The second book in a series is probably hard on an author. The first book establishes the characters and readers decide if they care enough to stick with the author. With subsequent books, the author has to develop the characters and find new plots without losing what attracted readers in the first place. I've stopped reading books that had interesting plots because I didn't care about the characters so it isn't a matter of character driven vs plot driven story, it take both. for me.

I loved Baby Shark. Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues sucked me in right away and the only reason I didn't finish it in one day is because I had to sleep.

Beaumont Blues takes place about two years after the events in Baby Shark. Kristin Van Dijk has become a licensed private investigator and Otis Millett's partner in the Millet Agency. Together they are a destructive and often lethal team. Though Kristin is not yet twenty-one, Otis doesn't treat her as anything less than a partner he trusts to watch his back. There is no "watch out for the girl" attitude on the part of Otis. He trusts Kristin to shoot when shooting is necessary.

This time they are trying to protect a Texas oil heiress and make sure she is available when her father's will is read. She has to be present or the bulk of the estate goes to a televangelist. What seems like a straight forward assignment gets complicated very quickly. Kristin and Otis are not sure who is doing what to whom all the way to the end of the book. I found the ending very satisfying. The very bad people are part of a near-by crime lord's crew and if you have read Baby Shark you can predict their fate.

Baby Shark gets a love interest in this story. Has she healed enough to be able to trust? Fate does a nice job showing that healing can take a long time.

If you like a strong female character - ready with a gun or knife - and plenty of hard-boiled action then you'll enjoy this book. If you are likely to be troubled by characters who don't see anything wrong with dispatching someone who needs to be dispatched without benefit of a trial then you might want to look for a cozy to read.

My only criticism is that Fate doesn't tell how the aftermath of the messy conclusion to Baby Shark was handled. Otis, Kristin, and Henry had a powerful lot of tracks to cover to keep from going to jail. ( )

Oh Baby, Baby. She is back, all rough, tough and soft around the edges. Kristin Van Dijk, who we met in Baby Shark, has returned to her crime fighting, but now she is Otis' partner in his PI business.

Kristin and Otis are hired to locate and rescue a kidnapped girl, who ends up more difficult to find and keep than they expected. What seemed like a simple rescue mission becomes convoluted case of deception, greed and dishonor.

In this installment of Kristen's adventures it is the characters that take center stage. Baby Shark introduced us to the main characters but that book was driven by the action, the violence. Beaumont Blues has taken the promise of the first one and given the characters a chance to grow. It is no less exciting, no less blood stained than the first one, but it also shows a maturity in development. It would have be easy for Robert Fate to rest on the momentum of Baby Shark, to recreate the "little lost girl fights back" theme but he was able to step back and let her mature. Otis has a bigger role this time as the friendly boss and father figure, and he fills it well. The assorted other characters that blast their way through the action are well drawn with Fate's usual tongue in cheek spin on motive and morality.

But, of course, it is also the action driven plot that makes this a one sitting book. As the action progresses faster than a bullet, or is that as fast as the numerous bullets, it maintains the velocity of non stop suspense and thrills. It still can have scenes such as "It looked as if we were in the middle of a Popeye comic strip with all the bodies strewn about. But it was no cartoon, it was a slaughterhouse. Blood everywhere." Kristin has matured, not mellowed. The ending is satisfyingly unexpected, with the humor that makes these books so creative and welcomed.

Next up is Baby Shark's Panhandle Caravan (name change Mr. Fate? What happened to Sooner Weekends?). It will be interesting to see what Robert Fate has planned next for Kristin and Otis. ( )

Long, long ago, before graphic novels, there were comics. Superman, Archie, Little Lulu, Sergeant Fury and His Howling Commandos. These comics all carried the Comics Code seal on their covers. (Go to
http://lambiek.net/comics/code.htm for an illustrated history of the Comics Code). Even longer ago than that, when I was very young (but could already read), there were the lurid, scary, and sometimes morally reprehensible pre-Comics Code comics. I have a fairly vivid memory of encountering some of these in Texas, where I lived at age 5 and 6.

This memory keeps returning to me whenever I read one of Robert Fate's BABY SHARK books. For one thing, they are set in Texas in the 1950s. But
chiefly, it is the sense of transgression in them. Even Baby Shark herself occasionally stops and thinks "What did I just do? What have I become?"

In BABY SHARK'S BEAUMONT BLUES, the second in the series, Kristin VanDijk (Baby Shark for her youth and pool prowess, although there's
precious little time for pool-shooting in this outing) and her partner and mentor, Otis Millett, spray blood around in a manner worthy of one of those old comics with "CRIME" in big letters on the cover. We always know that Kristin and Otis are on the side of the angels. They will go out of their way to protect the vulnerable and are strictly honest with money they may find "lying around." Yet, they use any means necessary to fight evil, and they are expert at using the mobsters' own criminal tendencies to defeat them. Part of the reason this works is the setting in place and time. It's quite believable that the rich and powerful (even when their gains are exceedingly ill-gotten) can consider themselves above the law, either because of corruption or simply that they have the police outgunned.

In the first book, BABY SHARK, Kristin's actions were motivated by her personal need to see some kind of justice done to those who killed her
father and left her, raped and beaten, for dead. In BABY SHARK'S BEAUMONT BLUES, she's using the skills she acquired at that time as a
licensed private investigator. A "simple" task of retrieving a teenage heiress -- kidnapped or runaway? -- turns into a complicated and bloody
mess where even Kristin and Otis are not always sure who's conning whom. The ending is satisfying and there is even a possible romance brewing
for Kristin.

Mr. Fate's ear for dialogue is unerring and his ability to write from the perspective of a young woman is almost uncanny. Just one small example -- each time Kristin returns home after the latest bloodbath, she never fails to put any salvageable clothing to soak in cold water to get the bloodstains out!

It's often with some trepidation that I read a second book by an author whose first I've enjoyed. There was no disappointment here. I highly recommend BABY SHARK'S BEAUMONT BLUES. ( )

Protagonist: newly licensed PI Kristin Van Dijk
Setting: 1956--the area between Dallas and Beaumont, Texas
Series: #2

First Line: Leon drooled when he smiled at me.

In this second book in the series, newly licensed PI Kristin Van Dijk and her partner, former cop Otis Millett, are investigating the disappearance of an heiress who's slated to inherit millions from her daddy's oil fields. In no time at all, gangsters from Beaumont have shoehorned their way into the situation and the body count rises and rises and rises.

If you don't like violence, stay away from these books. For the most part, it doesn't bother me, but the entire plot of the book seemed rather tired. I also began keeping track of Kristin's ability to hear because it wasn't consistent throughout the book. The only reason I rated it as high as I did was because I still like the characters of Kristin and Otis. ( )

http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.co... ( )