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jdcorley's reviews
184 reviews
American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
While I did enjoy our protagonist and her journey I got very bored with the constant stops and starts. This is a book that should be one point of view, or at most two, but instead bounces through so many characters and quasi characters that whatever propulsion the story has never really gets anywhere. A shame because our hero is so great!
Trio for Blunt Instruments by Rex Stout
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Another triumph of the "3 novelette stories" format for Nero Wolfe. All three are loaded with charm in different ways; from Archie in trouble (he never seems to be fully in trouble) to a classical mystery puzzler at the end in which you know what's important but you don't catch why until Nero points it out. If only Stout would give up the habit of having Saul Panzer discover something off stage. Cmon man, we love Archie! Have Archie discover it!
Three At Wolfe's Door by Rex Stout
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Two absolutely crackling Wolfe stories are followed up by one that has great promise but drizzles out in a splat of hidden information and outright guesses. Its so close to one of the greatest; they all have our favorite supporting cast, some midcentury cuties for Archie to banter with and a really inexplicable crime to crack. But the end of that third story...
The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction: From the BBC 2 Between the Covers Author Robert Goddard by Robert Goddard
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The parallel storylines focusing on two detectives involved in the same search shouldn't have worked as well as it did for as long as it did - its an airport thriller trick and it almost never works at all. But because the reader knew the two cases were linked long before the detectives, we begin to see connections they don't even though their ostensible objectives are different. The different personalities of the detectives also kept it fresh for some time. But it made the climax pretty worthless, just popping back and forth like act breaks in a TV show. A pity because the chase of the macguffins across the two timelines was engaging enough even if simply presented chronologically.
Blackbone by George E. Simpson, Neal R. Burger
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
A promising premise - a demon loose inside an American POW camp in WW2 - and an engaging lead - the lady archaeologist whose scientific ambitions had to be put aside when she accidentally released the demon - run straight into the concrete wall that is the "clean Wehrmacht" myth. Bro this book is set in 1944. Every member of the Wehrmacht swore a personal oath to Hitler starting ten fuckin years before that. Bro this dude tries to give us two "clean LUFTWAFFE" guys, they're the fuckin jokesters of the camp. At this point in the war only jokes the Luftwaffe knew were just wall to wall racial and antisemitic slurs! I was looking forward to seeing a demon chainsaw through these guys like we enjoy watching a slasher go after some unsympathetic teens and bullies. But it doesn't work when you're trying to make the lead fucking Wehrmacht guy separate himself from "the Nazis!" What the fuck?!
The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien by Linda Coverdale, Georges Simenon
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The incredible opening to this book which gives Maigret a powerful, remorseful and remorseless drive to find out the truth, ends up doing very little at all, as Maigret is more mute witness than detective. People more or less just tell him things - lies in some cases, but no real obstacles for Maigret to overcome. Overall I would be disappointed, but the story that ends up being told is a musing on the passage of time: torn-down churches, old newspaper clippings, a nude painting of a woman before she settled down and married, the End Times. All surrounding a crime, of course, a highly personal, highly traumatizing, highly shocking crime whose effects reverberate through time. The genius of Simenon is that even though this isn't a great novel of detection, it ends up being a great novel about crime, motive and justice. They just needed one more month. So when Maigret strolled too close to the flooded Marne, a sudden shove from behind...
The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This, the second Maigret mystery, is finding its feet. A truly strange series of events, Maigret puts himself in the center and slowly, through his eyes, we take in all the details, and hear all the developments of emotion and relationships that make the crime not only understandable but, ultimately, clear and emotionally resonant. Its still just a little too technical for a reader but the core of Maigret's greatness.
Three Witnesses by Rex Stout, Susan Conant
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
A real home run of a collection with all three Wolfe stories just long enough and detailed enough to be enticing as mysteries while allowing for the snappy speed of Archie's wisecracks and shenanigans to buoy it along. A pleasure, pure and simple.
The Need by Andrew Neiderman
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
A species of human that develop into a male and a female identity and then shift back and forth between the two either voluntarily or not forms the basis for this rather lengthy character study. You get the idea that the author may be excited by this possibility but equally repulsed; the central question is the murder of a lover that both "versions" of the same person shared. The rather dimwitted stud of a murder investigator who is receiving all this information is portrayed with such inconsistency and lack of real interest that the tension is gone halfway through. You don't get a feeling of bigotry in favor of the gender binary but the book sure doesn't make sense in a world where trans or non binary people exist. Is this the "erasure" the kids are always going on about? it sure doesn't feel good to read.
Serpent Girl by Ray Garton
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Garton, one of our greatest overlooked American trash auteurs, tries his hand at an erotic thriller about a hitman and a serial killer who, sort of, fall in love. But awakening a feeling like love begins to crowd out the sociopathy their callings require. The sex scenes are hot (and there's a whole bundle of them) and the rest doesn't overstay its welcome. It does show, most of all, that Garton does have a feel for character, it isnt all gore (but there is that too.)