Robin Spano

This is the second novel in the Clare Vengel Undercover series. This time around, Robin Spano puts Clare in another unusual environment, a world class poker circuit/tournament where players are being choked to death. The Royal Canadian Mounties (RCMP) have pulled her in to attempt breaking the case. She is minimally experienced, and desperate to prove herself as a proficient undercover agent.

The problem is that Clare Vengel, disguised as Tiffany, the pink clothed high heel wearing trust fund kid, doesn’t know a damn thing about poker. She has studied a couple books, and knows some limited basics, and lucks out on a couple big hands. She is by no means a poker savant, she can not count cards, and even a blind man could read her tells. This is kind of the same way she approaches undercover work in general. She has a good idea what she should be doing, but cant seem to do more than luck into things.

I have become a big fan of Clare Vengel. When reading the first novel (Dead Politicians Society) I found the character like-able and easy to read. Death Plays Poker just solidifies my enjoyment. At first I found he new characters and setting confusing, but after a friend explained a few poker terms (like “Donk Bet” things cleared up nicely. Perhaps the publisher should consider putting a glossary in the back pages, and a simple 2 page refresher on poker rules. It would save trips to the internet for card game idiots like myself.

Clare Vengel is an older, less formulaic, slightly slutty grown up Nancy Drew. She smokes, drinks crappy beer and can tear apart a motorcycle in her sleep, and runs her mouth at all the wrong moments. She can also walk in heels, flirt like a champ, and surreptitiously gain the trust (or at least assured mutual hatred) of others. People interested in a casual read that is highly enjoyable, start picking up this series before it gets much further in. 200 pages goes by fast with a book this good.

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xpost RawBlurb.com… (lisätietoja)

As soon as I opened the book to its first page, I was struck by how long it had been since I'd read a mystery novel. To be completely honest I left mystery novels behind in my Nancy Drew days, in favor of more fantasy books. It's still a mystery (pun intended) to me why this shift occurred, but perhaps it was what I needed at that point in time. Mystery took a back seat and I forgot how amazing it can be to become absorbed in a particularly harrowing sequence of deaths.

That being said, of course you can ascertain that I found myself hooked! Clare Vengel is, in my mind, a much cooler and much more sassy Nancy Drew. She is the undercover cop I wish I was. Whereas Nancy snuck around in turtlenecks and dresses, Clare Vengel rides around on a Triumph motorcycle in leather and designer jeans. Her wit is deliciously acerbic, and she can hold her own with any man that comes her way. In other words, Clare is my kind of girl!

In this first installment of Robin Spano's series, Clare is asked to pose as a college student to discover who is behind the murders of several politicians. As she navigates this new group of people, she finds herself becoming a little closer to them than she originally intended to get. I must admit that I was extremely impressed with the way the story was told. The chapters alternate between the perspectives of the people Clare finds herself amongst, and the story becomes a giant puzzle.

I found myself gathering intel that even the detectives didn't have (one of the perks of being omniscient) and working to solve the murder myself. Isn't that the best part of a mystery novel? I guarantee that those who read these books often would have been able to uncover the ending, however I was blown away by it! As hard as I tried, and as eagerly as I read, I wasn't able to put together who the murderer really was. In fact, I literally gasped out loud at the end.

I'll stop rambling now and end this review with what I'm sure you've already gathered (you sleuth you) from my review above. I adored this book! I am a huge fan of Clare and an even greater fan of her creator Robin Spano. I eagerly look forward to the next installment! I can't wait to see what Clare has in store for her next, or what lengths she will go to in an effort to solve it.… (lisätietoja)

Read this book. It was very enjoyable.. Now – With that stated….
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The following public service announcement was NOT brought you by Robin Spano and ECW Press (Though they did provide me a free review copy of this book).

The mixed reaction people feel to a train wreck is commonly kept a secret. Publicly, you say ‘Oh gee, how terrible, I hope no one got hurt’. Internally you have a rapid blink response to the tail lights ahead of you, initial reaction being ‘Ooh! Was that blood? I hope that is Blood!’. You know that things are not as they should be, that problems are occurring, that someone has thoroughly screwed the pooch. You keep looking, craning your neck hoping for a glimpse of the problem while ambivalently hoping everyone is safe. This book is like a spectacular and awesome train wreck.

So what is it about? What did I think? In Death’s Last Run, Vengel who was recently made a US FBI Agent, is pulled back to Canada to work a dual RCMP/FBI case. This Case is set in a Canadian Ski town, tracking the dead daughter of a US Presidential hopeful. It is a toss up between murder and suicide, with Clare integral to infiltrating a close knit group of stoners, drunks, ski bums and acid heads. She rooms with some suspects, does some drugs and breaks some rules. She takes up snowboarding, drinks micro brews, sniffs out clues and takes ridiculous risks to get the job done.

The overall plot was solid, flipping back and forth in classic Spano style from the perspectives of suspects, police, and alternate characters. As per the norm, whodunnit spoilers do not exist and the novel is crafted well and allows you to enjoy it with out having the entire plot handed to you on a platter. I grew to like and understand the bad guys,and “understood” the motives better than I ever could in a Sherlock Holmes book.

But enough about the novel, let’s get back to Clare herself..”The Trainwreck”-

Clare Vengel of the ‘Clare Vengel Undercover’ series is a spiteful, clumsy, juvenile, backward, unreasonable, messed up woman with literal daddy issues. Her inability to exist in the world and share a grain of truthful emotion is frustrating. She treats her boyfriend like an enemy; her FBI and RCMP colleagues similarly, with unbridled unprofessional distaste; her family and friends are ignored because she cannot get over.. Never mind, you get the point.

When I saw this wreck, there was no stopping me driving by. I wanted to see it. I opted to pick up the novel and lovingly gawp at the greatness of another Vengel story. For readers of the previous novels, you will find that Clare is seemingly worse than before, uncontrollably juvenile at points, taking pages from all of the world’s angsty teenage stereotypes. She drove me CRAZY. I wanted to see blood. Externally I cared to see Clare succeed in her current case; Internally I really was scoping for blood at the crash site, wanting to see a body part or two and red clotted snow.

I kept hoping for her to falter, hoped the universe would slap a cluepon down onto her lap. In the end, as with the train wreck, when i see that she comes out okay in the end, i forget about the instinctive need to view a corpse and am instead glad to see she came out on top, as always.

Clare Vengel.. I hope you continue to succeed in your escapades, regardless of the desire to see people line up and smack you to sense like on the 1980 movie Airplane!.
… (lisätietoja)

2.5 stars

This is another in the Clare Vengel series & starts with an interesting premise. Sacha Westlake, 23 & from a privileged background, is found lying dead in the snow at a mountain resort. She's still on her snow board & both wrists are slashed. It appears to be suicide but Martha, her mother, is a US senator & asks the FBI to take a closer look. Enter Clare.
Clare is Canadian but lives in NYC, spending time with boyfriend Noah, also an FBI agent. They've been having problems lately & Clare welcomes the chance to go undercover at Whistler, BC. Once there, she meets Sacha's friends & tries to figure out if there's anything suspicious about her death. But soon, it becomes apparent this is about much more than just one dead girl. Drugs, dealers, money laundering, dirty politics and cops & another body are just some of the things Clare will uncover while pretending to be a slacker snow boarder.
The plotting is good. It's intricate & early on, there are several candidates for our killer. There is a large cast & the chapters alternate, told from the point of view of 7 or 8 of the main characters. The most interesting & well written characters are four men involved in the drug deals. They're very different (cop, snowboard dude, bar owner & gangster) but their interactions & personas seem real. Unfortunately, it's the main character that lets the story down.
Hey, this is fiction so we can all accept that the author may take some liberties with reality. But in a police procedural, there are certain guidelines or rules inherent in law enforcement they will have to follow to make it credible. For me to really get pulled into a story, I don't have to like the characters but I do have to believe them. And Clare is about as believable as an undercover FBI agent as I am.
First, there's the relationship & dialogue between her & Noah. Their conversations are all highly dramatic, frequently sounding as if they're auditioning for a soap opera & they don't seem to actually like each other very much. And despite Clare telling us she's in love with Noah, she is inordinately preoccupied with who she is going to shag at Whistler. She's not a particularly likeable character which would be fine if she seemed competent. Instead, she comes across as an undisciplined loose cannon, frequently making decisions that may have been meant to seem brave but are just dumb. Case in point: her new friends are into acid & pressure her to take some. Her RCMP handler forbids it, stating the obvious that she would have no control over what she might say or do. But Clare blows up, calling her "stupid" for following the rules & repeatedly arguing it's a good idea. Seriously? You're undercover among people who are part of a drug cartel, one of whom is a murderer & you think it's a great idea to take LSD & have no control over what you might say for the next few hours? Right.
Clare's handler, Amanda, doesn't come off much better. Over dinner one night, she discloses top secret information about something Noah did on a previous case. It's serious stuff, the kind of classified info someone in Amanda's position would only reveal to another superior, not to the agent's lover. The only person in any level of law enforcement in the book who comes across with any credibility is Noah, himself.
At this point, I almost put the book down. But, in for a penny...when the identity of the murderer & his accomplice are revealed, you might be surprised by one but you'll have spotted the other early on.
So as you've probably gathered, I would not recommend this, but as always, it's a matter of personal taste. The plot & premise are good but ultimately, I just couldn't suspend my disbelief often enough.

… (lisätietoja)