Double-book post
Jun. 5th, 2006 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperBrief comments on both of these books. I'd actually make this a triple-book post, except I want to give Black Powder War a post of its very own! Picoreviews: Elizabeth Lowell's Always Time to Die is fluffily suspenseful, formulaic but fun. Anne Perry's A Sudden, Fearful Death is a mystery with some decent substance to it, and which begins to round out the histories of her protagonist Monk and certain critical side characters as well.
I can generally rely upon Elizabeth Lowell to give me a fluffily suspenseful but enjoyable read. She's formulaic, sure, but it's a formula I happen to like: beautiful, spunky woman plus broody and sexy man plus people trying to kill them, generally for reasons involving fabulously expensive l00t, dirty secrets, or both. The man is generally broody over a troubled past, and chances are high that the woman has had issues involving men in her own background. Chances are even higher than they will resist being attracted to one another, and they may well get cranky at one another if one thinks the other has done something particularly stupid, though if that happens, you know that by the end they'll clue in and live Happily Ever After(TM). Also, by way of demonstrating what a butch guy he is and how he'll lay it on the line for his girl, the hero will get wounded at a suitably dramatic juncture in the narrative, but always in one of the Approved Hero Fashions, and it will never prevent him from handily dispatching the villain even if he has to keel over afterwards (even if it takes him several chapters to pull it off).
Always Time to Die is a fine example of her formula. Nothing terribly new or unusual here, unless you count a remarkable lack of angst on the part of the heroine Carly, which I quite appreciated. She was spunky and funny, and although she did have the obligatory Trouble With Men in her background, it wasn't something she had any issues with, and it certainly didn't get in the way of her realizing that Dan, Hero Du Jour, was the hottest thing to ever hot out of Hot Town.
The genealogy aspect of the plot was also new and kind of fun for Lowell. Some reviewers on Amazon.com were complaining about this bogging down the story for them, but I found it entertaining and certainly quite pertinent to the ongoing story; it felt well-balanced against the current brouhahas, and past and present came together in a suitably suspenseful fashion at the end. All in all an entertaining way to blow a few hours.
Meanwhile, over in Anne Perry land, I've knocked off A Sudden, Fearful Death. This is #4 in the inaccurately named William Monk series--it's really way more the William Monk, Hester Latterly, and Oliver Rathbone series, I find. This time around we got another hefty chunk of Monk, Hester, and Rathbone walking around talking to people to try to solve the mystery du jour--which while a bit less action-y than I prefer, it still is working for me since Perry does put together a nicely complex kind of story.
I must also say it's about damn time that we start seeing some increasing sign of Monk and Hester liking each other. I mean, you know it's coming from pretty much page one of the first book, when they start off in the time-honored fashion by sniping at one another constantly. In this book, I was rather charmed to find Monk starting to actually look forward to sniping with her, and finding that he would rather have a hostile conversation with her than a genteel one with any other woman.
Nice callback to the previous book, with Major Tiptree making another appearance--and proposing to Edith. Aww. ^_^ And I liked further hints getting dropped about Monk and Runcorn's background together, and how Runcorn didn't used to be such an asshole.
I kind of wish that Perry would get off the theme of All Nurses Who Went to the Crimea Are Goddesses Incarnate, but from the peeks I've stolen at the Amazon.com pages for the books to come, I think I'll get that wish. Sins of the Wolf looks like fun--and the beginnings of actual tender feelings between Monk and Hester, at last! Woot!
I can generally rely upon Elizabeth Lowell to give me a fluffily suspenseful but enjoyable read. She's formulaic, sure, but it's a formula I happen to like: beautiful, spunky woman plus broody and sexy man plus people trying to kill them, generally for reasons involving fabulously expensive l00t, dirty secrets, or both. The man is generally broody over a troubled past, and chances are high that the woman has had issues involving men in her own background. Chances are even higher than they will resist being attracted to one another, and they may well get cranky at one another if one thinks the other has done something particularly stupid, though if that happens, you know that by the end they'll clue in and live Happily Ever After(TM). Also, by way of demonstrating what a butch guy he is and how he'll lay it on the line for his girl, the hero will get wounded at a suitably dramatic juncture in the narrative, but always in one of the Approved Hero Fashions, and it will never prevent him from handily dispatching the villain even if he has to keel over afterwards (even if it takes him several chapters to pull it off).
Always Time to Die is a fine example of her formula. Nothing terribly new or unusual here, unless you count a remarkable lack of angst on the part of the heroine Carly, which I quite appreciated. She was spunky and funny, and although she did have the obligatory Trouble With Men in her background, it wasn't something she had any issues with, and it certainly didn't get in the way of her realizing that Dan, Hero Du Jour, was the hottest thing to ever hot out of Hot Town.
The genealogy aspect of the plot was also new and kind of fun for Lowell. Some reviewers on Amazon.com were complaining about this bogging down the story for them, but I found it entertaining and certainly quite pertinent to the ongoing story; it felt well-balanced against the current brouhahas, and past and present came together in a suitably suspenseful fashion at the end. All in all an entertaining way to blow a few hours.
Meanwhile, over in Anne Perry land, I've knocked off A Sudden, Fearful Death. This is #4 in the inaccurately named William Monk series--it's really way more the William Monk, Hester Latterly, and Oliver Rathbone series, I find. This time around we got another hefty chunk of Monk, Hester, and Rathbone walking around talking to people to try to solve the mystery du jour--which while a bit less action-y than I prefer, it still is working for me since Perry does put together a nicely complex kind of story.
I must also say it's about damn time that we start seeing some increasing sign of Monk and Hester liking each other. I mean, you know it's coming from pretty much page one of the first book, when they start off in the time-honored fashion by sniping at one another constantly. In this book, I was rather charmed to find Monk starting to actually look forward to sniping with her, and finding that he would rather have a hostile conversation with her than a genteel one with any other woman.
Nice callback to the previous book, with Major Tiptree making another appearance--and proposing to Edith. Aww. ^_^ And I liked further hints getting dropped about Monk and Runcorn's background together, and how Runcorn didn't used to be such an asshole.
I kind of wish that Perry would get off the theme of All Nurses Who Went to the Crimea Are Goddesses Incarnate, but from the peeks I've stolen at the Amazon.com pages for the books to come, I think I'll get that wish. Sins of the Wolf looks like fun--and the beginnings of actual tender feelings between Monk and Hester, at last! Woot!
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Date: 2006-06-05 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-05 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-05 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-05 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-06 01:12 am (UTC)I only wish she'd write more about the Donovan family. ~pout~ I love all those boys and think it's incredibly unfair that we've never even gotten to meet Justin and Lawe :D
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Date: 2006-06-06 02:18 am (UTC)Looks like she's starting another set of interconnected books though, with Always Time to Die. The dude in that works for St. Kilda Consulting, which seems to be the employer for the dude in the next book as well.
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Date: 2006-06-06 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-06 03:28 am (UTC)