Brennan's New Series Starts with a Dud

The Third to Die - Allison Brennan

When you read at least fifty mystery or thriller novels a year, you can’t always depend on a half-dozen or so favorite authors to have a new release ready for you when you finish your latest. As a consequence, I read a lot of novels written by authors whose work, to be kind, I will probably not seek out again in the future. The latest in my string of one-and-dones is Allison Brennan, who released The Third to Die – Quinn & Costa Thriller Book 1 last year. Given the pace of Brennan’s work, she’s probably already finished number four. Here’s the plot in about 115 words:

In Which the Plot Founders Under the Weight of the Tropes

The 7th Victim - Alan Jacobson

When I read a mystery novel, I generally find myself comparing it to some of my favorite thrillers in the genre. Come on, you do the same thing. Maybe a character sounds familiar, perhaps the setting rings a bell, heaven forbid that the plot follows something I’ve already devoured. The first novel in a series can be critical, because if you don’t like the protagonist, it’s hard for you to come back for another helping. And then again there can be other, structural problems… …which is what happened with the first novel in Alan Jacobson’s Karen Vail series, The 7th Victim. You’d like to identify with Vail, a hard-charging FBI profiler, but Jacobson makes it pretty hard. Let’s get to the plot, and then we’ll explain.

"The Intern's Handbook" by Shane Kuhn - Literary Lemonade?

The Intern's Handbook - Shane Kuhn

Ann Landers (or maybe it was Dear Abby – same difference) was fond of saying, “If life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” Shane Kuhn takes this advice to heart for The Intern’s Handbook. The particular lemon with which the screenwriter must deal for this, his first novel, is the lack of a plot – or more properly, the lack of a novel-length plot. The lemonade? Kuhn turns his extended short story into a comic farce by dressing it up as a combination employee handbook and memoir, which allows him to insert all the fun bits he’s thought up without needing to form a coherent narrative.

That lemonade thing? It works… kinda.

Rhyme and Company Tangle with Tattoos: Jeffery Deaver's "The Skin Collector"

The Skin Collector - Jeffery Deaver

Just when you thought it was safe to get some body art, Jeffery Deaver puts the fear of God in you. Could any other author dream up a killer so insidious, so calculating, so… evil as The Skin Collector? Probably not…

He prowls the tunnels and abandoned alleyways of New York’s underground, carrying with him the tools of his trade: Billy Haven, sometimes known as “The Underground Man,” does body modifications; although his recent clients neither requested a new tattoo nor survived their application. Perhaps that’s because Billy’s ink is pure poison – literally: hemlock, amanita, nicotine; all the “good” ones.

With a killer who can be anywhere, anytime, and who seemingly selects his victims at random; NYPD does what they always do: they call in Lincoln Rhyme. Unsub 11-5 proves a worthy adversary, however, perhaps because he has studied in detail the team assembled by the paraplegic forensic criminologist and their methodology. Or perhaps it’s because he has a plan; carefully constructed, highly detailed and chock full of surprises. Nasty surprises, not the least of which is… well, you’ll just have to find out, won’t you!

Laukkanen Dances with the One What Brung Him: Reviewing "Kill Fee"

Kill Fee - Owen Laukkanen

Kirk Stevens of Minnesota's BCA and Carla Windermere of the FBI had figured they’d just share a cuppa and catch up on each other’s cases, but their coffee break went out the window when the two watched in horror as a sniper murdered a white-haired old man before their very eyes. Bad luck for the killer, though – Windermere got a good look at the blank-eyed young man and his getaway ride. The trail seemed to die there, though – the man who suposedly rented the little blue car in Minneapolis looked nothing like the killer and he swore he’d been driving a red SUV. So much for police work…

When the dead man’s cousin turned up dead a few days later in Duluth, Stevens caught the case – and that’s where he first ran across the cryptic word “Killswitch.” Stevens being a pretty bright guy figured out he was on the trail of a contract killer. That brought the Feds – and therefore Windermere – into the game. Yay.

Scarpetta Develops Clairvoyance for Patricia Cornwell's "Dust"

Over almost a quarter of a century, Kay Scarpetta (MD, Attorney, would-be chef at a posh Ristorante Italiano) has seen her career steam merrily ahead, crash and burn, turn into a gun for hire, and - finally - culminate in her appointment as chief of a high-tech crime lab (associated with what? one wonders) in the middle of metropolitan Boston. Nice work if you can get it.

In the same twenty-four years, Scarpetta's relationship with Benton Wesley (or is it Wesley Benton? I always forget) has progressed from "the other woman" to lover to quasi-widow to a print version of Pam Ewing waking up to find Bobby in the shower to who's-his-face's happily-married spouse. She's dragged her anti-authoritarian lesbian paranoid genius niece, Lucy, and the brutish cop Marino every step of the way.

To all that, I say, "Give it a rest, Kay!"