Crime

Apr 16 2011

In the Mail: A Hard Death

A Hard Death by Jonathan Hayes

Publishers Weekly

Disgraced forensic pathologist Dr. Edward Jenner hoped that a move to Florida would be a distraction from the serial killer horrors in Precious Blood, but in Hayes’s solid sequel, the medical examiner finds himself embroiled in another life and death investigation. Barely eking out a living as Port Fontaine’s temporary pathologist, Jenner is shocked when one of his first cases in the sleepy coastal town is the murder of his former mentor and Port Fontaine’s regular medical examiner, Dr. Martin Roburn, whose body shows signs of torture. When Jenner is alerted to the decomposing bodies of four migrant workers deep in a swamp, he suspects their deaths are tied to Roburn. Jenner, along with a local detective, starts putting the pieces together to connect Port Fontaine’s richest men, the booming migrant population, and the lucrative drug trade. Though Hayes flirts with a few genre clichés, Jenner emerges as a sufficiently flawed yet empathetic hero.

By Kevin Holtsberry • In The Mail • 1 • Tags: , , , ,

Apr 8 2011

T.J. English & The Savage City on The Daily Show

I am late in posting this but thought it still worth doing so. The Savage City by T.J. English is one of a great many serious and engaging books that I am unlikely to get a chance to read but wanted to make you aware of it.

By Kevin Holtsberry • Interviews • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Apr 5 2011

In the Mail: Infamous

Infamous by Ace Atkins

Publishers Weekly

Set in 1933, Atkins’s winning fourth history-based novel focuses on two figures who, as the author explains in an introduction, have been undeservedly lost in the shuffle of Depression-era gangsters: George Kelly, who ironically gets saddled with the nickname Machine Gun, and his wife, Kathryn. The fast-moving narrative spans a three-month period, starting with a fatal ambush in a parking lot outside Kansas City’s Union Station in which hoods gun down several lawmen and the prisoner they were about to drive to Leavenworth. This massacre leads to the FBI obtaining the authority to make arrests and carry weapons. The bulk of the action concerns the Kellys’ kidnapping of Charles Urschel, a wealthy Oklahoma oilman, and its aftermath. Atkins (Devil’s Garden) brings to vivid life the henpecked George and the bloodthirsty Kathryn as he convincingly conjures up a past era. Not just for crime fans, this should appeal to a wide readership.

By Kevin Holtsberry • In The Mail • 1 • Tags: , , ,

Nov 28 2010

LA Times on Kind of Blue

Kind of Blue by Miles Corwin is one of many many books that pile up in the TBR pile but don’t get read because of time constraints, my reading choice idiosyncrasies, etc.

Carmela Ciuraru’s review in the LA Times, however, will force me to give it another look:

“Kind of Blue,” named for the seminal Miles Davis album that Ash loves, avoids the overheated prose so often found in crime fiction. Corwin is a minimalist, yet his descriptions are precise: Blood spatter at a crime scene looks like “a miniature pointillist portrait,” and the Los Angeles River is “a thin stream of brackish water purling down the graffiti-scarred cement banks.”

Nor does Corwin resort to scenes of cheap, grisly violence in the name of so-called authenticity. His concerns are psychological — revealing how criminals think, how cops think and how criminals think when they happen to be corrupt cops. And “Kind of Blue” is genuinely suspenseful: Although there’s no question that Ash will solve the crime that haunts him (and the one he’s been hired to solve), how he gets there is far from predictable.

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,

Jul 13 2010

In the Mail: Savages

Savages by Don Winslow

Publishers Weekly

Spare, clipped expository prose and hip, spot-on dialogue propel this visceral crime novel from Winslow (The Dawn Patrol). The future is looking good for Laguna Beach, Calif., marijuana growers Ben and Chon, until they receive an ominous e-mail from the Baja Cartel. Attached is a photograph showing the decapitated bodies of other independent drug dealers. The message is clear: sell your product through us or else. Ben and Chon try to resist, but matters escalate after cartel thugs abduct Ophelia, the guys’ beautiful young playmate and accomplice, and hold her for a cool million ransom. Meanwhile, Elena “La Reina” Sanchez Lauter, the leader of the Baja Cartel, must deal with rival drug gangs and potential overthrow from within. Ben and Chon propose a trade that Elena can’t refuse, setting the stage for the violent and utterly satisfying ending. Winslow’s encyclopedic knowledge of the border drug trade lends authenticity.

By Kevin Holtsberry • In The Mail • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

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