Damage Control by Denise Hamilton
(TW: mention of rape) There’s a lot going on in this book. Not sure the author pulls it all off but I know that I liked it and I wanted to keep reading to the very end. I had been meaning to read this one for a while. Not only does it wind up on a lot of lists featuring great LA mysteries but the writer herself has cited Ross Macdonald as a major inspiration. This has the setup of an Archer-esque story: someone going […]
Strip by Thomas Perry
This was the first Thomas Perry novel I’ve read, and it moved up my TBR list specifically because I needed a yellow book for CBR bingo. I was expecting ‘detective novel’ but this is more of a ‘thriller’- the detective, Lieutenant Slosser, is a bit part character who takes a backseat to the dueling main characters, aging strip club owner Manco Kapak, the man Manco thinks robbed him, Joe Carver, and the man who actually robbed him, Jefferson Davis Falkins. While Manco is busy sending […]
Walkin' The Dog by Walter Mosley
Read as part of CBR12 Bingo: UnCannon. Walter Mosley is black. This book continues what I believe to be Walter Mosley’s best work: these series of small, wrenching looks into the life of Socrates Fortlow, an ex-con trying to make a new life for himself in Watts, Los Angeles. He lives with the mentality of one who is permanently imprisoned. Every step is a hazard, every chance encounter a threat. His actions are extremely measured and guarded. This was written when Mosley’s talent and ambition […]
Land of Shadows by Rachel Howzell Hall
I read a lot of mystery fiction and one of my recurring criticisms is how much I loathe the tough talking’, hard drinkin’, angry-at-the-world male detective. It’s beyond cliche at this point; these folks always act like the world owes them something. What do you have to be so mad about? Anyway, Rachel Howzell Hall’s Elouise Norton could easily fall into this trap but she’s a black woman and that in and of itself is refreshing. She’s witty and not scared and knows how to […]
Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha
Steph Cha has a hell of a tightrope to walk with this one. A fictional retelling of the murder of Latasha Harlins, she breaks down the impact of it between both families impacted: the black family that mourned her and the Korean family that produced her killer. Writing black characters, specifically in a context such as this, is a tall task for a non-black writer. But Cha is successful. She navigates this with a less-is-more approach, focusing on how grief and racial trauma impact both […]
