- Title:
- The Wicked West
- Author:
- Troy Lambert
- Stuart Gustafson
- Release:
- November 30, 2020
- Format:
- Audiobook
- Narrator:
- Joseph L. Stevenson
- Series:
- The Capital City Murders Series Books 1 – 5
This is a collection of my individual reviews from books 1 – 5.
Review: Overdoses in Olympia
Overdoses in Olympia is an odd example of a mystery. The mystery feels like it’s competing with the protagonist to be front and center at the start. After that, it starts to feel like a subplot while you live a day in the life of uninteresting protagonist as he takes pictures.
The summary says you won’t be able to solve the mystery until the end, which is likely true. It really doesn’t give you enough to work with if you want to actually solve it as you read (or listen). There was one small detail I noticed early on that had me paying more attention to the details to see if I could figure it out. It was all for naught as there seriously wasn’t much to go on.
I think the character interaction dialogue leaves something to be desired. Though maybe it’s intended to be written less like a book and more like two people having a natural conversation.
Overall, the narration was good. I did get sick of the narrator mispronouncing prescription over and over. “Perscription” isn’t a word. I truly can’t stand narrators who mispronounce basic English words.
Review: Slaying in Salem
Bok 2 is a noticeable improvement over book 1. It focuses on totally interesting protagonist’s job, but the mystery feels more front and center. The whole thing is a bit abrupt and I’m wondering if the cops will ever start to take notice of the guy who seems to show up at every single capital as a murder is going down.
I couldn’t stop laughing at totally interesting protagonist’s 500 MB SSD. That was my flavorite part of the story. At one point, the characters kept talking about how the killer must have been left-handed, due to how the kill was done. It didn’t seem to ever cross the writer’s mind that people might be ambidextrous. I am for example. It would be all too easy to do something with one hand, then claim to be dominant with the other hand.
The narrator was alright. He did a truly lousy job of actually doing voices for characters. It doesn’t sound like 2 people having a conversation, it sounds like 1 person having a two-sided conversation. Otherwise, it was enjoyable.
Review: Strangled in Sacramento
I’m knocking points off of this book for annoying writing if you’re reading this. I’m sick of this lazy bullshit of “piercing green eyes” in fiction. Somebody wrote a blog post in 2012 pointing out this issue in fiction, meaning this has been an issue for over a decade. It’s lazy and uninspired. I highly doubt most people give random strangers eye colors a second thought in public, let alone bring it up constantly. Green-eyed people are rare, but that doesn’t make us a goddamn circus exhibit.
One of the things I can’t stand about this series is how it feels the need to make mention of interesting protagonist’s friend is a lesbian. It always mentions that there’s no chance of them dating because of this fact. Sure, somebody might pick up the books in the middle of the series for some reason. So what though? Let the writing show that they don’t have any chemistry. Just in general, the protagonist is constantly taking note of how women look or are dressed. One example is of how a woman is “wearing heels, but not too tall”. Who cares how tall her heels are?!
One thing I thought was really stupid was mentioning the protagonist “rewinding” a video. What year is this story set in? 1995? Rewind what?!? It’s a digital video, you don’t rewind it. People seriously need to update their vernacular.
Shitty writing aside, the mystery was pretty decent this time around. It didn’t feel rushed and there were some nice twists along the way.
The narration was good overall, I didn’t notice any issues with the audio or the narrator.
Review: Decapitated in Carson City
Another casual, albeit enjoyable mystery. I like how Love Interest makes a return, I was wondering if that plot thread was going anywhere or if it was just in book 3 for the sake of being there. Despite the authors bringing up Interesting Protagonist’s lesbian friend’s sexuality yet again, they at least worked it into the natural dialogue.
I’m getting very sick of Interesting Protagonist calling in a tip to the cops, only for it to be bunk and get told off. Then he calls in again and singlehandedly solves the case. It’s 4 books in and I’m sick of the same, lazy, half-assed writing showing up every time. At one point Interesting Protagonist asks how he’s going to cum up with different and interesting shots for capital buildings 50 times. It’s as if the writers lack self-awareness, as they should be asking themselves that about their mysteries.
The narration was alright. The narrator does a good job of emoting, but not making each character feel distinct and unique. Most characters sound the same when speaking.
Review: Buried in Boise
The writing for this series seems to finally be getting better. Not by much, mind you. The authors still felt the need to bring up how Interesting Protagonit’s lesbian friend is a lesbian. they managed to bring it up naturally in dialogue in book 4, so this is a regression, quality-wise.
I love Mysteries. They’re my flavorite types of stories to listen to and read, alongside thrillers. I’m not one to attempt to figure out the mystery, I prefer to let it unfold naturally. In this instance, it may as well have had a neon sign pointing towards the outcum. There was a twist I wasn’t able to put together, not that I was trying. I’d say it’s a much better mystery than book 4, at least.
Continuing the cumparison with book 4, book 4 it felt like it was in and out in no time. There wasn’t much to the mystery and the story was overall disappointing. Book 5 was mostly world-building and didn’t repeat a lot of the plot points that were getting annoying in the other books. It sucks that it took 5 books for the writing to (mostly) improve, but it does make my outlook on the future novels more bright.
The narration overall was alright. I got sick of him constantly saying “O” instead of “Zero” for numbers. O isn’t a number, I will never stop finding that insufferably annoying. I always get a chuckle out of him having to narrate Interesting Protagonist’s parents over the phone. He does those scenes so well, I forget it’s an audiobook in those moments.
NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.