These books really are hit or miss, the last one was a miss for me, this one was a split 4.5 star hit. Junior was back on track and solving the murder of his mentor. Ali g the way he was learning done uncomfortable truths about Herbie and himself. The overarching theme that came through for me is that we never really know the people in our lives. The ones we sometimes hold on a pedestal can be the ones to inflict the worst betrayals, yet the overlooked everyday people people are often our staunc...

Well, the best laid plans and all that. I was going to take a break after finishing the first three Junior Bender books in relatively short order. But Nancy had already downloaded #4, and the expiration clock was already ticking, so now I've read the first four in the series. And I'm glad I did. I found it significantly more satisfying than #3, primarily because the people to plot ratio was more in line with what I favor. Junior's relationship with the women in his personal life - Kathy, Rina an...

Until I started reading this, I had forgotten that I had listened to two earlier books in the Junior Bender series about 3 1/2 years ago. Although the protagonist is a seasoned burglar, in this episode he is more like a private detective, trying to find out who killed Herbie Mott, his mentor in crime and father-figure, and why. Junior's peculiar life is full of kinky people, which adds to the fun. Like the earlier books, it is not a memorable story but is a lot of fun.Peter Berkrot added to the ...

I so enjoy these books. Lots of stuff happens among a number of colorful crooks.

"I had all this grief-energy, Herbie would say, turn it into something useful, like fury. … If you can’t get closure, get even.” In case you haven't been an ardent follower of Junior Bender, as you should be, I will tell you he is one of the best burglars in Los Angeles and the man crooks go to when they need crimes solved. He sort of stumbled into the business, but an honest crook is hard to find! Junior is well known as a good guy, he's also a dad and a self taught scholar. You will alway...

Always entertaining. Always interesting. Always a good read listen.

I first became aware of Tim Hallinan’s writing when I was asked to review the first Poke Rafferty thriller, A Nail Through the Heart, in 2008. The Rafferty books became staples of my reading; The Queen of Patpong is a book I’d like to see taught in schools.The Rafferty books are pretty dark, though Hallinan knows how to add touches of humor to provide patches of blue sky and hope. These bits of humor are genuinely funny, so I was happy to hear he’d decided to write something intended to be humor...

Junior Bender is a burglar. That’s a fact. What keeps it from being a hard, cold fact is Bender’s heart. Bender has a set of codes by which he lives and a set of rules given him by his mentor, Herbie, by which he works. One of those rules “was to delay as long as possible the moment the mark realizes his stuff has been boosted.” That means not taking everything, nor making a mess. Another rule is not to take anything the mark can’t live without. When Bender finds himself holding a matching set o...

You can read the long version here at my reading journal blog, or you can satisfy yourself with what little I've said here. Either way, what you'll find is that I get nothing but pure pleasure from reading these books, and I highly recommend them all.Herbie's Game begins as our burglar hero Junior Bender is asked by a "contractor" named Wattles to retrieve some property of his that has been stolen. Wattles, whose memory is "not what it used to be," would "arrange anything, from a cautionary fa...

I got this book free from Firstreads. This is my honest review.Is there such a thing as honor amongst thieves and hit men? It would seem so in Hallinan's series about Junior Bender, whose friend and mentor, Herbie, has taught him everything he knows about breaking into places and choosing the right things to take from others. Now years later, Junior is also an investigator on behalf of crooks, who for good reasons, aren't comfortable with going to the cops. Waddles has devised a scheme that insu...