J.A. Konrath Keeps Cranking Them Out

Joseph Andrew Konrath is a young mystery writer who gives me hope for the genre after such masters of the craft as M.C. Beaton and Michael Connelly (both of whom are getting up in years) stop doing what they do so well. We think our favorite writers will go on scribbling forever, but, recently, we lost Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Harris and Michael Crichton, just like that. Konrath, who was born in 1970, figures to have a few more good books in his system. I think we'll lose me, long before we lose him.

Those of you who have been following Associated Content for a while, may recall the inestimable Ali Canary's fine review of Konrath's earlier novel, Bloody Mary. Of course, back then, she was writing for AC under a different name-Zelda Mae Cadiddlehopper, I think-so your best bet might be to check out the above link. For those of you who are familiar with that article, I don't want to paint the lily-Excuse me, I am speaking way too highly of my artistic ability. I meant draw a stick figure of the lily-by going over too much of the same ground Ms. Canary has already covered so well.

Most of Konrath's books involve a Chicago police detective named Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels (which is her married name). She has since divorced Mr. Daniels, and, up to the point I have read, is between husbands. The idea is, she is named after booze, so all her stories are as well. The first book in the series was titled Whisky Sour, and it was followed by the one I cited, which Ms. Canary reviewed this past August 15^th.

The drinks that Konrath uses for his titles are not arbitrarily selected. Each one figures into the story, to an extent. For example, in the book I may at some point get around to reviewing, a cop is assassinated after ordering a dirty martini.

After Bloody Mary, in 2005, the author wrote a real thriller called Rusty Nail, the following year. It was very suspenseful, even if I did figure out an important thing about the killer, almost right off the bat. In 2007, he came out with Dirty Martini, and it is, without question, his best one, to that point in the series. Konrath has put out a few other books since, notably Fuzzy Navel and Cherry Bomb, but my local library has not yet seen fit to get them in stock.

As evil as the killers Daniels foiled in the past had been, the villain in Dirty Martini is worse than all of them put together. Also, maybe smarter. The person Lt. Daniels must stop is primarily a bioterrorist, which makes the resultant crime spree all the more horrendous.

I have already committed enough spoilage by telling you about the martini-swilling cop, so I'm certainly not going to identify the killer or tip off the ending. Let's just say that the killer encounters a very pronounced dose of irony toward the end of the book, and leave it at that. I should also add that, despite this book's taking us to an entirely new level of horror, all of the series' regular characters show up again and figure strongly in the plot.

As with my favorite mystery characters: Hamish Macbeth, Harry Bosch and Mary Russell Holmes, it is best to take Jack Daniels' adventures in the order they happen, inasmuch as there are always some carryover details. That being the case, I strongly recommend that you speed-read your way through as many of the books as you need to (Just kidding!) in order to get to Dirty Martini. It may be the best thriller you'll ever read.

Sources

Dirty Martini, J.A. Konrath

Wikipedia

jakonrath.com