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A review by mschlat
Wild Thing by Josh Bazell
5.0
Yeah, I'd happily read four to five more books in this series if they existed. You can look at my review of [b:Beat the Reaper|3173125|Beat the Reaper (Peter Brown #1)|Josh Bazell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1316092271s/3173125.jpg|3205574] for much of what I love about Bazell's writing, but here's some notes on this volume in particular...
1) The plotting is tighter and the mysteries are better written than the first book. Where Beat The Reaper took a false turn or two, Wild Thing moves much more sure-footedly, with a reveal at the end that made sense and was still surprising.
2) Now that Bazell's has his protagonist's origin out of the way, he spends more time on other characters to good effect. There are interesting flashbacks to Vietnam and Tiananmen Square and a wonderful look at a sting operation that has almost nothing to do with Pietro Brnwa.
3) The footnotes have expanded to appendices. That is a good thing. In particular, we are quickly introduced to character Violet Hurst, a catastrophic paleontologist who opines that humanity has passed the point of no return survival-wise. And, after the story, there's an essay from Hurst where she (somewhat tongue in cheek) attempts to detail the exact time the point was passed. (Said essay references Iranian hostages, corporations as people, and the construction of the book of Genesis.) And THEN Bazell spends another 35 pages (with footnotes) discussing all the sources for the book along with all the sources for the Hurst essay. And it's wonderful. It's like reading the end of [a:Peter Watts|27167|Peter Watts|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] books, but funny.
At this point, I'm fairly convinced that Bazell could have me spellbound with his grocery list if it had footnotes. I am seriously bummed there are no further books in the series.
1) The plotting is tighter and the mysteries are better written than the first book. Where Beat The Reaper took a false turn or two, Wild Thing moves much more sure-footedly, with a reveal at the end that made sense and was still surprising.
2) Now that Bazell's has his protagonist's origin out of the way, he spends more time on other characters to good effect. There are interesting flashbacks to Vietnam and Tiananmen Square and a wonderful look at a sting operation that has almost nothing to do with Pietro Brnwa.
3) The footnotes have expanded to appendices. That is a good thing. In particular, we are quickly introduced to character Violet Hurst, a catastrophic paleontologist who opines that humanity has passed the point of no return survival-wise. And, after the story, there's an essay from Hurst where she (somewhat tongue in cheek) attempts to detail the exact time the point was passed. (Said essay references Iranian hostages, corporations as people, and the construction of the book of Genesis.) And THEN Bazell spends another 35 pages (with footnotes) discussing all the sources for the book along with all the sources for the Hurst essay. And it's wonderful. It's like reading the end of [a:Peter Watts|27167|Peter Watts|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] books, but funny.
At this point, I'm fairly convinced that Bazell could have me spellbound with his grocery list if it had footnotes. I am seriously bummed there are no further books in the series.