Murphy's Luck 4: Jinx Vs. Fate - Benjamin Laskin

    2023; 336 pages.  Book 4 (out of 4) in the “Murphy’s Luck” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Humorous Adventure; Magical Realism; Cozy Fiction.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    The years have passed, and at long last, Murphy has found contentment.  He leads a peaceful life, in Cloverville, Kansas.  His wife, Joy, is somehow immune to the effects of Murphy’s Jinx.

 

    It’s hard to say for sure, but it looks very likely that their seven-year-old daughter, Phaedra, has inherited her father’s jinx.  She plays baseball against kids twice her age, and more than holds her own.  There are some bruised egos about that, but the players and parents know not to raise a ruckus.

 

    Murphy contents himself to developing his little community of Cloverville into a happy community.  Right now he’s excavating some sort of ancient ruins that seem to have conveniently appeared beneath the ground on his property.

 

    It would be nice if Murphy’s life continued on indefinitely in this serene manner.  But a jinx is a jinx.  Something tells me things are about to become bizarrely hectic.

 

What’s To Like...

    There are two main storylines in Murphy’s Luck 4: Jinx vs. Fate. One is Murphy’s 7-year-old daughter Phaedra making a name for herself in Little League baseball (at least she starts out at that level). The other is a super-secret organization that's watching, and then reaching out, to Murphy as a prospective agent.  The text switches back and forth between the two tales, which keeps the pacing brisk and slow spots absent.

 

    We meet a slew of new characters in both plot threads, and I loved the character-building performed by the author.  Phaedra’s baseball skills attract the attention of nerds, jocks, coaches, and sports agents.  Murphy’s jinxing skills attract the attention of secret agents, femme fatales, and identical twins.

 

    Murphy’s Luck 4 is first and foremost a tale of humorous magical realism.  Murphy is indwelt by a mystical jinx that spares him but will plague anyone or anything near him.  It’s fun to watch how the jinx manifests itself on nearby unsuspecting people, whether they be good guys or bad.

 

    The story is full of interesting bits of trivia.  Phaedra has a pet water buffalo named Hannibal, an appellation near and dear to my heart.  The mention of the Gnostics, who had the historical misfortune to run afoul of early Church, also resonated with me.  Other obscure references include Liechtenstein, the ouroboros, the 12-item list of Boy Scout laws, an enchanted dowsing rod, and even Epstein Island.

 

    Murphy’s jinx is a useful asset in the climactic chase scene, although it means you can guess the outcome.  The last couple of chapters (there are 37 of them) serve as an “One Year Afterward” epilogue, nicely tying up several plot threads.  There is room for a sequel, although since it’s been three years since this e-book came out, I have a feeling this is a completed series.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 17 ratings and 5 reviews.

    Goodreads: 2.00*/5, based on 1 rating and 1 review.

 

Excerpts...

    He slapped the two ten-dollar bills into Georgina’s hand.  “This is just the beginning, baby.  I’m going to make you a star!”

    Georgina glanced at the bills in her hand and replied, “Um—no, you’re not, sweetie.”

    “Have a little faith, my melodious, rose-breasted grosbeak, my euphonious robin, my dulcifluous canary, my canorous channel-billed cuckoo.”

    “It’s Monopoly money, my well-meaning, ignoramus of a husband.”  (pg. 136)

 

    Mitch returned the carton to the fridge and slammed the door as if locking away an evil spirit.  He joined Phaedra at the table and noted the neatly stacked piles.

    “Do you have a system for everything?” Mitch asked.

    “Uh-huh.  I learned from Daddy.  He’s very organized.”

    “Some might say neurotic and monomaniacally obsessive-compulsive.”

    “Yeah—Daddy’s the best.”  (pg. 311)

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Oleaginous (adj.) : resembling, containing, or producing oil; oily; greasy.

Others: Chyron (n.).

 

Kindle Details…

    Murphy’s Luck 4: Jinx vs. Fate is priced at $4.99 currently at Amazon.  The other three books in the series also cost $4.99.  Benjamin Laskin has several other series in e-book format; the books in those are usually in the $2.99 to $4.99. price range.

 

“What’s a wanton floozie?”  “Umm . . . er, a popular Chinese soup?”  (pg. 314)

    Profanity is practically nonexistent in Murphy’s Luck 4: Jinx vs. Fate;  I spotted just two instances in the whole book.  Typos were also scarce—a missing quotation mark; a missing “you”; and a where/were slip-up.

 

    There’s not much in the way of a backstory, but that’s okay.  It just means you should really read this series in chronological order, like I fortunately did.

 

    Keep in mind this is a “cozy adventure”.  Nobody dies, action scenes are minimal, and there are no adult situations.  Instead, you get a witty, heartwarming tale where everything turns out okay for everyone, including the baddies.

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  I mentioned it in an earlier review in this series, but Benjamin Laskin’s musical tastes are excellent!  Music References here include The Knack, ABBA, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, and Queen.  Awesomeness!

Murphy's Luck 3: Curse vs. Jinx - Benjamin Laskin

   2019; 326 pages.  Book 3 (out of 4) in the “Murphy’s Luck” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Humorous Adventure; Magical Realism; Cozy Fiction.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    It’s a bad day for the CIA.  Two of their operatives, a husband-and-wife team, have been captured in the jungles of Colombia.

 

    Worse, it wasn’t the Colombian government that captured them, it was one of the local drug cartels.  So getting the agents back won’t be a matter of political negotiations; it’ll be paying out some excessive ransom demand.

 

    The drug cartel thinks they have the upper hand, but actually they’ve made a bad mistake.  The CIA is hoping to persuade their agents’ son-in-law, a man named Murphy Drummer, to join their black-ops team in a daring rescue attempt.  He’s not a CIA operative.  He’s something much more dangerous.

 

    Murphy’s a walking, talking jinx for anyone or anything that gets near him.  Adios, drug cartel!  Your days are numbered!

 

What’s To Like...

    I liked the settings in Murphy’s Luck 3: Curse vs. Jinx: Eureka, Kansas and Bucaramanga, Colombia.  There are two main storylines: Murphy’s attempted extraction of his in-laws, and his 7-year-old daughter Phaedra’s upcoming birthday party.   Phaedra apparently has inherited her father’s “cursedness”, and it was fascinating to see how her classmates and teachers coped with that.

 

    There are a bunch of new characters in both plotlines to meet and greet, and Benjamin Laskin does a wonderful job of developing them.  The two drug thugs, the genius Esteban (he claims to have an IQ of 171) and the brawny Big Nacho provide lightheartedness to the tale, as does their bad-to-the-bone Jefe Rufino Guerrero.   The helicopter pilot Frank and the femme fatale Siegfried (or whatever their names are this week) imbue the rescue tale with thrills and spills, with a dash of romance thrown in.  And Hannibal, Millie, and Dumb-Ass are all hilarious!

 

     Subplots and running gags abound, including buried treasure, voodoo curses, rolling R’s, and untied shoelaces.  The author’s writing skills are such that these things enhance the story, not distract from it.  There’s also a bunch of “conversational Spanish” phrases (including one cussword), most of which you can suss out for yourself.

 

    The endings to the two main plotlines are over-the-top, but fun to read.  They both border on being hard-to-believe, but hey, this series focuses on being uplifting and warmhearted, not gritty and real-to-life.  I liked it that things worked out for all the characters, whether they be good, bad, or in-between.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 79 ratings and 22 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.57*/5, based on 42 ratings and 10 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “But you know, it does beg the question—why do we get captured so much of the time, honey?  Is it possible we are a couple of bungling agents?”

    “It only looks like bungling to the untrained eye,” Danny said.  “Bungling is one of our most useful skills.  And besides, would the director have sent us after the ninety-ninth-largest cartel in all of South America if he didn’t think we were a couple of terrific and badass special agents?”  (pg. 11)

 

    “Murphy, we had a deal!  I help you find your wife’s parents, and you help me find the lost treasures of the Ancient Sumerian mariners.  And look. Here your in-laws are.  I kept my side of the bargain.”

    “Frank,” Dana Daley said, “you found us by accident.  You never intended to help Murphy.  It was all a ruse.”

    “Doesn’t matter,” Frank said.  “It still counts.”  (pg. 258)

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Otorhinolaryngologist (n.) : a specialist in disorders of the ear, nose, or throat.  (Jeez, I thought it was a made-up tongue-in-cheek word when I read this.)

 

Kindle Details…

    Murphy’s Luck 3: Curse vs. Jinx is priced at $4.99 at Amazon right now.  The other three books in the series go for the same rate.  Benjamin Laskin has several other series in e-book format; those books are generally in the $2.99 to $4.99. price range.

 

“I think our goose is cooked.”  “Great.  I’m starving.”  (pg. 2)

    As is the norm, the use of profanity is light in Murphy’s Luck 3: Curse vs. Jinx.  I noted just two instances in the first half of the novel, both referring to the human posterior.  The Spanish cussword appears at 85%.  I didn’t notice any typos or punctuation errors, which is also impressive.

 

    One of the acronyms, MRAP, had me stumped, but googling revealed it stood for a Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicle.  Now you know.

 

    The budding romance between Murphy and a female character had me a bit perplexed, since this is a Cozy Adventure and Murph has a wife and daughter back home in Eureka.  To give further details on this would be a spoiler.

 

    I’m reading this series in order, and this third book kept me completely entertained.  I love the overarching principle examined by this series: what do you do if discover you’re a walking bad luck charm?  Book 4 is on my Kindle and I think it’s the final book in the series.  I think I’ll be reading it shortly.

 

    8½ Stars.  One last thing.  At one point an accidentally fired Hellfire missile hits a luxury yacht off the Colombian coast.  Survivors are seen floating in the sea, clinging to wreckage.  Despite being written in 2019, this felt like an amazing bit of foretelling based on similar events off the Venezuelan coast earlier this year.  Is Benjamin Laskin prescient?

Revenge of the Jinx - Benjamin Laskin

   2018; 344 pages.  Book 2 (out of 4) in the “Murphy’s Luck” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Magical Realism; Cozy Fiction.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    The security camera captured the entire sequence.  Murphy Drummer singlehandedly foiled the plans of a pair of gun-toting bank robbers, while simultaneously protecting all the bank patrons and employees from any harm.

 

    He did it in spectacular fashion too, utilizing, among other things, the Heimlich maneuver, a baby bottle, and a seat cushion.  Everyone in the bank appreciated his odds-defying heroics, except, of course, the bank robbers.

 

  His actions also caught the attention of another group.  The FBI.  They’re sending two of their agents to talk to Murphy about a possible job opportunity for him at the agency.

 

    Hmm.  What kind of job would cause the FBI to prefer a civilian operative instead of one of their own experienced field agents?

 

What’s To Like...

    Revenge of the Jinx is the second book in Benjamin Laskin’s four-volume Murphy’s Luck series.  I read Book One last year; it is reviewed here.  Several years have passed between the events of the two books.  Murphy and Joy have married, a daughter is born, and little Phaedra is now five years old.

 

    Murphy is still afflicted by his jinx, but he’s mitigated its effects by living way out in the sticks and rarely if ever being around any outsiders.  Joy and Phaedra, both of whom seem to be immune to Murphy’s jinx, share his solitude.  Phaedra is a happy little girl, and her dad has built his daughter her very own playground called Cloverville.

 

    I liked the character development here.  Two inept FBI agents, Lester McDougall and Milo Lowenstein, provide the comic relief for the story.  The main bad guy, Lucius Valentine, has an excuse for his vileness: a giant wart on his chin.  And his two enforcers, Lamar and Miguel, are a lot less “thuggy” than stereotypical goons usually are.

 

    The storyline moves along at a pleasant pace.  Murphy’s boundless optimism and naivete keeps the jinx at bay, and by now he’s honed his “murphometer” skills to where he can shrewdly discern what disasters are about to befall innocent bystanders.

 

    The ending is appropriately over-the-top, and includes a couple of neat plot twists and dei ex machina.  which is consistent with the storyline.  Good triumphs over evil, of course; but good also smiles upon the baddies to a certain extent.  The last two chapters are of the “Whatever happened to…” ilk.  Chapter 38 covers the fates of various secondary characters; Chapter 39 does the same for Murphy and family.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 150 ratings and 33 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.41*/5, based on 94 ratings and 17 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “What amazed Lowenstein was why two incompetent schlubs like he and Lester McDougall would be assigned to such an important case.

    As if reading Lowenstein’s thoughts, Dunlap replied, “Exactly, Agent Lowenstein.  I can’t think of two worse agents for such a top-secret operation, but this is something we want flying under everyone’s radar—way under.  Subterranean—get it?”

    “Um….”

    “I do!” McDougall blurted.  “You want us to pose as oafs so that no one will suspect we’re up to something!”

    “No posing required,” Dunlap said.  (loc. 625)

 

    “Joy, honey,” Mrs. Daley said, “what about your—?”  She saw Phaedra listening and caught herself.  “Your rhymes with sphinx?”

    “I thought you guys didn’t believe in rhymes with finks.”

    “We don’t,” Mr. Daley said, “but if you believe in rhymes with stinks, then aren’t you acting irresponsibly?”

    “Yes,” Mrs. Daley said.  “Look at all the ‘chinks’ you went through to get here.  If you’re right, then going twice the distance could result in twice the, er, ‘tiddlywinks.’”

    “Leave our kinks to me,” Joy answered with finality.  (loc. 3714)

 

Kindle Details…

    Murphy’s Luck sells for $4.99 currently at Amazon, as do the other three books in the series.  Benjamin Laskin has several other series in e-book format; their books cost either $2.99 or $4.99.

 

Lunch was seafood served up with an assortment of near catastrophes.  (loc. 2646)

    As with the first book, cussing is sparse in Revenge of the Jinx.  I counted just seven instances in the first 25% of the book, all of the mild variety.  A technical term for male genitalia pops up later on, but not in an “adult situation”.  And though we find remnants of past victims of the main bad guy, there’s not really any gore.

 

    There are a lot of conveniently-timed saving graces, but here that’s a plus, not a criticism.  Murphy’s “gift” may be a jinx for everyone else, but for him it’s a source of incredible luck.  Revenge of the Jinx is meant to make you smile and feel good, not keep you on the edge of your seat, wondering whether Murphy and his friends are going to die.

 

    Overall, I thought this was a fine sequel to the opening book in the series.  The tone was heartwarming, there was sufficient action and intrigue to keep the plot moving, and enough witty dialogue to keep the reader smiling.  I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Curse vs. Jinx.

 

    8½ Stars.  One last tidbit.  I loved the inclusion of the lyrics of one of my favorite songs ever, Radar Love by Golden Earring.  I’ve never met him, but I am certain that Benjamin Laskin has fantastic musical tastes!