Review of "The Infinite Sea: Book two of the 5th Wave" by Rick Yancey

This is the second book in a trilogy that started with "The Fifth Wave."

As the book opens most humans have been wiped off the Earth by an alien race and a small group of young survivors (ranging from kindergartners to teens) are struggling to survive. For the moment they're holed up in a run-down motel infested with rats.



The book basically follows several storylines. First, teen Ringer, an excellent shot, takes off to scout out a better home for the winter. She soon runs into big trouble and her story picks up again towards the latter part of the book.



Meanwhile, a small cadre of survivors, including Ben (the group leader), Cassie, her little brother Sam, and a few other survivors remain in the hotel. Cassie is awaiting the return of Evan, an unusual boy who promised he'd find her after the catastrophic finale of book one.

Evan was badly injured and has been nursed back to health by Stella, who's his female counterpart. Evan and Stella have different goals, however, which leads to some of the more dramatic scenes in the story.



For the most part, there's not a lot of action in this book. The characters speculate a lot about the aliens' reasons for coming to Earth, why they didn't just annihilate the entire human race with a meteorite, why some aliens have 'downloaded' themselves into human bodies, and so on. As a reader, I hoped some of this would be explained in book two - but it wasn't.

This book is clearly just a bridge in the trilogy. By the end Ringer has had some experiences which (presumably) will be important in book three and the other surviving members of the crew are also poised to forge ahead. Overall the book is disappointing but I'll read book three in hopes of getting the scoop about what's going on with the aliens.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Newcomer: A Detective Kaga Mystery" by Keigo Higashino

In this 2nd book  (that's been translated into English) in the 'Detective Kaga' series, the Tokyo homicide cop investigates the murder of a woman. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****



When a middle-aged woman named Mineko Mitsui is murdered in her apartment in the Kodenmacho district of Tokyo, homicide detective Kyoichiro Kaga - a newcomer to the local precinct - uses his Sherlockian skills to track down the killer.



Rather than zero in directly on the victim, Kaga starts by investigating oddities surrounding the case. These issues are connected to people who knew Mitsui, and specialty shops in the nearby Nihonbashi neighborhood. Thus Kaga interviews people and visits stores, day after day, to look into the following:

- The movements of Mitsui's insurance agent, Mr. Takura, who visited her on the day of the murder. Mr. Takura stopped at a rice cracker shop on his way to Kodenmacho, but the timeline of his movements doesn't add up, and Kaga has to figure out why.

-Ten snack cakes were found in Mitsui's apartment, seven with sweet bean paste filling and three without. One of the cakes had been doctored, and Kaga has to find out where the cakes were bought, who tampered with them, and why.






- Mitsui had recently purchased an expensive new pair of kitchen scissors from a cutlery shop, though she already had a serviceable pair of kitchen shears. Kaga needs to solve the puzzle of the second scissors.



- The owner of a clock repair shop, called Mr. Terada, would take his dog for a walk at 5:30 every afternoon. Mitsui often went out at the same time, and the two pedestrians would pass one another and nod hello. Mr. Terada seems to be mistaken about exactly where he saw Mitsui on the day of the murder, and Kaga needs to find out why.



- Mitsui would stop by a pastry shop every evening, where she would purchase cream puffs, her favorite sweets. Mitsui usually exchanged a few pleasantries with the bakery clerk, and even gave the girl a small 'good luck' gift. Kaga visits the pastry shop to speak to the girl.



- Mitsui was estranged from her twenty-year-old son Koki - an aspiring actor, and divorced from Koki's father Naohiro - a businessman. Though mother and son hadn't spoken in years, Mitsui moved to Koki's Kodenmacho neighborhood without informing her offspring - perhaps hoping to make amends.



Mitsui was also seeking to redraft her divorce settlement with Naohiro, in an effort to get more money.

Kaga looks into these matters.

- Mitsui had recently become reacquainted with an old college friend named Tamiko Yoshioka, who worked as a translator.



In college, Mitsui had also hoped to become a translator, and Tamiko promised to help Mitsui get translation work and get on her feet financially. Then Tamiko's situation changed, and she was planning to move away.....causing friction between the women. Kaga investigates this.

- Kaga visits the home of a young married couple, Reiko and Katsuya Kishida, who have a very lavish lifestyle.



The couple's little boy was recently gifted with a wooden top by his grandfather - who happens to be the business accountant for Mitsui's ex-husband. The wooden top doesn't work properly, and Kaga visits shops that sell these toys.



In the course of his investigation, Kaga gathers information and meets a wide variety of people - including store owners, shop employees, husbands, wives, in-laws, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, granddaughters, and so on. Many of these characters have secrets - some big, some small - that come to light along the way.....and some of them are very surprising.

The author artfully connects what, at first, seems to be a series of disparate events into a unified whole.....from which the murderer emerges.

I enjoyed the book and recommend it to fans of unusual mysteries. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "Bad Little Falls: A Mike Bowditch Thriller" by Paul Doiron

In this 3rd book in the 'Mike Bowditch' series, the game warden investigates a murder. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

Twenty-six year old Maine game warden Mike Bowditch has a habit of bending the rules and showing bad judgement. As a result, Bowditch has been transferred to the boondocks of Washington County where he (hopefully) can't get into too much trouble.



When Bowditch stops at McDonald's one morning, he's immediately attracted to the pretty shift manager, Jamie Sewell, who serves him his Mcmuffin and coffee.





As Bowditch is eating, he sees two men - a big ruffian with a facial tattoo and a smaller sidekick - enter McDonald's, approach Jamie, and cause a kerfuffle.



Jamie quickly escorts the men out, then brings them a bag of food in the parking lot.

Bowditch soon learns that the tattooed man is Jamie's ex-boyfriend Randall Cates, and the other man is Jamie's brother Prester Sewell. Both men are suspected of dealing drugs, which is a HUGE problem in the area, causing all manner of crimes.

A day or so later, during a nighttime blizzard, a man suffering from extreme hypothermia and frostbite stumbles up to the home of Ben and Doris Sprague.



The Spragues call their veterinarian friend Doc Larrabee, for assistance, and Larrabee asks Bowditch to drive him over.

The frozen man, who turns out to be Prester Sewell, is hardly conscious, but mumbles something about a friend being stranded in the storm. Bowditch sets out to rescue the marooned motorist, and after a harrowing search, finds an abandoned car.....and then Randall Cates - who's been murdered.



This leads to a police investigation, with Prester Sewell as the main suspect. As a result, Bowditch comes into close contact with Jamie Sewell....who appeals to him for help. Using his usual poor judgement Bowditch gets overly friendly with Jamie and her 9-year-old son Lucas - an odd little boy who likes to journal.



Jamie insists that Prester is innocent, and Bowditch makes it his business to look for the 'real killer.' Bowditch's boss and the sheriff disapprove of his interference in a police investigation, and the situation is exacerbated by nasty 'gifts' from an anonymous person with a grievance.

All kinds of trouble follows, and Bowditch has to deal with Jamie's antagonistic ex-husband; a survivalist university professor; an injudicious hunting guide; the unprincipled owner of an animal preserve; and more.

As the story unfolds, Mike makes good use of his well-honed ranger skills, such as tracking people through snow in sub-zero conditions; traveling on ice-covered lakes; searching for missing persons; and more.



This is a compelling thriller, set in picturesque (but very cold) environs. 🙂 Recommended to fans of the genre.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture" by Douglas Coupland

This is the story of a handful of Generation X-ers, defined as people born between 1960 and 1980.

In the book three late-twenty someones - Andy, Claire, and Dag - separately give up their upwardly mobile jobs and move to Palm Springs, California. There they take up residence in modest digs, take low-paying service jobs, and attempt to live more or less minimalist lives.



They entertain themselves by telling stories (made up or real), drinking, snacking, having picnics, and - for the most part - eschewing serious relationships.



Their purpose, apparently, is to reject traditional society, which they find oppressive. Though the characters reject the values of their nuclear families (which are not perfect, but whose family is?) they do maintain contact via phone calls, visits, and so on....so their isolation is not complete.



Though the hippie-ish lifestyle of Andy and his friends/acquaintances is amusing to read about, it strikes the reader (at least this reader) as unrealistic and unsustainable. Though a small segment of society can decide to 'do nothing' with their lives and suffer few consequences - if everyone took up this lifestyle the country's economy would soon collapse. And even for those who are determined to stick it out, this kind of freewheeling behavior becomes unattractive when people are no longer young (that is, approach their mid-thirties and older).



The main characters try to be committed to their 'no-strings' lifestyle, but life does impinge: Claire develops a huge crush on Tobias, an exceptionally handsome man - and follows him to New York - where their lives don't mesh.



Dag is attracted to Claire's friend Elvissa, and tries to develop a relationship with her - until Elvissa skips town for an even more minimal lifestyle.



Dag is also an obsessive vandal, damaging other people's cars and even destroying one by setting it on fire. I would have liked to see Dag punished for this, though he would undoubtedly bitterly resent the fines/jail imposed by outside society.



Regardless of my opinion of the characters (whom I didn't admire), the book is well-written and the characters are believable. It's interesting to get a peek into the thought processes of some Gen X-ers. I think the best part of the book is in the margins, where Douglas Coupland defines some of the original and entertaining Gen-X expressions/vocabulary. If you're curious about Gen X, this is a good book for you.

Examples of Generation X Vocabulary
go postal = get very angry
dip = leave
crib = home
phat = cool
grindage = food
grody = disgusting
cheddar = money
all that and a bag of chips = the best of the best

The book is "phat", but it's not "all that and a bag of chips." 😁

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "A Trick of the Light: A Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Mystery" by Louise Penny

 

In this 7th book in the 'Chief Inspector Armand Gamache' series, the detective investigates a murder at a barbeque. The book can be read as a standalone, but knowing the background of the characters is beneficial.



*****

There's excitement in the tiny Quebec town of Three Pines when long-time resident, artist Clara Morrow, is scheduled to have her first vernissage at the prestigious Musée D'art Contemporain de Montreal.



Clara has been painting away, unheralded, for years - and now her genius will finally be acknowledged.



One person who isn't happy about Clara's success is her husband, fellow artist Peter Morrow, who's jealous and resentful.....but trying to hide it.



The vernissage, a private showing with food and drink, attracts a wide variety of guests, including struggling (or failed) artists who come for the free refreshments.



There's a great deal of rivalry in the art world, and some unsuccessful artists - even ones who become art critics, or art gallery owners, or art dealers - engage in backstabbing, pettiness, and denigration of people more talented than themselves. This theme runs throughout the story, leading to scenes that are both humorous, cringeworthy, and infuriating. 😫



Clara's vernissage is followed by a barbecue at the Morrow home in Three Pines, to allow friends, neighbors, and art aficionados to continue celebrating Clara's success. One of the guests at both the vernissage and the barbeque is Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec, a good friend of the Morrows.



The mystery part of the book kicks in when Clara's triumph is marred by the discovery of a woman's body in the Morrows' backyard.



The woman, clad in a bright red dress, turns out to be Lillian Dyson - Clara's best friend from childhood. Clara and Lillian had been like sisters all the way through art school, when they had a huge falling out. It's now been decades since Clara clapped eyes on her former friend.

Everyone at the party - and all the people in Three Pines - are suspects, and Gamache gathers his team to investigate. This includes Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Agent Isabelle Lacoste, who proceed to examine the crime scene, analyze evidence, interview people, and so on.



I won't say any more about the inquiry because of spoilers.

The suspense part of the novel is accompanied by a deep dive into the private lives of the main characters, some of whom have life-changing experiences in this story. In fact, this book marks a turning point in the series (IMO). Readers familiar with the books will understand this best, but enough information is supplied for new readers to catch on.

For instance, both Gamache and Beauvoir were almost killed in a police action in a previous book, and Beauvoir now has a painkiller problem. Moreover, some miscreant put a video of the disastrous police action on the internet, for everyone to see.



Police supervisors think the culprit who uploaded the video was an unknown hacker, but Gamache and Beauvoir believe it was an inside job....and that something is rotten in the Sûreté. In fact Gamache thinks someone is trying to push him out of the police service.

In addition to the video brouhaha, the story highlights some romantic tumult; old resentments that continue to simmer; a situation involving Rosa the duck; Peter Morrow's guilty secrets; Clara Morrow's new insights; and more.

The recurring characters in Penny's books are highlights of the novels. In this story, we once again visit with Ruth - the grumpy, potty-mouthed poet;



Gabri and Olivier - the gay couple who run the local inn;



Marge - the former psychologist who now owns a bookstore;



Reine-Marie - Gamache's solicitous wife; and others.



I enjoyed the book, which has a well-wrought mystery and clues that are interesting to ponder. I had a suspect in mind from early on.....but I was wrong. 😏

I'd recommend the book to mystery lovers, especially fans of Armand Gamache.

Rating: 3.5 stars