Bernie Rhodenbarr is not happy about the state of the world. As a used bookseller his business has been pretty much destroyed by Amazon, and that used Bernie Rhodenbarr is not happy about the state of the world. As a used bookseller his business has been pretty much destroyed by Amazon, and that used to be less of a problem because he made most of his money in his second job as a burglar. However, the modern world is now filled with surveillance cameras and various forms of electronic security that can’t be cracked with old school lockpicking. When a rich jerk buys a priceless diamond and brags about keeping it in a nearby penthouse, it’s a score that Bernie would have once jumped at, but one quick look convinces him that he wouldn’t even be able to get into the building.
Bernie grumbles about all this to his best friend Carol over drinks one night, and after going home he then tries to take his mind off it by reading a book by Fredric Brown about alternate universes. Something strange happens the next day though.
The world seems mostly the same, but Bernie’s Metrocard has now been changed to a Subway Card. Even weirder, his bookstore is now doing a brisk business and Amazon doesn’t exist. Bernie also quickly notices that there are far less security cameras and high tech locks around. Only he and Carol seem aware that there’s been any changes, and Bernie can only guess that somehow they’ve shifted to an alternate universe that is lot more hospitable to a guy who sells books and breaks into places. Maybe he could even now manage to steal a priceless diamond.
Getting a new Burglar novel at this point feels like a real treat precisely because of what Bernie himself is saying at the start of the story. It’s nigh on impossible to be a bookseller who just runs an actual store or be a professional burglar in modern times. So when the series is oriented around those as key traits of the main character, you’d think it’d be time to retire or maybe set the book in the past.
So it’s a delight that Lawrence Block found a loophole with the idea of alternate realities, and then just transplants the whole concept to one in which Bernie can not only exist, but thrive. It’s a little odd because Mr. Block isn’t really associated with sci-fi, and to just have this happen in a series that’s been set in ‘reality’ requires a regular reader to shift into a different gear.
Yet it completely worked for me because the alt-universe thing isn’t the point, it’s just a way for Mr. Block to tell us a story with Bernie again. Not only that, the story eventually becomes a kind of meta-commentary in which Bernie starts to become self-aware about how a lot of his burglary jobs become complicated and involve him playing an amatuer sleuth. Most importantly, this still feels like a Bernie book with him having his conservations with Carol, trying to steal something, and solving a mystery in a low-key grounded kind of way.
Mr. Block has said that he’s retired from writing novels, but fortunately we exist in a reality where a new book like this can appear....more
The 1995 film Heat is one of my favorite movies of all time so I was both excited and scared to check this book out. Sequels to things you loved decadThe 1995 film Heat is one of my favorite movies of all time so I was both excited and scared to check this book out. Sequels to things you loved decades ago can go either way. For every totally awesome Top Gun: Maverick there’s an abomination like Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
So how did Heat 2 do? Much better than Afterlife, but not as well as Maverick.
Writer/director Michael Mann teamed up with veteran crime novelist Meg Gardiner to give us a story that is equal parts prequel and sequel. The story bounces between the '80s when professional thief Neil McCauley and his crew were pulling jobs while cop Vincent Hanna is desperately trying to stop another group of criminals conducting brutal home invasions that include rape and murder. The sequel thread that starts in 1995 involves one of the survivors of the original film trying to escape the cops and what happens in the subsequent years. An old loose end that ties the whole Heat story together eventually draws characters back into the same orbit, but none of them realize this at first.
As just a crime novel, this works pretty well. Mann knows how to do stories about heists, and there’s a couple of great ones in this. There’s interesting background information we learn about the characters that adds some depth to them. The dialogue hits as it did in the film so that when a character speaks, you can hear the actor who portrayed them in 1995 saying the lines. This is particularly true of Vincent Hanna where it's very easy to imagine a younger Al Pacino belting some of these out with his own brand of gusto.
The thing I thought didn’t work as well is what happens in the sequel portion when we jump forward to 2000. At this point the crime aspect isn’t about heists, it’s more about high tech black market computer gear with international organized crime.. That feels like it's borrowing elements from more recent Mann movies such as Blackhat or Miami Vice. There's interesting stuff here, but it felt like the book turned into something else then.
Also, there’s no getting around the fact that Mann is a filmmaker so a lot of his appeal is visual in nature. Yes, he can create great characters who speak snappy dialogue filled with a lot of cool lingo, and he and Gardiner set the scene well. But I felt myself longing to see the action play out on a big screen with amazing locations, a killer soundtrack, and Mann’s distinctive screen style rather than just reading it. It also leaves a lot left hanging so it’s not entirely satisfying to wait almost three decades for a follow up that still has more to come.
Still, more of this works than doesn’t, and I enjoyed it. It was a real treat to revisit this fictional world again. It’s 3.5 stars rounded up to 4....more
Alan Grofield is laying in a hotel bed in Mexico City trying to recover from a gunshot wound in the back with a suitcase full of stolen money in the cAlan Grofield is laying in a hotel bed in Mexico City trying to recover from a gunshot wound in the back with a suitcase full of stolen money in the closet when a strange woman looking to escape some thugs comes into his room though the window.
We’ve all been there, right?
This is a series spun off of Richard Stark’s (a/k/a Donald Westlake’s) better known Parker novels about a professional thief. Grofield started out as a supporting player in those books, and the story of how he ended up in in that Mexican hotel room is part of a Parker novel. While the two characters are both criminals written by the same man, they don’t have much in common. Whereas Parker is a humorless pro who is all about getting the job done, Grofield’s career as a criminal is a side gig while he pursues his true calling, acting. As such, while Grofield is smart and has some devious moves, he’s also more funny and whimsical, and he has a tendency to fantasize that the actions he’s taking are part of a movie.
The novel follows the structure of most Parker ones. We get the set-up and spend time with the lead character, but then there’s a shift so that we get the bad guys’ point of view. In this case that involves a plot involving a wealthy politician who is making a power play. That’s where the book slowed down for me. I was into the first part with Grofield and his new female friend on the run, but the machinations of the politician weren’t a lot of fun. A bit too close to reality these days for my taste.
Grofield himself falls into a kind of odd category for Stark/Westlake thief characters. The Parker series were hard boiled and gritty crime stories while the Dortmunder books were comic capers about a luckless sad-sack of a criminal. Grofield is somewhere in between the two with some darker violent things happening, but at the same time his cheerful demeanor and witticisms make this far lighter than Parker.
It’s a fun read, but Grofield definitely comes in third behind Parker and Dortmunder for me so far. ...more
I received a free advance copy of this from NetGalley for review.
You know how some cars have a handhold mounted above the doors on the interior, and yI received a free advance copy of this from NetGalley for review.
You know how some cars have a handhold mounted above the doors on the interior, and you hear people call them the “Oh-Shit-Handle” because if you’re a passenger and something crazy happens you might find yourself clutching it while screaming expletives?
This book should come with an Oh-Shit-Handle because it’s that kind of ride.
Beauregard “Bug” Montage was a professional criminal whose planning skills were second only to his driving abilities. However, he left that life behind to be a husband and father, and he started his own automotive repair shop in rural Virginia. Unfortunately, business has gotten slow, and the bills are piling up. That’s when an old associate who burned Bug on a previous heist shows up with the promise of an easy score. Feeling that he has no other options, Bug decides to do the job even though he has grave concerns about who he’ll be working with.
What could possibly go wrong?
I wrote about how S.A. Cosby came to my attention at the 2019 Bouchercon in my review of his first book, My Darkest Prayer, and with his second book he continues to deliver.
The idea of a former criminal trying to go straight who takes one last job has certainly been done before in crime fiction. Cosby hits all the familiar beats with the planning, the heist, the twist, all the other elements you’d see in a Richard Stark novel, and he does them well. As just a crime novel this makes for a helluva page turner.
Where the book hits the next gear (Get it?) is in the character work done with Bug, and it’s all about the relationships. First, there’s the daddy issues with Bug being haunted by his unresolved feelings for his father, a criminal who vanished at a critical moment in Bug’s youth. Then there’s the hateful dying mother he feels obligated to support. Finally, there’s the wife and kids he dearly loves and is trying to make a brighter future for.
Like many a character in a crime fiction like this, Bug claims he’s doing it all for his loved ones, but there’s a part of him that also loves the outlaw life. It also fits his violent tendencies better than being a family man, and one of the key things that Cosby digs into here is the notion of a person split between two conflicting lifestyles that are fundamentally opposed. In the end the book is really about Bug coming to terms with who he really is, who he wants to be, and what kind of damage he’s already done to the people he loves.
In addition to all this, the writing just absolutely cooks. There’s great action, gritty violence, humor, heartbreaking moments, and while reading there were some driving sequences where I found myself pressing my foot on the floor as if I could stomp the brake to slow the car down. I grew up in a rural area, and I may have broken a few speed limits on country roads in my youth so Cosby’s descriptions of what that rush is like really hit home for me,
It’s a fantastic follow up to his first novel, and it makes me more sure than ever that Cosby is a writer to watch....more
Bookstore owner/professional burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr returns home from a successful night of stealing on to find his best friend Carolyn in a desperBookstore owner/professional burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr returns home from a successful night of stealing on to find his best friend Carolyn in a desperate state in his apartment. Someone has taken Carolyn’s pet cat from her apartment and is now demanding a ridiculous amount of money to return the feline. It quickly becomes clear that the catnapper was trying to get Bernie to pull a job by going through Carolyn, but stealing a Mondrian painting from a museum is a bit much for a humble burglar. However, Bernie has the bright idea to steal another Mondrian from an apartment he was just in. What could possibly go wrong?
There’s all the usual things to like in this series with witty conversations and clever schemes to break into places. However, the plot gets incredibly complex and even after Bernie has laid it all out at the end I’m not sure I fully understand what happened which feels like too much in a book that features a kidnapped cat. It also seems like a cheat that a lot of the explanation brings in characters we haven’t even seen in the novel until that point.
Still, it’s Lawrence Block doing his thing with Bernie and Carolyn so there’s a lot to like. Block fans will also probably notice that this involves art, stamp collecting, and jogging which are all subjects he’s interested in that have come up in other books. ...more
Even back in the days before Amazon it was tough to turn a profit running a used bookstore so Bernie Rhodenbarr supplements his income by the occasionEven back in the days before Amazon it was tough to turn a profit running a used bookstore so Bernie Rhodenbarr supplements his income by the occasional burglary job. When his best friend Carolyn has a hot tip about an easy score about some wealthy people being on an overnight trip it seems like easy money, but after breaking into their home Bernie finds that some other thieves have already hit the place. Still, he manages to find an uncracked safe with some loot inside so it seems like a successful heist with a potentially big payday thanks to a rare coin. However, the police soon pick up Bernie on suspicion of murder. How can a honest thief prove his innocence?
As I’ve noted in other reviews, this isn’t my favorite Lawrence Block series, and I wasn’t all that interested before because the stories aren’t actually about Bernie being a thief. Instead, his burglaries end up with him in trouble in with the cops for crimes he hasn’t committed, and he has to use his skills to solve a mystery. So this is actually an amateur detective series in disguise, and for a long time that didn’t work for me because I prefer my stories about thieves to be about stealing and not finding murderers.
However, after trying several of them I finally fell for Bernie’s charms, and that’s entirely due to Block’s talent. While these aren’t outright comedies they are meant to be funnier and lighter than Block’s other work, and Bernie does work as a likable guy who does have a certain code of honor even as he dearly loves stealing stuff. That’s all on display here with a solid whodunit plot for Bernie to unravel as he goes around breaking into places and having funny conversations with people. ...more
Should someone be put in prison for a practical joke?
Yes. All practical jokers belong in jail. Or hell.
Harry has been an unrepentant prankster his eShould someone be put in prison for a practical joke?
Yes. All practical jokers belong in jail. Or hell.
Harry has been an unrepentant prankster his entire life, but now he has been locked up after one of his jokes went wrong which resulted in several injuries. Once inside he quickly bumbles onto the secret of several other inmates. There was an opportunity during construction of a prison expansion to build a tunnel which they use to regularly leave. This isn’t for escape because none of these guys have long enough sentences to want to live on the run, but rather they just use the tunnel to go out and do the things they can’t while in jail only to return each night. Harry gets cut in on the scheme, and he enjoys the quasi-freedom it allows him. However, there’s a big catch. The inmates have realized that they have the ultimate alibi of being in prison so they've got an ambitious plan to rob two banks at once, and they demand that Harry take part in it. This puts Harry in a real bind since he may be in jail, but he’s no crook.
The late Donald Westlake was capable of doing both drama and comedy well, and as a lighthearted story written for yucks it works surprisingly well. I was worried in the early going because I really dislike practical jokers, and I thought that he’d be asking a reader to find Harry’s pranks hilarious. Instead Westlake makes it clear that this behavior is beyond annoying, but that Harry has a sick compulsion even when he knows the warden is watching him like a hawk and that his fellow inmates will murder him if they find out he's the one responsible. The humor comes from just how incapable Harry is of stopping, and the casual way we learn about the reign of terror he’s inflicting on hardened criminals. There’s a lesson for Harry in this story so that kept the book from asking me to be on the side of a guy who thinks tying someone’s shoe laces together is funny.
There’s also a running gag about Harry’s last name sounding like a vulgar term which I’m not gonna try to replicate here because I don’t have the patience to figure out how to do an umlaut. As with the practical joke angle I worried that Westlake was going for the most obvious and juvenile thing when it actually turns out to have some deeper meaning explaining Harry’s behavior.
So what we end up with is an enjoyable caper that makes for an entertaining couple of hours of fun reading.
However, I do find myself wishing that Westlake might have used this idea in one of his serious crime books he wrote as Richard Stark. If the humorless thief Parker would have run across a practical joker who screwed up his plans to rob a bank, and then got his big meaty paws around that guy’s neck and squeezed until he turned purple…. Yeah, that’d make for a pretty satisfying book, too....more
When Parker’s in the middle of killing somebody you’d think he’d be too busy to take a phone call about a potential job, but a man’s gotta eat.
The scoWhen Parker’s in the middle of killing somebody you’d think he’d be too busy to take a phone call about a potential job, but a man’s gotta eat.
The score is a bunch of valuable paintings that a rich d-bag had stolen for himself and are now hidden away in a remote hunting lodge he owns. However, security is very high due to a previous botched robbery attempt, there’s a very tight clock on when this has to get done, and one of the crew is a high-strung computer nerd fresh out of prison. Parker also needs to track down whoever sent a hit man after him so there’s no shortage of complications to this one.
This series started in the ‘60s, and I think it works best as retro old school crime stories. However, Richard Stark (a/k/a Donald Westlake) came up with some good modern variations on his usual stories when he brought Parker back in the ‘90s. Here, the rich guy made his money as part of the dot-com boom back when those guys were just wealthy assholes rather than evil billionaires bent on destroying democracy and/or the working class. Ah, the good old days….
So between that and all the Internet and communication angles to the heist you can tell that Stark was figuring out a way to make Parker still viable in the digital age. And it works. They may be using computers to help pull of this heist, but somebody still has to go in and get the stuff which also means having a tough guy who can think on his feet.
I also liked the angle to the hit man story and the brutally efficient way that Parker backtracks the guy to the people who have an old grudge against him. There’s a lot going on in this one, but Stark makes it all fit together and hum along right along to its conclusion....more
I received a free copy for review from the author.
Having a group of thieves and con men as your extended family sounds kind of cool, but you’d better I received a free copy for review from the author.
Having a group of thieves and con men as your extended family sounds kind of cool, but you’d better keep your hand on your wallet at the reunions.
The three Ucker kids have drifted apart since their father died and was shown to be a thief. Axel has a good job at a bank, but his hobby is drawing up elaborate plans for robberies that he never pulls. Gretchen makes her living by stealing valuable comic books from nerds. The youngest, Kurt, stayed in their old hometown to take care of their aging mother and keep playing death metal with his friends in a garage band.
After their mother dies the three siblings are shocked to learn that she left everything including her house to her favorite TV evangelist, Brother Floom. Another surprise comes when they meet their aunt, an imposing woman who calls herself “Mother”. (Yeah, that’s right. She’s Mother Ucker.)
Mother informs the three that most of the extended Ucker family are criminals, and she introduces all of them. Then she reveals that Brother Floom is really their grandfather who assumed another identity years ago. This is all part of Mother’s pitch to teach them the family business with the ultimate goal of ripping off Floom.
Johnny Shaw always delivers a great mix of crime and humor, and this story plays to his strengths with this comic caper that involves a variety of schemes, double crosses, elaborate robbery plans that never quite work, and a family with more than its share of dysfunction. It’s a romp with a plot that’s constantly moving and a varied cast of characters that has a genuine laugh on almost every page. It’s also got enough heart and brains to it to keep it from being more than just a collection of gags and goofy situations.
My one complaint is that there are so many moving parts to the plot that some things just don’t end up making any sense, and Shaw even acknowledges that in the wrap up with one character shrugging off inconsistencies by saying that they were ideas and improvisations that weren’t needed in the end. That’s a bit of a cheat, but it didn’t really bother me because stories built around elaborate cons and schemes are frequently designed to keep things from the audience, not necessarily to make sense within the story. See the scene in Oceans’s 11 when George Clooney is questioned about why one of their own crew wasn’t told about a key piece of the plan. Clooney’s response is to essentially wink at the camera and say, “What fun would that have been?”
It’s a similar thing here. If you like the story, it works. I liked this just fine, and it worked for me.
Full disclosure – I once contributed an unpaid review to Shaw’s Blood & Tacos e-zine....more
When you ask Parker for a loan you’d better make sure that he agrees with the terms or else he’ll really make you pay.
It’s not unusual for Parker’s aWhen you ask Parker for a loan you’d better make sure that he agrees with the terms or else he’ll really make you pay.
It’s not unusual for Parker’s accomplices to try to rip him off after they pull a robbery, but this one plays out differently from the typical stab in the back. Instead of just trying to kill him and take all the loot these guys first try to talk Parker into coming in with them and using all the money they just stole to finance their next job which they claim will be a highly lucrative jewel heist in Palm Beach. It’s only when Parker refuses and demands his cut that these guys reluctantly take all the money, but they promise that it’s only a loan which they will repay as soon as they complete this other robbery. It’s all very civilized as far as ripping off a partner goes, but of course they didn’t realize that they’re messing with the wrong guy. Parker promptly starts building a fake identity as a rich guy looking to buy a house in Palm Beach as part of his revenge scheme. He’s got a solid plan, but as usual things never run smoothly for Parker.
A plot about Parker being betrayed by his partners and setting out to get his money back is pretty standard for the series, and it’s all done as well as you’d expect from Richard Stark (a/k/a Donald Westlake). As a Parker novel this is a solid 3 stars, but there’s two things that I found absolutely delightful in this book.
First, Parker’s share of the original score is $20,000. He doesn’t want to throw in with the jewel heist and potentially make a lot more because he doesn’t like about the plan. After the other thieves take the money Parker then goes on a crime spree to build up the funds he’ll need to establish a whole new identity as a rich man. During this he probably makes well over $200,000 in a string of quick robberies. The fact that he is so peeved about losing 20 grand that he makes over 10 times that amount without breaking a sweat and still feels the need to use it to go after the guys who ripped him off rather than just take that money and call it a day is quintessential Parker, and I love it.
The second thing that I gave this one bonus points for is a scene that occurs while Parker is playing the part of a wealthy man looking to buy a house, and he has a real estate lady showing him around Palm Beach. This woman talks a ton of trash about a certain orange shitbag buying an estate there including this gem: "I think a place must be a little déclassé if Donald Trump has even heard of it."
Donald Westlake was so cool he can throw shade from beyond the grave....more
It’s hard to be a black sheep in a family of thieves and swindlers, but Collie Rand managed to pull it off by going on a murder spree during which he It’s hard to be a black sheep in a family of thieves and swindlers, but Collie Rand managed to pull it off by going on a murder spree during which he killed several innocent people including a child.
Terrier Rand couldn’t cope with what his brother did and took off for five years, but with the execution date approaching he reluctantly comes home when Collie asks to see him. Collie tells Terry that while he’s guilty of most of crimes that he didn’t kill one young woman that was pinned on him, and that he fears that a serial killer may be out there commiting more murders.
Collie has a long history of play mind games as well as being a homicidal jerkface so Terry doubts his brother, and his homecoming isn’t a pleasant trip down memory lane. He finds his family still reeling with the shock and shame of Collie’s crimes as well as other issues, and he’s still in love with the woman he skipped out on even though she married one of his best friends. As he tries to help his family pull the pieces back together and come to terms with his past Terry begins looking into the possibility that Collie is telling the truth about another killer.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about the late Tom Piccirilli, but while there was a lot I liked in this it also had a lot of elements that didn’t work for me. The idea of a guy raised by a family of criminals coming home and investigating a murder is a nice hook, and the writing is very solid overall. However, I had a lot of problems with the tone of the book.
As our first person narrator we spend the entire book with Terry’s angst, and that’s understandable to some extent. If this was straight-up character based crime fiction, like from a Richard Price type of ultra realistic story, then it’d be fine and Piccirilli kinda gets there. Yet it’s also got this kind of gimmicky criminal underworld thing that seems more like something that belong in a Richard Stark novel or a John Wick movie. There’s so much stuff like that from the way the whole Rand family is named after types of dogs to the descriptions of their house being stuffed with hidden spaces filled with loot from heists over the years. (You’d think a family of known thieves wouldn’t want a house filled with evidence of their crimes.) Again, if that’s what you’re going for and you put a criminal playing detective in that world then that’s a solid idea.
But trying to mix serious character drama with a guy brooding about his family and his regrets doesn’t sync up with a story about thieves who seem to have been imported from a pulp novel. Then you add in the serial killer story which gets pretty stupid and melodramatic in the end, and it just feels like a lot of scattered elements that don’t work well together.
It’s also possible that I’m still so creeped out from reading I'll Be Gone in the Dark a few weeks ago that I refuse to sympathize with a guy who breaks into people’s houses when they’re sleeping. Whatever the reason, this one didn’t live up to a strong start for me....more
All I want for Christmas is a clean getaway after I rob this armored car.
Thanks, Eddie
***** Dear Eddie,
Not only are you way too old to be askDear Santa,
All I want for Christmas is a clean getaway after I rob this armored car.
Thanks, Eddie
***** Dear Eddie,
Not only are you way too old to be asking for me presents, but you’re also being very naughty. So the answer is no.
Sincerely, Santa Claus
With its straightforward plot and 1951 setting this fits the bill as a Hard Case Crime offering that really feels like an old school hardboiled paperback delivered in a quick 236 pages.
The primary focus is on the two men whose getaway is complicated by a blizzard and other events, but there’s also a lot of shifting to focus on various other characters. It’s also got a few tricks up its sleeve with some clever time jumping to points before, during, and after the robbery that work with the shifting points of view to provide some surprising twists.The writing is also very good with each character well defined, and plot zig-zags nicely without ever feeling like the author got too cute with it.
Overall it’s a sharp throwback of a crime novel that I quite enjoyed....more
Professional thief Bernie Rhodenbarr is trying to go legit by buying a book store, but that’s a tough way to make the rent even back in the days beforProfessional thief Bernie Rhodenbarr is trying to go legit by buying a book store, but that’s a tough way to make the rent even back in the days before Amazon. So when Bernie gets an offer to swipe a rare volume of Kipling verses for a hefty payday he’s more than willing to start picking locks again.
However, what should be a simple exchange of the book for the cash goes sideways, and Bernie finds himself on the run from the cops after being framed for murder. He’ll need all of his criminal skills and some help from his best friend Carolyn to get out of this one.
As I’ve stated on other reviews I’m a huge fan of Lawrence Block, but this series wasn’t my favorite thing he’s done although I quite enjoyed The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons. I think it’s because while Bernie is a thief the books generally revolve around him playing amateur sleuth rather than actually being about his profession. Still, there’s a charming low-key quality to these, and I always enjoy Block’s casual dialogue where characters often ramble and make amusing observations about life’s quirks.
I liked this the most of the early ones I’ve read because it introduced Carolyn, the lesbian dog groomer who is the person that Bernie can count on most and vice versa. Their friendship is one of the things I’ve most enjoyed about the series.
Overall, it’s a solid mystery with a good sense of humor, and Block always makes a character just trying to navigate the treacherous waters of daily life in New York City a treat to read....more
Jack is a ghostman a professional thief whose specialty is disappearing and living off the grid. He’s a master of disguise, has more fake passports thJack is a ghostman a professional thief whose specialty is disappearing and living off the grid. He’s a master of disguise, has more fake passports than Jason Bourne, knows more about guns than Rambo, and can crack locks and safes as fast as most of us can type in a password. Jack lives for the action and his biggest problem is boredom as he fritters away his downtime posing as a moderately successful professional gambler at a casino.
That changes when he gets a message from his old mentor, Angela. She’s the one who taught him all the tricks of the trade, and they were partners and friends as they traveled the world stealing and having fun spending the loot. However, Jack hasn’t seen her in six years ever since a job went sideways, but now she’s asking for help so he hops the first plane to Macua. There he finds that an operation she’d planned involving stealing sapphires from smugglers has gone horribly wrong. She doesn’t have the gems, but she’s being hunted by a serious badass named Laurence who believes she has something even more valuable from the boat. Jack is determined to help save the one person in the world who knows his real name, but he two of them will need all their skills to survive the Macau criminal underworld and Laurence’s relentless murder spree.
I enjoyed Ghostman, the first book starring Jack, which at its best made him seem like a 21st century version of Richard Stark's Parker. He's an unapologetic criminal who knows every angle and has a shady connection in every major city in the world. However, it’s biggest problem was that Roger Hobbs never quite knew when to stop showing off all the research he’d done, and the book had too much of Jack lecturing the reader on the minutiae of every single bit of equipment or process that came up. It often seemed to be as concerned with telling us all the ways that something could have been done rather than what actually happened.
At first it seemed like this one would follow the same pattern. The first several pages detail smuggling and piracy in the South China Sea, the mining of gems in Myanmar, character traits of the pirate crew trying to steal the sapphires, and a description of what kind of weapon is being used as a sniper rifle including how much it costs. Or in another early part Jack spends several paragraphs laying out all the ways you can be shot through a hotel door including his speculation about the door frames and walls as potential protection, and none of it matters because nobody shoots at him.
That’s the kind of stuff that can ground a story and lend it authenticity but use it too much and it just becomes infodumps. Fortunately, this falls mostly by the wayside as the action of the book gets going, and eventually it turns into a pretty well paced action-thriller. At a brisk 289 pages compared to the slightly bloated 400 of Ghostman it seems that Hobbs either realized that sometimes less is more, or he got a good editor. Either way, it’s an entertaining crime novel with an international feel. ...more
(I received a free advance copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.)
I love being on the Atkins diet…
No, not that Atkins diet. ((I received a free advance copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.)
I love being on the Atkins diet…
No, not that Atkins diet. (You can have my carbs when you pry them from pudgy dead hands.) I’m talking about the Ace Atkins reading diet in which you get to gorge yourself on two of his books a year. The first course is the Spenser story he does for the Robert B. Parker estate which keeps the iconic detective alive and well. The second is Atkins’ own creation of Quinn Colson, a former Army Ranger who returned to his Mississippi hometown and became the sheriff.
Or at least Quinn was the sheriff. The Redeemers begins with Quinn voted out thanks to Johnny Stagg, the local power broker who has his fingers in just about every crooked and corrupt scheme going on in Tibbehah County. While Quinn ponders his next move he’s also dealing with a variety of family matters including the return of his estranged father, his drug addicted sister, and his increasingly messy love life.
Meanwhile, a local businessman named Mickey Walls has a grudge against his former father-in-law Larry Cobb that he intends to settle by stealing the large amount of cash that Cobb amassed through various shady business deals. Walls asks his friend Kyle to help loot Cobb's safe, and also recruits two small time crooks to crack it open. The robbery kicks off a chain of consequences that Quinn gets pulled into even though it’s not his job anymore.
One of the strengths of this serious is the portrayal of small town life by Atkins, who currently resides in Oxford, Mississippi. He knows the rhythms of a rural community, and he uses that along with his writing talent to build an intricate web of connections that tie the locals together. He does this with a clear eye that both celebrates and critiques the lifestyle as he weaves first rate crime stories through it all.
He’s also got a knack for creating memorable characters, and my favorites this time were the two lowlife thieves that Walls hires to crack the safe. Peewee Sparks is a disgusting pig of a man who steals to fund his trips to New Orleans where he can binge on strippers and prostitutes. His apprentice is his dimwitted nephew whose life lessons all come from being an Alabama football fanatic. These two scumbags provide a lot of entertainment as they roll around in Peewee’s van which has portraits of Alabama pigskin legends painted on it. You have to think that Atkins, who played football at rival Auburn, took great delight in creating these morons.
The plot also provides a lot of resolution to some of the on-going storylines that have been built up over the previous four books so that this is a series that feels like it’s going somewhere while introducing new complications that can be explored in future books.
Poor John Dortmunder has such bad luck that things go sideways for him even when he’s stealing from a guy who is helping him do it.
After Dortmunder gePoor John Dortmunder has such bad luck that things go sideways for him even when he’s stealing from a guy who is helping him do it.
After Dortmunder gets caught in the act of stealing TVs out of a repair shop he seems certain to be heading back to prison for a long stay, but a high-priced defense attorney suddenly shows up and does the kind of court room magic that keeps guys like Robert Durst running around loose for years. It turns out that the lawyer has been looking for a thief who met a certain kind of criteria to pull a job for another client of his, Chauncey. Dortmunder meets Chauncey, a wealthy man who is short of cash in only the way that the rich can be while still being rich, and Chauncey has an idea for them both to make some money.
The plan is that Dortmunder will steal a valuable painting as well as some other goodies when Chauncey has a house full of wealthy friends around. Dortmunder holds the painting for collateral until Chauncey collects the insurance, and he’ll pay Dortmunder a healthy portion of the settlement. Then Dortmunder will return the painting to Chauncey who will hide it away where he can still appreciate it. And just to make sure that Dortmunder doesn’t try anything cute like try to sell the painting for himself, Chauncey has also hired a hit man who has instructions to kill Dortmunder if the painting isn’t returned to him.
Dortmunder isn’t thrilled with the hit man angle, but since he isn’t planning on doing any double crosses he doesn’t sweat it much as he puts together his usual crew of misfits to pull off a heist that will look legit to the insurance company. As usual in a Dortmunder caper, there are some complications that arise that make the threat of the hitman suddenly become a lot more hazardous.
I never fail to be amazed when reading the funny misadventures of Dortmunder that they’re written by the same guy who also created the ultimate humorless anti-hero in the very serious Parker series under the Richard Stark pen name. It shows how versatile Westlake was that he could create two series that are both about professional thieves and yet make them so completely different.
While I prefer the hard-boiled stories of Parker’s heists, I also quite enjoy the Dortmunder stories. There’s nothing knee-slapping hilarious in these books although they often turn into outright farces, but there’s a certain slyness to Westlake’s wit that I find very appealing. There’s also a kind of low-key charm to the gloomy Dortmunder and his buddies, and it’s always fun to see what kind of trouble they’re getting into.
This one is a little odd in that it ends in a kind of open ended way that really leaves a lot of loose threads hanging out there. These aren't the kind of books where everything needs to be wrapped in neatly to be satisfying, but Westlake usually did a better job of resolving Dortmunder’s problems. This one seems like he couldn’t really figure a way out so he just ended it on a joke instead, and that’s slightly disappointing. ...more
A bank robber temporarily going by the name of Roy Martin pulls off a heist, but things get messy during the getaway. RoyThis is 100% hard boiled fun.
A bank robber temporarily going by the name of Roy Martin pulls off a heist, but things get messy during the getaway. Roy and his partner Bunny are forced to split up with the understanding that Bunny will hold the loot until they can hook up later. However, after Roy makes his escape he learns that something has happened to Bunny and their money in the small town his partner was living in. Roy makes his way there and posing as a traveling laborer begins to insinuate himself into the lives of several people including a friendly real estate agent, a world-weary woman who runs a bar, the local postmistress, and a sheriff’s deputy with a bad reputation in order to learn what happened to Bunny and the cash.
This is one fantastic example of the old dime store crime paperbacks at their best. The story and the writing are extremely well done, but it’s the lead character that Dan J. Marlowe created that really stands out here. It’s made absolutely clear through the first person narration that Roy is a man who would rather die than compromise or quit, and he’ll murder without hesitation anyone who stands in his way. We learn enough of Roy’s personal history to understand why he chose to be a criminal and has nothing but contempt for the law, but there’s no excuses made or forgiveness asked. There’s also precious little compassion or mercy in him for people although he’s distinctly soft-hearted when it comes to animals.
Setting a guy like this up in a plot where he’s acting as sort of undercover detective makes for some excellent fireworks once the fuse is lit, and even before that Roy’s mad scramble to escape the aftermath of the bank heist is the kind of entertaining heist story that fans of Richard Stark’s Parker series would also love....more
It’s gotta be hard for anyone writing the main character as a professional thief in crime fiction because the comparisons to Richard Stark’s Parker arIt’s gotta be hard for anyone writing the main character as a professional thief in crime fiction because the comparisons to Richard Stark’s Parker are going to be unavoidable and most are going to fall short of that very high bar. However, with this fourth book in the series it’s past time where Wallace Stroby’s Crissa Stone is judged on her own merits, and she easily passes that test.
Crissa is contacted by a rich man named Cota who needs a thief. He had gotten his hands on valuable statues illegally taken from the Middle East during America’s recent military actions, but he got found out and is being forced to return them. With a buyer ready to fork over big money for the statues, Cota wants her to steal them as they are being transported so that he can double dip by selling them and claiming the insurance money while also being absolved of the blame of them not being returned. Hey, rich people didn’t get rich by not being greedy.
Cota wants Crissa to work with his guy Hicks, a former soldier turned gun for hire. Things begin smoothly enough as Crissa comes up with a plan, and she and Hicks recruit a team to pull it off. If you think that things don’t go off the rails at some point then I’m guessing that you’re unfamiliar with how these types of stories work.
All the tropes of these kind of novels are in play with the thief just trying to do the job but facing betrayals and complications. From the standpoint of a heist novel it’s a solid example of the genre, but it’s the character of Crissa that makes it more than that.
She is a pragmatic and competent professional who wants to pull off the robbery without anyone getting hurt, but a life outside the normal boundaries of society continues to take a toll on her emotionally. The man she loves is in prison, her daughter is being raised by a relative, and the number of people she can trust shrinks with every book. The question of whether she’s really doing it for the money or the thrill are also raised in this one. All of these factors make Crissa far more sympathetic and interesting than the anti-hero characters you generally get in these type of books.
As usual in this series Stroby has written a top notch crime novel without an ounce of fat in it that still finds time to develop its characters in the midst of its fast paced action.
When Parker takes a boating trip along a river, you know that it’s not gonna be a pleasure cruise.
After a narrow escape from his previous robbery, ParWhen Parker takes a boating trip along a river, you know that it’s not gonna be a pleasure cruise.
After a narrow escape from his previous robbery, Parker is contacted by a retired government bureaucrat named Cathman who has a proposition. Cathman has the details on a new riverboat casino that is always loaded with cash, and while Parker doesn’t much like the idea of pulling a job on a boat, it’s too tempting a target to pass up. Parker assembles a top notch crew of thieves to pull off the heist, but he’s worried about Cathman’s real motives. As always with a Parker story, there are some other monkey wrenches lurking around just waiting to be flung into the works at the worst possible moments.
This is second Parker book that Stark (a/k/a Donald Westlake) wrote a long lay off from 1974 until 1997. While I don’t find the second phase of the books quite as strong as the early Parker novels, a weaker Stark is still better than most other crime novels, and this one was particularly fun to re-read. The riverboat heist is a nice change of pace, and as usual there are some clever gimmicks as to how the job gets pulled off. Another aspect I enjoyed was that for a while in the series most of Parker’s problems were coming from loose ends that he would leave hanging. In this one, most of the obstacles come from directions he couldn’t have reasonably anticipated so he comes across as smarter in this one as well as more ruthless in the way he deals with them.
Something that did strike me funny was the idea that there’s a riverboat casino that actually goes up and down a river. When the riverboat fad hit Kansas City in the ‘90s there was the usual battle between the puritans and the capitalists, and the riverboat compromise was sold as being a way to do gambling with strict limitations. But then the so-called boats were essentially just buildings along the river.
We all played along with the joke for a while. There was a brief period when you actually had to get boarding passes and could only step ‘on-board’ at certain times with a time limit that meant you had to leave the ‘ship’. Most of those rules were tossed out pretty quickly so what we were left with are casinos along the rivers in areas no one goes to except to gamble which pretty much eliminated all the projections of bringing tourism in.
Anyhow, that’s why I found the idea of a riverboat casino that actually cruises on a river hilarious. (Are there parts of the country where they actually do this? Anyone got an actual cruising riverboat?) Parker should have just hit one of these KC casinos, and he wouldn’t have had to worry about any of that boat nonsense. ...more
This book inspired one of the greatest head-scratchers in the history of film adaptations when Hollywood decided that Burglar would feature Whoopi GolThis book inspired one of the greatest head-scratchers in the history of film adaptations when Hollywood decided that Burglar would feature Whoopi Goldberg playing a white male and Bobcat Goldthwait would be perfect as a lesbian dog groomer.
I got to meet Lawrence Block while he was on a book tour for Hope to Die, and I asked him if he knew what prompted the movie producers to have Whoopi play Bernie. Even though it was obvious that he’d answered this about a million times before Block patiently explained that he had no input on the film version, and that the story he heard was that initially Bruce Willis was supposed to be Bernie and Whoopi was cast as Carol. However, Willis bowed out, and some genius got the brilliant idea to have her play Bernie which then led to gender swapping Carol into Bobcat Goldthwait. And thus cinema history was made….
Professional burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr just wanted to get his teeth cleaned, but his dentist Carl Sheldrake has a proposal for him. Sheldrake’s ex-wife Crystal reamed him in their divorce settlement, and he’d like to get some payback by having Bernie steal her large collection of valuable jewelry. Bernie could use the cash so he agrees to what seems like an easy payday.
However, after he’s broken into her apartment and collected the jewels, Crystal returns unexpectedly with a gentleman friend, and Bernie has to hide in a closet while the two make with the bow-chick-a-bow-wow. Before he can escape, Crystal winds up murdered and adding insult to injury the killer stole the briefcase full of loot that Bernie had collected.
Bernie is determined to recover the jewels he stole fair and square so he plays amateur sleuth with the help of Sheldrake’s pretty dental hygienist. However, he soon finds himself the primary suspect when the cops learn that he was in the apartment.
This is the second book featuring Bernie, and Block delivers a witty and off-beat mystery with the morally challenged burglar. Like most of Block’s stuff there’s a lot of fun conversations that veer off into unexpected directions, and there’s an interesting solution to who killed Crystal and why. My only gripe was that despite what the presence of Bobcat in the movie would lead you to believe, this early in the series Bernie hasn’t met his best friend Carol yet so I missed their goofy interactions....more
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