2009: #37 – Whiskey Sour (J.A. Konrath)
Book #37 was Whiskey Sour, the first Jacqueline “Jack†Daniels mystery from J.A. Konrath. The back of the book reads:
Lieutenant Jacqueline ‘Jack’ Daniels is having a bad week. Her live-in boyfriend has left her for his personal trainer, chronic insomnia has caused her to max out her credit cards with late-night home shopping purchases, and a frightening killer who calls himself ‘The Gingerbread Man’ is dumping mutilated bodies in her district. Between avoiding the FBI and its moronic profiling computer, joining a dating service, mixing it up with street thugs, and parrying the advances of an uncouth PI, Jack and her binge-eating partner, Herb, must catch the maniac before he kills again….and Jack is next on his murder list. Whiskey Sour is full of laugh-out-loud humor and edge-of-your-seat suspense, and it introduces a fun, fully drawn heroine in the grand tradition of Kinsey Millhone, Stephanie Plum, and Kay Scarpetta.
I liked this because it was different than other detective novels I’ve read recently. Jack isn’t the typical female lead detective — i.e., she’s not young, hot, and sexy. Instead, Jack is 46, going grey, and showing the effects of 15 years of chronic insomnia. And her latest live-in just left her for his personal trainer. She becomes a focus of “The Gingerbread Man†after he spots her taking charge of his crime scene. Not only do you get Jack’s side of things in this story, you get his. The portrayal of the FBI here is pretty laughable and inaccurate, but I understand that it’s meant to be comic relief, nothing more. I’ll definitely read more books in this series.
Page count: 276 | Word count: 65,858
2008: Club Dead (Charlaine Harris)
2007: The Survivors (Dinah McCall)
2006: Goodnight Nobody (Jennifer Weiner)
2005: Circus of the Damned (Laurell K. Hamilton)
Used in these Challenges: Spring Reading Thing 2009; 100+ Reading Challenge 2009; 1st in a Series Challenge; The 999 Challenge; A-Z 2009 Challenge; Read Your Own Books Challenge;
Jack sounds like a protagonist I can relate to! This book looks like a lot of fun.
I am not sure if you enjoy listening to audio books, but the reader of this series does a fantastic job. I listened to all of the books in the series and just loved it!
I looooooove audio books. I will have to keep my eyes peeled for the rest of the series in this format. Thanks for the tip!
If you like dramatic readings, then you’ll like the audio version. I do not, so it was not a good choice for me. It still ended with a 3.5/5 rating, but I’m sure the audio had a great impact on that. It could have been higher. “Comic relief” is a good description of this or at least the attempt at comic relief. 🙂
Thanks for the kind words, Jaime. 🙂
Isn’t the Internet cool? You post a nice review, and the author pops up in your comments.
I happen to have some audiobooks of my new horror novel. It’s called AFRAID, written under my pen name, Jack Kilborn.
If you like scary books, and you’d like to review it, I’ll send you a free signed copy. Let me know if you prefer CDs or MP3.
best,
Joe
Wow, thanks for the comment Joe!
OH! Jaime, do you mind if I ask Joe a question? I hope not.
What influence do you have on who reads your books for the audiobook version? I asked another author that very question and he answer with “NONE!” I was just curious if that has been your experience. However, I know another author that replaced a reader because the original reader put a twist on the characters that wasn’t the author’s vision.
BTW – I have a copy of AFRAID coming. I hope it arrives soon! I’m really looking forward to it.
I have a lot of influence on the reader, Joy. If I insisted, I’d be able to read my books myself, but I like leaving it to the pros. Though I do have occasional cameos on my audiobooks.
I’m happy with Dick and Suzie, who read my Jack Daniels series. I like their dialects and interplay.
Now that I think about it more, I remember the author saying that he would rather defer to the pros, like you mentioned. Maybe it was more a preference of not wanting any influence. Hmmm, I don’t know. Anyway, I’m glad you are satisfied with your readers. It’s a personal preference of mine to have less inflection rather than more in my listening experiences. That’s why I’m going to read AFRAID. 🙂
I visited your website after reading your first comment and think it’s a very exciting idea to accept invitations to spend the night in reader’s homes during your tour. You must have some interesting stories to tell. Also, on your blog, I read your comment regarding posting “bad” reviews. I agree with you 100%. There have been several times when a “bad” review has drawn my attention, which has caused me to read the book, and I have had others tell me (on my blog) that things that I don’t like – they love, so it inspires them to pick up a particular book. I believe that everything is not for everybody.
Thanks for the conversation, Joe. My best to you.
Thanks for letting us intrude, Jaime. 🙂