THE FINAL PROBLEM, "Sherlock" and "The Woman" go head-to-head

THE FINAL PROBLEM
ARTURO PÉREZ-REVERTE (tr. Frances Riddle)
Mulholland Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$29.00 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: In this locked-room mystery set in 1960, a washed-up actor puts his on-camera detective skills to the test when a suspicious death shatters the quiet peace for a group of strangers staying at an isolated Greek island resort. Perfect for fans of Knives Out, Benjamin Stevenson, and Anthony Horowitz.

June, 1960. Rough weather at sea leaves a group of strangers stranded on the idyllic Greek island of Utakos, all guests of the only local hotel. Nothing could prepare them for what happens next: Edith Mander, a quiet British tourist, is found dead inside a beach cabana. What appears at first glance to be a clear suicide reveals possible signs of foul play to Ormond Basil, an out-of-work but still well-known actor who in his glory days portrayed the most celebrated detective of all time. Accustomed to seeing him display Sherlock Holmes' amazing powers of deduction on the big screen, the other guests believe that the actor is the best equipped to uncover the truth.

But when a second body is discovered, there is not a doubt in Basil's mind: a murderer walks among them. What's more, the killer is staging each crime as a performance, leaving complex clues that bear an eerie resemblance to those found in the pages of Conan Doyle stories. This is a criminal who knows every trick in the book and is playing a deadly literary game. As the storm rages, Basil must become the genius detective he has only pretended to be.

This clever, whip-smart, locked-room mystery from internationally bestselling author Arturo Pérez-Reverte is a love letter to golden-age detective novels. The Final Problem delights in exploring the tension between an investigator and his suspects, as well as a writer and his reader, delivering a revelatory twist that will shock even the sharpest of mystery fans.

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My Review: There is an old-fashioned expression for the story at the heart of this book: "hoist with his own petard." It's meant to convey the sense that there are unfortunate consequences to making yourself the object of your own expertise.Imagine being famous for playing Sherlock Holmes, then investigating a real crime.

Despite being long past the fame. Despite having no training. It's feeding his need for the adrenaline rush of fame, it's reinforcing his bruised ego's sense that he couldn't have been *just* a guy playing a part, speaking lines scripted for him and looking fabulous on camera. He's an actor, sure, but he found that character inside himself. All of this, the mash-up of knowing self-analysis and willing self-delusion, is where this locked-room mystery shines. I knew from the moment "Ormond" (legally and distinctively different from another famous actor or two who played Sherlock Holmes as a career) was introduced that he would be conducting an investigation. It seemed to me his dithering about doing it, in circumstances that could plausibly be used to justify the act in fiction (though in fact nothing like this would result in anything like what happens here), went on too long; what I didn't care for about that was the long, whiny self-evaluation it elicited.

What happens after we get going is a fun locked-room mystery like Dame Agatha so enjoyed creating (many times I thought of Ten Little Indians to give it the period-appropriate title). I'm glad that I wasn't coming to the read expecting more than an entertaining read. After our overlong dithering came our period-appropriate-name dropping, a fourth wall break or twenty, many call outs to literary lights of yesterday and today, and some fairly heavy-handed moralizing during The Big Reveal, all conspired to extinguish the fifth star. Even chunks of the fourth. The truth is the verve and the bravado of the performance of writing was enough to sweeten me back up to a full four stars.

It's not profound. It's nit brilliant. It's good fun, it's got tons of cleverness as its foundations, it's told in stylish sentences. By glory, that is enough...a gracious plenty...in the world of 2026.

HOLLYWOOD HUSTLE, entertaining debut novel/thriller from veteran Actor Jon Lindstrom

HOLLYWOOD HUSTLE
JON LINDSTROM
Crooked Lane Books (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$14.99 Kindle edition, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: From 4-time Emmy-nominated actor Jon Lindstrom of General Hospital, Bosch, and True Detective fame, comes a gripping debut thriller.

Set in the dark underbelly of the LA film industry, Hollywood Hustle is the perfect read for fans of Alex Finlay and Jeffrey Deaver.

Winston Greene, a has-been film star, wakes one morning to find his six-year-old granddaughter at his bedside—traumatized, unattended, and gripping onto a thumb drive. She comes bearing video proof that her mother, Win’s troubled adult daughter, has been kidnapped by a murderous gang demanding all his “movie money” for her safe return. But what they don’t know is…his movie money is long gone.

Unable to go to the police for fear the kidnappers will make good on their promise to kill his daughter, Winston turns to two close friends—a legendary Hollywood stuntman and a disgraced former LAPD detective.

There’s no easy way out for Winston or his daughter—the gang is violent and willing to do anything to get the money they’re after, and Winston begins to realize that to get his daughter back, he’ll have to beat the kidnappers at their own game.

This propulsive and tense thriller will transport readers to the seedier side of LA, depicted in bold prose by a Hollywood insider.

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My Review: Thrillers starring grandfathers are uncommon. Grandfathers aren't. The fact we have a man who failed on multiple axes in his life rising to the challenge that, in part, stems from those failures feels to me both just and condign.

I do love a redemption arc. This one's a doozy.

The key to a solid, entertaining thriller, then, is turned: I'm invested in the set-up and the characters. I care about the stakes...a child's life is precious to a father, doubly so to a grandfather, and these are real relatable emotional states for Winston to occupy.

The next hurdle for a thriller to make a good impact, as opposed to a stinky splat, on me is the storytelling. The voice of the PoV character, or the use of an omniscient narrator; the pacing, the setting's depth, the blend of familiar and novel elements in this; and crucially the organization...how long are the paragraphs? the chapters?...all must reinforce each other for the trick of suspension of disbelief to work. Someone writing sentences as long as mine isn't writing a thriller, they're writing a mystery. Happily, Author Lindstrom is the veteran of many scripts read and enacted, so he grasps with a sureness born of experience the need for dialogue to serve a purpose or be left on the cutting-room floor.

I am unsurprised therefore to give him full marks on the craft of writing dialogue. I take away a star, paradoxically, for not listening to the effect of all the swearing. There are a few people reading this who are howling with laughter at my statement. I'm "foul-mouthed" as many a pursey-lipped prude has told me over the years.

Reinforcing the horror trope "the call is coming from inside the house."

If *I* noticed this facet of the dialogue, many others did too, and either checked out or gave up and Pearl-Ruled the book.

A thing I felt was...underdeveloped? glossed over? not explored to the extent needed to justify its centrality?...was the pervasive illicit-drug use. Winston passed the curse of addiction to his child. That is the igniting incident of the entire plot. I expect that to be more of a topic of either reflection or regret rather than a background taken for granted. If a character's failings are the reason they are in enough hot water to justify a thriller, it feels careless for the author not to offer more than passing acknowledgment of that reality.

While I know Author Lindsrom has portrayed a LOT of flawed characters in his acting career, that shows in this case. Scripts do not ever have room for exploration comparable to that in a novel, so I'm observing the need for a good storyteller to shift gears, not develop a missing skill.

I really hope this is not the last novel I'll read from Author Lindstrom. I liked Winston, and wouldn't pass up a second book featuring him. I think the thriller world can use some older men doing their best to offer amends for past wrongs, errors, and omissions.