I admit that this is the first Lee Child book I have read. For some reason I just wasn’t interested in stories about a wandering hero who hobos around the country stumbling into trouble. After much cajoling I picked up the first Jack Reacher novel, The Killing Floor. It is not a bad book; in fact I am hoping that the causes of my main criticisms will disappear in later Reacher novels.
The Killing Floor has some very strong points. Child does a masterful job of plotting. There are twists throughout the book and even a throw away subplot works its way into the story. I only have two issues with the plotting. First, the identity of the head villain is apparent too early in the book. The second is hard to explain without referencing events in the book and disclosing spoilers, but I'll try. There are certain events that would have even incompetent cops asking a very significant question about how these events could have occurred. Unbelievably, neither Reacher nor a detective with 20 years of experience in a big city police department ever asks the question.
Regarding criticisms, I have two major ones. The first is a lack of character development. The story is told in the first person from the perspective of Reacher. I understand this makes development of other characters harder to pull off. Even so, the main supporting characters come off as two dimensional. I found myself not really caring what happened to them.
The second criticism is Child not only goes into too much detail, but at times he does so in the middle of action sequences. This is supposed to be a page turning action thriller, yet in the middle of the culminating action scene Child has Reacher go off on a page of repetitive and excruciating detail about what he sees. Ruining the flow of that action scene alone is a reason not to give the book a great review.
I have a couple of other quibbles. First, Child has a habit of ending characters’ statements by tacking on the word “right” turning it into a question. The second quibble is Reacher will enter into a kind of Socratic teaching mode. He will learn something important; tell a character that he has learned something; then instead of telling them what he knows he asks questions trying to get the character to discover the information. This is so annoying I am surprised one of the characters didn’t pull out a gun and shoot him. It is also incredibly unrealistic as there is an impending deadline to solve the mystery and asking questions instead of just telling what you know is ridiculous.
Some have criticized the book for its preposterous coincidences and unbelievable plot, noting that if these events had really happened the place would be crawling with both federal and state law enforcement. To these criticisms I say, “So what.” This is fiction and Child has a literary license to tread into the unbelievable. Some readers constantly complain that a book is, “not realistic enough.” How much realism do they want? Cops' lives are full of boring detail and in real life events take much longer than most readers would be able to tolerate.
In summery The Killing Floor is a good, but flawed thriller. I give it 3 ½ stars.
Book Review: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
The end of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest was both very satisfying and bitter sweet. The satisfaction comes from Larsson’s brilliant winding up of all the story threads in what has been called The Millennium Trilogy (the trilogy is comprised of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest).
It is bittersweet because after turning in the manuscripts of all three novels to his publisher, Stieg Larsson succumbed to a massive heart attack. He never lived to see the international phenomenon his work has become. For us it means we will never again travel with Liz Salander and Mikael Blomkvist.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is a five star work. First, it ties up all of the story lines created in the first two novels. It does so in a page turning thriller and in a believable way that leaves the reader cheering. The book starts were The Girl who Played with Fire left off. We find ourselves in the emergency room of a local hospital waiting for a life flight arrival of a girl who has been shot in the head.
From the start a secret section inside Sapo, the Swedish secret police, moves to protect the secrets surrounding the Zalachenko affair. They manipulate the prosecution of Salander, cutting her off from everyone except her lawyer and doctor. They will stop at nothing to hide their secrets including covert surveillance, intimidation and even murder. Their plan is to have Salander found incompetent and committed to an institution for the rest of her life, thereby discrediting her story as the ravings of a mad woman.
Arrayed against this group is Mikael Blomkvist together with Armansky and others who are fighting to free Salander and expose the truth behind the Zalachenko affair. But first he needs Salander’s help and he must contrive a way to communicate with her.
The story starts out as first rate spy thriller and develops into a legal thriller. The pacing is relentless and there are no real slow spots in the story. The novel should be read in great chucks and savored. The trial will warm the hearts of Salander fans and has one of the most devastating cross-examinations since Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent. But the story does not end with the trial and there a few more twists and turns. The end hits just the right note and will find approval of most fans.
Larsson, a liberal journalist, also made these novels into a social commentary. It is an indictment of a self proclaimed liberal socialist state’s failure to take action to stop acts of violence against and exploitation of women. Larsson also takes on Swedish society, which is supposed to be enlightened, for chauvinism and downright misogyny.
Larsson continues his social criticism pointing out how a social democracy has failed to protect its most vulnerable members. Finally, the books are an analysis of how secret police can, without proper oversight, create a group that is paranoid, self important, and view their mission so important that the ends justify the means to the point that their actions destroy the very thing they profess to protect.
In Summery if The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo rates four stars, then The Girl with who Played with Fire gets 4 and half stars and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest gets a full five stars.
It is bittersweet because after turning in the manuscripts of all three novels to his publisher, Stieg Larsson succumbed to a massive heart attack. He never lived to see the international phenomenon his work has become. For us it means we will never again travel with Liz Salander and Mikael Blomkvist.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is a five star work. First, it ties up all of the story lines created in the first two novels. It does so in a page turning thriller and in a believable way that leaves the reader cheering. The book starts were The Girl who Played with Fire left off. We find ourselves in the emergency room of a local hospital waiting for a life flight arrival of a girl who has been shot in the head.
From the start a secret section inside Sapo, the Swedish secret police, moves to protect the secrets surrounding the Zalachenko affair. They manipulate the prosecution of Salander, cutting her off from everyone except her lawyer and doctor. They will stop at nothing to hide their secrets including covert surveillance, intimidation and even murder. Their plan is to have Salander found incompetent and committed to an institution for the rest of her life, thereby discrediting her story as the ravings of a mad woman.
Arrayed against this group is Mikael Blomkvist together with Armansky and others who are fighting to free Salander and expose the truth behind the Zalachenko affair. But first he needs Salander’s help and he must contrive a way to communicate with her.
The story starts out as first rate spy thriller and develops into a legal thriller. The pacing is relentless and there are no real slow spots in the story. The novel should be read in great chucks and savored. The trial will warm the hearts of Salander fans and has one of the most devastating cross-examinations since Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent. But the story does not end with the trial and there a few more twists and turns. The end hits just the right note and will find approval of most fans.
Larsson, a liberal journalist, also made these novels into a social commentary. It is an indictment of a self proclaimed liberal socialist state’s failure to take action to stop acts of violence against and exploitation of women. Larsson also takes on Swedish society, which is supposed to be enlightened, for chauvinism and downright misogyny.
Larsson continues his social criticism pointing out how a social democracy has failed to protect its most vulnerable members. Finally, the books are an analysis of how secret police can, without proper oversight, create a group that is paranoid, self important, and view their mission so important that the ends justify the means to the point that their actions destroy the very thing they profess to protect.
In Summery if The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo rates four stars, then The Girl with who Played with Fire gets 4 and half stars and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest gets a full five stars.
Book Review: The Wrecker by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott
There have been some complaints about the more recent Dirk Pitt and the NUMA files series that Cussler has become formulaic. As far as the Dirk Pitt novels go I think there is some validity to the criticism. However, Cussler and Scott have hit it out of the park with the introduction of Isaac Bell.
Bell is the best detective in the fabled Van Dorn detective agency, whose motto is “We never give up, never”. Set in the beginning of the 20th century, the authors integrate history with good old fashion storytelling to make a great page turner. Both the first book, The Chase, and the second, The Wrecker, are laced with historical events that are so tightly woven into the story you enjoy the history without it pulling you out of the book.
None of the main cast or primary supporting characters are two dimensional. Bell is richly developed. He comes from money but has chosen the life of a detective. He is self-confident, intelligent and rather crafty. He thinks both strategically and tactically. He can organize a fleet of Van Dorn agents yet is just at home in a gun or knife fight.
In The Chase he tracked down a cold blooded killer and bank robber. In The Wrecker Bell faces an even more cunning and dangerous villain. Known as the Wrecker, this shadowy figure moves through both the hobo camps and the world of railroad barrens. His goal is to sabotage the Southern Pacific Railroad. He is ruthless, derailing trains, setting disastrous fires, and even more heinous plots. He indiscriminately kills innocents and if Bell does not stop him he will kill many more to reach his goal. Bell has met his match in the Wrecker who carefully plans for contingencies, some set in motion years before he started his overt acts of sabotage.
This is one of the best thrillers I have read in a long time. I can find no faults with it and give it a full 5 stars
Bell is the best detective in the fabled Van Dorn detective agency, whose motto is “We never give up, never”. Set in the beginning of the 20th century, the authors integrate history with good old fashion storytelling to make a great page turner. Both the first book, The Chase, and the second, The Wrecker, are laced with historical events that are so tightly woven into the story you enjoy the history without it pulling you out of the book.
None of the main cast or primary supporting characters are two dimensional. Bell is richly developed. He comes from money but has chosen the life of a detective. He is self-confident, intelligent and rather crafty. He thinks both strategically and tactically. He can organize a fleet of Van Dorn agents yet is just at home in a gun or knife fight.
In The Chase he tracked down a cold blooded killer and bank robber. In The Wrecker Bell faces an even more cunning and dangerous villain. Known as the Wrecker, this shadowy figure moves through both the hobo camps and the world of railroad barrens. His goal is to sabotage the Southern Pacific Railroad. He is ruthless, derailing trains, setting disastrous fires, and even more heinous plots. He indiscriminately kills innocents and if Bell does not stop him he will kill many more to reach his goal. Bell has met his match in the Wrecker who carefully plans for contingencies, some set in motion years before he started his overt acts of sabotage.
This is one of the best thrillers I have read in a long time. I can find no faults with it and give it a full 5 stars
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