The “Continental Op” was described to me initially as a single collection of short stories, but the available versions are actually a collection of eight books of short stories grouped under that title.
Stories include The Tenth Clew, The Golden Horseshoe, The House in Turk Street, The Girl with the Silver Eyes, The Whosis Kid, The Main Death, and the Farewell Murder.
Not well-developed and kind of campy.
Pretty pulpy.
This is a collection of short political stories from various famous authors dating back to the 1800s.
The best story of the collection is by Mark Twain, entitled The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (an interesting story of greed that corrupts an incorruptible town, prompted by a man wronged by the town). James Thurber’s story, The Greatest Man in the World, is a slightly different take on flying around the world, as a man flies non-stop while the media and public scramble to meet him and the government tries to hide the fact that his character isn’t that great. L.E. Jones’ story, The Bishop’s Aunt, focuses on occupied Eastern Europe during the war and questions of sacrifice, faith, martyrdom, and strategy. And Jeffrey Archer’s own story, The Coup, has two business rivals stranded in Nigeria during a coup, and having to resolve their differences.
Three stories were good, but not as good as the rest. Charles Dickens story, The Election for Beadle, tells the tale of an election for church Beadle, and two men fighting to elect their choice. Rudyard Kipling’s tale of The Village that Voted the Earth Was Flat has a fight between a man and his buddies against a town that had a speed trap set to catch speeders. Finally, Saki’s tale of Ministers of Grace is a really strange tale of turning political animals into actual animals, and letting angels take their place.
Interesting collection, but uneven.
Travis Byrne is having a hard time. He traded his badge for a law degree and now most cops hate him. His courtroom opponent thinks he’s scum since he switched sides. And to prove her point, he’s just been appointed lawyer for Al Moroconi — an all-round scumbag with mob ties.
Then Al breaks out of prison, shooting a guard in the process, and starts gunning for his lawyer who he thinks hasn’t done enough to help him. Add in the mob and some crooked FBI agents, and this story gets complicated real fast.
It has the feel of a fish-out-of-water TV-movie and never quite pays off.
A fairly light read.
Megan McGee is a 30-something lawyer facing a quiet Christmas with her dog when a new crying client, Bonnie Cantrell, comes asking for a restraining order.
The restraining order is against an abusive ex, Carl, who’s also an ex-cop, and Bonnie is worried for the safety of not only herself but also her son and her new lover. The story starts as a simple textbook case, but starts to morph as it becomes evident that while Carl is unhinged, perhaps Bonnie isn’t telling the whole truth.
A thread of Christmas presents runs through the story showing that sometimes little miracles do happen, but it’s rather cliché.
A surprisingly light story given the dark nature of the case.
This time around, Plum’s got a dandy assignment: pick up Uncle Mo, the owner of the local soda shop who everybody thinks is a saint. He got picked up for carrying a concealed weapon (which everybody says is no real crime at all) and promptly jumps bail for no apparent reason. She no sooner asks the first person about Mo’s whereabouts, and lo and behold, her mom is getting complaints about her harassing poor Uncle Mo. Ah, life is just peachy. Add in a couple of vigilante types who keep warning her away from Mo, some more involvement with Jackie and Lulu (the hookers from book one), and life gets interesting.
I liked the expansion of the various characters again. As well, it’s kind of fun to see the relationship develop between Joe and Stephanie, even if it is not romance-by-the-book. 🙂 The grandmother is less pronounced in this one but Lulu more than makes up for it as she wants to kick butt too. Ranger is definitely an interesting presence, and fun for everyone.
This book is a little more hard-boiled, complete with lots of guns blazing, and some harder-core motives for stuff. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it detracts a bit from the otherwise amusing antics of Stephanie as she is still learning the ropes about being a bounty hunter.
A little more hard-boiled.
