My Favorite Books

The Walking Drum
Ender's Game
Dune
Jhereg
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Curse of Chalion
The Name of the Wind
Chronicles of the Black Company
The Faded Sun Trilogy
The Tar-Aiym Krang

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Review: Wheel of Fortune

Wheel of Fortune Wheel of Fortune by Theodore Jerome Cohen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ****

An Ole Timey Mystery for Today

Another mystery in the Martelli NYPD series that should appeal to folks that like the noir style and police procedurals (think of a 60’s style in today’s NYC). The book itself is pretty standard for the genre (so take it all with a grain of salt) with little to raise it above the pack, but that still leaves it as decent entertainment, especially with the solid narration performance. Standard tropes and stereotypes apply … As mentioned, we get the standard murder mystery with a grizzled, veteran police detective with a Jane Doe and a mysterious connection to an archrival in the FBI who has his own case dealing with the “Boy Scouts” (ref Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School) that run NYC trash hauling business. To solve the case, they both play fast and loose with the rules to collar the bad guy(s) which might prompt an eye roll to two, but nothing that was out of place considering what is typical. The End comes up a little quick. but the Epilogue gives an okay summary to wrap everything up.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#WheelOfFortune #MartelliNYPD #FreeAudiobkFacebkGrp

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My Ratings Explained ...

  • [ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
  • [ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
  • [ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
  • [ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
  • [ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.