Mini-Reviews of Books #31…
Ice Cold. Tess Gerritsen, author. I usually can’t afford Ms. Gerritsen’s books, so I snap one up when I see them on sale. The Rizzoli and Isles TV show doesn’t do justice to them, and this one is a gripper and a fun read.
While R & I are the main characters, it’s more about Isles than Rizzoli. The good M.E. is attending a convention in Wyoming, and she and some casual friends she encounters there get lost in a snowstorm. Surviving the cold is only part of the story, though, as we discover there are some violent bad guys in them thar hills—OK, the action mostly occurs in a valley, but you get the idea.
I always wind a good theme or two around and through my own plots, but here an important theme is the story, and to talk about it would be a spoiler. It’s a well written novel that will take you on an enjoyable roller coaster ride (maybe I should say skis and snowshoes), but don’t look for those TV characters here: they’re completely different and much more interesting.
Hey, since when does Jane have a kid? (Part of the difference, of course.)
Shoulders of Giants. Jim Cliff, author. I found this novel less serious than the above but very enjoyable too. It’s a standard mystery written in a tongue-in-cheek Parker-style (lots of name droppings of American crime fiction writers and TV shows). The main character is a new PI who gets quite a first case. There’s a love interest a la Hollywood too (I could have done without that) and a cop-buddy for the newly minted sleuth. A search for an old cop’s daughter turns into a search for a serial killer, and the killings seem random.
Good plotting, characterization, and snappy dialogue make for interesting reading, but unfortunately the editing was a wee bit lacking. And the use of a few very British terms made me wonder why Chicago was picked for the setting. Mr. Cliff is from Essex, England, so they were bound to creep in, I suppose, and I can’t and shouldn’t complain because he could probably say the same thing about my Rembrandt’s Angel with its English and Scottish settings. Maybe the anti-cultural appropriation crowd hates it when an author sets his story in another culture; I think it’s a skill to be admired and congratulate Mr. Cliff for doing the job so well.
Lots of fun, this novel makes me want to try some more of the young sleuth’s cases. Never figured out whether the title had to do with anything, though. (Maybe because I’m an ex-physicist?)
***
The Midas Bomb (Second Edition). With a plot motivated by signs of the impending financial collapse of 2007-2008, Ponzi plots, and international terrorism, this first novel in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” is as current today as it was back then. The story connects an unscrupulous hedge fund CEO with two Manhattan murders and terrorist attacks. The two detectives team up for the first time. Connecting the two murders undercovers the larger conspiracy. Available in ebook format from Amazon, Apple, B&N, Kobo, and Smashwords (and its lending affiliates) as well as in paper format from Amazon, this novel starts off the series with a bang. Good summer reading!
In libris libertas…
