Fforde is unimaginably imaginative. He creates an entirely new world in which nursery rhyme and fairy tale characters exist--with all the flaws that humans embody. Within that world, His detective chases a murderer via a twisting plot. Great stuff!
It's Easter in Reading - a bad time for eggs - and no one can remember the last sunny day. Humpty Dumpty, well-known nursery favourite, large egg, ex-convict and former millionaire philanthropist is found shattered beneath a wall in a shabby area of town.
Following the pathologist's careful reconstruction of Humpty's shell, Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his Sergeant Mary Mary are soon grappling with a sinister plot involving cross-border money laundering, the illegal Bearnaise sauce market, corporate politics and the cut and thrust world of international Chiropody.
As Jack and Mary stumble around the streets of Reading in Jack's…
Bone Canyon brought me into the world of an arson detective battling a ruthless gang of criminals who start raging wildfires to set-up their score. The suspense was taut and relentless. The details rang true, I learned a lot about fires and arson.
This was the first book I read by this author. When I tried others, I was disappointed.
Westlake is my main man--I love his writing. Periodically, I go back and reread his novels, some of which are under different pen names (notably, Richard Stark.)
His plots are amazing. Something always goes wrong for his quirky protagonists, and they struggle to reach their goals, only sometimes doing that successfully. Westlake's humor tickles me. If I was a laugh-out-loud kind of guy, I definitely would've laughed out loud. As it was, I smiled a lot.
A crew of thieves hopes to hijack a mobile home full of money in this crime caper from “the funniest man in the world” (The Washington Post).
John Dortmunder has been working an encyclopedia-selling scam while waiting for his next big heist. Unfortunately, his latest mark seems to be wise to the con, and he has to cut his sales pitch short and make a quick escape.
But opportunity awaits: Main Street bank has temporarily relocated to a mobile home. All Dortmunder has to do is get past seven security guards, put the bank-on-wheels in gear, and drive away. It’s…
Tom is dangerously close to discovering his threshold—the point of no return for his sanity.
His encounter with the killer represented one more bizarre hot potato he was forced to juggle instead of filing away neatly. It wasn’t one too many, but what if the next one was? And could all the coincidences that keep happening to Tom be nothing more than that? The questions pile up for both Tom and the reader, much as the murders do.
Tom explores his inner transformation with a clinician’s expertise as he’s forced to expand his perspective and gather new tools to maintain his sanity amid all the drastic plot twists that are foisted on him by a host of offbeat characters.
