Jonathan Adams. Collector. Police consultant. Victim…?

“Jonathan Adams is a fantastically written character, harboring the intellect of Sherlock Holmes alongside the bravery of John McClane!” – Pure Awesomosity

When Jonathan Adams arrives at The Franklin Building, deep in the shadow of a mysterious airship, he finds scared servants, a concerned constable, and a maid with her head cleaved in two.

“A cleverly constructed, taught thriller with elements seamlessly blending steampunk, horror, detective fiction and sci-fi.” – Amazon reviewer

For lurking in the hallways is a killer worse than anything Adams can imagine…

“From the very first sentence, I was compelled by the excellent writing to read to the end.” – Amazon reviewer

Paul Rhoads, a successful horror novelist, has just moved back to his Pennsylvania hometown.

“From the moment I picked up Better Together, I was hooked!” – The Caffinated Diva

This move is more than just returning to his roots and trying to finish his stalled novel, it’s restarting a relationship with his high school sweetheart, Annie.

“Paul will become a familiar friend to you and his son an adorable little sidekick who you just want to hug.” -
Soon Remembered Tales

And getting to know Annie’s eight month old son, Max.

“The image of Max and Paul doing cartoons on Saturdays in their pj’s and huge bowls of cereal was so vivid and real.” – Reading Lark

But, when Annie dies in a freak car accident, Paul finds himself doing something he never could have foreseen: raising Max on his own.

Well written and poignant, the male narrator was a really nice change, especially with this sort of story.Baffled Books

Jack King could blow up half this city in the blink of an eye.

Lucky for us, he’s retired.

“By the end of this book I was fist punching the air and looking for things to fight with my epic Highlander broadsword!” – Kelly (Reading the Paranormal), Morgan Hill, CA

Jack King lives a normal life. He works at a bookstore, has a burgeoning career in photography, and a talented girlfriend. Life is good. Life is normal.

But Jack is far from normal.

Years ago, he used to put on a mask and fight crime.

“Usually when you read a book of superheroes there is an expectation of unbelievability, and yet Author Rose makes you believe.” – Leslie Ann Wright, Author, The Great Northwest

However, when Jack’s best friend (a fellow retired crime-fighter) is found murdered, Jack finds himself investigating his friend’s killer. But with enemies new and old (including his ex-girlfriend) bent on stopping him, Jack leaps head-first back into a world he ran away from – a world more complicated and dangerous than he ever knew!

**Disclaimer: I received an eARC from the wonderful people at Image Comics (through NetGalley) to read this book.**

It would seem that nowadays crime comic books are the new superhero comic books.  As if the moment that Brian Michael Bendis (and Michael Avon Oeming) released Powers and Frank Miller published Sin City, the comic world has been repeatedly leaping head-first into the noir world of crime comic books.  Stories of murder, betrayal, lust, and the occasional decapitating, comic book fans are hungry for the respite from company-wide crossovers where characters die only to be brought back to life six weeks later or publisher reboots that aren’t called reboots but clearly are reboots…  you get the picture.

Comic book readers want things dark, complicated, and messy… much like life.

Enter Robert Kirkman and Thief of Thieves.  Kirkman is no stranger to human nature.  Even though his success was through The Walking Dead, it is clear that TWD isn’t really about the zombies but the survivors, who actually have to live.  Kirkman is intrigued by the living.

Thief of Thieves is all about the living.  The pieces left behind by living life a certain way.  When you steal for a living, things are stolen from you in the process.  That’s what Conrad, the main character, teaches us.  His personal life is in pieces and it has caught up to his professional life.  Conrad then enacts a plan to make things right by those that he has wronged in his personal life.

Based on a story by Kirkman and written by Nick Spencer, Thief of Thieves is a riveting story of double-cross, of friendship and family, of choices, and, of course, of thieving!  It’s exciting, dynamic, at time hilarious, and compulsively readable.  I soared through the graphic novel, the pages flapping by.  Shawn Martinbrough’s artwork is solid, never getting two artistically to impede the story but always delivering solid work that is beautiful and functional at the same time.

All in all, what I loved about the book was that it felt like Oceans 11.  Not in that smarmy-smug-year-we’re-career-criminals-but-we’re-cool but in that I’ve-got-a-master-plan-that-will-leave-everyone-guessing way!  This book is fun, it plays with time, it keeps you guessing, it has fun lines, and people doing dangerous and cool things.  It feels like the cool drama that Kirkman and Spencer and Martinbrough really want it to be.

When it was done, I was left wanting more and plan to head to my local comic book shop to find the next issues.

Overall thoughts: a very readable novel.  Building on strong noir/paranormal roots, Wendig delivers a second foray into a series that shows a lot of promise.  Miriam Black is an excellent, exciting, frustrating, hilarious heroine.  She makes the novel character-driven – driving the plot like a one-eyed truck driver careening down a mountain!

The plot itself is good.  Again, taking elements of noir detective stories, Wendig gives us a good mystery to sink our teeth into.  A cast of supporting characters that are strong and, therefore, all suspect.  The story is strong and delivers the goods, keeping pace with our rocketing heroine.

The narration is where the book really distinguishes itself – it makes the book so damn readable.  Often authors hold back their “William Shatner” writerly-tendencies when it comes to 3rd person POV.  Not wanting the narration to get in the way of the story, most authors reserve stylized narration for 1st person narratives.  Not Wendig.  His narration often goes toe-to-toe with Miriam’s dialogue for the funniest and most interesting sentences in the story.  It’s crisp, sharply-observant, and helps add to the overall package that this is less a book and more a reading experience.

Series thoughts:   As a sophomore addition to a building series, it was very strong.  In Mockingbird, Wendig begins to drop hints at an over-arching mythology behind the series, leading us to believe that it won’t be just Miriam stumbling from one adventure to the next.  I imagine that there still will be some stumbling (Miriam wouldn’t be Miriam without an inability to relate to the rest of humanity) but that there are questions asked and no answers given makes me want to read more books in the series to see what the answers might be.

Overall thoughts:  Mockingbird rocked!  I burned through it like it was nobody’s business even though I was trying not to read so fast.  I loved the hell out of it and can’t wait for the next book (after I read the first – don’t ask why I read them out of order…).  Write Wendig, Write!

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