Book Review #1: Dirty Martini by J.A. Konrath

What do you look for in crime fiction? Fast-paced action? Tension and conflict on every page? Three-dimensional characters with real motivations and emotions? Lean-cut prose? A bigger-than-life villain who pushes the protagonist to the utmost of his/her abilities?

I look for all that, and I found it in JA Konrath’s latest thriller, Dirty Martini.

This is Konrath’s fourth installment of the Lt. Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels series. The first three, Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary, and Rusty Nail are first-rate as well, and you should definitely check out his backlist.

But Dirty Martini blew me away. I wanted to sip and savor it like a gentleman, but I couldn’t. I gulped it down in two days. Konrath likes to mix in-your-face terror with goofy-but-realistic cop banter and humor, and I think he stirs the perfect concoction here.

Jacqueline Daniels is a forty-something homicide detective with the Chicago Police Department. She’s divorced. She loves designer clothes and the Home Shopping Network. She’s in love, but she’s on the fence about getting married again. She takes her job--to serve and protect--very, very seriously.

A man known only as The Chemist is doing the unthinkable: he’s poisoning food in and around the Chicago area. Delis, restaurants, grocery stores. He doesn’t care who dies, as long as he gets the cops’ attention. He wants two million in cash to stop.

How will Daniels and her task force stop The Chemist before thousands meet a horrible fate? Will two million dollars be enough, or does The Chemist have even more sinister ideas up his sleeve?

Buy the book. Try to take a few sips, like I did. Try to put it down. Bet you can’t.