Tag Archives: child

Jun27

The Harbor by Katrine Engberg

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As someone who enjoys the Icelandic, Danish and other Scandinavian dramas, a genre apparently called Nordic Noir, I picked up this book a while back and have finally found time to review it.

I love this story. It has a lot of twists and turns—being someone who reads a lot of crime fiction, I really appreciate it when the author can keep me guessing for a while. I did figure out parts of it, but not the complete solution. I also like that each section had the day of the week at the beginning of those sections. It helped keep the reader oriented to the time passing in the investigation and upped the stakes on how long the boy was gone.

The story starts when a young man disappears on his way home from school. He lives in Copenhagen and has two siblings and some very odd parents. The reactions of his parents when he goes missing are strange and immediately make the reader suspicious. But there is no shortage of suspects in this story. The parents are a small part of the suspicion here. A murder occurs and more layers are added to the story. There are a lot of characters to sink ones teeth into. The ending of the investigation is superbly done.

The two detectives in the story are richly drawn with flaws as well as talents. Having fully fleshed out protagonists is always appreciated. The reader can really get behind these characters as they move forward in not only the investigation but in their personal lives.

The flow of the story is well done, clues are dropped and twists happen at a good pace.

If you’re a fan of detective stories with intriguing premises and interesting crimes and criminals, this is one to pick up.

Feb22

Book Review- Blood Money

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thI love James Grippando and his Jack Swytek series of novels. If you haven’t read any of these, you’re really missing out. The latest installment, Blood Money, is clearly inspired by the Casey Anthony trial. There are too many similarities to miss. This is clearly a fiction tale and it’s cool how he used this trial to build a thrilling story around some of the facts. I love how Mr. Grippando even made a word play on the horrific Nancy Grace by naming his media shark Faith Corso. That cracked me up. First of all, because the character was clearly based on that odious woman and the last name of Corso made me think of coarse which she is. (Remember, all this is my opinion only-if you like this woman, that’s your prerogative. I don’t).

This book is a fast read and very exciting. I don’t want to give any spoilers so I won’t say much about the plot but this one is packed with lots of angles and turns. I was a little disappointed in a couple of things that never seemed to get resolved and I would’ve liked to know the answers to those questions. It was nothing that took away from the final solution to the whodunit but there were threads left hanging that didn’t please me. There was also the matter of something that niggled at me about Swyteck’s client, Sydney. She acted in a way that didn’t make sense to me. After learning what kind of person she was, I had a hard time reconciling her willingness to do a certain thing with what we learn about her on the journey, but all in all, this was a fun read with enough twists and turns to satisfy the toughest critic.

The story has Mr. Grippando’s usual wit with his main protagonist, Jack and his best friend, Theo. These two characters are larger than life and I adore how they play off each other and the way the zingers keep coming even when they are inthe midst of trouble. I recommend this one. Highly.