Visions in Death, by J.D. Robb, was this fall’s installment in the ginormous Eve/Roarke series. No Roarke being awful, no relationship angst, just a (nearly) straightforward serial-killer tale—refreshing. I do think Robb ought to kill off one of the repertory company, though, just to bump the suspense level back up; I’ve stopped believing that she’ll kill or permanently disable anyone we’ve seen for more than one book, and the ending’s suspense suffered for it. It did have a little twist at the very end, though, which I thought worked pretty well.
Crusie, Jennifer: Faking It
Jennifer Crusie’s Faking It has the perfect title, about 1/4 to 1/3 too many characters, and a poorly-integrated murder (my brief notes to myself on it read, “[murderer’s name]???!”, as in, you must be kidding). This is the art forgery & fraud one (among many other meanings of faking), with Davy Dempsey from Welcome to Temptation (which I also wasn’t crazy about). I’m beginning to think there are two kinds of Crusies, ones with nasty stuff that jars, and ones without (either it doesn’t jar, or it isn’t there). While I read this fast over a few lunches, I’m still pretty sure that there really was not any particular need for a murder in this book.
Butcher, Jim: (01) Storm Front
Jim Butcher’s Storm Front is the first of the Dresden Files, following the career of a hardboiled first-person P.I. who is also Chicago’s only professional wizard. This was fun, fast-paced, and snarky, with some nice touches in the magic system—just what you want out of that setup. I read this while we were in San Francisco this summer; I started the second out there as well, but it got lost in the shuffle of coming back. I’m looking forward to the rest.
Stark, Richard: The Outfit
I also read one of Westlake’s books under the name Richard Stark, The Outfit (Westlake may be unique in doing the silly stuff under his own name and the dark stuff under a pseudonym). This is the third Parker book, which I read because Chad described how the middle section is a lovingly-detailed series of descriptions of organized crime rackets and the ways in which Parker’s acquaintances knock them over. That was good stuff, but the rest is too brutal for my taste. I know it’s silly and escapist, but I prefer not to read caper novels with actual, you know, hardened criminals (as Kelp says sometime or other, I prefer “crooks,” it’s jauntier).
Westlake, Donald E.: Put A Lid On It
In the interests of clearing up some of my backlog, here are some quick hits on books that I don’t have much to say about (there are a few things that I’m just skipping completely as not worth the electrons):
[note: split into five parts for MT import; use “next” if you’re here via an old link]
Donald E. Westlake, Put A Lid On It. This is a caper novel that’s not quite as comic as the Dortmunder books, but is still pretty light-hearted. It’s a well-constructed, low-key take on a Watergate-style scenario: some political hacks want to steal something incriminating about the President, but have learned from past mistakes and tap a professional robber (using his pending criminal trial as carrot). Not his best work, but there are considerably worse ways to spend an afternoon. And for Dortmunder fans, there’s an amusing commentary on planning:
Meehan had noticed over the years that crooks in stories and movies always make all kinds of plans, contingencies, maps, timetables, charts, maybe even scale models of things. He’d also noticed over the years that he himself and the guys he knew never did any of that, wouldn’t have the first idea how to go about it. You work up a general idea of what you want and how you think you might want to go about it, and then when you get there you improvise, based on the situation, which is never exactly, precisely what you thought the situation was going to be.
That’s the way it had always worked with him and the guys he’d met along the way, though he could see sometimes that those careful plans had a lot to be said for them. Like as though you were building a house, you’d certainly want that plan, but in fact they never were building a house. Robbing a house is a different kind of thing.
Also, people who make plans in their lives and people who make robberies are two pretty distinctive character types. People who make plans are likely to make plans that eliminate the necessity of having to make a robbery in the first place. So Meehan and company, not being planners, would just get a general idea, knock back a little bourbon right before the job to calm the nerves, and invent to suit once the job got under way.