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Tana French is one of the best crime writers working today. Her prose is stunningly good, complex yet eminently readable. However, no one can write well enough to make a weak plot plausible. French’s scintillating prose was the only thing that led me to finish this very poorly plotted story. I knew the plot wasn’t going to work in the first 100 pages, and sadly, the next 500 bore out that conclusion. I expect the great length of the book was because the author used every artifice at her command to make the story work, but it just didn’t happen. Cassie Maddox is a former Dublin Murder Squad member and former undercover policewoman. When a woman who looks just like her is found murdered, Cassie goes undercover to find her killer. Not only was the vic Cassie’s double, she had also taken the same name that Cassie used as an undercover. Huh? Is your credulity strained yet? Just wait. Cassie goes to live with the victim’s roommates, a collection of oddball college students who live as a family in an old mansion in the outskirts of a rural village outside Dublin. She manages to convince four people who knew her doppelganger intimately that she is their roomie, successfully posing as a PhD student in English literature at Trinity College, even though she has only a BA. Her housemates are all English grad students too, yet do not see through her. Cassie wears a microphone the whole time and carries a revolver under her clothes, which nobody spots. She goes for an hour walk late each evening so she can sit in a tree and have long phone convos with her police colleagues. Her housemates suspect nothing. In the copy I read, it took 500 pages for the situation to come to a head. I frankly don’t see how any competent developmental editor would have allowed this. The ending was expected, lackluster and unbelievable. Tana French’s prose is always a joy, and is the only reason I gave this book as many as three stars. It’s a shame such great writing had to be wasted on such a poor story.
Three new volumes of the wildly successful MX Books of New Sherlock Holmes Stories will soon be released by MX Publishing. The release will comprise parts XXII, XXIII, and XXIV. With this release, the series has grown to over 500 new Holmes adventures by nearly 250 contributors from around the world. The theme is Some More Untold Tales, meaning adventures that were alluded to in the original stories by Sir Artur Conan Doyle, but that he never got around to writing. My new story, Another Case of Identity, will be found in Part XXIV.
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories was first published in 2015. It was a huge three-book set featuring over sixty new traditional Holmes exploits, all set within the correct time period. It was wildly successful, sparking the demand for even more traditional Holmes adventures
Each volume in the latest release contains forwards by the noted Sherlockians Otto Penzler, Roger Johnson, Lizzy Butler, Steve Emecz, and David Marcum, as well as stories by the following contributors:
Part XXII: 1877-1887
S.F. Bennett, William Todd, Geri Schear, Susan Knight, David Marcum, Bob Bishop, Tracy J. Revels, Chris Chan, Richard Paolinelli, Derrick Belanger, Stephen Mason, Leslie Charteris and Denis Green, Tim Symonds, Liese Sherwood-Fabre, Ian Ableson, Chris Chan, Mark Mower, Robert Stapleton, Roger Riccard, Kevin P. Thornton, and Denis O. Smith , and a poem by Christopher James
Part XXIII: 1887-1894
Will Murray (2 stories), Tim Gambrell (2 stories), Craig Janacek, I.A. Watson, Jane Rubino, Paul Hiscock, Hugh Ashton, Mike Chinn, Shane Simmons, Dacre Stoker and Leverett Butts, David Marcum, Matthew J. Elliott, Paul D. Gilbert, Tracy J. Revels, Margaret Walsh, Arthur Hall, Barry Clay, Steven Philip Jones, Jan van Koningsveld, and Marcia Wilson, and a poem by John Linwood Grant
Part XXIV: 1895-1903
Marcia Wilson, Brenda Seabrooke, Stephen Herczeg, Tracy J. Revels, Kevin P. Thornton, Thomas A. Burns, Jr., Dick Gillman, Jayantika Ganguly, John Davis, DJ Tyrer, Harry DeMaio, Arthur Hall (2 stories), Susan Knight, David Marcum, Craig Stephen Copland (2 stories), Gayle Lange Puhl, John Lawrence, John Linwood Grant, and Paula Hammond, and a poem by Joseph W. Svec III
The series is particularly noteworthy because all of the stories are strictly canonical – there are no anachronisms, supernatural events, or other occurrences not justified by Doyle’s original stories. Any of the stories in these volumes could have appeared in the Strand Magazine. Holmes and Watson are portrayed as the Victorian gentlemen and heroes that they were; not as the caricatures so prominent in other modern depictions.
This series was conceived as a philanthropic project; all contributor royalties go to the Stepping Stones School for special needs children at Undershaw, one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former homes in the UK. To date the project has raised nearly $70,000 for the school. The collection has had some very famous authors contribute to it, including Lee Child, Jonathan Kellerman, Lyndsay Faye, Bonnie MacBird and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The link for the Kickstarter is below. Please follow it and reserve your copies now!
The audible version of Revenge! has gotten it’s first review, by Kara.
Intense mystery/thriller with terrific narration
“Revenge! (Natalie McMasters Mysteries #2)” is an intense mystery/thriller. And when I use the word “intense” here, I mean “OMG the despicable evils that people are capable are the center of Natalie’s life”.
If you like thrillers with graphic descriptions of rape, torture, animal cruelty, arson and murder, you’re going to love this book. I considered book 1 intense, but the intensity was dialed up from 10 to 10,000 here, and it was for me, frankly, too intense. I enjoy graphic violence occasionally, but in sci-fi or paranormal contexts, where it rarely feels “real”. As the blurb for this book says, though, book 2 is “ripped from today’s headlines”, and the violence feels very very real.
Ok, trigger warnings etc are now done. The story is very realistic, and very well written. The narrator did an excellent job, once again.
MC Natalie is very likable, as is her girlfriend, later wife, Lupe, and many of the other characters, including her mom, uncle, the two PI’s working at 3M (Danny and former Detective Kidd), and her wonderful counselor, Rebecca. Even the street gang leader is presented as a surprisingly likable, and realistic, character who is capable of loyalty and something close to friendship, as well as unspeakable cruelty. Just by knowing Natalie, everyone she knows becomes targeted.
The evil characters aren’t as complex as Natalie’s friends and family. They’re evil.
Throughout the story, the pressures put on many people to do unthinkable things by people in positions of authority are heartbreakingly realistic. As I write this, thinking of police corruption in this book, the all-too-real story of a retired detective and his son being arrested months after they killed a black man…months during which police and the DA did nothing until a video became available…makes it clear that so many of the violent things in this book truly are drawn from today’s headlines.
“Revenge!” will make you uncomfortable, as does the news, but it’s like driving by an accident or walking near a crime scene….you just have to listen to Natalie’s story. The book ends on a minor cliffhanger – read the blurb for book 3 and you’ll understand. Also, while Natalie realized in book 1 that she loved Lupe far more than any man she’d dated, or even been engaged to, in book 2 we get several hints that she may be more fluid than lesbian. I was curious, and read the blurb for book 4. So for reviewers who are angry that a lesbian is expressing attraction to a man; in Natalie’s case this is not a lesbian being “fixed”, this is a woman who is passionate for people she loves and body parts aren’t a critical issue for her love.
I listen to very few thrillers because of the dark realism, but every now and then I like to try something different. While I’m glad I did, I realize that dark realism isn’t something I’ll listen to lots of, but for those who enjoy it – this is a terrific book with, as I said, excellent narration. 4* for “Revenge!”.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
My rating and my review was not in anyway affected by my having been provided a review copy.
I still have promo codes for FREE copies of Revenge! and Stripper! Contact me and I send you one for each book.
Louise Luna’s Two Girls Down is an excellent, thrilling P.I. novel. Both protagonists, Cap and Vega, are well-drawn, complex characters. Cap, a disgraced former cop, is likeable and serves as the voice of reason for Vega, an ex-bounty hunter who now specializes in finding missing persons, mostly kids. Vega is has her demons, but Cap may just be the one to exorcise them in time. The plot begins as mundane but horrifying–two sisters, eight and ten disappear from a strip mall in a small Pennsylvania city. Vega, the specialist, is called in by the family who don’t trust local law enforcement, and she recruits Cap for his local knowledge. The action is believable for the most part, although Vega’s nebulous hacker, who provides the team with key info just as needed, every time, is a bit of stretch, as is the willingness of the local cops to accept Cap and Vega as partners in the investigation. The twist at the end also strains credulity a bit, but the writing is so damn good that I’m willing to let it slide. I see that Cap and Vega are going to return for a second outing in 2020, and I’ll definitely be buying that book as well.
This book was a disappointment, for several reasons. First, the story felt forced and fragmented. Some of the plot twists strained credulity and had a bit of a Deus ex machina air. Second, the author made a major gaffe, sustained over many pages, by confusing a shotgun with a rifle. I couldn’t believe this wasn’t caught by an editor in a traditionally published novel by a bestselling author from a major publishing house. The Remington Wingmaster was repeatedly referred to as a rifle and the terms caliber and gauge used interchangeably. The error was sufficiently serious and sustained to significantly detract from my enjoyment of the story. The author even thanked a source at the end of the book for educating her about shotgun terminology! Lastly, the characters’ angst actually became tiresome, mainly because they seemed to do little to overcome it. Reading about self- pity is never pleasurable. Character development was almost nil in this novel. I will read the rest of the books in the Grant County series, but I hope they’re significantly better than this one.
The newest Natalie McMasters Mystery, Trafficked! will be launched on April 1, 2019, with pre-orders beginning on Amazon on March 1. Trafficked! is presently in the final editing phase, and the ARCs will be sent out to the reviewers in late February. I am gratified by the response to my call for reviewers – there are still a few spots left on the launch team, so if you want in, drop me a line.
Here is the final back cover blurb for Trafficked!:
Bullet wounds heal, but a broken heart is something else entirely. Natalie McMasters is twenty, short and blonde (OK, it’s bleached), a way cute former stripper and a pre-law student at State. Nattie also works as a private detective at her uncle’s 3M detective agency. After her last case, in which she was nearly killed, she’s faced with a new, daunting challenge. She must trace the most important person in her life – who doesn’t want to be found – through the squalid sexworld of New York City. Even with help from old and new friends, Natalie will need more persistence and courage than she’s ever shown before if she is to prevail in her most difficult and personal challenge. Trafficked! – A Natalie McMasters Mystery is full of the action, suspense, and unexpected plot twists that Nattie’s many fans thrive on. You totally won’t be disappointed!
