The sixth Monkeewrench book by Patricia and Traci Lambrecht, writing as P.J. Tracy, has the software geniuses at Monkeewrench still separated as they were at the end of Shoot to Kill, and Minneapolis detective Leo Magozzi marking time until Monkeewrench leader Grace McBride returns. He and his partner, Gino Rolseth, catch the case of a young woman murdered in a field. She is one of five girls missing from a nearby Indian reservation, but the other four can't be found. The discovery of two men shot in a nearby home gives some clues in the kidnappings, but the murders themselves make no sense. Nor do three more committed the next day.

Grace, meanwhile, finds it necessary to flee when terrorists try to kill retired FBI agent John Smith, the man she is traveling with. Before she, Magozzi and Rolseth and the rest of the Monkeewrench crew can figure out if these are all connected and how, they'll need to enlist some new allies and go further "off the grid."

The Lambrechts have maintained their smooth narrative flow and wry wit over the entire series, and the characterization skill that flagged a little in Shoot returns here. Ensnaring the cast in a worldwide terrorist plot seems a little far-fetched considering the more stay-at-home kinds of work that they've been doing, and the ending act is a lot shakier and sketchier than it could be, feeling a little rushed. But the Monkeewrench series is still a lively, peppy read and the Lambrechts have yet to slow down.

Original available here.

For most of this novel, I was wondering why it was apparently less well rated than the previous instalments - then I got to the last third of the book.

There was a fair amount of glorification of gun culture and the narrative seemed to take it for granted that vigilante action was justifiable and to be applauded.

John Smith's character was so thinly defined here that it was hard to see why anyone would be that bothered about saving him; he seemed at times to be naive about his online activities and yet at other times we were reminded of his cyber tsar type job at the FBI and he was able to tap into the Monkeywrench phone line... Then there was his death-by-terrorist act at the end, which endangered Grace too.

The Monkeywrench crew, the most paranoid group on earth, failed to notice they were being followed by mysterious taxis and didn't think to check for a tracking device.

The author seemingly couldn't be bothered to explain how John's tip-offs made their way to Joe, Claude and Chief, nor how Joe got to hear about the kidnapped girls, nor how the terrorists worked out who John was (unless he went through one of his ridiculously naive phases online).

Nor could the author be bothered to describe the shoot-out at the end in any detail; suddenly it was all over. Then came the epilogue, which I suppose I should have been expecting.

Wow

I always enjoy books by PJ Tracy. This one kept my attention and had a good plot. It just wasn't as stellar as some of their other books.

Honestly, I'm really not sure what to say about this. Nothing happened. The build up to the end wasn't very buildy-uppy (technical term, obviously) and the ending itself was flat. In fact, the whole thing was flat. This story was like an old banger trying to make it's way up a steep hill and failing. It tried. It really tried. But no.