Category Archives: mystery

Josh Bazell’s ‘Wild Thing’ is funny and brutal

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A couple of years ago, Josh Bazell made a big impression with his first book, “Beat the Reaper,” a funny and brutal crime novel about Pietro Brnwa, a former mob family member who went into the witness protection program. Brnwa went through medical school and had settled into a big-city hospital job when his past — in the former of mobsters looking for him — caught up with him.

Brnwa is back in Bazell’s sequel, “Wild Thing,” one of the most unusual and rewarding crime novels I’ve read this year.

It works chiefly because Bazell’s sense of humor is as sharp as his sense of justice. The book is harsh — although there’s no moment to equal the scene in “Beat the Reaper” when Brnwa performs impromptu surgery on himself — but also laugh-out-loud funny.

As the book opens, Brnwa is working as a cruise ship physician. For the most part, he’s treating the downtrodden crew for bad teeth and venereal diseases. And he’s looking over his shoulder for any members of the mob family that’s hunting him.

Then Brnwa gets a message from a contact offering him an offbeat but lucrative job: Brnwa would represent a billionaire — the 14th-richest man in the United States — on a hunting trip in the wilds of Minnesota.

It seems that the billionaire wants to know if a lake monster is living in the waters of a remote Minnesota lake, feeding on the occasional swimmer. Brnwa’s scientific background as well as his ability to take care of himself against even supernatural odds makes him a strangely apt choice.

Accompanied by the billionaire’s resident paleontologist, Violet Hurst, Brnwa heads for the northern lake country.

A pleasantly teasing relationship quickly develops between Brnwa and Violet, but the real fun in the book is the group they accompany on the lake monster expedition. There’s a couple of low-grade celebrities, some outdoorsy types and one real-life political figure whose presence lends a bizarre reflection of reality to the story and leaves little doubt about Brnwa’s politics.

I won’t reveal the real-life special guest here — nor will I solve the mystery of the lake monster — but her appearance ably demonstrates the funhouse nature of Bazell’s book. The political figure, that is. Well, and the lake monster too.

One of the most interesting things about the book is the extensive use of footnotes. I don’t remember this from “Beat the Reaper,” but it adds a new level of humor here as Bazell comments and elaborates on his own story.

Part of the fun in this book is also the packaging. The inside front-and-back covers are line drawings that appear to show Brnwa and Violet in a series of adventures: getting chased by a tiger, outrunning a volcano, eluding a werewolf, being waterboarded. The illustrations look like nothing so much as the kind of drawings that decorated old-time Hardy Boys books.

The drawings were just larks, no doubt, inspired ideas that tip the reader off that Bazell’s sense of humor is offbeat.

But I’d be happy if Bazell wrote further adventures of Brnwa and Violet. And I’d love to see them take on that werewolf.

Elmore Leonard’s ‘Raylan’ a new take on the ‘Justified’ cop

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If you’ve been watching and enjoying “Justified” the past couple of years, you probably know that the FX series about the U.S. marshal dealing with hillbillies, meth dealers and killers in the hills of Kentucky is taken from the work of Elmore Leonard, one of the most beloved writers of crime drama.

The lead character in the show, Raylan Givens, has appeared in a couple of Leonard novels, “Pronto” and “Riding the Rap,” and “Justified” itself is based on a Leonard short story, “Fire in the Hole.”

Leonard has returned to Kentucky and the world of Raylan Givens in “Raylan,” a recent novel that some “Justified” fans will find familiar.

“Raylan” follows Givens as he deals with a marijuana-dealing family, a double-dealing coal company representative and a card-dealing poker player who happens to be a Butler University student from Indianapolis.

A couple of those plot points should seem especially familiar if you’ve watched the show, but Leonard — who apparently shared some storylines with the writers of the series — threw in a few twists. Marijuana-dealing brothers Dickie and Coover don’t answer to their mother, Mags Bennett, but to their father, and they’re involved in organ-snatching. And Carol, the coal company executive sent to Harlan County to persuade property owners to give up their mountain, is more dangerous here.

To be honest, the book feels a little half-baked. Is it because I knew and loved the TV versions of these stories and characters first? Maybe. But the coal company story goes nowhere and the storyline about the card-playing college student feels truly tacked on.

As much as I loved seeing Boyd Crowder, Raylan’s longtime friend and sometimes nemesis, in the book, he doesn’t have a lot to do.

And frankly I can’t imagine the Raylan Givens I’m familiar with doing some of the things Leonard has his character do in this book.

What happens when an author’s characters take on a life of their own? Well, Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes when he became something more to readers than to the author.

I’m sure Leonard — who wrote genre classics like “Get Shorty” and “Out of Sight” — can live with the TV incarnation of his Kentucky lawman. And thanks to the TV show, viewers can embrace whichever they prefer.

Writers to read: Chuck Hogan

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Chuck Hogan is one of those writers whose fame is slowly growing but whose name might draw a blank stare even from avid readers of crime novels and thrillers.

Chuck who?

Hogan co-wrote, with Guillermo Del Toro, the trilogy of end-of-the-world books that began with “The Strain.”

He also wrote the gritty thriller “Prince of Thieves,” the story the Ben Affleck/Jeremy Renner thriller “The Town” was based on.

Oh, that Chuck Hogan.

I’ve been making my way through Hogan’s novels, in no particular order. As proof of that, I’ve just finished his first book, “The Standoff,” published in 1994.

The downbeat story of a deeply troubled FBI hostage negotiator, the sheriff of a small Montana county and a black federal agent, all of whom are thrown into a dangerous situation thanks to a standoff with a white supremacist holed up, along with family members, in a small mountain cabin.

When a local judge mistakenly orders an eviction notice be served on the mountain man — who has a good supply of guns to back up his racist, government-hating paranoia — dominos begin falling. Shots are fired, reinforcements are called in and the people of a nearby town start taking sides. Unfortunately, they take the side of the racist cabin-dweller.

Hogan throws a few twists into the story, but the book is a straightforward and ultimately dark thriller.

The story is interesting in part because of the time in which it was published. The federal standoffs at Waco and Ruby Ridge had occurred but the Oklahoma City bombing had not. Mention of the World Trade Center — the scene of an earlier, traumatic hostage situation that left troubled agent John Banish literally and figuratively scarred — seem eerie.

Hogan isn’t a showy writer. The “Strain” trilogy with its end-of-the-world theatrics isn’t typical of his work.

With that series complete, I’m hoping that Hogan gets back to the mean streets and meaner protagonists of his best thrillers.

 

Can’t wait: Upcoming TV shows to watch for

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Back in the day, TV networks threw all their season premieres into the same week in September. It made for a fun issue of TV Guide but was fairly suicidal. Even though there were only three or four networks back then, it was impossible to check everything out.

With the splintered and factionalized TV picture that came with the explosion of cable, TV series premiere virtually throughout the calendar year. Shows take mid-season breaks, stay off the air for months and years (I’m looking at you, “Mad Men”) and pop up whenever.

There’s something to look forward to in the coming weeks, however: The return of several new favorite dramas.

First up is one of my favorite shows, FX’s “Justified.” Based on characters created by crime novel legend Elmore Leonard, the show features Timothy Olyphant as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, back in his home state of Kentucky and, with cool Stetson and even cooler demeanor, running roughshod over lowlifes and bad guys.

“Justified” returns at 10 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17 on FX.

Not long after comes Feb. 12 and the premiere of the second half of season two of “The Walking Dead” on AMC.

The survivors of the zombie apocalypse, traumatized by the loss of young Sophie, forge ahead with their efforts to find their way through the wilds of Georgia and the end of the world.

I’m hoping — really, really hoping — that Rick, Lori, Daryl Dixon and the rest get off the farm where they’ve been all season so far, and get out of there quickly once the second half of the season begins.

How many years has it been since we last saw Don Draper and the rest of the cast of AMC’s “Mad Men?” Two? Three? Less than that? Really?

Well, the deliberately-paced 1960s character drama will finally return on March 25, if you can believe star Jon Hamm’s recent announcement.

Speaking of great characters: One of my favorite episodic dramas of the past couple of years is “Sherlock,” the modern-day retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic Sherlock Holmes tales. Benedict Cumberbatch returns as the brilliant detective and Martin Freeman makes for one of the most satisfyingly irritable John Watsons ever.

Just three episodes aired on PBS’s “Masterpiece Mystery” last year and three more are coming in May. Best news: Three more episodes are now in the works.

I wish I could tell you with some certainty when A&E’s “Longmire” series will premiere, but I haven’t seen a date other than “sometime in 2012.”

I also wish I could tell you that the series is faithful to Craig Johnson’s wonderful mystery series about Walt Longmire, an old-fashioned modern-day Wyoming sheriff dealing with an odd assortment of characters and crimes. I wish I could say that it is — and it very well might be — but the casting is a little young and a little off.

The best bit of casting? Katee Sackhoff of “Battlestar Galactica” as Longmire’s funny, profane deputy, Victoria. The actress is perfect for the part.

Of course, there are other shows to look forward to. But that’s a pretty good start to any year.

 

Michael Connelly’s ‘The Drop’ has twists and turns

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Michael Connelly, a Los Angeles newspaper reporter turned writer, has become something of a brand name among authors of crime novels. Connelly, who seems as cool as his star characters, Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller, could probably say how many New York Times bestsellers he’s written. Not that he needs to. For many readers, all they need to know is that Connelly is the guy who wrote “The Lincoln Lawyer.”

That book, about street-smart Los Angeles defense attorney Haller, has had a few sequels now and been turned into a pretty good movie. The success of the Haller books almost threatens to eclipse Connelly’s best and most accomplished character, L.A. police detective Bosch.

That might be because Bosch is anything but cuddly. The son of a murdered prostitute, the tough Vietnam veteran is nearing the end of his law enforcement career as “The Drop,” Connelly’s latest novel, begins.

The title refers to a process through which LAPD cops can pick their “drop” date, or retirement date, and Bosch — worried that he’s losing his skills as well as losing an opportunity to connect with his 15-year-old daughter — puts in for his. He signs up for retirement and looks at a little more than two years on the force.

Bosch, a veteran of the LAPD’s homicide squad, is currently working on cold cases for the department and applies himself to each new cold case — usually sparked by a DNA hit or some other fresh development — with the same single-minded drive he brought to new homicides.

Bosch and his often-callow partner, David Chu, are handed a cold case that seems impossible: A DNA match from a 20-year-old murder points to a local man as a suspect. But the the man was only eight years old at the time of the slaying. The suspect is a sex offender, but how could he have been involved in the homicide when he was still a child?

The title also refers to the fatal fall suffered by an L.A. man who happens to be the son of Bosch’s old nemesis, Irvin Irving, a police bureaucrat turned city council member. Bosch clashed with Irving on earlier cases, so why would the councilman ask Bosch to investigate his son’s death? Is Bosch being set up to prove that a case that looks like a suicide was really a homicide?

Bosch is his typically blunt, laser-focused self in “The Drop” and, while the cop’s personality makes him fascinating it also, truthfully, makes him kind of hard to like. Granted, I’d want a cop of Bosch’s demeanor investigating the slaying of a loved one. But I wouldn’t want to be his partner or superiors or pretty much anybody around, because Bosch is really, really good — despite his concerns that he’s losing his touch — and doesn’t hesitate to steamroller over anyone that stands between him and closing a case.

In his recent books, Connelly has mixed his wide-ranging L.A. cast, with Bosch appearing in Haller books and Haller appearing in Bosch books. There’s little of that going on here. Fans of Haller will enjoy a late-in-the-book reference to one of the best characters from those stories, though.

“The Drop” is, like most of Connelly’s work, the kind of story that almost demands you read it quickly once you’ve begun. The story, thanks to Harry Bosch’s driven personality, propels itself forward. It’s a fast-moving read with a development near the end that feels more like a lurch than a twist. But Bosch isn’t thrown for a loop. He goes with the twist and brings readers — happily and willingly — along.