I forgot how enjoyable this book series was. This time out a couple of different mysteries all tied to big Pharma, how timely.
Drug trials on people instead of lab rats how very Covid vaccine and written before Covid.
This was a great book in the series.
But read the whole series they are light funny mysteries with excellent writing. ( )

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 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/ ( )