Jessica James is a graduate student working towards a PhD in Philosophy at Northwestern University; anxious, brash, and hoping to study her way out of white trash poverty back in Montana, she spends sleepless nights fantasizing about how to hasten the demise of her much despised thesis advisor–an innocent hobby, as far as it goes.

Until the night she and two of her friends break into his pigsty of an office, intent of smoking some weed there to while away their insomnia, and end up discovering his rotting body instead. Worse, the bastard had left behind a post-dated letter withdrawing as Jessica’s advisor, essentially killing all her hopes for a PhD.

Beware: alcoholism; fatphobia; DNF review

The book is narrated in omniscient third person, past tense, from at least two points of view: Jessica’s and Dmitri’s, the janitor who cleans the Philosophy Department building. The spring semester is over and Jessica, broke, is squatting in her office in the building until it’s time to go back to Nowhere, Montana for the summer.

One night, her friend and medical student Jack, shows up with some weed and his girlfriend Amber. For reasons that make no sense, they break into the office of Jessica’s thesis advisor, one Baldrick Wolfgang Schmutzig, “distinguished” professor of philosophy, whereupon they proceed to find him rotting in the bathtub of his private restroom.

Next we follow Dmitri as he confronts the local boss of the Russian mafia, over some stolen paintings; not a lot of this conversation makes sense, as it’s all references to a history the reader is not privy to, but it ends with Dmitri being beat up by the boss’ bodyguards.

Then it’s back to Jessica’s point of view, sleeping on top of her office desk; and I had to stop reading at around the 11% when the author has her peeing in a discarded cardstock container of Chinese food and pulling “her damp underwear” back up in her office, before stepping out into the hallway to talk to the undergrad student waiting outside her office.

It’s not just that I couldn’t see anyone to root for in the narrative so far, or even the awkward writing and sheer number of repeated words (in the scene with the mafioso, the word “dainty” is repeated more than a half dozen times), but that every single character is reduced to the most negative clichés of whichever type they represent.

Jessica is white trash, so she navigates the world in dirty clothes and greasy hair, and her mother is of course an alcoholic with violent mood swings. Her murdered professor is a lecherous pig who fails female students who don’t put out. Her ex-boyfriend is a boy from a moneyed background who “was good to her”, introducing her to a much larger world than she had previously known, but also cheated on her–which she finds out because she snoop-reads his diary, natch.

Dmitri’s cousin is covered in tattoos and speaks broken English, and the local Bratva boss is fat, with yellowed teeth and disgusting manners, while commanding dead-eyed musclebound bodyguards.

Beyond a few pointed observations about U.S. academia, there was nothing in the book that compelled me to suffer through the writing any longer.

Wolf is a DNF for me.

NOTE: this review is for the ARC file from 2016; I do not know if the current version for sale (May 2024) has changes.

I received an advanced review copy for free from Netgalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you, Kelly Oliver, for the opportunity to read your book. This was an alright read. I thought the story had potential, but it did not meet expectations. I thought the characters were okay. I did not love them, nor did I dislike them. They did have some good moments, but I thought they were a bit boring for the most part. Also, the story was so boring that I had to put the book down. I hope the rest of the series gets better. I think Kelly Oliver has real potential, but the book was not the best book I've read. Overall, an okay read.

this was a good book,, but not great. The characters were relatable, and the story rather predictable

The premise of the book is great and the author really delivers. Great read. Highly recommended. .

I started this book at least 3 times and couldn't get into it. I was very disappointed because it sounded like a fun read. The writing was ok, as were the characters, I think maybe the drugs, tempo, language were off-putting for me. I read for entertainment, and this one just missed the mark for me. So sad!

I so badly wanted to get into this novel, and it wasn't that the writing was bad, because it was fine, and the characters were well created, however there just was something about the plot... something... I don't know. But I couldn't get into the novel and the story line dragged for me.

This book had a fairly promising start. I was intrigued to find out what had happened to the professor, and found jumping between Jessica's story and Dmitry's story kept me interested and wanting to know more. Unfortunately this didn't continue throughout the book. Fairly quickly the story starts to go off on several seemingly unrelated tangents. There is the college date rape drug sideline, the illicit poker game sideline, some missing paintings, Dmitry's family history and a half hearted romance all thrown in to the mix. Add in a lot of references to Russian literature, artwork and philosophy, and a fair bit of coffee jargon and there's just too much going on. It's almost as if the author couldn't decide what she wanted to include in her novel, so she brought in aspects of all of her interests. I also thought the whole poker game and several of the details about that were far too close to the real life story of Molly's Game for my liking.

Don't get me wrong, there was some good stuff in there. I think the college rape issue is something that needs to be challenged in as many aspects of life as possible, otherwise it will continue to be brushed under the carpet. I think Oliver brought that subject up well, without making the book too dark.

I also liked that most of the strong and leading characters in the book were female. I particularly liked Lolita, as a character who is fiercely independent and won't let anyone mess her around. That said I didn't really feel invested in any of the characters. I would've liked more backstory for Amber, and to learn more about her tech fascination before it became a necessary skill in the storyline. I also found it irritating that Jessica fell over as much as she did. That was totally unnceccesary and didn't add anything to the story.

Overall I started out quite enjoying this, but got more and more disinterested as it went on. By about 80% I kind of just wanted it to be over. 2*, and I won't be reading book 2.

Thanks to NetGalley and KAOS press for a free copy in return for an honest review

Jessica wanted to murder her professor, she even put it on Facebook, unfortunately he ended up dead and she even discovered the body with a couple of friends. You have a bit of everything in this mystery Russian mobsters, missing paintings, date rape drugs. Good thing Jessica has a good group of quirky friends on hand. A very different mystery with loads going on but keeps you reading till the end.
I was given an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Jessica is from a ranch in Montana. She never met something she couldn't fall over. She is a philosophy graduate student. Jessica finds out her thesis advisor, Wolf wants her out of school. What's a girl to do? One of her friends gets her to come out of her room and smoke some pot with him and his girlfriend, Her friend decides that smoking in Wolf's office is the thing to do. After breaking in, they find his body. This is really not good. Jessica and her friends start investigating his murder. The Russian Mafia are after her when she finds out they are supplying date rape drugs to the college. Priceless stolen paintings, the Russian Mafia, drug dealing and a stolen thesis are all part of Jessica's misadventures. Now if someone doesn't poison her, she might make it thru school with her degree. I thought this book was fun. I loved the characters, especially Jessica. Full of adventure and action. I received this book from Net Galley and the publisher for a honest review and no compensation otherwise.

An entertaining and fun to read mystery. It's not the typical cozy as the cast of characters is very original.
The plot is interesting and the characters are likeable.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I thought this was a interesting mystery, it's not your typical cozy mystery. I really liked the characters, they were well done, the heroines to cheer on, the villians to boo. It addresses some serious subjects and I think handles them well. Will definitely be looking for the next book in the series.

I received a free copy of Wolf (Book 1 of the Jessica James Mysteries) by Kelly Oliver in exchange for an honest review. Jessica James is a hard-drinking, dope-smoking philosophy graduate student. When Jessica finds out her thesis advisor intends to have her dismissed from school, she’s shocked and not sure what to do. When her friends show up and suggest having a “party” in the graduate advisor’s office, they break in, and find his corpse. Jessica and her friends end up investigating the death, tracking down stolen paintings, breaking up a drug ring, and visiting vengeance upon a fraternity drugging and raping co-eds. There’s a lot going on in this book, including many, many, many bad decisions.

The story was entertaining. The rampant drug and alcohol use turned me off.

#Wolf #NetGalley

Wolf by Kelly Oliver is filled with a disparate collection of people ranging from semi-stoned graduate students to Russian Mobsters. The story seems to have been inspired at least in part by the “Me, Too” movement combined with the often reported and dramatized illegal activities of generations old Russian mob families who have brought their family hierarchy to the United States There are several plot lines, including the graduate student, Jessie James, who is struggling to get her Ph.D. in spite of the fact she is not the typical well heeled student, her fellow graduate students who consume large amounts of alcohol while trying to help Jessie solve a professor’s murder, and the Russian Mobsters. These groups are thrown together by murder, a date-rape drug ring, and two previously undiscovered works of Russian art smuggled into the United States by a Russian trying to escape his mob connections and now working as a janitor at the university.

The action in the novel swings abruptly in much the same way the report of a dream might be. It swings from one subject to another with no warning, yet in a way that makes sense in the framework of the dream. Often gritty, with references to drinking by the students and resultant bodily activities, over-indulgence of sweets by the Russian crime boss, and descriptions of Jessie and friends as they carry out their form of vigilante justice. The tale careens from the offices of the philosophy department to a restaurant where Russian expats congregate, taking stops at a student run high stakes poker game, a frat house and the home of the Russian janitor.

This book is most likely to appeal to people who prefer darker struggles such as might be found in shows such as “Jessica Jones”, “Breaking Bad”, or “Orange is the New Black”. Much of it reads as action unfolding on a small screen in front of the reader with the climax of the story being very similar to the last fifteen minutes of an hour-long action drama. There is little, if any subtlety to it, as details regarding sights, sounds and smells are spelled out in explicit terms throughout the novel.

My thanks to NetGalley and KAOS press for providing a complimentary digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.