Inherent Vice

Thomas Pynchon's latest resembles the stoner murder-mystery The Big Lebowski , but with more Phillip Marlowe than Spicolli(Fast Times at Ridgemont High), and of course a multitude of plot digressions which Pynchon is famous for. What will first strike any reader of Pynchon's is the abbreviated length of the novel, which reads like a short-story in comparison to the 700 to 800 pages mammoths he normally produces. This doesn't mean he fails to include an infinite number of plot lines, meticulous period detail, or engaging discussions of popular culture. All of this combines to evoke surfers, hallucinogens, early versions of the Internet, and discussions of Charlie the Tuna. However, the main plot of Inherent Vice revolves around Doc Sportello, a private eye with a seemingly insatiable desire for marijuana. This presents a perspective more attuned to late night diners and surf rock than crime scenes. However, Sportello resides in Gordita Beach and the time is 1970, when the Manson family was just coming to trial and Nixon was president. Sportello's ex-girlfriend has come to him to locate a real estate developer she has become infatuated with. From there the plot takes on one digression after another, filled with paranoid hippies, a Dirty Harry cop who vehemently hates hippies, and a saxophone player seemingly born again to infiltrate counter-culture groups. What enlivens the material is Pynchon's ability to develop the paranoia of the time, the seemingly vacuous ruminations made by enlightened stoners, and of course, Doc Sportello himself. Pynchon does reveal more of his character as the plot progresses, and you do get to see his vulnerability, his aptitude and intelligence which others fail to see, and the simple pleasures which distract him from a world on the verge of breaking down as the idealism of the 60's fades away. This may not garner the reception of what many consider Pynchon's masterpiece, Gravity's Rainbow, but it is a humorous and oddly endearing novel that truly evokes the end of an era; albeit in the form of a shaggy dog story.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

A thrilling and dark mystery set in modern-day Sweden, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is the first in a series of three from Stieg Larsson. This book starts a little slow, introducing journalist Mikael Blomqvist who has been found guilty of libel against uber-capitalist Hans Wennerstrom. Needing a break, Blomqvist takes a leave from his magazine, Millenium, and heads north to take on an unusual assignment. He is hired by Harald Vagner, CEO of Wennerstrom rival, Vagner Corporation, to find the killer of his favorite niece, who was killed 40 years ago. Along for the ride is the girl with the tattoos, Lisbeth Salander, who is Sweden's best hacker and is serious about her research despite appearances. What Salander and Blomqvist uncover is far more disturbing and shocking than ever imagined.
This book has much more story than I usually prefer, but the characters are great, and the details are absorbing. The setting, both in Stockholm, and in smaller Swedish towns was interesting. I will certainly pick up the other two books in this series, and was saddened to read that the author died shortly after finishing the third manuscript.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good thriller or mystery. There are some disturbing details in this book, so not exactly for the faint of heart!

Another Life: the final Burke novel

One of my favorite authors wraps up my favorite gritty detective series in a less than stellar novel. I love the Burke stories- an underground private detective of sorts saves a variety of victims (especially children) with the help of his "family" of misfits. These tales are always extremely dark, and although Burke is a man of violence his heart is always in the right place. This novel goes on a winding journey to solve a mystery that I figured out early in the book. Throughout the story Burke's background is revealed which was interesting, but the rest of the book meandered around and tried to be a little too preachy. If this is really the last of the Burke novels I am very disappointed. I hope Vachss comes back with at least one more to finish the job off right. I would even like it better if he killed Burke off. One thing I did like about this book was that Burke got another dog, a pit named Rosie, since his beloved Pansy (a Neopolitan Mastiff) has been gone for awhile now. If you want to try out a Burke novel I suggest you start with an earlier one, as this is definitely not the best.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics

This book came highly recommended by both friends, coworkers and reviews. It is a mystery set in a rich private school starring a select group of friends called the Bluebloods and include the the introduction of a new member, protagonist Blue Van Meer. This book has been described as a postmodern version of A Secret History by Donna Tart. I enjoyed that the book takes an inventive turn and does look and feel different. It is indeed literary, complete with quotations and citations from a diverse range of Western thought and literature. However, while these citations sometimes seemed on the verge of genius, they ended up feeling gimmicky and got in the way of fleshed out, believable characters.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics did make the NY Times 10 best books of 2006 list. "Each of the 36 chapters is titled for a classic (by authors ranging from Shakespeare to Carlo Emilio Gadda), and the plot snakes ingeniously toward a revelation capped by a clever ''final exam.'' All this is beguiling, but the most solid pleasures of this book originate in the freshness of Pessl's voice and in the purity of her storytelling gift."

City of the Sun

This story begins in suburban Indianapolis, which is one thing that captured my interest and led me to read it, and ends in Mexico. The book was an exciting read, but it was pretty bleak, even for me. Fans of edgy mysteries will like this novel about a young paper boy who vanishes without a trace.

"Screenwriter Levien's debut crackles with raw intensity as it hurtles from a placid Indianapolis suburb to a dingy Mexican outpost. Paul and Carol Gabriel are devastated when their 12-year-old son, Jamie, disappears on his paper delivery route one morning. Fourteen months later and with the police no closer to finding Jamie, they hire PI Frank Behr, an imposing ex-cop with a checkered past. Behr soon discovers that Jamie's disappearance was no random grab but part of a larger operation run by Riggi, a real estate tycoon who deals in everything from drugs to stolen children. Reluctantly allowing Paul to accompany him, Behr tracks Riggi's men to Mexico, where he and Paul discover the true extent of Riggi's depravity as they race against the clock to find Jamie. Levien expertly weaves a subplot involving the tragic death of Behr's own young son into the complex kidnapping story, and the moments shared between the two grieving fathers are heartbreaking. Fans of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch will be particularly delighted." Publisher' Weekly Starred Review

Front

www.cahners.com) - At the start of this weak sequel to 2006's At Risk from bestseller Cornwell, Monique Lamont, a politically ambitious D.A., uses a speech at the John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass., to launch an implausible anticrime initiative she's labeled No Neighbor Left Behind ("The decline of neighborhoods is potentially as destructive as global warming"). Lamont orders her main investigator, Win Garano, to reopen the case of a blind English woman, Janie Brolin, murdered in Watertown in 1962. Lamont suspects Brolin may have been the first victim of the notorious Boston Strangler. For reasons that Lamont fails to coherently articulate, solving this crime will galvanize the public into caring about crime in general. Not incidentally, it will also bolster her chances of ascending to greater power. Lamont's irresponsible approach to her job may strike some readers as bizarre, while Garano's ambivalence about his boss adds little to his appeal. The unsophisticated depiction of power politics (e.g., Lamont suggests to the governor of Massachusetts that solving Brolin's murder will make him Time magazine's man of the year) is not what the legions of Kay Scarpetta fans have come to expect. (May) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Why bother? Cornwell has been on the skids for a long time and this book certainly shows that.

The characters are bizarre and mostly unlikeable. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.