Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The Recovery Man’s Bargain is not so much a sequel as a reboot of Recovery Man with a different focus. Recovery Man followed the two victims of a kidnapping/child custody case. The Recovery Man’s Bargain follows the kidnapper, Hadad Yu. Yu has to make a deal with the alien Gyonnese, who want a human child in return for children lost through industrial carelessness. Here are some of the issues raised. Should clones be considered fully human? Should the sins of the elders be visited on show more their offspring? Is bounty hunting human trafficking? Yu was a simple villain in the first novel, but here he has surprising depth. show less

"This is what we had chosen for ourselves--with bullets, riots, and a war that was tearing the country apart, this man who had accused innocent people of being communists, who had chosen a vice-presidential candidate who used the word 'nigger' in public, who used any stepping-stone he could to climb toward the highest office in the land."

I shivered when I read that line. Published in 2001 and set in August 1968, Nelscott has no right to that kind of prescience.

The second book in the Smokey show more Dalton series, Smoke Filled Rooms centers on Chicago during one hot and emotional August when the Democratic National Convention comes to town. Smokey was hoping to find a safe home in Chicago for himself and Jimmy, after barely escaping Memphis with their lives, but it doesn't look like peace will come any time soon. Although couch space with his friend Franklin and his family gives them respite while Smokey looks for new space, it soon comes to an end.

Like the best mysteries, Smoke Filled Rooms is rich in time and place. The feeling of a contentious, insecure America shows on every page, from the perspective of a black man trying to keep his head down while events unfold around him. Prior connections have brought them to Chicago, a city on high alert after the assassinations of MLK and Robert Kennedy. Smokey's doing his best to stay out of politics, but his job in security at the Hilton means he is on the front lines professionally. Home is overshadowed by undercover cops doing their best to scare locals into submission, and a neighbor asking for a favor to find a missing boy.

Nelscott has written a solid mystery thriller, the story of a man doing his best to protect his child while seeking a murderer. Unlike many detectives, Smokey quickly becomes enmeshed in the local community. One of my favorite things about this book, and likely the series, is the sense of community connection. But what makes Nelscott's stories stand out is the one-two combination of the time period from the perspective of a black man. It seems marvelously well done, and it was only late in the book that I noticed how well the racial tables had shifted; characters are assumed black unless specifically mentioned as white. Neighborhoods are mentally categorized into 'safe' for blacks, and 'unsafe,' with the caveat that a black presence in some places will result in a police presence. But the times, they are a changin', and even Smokey finds his old stereotypes challenged when his former white--and rich--girlfriend Laura is brought back into the picture.

But are the times really changing? If there was one point (accidentally) hammered home, it's that maybe things haven't changed all that much. Recent killings of black people in Chicago by the police, protests against the system and the rhetoric of particular candidates all sound scarily familiar. Being an indifferent history student, I wasn't expecting to love Smoke Filled Rooms. But take historical politics and wrap it around a heart-pounding mystery, and you can even teach me. An excellent book on so many levels.

Four and a half hazy stars, rounding up because this series deserves some attention. show less

Regrettably, although the number of accidental deaths of participants in the Moon Marathon is declining, they still do occur. However, this death is murder. Meanwhile, Miles Flint is unsure whether to accept his first case as a fully-fledged Retrieval Agent, although the potential client, a lawyer from a firm Paloma frequently worked with, is very persistent.

The different threads came together nicely in this exciting case which kept me up way past my bedtime. In the shadow of Covid, the show more story of a genetically enhanced lethal cold virus does of course have more resonances than it did in 2004. show less

I read this novelization years ago, right after the movie came out. I loved the film - it was one of the first films I saw more than once in the theatre. This novelization follows the film fairly well except for one, glaring, cringe-inducing issue: Wolverine has four claws on each hand instead of three. Now, I get that the book was written before the film, probably well before, but Wolverine has been a staple of the comics for decades. Every time he "popped his claws," one from each knuckle, show more it made me grind my teeth because it was wrong. Other than that, the book was fast-paced, with a little extra expansion on what characters were thinking and feeling during pivotal parts of the movie.

If the claws don't annoy the crap out of you, as they did me, this book was a decent read. show less