TWO-CENT TUESDAY

Below are a few (somewhat) brief $.02 opinions about books I've read or listened to recently but don't have the opportunity to review in full. Many of these titles I enjoyed as much or more than those that got the full court press. I hope you'll consider one or two for your own TBR stack if they strike your fancy whether they struck mine or not. 

And There He Kept Her, Joshua Moehling

I wish I could remember where I heard about this book, because I would not have chosen it based on cover or title, neither of which I think do it service. Almost to the other side, as much as I like gritty stuff (see Pete Farris's latest, which starts with a great line about a woman being bound in a trunk), the toxic masculinity this title/cover combo bring to mind would have put me off. Which is really a bummer, because this book is fabulous. It's Moehling's debut, which makes it even more impressive. Yes, there is a woman locked up. Yes there are horrible people. But the plot is clean and moves swiftly, no extraneous fluff that got in the way. Best of all, Moehling's characters left me hoping the small historical backstory arc that doesn't get resolved means another installment of Deputy Ben Packard's story. Here, he's returned to the small lake town in Minnesota where he has history and some family. He's running from tragedy and himself (a trope, yes, but it felt authentic here, and I'm not going to give it away because the reveal should be experienced while reading. When two local teens go missing, including Packard's taciturn cousin's daughter, he takes a personal and professional interest. As he and his team investigate, coming into contact with some great (and not so great, and some morphing) colorful locals, time is running out for the woman in the locked room. Who is she and who has her? I highly recommend taking the time to read this one and finding out first hand.

Nightcrawling, Leila Mottley

Another dazzling debut from a 19-year-old who was also the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate and the youngest author to be chosen for Oprah's book club pick. Those who live in or around Oakland as I do will likely remember the horrific Oakland Police Department sexploitation scandal of 2016, and Mottley took inspiration from those events and began writing while she was in high school. Kiara is 17, living in the Regal-Hi apartments (and its pool filled with bags of shit) with her brother Marcus, left to fend for themselves by addiction, death and the prison system. Marcus won't find a job, clinging to his dreams of rap stardom, and Ki and left to pay their increased rent, which is already overdue. Ki's responsibilities get heavier when she begins to care for the 9-year-old boy next door, whose mother is strung out and gone most of the time. A nighttime misunderstanding sucks Ki into a situation she can't seem to get out of--where will the money come from? what will happen to Trevor?--and soon she's selling her soul to keep the balls in the air. Haunting, electric, and a dazzling display of the perils the system and society heap atop the Black community and the resilience and fortitude of Black women. Mottley's writing is searing and authentic, and though my praise certainly isn't needed on top of her many accolades, she's got it.

Directed By James Burrows, James Burrows

I was raised on the genius television of James Burrows. He's been called "the greatest director of comedy in television history" by his creative partners Les and Glen Charles. He's the greatest "by any measurement: number of episodes, number of gigantic hit series, number of awards, and the amount of volume of laughter he's been responsible for." He has directed more than seventy-five pilots that have gone to series and well over a thousand show episodes. GREAT shows. The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Laverne & Shirley, Phyllis, Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Mike & Molly, Will & Grace--shows that belong in the television Hall of Fame. I was so anxious to read his memoir, which he calls "a celebration of the great people [he] worked with and the joy and challenges [we] had together. Burrows begins at the beginning, his childhood as the son of legendary playwright and Broadway director Abe Burrows, his start in the theater, and his foray into his milieu, television comedy. He proceeds chronologically through each show, sharing facts and highlights. Ultimately, while I loved the content, I had some of the same feelings about this memoir as I did about Bob Odenkirk's. The work is so damn good that on the page it suffers a bit. Burrows writing is very matter-of-fact. You know the joy (or hardship) is there, but it doesn't leap off the page and sock you in the guts. Other than one behind-the-scenes story from Cheers, there wasn't much in the way of new or "wow" information. It's a great read from an individual I am SO thankful for, and maybe my expectations were too high. Burrows television is some of the best of my life, and that's a tough bar for anyone, even Burrows himself, to leap. 

TWO-CENT TUESDAY

Below are a few (somewhat) brief $.02 opinions about books I've read or listened to recently but don't have the opportunity to review in full. Many of these titles I enjoyed as much or more than those that got the full court press. I hope you'll consider one or two for your own TBR stack if they strike your fancy whether they struck mine or not.

FATAL FAMILY TIES, by S.C. Perkins

This third installment in the charmingest of the charming cozies is proof positive I'm a convert to the light side. Texas genealogist Lucy Lancaster's Flacos Tacos lunch is interrupted by her least favorite former co-workers. Camilla Braithwaite now needs a favor--a recent article accuses Camilla's ancestor Charles, a civil war corporal, of being a phony and a deserter rather than a hero, and Camilla wants Lucy’s help clearing his name. Of course, shenanigans ensue before Lucy can get to the bottom of the mystery. This series leaves me longing for more time with the recurring characters. Thankfully, we got some of Lucy's Grandfather and more of her delightful parents. That meant a little less of her office best friends and Neil Patrick Housecat, but their on-screen time is always fun. 

GUILTY ADMISSIONS, by Nicole LaPorte

A thoroughly researched and detailed account of the college admissions scandal that caught several big Hollywood names in its snare. I found the audio a great way to listen to the tale, and the meat of the story was fascinating. It started with a lot of background detail that seemed a tad superfluous, but overall I enjoyed this account of aholes aholing.

100 POEMS TO BREAK YOUR HEART, by Edward Hirsch

Edward Hirsch's Gabriel: A Poem was the work that got me started on a mission to read more poetry. It is a set of poems, longlisted for the 2014 National Book Award, about the life and death of Hirsch's son. When I saw Hirsch had collected this set of poems I was all in. Turns out it's much more than I bargained for. Not only does he lay out 100 poems, he analyzes them and assists in the reading and internalizing of them. Which means this collection is lovely, educational and lengthy. I'm still working my way through it in little snippets, but it came out some time ago and I didn't want to delay writing about it any further. A great place to start if you're trying to get more out of the poetry you read.

GOOD NEIGHBORS, by Sarah Langan

The premise had me really looking forward to this one, but it ended up a bummer. A picturesque neighborhood in suburban Long Island is thrown into chaos when the Queen Bee regrets telling one of the new, "misfit" neighbors a very personal secret. So she begins to sabotage the family. Which really makes no sense, but I went with it. As the Wildes are turned into outcasts and the tension builds, a sinkhole opens in the area. Not only does it keep widening without explanation, it sucks whatever gets close into its black hole, including the Queen Bee's daughter, leading to more accusations to...what end? I found the plot disconnected and a story written around issues and events the author wanted to address. I'm all for unlikable characters as I find them more interesting, but these left me cold. If I never read the word "bitumen" again I'll die happy.

FOOTBALL'S FEARLESS 

ACTIVISTS, by Mike Freeman

A fascinating and highly-recommended look at the story behind the protests of numerous Black athletes following the ongoing string of police killings of Black men, as well as the pushback they received from not only the fans but their own organizations and ownership. It's no secret 45 is shameful and to be honest I didn't expect much more from the NFL and I was still surprised by some of the reporting here. I'm glad there are athletes like these, who will risk it all for what's right. I did lose a little respect for the book when Barack Obama's name was misspelled twice. Once is a typo, twice is disrespectful. 

SHELTER, by Catherine Jinks

Jinks's The Shepherd blew me away last year and I was eagerly anticipating this title, which couldn't have been more different. Far from the sparse, cracking prose of the former, Shelter was told in a much more descriptive and "mainstream" hand. Which isn't bad, it was simply a much different experience. In Shelter, Meg lives alone in the bush outside town as a way to avoid her abusive ex. Knowing what it's like to try to escape that horrible situation, Meg agrees to provide shelter to Nerine and her two daughters. Of course all three are traumatized, but then odd things begin to happen. Not the least of which is Nerine asking Meg to get a gun (remember, this is Australia, where the people sensible about gun control live and this is no normal request or easy feat). Of course things spiral and questions come from all fronts, including Meg's past. Shelter is, if I have to label it, more domestic thriller than lean, gritty crime fiction. Thankfully, Jinks is a good enough writer to pull both off quite well. 
 

FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS REVIEW THEIR BOOKS

I try not to review books written by friends. Which is a shame, not because anyone is missing out on what I think, but because my friends are fantastic writers and the one or two people who visit this space might become a reader of the work if they aren't already. But such reviewing is fraught with danger. How objective can one be? If you review one pal's book and not another's, does the non-reviewee take any message from that fact (spoiler alert: they should not, other than my own laziness)?

All this is preface to a big "However,..." I recently took a hiatus from "formal" reviewing, which means I am, for the first time in a loooong time, free to read whatever the hell I want, including titles that have been on my shelf for years (I like that I can blame some of this on reviewing, ha). Just my luck, new books from two of my favorite people recently published. The third has been waiting at the top of my stack since late last year and I was all kermit-flailing about reading it and sharing all three with you. Let's dig in.

TRICKY, by Josh Stallings

Josh has one of the more imposing presences and biggest hearts of anyone you'll ever meet, and he can write just about anything. He's penned three gritty Moses Maguire books, a 70s heist/caper, and a fantastic memoir. I'd been hearing great things about his latest, Tricky, and couldn't wait to dive in. It may be my favorite of a stellar bunch of titles. 

Full of heart, grit and important social issues, Tricky starts full bore, with LAPD  Homicide Detective Niels Madsen inserting himself in a standoff between two officers and a developmentally disabled man named Cisco. Cisco is about to take a bullet as he's standing over a dead body while holding a gun. Everyone is convinced Cisco killed his roommate, David, particularly when they learn he is a cunning killer who was in prison for murder by age fourteen. 

But is Cisco still that stone-cold assassin? Many think his current state is an act he's undertaken since suffering a beating several years ago. Niels isn't so sure, but the risk of being conned by Cisco is potentially disastrous. Stallings has written Tricky in honor of his intellectually disabled son and it's obvious Dylan made sure he got it right. A fun, intense, thoughtful read that takes off from the get-go, Tricky is a blast.

TWO IN THE HEAD, by Eric Beetner

When I crack the cover of one of Eric's books I know I'm in for a ride that will require a seatbelt, and Two in the Head (with a fun pun for a title) is no different. It begins with DEA Agent Samantha Whelan coming to after miraculously surviving a car bomb meant to take her out. In addition to two goons, she sees a somewhat familiar figure walking towards her. As it gets closer, she realizes it's none other than herself coming her way, murder in her eyes.

If you think you're goofy on the juice, you're not, it's just Eric being Eric and pushing the envelope every which way. Come to find out Samantha is not the straightest of DEA arrows and has been playing both sides, working a little here and there for powerful drug dealers Calder and Rizzo. Things started getting a little too sticky when Samantha became engaged to the DA trying to take Calder and Rizzo down. The car bomb was a sign she's become too big a liability.

This is a fun setup no matter how you slice it, but Eric takes it a few steps further (natch) and uses the "splitting" of Samantha's persona to amp up the fun and the action. Once Samantha split (into Samantha and Sam), so did the good and bad sides of her personality. Samantha can now do no wrong, not even swearing, breaking the speed limit or parking impolitely (HELL ON EARTH). The other Samantha, "Sam," is just the opposite and has not a shred of humanity left. It's a literal race between good and evil as the Sams try to save and/or kill those who oppose them. 

I'm not schmaltzy, but Two in the Head has one of the best proposal scenes ever. Along with clever chapter titles (for which I'm always a sucker), action, and interesting themes on what it means to be good, bad and shades of both, this one is two great kicks in the head. 

REVENGE OF THE WIDOW MALMON, edited by Kate and Dan Malmon

Several years ago, authors stood in long lines for hours for the chance to pen a short story about the death of the crime fiction community's beloved mensch Dan Malmon. The best slice-and-dicers were put together in an anthology edited by Dan and his wife Kate and Killing Malmon was born. The proceeds from the book were donated to the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Not one to sit around and mourn her lesser half, Kate went on a rampage to avenge her murdered love, and Revenge of the Widow Malmon was born. The ton-of-fun collection grabbed me from the jump with the opening to Jordan Harper's Sing Her Song:

The old convertible sitting in the cop shop impound lot still has streaks of dried blood down the side of the door...So much of Dan left there for her to clean. 

Harper's entry is followed by a wide variety of offerings, including those from Jennifer Hillier, Sean Chercover, Nikki Dolson, S.A. Cosby and Joe Clifford, to name but a few. I hate to even put this in writing, but my favorite may be that of Ed Aymar.  In The Dead, Kate kills all the men in the world over 18 to avenge Dan and women create a better society, reshaping laws and actually taking care of each other. It sounds heavy, but it's also got great Magnum, P.I. humor. What could be better, death and great 80s television?

Again, all the profits benefit the Multiple Sclerosis Society, so even if you think Ed is weird and Dan refused to hug you last time you saw him, do this for Kate. 

CITY OF MARGINS :: William Boyle

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is republished here with permission.

William Boyle's City of Margins is a marvelously nuanced study of light and dark, infusing the gritty, melancholy detachment of The Lonely Witness with a dash of the "screwball noir" abounding in A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself. The early 1990s Southern Brooklyn denizens in City of Margins muddle through thinly partitioned lives, toting their loss, hope, desperation and yearning. When chance encounters increase their overlap, perilous links form between people who might otherwise have rubbed against each other without consequence.

Donnie Parascandolo is the epicenter, an emotionally wrecked cop who lost his son and then his wife, Donna. Donnie is connected to Mikey Baldini by a 1991 night of violence that resulted in the death of Mikey's father and left widowed Rosemarie Baldini with a crushing gambling marker held by Big Tommy Ficalora. Two years later, Donnie has been thrown off the force. His surprising new emotional attachment to widow Ava Bifulco is jeopardized when Ava's son recognizes Donnie. Nick dreams of writing the next great mobster screenplay and sees Donnie, rumored muscle for Big Tommy, as his meal ticket. The web of connections thickens when Mikey finds a note leading him to Donna and his ultimate discovery of the explosive truth behind his father's death.

Boyle's love of books and movies that blend crime and comedy wonderfully informs both his style and the bonds among his characters. The arts bridge generations, start conversations and, in Boyle's masterful hands, provide softening, wide-angle lenses to the broken and tortured souls of the margins.

CROSSROAD :: W.H. Cameron

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is republished here with permission.

"For the second time in as many weeks, I cross the spine of Shatter Hill at midnight and spot fire at the crossroad below." Melisende Dulac had a difficult past before moving from the East Coast to the Oregon high desert, where she transports bodies for the funeral home run by her disappeared husband's aunt and uncle. Now her present is treacherously close to eclipsing it.

What she saw at the scene of the first crossroad fire put Mel at odds with numerous locals, including the sheriff's department. Her precarious situation is further jeopardized by what she finds at the second: multiple cars and bodies, a gun, a horse, a head, a newborn baby and a glimpse of a woman who might be the Shatter Hill Spirit. Guided by the voice of her beloved brother Fitz, who died 17 years ago, Mel fights back against forces that have put her, an outsider, in the crosshairs.

The plot of W.H. Cameron's Crossroad is a stellar foundation for all the splendid extras layered on top. The author splices in Mel's history at a pace that whets readers' appetite for more. But the true tour de force is Cameron's character work. Mel is exquisitely drawn, and Cameron insightfully cultivates a supporting cast that further defines her. Appealing in their own right, they help push past and present forward to a conclusion that is resoundingly satisfying. Crossroad is marked by dark humor, grace and seeds of connections that hopefully signal a path to more Melisende Dulac.

STREET SENSE: I love Bill Cameron's writing. His plots are always intriguing, but it's the thoughtfulness and character work that always knocks my socks off. He also puts sincere thought into his chapter titles, and I always appreciate the fun of feeling the penny drop as I read and figure it out. If you're a fan of character driven stories, try some of his work.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE: I grew up an orphan in my own home, a guest who had overstayed her welcome. There were days when all I wanted was to know if I existed--a question Cricket and Stedman would never answer. They'd forget to account for me at meals, to pick me up if I stayed after school. When they went out, I never knew when they'd return. I was nine the first time they left me an entire weekend. I ate cereal and read Katherine Paterson. 

A few short beauts in a book full of 'em:

"Desperation is forebear to many an unconsidered decision."

"You can't call yourself a mortician till you've slept in a casket."

People exhaust me. It's probably why I prefer working with the dead.

COVER NERD SAYS: Bill's books have some of my favorite covers and this one is no different. Usually dark and mysterious with a flash of danger. Fire, blood, some dangerous splash of what lies within. On this one, I love how the starry sky plays with the title font. Super well done.

TELL ME EVERYTHING :: Cambria Brockman

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is republished here with permission.

"Pretend." Malin Ahlberg's father whispers this instruction in her ear as her parents drop her at Hawthorne College, a small liberal arts school in the Maine backwoods. For the next four years, from that first day through the tragedies that befall her friends on Senior Day in 2011, Malin takes his directive to heart.

Cambria Brockman's debut, Tell Me Everything, ultimately does tell all; yet, in line with psychologically twisted college clique tales, not before putting the reader through a maddeningly enjoyable wringer. Malin is patently unreliable, but in a wonderfully fresh, clear-headed way. She is not influenced by drugs or alcohol; quite the opposite, in fact. Malin is about control, with an unknown but definite method to her madness.

Coming from Texas, as something of a fish-out-of-water, Malin surprisingly finds herself part of an intimate yet disparate group of six friends. Living together in a house purchased by one set of wealthy parents gives Malin constant access to and insights into their secrets, changing dynamics and intimacies.

Weaving through three main timelines--Malin's childhood, freshman year and senior year--Brockman slowly exposes the meaning behind Malin's father's whispered instruction and her ongoing manipulations. Some minor plot points and discrepancies in the character depth of the six friends create minor hiccups in the flow, but Brockman has turned in a compelling slow burn with focus justly on its furtive protagonist. Malin's retelling of each period in her life is fraught with competing control and unease that make for a dynamite combination.

STREET SENSE:  I went into this one blind and really kind of dug it. If you're a sucker for multiple timelines and manipulative narrators with shady pasts, you might find it in your wheelhouse as well.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE:  My father saw potential in me, so he taught me how to be normal. I don’t think he realized it made me more dangerous, to know how to appear like I cared.

(But really, this is the best one: "Responding to people was so taxing." Man, I feel you, sister.)

COVER NERD SAYS: I like this cover. It's a bit "bright" for a book that is really more dark, but the pool has symbolism that I like and the ripples are a pretty cool effect and somewhat metaphorical. Clean, uncluttered, nice palette, good balance, no distracting blurbs or extraneous writing. This would catch my eye on a shelf for sure.

THE CHAIN :: Adrian McKinty

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is republished here with permission.

Shortly after 13-year-old Kylie hears her school bus drive past the car in which she's held captive--blindfolded, at gunpoint--the kidnappers contact her mother. Rachel Klein's positive steps toward a new life--divorce, cancer remission, new job--take a devastating tumble as she learns she and Kylie are now part of "the Chain." Multiple lives depend on Rachel doing exactly what the Chain demands. Even if they can survive, Rachel and Kylie are beholden for the rest of their lives.

The woman holding Kylie explains she is only trying to save her own kidnapped son. Stick with me here--to secure Kylie's release, Rachel must follow the same rules: send crypto-currency ransom to the Chain's account and then steal someone else's child. Kylie will be returned once Rachel deposits the funds and convinces her kidnap victim's family to pay and take yet another child. Like a snake eating its tail, the Chain perpetuates itself. If Rachel breathes a word, ever, people will die.

The refreshingly horrifying premise of Adrian McKinty's The Chain probes the lengths parents will go to protect their children and the lines others will cross to exploit them. McKinty's standalone thriller, following his Detective Sean Duffy series (Gun Street Girl), is a warped ride through the consequences of the Chain messing with the wrong woman. The action takes some fun and unanticipated turns as Rachel finds help following the rules before deciding to break them. A few convenient coincidences and deep technological details don't slow Rachel's blockbuster roll to cut the links in the Chain.

STREET SENSE: The premise of The Chain is holy cats crazy and wonderful (horrible wonderful). The plot goes places I didn't expect at the halfway point. Things got a bit far afield in the second half, but there is no doubt this one is an entertaining page-turner.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE: There are some great metaphors for the Chain and some lovely descriptions (rough plot be damned, I love authors who add beauty to the horror), but I particularly liked this simple line:

"The Chain is a cage always in search of the most vulnerable birds."

Oh, hell, I liked this, too, because any Jaws reference wins the day with me:

"The plan is simple. All the best plans are simple. Aren't they? Get in the boat, find the whale, kill it. Get in the boat, find the shark, kill it."

COVER NERD SAYS:  I love me some plain, simple and artful and this is all three. A rockin' blurb (Jaws-related, no less!) from Don Winslow will also allow me to break my "blurbs are the devil" rule. This is great cover work.

THE VAN APFEL GIRLS ARE GONE :: Felicity McLean

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is reprinted here with permission.

"They're kids, for heaven's sake. What have they got to be fearful of?" Perhaps more than anyone knew. In 1992, sisters Ruth, Hannah and Cordie Van Apfel disappeared during Tikka Malloy's skit in their school's Showstopper production. Twenty years later, Tikka returns to Australia to face her sister Laura's lymphoma diagnosis and her own decades-long haunting.

Tikka and Laura knew things they didn't tell in 1992. What Tikka knew, or thought she knew, has gnawed at and unsettled her ever since, with false Cordie sightings continuous as a tic. The detective told them to "sit tight"--he would find their friends. But Tikka can no longer sit tight, compelled to address the past and whether her family did enough to help their neighbors.

Australian journalist Felicity McLean's The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone is a well-layered puzzle with unexplained pieces to spare. At the core of this gripping debut novel are the uncertain perceptions of young Tikka and 2012 Tikka, still partially trapped in her 11-year-old self.

McLean's often striking prose swirls deftly between the two Tikkas as suspicions begin to emerge--about the Van Apfels and their violently pious patriarch, Cordie's broken arm, and the school's first male teacher. A slow burn that maintains an electric current of dread, the narrative is also cleverly colored by the underpinning of the infamous Chamberlain case. Although more than 30 years later it was confirmed that Lindy Chamberlain's baby was indeed snatched by a dingo, the Van Apfel girls may get no such closure.

STREET SENSE: Fans of ambiguous mysteries will dig this one. I love an author who has the guts to leave questions unanswered, or at least up for interpretation. There is some beautiful writing here, and I loved young Tikka's relationship with her father.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE:  I'm a sucker for writers who can pull off a long passage and a quick, down-and-dirty beaut. Some of my favorites by McLean contain spoilers, but here are a couple of safe bits:

Then Mr. Van Apfel appeared, stepping forward with his arms outstretched and his palms to the sky as if coming in from the Lord’s outfield.

They had six femurs, ninety-nine vertebrae, three skulls and thirty fingernails. Six kneecaps, forty-eight carpal bones, and more than three million strands of blonde hair, all tinged alien-green by the chlorine in their pool which, up until the day they went missing, we’d swum in almost every single day that summer. And yet all these things vanished—just evaporated in the heat. Not a single sign was left for us.

It was a ganglion, Macedon Close. A ganglion. (I got “ganglion” from our extension spelling list in week five of term two, back when we did “The Human Body.”) That’s what our cul-de-sac was: a lump that grows in some place it shouldn’t and nobody’s really sure why.

COVER NERD SAYS:  I was attracted to this cover the instant I saw it, despite never having been a big pink person. I'm not even sure when I sat and tried to figure out the image in the font, or how long it took me. The image is there if you look, but the girl has really disappeared into the font, just like the Van Apfel sisters. Clean and striking, this cover does a great job with a title that could be tricky, and thankfully didn't fall prey to the overused theme of girls/women seen from behind running into dark woods, which could easily have been done here. Kudos. 

A FRIEND IS A GIFT YOU GIVE YOURSELF :: William Boyle

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is republished here with permission.

Rena Ruggiero was a good Brooklyn mob wife. A regular churchgoer, she stayed out of Gentle Vic's business and has lived a quiet life since he was gunned down. Then Enzio, with "earlobes that dangle like melted coins," makes a pass at her. After fighting back, she steals his impeccable Impala and flees. Rena runs to the Bronx, to the home of her estranged daughter, Adrienne, and 15-year-old granddaughter, Lucia. Rejected, Rena is invited in by fireball neighbor Lacey Wolfstein, a former x-rated actress who moved in across the street after a stint hustling cash from rich men in Florida.

Things go spectacularly sideways when one of Wolfie's old marks shows up, as does Richie Schiavano, Vic's former right-hand man, who has knocked off a mob sit-down and stolen a briefcase full of cash to fund a future with Adrienne and Lucia. The confrontation at Wolfie's gets deadly when a sledgehammer-wielding gangster comes after Richie. Believing in the titular Robert Louis Stevenson quote, "A friend is a gift you give yourself," Wolfie takes Rena and Lucia under her street-smart wing and on the run.

William Boyle's work (Gravesend, The Lonely Witness) is some of the finest in crime fiction and while he ticks every box each time out, the emphasis changes. Character and nonstop action are gloriously on the rampage here, as three very different women join forces to survive high-speed car chases, crashes, shootings, violent men and general bedlam. Boyle's dialogue snaps and his sense of place is top-notch. This roller-coaster madcap tragicomedy is a great gift to give yourself.

STREET SENSE: After writing this review, I saw William Boyle describe it as "screwball noir," and now I'm bereft I didn't think of or use that phrasing, because it's perfect. This unusual trio of women on the run after an evening gone awry is well worth checking out

A FAVORITE PASSAGE:  There are so many great quotables in this book, both long and short. Some had meaning to the plot, others to me specifically, many just life in general. I pulled a couple short ones that stuck:

Praise be random adventures. Praise be survival. Praise be not having a plan.

*  *  * 

We're all unfinished wreckage. Whatever's not dead is fixable.

COVER NERD SAYS: Huge fan of this cover and Boyle's covers in general, which are now very thematically similar. If they keep with this format, I will recognize a William Boyle book on a bookstore table or shelf without even reading the words. Lean, mean, smart and gorgeous.

ALL THE WAY DOWN :: Eric Beetner

I took a break to read a book from my own stack and Eric Beetner's All the Way Down was at the top of the list. Whenever I read Eric's latest work, I do two things merely for my own giggles:

1. Note the page the action starts.
2. Make a list of non-conventional weapons.

All the Way Down is a ton of fun and I blew through it in a couple of sittings. What's not to love about a series of death matches featuring a disgraced cop, a tough young reporter, a drug lord and his minions (and his mommy, for awesomeness's sake), crooked politicians (excuse the redundancy), a pregnant wife on the run, a bunch of double-crossers and an office building fortress filled with floor upon floor of perilous surprises?

When Detective Dale Burnett is called in to see the chief, he knows the jig is up. His little deals on the side slowly snowballed until he became a dirty cop. Prepared to kiss his life and career goodbye, Dale is surprised when he's given a reprieve with one major caveat - the mayor's daughter is being held captive by crime kingpin Tautolo "Tat" Losopo and Dale has to "storm the castle" of Tat's skyscraper turned drug empire stronghold and get her out.

Since Tat is part of the reason Dale went bad, he figures he'll show up and talk some sense into the drug lord, who is upset about some new anti-drug legislation the mayor is pushing. If you hadn't noticed, this is an Eric Beetner novel, so things for Dale go from bad to worse to worst rather quickly. By page 16, to be exact (unless you count "going bad" as getting called in by the chief, which would take us back to page one).

Turns out the mayor's daughter is pretty fierce, and soon she's fighting alongside Dale to run the gauntlet of lethal pitfalls between Tat's top story office and the lobby. Unfortunately, Dale is feeling some added pressure since Tat sicked his goons on Dale's wife Dahlia.

There's a ton going on with the various plot arcs, but Beetner never loses control of the action. One of the things I love most about Eric's work is he pays little attention to gender when it comes to whether his characters are fighters or retreaters. He respects and disrespects everyone in equal measure. It's all pulpy fun and violence, with plenty of women getting into the fisticuffs. And sometimes the men can't fight any more efficiently than a hair-pull.

Each floor of Tat's building is another level of the Happiest Place on Earth at Gangsterland, but the action is just as good on Dahlia's end. Don't fall in love with any of the characters, because Eric is, as usual, ruthless with their survival rates.

STREET SENSE: A non-stop E-ticket ride, All the Way Down is one of my Beetner favorites. Tons of action and characters to root for (and against) for as long as they might survive. One of these days I'm going to see if you really can karate kick while wearing stiletto heels and a mini-dress (who are we kidding, I'm NOT, but it's fun to read about). I'm also anxious to try the "poor man's handcuffs." Any takers?

A FAVORITE PASSAGE: "Everything in the world is a weapon if you use it like one."

Simple, but perhaps my favorite tenet of the Beetner bible (along with "Really, how many torture rooms do you need?" "Don't you dare shoot that fucking dog," and "How much worse could it get?"). My count was 14 unconventional weapons. I'd tell you my favorite, but I don't want to spoil the fun.

COVER NERD SAYS: Eric's covers are always great and this one is no different. The image angle is great and provides a sense of power and foreboding. I love the font tricks that bring motion to the cover in an almost elevator-like fashion. The choice of author name angle and placement also really adds to the visual appeal of this cover, which is overall quite super. I'm not sure the tag lines add much and would have preferred those moved to the back cover, but I'm a cantankerous minimalist nit-picker.

THE LONELY WITNESS :: William Boyle

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is reprinted here with permission.

William Boyle's The Lonely Witness is a knockout combination of in-depth character work, Brooklyn atmosphere and straight-up gritty noir. The devotion Boyle (Gravesend) demonstrates for character, story and place is perhaps the one unadulterated emotion on display in a story imbued with ambiguous morality and loyalty.

When Amy Falconetti's girlfriend Alessandra leaves her to pursue a career in Hollywood, she rebounds by quitting her bar job, ditching her semi-goth style, moving into a basement apartment and returning to church. Wanting to be of service, Amy volunteers as a Eucharistic minister, providing communion to house-bound parishioners. When elderly Mrs. Epifanio expresses concern that her caregiver's son Victor has been coming in her stead and shutting himself in Mrs. E's bedroom, Amy takes it upon herself to investigate.

Surreptitiously trailing Victor stirs up Amy's childhood recollections of repeatedly following a neighbor she witnessed committing an act of violence. Tracking Victor provides a sense of control over her present turmoil and traumatic memories, but Amy is soon caught up in a risky game she can't, and might not want to, escape.

Boyle beautifully uses the first half of the narrative to set the stage for a volatile, fast-moving back end. The potential cost of Amy continuing her behavior is ramped up by the sudden return of Alessandra and the appearance of Amy's long-thought-dead father, who is willing to do anything to earn her favor.

STREET SENSE:  The Lonely Witness is a fabulous character piece wrapped in layers of intrigue and subterfuge.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE:  I'm hard to please when it comes to writing about atmosphere and sense of place, and since Boyle kicked atmosphere's ass (it became one of my favorite facets of the book), I thought that's what I would share:

The avenue is crowded and alive, but it seems to be dying at the same time. Closed riot gates full of rust and graffiti. Battered El columns in the street spidering along endlessly. People tossing away their garbage as they walk--abandoned scratch-offs, beer cans in brown paper bags, pages from a child's coloring book. Half-hearted new construction projects all around, paired with a roof caving in here, a broken window there. Graffiti over a beautiful half-hidden old shoe store sign. Everything feeling partly poisonous. Or poisoned. Here are men with decaying teeth, with decaying smiles, and women trudging along with their shoulders hunched. A bike without wheels is chained to a lamppost.

COVER NERD SAYS: I dig it. Love the moodiness of the image, which is perfect for the content. The typeface size, font and palette all meld with and stand out from (without distracting from, a very fine edge to walk) the image. And the lonely "O." This is great cover work that seems to have been well thought out, and I'm sure there are aspects of it I'm missing.

THE LITERARY STRIKEOUT

Sometimes, as much as you might think a book is smack in the middle of your wheelhouse, straight hard cheese down the middle of the plate, you swing and miss. The titles below are three I recently whiffed on, sending me back to the dugout with my head hung and bat dragging behind me, alone in the reading minority. (Warning: The baseball metaphors don't end in the introduction.)

H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald

In hindsight, I probably should have known better about this one. While I was all in for the forging of a connection between the author and her goshawk, I blinded myself to the downside: Mabel was bred in captivity to kill for a master. I finished, but the upside of being able to dispatch an injured rabbit because of the need for the skill (so Mabel didn't eat her quarry alive) kind of took the glow off. I found parts of the book fascinating and educational, just not for me. Strike one. (Even though, very little known fact, I dated a guy in college who was a falconer. Super cute and funny=I overlooked the dead chicks in the freezer for as long as I could. Spoiler alert - not long.)



The Hearts of Men, by Nickolas Butler

Since I loved Shotgun Lovesongs and Beneath the Bonfire with the heat of 1,000 suns, Butler became an author I would read without knowing anything about his latest work. That just bit me in the ass, though I would have picked up Hearts even after reading the summary. It *sounded* great, but the execution didn't work for me. I loved (yet hated, because mean kids suck) the first section and was engrossed in the premise of seeing how Nelson would respond, what his life would become, after camp. But then I got a looping curveball that took me off to visit other characters I really didn't enjoy reading about. It all came back around, but by that time I was just going through the motions and the ultimate shocking event seemed contrived and more than a bit eye-rolling. I'll still go back for Butler's next offering, but right now I'm sitting on an 0-2 count.


Our Kind of Cruelty, by Araminta Hall

I was so in for this one. I admit it, the Gillian Flynn blurb got me. I'm not even sure where/when I saw it, because I am not a blurb-reader. Weird as it may seem, I love spending time in the mind of a well-written narcissistic sociopath. [Deleted great line about the biggest one in my life]. I found Mike Hayes fascinating and was impressed with the job Hall did writing from his head. Here's the gist: Mike and his ex-girlfriend V played a game called Crave. They would go out, super attractive V would sit by herself until someone hit on her, at which time Mike would intercede and they would go off to have hot sex somewhere nearby. When V breaks up with Mike and becomes engaged to another man, he is certain she has just taken the game to the next level and he continues to play. It's a fantastic concept and for the first half of the book I was transfixed. But by 3/4 of the way through it felt a bit old and the twist I was hoping for never really twisted. The ultimate question of "Was she playing or wasn't she?" aside, it felt like it went off into a statement on victim-shaming that didn't really fit for me. Strike three, I'm out.

THE SAVAGE :: Frank Bill

When Frank Bill writes something new I pay little attention to what it is, I just sign up and strap in. When I cracked open The Savage, I was immediately taken aback and gleefully entranced. Frank Bill, master of the nitty-gritty here and now of working class America is taking on the nitty-gritty of a future gone horribly awry. It's a very timely look at an America that might have seemed untenable a mere year ago, but now feels like an all-too-near fork in the road.

A follow-up to the bare-knuckled badassery of Donnybrook (currently being made into a motion picture, praise 9 pound, 8 ounce sweet baby Jesus), The Savage is set only several years on but light years away. The U.S. dollar is worthless, the power grid useless and power-and-land-hungry hordes are savaging what and who remains.

Against a kill-or-be-killed backdrop, Bill explores the competing interests of (mostly) men living in the madness and how they survive in light of their histories and what type of men their respective fathers taught them to be. One of the things I love about Frank Bill is the reverence he pays to those who work with their hands and ply a trade. The theme of how sad and dangerous it is to continue to destroy and leave that part of us behind runs deep in his writing.

The Savage is soaked in vengeance and unapologetic violence, and Bill easily holds the World Record for the number of different ways to describe a bullet separating mind from matter. His form and cadence vary like jabs and hooks and stray gloriously from the "norm," always with a sure foot beneath them. As cliche as it is to say Bill has a unique voice, I have a hard time describing his style. The best I can do is to liken it to watching Ali fight or listening to him speak. It is a savage ballet that twists your brain with its creativity and leaves you in wonderment. 

STREET SENSE: If you're a fan of the grit lit, do not hesitate, Frank Bill is a master.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE:  I really want to list a few of my favorite bullet-meets-bone descriptions, but those should not be spoiled. I used almost a full tin of book darts marking passages in this book, and to avoid having to make a difficult choice I'm going to quote from the opening, which provides a look at what goes down for the next (almost) 400 glorious pages.

They wanted change, so they'd taken out the grids, the world's power switch, eliminating lights, sounds, and anything that warranted electricity and what followed was the images of men being kneeled in front of women and children, homes besieged by flame, a pistol or rifle indenting a face enraged by fear, hurt, and anger. Trigger pulled. Brain, skull, and hair fertilizing the soil with departure. One man's life taken by another without mercy.

COVER NERD SAYS:  I was pulled to this cover at first sight. It's simple yet piques the curiosity. I'm always a fan of clean, stark imagery, and this cover does that superbly while also pairing well with the paperback cover of Donnybrook. I might have been able to nail this as a Frank Bill book just by looking, and that's a good thing.

  

INHERIT THE BONES :: Emily Littlejohn

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is reprinted here with permission. The paperback edition comes out on October 24, 2017.

"This town loses more good boys than it keeps."

Fair warning: this book includes a clown. The clown is good and dead, if that helps, and it's Deputy Gemma Monroe's job to figure out who killed him in Emily Littlejohn's fantastic debut mystery, Inherit the Bones. When the identity of the traveling circus performer is discovered, the small town of Cedar Valley, Colorado is rocked by secrets that have been buried for decades.

In the summer of 1985, young cousins Tommy and Andrew McKenzie disappeared. That same summer, a woman's body was found dumped on a riverbank. Neither mystery was ever solved. More recently, the mayor's son slipped off a cliff and vanished into the raging water below, there one minute and gone the next. The dead clown is simply the newest addition to Cedar Valley's tragic history:

When tragedy strikes a small town, it leaves a scar that never heals. Months and years may pass and the scar may fade, but it never goes away. It becomes part of the town, marking it as different, a permanent reminder of what may have been, what could have been.

Along with a partner she doesn't fully trust and a freshly minted recruit, a very pregnant Gemma must mine the town's past crimes in order to solve its most recent. There's always danger to be had when digging up old secrets in a small town, and the investigation will heap more misfortune on everyone attached to them before it's over.

Inherit the Bones is a super debut that will leave readers wanting more from Littlejohn's impressively diverse cast of characters (including a Native American deputy, a female medical examiner of Iranian descent and a Latino Chief), each presented with intriguing depth without distracting from the action. Littlejohn's prose deftly moves the investigation forward, yet is often laced with moments of insightful beauty:

Most of what remained of the posters were small corners and narrow strips of paper, the glue and tape pressed so hard to the telephone poles and storefront windows you could feel the panic and urgency with which they had been plastered up.

The story arcs grow perilously in number, and I was a bit concerned the whole was going to lose its boundaries and get muddled. Although a few plot lines still felt a bit extraneous, as if setting the stage for further installments in the series, Littlejohn did pull the mysteries together in fine fashion. This a group of characters I am anxious to revisit.

STREET SENSE: Debut mysteries are like mysteries inside mysteries. Is the author's writing style going to speak to me? Will the plot hold up substantively while keeping me interested? Will I want to invest in the characters? The answer to all of these questions in this instance are a resounding "Yes." Emily Littlejohn is an author that stays on my list.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE:  The poster quote above is actually my favorite, but this one is also a good'un (maybe simply because I hope it's true):

"The world is full of monsters. It always has been. For every monster, there are a hundred heroes. Mankind simply could not survive if the bad guys outnumbered the good guys; you know that, you live that truth every day in your chosen field."

COVER NERD SAYS: This was a rare instance where I didn't pick the book by its cover. I hadn't seen the cover when I received it, but I think it's one that would have caught my eye. There's not much unique about a person/woman standing in the woods (the woman running from behind is actually getting a little tiresome in cover land), but I like the lack of focus in the image that evokes movement--not just movement, but urgent or frantic movement. It's the kind of touch that can turn a simple picture of a person in the woods into something interesting, making me want to crack the cover and see what's inside.

A NEGRO AND AN OFAY :: Danny Gardner

This review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is republished here with permission.

Screenwriter Danny Gardner is a professional comedian, but his debut novel, A Negro and an Ofay: The Tales of Elliot Caprice, is no joke. Gardner's powerful themes are infused with just the right humorous undertones, rendering A Negro and an Ofay historical crime fiction at its hardboiled best. 

The tale of Elliot Caprice has been a mixed-bag from the jump. Son of an interracial couple who can pass for white, Elliot was abandoned to his black uncle and taken under the wing of a Jewish loan shark in his hometown of Southville, Illinois. Elliot's shady background and self-doubt combine with his military and Chicago PD service to leave him with a foot on both sides of the line and no safe space to reside.

Returning home in semi-disgrace in 1952, Elliot finds his uncle lying ill in a flophouse and the family farm in foreclosure. Determined to keep the property, Elliot takes a job as a process-server. Given the opportunity for a large payday on the side, Elliot ends up embroiled in the multi-faceted fight over a powerful businessman's estate.

Elliot's story is told from his perspective and is mostly about men--blends of friend, foe, hero and villain--yet women are really at the heart of the matter, beginning with Elliot's mother and what her departure meant for her son. Raw and intimate, violent and intense, Gardner's dialogue buzzes with authenticity, highlighted by Elliot's chameleon-like code-switching. A fast-moving crime novel with a soul, Gardner's coming out party is a dead-bang winner.

STREET SENSE:  A great new addition to the crime fiction family. I'm looking forward to more of Elliot's tales, but especially more of Gardner's kickass women characters.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE:  Frank had performed the heavy lifting all by himself, moving all the furniture back to its proper place. The last thing he moved was the sofa, which he collapsed upon from exhaustion. His long legs hung off the edges. He wanted to continue working out of gratitude, figured he would only catch a breather, but in seconds, he snored softly. It was a quiet murmur of comfort, his dangling feet not cousin to hands draped across prison bars, but brother to young legs swaying off a porch swing. 

COVER NERD SAYS: The first reason I wanted to read this book was Danny. I wanted to find out what that mind would put on paper. The second reason was the cover of the book. What a beauty. Maybe I'm a sucker for things that look aged and/or from a simpler time (and yet, things are never really simpler and buying used things creeps me out--go figure), but I would have been drawn to this cover in any bookstore in any universe. This is a piece of art I would hang on my wall. A-plus. 

THE HEAVENS MAY FALL :: Allen Eskens

Allen Eskens is dastardly. In The Heavens May Fall, he gives us two upstanding, likable, root-for-til-the-end characters--criminal law professor Boady Standen and his best friend, Detective Max Rupert--and puts them at odds. Boady and Max have played roles in Eskens' prior novels (The Life We Bury, The Guise of Another), but they take center stage in this dogfight over the murder of a wealthy foundation director, each bringing personal demons to the legal battle that threatens to end their relationship.

The victim's husband, Ben Pruitt, is Boady's former law partner, and Boady agrees to represent him despite having retired from practice following a devastating loss. Max and Ben also have a history, but it's far from warm and fuzzy. Boady is certain his friend is innocent; Max is burning to prove Ben's alibi is not as airtight as it seems. Though he's zeroed in on Ben as the killer, Max may be falling victim to tunnel vision and the emotions raised by the anniversary of his wife's death.

Two heroes working at cross-purposes on a high-profile case ingeniously ratchets the tension over where the chips will fall. One of these good men is wrong. The story is told from competing perspectives, with Boady and Max each working steadfastly toward what he believes is justice. Eskens keeps the pace brisk, the plotting tight. His criminal law acumen is evident in compelling courtroom scenes. The short chapters in this thrilling mystery will have readers just-one-more-ing well past bedtime.


A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is reprinted here with permission.

COFFIN ROAD :: Peter May

Peter May returns to the Outer Hebrides, the setting of his mesmerizing Lewis Trilogy, with his new standalone novel Coffin Road. The Hebrides is rugged land that takes on a life of its own in May’s masterful hands, and one morning its churning ocean spits a man onto the beach after taking his memory. With few clues, he has to figure out who he is, what he's doing on the Isle of Harris, and who doesn't want him doing it.

Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, a troubled young girl digs into the cause of her father's suicide and a detective investigates a bludgeoned body found at a remote lighthouse station. Soon the amnesiac, the detective and the teenager are caught up in high stakes mysteries fraught with the potential for violence and a fascinating (and non-preaching) environmental issue at their core.

May is second to none when it comes to sense of place. He writes landscape so artfully even paragraphs-long descriptions don't detract from the pace of this thriller:

"And now I am aware of the wind. Tugging at my clothes, sending myriad grains of sand in a veil of whisper-thin gauze across the beach in currents and eddies, like water."

May's lyrical writing brings full color to the scenery and the narrative intrigues from start to finish as the three arcs begin to intertwine and race to a final showdown. Coffin Road is an atmospheric thriller that delves into issues of identity, sacrifice and the greater good.

STREET SENSE: With Coffin Road, May has gifted his readers with another engaging mystery infused with the personality of the Hebrides as only he can write it.  

A FAVORITE PASSAGE: With the rain running down my face, it would be hard to tell if I was crying. And if I were to cry, they would be tears of pure frustration. Along with the return, perhaps, of fear. For the rock of certainty on which I have built my hopes turns out to have been the same of self-deception.

COVER NERD SAYS: When a friend (hi, Shaina!) saw this book reviewed in Shelf Awareness she thought to herself, "Hmm, this looks like a book that Lauren would review." Which is both totally uncanny and cool and also tells me perhaps I'm a bit too easy to read. It's no secret I like the dark stuff, so it's not going to shock you to learn that I love this cover. All of May's covers, actually, since the publisher has started giving them all a similar look. I think this is a smart move, creating a cover theme that readers can look at and recognize as an author they enjoy. This one is as dark and brooding as its innards and I'm looking forward to the next time I can spot one like it in upcoming releases. (Disclosure: It feels like it's 8 million o'clock right now, so that is quite rambly and perhaps doesn't even make sense, but there you have it.)

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness.

LEADFOOT :: Eric Beetner

I am woefully behind on my personal reviews due to the state of the universe at the moment, but I didn't want to miss the release of Eric's new entry in the McGraw series, Leadfoot. You can peruse my love of the McGraw drama here, where I discuss the first book, Rumrunners. This series is high-octane family fun, and Leadfoot is out TODAY, so go get yourself a copy.

"Why do I feel like I'm a pilot on the Enola Gay?"

Leadfoot heads back to 1971 Southeast Iowa to share a bit of the lore about how the McGraws became THE MCGRAWS. Calvin has already established himself as a reliable transporter for the Stanley family criminal empire (by Iowan standards), but his nineteen-year-old son Webb is just getting his feet wet in the family business.

When a transport ends up with bullets flying and a Stanley employee taking a hit, the family hits back at their rivals, the Cantrells. Of course, poor Calvin, who just tries to do his job and stay out of the way ("Never open the package" is the McGraw motto) ends up in the crosshairs of a crime family war.

Although Calvin is tied up trying to stay alive while dealing with messes created by one or more of the Stanley brothers (I'm talking to you, Kirby), Hugh Stanley still has jobs to get done. The need for more McGraws means Webb is about to get his first transport job: go to St. Louis to pick up a girl and bring her back to Hugh.

Naturally, and thankfully, everything goes haywire, and the McGraws all have to rely on their skills and moxie to make sure they come out on top. Leadfoot is full of fast-driving, gun play, explosives and a little bit of torture thrown in for good measure. But it's the theme of family winding through Leadfoot from start to finish that gives it its heart. The Stanleys and the McGraws are very different kinds of families, but each a family that does what it has to do to survive.

I loved Leadfoot's peek into the McGraw homefront. It brought a lot of depth and sweetness (sorry, Eric) to the fray and Calvin's relationship with his wife Dorothy was a great way to shine further light on the McGraw innards. The McGraw men may be the outlaws, but it's Dorothy - "early forties, housewife, General Hospital fan" - who is the most kickass of the McGraws.

STREET SENSE:  Leadfoot is a fast and fun second chapter in what this reader hopes is a long book of McGraw stories from all eras.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE:  Near the river, in a flat industrial square made of brick, a half dozen men were about to die. They made the mistake of taking a job as criminals and as such they followed orders and set up shop in a state not their own. Calvin crossed a small bridge, saw the cluster of abandoned storage facilities and one-time factories, and wished these kids had just stayed home in Nebraska.

COVER NERD SAYS:  280 Steps does a fantastic job with their cover work. I loved the cover of Rumrunners and love the cover of Leadfoot, which carries the theme through in great measure. These are great pulpy covers that provide a perfect feel for what's inside. They are artworks that evoke a bit of a movie poster and and I would happily hang them on my wall.

HELL FIRE :: Karin Fossum

"It was always the small things, the links between people and where they could lead."

Karin Fossum is one of crime fiction's gems, and Hell Fire continues the stellar Inspector Konrad Sejer series set in her native Norway. By all accounts, Bonnie Hayden is simply a single mother eking out a living as a caretaker, beloved by her elderly clientele. But someone was enraged enough to butcher Bonnie and her young son in an abandoned camper, and Inspector Sejer must apprehend the monster with little in the way of evidence.

Alternating between the investigation and the months before the murders, Sejer's perspective is deftly woven with those of Bonnie and the Malthes, Mass and her co-dependent twenty-one-year-old son Eddie. Eddie, though not formally diagnosed, is troubled and obsessed with death. He searches the internet for execution methods, dreams of frying newborn chicks and tries desperately to find his father's grave. A connection between the families may begin to seem ominously obvious, but Fossum is crafty enough to create doubt.

Fossum doesn't normalize violence, and while Sejer takes a secondary role in the plot, he is used effectively to show the impact of brutality on those in its wake. Hell Fire is more a compelling study of character and hardscrabble living than a strict procedural, and even the most dismal scenes and mundane tasks are absorbing. The plot is a tight, slow burn that details the hardships of two mothers and their sons, putting them through the wringer as the date of the murders approaches and their lives intersect.

STREET SENSE: Hell Fire reads like a documentary view of life on society's fringes. I appreciated Fossum's real-world view. There are no superheroes here, no fantastical discovery or event that makes this story sensational. It's gritty reality, from both ends of the murder. This is the first of Fossum's Inspector Sejer series that I've read, but it certainly won't be the last.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE: Bonnie looked at his large white ear, and thought suddenly that it reminded her of a beautiful conch shell. She wondered, if she put her ear to his, whether she would hear the sound of his long life. Which was over now.

COVER NERD SAYS:  Hell Fire's cover is somewhat plain and basic, yet the fire image remains provocative. I think Fossum's name might be the biggest draw here, so couldn't argue with a larger font on that front, even though I really like the way her name sits on this cover. The fiery image alone would probably get me to pick this one up, but wouldn't be enough to get me to purchase it without knowing more.

A version of this review originally appeared in Shelf Awareness and is reprinted here with permission.

BLOOD WEDDING :: Pierre Lemaitre

"I am afraid. The dead are surfacing. In the darkness. I can count them one by one. In the darkness, I see them sitting at a table, side by side. In the darkness."

Pierre Lemaitre has one of the most wonderfully twisted minds of crime fiction and the psychological thriller. On the heels of his award-winning Commandant Verhoeven trilogy (Alex, Irene and Camille, two of which won the prestigious CWA International Dagger Award), Lemaitre has written a tremendous standalone novel in Blood Wedding.

Sophie Duguet is losing her mind. She's forgetting things (where she parked her car, the date she and her husband have theater tickets, items she put in her purse while shopping), becoming uncharacteristically unreliable, and spiraling into depression and paranoia. Worse, the visions she has of hurting people start playing out in real life.

When the bodies connected to Sophie start adding up, she goes on the run, changing her name and location repeatedly to stay ahead of the authorities. Safety is hard to come by when she doesn't understand what she's running from, but as Sophie looks back she begins to figure out she’s up against more than her own mind. Unsettling and smart, Blood Wedding is intricately plotted along parallel timelines, and the screws tighten skillfully as Lemaitre winds through Sophie’s nightmare and toward the ultimate reveal.

Lemaitre's work is inspired and disturbing and can't be trusted. With precise yet elegant prose, he manipulates and unnerves. Like Sophie, the only thing the reader can be sure of is that things aren’t what they seem. Although Lemaitre’s work is not normally for the faint of heart, Blood Wedding is more about psychology than violence and thus relatively safe for the squeamish.

STREET SENSE: If you are a fan of the psychological thriller, of being held in suspense along with your protagonist and not knowing what's happening under the surface, grab this one. If you like a bit of twisted with your thriller, grab this one. Lemaitre is a master. If you're into crime fiction, read the trilogy. Read any Lemaitre, an author this good should be more well-known here in the U.S.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE:  Sophie never measures the years since she first went mad. It goes back too far. Perhaps because of the anguish involved, she feels the years count double. It began as a gradual descent, but as the months passed she be an to feel she was on a toboggan, hurtling downhill. Sophie was married then. It was a time before...all this...A therapist suggested a spell in the hospital. She refused, until death arrived, uninvited, to join her madness.

COVER NERD SAYS:  Lemaitre's covers are usually quite simple, a single image against a dark background. I'm not a huge fan of the single flower covers, which seem to have flooded the cover market as of late. However, I do like the fact that this dark red rose is tinged with black, and I love what they've done with Lemaitre's name. Overall I think the cover is ominously effective, I just wish the image was something other than a flower.

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is reprinted here with permission.