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In reverse chronological order, with my Goodreads reviews:
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Egan, Jennifer ****
This is probably more 3.5 than 4, but err on the side of generosity. It's Elizabeth Strout with urban glitz, an omnibus of characters inhabiting stories separately and together. Egan doesn't have Strout's philosophic acceptance of the human condition, but her frenetic skewering of it has it's own rewards. Maybe more rewards than I was expecting. I decided fairly early on that I wasn't going to like this book, but it kept almost winning me over with the strength of the characterizations.
Thank god for Kindle. It helped a lot that when a character appeared in a story, I could use the search command to go back a figure out where I'd first seen that character. Because Egan is no respecter of chronology. We may see a character as. Young woman in one chapter, a child in the next, then a matron several chapters later and a rebellious teenager a while after that, also making cameo appearances as someone else's afterthought or vague memory. Keeps you on your toes.
Sometimes Egan will finish a story by telling you what the youthful protagonist is doing thirty years hence. It's another part of her overall theme that life sucks, which is not generally what I want to hear, but she has a disconcerting habit of subverting that overall theme.
She also has one chapter, the first person narrative of a young teenage girl obsessed with PowerPoint slides, which is written entirely in PowerPoint slides. Again, oddly appealing.
IQ (IQ, #1)
Ide, Joe ****
Joe ide's creation of a kid from the ‘hood with the insights and intellectual skills of a Sherlock Holmes is a strange notion, but it works. This first book tracks its protagonist's journey from prodigy to petty criminal to a force for good. I'll read more.
The Modern Art Invasion: Picasso, Duchamp, and the 1913 Armory Show That Scandalized America
Lunday, Elizabeth ****
Short, breezy, insightful...what more could you ask?
My Sister's Bones
Ellwood, Nuala ***
All the way through this book, I wasn't sure that I liked it. Then to be met with plot twists that were successively far-fetched and telegraphed, I was even less sure. But by the time I had finished, I certainly wasn't sure that I didn't like it. It does have something that gets to you. Three stars for me is generally a warm, but not hot, recommendation. You can Read this one - it's ok, it won't be a waste of time, at least not a serious waste. This time, it means something different. It means I don't know whether to recommend it or not. Read some other reviews and decide then.
The Fall of the Stone City
Kadare, Ismail ****
I didn't love this one as intensely as I loved Chronicle in Stone, but I liked it a lot. Part history, part magic realism of a special, weird Eastern European sort, it takes Albania from fascism to communism as two sides of a nightmare.
The Brass Verdict (Mickey Haller, #2; Harry Bosch Universe, #18)
Connelly, Michael ****
After reading a lot of the Bosch books, and growing more and more impressed by Connelly as a writer, I turned to this, the second in the Mickey Heller series, and became even more impressed, Connelly finds a different approach - first person narrative - and really creates a different voice for Haller. And yeah, it goes without saying that the man can craft a masterful plot.
Britt-Marie Was Here
Backman, Fredrik *****
Britt-Marie takes some getting used to. Certainly for the citizens of depression-ravaged Borg. She's hard to get to know, and hard to like, and she doesn't fit in. A reader can hardly be blamed for being put off by her either. But the reader, like the townspeople of Borg, will come to love her as he or she has loved few other characters in fiction. She grows on you that much.
And that's all you really have to know, isn't it? Except that there's a lot of soccer in it, and if, like Britt-Marie, you hate soccer, you'll come to love it too. Like her.
The Golden Girl and All (Hardman, #3)
Dennis, Ralph ***
Ralph Dennis is a cult favorite of crime novelists, not much known outside that circle. He wrote a series of mass market paperbacks in the ‘70s that were appreciated by cognoscenti as being a cut above the usual paperback series fare of that era. His books have been long out of print, but are back now, and I was interested, since I'm also a 70s paperback novelist whose books were, I'd like to think, a cut above.
Dennis lives up to the rather esoteric hype. This book, the first I've read, is way better written than a lot of the big best sellers of today like David Baldacci. Dennis knows how to weave a plot, to create characters, to write believable dialogue and to write a clear and cliche-free English sentence.
His setting is Atlanta, which he seems to know very well. His character is Jim Hardman, a former cop who has never bothered to get a p.i. license but instead “does favors “ for people, much like Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder. His best friend/sidekick is a very tough black man who operates outside the law, much like Robert Parker's Spenser and Hawk. I don't know who came first, and I don't see any plagiarism here - just ideas that were in the air at the time. Dennis and Block were both part of the same New York paperback circuit, and probably knew each other (I knew Block slightly, never met Dennis).
The story involves kidnapping, double crosses, a girl with almost too much sexual allure to be believable (but Dennis keeps her believable, a tribute to his ability), some beatings, some drinking, enough twists to keep you turning the pages. I'm now a fan. I'll read more.
Before She Met Me
Barnes, Julian **
This is a petty, unpleasant novel by a very gifted writer. It's a problem relationship novel about relationships between people it's impossible to care about. I guess I'm glad he got it out of his system. I'm sorry I wasted time reading it, especially since Barnes is a good enough writer that I felt I ought to read it all the way through.
The Paris Architect
Belfoure, Charles **
An interesting situation was enough to keep me reading all the way through, but in the end not rewarding. It was just clumsy. Clumsy prose, clumsy plotting, clumsy characterization. I guess skill and precision as an architect doesn't necessarily translate to other art forms,
Righteous Assassin (Mike Stoneman #1)
Chapman, Kevin G. ****
Kevin Chapman has some ingenious murders, and some very believable relationships, particularly between a very relationship-shy Middle Aged cop and a woman of a certain age whose appeal leaps off the page. And he has a narrative device that I've never seen before. He alternates chapters between the cops trying to figure out what the killer is up to, and the killer, via a blog, telling you what he's up to. And it works.
Circe
Miller, Madeline ****
The problem with writing about an immortal is there's really no place to stop, which can make for a long book. Miller eventually solves that problem very nicely, if not unexpectedly, but not until the book has gotten quite long. But that's ok too, because the last part is really the best part, with the richest characters and most interesting relationships. She picks up Mary Renault's mantle as no one else really has.
Grist Mill Road
Yates, Christopher J. ***
There's something not real about it. The characters don't seem real, they seem invented in order to stick into a contrived plot, and the inevitability of the plot isn't all that real, either.
The Crowded Grave (Bruno, Chief of Police #4)
Walker, Martin ****
I have an instinctive prejudice against any book where the private eye whips up a little something with shallots and creme fraiche, but I'll make an exception for Bruno and his navarin d'agneau. That, along with the French countryside, the ever-developing plot, the complex relationships and rivalries between different police entities, the emotional complexities of Bruno's love life, all make for a most satisfying read. I started with the fourth in the series because it's the one that Overdrive had available, but I look forward to going back and starting with the first. Thanks to Kayla Abelove Feldman for the recommendation.
Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #1)
Penny, Louise
I've read three of these now, and will read more. I've read them out of order, which means I've learned a lot of things that should be surprises when I get to the books that they're in, but I can live with that. My real problem with Penny, and it's one of those things that once you notice it, you can't stop noticing it -- the unnecessary withholding of information. Of course, a mystery novel is built on the withholding of information -- you have to read through to the end to find out who the murderer is -- but I'm talking about the small-scale withholding. Inspector Gamache sees something in a drawer that makes him gasp. Why not tell us what he sees? Why make us wait ten pages? Nothing is particularly gained.
But all in all, good characters, good plots, good mis en scene.
Worth Dying For (Jack Reacher, #15)
Child, Lee ****
I don't really have to review every Lee Child novel - they're all good reads; he sets a high bar. But a couple of thoughts. One - yeah, there's a formula. Reacher, traveling aimlessly, arrives in a small town, gets involved in something his code of honor won't let him walk away from. But it's a flexible formula. Because Reacher isn't tied to a job, whether cop, private eye or spy, he's open to a lot more plot possibilities than someone who is, and this is a really good ploy on Child's part.
Second, he's better at writing scenes of physical brutality than probably anyone ever. Too good. brrrrr.
The Overlook (Harry Bosch, #13; Harry Bosch Universe, #17)
Connelly, Michael *****
I've always liked Connelly, but only recently stopped to think about just how good he is. I'm not going to say much more about this one because almost anything would be a spoiler. I'll just say that it's intricately and cleverly plotted. All the clues are there. And I didn't come close to guessing the ending.
King Zeno
Rich, Nathaniel ***
Ultimately, an engrossing, clever plot, very good mise en scene of New Orleans right after WWI, before Prohibition. But the plot takes a while to get going, and for me, the characters took a long time to coalesce—to make me feel them as real.
My main issue with the plot, and I'll try to phrase this so it isn't a spoiler. Everyone seems to figure out who the ax murderer is, and I'm not sure exactly how.
I do recommend the book. Not unreservedly, but I recommend it.
Two Kinds of Truth (Harry Bosch, #20; Harry Bosch Universe, #30)
Connelly, Michael *****
I've read and enjoyed a lot of Connelly's Harry Bosch novels, but this one pushed Connelly over the top for me, to the pantheon of crime novelists. He's got the pure simplicity of Elmore Leonard, the humanity of Ross McDonald. He's a sharp and original plotter. And he's damn near as prolific as Simenon, so I still have a whole lot of reading ahead of me.
The Underground Railroad
Whitehead, Colson ****
Surreal, fanciful, and yet as real as it could possibly be about slaves' existence, and the dream of freedom, and being, slave or free, black in America.
The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill
Mitchell, Greg *****
Full disclosure. Part of what made me pick up this book in the first place—Greg Mitchell is an old friend. But that's not what kept me reading it. It's a page turner. It's contemporary history, but because it's an almost forgotten story, you don't know how it's going to turn out, and it's life or death for the people involved on both sides of the Berlin Wall. Mitchell brings us memorable characters and illuminates an important historical context.
Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968
Walsh, Ryan H. ****
You might expect a book that takes Van Morrison's legendary album title for its own, and suggests that it will be about Morrison's time in Boston creating this breakthrough music, to actually be about that.
The bad news is that if that's what the book is supposed to be about, it does get a little lost in digressions.
The very good news is that the digressions—Boston's counterculture in the year of Counterculture ascendant—are far more interesting than a linear book about Van Morrison and the making of Astral Weeks could ever have been.
Closer than Van the Man to the center of the book is Mel Lyman, the guru of a commune/cult who started as a banjo player, claimed to be God, and built a little empire that outlasted him (he died at some point, no one is exactly sure when) and still exists today.
For a book about the counterculture, politics and lifestyles, Astral Weeks is surprisingly good about music. For a book about music, it's surprisingly good about the counterculture, politics and lifestyles. Walsh is a terrific researcher, diligent in tracking down and interviewing more primary sources than one would imagine possible, and he has a clear-eyed understanding of the importance of all of his sources and all of his subjects.
And Mr. Walsh, if you read your Goodreads reviews, I'd love to get a contact for David Silver, an old and dear friend I've lost touch with.
The Marsh Madness (Book Collector Mystery, #4)
Abbott, Victoria ****
Takes a long time to get going - longer than it needs to, because by the time she's figured out the mcGuffin that sets the plot in motion, you're screaming it at her - but once it gets going, it's fast paced and complex. Enjoyable characters. I'd read another.
Fallout (V.I. Warshawski, #18)
Paretsky, Sara ****
Haven't read her in a while. Did V. I. go from hippies to Facebook without aging? Well, Nero and Archie did the same thing.
She really is awfully good. She's back on my list.
Lord Jim
Conrad, Joseph *****
There's such richness in Conrad. His narratives within narratives, his richness of language, the complexity of his characters.
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