With Shadow Season, Tom Piccirilli shows that he is a master who is comfortably at the top of his game. Shadow Season takes elements of gothic horror and the haunted house story and mixes them with a crime story, coming up with a sure-fire end of the year top 10 book. Piccirilli revels in the challenge of the situations that his blind protagonist finds himself in, using sensory details, mental imagery, and memory in wholly unique ways that double down with an extra emotional resonance. I would even go so far as to say that one of the chapters, where Finn meets his wife for the first time, is perfectly written. The chapter is as carefully written and deeply felt a showcase of skills as you are likely to find anywhere, making astute observations with a clarity of vision that cuts right to the heart of the  characters and situation. In many ways it’s a microcosm for his skill set at large and proves that he has an O’Nan-like ability to willingly turn and face emotional confrontation rather then avoid it or simplify it like a lot of other crime fiction does.

Not only does Tom Piccirilli have a fierce imagination, but he also has the skills to back it up.

Jump by Tim Maleeny

I was hard on Tim Maleeny’s last effort, because I saw his skills being squandered and knew he could do better. Well, with Jump he has done better. A lot better. Jump is a great read. A damn good mystery told with panache that will entertain anyone who reads it. The characters and the writing are infectious and very funny. There are even some fairplay clues littered about.

Tim Maleeny is back, baby!

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick is a very cool morality play that takes place at the Arctic Circle during the turn of the 20th century, like an Arctic Circle western almost. A boy’s father dies on the ice, and he is left alone with the body while the others go for help. In their absence a violent stranger appears at the door looking for the father and willing to hold the son responsible for the sins of the father. The boy has to decide whether or not to use the father’s old revolver that is in the storage room. The battle with self and the decision of whether or not to use violence is ballasted by his dead mother’s religious beliefs. The father’s past is told in a concurrently running storyline that explains the dangerous man’s presence. The ending manages to navigate both of his parent’s mindsets in a satisfying way.

I really didn’t know what to expect with this book, so I just jumped right in and came away with an entertaining, thoughtful read. 

Editor’s note:  Currently Revolver is only available in the UK; it is being released in the US in March from Roaring Brook Press and marketed as a YA book.

In the past I’ve tried to write a full review for almost all of the books that I read. This became difficult as my time shrank but also because some books seemed to only warrant brief thoughts and to stretch them out to a fuller review can be a strained exercise.

In an effort to maintain a good level of book coverage I am going to start a monthly (at least) review column. Initially, the books covered will be from my backlog but once I’m caught up I hope to cover all of the books that I’ve read in the month prior to publication. For those books that demand of me more then a brief write up I’ll reserve the right to expand coverage.

As always I’d appreciate any feedback either on the books covered (just like reviews) or on the column itself.

***

The Mammoth Book of Crime Comics

With the rise in popularity of crime comics in recent years it would be easy to think the marriage of crime and comics was a recent one but in fact it’s a relationship that goes back decades as this collection shows. Commercial and critical successes some of the best crime fiction coming out right now, regardless of medium, is in the comics field and some of the best crime fiction writers are in comics. With all of this activity it would be easy to think that we are only now entering into an era of crime comics.

Some of the stories are a little prose heavy and light on art; others are heavy on the atmosphere and light on the story but all in all this is a great book for any collection and one that couldn’t have come at a better time.

This collection is a must own for fans of either comics or crime fiction. For those who have ever wondered what an Ed McBain story would look like using Sin City’s palette or for those who thought that a crime story written by Neil Gaiman or Alan Moore would be cool then this one is for you. Actually, regardless of who you are this one is for you.

Small Crimes by Dave Zeltserman

I liked Small Crimes but it’s not the masterpiece that others have been proclaiming it as. It’s a problematic book with an over-reliance on coincidence to advance the plot and scenes that are supposed to be rife with tension seem to lack it and are just…flat.

There also is a plot point — a did-he-or-didn’t-he act from the past — that is left unresolved for much of the book until the end when the protag in a blasé, what was the point moment, casually states whether he did or didn’t. There was greater tension to be had by NOT resolving the matter and leaving the reader to wonder then by inserting it at the end in order to tie up, what some 0would consider, a loose end. Note to authors and readers everywhere: It’s ok sometimes to leave sub-plots open, it’s a device that has merit and should be considered more often.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that some of my complaints are a matter of taste, specifically flat scenes and the resolution of sub-plots, and I can reconcile the two in my mind when I present a books faults but I do think that the over-reliance on coincidence is something set in stone and damn near indisputable and is what ultimately knocked the book down a few notches in my book.

Toros and Torsos by Craig McDonald

Toros and Torsos is the second Hank Lassiter book released after last years Head Games. The events here take place chronologically before those in Head Games. In Toros & Torsos the friendship of Lassiter and Ernest Hemingway is pushed front and center. In fact Hemingway almost threatens to dominate the story here, which is probably apropos given the gregarious nature of personality. What’s really interesting about McDonald’s characterization of Hemingway though is the life that he breaths into the character. He feels much more human here then his legend over the years. It’s an engaging portrait and McDonald’s affection for his subject is apparent on every page.

As before Lassiter though is the draw here. His personality is engaging and the scenes with him just crackle. He is quickly becoming a modern classic and one of the great characters of the genre. Part of my response to Lassiter is a visceral one in that he reminds me, in part, of my grand father who was a no bullshit tough guy with a big heart who served in the navy. As gender roles continue to change and evolve its interesting to read such an accurately portrayed man of his times, without the filter of modern sensibilities, warts and all, and come away loving him.

Orson Welles is back and it’s interesting to see these three dominant personalities interact with one another. It’s to McDonald’s credit that he is able to control them as much as does, especially in the case of Welles and Hemingway, because it would be easy to just fall back on the written history of these men’s lives and recycle old anecdotes. Again McDonald shows great talent in being able to humanize these characters without taking away from who they were and what we know of them.

After reading two of them I’m fully prepared to say that I love the Hank Lassiter books and with his life spanning much of the century and his adventures bringing him into contact with so many prominent historical figures Hank Lassiter is practically something of a pulp fiction Forrest Gump.

Greasing the Piñata by Tim Maleeny

Anyone who has read my reviews knows that I really liked Tim Maleeny’s first two Cape Weathers books. They were a lot of fun to read and I enjoyed the stories and characters. I won’t go so far as to say that Greasing the Piñata is a dud but it is the weakest book so far. The characters felt like they were just going through the motions and the sense of fun that so grabbed me for the first two just wasn’t there in the third. I fear that they are becoming a bit stale and predictable in their roles and actions. I think they need to be shaken up a bit somehow. If they were real I would say that they needed to be taken out of their comfort zones some so that predictable life patterns don’t get cemented.

The other observation that I take away from this is that I think it suffers from what I call news paper clipping syndrome. Sometimes you read a book and it feels like the author had collected a bunch of stories from the newspaper and decided to string them together to make a story.

All is not lost though — some of the scenes really do crackle with tension and action plus there is more of everyone’s favorite lesbian assassin who could totally kick your ass.

I’m still a fan of the series and even if this one wasn’t a favorite Greasing the Piñata has done nothing to dissuade me from reading further in the series.

***

(The Electric Mayhem is Brian Lindenmuth’s whenever, whatever column.)

A movie producer hurtles to his death from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, an apparent suicide that shocks the film community and puts a two hundred million dollar production in jeopardy.

His colleague, Grace, doesn’t believe it was suicide and turns to private detective Cape Weathers to find the truth. To solve the case, Cape and his friend Sally—an assassin raised by the Triads—take on the Russian mob, a major movie studio, and a recalcitrant police department by enlisting the help of rogue cops, computer hackers, and an investigative journalist who just doesn’t give a damn. But with a sniper on their trail, the challenge will be staying alive long enough to find out the truth.

Beating the Babushka is the second book in the Cape Weathers series following Stealing the Dragon earlier in the year. As with the earlier book Beating the Babushka is a lot of fun to read. I normally am not one to get caught up in a series but Maleeny’s books have quickly become must-haves for me upon their release.

It is not necessary to have read the earlier book in the series to understand and appreciate what happens in Beating the Babushka. But I will say this, that a fuller understanding of Sally, one of the reoccurring characters in the series and Cape’s back-up in tight situations, can only be had with a reading of the earlier book. But, Sally’s character is just as vibrant and interesting without that prior knowledge though readers of the first book may feel that she is underused here after she had such a dominating role in the earlier book. Like all of the great deadly sidekick characters her time spent in the story isn’t enough but Maleeny knows better then to spoil a good thing and ultimately leave us wanting more.

One of the things that are interesting here is the sustained Hollywood theme. Not only is the death of a movie producer at the heart of the story here but Beating the Babushka is filled with movie allusions and references as well as offering up a behind the scenes look at the business side of movie making.

Reflecting the shift in the power structure of organized crime in the U.S. it’s the Russian mob that dominates here. An outline of their history and their methods of dealing with other organizations (both legal and not) provide an interesting sub-plot. One of my favorite characters in Beating the Babushka is the retired Russian mobster known as The Pole. It will be an anecdote of his that will provide the title of the book. His character is one that you see sometimes in fiction, regardless of medium. A kind of idealized, gentlemen criminal, usually from the old country, who has a strict code of conduct. He doesn’t care who he deals with as long as they adhere to this code and those that follow it have his trust and friendship. He proves to be a carefully crafted, intelligent, thoughtful friend to Cape who just happens to be on the wrong side of the law.

During the climatic fight scene at the end of Beating the Babushka it will be revealed to the astute reader that the events here take place a year before those in Stealing the Dragon, making it a prequel. This shows Maleeny‘s willingness to jump around in the timeline of these characters, which could make for some interesting stories down the road.

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Once, in a conversation about the movies of John Woo, I told someone that the trick was to not count the bullets. I think that the same advice applies to Tim Maleeny’s novel, Stealing the Dragon.

Cape Weathers is a PI in San Francisco who is assisting the police and the FBI in investigating a cargo ship that crashed with a dead crew and full of refugees from China. The investigation will take him deep into the heart of Chinatown and the various groups that control it. The method with which the crew was killed points to Capes missing partner Sally who was trained by a secret society in China to be an assassin.

The stories of the investigation and of Sally’s training are concurrently told. The effect of hopping back and forth between stories propels the story along at a fast pace. The plot moves so fast that the effect is dizzying at times, but ultimately this is a good thing and the story is enhanced by the cross cutting of scenes. Sally’s story is a compelling one and Stealing the Dragon is a page turner in the best sense of that phrase. Then when you think that the plot can’t get any more manically paced and no more action can be packed in the two parallel story lines converge and with the battle lines drawn all of the characters will meet in a final showdown. I think that it is important to note that Stealing the Dragon is compelling because of the action packed plot not so much because of the characters, which can be a little on the thin side.

Cape Weathers and his friends on the force are characters that, for the most part, we’ve seen before but just because your favorite uncle visits once a week doesn’t mean you get bored hanging out with him because he is your favorite for a reason. So there aren’t any real surprises with any of the characters. Sally is the most developed of the characters but even she barely transcends her action movie caricature. That phrase though shouldn’t scare anyone away though because taken on her own terms she is a great character.

Cape Weathers and Sally are an odd paring to say the least. When asked why she trusts him she simply says “He’s honest.” At the point in the story when she says this we know that honesty is important to her so its enough. To Maleeny’s credit he doesn’t go into why these two people are now partners and how they first came to meet. On one hand it could be interesting to see how this question plays itself out in future books but on the other hand the paring is so odd that he may need to be careful if he does choose to reveal the genesis of their relationship. It may be one of those things that is best hinted at and left mostly unexplained.

There are some problems with the story and some smaller plot points that will jump out at most readers. But they are minor in comparison to the fast and furious story that will unfold in your minds eye. There are things left unexplained, thinks that make me scratch my head and even things that just plain don’t work. Almost none of this matters though because this book is a blast to read.

Stealing the Dragon is the first book in a series featuring Cape Weathers and Sally so the underlying question when reading a new series is ‘Will you read the other books when they come out’? Yes, I think I will.

So remember, don’t count the bullets.

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