#reading with doc

[drfrankenjoe]

(Casefiles #12: Perfect Getaway) Just finished. This one was fun! I really liked how Frank and Joe were written. They had fun banter, both of them got to have their fair share of clever moments and goofy mistakes in ways that played to their characters, and it was a lot of fun seeing them slip into different personas depending on the situation. Not to mention that the mystery itself was intriguing. It had some great usages of set up and payoff as well.

If I had to recommend a Casefiles story to anyone, it would be this one.

[drfrankenjoe]

(Casefiles #12: Perfect Getaway) Did they tell anyone where they were going? I just imagine that they left the house without a word and Fenton, Laura, and Gertrude are just used to it.

[drfrankenjoe]

(Casefiles #12: Perfect Getaway) Frank is pretending to be someone using a pseudonym around an obvious group of criminals and decides to use his and Joe's real names.

Yes, they do get discovered.

[drfrankenjoe]

(Casefiles #11: Brother Against Brother) Just finished. Not really much of a mystery, though I didn't mind. I enjoyed seeing the characters do their thing.

The real mystery here is why didn't Fenton do this job himself to begin with? Yeah, the bad guys might recognize him, but if they still had to keep an eye out for hitmen anyway, why send his most reckless and kidnappable son? Why not just put on a disguise? They had those in the 80's, I'm pretty sure.

And I know he was worried about losing Frank too, but why not search for Joe himself? While I'd normally be poking fun at Joe for being a hothead and deviating from his dad's plan, I found myself mad at Frank for not disobeying him. It didn't seem like anyone else wanted to search for his missing brother.

Anyway, Joe gained three (3) new traumatic experiences! I'm surprised at how many he already has by 11 books in. The fact that he's still able to function is a miracle.

I wish the story didn't cut off before Fenton picked them up. The drive home had to have been something.

"Daaaad, he tried to kill me twice."

"Well, I wasn't the one who stole two trucks and blew up a cop car."

"You're both grounded."

[drfrankenjoe]

(Casefiles #80: Dead of Night) After reading #15, my gut instinct about this one being over the top even for Casefiles standards feels correct.

Dead of Night really asked "How many women can we fridge to make one or two boys lose their minds?" (It's on the back cover, so not really much of a spoiler)

Frank and Joe get drugged with hallucenogenics and acknowledge that the effects could linger in their system. Then Frank immediately decides to fly a plane.

Joe gets hit with so many psychological horrors that by the end he's fighting the air in a graveyard only to then turn around to make a joke about Halloween candy like everything's fine.

Both of them witness things that no amount of logic or "um, actually"s could reduce the traumatic impact of, and seeing Frank try to do that had me shaking my head. They should not take another case after this. They should go to therapy for a long, long time.

But such is the way of this series.

[drfrankenjoe]

(Casefiles #11: Brother Against Brother) "What a weird dream!" says Joe after having a horrific PTSD nightmare.

I can feel this is gonna be another one where I'm shouting "GO TO THERAPY" the entire time.

[drfrankenjoe]

(Casefiles #11: Brother Against Brother) I've been curious about this one for a long time. First thoughts: This first scene has to be a dream sequence. It contains nearly all of Casefiles Joe's hang ups in one place.

[drfrankenjoe]

(Casefiles #15: Blood Relations) Interesting character detail in this one. There's a few times where Joe pretends to be more confident and carefree than he really is.