The Complaints by Ian Rankin

After wrapping up the John Rebus series, Rankin moves on to a new group of Scottish police -- the Complaints or our internal affairs.  Malcolm Fox has just completed a major investigation leading to the arrest of a popular detective, when he is asked to step in on a sex crimes investigation.  Problem is, he starts to like the guy, and to wonder if he could be innocent.  Fox and Jamie Breck compare notes on some interlinked cases and begin to feel that they are being manipulated behind the scenes.

A complexly plotted police procedural dealing with official and financial corruption keeps you coming back even though the characters are a bit flat.

In the Blink of an Eye by Michael Waltrip

This is Waltrip's account of events surrounding the death of Dale Earnhardt, his team owner, in the 2001 Daytona 500.  Waltrip tells about how Dale encouraged him in his career and eventually offered him a ride in the 15 NAPA car.  The 500 in Daytona was Waltrip's first race in the car.  He also talks about leaving DEI a few years later and forming his own team, and the financial and personal difficulties that followed. (Hyperion, 2011)

Linda Fairstein

Finished Silent Mercy, Linda Fairstein's latest (mentioned in last post).  After several more murders of pariahs related to religious controversies, Coop, Mercer, and Mike home in on a traveling performer who has become entangled with a radical religious group.  Well worth reading.  The plot is complex, the suspects & culprit are believable.

Next up, Michael Waltrip's In the Blink of an Eye and Ian Rankin's The Complaints.

Time Traveler's Wife

Finished The Time Traveler's Wife and had discussion today.  Because of bad weather we only had a couple of people.  We talked some about the movie vs the book.  There were some minor plot changes, except that (I am told - I haven't seen the movie) it seems that his mother's accident is caused by Henry's disappearing instead of Henry disappearing to save himself, as in the book.

I was particularly struck by the circularity of everything.  Henry began time traveling, then his older self visited his younger self and taught him how to stay alive when he showed up naked & hungry in another time.  We noticed that Henry didn't visit Clare as a child until after he had met Clare as an adult.  The scientific explanation of Henry's condition gave verisimilitude to the story.  Amazing that Niffenegger thought to make the Chrono-whatever condition genetic, and one that was known & accepted during Alba's (their daughter's) lifetime.

Chronologically, the story follows Clare's "normal" timeline when they are together.  Some of Henry's sections take on the tone of flashbacks through use of past vs present tense.

Worth a read.

Now reading Silent Mercy by Linda Fairstein, her newest.  Alex Cooper is the Sex Crimes ADA for New York (Manhattan), working with Mike Chapman, a prosecutor's investigator, and Mercer Wallace, a police detective, to investigate sex crimes.  In this case, a young woman is murdered, dumped in the porch of a Harlem Baptist church, and set afire.  I enjoy Fairstein.  It's like a more complicated Law & Order.

I'll let you know.

Still planning to read In the Blink of an Eye by Michael Waltrip.

Weekend Books

Finished Gone by Mo Hayder. What strikes me about Hayder's books and other contemporary police procedurals from the British Isles is how much the characters spend in self-absorbed introspection. Flea Marley is haunted by her cover-up of her brother's hit and run accident. Jack Caffery is attracted to Flea but believes she is the hit-and-run driver. Lots of soulful introspection, but very little communication with other human beings. Oh, and the mystery is complex and twisted.

Presently, I am re-reading The Time Traveler's Wife for a library book club discussion this coming week.

The next book coming up is In the Blink of an Eye by Michael Waltrip. It is mainly about the death of Dale Earnhardt, Sr. in the last lap of the Daytona 500 ten years ago in the last lap of the Daytona 500. Michael was Dale's teammate, and the winner that year.

I've also been reading Charles Chesnutt, a North Carolinian who wrote/compiled traditional folk tales from the area.  Lee Smith uses his writings as source material for her books.  She and Reynolds Price tell some powerful stories of strong women based in NC or southwestern VA.

Gone by Mo Hayder

Gone is the latest Jack Caffery & Flea Marley police procedural, set in the UK by Mo Hayder. If you haven't read any of these, they are a treat. Flea Marley is a police diver, daughter of professional divers, but haunted by their deaths. Caffery is an Inspector, in this novel, trying to stop a predator who kidnaps little girls. The first in the series is Birdman. You can't miss with Mo Hayder.