Archive for the 'Review'

Burglar and PI for the crooks Junior Bender is back. This time he's hired by senior powerbroker Irwin Dressler to find out who lead the cops to raid a gangster party that resulted in the end of a young actress' carreer in the fifties. And then there's that spunky hitwoman who wants him to find her daughter.
As in the first two Bender novels there's a lot of laughs in these pages. Dressler is just a very funny character and Bender gets in some great wisecracks as does his daughter. The last few chapters stars some good action scenes, a lot of writers get in too much detail or too little in scenes like that, but Timothy gets it just right.
What makes this book so interesting to a lot of non-PI fans is the portrait drawn of fifties Hollywood and the wonderful Dorothy Lamarr, a strong woman in a time women weren't expected to be strong yet. There's a large part devoted to her past that take you back to those old days of Hollwyood that will make you nostalgic.
Funny, tragic, and even action-packed. A great read.

Wow, this Billy Lafitte character has some attitude. He's a Minnesota cop that takes bribes, drinks too much and blackmails girls into sleeping with him. He's got a soft spot for young rockabilly girl though (I totally fell in love with her as well) which makes him just a bit more of a nice guy.
He ends up helping a boyfriend of an old sexual conquest with some problems with drugdealers. Little did he know there's some terrorists involved, a situation that may cost Billy's life.
Lafitte is just way cool. He's a bastard, but you will love him. He gets away with all kinds of politically incorrect stuff that our darkest testosterone filled side would love to get away with as well. Very entertaining, grim but sometimes just as funny. And any book mentioning the Horrorpops just has to be good.

Jack Reacher hitches another ride... But why is that driver lying? And what's up with the woman in the backseat? Is she in danger? These questions lead into an action-packed finale that sees Reacher kill more enemies than ever before.
The first 400 pages are probably the least violent of the Reacher books and Lee Child does a great job turning up the suspense the first 200. He takes his time telling the story, switching from Reacher's viewpoint to FBI agent Sorenson (wow, in Child's world there are a lot of attractive, capable FBI women) until they meet and try to solve a murder linked to terrorism.
Reacher books are of course always cool. I love Jack and more than ever this one shows us what a cool character is. I really liked the pace of this story and thought this one stands out as one of the best in the series.

I've enjoyed Tim's work online for years now, I even did a split with him (which you can get for free here) featuring his PI Jim Wolf and my own Noah Milano.
I liked reading about Jim Wolf in this full length story. Jim sleeps with an attractive young girl that ends up murdered. Suspected of this murder he is forced to investigate in order to prove his innocense. If that isn't enough he's also visited by his mother who's in trouble with the mob and leads him to another mystery to be solved.
Jim Wolf is a classic PI with a few cool characteristics like the snake on his houseboat featured in a classic mystery which shows the best motives for murder can be found in the past.
If you like mysteries that take it easy (don't expect Mike Hammer pacing) and feature characters with deeper feelings and a plot with historical plot points this one is for you.

A new Rushmore McKenzie novel always gets to the top of my TBR-list. Alwasy entertaining and easy to read it is the perfect series for fans of Spenser or earlier Elvis Cole novels. I wasn't disappointed by the latest entry in the series.
McKenzie is asked by the ATF to infiltrate a gang of smalltime and smalltime bank robbers so he can find out who is supplying them with assault rifles. Channeling his inner-Parker (from Richard Stark's great series) he plays a hardboiled criminal called Dyson. This role gives him the chance to really give in to his wild side which made for enjoyable reading. Luckily there's also a bit more about his relationship with his best friend's wife and his own girlfriend, bits I always enjoy.
David Housewright always manages to come up with original plots for his hero, by having his hero go undercover he was able to write a heist novel instead of a PI novel while still using all the great bits that compromised earlier novels of this series.