Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

The Strain: Hogan/DelToro
This is the book with the buzz this month, with a feature article in Sunday's paper, and even a spread on DelToro in Wired magazine. The book begins a new vampire trilogy. As with many of the recent offerings, the legend is reexplained, in this case as more of a virus than anything else, but is no less creepy for the explanation. The heroes are a mismatched bunch thrown together by circumstance, and lurking in the background are the old school vampires, less than happy about the upstart. (A-)

The Lovers: John Connolly
Spend an evening with a cup of Irish whiskey in an old church graveyard in Ireland and you can begin to apreciate why a man such as John Connolly can write such a spooky book and make it seem like this was the real world. The almost humerous presentation of the previous book is gone, even though the same characters appear, and we are presented with the backstory of Charlie Parker, some of the characters that exisit only in the shadows, and some hints of how man fights demons. (A-)

The Scarecrow: Micheal Connelly
NY Times news service did a hatchet job on this just this past weekend. While giving away just a bit too much of the plot, they ended the review with a statement that the latter half of the book was weak, and that it might have been a better story if Connelly took his time with it. The final shot was at the next book, a Bosch, being due in about 6 months. I am in less than complete agreement with the reviewer. I don;t like McElvoy as much as I like Bosch. Harry is just a more interesting character, and was born as much from his flaws as his skills. McElvoy is a reporter. A good reporter, but I suspect just slightly less good than he thinks he is. The real protagonist here, as in Deaver's Blue Nowhere, is the Internet, and personal privacy, and the hatchet job that one with the right skills can do to your life. McElvoy was lost in this world and the story reflects his finding his way though a new kind of wilderness, applying the old rules to the new world. As for the ending being weak, I did not like the last chapter, which was after all was said and done. I know the chapter was put there for a kind of justice, but the book would have improved without it. (B+)

Roadside Crosses: Jeffery Deaver
Deaver has kept up the magic, at least if you have learned to accept nothing that he gives you at face value. The book features Katherine Dance, the Kenesics expert, fighting to find a murderer and keep the possible victims alive. (A-)
Medusa: Clive Cussler
More of the same. If you like his perils of Pauline style, and I do, this is the place to be. (B+)

The Renegades: T Jefferson Parker
A Deputy Hood novel, this book had my head spinning just a bit as viewpoints, and even the timeline of the novel changed. Parker builds pretty good main characters, sometimes great ones, and bad guys you are not sad to see brought down. Unlike many htough, thre are shades of gray, characters that might be good, might have just a bit of the devil in them, and are almost sure to show up in a future book where you tax your mind about how to think of them. (B)

East of the Arch: Robert Randisi
The library came through for me again in another out of print book from the Arch series. I think there are more, so I will soon look, after knocking off a few more from my own groaning shelves. Detective Keogh, who has maneuvered himself out of a job in NY and moved to St Louis, is now getting close to putting himself out of a job there while searching for a serial killer. He has the killer nailed, but has no proof. Why not have his love life go to hell too? (B+)

Bone Thief: Thomas O'Callaghan
Serial Murder mystery, where the killer takes the bones of his victims. The book was a bit uneven, the villian getting dumber as the police get smarter, and an interesting teenaged character that just drops off the map. (B)

Walking Dead: Greg Rucka
Atticus Kodiak regains his soul in this story. He seemed to have lost it before, descending in tot he world of the assassin, and changing his life as we knew it. When last we left him, he was running, now he stops, and takes a stand. (B+)

Double: Marsha Muller & Bill Pronzini
An interesting approach to a co-written book, each author takes a different viewpoint through their major character looking at the same events as they try to solve a series of mysteries. The addition of Pronzini lent a more noir air to the tale, but the story was solid, and the mystery complex. There was just a bit of whiplash as this goes back to McCone#7, and I am more than 10 books beyond that. (B+)

The Cleveland Local: Les Roberts
Milan Jacovitch is certainly worth the read in hardboiled PI fiction. It seems to be a large field, so perhaps, I shall never want. Milan travels between Cleveland and the Islands looking at a murder, and the fraud that precipitated it. (B+)

The Heart of Justice: William Caughlin
A good man is placed in a world of very flawed, maybe very bad people. But he might hold a secret in his past too, one that the bad guys could use to influence his decisions, and maybe destroy his life. By the end, you are hoping most of the characters get punished, as few if any deserve any reward. (B)

The Scorpion's Gate: Richard Clarke
Techo thriller. Sometimes an analyst should stick to analyzing. (C)

Barry wrote: "The Scarecrow: Micheal Connelly
NY Times news service did a hatchet job on this just this past weekend. While giving away just a bit too much of the plot, they ended the review with a statement that the latter half of the book was weak, and that it might have been a better story if Connelly took his time with it. The final shot was at the next book, a Bosch, being due in about 6 months. I am in less than complete agreement with the reviewer. I don;t like McElvoy as much as I like Bosch. Harry is just a more interesting character, and was born as much from his flaws as his skills. McElvoy is a reporter. A good reporter, but I

Interesting article in today's San Francisco Chronicle about journalism and Michael Connelly:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...

I've put THE STRAIN on my "to-read" list. The prices on eBay should get reasonable soon, so I'll pick it up then. I got a copy of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane today for $10.00 with free shipping. Looking forward to reading it. I love Les Roberts' Milan Jacovich books. Hope he doesn't wait so long between books this time!

I was pleasantly surprised to find a good Cleveland series. Maybe it will get me ready for my trip to Dayton in August.
Barry

Barry wrote: "I was pleasantly surprised to find a good Cleveland series. Maybe it will get me ready for my trip to Dayton in August.
Barry"

Omigod! WHAT are you going to Dayton for??? That's where I was born & raised. It's a great place to be FROM!

Omigod! WHAT are you going to Dayton for??? That's where I was born & raised. It's a great place to be FROM! ...
I understand completely, coming from Jersey City. I was dispatched by my mother, who is too old to travel, to represent my part of the family at the wedding of her sister's grand daughter, who happened to be the flower girl at my wedding. It was supposed to be in Cleveland, so I was going to make a grand bike tour of it, looping around the great lakes, crossing back at Niagara Falls and visiting my daughter in college outside Albany on the way home. Now it looks like I will be driving to Jersey to pick up my sister and taking her to Dayton to see relatives I have not been in contact with in decades. With a small measure of trepidation, I am looking forward to seeing them again. If it ever stops raining, I'll still do the great northern bike trip.
Barry

Well, you have my deepest sympathies! My 35th high school reunion is in Dayton in August and I just cannot take the humidity there in August, let alone the depressing atmosphere. I hope you have a nice visit with your relatives and have fun at the wedding.

Barry:
You had a good month! I hope I get my turn soon for The Scarecrow, The Lovers, and Roadside Crosses. I have Walking Dead in the tbr pile and someday do want to read Marcia Muller's Double.

Hope your trip to the wedding is a good one - perhaps an audio book or two since you can't do the grand bike tour this time. (if your sister is amenable to listening too)

Barry wrote: "I was pleasantly surprised to find a good Cleveland series. Maybe it will get me ready for my trip to Dayton in August.
Barry"

Marcy:
Thanks for the link to the Michael Connelly insights on the newspaper business and the new book (no spoilers!) It was interesting to me as the downward spiral of the local newspaper is a pet peeve of mine.
Juxtaposed with Barry's disgruntlement at the spoiler in a NY Times review of The Scarecrow, IMHO it shows the lack of journalistic experience out there today.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...
Marcy wrote: "Barry wrote: "The Scarecrow: Michael Connelly
NY Times news service did a hatchet job on this just this past weekend. While giving away just a bit too much of the plot, they ended the review with a statement that the latter half of the book was weak, and that it might have been a better story if Connelly took his time with it. ..."

Barry,

Great list (how do you read so much?) and great descriptions, as always. I hope your trip to weddingville is all you'd like it to be.

Barry:
Great (and tempting) description!!
John Connolly will have another book out in October!!
http://www.johnconnollybooks.com/nove...

Barry wrote: " The Lovers: John Connolly
Spend an evening with a cup of Irish whiskey in an old church graveyard in Ireland and you can begin to apreciate why a man such as John Connolly can write such a spooky book and make it seem like this was the real world. The almost humerous presentation of the previous book is gone, even though the same characters appear, and we are presented with the backstory of Charlie Parker, some of the characters that exisit only in the shadows, and some hints of how man fights demons. (A-)
"

Barry wrote: "I was pleasantly surprised to find a good Cleveland series. Maybe it will get me ready for my trip to Dayton in August.
Barry"

Are you staying in the Dayton area, or coming to Cleveland too?

Marcy wrote: "Barry wrote: "The Scarecrow: Micheal Connelly
NY Times news service did a hatchet job on this just this past weekend. While giving away just a bit too much of the plot, they ended the review with..."

I agree the last chapter was so NOT needed. I did enjoy seeing Bosch from another angle. I am curious to see if the reporter pops up in the next book and HOW?

Since the crowd is clamoring for information, I have this wedding on Aug 22, but have to work on Aug 21, so my plans look like this:
I'll leave CT after work on the 21st and stay at my sister's in Jersey. Not much, but a 3 hour head start. If she decides to go, we'll switch to her car and drive to Dayton for the wedding, leaving in the wee hours. I'm pretty used to the wee hours, since I either wake up in them, or go to sleep in them depending.
I'll spend the night in Dayton and drive back to m sister's if she is with me, or home if not.
Theresa, if my sister does not go, I can go home via Cleveland and meet you for a cup of coffee. I don;t expect to see my sister make up her mind till near the last minute.
Ironically, my cousins are from Cleveland, and that would have been a much easier journey for me, including a quick stop in NY state to see my duaghter in college.
My poor, aged mother does not want me making this trip on the motorcycle, and the angle with my sister kind of put a damper on that anyway. I've been shopping, looking at the Honda Insight, and could have a real car by then. When Pelecanos talks of hoopties, he is looking my way.
Barry

Barry wrote: "Since the crowd is clamoring for information, I have this wedding on Aug 22, but have to work on Aug 21, so my plans look like this:
I'll leave CT after work on the 21st and stay at my sister's in ..."

THanks : ) Just keep me posted, because if you wanted to be a tourist, there is much to do here, Rock n Roll hall of fame, great lakes science center next door, many world renowned museums, lots of ethinc foods, trendy neighborhoods, baseball ( not such a great year) murals of Lebron on downtown buildings, etc

I remember well my trip to Shaker Heights in 1959. My father wanted to break in the new Studabaker Lark station wagon.
Barry

Barry:
What an apt description this is of John Connolly's eighth Charlie Parker book: The Lovers. I finished reading it last night and am reminded again how much I like this series. This was full of insights only hinted in some previous books, and promise for more
Barry wrote: "The Lovers: John Connolly
Spend an evening with a cup of Irish whiskey in an old church graveyard in Ireland and you can begin to apreciate why a man such as John Connolly can write such a spooky book and make it seem like this was the real world. The almost humerous presentation of the previous book is gone, even though the same characters appear, and we are presented with the backstory of Charlie Parker, some of the characters that exisit only in the shadows, and some hints of how man fights demons. (A-) "

Ann, I always look forward to the Charlie Parker books. I remember how it all started with a grisly murder, and moved on in ways we never could have seen.

Back in Navy days,I stayed behind when the boat was docked in Scotland then spent a month wandering Scotland and Ireland. Nothing I have seen on this side of the pond approaches how spooky some of the things I saw there were.

Barry:
What an incredible opportunity to immerse yourself in the culture and steep in the history of the area! John Connolly's antagonists that he has brought across the pond in the Parker novels do have an old world deep creepiness about them.

Barry wrote: "Back in Navy days,I stayed behind when the boat was docked in Scotland then spent a month wandering Scotland and Ireland. Nothing I have seen on this side of the pond approaches how spooky some of the things I saw there were.

Barry:
What an incredible opportunity to immerse yourself in the culture and steep in the history of the area! John Connolly's antagonists that he has brought across the pond in the Parker novels do have an old world deep creepiness about them.

Barry wrote: "Back in Navy days,I stayed behind when the boat was docked in Scotland then spent a month wandering Scotland and Ireland. Nothing I have seen on this side of the pond approaches how spooky some of the things I saw there were.

you can say that again.