This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger: A Review by Warren Bull

 

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Light it Up by Nick Petrie: A Review by Warren Bull

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As I said when I reviewed his first two novels, it is always a pleasure to discover a new talented author and Nick Petrie is truly a find. He sustains his performance in his third novel. The dreaded sophomore slump is still nowhere to be found.

Nick Petrie follows The Drifter, and Burning Bright with another winner Light it Up

Peter Ash, a former Marine lieutenant, was sent on many combat missions. PTSD symptoms appeared just as he was leaving the service. And it is true that they may appear at any time after the trauma that caused them. In this novel, he has made progress in individual therapy and in group therapy with others who have the disorder.

Peter has been working with a group of volunteers reconstructing mountain trails after rain and snow has degraded them. It is hard labor that leaves him tired and satisfied. One member of the crew owns a business that provides protection for legal marijuana growers. It is difficult, almost impossible, to set up regular business accounts because federal legislation does not recognize the legality of the profits.

Large amounts of cash make marijuana businesses tempting targets for thieves. When his friend asks Peter to ride shotgun on a cash run after one shipment disappears, he and Peter both believe this is a short-time favor. Peter wants to help, but he also has plans to visit the love of his life who told him to get his act together before they make long-term plans.

When things go spectacularly wrong, Peter’s amazing survival skills allow him to live through a vicious assault. Much as he wants to see his love, he feels he made a promise and cannot leave the situation as it is. Peter’s kick-ass lover demands to be part of the action. What results is a clear warning to be careful what you wish for.

Part of what I enjoyed was the way Peter wooed his lady by long distance. I used the same strategy with the light of my life. 

The plot flows rapidly but stays within the possible. I admire the smooth writing that does not intrude on the suspension of disbelief. 

This book did not stay on my to-be-read pile. I recommend the author and the book highly.

Burning Bright by Nick Petrie: A Review by Warren Bull

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As I said when I reviewed his first novel, it is always a pleasure to discover a new talented author and Nick Petrie is truly a find.

Nick Petrie follows The Drifter with his second novel Burning Bright, which he manages without the dreaded sophomore slump. Once again, the language is colorful, but not to the point of distracting from the plot.

 Peter Ash, a former Marine lieutenant, was sent on many combat missions. In this novel, he still has to deal with symptoms of PTSD. Uncomfortable in enclosed spaces, he has been on a long journey through the wild, avoiding people and civilization when a grizzly bear and a remarkable woman unexpectedly introduce him to a deadly game of hide and seek.

His decision to help the woman involves him with an elusive genius and a computer program that learns from experience. The program holds a skeleton key that can potentially unlock any security system in the world. Needless to say, many people and organizations of dubious origin would gladly kill for the program.

Petrie involves memorable characters from the first book and introduces new people I hope to learn more about as the series continues. I do not give spoilers in my book reviews, but I was pleasantly surprised when #### turned out to be #  #####. And the relationship between family members and lovers were believably described.

Like the first novel, I recommend this book highly. Apparently, a third book in the series is already out.

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty: A Review by Warren Bull

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty: A Review by Warren Bull

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Six Wakes was a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula Awards (Science Fiction Awards) in 2018.

Imagine Agatha Christie writing Science Fiction.  Six clones wake up in a mixture of blood and bodily fluids. Unlike every other time they have been resurrected, they have no memory of what proceeded their murders. They are the only crew members on a spaceship headed to a new planet. One of them is the murderer. Which one? And why?

Mur Lafferty has taken an old idea into a new setting and environment. In this story cloning has changed the world. While religions argue about what happens to the soul when a person dies, past misuse of the cloning process has led to strict laws about what is permitted and what is not, especially in regard to cloning and in regard to altering the “mind map” integrated into new bodies. It is illegal to clone yourself for any reason except to extend your life.  People can live hundreds of years passing from body to body along the way. Suicide is illegal, but assassination is an accepted part of society, if not exactly allowed by law.

The task of the six crew members is to search for the killer and the reason for the killing through the lifespans of each of them. The author explores the question of — what makes a person human? Each member of the crew is a criminal who has taken part in the lengthy journey to earn a new start with a clean record on the new planet. Everyone has secrets and reasons to avoid sharing them.

I enjoyed this very much and recommend it highly.

The Drifter by Nick Petrie: A Review by Warren Bull

The Drifter by Nick Petrie: A Review by Warren Bull

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It is always a pleasure to discover a new talented author and Nick Petrie is truly a find.

Having seen this was a first novel, I was surprised by the quality of his work so I interrupted my reading long enough to read his bio (which I almost never do) and discovered he earned an MFA from the University of Washington and his short fiction has won awards.

Petrie has clearly done his apprenticeship as a wordsmith. His writing is colorful, but not intrusive enough to interfere with the plot. Peter Ash, is a former Marine lieutenant who was sent on several combat missions. Upon his return to the US. Ash discovers that he has suddenly developed symptoms of PTSD. Uncomfortable in enclosed spaces, he goes on a lengthy journey through the wild, avoiding people and civilization. 

When he learns a Sergeant who served under him committed suicide, he feels guilty that he did nothing to see how the man was getting along back “in the world.” [in the US] Ash goes to see if he can help the man’s family. He pretends there is a program to help families of vets refurbish their homes, and offers to help rebuild a sagging porch. This simple act sets off a chain of events that challenges Ash to use his combat skills and threatens the way of life he designed to cope with his PTSD.

Petrie does an excellent job describing the PTSD. His hero is more than Superman light. I enjoyed the humor the author snuck in. There were unexpected twists like [NO SPOILER HERE] and when [NOT HERE EITHER] turned out to be [READ THE BOOK IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT.] The author seems to genuinely care about the plight of returning service people.

I highly recommend you read the book. I am looking forward to the next book in what sounds like a new series.

After the Fire by Will Hill: A review by Warren Bull

After the Fire by Will Hill: A review by Warren Bull

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This is an award-winning book with great reviews that I believe you should not read, give as a gift, or donate to a library. Although I try to limit my reviews to books I can recommend, this is an exception. In part, this is well written, even compelling. Moonbeam is an adolescent who lived in a compound like the   Davidian sect had outside Waco, Texas. Hill described of her life in the compound and the psychological trauma that resulted very well.

What completely ruins the book for me is the description of what happened to her when in the care of social services and his of description the “therapy” she received.  I am willing to suspend disbelief, especially when the main character is interesting. What I cannot believe is that children in the care of the state are deprived of all civil rights, never given basic information, and have absolutely no access to legal resources. Perhaps, being British, the author did not know that children taken into custody are immediately assigned an attorney whose purpose is to look out for their best interests and who visit the children frequently. If he did not, he certainly either failed to investigate or he decided to depict a system George Orwell would instantly recognize.

As a clinical psychologist for thirty years, the failure of minimal ethical behavior, the many laws broken in the area of mental health and the incredible repeated level of malpractice shown throughout this work are mindboggling. I. For years, I worked with some excellent treatment facilities in Texas, where this book is set. The behavior of the “treatment staff depicted would appall them. If you know someone who had the unfortunate experience of reading this book, please let them know that care by the state and minimally competent therapy are not even remotely as horrendous as this irresponsible writing makes them appear. 

A Review of Sharyn McCrumb’s Prayers the Devil Answers by Warren Bull

A Review of Sharyn McCrumb’s Prayers the Devil Answers by Warren Bull

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Although not part of the author’s remarkable Ballad series of novels, McCrumb once again demonstrates her ability to bring to life the lives of people in Appalachia. This time the setting is 1936 when there was no social net. Recently widowed Ellie Robbins, a woman from a small mountain community where charity is frowned on and friendship has to be earned, has to support her two children or return to become a burden to a family that clearly does not want her. She is not qualified to become a teacher or a nurse, the two occupations open to a respectable woman. So, with a boldness that overcomes her natural reticence, she applies to take over the role of sheriff to serve out the term of her deceased husband.

Ellie has strength and grit not apparent from her reserved and ordinary physical appearance. She must adopt the friendly demeanor and outward pleasantness her husband had in order to convince small-town authorities and the deputies who will serve under her that she can do the job. When a murder is committed, a job everyone expected to be limited to doing paperwork and scheduling shifts for deputies turns out to be much more demanding than anyone suspected.

McCrumb shows us the superstitions, beauty and hardscrabble life of people in depression-era Appalachia treating the place and the people with sensitivity and respect. I very highly recommend this book.

Caroline, Little House Revisited by Sarah Miller: A Review by Warren Bull

Caroline, Little House Revisited by Sarah Miller: A Review by Warren Bull

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This novel was written with the full approval of the Little House Heritage Trust. It is a USA Today best-seller. As a child, I read all the Little House books and enjoyed the adventures of Laura and her family. I suppose I expected something nostalgic from this book, but I got much more. This would be an excellent historical novel even if there had been no Little House books.

Thinking back to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s work, I remember that Pa (Charles) was always shown as his daughter’s hero. He was physically strong and brave, ready with a cheerful fiddle, and a story. Ma (Caroline) was strong in other ways. She was presented as a model of correct behavior and persistence but she was not treated with the special love of a girl toward her father.

Miller presents a woman, pregnant and without friends and family close by who has to make do on her own on the frontier in 1870. While Charles is amazingly capable of building a log cabin or freeing a wagon sunk deeply in the mud, he is not mindful of the dangers of crossing a frozen lake while the ice cracks around the wheels of the wagon or fording a river strong enough to carry horses and wagon, not to mention the family riding inside.

Caroline has aches and fears of her own that she conceals from her husband and daughter. She is interesting as an adult outside the role of a mother. Charles, as a man, outside the role of father, is also given a more complete realization than in the Little House books.

The history is well researched and compelling. The attitudes and beliefs of the characters are timely and notably different from people of our time. 

This is a very successful re-imaging of well-known literary characters and I recommend it very highly.

The Barrakee Mystery by Arthur Upfield: A Review by Warren Bull

The Barrakee Mystery by Arthur Upfield: A Review by Warren Bull

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For Christmas, I got a copy of The Barrakee Mystery by Arthur Upfield. First published in

1929 by Hutchinson and Company Ltd.,  the book was the author’s second novel and the first introducing Inspector Napolean Bonaparte. I’ve reviewed a couple of Upfield’s novels about the detective and have recommended them highly, taking into account the time and point-of-view of the author. This novel, I would say proves that writers get better with practice.

The writing is stiff to say the least. Bony doesn’t show up until page 63. By the time he appears, the reader already knows who the killer is. The method of the murder is pretty obvious. There is a tepid love story. Followed by a florid one or two. Upfield goes out of his way to tell the reader what the clues are when they appear. He describes one character as being the farthest thing from a tease immediately after she teases some of the characters. I missed the description of Australia that became such a strength in the author’s later work.

Bony’s introduction is underwhelming. There are hints of what will make him interesting later on but his confidence comes across as complete arrogance. Writing about the “Abos” is less sympathetic than in the author’s later work. The author’s belief in their inferiority is blatant.

However, I stayed with the book and about 2/3 of the way through the author began to develop the threads rather clumsily put out earlier. My interest picked up.  The author showed what he later developed into a real ability at storytelling.

I can recommend The Barrakee Mystery to admirers of Arthur Upfield who want to see how far he came as an author, but except as a curiosity, most readers would do better to choose one of his later novels.

Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi: A Review by Warren Bull

Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi: A Review by Warren Bull

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I was attracted to John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War by the concept i.e., that soldiers are recruited only from people who are past retirement age. And joining up meant leaving everything you knew behind you forever. In fact, joining meant that you were officially dead.  The author’s deft handling of such diverse issues as the “hurry up and wait” nature of the military, combat, and questions about what it means to be human kept me entertained and interested through a trilogy includingThe Ghost Brigades and The Lost Colony.

Then I discovered there was a fourth book Zoe’s Tale. And again the author’s concept caught my attention. In this book, the entire story unfolds as before but from another point of view. In the afterward of the book, the author wrote that he had no intention of doing anything else with the “happily ever after” ending, but reader feedback made him re-think his decision. 

Readers advised him that he left one interesting group of characters seemed to simply disappear. Readers wanted to know more about them.  Also, at one point without explanation one item needed for the good guys to survive shows up when a  character who left the story suddenly pops up again: TA DAH! with exactly what is required.

It was like a dues ex machina. In Greek and Roman theater actors playing gods were lowered to the stage by a crane. As gods, they had the power to resolve problems and untangle messes. It gave the writer a quick and easy way to justify a highly unlikely series of events because the gods willed it.

Scalzi explained that he knew the backstory about the just in the nick of time arrival and it made perfect sense in his mind. But he hesitated to add the 30,000-word explanation, which would be a major distraction for readers.  As a writer, I sometimes grumble that of course charter A behaves and he/she does. After all, in the past B, C, D, and E happened. Okay, it ‘s not in the story but… Oh, maybe I do have to explain that.

The author also wrote that retelling the entire sequence of events without boring readers who already knew the story was very difficult. In fact, I do not recommend this book as highly as the other three because so much is repeated. However, I appreciate how well the author accomplished the task. I enjoyed seeing things from Zoe’s point of view and seeing thing invisible from the POV of the first three books.   

I recommend the trilogy highly. Then if you want even more or if you enjoy reading from the viewpoint of another writer give serious consideration to this one too. 

Old Man's War: A Review by Warren Bull

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi: A Review by Warren Bull

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I was intrigued by the title and the opening lines. “I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife’s grave. Then I joined the army.”

I read quite a bit less science fiction than I did when I was a teenager but I admire good writing and I am happy to say Old Man’s War stood up to the title and the opening. The premise is that the skills acquired over a lifetime and willingness to sacrifice self for others made older adults preferable as soldiers to younger people for the particular conflict the earth was in.

Face with the prospect of further natural physical deterioration, or taking a chance on the unknown, John Perry and his wife, Kathy had planned to join the army like many aging people did in hopes that the army had ways of extending life and rehabilitating older physiques.  Kathy died unexpectedly, which left the protagonist with few emotional ties. He joined the army as they had planned to do together. 

In the scenario of author’s novel, a person who joins the army becomes officially dead on the planet earth and can never return there. However, there are colonies of humans on different planets. If recruits can survive their term of service they can opt to join a colony. But it’s a pretty big “if.” The universe is full of species and habitable worlds are relatively few. Soldiers defend the human colonies and fight to acquire new worlds already occupied by sentient beings.

Scalizi portrays the “hurry up and wait” mentality of military forces along with the guilt and trauma of battle. His rejuvenation procedure is as feasible as it is unexpected.  I like the balance of surprise and realism. 

Because writers work hard to keep surprises, tension and atmosphere (literally this book) going I will just say that truly enjoyed the book and I am eager to find others by the author.  I recommend it highly.

Breakout by Richard Stark, A Review by Warren Bull

Breakout by Richard Stark, A Review by Warren Bull

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Like most people, I suppose, I have wondered what it would be like to have a secret identity. Batman poses as millionaire, Bruce Wayne, and Superman, pretends to be reporter Clark Kent.  Richard Stark is, of course, the pen name of Donald Westlake. Westlake wrote some of the funniest crime novels in existence. His characters show how uncommon common sense is with an amazing level of ineptitude. 

Richard Stark’s character, Parker, is the exact opposite. Parker is a master criminal with a steady girlfriend, Claire, but without any other ties in the world. He will work with a crew as long as he needs a crew and no longer. He is a professional at crime, unemotional, relentless, zeroed in on whatever needs to get done and God help you if you betray him.

Stark writes about Parker with an economy of language that echoes the intensity of the character. He starts many, if not all, of the Parker novels with “when,” and drops the reader into the midst of the action. Breakout starts with – When the alarm went off…  It is a botched warehouse robbery. The local getaway driver decided to break into an office in the warehouse, contrary to the carefully conceived plan. That set off an alarm, which alerted the police. The driver took off in the only vehicle so the rest of the crew had to run. Parker was spotted and ended up in jail.

For a master criminal, who stays anonymous and under the radar, this is a major problem. His fingerprints show up from an earlier time when he was incarcerated and had to kill a guard to escape. 

For Parker, the only solution is to break out of jail. The rest of the novel is a "how done it" Parker has to find men in jail who can help him escape, to find people outside who can help him flee the scene and to find a way to get back to where he started from. For added interest, Parker as part of recruiting a crew agreed to go on a local heist, which involves breaking into and then back out of a heavily guarded location.

Stark’s sparsely elegant prose is a joy to read. If I had a desire to get into the criminal world, Parker’s travails would convince me to stay out of it.

I give this book my highest recommendation.

Raylan, A Novel by Elmore Leonard: A Review by Warren Bull

Raylan, A Novel by Elmore Leonard: A Review by Warren Bull

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Elmore Leonard demonstrates once again the skill and power he commands when he writes about his character, Raylan Givens, who escaped the West Virginia coal mines to become an assistant United States Marshal. Givens is quick on the draw but cool in assessing crime situations. For those of us who love the television series, the memorable characters on the page feel as real as what we saw on the program.

 The Crowe boys are back, as unwashed and constantly buzzed and Elvis-obsessed as ever. Their country attitude does not diminish their capacity for violence.  Art Mullin, the United States Marshal who expects that Raylan will turn up dead someday and Rachel Brooks, Raylan’s colleague whose advice Raylan values and occasionally even takes, make appearances. Ava Crowley, who shot and killed Boyd Crowley’s brother and now lives with Boyd waltzes in and out. Boyd, himself, is also present. He is a competitor, killer, preacher and sometimes friend of Raylan who offers us a picture of who Raylan might have become if he had not been good at school. 

In this installment, Dickie and Coover Crowe stumble across a kidney transplant nurse who has decided to start a business of removing both kidneys and selling them back to their original owner, who cannot live with a kidney. She also sells to the black market if the owner lacks the cash. Raylan sniffs out the operation but ends up naked in a bathtub about to become an unwilling donor before he realizes the danger he is in.  

I am a big fan of Elmore Leonard and this was another example of his unparalleled work. I give it my highest recommendation.