Bloody Thrilling - Latest Crime Reads

Here are some crime reads for you in this last phase of summer (that we never had this year). I hope you enjoy!

The House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias

I have always been envious of people who have childhood friends but due to moving a lot and moving between countries I never could keep in touch with the people I knew as a child. The five friends Gabino Iglesias writes about in House of Bone and Rain are exactly that kind of diehard friends I am jealous of; Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo go through everything together and stick with each other each time. Even when Bimbo's mom is shot and he swears revenge, they don't leave him alone in his quest and tag along with him who is blind from rage.
Typical for Gabino Iglesias, they set off to a gory, bloody, brutal adventure. Even when it turns out that his mother Maria had ties to the Puerto Rican drug king and it is improbable to attack him and come out alive, these friends stick together. Luckily it is hurricane season and everybody in Puerto Rico knows that hurricanes carry spirits. And there's an additional supernatural element related to the sea (I won't spoil this for you, but Igleasias has written about similar mythological beings before) and that adds a mythological element to the harsh realities of living and dying in Puerto Rico.

House of Bone and Rain was very much closer to The Devil Takes You Home in tone and prose than Iglesias' previous work and I'm not complaining. The characters are very much likable, so that's a solid base, I love them as a group, love the connection, love that they're so correct and humane, but also flawed, as Iglesias' characters often are. The supernatural elements are chef's kiss!

Golden Girls #1 - Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage

When I was visiting my grandparents in Germany during my summer vacations as a child, I loved staying at their place because I loved my grandmother and it was our habit that she brought me Zwieback which I dunk into milk and ate, while the both of us watched The Golden Girls and laughed over their antiques. I miss those days very much.

So, of course, it was a no-brainer when I found out about a cozy mystery starring the elderly roommates Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia, and I devoured it as soon as it reached Hammett-Ground. Ultimately, it was neither bad, not great, but ... satisfactory.

This first installment features Rose planing an elaborate St. Olaf–themed wedding for her cousin, with lots and lots of cheesecake and Dorothy trying her luck in the scary world of dating, but quickly losing her date, only to find him dead and face-down in one of Rose's cheesecakes. So the mysterious death should be solved quickly before the wedding is ruined and Rose's cousin is expelled from the traditional town community.

Rachel Ekstrom Courage does a good job in catching the essence of each Golden Girl; Rose's naiveté, Sophia's wild streak (and fart jokes), Blanche's (to me, unexplainable) sexappeal and southern charm, and finally Dorothy's ... relatability? I never realized how relatable she is, I always thought she's just kind of grumpy! It was fun delving into this world of elderly roommates again, I haven't given up the hope to find equally fun and loyal roommates when I hit that age. Unfortunately, I have to say, something was missing, and it wasn't the same as watching the series. I will keep reading further installments though, and see if I still feel the same. 

Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang

Julie Chan is the long lost twin of social media star Chloe VanHuusen, who does nothing but use her sister for likes and clicks. But then Julie discovers Chloe’s dead body and the circumstances make her claim the identity of her twin, and to start living the life she’s always envied and wanted. That is, until she realizes that the life of an influencer is anything but perfect, and you need to follow a weird set of rules.

She's invited to a week-long island retreat by Chloe’s closest group of influencer friends, and things turn cult-like, to say the least.

Focusing on the vantage point of an outsider, Julie Chan is Dead starts as an interesting and critical meditation on social media and celebrity life, but then very stiffly tries to force a thriller part which is very different in tone and setting than the first part. I'm not really a fan of such shifts in the mood of a story, it feels almost unnatural. I understand there needs to be a character arc, it's still a very much too wide arc for me. And yet, it's a quickly readable nice past-time if the subject matters to you... 

Vera Wong #2 - Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

...or you can pick up everybody's favorite teashop owner/investigator grandma Vera Wong's second adventure Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man, because it's all about social media and its darker side here too.

Vera is enjoying her new life: ever since she solved the murder in her teashop she made lots of new friends, throws dinner parties for them, and even managed to set up her son Tilly with police officer Selena. But she then comes across a young woman who is looking for her friend Xander, an influencer who lives the good life with private jets, parties, social media fame, who disappeared without a trace. To get into this world, Vera tries and succeeds (what else?) in becoming a social media star by brewing tea in her videos and talking about the disappearance of Xander. She then attracts all sorts of people, not always good.

Although this installment of the Vera Wong books begins even funnier than the previous one, it goes much darker places in its resolution. Sutanto shows that she's capable of tackling difficult subjects as much as she can make her readers laugh, I liked this and will always read this tea brewing nosy old lady as long as the series continues. 

The Last Session by Julia Bartz

Another cult on a retreat. 

We follow social worker Thea who encounters her doppelganger at the psychiatric unit she's working at. The patient (I forgot her name, I think it was Catherine?) is brought in in a catatonic state, and doesn't remember what happened when she later comes to herself. When Catherine's basically kidnapped from the unit, Thea follows a trail of clues which lead her to a remote resort in New Mexico, a monthly retreat held by a cult-like formation which promises to resolve all your romantic and sexual issues. And the exercises are intimate, very much so.

I thought Julia Bartz' first book had a delightful twisty ending and here too I was expecting something similar. But The Last Session dragged, is not very interesting, and is a little silly, to be frank. Still, I was able to finish my summer reading challenge thanks to this book, because I could cross out the prompt about a book set in a resort, woohoo.

Wiener Psychoanalyse-Krimis#1 - Der Wolf auf meiner Couch: Ein Wien-Krimi by Edith Kneifl 

And finally a book I bought during my last visit to Vienna in the spring, which is unfortunately not yet available in English, but very recommendable if you like to read in German. 

After the death of his father, psychiatrist Arthur Lang returns to his hometown Vienna to rebuild his life after a long stay in Berlin. Increasingly strange things happen: a patient apparently commits suicide, someone breaks into his office, a lawyer he knows is murdered...

I thought this book was brilliant. I was so engrossed in Arthur's inner world that I only halfway realized that no real murder had actually occurred yet, and that I was actually reading the investigation of another character, Inspector Dieter, who was operating completely hidden in the background. Very clever and unusual.

This book was recommended to me by Krimisalon during a visit to Vienna, a great bookstore for local crime novels, but also for everything else related to books. It is apparently the first installment in a Viennese psychoanalysis series, and I will certainly read further installments if they keep on coming.