I’ve been on a book review binge these past several days. I was getting behind so I decided to put everything else aside and clean the stack off the floor next to my desk that’s been nagging at me. Here are the books I’ve reviewed:
- Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
- Amped by Daniel H. Wilson
- Love is the Cure by Elton John
- Stay Awake by Dan Chaon
- Kill You Twice by Chelsea Cain
- The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen
The Higashino crime novel is of particular note. His previous book, The Devotion of Suspect X, was nominated for an Edgar. I just started that one this morning. I tore through Salvation of a Saint, which comes out in October. It’s like a cross between an Ed McBain procedural, an episode of CSI, a Sherlock Holmes novel, one of John Dickson Carr’s “locked room” puzzlers and an Agatha Christie. More of a how-dunit than a whodunit. He’s one of the best-selling authors in Japan, but only a few of his books are currently available in English. Can’t wait to read more by him.
I hooked my wife on the idea of Justified after I went to hear the U.S. Deputy Marshals speak a couple of weeks ago, so now we’re about halfway through the first season. It’s good to see the episodes again. Such a great show.
Just one episode of The Closer left. They didn’t leave the mystery of the leak in the department until the end, thankfully. I nailed it, too. As soon as they introduced the character responsible, I figured there was a good chance that person was involved. I consider it a bit of cheat that they dredged someone new out at the twelfth hour rather than make it one of the regular characters, but with most people continuing on with Major Crimes, I guess they couldn’t do that. The scene where the other character learns of the betrayal was well done. And you have to love Provenza. He can be such a goof-off at times, but he can also be deadly serious when he needs to be, such as when he ordered the D.A. out of his crime scene and when he stood up for the wounded party at the end. I imagine next week will be mostly about whatever causes Brenda to leave.
I read an interesting analysis of the birthday bacon scene in this week’s episode of Breaking Bad. Walter, Jr., who is basically clueless about what’s going on in the house around him, complains that Skyler forgot to use Walt’s bacon to make his age on his breakfast plate. Skyler relents, but there’s not enough bacon. Only a small piece left to make the “1” in “51” (which is also my age, as it happens). The blogger wrote that that symbolized her hopes that the year would be “a short one” for Walt, i.e. his cancer would come back and he’d die. Then, when the menfolk make a noise about that and Skyler switches the short piece for a long one from Walter, Jr. ‘s plate, that symbolized the impact Walt’s actions have on the family. Wow. That was pretty deep.
The tension between Walt and Skyler has been really creepy this season. You can tell that Skyler is completely repulsed by her husband, but she’s trapped, and he seems oblivious. Kissing her and touching her, when I keep waiting for her to run away screaming, leaving her skin behind like a molting snake. Finally, after her little drama in the swimming pool, she and Walt get down to brass tacks. What a scene. Emmy awards all around.
I found it funny that Mike chastised himself for not killing Lydia after figuring out that she was pulling a con with the supposed GPS on the methylamine, calling himself sexist for giving her a break. Jesse had the gumption to stand up for her, though I’m not sure why. He only just met her. Maybe he thought she was hot. I wonder how Hank’s promotion is going to play out, too. On another show, the character would have turned down the promotion so he could keep his hands on The Most Important Case of His Career, but in real life, you take the promotion (if only because, yes, your wife might kill you if you don’t).
I’m not sure why Walt doesn’t just make his own methylamine. He’s a chemist after all. It’s becoming the McGuffin of the series.
