Reviews and Comments

I avoided reading the back cover so as not to pick up any accidental spoilers, so it took me several chapters to twig to what kind of book this was. Unlike in Call For the Dead I did not at all pick up on what lay in the hole at the centre of the centre of the story, being perhaps too caught up in looking for some clever mechanism. Also worth catching John le Carré's afterword on the English boarding school as an institution.

A Murder of Quality shows, I think, just how close a good spy story lies to the fields of the murder mystery.

Another refreshing change. I had heard that George Smiley was created in reaction against the James Bond sort of spy-hero and, having heard this, it felt correct in the reading. I was also interested to read this novel in light of comments I had seen recently comparing it favourably against Tim Powers' Declare (which I have not yet read) in its treatment of Jewish folk and communists. I doubt I would have noticed that in a relevant way without having been pointed at it, since I am still far from as perceptive a reader as I would like to become, and aside from a couple of dimensions my experience of the world remains a rather insular, privileged one.

I don't recall if I have said explicitly that my in the fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and spy fiction genres comes a lot from a joy in puzzles unfolding, a search for moments of epiphany as what was hidden becomes clear, but I believe that is so. In that regard Smiley's careful, attentive approach suits me as well as Chandler's Marlowe, and the story is told well enough that we can see where Smiley is not looking—perhaps because he does not wish to see what he would find there.

As with Chandler's novels there is a lot that goes unstated. But, unlike some more recently published mysteries I did not feel as though the author were cheating by holding information back so as to spring a surprise upon us for the conclusion. Rather it is more that the facts of the matter are laid out for us and we are left to draw the correct conclusions from them, or not, while the protagonists acts upon their conclusions until, at the climax, the state of things becomes undeniable.

Expectations fairly well met. The central twist was fairly well telegraphed from the beginning but the journey was fun and exciting. Marlowe's disdain for cops was appreciated and there were points where my attention was careless enough to be taken in by his bald-faced lies despite that I had been along for the ride every step along the way and seen exactly what he was lying about. Still fun, and I still hope to find modern detectives more like this classic, but also a long way off the brilliant shock that was The Big Sleep.

Although it is clearly drawing inspiration from Pinocchio, I still maintain the correct elevator pitch is John Connor × T-800 post-apocalypse. A sweet story, if you're the kind of person who enjoys asexual gay romance.

Last of the series so far, and what feels like the end of an arc with one of the two co-leads finishing her probationary period at the FBI.

A couple of volumes ago we had a mystery with a decidedly science fictional resolution (which has had no discernable ongoing effect on the narrative; to my surprise this series remains determinedly self-contained). This time we get a supernatural mystery, so it seems any kind of solution is valid here. At the beginning I was hoping we were getting a monster story and I don't think this really counts. Perhaps next time. Surely New Mexico must have some kind of forgotten hibernating reptile or nest of venomous pterosaurs up in the mountains that people might stumble onto.

My remarks from the prior volumes continue to hold. Clean, functional writing. Short chapters, lots of cliffhangers. The kind of book that flies by very fast. I will be reading more of them but I would hesitate to recommend them.

Toned down a bit from Diablo Mesa, but still when I take a step back and think about it, very dramatic and I want to say florid except that the writing style remains functional. Being a little more down to earth, the author's note at the end explaining this novel as having been adapted from a true story, for which their movie deal fell through, made sense to me.

I found the reference to their own work in the "underappreciated" Ice Limit IV: Wormstorm cute. Along with reference to a few classic science fiction authors that made clear to me that yes, these are indeed meant as pulpy science fiction thrillers, not constrained to the mundane.

Also appreciated that the Corrie Swanson/Homer Watts relationship thread was resolved into "yes" (and again hoping we don't see forced conflict between them in the future, but I don't expect it), as well as Agent Sharp as Corrie's new mentor. I'm hoping we get at least one more book with him as her mentor before she graduates from probation. I am also feeling like I made a good choice starting with this spin-off series instead of going direct to the main Pendergast series (who I'll note hasn't felt the need to step in for the epilogue and tie things into a bow since The Scorpion's Tail), as we get to see Corrie Swanson learn what it is like to be an FBI agent as she experiences her own first cases. I can carry that perspective back into the older series later and see how it does or does not resonate with this.

Still not a fan that we tend to get the story all the way up to a dramatic confrontation, and then once the confrontation is dealt with we get something like an epilogue summary of what was later confirmed or discovered in the fallout to the case. I realise there isn't as much tension nor drama to be had in these, and it would probably sap a lot of momentum out of the books, but I am interested in that sort of careful forensic sifting through clues to bring the true story into focus.

But they are fun and fast reads. At the time I write this there remains one more in the series published, and I'm sure it won't take me too many more days to get through it.

This book did not go how I was expecting it to go. I had told others that Preston & Child thrillers had a reputation for getting a bit extravagant in their development and resolutions, but apparently I hadn't really believed it.

Which made this one more entertaining for me, I think. I spent about ⅔ of Diablo Mesa expecting it to be much like the atomic mystery of The Scorpion's Tail, and wondering just how the clues uncovered would be explained as having given a misleading impression. But, no, it went way out there. More-so than if Old Bones had featured the cannibal cults and ghosts that I had initially been expecting.

Having been lulled into a false sense of security after the first two books in the series featured more ordinary treasure hunts and conspiracies, I am curious to see how the next couple will follow on from this one. Do we return to normalcy, or will it become (somehow) still more extravagant?

The writing is fast and functional, but I am entertained and mostly getting what I want out of these.

P.S. Corrie Swanson's prospective romance did make a reappearance here, but it seems we are taking a slow path on whether that goes anywhere. Nora Kelly, however, moves much faster. I was not expecting that one.

My strategy of explaining this book to people by asking if they remember the 1997 movie "Relic" was perhaps doomed to failure. Especially since Old Bones is actually the beginning of a spin-off series featuring a couple of side characters from Preston & Child's main series, Dr Nora Kelly and Special Agent Corrie Swanson (who apparently didn't know they were both spun off of the same series until Pendergast made a cameo appearance at the end to solve a bonus mystery for them). Maybe someday I will go back and read his books too.

Anyway, Old Bones. I was looking for a fast-reading thriller that wasn't afraid to go high stakes and maybe include a touch of the supernatural or the monstrous. On that I was mostly satisfied, albeit the resolution seemed a little abrupt. Which is a complaint I've had a lot about mysteries, so I wonder if there is something specific I am looking for and not getting. Hopefully not a villain running a deathtrap or an extended climactic battle scene; I'd like to think that isn't my scene. Shall have to think on that more.

One disappointment (I think? still evaluating that as a stylistic choice) is that heroes and villains can largely be identified through their likeability. Am reading the subsequent volumes with this in mind to see how well that holds up as a trend.

But overall, exactly what I wanted from this novel. So, I'm satisfied.

A very quick read. This felt like a bridging volume, transitioning the series from the previous loose trilogy of Cormac solving mysteries in the face of police corruption, to whatever comes next. Which appears to be a supporting cast change and handling internal corruption and misconduct investigations among the garda. Of course, the focus on stopping bad cops serves to reinforce the notion that there are good ones, but you can't really get away from that in this genre.

As with the last few in the series I enjoyed the careful investigative work, but there didn't seem to be much of that before we came to a rapid and convenient conclusion.

This one was slow going. Interesting though. Roughly the first half is a biogeographical history of Europe from dinosaurs on Hateg Island where the European landmass would later be, and the second half is a closer look at the last 400,000 years since hominids arrived in the area. It felt almost like reading two different yet closely related books. Fascinating and very much inspiring me to think about deep (but not too deep) time, especially the tens of thousands of years humans lived in Europe before they started building cities, and how closely in time we missed some of the most recently extinct species. Further back there were many species mentioned for which their closest modern relatives are as far afield as Australia, which surprised me.

If you are European, there is a chance you may feel othered by this book, although Flannery doesn't distance himself much from a European identity. He does however communicate a clear disdain for both Nazis and Romans (who, we hear repeatedly, failed to domesticate even a single animal!)