Mini-Reviews: Nostalgia Ahoy!

Man, nostalgia. It's a helluva a drug. And when it comes to reading sometimes nostalgia will carry a ho-hum read over the finish line, even if I have a hard time qualifying it as a "recommended read."

First up is In Her Shadow by Kristin Miller, a book I uncovered from the depths of my Kindle. Like a previous book I read by Miller, this is another Privileged People Being Generally Terrible book but where the previous book faltered, this one was mostly a success. It helps that I spent my impressionable teen years cutting my teeth on soap operas and Gothics and this story scratched both of those itches.

Colleen Roper took a secretarial job, working for financial guru Michael Harris. In record time they're sleeping together and bingo-bango she's pregnant. There have been some complications to her pregnancy so the doctor is prescribing plenty of rest and relaxation, which means quitting her job and Michael sweeping her off to palatial family home, Ravenwood. The wrinkle? Michael's pregnant wife, Joanna - who abruptly left Michael very shortly before he fell into Colleen's bed. Oh and minor detail nobody has heard from her since. Colleen, of course, being the typical Gothic heroine has stars in her eyes, newly thrust into a world of luxury, spinning fairy tale happy family fantasies.  In reality?  Michael seems distant from the idea of starting a family, there are locked rooms at Ravenwood that are off limits, and a small staff that are openly hostile to her. Then, of course, a dead body shows up.

This story is told from multiple points of view (Colleen, Michael, a married couple next door with plenty to hide, and the lead detective on the case when the body turns up) and it really works here. Miller plays these shifts to maximum effect to keep the reader guessing, keeping the equilibrium off balance just enough.

The only halfway decent "likeable" person in this book is the lead detective on the case, while everyone else is generally terrible or hopelessly naïve (Colleen grates in short order) but man, nothing will hook me faster than a soapy Gothic.  I had it half-figured out by the end, but it was entertaining all the same.

Final Grade = B-

Kill Zone by Loren D. Estleman is the first in his Peter Macklin series and was first published in 1984, which yes makes it problematic at times, but as someone who grew up in Michigan, man this book was a giant needle of nostalgia injected straight into my eyeballs.

A rag-tag group of eight would-be terrorists who call themselves Siegfried hijack a Boblo boat (!!) soon after it leaves the dock in Detroit. On board is a government bureaucrat's daughter, which leads the FBI to go local Detroit mobster, Michael Boniface, now cooling his heels in prison. In exchange for leniency, Boniface puts his best guy on the job, mob enforcer and hitman, Peter Macklin. What Macklin doesn't know is that the guy running the show while Boniface is behind bars doesn't want to give up his seat and the killer now has his own hitman tracking his every move.

Detroit in the 1980s, crooked cops, the FBI sniffing around, the mob and BOBLO BOATS!  It scratched a very strong regional flavor itch for me even though it doesn't hit nearly the same as Estleman's Amos Walker series.

Here's the thing, there's eleventy billion characters in this book. Eight terrorists, the Boblo boat workers, the passengers, mobsters, Macklin's dysfunctional family, his mistress, his Old School Italian mentor, FBI agents, cops - I just gave up after a while keeping track of who was who and started looking at this story with a cinematic eye. Back in the day Charles Bronson would have starred in this.  These days, they'd rewrite it for a world-weary Ben Affleck. 

It's all a bit absurd and features all the trigger warnings a book published in 1984 would (stereotypes, some racial slurs, the female characters in Macklin's immediate orbit are....well, not great) but books like this scratch a very particular itch of mine, and on that score it kept me amused.  Not sure if I'll continue on with the series because honestly? Amos Walker is where it's at for me.

Final Grade = C+

Mini-Reviews: Bad, Bad Girls

Hey, so long time no blog AMIRITE?! I have reasons, of course. Wendy is always one for "reasons." I finally went back to Michigan for a visit with the family in mid-October, soaked up the autumn colors, saw friends, ate my share of donuts, drank some delish apple cider and managed to unwind a tinch. Travel, of course, also means I got to do one of my favorite things ever - airplane reading. And my favorite thing to read on airplanes? Something with some suspense.  So fasten your seat belt and locate your nearest exit (keeping in mind the closest exit may be behind you...) - it's time for some mini-reviews!

The Third Mrs. Durst by Ann Aguirre has been languishing on my Kindle for an embarrassingly long time, especially when you consider the fact that it's a revenge thriller.  I am utter trash for female revenge thrillers and this one starts out very promising.

Marlena is poor white trash who runs away from Kentucky. There's nothing for her there. Oh sure, siblings but also a drug addicted mother and absolutely no future. No, "the littles" will just need to learn what she learned very early on: wait for your moment and get out as soon as possible. Eventually Marlena starts modeling, working her way up the ladder until she catches the eye of Michael Durst - her plan all along.  Michael is handsome, fabulously wealthy, and has buried two wives already. He sweeps Marlena off her feet and then the nightmare begins. Michael controlling her every move. Michael exacting retribution when Marlena crosses some line only he can see.  But while Michael is a monstrous abuser, who is the one who is truly in control? Is Marlena a naïve girl who just wanted security and got more than she bargained for? Or is Marlena a Machiavellian puppet master?

When I started this book I didn't come up from air, plowing through the majority of it in record time. The appeal of the revenge thriller (besides a "righting of the universe" feel) is that they keep you guessing. What is going to happen next? Aguirre chooses a slightly different angle instead, with making Marlena an unreliable narrator. How much is she a victim? How much is she a mastermind?  And it's great stuff until it started to lose steam for me at the 70% mark. That's the start on the road to the ending and it just drags out too much. It also doesn't help that by this point Michael goes from scary cool and methodical to bat-sh*t unhinged and sloppy.  This unspooling, along with some sloppiness on the part of Marlena, took a bit of the shine off and I was relieved to get the final chapter - which was a markedly different outcome than I was expecting after inhaling the first 3/4 of the book.  Solid, but a bit of a whimper there at the end.

Final Grade = B-

The Sinful Lives of Trophy Wives by Kristin Miller is pure trash straight out of a prime-time soap opera.  In case y'all are new here, I am pure trash for soap operas. While all y'all were reading Kathleen Woodiwiss I was at my grandmother's knee watching Dallas and mainlining four daytime soap operas (plus Melrose Place...) to survive college with my mental health somewhat intact. If I had a better grasp of the Spanish language I would spiral into a telenovela addiction - seriously, I am trash for soap operas.

Brooke Davies is a mystery writer and trophy wife to Jack, a tech billionaire who is twenty years her senior. Yes they were having an affair and he ended up leaving Wife #1 - you shouldn't even have to ask. Their next move is to buy a home in a ritzy exclusive gated community in the Bay Area - which is where Brooke befriends Erin King, a local TV news anchor, militant head of the home owner's association, and married to a plastic surgeon. However it's Brooke's neighbor next door who is the real piece of work - Georgia St. Claire, dubbed "the Black Widow" after her first two husbands died and left her a very wealthy woman.  Georgia is getting ready to marry Victim Husband #3, Robert, and there's much drama and hullaballoo surrounding the impending nuptials, set to happen in less than a week.  Naturally things soon turn completely sideways....

Basically what we have here is a story driven by three manipulative rich white bitches - which, hello soap opera. Did I like any of these people? No. Did I question my sanity reading about this people? Yes. And yet I kept reading. Y'all I'm trash for soap operas and this one kept me entertained for a while, until it didn't.

The problem is it doesn't hold up in the end. Some of the twists and "big reveals" are dropped in the reader's lap with all the finesse of a live hand grenade and then there's the ending - which makes no sense because it essentially unravels the narrative that preceded it.  And speaking of that ending?  Look, I'm all for positive ("happy") endings, but these bitches do nothing over the course of this story to deserve a wine and roses ending. I mean, happy for who? Not the poor schmoes who end up dead, that's for sure.  Ultimately my sense of fair play is offended. These bitches deserved fall-out and there just isn't...well, any. It's a page-turner to be sure but it fumbles on the dessert course.  Which is probably to be expected - like these three would ever let dessert touch their lips...

Final Grade = C