Whiskey Sour: J. A. Konrath

From the description at Goodreads:

Lieutenant Jacqueline 'Jack' Daniels is having a bad week. Her live-in boyfriend has left her for his personal trainer, chronic insomnia has caused her to max out her credit cards with late-night home shopping purchases, and a frightening killer who calls himself 'The Gingerbread Man' is dumping mutilated bodies in her district...Whiskey Sour is full of laugh-out-loud humor and edge-of-your-seat suspense, and it introduces a fun, fully drawn heroine in the grand tradition of Kinsey Millhone, Stephanie Plum, and Kay Scarpetta.

Whiskey Sour is the first novel of a mystery series written by J. A. Konrath. Jack is a detective in the Chicago Police Department. Her partner is Herb, a family man. He is supportive and a calming influence on Jack. I haven't read a Kinsey Milhone mystery in a long time, but I don't see much similarity there. Stephanie Plum, yes. 

What did I think about the book?

It was a quick read and enjoyable. The story is told in first person, with Jack as the narrator. There are chapters giving the killer's point of view. Those chapters were creepy and graphic, but I do find I enjoy novels that give us more than one point of view.

On the down side, I did not like the portrayal of a couple of FBI agents, who are brought in to help with the investigation. It was over-the-top and unrealistic. I have no knowledge one way or the other about the actual value of the FBI in investigations, but I don't believe that they can be that clueless. I am sure it was intended as part of the humor, but I found it distracting and very off-putting. That should have been skipped entirely in my opinion.

I liked the dynamic between the two partners, they reminded me of Jane Rizzoli and her partner in the Rizzoli & Isles TV show (not in the books).

If I read more books in a year, I would probably continue this series. As a slow reader, I have to pick and choose and I don't think I will find time to continue it.

Would I recommend this book? 

I hope my pros and cons have illustrated what I liked and disliked about the book. Whether someone else would enjoy this book and the rest of the series would be determined by what kind (and variety) of mysteries they like. My impression from reading reviews of the next few books in the series are that they continue along the same vein.

This reviewer at The Mystery Reader also points out a similarity to the Janet Evanovich series starring Stephanie Plum. Readers who enjoy that series may also like this one. 

I read this book as part of the Group Read Discussion for June/July in the Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group at Goodreads. (It continues through July 14, 2012.) My husband and I both read it and he rated the experience higher than I did. My copy of Whiskey Sour had been on my To Be Read shelf for a long, long time (since December 2005), and it seemed like the time to read it or pass it on. At Goodreads, the book currently is rated 3.8 stars, and has nearly 600 5-star ratings. 

So my recommendation would be neutral. This book was not a waste of time by any means, but it was not my cup of tea.

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge
Read Your Own Books Challenge
New Authors Challenge
1st in a Series Challenge
Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge 

In the Woods: Tana French

This book combines elements of two different types of mystery novels: the police procedural and the psychological thriller. The psychological component dominates, and this type of mystery is not my usual choice. At times it kept me off-balance, not sure what direction the story was going. I don't like to tell much of the plot in reviews, so as not to spoil the fun for the reader, but it is difficult to point out either pros or cons in this novel without revealing some crucial plot details.

I liked the way the story is told, through one of the detectives in charge of the case. We only know his side of it, what he experiences. He is a damaged and confused person.


A quote:

I remember that moment because, if I am honest, I have them so seldom. I am not good at noticing when I’m happy, except in retrospect. My gift, or fatal flaw, is for nostalgia. I have sometimes been accused of demanding perfection, of rejecting heart’s desires as soon as I get close enough that the mysterious impressionistic gloss disperses into plain solid dots, but the truth is less simplistic than that. I know very well that perfection is made up of frayed, off-struck mundanities. I suppose you could say my real weakness is a kind of long-sightedness: usually it is only at a distance, and much too late, that I can see the pattern.

This type of introspection by our narrator is what makes the story so engaging.

The protagonist, Rob Ryan, is a policeman in the Dublin Murder Squad. He has a female partner that he is close friends with, and they both have events from their past that color their actions today. (As we all do, but these are particularly traumatic.) The crime is a murder of a child, and there an unsolved case of missing children from many years before that took place in the same location. The events from Rob's past intertwine with the current case. The plot gets more and more complex.

The book is longish (over 400 pages) and the pacing is sometimes slow. There were points in the story when I was wondering when we were going to get somewhere. This is realistic in a police procedural, but is drawn out even more by the side trips into Rob's past and their link to this case. For the most part, though, the length did not bother me and the writing kept me involved.

The characters were intriguing, although only the main characters were fleshed out. I can't say I found either one of the main characters very likable, but I was interested in the outcome. Character-driven stories are my cup of tea, so I was happy to continue through Rob's discourses and get a murder mystery on the side. So, for me, this was a good, engrossing book.

I would recommend this book with a few reservations. There is resolution to the crime (at least the crime they are investigating). Overall, however, the ending is extremely ambiguous and I came out of the book feeling sad, downbeat. If you are looking for an upbeat story for entertainment, this isn't it.

I did read some negative reviews (only after I read the book), and I will admit they point out some valid aspects: There are times when the narrator is very annoying. And the actual solution to the mystery is easily predictable for anyone who reads a lot of crime fiction. The length of the story is a downside if you are looking more for action and resolution and are less into characterization.

The story of the Dublin Murder Squad continues but, as I understand it from reading the author's site and reviews of other books by the author, each book has a different main character.  This certainly would keep the series fresh, but for some readers (I am one of them) might be a disappointment.

Will I read the next book, The Likeness?  Yes, I think so. If only to find out if that one is just as gripping. All of the books in this series are long, over 400 pages, quite a commitment, but worth it if you are enjoying the journey it takes you on.

A couple of links to other reviews:
A favorable review with links to lots of other reviews. I love the vocabulary area.
A C+ review at Kittling Books

If you would like a link to your review of this book included on this post, put the link in a comment and I will add it.

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge
Read Your Own Books Challenge
New Author Challenge
1st in a Series Challenge
A-Z Challenge
Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge
Spring Reading Challenge

Cop Hater: Ed McBain

I put off reading this book for years and I don't know why. And now I have put off finishing my review. It is hard to separate my reaction to this book from the preconceptions I had going in, especially knowing that it is such a long running series and has been loved and loyally followed by many.

From the author bio on Amazon:

Perhaps his most popular work, the 87th Precinct series (released mainly under the name Ed McBain) is one of the longest running crime series ever published, debuting in 1956 with Cop Hater and featuring over fifty novels. The series is set in a fictional locale called Isola and features a wide cast of detectives including the prevalent Detective Steve Carella.

I did not know what to expect going into this book. I anticipated liking the series, enough to have already purchased 11 additional titles. But I was not sure if it was my kind of series. I like police procedurals in general, but would I like it enough to continue the series?

The first chapter pulled me into the book immediately. A good sign. Although parts of the book were heavy on descriptive sequences, I did find the story compelling and I liked the portrayal of the policemen. They were not perfect, but generally they seemed believable.

The paperback edition I read has a very good introduction by the author in which he discusses the genesis of the series. From that introduction:

But then, thinking it through further, it seemed to me that a single cop did not a series make, and it further seemed to me that something new in the annals of police procedurals (I don't even know if they were called that back then) would be a squad room full of cops, each with different traits, who when put together would form a conglomerate hero.

I think my affinity for police procedural over other types of mysteries is based on the same premise that McBain discusses in his introduction to the book.

In fiction, there is always a quantum jump to be made when anyone but a police detective is investigating a murder.

That does not mean I don't like and enjoy other types of mysteries, I just have to spend more time suspending disbelief when I move into other types.

The end result is... Yes, I did like the book, a lot. I assume the series improves as it goes along. I have the next two in the series, The Mugger and The Pusher, and I will be reading those soon.

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge
Read Your Own Books Challenge
New Author Challenge
1st in a Series Challenge
Vintage Mystery Challenge
Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge

New Author Challenge: Books Read

In late March I joined the New Author Challenge at Literary Escapism. My goal is to read 15 books by authors that I have never read before. If I aim at two new authors a month, I can accomplish this. We will see.

My joining post is HERE.  I am tracking my list of books by authors new to me below.

1. The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo
2. Cop Hater by Ed McBain
3. In the Woods by Tana French
4. The Guards by Ken Bruen
5. Whiskey Sour by J. A. Konrath
6. The Information Officer by Mark Mills 
7. The Suspect by L. R. Wright
8. Lament for the Bride by Helen Reilly
9. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley 
10. The Tattoo Murder Case by Akimitsu Takagi
11. The House Without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers
12. The Greene Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine
13. The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
14.  A Trace of Smoke by Rebecca Cantrell
15. The Cape Cod Mystery by Phoebe Atwood Taylor

The Redbreast: Jo Nesbo

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo is a complex police procedural, following the story of a Norwegian detective investigating neo-Nazi activities in Oslo, with flashbacks to events during World War II on the Eastern Front. It is a very long book (my copy was a mass market paperback with 567 pages of small print) but I enjoyed almost every page of it.

Nesbo has written nine Harry Hole novels, and this is the third in the series. As yet, the first two in the series have not been published in English. I did not find it difficult to start the series with this book, although there were references to earlier exploits.

Harry Hole has many of the typical problems of policemen (at least the fictional ones): struggles with alcohol and smoking, depression, talented but has difficulty taking orders and dealing with co-workers. But I found him likable and interesting. He had integrity; he was confident of his abilities but not full of himself; and he was vulnerable. I liked the developing relationship with a single mother and her child.

There is a large cast of characters and they are convincingly written. I cared about what was happening to them.  I liked the short chapters and the headings for each chapter noting time and place.

I have recently become very interested in World War II and in reading both fiction and non-fiction on that time period. There is so much to learn. Although I was aware of the term "quisling," I was not fully aware of the origins of the term nor how many Norwegians aligned themselves with the Germans during World War II. This books was very educational for me, and entertaining at the same time.

The unfolding of two story lines at the same time and the fact that one of them was during World War II doubled my enjoyment of this book. However, I liked the contemporary sections a lot, and I am sure I will enjoy future books in the series whether or not they share this element.

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge, Read Your Own Books Challenge, A-Z Challenge, Chunkster Challenge, 
European Challenge, Merely Mystery Reading Challenge, Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge, New Author Challenge, First in a Series Challenge

Note: Even though this is not technically the first in the series, I am counting it because it it the first book in the series available (at this time) in English.

I am also participating in the April Challenge (Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group) at Goodreads, and this book counts for that challenge.

Two More Challenges: New Authors and WWI

Two more reading challenges have grabbed me. I can't resist. They won't be easy to finish with what I already have planned ... but I plan to try:

 

For the new author challenge.

1. The challenge runs from January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2012.
2. Since this is an author challenge, there is no restriction on choosing your novels. They can definitely be from other challenges. However, the authors must be new to you and, preferably from novels.  Anthologies are a great way to try someone new, but only a third of your new authors can be from anthologies.
3. You can pick to do either 15, 25 or 50 new authors.  It all depends on how fast you read and how adventurous you want to be. 

I am setting my goal at 15 new authors.

I have at least 50 books by authors I have not read before. I always try to read books that I already own by as many new authors as possible before I go to a large book sale in late September, so I can buy more books by those authors if I like them. So it would be no problem to complete the challenge if I did not also have a lot of books by other authors I have read that are also beckoning to me, and other challenges going on.

I am tracking my list of books by authors new to me HERE.

A World War I reading challenge

1. This challenge is hosted by War Through the Generations. The challenge runs from January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2012.
2. This year you have options when reading your fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, etc. with the WWI as the primary or secondary theme. Books can take place before, during, or after the war, so long as the conflicts that led to the war or the war itself are important to the story. Books from other challenges count so long as they meet the above criteria.

Dip: Read 1-3 books in any genre with WWI as a primary or secondary theme.
Wade: Read 4-10 books in any genre with WWI as a primary or secondary theme.
Swim: Read 11 or more books in any genre with WWI as a primary or secondary theme.
Additionally, we’ve decided that since there are so many great movies out there about WWI, you can substitute or add a movie or two to your list this year and have it count toward your totals.

I am setting my goal at Wade: 4-10 books about WWI. (because of the option to include movies)

My favorite topic of the moment is World War II, but as you read more about World War II, you often end up going back to World War I to understand the history of Europe and the rest of the world leading up to World War I. Just this month I read Winter by Len Deighton, which covers the history of a family in Germany from 1900 - 1945 and the parts related to World War I were very interesting.

I have two series by Charles Todd, one in progress and one that I have not started yet, that fit the criteria. I have one unwatched movie set in World War I (The Fighting 69th (1940) starring James Cagney) and another I would love to see again (Paths of Glory (1957) starring Kirk Douglas). So I am sure I can complete at least 4 books or movies by the end of the year.

I am tracking my list of books or films related to World War I HERE.