Review: The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

Strangers on a Train is the classic story of a man who meets a stranger on the train and they discuss the murder of the man’s wife. When this story began by a man, Ted, meeting Lily (she’s gorgeous, of course) in an airport bar and they begin to discuss killing his unfaithful wife, I feared Swanson had simply stolen and amplified the Highsmith plot. I was wrong for it turns out the two have much in common. Won’t say much as it would involve too many spoilers. I’ll just acknowledge the plot moved along with the force of a speeding train.

Review: Escape Clause by John Sandford

That “Fuckin’” Flowers, as he is affectionately called, is relaxing in his favorite swimming hole with Frankie, his girl” on her farm after putting up some hay, a task Virgil hates, so she can sell it instead of feeding it to her non-existent cattle and can claim it as a business expense. All of a sudden her sister Sparkle charges down the path with her squeeze Bob, a nine-months-out-of-the-year-celibate priest (she only gets it during the summer.)  If that weren’t a good enough beginning, Virgil is called away to find two tigers that had been stolen from the Minnesota State Fair zoo.

Best Sandford series, bar none. They are all good. Engagingly read by Eric Conger

Review: Quarry in the Black by Max Allan Collins

Certainly not as interesting as Lawrence Block’s Keller, Quarry is an adequate substitute if you are suffering from assassin-story deprivation. I’ve read all the Kellers and now all the Quarrys. They are both enjoyable, but Keller is a much more interesting and well-developed character.

This time Quarry discovers that a second hit team has been assigned to hit the same target, a serious breach of etiquette. The target is a “future” Martin Luther King. Jr. prospect and soon Quarry is up to his pubic hairs in attractive women and KKK sheets.

Fast, enjoyable read.

Review: Nightlife by Thomas Perry

Audiobook. Thomas Perry delivers a fine novel about a chameleon-like woman who preys on men (just how deliberate her actions might be I will leave to other readers.) Perry presents the story from a variety of different points-of-view: the Portland detective sergeant looking for her; the gambling-addicted former D.A. office’s retired investigator, and Hugo Poole, the local crime boss’s, hired gun. The killing that started the manhunt and flight was that of Hugo Poole’s cousin and Poole wants to know if the killing might have been revenge for something he himself had done.

There are lots of similarities to Perry’s Jane Whitfield series. The woman, who adopts multiple identities--much too easily IMO ( it just can’t be that easy to create new drivers licenses, and having scanners and printers close at hand all the time also seemed a bit fortuitous) -- manages to stay several steps ahead of her pursuers. How she does it provides for an intriguing, excellent long-flight read or listen.

A minor complaint is that there is often extensive backstory to minor characters with only ten pages to live.

Review: Night Prey by John Sandford

This one is sixth in the series, written by John Camp under the Sandford pseudonym. I prefer the earlier Lucas Davenports to the later ones. Sandford’s other series, I like even better, especially Virgil Flowers, which has a special brand of humor. The Kidd series suffers from being quite dated technically, when read today, but were excellent when I read them several years (decades?) ago.

It’s a good story, although I found Conley’s terminal disease to be implausible in the context of her actions in the story, not to mention Lucas’s little oration on the degrees of rape. That was weird.