Book Review: The California Roll by John Vorhaus (Radar Hoverlander #1)

Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Interesting and likeable characters; fun, complex plot

Cons: Writing slowed things down at times

The Bottom Line:

Excellent caper

Complex, fast moving, and fun

Radar's a winner

No Con - This is a Good Read

There is one reason and one reason alone I bought The California Roll.  I don't normally go for books that have criminals as our heroes.  Plus most caper books have more language and sex than I normally find in my cozies.  But I know author John Vorhaus, so I had to give his novel a try.  And I'm glad I did.

Radar Hoverlander is between jobs, and by that I mean he's between cons.  Radar makes his living as a con artist.  He's thinking he needs to get something in motion for the lucrative Christmas season, but he just can't get his heart into it.

Into his life walks Allie Quinn.  She is stunningly beautiful, and Radar is quickly under her spell.  She also seems to know everything about Radar, a situation that makes him uncomfortable.  Allie wants Radar to teach her grandfather one successful con.  Radar smells a bit of a trap, but he's completely under Allie's spell.  What is she really up to?  Can Radar keep the upper hand, or will this master con artist get conned?

The book starts out simply enough, but as it progresses, it gets increasingly more complicated.  There are twists, turns, and double crosses a plenty.  Yet I never once had a problem keeping track of which side people were on.  By the time I reached the end of the book, everything still made sense to me.  The ending was a bit drug out, but that was a minor issue.

Even though Radar is a criminal, it didn't take me long to warm to him.  Even on page, he comes across as charming.  (Wait, this doesn't mean I was conned by him, does it?)  I still don't condone how he makes a living, but being around him for 260 pages was enjoyable.

The rest of the cast is equally well developed.  There are only about half a dozen characters in the story, which gives them all time to become real.  Even as alliances changed and hidden agendas came to light, I still bought all of them.

The biggest flaw for me wasn't the expected increase of language and sex.  I knew going into it to expect it, so I was able to pretty much ignore it when it came up.  Instead, it was the writing style itself.  The writing is much more sophisticated than in the books I normally read, which I didn't mind.  Radar narrates the story; quite regularly, he waxes philosophical about the life of a con man or stops to analyze the motivations of everyone else in the story, trying to sniff out the truth.  That over analysis reminded me of me, and in small doses, I enjoyed it.  However, at times it really slowed down the flow of the story for me.

Granted, I know nothing about cons, but what was presented here seems real and plausible to me.  It makes me wonder about my buddy John.  Next time I play ultimate Frisbee with him, I may just have to be more careful.

The California Roll was an exciting caper that kept me entertained from start to finish.  It might have been outside my normal reading choices a little, but I enjoyed every minute of it.