As Jo and I catch up on some shows we've let fall behind us, I'll continue with my look at the Mystery genre. I've been looking at American Private Investigator series. In my last look, I talked about Max Byrd and Raymond Chandler. Let's look at the next three.
My Ongoing Look at the Mystery Genre - American PI's Part 4
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| Lee Child |
1.
Lee Child -
Jack Reacher. Lee Child is a British author and Aston Villa fan (I had to say that... sounds quite neat) who is known for the thriller series featuring ex US MP officer, Jack Reacher, a loner who travels the US helping people. (Of course it's a simplification). He wrote the first book in 1997 and since 2018 has finished 23. A 24th is due out in 2019. I've read six so far. Below are the last three I completed.
a.
Without Fail (#6 / 2002).
"I've read 4 or 5 of the Jack Reacher thriller series now and Without Fail (Reacher #6) by Lee Child is one of the better ones so far. The story starts with Reacher in New Jersey, helping an old couple, both jazz musicians, get out of the clutches of an unscrupulous (mob-associated) club owner. He is approached by M.E. Froelich, a Secret Service agent and ex-girlfriend of Jack's older brother. Joe, also a Secret Service agent, was murdered years ago. Froelich is the head security chief for the new, incoming VP and she has received threats against him. She wants Reacher to test the Secret Service coverage and find weaknesses.
This begins a very tense, fast-paced thriller as the threats become more concrete, not just correspondence but displays the enemies capabilities. Reacher brings in an acquaintance from his military days, Neagley, to help him with both the tests and the follow-on investigation. She is a fantastic character, strong, smart and with issues of her own. (Maybe deserves her own series).
It's a long story but seems to flow quickly. We learn about Reacher's brother, their similarities and differences. The case is interesting as they try to ascertain who would want to assassinate the VP and also keep him safe. Reacher is a great character and I also liked Froelich.
It has an exciting climax with sufficient action to satisfy readers who like that and a satisfying ending. I've been enjoying the Reacher series very much and this has kept my interest up in continuing to follow his adventures. (4 stars)"
b.
Running Blind (#4 / 2000).
"Running Blind is the 4th Jack Reacher thriller by Lee Child. Like the other Reacher stories I've read, it's definitely long, but like the others, as well, it is eminently readable, moving along at a nice pace.
There were things that irritated me about the story; how the FBI coerces Reacher into helping them, Reacher's negative attitude to helping them (both somewhat related of course). But it was an interesting case and I really liked Harper, his FBI partner; intelligent, attractive and a strong character.
A number of women, ex of the Army, have been murdered in strange circumstances (very strange). They were all involved in sexual harassment cases while in the military. FBI profilers feel it's someone 'like Reacher' and force him (almost blackmail) into helping them.
The killer leaves no clues and there are no signs of violence. The murders take place in all parts of the country. Reacher and Harper work as a team to try and find clues and try to catch the killer before anymore women die. Complicating the case is that Reacher knows one of the women as he investigated her rape case while he was an MP and he wants to keep her safe. Reacher must also decide if the wants to live a more settled life with his girl friend Jodie, introduced in the previous story.
It's a fast-paced story with a fair bit of action; nothing excessive mind you. I had an idea about the killer about half way through the story. I wasn't totally correct but had the gist of the solution. I can't say I was totally satisfied with the ending; it was a bit pat and seemed a bit of a throw away, but all in all it was still an entertaining story. Echo Burning is the next Reacher story. (3.5 stars)"
c.
Tripwire (#3 / 1999).
"A fast-paced, action-packed thriller featuring Jack Reacher. I thought it would be too long, but even at 500+ pages, it was an easy, exciting read. Suspend disbelief somewhat and you'll enjoy thoroughly. Follow Reacher from his part-time job digging pools in the Florida Keys, to New York as he searches for the truth about a helicopter pilot who may or may not have died in the Vietnam War and at the same time follow the villain of the story as he tries to rush through various deals so he can escape the hunt that is on for him. Interesting characters and lots of excitement. 3.5 stars."
I've also read -
- 61 Hours (#14 / 2010) (3 stars)
- Killing Floor (#1 / 1997) (3 stars)
- Die Trying (#2 / 1998) (3 stars)
The complete series is at this
link.
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| John Connolly |
2.
John Connolly /
Charlie Parker. Like Lee Child, Connolly is from the British Isles, except this time from Dublin, Ireland and he is noted for his series starring American PI, Charlie Parker. He was firstly a free lance journalist working for the Irish Times but decided to branch out to mystery and horror fiction. His Charlie Parker mystery series of 19 books is a new one for me and one I'm looking forward to starting. I have 4 of the first 9 books so far. I'll highlight them.
a.
Every Dead Thing (#1 / 1999).
"
Former NYPD detective
Charlie "Bird" Parker is on the verge of madness. Tortured by the
unsolved slayings of his wife and young daughter, he is a man consumed
by guilt, regret, and the desire for revenge. When his former partner
asks him to track down a missing girl, Parker finds himself drawn into a
world beyond his imagining: a world where thirty-year-old killings
remain shrouded in fear and lies, a world where the ghosts of the dead
torment the living, a world haunted by the murderer responsible for the
deaths in his family—a serial killer who uses the human body to create
works of art and takes faces as his prize. But the search awakens buried
instincts in Parker: instincts for survival, for compassion, for love,
and, ultimately, for killing.
Aided by a beautiful young
psychologist and a pair of bickering career criminals, Parker becomes
the bait in a trap set in the humid bayous of Louisiana, a trap that
threatens the lives of everyone in its reach. Driven by visions of the
dead and the voice of an old black psychic who met a terrible end,
Parker must seek a final, brutal confrontation with a murderer who has
moved beyond all notions of humanity, who has set out to create a hell
on earth: the serial killer known only as the Traveling Man."
b. The Killing Kind (#3 / 2001).
"When the discovery of a
mass grave in northern Maine reveals the grim truth behind the
disappearance of a religious community, private detective Charlie Parker
is drawn into a violent conflict with a group of zealots intent on
tracking down a relic that could link them to the slaughter. Haunted by
the ghost of a small boy and tormented by the demonic killer known as
Mr. Pudd, Parker is forced to fight for his lover, his friends...and his
very soul."
c. The White Road (#4 / 2002).
"After years of suffering
unfathomable pain and guilt over the murders of his wife and daughter,
private detective Charlie Parker has finally found some measure of
peace. As he and his lover, Rachel, are awaiting the birth of their
first child and settling into an old farmhouse in rural Maine, Parker
has found the kind of solace often lost to those who have been touched
by true evil.
But darkness soon descends when Parker gets a call
from Elliot Norton, an old friend from his days as a detective with the
NYPD. Now practicing law in Charleston, South Carolina, Elliot is
defending a young black man accused of raping and killing his white
girlfriend, the daughter of a powerful Southern millionaire.
Reluctantly, Parker agrees to help Elliot and by doing so ventures into a
living nightmare, a bloody dreamscape haunted by the specter of a
hooded woman and a black car waiting for a passenger who never arrives.
Beginning as an investigation into a young woman's death, it is a
fast-moving descent into an abyss where forces conspire to destroy all
that Parker holds dear."
d. The Whisperers (#9 / 2009).
"‘Oh, little one,’ he
whispered, as he gently stroked her cheek, the first time he had touched
her in fifteen years. ‘What have they done to you? What have they done
to us all?’ ”In his latest dark and chilling Charlie Parker thriller,
New York Times bestselling author John Connolly takes us to the border
between Maine and Canada. It is there, in the vast and porous Great
North Woods, that a dangerous smuggling operation is taking place, run
by a group of disenchanted former soldiers, newly returned from Iraq.
Illicit goods—drugs, cash, weapons, even people—are changing hands. And
something else has changed hands. Something ancient and powerful and
evil.The authorities suspect something is amiss, but what they can’t
know is that it is infinitely stranger and more terrifying than anyone
can imagine. Anyone, that is, except private detective Charlie Parker,
who has his own intimate knowledge of the darkness in men’s hearts. As
the smugglers begin to die one after another in apparent suicides,
Parker is called in to stop the bloodletting. The soldiers’ actions and
the objects they have smuggled have attracted the attention of the
reclusive Herod, a man with a taste for the strange. And where Herod
goes, so too does the shadowy figure that he calls the Captain. To
defeat them, Parker must form an uneasy alliance with a man he fears
more than any other, the killer known as the Collector. . . ."
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| Clive Cussler |
3. Clive Cussler - Isaac Bell. Cussler is author and co-author of a number of adventure series; Dirk Pitt, NUMA, etc. Isaac Bell is a detective for the Van Dorn Detective Agency (modeled after the Pinkerton Agency). From 2007 - 2017, Cussler has written 10 books in the series. I've read the first two books so far and have a few others on my bookshelf.
a. The Chase (#1 / 2007).
"This is my first experience with Clive Cussler and I enjoyed very much. A nice, well-paced historical thriller with car chases, train chases, bank robberies, all good stuff. I especially found the bit about the San Francisco earthquake interesting as I had read a book about those events last year and it reminded me of that excellent story. Isaac Bell is an interesting character, son of a rich banker who has chosen to fight crime and now chases a bank robber/ murderer for the Van Dorn Detective agency. He's definitely larger than life but still thoughtful. The killer is also interesting, a sociopath who thrives on the thrill of the robberies he commits and cares not for life. An extreme challenge for Bell. An interesting time in history, pre WWI as the US is becoming a major power but still a bit of a wild frontier. Most enjoyable. (3.5 stars)"
b. The Wrecker (#2 / 2009).
"Wow! I wonder if Clive Cussler gets paid by the word; or maybe because he has a co-writer for many of his books, they both feel that they need to contribute 200+ pages for each book. OK, enough kidding. Considering it's size, The Wrecker, the 2nd book in the Isaac Bell thriller / mystery series, is a page-turning thrill-ride.
Isaac Bell is the top detective in the Joseph Van Dorn Detective Agency. Van Dorn assigns Bell to catch and stop The Wrecker, an unknown enemy who seems bent on destroying the Southern Pacific Railway company owned by millionaire, Oswald Hennessy. Trains are derailed, people killed, damage to the major railway tunnel that Hennessy is trying to build through the Cascade Mountains. Bell and his team of Van Dorn agents must race against time to find out who this mysterious Wrecker is and also to save Hennessy's railway.
It's a fast-paced story, full of action (some which you just have to suspend disbelief with) that leaves you breathless and tension and thrills. Bell races from one end of the country to try to find out who the Wrecker is and to try and stop his plans. We meet his lover Marion Morgan, an intelligent, beautiful, independent woman, again as Isaac and Marion build on their relationship. We meet The Wrecker and get a peak at his plans as they develop throughout the story.
All in all, it's a fun ride, rocketing throughout the United States in the early 1900's, as the railways were trying to unite the country and the world was filled with adventure. Great stuff! (3.5 stars)"
c. The Spy (#3 / 2010).
"1908, and American engineering geniuses are being killed off one by one . . .
When a brilliant battleship gun engineer commits suicide, his
disbelieving family turn to legendary Van Dorn Detective Agency. Quickly
on the case, Isaac Bell establishes that the clues point not to
suicide, but murder.
So when further deaths connected to a
top-secret project follow, Bell realizes that this is sabotage. With the
world plunging towards war, it's clearly a spy at large. But which of
the many foreign agents he has encountered is responsible? Or is there a
more sinister explanation
In a blistering story featuring dreadnought battleships and railroads, criminal gangs and beautiful women, The Spy is a breathtaking thriller that just happens to have at stake the fate of the world."
d. The Race (#4 / 2011).
"1910, and America's first ever cross-country flying race has been sabotaged . . .
Newspaper magnate Preston Whiteway is offering a big prize for the
first aviator to cross America in under fifty days. He wants Josephine
Frost - the country's leading as well as most glamorous pilot - to win.
Which is why he's hired Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency.
Josephine saw her husband Harry Frost kill a man. Now he wants her
dead. And with underworld contacts ready to help in every city en route,
he'll do anything, go after anyone who gets in his way - including
Whiteway and Bell.
Packed with brilliant twists and turns, The Race
sees the intrepid Private Investigator locked in a deadly cat-and-mouse
game with a killer whose resources are matched only by his willingness
to cause mayhem during the race of a lifetime . . ."
The remaining books are -
- The Thief (2012)
- The Striker (2013)
- The Bootlegger (2014)
- The Assassin (2015)
- The Gangster (2016)
- The Cutthroat (2017)
So there you go.. Back to watching Murdoch Mysteries.. How appropriate, eh? Take care.
