A zippy mystery. I read and enjoyed it as a standalone. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

"At the height of tourist season, an armored car drives off a crowded pier and sinks to the bottom of San Francisco Bay. By the time divers find the wreck, the cash is gone and the driver has vanished... " thus begins the aptly named Boxing the Octopus - Cape Weathers Mystery #4.

Aptly named because this opening incident sets in motion a confused story with almost as many subplots as the aforementioned cephalopod has arms (I'm exaggerating - a little). There is a tenacious private detective, a wanna-be pirate, a trio of often inept criminal siblings with connections to the Russian mob, a money laundering conglomerate, a mysterious globe trotting doctor, sinister pharmaceutical experiments, a couple of ninja assasins, and, just for good measure, an actual octopus.

I had a difficult time getting into this book not so much because of everything that was going on but due to an extreme shift in tone from one subplot to another. Sometimes it reads like an expose on world health corruption and other times it was more of an oddball crime caper that was almost slapstick in nature. I just wasn't able to transition back and forth with the plot; As a result what was intended as slow building suspense resulted in a long drawn out crawl to an unfulfilling and mildly confusing conclusion.

This was almost certainly a case of the wrong reader for the material, as such I can't recommend Boxing the Octopus.

***Thanks to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and Tim Maleeny for graciously providing me with a free digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Boxing the Octopus is the fourth Cape Weathers mystery and the first I have read. Fortunately, any competent mystery series does not require reading the books in order to enjoy them. In Boxing the Octopus, Cape is hired by a woman whose boyfriend is suspected of being an inside man in a armored car robbery. His investigation leads to a triangle of conspiracies centered on the pier that have tentacles reaching around the world, connecting Russia, China, and San Francisco.

With a mix of money laundering, designer drug peddling, and clandestine pharmaceutical research, there are a lot of balls to juggle, and that’s not even mentioning the armored car robbery that initiated the investigation. How it all comes together is alarmingly credible.



I finished reading Boxing the Octopus four days ago, but I was left uncertain what I thought of it. I have been thinking about it since and that surely is a sign of a compelling book. The plot is a bit histrionic, what with all the nastiness centered on the Pier. The characters are multi-dimensional. I was particularly fond of the pirate even though he did try to feed someone to a shark. Even the evil scientist is motivated by a desire to save the world, though his road to hell is a superhighway and his good intentions are barely a trickle.

So, my favorite road trip game is a singing one. You sing a line of a song, the first line or the chorus. The next person then sings a line of another song, using one of the words from your song and so on. Maleeny does something like this. The first sentence of each chapter echoes a phrase from the last sentence of the preceding chapter. This is what left me wondering for four days. Sometimes it made me smile, sometimes it irritated me, as though there was this demand I admire the performance. It is sort of clever, but also it is obtrusive. Should it be?

I don’t mind being stopped in my tracks while reading by some beautiful description, a metaphor so original it makes me stop and admire it. But this is not beautiful, it is clever. I am still not sure if I like it.

I received an e-galley of Boxing the Octopus from the publisher through NetGalley.

Boxing the Octopus at Poisoned Pen Press
Tim Maleeny author site

This is the fourth Cape Weathers thriller and the first book since 2008. I have not read any prior books by the author and enjoyed this fun fast paced mystery as a crime thriller ,The main charcter is Cape and he has a ever present assassin sidekick Sally, and a cast of other colorful fun humorous characters. This was a fun crime romp through San Francisco with humor, mystery and even a giant Pacific Octopus featuring into the book.

I enjoyed the location of Pier 39 and other areas of San Francisco richly described by the author. The charcters are truly well developed to the story and the crime was interesting to conclusion. A fun read that I recommend.

Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the ARC for review. My review opinion is my own. Review cross posted to Good Reads, Amazon and Net Galley as well as B&N.

Tim Maleeny is one of those people who seem destined to be a crime fiction writer. He is so observant to the locales around him and he always is thinking about "what if". Boxing the Octopus is his newest title and it's a scary romp through San Francisco with bad guys who aren't the brightest. Maleeny writes with some dark humor, because let's face it, nothing ever goes according to planned, even in the crime world.

On a well known and well frequented pier in San Fran, an armed car rolls off the pier into the water. When it's recovered, the loot is gone and no suspects in sight. What appears to police to be a simple case of armed robbery turns out to be anything but.

Maleeny is a wonderful storyteller and I thank Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. I highly recommend it and other Maleeny books. I bought another after finishing this one.

A fun and entertaining novel, engrossing and full of quirky and likeable characters.
I enjoyed the plot that hooked since the first pages and the solid mystery.
It's the first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

An armored car drives off famed Pier 39 and sinks to the bottom of San Francisco Bay. The cash and driver are gone and the police think it's an inside job. But local merchant Vera Young, whose boyfriend Hank drove the armored car, swears he is innocent and wants him found. PI Cape Weathers reluctantly takes the case but warns Vera that Hank is probably guilty, or dead. But Cape does not expect to stumble upon a criminal conspiracy of money laundering, illegal drug testing that spans the globe.

This is the fourth Cape Weathers thriller caper and the first book since 2008. Once again, Maleeny brings back Cape, his assassin sidekick Sally, and a cast of zany characters which also showcases San Francisco in a fun-filled, action-packed story. One unique character is Oscar, the giant Pacific octopus who is the star attraction at the Aquarium by the Bay, plays a pivotal role as the body count rises.

I received an eARC from Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and provided this review.