The Mystery Starts Here

As you know if you’ve been reading this blog for a while (and if not, why?) I’ve already reviewed two of Richard Montanari’s novels and I liked them both, a lot. So, when I saw, “The Violet Hours” on the shelf at my local library, I snatched it up. It’s the first book by Montanari written when he was quite a bit younger, I think. The writing is a bit pretentious and there were several leads left hanging, but overall a good book.

“The Violet Hours” starts with a very horrific murder of a priest who’s having sex (not for the first time) with a prostitute. We don’t even find out all the details until later but we do know that the poor man is give a massive dose of heroin and then has his throat slit. Yeah, the whole book is pretty graphic, so if you don’t like that sort of thing – beware.

I read a little further and had to put the book down. We are in the murderer’s POV when he looks through a window and sees a man, “kick an old dog under the chin so hard his teeth flew out of his mouth.” I almost got sick to my stomach. I suppose the author was trying show how awful the dog-kicker was or something. I don’t care. An author can do what he wants to people, they can generally protect themselves but when you start hurting dogs, I draw the line. Sadly the author never justified this event in any way. After two days, I put on my big girl shoes and decided to give the novel one more try.

I finished the book and it was well-written. As with Montanari’s other novels, we get chapters from the bad guy’s POV. In this book, he’s getting revenge for something that happened 20 years prior on Halloween. Yes, now in the present, it’s almost Halloween – that old ticking clock. The man is clearly crazy, bad, nutty and seriously weird. In this book, I did guess early on who the killer was and I was right. There were a lot of twists and turns and several large plot holes that never got filled, but hey, it was the guys first book. I’m still wondering where the killer got all his money – big mystery.

So, now I’ve read three of Montanari’s novels. They were good, well-written and for the most part, entertaining, but I will never read another one of his books, never. Why?

He killed a dog.

I’ve read most of the “Prey” series and generally liked them all. While “Naked Prey” was good, it wasn’t up to par with the earlier Sandford novels. I think he’s running out of ideas. Hey, that’s one of the reason I don’t write a series!

“Naked Prey” starts with a bang. We see the bad guy capturing, beating the snot out of and then hanging two people, a white woman and black man. It’s winter in a small town in northern Minnesota so the bodies freeze, “like Popsicles.” Because there are few black folk in the area, everyone from the governor on down is being careful not to call it a lynching. Davenport is sent in to do what he does best, “fix shit.”

The book started with an interesting premise, but then sort of meandered around until almost the middle of the book. I was ready to give up when the pace picked up with a couple more killings, the pieces fell into place for Lucas and he once again solved the crime. Like many other reviewers, I was bothered by the fact of two MAJOR crimes taking place in a tiny town – and no one seemed to notice. I liked the character of Letty, the 12-year-old girl who found the bodies. She’s sassy and very independent because her mother “drinks too much.”

We have a major car thief operation, kids being kidnapped, ex-nuns smuggling prescription drugs down from Canada and that cold cold northern Minnesota weather. So, while not my favorite Sandford book, I’d still give it a read. Of course I may be a bit prejudiced – I grew up in Minnesota and always enjoyed reading Sandford’s books because I recognized so many of the areas! And reading “Naked Prey” reminded me once again why I left! It’s too damn cold in the winter!

If you like reading light humorous romance, watch for my latest book, “Call Sign: Love” out 8/1/09 at www.writewordsinc.com.