1. The Fixer, Joe Finder. Another in the long line of Finder's very, very flawed M/C's manages to bail himself out of being a total jerk by the end of the book. His good guys seem like most author's bad guys. 3Plus
2. The Dog Who Knew Too Much, Spencer Quinn. Chet and Bernie stumble across some bad guys while looking for a "lost" boy. And thar's gold in them there hills. Usual entertaining effort by Quinn. 4
3. For The Dead, Timothy Hallinan. After Poke's daughter and her boyfriend find photos of a murderer, they are in danger and Poke has to uncover the mystery connecting the victims to the perpetrator. Once the scheme is revealed - another example of the corruption present in Thailand - Poke allows the bad guy to "fix" things. 4
4. Dance of the Bones, J.A. Jance. 40 yr old case brings together Brandon Walker and J.P. Beaumont to solve a string of related crimes. Jance has some of the worst bad guys populating her books. Just once I'd like to see her write about a kinda nice bad guy. 4Minus
5. Mangrove Lightning, RWW. Ford and Tomlinson get caught up in a woo woo case going back 100 years or so. Plot is way out there, but the Florida history is interesting. My worst fears were realized when RWW brings Hannah into the story with the likelihood she'll be present in future Doc Ford books (unless he does us a favor and lets her "swim with the fishes." 4
6. Herbie's Game, Timothy Hallinan. Burglar Junior Bender is dragged into a case involving several acquaintances of his - several of whom end up dead. Junior sorts things out and deals his own brand of justice, but one side story is left hanging (hopefully for the next book). 4
Doc Ford and Tomlinson have been showing up in Hannah's books, so I guess turnabout is fair play. This series seems to have turned a corner though, and not in a good way. I'll still read it, and I am not happy that BAMM only shipped my copy a couple days ago, and I do not have it yet.
Maybe it isn't that RWW can't write female characters, maybe Hannah is really a guy in drag. That would make the character more believable, and would make the development in Mangrove Lightning REALLY interesting.
I finally got and read Mangrove Lightning. He might be drawing Hannah into the series, we will need to see another book to figure that out. More interesting to me was that he seemed to be rehabilitating Tomlinson, who I had given up on.
2. The Dog Who Knew Too Much, Spencer Quinn. Chet and Bernie stumble across some bad guys while looking for a "lost" boy. And thar's gold in them there hills. Usual entertaining effort by Quinn. 4
3. For The Dead, Timothy Hallinan. After Poke's daughter and her boyfriend find photos of a murderer, they are in danger and Poke has to uncover the mystery connecting the victims to the perpetrator. Once the scheme is revealed - another example of the corruption present in Thailand - Poke allows the bad guy to "fix" things. 4
4. Dance of the Bones, J.A. Jance. 40 yr old case brings together Brandon Walker and J.P. Beaumont to solve a string of related crimes. Jance has some of the worst bad guys populating her books. Just once I'd like to see her write about a kinda nice bad guy. 4Minus
5. Mangrove Lightning, RWW. Ford and Tomlinson get caught up in a woo woo case going back 100 years or so. Plot is way out there, but the Florida history is interesting. My worst fears were realized when RWW brings Hannah into the story with the likelihood she'll be present in future Doc Ford books (unless he does us a favor and lets her "swim with the fishes." 4
6. Herbie's Game, Timothy Hallinan. Burglar Junior Bender is dragged into a case involving several acquaintances of his - several of whom end up dead. Junior sorts things out and deals his own brand of justice, but one side story is left hanging (hopefully for the next book). 4