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By Nico Vreeland, on June 29th, 2011  Author: S.J. Watson
2011, HarperCollins
Filed under: Mystery, Thriller
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| C4 Ratings...out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
4 |
| Entertainment..... |
5 |
| Depth..... |
2 |
Before I Go to Sleep has already garnered a flood of media attention and praise—from NPR to The Hollywood Reporter, everybody’s singling out this book as a can’t-miss summer thriller. Amazon called it “one of the best debut literary thrillers in recent years.”
That’s absolutely true, if you just take out the word “best” and insert “simplest.” This is a very simple, very short novel that revolves around a simple hook.
After an accident, Christine loses all her memories every time she goes to sleep. Her husband, Ben, patiently re-educates her about her life every morning. One day, Christine discovers a journal she’s kept secret from Ben and finds three chilling words written in it: “Don’t trust Ben.” …
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By Nico Vreeland, on April 15th, 2011 [2011 Edgar Award nominee for Best Novel---see reviews of other 2011 Edgar noms here, or all Edgar-related posts here.]
 Author: Steve Hamilton
2010, Minotaur Books
Filed under: Thriller
Get a copy from Powell’s
| C4 Ratings...out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
5 |
| Entertainment..... |
6 |
| Depth..... |
6 |
The Lock Artist surprised me. I’ve gotten used to the covers of Edgar nominees telling me what to expect about their innards. Based on The Lock Artist‘s fairly dumb cover (bland, and with a key-opened padlock, instead of the combination padlock that features prominently in the story) led me to believe this would be another schlocky bestseller, with cardboard characters and cheesy jokes.
And, OK, 75% of it is cookie-cutter crime writing, and the end is hugely disappointing. But Artist features a few glittering moments that are among the best in all the 2011 Edgar books (an admittedly disappointing field). And it features a lesson about the motor that runs the best mysteries—a lesson that Hamilton himself doesn’t understand, but one that’s educational nonetheless. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on April 6th, 2011 [2011 Edgar Award nominee for Best Novel---see reviews of other 2011 Edgar noms here, or all Edgar-related posts here.]
 Author: Laura Lippman
2010, William Morrow
Filed under: Mystery
Get a copy from Powell’s
| C4 Ratings...out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
7 |
| Entertainment..... |
6 |
| Depth..... |
5 |
I’d Know You Anywhere makes for an interesting case study—unfortunately that’s not synonymous with “good novel.” In her author’s note, Lippman divulges that Anywhere is based on a true crime. She gets coy about the precise crime she used as a model, but for our purposes, that’s irrelevant.
The novel’s criminal kidnapped and killed a string of young girls, except for one victim whom he raped but let live. That woman, Eliza, is our protagonist, having aged about 25 years since her abduction.
The narrative splits time between that long-ago summer and the present day, when Eliza has a family and a happy life. Unfortunately, the novel runs aground on that latter B-story. While there’s a bit to be explored in the now (the aftereffects of psychological and sexual trauma, etc.), present-day Eliza just doesn’t have enough to do to make for a compelling novel. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on March 30th, 2011  Author: Taylor Stevens
2011, Crown
Filed under: Mystery, Thriller
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| C4 Ratings...out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
5 |
| Entertainment..... |
6 |
| Depth..... |
4 |
If you were to read The Informationist without any external reference or context, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was just another half-cooked thriller. Vanessa Michael Munroe is a perfect, unstoppable freelance “agent,” for lack of a better word (Stevens’s, obviously, is “informationist,” but I can’t say I prefer it). She takes an assignment, gallops all over the world, gets betrayed and takes revenge.
Right, so… wake me when the movie comes out, depending on who plays Munroe.
Much more interesting is looking at this relatively bland novel through the lens of its author’s headline-grabbing life story, which includes, quite frankly, more intrigue and pathos than a dozen Munroe novels. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on March 3rd, 2011 [2011 Edgar Award nominee for Best Novel---see reviews of other 2011 Edgar noms here, or all Edgar-related posts here.]
 Author: Tom Franklin
2010, William Morrow
Filed under: Mystery
Find this book at a library near you
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
8 |
| Entertainment..... |
8 |
| Depth..... |
6 |
We can be sure of one thing: the publishing industry knows how to make a cover. Merely from the cover at right (key features: blended colors, artsy photo, small type, lower-case letters in title), I predicted that Crooked Letter would be well-written but plot-deficient, and that’s exactly what it is.
It’s very, very well-written, and it’s definitely my favorite of the Edgar novels I’ve read so far. Franklin’s greatest strength is his prose; you feel that he’s in complete control of his narrative.
The problem comes when that narrative doesn’t have anywhere to go. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on February 16th, 2011 [2011 Edgar Award nominee for Best Novel---see reviews of other 2011 Edgar noms here, or all Edgar-related posts here.]
 Author: Harlan Coben
2010, Dutton
Filed under: Mystery
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
5 |
| Entertainment..... |
7 |
| Depth..... |
4 |
When I kicked off this year’s Edgar reviews, I predicted, based solely on its cover (pictured), that Caught would be “cranked-out bestseller schlock” with terrible prose. In fact, I think that’s exactly what Coben’s publishers are aiming for. Stacked up against the likes of Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly (not to mention James Patterson and all the name-brand factories), C0ben appears to be leading the field. It’s easy to see why he was plucked from among the commercial mysteries for an Edgar nomination.
On the other hand, held to the standard of his potential—which he touches only briefly, perhaps half a dozen times throughout this novel—Coben falls short. He’s a half-evolved mystery writer, having taken one step forward from the pack, but still with his back foot mired in cheap jokes, ludicrous characters, flat grabs for easy emotion, and all the other hallmarks of the mediocre bestseller. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on February 9th, 2011 [This riveting thriller is a C4 Great Read.]
 Author: Tom Rob Smith
2008, Grand Central
Filed under: Mystery, Thriller
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
8 |
| Entertainment..... |
8 |
| Depth..... |
8 |
When I started reading Child 44, some weeks after I got it, I had forgotten its premise and the jacket-back description that had convinced me to buy it. The novel opens in a hellacious frozen wilderness, where two starving children struggle to catch a scrawny cat, desperate for even the tiny sustenance it would provide. If anyone sees their prize, they’ll be murdered for it.
I assumed this was a futuristic dystopia, nuclear winter or some such premise. In fact, Smith set Child 44 in Stalinist Russia, which turns out to be quite a bit more terrifying than a post-World War III wasteland. Under the Generalissimo, people must make agonizing choices like either denouncing their friends or staying loyal and suffering the torture and certain death of the gulag. There is no crime in Stalinist Russia, because the MGB, the fearsome State Security force, swiftly deals with any citizen who is not perfectly obedient and lawful. Or, at least, that’s the Party line.
Against this backdrop unfolds a white-knuckle thriller more riveting than any I’ve read in a long time. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on January 27th, 2011  Author: Gerald Elias
2010, Minotaur
Filed under: Mystery
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
4 |
| Entertainment..... |
3 |
| Depth..... |
3 |
These days, writing a solid mystery is often not enough for an author trying to distinguish himself from the pack—he has to include a gimmick. Of course, I only call it a gimmick when it doesn’t work, such as the annoying Indian detective Vish Puri, or the defense attorney who becomes a special prosecutor for just one case. When there’s an interesting book behind it, a gimmick feels more like a unique frame for a good story—such as Millard Kaufman’s excellent tale about a real estate agent who gets embroiled in a murder.
As these things go, Gerald Elias’s Danse Macabre is extremely gimmicky, because the story at its core is cliched and poorly written. Instead of framing an interesting story, the gimmicks, plural (there are three), only draw attention to Elias’s poor judgment. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on December 29th, 2010  Author: Grant Jerkins
2010, Berkley
Filed under: Mystery
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
6 |
| Entertainment..... |
8 |
| Depth..... |
7 |
The title of this novel is a lie. Well, OK, of course it is; a story about a very simple crime would only last a paragraph. But the title is a telling lie. At first, the crime appears, indeed, to be simple: a woman—who happens to be both crazy and rich—gets murdered, smashed in the head with a crystal ashtray. I suppose that qualifies literally as a simple crime, but the complexity of a crime lies in the motives and machinations behind the act itself.
At first the police assume the woman was killed by her developmentally disabled son—the son once killed a roommate of his at a care facility in exactly the same manner. The case is about to be closed and forgotten when an intrepid (and desperate) lawyer—the former Assistant DA, shamed by a botched case—discovers that the murderer was left-handed, like the woman’s husband and unlike their son, and they put the husband on trial.
There are no witnesses and only a few forensic clues, primarily that nugget of detail, “left-handed murderer.” Which means that everyone—the press, the DA, and we readers—has to interpret people’s motives to solve the case. It’s in the ensuing messy whorl of emotions and characters that A Very Simple Crime finds purchase. At the end of it all, this is one of the most nuanced mysteries I’ve read this year. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on December 9th, 2010  Author: Andrew Vachss
2010, Pantheon
Filed under: Mystery, Thrillers
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
3 |
| Entertainment..... |
3 |
| Depth..... |
1 |
This is going to sting a bit. I like Andrew Vachss a lot, and I’ve been reading his novels for 15 years. This is by far the worst book of his that I’ve ever read.
My favorite Vachss novels star Burke, a private eye with a group of friends who are ridiculous characters but great fun. For instance, there’s a silent assassin with whom Burke talks in pidgin sign language, and there’s a genius hacker who lives in a junkyard cave with a transsexual hooker and the child they adopted together. Every Burke novel plays out the same (gratifying) way: Burke and his band of merry misfits hunt down and punish child molesters and rapists.
For the past 40 years, Vachss has been an attorney specializing in helping children who’ve been abused. He wears an eyepatch. He’s a badass. He’s always used (I’m guessing) his experiences with scumbags, but the engine of his best work has always been his own personal fury and his outrage that things—and people—as dark as he’s seen are allowed to exist in the world. Burke is righteous and unstoppable, and unabashed wish fulfillment, written by a man who deserves some fulfilled wishes.
The Weight, on the other hand, is a half-plotted pamphlet about jail. …
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