Battle Mountain by C.J. Box

 

Nate Romanowski has lost everything… his wife, his business, his self-respect, his belief in government.  While Joe and Mary Beth Pickett agree to foster Nate’s young daughter and Sheridan Pickett takes over his falconry business, Nate goes off the grid to recharge and plan revenge against his nemesis Axel Soledad.  Soledad and his anarchist buddies are planning an attack on a group of power brokers and high ranking politicians who meet each year at a lodge in Wyoming called Battle Mountain. (Apparently something similar to this really happens.)  Nate tracks Soledad to this meeting point.  Meanwhile, much to Joe’s apprehension, Wyoming Governor Rulon has a special assignment for Joe.  Seems the governor’s son in law, an up and coming IT wizard and therefore, a soft, desk jokey has taken the governor’s challenge to shadow a well-known elk hunting guide in an effort to toughen up.  The governor panics when his son in law and the hunting guide disappear in the wilderness.  Joe is assigned to quietly find them.  Coincidently (a little too so) and unknowingly, Joe and Nate are separately headed to the same destination, Battle Mountain where things are sure to ‘get western.’

Great book. Great story telling. Great suspense.

I was fortunate to attend C.J.’s book tour session at the St. Louis County Library where Box visits annually to promote his latest completed work.  I think he said this was the sixteen time.  I’m always amazed how loyal and intense his fans are.  They call him out on every minute detail and encourage him to include more Nate Romanowski involvement.  Decked out in his black cowboy hat and shiny boots, he takes it all in stride with his calm cowboy demeanor. 

Open Season by Jonathan Kellerman

 

The adventures of the crime fighting duo, Dr. Alex Delaware and L.A. Detective Milo Sturgis continue in Open Season.

The body of a young starlet is dumped at an emergency room entrance of a decaying hospital in a seedy area of L.A.  She has been drugged and inspection of her social media leads the crime fighters to a likely suspect known for his misogyny and reputation for date rape.  Before the police can question him, he is shot to death with a 308 rifle.  The rifle used in this killing is quickly tied to other crimes and the M.O. is found to be consistent with several other murders around the country.  Alex goes to work developing a psychological profile while Milo turns his team loose on the now expanding suspect pool.  They think the killer is avenging the victims of men without boundaries but finding and capturing this vigilante takes all the skills Alex and Milo can muster.

Open Season is Kellerman’s fortieth Delaware/ Sturgis novel.  I have read them all and never tire of the formula… it’s all about the chase.  Kellerman is a master of engaging the reader and not letting go until the end.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance look.

1542. The Rescue by T. Jefferson Parker

Bettina Blazak, is a young, savvy journalist who works for the local Laguna Beach newspaper, “The Coastal Eddy.”  She is researching a human interest series on street dogs when she comes across a wounded stray dog at a vet clinic in Tijuana.  She adopts the dog, names him Felix and begins featuring him in her blog.  Apparently, Felix has led and interesting life.  Felix, a/k/a Joe was first owned by a boy who had to give him up after his parents died, was then trained by the DEA for stiffing out illegal drugs, then was sold to a dog trainer, Dan who used him to help one Mexican drug cartel steal from another.  It was during one of these missions he was wounded. Bettina’s blogging about her pet places Joe/ Felix in the limelight.  Everyone who once owned him wants him back and the cartels want him dead.  The story takes an interesting twist when parts are told from the dog’s point of view.  Nothing complex just basic canine needs… I’m hungry, I’m horny, who’s in my pack. Dan takes the role of the bad guy but he develops a romantic interest in Bettina.  His conflicts in his character create real danger for Bettina and her dog.

I’ve read a lot of T. Jefferson Parker’s work all the way back to Laguna Heat in the late 1980’s and this is his first attempt to include a dog in the plot.  As I read this book I kept thinking about Robert Crais’s venture into canine land when he wrote Suspect.  Amazingly in the acknowledgements Parker credits Crais for the inspiration.  Both books are good entertainment especially for dog lovers.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance look.

Treasue State by C.J. Box

 

Cassie Dewell’s P.I. business is thriving.  She has more work than she and her receptionist can handle so she takes on April Pickett (Joe and Mary Beth’s adopted daughter) as an intern.  Currently, Cassie has two open cases.

The most immediate case involves a wealthy Florida women who was conned out of her fortune by a devious Montana man.  The previous P.I. on the case was murdered near Anaconda, Montana.  Cassie quickly discovers a likely suspect in the area but his charm, wit, and skills of deception temporarily misdirect her and put her in danger.  The second case is more abstract.  Someone has written a poem promising a buried treasure in Montana to anyone who can decipher the clues found within the poem.  Cassie is hired by the poet not to find the treasure but to see if she can find and identify him.  Fierce competition among the treasure hunters to find the treasure has already resulted in five deaths.  The instigator poet wants to be assured he will remain anonymous.

While I prefer the Joe Pickett series to the Cassie Dewell series, I've grown to enjoy most anything C.J. Box writes.  That same under estimated, ‘dumb like a fox’ attribute comes through in all his lead characters.  That combined with the western outdoor backdrop always makes his work worth reading.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance look.

Comment from West Coast Don:

I agree with Midwest Dave that it's a bit strange to read our beloved Box working on a set of characters other than Joe Pickett, but hey, this is CJ Box. I spent a summer in the Bozman area, where Cassie has her PI business, then 16 years old and working on a dude ranch as a wrangler. Cassie has a good business and she is a compelling character, but there haven't been enough books and enough stories about her to have the same depth of feeling created by Joe Pickett. 

Nonetheless, I'm glad I read this, and if Box produces more of this series, or anything else, I'll read that to. The book's plot developed slowly as the author put forth all the background information that we needed, but it picked up into a rapid pace The resolution of the two main plots was excellent. I look forward to more.

WCD

Suspect by Scott Turow

Clarice Granum known as Pinky is a thirty something free spirit who currently works for attorney Rik Dudek as a private investigator.  Pinky has made her share of misteps in life, from illegal drugs, to tattoos and facial piercings to failed relationships with members of both genders, to washing out of the police academy.  The only person who seems to understand her is her grandfather the renowned, Sandy Stern.  For Scott Turow fans, you will remember the now retired Sandy Stern as the attorney representing Rusty Savage in Presumed Innocent.

Rik’s latest defendant is Lucia Gomez, the female police chief of Highland Isle, near Kindle County.  The chief is accused by three male police officers of soliciting sex in exchange for promotions within the police department.  Gomez insists the accusations against her are part of an ugly smear campaign intent on destroying her career.  She suspects ‘The Ritz,’ a local drug dealer, real estate tycoon, underworld criminal and Gomez’ former patrol partner as the instigator of her problems.  But Pinky has to prove it.

Meanwhile an interesting man, Koob moves into the apartment next to Pinky and her natural investigator instincts can’t leave him alone.  He keeps to himself and has an odd schedule.  Pinky begins following him in her spare time and ultimately builds a relationship with him.  She finds he has a connection to The Ritz. 

Of the three witnesses against the chief, two are proven unreliable by Rik and the third is murdered.  Pinky is allowed in on the police investigation of the murder because of her work on the chief’s case and because she knows the lead detective from when they were in the academy together.  But her tenacity puts her in grave danger as they close in on the truth.

 I remember reading Presumed Innocent while on vacation in 1990.  I was so entranced I ignored family and friends until I finished the book.  I thought it ranked right up there with Grishams’s A Time to Kill.  While Suspect is no Presumed Innocent, it does hold your interest.  The Pinky character is not someone you’d expect from Scott Turow, but through in depth introspect written from Pinky's perspective, you grow to enjoy her quirks and eccentricities making her a great protagonist in a mystery novel.  

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance look.

 

Closer Look by David Ellis

Simon Dobias and Vicky Lanier Dobias are a respectable well to do Chicago couple, married nearly ten years.  Simon is a law professor applying for tenure at University of Chicago and Vicky works with victims of domestic abuse at a nonprofit.  They anticipate a large inheritance from Simon’s father’s trust at their ten year anniversary.  Simon has a brilliant mind and outwardly appears to lead a successful and happy life.  Inwardly, he despises his now deceased father and blames him and his former mistress now beautiful socialite, Lauren Betancourt for killing his mother.  He doesn’t want his father’s money but his diabolical mind is obsessed with thoughts of revenge for his loving mother.  Both Simon and Vicky have secrets but he cleverly uses these secrets to fool the police when Lauren is found dead hanging by her neck in the two story entryway to her home.  Clues are revealed so timely and often the reader soon stops guessing the outcome.  Nothing is as it seems.  The couple’s lives are rife with past grudges and missteps that facilitate numerous twists and turns. A cast of shady supporting characters with sleazy self-serving motives of their own add to the complex plot.  Who exactly is conning whom?

You’ll remember David Ellis as the house prosecutor during Rod Blagojevich’s impeachment trial.  Blagojevich is the former governor of Illinois who was convicted of selling Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat when Obama vacated it to run for President.  This minded bending life experience pales in comparison to Ellis’s genius creativity in writing fiction.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance read.

Racing the Light by Robert Crais

 

Elvis Cole, P.I. extraordinaire, is hired by an eccentric woman, Adele Schumacher to find her nerdy twenty something son.  Adele is a middle aged, divorced and ex-CIA (or some other highly classified government agency) opertive.  She was so deep under cover that even in retirement bodyguards follow her around.  Her son, Josh Shoe is a self-employed podcaster who with information from an artist/ call girl, Skylar has uncovered a pay to play scheme by an L.A. councilman and his chief of staff to take bribes from Chinese nationalists to grease the skids for their real estate projects in California.  When the perps find out that Skylar has evidence enough to expose the scam, she is murdered and Josh disappears.  With Joe Pike’s and Jon Stone’s help, Cole finds the bad guys who are also looking for Josh.  Meanwhile, Cole’s former girl friend and almost wife, Lucy returns from Baton Rouge and they must decide if it’s time to continue their relationship.

Racing the Light is pretty much what you would expect from a Robert Crais novel.  Fast paced, smart, and entertaining with no question about who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.  Welcome back Robert Crais.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance look.

Shadows Reel by C.J. Box

 

In the latest Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett adventure, Mary Beth, Joe’s wife takes center stage in the drama that ensues.  One morning as she arrives at the Saddlestring library where she is director, Mary Beth spots a man leaving a package at the front door.  The package contains a photo album that once belonged to a powerful Nazi official and the album has apparently been pilfered from the Eagle’s Nest retreat, Hitler’s final hideout at the end of World War II.  That same day, Joe is summoned by a local rancher to investigate the poaching of a dead moose on the rancher’s land.  The supposed moose turns out to be the rancher’s neighbor, fishing guide Bert Kizer.  He’d been tortured and set on fire.  The search of Bert’s cabin that follows reveals someone is looking for something.  Mary Beth explores Bert’s background online and finds that his father had served in WWII and was in the first American contingent to reach Hitler’s famed Eagle’s Nest retreat.  Apparently, the American soldiers, including Bert’s father grabbed whatever souvenirs they could carry and took them home.  But now three fourths of a century later, who and why is someone willing to kill for the spoils?  And why has Mary Beth and her family been put in danger?

C.J. Box has written another suspenseful action packed thriller.  Joe once again saves his family from the evils of the world and yes he crashes another pickup truck.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for the advance read.

 West Coast Don writes: This is another good C. J. Box story, proving why he's such a mainstay in our list of favorite authors. I listened to this in audiobook format as I strolled a remote beach in Mexico in June 2023. The book has already been reviewed by both MWD and ECD - enough said.

The Missing Piece by John Lescroart

Wes Ferrell is a former district attorney in San Francisco who now practices as a defense attorney with his buddy, Dismas Hardy.  Ferrell struggles with his role because his years as DA have convinced him that everyone charged with a crime is probably guilty.  He wonders if he is harming his clients by not trying harder or doing an injustice to society by trying at all.  What he really longs for is an innocent client. 

Then Paul Riley, a criminal who Ferrell had prosecuted eleven years earlier for rape and murder is released from prison through the efforts of the Exoneration Initiative.  This group sponsors inmates who can be proven innocent and springs them from prison.  Soon after his release, Riley is murdered and Doug Rush, the father of the woman that Riley was accused of murdering, is the chief suspect.  Rush hires Ferrell as his defense attorney.  Of course, Ferrell assumes Rush is guilty but when Rush is murdered Ferrell can’t help but wonder.  Now feeling guilty for his assumption of the worst from his client, Ferrell hires Abe Glitsky, retired head of homicide now P.I. to investigate.  Glitsky’s poking around results is two other murders and an attempt on his own life.  Now Glitisky can’t let it go and uncovers several potential perpetrators but none seem to have motive to commit all four murders.  A complex ‘who-done-it’ follows.

This is Lescroart’s nineteenth Dismas Hardy novel and I’ve enjoyed every one.  The author has created an interesting cast of characters and is a great storyteller.  I look forward to the next.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for the advance read.

A Thousand Steps by T. Jefferson Parker

Flash back to 1968 in Laguna Beach, California--The Age of Aquarius, the Summer of Love, anti-war protests, hippies, psychedelic drugs, and search for enlightenment—an uneasy time of social change and a hard time for a young man coming of age.  Matt Anthony is sixteen.  His older brother is a tunnel rat in Viet Nam, his father has abandoned the family, his mother has a drug addiction, and his sister Jasmine (Jazz) has been kidnapped.  Matt survives with the few bucks he makes on his paper route and on the occasional fish he catches from the ocean.  The cops are focused on illegal drug trafficking and have given up trying to find Jazz and his parents are preoccupied in their own problems.  So Matt takes it on himself, with the help of his childhood sweetheart, to find his sister.  The adventures he experiences and the dangers he endures all while coming of age encapsulates his summer.

Laguna Beach and southern California is a popular setting for many of Parker’s novels but the coming of age angle is new.  The nostalgia blended into his gift for story telling makes this an unexpected treat.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

 

The Burning by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman

Clay Edison is Deputy Coroner for Alameda County California and feels blessed to love his job and his young family.  It’s wildfire season in California and the electricity is out indefinitely in their home so Clay’s wife takes their daughter a goes to visit relatives in L.A.  Edison is called to investigate a murder of a wealthy retired man and is stunned to find his brother’s beloved muscle car in the murdered man’s garage with other collectable cars.  Clay’s brother, Luke has recently been released from prison and is nowhere to be found.  Clay does not reveal his discovery to the police as he frantically tries to contact Luke.  Neither Luke’s wife nor employer have seen him in two days and Clay must assume Luke is associated with the murder, likely with prison pals.  But as Clay gains more information he discovers that Luke may be in trouble because of previous actions Clay took in his job.  Luke could be an innocent victim.  Not knowing who he can trust, Clay sets out to find Luke on his own… a dangerous decision.

 

I’ve always enjoyed Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware novels but must admit the formula is repetitive.  With son, Jesse’s help this new younger protagonist brings a more energetic buzz to the story. But that driving pace of methodically revealing new information that leads to a surprising conclusion remains… a skill that Jonathan K. has mastered in spades.  Fun read.

 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

 

 

Dark Sky by C.J. Box

 

Wyoming game warden, Joe Pickett is given a task that he detests by the Wyoming governor whom he doesn’t trust.  The task is to escort Steve Price, a Silicon Valley billionaire, on an elk hunt to help him converse with nature and brag about it on his social networking platform.  The governor is hopeful that a successful hunting experience will encourage Price to bring expansions of his company’s infrastructure to Wyoming.  So the pressure is on Joe to make it happen.

Joe packs up his winter gear and hires a local cowboy with plenty of horses and hunting equipment. He picks up Price’s entourage from a corporate jet at the local airport and heads for the mountains.  But a local hunting guide with a grudge against Price lies in wait with his two sociopathic sons to hunt the hunters.  Joe and Price are soon separated from camp, unarmed, without radios and on foot in the mountains.  Joe must use his cunning and knowledge of the terrain to avoid the hunters until help can get organized and come looking for them.  Of course his pal Nate Romanowski as well as wife Mary Beth and daughter Sheridan are involved in the search...major danger and excitement for all.

I’ve read all of C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett books and never tire of the character or the story lines.  In our world of liars and conspiracy theories it’s so refreshing to read about a character who is just what he appears to be with no hidden motives.  Thanks C.J. Box for the hope even if it is rooted in fiction.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance look.

Serpentine by Jonathan Kellerman

Detective Milo Sturgis is pressured into taking a thirty six year old cold case after the victim’s wealthy daughter pulls some strings with a L.A. politician.  Milo immediately includes psychologist Alex Delaware in their dive into the past.  The duo, Milo and Alex are best friends and enjoy a very high solve rate.  The victim, Dorothy Svoboda died with a bullet in her head and was burned to a crisp in a borrowed Cadillac along treacherously curvy Mulholland Drive.  Thirty six years and three homicide detectives later, her murder is still unsolved.  Intuition and investigative probing soon reveal that someone still alive today wants the murder to remain unsolved.  Many of Dorothy’s known associates both dead and alive led unscrupulous lives and several could easily have had motive to wish her dead.  This is a formidable challenge even for Milo and Alex.

 A thirty six year old crime in the thirty sixed Jonathan Kellerman novel featuring his two favorite protagonists… probably coincidental.  But after so many books these characters have taken on such a familiarity both with themselves and with the reader that only the tiniest bit of character development is necessary.  Makes for a fast paced linear plot…just the way I like it.

 Thanks to Netgalley for the early read.

West Coast Don: I found this one in the Libby App and downloaded the audiobook. Like Midwest Dave, I'm a fan of Jonathan Kellerman, and I enjoy the way he writes about the friendship and crime solving skills of Alex and Milo. My favorite part of this book was the short take given on Alex treating an 18-m0nth-old girl who had been in a car accident and was clearly emotionally traumatized. Otherwise, I thought this was not one of Kellerman's best novels. It was a bit too long and convoluted for my tastes. Still his character development, as always is excellent. I thought there was a lot of unnecessary filler in the writing.

 

A Time for Mercy by John Grisham

Set in Clayton, Mississippi in 1990, Jake Brigance makes his third appearance in Grisham’s plethora of legal thrillers.  Jake first appeared in Grisham’s first (and I believe the best) novel, A Time to Kill.  Now five years after getting Carl Lee Hayley, a Black man, acquitted of a murder charge for killing the white supremacists who raped and murdered Hayley’s young daughter, Jake is cajoled into taking another controversial case.  He is appointed to defend Drew Gamble, a sixteen year old boy who shot and killed his mother’s boyfriend, deputy sheriff Stu Kofer.  Turns out Stu was a good deputy but a bad boyfriend.  His dark side led him to heavy drinking, physical violence against Drew’s mother, and sexual abuse of Drew’s fourteen year old sister.  During one of Stu’s drunken episodes, he nearly killed Drew’s mother before passing out on his bed.  Drew, thinking his mother was dead put the deputy’s service revolver to Stu’s head and pulled the trigger.  Clayton’s law enforcement, Stu’s family, and most of the community lined up against Drew and of course against Jake, his attorney.  So Jake is cast against the community and must fear for his reputation, his career, and the lives of his family just to do the right thing… again.

I thoroughly enjoyed A Time for Mercy just as I have most John Grisham legal thrillers from the beginning.  I’m mixed however on the movies made from Grisham’s work.  Once you see Matthew McConaughey as Jake Brigance, you can’t get that character out of your mind for the next book with the same character.  Too frustrate further, I’m currently reading Michael Connelly’s latest Lincoln Lawyer novel whose previous movies starred, that’s right Matthew McConaughey.  You see my confusion.  Is that face in my head Jake or Mickey or just some actor trying to sell me a car?

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance look.

The Last Trial by Scott Turow

Sandy Stern, a Kindle County, Illinois defense attorney, has appeared in Scott Turow’s novels since 1987 in the renowned Presumed Innocent.  Now at age eighty five and contemplating retirement, Sandy is asked to defend his friend and fellow Argentine immigrant, Dr. Kiril Pafko of insider trading, fraud, and murder charges.  Pafko and his company Pafko Therapeutics have developed a cancer treatment drug that has saved many lives, including Sandy’s life five years earlier.  However, during the clinical trials to gain FDA approval, Dr. Pafko is accused of altering the data to remove from the study patients who have died, then selling stock in his company when his missteps are about to be publicly exposed.

Pafko’s missteps during the drug approval process are revealed to the jury as the prosecutors draw the story out of the witnesses.  But Pafko’s life long character flaws are revealed as Sandy investigates and interrogates Pafko’s family and known associates in addition to the witnesses… many with some grudge against the doctor.  Sandy can’t help but compare his own life with that of his friend’s and finds himself late in life pondering his own life choices and how they have impacted his relationships with family.  But even distracted by his reflective thoughts and at age eighty five, Sandy uncovers the motives of his client and of those around the doctor who are intent on revenge.

Most readers will see this book as a legal lesson because apparently the legal points are rare and well developed.  But I see this more of a reflection of a man on his life… his exile from Argentina, his marriages and his children, his choice of clients and the time he spent representing criminals instead of nurturing his family… how his choice to practice law molded his relationships with each of his children and grand-children and how they feel about him today… what he should do about it now… all in all a lesson in humanity.  This is the author’s true theme and a lesson well worth learning at any age. 

Fair Warning by Michael Conelly

Remember reporter Jack McEvoy from The Scarecrow in 2009 and The Poet in 1996?  You do if you are a Michael Connelly nerd like me.  McEvoy returns in Fair Warning, the namesake of his employer, and the name of a consumer watch website.  Jack is restless as a consumer advocate reporter and haphazardly stumbles upon a murder investigation.  The murder was of Tina Portrero, a woman he had briefly dated a year earlier.  He is drawn into the investigation because the police interview him as a person of interest.  But further sleuthing leads him to a story about DNA being collected by ancestry type companies who self-regulate and sell their data to anyone interested, including men in involuntary celibate (Incel) groups who hate women to the point of violence and murder.  Jack engages his former love interest and former FBI profiler, Rachel Waller to help in his investigation.  They’re stirring of the pot soon brings the perpetrators out in the open and all involved in or with knowledge of the diabolical scheme become targets including Jack and Rachel.

Michael Connelly proves again he doesn’t need his beloved Harry Bosch as his protagonist to write a great story.  His ability to highlight his characters’ flaws yet compel the reader to love them anyway, comes through in his latest thriller… great entertainment.  Hope we don’t need to wait ten years for more.

Half Moon Bay by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman

Half Moon Bay is the third installment of the father and son team series featuring Alameda County Coroner Clay Edison.  Clay is working the graveyard shift to best participate in the care of his newborn without disrupting his wife’s work schedule.  In his capacity as Deputy Coroner, Clay is called to a local park on the Berkley UC campus where the decade old remains of a baby is found.  To complicate his work, protestors in true Berkley tradition are demonstrating against building within the park.

Clay’s investigation leads him in two directions.  One in following the clues to identify the body and relatives of the dead child and one from a local man who thinks the corpse could be his long lost sister.  Clay becomes entranced by both paths and methodically follows the vaguest of clues to conclusion.

It is hard not to compare Clay Edison to Alex Delaware from Jonathan Kellerman’s mainstay series.  They both have that intelligence and tenacity that make them follow the most subtle clues.  The pacing and building of suspense is classic Kellerman.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced look.

Blood Feud by Mike Lupica

Mike Lupica is tapped by the Robert B. Parker estate to extend the story of Parker’s Sunny Randall character.  Sunny has a complicated relationship with her ex-husband Richie Burke whose father is local mobster Dominick Burke.  While Sunny is not interested in marriage she finds herself renewing her relationship with her ex after his recent second divorce.  Richie tries to carefully steer clear of his family’s business but occasionally gets pulled in.  One night he is shot but apparently intentionally not killed, an obvious mob maneuver.  Sunny, a licensed private investigator charges to the rescue even though Richie’s family warns her to stay away.  She confronts all the competing crime families to stir the pot and more members of Richie’s family are victimized… an uncle is murdered.  But Sunny’s pride and tenacity can’t let it go.  Someone has to pay for dismantling her ex’s family.

Mike Lupica is a renowned sports writer and gifted author of sports books for young adults.  But he must be bored.  Recently, I’ve seen him weighing in on political talk shows and now he is writing mystery novels for mature adults.  He does a competent job of following Robert B. Parker’s style.  The plot is simple and linear, the lead character is tough, tenacious, and lives by a code, and the dialogue is unsophisticated, coarse, and straight forward.  So, he does well to revere Robert B. Parker.  But why does Robert B. Parker need this type of reverence?  I guess I prefer to remember him for his own original works and not confuse him with these more modern attempts to imitate him.  It’s like seeing the movie version of one of your favorite author’s books and being disappointed by the actor playing the lead character.  The author’s future books are never quite the same.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced look.

The Museum of Desire by Jonathan Kellerman

In Kellerman’s thirty fifth murder mystery, LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis and his talented sidekick, psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware are dealt a bizarre and gruesome multiple murder case.  Four bodies are discovered in a limousine parked at an uninhabited Bel Air mansion.  The scene appears almost theatrical or staged as the four victims seem to have little in common.  The chauffeur, a middle aged mentally challenged man, a homeless woman, and a playboy, all murdered by different methods and leaving an inordinate amount of blood.  The duo is challenged to identify the victims let alone discover a possible motive.  But as more bodies related to this crime begin to fall, the imagination of Dr. Delaware and tenacity of Lt. Sturgis narrows in on a probable suspect.

This is Kellerman at his best--stage a bizarre crime with disturbing perpetrators looming in the background.  Delaware finds clues and draws conclusions seen only by him while Sturgis, who has learned not to dismiss even to most bizarre of the good doctor’s hunches, charges forward… great entertainment.  We learn little about the lead characters because after thirty five novels, we know them well.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of the book.

The Guardians by John Grisham

Cullen Post, just call me Post, is a lawyer turned minister whose goal in life is to free innocent inmates from prison.  His nonprofit organization, The Guardians is based in Savannah, GA where his staff of only a handful of do-gooders frees on average about one innocent prisoner a year.  Reinvestigating crimes and trials for innocent inmates who have exhausted all other options is time consuming and sometimes dangerous work... especially when the real perpetrators are still around. 

One prisoner, Quincy Miller is convicted of murdering a lawyer in the small town of Seabrook Florida.  The police after finding no clues, no witnesses and no serious suspects arrest Quincy, a disgruntled former client.  Quincy is convicted with planted evidence and junk science from bogus expert witnesses.  Twenty-two years later his appeals have run out and Post decides to take his case.  But as Post turns over rocks and finds proof of foul play, the real murderer intervenes to squelch Post’s investigation by whatever means possible.

Grisham is the legal thriller master of our time.  He has written a book a year since 1991, all number one best sellers and several made into movies, and has sold over three hundred million copies.  The word “prolific” falls short in describing his literary accomplishments.  The Guardians is his latest and maybe one of his best.  He uses his masterful storytelling talent to highlight both racial injustice and the misuse of “junk science” in our country’s law enforcement process… very thought provoking and entertaining… a must read.