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lmkramer507's review
5.0
Loved the story and the locations. This may fill the hole left by the death of Sue Grafton--it's the same kind of PI novel. I wish the copy editor hadn't let so many spelling and grammar errors slip through the cracks, though. It was the only downside of the book for me.
lelia_t's review
3.0
If the first Nils Shapiro book hadn't been SO good, I might not have been disappointed by this one. Maybe there's a second book slump that occurs after a writer has hit the ground running with his character, voice, etc. This is still a very enjoyable mystery, but Nils isn't as funny and the story is a bit unwieldy somehow. Fortunately we get reacquainted with some familiar characters from the first book and we get to meet Jameson who is delightful. And Nils is still gifting women with his incredible skills in bed. I definitely recommend this book, but if you loved the first one you might want to come into this one with slightly lowered expectations.
kiminindy's review
3.0
This one was just ok. I listened to it on Audible so I think that made it better.
tweiler32's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
kathythelibraryteacher's review
5.0
I’m so glad I found this series. I enjoy each character and the cases are always intriguing. This book was one where I didn’t solve the mystery until Shap led me there. Good stuff.
knitter22's review against another edition
4.0
Broken Ice was the second enjoyable installment featuring Nils Shapiro as a clever and insightful private investigator. The premise of this mystery, finding a young woman who has gone missing during the Minnesota State High School hockey tournaments, was maybe not quite as original as the one in Gone to Dust, but I did learn something about caves near St. Paul. While investigating a second young woman found dead nearby, seemingly unrelated to the first, Nils is shot through the arm with an arrow. Nils, divorced and with his own issues, still seems to be able to use his intelligence and logic to solve the investigation, despite red herrings and people that may not want him to succeed. The second book in the series was again well-plotted with well-developed characters, worthy of 3.5 stars, and I'm looking forward to starting the third book, The Shallows.
....When I was eighteen I was dumb. All of us were dumb because we could only be as smart as our life experience would allow. But in the information age, kids can be smarter than their life experience. It's a false kind of smarts, of course. It's not learned the same way. It's learned through words and images on electric screens, not through joy, pain, and shame.
Linnea's generation is not ashamed. Of anything. And shame, really, is the seed of decency. But it's not their fault. How could they be ashamed? They've grown up in a shameless world...
seanpatricklittle's review
5.0
Matt Goldman writes a solid mystery. The inciting incident is confusing at the beginning, and by the end, you understand how everything went down, even if the 'why' of human nature doesn't necessarily jibe with how you roll. The detective, Nils Shapiro, is sharp, but he's not Sherlockian. Nor is he Mike Hammer. He doesn't walk into a room and instantly know everything like Holmes would, and he would never beat an answer out of someone. He gets it done by being smart, asking good questions, and paying attention. He dogs out the answers with relentless pursuit and the occasional epiphany. The characters in Goldman's books are real. The mystery and the solution are believable. And the prose is as crisp as a late fall evening in Minnesota.
This being the second go-round of the aforementioned Mr. Shapiro, as a reader, you're always on the lookout for the proverbial Sophomore Slump. I'm glad to say that if Goldman's first book, 'Gone to Dust,' was a solid base hit, then 'Broken Ice' is a stand-up double. I'm using baseball analogies, but given the subject of the book, I think hockey analogies would be a little bit more productive, but it's a little tougher to think of one.
Let me think for a second...
In this book, Goldman five-holes the goalie from just inside the blue line. I found the prose even better than it was in 'Gone to Dust,' and the mystery was even more interesting. Nils Shapiro, being a private detective, only gets called into things that the police can't figure out on their own, so by that notion, the mystery is never going to be cut-and-dried, and Nils will have to do his own legwork.
The story clips along at a good pace, but it's never hurried. The writing is readable and adult. Goldman doesn't pull punches, but he can gloss the prose with a little Minnesota Nice when necessary. Goldman's background in TV writing is evident as the book is also quickly recognizable as being worthy of a film adaptation. You can see the television beats and the scenes flow with visual appeal. I'd love to see the BBC get ahold of this series for a run on 'Masterpiece: Mystery.'
I'm looking forward to starting the third Nils Shapiro book, 'The Shallows,' because of how much I enjoyed the first two of Goldman's books. If the publishing gods are willing, Shapiro will have a long and healthy run at the presses.
This being the second go-round of the aforementioned Mr. Shapiro, as a reader, you're always on the lookout for the proverbial Sophomore Slump. I'm glad to say that if Goldman's first book, 'Gone to Dust,' was a solid base hit, then 'Broken Ice' is a stand-up double. I'm using baseball analogies, but given the subject of the book, I think hockey analogies would be a little bit more productive, but it's a little tougher to think of one.
Let me think for a second...
In this book, Goldman five-holes the goalie from just inside the blue line. I found the prose even better than it was in 'Gone to Dust,' and the mystery was even more interesting. Nils Shapiro, being a private detective, only gets called into things that the police can't figure out on their own, so by that notion, the mystery is never going to be cut-and-dried, and Nils will have to do his own legwork.
The story clips along at a good pace, but it's never hurried. The writing is readable and adult. Goldman doesn't pull punches, but he can gloss the prose with a little Minnesota Nice when necessary. Goldman's background in TV writing is evident as the book is also quickly recognizable as being worthy of a film adaptation. You can see the television beats and the scenes flow with visual appeal. I'd love to see the BBC get ahold of this series for a run on 'Masterpiece: Mystery.'
I'm looking forward to starting the third Nils Shapiro book, 'The Shallows,' because of how much I enjoyed the first two of Goldman's books. If the publishing gods are willing, Shapiro will have a long and healthy run at the presses.