Review of "The Theory of Death: A Decker and Lazarus Mystery" by Faye Kellerman

Former LAPD detective Peter Decker and his wife Rina have moved to upstate New York where Decker now works for the small Greensbury Police Department.



As the book opens, Tyler McAdams - who briefly partnered with Decker at the Greensbury PD before starting Harvard Law School - asks to stay with the Deckers to study for finals.



Before McAdams can crack a book the body of Eli Wolf, a student from local Kneed Loft College, is found in the woods - and the Decker/McAdams partnership is (temporarily) back on.

While investigating Eli's death, which appears to be a suicide, the detectives learn that Eli is a math genius who comes from a Mennonite family. Faculty and fellow students at Kneed Loft explain that Eli was studying an esoteric field of mathematics involving Fourrier Analysis, Fourrier Transforms, Eigenvalues, and Eigenvectors which - in short - can be used to make money in the real world.



One application, for instance, is used to predict changes in the stock market. So it's no surprise that - when some of Eli's research papers turn up - lots of people are anxious to get their hands on them.

As the story unfolds the detectives talk to a number of people in Eli's orbit including his mother and father; his thesis advisor; professors on his thesis committee; other faculty members; the dean of student life; the RA in his dorm; fellow math majors; and so on.



One attractive math student, Mallon Euler, seems especially interested in Eli's papers and takes to stalking/flirting with Detective McAdams in an obvious attempt to get a look at them.



Before long the body of another victim, a math professor, is found in the woods - and this time it looks like murder! Who knew advanced math could be so dangerous?

The investigation proceeds rather languidly as one or both detectives (and sometimes Rina) drive here and there to visit Eli's family, get help from a Harvard math professor, speak to the brother of a victim in New York City, and interview local persons of interest.



The detectives also get relevant phone records, examine victims' computers, collect text messages, etc.



A sketchy monetary scheme is uncovered, as well as an illicit affair, faculty rivalries, professional jealousy, misogyny, and other shady behavior.

Step by step Decker puts together all the clues and learns the identity of the murderer.



For me this is just an okay addition to the series. The mystery is mildly engaging and the (brief) explanation of the fancy math is interesting, but the story meanders along with minimal excitement. Also, it disturbed me that Rina tags along on police interviews.



What cop would take his civilian wife along during an investigation? This has to be against the rules... besides being potentially dangerous (McAdams was already shot in a previous book). It feels like this plot device was used just to give Rina a role in the story - which seems to be to provide tasty kosher snacks.....

......schmooze with the Mennonite mom, and throw out a suggestion every now and then.

Fans of the series might enjoy the book just to see what some favorite characters are up to - but very few ancillary characters from previous books make an appearance. To me it feels like the Decker series needs a jolt of electricity. 

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell: A Jim Qwilleran Mystery" by Lilian Jackson Braun

When "The Cat Who" series began Jim Qwilleran was a Chicago crime reporter who owned two Siamese cats, Koko and YumYum, and solved mysteries. In time Qwill inherited billions, moved '400 miles north of everywhere' to Pickax, became a newspaper columnist, met a lot of interesting locals, and continued to solve crimes. I've enjoyed many books in this quirky series, where Koko uses his 'kitty intuition' to help Qwill investigate. Eventually, though, the series ran out of steam and this book is a di   In this 28th addition to the 'Cat Who' series, billionaire newspaper columnist (and sometime amateur detective) Jim Qwilleran trots around town talking to people and engaging in miscellaneous activities while his 'psychic' cat Koko is signaling criminal activity. The book can be read as a standalone. ***** When "The Cat Who" series began Jim Qwilleran was a Chicago crime reporter who owned two Siamese cats, Koko and YumYum, and solved mysteries. In time Qwill inherited billions, moved '400 miles north of everywhere' to Pickax, became a newspaper columnist, met a lot of interesting locals, and continued to solve crimes. I've enjoyed many books in this quirky series, where Koko uses his 'kitty intuition' to help Qwill investigate. Eventually, though, the series ran out of steam and this book is a disappointment. As the story opens Pickax is about to celebrate its 150th anniversary and the town planners organize a series of events - including parades, family reunions, an heirloom auction, and a kitten auction - to celebrate the occasion. Qwill is the 'go to' guy in Pickax and becomes involved, to some extent, in most of these activities. In the midst of all this a rich local couple, Doris and Nathan Ledfield, ask Qwill to let their California-based nephew Harvey - a budding architect - sketch the barn Quill's converted into a home. Koko seems to dislike Harvey but all goes well until Harvey returns to California, after which Doris and Nathan develop severe allergies and disappear from public view. In another occurrence Koko yowls onimously...perhaps at the very moment a man is killed in a hunting accident. These seem to be the 'mysteries' in the story, but Qwill takes minimal interest in either one. Instead, Qwill spends most of his time moving back and forth between his condo and his barn (weather problems); writing limericks and scrawling in his journal; chatting/having dinner with his lady friend Polly; enjoying beverages, snacks, and meals with various friends and acquaintances; emceeing the kitty auction; feeding and brushing Koko and YumYum; eavesdropping, listening to gossip, and otherwise collecting ideas for his newspaper column; etc. I'll admit it was a small pleasure to meander around town with Qwill and see what Pickax residents are up to - though some of my favorite characters got short shrift. Still, "The Cat Who" books are supposed to be mysteries, and this just isn't one. If you're up for a quiet human interest story you might enjoy this book. Otherwise, skip it. Rating: 3 stars

Review of "The Guest Room: A Novel" by Chris Bohjalian

Richard and Kristin Chapman - fortyish, happily married, and living in upscale Bronxville, New York - are the ideal couple. Richard is an investment banker; Kristin is a high school history teacher; and they get along great with their 9-year-old daughter Melissa - who loves movies, fancy tights, and dance classes.



Richard's brother Philip, a hotel manager who's the 'gray sheep' of the family, is about to get married and Richard decides to host a bachelor party in his home. Kristin accommodatingly takes Melissa to Grandma's house for the night.



This lets the boys get on with the fun....but it turns out all this is a bad idea.



The groom's friend Spencer - who organizes the party - hires a couple of strippers named Sonja and Alexandra to entertain the guests. It turns out the 'strippers' (translation...prostitutes) are exotically beautiful Eastern European waifs who've been forced into the sex trade by Russian mobsters. Thus, the gals are accompanied by two strapping bald bodyguards armed with guns.





To cut to the chase: the party guests get VERY drunk and the entertainment progresses from stripping, to lap-dancing, to touching....and then to full on to sex for some of the men. And straight-laced Richard gets carried away and takes Alexandra up to the guest room - where he does some things he's ashamed of.



After Richard and Alexandra return downstairs, things REALLY get out of control. Sonja grabs a knife from the kitchen and viciously attacks one of the bodyguards, the girls get hold of a gun, the other bodyguard gets shot, and the girls take off in the car that brought them - leaving two dead Russians behind.



The cops descend on the house, the party guests are questioned at the police station, and - in the following days - Richard has to face Kristin, his daughter, his bosses, and so on.

The story is told in the rotating voices of Alexandra (stripper), Richard (husband/host), Kristin (wife), and Melissa (daughter). Thus, we learn something about the history of the characters as well as what's going on with them after the party.

Alexandra grew up in Armenia, studied ballet, and - at the age of fifteen - was tricked into going to Russia to 'become a ballerina'. Instead Alexandra was brutally raped and forced to become a prostitute ('sex slave'), along with other coerced young girls. Eventually, some of the girls were taken to New York to work.



Trouble ensued, the Russian criminals feared exposure, and Sonja thought the bodyguards planned to kill her after the bachelor party. So she took the bull by the horns...... And now Alexandra and Sonja are on the run, being sought by the Russian mobsters and the cops.

Richard is embarrassed and humiliated after news of the 'sex party' and murders goes public. Having previously been a faithful spouse, good father, and reliable employee he now has to deal with a furious/hurt wife, a bewildered daughter, and censorious bosses. To add to Richard's troubles, someone with illicit photos tries a spot of blackmail.



Kristin has to face her advance placement history students, who - along with their parents - worry that all this will somehow affect their AP scores and college prospects (this reaction is so true....it made me smile). Kristin also obsesses about Richard doing something (she's not sure what) with a prostitute, her daughter's worry and distress, and her tainted, bloody house.



Melissa doesn't quite understand what happened, is concerned about her father, and fears her parents might get a divorce.

Some of the most engaging scenes in the book are narrated by Alexandra, in good but quirky English. I was drawn in by Alexandra's descriptions of growing up in Armenia with her mother and grandmother, the food they ate, the many Barbie dolls she owned, and her love of ballet.



On the down side, the depictions of sex trafficking, and what Alexandra was forced to do (not too graphic) were disturbing. The idea that women are used like that - and develop a sort of Stockholm Syndrome and go along with it all - is terrible to think about.

Alexandra talks a lot about her country, and in one scene she describes a horrific earthquake that devastated an Armenian town before she was born. This was enlightening but had almost nothing to do with the plot and pulled me out of the story. It just didn't seem to belong.

Overall, I liked the book very much. It's well-written and tells a compelling and suspenseful story. It also has a broad range of engaging characters that act like real people. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "Orphan X: A Thriller" by Gregg Hurwitz

Evan Smoak was part of the government's black ops 'Orphan Program', which recruited children and trained them to be world class assassins.



The Orphans learned how to use weapons of all kinds, became skilled in a variety of martial arts, were taught to blot out pain, became experts in surveillance and bugging, and so on. Dubbed 'Orphan X' Evan eventually carried out many killings assigned by his handler/father figure Jack Johns - who raised and trained Evan from a young age.



After Jack is killed in dodgy circumstances, Evan - who has plenty of money stashed in offshore banks - quits the Orphan Program and begins using his skills to help people. Calling himself 'The Nowhere Man' and working out of Los Angeles, Evan sets himself up in a reinforced, fortress-like, penthouse condominium apartment with all kinds of defensive doodads...just in case. This includes: a parachute to jump off the apartment's terrace.....



.....rappelling equipment to climb down the building's wall;



.....bullet proof windows;



.....a door that can withstand explosives;



.....a hidden back room with surveillance equipment; etc.



Evan also configures a completely untraceable cell phone so desperate people can call him for assistance.



Early in the story Evan is contacted by a 17-year-old sex slave - Morena Aguilar - who's trying to prevent her little sister from being forced into the trade.



To assist the girls Evan has to kill a dirty cop. He then asks Morena to pass his phone number on to ONE person who needs help - Evan's usual method of finding 'clients'.

Evan is then contacted by Katrin White, whose father is being held hostage until she pays off a huge gambling debt.



While Evan is trying to help Katrin, he realizes his own life is in danger. It seems another defector from the Orphan Program - 'Orphan O' (working with a team of killers) - is out to get him, apparently having been hired by one of Evan's many enemies.



Since it's a case of 'kill or be killed' Evan and Orphan O use all of their considerable skills to try to outmaneuver each other. Thus the reader is treated to scene after scene of reconnaissance, infiltration, safe houses, safe vehicles, explosions, snipers, stabbings, shootings, hand-to-hand combat, balcony hopping, double dealing and more....carried out with all manner of ingenious high tech toys. I was especially intrigued with the 'contact lens and paste on nails ensemble' used for texting in mid-air.



While all this is going on Evan keeps up a facade for his condominium neighbors, claiming to be an importer of industrial cleaning supplies. This sets the stage for some lighter moments in the story as Evan interacts with his condominium cohorts, including the condo board president (who calls lots of meetings); a nice Jewish lady (who complains a lot about her damaged door); and Assistant District Attorney Mia Hall and her little boy Peter (who takes to sending messages up to Evan's window via balloon).

The book is well-written, suspenseful, and exciting - highly recommended to fans of thrillers. I look forward to reading more of Evan Smoak's adventures.

Note: I like to think Evan Smoak has a connection with Felicity Smoak - the brilliant computer whiz who works with Green Arrow. But - since it's not his real name - probably not. LOL 😎

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Gregg Hurwitz) and publisher (St. Martin's Press) for a copy of the book

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "Play Dead: A Detective Inspector Kim Stone Novel" by Angela Marsons

In this fourth book in the 'D.I. Kim Stone series', the detective pursues a serial killer who leaves the victims at a body farm. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

Having wrapped up their last case Detective Inspector Kim Stone and her team, from the West Midlands region of England, are sent to look at Westerley Research Facility. This 'body farm' has corpses strewn around to study decomposition in different conditions (wet, dry, buried, unburied, etc.); insect and animal activity on the bodies; rotting of burned bodies; and so on.



While being shown around the facility, Stone discovers a body that's not supposed to be there - a recently murdered woman with a mouth full of dirt and a smashed face.



An autopsy reveals that the woman was held captive before her death - one wrist has handcuff marks and her body has stripy red bruises on the stomach and legs. The woman is identified as Jemima Lowe, a seemingly nice, thirtyish woman from a good family.

Before long another body shows up at Westerley, but this one isn't quite dead. The victim has dirt in her mouth, a bashed skull, and the same marks as Jemima. It seems a serial killer is at work here, who was interrupted during this latter attempted murder. The unidentified victim is in a coma, but her boyfriend shows up and says she's Isobel Jones who's estranged from her husband and dating him. The woman eventually wakes up - but she has amnesia, doesn't even know her name, and can't assist the detectives.



Becoming suspicious about Westerley being used as a body dump, Stone sends in radar experts and anthropologists to search for buried bodies. The anthropologists - mouthy 'Dr. A' and attractive Dr. Daniel Bate (with whom Stone has unwanted sparks) - add a little fun to the book. It's also a treat to watch feisty Stone and her colleagues, DS Bryant, DS Dawson, and data-mining expert DC Stacey Wood exchange friendly quips and digs. 😎



While all this is going on a local reporter, Tracy Frost - who's generally a thorn in Stone's side - persuades the detective to look into an unsolved case: the death of an unidentified man several years ago. Later on, Stone makes a deal with Frost, who agrees to keep mum about an aspect of the Westerley case. And then Tracy Frost disappears! What's going on? Can Tracy be in the murderer's clutches?



The story alternates between the detectives' investigation and the POV of the murderer, who sometimes recalls scenes from childhood and sometimes creepily interacts with abducted victims.



The police query moves along at a steady clip and leads to a surprising and satisfying solution during which Stone must fight for her life.

I enjoyed the book, which is a suspenseful page turner with interesting characters, though some are more fleshed out than others. I especially liked DI Stone, a woman with a troubled past who knows her mind and doesn't take guff from anyone. I always like cute pet characters and got a kick out of Stone's dog Barney, 🐶 who's adept at 'herding' her to the kitchen to fill his food bowl.



I do have a problem with the book, which (in my opinion) has a major flaw in the plot. Rigorous police work and thorough computer searches (I'm looking at you Stacey Wood) would have IMMEDIATELY exposed someone's big lies and a significant connection between two characters. This would have revealed the culprit much sooner. It may be necessary to fudge things a bit for plot purposes, but in real life this would seem like bungling - and it bothered me.

Nevertheless, this is an engaging mystery, recommended to fans of the genre.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Angela Marsons), and the publisher (Bookouture) for a copy of this book.

Rating: 3.5 stars