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91. The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly - the last time I reviewed a Michael Connelly for one of these odd numbered years, I said that he deserved to be a bestselling author. I still think that he definitely has a great writing style and you can read through one of his books in a week. However, I must say that I enjoyed reading this book more than I like reviewing it now. In the reading, I was happily going along with his reporter protagonist as the murderers were known to the reader in a Hitchcockian "bomb under the table" manner. And I did keep reading. It has a three act structure - 1. Reporter stumbles into the work of serial killers while chasing a story, 2. After reporter is almost killed, he and his FBI agent girlfriend seriously investigate the murders and 3. cat and mouse game with the serial killers as reporter figures out where the murderers are finding their victims.
However, within the context of the book I have some issues. First off, there's more than a little bit of racism at the beginning where our hero gets a phone call from an angry black woman who stepped out of a minstrel show to tell him that her son is innocent. Then when he investigates the woman (who is really the kid's grandmother but don't tell him that), he gets jacked by gang bangers who charge him a tax. And then when the kid is exonerated (he was only trying to steal the car, not the body in the trunk), he shows up to appear on a talk show with our hero and can't stop saying motherfucker and "Am I gonna get rich off of this?" It's a pretty ugly depiction and while yes, there are dumb kids who live in shitty neighborhoods and run with gangs and won't stop saying motherfucker in front of their trashy mothers it's just too easy. Makes me understand why Linda Fairstein built a literary career out of her success in railroaded five innocent black teenagers.
Also one of the characters gets fridged. The plucky young reporter who is all enthusiastic about serial killers and wants to be part of the story disappears when our protagonist goes to Las Vegas (the killers are IT guys and super hackers who can make things look sinister by losing people's emails) and when our hero comes back to his house, she's dead under the bed (he fucks his ex-girlfriend from the FBI first). It makes narrative sense as the killer wanted to make it look like a murder-suicide and only the arrival of the ex-girlfriend saved him. But it's still an ugly trope that needs to go away, especially when there aren't a lot of female characters in Connelly books anyhow (speaking of which isn't Bosch's back story about his mother getting killed).
And in the third act, the killers are way too clever for words, to the point that only our hero can really save the day as all of the FBI agents are babes in the woods.
So overall, fun book and I would read Connelly again, but if he goes on a Dan Simmons tirade I not only will be unsurprised but there's a good chance it will stop all enjoyment of his books.
92. The Unwanted by Don Brown - This is a rage inducing graphic novel because it brings up a topic that most people seem to want to forget about and do everything in their power to ignore. Fuck Tulsi Gabbard. This is about the Syrian refugees crisis and it's beautifully rendered and discusses the background of the Syrian civil war including the ways that the protests turned deadly and how ISIS was loosed upon the world. Most of the book is about the path of the refugees through Greece and Libya with the coyotes who are smuggling people for a vast sum of money and no guarantee of safety. This is a powerful book and one that should be read everywhere.
But like the rest of Syria will just get ignored.
93.Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History by Joel Christian Gill - This is an interesting book because many of the subjects in this book are not popular. There's a W.E.B. Dubois story but it's mostly about his school that was illegal in many places. Some of these people are famous for being magicians or bicycle racers, but a lot of these historical figures are people who did the best they could with what they had. The one about the escaped slave who wrote two letters to his former slave mistress telling her that he was going to take his daughter off the plantation and it's not stealing because she's his daughter is particularly powerful. Bass Reeves is a particularly fascinating study since he was a U.S. marshal picked for the position because he was black and less likely to get heat from the Indians in the territories. Only there's the detail about Reeves arresting his son that seems purposefully vague, especially since the son is narrating the story. And the ending is the fact that Reeves was the basis of the lone ranger.
However, within the context of the book I have some issues. First off, there's more than a little bit of racism at the beginning where our hero gets a phone call from an angry black woman who stepped out of a minstrel show to tell him that her son is innocent. Then when he investigates the woman (who is really the kid's grandmother but don't tell him that), he gets jacked by gang bangers who charge him a tax. And then when the kid is exonerated (he was only trying to steal the car, not the body in the trunk), he shows up to appear on a talk show with our hero and can't stop saying motherfucker and "Am I gonna get rich off of this?" It's a pretty ugly depiction and while yes, there are dumb kids who live in shitty neighborhoods and run with gangs and won't stop saying motherfucker in front of their trashy mothers it's just too easy. Makes me understand why Linda Fairstein built a literary career out of her success in railroaded five innocent black teenagers.
Also one of the characters gets fridged. The plucky young reporter who is all enthusiastic about serial killers and wants to be part of the story disappears when our protagonist goes to Las Vegas (the killers are IT guys and super hackers who can make things look sinister by losing people's emails) and when our hero comes back to his house, she's dead under the bed (he fucks his ex-girlfriend from the FBI first). It makes narrative sense as the killer wanted to make it look like a murder-suicide and only the arrival of the ex-girlfriend saved him. But it's still an ugly trope that needs to go away, especially when there aren't a lot of female characters in Connelly books anyhow (speaking of which isn't Bosch's back story about his mother getting killed).
And in the third act, the killers are way too clever for words, to the point that only our hero can really save the day as all of the FBI agents are babes in the woods.
So overall, fun book and I would read Connelly again, but if he goes on a Dan Simmons tirade I not only will be unsurprised but there's a good chance it will stop all enjoyment of his books.
92. The Unwanted by Don Brown - This is a rage inducing graphic novel because it brings up a topic that most people seem to want to forget about and do everything in their power to ignore. Fuck Tulsi Gabbard. This is about the Syrian refugees crisis and it's beautifully rendered and discusses the background of the Syrian civil war including the ways that the protests turned deadly and how ISIS was loosed upon the world. Most of the book is about the path of the refugees through Greece and Libya with the coyotes who are smuggling people for a vast sum of money and no guarantee of safety. This is a powerful book and one that should be read everywhere.
But like the rest of Syria will just get ignored.
93.Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History by Joel Christian Gill - This is an interesting book because many of the subjects in this book are not popular. There's a W.E.B. Dubois story but it's mostly about his school that was illegal in many places. Some of these people are famous for being magicians or bicycle racers, but a lot of these historical figures are people who did the best they could with what they had. The one about the escaped slave who wrote two letters to his former slave mistress telling her that he was going to take his daughter off the plantation and it's not stealing because she's his daughter is particularly powerful. Bass Reeves is a particularly fascinating study since he was a U.S. marshal picked for the position because he was black and less likely to get heat from the Indians in the territories. Only there's the detail about Reeves arresting his son that seems purposefully vague, especially since the son is narrating the story. And the ending is the fact that Reeves was the basis of the lone ranger.
