Category Archives: mystery

Ellis’ ‘Gun Machine’ a good cop thriller

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gun machine warren ellis

Warren Ellis is best known for comic books like “Red” and “Planetary,” but his book “Gun Machine” is a good and offbeat New York police thriller.

 

The book follows NYPD detective John Tallow in the days following the on-the-job killing of his partner. The two had been responding to a call about a man in a run-down apartment building with a gun when the unhinged man shot and killed the partner. Tallow looks through a hole blown in an apartment wall and finds the place is full of guns – and not ones that belonged to the unhinged man who took out Tallow’s partner. The elaborate display of guns from over a couple hundred years is fetishistic, almost a temple dedicated to the firearms within. But who could their owner be?

 

In a city plagued by too much violence and too many cases to clear, Tallow’s fellow cops and CSIs greet this discovery with scorn and hostility, all of it directed at Tallow. That’s because every one of the discovered guns tested in police labs turns out to be a gun used in a separate, unsolved murder case. Tallow has stumbled across a horrific secret: The lair of a particularly prolific and bent hit man.

 

Working with CSIs Scarly and Bat, Tallow pulls at threads and tests limitations, including those of himself and his superiors. That’s because when some of the guns turn out to have been used in historic crimes, it becomes obvious that someone hasn’t just been hoarding random guns. Someone has been funneling guns – including the revolver used by Son of Sam – to the killer.

 

Although the plot is grim and involves not only high-level corruption between the police department and some high-level NYC corporations, there’s a lot of humor here. Most of that comes from Bat and Scarly, Tallow’s initially reluctant but increasingly enthusiastic partners. Bat is something of a geek cliche but one that’s well done. Scarly is a lipstick lesbian in a deeply committed but deeply odd relationship with a formidable partner.

 

I’ve read that there’s some thought to making “Gun Machine” into a TV series and I suppose that’s fine. But I wouldn’t want the book to be turned into TV’s typical police procedural with quirky characters. There’s a lot of potential for more stories about Tallow, Bat and Scarly if they do them right.

 

 

Stars set for ‘Gone Girl?’

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Rosamund-Pike-

I really liked Gillian Flynn’s twisty 2012 thriller “Gone Girl,” a terrific mystery novel about what happens when a wife goes missing and suspicion falls on her husband.

For the movie version, a number of stars have been considered for the roles of the husband and wife,  but the latest news makes it sound like Ben Affleck (whose “Argo” demonstrated his directing skills but who hasn’t been thought of as just a leading man for a while) and Rosamund Pike (most recently seen as the female lead in “Jack Reacher”) were likely to be cast.

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Affleck seems like the perfect choice for the male lead. He can easily play a husband who would seem ideal and loving at first glance but could be quite unsympathetic when needed.

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And Pike could be good, I think, as the female lead, who is … well, I can’t even say. To describe the character would be to give away the plot, which has too many great turns to spoil.

David Fincher is directing.

 

New on ‘Longmire’ – Madchen Amick

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madchen-amick longmire

If this blog has a mascot, it must be Madchen Amick, the actress best known for playing waitress Shelly Johnson on “Twin Peaks” in the early 1990s.

Since I reported that the still-beautiful Amick played Andrea, an old flame/continuing flirtation for Don Draper in “Mad Men” last season, I’ve gotten hundreds of visits from Amick fans.

So it’s cool to be able to note that Amick has a recurring role in “Longmire” the A&E series based on Craig Johnson’s mystery novel series about a Wyoming sheriff.

In “Longmire,” Amick plays Deena, an old flame of Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips), longtime friend of Longmire.

Amick has had only a handful of short scenes so far, but I’m ready to see more of this mysterious character.

By the way, for a show about a crusty sheriff (Robert Taylor), there are a lot of interesting women on this show. The female cast is topped by Katee Sackhoff, of course, but there’s also Cassidy Freeman as Cady, Longmire’s daughter, and Louanne Mason, who played Matt Saracen’s grandmother on “Friday Night Lights” as Ruby, the Gal Friday at the sheriff’s office.

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And there’s Katherine LaNasa as Lizzie Ambrose, a zesty blonde who has her sights set on landing Longmire.

LaNasa is a regular on the show “Deception” and had a memorable role on “Justified” a couple of years ago.

Amick and LaNasa will be fun to watch this season.

 

‘Longmire’ kicks off second season closer to the target

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longmire logo

As a fan of Craig Johnson’s series of crime novels about Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire, I was a little disappointed with the first season of the TV series version that aired on A&E.

You can catch up with what I thought here, but it boiled down to: Not enough of Johnson’s trademark mix of tall, dark and quiet heroes and quirky plots.

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Last night’s second-season debut, though, was closer to the target. The episode was based in part on a Craig Johnson book, “Hell is Empty,” which puts the sheriff in harm’s way as he transports a series of prisoners – including a man who killed a child several years ago – through his county and over a mountain … just in time for a blizzard.

The single hour of television couldn’t begin to capture all of Johnson’s straightforward plot and rich characters. But it came closer than any first-season episode.

The series is also coming closer to hitting the mark in the way it portrays Johnson’s characters. I’ve got to say I’m enjoying the heck out of Robert Taylor as Longmire, for whom “less is more” truly describes his spare speaking habit. Really, the less the writers give the sheriff to say the better – and not because Taylor’s not a good actor. He’s good, but he’s perfect with a long stare and grumble

I loved “Battlestar Galactica” vet Katee Sackhoff as Walt’s deputy – and is very tentative love interest the right way to describe her? – Vic Moretti from the moment she was cast and I’m still enjoying her.

Bailey Chase and Cassidy Freeman are quite good as Walt’s ambitious deputy and daughter, respectively.

I’m growing to like the terrific Lou Diamond Phillips as Henry Standing Bear, Walt’s longtime friend and confidant. Phillips is making questionable casting palatable.

One big plus for me with last night’s episode was an injection of the Native American mythos and mysticism that marks Johnson’s books. As Walt trudged through snow to track the prisoners, Henry and other figures – including an impressive owl – appeared to him. Thanks in part to Henry, spirit guides and the connection between the Wyoming characters and the earth are present throughout the books.

I’m still not convinced I’m buying the subplot about the death, before the show started, of Walt’s wife. She died from cancer in the books and, while her passing has left a huge shadow across Walt, it isn’t the stuff of an ongoing mystery.

I wasn’t sure I was going to check out “Longmire” this second season. The season premiere definitely encouraged me to come back for more.

‘Criminal Enterprise’ a top-notch thriller

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criminal enterprise owen laukkanen

Owen Laukkanen is just a couple of years into life as a published author of crime novels, but he’s already created one of the most enjoyable series in bookstores.

His two books – so far – about FBI agent Carla Windermere and Minnesota police investigator Kirk Stevens are immensely readable stories of cops and crooks.

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The first, “The Professionals,” would seem to be in the vanguard of books inspired by the Great Recession. Its criminal foursome are young people fresh out of school and unable to get hired. They decide to become professional kidnappers. Their modus operandi? Kidnap well-off but low-profile targets and ask $60,000 on the assumption that the kidnap victim’s family will easily be able to pay that small an amount. It works for a while but goes awry when they stumble upon the wrong target: A businessman connected to the mob.

In “Criminal Enterprise,” the central bad guy is Carter Tomlin, an accountant with a wife and kids who gets in over his head, financially, and decides to make money the old fashioned way: Bank robbery. Tomlin’s a different case than the four somewhat sympathetic anti-heroes of “The Professionals,” however: He not only enjoys the influx of cash from his robberies but gets off on the violence, particularly when committed in the company of his alterna-girl assistant and fellow robber.

Into the mix in both cases come Windermere, young and tough and an outsider in the FBI, and Stevens, happily married and settled into middle age and a long career in the Minnesota state police’s criminal investigations bureau.

The two cops, who end up working together by happenstance, are a good fit. Stevens balances out Windermere’s fiery demeanor with his cool calm.

Laukkanen doesn’t dip into the criminal world quite the way Elmore Leonard does, but his bad guys are compelling and relatable. Windermere and Stevens are the anchors of these books but Tomlin in the second book and the four kidnappers in the first book are absorbing characters. The author is working on the third book in the series, which is good news for fans of contemporary crime thrillers.

 

Classic TV: ‘The Edge of Night’

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the_edge_of_night title card

I loved sitting in on my mom’s soap operas when I was a kid. I would catch glimpses of “Another World” or “Days of Our Lives” when I was home sick. And of course “Dark Shadows” was must viewing after school.

But there was one daytime drama that that thriller-loving kids like me didn’t have to feel silly about watching.

“The Edge of Night” ran on daytime TV from 1956 to 1984 and, for much of its run, focused on the crime-busting cops and attorneys of the Midwestern city of Monticello. Most memorable to me were characters like Mike Carr and Adam Drake, who appeared about as often as any characters during the show’s 7,420 episodes. Most of the episodes appeared on CBS with a few last few years’ worth airing on ABC.

Monticello must have been the most crime-ridden city ever. Murders, assaults, arsons and robberies seemed to happen with such frequency I can only imagine the Greater Monticello Chamber of Commerce had its hands full.

Monticello was modeled after Cincinnati, hometown of sponsor Procter and Gamble. That city’s skyline was glimpsed in the show for many years.

But as in most soaps, the settings were highly fictionalized, sometimes to the point of amusement. For example: The state capital was Capital City, not unlike in “The Simpsons” many years later.

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Carr (played by three different actors) and Drake, played by Donald May from 1967 to 1977, were the most fascinating characters for me. The credits ended “And Donald May as Adam Drake,” which tipped me off that this character was cool and important. And I had a crush on beautiful Maeve McGuire, who played his wife, Nicole Drake.

The show featured a number of actors on their way up, from Larry Hagman to Frank Gorshin to Dixie Carter.

“The Edge of Night” had a regular audience of nine million viewers, many of them men because of the emphasis on murder and mayhem and because of the 4:30 p.m. timeslot, which allowed blue-collar workers and students like me to get home in time to watch.

The show’s scripts were generally recognized as best when Henry Slesar was head writer. And the ominous tones of announcer Hal Simms, who said, “The Edge … of Night” with just the right dramatic pause, added to the mood.

 

Andersen’s ‘True Believers’ a great narrative of the ’60s

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true believers kurt andersen

I wasn’t familiar with Kurt Andersen before I read “True Believers,” his recent decades-spanning novel. I didn’t know he’d written other books or hosted an NPR show or co-founded Spy magazine. For that last reason alone, Andersen should go down in the snark hall of fame.

But I wouldn’t have guessed any of those things, really, about Andersen from reading “True Believers.” Actually, I don’t think I would have guessed the author was male. The narrative voice of the story – a 60-something female lawyer, remembering her days as an earnest young girl and would-be political anarchist – is that authentic.

Andersen tells the story of Karen Hollander, aforementioned attorney and one-time-potential Obama nominee to the Supreme Court. As the story opens, Hollander tells the readers she’s working on an autobiography. But she teases that it’s unlikely to be the book that people who’ve seen her on TV talk shows would expect.

That’s because, as Hollander weaves her modern-day efforts to solve one mystery of her past, she recounts her time growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, her relationship with her liberal parents in the Chicagoland area and her two best friends, Chuck and Alex.

Karen, Chuck and Alex are fans of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, devouring them as they are published. Then they act out scenes that, if not really from the books, are in the spirit of the books.

The boys might play Bond and CIA operative friend Felix Leiter, for example, while Karen plays a female operative or femme fatale, like the narrator of “The Spy Who Loved Me.” They aren’t slaves to the stories and come up with their own funny variations. In one escapade, Karen mixes sugar into her Coke at a restaurant and cajoles a man at another table into sipping it to see if there’s anything wrong with it. Mission accomplished: Karen reports to the boys that she’s just poisoned James Bond.

As the three get older, inevitably, other considerations come into play. Karen and Chuck begin to see each other, leaving Alex feeling like the odd man out. As they go to college, other friends enter their small circle.

But they are fated to take on a mission that rivals any of their pretend-spy adventures. The socially conscious three decide to commit an act of protest – or domestic terrorism – that Karen finds haunts her even in the present day.

Andersen does a fine job moving back and forth from the adult Hollander’s investigation into secrets even she didn’t know from her college years to those years and the shocking plot the friends undertake.

“True Believers” is a – strangely enough – charming story, largely because of Andersen’s ability to write the smart, funny and vulnerable Hollander with such an authentic voice.

It won’t happen, and it probably wouldn’t be appropriate, but “True Believers” makes me wish Andersen would give us other adventures of Karen Hollander. She’s a brave and appealing character and I was sad to say goodbye to her at the end.

Harry Bosch tackles a cold case in ‘The Black Box’

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connelly the black box

Over the course of a couple of decades, former Los Angeles Times reporter Michael Connelly has built a densely-populated world of LA cops, criminals and lawyers. His books about attorney Mickey Haller, including “The Lincoln Lawyer,” are among the best legal thrillers of the modern day.

But Connelly’s body of work most often focuses on Harry Bosch, a veteran LA police detective who is as good at maneuvering through LA police politics as he is at solving crimes.

Lately, Bosch has been part of an LAPD unit working cold cases, and in “The Black Box,” Bosch’s latest cold case seems very cold indeed. Bosch gets the opportunity to try to close a case that he had opened in the spring of 1992, when LA was wracked by riots and murders in the wake of the verdict in the trial of four white cops charged with beating a black man. The cops were found not guilty and parts of the city erupted in an orgy of arson, violence, looting and murder.

Bosch investigates the death of a young woman, a journalist from Denmark, who was found shot to death in an alley in an area wracked by violence. Bosch refuses to believe the young woman was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, but there are too many homicides to allow lengthy investigations. The woman’s murder goes unsolved.

Twenty years later, Bosch picks up the case again, working on LAPD’s Open/Unsolved squad, and – as readers know Bosch is prone to doing – begins pushing at the edges of the case, looking for previously undiscovered information and trying to find new leads.

In doing so, he incurs the wrath of his superiors, who are worried about more controversy if the first of the cold cases to be solved is a white woman instead of the many people of color who were victims during the riots.

Bosch always follows the truth, however, which means that he pursues the journalist’s murder with a vengeance.

Connelly’s latest gives us a Bosch who is as single-minded and, frankly, rude and irritating as ever. He’s usually right and not afraid to show it.

But Bosch is the kind of cop all of us would want on the case if a loved one had been murdered.

And Connelly is the kind of writer we’d want recounting the tale.

Robert Crais goes to the dog with ‘Suspect’

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robert-crais-suspect

If you know Robert Crais, you probably know him from his series of Los Angeles-based crime novels about private eyes Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. Crais has ventured into non-series books a few times, but most of his novels have revolved around smart-aleck Cole and cool and deadly Pike. Interestingly, Crais has thrown a few change-ups even in the Cole and Pike series, making Pike the lead in some and Cole the lead in others.

“Suspect,” Crais’ latest book, focuses instead on Scott James, an LAPD uniform officer who, as the story opens, is preparing to leave his Adam patrol car and partner, Stephanie, for a department management fast track.

At the same time, Crais introduces us to Maggie, a smart and loyal German Shepherd patrol dog in the Marines in Afghanistan. Maggie and her handler are ambushed by insurgents. Her handler – the Alpha in her pack – is killed and Maggie is seriously injured.

At the same time, Scott and Stephanie have the misfortune of rolling up on a deadly ambush in LA’s mean streets. A carload of shooters kills several people and then train their guns on Scott and Stephanie. Scott is badly wounded and Stephanie is killed.

A few months later, Scott and Maggie are paired up in a LAPD K-9 training program. They have a lot in common: Both lost their partners and both suffer from PTSD.

Most of “Suspect” follows Scott and Maggie as they become a pack and work to recover from their traumatic experiences. As the two are training to be K-9 partners, Scott also pushes along the investigation into the ambush that left his first partner dead.

Like the best crime drama heroes, Scott isn’t afraid to take risks by pursuing suspects and potential witnesses to that fateful night, even risking trouble with the police brass. And like the best crime drama heroes, Maggie is brave and fiercely loyal to her new pack.

There’s not a lot of similarity in tone, but some readers might find “Suspect” reminiscent of Spencer Quinn’s novels about detective partners Chet and Bernie. In Quinn’s books, Chet narrates the entire tale from a dog’s point of view and there’s considerable humor. That’s not the case here, even though some chapters are from Maggie’s POV. If the Quinn books sound too cute, I can assure you they’re really not. And Crais’ story definitely is not.

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I won’t spoil the ending, obviously, but it’s possible that Crais might give us another tale of Scott and Maggie. Their return would be most welcome.

Chelsea Cain’s fun, twisted mysteries

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If you haven’t checked out author Chelsea Cain’s series of crime novels centering on Archie Sheridan and Gretchen Lowell, you’re missing one of the most interesting and offbeat partnerships in crime fiction.

But if you think Archie and Gretchen are a crime-solving duo like Patrick and Angie in Dennis Lehane’s series, you’re wrong.

Archie is a Portland cop and Gretchen is the infamous Beauty Killer, a stone-cold beautiful female serial killer.

Gretchen, in years pre-dating most of the books, killed dozens – maybe even hundreds – of people. And in the most gruesome ways imaginable. We’re talking neckties made of intestines here.

She also very nearly killed Archie, who as the series began was recuperating from the double-whammy laid on him by Gretchen. Archie and other cops consulted with Gretchen on a series of slayings and Archie cheated on his wife with the blonde bombshell. Only afterward did he find out that Gretchen was the killer. And he found out when Gretchen drugged and kidnapped him.

Gretchen tortured Archie for days, keeping him barely alive and getting him hooked on powerful pain killers. During their time together, Gretchen left Archie with permanent scars, including one heart-shaped one carved into his chest. It’s a Beauty Killer trademark.

Although Gretchen is eventually captured and put in prison, Archie’s dealings with her don’t end. That’s because she prolongs their meetings by parceling out information about other killings. It’s an opportunity for Archie to close cases and give some relief to still-grieving families.

But it’s also Archie’s opportunity to be near Gretchen. Archie has a very real fatal attraction to the Beauty Killer. It’s an attraction that threatens to ruin any chance of reconciliation with his wife, wreck a budding relationship with Susan, an endearing if oddball young newspaper reporter, and harm his relationship with his stalwart and supportive partner, Henry.

Cain writes with a level of gore and kink that will drive some readers away and appeal to many others. Her characters are totally sympathetic – well, not Gretchen. Not much anyway – and compelling.

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Cain has a new book in the series due out this summer, but I just finished the most recent, “Kill You Twice,” and there’s a Hannibal Lecter element to the book that most of the entries in the series don’t have. (And don’t need.) It’s a great yarn about another serial killer on the loose and that murderer’s ties to Gretchen.

If you have a taste for some twisted mystery, check out Cain’s books. I recommend reading them in order, though, starting with 2007’s “Heartsick.” There are five so far, and you might find yourself racing hungrily through them.