Book Log 2012 #14: We Is Got Him by Carrie Hagen

In 1874, a young boy is taken from his front yard by a pair of men (his brother is also taken, but is released shortly afterward). Shortly thereafter the father receives a ransom note, and thus begins what is believed to be the first kidnapping for ransom in US history. The search for the boy, Charley Ross, would play out in the press and gain nationwide attention.

At the same time, the city of Philadelphia (where the kidnapping occurred) is preparing to host the US centennial celebration. The men in charge - powerful, rich, connected - are concerned that the Ross case will hurt their fundraising efforts and impact attendance, and exert pressure on the mayor to either get the case wrapped up or buried as quickly as possible.

If this set-up sounds kind of familiar, it's because it follows the Devil in the White City template that Erik Larson set up so successfully. Even better, the two story lines in this case are actually related, avoiding the problem that some post-Devil books had in tying the two story lines together.

The result, for me at least, was kind of uneven. I felt that the centennial planners never quite came to the fore enough. I suppose that's fitting, as their exercise of power was mostly in the background, but more detail about these men, even if not related to the actual events in the book, would have helped flesh that group out. I also tended to think that the transition of the story from Philadelphia to New York was muddled, as it was less clear to me what characters knew what information at that point.

I don't know if I necessarily enjoyed the book, but I did find it an engaging look at the period and location, and of how ill-suited law enforcement was at the time to deal with anything like this, even when the crime was committed by men who were not exactly masterminds. Worth a read, certainly.

Book Log 2012 #13: Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride

Logan MacRae is just back to work after a year off recovering (and perhaps not fully) from stab wounds suffered in solving a serial murder case, and finds himself in the middle of a string of child murders and disappearances. He's got to juggle the investigations with the press (and the inevitable leak), an ME who is hostile towards him, and a changed landscape among the brass. All of this takes place within the bleak backdrop of Aberdeen, where it seems to rain every day it doesn't snow.

I have to say I enjoyed this book very much, both straight-up as a crime novel and for the elements more specific to Tartan noir. Aberdeen is used to great effect, and the apology to the tourist board that MacBride puts at the start of the book was good for a laugh. I didn't find MacRae to be as anti-heroic as the genre suggests, but more of that may come out later in the series, which I intend to continue.

Book Log 2012 #12: Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten

The invasion of Scandanavian crime fiction brings not only new authors, but the catalogs of existing ones, as evidenced by this book, the first in a series featuring the title character, who plies her trade in Gothenburg, Sweden's second-largest city. The case at hand is the killing of one of the city's richest men, whose apparent suicide is quickly discovered to be something else. Family, friends and ex-cons now operating in the victim's neighborhood all come under investigation.

And that investigation seems interminable, with page after page of dialog that really felt off to me. I've run into this more than once with books in translation, and in most cases the translation either sorts itself out or I get used to whatever quirks originally bothered me. Not so with this book, which read as oddly on the last page as it did on the first.

Not helping is that for all of being the title character, I had a hard time building any interest in Huss, who doesn't appear to be any more gifted at criminal investigation than her colleagues (and in at least one case, a little less gifted, or at least a little less lucky). I suppose some of this was to come from her domestic life, mostly from having to address one daughter's decision to become a skinhead, but that wrapped up so cleanly - almost magically so - that it didn't help develop her character at all.

My other issue with the book is that it didn't use the city very well. There were long stretches where I lapsed into thinking the story took place in Stockholm, and for the most part it might as well have. Maybe I've gotten too used to Scottish crime authors making really good use of their location. 

Can't say I'd recommend this one, and don't particularly plan to continue with the series.

Book Log 2012 #11: Supervolcano: Eruption by Harry Turtledove


In the end notes to this book of alternative geology, Turtledove thanks his parents for subscribing him to National Geographic all those years ago, as an article from that magazine is what inspired this series that starts here by having the supervolcano that lies beneath Yellowstone National Park blow for the first time in 70,000 years or so. It just so happened that I'd unearthed what I believe is the issue in question (August 2009, article here) while I was reading the book, so I had added impetus to read the article.

And if you do opt to pick this book up, I would suggest reading the article first. For one reason, you'll get to see where much of the exposition comes from (including a Rhode Island reference that leads to the main character's odd and unexplained hatred for the state). For another, you'll actually get a decent idea of how and what such an explosion might entail.

Because the book, rather than having a chapter that describes the eruption in detail, only covers it from a distance. And while the towering clouds, fearsome roar and rolling ground under the characters' feet underscore just what a big deal this is, we never get a good feel or depiction of the event referenced in the title. It's like a book version of Terra Nova's distinct lack of dinosaurs, but in this case the reader gets shortchanged on the one event the book should address.

Instead, we get the aftermath of the eruption and its impact on the members of the Ferguson family and their associates. Which isn't bad in and of itself, but does get bogged down pretty badly in a narrative that can't go more than a sentence with making some allusion, riffing on a notable quote from literature, or using a phrase or slang term that may have been used semi-widely 30 years ago. This also infects a decent amount of the dialog, which certainly doesn't help. There are passages here that are in no way related to how people actually talk. All of this is too cute by half, and by trying to show how smart and/or clever he is, Turtledove detracts from the story.

There are some interesting bits - the Ferguson daughter becomes a refugee staying one step ahead of the ashfall, and the older son is snowbound in Maine touring with his band, whose name is like a bad joke come to life.

So would I recommend this book? No. But will I read the next one? Probably. Because I am a sucker.