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The Protectors #1-3
Protectors
A former combat nurse, a former legal secretary, and the owner of one of the first women-only gyms form an unlikely alliance in this fast-paced and riveting new work by the acclaimed historical mystery novelist Kris Nelscott. The novel opens on the day of the Moon landing, July 20, 1969, two years after the Summer of Love changed Berkeley forever, and left lots of broken teenagers in its wake. One of the first (if not the first) women-only gyms in the nation and the start of the Women's Self-Defense Movement bring June "Eagle" Eagleton, Valentina "Val" Wilson, and Pamela "Pammy" Griffin together. They never intended to face the kidnappings and murders of college students. But no one else paid attention. An amazing trip into the experiences and lives of 1969 Berkeley told with riveting attention to detail. A read that will keep you turning pages into the late night and shock you at the same time. "Nelscott expertly mixes history and mystery, and readers will be happy that she intends to write more books about these distinctive people and eventful times."
--Publishers Weekly "Nelscott is a first-rate storyteller."
--Kirkus Reviews "Nelscott's series setting, in the turbulent late '60s, gives her books layers of issues of racism, class, and war, all of which still seem to remain sadly timely today."
--Oregonian "(A) crime writer deliberately taking chances."
--Chicago Tribune
--Publishers Weekly "Nelscott is a first-rate storyteller."
--Kirkus Reviews "Nelscott's series setting, in the turbulent late '60s, gives her books layers of issues of racism, class, and war, all of which still seem to remain sadly timely today."
--Oregonian "(A) crime writer deliberately taking chances."
--Chicago Tribune
550 pages, Hardcover
Published October 17, 2017
6 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
Kris Nelscott
41 books39 followersKristine Kathryn Rusch is an award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy writer. She has written many novels under various names, including Kristine Grayson for romance, and Kris Nelscott for mystery. Her novels have made the bestseller lists--even in London--and have been published in 14 countries and 13 different languages.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 23, 2017
KKR!
This is a very introspective story set in 1969 Berkeley California. Imagine a murder-mystery written in 2017 that doesn't include cell phones and computers, but still has electricity!
These are interesting constraints, and these 3 women are working through the challenges of the times as well as their local serial killer. This super-size novel explores many of the attitudes and beliefs of the day, and cheers for these women who strive to escape their restrictions. The mystery is pretty good, and the twisted motivation is startling. The ending is surprising in a good way.
Per the author, this is the first in a series, and I am very interested to see where this leads.
This is a very introspective story set in 1969 Berkeley California. Imagine a murder-mystery written in 2017 that doesn't include cell phones and computers, but still has electricity!
These are interesting constraints, and these 3 women are working through the challenges of the times as well as their local serial killer. This super-size novel explores many of the attitudes and beliefs of the day, and cheers for these women who strive to escape their restrictions. The mystery is pretty good, and the twisted motivation is startling. The ending is surprising in a good way.
Per the author, this is the first in a series, and I am very interested to see where this leads.
March 20, 2019
Three women in the late 60s decide to protect their neighborhood--Berkeley--from a mysterious man who may have abducted several people. After the Summer of Love comes the Summer of Fear.
My only real gripe here is that it was a lot of book for the plot. The opening is slow and reasonable. Things have to poked into; dead ends have to be followed to find out how dead they are. There was a lot of backstory on the characters and conversation. Now, on the one hand this was reasonable--these three women are interesting, and they weren't in the center of the action at the time. But I expected more twists and turns, and more of the feel of walking around Berkeley at the time. Good, but not my favorite of her books.
Recommended for history buffs of the Sixties and Seventies and mystery readers who like a bit of a revenge plot lurking inside their mysteries.
My only real gripe here is that it was a lot of book for the plot. The opening is slow and reasonable. Things have to poked into; dead ends have to be followed to find out how dead they are. There was a lot of backstory on the characters and conversation. Now, on the one hand this was reasonable--these three women are interesting, and they weren't in the center of the action at the time. But I expected more twists and turns, and more of the feel of walking around Berkeley at the time. Good, but not my favorite of her books.
Recommended for history buffs of the Sixties and Seventies and mystery readers who like a bit of a revenge plot lurking inside their mysteries.
September 23, 2019
Outstanding characterizations and development. Lots of twists and turns. The book recreates a time I remember well, since I grew up during the 1960s. It is long, but it doesn't seem so.
November 29, 2019
In California, 1969, while the country holds its collective breath for the landing on the Moon, three different women bond together to chase an elusive aggressor who prays on young rebellious students.
A part of the attraction of the Kris Nelscott book was that I remember the late 60s' atmosphere myself. I plunged right there, because of the marginalized characters, and re-discovering this eventful era. I'm sensitive to discrimination and the plight of those women, so the story meshed nicely with me.
You can't beat the opening from Val, in first-person, setting up a close proximity with the reader:
If you talk to people, they'll you their life has a dividing line. (...) Me, I don't have a dividing line. I have a fucking crater. My life was shredded, ripped in half, completely destroyed.
The rest of Protectors is as gripping, intense, and shared between three POV characters. Along the book, any missing information was completed by one of the three narrators. (One first-person, Val, two third-person Pam and Eagle).
I drove through the whole book because of the social interactions and each character's peculiar voice. Get your hands on the paperback, or the ebook!
And I had the luck to get my special numbered hardcover edition signed from Kris herself, so that book is doubly precious to me!
A part of the attraction of the Kris Nelscott book was that I remember the late 60s' atmosphere myself. I plunged right there, because of the marginalized characters, and re-discovering this eventful era. I'm sensitive to discrimination and the plight of those women, so the story meshed nicely with me.
You can't beat the opening from Val, in first-person, setting up a close proximity with the reader:
If you talk to people, they'll you their life has a dividing line. (...) Me, I don't have a dividing line. I have a fucking crater. My life was shredded, ripped in half, completely destroyed.
The rest of Protectors is as gripping, intense, and shared between three POV characters. Along the book, any missing information was completed by one of the three narrators. (One first-person, Val, two third-person Pam and Eagle).
I drove through the whole book because of the social interactions and each character's peculiar voice. Get your hands on the paperback, or the ebook!
And I had the luck to get my special numbered hardcover edition signed from Kris herself, so that book is doubly precious to me!
November 2, 2017
Three women are brought together by circumstances in Berkeley in 1969: Pammy, who owns a gym where she teaches women self-defense techniques, born from the violent deaths of two close friends; Eagle, a military nurse recently returned from Vietnam, issues in tow; and Val, a black Chicago native running from a violent rape and the death of her vengeance-seeking husband. They meet at Pammy's gym, brilliantly called A Gym of Her Own (Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen would have appreciated it!), and become friends of a sort, each carrying her own baggage.
Eagle witnesses a man violently abducting a young woman, and the college students who come to the gym tell them they've been warned about a man in a pickup truck. The three women realize that something is going on, that the police won't help, and that they have to investigate and keep this guy from hurting any more kids.
The plot was involved and kept me reading, and the sense of time and place were perfect--it's obvious that Nelscott did her research and knows her stuff. I think this is the start of a new series, and if so I'll be glad to revisit.
Eagle witnesses a man violently abducting a young woman, and the college students who come to the gym tell them they've been warned about a man in a pickup truck. The three women realize that something is going on, that the police won't help, and that they have to investigate and keep this guy from hurting any more kids.
The plot was involved and kept me reading, and the sense of time and place were perfect--it's obvious that Nelscott did her research and knows her stuff. I think this is the start of a new series, and if so I'll be glad to revisit.
November 16, 2017
This is a fascinating book set in Berkeley in the 1960's. I may be more drawn to it since this is my hometown, but Kris Nelscott, aka Kristine Katherine Rusch, is both a great writer and a great storyteller. The action is set on Berkeley's infamous Telegraph Avenue, centered around a woman's-only gym, probaby the only one at the time. The owner decides to investigate some missing women and draws in some of her members, and her medic (June from the Reader's Choice story Combat Medic) to assist. The characters are all compelling and the portrayal of the era is both disturbing and fascinating. I did not find it quite as dark as her Smokey Dalton series, but be warned: this is an intense novel, not a light-hearted romantic romp. Strange that this would probably be considered a historical mystery...Highly recommended. I'm hoping for a continuation!
March 20, 2018
It's interesting reading an "historical" mystery set in a time you lived through. It seems so long ago and far away, but yet ....
Kris does an excellent job of reminding folks what it was like to struggle for survival during those years -- especially for women -- and bringing the era to life for those for whom it is only history, helping them understand just how far we've come, even despite recent setbacks.
The book is compelling; it's hard to put it down. The characters are well developed, fascinating, and intriguing.
I only have one request. MORE please.
Kris does an excellent job of reminding folks what it was like to struggle for survival during those years -- especially for women -- and bringing the era to life for those for whom it is only history, helping them understand just how far we've come, even despite recent setbacks.
The book is compelling; it's hard to put it down. The characters are well developed, fascinating, and intriguing.
I only have one request. MORE please.
December 12, 2017
A very good historical thriller set in Berkley 1969.It follows three women involved in a Woman's only gym. The ideas of counter culture and feminism are all around this. The mystery to be solved was good. The book was slow in parts with detail, though all those details helped create a sense of place and character. For all that, te ending was a little rushed. Slow and then too fast. Well worth the time.
May 3, 2020
It took me a while to warm to the style of this book as the story is told from the three different heroines’ perspectives. The historical research is great, the social issues are nicely worked into the plot and the characters and it‘s a good crime story. I am definitely going to read more by this author.
November 1, 2017
It is Berkeley in 1969. Eagle, a former combat nurse in Vietnam, witnesses a young woman being brutally beaten and kidnapped. She reports it to the police but they can do nothing. A discussion at her gym reveals that a number of young people have disappeared recently. Nobody has given it much thought, because, hey, it is Berkley where young folks come and go.
Convinced that the abduction she witnessed is related to the disappearances, Eagle teams up with “Pammy” the owner of the gym and “Val”* from Chicago to try and find out the who, what, and why. This improbable investigative team soon finds themselves deep in a very serious situation. But what can three untrained women do when the police can do nothing? They are unsure how to proceed and know it will be dangerous. But they also know they have to try.
Good story with an exciting and solid finish.
(*Val is a small black woman from Chicago with a mysterious past. She was a character in Nelscott's earlier book Stone Cribs: A Smokey Dalton Novel.)
Convinced that the abduction she witnessed is related to the disappearances, Eagle teams up with “Pammy” the owner of the gym and “Val”* from Chicago to try and find out the who, what, and why. This improbable investigative team soon finds themselves deep in a very serious situation. But what can three untrained women do when the police can do nothing? They are unsure how to proceed and know it will be dangerous. But they also know they have to try.
Good story with an exciting and solid finish.
(*Val is a small black woman from Chicago with a mysterious past. She was a character in Nelscott's earlier book Stone Cribs: A Smokey Dalton Novel.)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews