Not the Ones Dead by Dana Stabenow

If you want an in-depth look into Alaskan park land and people, Not the Ones Dead is the book for you. I had not read a Kate Shugak book since I met her in her first book, A Cold Day for Murder published in 1992, and I thought I would again journey north to Alaska for the read. Stabenow obviously loves Alaska and its people. Not the Ones Dead is her 23 book in the Shugak PI series. Her setting and characters are like old friends waiting for a visit. Unfortunately, her plots have proven to be thinner than her settings and characters, and so it has been years since I read her novels…. and this book is not an exception to that expectation.

Kate Shugak is an Aleut PI living on a 160-acre homestead in the largest national park in Alaska with her state Trooper boyfriend and her half-wolf, half-husky dog named Mutt. A mid-air collision in the wilderness between two small planes leaves 11 people dead — and there were only 10 people on the two planes. Kate decides to investigate as her friends coincidentally are being subjected to racist attacks by newcomers.

I rather enjoyed the Not the Ones Dead; however, it was not a plot you could get behind. From the very start you know who the murderers are and even why they are doing their deeds. The plot revolves around Kate’s putting it all together for the less than bright professional police agencies. If you don’t mind the absence of any deductive procedures, let alone a whodunit, you will enjoy you trip to Alaska here. My rating 3 of 5.

This ARC title was provided by Netgalley.com at no cost, and I am providing an unbiased review. Not the Ones Dead will be published on April 13, 2023.

Black Wolf by Kathleen Kent

One of my favorite mystery/thriller sub-genres is espionage novels. Perhaps that is why I was so looking forward to Kathleen Kent’s latest novel, Black Wolf. Kent has written three novels I have enjoyed about a Dallas detective, starting with The Dime. I had every reason to believe that Kent would approach espionage thrillers as she did mysteries. With serious prose and written with accurate detail.

Black Wolf is disappointing in that it is almost ridiculously plotted while the characters are stilted, and at times, simply silly. This novel reminds me of Helen MacInnes’ novels — and I used to love those “foreign affair” novels with romance and accidental spies running around Europe. But MacInnes wrote in the 1940s through the 1970s, and I believe that espionage novels have undergone a tremendous quality upswing since then. And certainly female characters are no longer incompetent and horrible at spy craft.

Black Wolf does take place in the 1990s and not in 2023, but if the reader is to be brought back in time in a story, stereotypes about women should not shine throughout the book — regardless of setting. Our heroine, Melvina, is a CIA agent who along with three CIA agents goes to Belarus under cover to gather intelligence about which other foreign governments are interested in the newly independent country’s nuclear plans. And there is a serial killer on the loose. And the lead KGB officer takes an odd interest in Melvina…

Though a professional CIA agent who was an FBI agent as well, Melvina often feels lightheaded when a certain handsome soldier comes into the room — to the point that she messes up her mission because she can’t stop thinking of his body. She does outrageously risky actions to gain intelligence without fear of being caught, but she and the other agents get drunk quite often putting their cover story at risk numerous times. At one point Melvina says she knows of a mixture which stops dogs from being able to track humans when spread around them on the ground. Without any other information but Melvina’s word, the CIA agents head into danger, try this mixture on dogs on their trail and surprise (!), it fails.

Over and over as I read, I was brought out of the novel to think that this or that plot twist was silly. That the characters were not acting professionally. At one point Melvina writes a safe house address on her hand in ink as she sets out on a mission. And surprise (!) when she is caught, she immediately reveals her mission to her captor. If I had wanted to read Helen MacInnes again, I think I would be able to forgive her the high school romance plot lines and the sexist need for a man to come save the inexperienced woman. But I cannot forgive Kent in 2023. My rating: 2 of 5

This ARC title was provided by Netgalley.com at no cost, and I am providing an unbiased review. Black Wolf was published on February 14, 2023.

Favorite Mysteries and Thrillers from 2022

Time for me to reflect on the best mysteries and thrillers of 2022; see what you think…

Favorite New Sleuth: Nita Prose – The Maid (seriously conscientious but slightly “different” maid solves murder in her swanky hotel)

Favorite Cozy Mystery: Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman (elderly friends dig into cold cases from a Florida retirement community)

Favorite Action/Suspense Novel: Sierra Six by Mark Greaney (The Gray Man, a legend in the covert world, recognizes a ghost from years ago)

Oddest Enjoyable Mystery: Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian (In a clinical study at a DC college, one of the psychopathic students is murdered. Narrator is in the study)

Favorite Espionage: Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Daniel Silva (a retired Gabriel Allon tackles an art thief case all across Europe)

Favorite Noir: Five Decembers by James Kestrel (1940 Pearl Harbor detective who journeys to Japan during murder investigation)

Favorite Performance by an Old Pro: Desert Star by Michael Connelly (Bosch and Ballard solve their last case together??)

Favorite International Mystery:  The King Arthur Case by Jean Luc Bannalec  (Brittany, France, is the setting for these cozies with Commissaire Dupin)

Favorite Thriller:  Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone  (Narrator’s husband goes missing while vacationing in Lisbon)

Exiles by Jane Harper — Another Winner

Jane Harper is a wonderful storyteller. Exiles involves a mystery and a detective, but it is primarily a story about a farming community outside of Melbourne, Australia. Harper’s characters are the meat of this story, and while the plot is intricate and compelling, the heart of her writing is in her people.

We are back together with Detective Aaron Falk who we first met in The Dry (now a first rate movie). As with The Dry, Falk once again is on a break from work to visit with friends. A serious love interest for Falk develops this time while he watches from the outside as the town people mourn the disappearance of a woman from a town festival a year ago. Can the hit and run death of another friend also be connected? I like it when the clues are all there for us to read. Yes, I saw the false assumptions well before Falk, but I enjoyed watching him figure it all out. And besides, the plot is secondary here.

Harper’s strength is in her characters and her setting. The reader can feel the hot winds and the tight community because of the great writing. The many character backstories set us up for failing to see what is in plain sight in the mystery. The story’s friendships and kindnesses between the town people pull us into Exiles, only to understand why Harper chose this title.

A father’s hit and run. A mother who disappeared in plain sight while leaving her baby behind. The anguish of losing a child to drugs. A career ruined by a weakness for alcohol. Compassion, fear, loyalty among friends. Harper pulls many of our human emotions and circumstances into this story and brings us to the end feeling upbeat and satisfied. Exiles is a great story, and another Harper book you don’t want to miss. 5 of 5 stars

This ARC title was provided by Netgalley.com at no cost, and I am providing an unbiased review. Exiles was published on January 31, 2023.

Goodbye Reacher…

“There’s only one Jack Reacher. Accept no substitutes.”

Mick Herron

Unfortunately, Mick Herron is correct and No Plan B, the latest from Andrew Child and Lee Child, will be my last Jack Reacher novel. I really wanted Lee Child’s brother, Andrew, to be able to continue the series when Lee Child retired in 2020 from the series, but the last three novels have shown me that the one and only Jack Reacher is gone.

I could tell you the inconsistencies and numerous illogical moves the hero makes as he bulldozes his way through another pile of bad guys in No Plan B, but truly there were SO MANY that I just will say that the Jack Reacher who we knew and loved — who problem solved with intelligence and style — is no more! This Reacher is clumsy and illogical. His female, amateur sidekick proves to be better at strategic planning than Reacher and is actually a more likable character. Not that you care about any of the characters in this novel.

Unlike the original 24 Reacher novels where we followed Reacher as he cleverly but ethically made his way through a problem, here we follow the story line of 5 different characters! Many of whom add nothing to the plot except to come in at the end to cause some additional action. And Reacher himself has lost his ethical nature. At one point in the book, he picks up a teenage hitchhiker in the middle of being hunted by killers. Sigh.

The plot is also clumsy. Reacher witnesses the murder of a woman being pushed in front of a bus which the police log as a suicide. So Reacher goes after the killers, traveling from Colorado to Mississippi. You follow the killers, a teen trying to find his father, another killer who you don’t know what he is doing, a prison warden, a Mississippi Police Chief and our hero, Reacher, as he figures out how the prison in Mississippi fits into the murder. Finally, in the last few pages all the characters come together, and you really don’t care. However, the reader does not get to know how all these characters end up! No real resolution! Andrew Child just ends the book without any final goodbye to the female sidekick — like she mattered not at all. Even though Reacher could not have solve anything without her. But yet he does say goodbye to the teenage hitchhiker…

Some pieces of Reacher remain, of course. A few of the problem solving ventures were well thought out. But then the dialogue would take me completely out of the book for a “that is silly” thought. I wonder if I would like this book more if it wasn’t about Reacher at all but another character unknown to me? Um, no. I don’t think so. I prefer logic and cleverness in my thrillers. Regardless of the main character’s name, this hero is not my kind of guy.

2 of 5 stars

I Am Pilgrim, the sequel??

In 2014 one of the best thrillers I have ever read was published — I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. The story about a spy racing across the globe to stop Armaggedon was over 600 pages, and no one I knew took more than a few days to read it. It was reviewed over and over as one of the best books of the year, the best thriller of all time, the best this and that — and it really is a remarkable book. Exciting, fun, with absolutely everything you want in a thriller.

I Am Pilgrim was an immediate best seller in the US and Britain and was translated into over 30 languages. A screen play was written and the movie rights sold in 2015. And then…. nothing. No movie and no book sequel.

Every year we were promised another book — the upcoming title was even released along with the first chapter of The Year of the Locust. At first people scrambled to reserve the book on Amazon until finally, when Amazon started listing the book’s release date as 2045, we began to understand there was a problem. Not that anyone for the past 9 years has been able to give readers a reason for the delay. It became the biggest disappointment in the Mystery/Thriller world.

And now… here we are in 2023 and, yes, we have another release date for The Year of the Locust. This time Sept. 28th, 2023 (at least in England). Bantam Press says it is 528 pages and one can pre-order, if you dare.

The press on the book details the plot with “a breathtaking story about cutting-edge science, a government conspiracy, and one man’s desperate attempt to unravel it all. Luke Truman is a junior officer on board the USS “Leviathan,” the most advanced and powerful warship ever built. It is an eight-hundred-foot-long submarine which, among its vast array of weaponry and secret systems, boasts a top secret cloaking technology. Bending light around objects to render them invisible, it is the hottest military research innovation not just in the US, but throughout the world. Now the time has come for the first large-scale trial of its effectiveness. But neither Luke nor the United States government realizes the astonishing forces this experiment will unleash. What Luke discovers on board the “Leviathan “is that the future of our world is at a deadly tipping point and that only he will be able to stop the cascade of events which are leading them all inexorably towards doom. A breakneck story of nonstop suspense, “The Year of the Locust” is a high-concept thriller unlike any you’ve read before.”

Ah, but I have heard it all before! And while disappointed as I have been for the past 8 years, I am unexplainably optimistic that indeed we will be reading the sequel to I Am Pilgrim this fall. I am not putting money down on a pre-order, however.