What a story, if I could give this book 10 star rating I would. Once again Mr. Miller confirms why he is one of my favourite authors.

New Orleans, 1926

August Chevalier, a ruthless businessman with questionable morals is found murdered, investigative reporters Justice Harper and Remy Moral are determined to flush out the killer. Working alongside the police, they narrowed down the list of suspects to three:

The Sinner, Blaze Barbeau, a real estate magnate with a checkered past

The Saint, Lucinda Boyd, a pillar of New Orleans society

The Serpent, Belladonna Dede, a well-known voodoo queen

One potential suspect:

A mafia gangster: Nicky the Knife

This is a story rich in content written with a cinematic perspective approach. It is vividly told through rich dialogue. The narrative is incredibly fast-paced and the prose sails smoothly throughout making this one of those stories next to impossible to put down. It is so filled with tension I was trying so hard to figure who may be the killer. Justice and Remy did such a good job interrogating each one of the suspect that it was hard to pin point the guilty. They all had a reason to do the deed. Mr. Miller is definitely a master of plot twists and he threw some doozies to surprise us. I was on the edge of my seat from page one and so captivated trying hard to figure where the author was going with his story. Would we finally have the killer identified….or would we be kept guessing. By the epilogue Mr. Miller give us the most mammoth twists of all and what an ending….I never saw it coming.

The author created sub-plots for the other characters what essentially happens in their life when they are not part of the main plot. Serenity Dupree, a sultry jazz singer is one of the secondary players along with Barbeau, Boyd, DeDe and Knife’s contribution all make a delightful reading adventure. Of course we also have the police investigators trying to solve the case.

A special note as for the main characters:

Justice is a man of deep morals, very diplomatic hard not to like him. Remy is a complete darling, she is one to speak her mind with absolutely no filter whatsoever. At times Justice wanted to strangling her….Their interaction makes an excellent read.

I love this mystery it provided all the entertainment one can wish for. What a page turner you provided Mr. Miller, well-done.

I received a ARC from Lume Books via Netgalleys for my thoughts

TITLE:  The Enterprise War

              [Star Trek: Discovery #4]

AUTHOR:  John Jackson Miller

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DESCRIPTION:

"A shattered ship, a divided crew—trapped in the infernal nightmare of conflict! Hearing of the outbreak of hostilities between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire, Captain Christopher Pike attempts to bring the U.S.S. Enterprise home to join in the fight. But in the hellish nebula known as the Pergamum, the stalwart commander instead finds an epic battle of his own, pitting ancient enemies against one another—with not just the Enterprise, but her crew as the spoils of war. Lost and out of contact with Earth for an entire year, Pike and his trusted first officer, Number One, struggle to find and reunite the ship’s crew—all while Science Officer Spock confronts a mystery that puts even his exceptional skills to the test…with more than their own survival possibly riding on the outcome…."

___________________________

REVIEW:

The Enterprise War fills the gap between seasons one and two of Star Trek Discovery by showing us what happened to the Enterprise during the Klingon Battle.  The writing is good, tight plot, decent characterization (Spock is Spock and Captain Pike is Pike) with some humour, nail-biting moments, delightful character interactions and original aliens.  Just what StarTrek novels should be.

Fletch checks in to his office before returning from a few days away to find out that he's fired. He'd filled in for an injured colleague to write a profile on a small local business that the Gazette had written an exposé about a few years before, just to see how they were doing in the aftermath. They were doing fine, and Fletch had quoted recent memos from the CEO demonstrating that. The teeny tiny problem there is that the particular CEO had been dead for a couple of years. Quoting corpses is generally frowned upon (unless you're writing about voters' views on Chicago politicians, I guess), and so Fletch is fired. Not only that, he's probably finished forever as a journalist.

Understandably, Fletch is incensed. He's angry. He's also mystified -- he knows what he read. He knows he did good work -- how did they fool him? More importantly, why? If his career is over, he's going to know why it happened. So he starts interviewing those nearest the dead man -- his business associates, family, and so on -- he eventually flies across the country a couple of times (and up to Alaska, too).

At this point in Fletch's life, he is notoriously dead broke -- recently divorced (again) with attorneys looking for alimony payments, and (as mentioned) fired. So how does he afford the gas and airline travel? Well, he found a walled with a whole lot of money in it and cannot find the owner. So he borrows a little bit. This is a very odd little storyline that I honestly have never fully understood. Not the events in it, but the reasoning behind its inclusion in the book. Other than to give Moxie (more about her in a moment) and Fletch something to talk about, and to give Fletch money for plane tickets.

Now, close readers might pick up a thing or two (if they haven't read the books anyway) -- I said Gazette (the paper that Fletch was almost certainly fired from after Fletch) and "at this point in" his life and "recently divorced." This is the first time where Mcdonald bounces back in time for a novel -- this is why I've noted publication order and chronological order in my post headings for this series. Mcdonald needs Fletch to have a newspaper job to tell this story -- and post Fortune, that's not really likely (it's not like he needs the money). This chronological flexibility is both rare in a series like this one, and will become a hallmark of the books.

The best reason to read this book is the introduction of the character Moxie Mooney. Moxie's an actress -- daughter of the legendary Freddie Mooney -- a major acting star of both stage and screen. Moxie's still struggling to make it at this point, but she's got talent. She's also a long-time on-again/off-again romantic partner to Fletch. There's more chemistry between the two, more genuine feelings and more obvious compatibility between Moxie and Fletch than there is between any two people in this series. She's funny, she's quirky, she's driven -- not unlike Irwin Maurice himself. I'm not sure how often I would have re-read the book without her.

At the end of the day, this one doesn't have the same impact and entertainment value most of the rest of the series does. There are some great moments -- and I love Moxie -- but there's something missing from this one. Still, Fletch books are like that old line about pizza -- when it's good, it's really good; and when it's bad, it's still pretty good.

"I.R.S.," the man said.

 

Fletch slid the door open. "How do you spell that?"

 

"Internal Revenue Service."

 

. . .

"As a matter of personal curiosity, may I ask why you have not filed returns?"

 

"April's always a busy month for me. You know. In the spring a young man's fancy really shouldn't have to turn to the Internal Revenue Service."

 

"You could always apply for extensions."

 

"Who has the time to do that?"

 

"Is there any political thinking behind your not paying taxes?"

 

"Oh no. My motives are purely aesthetic, if you want to know the truth."

 

"Aesthetic?"

 

"Yes. I've seen your tax forms. Visually, they're ugly. In fact very offensive. And their use of the English language is highly objectionable. Perverted."

 

"Our tax forms are perverted?"

 

"Ugly and perverted. Just seeing them makes my stomach turn.

It's conversations like this that make this possibly the most entertaining Fletch novel. My memory suggests there's a one or two challenges to that coming up, but at least one of them gets too preachy and disqualifies itself (I'll try to mention that when we get there). Fletch, shed of his fiancé from the previous book, is enjoying life in his home on the Riviera and puttering along on his biography of Edgar Arthur Thorp, Jr. One day, he's accosted by a pair of CIA agents who blackmail him (using the above referenced lack of tax filing) into bugging the rooms of the most influential journalists in the US at a journalism convention.

He's not crazy about this assignment, but at the very least he figures there's a good story in there somewhere. So he heads back to the States and plants his bugs and starts to tape many of the most illustrious members of the press. The catch (of course there's a catch) is that the president of the American Journalism Association and owner of many, many major newspapers is murdered the morning as conventioneers start to arrive.

So, not only does Fletch have to put up with attending a convention, and--under duress--to listen in on his colleagues -- but he also has to compete with some of the most story-hungry people in the US to be the first to break the story unveiling the murderer.

We also meet for the first time Fredericka "Freddy" Arbuthnot -- one of my chief complaints about this series is that we don't get more time with her. She's fun here, and her fans should rest assured that we see her again soon -- used in a better way, too (not a complaint about her appearance in Fletch's Fortune, I rush to say). She's just one of the incredibly colorful characters assembled at this convention -- which allows McDonald to skewer all the foibles and weaknesses of the contemporary media (at least for the late 70's, which just sets the stage for now). I couldn't guess how many times I've read this book, and I still find them all wonderfully fun to watch.

There's a blink and you missed it moment that's incredibly important for the future of the series, and it can't have been planned. But decades later, McDonald is able to use to open up whole new avenues for telling his sores.

It's so easy to get distracted by the fun conversations, the satirizing of the press and the general Fletch antics, to the point that you miss just how clever McDonald is to pull off one of his most clever whodunits. I'd rank this among the best mysteries that McDonald penned, too.

Once again, Miller delivers this one just right. I don't know what else to say -- he was the perfect choice for this series and I'm so glad I gave them a chance.

I'm just repeating myself now, so I'll stop. Between entertainment value, construction of the mystery, social/media satire, and audiobook narration I can't say enough good things about this audiobook. McDonald is at the height of his powers here and it's a sheer pleasure to pick up again (no matter the format).

Title : Honour The Dead

Author: John Anthony Miller

Genre: Historical Mystery

Pages:341 

Endeavour Media

book synopsis

Six English survivors of the Great War – four men and two women – converge on Lake Como, Italy in 1921. The result: one corpse and one killer... 

Psychiatrist Joseph Barnett is treating wealthy socialite Penelope Jones for schizophrenia at a sanitarium in Como. She is convinced someone is trying to kill her. 

Penelope is married to war veteran Alexander Cavendish, hero of the Battle of the Somme. Barnett knows – and hates – Cavendish from the trenches where both were officers during the battle: one was trying to save lives, the other take them. 

Both men had been wounded and treated at a hospital in Amiens where Bartlett met and later married Rose who worked there as a nurse. But why does Rose also harbour an intense animosity towards Cavendish? 

My thoughts

Rating: 4

Would I recommend it ? yes

Will I give this author a second try ? yes

What got me to pick it up was when it said Six arrived - five survive , because it kind of give off the vibes of something I would of picked up if written by Agatha Christie , it kind of was like something she would of wrote but it was also different in some ways. Over all it was still good to read , the  characters was and where  engaging and complex. Especially Penelope Jones because there was times I thought she was just plain crazy , and there was times I thought if someone was trying to kill her it has to be someone close to her . As for the story it self it, the story  plot  was well written and  tricky enough to keep the best guessing, but with enough clues to let the reader play along. The story came to life as did the characters and that is something that definitely reminds me of Agatha Christine. I can see it as a TV mini-series if they could and would do it right , with that said I want to think Netgalley for letting me read and review it exchange for my honest opinion.