Retrato do autor

James L. Thane

Autor(a) de No Place to Die

6 Works 67 Membros 27 Críticas

Obras por James L. Thane

No Place to Die (2010) 38 exemplares
Until Death (1900) 15 exemplares
Fatal Blow (Sean Richardson) (2018) 6 exemplares
South of the Deuce (2020) 4 exemplares
Crossroads (2019) 3 exemplares
Tyndall (2021) 1 exemplar

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Sexo
male

Membros

Críticas

A stylish opening is soon derailed by flat, cardboard characters, wildly unrealistic interactions between cops and an upscale hooker who swings both ways, and lack of any vibrancy and movement within the narrative. It is also hampered on occasion by much too lengthy and detailed descriptions of everyday activities, as though to fill out a page count or try to breathe life and realism into a fairly good if clichéd story idea told so blandly that it reaches a point where it’s beyond resuscitation.

Though Until Death is well-written, I sensed no life here, and the happenings felt very artificial. With the exception of the protagonist, Detective Sean Richardson, who has a few nice moments which I’ll talk about in a bit, I neither believed nor cared about anyone in this novel. A book in the crime/police/mystery genre, especially one with this plot, should be alive and exciting, perhaps a bit racy, yet it isn’t. There are many approaches an author can take in this genre, from elevated pulp with a sprinkling of social commentary within its narrative, to realistically gritty and brutal noir, and everything in between the two. What it can’t be is dull, and unfortunately, that’s what Until Death was for me — dull. Not low-key, but incredibly boring.

The basic premise is that an upscale hooker “loses” her client book, and soon it is apparent that the men listed in the book — though she swings both ways, this detail gets ignored quickly — are being killed, one by one. There is a client who may be too enamored of the petite blonde, and an ex-boyfriend who quite understandably was horrified to discover his girlfriend was working as a hooker, which caused a bad breakup — duh — which require questioning. There is also a second hooker named Kelly that Gina sometimes gets referrals from — like her female clients, this is fairly quickly forgotten. And of course, there is the entire client list, because Gina is a busy girl. As Sean Richardson and his partner Maggie McClinton begin the most unexciting investigation in history, more clients of that poor little thing Gina, get bumped off.

This had a really promising start, from a nice opening line to a good opening scene. I was hopeful it would lead to an engaging narrative. Sadly, it did not. Boy howdy, did it not. You’d think that a plot of this nature would have some spark, some action, maybe some tastefully alluded to intimacy, or even some frank questioning by cops. But it has none of that. Even when Gina Gallagher/Jennifer Bryan comes in to inform Sean Richardson that her client book has been taken, it’s somehow unbelievable. She’s coming in for a “friend” and it’s obvious to the reader, and should be to Richardson, that it’s for Gina. But when she finally gets around to that, Richardson genuinely acts shocked. Later, when Richardson and Maggie are questioning her, it’s more like Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas as cops, being uber-sensitive to this weepy hooker (if she cries once, and feigns the innocence of a virginal teen, she does it ten times here), even to the extent that at one point Maggie apologizes for being insensitive. And wait, I almost forgot. Because they need to know how upscale the targets in her client book are, they need to find out just how much she was charging her johns. When she fusses about telling them, they Apologize to her like all cops would. Yep, it’s like that.

Elaborately described everyday actions pepper the slow and predictable investigation. I can’t recall a single instance where an interrogation wasn’t too formal, too polite, nor can I recall a single nuance to the Gina character that made her the least bit interesting — or worthy of the protagonist’s almost groan-worthy, ever so sensitive feelings for her. There are some nice, genuine moments here, such as Richardson recalling fondly his deceased wife, but even that is marred because it is brought on by Richardson musing how this shallow, vanilla-hooker, in her “intelligence,” “independent spirit,” and “liberal outlook on life” — at $700 a pop — reminds him of Julie. Really? Where did any of that come from? It certainly didn’t come from anything I’d read preceding it.

There’s a bunch of tangents that are boringly described and uninteresting, and I kept wondering why two particular people appeared to be of no interest at all to the detectives. I can’t say which two, but to me they were obviously of great interest in a story like this. Lo and behold, I trudge on to about 65%, and there in Part II, the reader gets everything from the killer’s perspective, and it’s one of the two people I’d been wondering about. It was shocking — not because we’re suddenly let in on who the killer is, but that all that stuff that came before, now seems so unnecessary to some extent. Perhaps if these chapters had been interspersed from an early point with the plodding and boring investigation, it would have been a better read, because these chapters through the killer’s eyes, giving us the reasons, the actions, are easily the best part of the book. Unfortunately, they’ve come much too late.

How the original person who ended up with Gina’s client book got hold of it is never explained, nor their reason for having it in their possession. Even once there’s a fingerprint and another obvious indication of who the killer is, it takes a bit for Richardson to get it, and then we get some more tedious explanation about it. By the time the drawn out, boring climax came, I had more sympathy for the plight of the killer and why it was happening than I did the intended final victims. My wife told me to abandon it, because I’d shared with her all the trouble I was having with it, but having already marked it as reading, I trudged on, telling her it was me against the book now, and I was going to win. Such was my Sunday afternoon. Sigh.

I don’t make these statements lightly, or happily. Perhaps there is greater disappointment because the opening of Until Dead held such promise. To say that I abhor leaving a review like this for a book is beyond understatement. You’ll not see my reviews littered with them as you will some. As I said, James L. Thane’s book is very well-written, and you keep thinking you should like it, should be interested, yet you can’t, and you’re not. Especially the deeper into the narrative you get. That has to be laid at the author’s doorstep. It’s extremely rare that I post a negative review, but in this case, I felt a three-star would still be viewed as a mild endorsement, and I have to be honest. There’s too much cardboard here and not enough life. I intentionally didn’t post quotes and examples on this occasion, as I chose not to belabor the point. Too many allow other factors to influence their likes and dislikes, but I always try to be just about the book, what’s between the covers. And sadly, this one was somehow worse because I wanted to like it, and couldn’t. Forewarned is forearmed.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Matt_Ransom | 6 outras críticas | Oct 6, 2023 |
Pleasant surprise - went to Amazon and found this was free for Prime customers!

I enjoyed the book - it was a fairly quick read, with lots of suspense, so I found it to be hard to put down. It was a fairly uncomplicated plot, which was a good thing for me, as I've read a few complicated books recently, so I was ready for an easy read to relax my brain.

The killer in this story was a somewhat complex character, and it was easy to feel some sympathy for him even as he committed some really atrocious acts. But it was also easy to dislike him because of these, not to mention that he wasn't such a nice guy starting out. He spent over 15 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, and had lots of time to stew in his rage and build up a lot of hate for the people he felt were responsible. After killing a few of them, I think he began feeling some regret, but he felt it was too late to stop. So he wasn't 100% a psychopath, but he was far from normal. All in all, I can't say I felt he deserved much leniency. Maybe if he had given up and turned himself in early on, I'd have felt differently.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
MartyFried | 10 outras críticas | Oct 9, 2022 |
I enjoyed this book more than the first in the series, perhaps because I got hold of the audiobook version after starting out with the Kindle one - or maybe it was because the first one was free on Amazon, but I paid for this one (just kidding). I think that was a good way to go for audiobooks, as reading it at the beginning makes sure I don't miss anything important. The audiobook was well-done and very professional.

The story was easy to keep reading - an interesting plot, and interesting characters. It's refreshing to read a story where the hero is not trying to seduce all the women, and the women are not weak and dumb; both of the books in this series have strong female characters. This was a true whodunnit, and I didn't come close to guessing the culprit.

The author is one I followed for a while, and is now one of my Goodreads friends because his reviews are so good, and his taste is similar to my own. However, he never mentioned his books to me, and I read the first partially because it was free for Amazon Prime members. I'm glad I read it, and I will be sure to look out for any future books from him. It's always nice to find relatively unknown authors.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
MartyFried | 6 outras críticas | Oct 9, 2022 |
I enjoyed this book, and didn't want to put it down once it got going. I began to suspect what was going on fairly early on, but wasn't really sure, and it was still interesting to see the details. When books have twists like this one, you never know when another one is around the corner.

The telling of the story was very straight-forward; in fact, I found myself thinking of the narrator, Sean Richardson, with a voice of Joe Friday (from the early TV series Dragnet). Kind of a just-the-facts-ma'am kind of guy, except he also had a personal life. I personally thought it was a bit too serious, and needed something like a wise-cracking sidekick or something to keep him from taking himself too seriously. Or, maybe a little more happening to keep the book from being too one-dimensional. It would have made a good audiobook though, since it was pretty easy to follow, without too many characters.

But aside from that, the story was entertaining and complete. There were no loose ends, and it seemed pretty realistic, if you can believe a seemingly sane woman would do some of these things. But who says she was actually sane? She was an avid reader, and member of a book club that discussed the books, so perhaps she just got too many ideas from books like Gone Girl.

If you want a fairly quick and easy read for a trip or weekend, this would be a good one. And as an added bonus, the author is active here on Goodreads, and is very approachable - and an all-round nice guy.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
MartyFried | 3 outras críticas | Oct 9, 2022 |

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Associated Authors

Jeff Cummings Narrator

Estatísticas

Obras
6
Membros
67
Avaliação
½ 3.7
Críticas
27
ISBN
12

Tabelas & Gráficos