Monkeewrench

Rating:
Summary: Strong debut!
Review: I enjoyed P.J. Tracy's stylishly written debut novel, "Monkeewrench."

It is peopled with vividly drawn intelligent characters and presented from multiple POV's. The three story lines converge for a nice payoff with the loose ends tied up.

The high concept premise (murders replicate a yet to be released violent video game) centers around two parallel investigations.

The unpredictable plot accelerates at a good pace.

Everyone at Monkeewrench (game's creator) seems to have a secret. All five partners are filled with idiosyncrasies---they all have permits to carry and an innate distrust of the law. At one time or another any of them could be suspected as the serial killer.

The dialogue is realistic and peppered with wry and dry humor. The mix of computer geeks, small town cops and big city (Minneapolis) law enforcement works.

Glad to learn this is the start of a four book series, as I want to know more about this cast of characters.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: If you read only one mystery/thriller by a new author this year, make "Monkeewrench" your choice. The plot and characters sizzle and the authors (mother-daughter team of PJ and Tracy Lambrecht) have set the thriller in Minneapolis/St.Paul-Wisconsin, one of my favorite areas, and the stomping grounds of Lucas Davenport of the "Prey" series.

For new authors, the team is excellent at weaving multiple plotlines together, and the team of 5 software developers that is at risk, and who have created risk for others, is an intriguing and slightly comic group (that apparently will be back for at least 2 sequels). Monkeewrench has gotten a lot of critical praise, some of it over-the-top, when comparing its comic touch to that of Evanovich. Make no mistake, this is a dead serious thriller, whose writers have a light and humorous way with words and descriptions. They don't populate the book with cartoon characters (no offense to Evanovich, I love her work). Here's a sample of the kind of descriptive turn that grabs your senses while you work through the plot:

"...the room was an olfactory museum of hundreds of meetings just like this one. Fast food, sweat, and the now-forbidden cigarette smoke -- all these smells and more seeped from the plaster walls and rose from the uneven waves of the warped wooden floor. "

You'll enjoy cops Magozzi, a Mpls. detective and his soft-hearted partner, Gino Rolseth, as well as Wisconsin sheriff Mike Halloran. Mostly though, you'll be annoyed at the sleep you miss, since Monkeewrench is one of those books you can't put down once you start. Plot twists and turns are exciting, and while the eventual discovery of the killer's identity is a little surreal, it makes for a great whodunit.

Looking forward to more from this writing team; their debut was spectacular!!!

Rating:
Summary: Want to play?...Yes please
Review: Two sets of murders, seemingly unconnected; two sets of cops, small-town and inner-city; a suspicious group of misfits, authors of the copycat killer's blueprint; and a whole bag of twists in the tale. Published as 'Want to Play?' by Penguin in the UK, Monkeewrench introduces PJ Tracy to the thriller genre in a blaze of glory. With her first novel, Tracy earns all sorts of awful cliches like "pageturner" and "unputdownable". (It is).

The characters are sympathetic, from cops to victim/suspects, and actually have personalities, none of them from the thrillerwriters' identikit book - there's not a divorced, slighty maverick, recovering alcoholic in sight. The plots have punch and intrigue, the pace is steady, the twists and subplots assured. The descriptions are witty, seductive and prosaic without being self-conscious, gratuitous or flowery.

This is a bloody good debut book and PJ Tracy undoubtedly has much more to show us. Can't wait for her next game.