Journeyman: A Central City Novel (Kulpa and Bayonne Mysteries Book 2)by Indy Perro; Central City Sequel Doubles Down on Cop and Criminal Duality

 

Journeyman (A Central City Novel) by Indy Perro; Central City Sequel Doubles Down on Cop and Criminal Duality

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: When we last left Central City in Indy Perro’s book of the same name, Detective Vinnie Bayonne and ex-con, bar owner, and informant Kane Kulpa pool their resources to solve the murder of several prostitute’s clients. The murderer was identified and Tran van Kahn, the leader of a Vietnamese gang that tried to muscle in on Kane’s territory, was murdered. Unfortunately, these came at a great cost to Kane and Bayonne. Adam McKenna, Bayonne’s partner and Kane’s brother, was left institutionalized and Kane and Adam’s developmentally disabled and traumatized mother, Molly Matches died.

 In the followup novel, Journeyman, we see the cop and criminal are struggling to rebuild shaky lives. Bayonne’s commitment to justice is questioned because of his friendship with Kane and he embarks on a relationship with prostitute Cassandra. Meanwhile, Kane is beginning a tentative  leadership amidst rivalries from gangs who are out for blood and revenge. Bayonne is assigned to investigate the possible overdose death of the mayor’s son. Meanwhile gang war is declared after a shootout occurs outside Kane’s bar, the Side Saddle.

This is the type of mystery where the author is less concerned about the mystery itself than they are about the lead characters. Frankly, it’s all the better for it. The O.D. plot and the gang plot are interesting but in some ways predictable. There isn’t much in the way of a whodunnit so much as the enemies are quite visible leaving little to surprises or revelations. It’s stuff that is often found in other works that deal with gangs, drugs, sex work, political corruption, and crimes and quite frequently done better. Nothing new technically arrives or is resolved. But that is not where Journeyman’s real strength lies.

Journeyman’s real strength, in fact the strongest asset to the Central City series as a whole are its two leads: Vinnie Bayonne and Kane Kulpa. While in some works anyone can solve the central mystery, with this one only Bayonne and Kane can solve this one and leave Central City well in somewhat peace. 

We see these two at their most emotionally vulnerable as they try to maintain some semblance of order with their surroundings. They are protective of those that they are close to: Bayonne with Cassandra and Kane with his friends. We also see them facing antagonists challenging their leadership from various gangs to corrupt politicians and authority figures. Despite this, the two men have the strength and compassion to protect those around them.

One of the best chapters that show the duo’s concern for others is when Bayonne and Kane visit Adam in the hospital. As they talk to and care for Adam and confide in each other about his treatment and their concerns about his future, it is clear that both men are in mourning for the seriously ill man in front of him. Adam is not dead but is just as gone as if he had a bullet to his brain. They lost a partner and best friend with a once bright future in front of him and a brother with a broken past which deprived him of a family. We see that these men have many of the same concerns, goals, and motives even if they have different means to obtain them.

Unfortunately it is the means that cause a wedge between Bayonne and Kane. Kane desires to remain as leader and overpower his rivals. He becomes more ruthless and colder in ordering murder and extortion. 

As Kane ascends in the Underworld, Bayonne becomes more regimented in upholding the law. As the world collapses and becomes grayer, Bayonne holds onto the black and white of the legal system. 

Bayonne and Kane’s friendship is forever scarred when the two make decisions putting them in direct conflict. In the end, they face each other equal in power, are having ascended in their careers, but now no longer friends. What's worse is because of their shared history, they are not only enemies but enemies that know each other's backgrounds, secrets, and modus operandi. 

Bayonne and Kane are worthy opponents who will certainly lose their worthiness by the next book. They may lose what once made them great: their friendship.

New Book Alert: Reality Testing (Sunrise Book #1) by Grant Price; Intricate Science Fiction Novel About The Price Paid For Overabundance of Technology

 

New Book Alert: Reality Testing (Sunrise Book #1) by Grant Price; Intricate Science Fiction Novel About The Price Paid For Overabundance of Technology

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Overabundance of Technology is a common theme in Science Fiction. Usually, authors write about the cost of humanity and what we will turn into when our gadgets control us. Remember Ray Bradbury's short story "The Veldt" when two children who are so addicted to their virtual room that they order lions to attack their parents as they passively watch? Or Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 where the people were so influenced by the wall screens in their house that their intelligence was diminished and they willingly gave up their books to the firemen who burned them? Or Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers where interstellar travel and mobile power suits gave young Earth soldiers the power to wage war on the residents of alien planets? Or the many episodes of Twilight Zone and Outer Limits that show Artificial Intelligence becoming more human and their creators becoming less so? 

A key difference between those works and current science fiction is that those technologies had yet to exist so authors were left to imagine what they could and capture their best and worst qualities. Now, that technology is here and now. Authors don't have to imagine it. It's right here with social media, quantum computing, passenger space travel, smart housing, energy efficient means of travel, and so on. All an author has to do is follow the news and see the next step of where these technologies are going for better or worse. Science Fiction is becoming Science Fact faster than we thought that it would.

One of the current Science Fiction Novels which explores this theme is Reality Testing by Grant Price, the first book in a series that deals with a young woman rebelling against the dystopian future of a world destroyed by corporate greed, environmental catastrophe, and a cabal of governments, corporations, and scientists that use that technology on human guinea pigs. Again these are not new themes, but what makes this book good is the intricate plot and the benefit of using technology we see every day to higher and more frightening levels.

In Reality Testing, our protagonist and potential rebel is Mara Kizing, a mechanic who lives in near future Germany. She is inside a dream tank reliving her apparent murder of a man. As Mara makes her escape from the tank and the building in which this experiment is taking place, she remembers that she signed on for some project to get creds but the details are not yet known. It becomes clearer when she goes to see her wife, Jema and Jema doesn't recognize her. The techs at LINK inserted her mind and consciousness into a completely different body.  

Now Mara is on the run because of the escape and murder. Even though it means separation, Jema (who was already anxious about Mara signing up in the first place) suggests that she hide out in a semizdat settlement with one of the resistance groups like the Vanguard. After a violent encounter, Mara is left alone and seeks redemption by finding the Vanguard.

There are two distinct separate sections that explores the impact of technology so much that it is clearly emphasized in Price's writing. The first section is more technical as Mara stumbles through the city hiding from her pursuers. It is fascinating and horrifying as we look at this new transformed world. Berlin is awash with technology so much that it is omnipresent and suffocates the human elements as much as the dense polluted clouds overhead. The walls speak and sing every advertisement to the point that they become a cacophonous symphony. The "bulls" catch their prey using augmented eyes to scan information like a robot Gestapo. A person is not only killed but their information is erased from records as though they never existed.

The vidlinks are everywhere and give the power to turn anyone from hero to villain as they do for Mara by turning her into a coldblooded killer when she was really just a desperate woman longing to escape. Unemployment is high so people sign on to be test subjects in some of the most bizarre experiments.

Many of the experiments are not purposely completely explained possibly for future volumes, but also because these characters live in this environment and they know what they are. They are familiar and have been exposed to them their whole lives.

 However, Price leaves clues for the Reader to guess. For example, besides Mara's LINK, we are also told about the Seahorse project. We aren't completely given all the details but there are hints.  Volunteers are only men. Women are considered "obsos" or obsolete. A quick study of male seahorses and knowing that they can do what few biological male species can do naturally, well it doesn't leave much to the imagination what the Seahorse project is about. (The next volume should feature a man who has actually been through the Seahorse project to get a more inside view of what it's like.)

Because of the emphasis more on setting and world building, there isn't much on character except between Mara and Jema. They are a couple who are on their last nerve. Mara is a woman so desperate for money that she will put herself through physical torture. Jema is worried and anxious about her, but is tired of the danger, the stress, and is ready to file for divorce for a peace of mind.  It's doubtful that

if things didn't end up the way they did, that Mara and Jema would have had a happily ever after.

In contrast to the Berlin setting, when the plot shifts to the Vanguard we are given more emphasis on character and less on setting. We are shown a cooperative community which lives off of minimal technology. They use solar energy and grow their own food. The members plan acts of rebellion that go from mere pinpricks to major consequences. It's all nothing new but we see strong sense of character in this section that was absent in the previous.

Even before Mara encounters the Vanguard, we get a whole chapter devoted to their founder known as The Abbot. We learn that she was a scientist whose research was used for the Seahorse project. She abandoned her cushiony life and high paying job to fight the system that she had once been a member.

The Vanguard is very secretive. Many of the characters use pseudonyms and put Mara through a variety of tests to prove her loyalty. This is a group that is wary of outsiders almost paranoiac. But as some say just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that someone isn't out to get them.

 The suspicion is a natural reaction to a group that is close to and protective of their members and don't want to see them get hurt or destroyed. They have worked hard for this new way of life and don't want to see it go the way of the old one, especially when they have the chance to rebuild society and start over again and make it better.

New Book Alert: Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Crimes by Tony Knighton; Dark, Sharp, and Sinister Stories of Philadelphia's Criminal Classes

New Book Alert: Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Cruelties by Tony Knighton; Dark, Sinister, and Sharp Stories of Philadelphia's Criminal Class

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: Crime stories narrated by detectives are an enjoyable read but crime stories narrated by criminals are even more so. Instead of solving the crime, the stories concentrate on constructing the crime and their efforts to either abscond with the loot or avoid the law.


Tony Knighton's anthology, Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Crimes presents several stories of Philadelphia's less law abiding citizens. Some are funny, some are suspenseful. But all are fascinating looks at the dark side of human nature and how far desperate people will go to get their needs met.


Among the best stories are:


"Happy Hour"- This is a hilarious and moving story about a petty thief trying to avoid his many enemies. Bobby, a recovering alcoholic, can't resist making off with a fancy discarded coat in the dead of winter. The good news is the coat conveniently has thousands of unmarked bills enough to pay off Bobby's debts. The bad news is the coat belonged to one of a group of hired killers as he learns from the cell phone that they also left behind.

The plot moves along briskly as Bobby jumps from one place to another from his apartment, to the home of a drug dealer, to an A.A. Meeting and runs into fresh complications. There are some plot holes abound such as when Bobby has a clear chance to purchase a train ticket out of town, he doesn't take it and some tense moments such as when he hears that one of his neighbors was killed by his pursuers. Eventually, things take a darker turn when Bobby's desperation to avoid this situation turns deadly.


"The Road Trip"- In The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey's character, Verbal Kint, describes real will as doing what the other guy won't do. This brief gruesome story illustrates this concept of one killer out doing another.

The Narrator is already a piece of nasty work. He is in the country breaking into a house and killing the only resident. He stops to get fuel and supplies in one of those lonely diners that you know is going to lead to trouble. A diner customer encounters the Narrator. In a plot twist worthy of Stephen King, the new guy proves to be a real cut up. It is a sinister short story that builds on the suspense and lowers it with an effective Karmic twist on the hapless Narrator.


"Sunrise"-This one is definitely the outlier of the anthology. It deals with crime but it is set in the future where Philadelphia has been ruined by war and climate change. A father struggles to get his ailing son to a hospital before sunrise when the daylight could be potentially fatal.

The story shows how familial love and sacrifice can cause people to do desperate things. The Reader's sympathies are entirely with the father as he protects his son in this dystopian setting. He commits a few crimes in the story, but his motive for protecting and healing his son are never in doubt. Not to mention, the setting leaves enough interest for Knighton to continue writing other works set in this eco-unfriendly environment.


"The Session"-This story reflects the inside of a psychopath, one who hides his true deadly intentions beneath a cover of respectability no matter how thin that cover is. Harold, a convict, is in session with Donna, a court appointed psychiatrist, for a conditional release.

The story is entertaining in an eerie darkly comic way as Harold alternates between what he tells the psychiatrist and what he really thinks. Harold verbally compliments a former psychiatrist by saying that the doctor "helped (him) a lot." However, he mentally calls the psychiatrist "a fat drunk fastly approaching senility."

The plot leads to sinister creepy implications when Harold's request is granted and he can't resist an oh so subtle peek at Donna's address. The story is open ended but one can't help but fear about the potentially dangerous effects that will occur after Harold's release.


"As Long As You Can"-Instead of murder, this story concerns itself with con games and what happens when criminals try to outdo each other with brains rather than physical force.

Hank works at a call center where he convinces lonely seniors that he's their long lost grandson who's in a bad spot and could they send him a few thousand dollars to get out of it. Most of the story consists of Hank's explanation over how this scheme works and how he got involved. It's clever in a scoundrelous way as various hurdles are covered from avoiding Caller I.D. to how the cons take notes of the right terms and names. (You don't want to slip and call someone "Grandma" when she was always referred to as "Nana.") The call center is treated ironically like any typical law abiding profession as the workers sit in their cubicles and boast about their sales.

Hank tries to outdo the others by calling his marks off the clock and asking for extra money. He is the type of crook that thinks he is so clever and can't be caught. His cockiness makes his downfall even better as he is outsmarted by a mark that is more than aware of the con and plays it better than him.


Tony Knighton's anthology may show that crime doesn't always pay. But it is always enjoyable to read.