Bad Day Breaking by John Galligan

Roman Vanderhoof, aka Brother Milk, aka Hoof. So named because he was once jilted by the local winner of the Miss Dairy Queen contest. Said Dairy Queen eventually became the Bad Axe County Sheriff who put Hoof behind bars for 12 years.

Nelson Abernathy Woods, aka Brother Peep. So named because he was sent up the river on child porn charges from a camera that he’d set up in the changing room of a local swimming pool.

Robert Henderson, aka Brother Skip. Got shot in the leg during a gang thing and now walks with a pronounced limp. In prison for multiple felonies.

Donald Dortmunder, aka Brother Spooner. Stone killer. Finally out of prison after serving 50y for killing a man and then trying to decapitate the body using a spoon. 

Fine foursome who met in prison who were eventually paroled around the same time. By using a Meet-an-inmate.com app, they hooked up with what turned out to be a cult (make that a ‘religious assembly’) where they were using construction skills they had prior to prison.

The ‘cult’ is the House of Shalah. Run by the Prophet-Father Euodoo Koresh (aka Jerome Pearl) and Mother Ruth. They have a following of a few dozen families that caravan around the country, setting up shop until they wear out their welcome. To join, families had to cash out their worldly possessions and hand over the money to the House. Any money they earned when encamped in some locale also had to be turn in. Apparently, Prophet-Father knew how to play the investment-launder game and had accumulated a reasonable fund for him when he finally decided to cash out. 

The House is now squatting in a series of abandoned storage lockers in Bad Axe County in rural SW Wisconsin where they are in the process of site preparation of utilities where they will build homes for the faithful. The locals aren’t too happy about their plans and Dennis Stonebreaker organizes a ‘Kill the Cult’ movement. 

In the middle of the town vs. the House forces is Sheriff Heidi Kick, aka Mighty Heidi. Daughter of murdered dairy farmers when she was in high school. Upon turning 18, she and her best bud Missy go on an epic bender that lasted a few years and more than a couple arrests for property damage, theft, and drugs. But that was maybe 20 years ago, and she and Missy are no longer friends. These two ran with Hoof back in the day.

Mighty Heidi (a recent Wisconsin Dairy Queen) gets a text from out of the blue from Missy to go ‘drink ketchup’, their term for getting drunk or high. But Missy is still a party animal has taken back up with Hoof. The text was Hoof’s attempt to find Heidi and deliver some payback for putting him in prison.

Two intertwining stories that eventually lead to the possibility of a David Koresh-Waco outcome; a standoff that Heidi vows will not happen. But the bones of a standoff are present once the Prophet-Father decides to cash out and head for some money-friendly country and no extradition treaty with the US. Andorra is looking good.

Got an advance reviewer copy from Netgalley. The hook from Netgalley was that this book (and author) is for fans of Longmire (Craig Johnson – at the top of my power rotation). ‘Nuff said. I’m in. This is the 4th Bad Axe mystery and you can bet I’ll be looking closely for the other three. Heidi Kick has her own scars to bear, like Walt Longmire. The stories are heavily based in rural areas, like the Longmire Mysteries. Both stories are set in fictitious counties in Wyoming (Longmire) and Wisconsin (Heidi Kick). Sheriff Kick seems to stumble over her own feet throughout, as does Longmire and both have to wrestle with nature. And she manages to come out with a small body count, like Longmire. But neither are wary of pulling the trigger. When Heidi must, she’s a reasonably good shot and the muscles she developed as a farm girl come in handy. The body count in Bad Day Breaking (8 people, 3 horses, 1 mule) isn't from her hand.  

The first half of the book deals mostly with the Heidi/Missy/Hoof mess and the cult is more about the setting. The last half is the development of the explosive confrontation leading towards, in, and under the storage lockers where the cult now squats. 

I thought this was terrific.

And always, a huge thanks to Netgalley. 

Publication date: August 30, 2022

 

East Coast Don

The Missing Piece by John Lescroart

Wes Ferrell is a former district attorney in San Francisco who now practices as a defense attorney with his buddy, Dismas Hardy.  Ferrell struggles with his role because his years as DA have convinced him that everyone charged with a crime is probably guilty.  He wonders if he is harming his clients by not trying harder or doing an injustice to society by trying at all.  What he really longs for is an innocent client. 

Then Paul Riley, a criminal who Ferrell had prosecuted eleven years earlier for rape and murder is released from prison through the efforts of the Exoneration Initiative.  This group sponsors inmates who can be proven innocent and springs them from prison.  Soon after his release, Riley is murdered and Doug Rush, the father of the woman that Riley was accused of murdering, is the chief suspect.  Rush hires Ferrell as his defense attorney.  Of course, Ferrell assumes Rush is guilty but when Rush is murdered Ferrell can’t help but wonder.  Now feeling guilty for his assumption of the worst from his client, Ferrell hires Abe Glitsky, retired head of homicide now P.I. to investigate.  Glitsky’s poking around results is two other murders and an attempt on his own life.  Now Glitisky can’t let it go and uncovers several potential perpetrators but none seem to have motive to commit all four murders.  A complex ‘who-done-it’ follows.

This is Lescroart’s nineteenth Dismas Hardy novel and I’ve enjoyed every one.  The author has created an interesting cast of characters and is a great storyteller.  I look forward to the next.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for the advance read.

Mercy by David Baldacci

The fourth and last book of the Atlee Pine series by David Baldacci did not live up the set up over the first three novels. I did take a different approach to this one than the first three by listening to it on audio rather than reading it. I was about to take a long road trip with my wife, to among other places, the Grand Canyon where by serendipity, the first novel in the series began. I think the actors did a fine job with the script, it was just that the script defied my ability to deny reality, a talent that those of us that love thrillers must have. Unfortunately, I found myself laughing at the plot changes and twists which Baldacci provided.

 

So, I’m not going to worry about spoiling the plot for anyone because it’s my intent to do just that. My opinion is that the final book is just too ridiculous. Basically, Atlee’s sister is found to be alive and she did not murder her captives, although she was set up to look as if she did. The road to the discovery of Mercy and the reuniting of the sisters was tortuous. At one time or another, Atlee, Mercy, and Carol Blum were held hostage by some very bad men, and then the women joined forces to rescue the one who was currently abducted. In the end, the bad guy Buckley (think of Richard Butler, the white supremacist who had a large compound in Idaho – a compound that was successfully as a result of the successful legal attack by the Southern Poverty Law Center) kidnapped all three women at the same time, forced the twins into a mixed martial arts fight against one another while Carol Blum was being cut up whenever Buckley thought the girls weren’t fighting for real. With the help of one of Buckley’s allies, they were able to break free and win a horrendous gun battle over a strongly superior force.

 

To cut to the chase, the guy who had assumed the role of the twins father had died, and their mother was found living in Savannah where she was running a flower shop, and there was a merry reunion of the three women. In the last scene they are seen happily walking together toward the flower ship, glowing in their love for one another.

 

I feel like I spent four books chasing down a rabbit hole only to emerge in a very mad tea party. While I remember loving Baldacci’s Camel Club series, I do not have such affection for this. My wife was in agreement and she boycotted the last half of the book. I should have followed her lead, and once again, she has proven herself to be right.

City Primeval by Elmore Leonard

Detroit has a crooked judge. Alvin B. Guy, Judge of Recorder’s Court. He’s abusive to everyone who enters his courtroom. Abuses the power of contempt. Uses his position to favor friends. Openly brags about his sexual prowess. Repeatedly found guilty of judicial misconduct. He doesn’t give a shit because he has a manuscript that will name names. And everyone in the judicial building knows he’ll publish if he gets impeached.

He’s been to the racetrack with a very young blond. A street punk who is hot for the blond thinks she is with this Albanian dude. He sees her get into a car and he wants to teach the Albanian a lesson. He tries to cut off the car in the parking lot, but the judge doesn’t budge. Happens again. Again. Again. When they get on the city streets, the jerk tailgates and the judge can’t shake him. Punk still thinks the Albanian is driving. When the inevitable crash ensues, the punk gets out of the car, pulls a Walther P38 and fires into the windshield. As he approaches the wreck, the judge tried to intimidate like he does in his courtroom. Pisses the punk off who then puts 5 slugs in the judge. The girl takes off. He follows. Kills her too.

Fine example of humanity this Clement Mansell.

Nicknamed the “Oklahoma Wildman,” Clement has done pretty well so far. Counting these two most recent kills, Clement claims to have killed nine people. He’s been in jail, even did a year in prison, an experience he has no interest in repeating. Was all set for a long sentence, but his lawyer, the tough-as-nails Carolyn Wilder, caught a legal break when Clement was held too long awaiting formal sentencing.

The Guy case falls to recently promoted Lt. Raymond Cruz. He and his homicide unit start with the wreck. Problem is that none of the cops (or most anyone for that matter) could care less that Judge Guy was now off the bench. But they still need to find out who pulled the trigger; maybe put him behind bars along with the thanks of the city for saving them the hassle of removing Judge Idiot.

The investigation bounces around between Mansell, a girl he’s living with, the detectives in the unit, and Carolyn Wilder. And the Albanians. Can’t forget them.

Problem is that Clement is not just a stone killer. He’s also smart. Knows how to work the system when it comes to statements, victim and criminal rights, chain of possession, client-attorney confidentiality. He can also spin a clever yarn with whomever he’s trying to manipulate.

But Lt. Cruz is pretty smart, too. He sets up Clement, with a little help from friends in both high and low places.

You do know Elmore Leonard, right? Prolific author of crime, thrillers, westerns, and some downright funny stories. 45 novels to be exact, per Wikipedia. For example, 3:10 To Yuma, Valdez in Coming, Mr. Majestyk, LaBrava (Edgar Award winner), Rum Punch (which became the movie Jackie Brown), Get Shorty, Out of Sight (the movie teamed George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez), the source material for the TV series Karen Sisco. 

And for me, the short story ‘Fire in the Hole’ that spawned six years of Justified, the award-winning show on FX about US Marshall Raylan Givens (expertly portrayed by Timothy Oliphant. Stream all six seasons on Hulu). Leonard is best known for his street-sharp dialogue that fills the pages of his inventive, direct, and creative plots that show us all just how writers should develop characters and plots. He’s easily one of those icons - a writer’s writer who helped plenty of others perfect their craft. He was still working as part of the production team for Justified when he died in 2013 at 88.

City Primeval was published in 1980. Why am I reading it now? Because my son texted me last week that FX has started production on a new Justified limited series based on City Primeval. By coincidence, I was in the library when I received the text. I detoured to the 'L' shelf in the fiction section where I found the story combined with three other Leonard novels in a single volume Four Novels of the 1980s. Search this blog. We’ve reviewed a number of Leonard’s books.

No clue when to expect the adaptation will show up on TV. I just know that life just isn’t the same without Raylan Givens. 

 

P.S. It's now mid May 2022. Heard that the TV version of this book should be ready to watch in January 2023.

 

Daylight by David Baldacci

David Baldacci has written a 4-book series about FBI Special Agent Atlee Pine, and I’ve recently reviewed the first two books, Long Road to Mercy and A Minute to Midnight. The third novel is Daylight. While the books could be read individually, this series was clearly meant to be read in order. The overall theme is that Atlee has grown up with remarkable tragedies. We now note that her parents were drinking and smoking dope into the wee hours on the night that an intruder broke into their home, caused Atlee to have a skull fracture which nearly killed her, and then kidnapped her identical twin sister, Mercy. While Atlee recovered, her twin was never seen again. On Atlee’s 19^th birthday, her father committed suicide, and it was not long thereafter, when Atlee came home from college to find that her mother had disappeared. Despite her expert abilities in finding people, Atlee had never been able to get any information about her mother.

 

It was the kidnapping that gave Atlee the motivation to join the FBI, not wanting others to suffer the losses that she had endured. After a rapid rise through the ranks, she eventually decided to leave the metro areas and to opt for a one-person office in St. George, Utah. She was the nearest federal officer to the Grand Canyon where she could operate on her own. Atlee learned that her mother had been doing some undercover work for an unnamed government branch that led to an important conviction and incarceration of a major Mafia figure, which led to seeking revenge against Atlee’s mother. The kidnapping of her sister and the near death experience of Atlee, then six years old, was the result of this revenge.

 

Much of the action of the three novels has to do with the ongoing search for Mercy. But, Atlee has a talent for stumbling into other cases that benefit from her attention. However, that always takes her away from the primary search for her sister. The other cases get increasingly complicated as the three books progress. In this book, there is a very high level government corruption happening, and as Atlee uncovered more information, some senior people are being hidden from her, or are not being compliant, like the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and a Deputy of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

 

By the end of the third book, Atlee has learned that her sister is probably still alive although she has endured unspeakable horrors of torture, and it is possible that she murdered the people who were keeping her hostage over many years. She was thought to be severely emotionally damaged, and after her escape, the trail for her had gone cold. In addition, she learned that her father’s death had been faked and her mother may have joined him and are living somewhere with hidden identities.

I'm leaving in the morning to travel through Arizona, and I have the fourth book and concluding book Mercy on tape to listen to during the drive.

A Minute to Midnight by David Baldacci

A Minute to Midnight is the second book in the four book series by David Baldacci regarding FBI Special Agent Atlee Pine. I recently reviewed the first book, Long Road to Mercy, and I immediately started reading the second one. This adventure for Atlee picks up exactly where book one ended, with a visit to Daniel James Tor, a serial killer who was residing in the federal supermax prison in Colorado. She learned he had been operating in the area of her childhood home in rural Georgia, and she hoped he would tell what had become of her twin sister who had been kidnapped right out of their bedroom. At the same time, the kidnapper viciously struck Atlee in the head, causing her to have skull fracture, nearly killing her.

 

Part of the mystery had to do with how the kidnapping could have occurred if her parents were in the home, drinking and smoking marijuana, as they claimed. Her family then slowly fell apart. When Atlee was away at college on her 19^thbirthday, her father committed suicide. They, shortly thereafter, her mother simply disappeared without leaving a note or any clue. Atlee had no idea if she was still alive. Atlee was a gifted athlete who completed for the Olympic weight-lifting team, but missed getting on the team by a kilogram. It was then that she chose the FBI as her career path. 

 

Meanwhile, she had avoided going to therapy to help with her mighty abandonment issues and her anger was sometimes not successfully contained. In this story, her FBI boss gave her some time off to pursue the mysteries of her family and for the first time, she revisited her home in Andersonville, Georgia, the home of the infamous Civil War prison. She found people who remembered her family and knew of her early tragedies. But then, the story got even more complicated as she learned the truth about her paternity, and suddenly some of the people she was investigating were also disappearing.  

 

This book is worth the read, but the pursuit of Mercy and their mother is far from complete. Meanwhile, the time for her leave is running out. One character that is carried over from the first book is Atlee’s administrative assistant, Carol Blum, but there are many new characters who Baldacci has used to fill out the story. I’ve already begun reading the third book, Daylight.

Unlucky Money by Timothy J. Lockhart

Wendy Lu is a newly licensed PI. While born in China, her family came to the US when she was a baby. The family (plus a brother and sister) set up in the Tidewater area (Va Beach, Norfolk, Naval base, et al.). She bucked family tradition and expectations by joining the Navy after high school, then went to college and earned a degree in criminal justice. That helped her get a job with the Virginia Beach PD where she was a solid rookie cop. But she got involved with another cop who was separated from his spouse. On an assignment, she was paired with her paramour and made a rookie mistake that got him killed. She left the force out of her guilt, shame, and the whispers of the other cops. It's been a year and she still bears the scars of her actions. She liked the work but couldn’t continue as a cop. Marcus, another former policeman, owns a PI agency and hired her where she was doing a lot of surveillance on cheating spouses and insurance scams.

McKenna and Fontaine is a reasonably successful and respected real estate developer in the area. They are courting some Japanese investors for probably their largest property to date. But Whit Fontaine isn’t as eager about the project as is his partner, Tom. At a business dinner, Whit gets tanked, argues with Tom and storms out to drive home. Upon arrival, he bursts in the house leaving the front door open to find his wife, Sarah, dead on the floor, 2 gunshot wounds to the chest, and he blacks out. Neighbors see the door open late at night and call the police. The find the wife and Whit on the floor with Whit’s gun lying near his hand. Pretty obvious. Cut and dried case of domestic murder. Whit’s lawyers hire Marcus’ firm to ask questions of anyone connected to see if there might be anything that could cast doubt into Whit’s guilt. Marcus assigns Wendy to the case - her first real case.

Wendy’s steps are pretty by the book. Talk with Whit’s business partners and some employees. Talk with Sarah’s friends (the marriage wasn’t going well. Both were having affairs). Keep checking in with the police, Whit’s attorneys, and Marcus. Delicately interview recent dalliances of each. Try to find out what she can about this new project and the investors. For the most part, she finds nothing to indicate that Whit didn’t pull the trigger. Her first big assignment is coming up empty. Looking like she’ll be back on the surveillance circuit

Until . . . an offhand observation by a waitress jiggles her memory to take a closer look at the project.

The good folks at Stark House press sent me the ARC that is due to be published in February 2022. I always say to pay attention to the publisher. Stark House is an independent publisher of mostly crime and fantasy/horror books. I think they even will reprint earlier books for contemporary readers. I do know they publish MRB fav Charlie Stella, so that’s the connection. I’ve received a few books from them in the past. From what I’ve seen, Stark House seems to publish modern pulp fiction. Now I don’t know how to define ‘pulp fiction’ (and no, it’s not the movie of the same name), but I guess I’d say that many of the titles I’m aware of from Stark House would meet my expectation. Pulp novels tend to be short and direct with little frills and fluff. Unlucky Money checks all the boxes.

Now that doesn’t make pulp a 2^nd class citizen. Heck, in the early to mid 1900s, pulp novels were flying off the shelves. Lockhart’s style is bare bones narrative. Just the facts in a linear investigation. He does present sufficient background for Wendy Lu, enough to suggest that Lockhart will be returning to her in the future. And I’m thinking future Wendy Lu books will be quite interesting, especially if Lockhart digs into her family history back in China.

A Thousand Steps by T. Jefferson Parker

Flash back to 1968 in Laguna Beach, California--The Age of Aquarius, the Summer of Love, anti-war protests, hippies, psychedelic drugs, and search for enlightenment—an uneasy time of social change and a hard time for a young man coming of age.  Matt Anthony is sixteen.  His older brother is a tunnel rat in Viet Nam, his father has abandoned the family, his mother has a drug addiction, and his sister Jasmine (Jazz) has been kidnapped.  Matt survives with the few bucks he makes on his paper route and on the occasional fish he catches from the ocean.  The cops are focused on illegal drug trafficking and have given up trying to find Jazz and his parents are preoccupied in their own problems.  So Matt takes it on himself, with the help of his childhood sweetheart, to find his sister.  The adventures he experiences and the dangers he endures all while coming of age encapsulates his summer.

Laguna Beach and southern California is a popular setting for many of Parker’s novels but the coming of age angle is new.  The nostalgia blended into his gift for story telling makes this an unexpected treat.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

 

Long Road to Mercy by David Baldacci

It’s been a long while since I’ve read a novel by David Baldacci, who is a prolific writer of thrillers, but I’m glad I gave him another try. His female protagonist in Long Road to Mercy is Atlee Pine, an FBI Special Agent. It’s the first of four books about Agent Pine and I’ve already acquired book II in the series. 

 

Atlee has a most intriguing history. She was born as an identical twin, but at the age of six, a man broke into their bedroom in the middle of the night and abducted Atlee’s twin, Mercy, and Mercy was never seen again. Meanwhile, Atlee became a highly successful athlete. She missed an Olympics team as a weightlifter by a tiny margin, and then she joined the FBI. She rapidly progressed with her assignments in the FBI and was promoted. Given her choice of assignments, rather than go to one of the high action centers like DC or NY, she chose to live in St. George, Utah. She was an outdoors woman and since the disappearance of her sister, she had mostly been a loner. In St. George, other than having a secretary, she ran a one-person office and was often the only federal law enforcement officer for hundreds of miles.

 

While pursuing a bizarre case of a slaughtered mule in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, Atlee also remained driven to solve her sister’s case. She came to suspect that the perpetrator of the kidnapping might have been Daniel James Tor, a man who had been captured as a serial killer. He was convicted and placed in the supermax federal prison in Colorado. She managed to get an interview with him – so the book started out with that dramatic encounter with this very frightening psychopath. 

 

I liked the fact that Atlee was not a two-dimensional character. She struggled with her relationships, and the story benefitted by the relationship she developed with her secretary, Carol Blum, who was rogue in her own right. The investigation into the slaughtered mule led to a plot to unseat the federal government. The book was written in 2018, so it predated the mess in DC by two years.

 

This is an excellent thriller and Pine is a compelling character. David Baldacci, welcome back to our blog.