In this 3rd book in the "Orphan X" series, Evan Smoak - also known as Orphan X - is out to avenge the death of his mentor Jack Johns. When Evan was twelve, Jack took him from an orphanage and put him in a super-secret Department of Defense black-ops program.
This scheme was designed to turn orphans into highly skilled assassins. The children were stripped of their names and designated alphabetically: Orphan A, Orphan B, Orphan C....and so on.
Jack was like a father to Evan, and made sure the boy kept his humanity while he learned to kill.
Orphan X got his first mission at nineteen, and eliminated many targets after that. Finally, burnt out, Evan left the program and set himself up as 'The Nowhere Man' - a good samaritan who helps people in desperate trouble.
However, no one is allowed to leave the Orphan Program. If a member opts out, the program director - Charles Van Sciver, also known as Orphan Y - sends a hitman (or hitteam) after the deserter.
Thus, killers have been after Evan for years, but his secret apartment is a fortress and he's taken elaborate measures to protect himself. (These measures are fully described in the first book, Orphan X.)
Van Sciver, who's been continually frustrated by Evan, has even more incentive to murder him now - reasons that extend high in government circles. So Orphan Y decides to get to Evan through Jack Johns. Van Sciver, who has phenomenal data-mining capabilities, locates Jack and kidnaps him. This leads to Jack's death - and the terrible scene is shown to Evan via phone. Of course Orphan X now has to go after the director, which will (presumably) bring Evan out into the open.
As events unfold Evan becomes the reluctant guardian of a feisty sixteen-year-old girl named Joey. Joey flunked out of the Orphan Program and is in Van Sciver's sights. So Evan has to protect the girl while he goes after the director.
Van Sciver and his team take a two-pronged approach to finding Orphan X: they locate and torture people who might have information about Evan; and they kidnap a youngster that left the Orphan Program - hoping Evan will try to rescue him. Orphan X is a very resourceful guy though, and Van Sciver's crew suffers loss after loss. Moreover, Joey is a talented computer hacker and programmer, and she sets up a sophisticated data mining system of her own.....one that helps Evan trace his enemies.
Joey is an interesting character. She's a lonely, troubled girl with fierce fighting skills, but no idea what to do outside the Orphan Program. Evan tries to be supportive, but he doesn't know how to deal with teenage girls. Still - as long as Joey has her special shoebox, a case of Red Bull, and plenty of Twizzlers - she's willing to help Evan.
As the story proceeds, Van Sciver pursues his mission to kill Evan and all other fugitive Orphans; Evan goes after Van Sciver; there's plenty of death and destruction. You get the idea.
As all this is happening, Orphan X gets a call on the RoamZone phone used to contact 'The Nowhere Man.' A Los Angeles resident named Benito Orellana needs help. His son Xavier is about to be initiated into the Mara Salvatrucha gang and Benito begs Evan to get the young man out of the gang's clutches. Evan agrees to help, and engages with the gang's vicious thugs.
All this frenetic activity leads to a violent and dramatic climax; a satisfying finale; and (I think) a lead-in to book four.
Additional protagonists that add interest to the story include: Prosecutor Mia Hall - Evan's downstairs neighbor who'd probably like to be more than friends; Peter Hall - Mia's young son, who sends messages to Evan via kite; and Candy McClure - an Orphan who uses her sex appeal for deadly purposes.
Other characters are David Smith - an Orphan boy who's being hidden; Freeway - leader of the Mara Salavatrucha who's had his eyeballs tattooed black; Tommy - a fantastic gunsmith; Jonathan Bennett - a powerful government official; and more.
Hellbent is a good book, full of action and excitement. It can be read as a standalone but I'd strongly advise reading Orphan X first.
Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Gregg Hurwitz), and the publisher (Minotaur Books) for a copy of the book.
Rating: 3.5 stars
In this 15th book in the 'Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery' series, caterer/amateur sleuth Goldy Schulz is catering a couple of weddings when her godfather and his friend are the victims of two separate crimes. Goldy helps her cop husband investigate. The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
Goldy Schulz, owner of Goldilocks Catering, is thrilled when her godfather Jack moves to Colorado and purchases a home near her. Jack and his friend, Doc Finn, can always be counted on when Goldy needs a hand.
As the story opens Goldy - who is married to police detective Tom Schulz - is preparing to cater a couple of weddings: the O'Neal nuptials and the wedding of Billie Attenborough to Dr. Craig Miller.
Billie is a narcissistic pain-in the-neck who has driven Goldy crazy by continually changing the wedding menu, wedding guests, and wedding venue. Finally, Billie decides to hold the event at the Gold Gulch Spa owned by Victor Lane - a man Goldy dislikes and distrusts.
Prior to the Attenborough wedding, Goldy and Jack drive over to check out the Gold Gulch Spa facility - for catering purposes. Jack soon gets caught snooping around the usually locked 'smoothie shack' where delicious fruit beverages are prepared for spa guests.
Jack, however, pretends he entered the shack to nuzzle one of the spa employees and won't explain the incident to his goddaughter.
The first tragedy strikes when Doc Finn has a fatal car accident on the day of the O'Neal wedding.
An investigation shows that, before his death, Doc was thinking of having a mysterious vial analyzed.
A few days later, Jack is attacked at the Attenborough affair. When Goldy visits Jack in the hospital he provides her with mysterious clues, though Goldy doesn't immediately know what they mean. However, spurred on by Jack's clues Goldy helps her husband investigate the crimes.
Seems there are odd goings on in the local medical community and at the Gold Gulch Spa; things that Doc Finn and Jack were looking into.
The plot of the book is satisfactory for a light mystery and Davidson's popular recurring characters are on hand: Goldy's rich (and hungry) friend Marla;
Her teen son Arch;
And her talented assistant Julian.
The additional ancillary characters are also well-drawn and interesting. As always in the Goldy series, the characters consume lots of mouth-watering food (for which Davidson provides the recipes).
I'd recommend the book as an enjoyable light mystery.
Rating: 3 stars
During the reign of Queen Victoria - when social conventions in England were exceptionally rigid - twentysomething teacher Concordia Glade......
.....has been hired to educate four teenage girls at an 'orphan school' housed in Ardwick Castle.
Concordia gets wind of a scheme that (she thinks) involves selling the girls to brothels so - being an unusually intrepid woman - plans a daring escape.
As it happens, a private inquiry agent named Ambrose Wells is hanging around Ardwick Castle during Concordia's risky flight, and he helps the teacher and her charges get away.
Ambrose then hides the ladies in the home of his wealthy benefactor.
Since Ambrose knows the evil schemers will try to get the girls back, he plans to foil the bad guys and expose them. Concordia insists on helping Ambrose and he (reluctantly) agrees.
Since this is a romantic suspense novel Ambrose and Concordia feel an overpowering mutual attraction, which is very obvious to the teenage girls - who worry that Concordia will be 'ruined' if she kisses Ambrose (or heaven forbid more than that!).
The girls discuss this among themselves and then 'talk to' both Ambrose and Concordia....and these parts are pretty funny.
Ambrose and Concordia have a great deal in common since they both have unusual backgrounds. Ambrose was a 'gentleman thief' and Concordia was born to unmarried parents who promoted free love and good education for women (both unusual in Victorian times).
Step by step - using clever ruses and daring gambits - Concordia and Ambrose uncover the sordid scheme to 'auction off' the girls, which (knowingly or not) involves the benefactor of an orphan school;
the director of the orphan school;
a gentleman who moves in upper social circles;
and a criminal mastermind.
Other characters round out the story, including: Mr. Stoner - a kindly, cultured gentleman who teaches the teenage girls to 'gamble' (play cards.... ha ha ha); Felix - a policeman; and employees at a men's bath house.
There's a good bit of drama and death in the book, and Concordia shows her mettle.
The story has lots of romantic entanglement between Ambrose and Concordia, and some steamy sex. I'm not a big fan of romantic suspense, but I knew what to expect when I started the book (for a reading challenge) - so I won't complain too much. However I don't believe that people get engaged a few days after they meet.
The mystery/suspense part of the story is compelling, there are some surprises, and (I don't think it's a spoiler to say) there's a HEA for fans of love stories.
I'd recommend the book to fans of the romantic suspense genre.
Rating: 3 stars
In 2016, "The Sellout" won the 'National Book Critics Circle Award' and the 'Man Booker Prize.' The satiric novel gives us a peek at what it's like to be black in America - a serious topic, but told with a humorous spin.
The narrator, nicknamed Bonbon, lives in 'Dickens', a black town adjacent to Los Angeles, California. Bonbon's neighborhood, called The Farms, permits crops and livestock - so Bonbon grows pot, raises sheep and goats.....
.....and rides a horse around the community.
Bonbon also grows exquisitely delicious fruit, especially watermelons and satsumas.
The scrumptious produce can be used to defuse tricky situations, or even serve as currency. When Bonbon has to pay bail, for example, a judge accepts two satsumas and a kiwi.
Beatty liberally sprinkles the n-word through the book, but I'll just say black person. Interestingly, Beatty addresses that topic in the novel: A journalist asks a gangbanger (I'm paraphrasing), "Why can black people say n__ga but I can't." And the hoodlum responds, "We know we mean n__ga. We don't know if you mean n__ga or n__ger." So that's a pretty good explanation.
As the story opens Bonbon is a farmer and 'black person whisperer' - a job he inherited from his deceased father. Bonbon's dad was a social psychologist who - among other things - eased difficult situations in the black community. The psychologist also home-schooled Bonbon, and used his son for innumerable (weird) psychological experiments. In one classic study, Bonbon had to answer senseless questions, and got an electric shock for responding incorrectly.
The twist: Bonbon had to shock himself!
Bonbon studied agriculture in college and wasn't prepared to be the neighborhood fixer. However, after Bonbon's father was 'accidently' killed by cops, the farmer tried to fill his dad's whispering shoes. This inadvertently resulted in Bonbon acquiring a slave (more about that later).
At some point, political honchos in California decide to quietly wipe Dickens off the map - so surrounding property values will improve. Thus, city limits signs disappear; highway exit signs are taken down; maps no longer show Dickens; GPS devices can't find Dickens; and so on.
As it happens, elderly Hominy Jenkins - who had small parts in the old television series 'The Little Rascals' - lives in Dickens.....and is a minor celebrity.
Tourists sometimes stop in Dickens just to see Hominy, and he likes the attention. After Dickens disappears, however, visitors can no longer find Hominy. The old gent - who's a little nuts anyway - tries to hang himself, but Bonbon saves his life.
Afterwards, Hominy declares that he's Bonbon's slave. Not only does Hominy do odd jobs around the farm, dress up as a butler, pose as a lawn jockey, and so on.....he insists on being whipped once a week. So Bonbon takes him to a dominatrix. Having a slave is awkward for Bonbon, but he can't convince Hominy to give up the charade.
Angry about Dickens being vanished, Bonbon decides to resurrect the municipality. He paints a thick white line around the old Dickens boundary line and erects a new Dickens exit sign on the highway.
Afterwards, to coalesce the black community, Bonbon segregates Dickens - the buses, stores, schools, etc. Bonbon takes it upon himself to put up signs saying 'Whites Only' or 'Blacks Only.' This leads to discussions about 'who is white?' Are Hispanics white? Mexicans?
All this rigmarole about segregation leads to lawsuits, and the case eventually ends up in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court scenes are the funniest parts of the book (to me).
The race issue underlies the entire novel, and is addressed in various ways, such as: racism in 'The Little Rascals'; Bonbon's father being killed for parking in the wrong place; white patrons being chased out of a black comedy club; affirmative action helping black students attend 'white schools'; and more. One character, a black intellectual named Foy Cheshire, re-writes classic books. He 'fixes' Huckleberry Finn, for instance, by replacing the n-word with 'warrior' and 'slave' with 'dark-skinned volunteer.'
Readers intimately familiar with black culture will probably understand a lot of references and in-jokes that I missed, but I liked the book - which is original, informative, and entertaining.
I'd recommend the book to fans of literary fiction.
Rating: 3.5 stars
