Friday, November 1, 2024

The Lost Van Gogh

The Lost Van Gogh by Jonathan Santlofer  339 pp.

This novel starts out great but then slips in to a story of too much with too many characters. A young-ish couple, one a painter, the other an art historian find a nondescript painting in an antique shop. With closer examination they discover that under the painting of a woman, a Van Gogh self portrait is hidden. As they try to prove it is real, it is stolen from them. This leads the couple on an international search with private investigators, art galleries, INTERPOL, and Nazi looted art specialists. The introduction of more and more characters - good guys, bad guys, and ones who switch allegiances - make the story much more complicated and tedious. You really need a scorecard to keep track of who is on which side and who can be trusted. It's a nice premise but overblown. No fault to the audiobook narrator, Edoardo Ballerini who does an excellent job, as usual.

Holy City

Holy City by Henry Wise, 344 pages

For unknown reasons, deputy Will has returned to his small hometown in rural Virginia, despite the fact that his estranged family is long gone and he has a barely functional house to live in. After Will pulls the body of a local man from a fire, the corrupt sheriff immediately pins the murder on a Black man who was seen running away from the scene, though Will is sure that he's not the culprit. Will grudgingly partners with a private investigator to start looking into the murder outside of proper channels, and the pair uncovers all manner of seedy corruption in the small town.

This was suggested to me as a mystery, and while yes, there is an investigation into who killed the guy found in the fire, it's pretty obvious who did it and it gets solved WAY before the end of the book. I wasn't a big fan of this one, as it was really hard to find any redeeming qualities in any of the characters, or to really understand their motives. If you want morally questionable characters in a gritty, racially charged crime novel set in the South, pick up S.A. Cosby and leave this one on the shelf.

Thursday, October 31, 2024

A Study in Emerald

 A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman, illus. Rafael Albuquerque, Rafael Scavone, and Dave Stewart, 88 pages.

This alternate history version of A Study in Scarlet takes readers to an alternate history version of London where eldritch monsters replaced all of the heads of state many generations past. Our brilliant detective is set with solving the murder of a visiting prince, and the search takes him and his new assistant through all sorts of twists in this strange London.

This comic definitely had some interesting ideas, I just wish it did a little more with them. That being said, the pace at which the story unfolded let some of the stranger elements dawn on the reader only very slowly, which I did find fairly effective. This is an interesting take on an old story, and my only real complaint is that it was so comfortable in its role as a retelling that it didn't feel the need to make the story stand on its own. But it is a quick read, and definitely interesting enough to be worth the little time I put into it. 

The Couple at the Table

The Couple at the Table by Sophie Hannah (2022) 358 pages

A murder takes place at an exclusive resort. All the employees have left the premises, except for Anita, the woman in charge. She is in a dining area with all the guests, except for a husband and wife who have returned to their quarters after an exhaustive series of verbal sparring between Jane (the wife) and practically all the other guests, including her husband, William. One couple, Simon and Charlie, are cops on a holiday, and they decide to check on the couple and find William is in a trance-like daze, sitting with his back to Jane, who is dead on the floor. But William is cleared in the murder, because blood splatters from the stabbing have soaked through the slats in his chair onto his clothing, showing that he had to have been in that chair while his wife was killed behind him.

The guests say they were all together while the cops were checking on William and Jane. The resort  has cameras that indicate that no one from the outside got in. Six months have passed by. Chapters indicating differing characters' points of view alternate between July (when the murder occurred) and January (when the case gets more attention again).

It's a classic mystery with an interesting array of characters, keeping this reader, at least, in the dark until the big reveal.

Monday, October 28, 2024

Good Girls Don't Die

Good Girls Don't Die by Christina Henry, 313 pages

Celia loves to read a good mystery, but — after waking up in a home that's not hers with a family that's also not hers and no idea how she got in this situation — she decidedly does NOT like living in a mystery. The same could be said of horror movie fanatic Allie, whose beach trip with her friends turns into a terrifying weekend at a remote cabin in the woods. And then there's Maggie, who loves reading YA dystopian novels, but is less than impressed to find herself forced into a Hunger Games-esque maze with several other women. Obviously, there's someone behind all of these situations, and if they can survive, they're all determined to make them pay.

Told as three separate stories, this book ended up feeling a bit repetitive and predictable by the time the three heroines came together at the end. Perhaps restructuring the story could've helped combat that and make the suspense hang on just a bit longer. I generally love Christina Henry's books, so I'm particularly disappointed in this one. 

Friday, October 25, 2024

Neuromancer

Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984) 288 pages

This originated the term Cyberpunk. It is a hard-boiled crime novel with a heist as the central plot device. It takes place in a futuristic world that would inspire the Blade Runner movies and The Matrix movies. Designer drugs, genetic manipulation, violence, and virtual reality are present everywhere. The main character Chase, while working to plant a computer virus as part of the heist, has to navigate three layers of virtual reality. The technobabble, made up terms for the future technology and the slang used in talking about it, is pretty dense. It was a struggle to find my bearings in the beginning. What is a noun and what is a verb in the sentence? From context, I'm pretty sure this is a noun. But is it a person, place, or thing? It is a bit shocking being dropped into this world, and each scene moves along very quickly. Eventually, I did become more accustomed to Gibson's use of language and went along for the fast-paced ride.
 

A Fine and Private Place

 


A Fine and Private Place
by Peter S. Beagle 317 pp.

I first read this book sometime in the 1970s and for some reason it stuck with me so I decided to revisit it. It's the tale of a man, Jonathan Rebeck, a former pharmacist who has hidden himself from society by living in an old mausoleum in a Bronx cemetery. Rebeck doesn't leave, believing he cannot pass through the gates into the outside world. A crabby raven brings him food stolen from local venders. In his nineteen years there Rebeck has met ghosts of people interred in the cemetery. When the ghosts first arrive they are very "alive" but as time passes and they gradually forget their former lives, they fade away. The latest cemetery residents are a middle-aged man who was poisoned and a young woman. Improbably, the ghosts fall in love with each other. Rebeck, too, finds himself with a lady friend who visits the mausoleum of her late husband. When Mrs. Clapper learns that Rebeck lives in the cemetery she tries to convince him it's time for him to return to the "real world." This book was originally published in 1960 and has recently been reissued. I listened to the audiobook which has an introduction by Neil Gaiman.

A Wodehouse Bestiary


 A Wodehouse Bestiary
by P.G. Wodehouse 329 pp.

This is a collection of short stories and random chapters from Wodehouse novels, some including Jeeves & Wooster, and all involving animals in some way. In one there is a house that seems to cause residents and visitors, even anti-hunting ones, to become rabid about hunting and killing game animals. Another has a potentially doomed engagement salvaged because of a dog and a cowardly suitor but with no help from a dog food salesman. In a third, a trip to the horse track helps a friend of Bertie Wooster's get rid of a troubling house guest who has endangered his marriage by forcing them into an extreme vegetarian diet. These are just a few of the classic Wodehouse tales collected in this volume. Some I read before in other collections but many were new to me. It's enjoyable, humorous, frequently silly, light reading.

Thursday, October 24, 2024

The Teacher

The Teacher by Freida McFadden, 393 pages

Addie is headed back to school for her junior year under a cloud of scandal — she's notorious as the girl that got a much-beloved teacher fired for their inappropriate relationship (one she swears didn't actually happen) — and is the target of much bullying from the class mean girl. Also heading back to school are Addie's teachers Nate Bennett (a dreamy English teacher) and Eve Bennett (Nate's less-popular wife, who is a strict math teacher). There are problems in the Bennetts's marriage, and Eve's extramarital affair with a shoe salesman is *almost* as problematic as Nate's new relationship with Addie. It's a powder keg ready to blow up.

This was the first McFadden book I've read, and given her quick pacing and writing, I can see why she's so popular. The book is full of horrible people doing morally reprehensible things and has twists upon twists upon twists. During the read, it was propulsive...but afterward, I found myself questioning some of those bigger twists. It's a decent disturbing read though, if you don't look too closely. 

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Evocation

Evocation by S.T. Gibson, 301 pages

David Aristarkhov is a powerful and persuasive attorney by day, a spirit medium by night. He comes from a long line of powerful magicians who, legend has it, come by their charisma thanks to an ancestor's deal with a demon. When he's performing a séance one night, David is forcibly taken over by an angry spirit, who continues to pester him for months afterward. Unable to fix the problem by himself, David is forced to seek help from his ex, Rhys, and Rhys's witch wife, Moira, who find that the help they provide is inextricably tangled up with their feelings for David.

This is the first book of a planned quadrilogy, and I enjoyed the characters and setting enough that I'll probably pick up more of them as they come out. However, I don't know that I'd offer this up as a solid fantasy recommendation, as the magical elements seem to be there only to further the relationship plot surrounding David, Rhys, and Moira. And the magic felt even more hand-wavy than usual. Not bad, just not my favorite ever. (This is, however, a GORGOUS book, with some super high-quality production in the physical book. Props to the publisher, Angry Robot, for that!)