The first two volumes of the Timothy Wilde trilogy brought the early days of the NYPD to life through relatable characters and historical research. Their central mysteries were complex without being convoluted, and they set up so many compelling threads that I couldn’t wait to see how the third volume wrapped them all up. However, The Fatal Flame falters just where you’d like it to soar. The plotting is too loose, the mystery too easily solved, and the prose too long-winded and winding to hold […]
What’s the Matter with Paris?
Pete Dexter’s novel won the National Book Award back in 1988. Whenever you encounter a prize-winning book long after its publication, naturally the first question that comes to mind is, does it hold up? Reading Paris Trout in 2016, I’m not sure I can really answer the question, but I do feel like I can state unequivocally that a novel like it would not win any major awards in this day and age, and it’s not hard to understand why. The namesake of this book is […]
A Perfect Follow-Up to the TV Show
The FX series American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson was a phenomenal achievement. Crisply written and well-acted, the series packed the real-life drama of “The Trial of the Century” into 10 intense episodes. It will probably win a boatload of Emmys. The series was based primarily on this book. Jeffrey Toobin left a job as a federal prosecutor to write for The New Yorker, and a few years later wound up covering Simpson’s trial for the magazine. Thanks to his former career in […]
Dead Rabbits and Copper Stars
Seven For a Secret is the second novel featuring 1840’s most reluctant New York City cop, Timothy Wilde. Still recovering from the shattering events of The Gods of Gotham, Wilde is celebrating a rare good day on the job when a beautiful woman staggers into his office at police headquarters and tells him her family has been stolen. The woman, Lucy Adams, is part-black, and her sister and young son have been kidnapped by slave-hunters who are kidnapping free black citizens and passing them off […]
Missionary Position? Annexation, Eventually.
Sometimes that old break-up standby, “it’s not you, it’s me” applies to a book. Things didn’t work out between this book and me, and it was mostly my fault. I went into the relationship with good intentions, but unrealistic expectations. I thought, hey, you’ve liked the other Sarah Vowell books you’ve read, haven’t you? Remember how much fun you had reading Assassination Vacation? Sure, you’ve never been to Hawaii and you don’t have much interest in missionaries, but I’m sure Vowell can bring them alive […]
Warning: May Cause Indigestion
In The Dinner two Dutch couples meet for dinner at a fancy restaurant with important matters to discuss. The evening is told through the prospective of Paul Lohman, who dreads spending the evening with his wife Clara, his sister-in-law Babette, and his brother Serge, a rising star politician who may be elected Prime Minister in the upcoming elections. Paul’s narration is digressive and meandering, though the novel itself follows a linear projection from aperitif through desert. Along the way, the reader gains more insight into […]
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