Rating: 
Summary: Top 10 Reasons You'll Love Whiskey Sour
Review: 10. Superb writing - Clean, crisp, and riddled with wit and humor.
9. A terrifying villain called the Gingerbread Man who you do not want to meet.
8. Jacqueline Daniels, the protagonist. What a breath of fresh air this character is. Not some beautifully fake heroine, but a real forty-something woman whose life is in tatters, suffers insomnia and loneliness, but who you will love and respect.
7. Herb - Jack's partner, a man who will let nothing get between him and a donut. One of the funniest sidekicks I've read in a long, long time.
6. A balancing act between humor and fear. You'll be horrified one moment, dying with laughter the next. Quite a hard thing to do, but Mr. Konrath pulls it off.
5. The FBI agents. They're sharply dressed, polished, almost clonelike, and if they're sent to profile your abductor, no one's ever gonna hear from you again. I think Mr. Konrath may have blown his chances at getting into the Academy but it was worth it for this scathingly funny portrait of two of the most incompetent lawmen I've ever encountered.
4. The story itself. This book moves at light-speed. Prepare to read it in one sitting.
3. A life lesson for all you guys out there thinking of dating a woman in pursuit of a serial killer.
2. Another life lesson about why eating candy that "magically" appears in your car isn't the best idea.
1. This is a seriously funny, seriously scary read from a prodigiously talented writer. Take the plunge. You'll love it.
Rating: 
Summary: We Need More Female Detectives
Review: And Konrath has delivered. This deathless genre takes another twist into humor with this wonderful debut effort.
Kinsey Milhone has gotten us to a place of frustration with her Nancy Drew-ish plot devices and artificial descent into lawbreaking. "Ten Big Ones" did not sparkle like Janet E's other stuff, which might telegraph that she might be Plum out of new ideas.
So we need more female detectives. Konrath walks where angels fear to tread too: he's a male writer creating a hard-bioled female character. I think he did a fine job, creating a lively, amusing and smart woman who has problems just like everyone else. He does convey, though, the sheer delight in the chase and the capture which any good cop must have in abundance.
Looking forward to the next one...
Rating: 
Summary: Marketing is not writing.
Review: Back in the bad old days of high concept Hollywood, it used to be said that millions of dollars where committed to a project on the basis of a logline. (One sentence description of the the film.)
It would seem that the publisher of this author's series made a three book deal on the basis of the title gimmick. They are all based on cocktails...and the fact the heroine is stuck with the name Jack Daniels. Very clever. If you don't care about story, dialogue, character or plot.
I picked up the audiobook at the library for this little cynical piece of trash...because listening to books is about the only way I can get through an hour on a treadmill. It is also a good way to discover new authors. I was kind of interested in seeing a male attempt at the female noir genre, and though my expectations were low, and my tolerance level for less than perfect wordsmithing is very generous, not even I could bring myself to attempt Tape 2.
When encountering something this terrible, I go over to Amazon and see what's cooking....and clearly Konrath has been indulging in some serious networking with either other disappointed genre writers...or doing what Spy Magazine used to call "log rolling in our time." However no amount of having other people shilling for him on Amazon seems to have sold too many books.
I won't get into the problems with derivative characters, his inability to write old Jack in anything close to a believable voice....or the fact that his serial killer...is an insult to serial killers.
I invite people curious about the author to visit his vanity site, which includes photos, and an unintentionally hilarious set of writing tips. (you know how to google, doncha??? You just cut n paste and go!)
One of the big rules of mystery writing is you have to stick to the rules. And one of the rules is you don't stick a huge plot point in the middle of a situation which would not ever, ever happen. Instead of making his "heroine" a PI, she is a police detective lieutenant. The writer might have actually done the research to find out the salary level in the Chicago PD. The idea that a single police lieutenant of detectives (who doesn't have a serious drug or gambling problem) would drive an old Nova without an alarm system...and would actually allow her partner (fact check: do detective lieutenants have "partners?" or do they supervise the squad. Might want to make a call to check that out) to sample a bag of candy planted in her unlocked car. It is interesting to find a world where a parking lot for first responder brass would have absolutely no security. The author doesn't seem to recognize that when one is operating in an existing universe, you have to stick to the rules of that universe.
While it is possible that this writer might have some talent, the hilarity which ensues from book, is more at the author's expense, than his misfired and sadly unfunny attempts at humor. (J.A.? Didn't your mother tell you, comedy is about pain???)
Maybe instead of writing about what he doesn't know: how women in their forties dress, talk and think....he might want to write about something he does know...the world which Michael O'Donahue once described as "a baby seal hunt" : comedy writing.
Rating:
Summary: Splendid debut by an exciting new voice in crime fiction
Review: Debut author J.A. Konrath has leapt onto the mystery scene with a first novel that is so good, so entertaining, that it's hard to believe that we haven't heard from him before now. Whiskey Sour introduces readers to Lt. Jack Daniels, one of the Chicago Police Department's best officers, a woman with the steely toughness to match her unconventional name. Daniels is assigned to investigate a series of grisly killings, each one worse than the last.Konrath expertly cuts between Daniels' first-person narrative with the killer's own story, a device that is often over-used in the mystery genre, but is handled very well in this case. He has an excellent sense of both pacing and character, each of which contributes to make this book so good. The serial killer subgenre has been all but done to death, but the author wisely puts his own stamp on the story, injecting a darkly comic sense of humor into the proceedings that will have readers chuckling even as they wince. Combining the best qualities of John Sandford and Janet Evanovich into one sleek and enjoyable package, Whiskey Sour is the best debut of the year so far. Reviewed by David Montgomery, Chicago Sun-Times
Rating:
Summary: MEG author enjoys Whiskey Sour
Review: Even us non-drinkers wil enjoy Joe Konrath's detective story, with its witty dialogue and enjoyable characters. With an intriguing female as his protagonist, Joe gives us our first glimpse of a promising series. --Steve Alten (MEG series, DOMAIN series, Goliath, The LOCH).
Rating:
Summary: Good first novel
Review: I first heard of this new author in a Writers Digest article. The article noted that the author had been rejected 400 times before finally landing a multi-book deal. Good for him for being persistent and not throwing in the towel. Good things DO come to those who wait. The story is fast paced, easy to read, and enjoyable, although quite gruesome in parts. I for one will continue with the planned series of books.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite Christmas gift!
Review: I've just ordered my sixth copy of Whiskey Sour to give away this Christmas and figured I should leave a note for Joe Konrath here, if he ever reads these reviews, to say thanks.
This is a great book, a fun read and I expect Konrath will be a big name in the book business before too long. I've noticed that while this book has a pile of rave reviews a couple of people haven't liked it. Those people have even accused the author of having friends write in rave reviews. Who knows? But I doubt it. Fact is this is a fabulous book. He doesn't need friends to cheer this book. The author has a spectacular imagination and is a great story teller. The negative reviews find fault that the book isn't literary like a Dennis Lehane mystery, or as full of character development as Michael Connelly's mysteries. That makes as much sense as complaining that Lehane isn't as light as as fun as Konrath, or that Connelly can't write as fast paced as Konrath. I think the "downer" people probably need to get a life!
I for one enjoyed every page of Whiskey Sour and if you aren't a sour puss looking for glum, dark, and boring, you'll enjoy it too!
Rating:
Summary: Whiskey Sour is fast, fun and gruesome
Review: J.A. Konrath's Whiskey Sour is a well-paced and very enjoyable book. With his first novel he introduces us to a Chicago lieutenant by the name of Jacqueline Daniels (everyone calls her Jack for short) and Mr. Konrath does not fail to deliver! Whiskey Sour reminded me of Charles Bukowski's 'Pulp'. The comedy mixed with the brutality of detective work works perfectly. Mr. Konrath does an excellent job of getting you inside the characters head then never lets go. 'Whiskey Sour' is a fine novel and is definitely worth your time in looking at. It's a fast and brutal read that will will make you want a bloody mary afterwards (or maybe something less blood-like).
Rating:
Summary: Gripping
Review: Joe Konrath has kicked off an exciting new series with a bang. The writing is as smooth as the Whiskey Sour of the title and Jack Daniels is a major new star in the pantheon of fictional detectives. Konrath writes with a sleek, modern edge, sharp humor relieving passages of starkest horror. Great dialogue, fast pace, fascinating characters, a thoroughly nasty bad guy, what more could a reader want? Hopefully this will be the first of many great novels to come.
Rating: 
Summary: Could leave you with a hangover.
Review: Lieutenant Jacqueline Daniels comes across as a strange hybrid of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum and Sarah Paretsky's V. I. Warshowski. Her Plum traits include having man trouble and chronic insomnia, which leads her to max out her credit cards with late-night home shopping purchases. Her Warshowski characteristics include being able to take a punch, and the ability to ignore personal problems when she's got work to do. Whiskey Sour also displays disparate personality traits, alternating between the gruesome activities of the serial killer known as "The Gingerbread Man" and the often comic activities of his nemesis, Lt. Daniels. Combining the bi-polar nature of the storytelling with the bi-polar characteristics of its heroine gives you one mixed up book. Which is a real shame, because first time author Konrath displays genuine talent. Several of the set pieces he creates, both humorous and serious, are quite compelling, as evidenced by Daniels' interaction with two oblivious FBI profilers, and her pursuit of the killer through the Chicago sewer system. Reading the disjointed narrative, one is struck by the feeling that it's not really the first time author's fault, that the book could have benefited from the guiding hand of a more ruthless editor. It could also benefit from less gaudy cover promotion-the dust jacket art leads one to expect something along the lines of a Carl Hiassen or Tim Dorsey romp, and the overly enthusiastic author blurbs create unreasonably high expectations. Sadly, the actual book fails to deliver what's been implicitly promised.
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