Whiskey Sour by JA Konrath

Whiskey Sour is labeled “Mystery” but if it’s a mystery it’s the kind that rings your doorbell then punches you in the face, points and laughs rather than plays peek-a-boo with you. From the moment I finally found it I hoped it was going to be different. It does have a florescent cover after all.

 

Whiskey Sour is the first Jack Daniels mystery. Veteran police detective Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels is not only lead investigator in a nasty serial killer case she’s also been singled out by the Gingerbread Man as an adversary worthy of “special treatment”.

 

I was unsure for quite a ways into it. My trepidation and the things I liked were pretty much in balance. The tone to the writing is different than a lot of the stories I’ve read lately. Instead of the book wrapping itself around the reader it plays more like a private drama acted out before them. The action itself is the atmosphere.

 

I’m not sure about Jack herself. I did like that the main character was troubled, older and experienced. No young upstarts here. But Jack is neither a character I’d be able to enjoy a coffee date with nor one I’d want to dive into the story to help out. I don’t despise her by any means, but honestly I didn’t find a lot of sympathy for her either until after I knew what had happened between her and Harry. It took a while for her to show more emotion than just a cop. She’s not, in the end, an “I need sympathy” character.

 

Konrath also uses a writing tool that I am terribly skeptical about. Interspersed in the story from Jack’s point of view are chapters from the bad guy’s point of view. Normally I don’t like this mechanic. I generally don’t like as a reader (or as a writer like my readers), to know anything that the character doesn’t. But Konrath uses the technique well, putting the villain’s sections in present tense third person and Jack’s parts in first person past tense. This method absolutely would not have worked for me if the Gingerbread Man wasn’t such a proactive killer. If I didn’t know what he had done, specifically to attack Jack, then spend two chapters waiting for Jack to find her little presents, then I definitely would have been turned off.

 

But like I said, this mystery isn’t content to just sit back and slowly unfurl. It sits around a bit, gets bored, then jumps up and hits you with a baseball bat.

 

I’m still not sure if Konrath’s style works for me. He doesn’t pull his punches, he doesn’t hesitate or blur the shot. That does work for me. Whether I like the series as a whole or not I’m hooked for another book. Hopefully this time Harry gets what’s coming to him. This book rates a buy it for sheer balls.