"Lethal White" by Robert Galbraith

 

Publisher: Mulholland Books

Copyright: 2018

ISBN: 9780316422734

Lethal white is the fourth installment in the Cormoran Strike detective series by Robert Galbraith the synonym for JK Rowling. As with the other three books this one is excellent. The development of the two main characters of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott continues, with new challenges for the two of them both professionally and privately. Robin is now a partner is the detective agency, and proves invaluable to Strike, but her fiancee still is not happy that she works there, which causes some tension to say the least.

This instalment takes place a short time following the third novel "Career of Evil" which details the investigation of the Shacklewell Ripper. Robin is recovering from the wounds she received during the investigation, but is still experiencing PTSD from the attack, and Strike wants her back with him at the agency but finds it difficult to ask her to return.

Their new case begins with an extremely distressed and mentally ill young man visiting Strike and describing a murder he witnessed as a young boy. This one thing leads Cormoran and Robin into a maze of intrigue with twists and turns that involve government officials and their families, and over twenty years of history to be searched to find out the truth, a truth that nobody wants anyone to find out about.

An excellent addition to the series, looking forward to reading number five.

"Barefoot in Baker Street" by Charlotte Anne Walters

 

Publisher: MX Publishing

Copyright: 2011

ISBN: 9781780920139

Barefoot on Baker Street tells the story of a young girl by the name of Red who escapes from a London workhouse at 13. She is forced into a life of crime as a means of survival. The story follows her life journey, and is written as a memoir that is found a number of years after she dies.

The story takes place at the same time as the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories, and includes events from a number of the publish canon. Including "The Blue Carbuncle", "The Empty House", "The Sign of Four", "The Final Solution",  "The Man with the Twisted Lip", and glimpses of a number of others.

I found it be an enjoyable read, and one that I think fills in a lot of the backstory to Sherlock Holmes that has never been mentioned (to the best of my knowledge) but is very much in tune with what I believe Conan Doyle would've written.

I found Ms. Walters' Moriarity to be quite interesting, and unlike what a number of other writers have done by portraying him as essentially a sociopath or worse. Her portrayal of him as an autistic savant I found to be very interesting and believable. We also learned a great deal about Dr. John Watson, and his private life that I believe once again Conan Doyle would approve of.

Highly recommended, but it can be rather hard to find.

"Neuromancer" by William Gibson

 

Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group

Copyright: 1984

ISBN: 9780441012039

Neuromancer was William Gibson's first novel, and it took the science fiction world by storm due to its realism, interesting characters, and well thought out plot.

The story tells the adventures of Case, a hacker that is being forced to complete a mission to stay alive. In his bloodstream is a toxin that will release after a certain amount of time if there's no antidote given to him. He teams up with an agent (for lack of a better term) named Molly Millions. A lady with Mirror shade implants in her eyes, and 4 cm retractable razors in her fingertips (I haven’t quite figured out how this would work, as the first knuckle on most people is an average of 1.5 cm behind the finger tip).

The story revolves around two artificial intelligences named Wintermute, and Neuromancer. The two AIs, along with Case, Molly and the rest of the crew are also up against the Turing Police, who keep an eye on the doings of AIs, and those that try to hack into them. There isn’t a lot of background information given on why the Turing Police exist, or why they have to watch the AIs, so I found this to be a little off-putting as I happen to like these world-building details.

Molly is a character that also appears in Gibson's short story Johnny Mnemonic, which takes place before Neuromancer, but was written a few years afterwards.

Gibson has also written two more novels set in the same universe entitled Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. However, I haven't read either of these yet.

This is an excellent book with great characterization, that makes you think and feel with the characters. The plotting is also very tight and well done, and the world building excellent. It however hasn’t quite kept up with the way technology has actually developed and changes since 1984, so I think it might have been better to set it further into the future - but that just my opinion.

Highly recommended to anybody who enjoys good science fiction.

"The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler (1888-1959)

 

Publisher: London : Hamilton, 1967.

Copyright: 1939

ISBN: 9780394758282 

Characteristics: 216 pages

"The Big Sleep" Is Raymond Chandler's first novel, and introduces us to is now famous detective Philip Marlowe. I'm not sure if this novel is the first of what came to be known as hard-boiled detective novels, but if it isn't it's one of the first in that genre, and it’s a genre that has stood the test of time as the stories can be read many times and still be enjoyed.

Philip Marlowe is definitely a character that will stand out in anybody's memory. He works for $25 a day plus expenses which in 1930 was even extremely low wages. In this book Marlowe is hired by a dying millionnaire when he is being blackmailed because of one of his daughter's antics. However Marlo finds that there is more to the case than he ever suspect suspected because it involves not only blackmail but extortion, kidnapping, pornography, seduction, organized crime, and few murders are thrown in just for good measure. 

The novel is written in first person which was quite typical for these type of stories, and for detective fiction in general as it puts the reader in the detective’s place, and they essentially solve the mystery along with him or her.

Enjoy!

"Loop Hole: Or How To Rob A Bank" by Robert Pollock (1930-2003)

Published: London: Hodder and Stoughton
Copyright: 1972.
ISBN: 0340162368

I've always been rather fascinated by stories dealing with crime. But not any old crime, I prefer ones that are well thought out, well plotted, and in which it is reasonably possible that the job could actually happen. Because of this things like murderers, etc. are of no interest to me, however heist fiction (which is actually a literary genre I found out) is very much in this category.

The story meets all my criteria, and is very entertaining as well. It involves the burglary of the City Savings Deposit Bank in London, which has a burglar proof vault, and a few million dollars inside it.

The team that is planning this caper is led by Mike, who has been in the business for many years and because of this his planning is meticulous. He knows that to rob this bank he needs professional assistance, so he hires himself an architect /engineer.

Robert Polak has crafted a wonderful story, that can be read numerous times and enjoyed. He got the idea for the novel, and I'm sure some of his material following some encounters he had with a paroled criminal who, he found out later was a rather famous British bank robber. It is interesting to note that this story influenced a group of real life criminals in Paris, France to attempt a robbery planned in the style. They came to be known as The Sewer Rats.

As it if you have read this blog in the past you will know that I have it very dim view of movies from Hollywood, as they rarely get it right. This movie however is an exception. The movie "Loophole" released in 1981, starring Albert Finney, and Martin Sheen was exceptional. It's true that the director John Quested changed a few things, but they were minor.

I would strongly recommend you read this book, and then watch the movie. It is not recommended however that you go and rob a bank, as the authorities do tend to frown on this. Then again, if you happen to do it, and get caught you have the opportunity of getting 3 square meals a day, free clothing, and a host of other amenities (some of which might not be so favourable).

"A Member of the Family" by Nick Vasile

Publisher:Tom Doherty Associates 1993
Edition:First Tor edition.
Copyright Date:©1993
ISBN: 0312853491
Characteristics: 320 pages

This book is a fascinating look (albeit fictional) at the world of the Mafia. I found it to be well researched, and the characters very believable. In some instances it might be compared to "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo, however I believe it is superior to that work in that it tells a concise story rather than telling you the history of a family. This is not to put down Mr. Puzo's work which was also very good, but which is also very long.

Mr. Vasile is a Washington D.C. undercover police officer and New York City private eye and used his experiences in the telling of this story. This same background was also been given to the lead character Paul Dante.

The story revolves around Dante who is hired by the Washington D. C. Mafia to locate a missing person, the newly married son-in-law of the Benedetti Family's underboss Santo Benedetti, and brother to the godfather.

There are a lot of twists and turns in this novel which I believe is why I enjoyed it so much as the author gets you thinking about why things happen the way they do, and then as many good authors do he'll throw you a curve that you never expected.

The only bad thing I can say about this book, is that it seems to be the only one that Mr. Vasile has written, which is a shame as I would love read more of his work.

High recommended.

"The House of Silk" by Anthony Horowitz

Publisher:New York : Mulholland Books, 2011.
Edition:First edition.
ISBN:9780316196994
Characteristics: 294 pages ;,25 cm

"The House of Silk" is a wonderful novel, that brings the world's most loved detective back to life. The author Anthony Horowitz is most famous for his Alex Rider series (which I have not read), but he easily manages to capture the style of writing of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle very well.

The story is set a few years before Holmes dies, and it is explained in the Preface that the story is so sensational that Dr. Watson was obliged to require his heirs not to publish the story until 100 years after his death. This in itself should intrigue any Holmes fan, and does indeed set the stage for a truly monstrous tale.

If found the novel to be very well written, and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

When I was done I was curious as to whether it was a one-off novel, or whether Mr. Horowitz had written any others about Holmes. I found that he did write another back in 2014 entitle "Moriarty" which I had read a few years ago before I started this blog in its current form. Unfortunately I was not impressed with this book due to the way the character of Moriarty was portrayed which I believed then (and still do today) makes him into a sadistic murdering psychopath rather than the criminal mastermind that he is portrayed as in all the other books.

I do however highly recommend House of Silk, and hope that Mr. Horowitz continues to write further Sherlock Holmes novels.

"Career of Evil" by Robert Galbraith

Publisher:New York : Mulholland Books, 2015.
Edition:First North American edition.
ISBN: 9780316349932
Characteristics: 497 pages.

Career of evil is the third book in the Cormoran Strike series. These books as I've said before are  reminiscent of the hard-boiled detective novels of the early 1900s, but with a flair for today, as is necessary. The stories take you right into the heat of the action, and lay bare what the life of a struggling private detective might really be like.

In this book Strike faces an unknown assailant who is out to get him and ruin his business by pretty much any means possible. This includes targeting his assistant Robin as one of his future victims. In addition to the main plot line, the author also looks briefly into various psychological phenomenon that are interesting, but could be quite disturbing to some at the same time.

During this whole time Robin and Matthew are planning their wedding which gives an interesting background flavour to the entire story. Their assailant, who could possibly any one of four or five different people continuously eludes them, until the very end.

This is a fantastic third novel, in a four volume series -- so far. I do hope the author plans on writing more in the series as I only have one left to read.

"The Silkworm" by Robert Galbraith

Publisher:  New York : Mulholland Books, 2014.
Edition:      First North American edition.
ISBN:        9780316351980

The Silkworm is the second book in the series by Robert Galbraith about the private detective Cormoran Strike. As pretty much everyone knows by now Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling the author of the Harry Potter series, however unlike Harry Potter this series deals with reality not fantasy and is reminiscent of the gritty detective novels of the early 20th century.

The plot revolves around the mysterious disappearance of a relatively mediocre author, who supposedly headed to a writers retreat and is never seen again until he is discovered after more than a week grotesquely murdered. The blame for the murder could be placed on any number of people as his latest book was to be a tell-all about the British publishing scene - a book guaranteed to enflame an already bad situation.

The plotting of this novel is extremely intricate, and the characters are so well-developed that you would expect to see them walking down the street the next time you're out. Add to this the twists and turns of the story, and how Strike solves the murder with the help of his assistant Robin makes for an excellent read. Between this book and the first volume I can't think of another book that I haven't been able to stop reading. Even though it was 1 o'clock in the morning with work the next day.

Looking forward to #3.

"The Cuckoo's Calling" by Robert Galbraith

Publisher: Little, Brown and Co.

Copyright: 2013

ISBN: 9780316206846 

I found this book to be an absolutely fantastic mystery novel, that follows the investigation of the apparent suicide of a high fashion model. Her brother however doesn't believe it was a suicide and hires a private detective to investigate and find out what really happened.

The detective is one Cormoran Strike, a former member of the British Army who left the service after being severely wounded in Afghanistan. His assistant Robin Ellacott is a young lady from a Temp Agency, who essentially falls in love with the detective business, and helps Strike with the case, while at the same time looking for a permanent job and fending off her Temp Agency.

There is a whole boatload of red herrings (I couldn't resist the pun), that will keep the reader reading and intrigued and the final solution will likely surprise them.

This novel has all the key elements of a classic hard-boiled detective novel. The characters in this novel are a given to the reader in amazing detail, that makes you know them right away. This is evidence that the author has a great deal of experience in writing, character design, plotting and research. For those who are unaware Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling, but this book is definitely not anything like the Harry Potter series, so you may be somewhat shocked by the language and certain scenes if that's what you were expecting.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book, and can't wait to read the second in the series.