The Jake Merlin Mysteries

Medicine, Magic, and Murder

By James Tucker

What can I say, these books are terrific! A few weeks ago I had never heard of the Jack Merlin mysteries or Jim Tucker. Now that I know about both the author and the series, I can’t wait for more of them. I hope that he continues with the characters because in his latest book, he introduces new characters. Let me start by writing what I liked the most about these books, and that is how he has developed his characters. Jim Tucker has a female ADA, Assistant District Attorney, Tory Welch, in his first three books. He has evolved her from a brand spanking, somewhat naive, new ADA into a character that is sure of herself and her role in the stories. By the second book, she has a gun and is not afraid to use it when the plot calls for it. There are a few writers who write a female lead into the plot and then have them acting helpless throughout all of their stories. This is not the case with Tucker ort with Welsh. Tucker has written her multidimensional and this makes the character more real and believable. I know from his website, http://www.jamestuckerbooks.com, that he has sons so I am guessing his wife was a huge influence on the development of this character. Come to think, on all of the female characters in the books. He writes them well, no condescending, or demeaning roles in the stories. Kudos Jim for how you write female characters.

Jack Merlin is also a multidimensional character. Jim Tucker has written about a physician with a sense of humor and honor. Merlin is a physician who relates to his young patients through magic. He is not afraid to get a few good laughs and take a few good laughs. His honor shows through in his loyalty to those closest to him. Merlin and Welch are a couple in the books and Tucker has written a very believable story about these two. You will find that you want to finish the books both to see how their story turns out as well as the “who dunit” part. Tucker has written about what he knows very well, physicians and their counterparts. All of the physicians in these books are believable. In fact many have traits that you may have seen in your own doctors. They will elicit a chuckle or a shake of the head, as in “yep, I know someone just like that”. This is quite a talent.

Of course Tucker also knows the cops and bad guys very well also. The bad guys, in his books, the mob, are automatically the villains. However, the cops are also villains in the stories. This makes for a nice little twist because you don’t see it coming, especially in Tragic Wand.

Tucker manages to create plots that are intricate. What I especially like is the fact that when he ends the story, he does not do it a rush as so many authors do. The ending flows with the story and the reader does not feel like the author ran out of story and just wants to finish the book. As a reader I appreciate the fact that Tucker leaves you wanting more. His books can be read as stand-alone stories but they read better if you read them in sequence. I commented that the Silent Samaritan could easily be made into a TV show, in fact all of his books would do well as TV shows. They are entertaining and fast moving, and as I have already said, I hope that we get more Merlin mysteries !

Following is a synopsis of his first three books. Be sure to visit his website http://www.jamestuckerbooks.com to keep in touch with what he is doing. Maybe he’ll have Merlin and Welch solving a golf course mystery. Now there’s a story for magic, the game of golf, murder, what a place to hide a body, the golf course and medicine, all kinds of things can happen !!

Abra Cadaver

We first meet Jack Merlin, MD, a resident who is assigned to work with the head of the Anatomy Department at the Medical School. The head of this department is obnoxious but brilliant. On his first day helping the new medical students, he discovers that one of the cadaver’s is that of his best friend and roommate that went missing over a year ago. What a place to hide a body! We meet Tory Welch, a brand new assistant district attorney and the cast of characters from her office, including an equally obnoxious District Attorney! The characters from the mob, are both obnoxious and deadly, what a combination! Merlin and Welch get together to solve this case, and in doing so create another plot line. We are introduced to the hospital and it functions. This book is a fast read with a good plot and strong characters. It is hard to put down! This is a great first book !

Hocus Corpus

This is the second book in the Merlin Mysteries. Merlin is now the Chief Resident at the hospital in Pittsburg. Welch and he are now a couple and life seems to be going well. That is until a series of deaths from a drug resistant bacteria start to take place. One of the deaths is a young patient of Merlin’s whose father is extremely rich and well connected. Merlin’s reputation, as well as that of the hospital is at stake. Once again, Tucker knows his players well and writes them accordingly. The villains this time are not only the mob but an insurance company and a ambitious hospital administrator. Merlin and Welch team up to solve the mystery. There are enough red herrings to keep you guessing till the end.  This is a really good read that is sure to please.

Tragic Wand

This is the third in the Merlin Mystery series and what a twist in this one! Merlin is now an attending physician at the hospital when he accompanies Welch to a plastic surgeon’s office. What starts out as a routine office visit turns into a scene from hell when a crazy patient attacks Welch. The patient is convinced , against all evidence, that the DA’s office know why he is at the plastic surgeon’s office and tries to kill both Merlin and Welch. The action is fast. The cops and the Department of Justice are both involved in this one and you really will not see the end coming until almost the end! This is a good read and a good story. I hope that there are more Merlin stories coming, because I want to see how the characters develop!

Don’t Ever Get Old

by Daniel Friedman

Buck Schatz is a retired Memphis police detective, retired that is for 37 years. Police work basically has not changed that much, they still go after the bad guys, but the way they do it has changed. Buck has not kept up with all the new technology, but his grandson has, and together they make a delightful crime fighting team.

Buck is also a WWII veteran who is Jewish. His real first name is Baruch. As you can image, when he becomes a prisoner of war, things do not go well for him. The story opens when he finds out from a war buddy that the German who tortured him is still alive and is probably hoarding Nazi gold. Buck is enjoying his retirement with his wife Rose and sees no reason to get involved finding the German or the gold. Life has a way of getting in the way with the life to claim to want to have and that’s what makes this story a hoot. It is not often that you get to laugh when reading a story about the Holocaust, but you do in this book. There are scenes that are so well written, and so believable, that you find yourself laughing. Buck’s character is based loosely on Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry’s character, and all of the traits that old men have when they become old men. In the story Harry is 87 years old, many of his friends are dying, he has buried his son and he is putting up with the indignities of old age.  He is not putting up with any of them gracefully; he is fighting every step of the way. His grandson is his link to the new world of technology, a world that he wishes would leave him alone. There are however some murders to be solved and some gold to be recovered and some bad guys to be dispatched. Buck does it all.

Buck’s life story is told with the humor that comes from living a long time. He loves his grandson and will help him with life’s lesson and some good crime fighting tips along the way. His gruff exterior is tempered by a good heat.

This is a fast read, hard to put down because you really want to see how it is going to end. I enjoyed it !

Silent Samaritan

by James Tucker

This is a made for TV story. The action starts on page one and never lets up. The story starts in the Emergency Room with a trauma case that sets the stage, and has shades of the TV series ER, and ends in a restaurant.

Dr. Kensey Shaw is the MD in the ER who gets to hear a confession from a patient whom she thinks is dying because when she gets shoved out of the way by a senior resident, he is, for all appearances, well dead. We find out that not only he is not dead but he is about to take Kensey on quite a ride.

Tucker is a physician so the medial aspect of the story is spot on. Turns out he is also quite able to spin a good police and who don’ it  story.  Kensey’s “dead” patient, Manny Romero. has convinced her that he has turned a new leaf, you know all that near death stuff, and wants to make things straight. His partner, Mike Dombrowski, has other ideas for the both Kensey and Manny. Kensey gets into jams that might do ordinary mortals in, but somehow she comes through. She makes choices that will have the reader shaking their head and wondering why. There are scenes that will make you cringe and others that will make you smile.

This is a story of murder and medicine and is well told. I am not going to give secrets away, but this story enough more twists and turns to keep you guessing right up to the end. It really hard to put down, good read.

Little Night

by  Luanne Rice

Domestic violence is insidious. It affects everyone that comes near it in so many different ways. Luanne Rice has written a story of two sister’s lives and how they have been controlled by one man. Clare Burke attempts to rescue her sister and her niece and nephew from an abusive marriage. The attempt at a rescue goes horribly wrong and Claire spends time in prison, literally, and time locked away from all that she values. Her sister Ann’s character is written to showcase how insidious abuse can be and how it takes over entirely.

Clare paid a steep price for attempting to save her sister. She has done her time and lives a quiet life in Manhattan. The walls around her come from within and she does not seem to be able to reconnect with her former life.  Her niece, Grit, arrives literally at her doorstop with no place to go and a story to tell about the horrible life that her family had lived with their father. Rice weaves the story together by telling it from multiple viewpoints.  

Ann’s story is told from a diary that her daughter Grit has taken from her mother and brought with her to her Aunt Clare’s house. It is the story of a woman who is so brought down by abuse. At times, she seems to recognize and fight against it, but overall she succumbs to it. Grit fills in missing pieces for Clare.

Clare’s story is told through her relationship with her boyfriend and her talks with Grit. Both women are scarred but not damaged beyond redemption. Rice has the ability to handle both characters with grace.

There is much to discuss in this book and I am sure that many book clubs will enjoy this book.  The reader is shown aspects of domestic violence that is not always discussed, that is the aftermath and the unintended consequences of the abuse. It is a good read, the book will make you think about relationships, your own and those around you.

Murder in Mumbai

by Krishnadev Calamur

This is a straightforward, old fashioned, who done it murder mystery which I thoroughly enjoyed! Calamur has written a good story set in modern day India. He makes you feel that you are really there with his descriptions of the sights, sounds and smell of the town.

The story opens when two robbers literally fall over a dead female body in the apartment that they are going to rob and decide that their best of course of action is to dispose of the body because, after all who would believe that they didn’t kill her. Of course, to complicate matters, the body is that of a western female who happens to be the CEO of an important company. So they take matters into hand and dispose of the body where they think that surely it will never be found. The gods, and India’s weather, are against them. So the story begins. An honest cop, a disgraced journalist, a jaded environmentalist, and some guilt ridden crooks make for a wonderful story line.

Calamur has developed his characters beautifully. Yes, there is corruption in the Indian police force, but that is not so unusual in India is it ?  Gaikwad, the police investigator is doing the best that he can with a system that he cannot change and in the process garners respect from his peers and with that comes an ability to solve a crime. Gaikwad does it the old fashioned way, through dogged, hard police work. It’s interesting that the procedure to solve crime does not change from country to country.

Jay Ganesh the disgraced journalist is working at the equivalent of the The Enquirer because he exposed corruption and would not back down. He is determined to get back in the game of real news reporting and with help to and from Gaikwad manages to do that. How he does it makes for interesting reading and kept me guessing.

Gaja Kohli is an environmentalist who has become jaded. While his public persona still has the ring of truth and authenticity, the private person is quite a different story.  It is easy to try and judge why he is this way, but God knows, the same things happen to many of us just not on as a grand a scale.

Liz Barton, the one who was murdered, is not written as a sympathetic character. You never feel sorry for her, her husband, or the company that she works, or worked for, anywhere in the story. That I feel is the way it should be because the story is not about her. It is about a new India and the way that it is coming to grips with rapid growth, urbanization and globalization.

Americans are being introduced to the new India via the media specifically through movies such as Slumdog Millionaire and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel just to name two. This book immerses you in the new India and I think that it is going to be a great success. It is well written, so much so that you want to read more stories with  Gaikwad and Ganesh, hopefully Calamur will write a sequel !

The Glass Butterfly  by Louise Marley

Publishing September 2012

Every book tells a story within a story and the stories in this story are good. Have you ever wondered how far you would go to protect yourself and those you love? I’ll bet you have, I know that I have. The main character in this story is Victoria Lake, a therapist, who has surmised, correctly, that one of her clients has committed a horrible crime. Only her client is a psychopath who is not so inclined to do the right thing and turn herself in to the police because she is part of the police, nice twist. This in itself would be a good story, but Marley has added another layer or two to the story.

The first layer is the story of Tory Lake and her son. It is a story of  love, estrangement and loss. This is the weakest of the stories. There are hints and innuendoes as to why the estrangement which eventually comes to the front and is explained. The love of a mother for her son forms the premise of just how far she will go to protect him.

The most fascinating story is the story of the glass butterfly. The glass butterfly is a butterfly that is trapped in a piece of Murano glass which has come to Tory from her grandmother. Her grandmother’s story is told in a series of dreams that Tory is having. This is an unusual way to tell a back story, but works beautifully in this book.

When Tory flees for her life and to protect her son, she takes the butterfly with her and it becomes a tails man for her. It is also a symbolic representation of what Tory’s life has become. Her grandmother was trapped, the butterfly is trapped and she feels trapped. Her decisions are based upon this felling. It’s interesting, because in the story, her grandmother was trapped by the times that she lived in she could not change those times and had very few options opened to her. Her life was proscribed by her birth and by the village she lived in. Tory had a life where everything was opened to her and in many ways made choices as though her life was proscribed by what she thought was her fe or magic.

In the story, Tory flees as far as can and attempts to make a new life for herself. When she left her old life, her friends and family thought she was dead. Her son, and the crazy police lady, did not really buy into the story of her death. They believed the old saying, “the story of my death is greatly exaggerated” While Tory is building a new life and trying to figure out the meaning of her dreams, these two are doing everything that they can to find her. It is a good read. Tory finds more than she bargained for and is better off because of it.

This is a book that reads well and will have you thinking about the characters long after you finish it. I enjoyed it. Could the story have been told differently or better? Maybe. I think that the back stories were fascinating. I would have liked more depth to some of them, but overall this is a good read and it will not disappoint you. I know that I would go as far as Tory went to protect myself !

                

Net Galley

For all of you who love to find and read new or different  authors and titles, this is the place to go ! They work hard to get writers out there and I think that you will enjoy reading the galleys as much as I do. More coming soon, summer has been a good time for reading ! Janie