MacNeal’s books always prove themselves to be incredibly well researched, yet still have great flow and pacing—I read it in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down. She cleverly wove the story of the American intelligence drama leading up to Pearl Harbor together with Maggie’s story—setting America up to finally join forces with Britain for the next novel. The interagency and inter-service fighting dramatically portrayed here is a story I know all too well, having been in the military myself, and MacNeal nailed it. Her portrayal of life during WWII has an authenticity and soul that I often find lacking in books set during this time period, and I think this is where her extensive research really shines through. MacNeal gives you all the flavor without bogging down the story. This series has become a favorite of mine—Maggie and her band of friends are infinitely sympathetic characters, whose adventures I never tire of taking part in.
Erica Ruth Neubauer
THE RED CHAMELEON
Erica Wright
2014
Pegasus
Set in New York City, Kathleen Stone takes on many disguises as a P.I. The story opens with her in a red wig (expensive) following a possible errant husband. At least the wife who hired her thinks so. Alas, Kathy follows him to the men’s room and finds him dead. Case closed for the wife, but not for Kathy who becomes a suspect. Luckily she’s former NYPD and still has friend Ellis on the force who appears at the right time to help her. Her cover is as a real estate agent, about which she knows nothing. Her new secretary, Meeza, soon figures that out and tries to help her out as she wants a part of the action—the P.I. part.
Before she knows it, Kathy is involved in a money-laundering scheme, and a fake clinic. Is this part of her original case?
Someone breaks into her apartment and destroys all her expensive wigs. Why? How did the person find her? She doesn’t think anyone knows where she lives. She can handle herself in rough situations and gives better than she gets. Humorous touches.
Gay Toltl Kinman
THE REVENANT OF THRAXTON HALL
Vaughn Entwhistle
2014
Minotaur Books
Following the death of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle finds himself one of the most despised men in London. When a mysterious invitation comes to his doorstep, he finds the perfect excuse to leave London and his constant persecution. When he arrives, a mysterious woman tells him that she has had a vision of her imminent demise and that Doyle is the only one who can save her. Despite his protestations that he is not his famous character, he soon finds himself knee deep in the paranormal and with more suspects than even the great Holmes could wade through. However, with the aide of his friend Oscar Wilde, he feels that he must do whatever he can to save the woman, even if it means his own safety.
THE REVENANT OF THRAXTON HALL is one of the most fun books I have read in a very long time. The author crafts a fantastic mystery populated with strange people and the paranormal. With a brilliant sense of Doyle and Wilde, we are given the perfect comedy duo with the witty Wilde and the straight man dryness of Doyle. The two together create a stunning brilliance and perfectly timed laughs, creating a novel that both intrigues and delights in the same breath.
The interplay between Doyle and Wilde is hilarious and charming. The characters, many of whom are based on actual historical figures, flesh out a divine sense of time and place, instantly putting the reader deep in Victorian England. With an enthralling plot and Wilde’s wit, it is impossible to put down from the first page. Filled with suspense and a deep love of the time and source material, Entwhistle’s novel is a true joy to read.
Bryan VanMeter
RUNNER
Patrick Lee
2014
Minotaur Books
Sam Dryden had been better. He was unemployed, struggling with the tragic death of his wife and young daughter. He was unfocused and having difficulty sleeping, with inexplicable urges to go running in the middle of the night along the California coast. While out running one night, a young girl, no more than twelve years old, runs into him on the boardwalk. She’s terrified, being chased, with nowhere to go. Sam is again struck with an inexplicable desire, this time to help.
It soon becomes obvious that Rachel is in grave danger. The men chasing her have guns, advanced communications and techniques, and are very motivated to kill. Rachel’s coincidental meeting with Sam seems too good to be true, at least for her. He misses his daughter. He has little to lose. And his background is uniquely suited to help her get away from her pursuers.
Runner is the first of what is to become a series featuring Sam Dryden. It is Patrick Lee’s fourth novel, following three in the Breach series featuring Travis Chase. Runner is a non-stop science fiction thriller that will keep the most action demanding reader satisfied.
But Runner is more than just a page-turning, action-packed thriller. Good relationships were developed along the way. Sam and Rachel became close, with a profound emotional connection. Sam recognized that he could save her in a way he couldn’t have saved his wife and child, but his helping Rachel was more altruistic, more organic, than just easing his conscious. Likewise, the comfort she felt from Sam was more than her self-serving need to be helped and protected.
A book is always better to me if it addresses some social or political issues of the day, even if indirectly and without taking sides. Intentional or not, Runner was not lacking in that area. The science fiction part dealt with altering genetic code and its consequences, how amazing the results could be, but how simultaneously disastrous and harmful to those who least deserve it. Government surveillance and the power of the military industrial complex were also underlying issues, implying dangers of two defense contractors competing against each other to advance technology, at all costs, and with the blessing and assistance of the federal government.
The science fiction involved the altering of some human genetic code, or more accurately uncovering a human gene that would give a person an ability that has long since been evolved away from. A reasonable explanation was given for why such an amazing skill was eliminated by natural selection, and why it would be so valuable today. However, those who had undergone the gene therapy were unable to use their ability with others who had also undergone the therapy. If this were the case, then before the evolutionary process overwrote the gene, it would have been unnoticed and useless because all or most humans would have had it, making it unnoticed and useless with no reason to change. Despite this, it only requires a little more suspension of disbelief to overlook that one issue and enjoy the entertaining, thrilling, and thought provoking story that Mr. Lee told so well.
Mr. Lee is a talented author with the ability to do more than just tell a fast paced story. He can create an interesting and thought provoking plot and development multidimensional and meaningful relationships among his characters. All of this is why I’m looking forward to more of the Sam Dryden series.
George Lichman—TheThirtyYearItch.com
The Son
Jo Nesbo
May 13, 2014
Knopf
Jo Nesbo, the Norwegian author best known for the Harry Hole series, has written a standalone, proving he is adept at writing a complicated thriller of epic proportions. It is a story of criminal and police corruption, and centers on Sonny Lofthus, son of a policeman who committed suicide, accused of being a mole for a gangster known as the Twin.
After his father’s death, Sonny took to heroin, and confessed to a couple of murders he didn’t commit in exchange for a guarantee of an endless supply of the drug while in prison. While incarcerated, Sonny gains Buddha-like status among the prisoners, granting salvation and peace to the inmates. Then comes the twist: Sonny goes cold turkey after learning that his father may have been framed, escapes and embarks on a plan of revenge against those he believes responsible for his father’s death.
If the reader can suspend disbelief that a hardcore addict can quit after an addiction of 12 years, then the plot can move forward with some
degree of rationality; even with Sonny hiding from a massive man-hunt by both the police and criminal element in plain sight and not being caught, while, ninja-like, exacting retribution on a series of victims. Other than these criticisms, this is one excellent novel, exciting, well-written, and deeply plotted, although overly long. But greatly enjoyable.
Theodore Feit
SUPREME JUSTICE
Max Allan Collins
July 2014
Thomas and Mercer
It’s easy to feel helpless in today’s political system. Sure, you can do your civic duty and vote like a good citizen, but sometimes that doesn’t seem to make a difference. The majority of the other voters may not agree with your position. You may not have millions and millions of dollars to invest in a candidate to sway an election. Most of the time, there are people in the government that affect your life and you didn’t even vote for them.
In a not too distant future, or a future that could have been, ultra-conservative presidents have stacked the Supreme Court with like-minded justices. This Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, pumped up the Patriot Act, and weakened the First Amendment. But what happens if someone decides to stop feeling helpless about the political landscape and change the make-up of the Court? What happens if someone steps outside of the law and becomes an agent of political change?
Max Allen Collins’ latest thriller, SUPREME JUSTICE, answers these questions. A conservative Supreme Court justice is killed during what appears to be a restaurant robbery gone wrong; however, the killing may not be what it seems. Former Secret Service agent Joseph Reeder is brought in by a DC Homicide agent to analyze the surveillance tape of the robbery. Using his skills at reading body language, Reeder determines that the Supreme Court justice was murdered in cold blood and was not collateral damage in the robbery as originally thought.
The FBI takes over and sets up a cross-agency task force to determine who assassinated the Justice. Reeder is brought in as a consultant for the task force, but not everyone on the task force welcomes his assistance. Reeder had left the Secret Service after taking a bullet for a president, but Reeder became an outspoken critic of that conservative commander-in-chief after he left the service.
While investigating the assassination of the justice, Reeder and his task force partner, FBI agent Patti Rogers, discover that there is a bigger plan at work to reorganize the Supreme Court. Additional conservative justices are murdered or are threatened. Someone wants to make sure that the current liberal president changes the make-up of the court.
Most political thrillers focus on the elected officials that chart the course of our society. It could be politicians on the make with the evil special interest groups or a president that doesn’t have America’s best interests in mind. SUPREME JUSTICE takes the political thriller in a new direction and focuses on the branch of government that gets little attention, the Supreme Court.
Collins and his collaborator, Matthew Clemens, have clearly done their research into the inner workings of Washington, D.C. They successfully captured the tension between the agencies that are supposed to be working together: FBI, Homeland Security, Supreme Court Police, DC Homicide, etc. Each agency wants to have their person on the task force crack the case.
SUPREME JUSTICE explores an America that could-have-been, and could-still-be, and looks into the back room workings of Washington, D.C. We go behind the scenes with the federal agencies to find a killer and find out what happens when someone steps outside of the law to change the political course of America on their own.
Kate Malmon
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Crimespree on Comics
Issue 56
This year at C2E2 convention in Chicago we got to meet Simon R Green As it turns out it has been some years since he had been in the states. Dan and I are huge fans of his books and I interviewed him for the website on video.
Dan had not read this series yet so when Simon gave him a copy he jumped in.
His review is below.
Jon
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN TORC
Simon R Green
2008
Roc
Fantasy is a tricky thing to pull off. Unless it’s a Lord of the Rings piece, I tend to tend to tune out. “Elves and fairies on the cover? No thanks, man. I like my books with a harder edge.” Hence the boom in urban fantasy, a genre I’m a big fan of. But what about fantasy with wink and a smile? Books that send the Clever Quotient through the roof? Now, that is something that I can get behind.
That brings us to the worlds of Simon R. Green. With five (five!) series running at or about the same time, Green’s catalogue can be a bit imposing. The NIGHTSIDE series is his take on the PI genre. The DEATHSTALKER series is space opera. And the SECRET HISTORIES novels are his secret agent books; with THE MAN WITH GOLDEN TORC being the starting point.
Eddie Drood is everything you want in a “James Bond-style” hero. Tons of swagger. Quick with a quip. Loads of cool gadgets. Oh, and a suit of liquid gold armor that he mystically controls from the golden collar (or “torc”) that is bonded to his neck. When he calls forth the armor, it completely covers his entire body, rendering his face a featureless mask. Granting him near-invulnerability, super-human strength and endurance, the armor is one of the most powerful weapons in the super-natural world. Worn by all agents of the Drood family, the armor is like a policeman’s gun, or a Green Lantern’s power ring: a tool used to keep the peace.
When Eddie is suddenly and without warning branded a rogue by his family, he must not only figure out the Who? What? What? Where? And How?, he must also do it cut off from the massive resources of the Drood family. With nowhere else to go, Eddie turns to his greatest enemy for help. The wild witch Molly Metcalf and Eddie Drood have crossed swords and spells time and time again. Always each other’s greatest enemy, they are the living example of conflict breeding respect for ones greatest foe. Representing the chaos to the Drood family’s order, Molly wants nothing more than to tear down the Droods brick by brick. With the promise of bringing down the Drood family, Molly Metcalf sides with Eddie.
The “Agent Branded A Traitor” may be one of the classic tropes of literature, but in Green’s hands, you feel like you’re reading something fresh and new. Green uses his shared universe as a receptacle for his immense idea generator of a brain. Like Grant Morrison, Green fills his pages with more off-hand ideas than any other author I know of. His throwaway characters and subplots could fill volumes. I found myself rereading whole chapters and wishing for stories focusing on the Karma Catechist, or Mr. Stab, or even the Sceneshifters and their Red King.
The SECRET HISTORIES novels do act as a sort of framing series for Green’s shared universe. So if you haven’t read his books before, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN TORC is the perfect jumping on point.
Dan Malmon
NEW CRUSADERS: RISE OF THE HEROES
Archie Comics
Listen up, folks! It’s time you all check out the new and resurgent RED CIRCLE COMICS.
Red Circle Comics may to not be a household name to the non-comics crowd, it’s a fair bet even your Aunt Alice has heard of Red Circle’s parent company. You know, Archie Comics? You heard me right. The Riverdale Gang and the heroes of Red Circle are really one big family. While publishing tried and true superhero fair for decades, their capes have never been as big a hit for them as Archie has been. The last time we saw a major push by Red Circle was during the 90’s boom, when DC comics licensed the characters under their IMPACT initiative.
But who are these guys, you ask? With RISE OF THE CRUSADERS, all of your questions are answered in one tidy package. While this new line is digital first, the Powers That Be provided me with a beautiful trade collection to review. They know I’m old school like that. In RISE, our story opens with a summer picnic in the all-American town of Red Circle. What’s better than a reunion of old friends, picnic style? Old friends meet and mingle and their kids rough house in the yard. No one has a care in the world.
Why?
Because these old friends did it: they vanquished evil.
While it looks like the picnic is at the mayor’s house, attended by a zoologist, a chemist, the fire chief, a novelist, a homemaker, a movie star, and a journalist, they are more than that. This is a reunion of the Mighty Crusaders. And they did it. They won. Fireball, Comet, Steel Sterling, Shield, Jaguar, The Web, and Fly Girl thought they had the ultimate victory.
Until the Brain Emperor crashes their picnic, and slaughters the lot of them in cold blood. With the Shield the only veteran left alive, he gathers up the youngsters and they regroup at the Shields hidden headquarters. It’s a quick, brutal introduction to these heroes. And a smart plan, too. Instead of trying to get a new generation to care about these heroes of yesterday, writer Ian Flynn gets us emotionally invested in their kids in one issue. Contributing to the modern vibe, Ben Bates and Alitha Martinez, portray our New Crusaders with a blocky, manga inspired look.
Don’t be fooled by the light-hearted look of this book: Flynn has written a heavy story, invested with themes of legacy and responsibility. The continuing story of these New Crusaders is a story that bears returning to, again and again.
Dan Malmon
RICHARD STARK’S PARKER
Adapted and Illustrated by Darwyn Cooke
IDW
The Hunter—Vol 1
Richard Stark’s (Donald Westlake) classic anti-hero Parker is brought alive in this series of graphic novels by Darwyn Cooke. In the first volume, THE HUNTER, Parker is double-crossed by his wife and his partner. Once Parker tracks his wife down, she kills herself. Parker then seeks to exact his revenge, by hunting down his money, and the others who did him wrong.
The Outfit—Vol 2
Crimespree Magazine #56 Page 17