Customer Reviews

The Hanged Man: A Tarot Card Mystery (Tarot Card Mysteries)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're someone who reads to experience life through well-developed characters, to better understand the human condition, then David Skibbin's Tarot Card Mystery series is for you. If you're someone who reads to be titillated by cackling serial killers or being exposed to the dregs of life, well, you might want to look elsewhere for your reading material. If you're after a mystery puzzle novel, look elsewhere as well. Skibbins writes characters, full-blooded, mixed up characters that leap off the page and it's the mystery plots that are along for the ride, though interesting in their own right.

In the fourth, and latest book for instance, the plot pivots on the arrest of Therese, a dominatrix, for the murder of one of her clients. This suggests a lot of sex, bizarre sex, and a lot of low-life descriptions. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Rather, Therese once helped friend of Sally McLaughlin, a paraplegic computer genius, out of a bad situation and Sally is determined to return the favor. She gets her lover, Warren Ritter and Warren's daughter Heather to help her find the killer by having all three of them go undercover. Warren (chief protagonist of the series), who is a bipolar guy with significant dependence/independence issues, is tasked with infiltrating the world of dominance/submission. `Skibbins uses his skills as a psychotherapist to explain these relationships by having Warren deal with them both internally and externally, while providing interesting and informative, but not graphic descriptions of this unconventional world.

And so it is with all of the Tarot Card Mysteries. They are more about the trials and troubles of Sally, Warren and the supporting cast of characters than about the mysteries themselves in much the same way as Robert Parker's "Spenser" series is about Spenser and Hawk than about a particular mystery plot.

I recommend reading Eight of Swords, High Priestess, The Star and Hanged Man in the order in which they were written, not because you must; each represents a well-told traditional mystery. Rather, I recommend it because Skibbins write characters that are more fascinating than simply what they are doing and like all fascinating characters, you want to know where they've been and Skibbins paints characters from the inside out and they're simply delightful.

The bipolar tarot card reader Warren Ritter returns in another installment of this enjoyable series. Warren is trying to change himself and settle down and yet longs for his old life back. A life where he thought he had things under control. Having control of one's own life is an illusion for many if not all as Warren is told early on in this novel.

There are those who seek control or to surrender control in their sexual lives. They become part of the BDSM lifestyle and incorporate the idea of control into their sexual lives. It is a lifestyle far removed from his outdoor tarot reading at the corner of Telegraph and Haste in Berkeley, California and something Warren knows absolutely nothing about.

That changes when his lover and computer expert, Sally McLaughlin, asks for his help. A paraplegic, Sally never asks for help. This time she does because her friend Therese has been arrested for murder. Therese is a professional dominatrix and a client of her has died. The evidence implicates Therese. Sally feels that she owes Theresa in so many ways. Once Vera, Therese's personal live in submissive, tells all to Sally there isn't anyone or anything that is going to stop Sally from proving Therese innocent.

Warren has been involved in three murder cases recently and twice has been the subject of police manhunts because of those murder cases. His initial reaction is to say no and his reaction is certainly understandable. Still, as readers expect, he eventually comes around and offers his help. To do so, he must immerse himself in the lifestyle of BDSM and must receive a crash course in the same from Vera.

Not to be left out, Heather, jumps in with both feet and business attire to work undercover on the case. Sally, Heather and Warren bumble and stumble their way through the undercover assignments with Warren finding out far more about himself than anything else.

Told through the shifting pov of all three characters, the novel chronicles an alternative lifestyle not familiar to many readers and a hunt for a killer. This forth installment of the series tackles a subject with dignity and class that could be controversial for some readers. Various aspects of the life style are discussed in depth and with respect. This is not a book designed to titillate or arouse and the story elements are not gratuitous. Instead, much like secondary characters, this area is explored and explained but never allowed to take over the story.

The BDSM angle is just another point of investigation to work the case and is treated as such in a mature fashion. So too is the main character of Warren Ritter who continues to evolve and change as he attempts to normalize an often chaotic life. Whether he is controlling his daily meds to treat his disease, his emotional reactions to the undercover work, or his control of his natural fleeing response to stress, the character is striving hard to become one again with a world that he tried to distance himself from for so many years.

The result is another good novel in the series. These are not run of the mill characters and this certainly has not been a run of the mill series. In this day of cookie cutter books put out by publishers who often moan that there isn't anything different and then do nothing to encourage diversity in reading material, it is a good thing to read another novel in a series that has been good and different from the beginning.



Kevin R. Tipple (copyright) 2008

Okay, here I go with another fish-gutting review. The problem with a series is that you almost HAVE to read the first ones to know who everyone is. Unfortunately, the first two books in this series were almost unbearable, plotting and stylewise. Where was the editor Skibbins always gives so much credit to?? Pivotal scenes that should have been a dramatic turning point in the plot were given short shrift (Warren's sister spotting him after believing him dead for 30 years), while melodrama went on for pages. Despite the problems, I read the first three books because: first books are often a little bumpy, Warren and his friends were fascinating characters,and I kept hoping the rest of the series would improve with practice. This latest book shows great improvement in the writer's voice and style, not to mention a real plot. He handled a delicate subject perfectly, without getting cute or coy or screwing up the pacing of the plot. Unlike the very first book, I didn't cringe through it, I read it. As most reviewers mention, the strength of Skibbins' books lies in the characters, not the mysteries. Warren tended to be very self-absorbed and wimpy; now he's finally funny. He's a lousy P.I., which can get on your nerves because his solution to confrontation is to run, even from small women, but finally proved in this book he can be tough when necessary. He's also open-minded about other lifestyles, but I wish he would grow up enough to stop using the term "pig." The only people I know who still do that are young wannabee-miltants or wannabee-bikers. Quite frankly, regardless of your politics, it gets old REAL quick. Otherwise, I hope Skibbins will produce another book in this Tarot series, as they do seem to get better and better. A word of advice to Skibbins: drop the chatty disclaimer at the end of your books where you tell the reader what isn't authentic. Readers want to suspend belief and step into the world you created during the length of the book--don't ruin it by sticking a pin in the balloon.

This is clearly part of a series, and I had not read any of the previous books, but I still managed to get most of it, though I do think it would benefit from being read in order.

I like mysteries and I like tarot, so this seemed like a good fit. I thought Warren, the bipolar tarot reader, was a really interesting, lively character and was happy to spend time with him and his crew. I liked the mystery, loved the BDSM angle and Warren's discomfort with it. (really loved the scene with the woman in the glen, that was oddly moving, in fact I liked all his adventures with Vera) I liked all the characters, not finding them too quirky or trying too hard to be interesting.

Will definitely look for more books by David Skibbins who writes with a relaxed and confident style.

A fun series, fascinating characters who are intelligent but mentally & emotionlly challnged; a brisk moving plot; and insights from both mundane & metaphysical realms.

Book Club Review
The Hanged Man
David Skibbins

Our book club's book for January 2009 (first of the new year!) was THE HANGED MAN, by David Skibbins. We choose our books in different ways each month, and we chose this one based on a few ideas that were floating around. First, we wanted to try something that had a flavor of the paranormal or occult without being the type of book where vampires skulk around and protoplasm floats through the air. Also, we've been having an ongoing discussion about series books and what they're all about, so we decided we wanted to read a book that's part of a series but NOT the first one, because we have been trying to figure out if picking up a series in mid-stream makes any difference to the reading experience. Not that such a question could even be answered, being sort of a paradox in and of itself. But as always the group vote prevailed, which is how we ended up with THE HANGED MAN instead of Marcia Muller's ASK THE CARDS A QUESTION or Dorothy Gilman's THE CLAIRVOYANT COUNTESS (and there were many other suggestions as well).

The interesting thing about this book is that it's branded as a "Warren Ritter" mystery, but it's not quite right to say that Ritter is main protagonist. Rather, it's more of an ensemble cast composed of Ritter himself (a tarot card reader living off the grid in Berkeley, CA), his girlfriend (a bisexual with multiple personalities), and precocious teen Heather. There are a lot of elements to the book, but the basic mystery revolves around the death of a highly successful dominatrix. To get to the bottom of the mystery, Warren himself has to be schooled in the ways of S&M/bondage and domination, and fully enter that world. As a sideplot, he's trying to keep a valuable, ancient tarot deck out of the hands of someone unscrupulous who is going to great lengths to steal it.

We had mixed feelings about the book. We all agreed that the pacing is excellent...it is a real page turner, and the story just flies by and keeps your interest. We also thought that the S&M details were handled with great panache, even sensitivity. It was a very effective look at the many sides of that dark world. The subject matter could easily have been exploited, but it was done in a very human way that is not exploitive or pornographic. (Squeamish eaders should be warned, however, that the details are quite explicit in places.) Without getting into spoilers, it's Warren's entry into this world that leads to a really excellent (and psychologically tense) plot turn at one point.

On the less positive side, there is really a lot going on in the book, and much of it doesn't come together. There's a strong tarot angle that's pretty good but also a lot of numerology stuff that just feels like filler. Warren Ritter himself, despite his background, doesn't have a very strongly defined personality; he's actually not very dynamic as a character. Sally (the bipolar/multiple personality) paraplegic girlfriend is more interesting, but her plot culminates in a not very believable denouement. And the Heather situation seems sort of cobbled from the old movie Angel, about a teenage prostitute who sets out to find the killers of her gay father figure and lesbian mother figure. She's probably the least believable character in the book, and there are some real "characters" in there to begin with!

And this is where the interesting question of place in series comes in. This is the fourth in the series. Would we have understood the connections between the various plot points better if we'd read previous books? But this only reminded us that a writer can't take it for granted that the reader has read the previous books. Which of course then puts him or her in the strange position of possibly boring people who HAVE read previous books by giving details they already know. It must be a tough situation for a writer, but this is one case where only about half of us felt that we wanted to read other books in the series. So, all told, an enjoyable escapist read with some fine moments, but not fully held together as a novel.

Everything was great! The book was in good condition the book itself the read is wonderful got to pick you up a copy