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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
Kat Colorado has already had an amazing 32 years and she is only getting started. Born to an alcoholic prostitute who did not want her or her accidental little sister, Cissy (Kat isn't certain her sister ever had an official name, but that is what her mother called the little girl - the mother was careless about naming both girls, not caring), she has become a private investigator after 8 years as a bartender, and 5 years as a investigative newspaper reporter. She picked up a Berkeley college education as well. She lives in Sacramento in a two-bedroom house and she enjoys her life, having chosen humor and walking on the light side of the street. The book seemed a cozy initially, but it hardened as it went along. I'd make the call that it is somewhere between a chic-lit cozy and medium noir darkness. There is constant first person jokey commentary and it is obviously how Kat keeps her head on straight dealing with nefarious and slimy bad people. I kept being reminded of the Kinsey Millhone series by Susan Grafton, and I think it is as good, even if not as popular.
The current case leads her to meeting Hank Parker, police detective, who may be a recurring character as the series continues. He is a definite love interest in this book 1, and rescues her a little a few times, but he lives in Las Vegas while her home is in Sacramento, so only the next book will reveal if this will be an enduring relationship or not. Kat has good friends, but since her little sister died at age three from pneumonia when Kat was 12, and Kat's mother died from falling down stairs in a drunken stupor, my guess is she is ok with running along by herself when she has to. She demonstrates she prefers following her own hunches and making her own plans throughout the novel, but she is no loner, preferring the comforts and safety of friendship when they are available to her. Hank is also escaping dark memories, his wife having been murdered by a car bomb, so they are on the same page in understanding and sentiment. They both are very courageous and foolhardy, so bleeding is not uncommon in these pages and hospital beds are ever present.
Kat is startled awake when her good friend Charity pounds on her door at one on the morning and heads for the refrigerator looking for chocolate or wine when Kat lets her in to her house. Charity is an advice columnist for the Sacramento Bee newspaper and she has a BiG problem. In meeting with her accountant earlier, she has learned her soon to be ex-husband Sam has robbed her $200,000, stealing it from their community property and secretly investing it into Las Vegas real estate. Kate knows working for friends never ends well, but she takes the case. Las Vegas becomes very dangerous for her as she digs into the real estate deals, finding corruption and dirty money. Soon bodies and blood are everywhere and Kat finds herself number one on an assassin's list.
Will Kat lose too much of herself to the dark man behind the real estate scam? She doesn't want to become a killer, but there are people she must save.....
The current case leads her to meeting Hank Parker, police detective, who may be a recurring character as the series continues. He is a definite love interest in this book 1, and rescues her a little a few times, but he lives in Las Vegas while her home is in Sacramento, so only the next book will reveal if this will be an enduring relationship or not. Kat has good friends, but since her little sister died at age three from pneumonia when Kat was 12, and Kat's mother died from falling down stairs in a drunken stupor, my guess is she is ok with running along by herself when she has to. She demonstrates she prefers following her own hunches and making her own plans throughout the novel, but she is no loner, preferring the comforts and safety of friendship when they are available to her. Hank is also escaping dark memories, his wife having been murdered by a car bomb, so they are on the same page in understanding and sentiment. They both are very courageous and foolhardy, so bleeding is not uncommon in these pages and hospital beds are ever present.
Kat is startled awake when her good friend Charity pounds on her door at one on the morning and heads for the refrigerator looking for chocolate or wine when Kat lets her in to her house. Charity is an advice columnist for the Sacramento Bee newspaper and she has a BiG problem. In meeting with her accountant earlier, she has learned her soon to be ex-husband Sam has robbed her $200,000, stealing it from their community property and secretly investing it into Las Vegas real estate. Kate knows working for friends never ends well, but she takes the case. Las Vegas becomes very dangerous for her as she digs into the real estate deals, finding corruption and dirty money. Soon bodies and blood are everywhere and Kat finds herself number one on an assassin's list.
Will Kat lose too much of herself to the dark man behind the real estate scam? She doesn't want to become a killer, but there are people she must save.....
If it isn't already clear from the books I have listed here, I'm a sucker for a good mystery series with female protagonists; I picked the first Kat Colorado book up on the recommendation of the Novelist readers' advisory engine, and so far I'm enjoying Kat Colorado more than Kinsey Millhone (I gave up on Sue Grafton after H) but less than V.I. Warshawski and Stephanie Plum. Slightly more heavy than Evanovich but less than Paretsky, and a seemingly good mix of romance and mystery. Enjoyable enough that I'm going to keep reading the series, for the moment.
An easy, enjoyable read - I like Kat (she's a great, strong, but still feminine and believable character)
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Kat Colorado is your typical P.I., tough, possesing a sad, tortured background and a bit of a loner. This first book in the series finds Kat breaking one of her cardinal rules, don't work for friends. Adter agreeing to find out what a good friend's soon to be ex-husband has done with a missing $200,000, Kat finds herself in Las Vegas. Upto her neck in shady land deals and money laundering, she also finds herself testing old friendships and new.
Not a bad piece detective fiction. A little on the light weight sidem but still good for wasting away a few hours.
Not a bad piece detective fiction. A little on the light weight sidem but still good for wasting away a few hours.
Read a stack of these ages ago and enjoyed them. Found it difficult to keep track of the series as the books where hard to come by.
1996 review
Another Kat Colorado mystery--the first one. I have been re-reading this series. It's fun and I like the detective--brash, tough, but soft-hearted and sensitive inside.
2019 note: This author stopped writing this series too soon!
Another Kat Colorado mystery--the first one. I have been re-reading this series. It's fun and I like the detective--brash, tough, but soft-hearted and sensitive inside.
2019 note: This author stopped writing this series too soon!
Nostalgia Series #1
Way back in the mid-nineties, I tried reading every series with a female investigator I could lay my hands on. Kat Colorado is one of the series that I recall enjoying a great deal. When I reached the then-end, I was disappointed ended and hopeful Kijewski would resume. Meandering through the memory files recently, I decided to give this series another go, reading through the lens of a decade or two. After all, it won the Shamus and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel, right?
That demon nostalgia. One of the reasons I rarely pick up books I remember fondly but indistinctly.
It begins when Charity Collins, advice columnist, calls friend and private investigator Kat Colorado for help. Charity’s in the middle of a divorce, and her soon-to-be-ex Sam has informed her that he has lost 200k of their money in Vegas. Charity, of course, suspects duplicity. Despite a personal rule against working for friends, Kat takes the case and jets off to Las Vegas to track down the money. As she’s leaving the airport, she runs into a childhood friend, Deck, all grown up and suspiciously well-connected. When they meet for dinner, Kat is sidetracked from her mission after they stop by an art opening and she discovers a body.
I certainly can’t remember what I thought on first read so long ago, but now the writing seems awkward. It has that ‘first-book’ language feel where the author is trying a little too hard to use adjectives and adverbs to jazz up dialogue and setting. When Charity comes over in the middle of the night, Kat “watched morosely” as Charity raids the fridge, and “watches glumly” as Charity opens a bottle of wine Kat was saving. Then Kat “shakes off the idea” of Charity’s fudge combinations and “shuddered” at her finishing up her binge with hot chocolate. The fluidity (and sense) does improve, but the awkward writing coupled with Kat’s lukewarm support with her “good friend” led to rapidly deflating expectations.
Foreshadowing was heavy-handed, particularly in the early sections of the book. I suppose it is a stylistic choice, but I tend to think it’s a weak one. By page ten, there’s a musing on what if? with speculation capped by the phrase “Curiosity kills the cat.” Unfortunately, those kind of pun-ish foreshadowings continue to crop up.
On the up side, I did like Kat’s humor, although it mostly seemed to erupt at inappropriate moments, presumably out of nervousness. I couldn’t help but feel a moment of kinship when someone pours Kat a cup of coffee:
“He poured two cups and put a huge teaspoon of powdered cream substitute in. I shuddered. He handed me the coffee and patted me on the shoulder, thinking, no doubt, that I was overcome. Which I was, but it was the cream substitute, not Sam. I should have gone with black.”
For those who like mystery with a side of romance, there’s a chance meeting that develops quickly. Kat does seem to have empowered, strong-willed overtones, a character trait I prefer over hand-wringing distress. Still, it’s the kind of feminism that lacks subtlety, being couched in the most stereotypical of terms (“my job vs you caring that I’m risking my life”), and forgetting that Kat actually has no real skills that we’ve seen when it comes to protecting herself. She’s also kind of a snot to people that she doesn’t think deserve it, whether it’s a waitress giving lousy service or a real estate agent. I suppose that suited me when I was younger and more arrogant, or younger and lacking some self-esteem (depending on which time period we are talking about), but on the whole, I wasn’t impressed.
All that said, I’d say it entertained me. Until, that is, the last thirty or so pages when it attempts to up the finale by adding one of those silly thriller finales. The villain is straight out of James Bond, cold glittering eyes and creepy sexual domination fantasies (I believed it was compared to “breaking” a horse). As a further feminist bonus, there’s an “exotic woman” angle that makes it even more creeptastic. I’m pretty sure Old-me forgot that scene on purpose, but I would have liked a heads up. Way to go, Old-me!
Honestly, what a bitch, nostalgia. It would have been a lukewarm “I liked it” until the thriller finish. Now the adult in me just rolls my eyes (and yes, I understand the irony in that sentence.)
Way back in the mid-nineties, I tried reading every series with a female investigator I could lay my hands on. Kat Colorado is one of the series that I recall enjoying a great deal. When I reached the then-end, I was disappointed ended and hopeful Kijewski would resume. Meandering through the memory files recently, I decided to give this series another go, reading through the lens of a decade or two. After all, it won the Shamus and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel, right?
That demon nostalgia. One of the reasons I rarely pick up books I remember fondly but indistinctly.
It begins when Charity Collins, advice columnist, calls friend and private investigator Kat Colorado for help. Charity’s in the middle of a divorce, and her soon-to-be-ex Sam has informed her that he has lost 200k of their money in Vegas. Charity, of course, suspects duplicity. Despite a personal rule against working for friends, Kat takes the case and jets off to Las Vegas to track down the money. As she’s leaving the airport, she runs into a childhood friend, Deck, all grown up and suspiciously well-connected. When they meet for dinner, Kat is sidetracked from her mission after they stop by an art opening and she discovers a body.
I certainly can’t remember what I thought on first read so long ago, but now the writing seems awkward. It has that ‘first-book’ language feel where the author is trying a little too hard to use adjectives and adverbs to jazz up dialogue and setting. When Charity comes over in the middle of the night, Kat “watched morosely” as Charity raids the fridge, and “watches glumly” as Charity opens a bottle of wine Kat was saving. Then Kat “shakes off the idea” of Charity’s fudge combinations and “shuddered” at her finishing up her binge with hot chocolate. The fluidity (and sense) does improve, but the awkward writing coupled with Kat’s lukewarm support with her “good friend” led to rapidly deflating expectations.
Foreshadowing was heavy-handed, particularly in the early sections of the book. I suppose it is a stylistic choice, but I tend to think it’s a weak one. By page ten, there’s a musing on what if? with speculation capped by the phrase “Curiosity kills the cat.” Unfortunately, those kind of pun-ish foreshadowings continue to crop up.
On the up side, I did like Kat’s humor, although it mostly seemed to erupt at inappropriate moments, presumably out of nervousness. I couldn’t help but feel a moment of kinship when someone pours Kat a cup of coffee:
“He poured two cups and put a huge teaspoon of powdered cream substitute in. I shuddered. He handed me the coffee and patted me on the shoulder, thinking, no doubt, that I was overcome. Which I was, but it was the cream substitute, not Sam. I should have gone with black.”
For those who like mystery with a side of romance, there’s a chance meeting that develops quickly. Kat does seem to have empowered, strong-willed overtones, a character trait I prefer over hand-wringing distress. Still, it’s the kind of feminism that lacks subtlety, being couched in the most stereotypical of terms (“my job vs you caring that I’m risking my life”), and forgetting that Kat actually has no real skills that we’ve seen when it comes to protecting herself. She’s also kind of a snot to people that she doesn’t think deserve it, whether it’s a waitress giving lousy service or a real estate agent. I suppose that suited me when I was younger and more arrogant, or younger and lacking some self-esteem (depending on which time period we are talking about), but on the whole, I wasn’t impressed.
All that said, I’d say it entertained me. Until, that is, the last thirty or so pages when it attempts to up the finale by adding one of those silly thriller finales. The villain is straight out of James Bond, cold glittering eyes and creepy sexual domination fantasies (I believed it was compared to “breaking” a horse). As a further feminist bonus, there’s an “exotic woman” angle that makes it even more creeptastic. I’m pretty sure Old-me forgot that scene on purpose, but I would have liked a heads up. Way to go, Old-me!
Honestly, what a bitch, nostalgia. It would have been a lukewarm “I liked it” until the thriller finish. Now the adult in me just rolls my eyes (and yes, I understand the irony in that sentence.)