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casim's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Incest
Minor: Racial slurs
maryvarn's review against another edition
3.0
Towards the middle of the book I was leaning towards 2 stars, but the end is somewhat redeeming for me. I liked the darkness and sense of desperation that came through. But I had a hard time really liking the narrator. Sure, he had good intentions. But I found his PI instints and abilities to be greatly lacking. Maybe I would have been more forgiving if he had never been a PI, if he was just an ordinary guy trying to figure out his friend's death. Because that's sure what it seemed like.
It also really bothered me that one glaring detail in the cover has nothing to do with the story. I kept waiting for it, but ended up just disappointed.
I haven't read a ton of noir, but for my personal tate this book just wasn't hardboiled enough for me. I recently read Queenpin, another Hard Case Crime book, and found that more to my liking.
It also really bothered me that one glaring detail in the cover has nothing to do with the story. I kept waiting for it, but ended up just disappointed.
I haven't read a ton of noir, but for my personal tate this book just wasn't hardboiled enough for me. I recently read Queenpin, another Hard Case Crime book, and found that more to my liking.
misterjay's review against another edition
4.0
The point of a sequel is to tell a new story while simultaneously expanding on the readers' view of the central characters. By that definition, Songs of Innocence is a sequel among sequels, ending, as it does, with our hero's apparent suicide.
I have to say, I really enjoyed the book right up until the last three pages.
John Blake, established in Little Girl Lost as a reluctant private investigator, reappears in the beginning of this novel as an assistant at a college. He has given up the detective job after the death of his one time lover. Now, he has been trying his hand at writing under the guidance of the professor he works for. He has befriended one of his classmates, become more than friends, really, and it is her death that sets off this newest adventure.
This story is bleak. John spends most of the book on the run, bouncing from one horrible, tragic situation to another, right up until the end when the mystery is solved and Blake sees no other way out. This book is not for the sensitive or the squeamish. (Seriously, there are several potential triggers related to sex, incest, and violence.)
This is a good story. Gripping and hair-raising. But it is also chilling and desperately bleak. Read with caution.
I have to say, I really enjoyed the book right up until the last three pages.
John Blake, established in Little Girl Lost as a reluctant private investigator, reappears in the beginning of this novel as an assistant at a college. He has given up the detective job after the death of his one time lover. Now, he has been trying his hand at writing under the guidance of the professor he works for. He has befriended one of his classmates, become more than friends, really, and it is her death that sets off this newest adventure.
This story is bleak. John spends most of the book on the run, bouncing from one horrible, tragic situation to another, right up until the end when the mystery is solved and Blake sees no other way out. This book is not for the sensitive or the squeamish. (Seriously, there are several potential triggers related to sex, incest, and violence.)
This is a good story. Gripping and hair-raising. But it is also chilling and desperately bleak. Read with caution.
sandin954's review against another edition
5.0
A big Wow for this book. Will make my best of 2008 list. Former PI John Blake just can’t help looking into the death, which was ruled a suicide, of a fellow Columbia student. Won the Shamus for best paperback PI novel this year.
dantastic's review against another edition
5.0
Three years after the events of Little Girl Lost, John Blake has quit the detective game and gone back to school. When his friend Dorrie turns up dead in her bathtub, John puts his detective hat back on and goes looking for why Dorrie ended up dead. The trail takes up through New York's seedy underbelly of "massage" parlors and up against the Hungarian mob. Can Blake piece together what happened before he ends up dead too?
Ho. Lee. Crap. Songs of Innocence is the most powerful of the Hard Case Crime series I've read so far. Blake's desperation is a tangible thing. The mystery of what happened to Dorrie gets worse and worse, as does John's situation. I didn't see the end coming until it hit me like a freight train. The characters are well done. Not only Blake, but the supporting cast as well. It would have been easy to make the other masseuses into stereotype sluts but Aleas didn't skimp.
Like I've said before, I was prepared to dismiss Richard Aleas (aka Charles Ardai, the founder of Hard Case) as a pretender but the man has made a believer out of me. You can definitely tell that the Hard Case Crime series is a labor of love for him.
If you're itching for a good crime story, Songs of Innocence fits the bill. You might want to pick up Little Girl Lost first, though, for a little more background on Blake and Susan.
Ho. Lee. Crap. Songs of Innocence is the most powerful of the Hard Case Crime series I've read so far. Blake's desperation is a tangible thing. The mystery of what happened to Dorrie gets worse and worse, as does John's situation. I didn't see the end coming until it hit me like a freight train. The characters are well done. Not only Blake, but the supporting cast as well. It would have been easy to make the other masseuses into stereotype sluts but Aleas didn't skimp.
Like I've said before, I was prepared to dismiss Richard Aleas (aka Charles Ardai, the founder of Hard Case) as a pretender but the man has made a believer out of me. You can definitely tell that the Hard Case Crime series is a labor of love for him.
If you're itching for a good crime story, Songs of Innocence fits the bill. You might want to pick up Little Girl Lost first, though, for a little more background on Blake and Susan.
mrswythe89's review against another edition
3.0
Got quite bored in the middle, but everything was wrapped up so neatly and with such panache that on balance I think I like the book.
The cover is remarkably inappropriate, considering the storyline.
Spoilers:
My only objection to it is that the narrator dies at the end, which always annoys me. In school we used to be made to write essays from the point of view of coins and bicycles and things -- "I Am A Coin", the title would go -- and it irritated me when people wrote long tragic life stories of coins that ended with the coin swirling down the drain. "Now I swirl down the drain, never to be seen again ... " Then how are you telling this story?
It gets to me. Also when boybands sing a song to just one person, e. g. the Mandy song. When Westlife says "Oh, Mandy, you came and you gave without taking", which one of them is saying it? Are they all singing from his point of view, then? Or did Mandy come and give without taking to each and every one of them, and they sent Mandy away collectively? It is all very confusing.
The cover is remarkably inappropriate, considering the storyline.
Spoilers:
My only objection to it is that the narrator dies at the end, which always annoys me. In school we used to be made to write essays from the point of view of coins and bicycles and things -- "I Am A Coin", the title would go -- and it irritated me when people wrote long tragic life stories of coins that ended with the coin swirling down the drain. "Now I swirl down the drain, never to be seen again ... " Then how are you telling this story?
It gets to me. Also when boybands sing a song to just one person, e. g. the Mandy song. When Westlife says "Oh, Mandy, you came and you gave without taking", which one of them is saying it? Are they all singing from his point of view, then? Or did Mandy come and give without taking to each and every one of them, and they sent Mandy away collectively? It is all very confusing.
glimnore's review against another edition
4.0
Richard Aleas is the pseudonym for Charles Adai, head of Hard Case Crime. And what a great pseudonym it is to have for a hard-boiled detective novel series (aka John Blake). You've got the Ricard or Dick for short. You've got the Aleas. Put it together you, get Dick Aleas. Or...Detective Alias. Brilliant. Hilarious. Cheeky. And right on the nose.
The second book (and apparently final) book of John Blake finds itself in a precarious position. Hot off the heels of book 1, Songs of Innocence needs to be faster, punch harder, and keep the suspense high. And it accomplishes all of this, with the caveat that it gets darker. And in doing so, it sputters at its very end. The story of John Blake doesn't end with a bang but with a whimper. It is better than its predecessor in all such ways, save for its ending and the fact that it *is* a rather absolute ending.
The second book (and apparently final) book of John Blake finds itself in a precarious position. Hot off the heels of book 1, Songs of Innocence needs to be faster, punch harder, and keep the suspense high. And it accomplishes all of this, with the caveat that it gets darker. And in doing so, it sputters at its very end. The story of John Blake doesn't end with a bang but with a whimper. It is better than its predecessor in all such ways, save for its ending and the fact that it *is* a rather absolute ending.
dlsmall's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5…Not as good as it’s predecessor, but surprising enough.
kegriese1's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Abortion, Incest, and Adult/minor relationship
jeremyhornik's review against another edition
3.0
Fast, nasty little crime novel, with the proper sense of doom to be a noir.