The Wheelman

I'm all caught up on Duane Swierczynski's novels now. THE WHEELMAN is the most straightforward of his books an out-and-out crime novel - no high tech, no superpowers, just action. It also reads like a Tony Scott movie. The only author who writes chapters this short is Andrew Vachss and even he doesn't jump around in time and space like this. Still this book entertains. Right from the first page, the reader is pulled in and the pace does not stop.

The only way to summarize it is to say that whenever anything can go wrong it will. Keep that in mind and everything will make sense. This book is a nice counterpoint to Tom Piccirilli's COLD SPOT - both feature getaway drivers and use the networks built up by thieves, but the directions they go are polar opposites. Neither is a particularly happy book, but THE WHEELMAN definitely has more menace and humor. Like most of Swierczynski's books, this is a very black comedy and a world like this needs some of the absurd.

Star Trek: Gods of Night

Wow, this was more of a chore than I thought it would be. I checked out all three books in the trilogy from the library and renewed them twice. They are due on Saturday and I just finally finished the first book. Also while reading this volume, I read two other books and started three more. That doesn't give me much confidence for the series. To be honest, I don't think I've ever read much of Mr. Mack's work nor have I strayed far from Peter David's Star Trek novels. (In fact I can think of only three that I've read that weren't by PAD.) It's not that the writing was bad, but more that I just couldn't get into the flow of things. It shouldn't take a full novel to pull the reader into a story.

GODS OF NIGHT follows the story of four Federation crews - Columbia, Enterprise, Aventine and Titan. Columbia is a vessel lost to time and its story is told in flashback. The other three split time in the book and follow the after effects of the Borg conflict laid out in BEFORE DISHONOR (written by Peter David) as well as the events of the TITAN books. Also it wasn't very friendly to the casual Trek reader. If I hadn't read some other books, I would not have understood huge chunks of the storyline.

The tale takes a while to build, but just as it reached the end of part 1, it was gelling into a decent story. I'll get to the second and third books once I finish these other three that I started, but I will finish it. I just hope that the middle book is more than just a 400-page place holder like a couple other trilogies I read.

Orphan's Triumph

So this is it - the final book in Robert Buettner's Orphan series. ORPHAN'S TRIUMPH picks up where ORPHAN'S ALLIANCE left off. Jason Wander is fighting the slugs and trying to hold the Human Union together. Like many final novels, this book goes through the steps to wrap up the various characters and sub-plots. And like much of the rest of the series, Jason is honest and politically incorrect (that is politically incorrect in the fashion that he rubs the powers that be the wrong way not because he insults ethnic groups) and as a result he is ignored and pushed around. But he carries these burdens well.

This book is a bit more disjointed than previous installments. It is much more episodic in nature and has many scenes rather than the usual set-up, climax and conclusion. Buettner probably did this to finish things and give fans closure. He succeeds admirably and even brings about an interesting conclusion. I would venture that this is my favorite since the first book. All in all, this is a fun series and this book in particular is well done. I look forward to Buettner's next project.

Three Weeks to Say Goodbye

I think we can officially declare C.J. Box to be the Mountain West equivalent to Harlan Coben. Both started out with mystery series about unconventional detectives and now both write stand-alone thrillers centered on their respective regions (New Jersey/New York for Coben and Mountain West for Box).

THREE WEEKS TO SAY GOODBYE is Box's second stand-alone thriller and like BLUE HEAVEN, it is an extremely fast read. If it hadn't been for some personal business, I would have finished it in a day. Like most well-written thrillers, the story pulls the reader in from the first page and refuses to let go. That isn't to say it is the most perfect story ever, but good reading can activate suspension of disbelief much easier.

The story is simple enough - a couple is told that the father of their adopted daughter is now exerting his parental rights. This young man happens to be the son of a powerful federal judge who gives our heroes three weeks to say goodbye. Of course, everything isn't as it seems and our heroes and their friends must find out why before they lose their daughter.

Some of our plot twists are telegraphed, but the novel still entertains and is fun to read. And that's all that matters in the end isn't it?