Bred in the Bone by Christopher Brookmyre

First published in Great Britain in 2013; published by Atlantic Monthly Press on May 6, 2014

When one of Glasgow's most notorious crime figures is gunned down in a car wash, DS Catherine McLeod is anxious to pin the crime on Glen Fallon, toward whom the evidence convincingly points. As readers of the series know, Catherine hates Fallon. Series readers also know that Fallon, apparently seeking absolution for killing Jasmine Sharp's father, has devoted his recent life to looking after Jasmine, who is now a private investigator in Glasgow and no great fan of Catherine.

The first quarter of Bred in the Bone sets up the novel's premise and reminds readers of (or acquaints new readers with) the complicated relationships among the characters. Much of the next quarter develops Fallon's backstory. Fallon is a killer, a loner, and a survivor, the abused son of a crooked cop, but there is a fundamental decency to him that makes him a compelling character (and easier to stomach than self-righteous Catherine). The novel works its way through the various grudges that people hold against Fallon and that Fallon might have reason to hold against others. It eventually develops Fallon's relationship with the gangster who was murdered in the carwash. At the same time, Jasmine delves more deeply into her own family history, much of which was hidden from her while her mother was alive.

The story eventually turns back to the parallel investigations that Jasmine and Catherine have undertaken into the carwash murder. The plot is complex -- you might need to take notes to keep track of the relationships between the various characters -- but it is entirely believable and all the threads come together without a missed stitch. The animosity between Catherine and Jasmine adds an additional undercurrent of drama to the story, as does Catherine's frustration that her superiors (as was true in earlier novels) are more interested in making deals with killers than arresting them. Catherine and Jasmine must both deal with uncomfortable truths about their fathers that add another layer of depth to the story. Toward the end of the novel, Catherine flashes back to a time when she behaved in a surprising, life-changing, and much more interesting way than she has at any other point in the series. The key scene is just a bit over the top but kudos to Christopher Brookmyre for keeping Catherine's character fresh.

In fact, all the characters are given a makeover in Bred in the Bone. The primary characters undergo dramatic changes during the course of the novel, as does the reader's understanding of the characters. The plot has plenty of twists but the story's strength lies in the evolution of its characters. The ending brings to a close a story arc that began in the first novel while charting a new direction for future books.

Brookmyre laces the story with welcome touches of humor but he also introduces relationship drama among secondary characters that lengthens the novel without adding much to it. Some parts of the story are told out of sequence, causing unnecessary confusion to no obvious purpose. Those are quibbles about a book that consistently surprised me, absorbed me, moved me, and made me think. It is the best entry to date in this strong series.

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The Boost by Stephen Baker

Published by Tor Books on May 20, 2014

If you have a processor in your head, you don't need a watch or a cellphone or a DVD player or a GPS device. Of course, you don't need a computer because you are hardwired to one, and you don't need all the complications of real sex because virtual sex is almost as good. You can eat vile-tasting vegetable cubes and fool your brain into believing you are having a delicious meal. If you do not have a processor giving you all these benefits, you are "in the wild."

In the future envisioned in The Boost, annual processor updates come from China which, having established itself as the world leader in uniformity of thought, has become the world leader in the technology that integrates computer chips and brains. The Chinese chips permit the government to download the user's memory from every chip, but privacy laws require those gates to be closed on the chips sold in the United States. Of course, you know where this is going, as does the reader after a few early chapters. You also know that allowing the government to control the content of the update isn't a good thing, at least if you prefer freedom of information to censorship and propaganda. There is, however, another nefarious scheme embedded in the chip update that is less obvious and even more intriguing than the chip's surveillance capability.

Ralf Alvare, a character in The Boost who was involved in the processors' annual update, is in the wild for the first time since his first birthday. Ralf's processor was removed after he discovered something he wasn't supposed to know. Ralf makes his way to Juarez (where the wild people go) along with his brother, who isn't wild but would like to be. Their parents, revolutionaries in their own ways, also play significant roles the story. You can pretty much guess the rest of the story.

The day will probably come when everyone has a boost, or something like it. I'd love to have one. But The Boost illustrates a plausible downside to welding dry technology into a wet brain. The cautionary aspect of the novel is more interesting than the lifeless plot, which too often features characters sitting around and talking to each other. The Boost is more a novel of interesting ideas than it is an interesting novel. Some parts of the novel suffer from an excess of expository writing and other parts seem to drift aimlessly. A number of aspects of living with the boost go unexplained, which is surprising given all the expository content.

More disturbing is the novel's absence of dramatic tension. Attempts at humor work reasonably well, but on the whole, the tone is incongruously light given the dark subject matter. Imagine the result if Orwell had added jokes and funny characters to Nineteen Eighty-Four so it would appeal to readers who are turned off by gloomy stories. There's nothing wrong with humor but I got the sense that Stephen Baker couldn't decide whether to write a funny novel or a serious one and didn't quite manage to succeed on either front.

Still, The Boost has entertainment value. It isn't dull and it moves quickly. Secondary characters have an appealing quirkiness. The ideas that are expounded are always interesting. Had the story proceeded with greater zest I would be more enthusiastic about it, but The Boost tells a fun story, even if it doesn't live up to its potential.

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Bread and Butter by Michelle Wildgen

Published by Doubleday on February 11, 2014

I enjoyed reading Bread and Butter, in part because I enjoy a good meal as much as I enjoy a good book. There's also something romantic about the restaurant business. Like many people, I love the idea of owning/managing a restaurant even though I know nothing about food preparation. I do know that most restaurants fail and that I'm much too lazy to put in the hours that a successful restaurant demands. Reading a book that's set in the world of fine dining is therefore a vicarious pleasure that appeals to my culinary fantasies.

Two brothers, Leo and Britt, have been in the restaurant business for ten years, having grown a successful upscale restaurant in the economically deprived soil of Linden, Pennsylvania. Britt is the restaurant's handsome face; Leo the brains. Britt knows how to manage people while Theo is adept at managing finances. Their younger brother Harry, long absent from Linden, has returned to start a restaurant of his own. Britt is bugged that his little brother would have the audacity to compete, particularly without paying his dues in the business. Britt is also bugged when Harry turns up for dinner with Camille, a beautiful regular at Britt's restaurant who nonetheless remains a mystery to him.

While always written in the third person, the novel shifts point of view among the three brothers. They have very different personalities, all brought into sharp focus during the course of the novel. Their outward personalities -- Leo is withdrawn but ultra-competent, Britt is outgoing and relaxed, Harry is charming but high strung -- often mask their true selves. Each is doing his best to conceal his insecurities from the others and the brothers' perceptions of each other (like the reader's perceptions of each) are constantly evolving. Getting a better understanding of the characters as their depths are gradually revealed is a highlight of reading the novel.

Still, the best part of Bread and Butter is its fascinating behind-the-scenes look at restaurant management (in the case of Britt and Leo's established venue) and restaurant development (in the case of Harry's startup). The drama of the restaurant business is complemented by family conflict -- sibling rivalry combined with personal and professional jealousies. To make an innovative high quality restaurant work, you might need to be a little obsessed. All three brothers are obsessed in their own ways. Bread and Butter drives home the point that obsessions might help you succeed professionally while destroying you personally, particularly when obsessions begin to clash.

Some portions of the narrative are too expository and some of the relationship drama is too predictable to be dramatic, but those flaws are overshadowed by the lush descriptions of food and the quirkiness with which line cooks, dessert chefs, and other members of the gossipy and insular restaurant community are portrayed. This isn't a perfect novel but it is one that I imagine most food fans will enjoy.

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Hangman by Stephan Talty

Published by Ballantine on May 13, 2014

Marcus Flynn, convicted of the serial killing of several teenage girls, escapes from prison under unlikely circumstances. How he manages the escape is one of the novel’s mysteries. The killer known as Hangman soon resurrects his career, sending panic throughout Buffalo. Police Detective Abby Kearney is charged with stopping him.

It’s a challenge for crime fiction writers to find a fresh angle on the “hunt for a serial killer” plot. Hangman follows a predictable formula -- the reader gets to know a teenage girl who eventually ends up in the hands of the killer as the detective races against time to save her -- but the formula is well-executed. While Hangman offers little departure from a standard police procedural storyline, the clues Kearney follows to find the killer keep the reader guessing. The ending is somewhat surprising without being overly contrived, a trick that scores points in this genre.

Hangman is worth reading for several additional reasons. The killer is suitably creepy. The steady pace never wavers and Stephan Talty generates a fair amount of excitement as the story rushes to its climax. Talty writes convincingly of Irish culture in Buffalo, particularly in the city’s police agencies, and of the class division between working class South Buffalo and the Ivy League North. He gives Kearney a strong, believable personality. Instead of turning her life into a soap opera or telling us in every third paragraph how much she cares about victims (as too many current crime fiction writers do when they create a female character), Talty gives Kearney a moral crisis to confront and allows her to confront it without becoming self-aggrandizing or self-pitying. For all those reasons, Hangman is formula fiction done well.

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Fatal Enquiry by Will Thomas

Published by Minotaur Books on May 13, 2014

If you can imagine Sherlock Holmes as a bulky action hero, you might have a picture of Cyrus Barker. Fatal Enquiry, the sixth novel in the Cyrus Barker series, takes place in 1886. Barker is a private enquiry agent in London. His younger version of Watson is his assistant, Thomas Llewellyn, who narrates the story. Barker's Moriarty is Sebastian Nightwine, who made an appearance in a previous novel in the Barker series. Barker is no match for Holmes as a thinker but he is clearly a better brawler.

In Fatal Enquiry, Barker reveals how he came to know Nightwine and explains why Nightwine is his mortal enemy, a tale that has Barker fighting with and against the British in China during the middle of the nineteenth century. Early on in the novel, Barker falls victim to Nightwine's scheme to frame him for a crime. He and Llewellyn spend the first half of Fatal Enquiry prowling the alleys of London at night, trying to avoid arrest. Much of the second half belongs to Llewellyn as Barker hatches a plan behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, Llewellyn has a chance encounter with the lovely Sofia Ilyanova, who wishes to become a client of the Barker Agency. Her problem, of course, is related to Barker's, much to the smitten Llewellyn's dismay. Unlike Barker and Llewellyn and even Nightwine, Sofia does not come across as a credible character. She is the novel's only weakness.

Fortunately, the strengths of Fatal Enquiry overcome that misstep. While Barker is no Sherlock (there is very little deduction in this novel), his backstory is intriguing. Most of Fatal Enquiry centers on Llewellyn, a sympathetic character for whom it is easy to root. On the whole, this is a flavorful novel that tells a fun, engaging story in literate prose with a Victorian flair.

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