Monday, September 23, 2019
Review: You're Dead by Chris Knopf
Publisher: Permanent Press
Date of publication: December 2018
Organizational psychologist Dr. Waters is a happily solitary guy with a few deep attachments, including to his boss Paresh Rajput, the owner of a thriving hi-tech aerospace company. Until something really bad happens to CEO Rajput, which throws Waters into a lunatic swirl of murderous stalkers, corporate intrigue, amorous female executives and crafty cops who see the inscrutable psychologist as murder suspect #1.
Waters is hardly defenseless. A weight-lifter and former wrestler, ace poker player and master student of human nature, he takes it all on with surprising strength and determination. If they only knew. As with the connivers surrounding him, Waters has his own secrets. Autistic as a child, he lives with the consequences some blessings, others a curse. And a love affair that's hidden even more deeply, or so he thinks.
You're Dead was a random library pick and one I went into knowing very little about. I did end up enjoying the book. It involves Dr. Waters who is a psychologist who finds his boss murdered in his own apartment. Naturally, he becomes the prime suspect. The only thing he can do is to find out what really happened and clear his name.
The best part of this book was Waters. He is mildly autistic and, from an early age, has learned to read and mimic social cues from others so that he can fit in. He is a weight lifter, former wrestler and actually kind of an all around nice guy. I enjoyed my time following him as he put the pieces together to solve the mystery of who killed his boss. I think this is a stand alone book, but he is someone I would love to read more about. I won't talk plot too much. There are some good twists. In fact, the whole solution is fairly convoluted and I never would have been able to guess it on my own. So, the book gets bonus points for that. If you are looking for something a bit out of the norm, I highly recommend picking this one up.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Bad Bird: A Mystery

Author: Chris Knopf
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Jackie Swaitkowski investigates the death of a female pilot who had a family tree filled with ex-cons and a passenger list packed with Hamptons high society. Just before Eugenie Conklin's plane took a nosedive, she tossed out a camera case that held an unusual set of photos. While defending Eugenie's husband during the accident investigation, Jackie realizes that she recognizes more than a few of the faces in those pictures. They may be able to prove her client's innocence but Jackie soon learns that to find the answer to Eugenie's death will mean uncovering a mystery from her own family's past as well.
Bad Bird is the second in a new series by Chris Knopf, the first of which is Short Squeeze. Jackie Swaitkowski is a spin off character from Mr. Knopf’s Sam Acquillo series. I haven’t read any books in that other series, but I didn’t get the sense that I was missing anything. If you haven’t read Short Squeeze, you might want to pick it up first. The book does lay out background about Jackie that the author doesn’t really go back over in the Bad Bird. Although, it isn’t crucial. I am just a stickler for reading a series in order.
I enjoyed Bad Bird. I loved Jackie’s character. She is an intelligent, messy, pot smoking attorney who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. She is independent, yet knows when to rely on her friends for help. The secondary characters are equally as interesting, especially her boyfriend, Harry. I think we would all want someone like Harry in our life. While she has relationship issues, he is happy to take her anyway he can get her. The relationship in this is pretty subtle and secondary to the plot. The mystery was interesting with a real twist at the end that I didn’t see coming. I like to be surprised when I read mysteries and this one didn’t disappoint.
I would recommend this book and series. I look forward to Jackie's further adventures. I listened to the audio version and the narrator did a great job on the characters voices.
--Kari

