Novel Adventures Book Club April Selection Review

Overview:

Four years ago, what Matt Friedrich learned at work put him in prison. Yesterday, it earned him a job. Tomorrow, it may kill him.

Matt learned all the angles at his old Los Angeles gallery: how to sell stolen art, how to “enhance” a painting’s history, how to help buyers hide their purchases from their spouses or the IRS. He made a load of money doing it – money he poured into the lawyer who worked a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney. Matt’s out on parole and hopelessly in debt with no way out...until a shadowy woman from his past recruits him to find a cache of stolen art that could be worth millions.

Now Matt’s in Milan, impersonating a rich collector looking for deals. He has twenty days to track down something that may not exist for a boss who knows a lot more than she’s telling. He’s saddled with a tough-talking partner who may be out to screw him and up against a shady gallerist whom Matt tried to send to prison. His parole officer doesn’t know he’s left the U.S. Worse yet, what Matt’s looking for may belong to the local branch of the Calabrian mafia.

Matt’s always been good at being bad. If he’s good enough now, he gets a big payday with the promise of more to come. But one slip in his cover, one wrong word from any of the sketchy characters surrounding him, could hand Matt a return trip to jail...or a long sleep in a shallow grave.

My Review:

For the month of April, our book club chose The Collection by Lance Charnes which is the first in a new series.  In this book, we are introduced to Matt who hasn't been long out of prison where he spent time for trafficking in stolen art and is trying to rebuild his life.  His roommate convinces him to call Allyson, a chick he hooked up with four years ago, to see if he can get a job with her.  She reluctantly hires him on a probationary period to steal a piece of art that is being held somewhere in Italy, most likely by a member of the Italian mob.  He gets paired with Carson who is a hard, no-nonsense, no sense of humor girl who just wants to get the job over with.

I thought the premise of this book was different, but in a good way.  Technically, the characters are criminals but in a George Clooney version of Ocean's 11 kind of way if that makes sense.  Matt and Carson are hired to steal a piece of art that was actually stolen from someone else who wants it back but can't get it through legal means.  It's a little complicated but fun.

I liked the characters, though I thought Matt was a little too weak.  I understand it is because he is afraid of going back to prison so he is doing everything he can to be a model citizen but I would like to see him get a backbone.

Carson is tough-as-nails and that can be grating but we do get to see small glimpses here and there of a softer side which works to make her more human.  I still find it hard to like her, though.  She is too bitter and we don't even really know why - at least not to any great extent.

We know almost nothing of Allyson so it's hard to decide whether or not I like her so I will reserve judgement for now.  We also know nothing at all about her agency.  I know in this book the client hired her team to steal back a painting which belongs to them and there are references to other types of jobs that she does for people but we don't know anything else.  I do know her clients are not always on the right side of the law which makes the premise unique and quite interesting.

My favorite character is Olivia which is strange because we are told absolutely nothing about her.  She is just a voice on the other end of the line who arranges things for Matt and Carson like hotel reservations, car rentals, and relaying messages to Allyson.  She reminds me of Charlie of Charlie's Angels - you never saw him but knew he was the force behind the whole organization and I picture Olivia to be the same.  I am not sure why I liked her best - maybe because of the mystery surrounding her and because she has a very dry sense of humor.

I thought the pacing was a bit slow for a heist and there was too much time spent on description. Having been to Italy myself, I appreciated the obvious love Matt had for the place but it made for too much of a slow down in the story.  I also wish there had been  a bit more back story for him.  He talks a little about his mom but we don't know whether she's even alive or dead and he didn't mention his dad at all.  There's a reference to the case that ended up sending him to prison but not much in detail which I would like to have known.

The characters have potential, as does the series but they are a bit too one-dimensional at the moment and the pacing needs to pick up a bit more.  

Overall,  I liked the book enough that I've already read the second one (review up Thursday) and a lot more is explained in that installment.  

Have you read this book?  Join in the discussion in the comments!

May Pick:  Circe by Madeline Miller

Time, Time, Time

When too much time passes in story lines

Today I want to talk about the passage of time in a series.  I am not referring to publication dates of books but rather the amount of time that passes inside a series.  For example, I just finished the book A Brush With Shadows by Anna Lee Huber.  If you read my review, I talked about the fact that the story takes place a week after the last book and that I really enjoyed that because I always feel like I am missing major events when too much time passes inside the story between books. 

I recently finished the Barker and Llewelyn series by Will Thomas and while I really enjoyed it, I was very annoyed that 1-2 years passed between the events of each book.  The subsequent book always started off by skimming over major events that had happened in the intervening time and I would grab the previous book to see what I had missed, only to find out that those events weren't in the book at all.  I know it sounds a little convoluted but I don't want to give away any spoilers because I do still highly recommend the series.  The most current book in that series started out by mentioning something that was so shocking and such a big deal that it should have been included in either that book or the one previous instead of as just a side note and it left a very bad taste in my mouth.  

I am ok with 4-5 months passing between events but not really anything more than that - especially when you are reading about private detectives.  You can't convince me that a year or more passes between cases.  When you are talking about amateur sleuths, it isn't realistic for them to be involved in more than one or two murder investigations a year but since the reader is already suspending disbelief as it is, you have license to allow the characters to get up to more shenanigans more often.  This is especially true when you are several books in to the series and you're learning more and more about the main characters.  

What is even more jarring is when there is a large gap in time and important secondary plots that run through the series is completely left out. That seems to be the case with the Sebastian St. Cyr series by C.S. Harris.  Sebastian has been trying to find his mother throughout the entire series and things were starting to ramp up but something happened in one of the books and we haven't heard much about that event or the search for his mother since then and it's really disappointing.  There seems to be too much emphasis on the personal relationship between he and Hero and everything else has been forgotten and I don't like that, either.  Again, it goes to the passage of time inside the series.

So what are your thoughts on this topic?  Does too much time between events bother you or am I being too picky?  Let me know your thoughts below.

A Brush With Shadows by Anna Lee Huber

Overview:

July 1831. It's been fifteen years since Sebastian Gage has set foot in Langstone Manor. Though he has shared little with his wife, Lady Kiera Darby, about his past, she knows that he planned never to return to the place of so many unhappy childhood memories. But when an urgent letter from his grandfather reaches them in Dublin, Ireland, and begs Gage to visit, Kiera convinces him to go.

All is not well at Langstone Manor. Gage's grandfather, the Viscount Tavistock, is gravely ill, and Gage's cousin Alfred has suddenly vanished. He wandered out into the moors and never returned. The Viscount is convinced someone or something other than the natural hazards of the moors is to blame for Alfred's disappearance. And when Alfred's brother Rory goes missing, Kiera and Gage must concede he may be right. Now, they must face the ghosts of Gage's past, discover the truth behind the local superstitions, and see beyond the tricks being played by their very own eyes to expose what has happened to Gage's family before the moors claim yet another victim...

My Review:

This is the sixth book in the Lady Darby Mystery series.  It takes place only a week after the events in the previous book, As Death Draws Near, and I really like that.  It bothers me when a year or more passes (setting-wise) in a series because it makes me feel like I have missed a lot.  I have a whole post coming up about that so I won't go into a lot of detail here but because this book takes place immediately after the last one, it feels like a more smooth continuation and I enjoy that.  

In this book, Sebastian is forced to return to his childhood home and face his past which gives us more insight into his character.  He is very closed-mouth about it to Kiera - almost insultingly so - and it was nice to finally be able to learn a little more about it.  I know they have only been married three months but still, he seems to almost want to hang on to the bitterness and that can get a little annoying.  

The story developed nicely and at a good pace and the characters were well done.I also enjoyed the atmospheric details Huber put in that made the setting feel like a character in and of itself which helped to further the story along without getting in the way.  I will be interested to see if Kiera and Sebastian return to Langstone Manor due to a specific event that took place at the end, and if so, how the characters will interact with each other. 

There was one other event that happened at the very end which made me roll my eyes out loud and groan.  I obviously won't say what because I don't want to give away any spoilers but it nearly ruined what was otherwise a thoroughly enjoyable book but I guess I'll have to wait at least a year for the next book to see what happens.

Have you read this series?  What do you like/dislike?

Why Kill the Innocent by C. S. Harris

Overview:

London, 1814. As a cruel winter holds the city in its icy grip, the bloody body of a beautiful young musician is found half-buried in a snowdrift. Jane Ambrose's ties to Princess Charlotte, the only child of the Prince Regent and heir presumptive to the throne, panic the palace, which moves quickly to shut down any investigation into the death of the talented pianist. But Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, and his wife Hero refuse to allow Jane's murderer to escape justice.

Untangling the secrets of Jane's world leads Sebastian into a maze of dangerous treachery where each player has his or her own unsavory agenda and no one can be trusted. As the Thames freezes over and the people of London pour onto the ice for a Frost Fair, Sebastian and Hero find their investigation circling back to the palace and building to a chilling crescendo of deceit and death . . .

My Review:

*THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THIS SERIES*

This is the 13th book in the Sebastian St. Cyr series and probably one of my least favorites so let me go through it and explain why.

The first thing right off the bat may seem nit-picky but it was the first thing that struck me and that is the cover.  I understand that the cover is black and white because the setting takes place in the deep freeze of winter and there is a massive snow storm but that isn't what bothers me.  Rather, it's the scale of Sebastian compared to the trees.  He seems so small and like he was just Photo-shopped into the picture and it just seems really off to me.  I know, I know - that shouldn't matter but for some reason it really does.

Second (stop reading here if you haven't read the one before this!!), I thought that the death of Hero's mother would be addressed in this book and it wasn't, other than to say it had taken place four months previous and Hero was still in full mourning attire.  Really?  It was such a major event and there were circumstances that needed to be explained but it was almost like it didn't happen at all.  There was one very tiny scene that hinted at something but nothing we didn't already suspect anyway so that was very disappointing.

Third, the story seemed to just go in circles and things that were given heavy emphasis ended up not really mattering.  I 

I also didn't like that Gibson, Alexi, the Earl of Hendon, and especially Tom and Morley were basically non-existent in this book. I want to see more of a story line with Gibson and Alexi because they seem to be completely stalled and almost cardboard cutouts used as fillers and I don't like that.  They are all interesting characters and their arcs need to start developing more.

Finally, there had been heavy emphasis in previous books about Sebastian's parents and that story line seems to have been completely dropped now.  There was one small conversation Sebastian had that gave a small clue but again, nothing developed out of it.  It almost feels like Harris doesn't know where to go with it so has just let it fade away.  

I don't want it to seem like I hated the book.  I didn't - and in fact finished it in only seven hours but it just wasn't on par with all the other ones. I want more about Sebastian's parents, the other characters, and Hero's mother.

Have you read this book?  What did you think?

New Release Tuesday - April 3, 2018

Here are some new releases today.  They are all part of long-running series that I have been reading and I will be going after work today to pick them up, especially Why Kill the Innocent by C.S. Harris.  That is my favorite series by far!

I have been a fan of Anne Perry almost since she began her writing career and even had the chance to meet her at a rare book signing several years ago.  I must admit, I got a little bored with the characters so I fell way behind on the series but I want to get back into it again.  I definitely enjoy the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series over the William Monk series and it is since Perry is starting a new series with Daniel Pitt (Thomas and Charlotte's son), I definitely need to catch back up.

I have only read the first one in the Gaslight Series but I really enjoyed it, though it moved a little slowly for me.  Murder in the Bowery is the 20th installment in this series and while I'm not in a huge rush to continue on with it, I'm happy to know that with 19 more books in the series, I definitely wont't be running out of things to read for a good long while.

What are you reading this week?  Let me know in the comments of any suggestions you have.  I'm always on the lookout for new authors!