{"id":755,"date":"2017-11-11T13:32:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-11T18:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/?p=755"},"modified":"2017-11-16T06:42:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T11:42:51","slug":"review-one-gree-bottle-by-curtis-bausse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/?p=755","title":{"rendered":"Review: One Green Bottle by Curtis Bausse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Let me begin with a disclaimer (or maybe an excuse) \u2013 I don\u2019t read a lot of crime\/mystery novels, so please read on with that in mind.\u00a0 My experience in this genre is limited to Colin Dexter\u2019s Inspector Morse series, Johnson\u2019s Longmire books, and Raymond Chandler\u2019s Philip Marlowe novels. That\u2019s it. Of course, I\u2019ve also watched the tv versions of Inspector Morse (and its sequel and prequel), Longmire, and much of the original CSI.<\/p>\n

So with that in mind it strikes me that there are really a couple of sub-genres here (although there is a lot of overlap).\u00a0 First, there\u2019s the \u201cwho-done-it?\u201d\u00a0 In this genre clues are sprinkled throughout the story so the astute reader can figure out who the killer is.\u00a0 There are of course a number of red herrings thrown in to send the reader in the wrong direction, but the joy of these books is often to reread them to see what you missed.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, in the procedural the reader\u2019s enjoyment comes from following an interesting character through the story as the great investigator picks up clues and eventually identifies the culprit.\u00a0 The big difference here is that there is often no way the reader could guess who it was because the character may never have been introduced early in the story.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Curtis Bausse\u2019s One Green Bottle<\/em> falls squarely into the second category.\u00a0 The main character, Magali Rousseau, is a recently divorced woman looking for a new life.\u00a0 I found it fascinating that in France (where the story is set) you can just hang out a sign and start taking on patients as a kind of psycho-analyst or social worker, and also start acting as a private detective (although she is eventually required by the police to take some courses and get a license).\u00a0 But the different culture and attitudes are fascinating.<\/p>\n

In the process of starting her new life, Magali is asked to help uncover the reason for a young man\u2019s death.\u00a0 The police have written it off as a murder during a botched robbery, but Magali digs into it, and gets involved in tracking down what she is sure is a serial killer.\u00a0 The police laugh her off. Most of the first two thirds of the book deal with Magali investigating, finding clues, and trying to convince the local police that the killings were actually connected.\u00a0 The police dismiss her as an over eager amateur who is seeing serial killers where they don\u2019t exist.\u00a0 Sadly, the first person who takes her seriously is the killer, with very unfortunate results. \u00a0This part lacked suspense for me because I knew that there was zero chance that the police were right about there not being a killer (again, keep in mind I\u2019ve never been a big fan of procedurals).\u00a0 The suspense does pick up once the killer recognizes that Magali is on his trail, and the expected collision between detective and killer approaches.\u00a0 And then Bausse turns the table on you and starts telling the story from the viewpoint of the killer!\u00a0 This I found gripping – seeing into the mind of a serial killer.\u00a0 It was like watching a drug user develop from his first naive drug hit to full-fledged addiction, and leads to a climax that will really carry you along. \u00a0On top of that, I thought the modus operandi<\/em> of the killer was perfect for our modern on-line world (hint: beware of eBay!).<\/p>\n

Overall, One Green Bottle<\/em> is a very good read, and I recommend it to all fans of procedurals. \u00a0This is also the first in a series of books about Magali and her adventures, the next of which, Perfume Island<\/em>, is in bookstores November 15th<\/sup>.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking forward to reading it, and will review it when I do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can see all of Curtis Bausse’s books at Amazon (just click here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Also, I’m looking forward to interviewing Curtis soon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let me begin with a disclaimer (or maybe an excuse) \u2013 I don\u2019t read a lot of crime\/mystery novels, so please read on with that in mind.\u00a0 My experience in this genre is limited to Colin Dexter\u2019s Inspector Morse series, Johnson\u2019s Longmire books, and Raymond Chandler\u2019s Philip Marlowe novels. That\u2019s it. Of course, I\u2019ve also…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,66,67,1],"tags":[27,69,68,24,8,21],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-photophoosk100","4":"post-755","6":"format-standard","7":"category-book-review","8":"category-curtis-bausse","9":"category-one-green-bottle","10":"category-uncategorized","11":"post_tag-book-reviews","12":"post_tag-crime-novel-review","13":"post_tag-curtis-bausse-one-green-bottle-review","14":"post_tag-discussion","15":"post_tag-novel","16":"post_tag-reviews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":766,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions\/766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}