So, I’ve moved on to the next of the Vinyl Detective novels after Flip Back with Low Action, which once again has kept with the trend started with that book of moving between music scenes, after exhausting types of records (more or less – the Detective hasn’t gone after a Picture Disk yet). This time covering the ’70s Punk scene.
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If you asked me to describe The Mimicking of Known Successes by genre, I’d say it’s a queer science fiction cozy mystery that isn’t quite solarpunk, but I’d almost describe it as solarpunk-adjacent. It’s also a nice, brisk read that doesn’t break 200 pages, so if you’re also looking for a mystery that fits those criteria that you’d like to read when heading out for Thanksgiving (or other upcoming holidays), it’s a good book to pick up.
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Naoki Urasawa’s Master Keaton is fascinating to read alongside his later series Monster. If Monster is an HBO prestige television series, Master Keaton feels much more like a syndicated TV series. Both are mysteries, but Monster pushes forward on a tightly plotted course toward its conclusion. At the same time, Master Keaton is willing to tell a collection of more episodic stories, often moving back to a particular status quo at the end of each episode. That’s not bad, it’s just a different approach.
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There’s a point, in a flashback sequence in The Detective Is Already Dead, where the titular Detective, Siesta, is asked by our protagonist and her sidekick, Kimihiko, why she calls herself a detective when she’s closer to being a spy. Siesta responds that she protects the interests of her client, which what a detective does, so she chooses to identify herself (professionally) as a Detective. This kind of encapsulates the show in a nutshell.
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If I was going to describe ID: Invaded to someone in an elevator, it would be Inception crossed with Criminal Minds. It’s probably the closest I’ve come to a more standard procedural in a genre anime for quite some time, in a very imaginative way.
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Lord El-Melloi II is a mystery series that breaks from the conventions of the genre. Specifically, the convention of using the question of “Howdunit” to determine “Whodunit”. When urban fantasy normally sets into this territory, you see writers structure out their magic system to fit within this magical structure. Lord El-Melloi II, on the other hand, tosses convention out on its head and decides to play Calvinball instead.
Read moreThis week I’m reviewing an urban fantasy mystery novel – Ben Aaronovich’s book “Midnight Riot