When a rich and powerful man dies, leaving behind a lengthy and vengeful document of his life, many powerful forces move to capture the document before the document can be revealed to the public.
What I Liked
Whereas the first book read almost like a John Grisham novel, this second one seems like more of a Jeffrey Archer saga across the ages. The Lacey Confession is a document best kept hidden, or so many think. But the terms of his will are quite specific. On the fourth day after his death, it is to be released. Including details about major events of the 20th Century, including the assassination of JFK. While the story could be historical, or more like the Da Vinci Code, Greener roots the story in a young Foreign Service Officer who is the one who receives the document. Some want to protect him, and one hires Walter Sherman, aka The Locator aka The Finder, to hunt him down and find a safe place to keep him hidden. An assassin with pluck and a mysterious powerful CIA fixer are great main characters in the story.
What I Didn’t Like
There are two giant plot holes in the storyline and chronology of events. In the first instance, a lawyer representing Lacey reveals to the Foreign Service Officer that he has the document and gives it to him. Except he wouldn’t. He needed it in order to honour his client’s wishes, as he has for many years. He expects to be “thwarted” in his plans, and that he won’t be allowed to release the Confession, but it makes no sense he gives up the only copy to the random US FSO who shows at his office. Equally, at the end, the person who ends up with the document has it for six to eight weeks while Walter is otherwise engaged. Yet he apparently does NOTHING with the document. He doesn’t act on its contents, he doesn’t tell his partner for whom he is doing all of it, nada. Everything stands still and waits for Walter to be back in the game. The first is a mere plot device, not egregious, while the second is ridiculous and makes no sense whatsoever. It detracts enough from the story to knock it down a star.
The Bottom Line
The best in the series, but alas, there are no more
Walter Sherman has one unique skill. He can find anything that someone is searching for, which, most of the time, is a person. His nickname is the Locator, which he earned in Vietnam. Now he earns a living doing 5-10 jobs a year when people come to him asking him to find someone. In this first book in the series, a bunch of suits want him to find whoever is killing off the business people who were involved in a tainted meat scandal.
What I Liked
The premise is unique. While lots of series have private investigators who take on cases, including missing person cases, or series with police detectives hunting a serial killer, Walter isn’t any of these things. He only works by referral from someone that he has done work for in the past; he doesn’t advertise, he has no office or website, etc. Finding an anonymous killer? Not something he normally does. But the money is too good to say no, and it seems like the killer is worth catching.
The book series was made into a short-lived TV show (The Finder), with a number of significant changes — they made it that he was injured in Iraq or Afghanistan and can now find things, he’s not living in the US Virgin Islands, but somewhere in Florida, there’s an on-again/off-again love interest who is also a US Marshal, etc.
The business side of the story is pretty well-done, although a couple of the “bad” business guys are a little bit of a cliché. Nevertheless, it has almost an early John Grisham feel to it in places. And the bar near his home, Billy’s bar, with Billy and Ike as his two best friends, is really well done.
What I Didn’t Like
While Walter doesn’t know the identity of the killer, the reader does. And it takes some of the mystery out. Walter is barely present for the first 20% of the book, so it’s pretty heavy on an exposition of additional characters. Plus, while one of the main characters starts to identify with the killer’s sense of “justice,” and you are meant to see the callousness of the original, the vicious deaths that are delivered are only mildly explained. I never felt any sympathy for the killer, and the ending is questionable. There’s also no explanation of how he knows everything he does or how he found it all out; he just shows up, kills someone, and moves on. There’s only one scene where it shows him “stalking” someone, and even that is relatively bland.
However, I think my biggest objections are a love interest that we are told is all about passion but doesn’t seem to really drive any chemistry except in a scene or two, and the original “hook” that gets Walter involved is glossed over. The reader knows they are scummy people, but Walter’s reasons to help are murky at best. Later he reacts as if he was betrayed, but most of what they told him was relatively true — they just didn’t tell him the whole story, and despite being an ace interrogator, he seems surprised to learn other details they hid from him. Yet the story moves along at a good clip, so while I would be tempted to drop it to 3 out of 5, the pace bumps it back to 4.
The Bottom Line
Come for the Locator…who eventually joins the story
What starts as a cat-napping morphs into poison letters, threats and murder.
What I Liked
There are some decent psychological elements, albeit not well-developed, and a wide cast of characters … a grieving husband vs. a trophy wife who doesn’t care about the cat; a poor poet with a rich wife; and a gang of bunko artists ripping people off through astrology. The police partner has a larger role, including saving Archy’s life near the end.
What I Didn’t Like
The trophy wife and rich husband are complete caricatures with virtually no role in the case(s). They spend time talking about a specific model of word processor as the big clue to see who’s involved, and it really doesn’t stand up well 30 years later. Add in a woman “done wrong by a man” whom Archy gets to use as a playmate only to find out she’s turned lesbian overnight and a showdown that reads like a bad action scene from a ’70s TV show, and it isn’t that great a read. However, what bothered me most is that there is a GIANT clue that both McNally and his dad miss, it’s completely obvious to the reader, and it cracks the case wide open. Yet despite being glaringly obvious. Archy has to re-enact it to explain it to his father and the police detective, both of whom are amazed at his deductive skills. Sigh.
The book is the first in the Archy McNally series. Archy is the one-man investigations unit in his father’s law firm, handling discreet investigations for Palm Beach’s wealthy locals. One of their clients has been robbed, but she doesn’t want everyone to know. She just wants her stamps back.
What I Liked
Archy is a great character, and I love his interactions with the various members of high society or their associated entourages. Many people COULD have stolen the stamps, we see a red herring or two plus lots of little sub-stories to confuse the narrative. Most of the sub-characters are decent, if not extensively developed. And we get to meet his on-again / off-again paramour, Consuela in addition to the client’s self-absorbed children and a gay family friend.
What I Didn’t Like
There’s a red herring early on, yet nobody seems to follow up on it hardly. They should at least be ruling it out. Or talking to the people to see if they have any insights, but nada. Secondly, there’s an odd love triangle in the middle with very little to argue for the supposed outcome they all agree is the reality. And third, a giant “surprise” at the end is just simply odd. It should challenge Archy’s sense of morality, but he blithely brushes it off. It’s consistent with some of his behaviour, but it would have been nice to see him wrestle with it.
I need a mental health day tomorrow (Tuesday). I got overwhelmed today, and I’m really tired. I just don’t have the energy to adult tomorrow.
I posted earlier about the progress I thought I was making on the basement. I was ready to spend a bit of time this week testing different setups to finalize the basement TV area. Right. Yeah. Man plans while the universe laughs. Or something like that.
So we’re having our two upstairs bathrooms (main bath and ensuite) renovated. They’re basically “done” with the main bath, which has traditionally been “my” bathroom. It will now become primarily Jacob’s + guests. We should have done this long ago, but well, there was that pandemic. Apparently, it was like a whole thing, messing up plans for lots of things. But his is about done. Which we can all use while they’re redoing the ensuite.
I’m not sure how much I’ll use the ensuite. Married people like to joke that (thing X) “saved our marriage”. Sometimes it’s a second car, or a dishwasher, or housecleaning service, or whatever. A popular one that resonates with us is separate bathrooms. Pre-pandemic, we were always getting ready at the same time. And it’s annoying tripping over each other in the bathroom, not to mention if one of you is stinky that morning, etc. We have had separate bathrooms since we bought our first house and it was awesome to stop sharing. Now? We’re going back to sharing.
Maybe.
Seven or so years ago, we had the basement redone. It might be more than that. Anyway, we had a small bathroom put in with a full shower. Just a small bathroom and it’s mostly just me who uses it. In all of that time, I’ve had less than 10 showers in it. The dehumidifier fan was not strong enough to get the moisture out of the bathroom, a problem we have had in the upstairs bathrooms previously too, but in the basement, the walls would have condensation on them when I showered. It would almost literally run down the walls when I was done. We put in a new high-capacity fan, and the problem was mostly solved. But if I’m going to be using it more now, maybe we can tweak things. So now I’m replacing the very small vanity with an almost full-sized one. And the contractors noted why the walls ran — it’s entirely the wrong type of paint for a bathroom. Great. That WOULD explain some stuff. Plus they have to repaint anyway since they put the new large fan in the ceiling and had trouble putting a light switch where we wanted to put it initially. Rather than a simple touch-up and fan, we’re now repainting everything and putting in a new vanity.
I searched high. I searched low. And I searched Lowes. Where I found a vanity I liked. Which was also on sale. Bonus. Barely managed to get it into the car to bring home, put it in the garage. Today, we started on the downstairs basement (although I’m slightly out of order on the decision), and so they ripped out the vanity. We’ll be down to the one bath upstairs (plus our powder room, we’re not neanderthals!) for a few days, but okay. And then they opened the box for the new vanity, totally destroying the box in the process as they cut it open of course. Why would we need it? Brand new vanity. Oh right, because the legs on the vanity had a bunch of nicks and cracks. Not actual structural cracks, more in the enamel/melamine surface, but well, they’re there. I could probably live with them. Then I looked at the drawers where there were more cracks. Several in fact. On the front surface. I could have tried touching them up, it comes with touch-up paint. But really? A brand new vanity with cracks already? I went back and forth, and if it was a toaster, it would have gone back instantly. But it’s a vanity. Big. Hard to fit in the car. And the box is destroyed. And I hate returning shhhh…stuff. And if they gave me a hard time, was I going to handle it calmly or was I going to lose my shhhh…stuff?
I was also actually working today. Fighting with a file that should have been easy, but it’s been in circlejerk mode for almost 2 weeks, and no sign of it stopping. It’s just flat-out annoying. And demoralizing and frustrating. Plus a couple of other files went sideways on me in the last two weeks, after I am fully staffed and thought we would be FLYING. But we have these files that WILL NOT DIE! 🙂
But let’s get back to the TV, that’s where I started. Some time ago, I mentioned a hole in our ceiling from an air conditioner tech removing an old line from the house. I left it that way for 4 years and had someone fix it recently. They did the drywall, fixed the ceiling problems, fixed an extra look and feel problem, and then they were gone; we only had them for a short time. But they didn’t get to finish it all…no sanding, no mudding, no painting. Just “fixed”. Patched really. And within a week of having it all done? We had the f***ing dishwasher leak from the first floor into the basement right in the same spot. Not terrible, just annoying and frustrating, but livable.
So I asked the contractors here to fix it. Thinking they would replace a section maybe 3″ x 4″? Simple? Right, no. Because to do it properly with the added features before, it really should be fully mudded, and sanded, and painted. Sure. Let’s do that.
Riiight. I have to move everything out of that area — like two desks, my 3D printer, all the boxes under the desk, the stuff sorted into baskets on the floor. And, drumroll please, the TV stand, TV, and all the video games set up and wired there. Back to where it all was a few months ago. So it looks like I’ve made no progress on anything! I’m back to where I f***ing started! Yay me!
All while trying to work my day job. Right.
So I delegated a file back to the originator. Cancelled all of my meetings for tomorrow. Booked it off. Closed out about 30m early today. Slept for 3 hours. Skipped dinner. Woke up. Returned the damaged vanity. Sent email to contractor with selection of new vanity at Home Depot. Just like the other one, only not as nice and more expensive, but hah! It’s in stock and the contractor can use his truck to pick it up! Take THAT, universe!
Now I’m downstairs for the night. Trying to figure out what the f*** happened today, I have plastic ALL over my basement to block future sanding and dust, but it will still carry all through the house. It always does. Whatever, moving on.
In theory, everything will be done here by Friday. I’m not 100% sure of that after today. But optimistic. I might go into the office for W and F this week too, just to get out of the house and not deal with anything.
I’m taking Tuesday off. I’m going to focus on a nice leisurely breakfast while reading Crime and Punishment, although I’m seriously tempted to go sideways with Crime and Law in the form of a Lawrence Sanders’ entry in the original McNally series. Or perhaps introduce myself to Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder. There are about 20+ books in the detective series, and I’ve only read a handful.
I might be able to finish reorganizing my office area in the basement, at least to make it more functional. I turned my work desk to be able to better use my white boards, but now when I sit at my personal computer, if I back up too quickly or at the wrong angle, I smack my work desk. Double sigh.
Now let’s see. No, I don’t know what I’m doing about getting all my gym equipment finally set up as I need to get all the rest of the basement stuff organized so I can get to it. No, I don’t know when I’ll get my damn 3D printer running. No, I don’t know if I’ll be able to make a print ‘n’ play board game for Jacob for his birthday, as I don’t know if I know all the techniques or have all the craft supplies to do it, but I want to try. I still have 27 working days before his actual birthday, right?
Oh and no, I don’t know what I’m doing about an observatory in my backyard, although the current contractors are willing to do the pier AND build me a deck AND a potential roll-away shed for me to be able to use it! I almost have a plan. But well, I also have to pay for it at some point. Hah. I think I’ll let this go until I can order the metal pier for the backyard. Although Andrea would like us to figure out the rest of the backyard landscaping stuff too.
And the electrical work we need done at the front of the house.
And no, I have NO IDEA when I’ll get around to continuing to write my HR guide.
But thanks to my squirrel brain, the questions are never far from asking.
