This week, I’m reading two recently published thrillers, one set in New Mexico and the other in California. One continues a series that I started last year. The other is a standalone novel from an author who is new to me. Both writers have a background in journalism and both have distinctive voices.
I’m hoping for some originality and some humour as well as some thrills.
‘Blood Mountain’ (2024) by Alisa Lynn Valdés
I read the first Jodi Luna book, ‘Hollow Beasts‘ in April last year. It was a breath of fresh air as far as game warden books go. What a difference it makes when your Game Warden is a Hispanic woman in New Mexico rather than a white man in Wyoming.
The book was a page-turner that had me hooked from the first chapter. There was a clear political agenda that didn’t favour the ‘There are good people on both sides’ school of thought when it comes to describing a violent, misogynistic White Supremacist terrorist group that behaved like a cult. I hated those guys so I was pleased when the subtext of the story was to demonstrate how strong, well-armed, women can work together to put an end to violent men.
Even so, the political agenda provided only the context for the action. What kept me reading was the tension in the storytelling and that I liked Jodi and her daughter and the newly-returned-to-town police detective she was working with.
I’ve been waiting patiently for the second Jodi Luna book to be published and I’m eager to listen to Joanna DeLane perform it for me.
Alisa Lynn Valdés is an American journalist and novelist from New Mexico. She was a staff writer with The Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times.
She published twelve novels between 2003 and 2013, starting with The Dirty Girls Social Club.
In 2023 she published Hollow Beasts, her first book in a decade and started a new series featuring Jodi Luna, a retired academic turned New Mexico Game Warden. Blood Mountain (2024) is the second book in the series.
‘California Bear’ (2024) by Duane Swierczynski
It’s the quirkiness of ‘California Bear‘ that calls to me. I like the idea of a kinda comedy set around an elderly serial killer who is trying, ineptly, to recapture the thrills of his glory days. That Duane Swierczynski writes ‘Judge Dredd‘ was also a factor in it’s favour.
My wife enjoyed this book. She liked the early Carl Hiaasen-style humour that the larger-than-life characters generated.
So, I’m looking forward to something original and with a few smiles in it.
Duane Swierczynski is the author of several crime thrillers, including the Shamus Award-winning Fun and Games, the first in the Charlie Hardie series, as well as the Edgar-nominated and Anthony Award-winning Expiration Date.
He currently writes the IDW series Judge Dredd, the Valiant Comics series Bloodshot, the forthcoming Dark Horse series X.
In a previous life, Duane was the editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia City Paper and has worked as an editor and writer at Men’s Health, Details and Philadelphia magazines.
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