This is not as interesting a book as The Substitution Order: The voice is less breezy, the main characters are ... more idealized, I guess, even though the situation they're caught up in is probably less plausible; taking several pages to convey a countersuit in all its numbing legalese glory was a bold choice, one that really didn't work for me. There's still arguably a redemption arc, here, though the redemption feels in some ways less earned, and less central to the story. Also, the only people who actually succeed in bending the legal system to their will are the bad guys, the good guys succeed primarily because the facts of the case are on their side in spite of their opponents' chicaneries; in some ways that's ... less the unexpected course of events, I think.
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The Elephant of Surprise by Joe R. Lansdale
I don't know that I was looking for a Lansdale novel when I saw this at the library, but that title just made me smile and grab the bo...

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A neat little Horror novel (big shock on the genre, there, I'm sure) that plays some interesting games with PTSD and identity, with ma...
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Reading this novel reminded me a good deal of reading Processed Cheese . America Fantastica is more subtle, and the points it's makin...
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This is early Vachss, all taut and violent, more than a little murky to my mind. It is not good to be a sexual offender in a Vachss novel....
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