LoveMurder by Saul Black Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

When she is called to the murder scene, the last thing San Francisco Homicide detective Valerie Hart is expecting is for Katherine Glass to walk back into her life. Six years earlier, revulsion and fascination had gripped the nation in equal measure, as beautiful, intelligent, charming and utterly evil Katherine Glass had been convicted on six counts of Murder One. But the freshly-mutilated corpse in the ground-floor apartment bears all the hallmarks of Katherine s victims. And then there s the note, with its chilling implications. Addressed to Valerie.

To stop the slaughter, Valerie has no choice. She must ask Katherine Glass to help her decipher the killer s twisted message. But that means re-entering the pitch-black labyrinth that is Katherine s mind, and this time Valerie isn't so sure which one of them will survive.

It was just earlier this month I reviewed Saul Black's debut, The Killing Lessons. While it wasn't my favorite mystery- there was a little too much going on and it had a dragging problem- it was still a good, solid debut thriller that showed a ton of promise. I liked Black's writing, and the ideas he came up with. 

And this novel is much tighter than his first. It was more focused by far- the only thing going on was the central case, there wasn't a million other little threads to follow up on. I mean, not everything was fixed- sex was still a big part of the book, but I'm starting to think this is something that's just going to become a part of reading Saul Black's books. The vibe he's clearly going for is dark and twisted and sexy, and I'm cool with that. Especially when this book is even more fucked up than the first.

The characters came across as a lot stronger, too. Valerie is still the smart, capable detective, but without the extra melodrama of being both an alcoholic and lovesick for her ex. Nick proved a welcome addition to the plot, and his banter-heavy dialogue ended up being my favorite. I also think Will especially shined in this novel, and I ended up not hating most of the side characters, which is amazing for me. 

The villains were interesting, although while I wanted to like Katherine Glass- and she was the kind of Elizabeth Bathory evil that I like- she grated on me after a while. I wished she could have a scene in which there was no unnecessary sexual tension between her and Valerie, or in which people would stop mentioning her beauty because it got old and tiring fast. But I suppose it's meant to enhance the dark and sexy aspects of the story, so that's a purpose. From what I understand, this guy writes werewolf novels under his real name (I didn't discover this until I Goodreadsed the author; he refreshingly doesn't make any mention of it- but then again, if I wrote werewolf novels I'd want to keep that hidden, too), so that might explain the preoccupation with sex. It's funny, though, his writing reminds me almost of Tana French's, but reading his books reminds me of how refreshingly little sex there is in hers. I'm not against sex in books, but it's such a big part of many books, especially thrillers, it's nice that a popular author hasn't fallen back on that trope.

I would say this book's biggest flaw is that it was surprisingly reluctant to kill people off. I think the subject demanded a higher body count than what was actually given to us, and I also think that Black was skating on thin ice with me with two of the people that he had the Man in the Mask capture. I mean, did anyone actually think those two characters would be killed off? I mean, one, fine sure whatever, but two in one book? That does nothing but waste time. One of them should have been killed off or, heck, maybe that particular subplot just shouldn't have been in the book at all, in favor of one that could have actually been killed. In the end, it felt like shock value, and I despise shock value. 

So those are my thoughts on LoveMurder, a title my spellcheck hates. It was good, and a strangely addictive little book that is sure to keep you interested, provided you don't hate a little shock value or unnecessary sex. And hey, if you do love that shit, well, all the more power to you.

8-8.5 out of 10

The Killing Lessons by Saul Black Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“All fear was, in the end, fear of death. Once you knew you were dying, there was nothing left fear. It gave you the last great gift, infinite courage.”- The Killing Lessons, Saul Black

When the two strangers turn up at Rowena Cooper's isolated Colorado farmhouse, she knows instantly that it's the end of everything. For the two haunted and driven men, on the other hand, it's just another stop on a long and bloody journey. And they still have many miles to go, and victims to sacrifice, before their work is done.

For San Francisco homicide detective Valerie Hart, their trail of victims--women abducted, tortured and left with a seemingly random series of objects inside them--has brought her from obsession to the edge of physical and psychological destruction. And she's losing hope of making a breakthrough before that happens.

But the murders at the Cooper farmhouse didn't quite go according to plan. There was a survivor, Rowena's ten-year-old daughter Nell, who now holds the key to the killings. Injured, half-frozen, terrified, Nell has only one place to go. And that place could be even more dangerous than what she's running from.

In this extraordinary, pulse-pounding debut, Saul Black takes us deep into the mind of a psychopath, and into the troubled heart of the woman determined to stop him.

I'm a horrible flyer. I say this a lot because it needs to be said a lot. So, when I fly I look for the book that's the most likely to take my mind off the fact that any minute now, I could be spiraling down towards my demise. I like books that are quick, bloody reads. So on my trip to New Orleans, I was sure I packed as many violent books as possible to keep my mind occupied on the four (4!) flights I had to take there and back (damn you, Newark, for not having any express flights!). 

Enter The Killing Lessons. The reviews, all by popular thriller writers, some I've read and some I haven't, were all pretty gruesome so I was looking forward to it. And my first impressions were positive. The writing was good, the book opened in a suitably bloody way, I liked the crime elements, so far, so good.

I did really end up liking pretty much all the characters, though none of them really came real to me. I think Saul Black definitely is a remarkably talented writer, especially for his debut novel. The scenes he set up were wonderful, and he knew not to skimp on violence and gore that should be in a novel called The Killing Lessons. In a lot of respects, this is what I wished The Roses of May was more like. An interesting villain, though perhaps one with a cliche past, a good female detective to follow around, one who didn't do much moping around about sexism, and a fascinating case to follow. 

Despite all these positive things, this book isn't flawless, although because he's a debut author I feel inclined to blame most of the problems with the book on his debutness. Not the writing necessarily, because the writing was both good and consistent, but the plot had some things that I wasn't too keen on. For instance, I think there was too much focus on sex. While a scene or two here or there is okay, it was a constant presence in the book to the point where it became distracting and honestly felt unnecessary. A lot was also centered around the personal life- mostly love life- of Hart, and I just couldn't bring myself to care enough. And I do think Black had a lot going on in his brain when writing this and it took me a while to figure out how he was going to weave these two very different plot lines together- or rather, how he was going to weave them together successfully.

Which brings me nicely to my next point. The pacing of this novel wasn't the best I ever saw. It dragged horribly in the middle, with Hart and Blasko's endless backstory, the main villain being sick (this was the kind of decision that debut thriller authors usually make in order to buy their victim some time to make the escape you knew they were going to make. I hate hate hate that decision), and the pages of nothing Nell and the old man were getting up to. But towards the end it picked back up, we saw lots of action, and I did end up liking how Black was able to pull it together.

I can see Black shining someday in the crime thriller genre, turning out twisted and complex Valerie Hart thrillers, and I'd be happy about it too. While it's true he's not on the same level as Tana French, I'd still definitely be interested in where he goes next. He's a thriller writer to watch. I'm already looking forward to whenever I can get my hands on Lovemurder.

8 out of 10