Wednesday Knights Blog

Bloody Mary is the second book in the Jack Daniels series by J.A. Konrath. As you can likely surmise from the name of the book and the main character, this is not a “serious” literary book. Instead, it is a  fun and enjoyable detective novel.

Jack Daniels, the main character, is not your typical detective protagonist. She is a 46 year old, divorced, woman who is, for the most part, light hearted. In Bloody Mary, Jack and her partner are looking for a killer who is leaving body parts around Chicago. The twist is that each of the parts has something on it connecting the body part to Jack.

The majority of the book is not dedicated to figuring out who the killer is, but instead, it is dedicated to either catching him or trying to keep him in jail. The last third (or so) of the book, in which Jack and her partner attempt to locate prior crimes committed by the killer, reminded me a lot of a Law & Order Special Victims Unit episode.

Back from the first book, Whiskey Sour, is Jack’s former partner Harry McGlade. Just as in Whiskey Sour, I was not sure whether I liked Harry or hated him. Nevertheless, Konrath does an excellant job creating a memorable character. Konrath does a similarly good job with the killer’s accomplice. He ends up being a well written, memorable, minor character.

I also really like the fact that Konrath is not afraid to let things happen to his characters and have them change over time. Jack’s ex husband shows up in the book and the interaction between him of Jack’s boyfriend is good. I also absolutely loved the fact that Konrath allowed the killer to savagely attack someone close to Jack. I thought that the attack scene and the fallout from that really brought the characters alive.
If you enjoy fun detective stories with a twist of humor, you could not go wrong with this book.