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It's been a long time since I laughed out loud AND read portions of a mystery to my (non-mystery-reading) husband. I did both in the first few chapters of WHISKEY SOUR. This book lives up to its hype. Lieutenant Jack Daniels is a woman many women like me can relate to: she's in her mid-40s, colors her hair when she thinks of it, hates wearing pantyhose, and has just been dumped by her live-in for a bimbo. She's working in a male-dominated profession, which requires that she be tough, compulsive, and work her tail off just to keep up. And she's not perfect. Her latest case is high profile -- a serial killer of young women. There seems to be no connection among the victims, and the crimes draw the attention of the FBI. This doesn't make Jack's job any easier; on the contrary, the agents assigned to the case can't possibly be as stupid or wrong-headed as they, in truth, are. Jack tries her best to work around them, which provides some amusing moments. Throughout WHISKEY SOUR, we get to be inside the head of The Gingerbread Man. This is not a pleasant place to be. He is, depending on one's point of view and stance on the 'heredity vs environment as cause of sociopathy' argument, either very sick or very evil . . . or both. In an interview, Konrath says, "If I can make a reader giggle, and then cringe, I'm doing my job." I'd have to say he gets that job done very nicely. One of the most suspenseful portions of WHISKEY SOUR has The Gingerbread Man following Jack, finding out about her life, and actually hiding himself in her apartment, watching her when she has no clue that he even knows who she is. This is not something I would want to be reading if I were alone in my house, late at night. Very spooky. Very uncomfortable. During the course of the investigation, we meet some of the people in Jack's life, both past and present. Since this is the beginning of a series, I know that I can expect to see these people again farther on down the line, which is (in my opinion) a good thing, because Konrath handles his secondary characters with as much verve and elan as he does Jack and her partner, Detective First Class Herb Benedict. One minor kvetch: there was a technical error which jerked me right out of the story. When I asked the author about it, he shared his research process with me, and the person he checked with gave him bad information. I don't think the error will be obvious to most readers. In my opinion, the error doesn't make any difference to the plot or the denouement. As you can tell, I liked WHISKEY SOUR. The characters are good, the plot is good, the writing is excellent. If you enjoy Kinsey Milhone, Stephanie Plum, and other strong female characters, then you should enjoy this. If you like good police procedurals, WHISKEY SOUR something you'll like. If you prefer strong characters in a believable setting with a good plot (think William Kent Krueger, Darryl Wimberley, Kit Ehrman), then WHISKEY SOUR is for you. The big downside for me is that this is the first book in a series, and I'll have to wait a while for another Konrath to hit the shelves.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, June 2004
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