Category Archives: book review

Book Review of Meredith Allen Conner’s Dead Vampires Don’t Date

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Dead Vampires Don't DateI grabbed Meredith Allen Conner’s PNR, Dead Vampires Don’t Date, off of the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Kate Storm is your typical everyday mortal witch. She owns her own matchmaking business, hangs out with her vampire best friend, Morgan and enjoys the company of Big Al, her hit man channeling Chihuahua. Plus there’s a certain demon that she has her eye on. Life is pretty good until her first important non-human client winds up dead and his body is dumped at her back door. Turns out, disposing of the body is the last thing she needs to worry about. Kate will have to find the true killer if she wants to save her business and her life. And her new found witchy detective skills may not be enough to save her, especially if the demon is involved.

Review:

This was an entertaining, quick read. Though fairly useless in any sort of combat and therefore unable to do much in terms of defending herself, Kate is a fairly strong character in other respects. She’s quick witted, sarcastic, and relatively self assured. I particularly liked that she isn’t a stick figure. She’s described as a size 10 on a good day. I always appreciate seeing alternative body types (ie, not the anorexic ideal of the modern west) described as equally appealing.

There was a lot of good humour here and, though no actual sex, a few steamy almost-sex scenes. This does lead me to my one significant complaint about the book though. I don’t know if this is the first of a series, but there are quite a few things that are hinted at throughout the entire book, but it ends without any sort of reveal. One of these is why Ash is so interested in Kate to begin with. He purposefully seeks her out, is unusually aggressive in his pursuit of and affection for her, essentially admits to having an ulterior motive (Kate is certain there is one), and he is constantly running off and appearing again, but the reader never discovers why. In fact other than being a distraction from the mystery and adding a little spice he plays almost no role in the book. This only heightens the sense that something important has been left out. Why else is he there?

I also thought some of the jokes when a little overboard. For example, the Bewitchedconnection was just ludicrous. For the most part however, I enjoyed Kate’s narrative style. The mystery was fun, though I don’t think too many people will be overly surprised by the identity of the culprit. Still, it’s an all-in-all good summer read.

More Deaths Than One

Book Review of Bryan Islip’s More Deaths Than One

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More Deaths Than OneI won a copy of Bryan Islip‘s More Deaths Than One through Goodreads’ Firstreads program and I should start by apologising to the author for taking a full year to get around to reading it. I have excuses, but I figure they’re probably pretty irrelevant to anyone but me.

Description from Amazon:
Thomas Thornton has settled down to expatriated family life in Saudi Arabia. He is wrongfully caught up in shariah law on drugs dealing charges then finds himself implicated in a far more universal situation. Injustice is a bitter pill – potentially a fatal one where your landing card is headlined in red italics: Death For Drugs Dealers. Even with a past life as explosive as that of Thomas Thornton’s, what odds against a future for himself, his family; what of his love for the ways of Arabia?

Review:
Thomas was the best of the best. But even the best get tired of the game at some point. His attempt to make a go of it as a civilian goes spectacularly wrong and luckily those old skills hadn’t gotten too rusty. I really liked Thomas as a man, a soldier, and a main character. Despite being exceedingly dangerous he also understood the value of human life, the splendid variety in human cultures, and the importance of love and family. All of his comrades were likeable too, though it did feel a little like England must be an exceptionally small island. Despite the small size of the SBS unit he managed to run into a whole heck of a lot of Ex’S’s in the course of regular business.

The book starts out with a rather long prologue that chronicles the highlights of Thomas’ life until the point he decides to leave Her Majesty’s Service. While making for a slow start it does give the reader a strong impression of what sort of man Thomas is and why. 90% of the rest of the book is dedicated to Thomas’ attempt to extricate himself and those with him from a whole web of lies, betrayals, double crosses, etc. That remaining 10% or so is all we are given of Thomas as a civilian businessman, husband, father, friend, etc. It’s an important 10%, but the reader is expected to extrapolate for a lot of it. I could have done with a little more details about this life he was trying so hard to get back to.

I haven’t decided how I feel about the moral implications of The Planter’s scheme. The book had a definite message to impart on the subject of the drug trade. And Thomas seemed to take it all in stride there at the end. I wasn’t sure how exactly he rationalised the whole thing in order not to feel incredibly betrayed. I think I would have.

There are some typos in this book, not a huge number of them and they seem more frequent in the second half, but there are enough to be worth mentioning. The story, however, is a really good one. All-in-all I’m thrilled to have finally gotten around to reading it. It’s almost a humanised James Bond. Islip is a really talented writer (as well as painter, poet and more apparently). I’ll definitely be looking out for more of his writing.

A Bullet for Carlos

Book Review of Giacomo Giammatteo’s A Bullet for Carlos

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A Bullet for CarlosAfter reviewing Giacomo Giammatteo‘s Murder Has Consequences last week, I was brazen enough to ask him if he would send me A Bullet for Carlos. OK, maybe I passive aggressively suggested that if he was interested in a review he might pass a copy along, which isn’t quite the same thing but had much the same results.  He was kind enough to comply without even calling me out on my bad form. Thanks for that Jim.

Description from Goodreads:
Detective Connie Giannelli’s life has been torn apart several times. First when her mother died and then years later when she found out her Uncle Dominic was in the mob. Her life is about to be shredded again, and this time it could destroy her. 

Connie’s love of family and her badge are both threatened when an undercover drug bust leaves two cops dead and the drugs missing. Internal Affairs is looking for any excuse to take her badge, but she’s not worried about them finding the missing drugs—her secrets could prove to be far worse. 

Now Connie’s racing against the clock to figure out who killed her partners and took the drugs—dirty cops or Uncle Dominic’s friends. And she has to do it before IA pins the whole damn thing on her.

Review:
At this point I’m beginning to think that I aught to just preemptively mark any book by Giacomo Giammatteo as a five star, ’cause I’m just gonna love it. A Bullet for Carlos was no exception. Mr. Giammatteo somehow makes bad, bad men lovable. I adored Dominic, even though he was unquestionably dangerous and maybe even evil. Though I kind of think the things that made me love him also redeem him a little bit, as well as made me wonder if deeper exploration of other such evil characters (like Carlos) might reveal small redemptive qualities too. It definitely leads a reader to consider whether anyone can really be wholly evil, no matter how bad they appear on the surface or to an outsider. This same theme is further explored when good cops are left having to decide if or when they’ll choose to ‘cross the line’ for the greater good.

This is much more of a police drama than a mafia mystery, but I was THRILLED when Donovan and Mazzetti showed up as side characters. This was the first book by Giammatteo I’ve read that wasn’t part of the Friendship & Honor series and I was really afraid I’d miss Nicky and Frankie enough to sour my experience of reading it. No such thing. Connie and Tip were great characters on their own. If I HAD to choose I’d still take Nicky/Frankie, but I don’t have to choose so I’m free to enjoy both in future books. And I plan to.

I also rather enjoyed the cultural differences between New York and Texas. No big deal was made of this, but the small regional quirks were apparent. Different catch phrases, politeness levels, etc. It is yet one more testament of Giammatteo’s talent that he can take such small matters and somehow invest them with so much meaning, having a large impact on the feel of the book. It’s enviable really. My only complaint, beyond the fact I have to wait for more books, is one I’ve mentioned before and is JUST a personal preference. The main protagonist was a rapist and there were a few ‘tasteful’ rape scenes. By which I just mean they weren’t gratuitous or titillating in any fashion. They furthered the plot and weren’t overly uncomfortable, but they were there. I look forward to the continuation of this series. Definitely worth a read.