The Sentence is Death

 The Sentence is Death is another NYTimes best seller. This is the second book in the Hawthorne & Horowitz six-book series. As previously described in my review of The Word is Murder, Author Anthony Horowitz fictionalizes himself as the biographer of private investigator Daniel Hawthorne. It was Hawthorne who approached Horowitz to write a book about him and his cases. Horowitz stated intent is to write in the mold of the Sherlock Holmes series in which Dr. Watson is Holmes partner who can never keep up with Holmes talent for solving crimes. Hawthorne in a Holmes-like fashion observes various details that others miss and then solves complicated crimes that baffles everyone else.

In this second novel, it’s a divorce lawyer, Richard Pryce, who has been killed, and the author presents a cast of characters who could have had a motive to kill the barrister. Once again, I listened to the audiobook format, and while the narrator, Rory Kinnear generally excels at performing the voices of so many different characters, his falsetto voice for Deputy Inspector Cara Grunshaw, is actually hysterical. Hawthorne made no secret of the fact that he thought she was an idiot, and the voice of Grunshaw fit his contempt for her.

Known as the “Blunt Razor” Pryce was famous for his absolute honesty even if it hurt the case for his own clients. In a nasty divorce case, one of his clients and the client’s wife were both hiding significant streams of income and assets from each other. Pryce had apparently discovered their lies and although the divorce matter had been settled, he seemed to be intent on reopening the matter, Both the husband and wife could have had a motive to kill him before he had made his revelations. There were other deaths like that of Gregory Taylor who apparently fell in front of a train, and the earlier death of Charles Richardson who died in a caving accident six years earlier. Pryce, Taylor, and Richardson had been college buddies.

There were multiple skillful misdirections by the author, so just like the first book and similar to the experiences of Watson and the fictionalized Horowitz, the real murderer was not revealed until the end of the book, and it was much to my surprise when author Horowitz revealed just who that was.

This second book was even more fun than the first. I’ve already started the third book, A Line to Kill, and I’ve downloaded the fourth, The Twist of a Knife. My advice, don’t you dare miss this series. It’s a delightful discovery for me.

The Rust Forest by Anders de la Motte

 

Meet Leonore (Leo) Asker. An ambitious detective in the Malmo (Sweden) PD in line for a significant promotion. Her mom is politically connected. But her father (Prepper Per) is quasi-hidden. Seems he developed an AI tool for the company he worked for and was expecting a substantial financial boost for his work. But the company decided otherwise squeezing Per out. He decided to lash out at said company and then went on the run and remains mostly hidden in and around Malmo.  

A vengeful colleague with the police has it in for Leo and attempts to derail her promotion. Gets her assigned to a do nothing unit (think Slow Horses, the acclaimed Apple TV series featuring Gary Oldman). Leo is assigned an unsolved case of murder 10y previous. A young woman was killed in the forest around Malmo. Throat slit and left to die in a old agricultural factory building. Only unusual clue was a missing ring finger. Everyone assumed is was her husband, but he's thought to be in the wind. 

This factory building sits in The Rust Forest, so named because of mineral runoff has discolored the land and water. Some hard cases live in and protect the forest. Trespassers take their lives into their own hands. Our story opens in earnest with a couple of 20somethings exploring the various buildings for their YouTube channel; UrbEx (for urban explorers). They are surprised by what might be a spirit of sorts and take off.

See, The Rust Forest is thought to be inhabited by spirits of a centuries old murder whose remains were found sometime ago. Now on display at the city museum: The Gray Maiden.  Somehow, the death of the wife at the hands of her husband and The Gray Maiden are somehow connected and it's up to Leo and her cadre of misfit cops to find out who killed the wife and what are the connections to the monied and well-heeled of Malmo that keep popping up. 

Leo's investigation runs into more blind alleys and dead ends than should be allowed by law, but keeps on digging even after being told in no uncertain terms to hand off the case to the Cold Case unit else lose her promotion. She's got to the end of the weekend to gather all her material so that Cold Case can effectively be lost in storage.

This is the 3rd Leo Asker book (after The Mountain King and The Glass Man). Both were international best sellers. Easy to see why. De la Motte is quite adept at weaving a complex tale and bring it to a rip roaring finish. Asker is bullheaded, resourceful, skilled at martial arts, firearms, and motorcycles. Every guys dream, right? It's been a while since I last read a book by a Scandinavian author. But having read this one, I'm definitely checking in with the library about The Mountain King.

Oh yes. If you recall, I'm forever saying pay attention to the publishers. That mysteries and thrillers from Emily Bestler Books have been consistent winners. Color me surprised when I noticed that this is another in the long line of Emily Bestler Books. Think I could read exclusively Emily Bestler Books and be quite happy and occupied. 

Thanks to NetGalley for the book in exchange for an honest review. 

ECD  

 

The Word is Murder

 It always amazes me when I run across yet another prolific mystery writer that I’ve never heard of. Anthony Horowitz is one such person, a British novelist and screenplay writer. He has a 14-book series about a teenage spy named Alex Rider, but that’s not the one I just finished. He has written about 50 novels in total. I saw a recommendation in the New York Times Book Review for his 6-books called the Hawthorne & Horowitz series. These are detective novels in which he writes himself into the story. It is the authors intention to create a series in which he becomes the best friend of a great detective like Sherlock Holmes and his buddy, Dr. Watson. The detective in Horotwitz's story is Daniel Hawthorne.

The first book, The Word is Murder, is available in audiobook format, so I jumped on that. The books are Narrated by Rory Kinnear, and he is an exceptional interpreter and creator of the multiple figures about whom Horowitz writes. In this story, the characters get to know each other, but they hardly achieve anything close to friendship until the very end of the novel. The story takes place around the horrible car accident in which one of two young brothers is killed, and the other is left permanently damaged, requiring lifelong care. Even though the woman, Diana Cowper, who was driving the car that struck the boys fled the scene of the accident, she was only given a sentence, the equivalent of only a slap of the wrist. It was 10 years later that Horowitz & Hawthorne enter the scene of the death of the woman who had struck the boys. She had expected to die in the immediate future. The reader meets her as she enters the funeral home owned by funeral director Robert Cornwallis where Diana announced her detailed plans for her own funeral. Meanwhile, although Hawthorne will reveal nearly nothing about himself to Horowitz, it is Hawthorne who challenges Horowitz to write a novel about his detective wizardry. 

As with all great writers, I did not see the end coming until the very end. This book is filled with rich characters and a fascinating main plot and multiple subplots. While I loved the audiobook, surely this would be a wonderful read. I’ve already downloaded the second book, The Sentence is Death.

Harvest Season

 

It has happened again, unfortunately. I read the first book in the series The Seasons of Carnage, the book having been Tourist Season. I liked that book well enough to read the second one, Harvest Season. However, I did not get very far with this audiobook. Perhaps the best part was the prologue in which the author warned the reader about the multiple kinds of trauma that would be involved in the story. Really, it was an invitation for voyerism, which of course is a part of the character of this reviewer. Clearly, the author has vast knowledge of those subjects, or at least, a great imagination. 

The story in Harvest Season has to do with the romantic relationship of two serial killers. Admittedly, I did not get very far with the story. While I did not find the two readers to be problematic, the material was just too silly and almost flap stick. There are times when I like wisecracking detectives, but somehow, this story just did not grab me. I felt nothing in common with the primary characters, and I did not care what was going to happen to them. I was only into the book a short way when I chose to abandon the effort, and I'm not interested in reading the third novel that has been promised.

Ironwood

 

Connelly is the king of thrillers and the men at MenReadingBooks have read most of his 40+ novels. Just one year ago, I read and reviewed the first book in a new series, Nightshade, which I rated very highly. The author is able to keep his stories and characters very interesting and believable.

In Ironwood, Detective Stilwell suspects that one of his new deputies on Catalina Island is a serial killer. A murder has occurred, but it happened a few years earlier, and this became a thing when the woman's bones were uncovered in a remote area of Catalina Island. It turned out that there have been a series of murders of women who were hiking alone through wilderness trails in California. Stilwell continues to get flack from his captain who works out of his office in Long Beach. When the protagonist is trying to set a trap, another one of his new deputies is murdered, and a second officer is shot in the throat but survives. It seems corruption is rampant on Catalina.

Once again, Stilwell, or "Stil" as he is called by most people he knows, has found life on Catalina as highly desirable, compared to his life on the mainland, or "overland" as the people on Catalina call it. Usually, as was initially the case with Stil, a transfer to Catalina was a punishment for having done something wrong. However, he began to realize that being sent to the island was just what he needed. His girlfriend Tasha has been promoted to acting Harbor Master, and their relationship is evolving. The story involves corruption, cartel murders, small crime, and Stil's relentless pursuit of clues in the face of a captain who is mostly focused on any publicity that would make his operation look bad. 

I consumed this story in audiobook format, and the reader was excellent. Like nearly all of Connelly's books, it gets a highly favorable review from me. You won't be disappointed.

The Keeper

 

I should start by saying I've not been attracted to Tana French's writing for many years. I have reviewed six of her books, but none lately. My reaction to her is suprising to me since she has been revered by so many readers, and she obviously has a huge following. I got this book in audioformat and I tried to listen to it twice, about two weeks apart, and I simply could not concentrate on the material. When my mind wonders to the grocery list or some item on my to-do list, it's not a good sign. I did not get far in the book, probably less than 30 pages. I found the audiobook's reader to be a bit too melodramatic, so maybe it was the reader, maybe it was the material - I suspect it was a little of both. I can't give this successful author a good review or recommendation for purchase of this novel. I decided the book would not get a third try, so I'm returning it unfinished to Libby.

Judge Stone

Judge Stone was co-authored by James Patterson and Viola Davis. There are at least a dozen reviews in this blog of Patterson’s prolific works, but most of those have been written by other reviewers. I tend not to seek out his books. However, because Viola Davis, an incredible actress, was his co-author and because she was reading the entire story for the audiobook, I chose to take it on. Those were good decisions.

The novel is about a 13-year-old black girl, Nova, who was raped in Alabama, and then she became pregnant. She knew her mother did not believe in abortion. At the young of age 28, her mother had already birthed four children, and Nova was the oldest who was immediately given responsibilities to help raise her siblings. Feeling caught between her own wish to abort the child and her fear of her mother’s reaction to learning she was pregnant, and when was having significant first trimester symptoms, Nova went to the school nurse who then discovered her pregnancy. At the time, Alabama had the most strict anti-abortion laws in the country. Anyone who was found to have assisted another person to get an abortion was guilty of a Class A felony, meaning a long jail term. The nurse then took her to a local doctor who knew the law, but who disagreed with denying this child an abortion.

Viola played the role of Judge Stone who then contended with the controversy when the abortion became public news.  The doctor was arrested. The DA was relentless in pursuing the doctor’s punishment. The case landed on Judge Stone's docket. She was under assault by the town people, as well as the thousands of people that descended on the small town to protest with religious fervor.

I thought this book addressed all of the social issues involved in this story with compassion. The cast of characters, those that supported Judge Stone and those who hated her, was a very rich and powerful novel. While some of the details were predictable, the ending was not what I expected. Although heartending, it was so enjoyable to hear Viola address this most important topic with depth and wisdom. This was a 5/5 read.