Goodreads | Eric_W Welch (Forreston, IL)'s review of The Keeper of Lost Causes

This is the first in a series of "Department Q" Danish police procedurals. Carl Mørck, is a deputy detective superintendent who been is relegated to the basement in an office where it is deemed he'll be no trouble. And at first he wants nothing more than to put his feet up and do nothing. When he learns the department was getting a windfall by creating this department of "lost causes" he uses that knowledge to his advantage to get an assistant and nice digs.  Carl has a history of his own.  He was involved in a shootout that killed one of his partners and paralyzed the other.

Assad, his assistant, a Muslim  and another cast-off, seems to be always one step ahead. He’s a delightful character. They are tasked with investigating the disappearance, ostensibly a drowning, of a prominent political leader.  This was the part I found totally implausible:  a woman kept in a chamber for five years in which the atmospheric pressure is being gradually increased.  She is fed through an airlock and tries to retain her sanity.  The story that gradually unfolds concerns an intricate plot to get revenge for something that had happened years before..

It took me a while to get into this book, and I must say it was only the quirkiness of the main characters that kept me going. Perhaps it was the structure I found annoying, but the book became more intriguing as it progressed.  I’ll try another in the series, but we’ll just have to see.

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Archie in the Crosshairs (The Nero Wolfe Mysteries) by Robert Goldsborough | LibraryThing

I have always loved Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series, so, of course, it was a tragedy when he died and the series came to an end. Trying to emulate a writer must be a very difficult task, one taken up by several different writers for Robert Parker, but only one so far for Rex Stout: Robert Goldsborough. They are pretty good. Not perfect, mind you, but they do, in spots, capture the master.

Rex Stout had a formula that worked very well. Nero reluctantly takes on a client, usually after Archie's nagged him enough because the bank balance is low. Then it's Archie's job to collect information and relay it verbatim to Nero who then summons all the participants to his brownstone, usually with Inspector Cramer in attendance, whereupon he solves the case. Stout had the formula down to perfection. It wasn't so much the plots that garnered such a devoted following but rather the wordplay of the characters. Goldsborough has captured that pretty well.

Archie is the ostensible target in this novel. Two shots have been fired at Archie as he enters the brownstone. He and Wolfe assume it's someone out for revenge especially after the phone calls. A man Wolfe helped put away years before has vowed to kill Archie in revenge. Saul and Fred are enlisted to help dig through the cases in attempt to find the culprit. In the midst of this, Cordelia Hutchinson, a railroad millionairess, wants Wolfe to find who is blackmailing her about an affair she had in Florence that threatens her upcoming nuptials. Since the Wolfe's bank account has suffered mostly withdrawals Archie is badgering Wolfe to take the case.... Then the two cases begin to cross.

A little slow in starting, once I got into it, I felt comfortably back in the world of Nero Wolfe and couldn't put it down.


My thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy in return for my unbiased review.

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Dead Before Morning (Rafferty and Llewellyn Police Procedural Series, #1) by Geraldine Evans | LibraryThing

Recently promoted DI Rafferty and his overly-educated sergeant Llewellyn (shades of Lewis) are sent out to a local mental hospital where a young woman, her face smashed into an unrecognizable pulp, has been found on the grounds.

Billed as a detective cozy mystery, I would probably classify it more as a police procedural.  The ending was perhaps too “deus ex machina”, as I’m always a bit suspicious of the sudden illumination to the detective of who did it and why.

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Tularosa: A Kevin Kerney Novel (Kevin Kerney Novels) by Michael McGarrity | LibraryThing

(Audiobook) A highly improbable plot involving an Kevin Kierney, an invalided sheriff's lieutenant.  He is asked by his former partner to locate his son who has disappeared.  The search leads  Kierney to the White Sands military range  and treks through the mountains, into Mexico, and a pile of artifacts worth millions from some old Civil War stuff.

The book has the classic plot:  the wounded hero who becomes drawn into action because it’s the proper thing to do.  Add the good-looking and competent girl who becomes romantically involved and a bunch of bad guys.  There you have it.  It feels sometimes like a Craig Johnson wanna-be but perhaps that was only because both were so ably read by George Guidall.  The first half of the book is better than the second.  

The landscape rendition is the best part of the book.  It’s the first in a series that shows promise so I’ll probably read the second.

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Mystery Writers of America Presents The Prosecution Rests: New Stories about Courtrooms, Criminals, and the Law by Inc. Mystery Writers of America | LibraryThing

For whatever reason, I am not usually a fan of short fiction.  This collection of legal-related short fiction is an exception.   A nice mix of police procedurals, courtroom drama, and legal ethical conundra with interesting twists.

I learned something interesting in a James Grippando story called “Death, Cheated.”  A viatical settlement is when someone with a substantial life insurance policy who learns s/he is terminally ill, can sell that policy to another person or group of investors for less than the face value of the policy but more than its cash value.  The investors can reap a substantial return on their investment when the principal dies.  In the story a woman asks Jack Swyteck to help defend her from a lawsuit of a group of investors.  She had been diagnosed with ALS having an anticipated life span of only 2-3 years and sold her life insurance policy for a considerable sum only to discover she had lead poisoning instead which mimics ALS so she wasn’t going to die after all. The ending is somewhat predictable, but a good story.  The tables are also turned in “Knife Fight” which has a nice little twist at the end.  And “The Flashlight Game” which an engineer father who files constant pro se lawsuits and then gets arrested for murder is fun.

One nice thing about collections of different writers is that new authors are often discovered and so it is here.

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