Bone Street Rumba Series by Daniel Jose Older

Half-Resurrection Blues (read 1/1/19 to 1/11/19)

This is a re-read so I can remember what happens before I read the next two in the series for my original review see http://adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com/2015/12/half-resurrection-blues-bone-street.html

This was a much slower read on the second round, I couldn’t seem to get into it as much as the first time I read it.  I also went on vacation, and strangely didn’t have time to read while away. 

Midnight Taxi Tango (read 1/11/19 to 1/14/19)

This picks up a few months after Half-Resurrection Blues, and Carlos is still a bit of an emotional mess.  There is some strange deaths in the park that he is investigating, and this takes him down a very complicated and twisty path of conspiracy and devious actions.  Older is including the points of view this time.  Kia’s and Reza’s viewpoints.  I like  Kia’s character I’m glad she is getting an expanded role.  We also get to meet Reza, who is my favorite character I think.  She has this bad ass attitude, that is absolutely not fake.  She just oozes coolness and is scary too.  It amazes me how well Older is able to switch between point of views for a seamless storytelling.  This could have been very jolted, but his skills as a writer really shine.  This story line goes off into a far more sinister and overreaching plot than the first book.  It was not as lighthearted, but really well done.  It has a lot of twits and turns but wraps up nicely, with room fo rate next one to fill in some blanks.

**SPOILER**

If Sasha killed Carlos originally, does that negate that Carlos killed her brother, so they can be together?  Or does it make things so messed up they will never be together?

Salsa Nocturna: Stories (read 1/14/19 to 1/17/19)

I found this when I went to see if there were more books in the series, it is marked as being book 2.5.  So I didn’t realize that this was a collection of short stories.  And per the introduction really a prequel to Half-Resurrection Blues.  Once you start to read it though, it’s ingenious the way each story can stand alone, yet when read in order make up a much larger story. I had planned to do a blurb for each story, but realizing that each story makes up the part of a bigger picture, I erased my comments.

Battle Hill Bolero (read  1/17/19 to 1/20/19)

I think on this one Older had too many narrators.  I couldn’t get into the story as much because it was made up of too many threads and not enough connections.  I felt like it dragged, although it took me less time to read than some of the others in the series.  But it did wrap the series very nicely.  I’m glad it had a satisfying ending.