Category Archives: murder mystery

books, murder mystery, Reviews

The Donut Legion by Joe R Landsdale

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Stars: 2 out of 5.

DNF at 54%.

This was my first encounter with this author, and it didn’t go as well as I would have hoped. This book just felt… off. 

While I was quite excited to read about a small town in East Texas and discover some of the quirky characters that call it home, something about those characters just felt… unnatural. They didn’t read like fleshed-out people but more like an amalgamation of quirks and one-liners that the author wanted to put there. That wouldn’t have been a problem for supporting characters that we only see for a couple of pages and never hear from again. But here even the main protagonist doesn’t read like a fleshed out character. 

Also, the main plot is to find the protagonist’s ex-wife, right? Well, for the first 200 pages or so, this is barely mentioned. Yes, he makes some enquiries, but our protagonist does not feel any urgency, dread, or emotion about it. He tells his brother that he thinks he is still in love with her, but none of his actions show it. If my ex went missing and showed up as a ghost, I would have been moving heaven and earth to find out what happened, but Charlie just kind of… takes his time to look into that in between long discussions about the nature of religion and cults with his brother, or other philosophical meanderings along the way. 

And that brings me to the next part that didn’t work for me – the tone of this book is definitely not my cup of tea. Is this supposed to be a serious thriller? A satire? A parody? There are jokes throughout, but to me, they fall flat, especially when put alongside graphic descriptions of some pretty gruesome murders. I mean, a guy Charlie talked to is basically dismembered and burned, and Charlie’s reaction to learning this is… nothing. Not even horrified, or feeling guilty about it, because his interrogating this guy might have been the cause for this. His reaction is just to shrug and move on. That doesn’t make me like the protagonist any better, sorry.

Then “Scrappy” comes to the scene and the book fell apart for me. She is not a likable or believable character. In fact, she comes across as extremely rude and self-serving. And again, Charlie says he might still have feelings for his ex-wife, yet he falls for her almost from the get go. 

All in all, the jarring juxtaposition of humor that mostly fell flat for me and depictions of some pretty graphic and horrible murders made me gradually lose interest in this book. Added to that some irritating characters, and I am calling it quits. I might try another book by this author, since some reviewers say that this wasn’t his strongest offering.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, murder mystery, Reviews

Deep and Deadly: Murder on the Scottish Coast (Inspector Torquil McKinnon 7) by Keith Moray

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Stars: 3.5 out of 5

I must admit upfront that I wasn’t aware that this was book 7 in an ongoing series when I picked up this book, and I haven’t read any of the previous instalments. This, however, isn’t that big of a deal. The story can be read as a standalone, since all the characters get sufficiently well-done introductions. There are references to events that, I suppose, happen in previous books, but they are fleeting and don’t confuse the reader.  

With that out of the way, let’s dive into the book itself. 

I loved the setting! I lived in Edinburgh for a year when I was in college, and visited the Scottish highlands and the Isle of Skye. It’s beautiful and rugged terrain that feels unchanged from the previous centuries. The scenery is breathtaking, and the weather is capricious to say the least. I was looking to recapture that sense of wonder I had when I was there in person, and the book has that in spades.

I also loved all the characters. They feel real, multidimensional people, with their own flaws and quirks, but ultimately pretty relatable. However, I must admit that the newspaper editor got on my nerves a few times. He seems like the person who just shrugs off all bad experiences and never learns his lessons from them. I mean, that’s a good quality to have for a news reporter, but it must be hard to be his friend or girlfriend.

You could feel the history between all the characters, and their relationships felt organic. In fact, that whole island community where everyone knows everybody else’s business is very well done. It was a pleasure to get to know the residents of West Uist. 

My issue is that there are too many red herrings and extraneous plots that don’t bring much to the story. The story is about Mungo and his crusade against the inhabitants of the island for real or perceived sins. What did the Irish actor and his cronies even add to the narrative? Also, what was Mungo’s motive for trying to poison them? They had nothing to do with what had happened to his family, so they shouldn’t even have been on his hit list. The book is short as it is, so adding this storyline took page count that could have been spent on diving more into the lives of the various people on Mungo’s list. As it stands, a lot of them are mentioned in passing, but not developed enough for us to care. 

And speaking of Mungo himself. He is the reason I didn’t rate this book higher. In fact, I think he is the weakest link in this story. He is a very unconvincing main villain. He comes across as the typical delusional mustache-twirling kind, along with the mandatory monologue about his plans and reasons for doing what he is doing. Honestly, that monologue had me rolling my eyes and skimming ahead.

But all in all, this was a very enjoyable murder mystery book set in the Scottish island setting that I loved to revisit. I might even go back and read the other books in the series.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, murder mystery, Reviews

Red Team Blues (Martin Hench 1) by Cory Doctorow

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Stars: 2 out of 5.

This was my first encounter with cory Doctorow, and the result is rather underwhelming. The blurb sounded very promissing – a forensic accountant, cybercrimes, cryptocurrencies, and all that jaz. I was fully onboard and ready to enjoy a good story. Unfortunately, the book itself was a big disappointment.

My biggest issue with this book, and why me and this story didn’t mesh at all, is the writing style. The prose is extremely dry and impersonal, even though it’s not third person omniscient. We are watching the events unfold from Marin’s perspective. But the book reads more like an instruction manual than a heart-poinding crime story. I mean, the author describes a horrifying scene of death and torture in the same dry language as a romantic encounter our protagonist has with one of his lady friends. Both scenes are supposed to evoke emotions, instead, they just induce boredom.

Part of the problem is also that the author doesn’t particularly do a good job with showing things. We are told that Martin is profoundly shocked by what he saw when he found those slain kids, but we are not shown that. Show us hims having nightmares about it, or a panic attack once he gets out of the crime scene, or something. Don’t just tell me that he didn’t sleep well, then continue with the story like nothing happened. I can’t be emotionally invested in a situation, if the protagonist doesn’t seem to care one way or another either.

My second problem is Marty himself. Boy, does he have plot armor or what? Also, he reads more like the author’s wish fulfilment than a real person. So he is 67, doesn’t exercise or try to keep himself in shape (at least the author doesn’t mention him going to the gym even once or for a hike, or something). He drinks like an Irishman, easts whatever he wants… yet he doesn’t seem to have any health issues (at 67), or have to take medication for anything, and he can spend weeks homeless in the streets of SF and still be a functional human being after that? Oh, and all hot, intelligent, younger women he encounters fall head over heels for him instantly. No seriously, this guy has more intimate encounters in this book than James Bond. Either this dude won the gene pool jackpot, or the author really doesn’t know what being in upper sixties feels like for most of the population.

On top of that, the story got bogged down in useless descriptions of dinners the protagonist cooked and consumed, alcohol he drank, or other rather useless trivia that didn’t advance the plot in any way. I mean, you could easily have trimmed off at least 100 pages. It would have made the book a lot tighter and faster to read. As it stood, I got bored a few times while reading and had to skim along until the plot would pick up again.

All in all, this was a disappointing book for me. I don’t think I will be continuing with this series, and honestly, I don’t know if I will check out other books by this author.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, murder mystery, Reviews

Sleepless by Louise Mumford

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Stars: hesitating between 2 and 2.5 out of 5.

This book had such promise! The idea behind it was excellent and the blurb drew me in. Even the beginning was rather exciting. I was really pumped about reading it for about the first 35-40% of the book… Then things went downhill.

There were several reasons for this quick fall from grace, at least for me.

First of all, to create a good mystery, you need tension. To create a good horror story, you need to create the atmosphere of constant unease, when the reader and the characters know that something is wrong, but the tension is slowly winding up, like a tightening spring. Or you can have monsters jumping out of the dark and eating your face off… whatever works. The point is, it has to be scary but BELIEVABLE within the rules and limits of the world the author created.

This is were this book fails spectacularly. All the characters, especially the villains, have never heard of the word “logic”. They turn form a group of sleep study researchers into murderers seemingly in the blink of an eye. So the protagonist is asking questions about an apparition she saw in the ruins? Let’s take her there and try to kill her! But we already moved the crazy patient in a different location, so she won’t find anything. Why kill her? Oh, who cares, let’s just kill her anyway because reasons. Not to mention who is the genius that decided a ruined monastery was the perfect place to keep a sedated patient chained to a hospital bed? When you have a perfectly functional remote lighthouse on the island that has the advantage of having a roof and all the walls intact?

Also, the main premise of this book is completely destroyed about 40% in. So the protagonist is suffering from chronic sleeplessness. She can’t fall asleep… like ever. She does on 1 to 2 hours to sometimes zero a night. She’s been to all kinds of sleep studies and tried all sleep aids under the sun, right? She signs up for this experiment out of desperation… Yet not a week into this study, she is told that she doesn’t have a sleep problem. She has an internal clock problem instead. Meaning, she falls asleep between 7am and 10am instead of doing it night like normal people. Really? All the other doctors hadn’t noticed that? SHE didn’t notice that she can actually sleep on weekends when she doesn’t have to get up for work? Find a different job. Work second or night shift and your problem is solved…

The technology itself is explained rather badly. Nobody would give Thea a straight answer about how it works or what exactly they will do to her… yet she goes along it it all the same. I get it that you are desperate, but this borders on stupid.

But the nail in the coffin of this book for me was the protagonist herself. I can (usually) suffer through a bad plot if the protagonist is believable or likeable. Or suffer a bad protagonist if the story is amazing, but I can’t do both.

Thea is the type of protagonist who let’s the story happen to them, instead of creating that story with her actions. She spends about 90% of the story in an indecisive stupor, doubting herself, terrified, or simply going along with the flow. She is dragged from one place or another, from one plot point to the next by other people or circumstances. When she needs to act, she freezes and watches the action unfold around her. Granted, this is probably a realistic depiction of what an average person would do when presented with these kind of circumstances… but I read fiction to escape from reality. I want to read about characters who take action, even if with disasters consequences instead of being dragged behind the train of the story like so much useless baggage.

So I’m sorry, but this book and I had a rather messy and angry divorce and I hate-read it to the end.

PS: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, murder mystery, Post-Apocalyptic, Reviews

The last policeman by ben h. winters (the Last policeman book 1)

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Stars: 5 out of 5

Wow, that’s the most different pre-apocalypse book I ever read.

What do you do when the end of the world is coming in just 6 months and there is nothing anyone can do to prevent it? A huge meteor is on collision course with the Earth and it will hit, it’s a 100% probability, the only uncertainty is where the point of impact will be. But even that doesn’t really matter, because what isn’t destroyed during impact, will slowly die in the nuclear winter that will follow as the catastrophe puts enough debris in the atmosphere to obscure the sun for decades. So 6 months to expiration date for the human race.

How do you cope? Some people walk out on their jobs and go through their bucket list. Some people find fate and religion, or join a cult. Some commit suicide (there is a lot of those). Officer Palace is dead set on solving a murder. Despite the fact that nobody seems to give a damn about it anymore, despite the slowly crumbling infrastructure, and even faster crumbling social structures. He will solve that murder because this is what keeps him sane while the days count down to the final big impact.

I loved the main character in this story, how obstinate he was in solving this murder, despite anything and everything. How desperately he clings to police procedures, rules and regulations. Because that’s what helps him cope with the end of the world.

I also loved the other characters we encounters, each one representing a different way of coping with the inevitability of death. Some drink, some do drugs, some just give up and wait to die, and some cling to any sliver of hope they can find, even the maddest one.

I also liked that despite certain violence in this book, the world didn’t dissolve into bloody chaos. People are still mostly decent to each other. Things are still getting done. Some people still come to work, mostly because what else would they do? Sit at home and wait to die?

It’s that air of melancholy that surprised me the most about this book. Yes, Henry solves his murder case in the end, but does that really matter? Does any of it matter when the Earth will die in 6 months? And the sad part is – he knows that it doesn’t matter to anyone but him either.

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That Darkness by Lisa Black.

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Stars 2 out of 5.

 

I must admit that I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it’s an interesting view on the nature of evil and the nature vs nurture part when it comes to creating monsters. On the other hand, the book drags out and lacks in suspense in parts. And I have a problem with the ethical and moral implications of the ending.

 

So what is this book about? It’s told from the perspective of two different protagonists. One is Maggie Gardiner, a forensic investigator who is very good at her job and is like a dog with a bone when she feels that something doesn’t adapt. Which ultimately sends her on a collision course with our second protagonist – Jack Renner, police detective by day and vigilante by night. Also quite possibly a serial killer, since he has a ritual for executing his victims and a distinct MO…

 

I kinda liked the idea behind this story and for the most part I liked how it was told and how it unfolded. I loved Maggie and how tenacious she is. How she is more than capable to hold her own in the very macho world of the law enforcement. How she doesn’t let go when she sees things that just don’t add up. He keeps digging and digging and asking often very uncomfortable questions until the picture in front of her makes sense. And she is not afraid to jump to some very dangerous conclusions – like suspecting that the vigilante is a cop.

 

It’s what she does with that information that baffles me. You suspect someone of being a serial killer, yet you still agree to go with him to the possible murder scenes? And you follow him inside one when he is clearly with his newest victim? Girl, you seemed so smart before that, did you just switch your brain suddenly?

 

And that sudden case of stupid doesn’t affect only Maggie, unfortunately. Jack seems to develop a chronic condition of it as soon as he meets her. In the first part of the book, he is shown as a meticulous and intelligent person who learns about his victim’s habits and plans the execution carefully, trying to leave as few incriminating clues as possible. Then why does he take Maggie around the crime scenes she wants to visit in the SAME CAR he uses for his killings? Really, Jack, really? It’s not even his car. He took it out of the police yard. Why not go and take another out of the dozens they have in there and NOT give a forensic investigator a chance to collect some evidence that would instantly make her suspect you?

 

I think that’s what really killed this story for me. If you portray your protagonists as smart people, then let them be smart until the end, and don’t force them to make stupid mistakes just so that you can advance your story.

 

Now the ending. I think it’s good, because it made me think about what I would have chosen in this particular situation. And let’s just say that’s where my decision defers from Maggie’s.

 

So all in all, it’s an entertaining crime novel that will help you pass a lazy afternoon at the beach, but don’t expect anything too complicated.

 

PS. I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest book review.

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In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad Book 1) by Tana French.

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Stars: 2 out of 5.

I am rarely upset about a book. I am excited if I love it and usually just sad or even indifferent if I don’t. After all, you can’t like them all. Well, this time I’m pissed off with this book. Really, really pissed off! In the Woods had all the makings of a 5 star, all-time favorite book, but those hopes crashed and burned about 2/3 in. Now I feel cheated, like a kid who was promised candy only to discover a piece of rock under all that bright glittering packaging.

 

I realize that I’m not exactly an expert in this genre – I rarely read murder mysteries. I watch plenty of those on TV though. I had picked In the Woods because the premise seemed interesting: Three kids go to play in the woods. Only one of them is found the next morning, wearing bloody shoes and no memory of what happened. Twenty years later, that kid, now a detective in the murder squad, is forced to come back to this town to investigate the murder of another child in the same woods.

 

Now my understanding of the murder mystery genre is that the author and the reader enter into an unspoken pact – if the reader sticks with the story, the author will reveal the mystery in the end. Most of the questions will be answered and the culprits found. The reader will know who had done it, why and how.

 

The biggest mystery in this book is what happened to Peter and Jamie 20 years ago. The book even begins with that disappearance, and Katie’s murder comes a few chapters later. So that’s the mystery that should be resolved by the end, right?

 

SPOILER ALERT!!!!

 

WRONG.

 

By the time I was maybe 10 pages away from finishing the book, I had the sinking feeling that the author would not answer any of those questions. We will never find out what Rob saw in the woods that night or what became of Peter and Jamie. I had invested hours of my time to read through 400+ pages just to end up with the lukewarm explanation that “some memories are just gone for good, and some mysteries are not meant to be solved.”

 

I realize that in real life that’s what happens about 70% of the time. I mean, just look at the amount of cold cases gathering dust in police archives around the world. However, book logic is different. I don’t want to get invested in a story that won’t give me a resolution. I want to feel a sense of fulfillment after I finish a book, not to feel cheated and frustrated.

 

I’m upset about this because the book has so much potential. It’s wonderfully well-written. The prose is just beautiful, and some passages are just poignantly poetic. The protagonist has a strong and interesting voice that I wanted to follow. And his personal involvement with this place just made me want to finally find out what had happened on that fateful day 20 years ago even more… So I dived into the book head first and fully expected an exceptional read.

 

The alarm bells first went off in my head when Rob decided not to come forward about his identity even when evidence found on the new crime scene linked it to the case of his missing friends. He chose to keep his mouth shut on the fact that Ryan Adams and detective Rob Adams were one and the same person and he reiterated this decision several times during the investigation. I find this decision stupid and irresponsible, because not only does it jeopardize his career, but the whole case as well, since all the evidence he collected will become inadmissible in court if the truth comes out. And his reasoning behind this decision makes less and less sense the further we get into the book.

 

My second problem with In the Woods is Rob’s partner Cassie. The way Tana French portrays her, she is “saint” Cassie who can do no wrong. She always has the right hunch about the case. She is smart and beautiful and has a keen understanding of people. Yet she chooses to stick with Rob no matter what he does. Even after that disastrous night, she isn’t mad at him for the abject way he starts treating her, but because she lost his friendship and somehow she thinks it’s her fault. Really? Hot, smart and sassy girl who is extremely devoted to her abusive boyfriend / friend. Hello trope!

 

But even though I didn’t like Cassie and had a tough time with some of Rob’s decisions, the story would still have gotten a 4 star review if the author had kept her end of the bargain and actually given me and ending. The fact that it didn’t happen was just the last nail in the coffin lid.

 

I’m upset. I won’t recommend this book. I had planned to read the next one in the Dublin Murder Squad series, but I have zero motivation to do that now.