Adult Review: Written in Dead Wax (Vinyl Detective #1)

Written in Dead Wax: the Vinyl Detective book 1.
Andrew Cartmel

Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

The Vinyl Detective is a British record collector who brags that he can find any record and then gets his chance to prove it. A woman named Nevada shows up in his small town with one of his business cards; turns out she's working for a high-class record collector in Japan. And then the bodies start showing up...

I want to run to the office of my library's collection manager and demand that she order the rest of this series immediately. Andrew Cartmel is a playwright and screenwriter who has done work for Torchwood and the Midsomer Murders, both of which I adore, and he was a script editor for Doctor Who at one point. To say he's already proved himself capable of working a story-line would be an understatement.

The Vinyl Detective benefits from a lilting sense of humor, Cartmel's lightning quick dialog, and a cast of unruly misfits who still manage to get the job done. The characters were engaging and unique, though I was mildly troubled by the trope-ishness of his female characters. Nevada and Ree both redeem themselves by the end of the story and Fanny and Turk require no redeeming. Because they're cats.

The story does have two distinct parts, noted as "Side One" and "Side Two." They almost read like separate but interconnected novellas. This wasn't a problem for me, but it was a little startling since Side Two takes the protagonist from Britain to California in only a few phrases. I also spent a good portion of the last few rising-action chapters yelling at the characters for not seeing such an obvious conclusion. I had figured out the major story, though Cartmel did throw me for a loop in the final resolution of the story. The ending was satisfying, though demanded additional books because I'm not ready to leave this bunch digging in used vinyl crates and taking steam baths with cats.

A side note: I have not mentioned the main character's name because I noticed 2/3rds of the way through the book that he doesn't seem to have one. The whole story is told first-person and no one ever calls him by a legal name. He gets a few nicknames, but that's all. I was embarrassed about this because it took me so long to notice.

To sum up: I recommend this book highly for fans of mystery, technical geekery, Jazz history, and cats.

Adult Review: The Fever

The Fever
Written by Megan Abbott



Overall Rating: 2/5
Plot: 2/5
Characters: 1/5
Writing: 2/5

After taking a dip in the local polluted lake, several girls in a school begin showing symptoms of some strange disease, causing uproar and chaos in a small town. This story focuses on the stories of Deenie, a teenaged girl just coming into her sexual maturity; Eli, her older brother and a star player for the hockey team; and their father, Tom, a well-known teacher in the school. Viewpoints jump between these primary characters, with occasional jaunts to explore other viewpoints, all told third-person limited.

I got to the end of this book, placed it in my lap, looked at my husband and said, "I still don't know." I spent the entire book waiting to see if it was any good. Trying desperately to decide if it was worth reading. Was it scary? Was it supposed to be supernatural? In the end, I put it down feeling like I still didn't know if it was good or not. Which, I suppose, means it wasn't.

The writing is actually very beautiful. Lush and ethereal, it gives the setting a very abstract quality that works fairly well in scaring the living snot out of the reader. But the characters are uninteresting, self-absorbed, and uncompelling. The plot takes 70% of the book to even really get rolling, at which point it actually tells you everything that happened in the course of about twenty pages and then it's the end of the story. I found this book very poorly paced and not something I'm likely to recommend.

Also, as an active reader and reviewer of YA material, I found the teen characterization to be very lacking. It feels like teens written through the lens of parents or other adults who don't understand them, as if everything they do is adults looking at each other, shrugging and saying, "Kids, right? Nobody gets them." These inner thoughts are not the inner thoughts of real adolescents but the characterization of adults who have forgotten what it's like to think like a confused teenager. And that is probably the major failing of the book for me.

Adult Review: Death in D Minor

Review provided in return for ARC from Netgalley.




Death in D Minor 
Alexia Gordon

Overall Rating: 5/5
Plot: pending
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

Death in D Minor is the second in Alexia Gordon's Gethsemane Brown mysteries and now that I've read a third of the second book, I know that I have to go back and read the first one, Murder in G Major. It's only 99 cents on Kindle so I can't rightly say no, either.

Gethsemane is an American professional musician living in Ireland. From the hints and references in the second book, her first adventure included occult studies, exploration, a heaping helping of sass (from both her and her ghostly companion) and I can't wait to read it. While I'm sure Death in D Minor stands on it's own for those who aren't obsessive about reading timeline books in order ((unlike me)), I'm itching to read about those adventures first hand. I'm already sucked into the story of this book, which centers on Gethsemane's attempts to foil an American hotel hot shot, who intends to buy the music-historically important cottage which she current rents. Add to that background sass-fest (complete with Trump nose-thumbing) Gethsemane's brother-in-law, a museum curator specializing in antique textiles and a potential art forgery/theft ring. I really want to know what happens there, but I feel a visceral, driving need to read the first book first.

So... it's an incomplete review, but still a rave! I didn't finish but only because I am driven to read the series in order. This series is definitely going on my recommended purchases list for our library collection.

Adult Review: The Rememberers

Based on a promotional eBook received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.



The Rememberers by C. Edward Baldwin

Overall Rating: 2/5
Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Writing: 2/5

After about a quarter of the book, I finally had to put it down. The character were uninspired, the story was taking forever to get anywhere and I really didn't care where it seemed to be going. I feel bad that I didn't finish it, but I really wasn't enjoying it and didn't see the point to torturing myself any further.

I can see this book as being enjoyable for people who enjoyed Dan Brown's Davinci Code, but it really wasn't something I personally enjoyed.

Adult Review: Peripheral People

Based on a promotional eBook received from NetGalley in exchange for a review.



Peripheral People, a Ylendrian Universe novel
Written by Reesa Herberth and Michelle Moore

Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Plot: 4.5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 3/5

This title is the most recent volume in a series of interconnected stand-alone science fiction books. Having this information negated most of my original protests about the plot development, which seemed forced and rushed with assumptions of knowledge about the world which the reader had no access to. Perhaps if I had read the previous books, I wouldn't have had this initial hurdle to overcome, so a simple word of warning: series, not the first book.

Peripheral People is set in a world of science fiction against a hard sci-fi backdrop of Imperial governance over a series of affiliated planets. Mostly, this rule appears to be accepted by the people of the various planets and the citizens of the Empire welcome the IEC agents who are the central focus of this particular book. Most of the characters appear to be human or at the very least humanoid, though details in this area are scant: I was startled to discover late in the book that the captain's race has triple-jointed digits, making him/her far more alien than the ability to switch between genders.

The main plot line centers around a pair of IEC inspectors, Corwin Menivie and Nika Santivan, and their psi-trained Agents, Westley Tavera and Gavin Hale. Corwin has a reputation for loathing psi agents and Westley is by nature and design an effusive and irritating personality. While they don't get along well on their small ship at first, a grudging respect and attraction grows between them against the backdrop of Nika and Gavin getting it on like gangbusters.

While the romance between the couples is part of the story, it is hardly the focus. The team is investigating a murder which West came across by accident in pursuit of an unrelated case. As they investigate this dangerous new murder, obviously psi-gifted and unstable, the team have to negotiate their personal lives in addition to addressing the rapidly multiplying bodies. While this story takes a bit to get off the ground, it quickly becomes the utterly consuming focus of both the team and the reader.

This book was slow to start for me. I struggled with shifting perspectives between characters and occasionally inconsistent modes of address: first names are informal, last names are professional, and sometimes they switch suddenly and I kept forgetting who belonged to which last name. As previously mentioned, there were details of setting and description which I felt were missing and made it hard to place what was going on and how things were supposed to progress. I suspect this is largely due to its placement as the most recent installment in a series and am actually really looking forward to locating and reading the rest of the series.

Once the story takes off, I couldn't put this down. Half-way through the book, it was a wild and bumpy ride, both with the characters' relationships and the unfolding mystery. Overall, this book was slightly predictable, but well worth the read, an excellent addition to an LGBT-friendly sci-fi collection.

Adult Review: Secret Sanction

Secret Sanction
by Brian Haig

Overall Rating: 3/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing: 4/5

Secret Sanction, published in 2001, is the first in Haig's series of military courtroom novels starring Sean Drummond. Told in first person, the story explores Drummond's investigation into a slaughter in Kosovo. During the investigation, more death happens and Drummond is determined to get to the bottom of the story with a strong sense of truth, justice, and American honor.

While I enjoyed Drummond himself, with is snarky, almost Deadpool-esque humor, there were more than a few things about this book that troubled me. The writing is good, smooth and moves the story along very well. It's easy to follow, interesting and entertaining.

But Drummond shows his own disregard for women constantly throughout the book. Women are objects to be looked at and conquered. Sure, they can be spunky and smart, tough and capable, but generally, if she isn't attractive, she's useful. If she's got great legs, she's also super-smart, but he sure as hell doesn't respect her. As a woman, I was very taken aback by the institutional rape culture Drummond feeds into in this book. He approaches a woman he thinks is attractive; she turns him down. He tries again. She turns him down again. He tries again (usually while falling deeper into drunkeness) and she turns him down. Over and over and over again, she turns him down. But she flirts with him and wears sexy clothing, bends low over her drinks and purrs. But she won't have him. And in the end, as the clincher to the whole book (spoiler!) he gets her a job in his unit ultimately because "I don't give up easy."

The misogyny throughout is problematic enough without the additional racist characterizations. One incidental character is actually described as "mulatto-skinned." I read it aloud to my husband, just to get his take and he just stared at me and said, "How did that get published?"

This book and it's author have their audience. But it's going to be a hard sell for anyone in a younger generation or with more socially conscious mindsets. Good series to recommend for fans of Grisham, WEB Griffin, and similar military-minded genres. Steer clear if you're hoping for a strong woman who doesn't wear a plunging neckline or have a face like a hatchet (there is no in between for strong women in Haig, it would seem: gorgeous and flirty or ugly as sin and stubborn).

Teen Review: Lumberjanes vol 1

Lumberjanes vol. 1
by Noelle Stevenson

Overall Rating: 4/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
Writing: 4/5

Nothing like a rousing summer spent out of doors! Especially when you're being attacked by three-eyed foxes, exploring secret caves, and discovering all the wild wackiness of Miss Qiunzilla Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's camp for hard-core lady-types. The LumberJanes are a diverse group of girls who can't seem to stay out of trouble. And what trouble they get into!

I think I'm in love with Stevenson's art style. Her characters are ethnically, physically, sexually, and personally diverse people who live in a world that doesn't make sense, even when the supernatural elements are coming out of the woodwork. She has a fantastic, subtle style to coloring those characters and it's obvious that they care about each other in ways that none of them can fully explain. Except they're friends and friends do for each other.

I can barely wait for the next volume. I'm on pins and needles.