jdcorley's reviews
181 reviews

The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction: From the BBC 2 Between the Covers Author Robert Goddard by Robert Goddard

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The parallel storylines focusing on two detectives involved in the same search shouldn't have worked as well as it did for as long as it did - its an airport thriller trick and it almost never works at all. But because the reader knew the two cases were linked long before the detectives, we begin to see connections they don't even though their ostensible objectives are different. The different personalities of the detectives also kept it fresh for some time. But it made the climax pretty worthless, just popping back and forth like act breaks in a TV show. A pity because the chase of the macguffins across the two timelines was engaging enough even if simply presented chronologically.

Blackbone by George E. Simpson, Neal R. Burger

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

A promising premise - a demon loose inside an American POW camp in WW2 - and an engaging lead - the lady archaeologist whose scientific ambitions had to be put aside when she accidentally released the demon - run straight into the concrete wall that is the "clean Wehrmacht" myth. Bro this book is set in 1944. Every member of the Wehrmacht swore a personal oath to Hitler starting ten fuckin years before that. Bro this dude tries to give us two "clean LUFTWAFFE" guys, they're the fuckin jokesters of the camp. At this point in the war only jokes the Luftwaffe knew were just wall to wall racial and antisemitic slurs! I was looking forward to seeing a demon chainsaw through these guys like we enjoy watching a slashed go after some unsympathetic teens and bullies. But it doesn't work when you're trying to make the lead fucking Wehrmacht guy separate himself from "the Nazis!"  What the fuck?!

The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien by Linda Coverdale, Georges Simenon

mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The incredible opening to this book which gives Maigret a powerful, remorseful and remorseless drive to find out the truth, ends up doing very little at all, as Maigret is more mute witness than detective. People more or less just tell him things - lies in some cases, but no real obstacles for Maigret to overcome. Overall I would be disappointed, but the story that ends up being told is a musing on the passage of time: torn-down churches, old newspaper clippings, a nude painting of a woman before she settled down and married, the End Times. All surrounding a crime, of course, a highly personal, highly traumatizing, highly shocking crime whose effects reverberate through time. The genius of Simenon is that even though this isn't a great novel of detection, it ends up being a great novel about crime, motive and justice. They just needed one more month.  So when Maigret strolled too close to the  flooded Marne, a sudden shove from behind...

The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This, the second Maigret mystery, is finding its feet. A truly strange series of events, Maigret puts himself in the center and slowly, through his eyes, we take in all the details, and hear all the developments of emotion and relationships that make the crime not only understandable but, ultimately, clear and emotionally resonant. Its still just a little too technical for a reader but the core of Maigret's greatness.

Three Witnesses by Rex Stout, Susan Conant

adventurous funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A real home run of a collection with all three Wolfe stories just long enough and detailed enough to be enticing as mysteries while allowing for the snappy speed of Archie's wisecracks and shenanigans to buoy it along. A pleasure, pure and simple.

The Need by Andrew Neiderman

emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

A species of human that develop into a male and a female identity and then shift back and forth between the two either voluntarily or not forms the basis for this rather lengthy character study. You get the idea that the author may be excited by this possibility but equally repulsed; the central question is the murder of a lover that both "versions" of the same person shared. The rather dimwitted stud of a murder investigator who is receiving all this information is portrayed with such inconsistency and lack of real interest that the tension is gone halfway through. You don't get a feeling of bigotry in favor of the gender binary but the book sure doesn't make sense in a  world where trans or non binary people exist. Is this the "erasure" the kids are always going on about? it sure doesn't feel good to read.

Serpent Girl by Ray Garton

dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Garton, one of our greatest overlooked American trash auteurs, tries his hand at an erotic thriller about a hitman and a serial killer who, sort of, fall in love. But awakening a feeling like love begins to crowd out the sociopathy their callings require.  The sex scenes are hot (and there's a whole bundle of them) and the rest doesn't overstay its welcome. It does show, most of all, that Garton does have a feel for character, it isnt all gore (but there is that too.)

Might as Well Be Dead by Rex Stout

funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

One of the all time best Wolfe capers - melding more gags, jokes and wisecracks with more extremely gruesome corpses and a killer that's fanatically ruthless. Only the inexcusable withholding of a critical clue from the audience keeps us reading, though.

Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon

mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

In the first Maigret novel Maigret himself is a very modest presence. But the tone, the feeling of the Maigret series at its best. A mysterious set of events, the police think they know what it is, but the reader and Maigret both know it doesn't quite fit. Critical events took place long before the events of the novel; the criminals know them intimately and the police only catch them in the sidelong shadows of old photographs and the uncertain recollection of those who never knew the whole story. In the end the crime is always emotional, and Maigret succeeds through listening as much ws anything else. The ending is a bit much to swallow perhaps, but all the seeds of greatness are here. Everything you could want in a debut.

Pleasure Ground by Orrie Hitt

emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is essentially the same story that Hitt used so many times - a young wife, a tyrannical farmer, a meatheaded protagonist drawn into her web. However this time around Hitt seems to have hit a little more on some actual characterization and a climax that goes beyond "and then traditional heteronormativity won again". Although it wraps up just as suddenly as usual, there actually is a denouement, a woman takes actual action - and not just one woman! A real shocker for someone who is used to Hitt's parade of sex dolls and madonnas. Honestly it may be the work of his I like the best. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy