Mini-Reviews of Books #42…
A Matter of Trust. Nancy Hughes, author (Black Opal Books, 2017). Kingsley’s husband goes farther than his usual trip to the convenience store and ends up in a horrible accident. She moves away from where they were living to take a job in a different bank. There she meets Todd, another new employee who’s a VIP. As head of the commercial loans department, she comes across some strange loans and wonders what’s afoot. He sleuthing becomes dangerous for her health.
Kingsley is a strong, smart female, the kind of character I like to read and write about. She takes too many chances, though, playing against her position as a staid bank-manager type. Romantic interest Todd, who has his own history along with Kingsley’s causing the romance to move forward by fits and starts, isn’t a strong character. I’m not surprised when he’s essentially absent from the story’s denouement. Kingsley’s two female friends she makes among the bank’s staff are wonderful characters on the other hand, and they join Kingsley in her sleuthing to make three musketeers who fight crime.
To limit calling the plot a classical mystery/crime story would be doing a disservice to it. I’ve never come across a similar one in my reading, it’s so original. Even with her husband’s death, it begins peacefully but builds up to a resounding climax like Ravel’s “Bolero” where this reader couldn’t flip the pages fast enough on his Kindle.
I’d call this an “evergreen” book—it will always be current. I hope other readers enjoy it as much as I did, and I’m looking forward to reading other books in the series.
Hunter’s Force. Val Penny, author (Crooked Cat Books, 2019). I’ve called Val Penny’s books the “economical Ian Rankin.” (She shouldn’t be confused with Louise Penny. Val’s inspector is Hunter Wilson; Louise’s is Gamache. Val’s stories take place in Edinburgh; Louise’s in Quebec.) First, they also take place in Edinburgh where Rankin’s Inspector Rebus hangs out. Second, they’re both mysteries and police procedurals. And third, I can’t afford Rankin (or Louise Penny, for that matter), but I can afford Val Penny. Unfortunately this third book in the series isn’t as good as the first two.
A Ukrainian crime boss’ daughter ends up living in Hunter’s son’s flat, and then she ends up dead there. The father learned American English, not British, so he mixed up the floor numbers (Americans say ground level is the first floor while Brits just call it the ground floor, with American’s number two being the Brits’ number one, etc.)
There are multiple subplots weaving in and around the main one of finding who killed the daughter—the mobster’s business interests in Edinburgh, and the continuing sagas of coppers and lowlifes from previous books. Somehow the author is losing the grittiness that made me compare her writing favorably with Rankin’s. I hope she recovers that.
Hunter’s force is the group of coppers who set out to solve the crime, led by Hunter Wilson. They have to work within a new system now because the Scots integrated all the police forces. It’s a bit like the NYPD being a local group that’s part of the FBI, ATF, and so forth. I wonder how Rankin deals with this.
This is still a fun read, though, that gave me an acceptable fix in my addiction to Brit-style crime mysteries. It’s also gritty enough not to be on Hallmark or PBS.
Landfall. John McWilliams, author (John McWilliams, 2015). I found this one night searching for “space opera” on Amazon. It’s a lot of fun, but you might guess it’s not great sci-fi—no reasonable extrapolations o current technology here (but believers in the power of crystals might love it).
Jan Lee is a scientist-industrialist (channeling Elon Musk?) in the near future—rich, brilliant, and the main character, in that near future and thirty years later. He comes up with a theory that uses both advanced and retarded waves (yep, you can describe any electromagnetic wave as a superposition of them) to send messages between the present and the future. He even designs an experiment to test the theory. The story is about the experiment, which becomes very complicated.
Surprise! Both the Americans and Russians want this technology and the experimental results—the Message—believing that it will allow them to download advance tech from the future and rule the world. Of course, in the past, that near future, Jan Lee must fight them. He’s a martial arts expert as well as a scientist-industrialist (Bruce Lee in space? Iron Man?). He blows up the International Space Station so neither Americans nor Russians can have the tech.
Thirty years in the future from that near future, Lauren and Ellis, two FBI agents, are on a special mission to find the reentry vehicle that Jan Lee made his escape in. Is Jan Lee alive? The agents and readers will ask that.
Ignoring the advanced/retarded wave nonsense and the Monty Hall references, there are many things wrong with this story. First, Amazon can’t decide whether it’s sci-fi or a thriller—there’s nothing wrong with the combo, but it isn’t the definition of “space opera” (Amazon strikes again?). Second, the jumping back and forth between near and far future is a bit confusing. The near-future part is written in the present tense and the far-future part is written in the past tense. Third, the time-travel paradoxes aren’t avoided here. Finally, the ending isn’t done well—the author essentially creates a cliff-hanger so readers will buy the books that follow (that doesn’t work with me).
If you can live with all this, have at it.
***
Comments are always welcome.
The Last Humans. “I found it amazing how many murderers think weighing a body in deep water or tossing a murder weapon there will hide their nefarious deeds. Not if Penny can help it!” Ex-USN Search and Rescue and current LA County Sheriff’s Department diver Penny Castro goes on a forensics dive off SoCal shores and surfaces to find herself in a post-apocalyptic world. A bioengineered and airborne contagion has been delivered to the West Coast and will be carried around the world, killing billions. Her adventures trying to survive in this new world will make you ask, “Could this really happen?” Published by Black Opal Books, this post-apocalyptic thriller is available in ebook and print format from Amazon and as an ebook version from Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) Also available from the publisher or your local bookstore (if they don’t have it, ask for it). A sequel is coming.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
