Whiskey Sour

I listened to this book on audiobook which dramatically improved my rating for this book. Ordinarily, I think these crime series are pretty formulaic and once you've read one, you have pretty much read them all. The performance for this book was so well done that it elevated the story. The story is what you might expect: Jack is a older, non nonsense female cop. She gets on the trail of a serial killer and begins to question everything about her career choice in the process.

There were dual narrators in Jack and the perp she was after, and the voices for the other characters were so distinct. I'm not sure if I'll tune into another one, simply because these books do become so routine, but listening to this one on the way to work over the course of a week was a good use of my time.

Are you kidding me? You've got a fairly macabre series of murders, a handful of clever cops, an interesting collection of characters only tangentially related to the main story. It all adds up to a solid police procedural with a healthy (but not overwhelming) dose of humor. Why haven't I been reading about Daniels and her crew for years?

Best of all is that Jack Daniels is a real female hero–not some sort of super-woman like Lisbeth Salander or action hero like Charlie Fox. Not a comic hero like Stephanie Plum. A driven, smart gal who's good at her job. That's all you need in real life–and with a good writer, that does the trick in novels, too

I'm ready for another round.

I was fairly pleasantly surprised with this book - at first glance, it seemed like there was a lot of standard, cliche sort of mystery/thriller things going on with this, but Konrath's ability to mix together mystery, terror, and comedy really make it rise above a lot of other books in the genre. The main character, Jack, also has a lot of depth to her - while the novel's still a fairly plot-driven hunt for a serial killer, she's a fascinating, driven woman - the kind you'd really like to have a drink with. Will be checking out the rest of this series for sure!