| büke title |
arthur |
date red |
knotes |
| Hoax |
Robert K. Tanenbaum |
12/2004 |
Wow...that sucked. Let's start with some West Coast rappers, toss
in the Catholic Church, mix with a little Mafia action, some cowboys and Indians, miraculous eye
surgery, children coming of age, reparations to a previously strained relationship... and
you're left with a number of wildly construed events that seem more like coincidences than
storyline. Just when you think you're getting somewhere, Mr. T. pulls you in a new direction,
which leaves you feeling somewhat confused and unfulfilled. It's the literary equivalent of a
taste test: you get to sample a lot of intriguing dishes, but you have to stop and pick up dinner
on the way home because you're still hungry. This novel feels like a throw-away effort to satisfy
the publisher, not the reader. Fans familiar with the series will not only notice the lack of
an acknowledgement page crediting Michael Gruber (Tropic of Night), who is largely
responsible for much of the spirit and verve in the series, but will also feel the inexplicable
change in the characters from brilliant to bland. |
| Irresistible Impulse |
Robert K. Tanenbaum |
8/2004 |
|
| Falsely Accused |
Robert K. Tanenbaum |
7/2004 |
Now, THAT'S more like it! Welcome back, Mr. T. |
| Therapy |
Jonathan Kellerman |
6/2004 |
|
| Hidden Prey |
John Sandford |
6/2004 |
Awesome! When I first started, I wasn't entirely sure how much I
would enjoy this murder/mystery about a long-dormant Russian spy ring nestled within the suburbia
of Minnesota, but it turned out to be a great ride. Next time, I can't wait so long between reading these Lucas Davenport novels. |
| Corruption of Blood |
Robert K. Tanenbaum |
5/2004 |
Oh, Mr. T...you've failed me again! It took me over a month to read this book because I guess I just never *got it*. Too much back room, political chatter. Too many references to unimportant, minor characters. Too many thinly-woven strands of conspirital nonesense that try to explain the inexplicable event in November, 1963. But JFK as a drug-munching, communist, orgy-loving spy that was hunted down by the Russian mob?! Come on, man... Other than the introduction of one of my favorite characters (Sweetie), I'm at a loss. Best I can tell, Tanenbaum was Deputy Chief Council to the Congressional Committee Investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy, then purposely threw out this half-baked baloney for the sole purpose of proving a point: the investigation is so stale and fuggered up that we will never know what really happened, so why not make up your own bizarre, turkey-shoot triangle. But the world doesn't need another excuse to vomit out a delusional, far-fetched conspiracy theory... |
| Justice Denied |
Robert K. Tanenbaum |
4/2004 |
Honestly, this one really didn't do it for me. I don't know if it was the preachy history lesson regarding the annihilation of over 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Turks, or the far-fetched way Mr. T. tied together his usual web of seemingly unrelated stories (…or maybe I just need to take a break and read a different author for awhile…), but it lacked the overall punch of his other books. This particular novel is bogged down in the multitude of secondary characters that ultimately serve little to no purpose, other than acting as character witnesses for the genocide that occurred at the hands of the Turks. After awhile, you sit there and think, "Ok…I get it…you're angry and you want retribution. Your order number is 563,974. Somebody will be with you shortly. Next!" The coupe-de-farce is the forced, anticlimactic, Hollywood-esque ending that involves Marlene, Lucy, Harry Bello, and their assailant. Overall, the story is extremely unusual and creative - and, based on those merits, should be worth the time it takes to muddle through it - but the story takes too long to develop and bores the reader with too many meetings and too much irrelevant dialogue. Tannenbaum is still the master when it comes to writing about the investigative side of the Homicide Bureau, however. Encyclopedia Brown has nothing on Butch Karp! |
| Material Witness |
Robert K. Tanenbaum |
3/2004 |
***WARNING: Key plot points exposed.***
Karp gets to play professional basketball, Marlene chases the bad
guys around town while she is in the first stages of labor with Lucy and trading jabs with a Jamaican drug lord, Mafia kingpins run around town trying to set fire to or whack anything in
sight, the flamboyantly gay neighbors deliver Marlene's baby in their apartment, a point-shaving
scheme and a crooked real estate deal lead to the death of an NBA star, a down-and-out alcoholic
cop helps finger the bad guys and rehab himself before becoming Lucy's Godfather, plus all the
usual tension and corruption within the New York District Attorney's office? Geez... I can't wait
to see what happens next!
|
| Reversible Error |
Robert K. Tanenbaum |
3/2004 |
This is the first book by Mr. T. that I sort of waded through
versus really reading. Not quite as gripping as some of the other Karp books, but it is still yet
another lesson in how to write a real-life crime drama in all of its full, gritty glory. You may not have that uncontrollable urge to turn to the last page, but the descriptive painting that Mr. T. does along the way is an artful work of detail: you can almost smell the lobby of the courthouse, see the wallpaper peeling in the corners, hear the chaotic life in Gotham's city streets, and taste the grease in one of Karp's street vendor lunches.
|
| The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time |
Mark Haddon |
3/2004 |
I've never read anything like this. I can't decide if it is
wonderfully researched and well-voiced, or if writing as an autistic child is a thinly-veiled attempt
at telling an overdone, somewhat unintriguing story: parents have child, child has special needs,
one parent can't handle the situation and splits, child decides to go reunite with said parent.
Granted, the story is told with much more emotion and detail, but that is the backdrop for Haddon's tale of what it is like inside the head of this autistic child. Brilliant yet helpless, simple yet
compulsive, you find yourself rooting for Christopher John Francis Boone one minute, then you are
distracted by his mathematical genius and socially hopeless, obsessively literal nature the next.
At several different points, the novel seems to drift back and forth between the limits of excessive melodrama and exploitive tastelessness, but Haddon then steers things back on course at
the last second before crashing into the tongue-in-cheek iceburg. From that perspective, the novel is an astonishing first effort and a fascinating accomplishment. What the novel can not do, however, is decide whether or not it wants to be a mystery, a comedy, a drama, or a sociological lesson in the difference between emotion and literalism. Instead, it tries to tackle all four
within its 226 pages and, as a result, does not quite fulfill the reader on any one front. It's like riding the smaller roller coasters at amusement parks because the lines are too long at the big ones: sure you have a good time and you want to ride again, but you can't help noticing the bigger hills and corkscrews on the other coasters...and you look to see if their line is any shorter as soon as you come off the smaller one. |
| The Last Juror |
John Grisham |
3/2004 |
Good Grisham. That's a good boy! You get a biscuit...and an
inevitable movie deal... |
| Me Talk Pretty One Day |
David Sedaris |
2/2004 |
Me finally finished this book after four greuling weeks. As is
usually the case, you either love Sedaris, or you liken reading his books to playing with hamsters
at the pet store: sure, they're fun and cute and you can't wait to get them home, but then you
realize they are moody little sh!ts who can be quite a nuisance. When I read Sedaris, I usually
chuckle quite a bit at the beginning of his books, then not so much towards the end. His sardonic
wit grows somewhat grating and tiresome after the first 100 pages of it. Me Talk Pretty One
Day is still very clever and witty at times, and certainly well-written, though lest we forget
the Fran Lebowitz Mantra: "If you think your life will make an interesting story, you're
wrong." |
| The DaVinci Code |
Dan Brown |
2/2004 |
Wow... |
| Unsung |
Linford Detweiler |
1/2004 |
For those who do not know, Linford Detweiler is a founding member
of Over the Rhine, a Cincinnati-based group of musicians. Always fascinated by his lyrics, I
picked up this -- his first book -- last year and eagerly awaited its arrival, though I never
actually got around to reading it until just recently. Why the wait? For starters, the book is
not what you'd expect from something labeled as a "book". It is actually a chapbook...only 16
pages and bound, printed and set by hand. And with a $20 price tag, one begins to wonder about the
line between fan and fool. Bonus points for the craftsmanship, however (hand-fed paper, hand-
crafted woodcuts, hand-set lead type) - they certainly do not make books like this any longer.
Secondly, the chapbook is essentially one giant, rolling, rambling metaphor for Linford's desire to
bring something beautiful into this world. But while the reader is drenched in intoxicating
metaphors that flow like fresh, warm syrup, those without that penchant for sweetness will find the
thick ladelling of imagery somewhat distasteful. Then again, the point of writing is to trigger
an emotional response, which this certainly does. The words written here are initially written as
the introduction to something longer, though I'm admittedly left wondering what grander point he
was trying to reach. As for a sequel, however, Linford's own words do not discount the possibility,
though this first journey is concluded: "The second edition has been disbursed. The hand-set lead
type has been dumped out, the ligatures have been returned to their special compartment, there is
no more book". But I do keep my copy inside its plastic cover so that the book does not stick to
the shelf... |
| Immoral Certainty |
Robert K. Tanenbaum |
1/2004 |
*singing* "Cause it's witchcraft...wicked witchcraft...And although I know it's strictly taboooo..." Back to the Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi series I go with this, the third book by Robert K. Tanenbaum. This is the first of Mr. T's books that I've read which tackles the occult, witchcraft, Voodoo, and other forces of the religious darkness. Vividly and thoroughly written as usual, though I'm noticing a trend less towards investigative work and more towards luck; in other words, the ties that bind all of the events together are more intuitive vs. scientific. Then again, perhaps part of being a top-notch investigator and trial lawyer is *knowing* things. That is, of course, me just being picky, as I wish I could write as meticulously and brilliantly as Mr. T. does. |