Interesting characters make up for the typical shopworn setting that is the normal baseball novel. The Rashomon like relaying of the central event is an unusual twist for the genre, but the sub-plot surronding Jay's arrival in America has become predictable, if not downright blase after far too many similar stories cluttering up Law and Order and CSI.

Jeffery Deaver was hired to do a modern reboot of 007 novels just as Daniel Craig was brought in to the film franchise. Similar Big Name. Similar Big Results. 

When I have recommended Fleming's Bond books to people in the past I've told them that, while they are completely formulaic and a product of their time, they transcend the limits of formula thrillers and the constraints of outdated ideology through a careful literary feel for when to bypass the formula and a studied political ear for when to cut against then-popular group-think. His instincts - both for conventions and their undermining - served Fleming well. How did Deaver do? Let's run the checklist:

The classic Bond novels were structured, in my reading, around five sections - like a newspaper - and had something for everyone.

Bond (mot in order):

1) Went somewhere 'exotic' - a travelogue
2) Ate great meals - food and restaurant review
3) Gambled, and gave us an insight into a game - sports columnist
4) Fought a bad guy - headline news
5) Bedded a beautiful woman - to stretch a poor newspaper analogy, personal ads

And he did all of this in about 200 pages. 

Deaver nails all of the points save #3 - albeit in a bloated 400+ pages; and without attempting to subsume his own stylistic bents at all. In addition to the Fleming formula, we are inundated with typical Deaver devices - double agents, misheard and misinterpreted scraps of conversation, ambiguous pronoun-ing to disguise characters and cliffhanger chapters that are shocking...until they happen so often that they are not. 

Carte Blanche is a good James Bond and it's a good Jeffery Deaver; but with a little more attention to convention it could have been great.

Read aloud to the family. NOT Disney's nanny - a darker, harsher, colder creation in every aspect.

A nice refresher, but not a substitute for the original.
 

A Crichton-esque thriller, perfect for the beach. Completely formulaic but sprinkled with enough real science and technology to hold your attention without being so fantastic as to be unbelievable.

Read aloud to the boys in the car. A lost world that is still familiar and comforting despite its alien nature. The details of daily life are shocking, brutal and innocent all at the same time. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Weighty, but a bit simplistic, I've read better Pop-math before.

An essay stretched out for publication, but still a reminder of what we lost when he left.

Read aloud to the boys, just as enjoyable as the first volume, looking forward to the rest.

The Scottish dialect was slightly unsettling because of my unfamiliarity with it, but the novel as a whole is quick paced, inventive and entertaining.

I don't know where I heard about this but I plan on devouring Willeford's entire catalog as quickly as possible. Elmore Leonard meets John D. MacDonald in this mid-1970's time capsule.

1963: San Antonio, Texas. A Heroin-addicted doctor is haunted by the Ghost of Hank Williams. That's all I needed to hear.


Rolling along till the final 60 pages when it went off the rails with a far-to-late introduction of major characters.

An eagerly aweaited novel that disappoints. There are so many plot bits that are jammed in and given short shrift, it makes me wonder whether this woudn't have worked much better as a series of short stories (a format with which Melko has had much more success).

Just as manic as the preceding volumes, ignore rational thought and embrace the crazy and it's an entertaining, if not logical, read.

Some tales are forgotten for a reason. Others were never even tales to begin with. With no credited sources and a bland style of writing, hopefully this book is forgotten soon as well.

Not quite as focused as the preceding volume, with the sheriff's department story-line getting short shrift, and Veronica's romantic inner-monologuing  dragging down on the action.

Not exactly contract fiction, but not wholly original either. In either case, an enjoyable read that captures the tone and style of the source material perfectly. 

Action packed adventure again, with commendable new allies and detestable new antagonists. Valuable historical insight into the troubles of the Peninsular war is also sprinkled throughout without detracting from or interrupting the story.

Gorgeous art and a well told story, slight downgrade for some unnatural dialog is explained when you learn this is an English translation of a French work.

Fight scenes and quip-y dialogue without background cluttering up the story or art make for a good read.