—I didn’t want a description of a locale or the weather; I wanted more of the STORY! IMMEDIATELY! (The next sentence got right back to story events, so I was able to relax.)
But even with a maverick level of intensity, Kendall still manages to offer riffs on art, parenthood, love, obligation, self-sustainability, self-delusion, wealth and poverty, loss, emotional scars, and more as well. The writing is very lean, but beautiful lines find their way to the surface throughout the work anyway. This one stopped me in my tracks — a police officer is standing at the side of a hospital bed, questioning a junkie who was on the scene of an illegal situation. Here’s the line.

“Officer Martinez,” she said as introduction, staking out the left side of the bed while Fripp took the right. Leon, with his electroshock hair and iguana eyes, looked as if he’d been left in the rain for a week. His eyes latched onto Natalie’s, searching as if she possessed some grand truths denied him.

That last line kills me.
Art sneaks into this book—in some cases overtly and deliberately (you’ll see)—and in cases like this, just from sheer talent. If you are a Neo-Noir fan—if you enjoyed Fargo, Hell or High Water, maybe even Dexter—don’t wait. Start checking out Kendall’s work now. ...more

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Apr 03, 2024 Esther Pearl rated it really liked it

It's been a long time since I've read a book in this genre, and this was a very good reintroduction to grittier contemporary fiction that I don't really reach for anymore. Though at time the prose feels overly wordy, it fits into the world it describes, it feels like a photograph with the contrast setting turned blindingly up (in a good way, to be clear). The dialogue flows well and the characters feel like real people. I was very quickly invested, and the investment stayed all the way through. ...more

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Jul 19, 2023 Terry Birdgenaw rated it liked it · review of another edition

'Honey Locust' is the second in Gene Kendall's 'Efficient and Devine' series. The story tracks MC Mason MacKay as he follows his ex-fiancé Natalie Martinez to Honey Locust. Trailing Natalie was a mistake for various reasons, but Mason finds a new life purpose in Honey Locust after meeting Sebastian Temple and his daughter Ryder. Sebastian learns of Mason's past and recruits him for his vigilante gang that hunts down and kills criminal thugs in the style of the television series Dexter. Mason rel ...more

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