Time to lasso in a few reviews from the (mostly) print media for August:
The Wall Street Journal reviewed a trio of thrillers which "explore the intricacies...of how parents shape, or misshape, their children; and the ways in which youthful acts and experiences alter later lives for good or ill." Included were Turnaround by George Pelecanos, Damnation Falls by Edward Wright, and Blackout by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza.
The Seattle Times, fittingly, took a look at new releases by Pacific Northwest crime writers: Cézanne's Quarry by Barbara Corrado Pope, Uneasy Relations by Aaron Elkins, Doggone by Gabriella Herkert, The Hidden Man by Anthony Flacco, Cold Case by Kate Wilhelm, Vi Agra Falls by Mary Daheim, Damage Control by JA Jance, and Skeleton Lake by Mike Doogan.
The Seattle Times had another multi-book feature which cast a wider geographical net to include Natsuo Kirino's Real World, translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel. Other new releases showcased were Marcus Sakey's Good People, Joe R. Lansdale's Leather Maiden, Adam Davies' Mine All Mine, and of course, Turnaround again, probably the most-reviewed book as of late.
The LA Times devoted a review solely to The 19th Wife: A Novel by David Ebershoff, which takes a page from recent news headlines, exploring polygamy in the desert Southwest by blending the historical story of real-life Ann Eliza Young, who helped bring polygamy to an end by eventually suing for divorce, with a contemporary murder mystery involving a young gay man who was excommunicated from a polygamous sect.
Marcus Sakey's Good People is the focus of a review in The Chicago Sun Times which concludes that "Those who crave nonstop action and a high body count might prefer the well-crafted suspense of At the City's Edge. Sakey probably knows these two Good People more intimately, and he's more believable for it."
The Washington Times' assessment of the thriller The Assassin by Stephen Coonts wasn't entirely positive, calling it "one of those written-by-the-numbers novels, the Villain does just about everything right and the good guys do just about everything wrong," even while the reviewer is a fan of Coonts' 1986 debut novel, Flight of the Intruder.
The Times Online felt The Soul Collector by Paul Johnston had a story that was "cliché-ridden and confusing, until the closing pages of explanation, when the baddies engage in what Pixar's Mr Incredible calls 'monologuing'." They also weren't terribly thrilled by the latest from father/son team Dick and Felix Francis, Silks, noting that franchising has become "a worrisome trend, with mega-sellers such as James Patterson providing little more than a template for other wannabes to fill in the detail, and then selling it under a joint byline."
And finally, The Scotsman was much more enthusiastic about its profile of Val McDermid's latest, A Darker Domain, stating that McDermid is "not only excellent on place, but on fashion, politics, technology, journalism, medicine and human frailty."
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