Fletch gets blackmailed by the government to secretly bug and record journalists at a conference, but when an asshole media mogul gets murdered, FletcFletch gets blackmailed by the government to secretly bug and record journalists at a conference, but when an asshole media mogul gets murdered, Fletch ends up investigating that too. This is OK, but a little too cute for it's own good. Plus, it's really hard to believe that a supposedly smart guy like Fletch would be too dumb to ever pay his taxes. That's how they got Capone, ya know.......more
Fun stuff although the character of Fletch on the page always seems to be more asshole than hero to me. Also thoroughly enjoyed the recent film based Fun stuff although the character of Fletch on the page always seems to be more asshole than hero to me. Also thoroughly enjoyed the recent film based on with Jon Hamm....more
I received a free advance copy of this from NetGalley for review.
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. And if what happens is that you get eaten by aI received a free advance copy of this from NetGalley for review.
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. And if what happens is that you get eaten by a cannibal while there you'll definitely be staying in Vegas.
Clayton Deese was an enforcer/hired killer for a loan shark in New Orleans who gets arrested after one of his jobs go wrong. Since Deese has a lot of skeletons in his closet he jumps bail and disappears. Actually, the skeletons are in graves behind his house, and Deese had a habit of cutting prime cuts off his victims and throwing them on the grill. Once that grisly discovery has been made Deese is the country’s most notorious fugitive, and US Marshal Lucas Davenport is brought in to help track him down.
Deese has hooked up with his brother who is running a nasty home invasion crew that Lucas tracks from Los Angeles to Las Vegas as the trail keeps getting bloodier. There’s also a complication that Deese’s old boss is worried that he’ll flip on him if caught so he’s trying to either kill him or make sure he gets out of the country.
This is the 29th book of the Prey series, and it’s got all the usual stuff. The plotting is tight with multiple characters all working their own agendas, the tension builds nicely to some big moments, and we get to hang out with Davenport as he uses a mix of deduction, manipulation, and intimidation to find the bad guys. Sandford even throws a pretty wicked curve ball at the reader about a quarter of the way into the book that literally made me sit up and curse aloud in shock when it happened. Lucas’ new role as a marshal continues to be interesting, and the Vegas setting is used well as the kind of place where trying to follow a suspect through the maze of a casino is a challenge.
However, it doesn’t quite hit the peaks of the series at its best. There’s some great set-up of Deese as a people-eatin’ leg-breaker, but more time is actually spent with other members of the home invasion crew so that he doesn’t come across as the best of the Prey bad guys. It’s a little disappointing that more isn’t done with the cannibal angle. (What? If I read a book where I’m told the villain eats people then I expect somebody to get eaten. Don’t look at me like that. I’m not the only person who watched Hannibal.) In fact, it’s more used for shock factor and almost a running gag than anything. The twist that we get early on doesn’t really amount to much either at the end of the day and is kind of quickly forgotten.
Still, it’s John Sandford so it’s a pretty satisfying thriller that will keep you turning pages even if it isn’t Lucas’s most memorable case....more
I received a free copy of this from NetGalley for review.
This book asks the ultimate question: How long can a man live eating only frozen chicken pot I received a free copy of this from NetGalley for review.
This book asks the ultimate question: How long can a man live eating only frozen chicken pot pies?
Wheatfield, Minnesota, is a dying small town until several apparitions of the Virgin Mary in an old church are captured on video by multiple people and posted on social media. Now Wheatfield is booming thanks to an influx of visitors hoping to see the vision for themselves. However, when a sniper wounds two people outside the church at different times it puts the brakes on the new tourism trade. State investigator Virgil Flowers arrives and tries to figure out why someone would be randomly shooting folks who are just hoping to catch a glimpse of Mary. Virgil begins pulling on multiple threads involving various townsfolk, and things quickly escalate.
Can Virgil track down the sniper before he finds himself in the crosshairs? Or will he starve to death first since he can’t get a decent meal anywhere in town and has to subsist on chicken pot pies from the convenience store?
This is a pretty typical Virgil Flowers novel, and as a John Sandford fan that’s good enough for me. Once again we’ve got Virgil going to a small town to solve a mystery, and he relies on tapping into local gossip more than forensics or Sherlock Holmes style deduction to do it. There’s a lot of fun characters, and we get a welcome dose of Sandford regulars Shrake and Jenkins. Virgil also continues to see his personal life change and grow with a big event on the horizon.
The difference in this one is that it’s much more of a whodunit than most of Sandford’s other thrillers. Usually we get a lot from the villain’s perspective even if Sandford masks their identity in the writing, and the mystery usually comes from withholding a critical piece that turns out to be the way that Virgil or Lucas Davenport find the bad guy when they figure that out. This time we are completely in the dark as to who is doing the shooting and why until near the end except for one brief chapter in the middle which gives nothing away. When the answers come it’s the kind of logical and satisfying solution that I’d expect from the tight plotting that Sandford does.
The only really negative thing I can say about this is that it may have ruined pot pies for me. At least for a little while......more
I received a free advance copy of this from NetGalley for review.
Me in 2013: “I love John Sandford novels, but this Silken Prey seems a bit outlandishI received a free advance copy of this from NetGalley for review.
Me in 2013: “I love John Sandford novels, but this Silken Prey seems a bit outlandish. Could a rich person with a narcissistic personality disorder who engages in criminal behavior really hope to win an election to an important position in the US government? That seems highly unlikely.”
Me on Election Night 2016: “Why didn’t we heed John Sandford’s warning?!?”
Back in Silken Prey Lucas Davenport tangled with a crazy woman named Taryn Grant who was running for the Senate. She was capable of framing a rival for child pornography and then forming a conspiracy to commit murder to cover it all up. Since she was rich and this is America, (view spoiler)[ she got away with it. (hide spoiler)].
Now a rival of Grant’s is almost killed in a car accident which he is positive was an attempt to murder him, and Lucas Davenport is asked to check into the case. Davenport is off to D.C. and is quickly convinced that the accident was indeed a professional attempted hit. He suspects that Grant’s friends at a military contractor filled with ex-special forces members were responsible for it on her orders. Getting evidence on trained killers who know how to cover their tracks and are backed by a powerful rich woman with her eye on the White House won’t be easy though.
Despite the DC setting and Davenport facing off against a crew of bad ass ex-soldiers this all feels like pretty standard stuff for Sandford. Not that it’s a bad thing. Sandford at his worst can write circles around most of the thriller writers on the best seller list, and this has a lot of intriguing elements like figuring out how the bad guys could have rigged the car accident without leaving a trace. Davenport joined the US Marshals in the last book, and that change has enabled the series to do some interesting new stuff like this.
However, I think this one fell a little short of high potential in a few areas. For starters, even though this is set in DC and involves members of Congress it just doesn’t seem like the circus it would be. I also thought that Grant's response to being investigated would be more politically vicious and involve her trying to do more to smear Davenport in the media rather than going after him with more direct methods. It all just seems a little naïve and optimistic in that the system pretty much works and Davenport is free to investigate without having to worry about the press or the politics of it much at all.
And bear in mind that what I’m essentially saying here is the biggest problem with a plot that involves a member of the US Congress trying to assassinate a political rival and cover it up with the help of shady intelligence connections is that IT'S NOT CYNICAL ENOUGH!
Welcome to America 2018.
There’s a few other issues too, but most of them fall into the category of spoilers. (view spoiler)[ Grant really came across as a dangerous nut job in her first appearance, but she doesn’t seem to have the same evil energy here. Plus, it seems like a mistake that she and Lucas never come face-to-face. We’ve also seen the villains try to distract Davenport by going after his family or friends before so to have it happen yet again here seems kind of predictable. Again, I’d more expect Grant to use her political influence and media contacts to drop a world of hurt on Davenport as a way of neutralizing him rather than going to physical attacks against him and his wife as a first response. (hide spoiler)]
While I was a little let down by some of this it was still a solid page turner, and I very much enjoyed the ending which went a long way towards making me forget about some of my quibbles.
I received a free advance copy from NetGalley for review.
I got sneak preview of this one last spring when I made a long drive to attend a John SandforI received a free advance copy from NetGalley for review.
I got sneak preview of this one last spring when I made a long drive to attend a John Sandford signing, and he told us about the current book he was fighting a deadline on that he was going to have to spend the evening working on when he got back to the hotel. All work and no play may make Jack a dull boy, but it makes John one of the best and most productive thriller writers on the bestseller list.
It’s another hard Minnesota winter in the small town of Trippton, but there’s a spot near the sewage treatment plant where the river doesn’t freeze. That’s where the body of the lady who owned the local bank pops up, and soon state cop Virgil Flowers is on the job. Virgil is familiar with Trippton because his fishing buddy Johnson Johnson lives there, and he also worked another case there just a few books back.
Complicating the murder investigation is the side gig his bosses want Virgil to help with that involves a ring of the locals adding sound chips to Barbie dolls that make it sound as if their having orgasms and selling them on the web. The Mattel corporation has no sense of humor about these aptly named Barbie-Ohs and has dispatched a private detective to serve cease-and-desist orders, but the hard boiled lady gumshoe is having no luck tracking down the people involved. Virgil isn’t happy about such a silly distraction, but he finds out the hard way that times are so tough in this struggling small town that the people involved are desperate to keep anyone from interfering with the income they make from selling the dolls.
This is pretty typical Sandford in a lot of ways. Virgil gets a case in a rural Minnesota town, and he tries to solve it using his sneakily low key way of chatting up people and tapping into local gossip. Like most of his books we know right from the start who the killer is, and the tension comes from the cat-and-mouse game between the cop and criminal. Sandford often holds back some info from the reader that is a critical part of how the bad guy will be found and figuring that out provides the mystery element to his books rather than a straight-up whodunit. He adds a new wrinkle to that in this one because while we know who killed the woman we also know that he left the body in her house after trying to make it look like an accident. One of the interesting aspects in this one is that the killer is as confused as we are as to how she wound up in the river.
There is also all the typical Sandford stuff about Virgil having funny conversations with people, and one of the better running gags in this one is that everyone he asks about the leader of the Barbie-Oh gang acts as if they’ve never heard of her though he knows damn good and well that every one of them knows exactly who she is.
There’s one potential problem here with a big unresolved plot point. Sandford doesn’t always wrap everything up neatly, but even if the cops don’t know everything by the conclusion the reader always does. It’s also possible that he’s leaving a loose thread for a future book, but that's not really his style so it’s odd that it isn’t even mentioned in the wrap-up as a loose end. It really does seem like something that Sandford just forgot to address, but his plotting is usually air tight so it really made me scratch my head at the oversight.
Overall, it’s still another satisfying thriller from a writer whose casual readability masks how intelligent, well conceived, and executed his books really are....more
Can we please find out what John Sandford is eating and put every other thriller writer on the same diet? It’s insane that over 30 books into his careCan we please find out what John Sandford is eating and put every other thriller writer on the same diet? It’s insane that over 30 books into his career the last two he’s done, Bad Blood and Buried Prey, were among his very best. Now he delivers another top-notch crime story in Shock Wave.
The small city of Butternut Falls, Minnesota, is an uproar over a new big box discount store called PyeMart being built. Someone decides to do more than write angry posts on the Internet and powerful bombs go off at PyeMart’s corporate headquarters and at the construction site in Butternut.
Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension sends Agent Virgil Flowers to investigate. Virgil finds that there are plenty of suspects from the business owners who know they won’t be able to compete with PyeMart to angry environmentalists claiming that the store will pollute a nearby pristine creek and lake. There are also wide spread rumors that the city council got paid off to allow the store’s construction. As he hunts down the mad bomber Virgil will get tangled up in small town corruption and try a controversial experiment in identifying suspects.
While not quite up to the level of last year’s Bad Blood this is still another terrific page turner from Sandford and continues the growth of Virgil from spin-off character from the Davenport Prey series into a fun and off-beat protagonist.
And I owe a big ‘Thank you!’ to Dan for this one. I attended the Bouchrcon convention and Dan joined me for a day where we saw the likes of Eion Colfer and Robert Crais, and also learned that eating a big lunch and drinking beer at an Irish pub will impede your ability to stay awake at the afternoon panels.
Dan got an ARC of this in the freebie bag full of books you got for registering. My jealously was instant and enormous. I am not proud of the way I threw myself on the ground and began kicking and screaming that it wasn’t fair. Dan quieted my tantrum by offering me a bottle of beer and generously giving me this book. So thanks, Dan!...more
When Parker was in the middle of a night of passion with Bett Harrow, he got attacked by a would-be assassin from the Outfit. Parker dealt with the guWhen Parker was in the middle of a night of passion with Bett Harrow, he got attacked by a would-be assassin from the Outfit. Parker dealt with the guy, but Bett ended up sneaking away with a gun that had Parker’s prints on it. Since his prints are on file from an old arrest and Bett knows his best assumed identity, this could lead to big problems.
Turns out that Bett, who has a thing for the bad boys, has a rich daddy who wants to have a small statue worth a fortune stolen from a diplomat who doesn’t realize what he has. For a hefty fee and the return of the gun with his prints, Parker agrees to the job. However, the diplomat’s communist government thinks he’s been embezzling and sends their most trusted spy to settle the matter just as Parker and his comrade Handy McKay are setting up their theft. Will Parker be able to do the job and recover the incriminating gun?
This is another stand-out Parker story with the usual complications and double-crosses screwing with what should be a simple job. Stark (a/k/a Westlake) uses this one to give us a better idea of Parker’s code of ethics, such as it is. While Parker is always a no-nonsense pragmatist who is willing to do things like torture people for needed info, he considers it a wasteful and unpleasant way to do things. He also shows that if he makes a deal, and if the other party holds up their end, that Parker will keep his word. (Usually.) But if anyone double-crosses him, then he’ll stop at nothing to get what he’s owed.
Another surprising thing in this one is the loyalty he shows to Handy McKay. When circumstances make it appear that ditching Handy would be a safer and more profitable option for several reasons, Parker still sticks with Handy and does quite a bit for him. Maybe it’s because he’s the closest thing to a friend that Parker has, but it was a little surprising seeing the unsentimental thief stick his neck out for somebody else....more
When Parker and the Outfit had a dispute in the first book of the series, Parker warned them what he’d do if they didn’t leave him alone. But after suWhen Parker and the Outfit had a dispute in the first book of the series, Parker warned them what he’d do if they didn’t leave him alone. But after surviving an attempt on his life, it’s time for Parker to make good on his threat.
As Parker told the bosses of the Outfit, all the professional thieves know each other, and all of them have worked out some kind of scenario for robbing one of their operations because they’re cash-rich and won’t bring any legal attention. Potential revenge by the Outfit is the only thing stopping anyone from acting on their plans. But if someone fired a starting gun and they all hit at the roughly the same time, the confusion would greatly increase the chances that they’d be able to get away with no payback.
Parker writes a series of letters asking his fellow thieves to go ahead and hit any syndicate operation they’ve had their eye on. Many jump at the chance, not out of any friendship or loyalty to Parker (Parker doesn’t have friends.) but because someone gave them an excuse. As the Outfit reels from the shock of multiple robberies and the loss of a small fortune, Parker is going to find the head man and settle his problem once and for all.
This is one of the few Parker books that wouldn’t use the plot of him planning a job, carrying it out and dealing with complications, and it gives Stark (a/k/a Westlake) a chance to spin several mini-stories in the middle of the book as he deftly describes some of the different robberies that Parker’s fellow thieves carry out against the Outfit.
This one really solidifies Parker’s no-nonsense nature. With no patience for polite chit-chat or other social niceties, Parker’s encounters with other people can be hilarious. When he recruits Handy McKay to join him on his attempt to get to the top Outfit man, Parker offers money and a chance at picking up more along the way. When McKay indicates that he doesn’t really care about the money, that he’s going along because of their relationship, Parker is baffled and uncomfortable about it. He doesn’t understand sentimentality and doesn’t like that McKay is showing it about him.
Another solid Parker outing that wraps up a lot of the overall plot arcs from the first couple of books but leaves one nice dangling thread for Parker to pick up in the next one....more
Treasure of the Rubbermaids 5: The Underhill Account
The on-going discoveries of priceless books and comics found in a stack of Rubbermaid containers pTreasure of the Rubbermaids 5: The Underhill Account
The on-going discoveries of priceless books and comics found in a stack of Rubbermaid containers previously stored and forgotten at my parent’s house and untouched for almost 20 years. Thanks to my father dumping them back on me, I now spend my spare time unearthing lost treasures from their plastic depths.
I don’t know what it is in the DNA of American males that makes so many of us quote movies incessantly. There are certain friends of mine that I can have entire conversations with that consist of nothing but repeating lines from films like Animal House, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters and a hundred others. One of the all-time richest veins of movie quotes is Fletch.
After the movie came out in 1985 my friends and I watched it dozens of times on video and my fifteen year old self was delighted to learn that there was a whole series of books that the movie was based on. I found a movie tie-in copy that made me giggle with glee at the prospect of getting whole books of more Fletch stories.
However, the book and the movie have some serious differences that threw me for a loop. As readers we’ve all been disgusted when a movie version of a book we love made stupid changes that ruined what we liked about it. Very rarely, a movie may make some changes that improve the story. Fletch is an odd case because in some ways the movie is very much like the book, but at the same time it isn’t. Yet both ended up being remarkably good. Weird, huh?
The main plot of both remains the same. Irwin Fletcher is a smart ass investigative reporter who has gone undercover as a junkie to find the source of a drug epidemic at the beach. In his role as an addict Fletch is approached by a wealthy man named Alan Stanwyk who makes him an incredible offer. Stanwyk claims to be dying of cancer and has set up an elaborate plot to have someone murder him so that his insurance won’t be nullified by suicide. The offer to kill him comes with a large sum of money and an elaborate escape plan.
Fletch plays along and agrees to kill Stanwyk. Then he embarks on a clandestine investigation to find out if the man really is dying of cancer while still trying to figure out the source of the drugs on the beach as his editor demands that he print what he already knows.
Sounds like the movie, right? Yes and no. Because while the main plot is the same it’s Chevy Chase’s portrayal of Fletch that changes the tone. While this remains one of his best movies Chase was essentially doing what he always did - acting like Chevy Chase. He’s a quick witted smart ass who occasionally behaves like a complete doofus. The running gag of him pretending to be various people lets him act like an idiot while still being the smug guy who is playing everyone.
The Fletch of the book is also a quick witted smart ass, but he isn’t a goofball. While he frequently lies about his identity to get information there’s no silly disguises or acting the fool. This Fletch is also a Vietnam vet with more problems than the Chevy Chase version. His fights with his incompetent editor are more serious and not playful, and the alimony of two failed marriages is a real problem and not just a joke.
And to be blunt, the book version of Fletch is kind of a prick. (From what I’ve read about Chevy Chase he is also kind of prick, but he didn’t showcase that in this movie.) Fletch is the kind of guy who threw his ex-wife’s cat out a seventh story window when he got sick of the cat smell and doesn’t apologize for it. He’s funny but mean to most of the people he deals with. Granted, many of them are assholes, but book Fletch is a bit nastier than Chevy Fletch.
And this Fletch does things like shack up with a fifteen year runaway prostitute. The book never makes it clear that he was having sex with her, but they are sharing a sleeping bag so while there is a feeling that maybe he was trying to protect her and his cover it’s still pretty damn creepy.
The book also ends differently with a much darker twist than the movie version did. All in all, it seems like Hollywood took a good mystery with some funny lines and a dark undercurrent to it, including a flawed main character, then they sanded off the rough edges and brought in Chevy Chase who did what worked for him rather than making an effort to portray it as written in the book.
What we got was a movie that concentrated on the humor and became a comedy classic while the book remains a good crime story that will probably leave fans of the movie who read it slightly unsettled at some of it’s darker plot twists....more
I read this for the first time back in 2008, which was 5 Batman movies ago by my count. While I enjoyed it a lot back then, I didn't remember much aboI read this for the first time back in 2008, which was 5 Batman movies ago by my count. While I enjoyed it a lot back then, I didn't remember much about it so it was a shock to go through it now and realize how many things in this would go on to be included in various Bat-films.
It's an interesting idea with a serial killer taking out mob related figures on holidays over the course of the year, and it also functions as a solid whodunit that manages to work in a really good version of the Harvey Dent/Two-Face origin story. The structure allows for Batman to deal with a bunch of his villains over the course of the year which is fun. ...more
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