Customer Reviews

Mourn The Living

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved KILLING RED, the first Alex Chapa thriller. It was the best debut I'd ever read.

MOURN THE LIVING lives up to its predecessor.

Part carefully constructed mystery, part nail-biting suspense, this follow-up is the perfect summer beach read. Fast paced, sometimes funny, often touching, without sacrificing any thrills.

Chapa is the best reporter hero since Fletch.

A word of warning, though: Don't read this on an airplane. One of the chapters will freak you out if you do.

Private investigators are almost naturally a staple of mystery and thriller fiction. Newspaper reporters are as well, given their similarities to PIs. Individuals in both occupations ask questions, kick rocks over, draw conclusions, and report what they find. And the more that you act like you have something to hide, the more likely it is that you will attract their attention.

Henry Perez has worked as a newspaper reporter and thus knows well the territory that his novels explore. In MOURN THE LIVING, he brings back Alex Chapa (introduced in his debut, KILLING RED), who must balance real-world personal concerns with his professional duties. Perez does not sugarcoat the current state of affairs in the newspaper industry. Indeed, the declining fortunes of newspapers, coupled with the quiet threat to Chapa's reporting job at the Chicago Record, constitute a quietly menacing element throughout the novel. At the same time, Chapa is on the horns of a personal dilemma, one that is exacerbated by his professional circumstances.

As MOURN THE LIVING commences, Chapa is just beginning a week-long visit with his young daughter Nikki when he is called off of his scheduled vacation time. Jim Chakowski, the star investigative reporter for the Chicago Record, has been killed in an apparent accident, and Chapa is called back to fill in the gap. Erin Sinclair, Chapa's love interest, is more than willing to pick up the slack and entertain Nikki during the day while Chapa is working. But he finds himself confronted with the possibility that Chakowski's death was not accidental. Chakowski, in fact, was working on a story that involved a series of apparently unrelated murders in the area that may have involved a number of other killings spread out over time and distance.

Picking up the thread of Chakowski's investigation makes Chapa unpopular with the powers-that-be at the Record, which is published in Oakton, a clannish Chicago suburb. The publisher has ties with the local business community, which in turn controls what happens and what doesn't by a heavy-handed administrative fiat. The members of the Oakton police department have little love for Chapa as well, given that his nosing around inevitably makes them look bad. There is, of course, a real killer out there, and as Chapa's investigation gets closer to the truth, the killer also gets closer to Chapa, putting him and those he loves in terrible danger. This set of circumstances raises the issue as to why Chapa is doing what he's doing when his job probably will not even exist sooner rather than later. Sinclair genuinely loves him, yet is understandably concerned about his commitment to his job, particularly when it puts him and those he loves in jeopardy. As a result, the book presents an interesting and prickly situation that, as we ultimately see, has no easy or settled answers.

There is a puzzling and perplexing mystery at the core of this story, one that Chapa may not walk away from intact. And there are some great action scenes as well. One in particular, which takes place in the last quarter of the book, involves a cornfield, among other things. Perez includes some passages there that are not only edge-of- your-seat but also heart-in-your-mouth descriptions that will leave you dizzy. Chapa is building a great series the old-fashioned way, and it's one that you should start reading now.

A serial killer is on the prowl and only suburban Chicago newspaper reporter Alex Chapa seems to be taking the matter seriously. As he investigates, he is drawn further into the terrifying world of the killer. At the same time he is balancing the pull of his personal life, a loving girlfriend and the attention required by his ten-year-old daughter visiting from Boston.

The premise is great. I liked the development of the Alex Chapa character. His girlfriend, Erin, never grew beyond cardboard. However, the serial killer character was truly chilling. Unfortunately, the book has its problems. It is a sequel and that may create some of the issues. For example, apparently the police do not like Alex Chapa due to some past interactions, but what happened? There is no explanation.

The biggest problem is that the story just does not hang together. Overall it is a let down. There are too many suspects and not enough details about any one of them or memorable interactions with any one of them to make the ultimate revelation of the killer's identity particularly credible.

Although there are many positives to this book, overall I cannot recommend it.

I had a hard time putting this book down. The pace is quick, the chapters move, and it's a roller coaster that doesn't let up. Great characters and excellent story-telling honestly kept me turning pages deep into the night. Unexpected twists and action packed. I am looking forward to reading anything written by Henry Perez. Highly recommended. Although it's the second book about Alex Chapa, you don't HAVE to read Killing Red first. Read it second if you want to. They're both great.

I was hopeful the sequel to 'Killing Red' would be at least as good as the first and I got my wish. Perez stuck with his straightforward style and character building nature and came out with a sequel better than the first. I truly enjoy his main character Alex Chapa as I identify with him as a father and hope Perez continues to write about him. I just downloaded 'Floaters' which is a novella collaboration with J.A. Konrath and includes Perez's Chapa character and am looking forward to enjoying it, but I'm certain it will not satisfy my need for more Chapa based novels.

The first half of this novel was really interesting, as Chapa puts the pieces together, trying to solve the mysterous death of his journalist friend. Unfortuately, the second half of the novel went from mystery to fantasy, as Chapa did a Clark Kent switching from reporter to Superman.......taming mighty rivers, landing airplanes and disarming mass murders armed with only wisecracks and his bare hands. Seriously, the second half of this book was so beyond belief, that it had me hoping that the author would just kill off the main character.

I gave it 3 stars because it was a Kindle freebee so it didn't cost me anything and because even with it's faults, it was an improvement on his first novel.

Mourn the Living was a fun read, but not very believable. I think every death-defying event possible was escaped by the investigative reporter, Chapa. There were just too many crammed into one novel. The story jumped from one event to the next without much purpose. It was really not very cohesive. His relationship with his daughter and his lover were just minimally touched on. I also found it hard to believe that he was a better detective than the police and the F B I and had to save their lives. It was very suspenseful, but needed more character study and more reality.

I rushed to get this book after reading (and LOVING) Perez's first novel "Killing Red" because this book was billed as its sequel. Not so much. The only real link is the main character and a few supporting characters. "Mourn the Living" and "Killing Red" can certainly be read independently of one another.

That said, I didn't enjoy this book as much as his first. There were so many characters we were introduced to at once at a town meeting...many were important characters and I found them all hard to keep straight.

Other than that, it was a good story and--as with "Killing Red"--a page-turner!

A lot of times I'm disappointed in the 2nd book, but this one by Henry was just as great as the first one or better. It kept me guessing and the end was more than I expected. I already have my husband reading the 2nd book, and he hardly ever reads. But I caught him reading this book as soon as I put it down and said this was another great one. My husband likes that it takes place in areas we know in our area. So awesome we have a great writer in our area! Thanks Henry keep on writing!!

I am in complete agreement with the other two star reviewers in that it is hard to fathom a universe in which anyone would consider this a 5 star book. Even if you can overlook the clumsy writing, the Alex Chapa character to me is not even marginally compelling or sympathetic. He spends much of his time being a hypocritical jerk, criticizing others and then turning around and doing the same thing or something similar himself. The 10 year old daughter's dialog seems unrealistic to me as well but that is only a quibble compared to my other problems with the book.