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Rusty Nail was my first introduction to the works of J.A. Konrath. This novel was listed in "SERIAL KILLER NOVELS: TEN OF THE BEST" on Crime Fiction Lover.com. It was in fact the third selection that I chose to read from the ten novels listed, the first being Where Serpents Lie by T. Jefferson Parker and the second When She Was Bad written by Jonathan Nasaw. Both of the aforementioned novels were simply outstanding and I was starting to feel pretty comfortable with the list.

I still investigated this choice prior to purchase, since J.A. Konrath was a "new author" to me.
I learned that Rusty Nail is Book #3 in the writer's popular Jack Daniels series. The author also disclosed that this third outing was his personal favorite. I might note that 80% of Amazon's readers awarded this book 4 or 5 stars. This book (like the two mentioned above) have been out there a good while, so potential readers can check out Amazon and/or goodreads for beaucoup reviews. I'll just add my "2 cents' worth" anyway just for the "fun" of it...

Speaking of "funny" Konrath's writing is supposedly humorous. The author rates this novel as 7 out of 10 for "Funny". Many things are "in the eye of the beholder", and what tickles your funny bone would seem to me to be pretty subjective. First of all, is it even possible to be on the edge of your seat reading a serial killer thriller and hit a patch of narrative that makes you literally laugh out loud? Heck yes it is!!!...just not with THIS book. I believe that cops develop a certain degree of cynicism and do deploy gallows humor to act as a pressure relief valve in some cases. I would also concede that caustic wit can be comical at times. This writer relies too much on depicting FBI agents to be morons and smart alek comebacks from Jack and others. Maybe the way to explain it is by allowing an example of an author who DOES succeed in making the reader laugh out loud in harrowing horrible situations. Dennis Lehane ( Patrick Kenzie & Angela Gennaro Series) comes to mind. I just reread all six of them this year. Lee Child has demonstrated his ability to make me LOL albeit Jack Reacher novels are not serial killer thrillers in the strictest sense. But let's get real, most of us don't read serial killer thrillers for the "fun" of it.

I didn't read the first book in the series which detailed the hunt for the serial killer dubbed "The Gingerbread Man". In Rusty Nail we learn that the hunt for this sadistic psycho spawned a TV Special and then an actual TV Series. The plot for me took its first real "hit" (not in a good way) when Jack visits the father of the Gingerbread Man and we learn that he is ALSO a psychotic fruitcake with a basement full of decaying corpses. It just isn't realistic in any way for the police, FBI, journalists, crime magazine writers, true crime authors, you get the picture---NOT to have absolutely DISECTED the complete background of the Gingerbread Man, i.e., all family members, known associates, kindergarten playmates, etc. This plot line felt like a magic trick of some kind, as in "Say What???"

I felt disgruntled about the plot but then it seemed that it was necessary to suspend disbelief at almost every turn. BTW who wouldn't have expected "Alex" NOT to be a woman? When the character of Holly was introduced I immediately knew that Alex was Holly. It followed that in the end Jack would have the proverbial "face off" with Alex AKA Holly. I fancied that maybe they would "shoot it out", Jack cleverly wear a Kevlar vest and make a clean head shot while Holly delivered a tight cluster of bullets to center mass. If ONLY that had been the case...the character of Jack Daniels...how do I say this? Well, was not sympathetic, and was certainly not sharp, clever, or courageous. She went into the final showdown...or should I say showdowns plural...with a self-defeated attitude. Jack made so many incredibly stupid moves that I stopped counting. The most infuriating had to be doing things with no back up and being bullied by Holly into breaking police procedure and adopting her as a sidekick. Only an idiot would not have recognized that Holly was a sociopath.

SO---Jack came across as incompetent and somewhat pathetic, not at all believable as a seasoned cop capable of tracking a killer. The plot had holes big enough to drive a semi through, and the gore and torture elements were gratuitous violence at best. I have a habit of sharing tidbits of what I am reading with my partner. For instance a few of the methods used to inflict self-torture and pain used by Bud Kork, the patriarch of the family of religious psychopaths central to this book. My partner asked me "What kind of $#@#! are you reading? ...And what kind of a person would write anything like that?
Let's put this in the proper context, okay? My partner LOVED Jack Ketchum's Off Season. Having said that, I never once entertained the notion of putting the book down, and the author's narrative kept me interested enough to finish the book in record time. In retrospect I am not real sure about what that says about me as a reader.

‘Rusty Nail’ is another great addition to the Jack Daniels Series. The book is a good mix of action and plot development but isn’t for the faint of heart as it has a lot of gratuitous violence. The characters are interesting and fun and make for an interesting story (although I figured out who the killer was about half way through). The writing is good just make sure you don’t read it over your morning cereal!

J.A. Konrath's Jack Daniels Mystery formula is a fine contribution to the crime thriller / police procedural genre with plenty of laugh-out-loud humor blended, much of it gallows-esque. I loved Konrath's Bloody Mary, and liked Whiskey Sour immensely. Rusty Nail did not disappoint, although I did find many twists and turns predictable, namely, things the heroine Lt. Jacqueline Daniels should have sensed and identified but did not, causing me as a suspicious and skeptical reader to lose faith in her police instincts. The violence and gore and Rusty Nail's straddling of the horror genre with all its elements were not what caused this one to slip off from Konrath's usual high standard, but rather the naivety of the protagonists as they too often allowed the hidden antagonists to push them around socially, intellectually and strategically. Recommended but in this reviewer's opinion, not the best in the series so far.

I enjoy the Jack Daniels series & keep coming back to it whenever I go on vacation. There are rather detailed descriptions of torture & the condition of mutilated victims in this novel that may be too graphic for some. But it never got to a point where I regretted my purchase or wanted to discard the book. The next installment, Dirty Martini, is much lighter on gore in comparison (maybe in response to criticism?). I was hooked enough to finish the book in two days. As always, I enjoyed the camaraderie between Jack & Herb and the quality one-liners that stem from Jack's banter with Harry.

This book extensively references a main character from Whiskey Sour & introduces new characters based on that person. I read that book years ago, but I kinda wish I had refreshed my memory before reading Rusty Nail even though the novels were written to stand alone without prior knowledge of the series.