Lee Ruthenberg

Duffy's Last Case

Revisado: 01-17-24

An excellent end to the fantastic series from McKinty who has never gotten the full fame and notoriety he should have for this character-led body of work.
For me Sean Duffy leaves Harry Hole and Jack Reacher looking like under-developed card board cut outs. Both Duffy and the characters and fabric of the bleak town Carrick Fergus are brilliantly rendered in the tales and the telling. Performed as close to perfectly by Doyle as a listener could hope.
In his slightly unhinged moments of personal justice, sliding yet crisp morality, eclectic musical references, sardonic wit meeting Dad jokes- Duffy really is a joy behold.
If you really like the noir detective genre - especially grey sleety atmospheres evoked in the north of Great Britain and Ireland - the I'm a little reluctant to recommend the Duffy Series to you. Cause it really is gonna ruin the rest for you!

But as Sean Duffy might say,: hell but f*ck that for a game of soldiers - listen to the lot ofvem and start right now mate.

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Understated and Facinating account

Revisado: 01-15-21

Forget the over dramatized history Channel rubbish this is a straight and calm description of an astonishing young man in a tensely real moment in modern history.
Our self obsessed emoticon existances are really something of an embarrasment when compared to a voluntarily enlisted 19yr old fighter pilot in 1940.
Without a hint of hyperbole or self-ingratiation, this is a hellish adventure well told.

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Insightful and Modern beyond its time.

Revisado: 06-26-20

Conceptually as pertinent today as in the 70s. Le Guin astutely delves into possible societies, at once improbable and yet completely belivable. My criticism is only that the plot does not have the adventurous dynamic of Left Hand of Darkness, and Shevaks interpersonal relationships are not as revealing as Genly Ai's. At times sections feel like scifi text book of the planets socio systems, and Shevaks personal story is just a little less compelling.
Still, passages are so pertinent that it must embarrass a 21st century reader that we, our governments and our systems have adhered so thoroughly to the worst of Le Guin's societies and aspired so little to the best of them.
The reading performance is solid, not detracting from the book, though I would suggest regional british accents do not lend well to Le Guins goals to extract readers from our world and our stereotypes. Perhaps not as thoroughly engrossing as The Left Hand of Darkness.

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Deep inside the head of someone I can't care about

Revisado: 10-30-19

My audible list is quite full of Tana French - up till now - thoroughly enjoyed both for the excellent reading performances from various voice artists and for the slow paced but engrossing psychological narratives. Being inside the heads of interesting detectives, the realistic politics of Irish police stations and even the unusual intrigue of Irish life; from Dublin's wealthy private schools to working class neighborhoods.
The blurb of Wych Elm promised something similar - alluding to a potential situation similar to The Likeness where the house itself played as an additional rich character.
But as you begin a 22 hour audio book - you really need to start by caring about the protagonist. Empathizing, sympathizing or just intrigued by what might happen to him. Or what they may do to those around them. I disliked the reader and the character from the start. The reader sounded so insipidly weak that the characters confidence in the beginning was intangible and unbelievable. I then didn't care about his attack or what might happen to him afterwards. The prospect of another 19 hours was unbearable. Perhaps I will try and read this book myself, since it has been generally well received by critics - but I cannot listen to Nugent's version.

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Groupie Pamphlet

Revisado: 10-30-19

Although there are inevitably interesting facts about Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac, as well as some worthwhile insights and commentary on Stevie's music - the overall feeling is one of an extended fan letter written by groupie. Praise and adulation are so heaped as to border on being creepily uncomfortable.
Did encourage me to re-dip into the music of Fleetwood Mac.

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Incredible Doesn't Cover It

Revisado: 04-02-19

This is a book written before the swathe of exaggerated survival stories we have become used to on satellite TV. Where anyone who is more than 3 miles from a mall with an in-grown toenail is a "survivor". Lansing's style is pragmatic - perhaps closer to the heart's and mind's of the explorers he describes - than to our modern penchant for drama.

In the end though his gentle touches of sentiment and the precision and accuracy of the narrative does this remarkable tale justice.

It is after all the true story of Shackleton's expedition which is quite likely the most unbelievable story in human history However one would judge such things - it is an impossible, unbelievable and preposterous story. Were it an HBO special - it would be written off as far-fetched. No spoiler alert is required - from the moment the ship is trapped and the sequence of events unfolds - the death of most or all are inevitable. And yet.

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Understated and excellent.

Revisado: 10-08-18

Kate Atkinson's authors note at the end of Transcription, is perhaps the best review of this excellent book. The author is so fondly interested in niche aspects of history and her writing touch so light that it is a delight to accompany Juliet on her journeys. It is part historical fiction, part spy novel and part character drama. Had Jane Austen lived through the 20th Century perhaps Juliet could have been her character, the internal discourse and commentary on a new and strange gentry - MI5 and the BBC.
Brilliantly read, no mean feat dealing with Atkinson's character's continual internal musings, dialogue and time shifts.
What a thorough pleasure.

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Alex Uncertain

Revisado: 12-06-17

So Alex is Inspector Sean Duffy, but smarter by half, minus the sense of humour, an heroine addict, lost and undirected. Beyond proving that heroine can make a mess of everything McKinty's protaganist doesn't hold together and is neither likable enough nor thoroughly authentic enough to keep this listeners full interest. The prose is still at times poetic and deep, but it fails to find full traction in a plot across the water in Denver or within the all to cliche'd corrupt political couple storyline.
Rich possibilities are left largely unexplored; the fireman dying of Aids, the immigrant families and even the relative drug scene comparison between Belfast and downtown Denver.
The intelligent prodige ex-detective misses the most blatant clues, and we are left trying to care about the femme fatale and her politically aspirant husband - framed in a discription of 90's Denver which cannot be smelt or felt like Mckinty's drenching Belfast in the Duffy novels or even Michael Forsythe's 80's New York in Dead I Well May Be. The novel could have been a multi continent spanning triumph, with moments in India, a Belfast pub quiz and the cultural pot of down trod Denver - but it steps aside for the incomplete character of Alex and the regurgitated black-mail, corrupt political couple story with sexy murdress.
Doyle reads superbly and although his nuance characters are not as brilliant in American as they are in Irish, he is a pleasure to listen to.
Not often that a poor review would suggest lengthening a book, but with McKinty's writing ability, the frame-work was set for a true cross-over novel, both densely literary and tightly detective.
In the end an abrupt detective a-hah! moment is woeful, simple and disappointing coming as it does during a rich metaphorical drowning in the hidden river.
I was left wondering: what if one of McKinty's most intriguing characters since Kate in Gun Street Girl, Victoria Patawasti - had not been murdered in the opening scene?

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