Avenue of Mysteries: Irving Pays Homage to His Own Back List

Avenue of Mysteries - John Irving

Almost no one had ever heard of John Irving before The World According to Garp. After Garp, almost every English-language reader seemed to know his name. They eagerly awaited the release of subsequent novels such as A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Fourth Hand, and looked backward to older works like Setting Free the Bears. All that’s to say that this reader, at least, has had a thirty-plus year relationship with Irving. Some novels have pleased – the aforementioned Meany or A Widow for One Year, for instance – while others (think The Hotel New Hampshire and Last Night In Twisted River) seemed to miss the mark. Irving, it seems, gets on a “kick” once in a while, though he hasn’t written about wrestling in several decades.

Irving’s back, with Avenue of Mysteries, and the question of the day is “Hit? or Miss?” I’m afraid that I, at least, must lean toward the “miss” end of the scale. But first, let’s talk about the book…

When a Crime Writer Turns to SciFi: Saturn Run

Saturn Run - John Sandford and Ctein

Spotting it was a happy accident, on the order of the discovery of penicillin – maybe even better. The deck of photographs of Saturn, taken at half-hour intervals by a telescope in Earth orbit, shouldn’t have shown anything interesting – but they did! A gigantic ship had entered our Solar System from interstellar space, decelerating to a halt in the sixth planet’s ring system. And although the ship soon departed without ever bothering to visit Earth, that planet’s two major powers immediately started a race to get to the tiny moonlet the ship had visited and collect the “alien tech” that surely must be there. 

Reich's Latest is a Formulaic Hot Mess

Invasion of Privacy - Christopher Reich

Maybe it has something to do with the growing income gap between the one-percenters and the rest of the world, but when is the last time you read a fiction novel about a billionaire who wasn’t… well, evil? It’s been a while for me, and that’s a fact. On the other hand, I’ve read a lot of evil-billionaire plots over the years and almost (please not, I said “almost”!) feel sorry for the poor rich folks so maligned by authors. The latest of their number is a tech guru named Ian Prince, who’s been manhandled – literarily, not literally – by Christopher Reich in his latest, Invasion of Privacy.

Prince, by virtue of his vast fortune, is the villain – the heroine is Mary Grant, freshly widowed mother of two whose late husband was FBI agent Joe Grant. Joe’s dying voice mail message to Mary suggests that something went terribly wrong, but no one at the FBI office will listen to her – and then the message disappears. Determined to find out why the bureau seems to be covering up the circumstances of Joe’s death, the young widow enlists the aid of Tank Potter, an alcoholic journalist freshly fired from his job at a local newspaper.

Warshawski Takes One in the Ribs: Sara Paretsky's "Brushback"

Brushback - Sara Paretsky

As far as I know, no female detective in literature gets roughed up more often than V. I. Warshawski, and only Stephanie Plum is harder on cars. The indomitable Vic charges through concussions and multiple lacerations and contusions to complete the action in Brushback, but we could have told her it was a waste of her time…

What are the odds? Vic’s high-school boyfriend showed up on her doorstep to let her know that his mother was out of stir after a quarter of a century. Stella Guzzo had been sent up the river for killing her daughter Annie, and big brother Frank told Chicago’s gutsiest PI that mama was now claiming that she didn’t do it. Vic wasn’t interested, though, since the not-so-lovely Stella had often slandered the sainted Gabriella…

Social Media Gone Wild: The Affinities

The Affinities - Robert Charles Wilson

I've heard sociologists bemoan the phenomenon of the internet in general and of social media in specific. Many are concerned that society, rather than being enhanced by this alleged interconnection, is actually harmed as society devolves into self-identified fractions and factions. One need only consider the conservative and liberal “echo chambers” to know that many people now choose to – at least online – associate only with others who share their beliefs and values. As speculative fiction writers so often do, Robert Charles Wilson has decided to comment on such fractionation; the result is The Affinities.

Adam Fisk never fit particularly well with his kin. As soon as he was old enough, he left the somewhat well-to-do merchant family in upstate New York to pursue art. When his grandmother, the only supportive member of the Fisk family, passed away, he thought his fling was over. That was before he tested as a Tau…

More Filler in the Lorien Legacies: The Guard

The Guard - Pittacus Lore

Remember when authors published a book once a year – or even less often? You’d wait patiently for the latest from your favorite scribe, add it to your Christmas list, and you might have even waited outside the doors of your local bookstore on the release date. That’s not so any more – I blame it on James Patterson, who (with a stable of co- and ghost-writers) pumps out about a book a month. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one to follow that path.

At the small intersection of YA fiction and SciFi, there’s a little series called “The Lorien Legacies.” The first book in the series was made into the (fairly) popular movie “I Am Number Four.” Since then, author Pittacus Lore – originally the writing team of James Frey and Joby Hughes, but now apparently a bunch of ghostwriters – has pumped out novellas and short (very short) novels in the series at a furious rate. The latest – or at least most recent one we’ve seen – is a novella called The Guard.

DiNunzio's Big Day, with Bees

Accused - Lisa Scottoline

I’m sure there are other ditz-lit series out there besides Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, but in all honesty I think one is enough. That’s why I tend to cringe whenever Lisa Scottoline digs into her Rostato and Associates file and pulls out another Mary DiNunzio tale. But Lisa doesn’t ask me about my preferences, so she did it anyway: she wrote Accused.

Repopulating the Race from Seven Eves: Neal Stephenson Goes Post-Apocalyptic

Seveneves - Neal Stephenson

You want to love Seveneves. You do. You want to love it because, well, Neal Stephenson wrote it and it’s a massive volume filled with big characters and massive (as well as micro) technology and huge ideas that are described in careful, glittering detail. You want to love it because it’s about as big a novel as they come, post-apocalyptic speculative fiction that pares the human race down to the bare minimum and then keeps on going. Most of all, you want to love it because it’s big, big, big!

But that just might be the main reason it’s so hard to love…

Something – no one will ever know what, we assume – shattered the moon into seven giant pieces. It looked awfully darned cool at first, until a couple of big domes realized that those big pieces would continue to bang into each other, chipping off ever-smaller chunks until millions of bits the size of Toyotas began raining down on Earth – and once that happened, it would be all over but the shouting. The hurry-up plan developed to save the human race? Ship a few thousand of them into space, accompanied by as many defining artifacts of humanity as possible and carrying the seeds (genetic material) necessary to start over: a Noah’s Ark, 21st-century style, built around Izzy: the International Space Station complex.

It Would Have Been Better with *Less* Magic

Bone Gap - Laura Ruby

The people around town called Finn O’Sullivan a lot of nicknames, most of them because of how he seemed so… distracted. Finn had plenty of reasons to be distracted, reasons like being deserted by his mother and the simple fact of being seventeen. But right now, he was distracted because Roza had disappeared: Roza, the beautiful Polish girl who’d just suddenly appeared in the O'Sullivan's barn one morning and had subsequently captured the hearts of everyone in Bone Gap, Illinois – especially the heart belonging to Finn’s older brother, Sean. And then she disappeared, and Finn simply couldn’t describe the man who had taken her, the mysterious man who moved like corn stalks waving in the wind.

Finn also found himself distracted by the beekeeper’s daughter, Priscilla Willis (who vastly preferred the name "Petey"). He thought her beautiful, even though everyone else thought her… strange-looking; homely, even. Petey was, however, the only one in Bone Gap who understood Finn’s distraction and his confusion, perhaps because Finn distracted and confused her, too. 

Mo Speaks (This Machine Kills Demons!)

The Annihilation Score - Charles Stross

It used to be that your local library (for you millennials, that's a building filled with books patrons can borrow for a couple of weeks) had a shelf or two of “science fiction.” In olden days, the books were about adventures in space and on alien planets. Some bright (not!) librarian decided to combine science fiction with fantasy: soon the shelves were overrun with sword-and-sorcery tales, many of them strangely similar to Tolkein adventures – you know, fellowships, talismans, epic struggles of good and evil; that rot. Now, even worse, the shelves are chock full of vampire and werewolf tales, far too many of them in the sub-sub-subgenre of VampRom.

But there is hope, albeit with a Lovecraftian bent (you kids who don’t know who H. P. Lovecraft was, head for Wikipedia…): Charlie Stross and the Laundry Files. File number six, The Annihilation Score, is now available.

When last we saw Dominique “Mo” O’Brien and Bob Howard, they had decided on a trial separation. It’s not that the two aren’t in love, it’s that their jobs – in the strange world of The Laundry – make them want to kill each other. Luckily (?) for Mo, she has a new assignment, one that (in theory) means she doesn’t need to unlimber her demon-killing bone violin, "Lecter." I told you it was Lovecraftian…

Pittacus Backtracks to Fill Some Plot Holes: "The Navigator"

I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Navigator - Pittacus Lore

Among all the tangled plotlines of the so-called Lorien Legacies series, there have always been open plot holes. Take, for instance, the sudden appearance – out of nowhere – of Crayton and Ella in… who knows which of the ‘leventy or so novellas so far? Or the dozens of chimerae [sic] held captive by the Mogadorians in their West Virginia base. Or the mysterious tall, dusky woman who shows up in… another book; or at the end of one tale, as the nine Garde flee their doomed home, there’s brief mention of a second ship. Well, Pittacus Lore (in reality the writing team of Jobie Hughes [maybe, or perhaps another ghostwriter] and James Frey ) are nothing if not inventive, once again doubling back in their plotline to fill in the holes. This time, it’s the startlingly out-of-sequence The Navigagtor.

Romantic Mayhem that Falls Flat

Inviting Fire - Emily Kimelman

It’s tough dropping into a mystery-thriller series at the sixth book. I wouldn’t recommend it, actually, but only book number six in the Sidney Rye series was offered free, and I don’t pay for self-published books. Not even 99¢… Inviting Fire was free, but it still was’t a bargain.

In case you aren’t aware of the series, Emily Kimelman’s Sidney Rye is… well, I’m still not quite sure what she is even after having read the entire book. I think she’s supposed to be an avenging angel, since the group she helped found, Joyful Justice, seems to like to kill people it considers “bad.” Of course, this being 2015, bad people are human traffickers, just as they’d have been cartel sicarios ten years ago. Whatever.

Are Thrillers Supposed to Be this Depressing? and This Predictable?

No Good Deed - M. P. McDonald

Thriller novels? Let’s see: the hero is supposed to undergo trials and tribulations and nevertheless triumph. Isn’t that about the size of it? Well, if all you want is a plot in which a hero undergoes trials and tribulations and nevertheless triumphs, then feel free to pick up a copy of M. P. McDonald’s No Good Deed. If, on the other hand, you want something well-written; I advise you to look elsewhere: this is the sort of novel on which self-publication has built a regrettably shoddy reputation.

Mark Taylor’s a Chicago-based photographer, and a damned good one. Not only does he do kiddie portraits and weddings, he also does arty stuff. That’s how he got in trouble: while taking photos in Afghanistan for a buddy’s book on the plight of Afghan women he found an old camera in a bazaar. Little did he know the camera had special powers: the first time he developed photos taken with the camera (yeah, film), some shots he hadn’t taken appeared: photos of airplanes crashing into twin towers. 

Another Cozy Mystery that Won't Tax Your Brain

The Murder Pit - Jeff Shelby

Daisy Savage has her hands full: besides keeping husband number two, Jake, satisfied; the full-time homeschooling Mom to three of the blended-family kids, she’s also busy with keeping the family’s hundred-year-old house from collapsing into itself. When exploring a frozen pipe turns up a body hidden in a coal chute they didn't even know they had, Daisy finds herself “forced” to investigate on her own. Because she dated the victim, albeit briefly, between husbands, the whole town of Moose River, Minnesota, is convinced she offed poor Olaf Stunderson.

That includes Olaf’s sister, Olga, and his ex-wife Helen; or so it seems. Whether the Susan Powter lookalike cop has cleared her is questionable. But all this suspicion and enmity mean that Daisy’s comfy life – and worse, the lives of her kids – is a mess, so she’s gonna do what she’s gotta do: find the killer. Naturally, the killer will find her first…

Reacher as a Teen Looks a Lot Like Reacher at Forty

"High Heat: A Reacher Novella" - Lee Child

A former coworker’s wife is a well-known author of true crime fiction. A few years back, she discovered that she could repurpose old articles and other content by publishing them only in e-content form and selling them at $2.99 per download as her fans gobbled them up. Apparently she isn't the only one – now you can now find short stories, short story collections and novellas all over Amazon at “bargain” prices. It’s apparently great way for well-known authors to bank some bucks for work they’d never published. A case in point is “High Heat,” a Jack Reacher novella from prolific author Lee Child.

Mogs Invade! Mogs Invade! The Garde Take the Fight to the Evil Aliens

The Revenge of Seven (Lorien Legacies) - Pittacus Lore

When we left the remaining Garde last time (The Fall of Five), everything was a mess. The traitorous Five had killed Eight, left three other numbers marooned in the Everglades, and tipped off his Mogadorian allies to the location of the stronghold in Chicago. In the aftermath of the resulting firefight; Ella’s been kidnapped by Mog soldiers and John, Sarah, Adam and the Goodes are on the run. Maybe it’s time to regroup…

Told from three viewpoints – those of Six, John and Ella – The Revenge of Seven finds the remaining Garde sundered even further, with three of them off in search of the fabled Sanctuary while John, the humans and their “good Mog” ally Adam fight a rear-action on the east coast. Meanwhile, Ella is imprisoned on Setrákus Ra’s flagship in interplanetary space as the Mogadorians prepare to invade Earth. And that’s not Ellas’ only heart-rending surprise, as the evil Mog overlord reveals his true face to her while laying out his plans for our planet.

Unleashed - David Rosenfelt

I guess it makes sense that if there are cat-lovers’ mysteries, there have to be dog-lovers’ mysteries, too. That’s fine with me – I’m about as dog-lovin’ as anyone you’ve met. Some of the “talking dog-based” mysteries are pretty lame (I’m thinking about Spencer Quinn’s Chet and Bernie series, if truth be told), and a couple of the dogs have gotten tiresome (Tee Tucker in the Rita Mae Brown Mrs. Murphy series). And then there’s the Andy Carpenter series, which doesn’t really have dogs at all – it’s a lawyer series with a dog suit on. I have to wonder if it would be better if  the dogs talked...

Scottoline's Fans Should Feel Betrayed by This One

Betrayed - Lisa Scottoline

You may think your day has been shitty, but it’s a strong bet that you’ve got nothing on Judy Carrier… let me back up a bit. Carrier, low woman on the totem pole at Rosato and Associates (all-woman law firm [hmmm: do I hear a reverse discrimination suit in the works?] in Philly) has had a helluva week. The boss dumped a stack of 70-plus civil cases on her. They’re not only boring, they offend her sensibilities. And then she gets a call from her favorite aunt announcing that the woman has breast cancer and will be going under the knife in a couple of days. And then her mother, with whom Carrier has a prickly relationship, shows up in town. And then her boyfriend Frank turns out to be a loser… 

On top of all that, Aunt Barb’s good gardening buddy, Iris, turns up dead. Carrier and her aunt are, of course, certain the circumstances of the undocumented Mexican woman’s death are suspicious, though the cops aren’t. With only hours before Aunt Barb goes all Amazon, Carrier starts snooping, as is the wont of the women of Rosato. She’s going to learn a hell of a lot more about a lot of things in the next couple of days; not least that someone has been Betrayed.

Judy Carrier, along with Bennie Rosato and Mary Dinunzio, is a set character in Philadelphia lawyer-turned-author Lisa Scottoline’s Rosato and Associates mystery series. Most of the earlier mysteries in Scottoline's series have featured either the dithering, ditsy Dinunzio or the brilliant but socially-inept Rosato¹, with Carrier usually serving merely as backup in the featured character's dumber antics or as a sort of comic relief - mainly due to her rather strange fashion sense. This time, Carrier takes the lead.

Ian McEwan Gets a Head Start on the 2015 Awards Season

The Children Act - Ian McEwan

There’s a hoary joke about a married couple who divorced when both are 54 after the husband had an affair with an 18-year-old. Once the wife had found a boy-toy of her own, she gleefully informed her ex-husband that she got the better end of the deal, mathematically speaking: after all, 18 goes into 54 a lot more times than 54 goes into 18. Ba-dump-bump.

McEwan ca. 2008 (source: wikipedia)

Such might well be the story of Fiona and Jack, childless and almost 60, when he decides he “needs his space” to take up with a coworker born well after his and Fiona’s wedding day. Their thirty-some-year marriage sundered in one acrimonious moment, Jack departs for his would-be lover’s flat and Fiona returns to her work. The scenario may be regrettably commonplace, but the actors are not: Lady Justice Fiona Maye is a judge in family court. Each day the slim, elegant juror presides over the dissolution of marital unions, the tawdry tales before her bench really not unlike her own.

Jackson Brodie Meets the Coincidence Fairy

Started Early, Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson

Central Leeds

Perhaps the most irritating failing of crime writers is over-dependence on coincidence. It seems to me to be a form of laziness, lack of imagination, or both. One writer who’s made a career out of over-dependence on the muse I call the Coincidence Fairy is Robert K. Tanenbaurm in his Karp family series (at least once he’d lost ghost writer Michael Gruber); another popular author who’s sometimes suspect is Sue Grafton with her Kinsey Millhone series. And now I may have a third coincidence criminal: Kate Atkinson, at least from the plot of Started Early, Took My Dog.

Jackson Brodie, retired London cop turned reluctant PI, is backtracking an adoption thirty-five years ago in Leeds when he accidentally acquires a dog. At more or less the same time, retired Leeds cop Tracy Waterhouse (now head of security for a shopping mall) accidentally acquires a daughter. Well, actually, she buys four-year-old Courtney from a local hooker for £3000…