Tag: murder (Page 4 of 4)

Deadline by John Sandford

January 3, 2015 / Kyle Wendy Skultety / 0 Comments

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There is nothing better than a new Virgil Flowers mystery. This one has Flowers investigating a dognapping ring, when he is asked by Lucas Davenport (of the “Prey” novels) to look into the murder of a reporter. As Virgil gets deeper into the case, local school board members start dying. It turns out that certain board members had planned the reporter’s death–but are they now killing each other?

The plot in this installment is not complicated, but it’s full of that great Sandford wry humor that has become the hallmark of the Flowers series. There is a down-home, redneck quality to this one that I thought was funnier than most. Virgil’s friend Johnson Johnson (his father named all his sons after outboard motors, and Mercury, Johnson’s brother, got the better end of THAT deal) calls him to help figure out where all the town’s dogs are going. We encounter a cast of characters and situations that personify what would happen if Deliverance was mixed with the business world: gun nuts, meth heads, embezzlement, backstabbing, and politics. Even though we know who the bad guys are right from the start, the book will hold your interest as the plot advances.

Flowers is helped out by Johnson, of course, who is by far the most colorful of the characters. He’s willing to shoot his gun off at the slightest provocation, and so is young Muddy, a not-quite-teenager who pops up out of the background to give Virgil some hints on where those missing dogs may be. The dognapping side plot is a lighthearted addition to the murder investigation, and gives Sandford a chance to show off those quirky Minnesota rednecks. Some great conversation is had between Virgil and Johnson:

Virgil went carefully back to his truck, climbed inside, and found Johnson with a high capacity Para-Ordnance .45 in his lap.

“Jesus, Johnson, what were you gonna do with that?”

“I saw somebody at the window,” Johnson said. “If they shot you, I was gonna hose the place down.”

Virgil thought about that for a moment, then said, “All right.” He looked up at the porch. Zorn had gone back inside, but Virgil could see him hovering behind the screen. “That’s a bad man, right there,” Virgil said. “Doesn’t even bother to trim his nose hair.”

“That is a bad man,” Johnson said.

The writing from chapter 28 onwards is one of the funniest and well written scenes I’ve ever read. There is a mob, dogs running loose, crazed female anti vivisectionists (called Auntie Vivians), gunshots, wrecked trucks, and plenty of other action. Sandford has raised his own bar with DEADLINE and gotten better, hard as that is to believe. Virgil Flowers is one of my favorite fictional characters, and it feels as though Sandford had a rollicking great time with this one. It’s a great stand alone book, and possibly the best one so far. I hope there are many more in store.

Want your own copy? Click [easyazon_link asin=”0399162372″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”gimmethatbook-20″ add_to_cart=”yes” cloaking=”default” localization=”yes” popups=”yes”]here .[/easyazon_link] Let me know what you think.

Flesh and Blood (Scarpetta #22) by Patricia Cornwell

December 19, 2014 / Kyle Wendy Skultety / 0 Comments

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Thanks to the folks at publisher HarperCollins for providing this review copy!

I was dubious about reading this 22nd Scarpetta novel, as the last few were meandering, self absorbed, and boring. Thank goodness Cornwell seems to be back to letting action tell the tale, rather than have Kay muse constantly about how people treat her and how everything is a mystery. There is some of that here; Benton and Lucy seem uncommunicative at times, Marino is still angry, and Kay obsesses over how Marino describes her as cold and impersonal:

“You and me both,” Marino says as if something else is on his mind. “People shouldn’t get away with shit, I don’t care who they are.”

“Cold and impersonal,” I consider as if I’m amused but I’m not.

“I said sort of.”

“You’ve waited all this time to tell me that?”

“I’ve said it before including behind your back. You’re different now.”

“I was that bad back then?”

“Yeah and I was an asshole,” he says. “We deserved each other.”

Benton and Kay are hours away from flying to Florida for a week of vacation to celebrate Kay’s birthday when she is called to the scene of a shooting. As she investigates further she realizes that this may be linked to other shootings, as the victims are all somehow connected to her. There is a sleazy insurance investigator that is stalking Scarpetta, a 14 year old drowning victim that needs to be autopsied, and bizarre behavior from a congressman’s trouble son. Eventually all this comes together to implicate Lucy as the sniper–she has the ways and means, and may be going off the deep end. It’s up to her own flesh and blood, Scarpetta, to get to the bottom of everything.

The book is certainly better than the last few, but not as good as the first 8 or so. That being said, there is plenty of forensic science, autopy action, and a long and complicated section on guns, bullets, ammunition loads, and computerized scopes that can give minimally experienced shooters an edge on accuracy.

I want to say that I figured out fairly early on who they were alluding to as the killer, but I won’t spoil it here. Suffice it to say that there was plenty of things to keep me interested, as all the subplots got wrapped up and the tension built. The last few pages fly along as Benton and Scarpetta go on a dive to recover evidence. Just as I was relaxing and enjoying the last page—-BOOM! It ends on a cliffhanger; very out of character for Cornwell. Not my favorite type of ending, but this is a good way to ensure that people will be salivating for your next book.

Overall, I did enjoy it, as the characters seemed to be more of their normal selves. For the Greyhound lovers, Sock is still Scarpetta’s faithful companion, and I enjoyed how she and Benton seemed at ease and still in love in the beginning of the book. Let’s hope Cornwell keeps the good stuff coming.

Want your own copy? Click [easyazon_link asin=”0062325345″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”gimmethatbook-20″ add_to_cart=”yes” cloaking=”default” localization=”yes” popups=”yes”]here.[/easyazon_link]

As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust by Alan Bradley

December 2, 2014 / Kyle Wendy Skultety / 0 Comments

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Many thanks to NetGalley for providing this review copy in exchange for this review.

This 7th outing of Flavia De Luce’s adventures is so much better than the last few have been. I was growing so weary of the same old thing that I skipped #6, [easyazon_link asin=”0385344066″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”gimmethatbook-20″ add_to_cart=”no” cloaking=”default” localization=”yes” popups=”yes”]The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches[/easyazon_link]. To me, the plots were becoming rote: body, murder, adventure, droll humor, ending.

Now I regret not reading book #6 only because I feel like I missed a turning point. Chemistry loving Flavia is growing up, and the series is fresh again. The setting is new, the characters are new, and we are seeing a new side of Ms De Luce as well.

Flavia has been sent to a girls’ boarding school in Canada, which was noted in the ending of book #6. She is to become a member of an organization called the Nide, following in the footsteps of her mother, who is revered as a goddess at Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy. On Flavia’s first night there, a body falls out of a chimney, and wham! shes off working on another murder. She is very homesick, and references are made to the Buckshaw clan only via our heroine’s thoughts.

There is a lot of interaction between Flavia and the other students, and I found the conversations to be razor sharp and fun to read. The condescending tones which the adults use to interact with Flavia are gone, and it seems that everyone is treated more or less, as an equal. Of course, there is the caste system found in all schools, but since this is a classroom that is supposedly turning women into spies or the like, everyone is assumed to be intelligent and well-spoken.

I loved the whole tone of this book! The only problem I had is that it seemed that the plot was going in circles, with tiny plotlets added to round out her experience at school. Even though the conversations with her peers were scintillating, it seems that much of the content had to be read between the lines, and that got to be exhausting. By the time the murder was solved I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on. Is Flavia IN the Nide? Was the ending happy or sad? It seemed to me that the secret society was like Fight Club–don’t talk about it. This vagueness was the only thing that bothered me. Otherwise, you will see Flavia maturing and coming to terms with new emotions, with flashes of the egotistical mad chemist here and there.

Bradley has given me new faith in this series, and I will go back to read #6. For those who have been following our girl all along–you will like this, as long as you don’t expect to be reading about Daffy, Feely, Dogger, and Bishop’s Lacey. This was a refreshing break; a cleansing of the palate. As Flavia would say, it was a “jolly good” read.

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The Competition by Marcia Clark

September 23, 2014 / Kyle Wendy Skultety / 0 Comments

Rachel Knight’s 4th outing seems to be business as usual; the familiar characters are investigating a Colombine – style shooting at the local high school. Two students come in with guns blazing during an assembly and wreak havoc, and the body count is high. Knight, Bailey, and Graden attempt to track down the shooters, but as soon as they get a lead, things change and confuse the trail. Our favorite gang banger, Luis Revelo, makes an obligatory appearance also. The more I read about him, the more I wish Clark would give him a bigger part in her books.

This story line was very interesting, bringing in psychology and referencing other tragedies such as Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook. I think the book could’ve been about 70 pages shorter, as Clark added twist after twist and it started to annoy me. Without spoiling things, all I can say is that the last 80 pages dragged, and then all of a sudden sped up, as if she just wrote any damn thing just to be finished. Pretty much everyone becomes a red herring, and I lost track of how many times they “solved” the case and then it twisted again. I just kept rolling my eyes and turning pages.

All that aside, The Competition is a solid book for Rachel Knight fans. Looks like I’ll be continuing to read through the series.

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Guilt By Degrees by Marcia Clark

September 8, 2014 / Kyle Wendy Skultety / 0 Comments

In this second outing for Los Angeles DA Rachel Knight, she becomes the champion for a homeless man that is murdered in broad daylight. No one is interested in taking the case, so she steps up. The case quickly becomes a hotbed of intrigue, as Knight discovers that it shares aspects of another case–that of a murdered policeman. In between eating at every local restaurant, and drinking into the night, Rachel and trusty sidekick Bailey uncover layer after nasty layer. No one is who they appear to be, and there is a character that has potential for an appearance in another future book.

The plot is interesting. Less interesting is the constant dialogue between Rachel and Bailey about food, booze, and calories. I’m just skimming over those parts to get to the juicy stuff. Clark is a good writer, but spends too much time filling the book with descriptions of clothes and food. It’s not enough to turn me off, however, and I’ll be reading the next two books in the series.

Want to get a copy for yourself? You can pick it up here.

The Skin Collector by Jeffrey Deaver

August 19, 2014 / Kyle Wendy Skultety / 0 Comments

Lincoln Rhyme’s 11th outing is about the same as the previous ones; the forensic genius is irascible and impatient, Amelia Sachs is tortured by claustrophobia and is still driving on the sidewalks of New York City, and there is a sicko murdering innocent people. The plot suggests that there is a link between aforementioned sicko and the Bone Collector, except this guy murders his victims by tattooing them and then injecting them with poison during the finishing touches.

I did learn more about tattooing, and I also learned not to go into the basement, no matter what was happening. I also came to the realization that if I never read the phrase “walk the grid” again, it would be too soon.

Subplots are many here: undercover cops at a funeral, (the deceased is Rhyme’s nemesis The Watchman) Amelia struggling with the odd behavior of her “foster” daughter Pam, a view into the Skin Collector’s family. I felt that the book dragged a great deal in spots and at times I had to force myself to keep going. Honestly, I felt that Billy Haven was a boring character.

Yes, there are the obligatory Deaver twists and turns in the plot, and then it doubles back on itself….but after I read the last page I felt nothing. Well, maybe some excitement that the ordeal was finally over and I could read something else.

I’d recommend this for hardcore Deaver fans only.