Tim Maleeny

A helicopter has crashed into the Asian Art museum in an elaborate, successful heist. They have also killed the security guard, 11 year old Grace’s uncle. This is her only relative in the USA. As Grace escapes, she sees a ghost! Her flight from the museum lands her straight into the arms of Sally, a self-appointed guardian of Chinatown and a private investigator in San Francisco.

What made this book for me is the character, Grace! I just love this little girl! She is smart and so vulnerable show more in many ways! Sometimes an author gets a child wrong but, in my opinion, Tim got this one right! She captured my heart from the very first. And trust me, the opening scene in this book will capture any reader and keep them glued to the pages!

I have not read the others in this series but I have already added them to my tumbling TBR. I need to read more about Cape and Sally and their escapades. I love Cape’s sarcastic wit and Sally’s mysterious past!

Need an explosive thriller…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review. show less

I loved this book...the characters, the plot, the setting, even the cover art! Take one smart-ass private investigator, with the name Cape Weathers and a partner named Sally, who by the way is a trained assassin and has gone missing, add a container ship smuggling Chinese refugees that runs aground near Alcatraz with its crew mysteriously murdered and you have the makings of a fine, fine read. Maleeny weaves the story of Sally's childhood and "education" in Hong Kong into the plot with such show more ease that rather than distract the reader it enhances the story. Non stop action propelled by simply wonderful characters, including Cape's friends Linda (a reporter with”dark brown and omni-directional hair… hair that adds a good four inches to her height and considerably more to her attitude...people standing nearby eyed it warily, not sure if angry hornets would emerge or if the hair itself would strike without provocation", who fears anything involving electricity) and Sloth (“born with a rare neurological disorder, the Sloth didn't get his nickname from how he looked, but for how he moved...far slower than the world's slowest mammal, it could take him an hour to cross the room, minutes to finish a single sentence...until he came into contact with his first computer… the Sloth was trapped inside a frozen body that could only move at a glacial pace...computers had revealed Sloth's curse to be a mixed blessing, for while his body steadfastly refused to speed up, his brain was faster than a laptop on steroids..."). Add the above to San Francisco’s mayoral race, the normal conflicts between local police and the FBI and the end result is an excellent debut thriller with just the perfect touch of sarcastic humor. show less

Boxing the Octopus is the fourth Cape Weathers mystery and the first I have read. Fortunately, any competent mystery series does not require reading the books in order to enjoy them. In Boxing the Octopus, Cape is hired by a woman whose boyfriend is suspected of being an inside man in a armored car robbery. His investigation leads to a triangle of conspiracies centered on the pier that have tentacles reaching around the world, connecting Russia, China, and San Francisco.

With a mix of money show more laundering, designer drug peddling, and clandestine pharmaceutical research, there are a lot of balls to juggle, and that’s not even mentioning the armored car robbery that initiated the investigation. How it all comes together is alarmingly credible.

I finished reading Boxing the Octopus four days ago, but I was left uncertain what I thought of it. I have been thinking about it since and that surely is a sign of a compelling book. The plot is a bit histrionic, what with all the nastiness centered on the Pier. The characters are multi-dimensional. I was particularly fond of the pirate even though he did try to feed someone to a shark. Even the evil scientist is motivated by a desire to save the world, though his road to hell is a superhighway and his good intentions are barely a trickle.

So, my favorite road trip game is a singing one. You sing a line of a song, the first line or the chorus. The next person then sings a line of another song, using one of the words from your song and so on. Maleeny does something like this. The first sentence of each chapter echoes a phrase from the last sentence of the preceding chapter. This is what left me wondering for four days. Sometimes it made me smile, sometimes it irritated me, as though there was this demand I admire the performance. It is sort of clever, but also it is obtrusive. Should it be?

I don’t mind being stopped in my tracks while reading by some beautiful description, a metaphor so original it makes me stop and admire it. But this is not beautiful, it is clever. I am still not sure if I like it.

I received an e-galley of Boxing the Octopus from the publisher through NetGalley.

Boxing the Octopus at Poisoned Pen Press
Tim Maleeny author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/11/11/9781464211393/ show less

I downloaded this book because a) it was free and b) it was set in San Francisco. Both of these facts make me happy.

Then I started reading, and I discovered a few of the flaws mentioned by other reviewers, the most glaring of which is that it is the first book in a series, but it reads like the second. This is a problem, so one star off, but ...

Trust this book. Keep reading. The mystery is solid and satisfying. Usually agents and marketers want a book to grab you from the first chapter. This show more book does not, but it sure does grab you at the end. The hero, Cape, has a delightful, smartass sense of humor, which balances the seriousness of Sally, his loyal friend and trained professional assassin.

Finally, if you have any feelings in your heart for the fine city of San Francisco, this book will speak to you. The author goes beyond mentions of Chinatown. He knows his stuff. He name-checks multiple restaurants (Delancey Street, Town's End) and even obliquely references some of the city's prominent figures (Willie Brown, not mentioned by name, but quite obvious from the text).

Be patient with this one. You'll be rewarded. show less