mysteries – Pleasant Nights

Mycroft Holmes

I have been a fan of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s since I was a kid. Some of my formative years were spent in front of the tv with my dad cheering for the Lakers. Magic was my favorite, and Kareem was my dad’s. But as I got older, I grew to appreciate KAJ for the intelligent, thoughtful, humanitarian that he is. I’ve been following his essays for awhile now. You can find many of them here in Time Magazine. When I heard he had published this book, I thought I would give it a try. Let me preface that I have read a sum total of one Sherlock Holmes book, so reading this little off shoot was a shot in the dark.

I’ve been told that Mycroft is Sherlock’s older brother and much more likeable of a character. And while Sherlock is in this book very briefly, I can say that I did think Mycroft was a great character. Very insightful and thorough, but with a good heart and nowhere near as eccentric as his brother. The story follows 23 year old Mycroft and a friend, Cyrus Douglas, who is from Trinidad. Douglas tells Mycroft about certain supernatural mysteries that are happening on the island and the two travel there to solve said mysteries. There is also a pretty clear political element going on with the setting in Trinidad. Douglas is a black man and Mycroft is his white friend, but they work together to free some slaves. The politics aren’t in your face, but definitely not ones to be ignored.

The book was a quick reader and kept me guessing. Some of the people involved were clearly playing a double role, and they were fairly easy to spot, but the story was still engaging. I appreciated all the historical details that seemed to be well researched. Overall, this was a really fun read that kept me guessing, but wasn’t too far fetched.

Murder in Missoula

Here’s another book I got from Netgalley. I tend to select thrillers because I really do enjoy a good mystery, but this one left me wanting a bit more.

This story isn’t exactly a mystery, because you know who the killer is almost from the beginning. Instead, you are trying to see if the killer will be caught, who will figure out the killer’s identity, are there others involved, will an innocent person be arrested, and so on. I won’t tell you if any of the above questions are answered, though, but I will say the book does have a resolution. Whether it was an appealing one is left up to the reader.

My biggest issue with this book was the lack of emotion from any characters. A woman is murdered and her best friend just drinks a lot of wine as a result. I understand trying to drown your sorrows, but no tears? No sadness? It just seemed really strange to me. The main character, who is involved with the murdered woman, just needs to find the killer. He doesn’t show much sadness for the death, either. This was just really bizarre to me. Maybe I’m being too particular, but the characters just seemed really flat.

Overall, this was a pretty easy read, but not one that left me with tingles or anything. It was just a mediocre story.