Month: June 2024

City on Fire by Don Winslow – Book Review

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City on Fire by Don Winslow – Book Cover

The Godfather – in Miniature

Don Winslow’s mafia novel, City on Fire, is essentially a watered-down version of The Godfather. Most of the motifs present in that classic novel appear here as well, such as:

• Mafia family wars over territory
• The unifying strength of family and blood ties
• The issue of succession, where the heir is, of course, not the most suitable candidate
• The drug trade as the path to big money, with the promise of big downfall

Since The Godfather is such a magnificent and unparalleled novel, you might be inclined to settle for even a reduced version, especially when it comes from the pen of Don Winslow, the author of the monumental The Power of the Dog trilogy. This time, with Irish and Italian mobsters clashing.

Small-Town Gangsters

Okay, but still. The fact that City on Fire is set in Providence, Rhode Island, also known as Dogtown, somehow diminishes initial expectations. Providence, squeezed between New York and Boston, is small and insignificant in comparison. Prostitution, gambling, and the docks are the main sources of money around there.

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The Last Move by Mary Burton – Book Review

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The Last Move by Mary Burton – Book Cover

Mary Burton is the author of dozens of romance novels. This fact alone might scare off many crime readers from picking up The Last Move. However, if you enjoy living dangerously, go ahead and give it a try.

The Last Move: A Decent Serial Killer Thriller

If you’ve already read a thousand crime novels where some vicious madmen is murdering innocent American citizens, it might be hard to surprise you. Mary Burton doesn’t really manage to do so either. But that’s not necessarily a problem, as it doesn’t seem to be her goal.

There’s a minor hiccup, though: theoretically, the Samaritan is already behind bars, but we’ve seen enough copycats, mentees trained by serial killers, or wrongly convicted criminals. It’s up to Dr. Hayden and Mazur to figure out which category the Samaritan falls into.

Minimal Romance Factor

Naturally, the protagonists have to work together. And here Burton surprises us: neither of them is unbearable, they don’t hate each other, and they don’t immediately want to rip each other’s clothes off. Instead, they work together excellently. Both are smart and dedicated, so it’s no wonder they develop a mutual attraction, right?

No.

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Geiger by Gustaf Skördeman – Book Review

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Geiger by Gustaf Skördeman – Book Cover

Have you been waiting for, and so far in vain, a crime novel similar to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which once sparked the renaissance of Scandinavian crime fiction? If so, Gustaf Skördeman’s Geiger, the introductory novel in his series, might catch your eye. After all, it lures you in with this exact promise on the cover. (At least on the Hungarian* edition.) But what if this only makes your disappointment all the more bitter?

Sara Nowak is not a captivating character

No. She’s a mom. She’s not tattooed either. But she does struggle with anger management issues. This isn’t very useful for a police officer. And, naturally, not for a mother either. In fact, Sara Nowak is quite embarrassing as a mom. She’s the typical overprotective, constantly lecturing person who wants to guide her kids as a moral compass. No wonder they kind of hate her. (You’d hate her too if you were all turned on and went on PronHub to, uh, broaden your horizons a bit, and she barged in to tell you it was immoral towards women.)

Nowak, as a police officer, likes to rough up suspects who indeed deserve it, but how stupid is it to do this constantly in front of witnesses? Is this woman crazy?!

Moreover, despite being a trained martial artist, she somehow always ends up on the losing side in real-life situations.

Ah, damn it!

And why on earth does a lousy vice cop meddle in someone else’s investigation anyway?

So, Gustaf Skördeman didn’t quite pull this off. It’s simply impossible to like Sara Nowak, the main character. Maybe by the very end of Geiger, just a little bit. Perhaps.

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Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann – Book Review

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Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann - Book Cover

“WTF!” exclaimed Thomas Mann, the author of “The Magic Mountain,” when he received the Nobel Prize in 1929—for his novel “Buddenbrooks.” Perhaps he himself thought that the story of the Lübeck merchant family Buddenbrook, spanning about three and a half generations in the mid-19th century, was not the most obvious choice for this prestigious award.

What Buddenbrooks is Not About

1, Not about Lübeck at all: You can count on one, maybe two fingers (and that might be generous) how many times the name of the city, where Mann’s family saga almost entirely takes place, is mentioned. You learn absolutely nothing significant about the city; the plot rarely leaves the Buddenbrook residence.

2, Not about trade either: If you expect the current Johann Buddenbrook to to be a 19th-century J.R. Ewing, performing various financial machinations and driving his business rivals crazy, nothing of the sort happens. The Buddenbrooks’ business principle is to only engage in ventures that allow you to sleep well at night. Boring? Not my words!

3, And there is not a single word about the German social processes of the 19th century. The characters in “Buddenbrooks” move exclusively within the wealthy upper middle classes.

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