Books: Shadow Man By Margaret Kirk (2018)

Before I start this review, I happen to know the authors brother, but I promise to give an honest review here.

“Two brutal killings rock Inverness, and bring ex-Met Detective Inspector Lukas Mahler the biggest challenge of his career. The body of the queen of daytime TV, Morven Murray is discovered by her sister, Anna, on the morning of her wedding day. But does Anna know more about the murder than she's letting on? Police informant Kevin Ramsay's murder looks like a gangland-style execution. But what could he have stumbled into that was dangerous enough to get him violently killed? Mahler has only a couple of weeks to solve both cases while dealing with his mother's fragile mental health. But caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse, is ex-Met DI Lukas Mahler hunting one killer, or two?”

The Shadow Man is well written whodunit from newcomer Margaret Kirk.  Much of its success lies within an atmospheric setting, with believable, fully rounded characters and a narrative that speeds it way through, dropping a few MacGuffins here and there to keep the readers guessing. In many ways, the book felt like a well-established series than the first of what could be multiple volumes.

With the tale set in Inverness, in the Highlands of Scotland, we get a whodunit that does not reinvent the formula, but gives it an interesting bent (though getting Val McDermid –known as the Queen of Scottish crime thrillers- to give you a quote on the cover is certainly a great way to start your career) that I found I liked. Mahler is flawed but likable Detective Inspector, one who has returned home for family commitments, after spending time in the “big city.” He has an intriguing past, which Kirk slowly delves out as the hunt for a killer proceeds. While I was over half-way through the book before I figured out who the killer was, I will admit that I appreciated the writers’ ability to send us off in a different direction, to make us think that the killer is someone obvious. Not many authors who pen these whodunits these days take the time to lead us astray like this. I also appreciated that detectives were able to piece the puzzle of who the killer was by detective work, and not through the killer making an obvious slip-up or leaving a crucial piece of evidence. Still, a lot of these thrillers do live at the corner of Convenience and Coincidence and while there some of that here, it's not that obvious.

Of course, as an American reading a Scottish written book, and like a lot of British writers I’ve read over the years, some of the slang and colloquialism is difficult to understand, but that should not distract a reader (and I was amused that Kirk used the name of Dr. Galbraith early in the book, which seemed a nod to Harry Potter writer JK Rowlings, who use a non de plume of Robert Galbriath for her own series of mysteries. Whether that was unintentional, it made me smile). I also wonder if Kirk will bring her detective Mahler (and right-hand man Fergie) to San Diego in future novels, as this is where her brother lives. It would be fun to see that!

After three whodunits in a row –and three mystery novels where the main character has a nemesis that is not part of the central narrative but is the thorn in the detectives sides- I’m going to back to my beloved science fiction (though Rowling just released the fourth book in her Cormoran Strike series, so I'm bound to pick that up). But I think that Kirk has written a fine novel, one that is dark and bitter, full of interesting and flawed heroes. I look forward to her next one.  

Books: Storm Front by Jim Butcher (2000)

I’ve never found a real reason to like Urban Fantasy novels, mostly because while they are a legitimate sub-genre, I always suspected they were books for people who thought hardcore science fiction of Asimov, Heinlein, and fantasy novels in the vein of The Lord of the Rings were a bit too pretentious. While I know science fiction and fantasy are still –more or less- considered cult in nature, they wore that badge of honor, they did not compromise.

I think this genre does compromise, because even though Storm Front, the first novel of The Dresden Files, features a wizard, it is also set in contemporary Chicago, with cars, bars, and mobsters. These are the “hooks” that allow people to read this genre; because those are things they can understand and see in everyday life. Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, these are properties that are seen as too “far” out, too unreal.

So this series marries fantasy with hard-boiled detective fiction and while I found it fun, it’s not deep and really has not much to say:

“Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a—well, whatever. There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get interesting.”

Author Jim Butcher tries to make his Harry Dresden character less The Chosen One of the Harry Potter books (this series started about 4 years after JK Rowlings hero began) and more The Chosen One’s half-brother who caused an awkward event at a family reunion a few years ago so no ones speaks of him again. The magic here is based on thermodynamics, with Butcher’s version of Chicago being gritty, dirty and slightly left of Law & Order realistic. But it also features a “hero” wizard who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut, which is a trope of the classic noir films.

And that’s the problem here for me, as Harry is too much an arrested developmental nerd, a dude whom uber-geeks probably wish they could be. But he’s also a character we’ve seen before. I mean Columbo has his wrinkled overcoat and Harry has his black duster and cowboy boots, the comparison ends there (of course, this image of Harry that Butcher continues to remind you of certainly makes for great looking covers). Harry also rambles on and on about some mystical White Council that keeps tabs on him because, apparently, he killed a woman who was his first love, despite her being really evil (“Yes, she was a bit of meanie, but you should’ve not have killed her”). They’re like the Time Lords on Doctor Who that “allows” the Doctor to travel in time and space and help people, despite their no interference policy.

Plus, if these books are supposed to take a page from the classic noir characters of Raymond Chandler, Butcher fails miserably with Harry. He has no confidence, he is certainly not tough, lacks street and book smarts, and seems blunder around solving his latest mystery only because he wound up at the corner of Coincidence and Convenience.

I can now understand why I’ve never felt the need to read them, why this genre is not for me. It offers nothing new, even though it tries to sell itself as something new.  It’s designed too much for those who can’t grasp the subtleties, analogies, and metaphors of Star Trek. 

And if your going to set your books in Chicago, it would be nice if Butcher used real locations, real streets, and highway names. For Chicagoians like me, it would be fun Easter Eggs for me if he mentioned names like Lake Shore Drive, the Skyway and what not. Los Angeles native and dark fantasy writer Tim Powers name drops local LA stuff all the time. But Butcher lives in Missouri, so why did he not just set his books in and around his native city of Independence? 

Books: Booked to Die By John Dunning (1992)

"Denver homicide detective Cliff Janeway may not always play by the book, but he is an avid collector of rare and first editions. After a local bookscout is killed on his turf, Janeway would like nothing better than to rearrange the suspect's spine. But the suspect, local lowlife Jackie Newton, is a master at eluding the law, and Janeway's wrathful brand of off-duty justice costs him his badge. Turning to his lifelong passion, Janeway opens a small bookshop -- all the while searching for evidence to put Newton away. But when prized volumes in a highly sought-after collection begin to appear, so do dead bodies. Now, Janeway's life is about to start a precarious new chapter as he attempts to find out who's dealing death along with vintage Chandlers and Twains."

I was working in the retail book business when Booked to Die by John Dunning was released in 1992. I remember it well, knew it got some great reviews, and knew that (even at that time) the book was bound to be a perennial backlist title. But at the time, I was still reading mostly fantasy novels and after having burned myself out on whodunits in the late 1970s and early 80s, I was not really interested in reading mystery novels with pun-like titles (and to this day, we get horribly pun-like whodunits that have all the depth of a puddle).

Still, when I was reading Agatha Christie in High School and never really capturing all the clues that lead to the killer –though Christie was known for her complex plotting and multiple red herrings- I began to think myself an idiot. So I did attempt to read broader, less complicated whodunits only to find a lot of them boring, convoluted, and uninteresting. Christie may have cheated us by having the real killer pop up in one scene and never heard of again until the last twenty pages, but I have to admit she created some wonderfully knotty stories with cast of neurotic characters.

I also thought that this new book series was mostly a one-trick pony. I could not see Dunning really going to town like Sue Grafton would do with her Alphabet series. Then again, maybe he was aware of that, as he only produced five books between 1992 and 2006.

I liked this book a lot and found his Cliff Janeway detective to be flawed, funny, and intelligent, but not have overtly developed powers of observation that crime fiction is riddled with. But the theme of books, collectible books, and passion that some people have for them is what really drew me in. In the pre-internet world, book collecting was a journeyman’s job. Much like the Hoover salesmen of a bygone age, there were bookscouts who went from city to city, state to state searching local Goodwills, jumble sales, estate sales, used bookstores in search of an elusive 1^st edition of almost any novel, though the ones done by the early masters (like Steinbeck, Chandler, and Hemingway) were the real Holy Grail's.

Yes Janeway is at times a trope filled cop –he breaks the rules, he’s tough but has a heart of gold- but the way Dunning writes him, you can’t help but like him. Being an avid collector of books helps, as well. I did not like the whole subplot with Jackie Newton. It was one trope of the cop genre I think Dunning should’ve avoided.

I will probably get to the rest of the books, but with less time in front of me than behind, that effort may take some