Safer by Sean Doolittle

 

I had this book on my shelf for quite a while without remembering why I had it. (Working at a bookstore as I did for a long time, you tend to accumulate a certain number of advanced reading copies of books rather impulsively. Or I did.) The title and cover, which on the ARC has a lot of publisher blurbs, made me think it was a public service kind of book, maybe talking about some public health hazard. It was only when I was straightening up around here one day that I looked at it more closely and realized that I had picked it up because it was by a mystery writer whose name I already knew.

"My wife Sara and I are hosting a faculty party at our home when the Clark Falls Police Department arrives to take me into custody."

That, my friends, is what's known as a hook.

I've been trying to think since I read it about what book or category of books it reminds me of. Today I realized that one story it shares a little in common with is the television version of Pretty Little Liars. There's the same kind of feeling of trouble brewing in a tight, somewhat isolated community. One thing that's brilliant about the book is that it takes place on a cul-de-sac. So the feeling of everybody being crammed together and watching each other is doubly reinforced.

I really enjoyed the escalating tension between Paul Callaway and his creepy, overbearing neighbor. As an outsider from an urban setting, our narrator is in a fine position to notice all the little power moves and enforcement of conformity going on in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, Paul is also his own worst enemy and there's a dark humor in the way that he actually assists in getting himself caught deeper in the web.

Doolittle is a talented writer and I will be reading more.

I'm really glad this book didn't turn out to be about the dangers in our drinking water.

Bangkok Gamble by Tom Crowley

Another enjoyable outing to Thailand in this third Matt Chance adventure. In this one, a gambling tycoon asks Matt's help in finding his missing daughter, who has disappeared while out nightclubbing with a friend. But Matt has extra incentive when he learns that his friend from Special Forces John Scales has already been on the case and has also disappeared. Matt's leads soon take him far out of Bangkok and on the trail of a nefarious cult leader.

I particularly enjoy a couple of different aspects of Crowley's writing. One is the detailed portrait of Bangkok, often of some of the more dangerous and seamier sides, but sometimes just impressions of what it's like to live in this busy, humid city. Another is the way he writes action adventure narratives out in the jungle and smaller towns of the country. A particularly effective scene occurs when he and John take part in a raid on the corrupt temple.

I'm liking the way Matt Chance's world grows as the series goes along. We already knew his girlfriend Noi and her devoted assistant Plato, genius hacker. John Scales and Matt's half brother Rick, CIA agent, return and now we have Jade Lee, the kickass ex-Army helicopter pilot who as a mixed race ex-military person has more in common with Matt--half American, half Thai--than Matt can first admit.

Looks very much like more exciting adventures await.