The BR pile: Chuck Hogan
Actually having a chance to say "hey" to Chuck at holiday event for Kate's Mystery Books, I was reminded how remiss I've been in reporting on the B(een) R(ead) pile. Bad blogger! No bourbon! Without further ado...
What was most fun about reading Prince of Thieves and The Blood Artists one after the other was experiencing the different voices in the books. And it's not just that they're completely different crime novels (the first is about Boston bank robbers, the second is a medical thriller about a killer virus and the researchers who try to stop it). There's almost a homey familiarity to the characters in Prince, despite their brutality; as someone familiar with the setting, I didn't hear one false note. There's a remoteness to the researchers in The Blood Artists, as chilling as the viral villain they pursue. What floors me is in the comparison of the dialogue: there was never any point in either book where one started to sound like the other. Charlestown thugs and CDC scientists, each convincingly authentic, situated perfectly in their separate worlds.
Dang. That takes some serious skill. Add to that the terrific pace of both books and Hogan's willingness to take his characters to places you might prefer they didn't go.
I'll be adding the rest of Chuck's books to my holiday wish list.
As for the new addition to my TBR pile, well, I don't know who this Julia Child person is, but she sure talks about food a lot. And France. I'm still working on The Aeneid, and as much as I'm liking it (I'll agree it's the Roman equivalent of The Odyssey), some how epic adventure seems a bit much against the holidays.
What was most fun about reading Prince of Thieves and The Blood Artists one after the other was experiencing the different voices in the books. And it's not just that they're completely different crime novels (the first is about Boston bank robbers, the second is a medical thriller about a killer virus and the researchers who try to stop it). There's almost a homey familiarity to the characters in Prince, despite their brutality; as someone familiar with the setting, I didn't hear one false note. There's a remoteness to the researchers in The Blood Artists, as chilling as the viral villain they pursue. What floors me is in the comparison of the dialogue: there was never any point in either book where one started to sound like the other. Charlestown thugs and CDC scientists, each convincingly authentic, situated perfectly in their separate worlds.
Dang. That takes some serious skill. Add to that the terrific pace of both books and Hogan's willingness to take his characters to places you might prefer they didn't go.
I'll be adding the rest of Chuck's books to my holiday wish list.
As for the new addition to my TBR pile, well, I don't know who this Julia Child person is, but she sure talks about food a lot. And France. I'm still working on The Aeneid, and as much as I'm liking it (I'll agree it's the Roman equivalent of The Odyssey), some how epic adventure seems a bit much against the holidays.
posted by Dana | 7:56 AM
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