Books Are For Squares

Quick Read: "Company K" by William March

2012-01-30T19:24:00.002-06:00

Quick Read: Company K by William March, 1957 ( paper edition from Sagamore Press), LOC #57-9761.

I like WWI stories. I ran across a clip or promo for the movie version of this and decided to check it out. This copy was ILL'd from UW-Parkside. 183 pages.

March was William E Campbell. According to Literary Reference Center March joined the Marines for WWI, fought in several battles, and was awarded the DSC and Navy Cross. After the war March went into the overseas shipping business and thrived. He started writing short fiction in the '20s as therapy and Company K came out in 1933. He started writing full time in 1938. I've read that March's serial killer novel Bad Seed is his most famous. I read a description of Bad Seed and the plot sounds very familiar to something I recently read about online.

Anther source, a 1977 issue of Papers on Language and Literature, says March started writing when he was 15. That piece agrees his first short stories were therapy and first came out in '29.

Company K is written like Spoon River Anthology with many short stories told by multiple characters with no character telling more than one tale; and some telling their story from the grave. Each vignette is matter-of-fact; something that several reviewers remarked upon. Some characters are philosophical and doubting modern morality and truth. Other characters are murderous turds who believe every rumor they are told.

A key event in the novel - and one told by several characters - is the murder of a group of German prisoners. A Sergeant is commanded by an officer to kill some prisoners. He assigns a squad of automatic riflemen for the task. The corporal in charge is happy to do the job. The corporal is convinced the krauts send men over to surrender and those men then lie in wait to attack from the rear during a German attack. Another man sneaks back to rob the bodies. Others are sickened, one runs away, years later one last Marine is on death row refusing a chaplain's visit.

Like Spoon River Anthology I kept flipping back and forth trying to track down characters from story to story. An annotated edition with a complete index would be ideal. This is worth re-reading to try and connect all the characters. But, I have too many other books to get to.

Comments:

1. One character is gassed and blinded. Left in a dugout he hears and feels an artillery barrage and then hears the German attack. Gas seeps into his dugout and he feels his way out, helpless. The Germans kill him. I felt sorrow for his death and then felt conflicted when a later story showed what a shit he was.

2. Lots of gas attacks.

3. Incompetent officers.

4. An officer whose pride makes him ignore an NCO's advice and gets people killed.

5. I never did get around to reading Sassoon's third novel in his autobio sequence.

6. During my freshman year at Gustavus we had a wrestling practice with Parkside during our J-term trip and I got clobbered. That was humiliating.

7. A bio of March came out in 1985 or so. I won't read it but wonder what he did during WWII. I would think his shipping experience would have valued. Would he have wanted to re-enlist? Did he fall into the bottle like so many contemporaries?

Done: "The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse" by Mabel Maney

2012-01-30T14:04:00.002-06:00

Done: The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse by Mabel Maney, 1993, 093941676x.

I saw the novel's cover illustration online. Probably something Christa Faust linked to. I'm surprised the book was in the catalog; Watertown owns it. According to the book bio and wikipedia Maney is from WI. I presume much of the book bio is silliness.

If you read this in expectation of hot lesbo action you will be disappointed. If you read this in expectation of a silly mix of lesbian characters and Nancy Drew detective fiction you will be happy.

Cherry Aimless is a new nurse in Seattle General Hospital circa 1955 or so. Cherry is incredibly earnest and devoted to her work. No matter how much her mother hopes her to find a man the doctors and interns just don't interest her. A Seattle General patient has amnesia and Cherry is sure she can sleuth her identity but then the patient goes missing! Oh dear!

Cherry is due to vacation in San Francisco and visit her aunt. The head nurse requests Cherry drop off a gift in Oregon during her drive. Cherry is followed by mysterious men. Men try to steal away the gift. Cherry visits her parents and then goes to Oregon town to drop gift. Cherry lost the address and is directed to a bar to ask around. How strange, all the bar patrons are women. One women seems particularly interested in Cherry. How darling!

Cherry meets a gal who looks just like her and then meets that gal's close friend and roommate. They are the people she is looking for. What a coincidence! New friend is mistaken for Cherry and is kidnapped! Oh no!

Cherry and roommate head to SF. Cherry searches for famous girl detective Nancy Clue who is visiting SF. Cherry and Nancy meet and head back to Nancy's hotel. (Presumably hot lesbo action happens.) Cherry's aunt is missing. Nuns are involved. Priests are involved. Men are so crude, foul, and rude! More mystery. Kidnappings. Derring do. Plucky teenager involved. Nuns are rescued from scheming priests.

Cherry heads to parent's house to nurse her injured father. Cherry misses Nancy terribly. Nancy and co. come to town to enlist Cherry to solve new and urgent mystery.

Comments:
1. Silliness of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries. Lots of coincidences and plucky action.
2. Cherry's dad is a bump on a log who returns home from work and sits in a chair until dinner and bedtime.
3. Many descriptions of clothes and shoes. How cute!
4. Good natured earnestness and optimism.
5. Sex puns.
6. This only numbers 184 pages and I thought it went about 20-30 pages too long.

Heardd: "Concrete Blonde" by Michael Connelly

2012-01-27T13:13:00.002-06:00

Heard: Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly, 1994 (print), downloaded from Overdrive.com

There was a recent online discussion about serial killer novels and respondents posted whether they liked them. This came out in 1994 which, if I remember correctly, was during the height of serial killer popularity. Listening to it now, in 2012, it is passe.

Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch is an LAPD detective. He used to be in the elite Robbery-Homicide unit until he killed a serial killer four years before. The killer, nicknamed the Dollmaker, was guilty, but Bosch got in administrative trouble for not calling for help before the confrontation and was subsequently transferred. Now, Bosch is being sued in federal court for denying due process to the dead guy and faking the evidence against him (he didn't).

At the beginning of the trial a note is dropped off at a police station claiming the writer is the Dollmaker and still killing. The note leads to a body encased in concrete. The concrete covered blonde fits the killer's pattern and has a specific tell-tale clue. Bosch starts to worry a bit.

Bosch is under pressure from the court case. Bosch is under pressure thinking he may have screwed up. Bosch is also dating the widow of a policeman whose death Bosch investigated. Bosch is under pressure from girlfriend who wants more emotional connection.

Bosch investigates. Opposing trial attorney is skilled and ruthless. LAPD Lieutenant is an ass. Bosch's city lawyer is inexperienced and fat. Bosch and others investigate and figure note writer is a copycat killer. Bosch has a suspect. Oops, wrong guy. Bosch has another suspect. Oops, wrong guy again. Bosch has a third suspect. Oh good, the correct guy. Bosch and girlfriend reconnect. Everyone lives happily ever after except for the dead people.

Comments:
1. The first Bosch book I read/listened to. The Mickey Haller series is quite good.
2. Connelly with an E not an O.
3. Three main topics: the trial, the murder investigation, Harry's troubled brain.
4. Harry is one of crime fiction's shut down dudes. He never knew his father, his mother was a murdered street walker, he was foster homed, time in Vietnam, time in the police department. He doesn't drink too much like other Shut Down Dudes be he has difficulty connecting with people. Anyone outside of police work is dismissed for their naivety. Harry knows he is emotionally closed off. Harry wants to speak to Girlfriend about his life but is incapable of doing so.
5. One reason I never tried reading these novels is the name Hieronymus. It made the book sound gimmicky.
6. Harry does not like porn, the pron industry, or the results he sees on the actors.
7. I don't recall what physical description Connelly gave Bosch but Bosch must be a smaller guy to have been a tunnel rat.
8. Harry is often the "grouchy cop." He can be a real dickhead.
9. Indoor smoking at bars.
10. No cell phones.
11. Beepers.
12. Narration by Dick Hill is sub par. Sometimes Hill really annoys me. He adds in throat clearing, whiny voices, grunts, and uhms. His female voices are almost always whiny and meek.
13. Harry really dislikes young lawyers questioning his experience and theories.
14. Henry Weinhard beer. I'm pretty sure I used to buy that in Arizona.

Quit Listening: "Stalking the Angel" by Robert Crais

2012-01-27T13:10:00.002-06:00

Quit Listening: Stalking the Angel by Robert Crais, Overdrive download.

I listened to this three and half years ago. To my credit I quickly recognized the novel while listening, even if I did not recognize the title.

I remember the finale including a lakeside house assaulted by Pike and Cole. And lots of Japanese guys.

Quit Listening:"Thirteen Hours" by Deon Meyer

2012-01-26T19:07:00.002-06:00

Quit Listening: Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer, 2009, downloaded from Overdrive.com.

I am unable to keep track of all the Dutch and African names in an audio version. I will read the book instead.

Finished: "Save the Last Bullet for Yourself" by Rob Krott

2012-01-25T17:23:00.004-06:00

Finished: Save the Last Bullet For Yourself: a soldier of fortune in the Balkans and Somalia by Rob Krott, 2008, 9781932033953.

I was not entirely sure what to make of this or what to think of Krott. In the end I decided to not interpret his actions and thoughts into any moral discussion but take the book for what it is, an adventure story. An entertaining book.

Krott joined the Army at seventeen and over several years, into his early twenties, advanced through the Army, finished college, deployed to Korea, took several Army training courses, attended Harvard, and did anthropology research in Africa. This book does not give a clear timeline of all of Krott's travels overseas, his jobs, his girlfriends, his gunfights and his many pals and acquaintances. During that time Krott also wrote for Soldier of Fortune magazine and became somewhat well known among that community.

After leaving the Army Krott was 26-years-old and bored with civilian life. He quit his job with the federal prisons to join the Croat Army as a foreign volunteer. Krott's was next hired by a civilian contractor to hire, train, and manage native Somalias (living in the U.S.) to work as translators in Somalia in '93. After Somalia he returned to Croatia and joined a different unit.

Along the way Krott tells plenty of stories about Army buddies, mercenary buddies, nuttiness, idiots, and bureaucratic mayhem. I took three main things away from the book:
1 - Mercenaries are not. There is usually no money in the work. The people who show up are adventurers. Some are there to fight for what they believe in. Some are just there to fight.
I suppose the recent dependence on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan has radically changed the business. Pay is much better (hell, everyone in the U.S. is footing the bill) and they can hire capable and trained people.
2 - Most Croats, Serbs, and Bosnians were clueless about military operations. Joe Sacco showed some of that. Their organization and skill was no different than me grabbing a rifle from the basement, throwing on surplus camouflage, and going out to fight. Krott and other experienced soldiers were best used when they developed and led infantry training. How do you walk through the woods? How do you use a machine gun? Where do you use a machine gun? How attack? How defend?
3 - I forgot the third one.

Finished Few Days Ago: "Cluck" by Susan Troller

2012-01-22T14:09:00.002-06:00

Finished A Few Days Ago: Cluck: from jungle fowl to city chicks by Susan Troller, art by SV Medaris, 2011, 9780981516134.

A committee read. Much more interesting than I expected. Various stories by Troller and a couple other writers about raising chickens. These are small flocks for personal consumption of eggs and meat - but mostly eggs.

Chickens are stupid but have much more personality and behavioral tics than I ever knew. The pecking order among different species is odd, too. One cock was a mean mofo and would attack anything. Except for one certain cat. Anyone carrying that cat through the barnyard was assured of safety from the cock. The intelligence of raccoons to get chickens. All dogs will inevitably stop resisting the urge to chase and chomp chicks and chickens. Hawks and eagles cause a scurrying of fowl.

A couple stories by a grown-up farm kid were about his family more than the fowl. Stoller had interesting comments comparing chickens to velociraptors. Chickens will eat anything and will cannibalize when given the opportunity. Stoller would look at her chickens with a fondness and could, seemingly, feel that same affection from them. But, she would look in their beady little eyes and remember that, given the chance, the little bastards would eat her.

Some of the artwork by Medaris was quite impressive. Especially since I don't give a rat's ass about chicken paintings.

Done: "Katyn Order" by Douglas W. Jacobson

2012-01-15T20:22:00.002-06:00

Done: Katyn Order by Douglas W. Jacobson, 2010, 9781590135723.

Average novel. The topic and war setting were neat but the characters did not grab me.

Adam Nowak is an assassin in occupied Poland. Adam partly grew up in Poland, emigrated to the US with his father, joined the US Army, was discharged, went back to Poland, was kicked out of Poland to London, joined the OSS.

Natalia's family was murdered by the Russians and Germans when Poland was cut in half. Natalia works as a train conductor and also couriers messages for a resistance group. During the Warsaw revolution (not the earlier ghetto uprising) she works for the armed resistance, the AK.

Natalia and Adam meet during the uprising. The Germans are slaughtering civilians and shelling everything. The Russians are camped on the other side of the river, refusing to assist the Poles. Natalia and Adam make a emotional/romantic connection but are separated.

After the krauts are defeated Adam is sent by the OSS to do something in Poland. I cannot remember what. The plot got a little confusing for me. Anyway, he is also looking for his Polish uncle who was rounded up by the dirty, rotten, filthy, stinking nazis. Adam searches the records of a camp and starts tracking down his uncle.

Adam enlists Natalia help. Adam and Natalia find evidence that a copy of the order by Stalin and co. ordering the mass murder of Polish civilians and soldiers. Intrigue ensues. NKVD is vicious. Adam and Natalia do the deed. More intrigue with Russians, Poles, and Brits. Much discussion of WWII events. Mostly happy ending except for all the dead Poles and the murderous Soviets taking over.

Comments:

1. Jacobson did well in illustrating a part of WWII history that most people are probably unaware of. I was.

2. The Poles got fucked. First the nazis and Soviets split the country in half and murder a bunch of people. Then the nazis head East, take over the country and kill some more people. Then the Soviets drive nazis out, kill more people, and grind them under the boot heel for 40 years.

3. I thought the novel should have been shorter and the story simplified a bit with some editing. But, what do I know?

Listened: "'Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat'" by John Lukacs

2012-01-12T13:53:00.006-06:00

Listened: "Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat": The Dire Warning—Churchill’s First Speech as Prime Minister by John Lukacs, 2008 (audio anyway), OverDrive download.

A BBC Audiobooks program. I'm not sure if this is a book or a radio production.BBC radio productions often include multiple voices. Let me look....according to the weasels at wikipedia it's a book. Narrated by the Great and Mighty John Lee.

Centered around Churchill's early 1940 speech right after he was installed as PM. The speech to Parliament was not even broadcast. The key sentence used for the book title was actually was misquoted by BBC radio and the newspapers.

Churchill knew they were in trouble. At that point the krauts were still working into the low countries, and France. Churchill's position was in trouble as well. He was not a well liked or trusted man. Churchill took over from Chamberlain but Chamberlain was still very popular among MPs and was the party leader.

Churchill's position as PM was precarious for the first several months. His "years in the wilderness" were foremost in people's minds. His reputation as an outsider, or even a crockpot, had been earned and carried on. It took a few months for many politicians and policy people to believe in Churchill. Even those in his cabinet took time to arm to him and develop loyalty.

1940 was very much in flux as the Germans kept driving on. The British public were unaware of the task and threat ahead of them but Churchill was aware and the Blood reference was a clue to that. Churchill wrote all his speeches but was not that great a speaker. The content of his speeches 'built up' over time with the populace. Events and reminders by Churchill clued the Limeys that the fight was going to be long and bloody. Many Brits still thought they could swoop in and clobber the dirty, rotten, filthy stinking nazis.

In fact, there was the very real prospect that the British may have to surrender to Germany. But, Churchill absolutely refused to even consider the idea. Churchill immediately knew the need for the U.S. to join the war either materially or martially. He asked for assistance in personal correspondence with Roosevelt and in public speaking.

Churchill also knew that Hitler would invade Russia if he did not invade England. As the momentum turned Churchill feared the Russian advance into Eastern Europe and proposed going North through Italy into Europe rather than through France. (Did I remember that correctly? I think so.)

Comments:

1. The book is a little odd. Lukacs at first focuses on that first, overlooked speech as a good key to understanding Churchill and his initial policies and ideas. Then he just runs on through a few other speeches and the war.

2. The book was still interesting and only three hours long.

Listened: "Fallen" by T. Jefferson Parker

2012-01-11T19:07:00.003-06:00

Listened: Fallen by T. Jefferson Parker, 2006. OverDrive download.

I'm a big fan of Parker's Charlie Hood series, the latest one came in the mail today. Fallen's hook is the main character's synesthesia.

Robbie Brownlaw is only 29 years old but a homicide detective for the San Diego Police Department. When running into a burning residential hotel to help evacuate people the arsonist responsible threw Brownlaw out a window. Brownlaw fell through an awning with a hard landing on concrete. Subsequently, Brownlaw sees colored geometric shapes when people speak. The shapes correlate to deception, envy, earnestness, fear, etc. He has kept the synesthesia a secret but uses it as a rough lie detector.

Brownlaw gets the murder case for a murdered ethics investigator for the city, Garrett. Garrett's ethics investigations involved financial chicanery and prostitution. Several political big wigs, police officers, and firemen were involved. There are many suspects.

Meanwhile, Brownlaw's wife has left him. She wants something else. Something more. Brownlaw won't tell anyone, including his partner, about his wife. Brownlaw investigates. Brownlaw digs into Garrett's past. Brownlaw pines for his wife and tries to speak with her. Garrett's daughter drowned and he separated from his gorgeous wife. Brownlaw ponders.

Whores are interviewed not "interviewed". Brownlaw's cop partner dates a super wealthy technology guy after they question him. Madam for high-end whores is a real weasel. Madam's muscle is a scumbag. Brownlaw figures it all out. Shoot-out at the end. Brownlaw starts to recover from missing wife and head trauma aftermath. Brownlaw hot for fellow synesthete gal musician in the end.

Comments:
1. Recurring Parker themes: Lots of driving. Hot, young, musician chicks playing live music.
2. Everyone refers to San Diego as America's Finest City. They all believe it and want to keep scandal away from the city.
3. 1911 love.
4. Ferrari love.
5. Brownlaw is coping with several issues. His new synesthesia. His wife leaving him. Local celebrity after his fall was caught on video and endlessly replayed. Pressure to solve a politically sensitive case.
6. Parker does good work.
7. The synesthesia is not that important to the story. Don' expect constant description and discussion of the syndrome and Brownlaw's reactions to it. This is a fairly straightforward procedural with some good characters.
8. San Diego mega-love. The audio version did not give that slogan sarcastically. I wonder if Parker meant for some characters to be critical of it. I wonder if I would have come away with a different perspective by reading instead of listening.
9. When my brother whacked his head he didn't develop synesthesia. He lost his sense of smell instead.
10. Grammatical errors are common. But, I'm still peeved when finding them.

Done: "Road to Purgatory" by Max Allan Collins

2012-01-02T15:01:00.004-06:00

Done: Road to Purgatory by Max Allan Collins, 2004, 0060540273.

I couldn't get into this one. It did not grab me. I ordered the third novel in the series, a comic book novel again, and that arrived at work yesterday. I read some comments by Collins, maybe on his blog, that he really liked the illustrations in the first novel. Obviously, Collins and my preferred illustration styles do not match. I'll read the novel anyway.

Michael O'Sullivan was left orphaned at the end of Road to Perdition. He is adopted by an Italian family in DeKalb and his name changed to Satariano. Michael joins the service in 1939 (or so) and is in the Philippines fighting the Japanese. Michael is brave, Michael kills many Japs. Michael is wounded and loses an eye, Michael is evacuated off Luzon, Michael is awarded CMH.

Michael goes on war bond tour. Michael comes home to high school girlfriend in DeKalb. Michael bonks girl in back seat of Buick. Michael is a bit of a mess. He suffered under his father's care. He feels guilt about banging Filipino whores. He feels guilt for killing hundreds of Japs. He dumps the girlfriend and is hired by Elliott Ness to go undercover in the outfit. Michael is cool with going undercover. He wants revenge on Al Capone who arranged to have O'Sullivan senior killed.

Michael moves up in the mob and works for Frank Nitti. He murders a few goons in Indiana and is trusted. Michael sent to Capone's place in Florida as an advance security guy ahead of a visit by Nitti. Michael takes the opportunity for revenge. Bloodbath ensues. Capone is a syphilitic wreck. Michael distraught at his missed chance for revenge because Capone's mental state is that of a three year old.

Florida bloodbath mistaken as heroics by Michael to protect Capone. Michael is now a made man. Michael is the second man behind Nitti. Michael is a big deal. Michael is banging a madam and nightclub owner for the outfit. Michael is working for himself not Ness. Outfit power play ensues. Nitti is under pressure. Michael is told Nitti arranged his father's death. That makes sense. Nitti dies. Michael's whore girlfriend murdered (okay, she was the madam not the whore). Michael told by new boss how family is safe and he needs to get one. Michael goes back to DeKalb and proposes to old girlfriend. She knows his real business and will never ask about it.

Comments:
1. Michael is a freaking mess. He is almost incapable of love. His strongest emotions are revenge and anger. His best work is violence. He has a fondness for his adoptive parents - who love him deeply - but cannot make a deeper emotional connection. Ha! I knew the kid was a mess from Perdition!
2. CMH awardees are everyone's favorite during the parades and speeches but they cannot get a hello a couple months later. Eastwood did a great job in pointing that out in Flags. Think of the Marine who was just awarded the CMH for action in Afghanistan and was getting slurred and sued by his freaking employer a few weeks ago.
3. As usual Collins mixes real characters into his fiction. When I was in middle school and high school my parents subscribed to the Chicago Tribune for me. I remember a long article that rehashed Nitti's suicide along the train tracks with a .32. I remember - do not know if I am right - that Nitti shot himself 2-3 times with the .32.
4. You know likes .32 revolvers? Parker.
5. 1911 love.
6. Period car love.
7. It seems like every novel I read lately has prostitutes. Every novel I read is a crime novel. Go figure.
8. We have a memoir here, Guerrilla Daughter, by a lady who was a girl during the war whose father and brothers fought as guerrillas in the Philippines against the Japanese. I really should get around to reading that. It has only checked out three times.

Finished: "The Collaborator" by Gerald Seymour

2011-12-31T19:21:00.003-06:00

Finished: The Collaborator by Gerald Seymour, 2009, 9781590204467.

Last finished book of the year unless I hide in some room during the upcoming New Years party and finish an audiobook. I thought this came out in 2011 or 2010. Another solid book by Seymour and long at 474 pages. Seymour needed all those pages to cover the many characters.

Eddie is a twenty-something underachiever and all-around average guy in London. While buzzed after lunch time beer and summer heat he meets and speaks to an Italian girl on a park bench. The girl asks him to clarify an English word's meaning. Eddie happens to be a a language teacher. They hit it off.

The girl is Immacollota and she is quite secretive. They spend lots of time together with plenty of sex. But, only at his place and Imm never tells him her phone or home. Immocolatta was born into a crime family in Naples. An unloving and ruthless crime family. All of Naples seems to be unloving and ruthless. The whole damn town is run by different crime families of massive wealth. None of the families much care for money - they can never freely go in public to spend it - they care for power and fear.

Imm learns her best and only friend has died. She secretly flies to Italy for funeral. The family assaults and spits on her. The daughter died of poisoning from the illegal toxic dumping her family made a fortune off of. Imm is shamed. Imm decides to turn sides and testify. The decision is not hard. There is no love in her family. That is born out after her family are arrested and dream of slitting her throat with a dull blade.

Imm skips out of London to turn evidence. Imm is a snot whose every wish has been accepted by a fearful public. She does not adjust well to protective custody. Eddie decides to quit his job and search for the suddenly missing Imm. Eddie flies to Naples. Innocent Eddie does not know Imm is a collaborator. Eddie is kidnapped to exert leverage on Imm.

Many more things happen. The Italian investigator and prosecutor have to learn if Imm will stick with it. They have to worry about the torture and death threats on Eddie. Imm's minders have to deal with her lousy behavior. An expert hostage negotiator has to work with the Italians. The grandparents who started the criminal family have to take over again when kids and grand-kids go in jail. Vicious criminals. Heartless criminals. A hitman who only feels emotion at the instant of a victim's death.

Comments:

1. Recurring theme: SWAT guys who like to read about fancy new equipment.

2.This false issue of respect. The confusion [in my mind] of the Italians, and people in the U.S., that they are not given proper respect. They don't want respect, they want fear. They want groveling and begging. They want the power of life and death. Fear is not respect.

3. Never go to Naples.

4. The seeming futility of investigating and prosecuting a family when the many competing families just swoop in and take the territory.

Read: "Road to Perdition" by Max Allan Collins

2011-12-28T17:19:00.003-06:00

Read: Road to Perdition by Max Allan Collins, 1998, 9780671009212.

I was reading the Collins blog and was reminded about the recent publication of the third entry in this series. I watched the flick a few years ago but figured to read the novel. Not necessary since the flick closely followed the novel.

Story recap: Michael Sullivan is muscle for a Tri-Cities (Quad Cities in present day) mobster family, the Looneys, in 1930. Sullivan has two kids and a wife. Sullivan seems like a good dad and husband but his ruthless efficiency (not quite fanatical devotion to the Pope and church) gave him the nickname "Angel" for Angel of Death. Oldest son Mike, Jr. hides in dad's car before dad leaves at night and witnesses a machine gun multiple murder. Looney Junior murders Sullivan's wife and younger son. Looney, Jr. wants to get rid of witness and mistakes younger kid for older kid. At the same time, Looney, Sr. sends Sullivan to a meeting that is a set-up for murder. Sullivan escapes, comes home, and finds Mike, Jr. Sullivan is out for revenge.

Revenge involves trying to convince Capone's outfit in Chicago to quit their partnership with the Looney family. Sullivan kills many people and visits small town banks to steal Capone money that is being laundered. Sullivan cuts deal with Ness to give evidence on Looney. Ness busts Looney Sr. Sullivan gets Looney, Jr. Things end badly for everyone.

Comments:
1. I did not like the artwork; not my style. A notable point is that there is no detailed portrait of the dad's face until page 121. Every other page has his face obscured, "out-of-focus", or done with simple lines. The narrator, Mike, Jr., writes about how those several weeks on the run are more vivid than the time before. Sullivan's detailed portrait happens during their first trip to Chicago when he meets with Frank Nitti.
2. The dad's face is Montgomery Clift.
3. I skipped past Collins's intro but will likely read it because I always learn something when reading his commentaries.
4. I just read that Daniel Craig played the younger looney. I never noticed that.
5. An improvement over the novel was giving Jude Law's character a more prominent position and showing Sullivan afraid of him. Sullivan-in-the-novel is an unemotional killing machine. I remember the film took on Sullivan's combat veteran, PTSD problems that Collins explores with Quarry.
6. Sullivan is a creepy guy. You can argue that Sullivan's actions are keeping his son alive. But, at the same time, he is exposing his son to extreme danger and making him his driver and back-up gunman. I don't think the comic book novel format allowed Collins enough space to expand on the weird relationship between Sullivan and his son.
7. It's an incredibly sad story. Massive graft and corruption. Murder of a child and mother. Mike, Jr. goes through a lot of trauma and violence. Mike, Jr. forced to kill two people. Sullivan a messed up dude. Sullivan's Kansas relatives murdered. Sullivan murdered. Mike, Jr. ends up in an orphanage.
8. Collins did the comic book novel, was the movie's source, and wrote the tie-in.

Listened Into the Night: "Indigo Slam" by Robert Crais

2011-12-28T17:01:00.004-06:00

Listened Into the Night: Indigo Slam by Robert Crais, 1997, downloaded off OverDrive.

Very good. Another Crais title where I stayed up late to listen. I usually only listen to audiobooks while walking for exercise or work, or when driving to a meeting. For this one I had a drink and sat to listen once the kids were in bed and unable to jump on my head.

Elvis Cole is in his office when three kids walk in. The oldest is a 15-year-old girl, a 12-year-old boy, and a 9 year-old-girl. I am guessing on the last two kids ages. They want to hire Cole to find their missing father. The dad left 11 days ago. The dad often leaves and the kids are left to fend for themselves. The kids leave upset. Cole decides to follow. Cole does not call any social services because the kids and house are clean and orderly and the kids go to school. Cole takes the case for two hundred bucks.

Cole looks. Cole tracks. Missing Dad is a heroin user. Cole goes to Seattle. Pike wears his sunglasses at night. Cole walks into trouble with Russian gangsters in Seattle. Missing Dad is a printer. Missing Dad is a forger. Missing Dad is wanted dead by Mean Russians. Missing Dad shows back up. Cole's girly-friend wants to move to L.A. Girly-Friend ex-husband is a dickhead with power. Ex-Husband causes trouble.

Missing Dad reappears. Reappearing dad is doped up. Cole warns of Mean Russians. Reappering dad disappears again. Cole tracks Missing Dad to Vietnamese guys looking to forge Vietnamese cash to damage Viet economy. Missing Dad has terminal cancer and is self-medicating with dope. Mean Russians appear in L.A. Mean Russians are nasty and violent. Blah blah blah. Pike carries his Colt Python. Shootout at a warehouse. Shootout at DisneyLand. Shootout in a condo. Everyone but the Russians live happily ever after.

Comments:
1. Lovey-dovey action with Girly-Friend.
2. Pike's mouth twitches.
3. 12-year-old boy is bratty.
4. Local geography.
5. Cooking.
6. Angry cat.
7. Edit: Colt ended Python production in 1999. Prepare for sticker shock before looking at online prices.

Finished: "13 Million Dollar Pop" by David Levien

2011-12-17T21:13:00.005-06:00

Finished: 13 Million Dollar Pop by David Levien, 2011, 9780385532532.

When I attended the Random House party at Bouchercon this past Autumn and sampled from the wonderful, wonderful open bar I spoke to David Levien and his pal, Some Tall Guy. Both Levien and Some Tall Guy were nice fellas and neither one told me to go suck eggs.

My conversation with Levien - also a screenwriter and movie maker - went something like this.
Levien: Ocean's Thirteen?
Me: Nope, never saw that one.
Levien: Rounders?
Me: Nope, never saw that one either.
Levien: Runaway Jury?
Me: Nope.
Levien: Walking Tall?
Me: Uh-uh.
Levien: Girlfriend Experience?
Me: No. [But I am fond of nudity in film.]
Levien: Knockaround Guys?
Me: I wanted to but didn't get to it. Is that the one in North Dakota?
Levien: Montana.

[I then went crazy on the free Dewar's.]

Anyway. This was a pretty decent novel. The third in Levien's Frank Behr series. Behr is a forty-something private eye in Indianapolis. Behr just took a job with a national PI firm called the Caro Group. Behr took the job for the steady paycheck since his younger girlfriend is pregnant. For years Behr worked for himself and he is chafing under the restrictions and instructions of the firm.

Behr fills in on a bodyguard job - really more of an Assistant With Gun job - for a local business guy. Murder attempt on business guy has Behr Glocking their way out of it. Behr is now loved at the firm but shut out of news about the murder attempt investigation. Behr does not like his job. Behr is bored. Behr is ornery. Behr starts digging into the attempt.

Business Guy is tabbed to fill in resigned Senator's slot the day after the attempt. Business Guy has a ties to a failed racino (horse racing and casino together) south of town. Levien simultaneously follows a Welshman who arranged the murder and the former business partner of Business Guy who is did the hitman hiring.

Behr digs. Behr gets too wrapped up in his work and does not communicate with girlfriend. Behr works out every morning. Behr tries to help cop and former Marine with War on Terror PTSD. Behr ignores his real job. Behr gets fired. Behr gets in fights during investigation. Behr keeps digging and talks to whores, does much surveillance from his car, talks to PTSD Cop.

Everything ends mostly happy after a nice gun fight and fist fight and some brutal murders by Welshman.

Comments:
1. Welsh bad guy is thoroughly bad and villainous but he did not really grab me as a character.
2. CZ love. The 97 not the 75. Which, I just looked up, would probably run me about $650 OTD. I'm not really thinking about the RAMI anymore. The RAMI is not much smaller than my PCR.
3. Levien has plenty of MMA style fisticuffs.
4. Much local flavor.
5. Great line about whores in the morning but I don't have the book handy.
6. Written in many short chapters. Patterson length chapters.
7. Much mention of professional levels of skill and expertise in tradecraft. Levien did his research on all that stuff and it shows.
8. I would read Some Tall Guy's book but I cannot recall his dang name.
9. EDIT: Decker listens to a lot of metal music including Charred Walls of the Damned. No mention of nutsack lover Richard Christie.

Read: "All the Young Warriors" by Anthony Neil Smith

2011-12-17T16:42:00.002-06:00

Read: All the Young Warriors by Anthony Neil Smith, 9781908688002 (kindle version), 2011.

What the fuck? How did a major publisher not buy this and give it a big media push? Smith said several publishers were interested but passed. Smith was going to try the small press route and went with e-publishing instead.

A snowstorm traffic stop in New Pheasant Run, MN leads to the murder of two police officers. One of those was the pregnant girlfriend of police detective Ray Bleeker. This makes Ray sad and angry. The investigation immediately leads to Adem, a Somali kid and local college student from the Cities. Adem's dad Mustafa shows up, worried about his missing son. Mustafa used to run a violent Somali gang in the Cities until he dropped out of gang life and got a job at Target.

Ray does not trust Mustafa and wants revenge on Adem and Adem's pal, Jibriil. Ray follows Mustafa. Ray rescues Mustafa from a beat-down. Mustafa is convinced to his bones that Adem was not the shooter or an active participant in the cop murders. Ray is on forced vacation - due to his girlfriend's murder - and very reluctantly teams with Mustafa to find out if Adem and his pal Jibriil really left town to fight in Somalia.

Adem did go to Somalia. He wanted to find his roots, follow Islam, and rescue Somalia from warfare. Jibriil wants to kill people, blow shit up, and boss people around. Adem does not fit in. Jibriil fits in and gets promoted.

Ray and Mustafa hits Mustafa's old gang haunts. Mustafa is a walking bulls eye after walking away from gang life. Ray's impatience and arrogance causes friction with Mustafa and trouble with Somali gang dudes. Shootout ensues in Eden Prairie and Ray slightly wounded.

Adem is hot for a local Somali girl. Adem misunderstands Somali Girl and wants to rescue her; you can see the trouble coming. Adem tries to desert. Jibriil saves him from execution and gets him a job as a negotiator between Somali pirates and ship owners.

Ray and Mustafa partner to go to Africa and rescue Adem. Ray just wants to kill Jibriil. Ray cashes in his savings and travels with Mustafa to Somalia. Trouble ensues. More trouble ensues. Bad guy contractors cause trouble. Adem is rescued. Adem demands to return to Mogadishu to rescue Somali Girl. Ray wants to go to Mogadishu to kill Jibriil. Adem is a 19-year-old nitwit. Ray is lost without his girl and job. More trouble ensues. More people die. Ending is slightly happy.

Comments:

1. On the cover: "Smith writes with force and clarity." What the hell does that mean?

2. Smith really nailed the two setting in MN and Somalia. Adem felt left out as the black immigrant kid in Minneapolis but is completely out of place in bloodthirsty and merciless Mogadishu.

3. The would-be love affair between Adem and Somali Girl is a complete screw up by Adem. He is clueless to the culture clash. Somali Girl used to live in London and Adem cannot understand her adherence to the locals' bat-shit crazy strain of Islam.

4. The mismatch pairing of Mustafa and Ray works very well.

5. There is much more I could write but I won't. This was a very good novel.

6. I liked the Hi-Point insult.

Read: "Ring of Knives" by James Daniels

2011-12-13T17:22:00.003-06:00

Read: Dead Man: Ring of Knives by James Daniels, 2011, 9781612187617.

Pretty good and pretty short. I suppose all of these will be short. I never heard of Daniels before.

Matt is driving to a mental hospital to visit a patient, JW. He found the guy's initials and case history in a library reference book. The pages of the book are in his hand, "and each had a ragged edge where he'd ripped it out of a book after being reminded by a snotty librarian that reference materials couldn't be checked out." That what photocopiers are for ASSHOLE!

The patient's actions after being stuck underground for days are remarkably similar to Matt's. Matt wants to find out if Mr. Dark haunts JW too.

Matt gets dropped off at the driveway and meets an angry woman with a taser. Matt walks to the state run hospital which is very run down and has incompetents for staff. Staff tell him his appointment does not exist and take a hike. Taser Lady works there, Matt covers for her latenes, Taser Lady sneaks him into the facility as a cleaner.

Matt finds evil doings. Matt fights evil doings. Matt learns more about Mr. Dark from JW's treating doctor who researched the issue. Matt kills bad guys. During painful electroshock Matt has vivid flashback to life with his dead wife.

Matt rescues a teen girl from evil dudes and sees Mr. Dark in the end. Matt hits the bricks.

Comments:

1. I wonder what the required specs are for the writers. I also wonder how pay is structured. If life were fair a fellow like Reasoner would be selling as many books as Danielle Steel.

2. You know what a great line for these novels would be? "Then I will have to destroy you with the Frisbee of Doom!" They can have that one for free, courtesy of my five-year-old.

3. A medical reference book would list a patient's real initials? Bullshit.

4. One sex scene per book must be standard. I wonder what Faust will do with hers.

Quit Listening: "The Dark and Hollow Places" by Carrie Ryan

2011-12-12T09:19:00.002-06:00

Quit Listening: The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan, 2011, downloaded from OverDrive.

I did not like the narration. The previous two novels were sometimes difficult for me to finish because of the whiny, emotional teen girl leads. The narration amplified that.

Quickly Read: "Dead Man #1: Face of Evil" by Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin

2011-12-11T16:47:00.002-06:00

Quickly Read: Dead Man #1: face of evil by Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin, 2011, eBook.

Typical Goldberg book. Fun and entertaining reading. I never read a Rabkin book before. Maybe this is typical for him, too. This was a quick read and I was wondering how many pages it runs. According to Amazon the paperback option is only 104 pages. I was thinking highly of my reading speed until I saw that.

Matt is a widower in Oregon who mostly stays at home or works at the local sawmill. His best pal is ne'er-do-well Andy. Matt is chastely dating Rachel because he is still stuck on his dead wife. Rachel is stuck on Matt. Well, she wants to be stuck by Matt. Matt and Rachel go on a skiing weekend where Rachel plans to jump Matt's bones. Instead, an avalanche buries Matt.

Matt is dug out three months later, sent to the morgue, and found to be alive when the autopsy starts. Matt then hooks up with Rachel. Andy inherited Matt's house. Matt is hallucinating - well, not really. Matt sees Andy as having rotting skin. Rachel tells Matt to stop trying to save Andy. Andy slaughters his co-workers at Happy Burger. Matt rescues lumber mill manager from Andy. Devil who has been appearing to Matt makes manager kill a cop. Matt hits the bricks to keep trouble from Rachel and try to stop the devil who calls himself Mr. Dark.

Comments:

1. Nothing to read too deeply into here. Just enjoy the story.

2. Sex scenes.

3. Character who enjoys farting in the tub. While she masturbates. While her boyfriend watches and masturbates.

Read: "The End of Everything" by Megan Abbott

2011-12-11T16:45:00.001-06:00

Read: The End of Everything by Megan Abbott, 2011, 9780316097796.

That was unsettling. And tense.

Neighbors Lizzie and Evie are 13-years-old circa 1989. They have been best pals since they were four. Very best and inseparable pals with shared clothes, sleepovers, secrets, and other young girl obsessiveness. Evie goes missing and Lizzie is the one to clue the cops on who kidnapped her. Lizzie is narrator and struggling through the stress of Evie's abduction in a way unique to adolescent girls.

Lizzie's tip on a car she saw leads to Mr. Shaw from up the block. Shaw is missing and becomes the main suspect. Lizzie finds more evidence pointing to Shaw, moves the evidence, and pretends to find the evidence. Later, she speaks to Shaw's high school son. The son has his own reasons for talking to Lizzie but Lizzie takes his information and pretends a phone call from Evie to relay her location to the cops.

Evie is released and secrets are slowly revealed. People have changed. Things have changed. Secrets will still be kept. A lot goes on in the novel and I won't bother trying to list it all.

Comments:

1. I've seen various descriptions about End. A mystery. Secrets of the "golden family" from next door. Phooey. This is a bildungsroman with creepy sexual overtones versus teenage romanticism.

2. Lizzie has a deep crush on Evie's dad that she does not fully understand. Her bodily and emotional reactions are new and confusing. The confusion mixes with the sexuality of her mother and her "secret" boyfriend, the commanding presence of Evie's older sister Dusty, fellow schoolmates gossiping about sex, and Lizzie's misunderstanding of Shaw as a man deep in love with Evie.

3. Lizzie's crush was creepy. The crush was not sweet or innocent or any other Hallmark bullshit. Evie's dad was creepy, too. I was expecting him to be sexually abusing Dusty who he is very close to before Evie disappears.

4. The flyleaf places this in the mid-'80s but the dialogue about LPs and CDs makes me think 1989.

5. Frustration while reading. The tension and mystery quickly build after Evie disappears. I wanted to skip ahead and find out what happens. But doing so would miss too much of the story. At the end of the novel I did scan ahead for a reveal and made myself back up to not miss anything.

6. I put this book off several times because I wanted to sit and read uninterrupted. Uninterrupted reading is very difficult when Boys #1 and #2 are awake and jumping on my head.

7. One of the many YA-style topics Abbott touches on is when the kid realizes an adult is cracking. When a powerful authority figure starts to fall apart.

8. Teen boys angry at moms. The obverse of the dads and daughters theme of the novel.

9. Obverse is a big word for such a small, snarky man, Gerard.

Finally Read: "Wolf: the lives of Jack London" by James L. Haley

2011-12-05T21:23:00.002-06:00

Finally Read: Wolf: the lives of Jack London by James L. Haley, 2010, 9780465004782.

Finally finished. An okay book but not the revelation some reviewers seemed to think. London had a rough life for sure and his success was through hard work. You could draw parallels between London's experience and self-motivation with Bill Mauldin's rough childhood and moving around.

London's mother was pregnant by one man, gave birth, and married a Civil War veteran. London loved his step-dad but his mom was a harpy who spent money and gambled on business ventures. His mother had him working at an early age; a time that London referred to himself as the Work Beast.

London bummed around - literally. He caught trains and stayed in hobo camps. He traveled with a tramp army demanding jobs. At fifteen he bought a sailing ship for lucrative work stealing clams from the mud in San Francisco Bay. He did time for "vagrancy" in Buffalo.

London returned to the Eastern Bay and Oakland to finish high school. Gained admission to Berkeley after very, very, intensive study. Left Berkeley for want of money. Went to Alaska and Canada to prospect. Came back, started writing in earnest.

Basically, London did a lot. After his fame hit he did a nationwide speaking tour. Traveled on a war reporting job to Japan and Korea. Took the month long traveling vacations that seemed common 100 years ago. Banged a few chicks. Drank a lot. Etc. Interesting but nothing that really thrilled me.

London did produce a lot. He was dedicated to writing every morning and would put out 1000 words a day - even when voyaging to the South Seas and getting various tropical diseases. His death due to an overdose of morphine does sound accidental. He was in a lot of pain from bad diet, liver disease, rheumatism and other various issues. The guy burned out fast.

Listened: "Death of a Dude" by Rex Stout

2011-12-03T22:35:00.005-06:00

Listened: Death of a Dude by Rex Stout, 1969, from OverDrive.com

Archie is on summer vacation in Montana at a dude ranch owned by a friend from Manhattan, Lily Rowan. Lily's ranch manager is arrested for the murder of a visiting dude from St. Louis. The same dude who knocked up the manager's teenage daughter last year. Archie is sure the manager is innocent and decides to stay and investigate the case. He mails a letter Wolfe saying he will be indefinitely delayed in returning to Manhattan. Wolfe cannot cope without Archie. Wolfe actually packs up and flies to Montana.

Wolfe shows up and Archie immediately starts needling him. About his weight, having to shake hands, wearing a vest, etc. Wolfe's discomfort away from home is clear, and even worse, women are there. I'm sure academic papers have been written and deep fan discussions occurred on whether Wolfe is gay. I don't think so. I think he is just a curmudgeon.

Locals are not helpful to a "dude" and Archie has gotten nowhere in his investigation.. Archie gives Wolfe the verbatim replay of every interview Archie has had. Wolfe cogitates and grunts and inspects the larder. Wolfe works hard at being mannerly. The local Sheriff is incompetent. His Deputy is even dumber. Another man is killed and Archie is jailed. Everything turns out fine in the end. Wolfe gets to reveal all by announcing the killer and what happened to the Sheriff, Deputy and a cop from St. Louis.

Comments:

1. The manager's daughter seduced and impregnated by the slick talking stranger. The poor innocent girl, cruelly taken advantage of. Oh. Really? How dated is that kind of thinking? Another topic for argument.

2. Archie's sex life is alluded to in the novels but never made clear. He could be a playboy or he could be a social butterfly.

3. Montana sounds nice in the summer. There was a job opening at Montana State University Northern in 2004 when I was job hunting. I never applied because it was too remote for traveling to visit family.

Listened: "Before Midnight" by Rex Stout

2011-11-26T21:57:00.002-06:00

Listened: Before Midnight by Rex Stout, 1955 (according to wikipedia - which I refuse to capitalize), downloaded from OverDrive.

I was striking out on available audio titles on OverDrive. I had not listened to any Nero Wolfe stories in quite a while. Several years ago, in Kansas I think, I went through a bunch of the audiotapes. This digital copy was recorded off the cassettes and had prompts every thirty minutes to "Turn the tape over". My mind tends to wander when listening to these. I think Stout used a good amount of padding.

Archie wants to hit the town. He pesters Wolfe to try and get Wolfe to let him out early. Part of the conversation includes Archie telling Wolfe about a trivia contest sponsored by a perfume company. Archie fields a call from an advertising agency demanding access to Wolfe. The agency is in charge of the aforementioned trivia contest.

Writer of the contest clues is murdered after announcing to the five remaining finalists that he holds the answers in his wallet. dead guy's wallet goes missing. There are plenty of suspects for Archie to visit and Wolfe to be perturbed by. (What's a preposition?) The contest winners, angry husbands, and advert agency partners all had reason to get rid of the dead guy.

Archie investigates. Wolfe grunts. The cops are angry. The suspects are demanding, or wilting, or confident. All are gathered for a showdown in Wolfe's office. The bar in Wolfe's office is impressive. The bar in Wolfe's office helps lead to murder in his office. Wolfe is upset. The cops are upset. Many people are upset.

Wolfe hires the usual gang of on-call PIs to go to the ad agency and investigate deeper. The showdown takes place with all the advert agency partners. Justice is served. Wolfe gets a fat paycheck. Wolfe is fat.

Comments:
1. Perturbed. That's a word from my parents.
2. There were a couple comments or events in the story that really dated this in the 1955 setting. I do not recall what they were.

Listened to: "Absolute Friends" by John Le Carre

2011-11-24T13:32:00.002-06:00

Listened to: Absolute Friends by John Le Carre, Overdrive download, 2005.

The best thing about this book was the narration by Le Carre himself. The novel was dandy but a great narrator improves any book.

Ted Mundy's mother died during his birth in 1947 and he was raised by a Pakistanis nurse. Ted and his military officer father left Pakistan under scandal. Ted was mostly ignored by his drunken father and once they arrived back in England Ted was sent to boarding school. Boarding school brought abuse to a kid asking about mosque time, beating shoes and clothes for snakes, and other cultural differences. Ted found solace under the tutelage of a professor of German and his athletic prowess brought success.

Ted's father died when Ted was about 18 and he enrolled at Oxford. Taking a semester in West Berlin brought Ted into contact with Sasha. Ted had explored socialism and 1960s student demonstrations while pussy whipped to a German girl in England. He and Sasha become fast friends and Ted rescues the pugnacious, but small and physically deformed, Sasha from a police beatdown during a demonstration. Ted ends up deported and the bounces around different jobs.

Ted finds work with the government and marries. While escorting a traveling acting troupe through Eastern Germany he meets Sasha again. Sasha has Ted take classified into into West Berlin. Ted becomes a spy. Ted and Sasha meet often during Ted's work as a cultural attache until the wall falls. Sasha and Ted have a minor falling out and Ted starts a language school in Leipzig.

Ted and Sasha meet up present day. Sasha knows a guy who wants to fight against corporate control of education. Ted is recruited but is very suspicious. Things happen. Things end badly. After Sasha and Ted are murdered during a raid on "terrorists" their reputations are steamrolled by the government and private interests.

Comments:

1. I once asked an English exchange student if "Paki" was really an insult. He was South Asian got pissed off at me. I was serious though, I had no idea.

2. The post-death character assassination of Ted and Sasha is thorough and without defense. That epilogue is the most distressing event of the novel.

Just Read: "Black Fly Season" by Giles Blunt

2011-11-21T08:47:00.003-06:00

Just Read: Black Fly Season by Giles Blunt, 0399152555, 2005.

Much above average. I think this is third in the series set in Northern Ontario.

There is a lot going on in this novel. Murders, drug addicts, mental illness, murderous voodoo, regional bugs, biker gang, Indian-white relations, card reading, family issues, brain trauma, forensic sciences, bad cops. Blunt makes everything run smoothly and puts all these disparate elements together.

Local cop Cardinal gets involved with a "amnesia" case. The woman, Terri, was shot in the head by a .32 and suffered memory loss from brain trauma. While trying to track down Terri's identity - they do not even know her name yet - and find out who shot her, Cardianal and his gal partner Lisa Delorme find a mutilated and rotting body. The cases are connected.

An Indian named Red Cloud has come to town, impressed three local lowlifes with his fortune telling and charisma, has taken over part of the heroin trade, and is busy killing competition. One of the three lowlifes is the brother of the shot woman.

Things happen. A local RCMP trooper is a bad guy. Cardinal's wife's medication is failing and she is going into a manic phase and refuses to recognize it. Cardinal's daughter still won't speak to him. Delorme still has no boyfriend.

Comments:

1. Fortune telling by card reading? Surely Sara Gran has read this one already.

2. Hey, you know who all these differently matched characters remind me of? Charlie Stella. There are 3-4 different story lines going together and all the characters are fully drawn.

3. Early in the novel Blunt has a 1.5 page section that perfectly and succinctly shows the relationship between Cardinal and his wife. Card's love and concern for her mental health. The wife's focus on her photography and teaching and her denial - or inability to recognize - her worsening condition.

4. Blunt also gives quick but thorough inside looks into a heroin drug addict, the murderous version of voodoo practiced by Red Cloud. Red Cloud is actually Cuban who came with the Mariel boatlift when he was 5-years-old.

5. Colt Police Positive love.

6. Black fly season in Northern Ontario is to be avoided. The little flies make no noise and swarm into to bite, bite, bite.

7. The second Blunt novel I have read and the second time a RCMP guy is a bad guy.

Read: "Nocturne" by Ed McBain

2011-11-09T20:26:00.007-06:00

Read: Nocturne, by Ed McBain, 1995? (I cannot find the damn thing).

I brought this home after weeding it at work. There were a box full of McBains that had not circ'ed in years and I laid claim to them. I wanted to keep them on the library shelves but could not justify the space. It had been quite a few years since I had listened or read any of the series.

Carella and Hawes are working the nightshift and get a murder call. A woman in her 80s was shot dead in her apartment. Carella and Hawes investigate. I'll be honest I don't remember much about the whole story. The woman used to be a famous pianist, born in Russian (Ukraine?) and praised throughout Europe. At her death she was an alcoholic living in a cheap apartment with no friends and estranged relatives.

Carella and Hawes try to figure out what happened. A burglary? Maybe.

Granddaughter of woman sings in hotel bar and has two boyfriends her share her. Granddaughter gets message from her dead grandmother to check a locker at the bus station. The boyfriends check it out and find about $100,000 or so. They keep $95,000 and give $5,000 to gal. Gal investigates expecting more money. Gal's investigation and Carella's lead to guy who shot her.

Guy Who Shot Her is also an immigrant. Guy Who Shot Her made friends with Old Lady. Old Lady asked him to kill her. She was arthritic and no longer able to play piano and just had word a brain tumor was going to take her hearing.

Was there a subplot? I don't recall anything beyond Carella's son being sick. Oh, yeah now I remember. Fat Ollie Weeks catches a call after a hooker and drug dealer are murdered. Ollie is such a fucking scumbag. He is also a great detective. I liked the subplot of three prep school kids, all named Richard, who come to the city 1) Meet a drug dealer names Richard, 2) Kill a hooker and dispose of body with help of Drug Richard, 3) Kill Drug Richard, 4) Head back to school leaving enough witnesses and physical evidence for, 5) Weeks to waddle into the school chapel during choir practice. I liked the subplot better.

Comments:
1. I always like when McBain refers to himself in novels. This novel has a part where the rear of a limo is filled with feathers. The event reminds a couple cops of The Birds. McBain fits in a couple conversations by different characters that go roughly like this:
1st guy: "You know, that movie Hitchcock wrote."
2nd guy: "I don't think Hitchcock wrote it."
McBain, of course, wrote The Birds under his real name.
2. Another novel has characters discussing Hill Street Blues and the show's incredible similarity to the 87th Precinct and the cops working there. The characters, if I remember correctly, think about how maybe they should sue somebody over the similarities.

Finished: "The Burning Lake" by Brent Ghelfi

2011-11-07T09:36:00.003-06:00

Finished: The Burning Lake by Brent Ghelfi, 2011, 9781590589250.

The one main thing I disliked about this novel is that the damn thing ended. I'd been waiting to read this, the fourth Volk novel, and then it goes too fast. I think I liked the previous three better but this was still fine and dandy.

Ghelfi always ties in current Russian craziness and crime to his novels. Ghelfi has incorporated Chechnya, declassified documents, oil interests, graft, prostitution, porn, corruption, and art smuggling. Burning covers the popular Russian past-time of murdering journalists.

Kato was a muckraker journalist who worked Chechnya and political corruption. She was on a story about nuclear fallout and pollution when she was murdered. Kato's murder saddened Volk since Volk first met and banged her in Chechnya. Ever since then Volk was her number one confidential source on Chechen massacres, murders, corruption, etc.

Volk has three concerns. One, he was wants revenge for Kato's murder. Two, he wants to protect his secret about being her informant. Three, his current girlfriend, Valya, doesn't know he was occasionally shagging Kato on the side. Turns out that The General who Volk reports to also wants to know what happened to Kato and assigns Volk to the task.

Volk sees Kato's body. Volk finds out other bodies in the grave were not there at the same time. Ghelfi simulataneously follows a US private military contractor who was involved in Kato's murder and is trying to piece together the "why" for his own gain. Digging and violence from both characters.

Kato was investigating the nuclear pollution in remote Russia. A nuclear waste site so hot with radiation that the lake bed dump site dried up all the water. Early deaths from radiation poisoning. So on, so forth. Violence ensues. Some sex. Sneakiness and subterfuge. Powerful interests keep secrets by killing people. An evil and dangerous Frenchman. Military contractor paid big bucks for dirty work.

Comments:
1. I just looked through my past notes on Ghefli books. This novel was not as intricate as those.
2. This novel was published by Poisoned Pen Press. Did Ghelfi's previous publisher drop him? Life is unfair because these should be bestsellers.
3. Poisoned Pen Press cover art almost always blow donkey dick. They should try a new graphic artist.
4. Not as much SIG-Sauer love as in previous books.
5. Valya barely appears in this book.
6. The General is not the oppressive presence he has been before.
7. With Volk out of the crime lord business and no longer running whores and online porn the novels have changed a fair amount.

Quit: "Depths" by Henning Mankell

2011-11-07T09:11:00.002-06:00

Quit: Depths by Henning Mankell, 2004, 9781595580894.

I tried this out after some personal and online recommendations but could not get into the story.

The North Atlantic interests me. Rolling seas and overcast skies with nothing in sight. No ships, no signs of land, no birds. I liked the cover photo that gives that same feeling.

After a few pages the story did not interest me and the writing - or translation - did not grab me at all. I set the book aside and never got back to reading it so I checked it back in. I have really enjoyed the Kurt Wallender novels. So it goes.

Crap Narration: "Accident" by Linwood Barclay

2011-11-02T21:07:00.003-05:00

Crap Narration: Accident by Linwood Barclay, 2011, Overdrive download.

I was searching through Overdrive last night wanting to find something to listen on the drive to WLA in Milwaukee. I decided to try this out. The story seemed okay but I had to quit after less than 30 minutes from the emoting narrator.

Listened: "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter" by Tom Franklin

2011-11-02T20:11:00.002-05:00

Listened: Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin, 2010, Overdrive download.

Pretty decent but I don't know why it received as many awards as it did. I stayed interested throughout and when I was listening in the gym I paused a few times to focus on the story. But, I'm not sure if it is worth the multiple awards received.

Larry Ott is a loner by circumstance in rural MS. He was lonely as a kid and when in high school was suspected of murder after the disappearance of a girl he took on a date. Silas Jones is the local constable and has avoided Larry for the past 20 years. Larry is white and Silas is black and they were pals as kids. Secret pals. They never spoke at school and, once Silas moved away, they never hung out again. Race relations were not happy in late '70s, early '80s MS enough for black and white kids to hang out together at school.

Secrets come out as the story moves on. In the present day a local teen girl home from the U of MS has gone missing. Scary Larry is on everyone's suspect list. Silas got to know Larry pretty well and figures he's innocent of the second girl. Silas's own secret means he knows Larry is innocent of the first girl - but Silas has never said a word out loud about that.

Story follows from both Silas and Larry's POV. Larry is all alone. He has no friends and his only relative, his mother, has Alzheimer's. His car repair business has had no customers since he took over from his father about 15 years ago. He survives by selling off bits of the family's acreage to the local logging concern. His only interaction is with employees at KFC and the cashiers at WalMart. At one point Wallace Stringfellow - local boozer, user and loser - shows up and Larry seems to have a pal.

Silas is still famed for his baseball playing in high school and college. He's still called by his jersey number, 32, more then by his real name. He bounced around a bit playing baseball at U of MS, joined the Navy, was a campus cop in Oxford, and then took the hometown constable job. His mom is dead and he's mostly alone, except for a new girlfriend.

Things happen. Larry is shot in his home. Silas does seemingly unrelated police work. Flashbacks occur with Silas and Larry. Silas and his mom living in a dirt floor cabin on the Ott property. Larry coming out to make friends with Silas. Events, clues, and characters in the book tie up in the end.

Happy ending except for a massive dog bite, shoot-out, and dead Stringfellow.

Comments:

1. Very good narration.

2. Not so much a crime novel as a story about two guys growing up in the post civil rights era South.

3. I never heard of spelling Mississippi by saying crooked letter for the S.

Just Finished: "Flaming London" by Joe R. Lansdale

2011-10-31T21:02:00.004-05:00

Just Finished: Flaming London by Joe R. Lansdale, 2005, 1596060255.

This library copy looks to be signed by the Kung-Fu-Ness himself. This was short at 176 and 1/2 pages but still filled with Lansdale goodness.

Flaming follows Zeppelins West with a freshly sobered Mark Twain leaving North Africa for Spain to visit Jules Verne. On the way to Verne's house Twain discovers a seal with a metal box on his head. This is Ned the Seal from Zeppelins. He survived a shark attack and washed ashore covered in shark bites and wishing for fish to eat.

Twain brings Ned to Verne and they get him healed up. Ned wants fish. Simultaneously, cylinders fired from cannons on Mars, and filled with green, tentacled Martians, are landing across the globe. The Martians emerge from their cylinders and start driving around tripod robots and killing people. Ned wants fish.

Twain, Verne and Ned flee. The trio escape in helium balloon. Ned is hungry for fish. Trio land on island. Trio free Sitting Bull and Cat (both from Zeppelins) and a few others from pirates. Rips in time have parallel worlds exchanging people and beasts. Including a huge ape man name Rikwalk. They all escape and land in England. Trio and a few others decide to look for HG Wells. Ned looks about for fish.

Martians have killed most and destroyed most. Ned needs fish. Fighting ensues. Group is separated. Group reunites. Martians are dying from infection. Ned wonders if the octopus like Martians taste like regular octopus. Ned prefers fish. Even rotting fish.

HG Wells builds time machine and group prepares to set off and fix rips in time and space.

Notes:

1. Ned likes fish and seal sex.

2. Many mentions of assholes. Both literal and figurative.

3. This Halloween candy I am eating as I type is not very good. What mass produced candy is?

4. Not as much dick talk as in Zeppelins.

5. Silliness and humor like all Lansdale novels I have read.

Read a Few Days Ago: "Beat to a Pulp" edited by David Cranmer and Elaine Ash

2011-10-31T20:55:00.002-05:00

Read a Few Days Ago: Beat to a Pulp: volume one edited by David Cranmer and Elaine Ash, 2010, 9780615388243.

This is a well rounded list of pulp with more than just crime stories. There is science fiction, pirates, stuff I don't recall. 27 stories off the online magazine I never read. Bill Crider wrote a foreword and I skipped it. Ha! I'm done being your dancing monkey, Crider! (Except for compulsively checking the blog and reading about Sheriff Rhodes.)

I suppose I should list a few favorite stories. Let me take a quick flip through the pages.

Hell, I don't know. One story had a guy trying to stimulate a dead man's prostate while his girlfriend tried to get pregnant. I don't recall the author.

Finished: "Choke Hold" by Christa Faust

2011-10-25T13:43:00.004-05:00

Finished: Choke Hold by Christa Faust, 2011, 9780857682857.

I was hesitant to read this novel because it's predecessor, Money Shot, was so damned good. Faust has written plenty of novels before so I wasn't worried about a sophomore slump. But, Money Shot was so damned good. This was just as good.

Angel Dare is working in a roadside diner near Yuma when an old porn boyfriend walks in. Boyfriend - with a huge schlong - recognizes her right off. Angel had been in witness protection after the last novel but skipped when the evil Croatian guy tracked her down to Massachusetts.

Boyfriend With Huge Schlong is in the diner by chance; he is there to meet his long lost son. Boyfriend With Huge Schlong is soon shot down by young Latino gangbangers. Angel, Boyfriend With Huge Schlong's son, Cody, drag Boyfriend With Huge Schlong out to the SchlongMobile and take off. Boyfriend With Huge Schlong dies but not before getting Angel to promise to watch after 19 year old Cody. Cody and Angel head to friend of Cody's, Hank. Hank is Cody's MMA trainer and sort-of-foster dad. Hank has dementia pugilistica and suffers migraines and frequent memory lapses.

Angel is afraid for her life and thinks the shooters may have been from the Croatian. Or were they after Schlongster? Who were they? Adventures ensue.

Angel and Hank head to Mexico to rescue Cody who seems to be kidnapped by illegal fight organizer and drug smuggler Cody has been working for. Shoot-outs happen. Blood sprays. Angel rides Cody's own Huge Schlong. Hank is told by smuggler to kill Cody With Huge Schlong. Hank doesn't Smuggler and others arrive. Violence ensues.

Cody With Huge Schlong, Hank, and Angel head to Vegas and the hoped for safety of an MMA reality tv show Cody With Huge Schlong expects to be on. Bad Croatians track them down. Violence ensues. Cody With Huge Schlong bangs stripper while sucking her toes. Trio arrive in Vegas. Croatians follow. Violence ensues. Angel, Cody With Huge Schlong and Hank captured. Only Angel survives.

Comments:
1. Angel still has emotional issues. She is great at fucking but the before and after emotions are alien to her and she does not want to explore them. Angel prostitutes herself to a couple times. Tto her that is self-preservation and work and nothing to be ashamed of.
2. Issue of porn stars and self-hatred addressed. Angel enjoyed her work and the porn business and the friends she had before she went into protection. But, Angel is also blowing smoke because she is a bit damaged from her own rough family past and inability to love someone.
3. Plenty of MMA detail and information. Training, vitamin supplements, pain killers, ugly t-shirts. Faust wrote before about the research she did on this and she put that information in here.
4. Faust keeps the action rolling along in what is - if I remember correctly - a 72 hour period of time.
5. Angel gets hard for Hank but pushes herself away because she 1- Wants to get away and hide again, 2- Unwilling to try a relationship. Hank is also very clingy and unable to get erection.
6. Schlong, schlong, schlong.
7. Great line by Angel that explains her actions and the whole book, "Look, there are no good guys here," I said. "You do what you have to."

Listened: "The High King" by Lloyd Alexander

2011-10-21T21:10:00.003-05:00

Listened: The High King by Lloyd Alexander, date - heck if I know, Overdrive.com download.

Finale of the Prydain series and the longest and most dramatic novel of the five. Many deaths in this novel but Alexander continued with the lack of blood and detail.

Taran is traveling home to Caer Dalben after the events of Wanderer when his crow arrives to tell him Eilonwy has returned. He rushes home, eager to propose. Proposal is delayed when Fflewddur arrives with an injured Gwydion. Fflewddur and Gwydion were ambushed by a Arawn who was disguised as Taran and beset by huntsmen. Gwydion enchanted sword [whatever] is stolen.

Gwydion must regain the sword, it's power cannot be used by Arawn. Arawn is also building up for an invasion of Prydain. All of them including Gurgi and Carl, but excluding Dolben, must travel to help. Mag from Castle of Llyr reappears as Arawn's employee who thinks he is a partner. Group is reunited after defeat of Mag. They must all travel to other kingdoms to recruit troops. Fighting happens.

Things happen. Journeys are traveled. Taran travels back to the Free Comots to recruit troops. The Comot men follow Taran because he is Taran. After recruiting through the winter Taran meets up at Gwydion's castle. Another king has turned traitor and allied with Arawn. Fighting happens, castle is taken.

The resulting attack splits the troops. Taran is to follow and harry Arawn's living dead soldiers, the Cauldron-Born. Meanwhile Gwydion will approach Arawn's kingdom from the sea. Much fighting happens. Animals join the fight. Comot character from Wanderer dies. Carl dies. Many more die. Arawn defeated.

Taran is very happy, happy, joy, joy. Gwydion annoucnes all the Sons of Don must now leave Prydain for the Summer Country since Arawn is now defeated. Taran has mixed feelings. Taran announces he will stay in Prydain. All others are leaving and will never return. Eilonwy renounces her inherited powers of enchantment and stays to marry Taran.

Comments:

1. Much more of an adult novel. The novels have progressed in topic matter as Taran has aged from about 13-years-old until the end of High King when he is about 20.

2. Still no detail about battles and violent death. Little word about blood and screaming.

3. Very chaste romance between Taran and Eilonwy.

4. [Incisive comment comparing the Welsh origins of Prydain versus Lord of the Rings.]

5. I've never read Lord of the Rings.

Finished: "The Girl on the Fridge" by Etgar Keret

2011-10-15T22:13:00.006-05:00

Finished: The Girl on the Fridge by Etgar Keret, 1992 and 1994 (2008 first edition US), 9780374531058.

What is it about these stories that are so interesting? So entertaining? So oddly compelling? Keret packs all sorts of unpleasantness into the stories. Unrequited love, spousal abuse, drug abuse, suicide, depression, horrible parents, casual violence, sudden tragedy.

Each story could make me feel like a black hole but don't. Some stories end without any happiness but Keret's black humor almost always overpowers the depressing bits. These stories do not have as many fantastical elements as those in Nimrod Flipout.

These are earlier stories, some are probably over twenty years old. Keret even then wrote very pithy tales. A couple pieces in here are no longer than half a printed page. His stories are poetic in length and their concise and perceptive views of events, people, and situations.

Listened to: "Taran Wanderer" by Lloyd Alexander

2011-10-15T19:44:00.004-05:00

Listenend to: Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander, 1967, Overdrive.com download.

Fourth in the series. Taran has matured and so has the story. The first novel had Taran at about 14 years old. Taran must be about 17-18 now and is yearning to find his true parentage. Eilonwy is still gone at "finishing school". Taran asks the wizard Dolbin of Taran's parentage and Dolbin says he has no clue. Taran still deeply wishes to be of royal blood, to be worthy and acceptable to a princess like Eilonwy. Taran decides to start searching (figuratively and literally). Taran and Gurgi hit the bricks. Or they would if the roads were paved.

Taran and Gurgi travel to swamp with witches from Black Cauldron. Taran is thinking to ask if the witches can tell him who he is. One says the only hope is a enchanted mirror in the mountains that shows people who they are. Taran sets off.

Adventures ensue. Taran and Gurgi meet up with the bard. Taran and company come across the dwarf who has been turned into a toad. Taran and company defeat the wizard who had enchanted the dwarf. Taran is no longer an Assistant Pig-Keeper and, since he has no name for his father, calls himself Taran the Wanderer.

Taran meets a farmer at a beaten down farm who claims he is Taran's father. Farmer says Taran's mother died in childbrith amd, unable to care for a child and operate a farm one-handed, the guy gave Taran to Dolbin as Dolbin traveled through.

Turns out farmer was lying to get Taran to stay and help with run down farm. Guy dies. Taran feels awful. He never wanted to stay. He did not want to be a farmer's son. He stayed anyway and when the farmer's life was in danger Taran still stayed rather than fleeing the farming valley at the first opportunity.

More things happen. Adventures are adventurous. Taran briefly apprentices at three trades in an effort to find what he wants to do in his life. Taran helps town fight off a bandit who bested him earlier. Taran finds mirror and sees himself. Mirror was a still pool of cave water and nothing more. Taran accepts who he is.

Comment:

1. The core of the story is personal identity and value of each person as an individual. Taran runs across people who judge others based on wealth or class. He then meets people who care for none of that and are content to be themselves.

2. The concept of freedom and government. That a king who imposes his will gets nowhere and has to be wanted. Other communities have no king and cherish their freedom.

3. The value, or not, of possessions and labor. Of friendship and loyalty.

Quit: "The Ice Master" by Jennifer Niven

2011-10-12T19:32:00.003-05:00

Quit: The Ice Master: the doomed 1913 voyage of the Karluk by Jennifer Niven, 2000, 0786865296.

I read a recent review about a new Niven book and did an author search and found this. I really enjoyed the Arctic setting of The Terror and tried this.

Niven did a lot of work and research on this but the story was taking too long to get anywhere. There were many elements for a good story in here. Conflict between the crew and scientists. A negligent Norwegian heading the expedition. A capable and stout captain. Rebellious scientists wanting to strike out on their own. Awful weather conditions and dangerous ice that quickly breaks apart. So on. So forth.

One interesting part of the story is when the crew and scientists - almost all of which had no Arctic experience - have to traverse the massive ice flow they are stranded upon. The men have to bring everything of value and are doing so on heavy wooden sleds. Jagged pressure ridges of ice as high as 70 feet have to be crossed. Ice leads cause long delays as teams would try to find paths around.

Improper gear hampers their efforts and leaves their clothes wet from sweat and freezing as they cool. The dogs are highly valuable as labor and possible emergency provisions but are vicious and kill one another. The cold leaves men with frozen feet, fingers and faces.

The story just drug on too long. I quit a little before halfway. Niven did some fine research with primary and secondary materials. She relies on several diaries and after action reports by those involved.

Raptly Listened To: "The Sentry" by Robert Crais

2011-10-05T19:35:00.002-05:00

Raptly Listened To: The Sentry by Robert Crais, 2011, Overdrive download.

Very, very good. I made time to listen to this rather than just walking to home or work. I enjoy the Pike novels more than the Cole novels. This one is more 65% Pike and 35% Cole and that was an excellent mix.

Pike is gassing up his jeep when he sees a couple gangbangers strolling along. Pike uses his Pikesense and knows they are up to no good. Pike interrupts a beatdown and pounds one of the gangbangers. Rescued restaurant owner wants Pike out and cops out. Owner's niece is hot. Pike digs her. Restaurant is vandalized. Pike asks Niece out. Pike says everything will be okay. FBI get involved as part of gang investigation.

Everything is not okay. Niece and Owner disappear and are assumed abducted by the gangbangers. Pike is hot for the girl. Rescueing people is something Pike does. Pike goes forward. Cole helps out.

Pike is tough. Pike is smart. Pike goes jogging at 3 AM. Pike has night sweats. Pike loves his Colt Python. Cole drives his Corvette. Cole sweet talks women. Cole cracks jokes. Cole worries over Pike. Mysterious bad guy named Daniel is hunting Owner and Niece and hears voices in his head. Crais wears ugly shirts.

Pike and Cole figure things out. Niece and Owner were not kidnapped. Niece and Owner are not niece and uncle; not unless they are incestuous. Niece and Owner have mysterious past. Niece and Owner stole $16 million from Bolivian drug lords. Daniel is an unknown wild card killing people. Daniel kills many gangbangers and kidnaps Niece. FBI are not really FBI. Showdown between Pike/Cole and Daniel leaves Owner dead. Niece wants to split with the money. Niece raises gun at Pike. Cole shoots and kills Niece.

Cole is sad. Pike is sad. Pike kills fake FBI guy. Cole and Pike solidify bromance. Cole and Pike have ro-man-ce. Cole and Pike stare at hawks in sky.

Comments:
1. Pike engenders respect and admiration from many. Pike is scary but respectful of people and who they are. Pike is zen-like with little that bothers or concerns him. He's not a dick but he is a dangerous guy.
2. Pike is the name of a guy inducted into Corvette Hall of Fame. Is there is a connection?
3. Los Angeles street name love.
4. Los Angeles geography love.
5. I recently read how many authors have a secondary character who takes care of all the "bad" stuff. Characters like Pike, Hawk, and others I have never read. In Cole novels Pike is a mysterious killer for good. A dark angel of death. A [something else overwrought and dramatic]. Crais made a good decision to show Pike from Pike's POV.

Finally Finished: "The Spirit Box" by Stephen Gallagher

2011-10-03T09:18:00.003-05:00

Finally Finished: The Spirit Box by Stephen Gallagher, 2005, 9781596060173.

Meh. I had to force myself to finish this. Gallagher drags things out into 276 pages and could have cut this down quite a bit.

John Bishop is an Englishman in North Carolina who has spent the last three years working to develop a large company that does medical and biological research. Bishop's three year commitment is finished and he and his family are packing up to return to LimeyLand. Bishop's wife is already overseas and his daughter announces she just swallowed a bunch of pills. Bishop rushes her to the hospital. Daughter dies anyway.

Bishop gets a message that bio samples have been stolen. Included is a message from one of the suspected thief's phone in a voice Bishop thinks is his dead daughter asking for help. Bishop knows he is being irrational, he knows his daughter is dead. Bishop also knows he is avoiding reality and running from grief. Bishop chases after the thieves anyway and finds out the girl from the message is in a bad way. Girl thief stole samples by swallowing them.

Bishop avoids his wife's phone calls. Bishop searches for the drudge work employees who worked together to steal the samples. One drudge guy, Cyrus, is convinced the stolen samples are not just a fire sale, bulk buy from the the Russians probably worth nothing Cyrus is stupid, convinced and violent. Cyrus kills a co-conspirator who takes girl to hospital. Cyrus kidnaps girl from hospital. Bishop follows.

Blah, blah, blah. The book took even longer than the damn recap and I did not even give a full recap.

Comments:
1. Skip it.
2. There are good parts but not enough of them.

Listened: "Vanilla Ride" by Joe R. Lansdale

2011-09-29T15:28:00.006-05:00

Listened: Vanilla Ride by Joe R. Lansdale, 2009 (for hardcover), downloaded from Overdrive.

Great narration of another great Hap and Leonard novel. Everything Lansdale writes is quotable.

Hap and Leonard are asked by former cop Marvin to rescue his granddaughter from a her abusive, drug-dealing boyfriend. Wise cracks happen. Hap and Leonard drive over to a piss-pot East Texas town. Hap and Leonard beat up boyfriend and his pals. Wise cracks happen. Hap and Leonard bring Gadget (her nickname) home.

Hap and Leonard learn the boyfriend was a seller for some nasty Dixie Mafia types. Dixie Mafia angry over the beating and loss in income. Hap and Leonard learn Dixie Mafia will be gunning for them. Wise cracks happen. Big, exciting car chase and violent shoot-out occurs. Hap is guilty over his murderous rage during the shoot-out. Hap and Leonard are offered deal by cops to rescue a 19-year-old son of a Dixie Mafia kingpin so kingpin will provide evidence. Wise cracks happen.

Hap and Leonard recruit a friend and Marvin recruits Tonto. Tonto is a big, big dude who kills for a living and talks with a boy's voice. Tonto is scary in his casual killer way. Wise cracks ensue. Boy and girl rescued from some scary killers and one BIG dude. Boy and girl and Tonto are sneakily killed. Wise cracks are a bit sadder.

Hap and Leonard square things with cops. Hap and Leonard gun for the hired, sneaky, woman killer named Vanilla Ride who did in the boy, girl and Tonto. Wise cracks happen. Big shootout ensues. Wise cracks happen. Hap is maudlin again but his hot girlfriend cheers his penis up.

Comments:
1. Gratuitous references to Kasey Lansdale singing career and Back of My Smile CD.
2. Gratuitous reference to Joe R. Lansdale's kung-fuey school.
3. Gratuitous reference to Robert E. Howard.
4. Gratuitous reference to Robert E. Howard's home and suicide. Wise cracks happen.
5. Hap is regretful of his life of action. He does not like to hurt people. He likes killing people even less. Except for when Hap does like killing people, and then he just feels guilty.
6. Leonard is more sad over his bad luck love life. Leonard gets something going and it falls apart. The last fall being his boyfriend trying to find Jesus and cure his gayness. Leonard deals with this in a typically Leonard way by shitting on their bed. Literally shitting on the bed.
7. Wise cracks happen.
8. Great series.
9. Gratuitous Dr. Pepper abuse.

Read: "Set the Night of Fire" by Libby Fischer Hellman

2011-09-27T20:50:00.000-05:00

Read: Set the Night on Fire by Libby Fischer Hellmann, 2010, 9780984067664.

I was in an elevator at Bouchercon tucking in my shirt. The car stops with my hands in my pants and Hellmann walks in. "You caught me tucking in my shirt, I figured I should look more presentable." Hellmann said I look fine. So, I checked out one of her books.

A 1960s flashback novel also set in present day Chicago. A convicted killer, Dar, is released in present day Illinois and contacts some old colleagues. The colleagues are old hippie friends circa '68 convention and other uproars.

A modern day 40-year-old's, Lila, father is one of those friends. Lila's father and twin brother die in a house fire after the convict pays a visit. Lila thinks the fire is suspicious but has no proof and she may be mistaken. But, someone tries to gun her down on the street. Dar is following her and fearful for her safety.

Dar and Lila eventually meet after an explosive, literally, attempt on Lila's life. Flashback incurs to Dar and friends in late sixties into 1970 Chicago with Dar and two pals bombing a department store and accidentally killing Dar's girlfriend and Lila's mother.

Last 1/5 of 1/6 of story kinda peters out for me as Lila, Dar and others figure out who is to blame.

Comments:
1. I picked this off the new shelf - I ordered it late - and was immediately drawn in by the writing and story. Hellmann uses a lot of short sentences mixed in with a few long ones. I liked that pacing.
2. After all is revealed about Lila's parentage and such I thought the tracking of the killers was a little boring. The hired killer was not scary to me.
3. Hellmann's books circ well here.

Listened: "Castle of Llyr" by Lloyd Alexander

2011-09-25T16:37:00.003-05:00

Listened: Castle of Llyr by Lloyd Alexander, look up the publication year yourself, downloaded from Overdrive.

The series continues with the same fantastic narrator. James Langton does such a great job. Langton has real good range for voices and his women characters are not whiny.

Taran and Gurgi are assigned by Dalben to escort Eilonwy to another kingdom for Eilonwy to learn how to be a princess and lady. Taran and co. catch a ship "commanded" by young Prince Rhun. Rhun is a young bumbler and klutz but brimming with good cheer and enthusiasm.

Taran is approached by a disguised Prince Gwydion who says Eilonwy is in danger and Taran needs to help protect her. Eilonwy is kidnapped anyway. Search group is organized and Taran finds the hosting king plans to wed Eilonwy to his son, Rhun. Taran saddened. Taran promises to watch over Rhun since Rhun is a clueless klutz.

Things happen. Adventure occurs. Danger arrives. Peril is perilous. Taran and co. eventually track down Eilonwy and find Gwydion. Eilonwy was captured by the evil sorceress Achren. Taran and co. infiltrate the dilapidated castle housing Achren. Taran and co. rescue Eilonwy. Achren defeated and powers are gone. Eilonwy communicates her feelings about Rhun, marriage, ladyhood, etc. to Taran. The end.

Comments:

1. Yeah. That Eilonwy is an ideal chick for a young dude. She is both pretty and feminine but also adventurous.

2. The violence in this bloodless. Enemy are cut down but no bodies, hacked limbs, spraying blood, etc.

3. Perilous peril: gigantic mountain lion capturing Taran and co., giant stuck cave wants to kill one of them to make a potion to shrink himself, Achren puts Eilonwy under spell that makes her forget her past, near drownings.

4. Taran and co. are always referred to throughout the series as "companions" and "the companions".

5. Currently listening to Lansdale's Vanilla Ride.

6. My eight-year-old keeps climbing on my head, "I like to bug you."

Listened: "Chasing the Devil" by David Reichart

2011-09-21T21:34:00.006-05:00

Listened: Chasing the Devil: my twenty year quest to capture the Green River Killer by David Reichart, 2004 (audio), downloaded from Overdrive.com.

Quite good. I was trying to find the pub date and saw this was a finalist for an Audie in 2005. I like that the narrator, Dennis Boutsikaris, was very straightforward in his reading. Boutsikaris did not employ much emotion; he just presented the story.

One thing that Reichart really focuses on is the officers' compassion. This was a twenty year hunt and the officers were always thinking of the victims. An important point to make is that Reichart never uses a word other than prostitute. He never says whore, hooker, or anything else. No pejoratives at all. He addresses victims' circumstances but always focuses on the fact they were victims. Murder victims. Whether they had drug problems, family problems, money problems, whatever and however they got in the life did not matter. They had families and dreams and expections.

Was the investigation botched? How else and what else could they have done? Reichart was a new detective when the first bodies were discovered in and alongside the Green River. He was the lead investigator for years and at the center of the multi-jurisdictional task force. They had 40,000 tip sheets and 17,000 suspects. They talked to everyone they could on the strip. The sheriff mentions how the people they talked to often did not want to talk since they were hooking or pimping and feared legal trouble from the police. Witnesses were the homeless and drug addicts who could not remember the previous day let alone what happened to a missing hooker 30 days ago. Heck the the victims were hookers. They dealt with lots of people. People who also feared the police and possible damage to their reputations and family life.

Many of the women worked under multiple names. Unknown multiple names caused confusion in the case. Police knew "Jane" was missing and "Sue" was missing but had no clues that this was one woman using two names. The work was transient and police had trouble identifying who was missing.

Reichart addresses how important their evidence collection was in the 1980s. They collected and saved everything at the crime scenes. The cotton chewed by Ridgway for a blood type test was kept and used for DNA testing. That intense evidence work ended up solving the cases twenty years later.

Reichart and the investigation got plenty of heat from the Seattle press and a few families. Reichart's take on this was that the papers were sometimes unfair and spinning for a better story. Some families would alternately praise and condemn the investigators.

Gary Ridgway himself was a sad sack. Mumbling, small statured with a stoop, and a total liar. Catching the killer should only be part of the story. The police and family of missing women wanted answers for what happened. Ridgway signed an agreement to avoid the death penalty by clearing multiple cases. But, getting the repulsive guy to tell the truth was not easy. Reichart is still convinced Ridgway hid totems of his victims.

Read: "The Detachment" by Barry Eisler

2011-09-21T18:00:00.002-05:00

Read: The Detachment by Barry Eisler, 2011, ARC copy- to heck with the ISBN.

I received an ARC of this in my Bouchercon gift bag. I was happy to see the ARC, I also lucked into an Eisler ARC when attending Muskego 2-3 years ago. My excitement waned when I realized the regular book released at about the same time I got this.

Eisler brings together the main guys from his two series. John Rain and Dox. Ben Treven and Larison. I have decided they are all scumbag killers. Rain is a great anti-hero because I like the guy. But, he is a hired killer with no remorse. Okay, okay, he has some remorse for a lifetime of killing but he is still happy to take your money and kill your wife. Or competitor. Or politician. Or whoever it is. I think one way Rain remains likable is that Rain and his work are removed from daily life. Rain gets hired by governments or crime organizations, not by regular people.

Short version: Rain hired by Treven and Larison to kill people. Rain brings Dox in on the deal. Col. Horton is the purse manager and assigns the targets. The team of four strong personalities have to work together. Two people are murdered by the team and when they are looking at the third assignment in D.C. they are set-up to be killed by Horton. Team escapes. Team has to work to get free. Team has to stop terrorist attack in Lincoln, NE.

Comments:
1. Eisler's Larison is a scary dude. Larison is a ruthless and happy killer. He enjoys his work and puts out a vibe of danger. Never mind that we already know he is a rapist from reading Lost Coast, he also is in favor of murdering Horton's innocent daughter.
2. Horton is also a scumbag. His plan to assist and then stop a coup includes allowing several domestic terrorist attacks.
3. The one thing I disliked about Detachment is that the plot interacts too much with reality. Eisler's previous books involved actual events like government sanctioned assassinations, renditions, oligarchy assholes. But, all those books involved smaller scale and secret events. This novel goes full-on, gonzo thriller with an alternate reality: Terrorist attacks in the U.S. Presidential speeches and appointments. Homeland security and domestic paranoia. Media nonsense and uproar.
4. Eisler loves name brands. One favorite is Wilson 1911s. Which, although somewhat rare compared to most guns, are easily obtainable by Dox at a local gunshow in Viriginia. For fucks sake. The Wilson website lists the Supergrade starting at $4,475.

Finished: "Sarah Court" by Craig Davidson

2011-09-21T17:08:00.003-05:00

Finished: Sarah Court by Craig Davidson, 2010, 9781926851006.

I completely missed the release of this. I did not know about the book until this past June. I was wondering if Davidson was ever going to have a new book out and he already had. Davidson does good work. For a Canadian.

A novel composed of five short stories centered on the current and past residents of Sarah Court in a Southern Ontario town just north of Niagara Falls. The squirrel narrator of the prologue describes the town as a place, "Whose denizens have been collectively referred to by graceless out-of-towners as resembling 'your standard roller derby audience.'"

Davidson's currency is low-rent people interacting with a few people of wealth. None - or very few - of his characters are upstanding. Or standing. Or sober. There are a number of running themes in the book. To pick one topic I say: bad parenting and the recovering children. Two fathers on the Court are drunks and a foster mother is a bipolar nutjob.

The story of most interest to me followed former boxer Nick Saberhagen. Nick's father is an alcoholic surgeon - currently facing license revocation - and Nick is recently separated from his wife. Nick's son Dylan is a chubby middle schooler suffering bullying in school and online. Nick was pushed into boxing by his father and went pro when only sixteen-years-old. Nick is struggling to deal with his beautiful wife who left him, Nick's issues with his father, worry over his kid, a job requiring frequent and unannounced travel, so on, so forth.

Here is another interconnecting them: weirdness. A mysterious glass box with "something" alive inside. A drunken lout with a fighting pitbull. A Sarah Court gal pushed into power lifting by her father. An autistic hitman. Dylan who pretends to be a vampire. A daredevil who has fallen on hard times and wants to take Niagara Falls in a barrel. American Express Black Card holders with bizarre purchases.

Comments:
1. Literary stories? Yes, but in a good way.
2. Is it right to make fun of Canadians? At times.
3. Doesn't Davidson have his own recurring motifs? Yes.
3.a. Boxing (poorly done by characters)
3.b. Dog fighting
3.c. Depressing Ontario mill-towns.
3.d. Alcohol, prescription and illegal drug abuse.
4. Didn't Davidson shoot himself full of steroids he ordered from overseas? Yes.
5. Didn't Davidson engage in a boxing much to promote his last book about a boxer? Yes.
6. Didn't Davidson lose the bout? I do not recall.
EDIT 7. Davidson's observations of character motivation are always perceptive. Especially when the characters are dealing with failure or disappointment.

Listened to: "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander

2011-09-07T20:01:00.006-05:00

Listened to: The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander, 1965, downloaded from OverDrive (2004 edition?).

More great narration by James Langton. I have not recorded a library book talk in a while and figured I could talk about this and The Book of Three. I checked out the books from work and brought them home. My wife asked if I brought them home for Boy #1. I said "No." She said, "I liked those when I read them." I did not tell her that girls are not supposed to read adventure stories featuring boys.

I cannot help but retain my views from 30+ years ago when I first read these kinds of adventure books. I don't want girls reading this stuff. This is guy stuff; stay away. I enjoy the stories and adventures of Taran, Assistant Pig Master but I cannot help but over analyze the novels. I also cannot help but analyze the books as both my current adult status and as my memories of being a kid.

Plot: Assistant Pig Master Taran is home at the farm when warriors start to arrive for a meeting. Troops are gathering to go into evil Arawn's territory and steal the Black Cauldron that is used to make his zombie-like Cauldron Born soldiers. Taran gets to go along. Taran, Fflewddur the bard, and Doli the dwarf are separated from the other troops. They meet up with Princess Eilonwy and Gurgi. They find out where the Cauldron is. They get the Cauldron. Good-guy-who-turns-bad-guy steals Cauldron away. Another good-guy-into-bad-guy gets Cauldron and wants to make his own invincible army. Second good-guy-into-bad-guy is defeated. Everyone lives happily ever after. Except for the dead soldiers. They're dead.

Comments:
1. Young self: Wow! Swords, horses, adventure! That Eilonwy girl sounds really pretty but what a bother girls are! Camping out, woods, rivers, witches! Out on your own and leading others through danger!
2. Older self: (pompous voice) There are many interesting aspects to this story that appeal to young readers. A young lad in charge of adults. The importance of friendship. Lessons in honor and honesty. Young lad learning that hard work and a positive attitude matched with perseverance will win out. To not always judge others and to look beyond surface qualities. There are some bad people in life.
3. Yeah, I used a semicolon up above. No, I do not know if I used it correctly. I'm clueless about commas, too.

Read: "Cold Dish" by Craig Johnson

2011-09-07T18:39:00.003-05:00

Read: Cold Dish by Craig Johnson, 2005, 9780670033690.

I reserved this after reading several recommendations regarding a later novel in the series off the Forgotten Books postings. This was okay. I was not sure what to expect. The main character, Walt, is self deprecating and humorous at times. Not too angsty, but enough.

Walt is a widower with a grown daughter living in Philadelphia. Walt is the Sheriff in his rural Wyoming County with only two full-time Deputies, one of whom he hates. Walt's best pal is a Cheyenne guy he grew up with, Henry Standing Bear.

Walt has been drinking too much the past four years since his wife's cancer death. His daughter - who never speaks or appears in the story - and others have been discussing about getting him to move on and date some women. Walt gets hooked up with local rich gal. There seem to be a fair amount of rich people who come to enjoy the mountains.

Walt has also been maudlin the past two years over the gang-rape of a fetal alcohol syndrome Cheyenne girl who is also Henry's niece. The rapists got off easy; two years in a juvenile facility. Walt gets a call about a body out in a field. Sheriff's Department investigate and find the deceased is one of the rapists. Walt and smarter deputy investigate. Walt gets hot for local rich gal. Walt drinks too much. Things happen. A second rapist also shot with a .45-70. More things happen. Walt and Henry caught in blizzard with Henry shot. Walt figures out the shooter. Walt shoots shooter from about 700 yards out with his own .45-70. Walt watches shooter, his new gal-pal-to-be blow her brains out. Hint: she was the killer. Walt inherits dead gal's dog. Walt and dog live happily ever after.

Comments:
1. Johnson does not clearly identify which character is speaking. I often had to go back a line or two to figure it out.
2. Johnson also does not use the narration fill in all sorts of gaps about cop language/lingo, forensic talk, local lingo and geographic knowledge and tidbits. I was fine with that.
3. .45-70 love.
4. Colt 1911 love.
5. Pick-up truck love.
6. Mystic Indian ghost love. A small part of the novel involves the Cheyenne Death Rifle (or something like that). The rifle is an old Sharp's left over from the Indian Wars. The rifle is followed by Indian ghosts and Walt feels there presence. Then he sees and hears their presence when he has to carry Henry out of the mountains.
7. 700 yards, off-hand, with a big, heavy .45-70? Yeah, right.

Read: "Red, Red Robin" by Stephen Gallagher

2011-08-26T22:54:00.003-05:00

Read: Red, Red Robin by Stephen Gallagher, 1995, 0345386442.

I reserved this Gallagher book and another one (title escapes me) after finishing that Phoenix book. This was good but long at 376 pages. A horror and suspense novel.

Ruth is a Brit living in Philadelphia who sells ad space for magazines. She is also fucking a married guy at work. She hires a male escort to accompany her to a major business event. Ruth ends up being enamored with the much younger man, Ruth is about 38 years old. Ruth goes with the moment and sleeps with the dude.

Ruth takes off early that night knowing that for her this was a one night screw. The guy calls her up. The guy sends a whole roomful, literally, of flowers. Ruth tells the guy, Tim, to buzz off. Tim kidnaps her and they drive off. Security guard, Aidan, in Ruth's work building has had a burning boner for Ruth and recognizes the abduction. Aidan follows and rescues her. Tim gets away when Ruth is unable to blast Tim's brains out on the side of the road.

Fast forward about 12 months. Ruth is a psychological mess. She lives with Aidan but has her own room. She will sometimes steal into his bed at night and do the deed. She locks everything. She buys an unlicensed heater. Ruth hangs out on street corners as if tempting Tim to return and attack. A body is found and reported as Tim's corpse. Ruth cannot believe it. Aidan tries to convince her to move on in life.

Tim, meanwhile, is still alive. Tim is actually Peter, son of a Louisiana serial killer. Peter finds out Ruth has been contacting reporters to keep story alive. Peter not happy, he wants to stay lost. Peter returns to Philadelphia. Ex-cop Aidan finds out that Peter took identity of Tim after a fire - probably a murder. Peter has been wooing and killing older women for years. Peter kidnaps and kills Aidan. Ruth heads to Louisiana. Ruth feels she is already dead. Ruth hunts for Peter. Peter finds Ruth. Cops involved. More things happen. Peter dead. WAIT - Aidan is still alive! Aidan and Ruth reunited.

Comments:

1. That must be the longest novel summary I have ever written.

2. Gallagher immediately thanks Joe R. Lansdale in the Acknowledgments.

3. No mention of Lansdale's Kung FU-lery.

4. This has a number of twists and turns.

5. Gallagher focuses on character rather than action and tension from actions. Mainly told from an omniscient perspective of Ruth, Aidan, and a Philadelphia cop.

6. Or do I mean third person?

7. Good, not great.

Quit Listening: "Devil's Punchbowl" by Greg Iles

2011-08-25T13:11:00.004-05:00

Quit Listening: Devil's Punchbowl by Greg Iles, 2009, downloaded from Overdrive.

Narration sucked. Same guy, Dick Hill, who does the Lee Child books. Hill does a crap job with female characters. The women always sound whiny. I quit this one once the main character starting talking to his young daughter. Hill's girl voice was awful. AWFUL.

Penn Cage is the mayor of Natchez, MS. An old high-school friend and former junkie WhatHisFace wants to meet Penn at midnight in a graveyard. At the meeting, WhatsHisFace says the local casinos are skimming money and bringing in hookers, underaged girls, and dog fights. Penn was instrumental in bringing the casinos to town. Penn is upset.

Penn is also dealing with a business bigwig looking to open a recycling plant on the Mississippi.
Penn is also dealing with an ex-girlfriend.
Penn is also dealing with a second ex-girlfriend.
Penn is also dealing with being a single father.
Penn is also dealing with hating his job as mayor.
Penn is also dealing with having a shitty narrator.

Just Read: "Control Freak" by Christa Faust

2011-08-22T21:34:00.003-05:00

Just Read: Control Freak by Christa Faust, 2002 (reprint of 1998 copyright), 9781930235144.

I don't know. The novel has good parts but is too long and the best parts are in the last 50-70 pages.

Girl writer, Caitlin, about 23-years-old is dating a 41-year-old NYPD detective, Mike. Teenage daughter of famed lady is murdered and mutilated. Girl was into SM (not S&M as explained by a character). Mike catches case. Caitlin also investigates. Caitlin goes to sex/dungeon/SM club and hits it off with a couple people. Caitlin realizes her inherent dominance. Caitlin gets hot for mysterious and sexy Absinthe who seems to run things and is a suspect in girl's murder.

Things progress. Caitlin does "scenes" with whipping, nipple torture, absinthe drinking, dildos, etc. Mike pissed at Caitlin and they have unpleasant breakup involving tentacle squeezing. Unwanted tentacle squeezing, unlike Caitlin's new clients as she takes on dominatrix work.

Sex. Violent sex with blood. Absinthe going insane. Caitlin lost in a new world where she feels power and overwhelming lust and passion. Caitlin gets back on track on researching the murder. Mysterious Japanese connection that is far-fetched. Later mentions of Caitlin's ghost writing jobs that were unmentioned (or mostly unmentioned) before. Caitlin loves a "slave". Sex club burns down and Caitlin shoots Absinthe. Mike shot (unrelated) and dies. Caitlin finds out more about mysterious Japanese connection. Shootouts. Suicides. Caitlin survives to write a book about it all.

Comments:

1. My opinion? Suffers from first-novel-itis. Especially compared to the masterpiece of Faust's Money Shot. Too much going on in too many pages. This clocks in at 270 and should have been 200.

2. The book starts off like a mystery and then takes a long detour into SM and the SM scene and various characters within it.

3. I did like the sex parts.

4. Faust's forward says she wrote this in 1993-1995 and it came out in 1998 by an erotica publisher. This reprint is by Babbage Press.

5. I made myself finish this one. But, the ending and finale were well done.

6. Various errors in spelling and punctuation should have been caught.

Listened: "The Grey King" by Susan Cooper

2011-08-14T20:18:00.002-05:00

Listened: The Grey King by Susan Cooper, No date listed in Overdrive.com and I am too lazy to look it back up; some time in the '70s I suppose/

6 Music radio says God is dead so I listen to Radiohead.

Fourth book in the Dark is Rising series. Will, an Old One, has taken deathly ill. As his fever breaks and his recovery begins he is sent to Wales to convalesce. Wales is home to family friends who also hosted Will's sister one summer.

Will meets the "aunt" and "uncle", relations, neighbors and Brian. I'm not sure if Brian is the characters name. Cooper uses and has her characters discuss a lot of Welsh. The brief descriptions of Welsh language were interesting to hear.

Will finds out that the Dark is at work and it is his solo mission as an Old One to release six riders to fight back against the Dark. Will works with Brian and finds a magic harp, casts a couple spells, enters a mountain hall. So on. So forth.

Or something like that. When I read fantasy books I'll suspend disbelief and buy into the magic and such. But, afterwards, I don't retain any loyalty to the tale's *word I cannot think of*. You'll get people wanting to dress up as hobbits or Trek characters or Princess Leia. They follow the *word I cannot think of*. I am unable to gather that kind of enthusiasm.

Comments:
1. Much Welsh.
2. The ephemeral bad guy living in a mountain has invisible grey wolves killing sheep. Only Brian and Will can see the wolves. Brian's dog is killed by a nutty neighbor who thinks Brian's beloved beast is doing the killing. Brian is distraught.
3. While listening to this I was thinking about how great it would be to vacation in Wales and do some hiking.
4. Not that I vacation anywhere except Kansas.
5. I did drive to San Diego. Once. For a weekend.
6. I did visit Montreal once but a honeymoon does not count.
7. Brian's albino-ness is a part of the plot.
8. Brian is actually King Arthur's and Guinevere's son brought forward in time.
9 I did I write before how all recent British fantasy seems to be either King Arthur or Hobbit based? Doctor Who excluded; that's science fiction.

Read Half: "Texas Showdown" by Elmer Kelton

2011-08-14T14:57:00.002-05:00

Read Half: Texas Showdown: Two Texas Novels by Elmer Kelton, 2007 (both novels originally 1963), 9780765311528.

I read the first one Pecos Crossing. It was kind of boring but perked up at the end. Two young cowboys care for a man's cattle during the winter. They go into town to get paid. The guy pretends not to see them and walks off. When confronted on the sidewalk he claims he already paid them and takes advantage of the passing sheriff to claim the cowboys are trying to scam or rob him.

Cowboys end up in jail overnight while cattleman skips town. Cowboys head off the stage, force cattleman off, demand their money. Cattleman pulls a gun and accidentally shoots the young, newlywed wife of a recently resigned Texas Ranger. Ranger vows revenge. Cowboys hit the trail. Story follows the cowboys as they visit family, come to a girl in aid, etc.

The interesting part was when the story followed the Ranger who had been sick of work and hates killing. But, he is bound by his vow, reputation, and past life to carry through. A mostly happy ending.

I read the first few pages of Shotgun and gave up.

Listened to: "Creepers" by David Morrell

2011-08-11T10:10:00.002-05:00

Listened to: Creepers by David Morrell, 2005, downloaded from Overdrive.com

Meh. Good enough to keep listening but not all that great. The best part of this is Morrells afterword telling his interest in, and history with, abandoned places. The power of history and memory and the feeling of stepping back in time.

Urban Explorers of abandoned buildings are preparing to visit a hotel in Asbury Park, NJ that was shuttered in 1970. The group is two guys, a gal, and an elderly professor. They are joined by a journalist in his '30s. The group is secretive. Explorers break into dangerous buildings. Abandoned buildings with rotten floors, unstable walls, creaky stairs, and holed roofs. Explorers get prosecuted to deter others and prevent injuries and deaths.

Group sneaks into building through hotel drains. Group sees mutant rats and cats. Group hears history of hotel and the reclusive, agoraphobic owner. Group finds files on crimes that happened in hotel.

Group is ambushed by three thugs who came to burgle building. One of group thrown off atrium balcony by a thug. Group and thugs open vault in suite of 1920s mobster. Vault has blond woman locked inside. She was kidnapped by Ronnie and stuck there. More death, more danger.

Ronnie kept penthouse updated and clean. Journalist not really a journalist. He wants to search building for his disappeared wife. Group finds old bodies of dead blond women. More death, more danger, many shotgun blasts. More info on Ronnie and who he is.

Journo, captured woman, and group member escape hotel to the beach. Beach showdown against the evil Ronnie.

Comments:

1. I want a short barreled shotgun. I should carry some cash around to catch any god buys on used ones in gun stores.

2. Morrell grew up with arguing parents that scared the heck out of him. He would escape his apartment and visit an abandoned apartment building. Building still had furniture, plates, magazines, old records. Morrell did not feel lonely there.

3. Morrells son died of bone cancer when he was only 15. Holy crap. One thing his son said was "No one will remember me." Morrell writes about memory and history inherit in old buildings.

Quickly Read: "Slocum and the Invaders" by Jake Logan

2011-08-08T22:16:00.002-05:00

Quickly Read: Slocum and the Invaders by Jake Logan (Don't know real name), 1994, 0425141829.

This was heartily recommended by James Reasoner a couple weeks ago. This copy came from Hayward, WI.

Slocum is riding through Northern Arizona at the night. He hears metal on metal, pulls his rifle, sees what seems to be a rifle on a tripod. He confronts the man and finds out the object is a telescope manned by an astronomer and his hot, and horny, female assistant.

Shots are fired. Slocum drives the shooter off. Shooter is a guy who tried to hang Slocum 21 days ago. Hot assistant begs Slocum to protect her and older astronomer. She pays in gold and gash. (Couldn't resist that alliteration.)

Things happen. Bad guys. Indians. Mysterious lights at night. Astronomer is Lowell and he loves Mars. Let us cut to the wonderful excerpts:

To his rigid surprise, Slocum found himself nodding yes, just as her soft, long fingers found the root of his love shaft, then climbed subtly up to grasp his head and cover it, just as his cum load shot forth, making both he and Myra gasp in pleasure.

And,

Slocum went to work, driving in and then almost pulling out before driving home again. Myra's moans began to build. She was tight but lubricated inside, a perfect love machine, and Slocum found himself marveling at her perfect body, breasts standing out like red-tipped cones, belly as flat as a board.

"Let it go now!" Myra huffed fiercely, and Slocum found himself willing to oblige, his cock swelling with readiness.

"Yes!" Myra commanded, and at that moment Slocum let her have what she wanted, driving high and deep as his sex gun fired a mighty blast inside her. He thought she would explode, her mouth opening wide in a silent scream of pleasure, her green eyes growing huge, and even more fiery as she clutched his buttocks, clawing into him with each shot of his cum machine.

And then suddenly in the middle of it she fired off her own volley, her body tightening like a spring, arching, her nether triangle heaving, rivers of fluid riding up and down around Slocum's shaft, driving him to even more orgasm, a final mighty burst of white love juice that drove her back on the ground, making her pull her hands from him to cover her mouth and keep from screaming out in ecstasy.

Comments:

1. "Rock hard love weapon."

2. "Mighty burst of white love juice."

3. Reasoner did not list the author's real name. Too bad.

Read: "Purple Cane Road" by James Lee Burke

2011-08-07T21:06:00.004-05:00

Read: Purple Cane Road by James Lee Burke, 2000, 0385488440.

I think I read this novel once before. Or, maybe not. Hard to tell since the Robicheaux novels are all the same. Burke is like Lee Child, he follows a formula (of sorts) but still puts out a real good story. I like Burke's novels better than Lee's.

Robicheaux is maudlin again. A local gal is on death row for killing the man who molested her and her twin sister when they were children. Robicheaux is dealing with longtime pal and former cop partner Clete Purcell. Clete is throwing scumbags off a low roof. One scumbag, a pimp, claims that Robicheaux's deceased mother was a whore and murdered by the police in 1968. Robicheaux gets more maudlin and starts investigating the claim.

Stories of Robicheaux's sad family background: drunken and brawling father killed on an oil rig in the gulf. Sad mom looking for love from other men and a pattern of running away, returning, and then never coming back.

Robicheaux finds New Orleans dirty cops involved in the 1968 murder. Robicheaux investigates to find people who were there. Robicheaux gets involved in local death sentence gal's case; Robicheaux wants gal freed or commuted. Things happen. More things happen. Button man is dangerous and scary. Clete is drunk. Robicheaux refers to twelve steps. Robicheaux clashes with people. Robicheaux blinded by rage. Manners are important. Robicheaux drives around Southern Louisiana.

Comments:

1. Burke's talent for story telling, characters, and setting drives everything. The plot does not much matter for me. I think of it as a Twin Peaks story: the mystery is not the point.

2. But, I still need something going on in the plot. Burke just barely provides that.

3. White trash murderer love.

4. .45 ACP love.

5. Fishing and boating love.

6. Louisiana lingo love.

7. More rotten cops.

8. Recurring motifs: rotten politicians, white trash, stone-cold killers, dirty cops, characters speaking elliptically, sorrow of the past is present all the time.

Listened to: "Without Fail" by Lee Child

2011-08-05T21:35:00.000-05:00

Listened to: Without Fail by Lee Child, 2002, downloaded from Overdrive.com.

Short version: Reacher found. Reacher introduced to problem. Reacher bangs hot chick. Reacher solves problem. Reacher hits the bricks.

Long version: Reacher found by Secret Service gal in charge of Vice President-elect's security detail. Gal was former girlfriend of Reacher's dead brother, Joe. Reacher hired to test VP-elect's security. Reacher hires a former gal Sergeant colleague, even more skilled than he is, to help with the "audit".

Reacher and Sgt. test security and find flaws. Of course they find flaws, the protection job is impossible to a determined assassin. Reacher analyzes. Reacher is tough. Reacher suspects a real threat is behind the audit. Reacher and gal continue to work as new threats against VP-elect come in. Sec. Ser. gal still hot for Joe. SS Gal transfers that to Reacher. She and Reacher do deed.

Attempt on VP-elect fails. Security ratcheted up. Investigation to find assassins continues. Reacher analyzes. Reacher is tough. Second attempt on VP-elect kills SS Gal. Reacher pledges revenge. Reach analyzes again. Reacher questions. Reacher sets up opportunity to get assassins.

Reacher and Sgt. head to rural Wyoming memorial for SS Gal. Reacher analyzes. Reacher is tough. Reacher and Sgt find and kill assassins. Reacher hits the bricks.

Comments:

1. Steyr GB love. Again.

2. Child loves rural settings in both the U.S. and England. Is that an English thing? The wide open spaces of the U.S. versus the short distances of the UK?

3. Rural WY ambush not hampered by crowds. Bullshit. What cop funeral/memorial does not have a 100 or more uniformed officers attend a cop funeral?

4. Constant conflict between military Reacher and civilian authority. Reacher still makes comparisons between civilian and military life. How the justice systems differ, he had more control and power as an Army MP versus civilian cop, the freedom of movement allowed to the protected VP, rules for prisoner interrogation. On one hand Reacher has disdain for civilian work ethic and abilities. On the other hand, he bolted from military life.

5. Reacher is lacking in sentiment. He does not care for beatitudes and memorials - his brother's place in the Treasury Department's LEO memorial the prime example.

6. Narrator gives a whiny voice to theSgt.

7. I was wrong on the culprit. This is not a mystery with the culprit introduced early on. The bad guys do not appear until very late in the novel.

8. Lack of continuity among the novels. Or does Child pick different aspects to focus on? One book discusses Reacher never needing a watch and being able to tell accurate time whenever he needs to. This book has him checking his watch. Another novel has detail on Reacher's sturdy, made in England shoes he can only get from a special shop in London. This one has him wearing other shoes.

Read: "Black Hats" by Patrick Culhane (Max Allan Collins)

2011-08-03T21:58:00.002-05:00

Read: Black Hats by Patrick Culhane (Max Allan Collins), 2007, 9780060892531.

We drove down to Wichita today. I mentioned to my wife I could look up some crime locations from Scott Phillips. We went to a movie and ate at Yip Yips instead. We also went by a Barnes and Noble. In the discount section I saw a few copies of Wyatt Earp Speaks. I showed the book to my wife but did not buy it. I then saw a copy of Men's Adventure Magazines. I flipped through that one, saw Collins's name, and pointed that out to my wife. I did not buy that book either.

Wyatt Earp is 70 years old and summering in Los Angeles rather than work his Nevada mine in the heat. Earp occasionally trades on his fame (infamy) and does some private investigator work. One day Big Nose Kate - Doc Holliday's ex - shows up. Kate says she and Doc had a son. The son also became a dentist but lost his wife and child and has opened a speakeasy in New York City. Kate pays Earp $500, plus expenses, to travel to NYC and convince Johnny to quit the business.

Earp gets out there and finds out that the night club is a booming business. Johnny proclaims it the next Gold Rush. One problem: the mafia of Frankie Yale is demanding that Johnny sell his 5-year supply of booze to Yale and Yale becomes the club's wholesaler. Yale has Al Capone enforcing his will.

Earp ends up advising and working with Johnny. Bat Masterson joins in. Things happen. Capone and cronies machine gun the night club after close. Earp and Bat figure out how to secretly transport the off-site stored booze to the club. Shoot-out at the booze warehouse. Mafia gunmen dropped in Brooklyn as they Irish mob did it.

Earp and Bat know the problem will not go away. They get Johnny to get out of the business. Con job proceeds. Everyone lives happily ever after. Except for the dead guys.

Comments:

1. Collins wrote that Harrison Ford is attached to a movie version of this. Ford is such a big name that I presume there is a better than average chance the film will get financing and be made.

2. I like the Quarry novels better. This was slower with less action. Only one current day gunfight - the booze warehouse - with flashbacks to the O.K. Corral and that fight's aftershocks. I hereby proclaim Black Hats to be more historical novel than crime novel.

3. In 1993 I went to Tombstone and saw the Vincent Price voiced automaton play. It was not very good.

4. I could tell while reading that Collins put a lot of work in the historical bits and pieces. His afterword makes that clear and I especially like his listing of good sources, and his criticism of poor sources. Whenever I see Collins write a comment online I pay attention. See the Jerry Lewis comments on If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger...

5. Back to the story: Earp is a killer. Earp is a card cheat. Earp likes to make money. Earp puts his faith and trust in few people. Earp has wanderlust. Earp is hard person to figure out.

6. From what Collins gives us I think trusting Earp would be risky. His word can be trusted but he seems like the type to pull out whenever it suits him. Earp praises Doc Holliday's loyalty as a friend - I wonder if that loyalty was something this fictional version of Earp lacked.

7. Earp is one of those guy's whose long and eventful life is defined by others into one or two brief events. Like a 20-year-old infantryman scarred by combat. But, Earp bore very few psychological scars aside from the loss of his brothers.

Quick Read: "Savages" by Don Winslow

2011-08-01T21:43:00.005-05:00

Quick Read: Savages by Don Winslow, 2010, 9781439183366.

Good. Another look by Winslow at the Mexican cartel wars.

Chon and Ben grew up together as beach volleyball partners. Chon joined the Navy and the SEALs. Ben went to college and became a botanist. Ben decides to grow marijuana for a living. Chon imports some special seeds from Afghanistan and they start a hugely successful hydroponic growing business. Chon is a stone killer. Ben burns his drug profits by traveling the third world and doing good deeds. Their best pal is Ophelia, 'O', a rich, Orange County, sex-fiend who is fuck buddy to them both.

The Baja Cartel demands that Chon and Ben sell exclusively to them. The Bajas make this demand by beheading seven of Chon and Ben's people. Chon and Ben say 'fuck you, we wanted out of the business anyway'. Baja retaliates by kidnapping Ophelia and upping the demands: Chon and Ben work for them for three years while O remains hostage, or O gets gang-raped and decapitated with a chainsaw.

Chon and Ben only do what they can. They agree. But, they also negotiate a buy-out clause, $20 million. Things progress. C&B don't have the dough. They get info on Baja stash houses and start robbing the Bajas. The Bajas try to find out who the robbers are. More things happen. C&B worry for O. Things end unhappily.

Comments:

1. Ben thinks the cartels are savages, he cannot understand or cope. Chon is used to savage behavior after fighting AQ in Afghanistan and scumbags in Iraq. Chon knows the only way to deal with savages is savagely. The wealthy Mexicans think of themselves as refined Europeans and the Americans are savages.

2. Written in short, choppy sentences and sections. Sort of Ellroy like but without as many characters and the labrythian Ellroy plotting.

3. Written with plenty of slang - thankfully Winslow provides translation - with a humorous or laid back slant. As though told by a C&B customer who has been busily using.

4. Explanation of marijuana and the different variations. News to me but I'll forget most of it.

5. Many emotionless killers. Wait, not emotionless. Pitiless. Ruthless. Other synonyms. 'Black eyed killers with no soul.'

6. Keep the crime to certain gang areas and Mexico. Don't hurt any white people and don't damage the money stream.

7. I was able to read through a lot of this on the way to Hutchinson and back for our visit to the Cosmosphere and Space Center.

Finished: "Mississippi Vivian" by Bill Crider and Clyde Wilson

2011-07-31T21:24:00.002-05:00

Finished: Mississippi Vivian by Bill Crider and Clyde Wilson, 2010, 9781594148743.

Good. The second Ted Stephens PI novel. Wilson died in 2008. I do not recall if Crider wrote whether this was finished before Wilson passed. I think it was.

Set in 1970. Stephens travels to Losgrove, MS to investigate an insurance company fraud. Several men from the small MS town had worked as longshoreman in Houston and claimed injuries. All claims went through the same attorney and the company is insurance.

Stephens gets only get one person to talk to him in the small town, Mississippi Vivian, a local waitress. Vivian is a lousy talker though. She talks in circles, asks questions in return, and does not volunteer information. Stephens asks about the longshoreman and finds one committed suicide. In a friend's house. Well, that's suspicious.

Stephens talks to the attorney who says he knows nothing of the checks that were addressed to his location. Well, that's suspicious, too.

The Sheriff is friendly until asked about the suicide. The Sheriff then tells Stephen to not ask around anymore about the dead guy. That is also suspicious. Steppehns says, Sure I'll leave it alone. But, he doesn't mean it.

Stephens digs. He asks questions, asks questions, and asks questions. One of the guy's claiming injury tries to beat Stephens up and fails. The same guy ends up dead with two gunshots through his chest. Stephens keeps digging and figures things out. Stephens heads back to Houston.

Comments:

1. Good. Like usual. No surprise. I would have preferred a faster pace but this is not that kind of novel.

2. Realism (to a point). Stephens does not pack heat. Does not have cop friends on the inside. Does not have special computer skills and high-tech surveillance equipment. He asks questions and works the case. He (mostly) sticks to his mandate of insurance fraud.

3. Crider recurring motif: enjoyment of common food. Stephens often eats at the cafe Mississippi Vivian works at. He loves the meatloaf and catfish and drinks lots of iced tea.

4. When did crime scene tape come into use?

5. Small period references. At one point Stephens gets a can of soda: I prefer to drink straight from the can. All those stories about how you can catch some kind of disease from rat urine on drink cans are greatly exaggerated, if you ask me. I never heard that urban rumor.

6. No one likes Stephen's jokes. It is a recurring joke in itself. He is the wise cracking PI but no one catches on. Stephens comments on the misuse of apostrophe's.

7. Stephens often gets people saying things like, "You're the private investigator, you should know that."

8. This is all set in the MS. Stephens wife has just a couple brief appearances on phone conversations. The Clyde Wilson-style character from #1 does not appear.

Read: "Agents of Treachery" Edited by Otto Penzler

2011-07-31T12:17:00.002-05:00

Read: Agents of Treachery edited by Otto Penzler, 2010, 9780307477514.

I was scanning the shelves for paperbacks to take on my trip.

Fourteen short stories by as many authors. I liked the ones by Andrew Klavan, Stephen Hunter, and John Weisman. I was disappointed in the Lee Child story. The best one was by John Lawton.

Klavan story: Sleeper cell of Soviet agents still lives in the U.S. Some cell members have had suspicious deaths since the break-up of the USSR. All cell members are about 60+ yrs old - or older - now. Told by one cell member who fears murder by the Americans or activation. He hears from another cell member, after a 20 year quiet, who is freaking out. Other guy thinks the Russians sold the cell to the Arabs for terrorism. Both men wish for their childhood home of Centerville. Centerville was made just for cell training. The members were raised as children in an idealized American small town set in the middle of Ukrainian prairie.

Hunter: A WWII story set in France and England. A US commando is part of a three man team sent to blow a bridge after D-Day. The local partisans are a communist group and do not want to deploy their machine guns. The partisans want to save the guns for political power after the war. The Brit commando calls a contact he knows is a commie. The commie gets word to Kremlin. Kremlin gets word to France. Machine guns are deployed. At the same time a Brit gal soldier hears of this. She is NKVD and the partisan group is being run by a competing Soviet intelligence service. She contacts NKVD bosses who get the machine guns, somehow, pulled. The American and Brit commando die after bridge is blown.

Weisman: Weisman writes one of his "capable commando foiled by bureaucrats and liberals" tales. 52 year old CIA paramilitary guy is hunting AQ in Iraq and has a line on kidnappers and victims. Matt Maupin is supposed to be held. 52 year old has to convince a young inexperienced, naive, and mostly incompetent superior to run an informant properly. Turns out the informant is a plant and the paramilitary was the target. Paramilitary was too effective and getting to AQ and is killed in operation.

When I heard Maupin's remains were found I was not surprised. He had been missing so long. Even expecting the worst I was no less sad to hear the news. The missing guys never got much press coverage but others were completely focused on finding them.

Lawton: Great story with a Brit Army officer in 1960's. Brit has led an unexciting career. Crappy assignments at cold and dingy English bases and a few years stuck in the Libyan desert. Officer learns Russian in hopes of getting into Intelligence. But, ends up in London and in charge of all supplies East of Suez. During a night of bar hopping he gets propositioned by whore. While getting undressed the door busts open and Russian takes his photo. Russian has mistaken Officer for a senior officer of the same name. Officer takes regular reports on skillet shipments, doctors them, sells the reports to Russian. Officer falls for the whore. Whore likes him, too. Things get hairy and they are able to frame-up the senior officer with same name (a dickhead). Whore kills the Russian. Whore also kills the Officer's older wife to be with him.

Listened to: "Forgotten Man" by Robert Crais

2011-07-30T18:48:00.002-05:00

Listened to: Forgotten Man by Robert Crais. I'm on vacation, I'm not looking for the year. Downloaded from Overdrive.

Not sure where this fits in the order of Elvis Cole books.

Elvis is at home late at night, unable to sleep. He gets a call from LAPD detective asking him to come to a crime scene. Dead guy in alley was found by cop shortly before expiration and claimed Elvis was his son. Elvis shows up, does not know the guy, does not look like the guy. Elvis wants to know what was going on.

Reader finds out much more about Elvis as a child. His mom was mentally ill and would disappear for days or months at a time. On one return she shows up pregnant. Years later Elvis is a kid and asks who his dad is. Mom says dad was a human cannonball. Whenever young Elvis hears about a carnival or circus he skips town looking to see if their is a human cannonball and if it is his dad. Elvis is looking hard for a father. His mother is a mess and his grandfather and aunt do not take good care of him.

Contemporary Elvis digs around to identify the John Doe murder victim. Dead guy covered in religious tattoos. At the same time a colleague/employee/friend (we don't know) of the dead guy is trying to find dead guy. Dead guy went to LA and friend afraid dead guy will spill beans about "something".

Things happen. Elvis pulls the standard PI plot of getting his police pals, crime scene pals, and DMV pals to help him out. Elvis had left behind his need to find his father and now that need is pulling him again. Lady cop pines for Elvis. Elvis pines for girlfriend who left him. Pike pines for his Python. Elvis cracks the case. Elvis finds lady cop who found dead guy actually killed him. Elvis and lady cop ambushed by dead guy's pal. Pike arrives in nick of time. Elvis is in intensive care for a few weeks. Pike is all lovey-dovey by non-stop vigil at Elvis's bedside. Elvis visits his mother's grave.

Comments:

1. Lady cop who killed guy was trying to set Cole up. Lady cop says (paraphrasing) "I made it up as I went along" Just like Crais with this novel.

2. Cole continues wisecracking.

3. Narrator narrates those wisecracks as wisecracks. But, you could read those Cole comments with a much darker subtext. Cole is a mostly content and happy person. But, he seems to work at being that way. Are his wise acre comments a push back against bad events or unpleasant people to maintain happiness?

4. I got started thinking about what I mention in #3. I then got off track and did not analyze it any more while listening. I cannot expand the thought.

5. Okay, here is one thought. Cole has no family besides Pike. He was forced to independence. Are wisecracks a way to keep personal demons of loneliness at bay? I don't know, I have not read that many of these novels nor do I remember them all that well. Pike, too, came from a crappy family.

6. Colt Python love.

7. Sig .45 love.

Read: "Reflections in a Golden Eye" by Carson McCullers

2011-07-26T15:52:00.002-05:00

Read: Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers, 1941 (2000 paperback), 0618084754.

The movie version of this was mentioned in the comments for the Abbott-Gran blog post about Elizabeth Taylor. I'm not sure what drew me to reserve the novel, but the blog comment mentioned 1940s "pervs" and I'll bet that was it.

Southern Gothic set on an Army base in the South. There is a Captain and his wife, a Major and his wife, a Private. The Captain's wife is slightly retarded and carrying on an affair with the neighboring Major. The Major's wife is in very poor mental and physical health. The Captain is a closeted gay. This is not explicitly made clear. The Private is a weirdo who rarely talks. The Major is a bit of a self-involved doofus.

Captain has mixed love-hate feelings for the Private. His sexual urges seem so sublimated he tamps down what he really feels. The Private falls for the wife and stalks her. He enters the house and night and squats next to her bed to stare at her.

Captain knows about his wife and the Major having sex. He does not really care except for feeling that he should care. Major's wife also knows about the affair but unwilling to leave since she is mostly bedridden and without job skills. Things progress. People drink a lot. Late nights. Lots of hidden sexuality. Introspective looks at characters. Violent death at the end. "Passions and jealousies."

Comments:
1. This was the second book in a row I have read that had nipples cut off.
2. This might be the only Southern Gothic I have read except for that Tomorrow River novel.
3. This was short at 127 pages.
4. This edition had an afterword by Tennessee Williams. I tried reading the afterword but decided I did not give a flying fuck.

Read: "Valley of Lights" by Stephen Gallagher

2011-07-24T19:02:00.005-05:00

Read: Valley of Lights by Stephen Gallagher, 1987, 0450406644.

I saw new eBook edition of this promoted on Bill Crider's blog. I read that it had a Phoenix setting and got interested. Although I did not completely enjoy my years in the Valley I am still quite interested in what it was like before the massive building and population boom of the '90s and '00s.

As I was reading the first part of this I was thinking, "This is good, it's been a while since I read a police procedural - especially with a patrol cop as antagonist." Then I got to the horror part of the novel and thought, "Crap, this is just like that movie, The Fallen." Fortunately, it did not follow the exact same plot as the flick. I liked the flick.

Patrol Sergeant Alex Volchak is a workaholic for Phoenix PD. He takes a welfare call to a local motel where he finds three guys that seem comatose. He figures they are drugged. The guy who rented the room shows up, sees the cops, drops his bag full of baby food, Alex loses the guy in a foot chase. The guy must have been feeding the comatose people the baby food.

Alex is not a detective and does not pursue cases like this. But, since he wakes early and cannot get to sleep he heads to a place he figures the guy might be. Alex finds guy, guy takes off, guy falls off a truck bed. Alex asks guy why he ran, guy says, "I don't like questions," then dies. At approximately the same time one of the comatose, and diagnosed brain dead, guys walks out of the hospital.

Turns out the bad guy is a demon of sorts. Demon has lived a thousand years or so and likes to kill young people. Alex figures this out and is able to follow the latest body for the demon to inhabit. He tracks the latest body and is stopped from killing him. Things happen. Alex and female trailer-park-neighbor get hot and heavy. Alex explains his theory to her. Neighbor freaks and bolts. Demon runs neighbor off the road and kidnaps her daughter. Alex has to figure out how to stop demon and rescue girl.

Comments:
1. I liked this. Alex was a good narrator. A workaholic since his wife died and able to figure things out.
2. Colt Detective Special love.
3. Jeep Renegade love.
4. Urban squalor of Phoenix love.
5. 1984 goodness: no cell phones, no freeways in Phoenix, still a lot of desert separating communities.
6. Well told and plotted. How will Alex catch the demon? He gets him once but the demon lucks out and finds a freshly dead person; Alex is then in another bind when demon starts to play with Alex.
7. I wonder if a producer bought the rights to this? IMDB had no listing for Gallagher or novel title under entry for Fallen. If not, did Gallagher sue? Scott Phillips said suing over a concept can cause more hurt than winning could help.

"Read": "The Poisoner's Handbook" by Deborah Blum

2011-07-22T14:10:00.002-05:00

"Read": The Poisoner's Hanbook: murder and the birth of forensic medicine in the Jazz Age in New York, by Deborah Blum, 2010, 9781594202438.

Of course I read this. I was on the committee wasn't I? I wouldn't skip out halfway through. I read every last word. Yes, the definition of "last word" is arguable.

Good book. Lots of research by Blum who neatly wrapped facts into narrative. Following the trailblazing forensic work of the coroner's office in New York City. The Office had to fight against underfunding and political shenanigans but started rigorous scientific work to develop tests to detect poisons and other substances.

I was very interested in the fact that the coroner, and Blum, repeatedly would rail against the deadly effects of illegal liquor. The liquor was often denatured with all sorts of poisonous and deadly substances. The government passed requirements that grain alcohol substitutes used by bootleggers be poisoned as a means of deterring usage. It didn't work; bootleggers used the stuff and people died like flies.

Most illegal booze in the U.S. and NYC was scuzzy poison swill, very little of illegal booze was distilled in the U.S. or smuggled from the Caribbean or Canada.

Sure I read the whole thing. I wouldn't make that up. See, here is the last sentence "I keep asking myself, have I done everything right?"

Listened to: "Brotherhood of the Rose" by David Morrell

2011-07-21T12:59:00.006-05:00

Listened to: Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morrell, 1984 (1985 for audio version), downloaded from Overdrive.

I am currently reading a book of espionage short stories Agents of Treachery. Morrell has a story Agents and his author bio mentions that Brotherhood was made into a miniseries. News to me.

In 1938 a group of espionage bosses created the Abelard Sanction to create safe houses around the world for any spy, from any country, for any crime.

Chris and Saul were raised in an military boys school - an orphanage. Their foster father, of sorts, Elliott, is a big wig in the CIA. The boys were taught an intensive martial art for years, joined the Army, joined the Special Forces, served in Vietnam, joined the CIA, took jobs as highly skilled assassins and spies.

Saul is tasked by Elliott to murder a group of billionaires negotiating an oil deal with the arab countries. Saul is betrayed by Elliott who set him up as the fall man and then tries to have him killed. Chris is in Bangkok to commit suicide when he kills a Soviet agent in a sanction house. Murder inside a sanction house is grounds for immediate execution by any available agent from any country.

Chris and Saul meet up and try to figure out what is going on. The 1938 espionage summit by espionage bosses still continues as Elliott and others manipulate politics and actions behind the scenes. Chris and Elliott discover this while also teaming up with an Israeli spy Saul used to date.

Chris and Saul set out to get Elliott. Chris is killed. Saul is out for revenge and tracks Elliott to a sanction safe house. Elliott and Saul clash and both are evicted. Saul does not want to kill Elliott in the end but Elliott betrays him once more and Saul shoots him.

Comments:
1. This was pretty decent. The second half was better with more action and danger to protagonists. Elliott turns out to have been an incredibly manipulative and awful person.
2. This was done in 1984 and Morrell has to explain how computers and modems work.
3. How dated is the spycraft? No worries over cell phones but most everything is done in cash to avoid notice. Easy for them to break into the Def Int Agency computer system after interrogating a computer guy for pass codes.
4. This must predate the techno-info method of throwing military acronyms at the reader; piling on detail about vehicles and weapons and equipment. Even Barry Eisler who will list name brands and models. I wonder if Morrell currently follows that path? He mentions Berettas and UZIs but only because they are supposed to be unique identifiers of the Mossad and used by bad guys to create confusion.
5. Saul is described as "a tall Jew" by a stranger. Huh?
6. NoveList has the publication dates for Morrell's novels all screwed up. They will list a later edition's date rather than the original pub date. For instance, First Blood is listed as 2000 but the review source is KIRKUS from 1972.
7. First Blood is Morrell's first novel and KIRKUS gave it a slam bang review. I wonder if KIRKUS was as picky then as they are - notoriously - now.
8. Elliott had several pairs of "foster" sons he used up. At the end of the book only Saul and two others exist. It would have been interesting to have had Saul and those other two interact directly. The other two are still completely devoted to their "dad".

Finished: "Guild" by Ed Gorman

2011-07-18T20:12:00.003-05:00

Finished: Guild by Ed Gorman, 2009 (reprint of 1987 copyright), 9780843962307.

I bought this at the Twice is Nice store in Jefferson for $0.50. I liked it.

Years ago Guild was judged not guilty of murdering an eight year old girl. He did shoot the girl but was found not guilty of murder. Since then Guild has kept bounty hunting and carrying the guilt and grief of the girl's death.

Guild rides into the Dakota Territory town of Danton with a prisoner. He turns the prisoner over and gets a room. He runs across a very small but threatening and drunk gambler. A local man is killed while Guild is out on the town. A mob is searching for the killer. Killer is suspected of being the drunken gambler. Guild meets the sheriff, Baines, who was a platoon mate of Guild's in the Army.

The town is under control of the Cord family. Cord wants the killer found. Cord controls the sheriff. Guild is asked by the gambler's female companion to help. Guild agrees. Things happen: Gambler found hung in cell and judged a suicide. Companion vows revenge. Guild helps her out. Guild investigates. Cord plans more deadly action and uses relatives and friends for the dirty work. Guild has boner for companion. Other characters introduced. Other characters killed.

Cord plans to split town because the initial killing was done by him to hide embezzlement from the Cord family bank. Cord plans to split town; after firing the sheriff Cord hires some goons as deputies to keep people out of his hair before Cord can split town with the bank's cash.

Guild and Baines escape town and sneak back in. Cord kills companion. Guild chases after Cord. Guild shoots Cord.

Comments:

1. This is the second Iowa author I have read in a row.

2. Guild and Baines are fun together. Baines is older and getting arthritic. At one point he says he is getting too old for gun play. Guild gets annoyed and reminds Baines they are the same age.

3. Guild and Baines do not play out the friends turned enemies cliche. Guild calls Baines out on Baines lack of honor and ethics by kowtowing to the Cords. Baines admits to it, he needs the job.

4. Other things seem to start on cliched routes but turn off. Older newspaperwoman and a possible romance with a witness. Baines switching sides. Cord feeling guilty, but only for a very brief time. Female companion being killed rather than riding off with Guild.

Finished: "Last Quarry" by Max Allan Collins

2011-07-17T21:40:00.003-05:00

Finished: The Last Quarry by Max Allan Collins, 2006 (? or 2005), 0843955937.

Very Good. Another Hard Case Crime success. I'm glad they are getting printed again. I like the Quarry novels. He's a stone cold killer but he has a sense of humor and a weakness for women.

Collins's afterword details more about how the novel came about. The first chapter was an often anthologized short story. (I'm proud of myself for recognizing that before reading the afterword.) The short story had been made into a short film and the director was looking to expand the story into a feature length flick. Charles Ardai was looking for a novel so Collins produced this. I have checked out the library's DVD version of that full-length film, Last Lullaby, more than once. I have the movie downstairs right now. I have yet to watch the dang picture.

Quarry is now fully retired. He ran into an old Army buddy who gave him a job managing a north woods resort in Minnesota. But, Quarry can't sleep. In the middle of the night he goes to a convenience store and recognizes another customer as a button man from Chicago. The gay button man is buying tampons. Quarry gets curious. Quarry follows. Quarry finds the button man and his boyfriend kidnapped a socialite and are holding her for ransom. Quarry kills the two kidnappers. Drunken slut socialite is overjoyed for the rescue. Quarry calls the socialite's dad and asks for $250,000 ransom. End of short story and chapter one.

Quarry decided to take the risk and have some excitement by acting in his own backyard. That backfires when the rich dad tracks him down and offers $500,000 for a kill. Quarry is going to have to up and leave anyway after being found. May as well take the job and the money.

Quarry travels to Colorado and shadows the mark. Quarry has gotten soft. Quarry is hot for the 30 yr. victim to be. Quarry pounds on the abusive boyfriend. Quarry bangs the mark. The mark brings out feelings that Quarry had long submerged. Things happen. Relationships discovered. Quarry kills many people at a funeral.

Comments:

1. Hi-Power love.

2. Quarry is socially capable but refuses to follow along. He's a killer and has separated himself from polite manners. He does not care what others think and is just as likely to kill them. Quarry does not have sex, make love, sleep with, etc. He fucks. He does not have relationships. It sounds like his dead wife was chosen for her cluelessness as much as anything.

3. Collins wrote before how Vietnam vet Quarry was partly based on the PTSD riddled Audie Murphy.

4. Quarry loves Coca-Cola. Even Diet Coke.

5. I did not realize they were so few Quarry books. I thought there were at least a dozen or so.
EDIT
6. Collins bebopped his way over to this blog. He is scheduled to attend Bouchercon this year. Maybe I'll see him and act like a suck-up.

Read: "Tales From Deadwood" by Mike Jameson (James Reasoner)

2011-07-14T17:06:00.005-05:00

Read: Tales From Deadwood by Mike Jameson (James Reasoner), 2005, 0425206750.

I would not have known about this Reasoner novel but for a plug by Bill Crider. Reasoner has so many damn books under other names.

This novel could be alternately titled Western Whores and the Gunmen Who Loved Them. Reasoner novels always seem to have a mix of hokey dialogue and realistic sex. The characters speak to one another without shyness and reveal feelings of gratitude, admiration, love, and other things that strangers would often keep quiet. The characters acknowledge their confusion over other people.

Anyway. Not all that much happens. Wild Bill Hickok decides to follow some friends out to Deadwood where the friends plan to start a mail and suttler business. Dan Ryan is a former cavalryman scouting a small wagon train of miners to Deadwood. Along for the story are: Calamity Jane trying to get Hickok to have sex with her. A pal of Hickok falling for a young hooker. Dan Ryan's mining partner falling and moving in with another hooker. A few Deadwood locals doing local things.

Not a whole lot happens until a shoot out in the end. But, this is a Reasoner novel and he always keeps me interested in the characters. Ryan's partner who fled his oppressively religious upbringing and falls for the hooker; his attempts to remold himself into a gunslinger. Dan's romantic interest for a former slave. Hickok's dual enjoyment and distaste for his celebrity.

Comments:

1. Hickok is still guilt ridden from mistakenly killing his pal in Abilene several years ago. It seems like Abilene had a historical marker for that event. Maybe I'm just remembering where that location in town. I would like to go back to the greyhound museum.

2. Jane is a dumpy gal dressed in a man's buckskins.

3. Dan is a more honest and timid man than would be expected from a veteran of the Civil War and Indian campaigns.

4. Even the afterword is signed with the pen name.

Read: "The Warlord" by Richard H. Dickinson.

2011-07-10T20:13:00.003-05:00

Read: The Warlord by Richard H. Dickinson, 2004, 9781590710173.

Disappointing after Dickinson's first novel. That one, The Silent Men, was just that good. The thing is, I don't read many modern-day politico related shoot'em ups. Of the ones I have read this is much better. I found the characters more fully realized and without the political posturing and didacticism of other novels.

The main character from Silent appears 40 years later as an Army General. Monroe is now one of David Hackworth's "perfumed princes" of the Pentagon. Monroe is concerned with his Pentagon career: his looks, his reputation, ability to manipulate bureaucracy, etc. Monroe is in favor of a Congressional bill to, effectively, do away with SOCOM. Monroe travels to Afghanistan on a fact-finding mission prior to testifying before Congressional committee regarding the bill.

While in Afgh. Monroe demands to travel to a conference of regional warlords in NE Afgh. A Green Beret A-team is tasked to travel with him but Monroe halves the team in his own misguided, know-it-all, anti-SOCOM way. Monroe continues to act like an ass with the A-team. Monroe refuses to recognize local customs and politics. Monroe is the archetype of the clueless but powerful general bulling around the china shop.

The local leader of the mujaheddin is assassinated. Monroe and friends blamed and attacked. Monroe and friends board two helicopters. One helicopter is downed, the other helicopter, low on fuel, crashes. Monroe and friends captured and escape. Monroe and friends survive through knowledge and skill of A-team's Captain Salam. Monroe seething at Salam's ability versus Monroe's inability and lack of leadership.

Things happen. People shot. Non-infantry struggle to adapt. Monroe acts foolishly. Lots of shooting. Travel across the desert. Monroe redeems himself.

Comments:

1. You have to swallow the nonsense of a three star general attending a dangerous conference with only a six guy security team.

2. Novel is a love letter to SOCOM.

Listened: "Command Decision" by Elizabeth Moon

2011-07-07T13:19:00.005-05:00

Listened: Command Decision by Elizabeth Moon, 2007 (print), downloaded from Overdrive.

Fourth in the Vatta's War series. The books have gotten better with more action and less blah, blah, blah.

I've never much cared for science fiction as a fun house mirror of our own society. I prefer reading how an author advances a society in time, and what they come up with. That is what Moon does in the "Vatta universe". The universe is composed of planets and solar systems that were colonized a thousand or so years ago.

One thing I don't like is how each planet seems to be homogenous in it's culture. One planet is ruthless traders. Another planet is hu-mods (humans modified by electronics). Another planet is focused on courtesy and politeness. Diversity finds its own way and would do so on each planet.

Kylara "Ky" Vatta is still commanding a force of three ships that joined together to fight a well-organized and supplied group of interstellar pirates. Some smaller ships join up. Her cousin Stella is running the family business of interstellar shipping services. Her aunt is in the government on their home planet. Rafe Dunbarger - pronounced wrath by the narrator - is back at ISC. Thing happen. Ky fights a space battle and a space station with a thieving government. Rafe has to rescue is kidnapped and tortured family. ISC has trouble with embezzlement and sabotage. People die. Things blow up.

Comments:
1. The plot revolves around communication. Ansible service from planet to planet and system to system is down. Ansibles provide instantaneous communications across space. Commercial transactions and businesses spread over several systems are dependent upon the ansibles. Ansibles are controlled by ISC which has it's own fleet of warships to defend the technology and service. Kind of like the East Indian Company who had their own ships and infantry and could wage war.
2. Ansibles go down across the universe. Wouldn't ISC have a massive drop in income with service down for a year or so in some areas? The service is down for many months and I would think income would drop precipitously. This is not really addressed by the ISC characters.

3. New technology allowing mobile and ship-borne Ansibles threatens the wealth and power of ISC. Kind of like replacing telegraph machines with cell phones.
4. Communications and mis-communications among the Vatta family is also as a key part of the story. Deception and avoidance are often analyzed by the main characters. What is someone else thinking? What is the enemy planning? A character wanting to say something but holding back for different reasons.

5. Space battles were interesting to listen to. The issues of instantaneous ansible sped versus the light speed used by some ships. The lag in time for light speed communication causes trouble. The "scan time" of seeing something happen versus real time.

Looked At: "Otto Dix" edited by Otto Conzelman

2011-07-06T19:55:00.002-05:00

Looked At: Otto Dix edited by Otto Conzelman, 1959, published by Fackeltrager-Verlag.

This is written in German. Completely in German. I do not know German. A book from West Bend PL.

I know about Dix from his post-World War I paintings. I was thinking about him after that last WWI book I read and reserved this. Having the introduction or biography or whatever in German would not have been so bad but almost all the prints are in black white. Some of Dix's work translates very well into black and white. Most pieces do not.

The works shown are mainly from the '20s and '30s. Lost of post-war German poverty. Whores, mangled veterans begging on the streets, a parade of veterans with crude prosthetics, gruesome anarchy of the battlefield. Mixed in are skilled, but stylized, portraits. Some scenes of parties and finely clothed people

A few color plates I liked were Madchenkopf (1928) which is a simple line drawn portrait of a gal. The color used was just a little shading of her face, neck and jaw. Der Krieg (1929/1932) is also in color. Der Krieg has what seems to be a Dix motif: corpses are hung or stuck in skeletal trees or the frames of bombed out buildings. He also fits in rotting and putrefied corpses in the ground around trenches.

I liked the nudes.

I don't know what Dix did during WWII. I imagine he was a very unhappy camper. Dix's work railed against war and its aftermath; I presume he would not have been been sucked into the '30s hysteria of nationalism and warring. Since this was in German I guess I will have to reserve a different book to find out.

Finished: "The Gun" by C.J. Chivers

2011-07-04T19:47:00.004-05:00

Finished: The Gun by C.J. Chivers, 2010, 9780743270762.

I lost my damn notes. I was keeping track of a few specific things Chivers wrote and I lost the damn bookmark those notes were kept on. Freaking typical.

This book is listed as a history of the AK47. Not really so. There are other firearm books that go into in-depth technical descriptions with measurements, ballistics, manufacturing history, factory listings, factory outputs, etc. Chivers ends up covering four different areas. 1. the history of rapid firing weapons. 2. Development of the AK. 3. U.S. reaction to the AK and negligent development of the M-16. 4. Political use and after effects of the AK.

Chivers work here is very impressive. I did not refer to each of his hundreds of footnotes but he pulled information from archives and interviews and his own work going back several years.

By topic issued above.

1. History. Chivers covers from Gatling through Maxim and into the auto rifles of WWII that led into the AK. Chivers covers the stubbornness and stupidity of military authorities who refused to see the value of automatic weapons in warfare and develop tactics in their use. Interesting historical fact: Hiram Maxim was an asshole.

2. AK development. Soviet propaganda pushed Kalishnikov as the proletariat designer who developed the AK by himself for the Motherland. Not so. Kalishnikov worked with a design group. I think K.'s genius is impressive but Chivers goes into how K. was promoted and praised as the designer of the AK.

3. The M16 was not selected with specific specifications and testing requirements. It was pushed through '60s DOD of whiz kids without proper development. Corrosion and poor ammo caused massive weapons failures. M16/AR histories will often clash on this topic. Some take the DOD defense of the time that the complaints were over-blown and troops were not cleaning the rifles. Other histories - like Chivers - list the unchromed bores, wrong ammo selection, and lack of cleaning kits.

Chivers spends most of his time looking at the piss-poor selection and testing process. No specs were drawn up and posted for manufacturers to develop a weapon. The DOD only looked at the AR, AK and M14 and "tested" them against one another.

4. Political use. The AK was a weapon of policy. Rifles and rifle manufacturing technology were distributed to Soviet allies. Factory output during the cold war was massive. Massive stockpiles of 7.62 rifles are still around and the original 1953 stamped rifles still function.

Chivers has a brief discussion related to arms control. Post-WWII Ballistic missiles and chemical weapons have never been used by the Soviets and U.S. but are the focus of arms talks. AKs have killed millions(?) but are never talked about. The main reason is money. Those stockpiles are translatable into cash.

Comments:

1. Caliber wars discussed by Chivers have been going on for the last 100+ years. The manly .30 caliber versus the poodle shooters of 5.56mm. Reality and practicality of modern warfare be damned.

2. I read before - maybe it was Ian Hogg - how many studies and developments have shown that a .270 caliber round is the ideal infantry cartridge. But, no military seems happy with that and chooses something else.

3. Kalishnikov was a tool of the Soviets. His design was, without any doubt, very impressive and paradigm changing. After that initial development K. became a symbol more than an engineer. K. was a Soviet symbol and salesman, even if his own written autobiographies were still mired in the lies and bullshit of the official Soviet story.
NOTES I FOUND

p. 231 "The Field of firearms ballistics, like many applied sciences, is populated by unscrupulous practitioners and passionate quacks. At time is can be difficult to tell the types apart. "

Tradition over sound analysis. Same today with reference to "poodle shooters" and many cartridges and "real men love recoil". rather than analysis of ability and logiitics. Weight of ammo and rifle, true look at a target distance. Those arguments are responded by with claims of "bean counters!"

The tradition of the rifleman versus reality of massed fire. Marksmanship is important but the emphasis on it ignored current and future realities. .30 rifles measuring 40 inches long are not needed.

Gave Up LIstening: "Wicked City" by Ace Atkins

2011-06-27T21:18:00.004-05:00

Gave Up Listening: Wicked City by Ace Atkins, audio version downloaded from Overdrive, 2008 (print).

I listened to a quarter of this and just didn't care. Based on the true life mobster town of Phenix City, AL. Told through real characters from the time. I got through a quarter of this and not much was happening. After the beginning murder not much happens. Besides, since this is a true story you already know that the town was cleaned out and the mobsters ran off or indicted.

I don't like books that fictionalize real people. Sure, I like Cornwell's novels and the insertion of Wellington. But, Wellington is a minor character. These fictionalization annoy me.

The editing was screwed up, too. The gaps between chapters or scenes were not spaced far enough apart and confused things for me. I didn't really like the narrator either. His character voices were not distinct enough for me.

DNF: "Stiltsville" by Susanna Daniel

2011-06-13T09:05:00.002-05:00

DNF: Stiltsville by Susanna Daniel, 2010, 9780061963070.

This was interesting up to a point. The point being page 118, where I quit. Nothing really happens. Gal visits Miami, gal makes good friend, gal falls for guy, gal moves to Miami, gal marries guy, gal has daughter, gal has ennui, gal spends time on stilt house in the Bay of Biscayne.

I think Daniel does some good writing but there was not enough going on for me to stay with the story. I kept thinking about Dexter and Miami. I kept thinking about that Miami Vice episode where they have a shoot-out at Stiltsville and someone had an AUG. Then I start thinking about all the other Miami Vice episodes and want to re-watch them on Hulu. Especially the episode with Jim Zubiena. I need more time and ammo. And a single action. With big sights.

Daniel lives in Madison. Maybe I should ask her to drive over this Fall as a speaker. The brief bio says she grew up in Miami. How often have people in Iowa and Wisconsin asked how she likes the winters here?

Read: "Tomorrow River" by Lesley Kagen

2011-06-12T21:46:00.002-05:00

Read: Tomorrow River by Lesley Kagen, 2010, 9780525951544.

Meh. 11 year old girl, Shenny, in 1969 Viriginia wants to find her missing mother. Mom has been missing a year and Sheeny's twin sister, Woody, has not talked since the night the mom disappeared. They still live on the family estate with their father, the local judge. The father is a violent drunk who locks them into the storm cellar when he is angry with them. Shenny still deeply loves her father and hopes for a return to the loving relationships the family used to have. Father forbids them to leave the estate and Shenny and Woody have to sneak off to visit friends and search for mom.

Comments:
1. Kind of a Southern Gothic/YA/Mystery/bildungsroman novel.
2. Touches on several social issues. Mainly on race relations and the treatment of women in society. Shenny is young and loves her father and is blind to how the dad was so controlling with the mom.
3. Depending on your view Shenny could come off as an idiot who is unable to see the many clues that point to a violent end to their mom. I can believe that Shenny was unable to see what was there. She is only 11 and trusting in her parents.
4. SPOILER: I think Kagen cops out by having the mom be alive in the end. I do like the happy ending, but it was not believable. Aw, heck. I like happy endings enough to swallow the plot's baloney but at least I know I am doing it.

Finished: "The Universe in Miniature in Miniature" by Patrick Somerville

2011-06-12T21:36:00.002-05:00

Finished: The Universe in Miniature in Miniature by Patrick Somerville, 2010, 9780982580813.

Pretty decent. Short stories with a magical realism element. At least I think it's magical realism. The stories are roughly connected around a stabbing murder on the streets of Chicago. Very roughly connected, the killing is very minor to most stories.

The title story is first. As I wrote on the library's blog: skip it. The last story, The Machine of Understanding Other People, was the best. Two strangers are told they have inherited the fortune of a long lost uncle. One is an alcoholic attorney in Chicago. The other is a social worker in England.

Comments:

1. I was thinking about this book while mowing the lawn. While thinking I thought of a few things worth saying. I have forgotten those things. That, somehow, seems in keeping with many of the book's stories.

Viewed: "Death Scenes" Edited by Sean Tejaratchi

2011-06-09T15:39:00.002-05:00

Viewed: Death Scenes: a homicide detective's scrapbook, edited and designed by Sean Tejaratchi, 1996, 0922915296.

I picked this up after reading Steve Hodel's book. He refers to Death Scenes when writing about the Lipstick Killer. Huddleston had a couple photos of the Lipstick Killer corpse in his scrapbook.

Huddleston was a policeman for 30 years in the Los Angeles area. He was a homicide detective for LAPD but, beyond that, the book has little information on him. The introduction says the editors asked LAPD for more information on Huddleston but none was provided.

The photographs are mostly gruesome and sad scenes of homicides, suicides, and accidents. There are photos of arrests, hookers, flashers, and body parts. Shotgun suicides obliterate the face and head. Dead children photos make me turn away.

Comments:
1. The intro talks about how the gruesome crimes show that the good old days were also bad old old days. Not shit, Sherlock. It annoys me greatly when people say how awful crime is. How callous today's teen murderers are. How you never heard of mass murder in the '50s. Just because you never heard it does not mean it never happened. Of all of today's crime only a fraction gets newspaper coverage.
2. My reading this book began with Megan Abbotts' Bury Me Deep. I read that. I starting reading Abbott's blog. The blog discussions touched on Hodel's book. I read Hodel's book and learned of this. I read this book and see photos of the dismembered corpse of Hedvig Samuelson, murdered by Ruth Winnie Judd. Judd was the basis for Bury Me Deep.

Just Finished: "Apocalypse of the Dead" by Joe McKinney

2011-06-03T20:10:00.002-05:00

Just Finished: Apocalypse of the Dead by Joe McKinney, 2010,9780786023592.

Good. Short description: Zombie novel. Another description: Zombie version of The Stand.

I read an online recommendation for a different zombie novel by McKinney entitled Quarantined. I'd have to get that through ILL but this was at Beaver Dam. This seems to be a follow-up to McKinney's Dead City but I do not know if he continues characters.

Story: About two years ago several hurricanes hit the TX coast. A zombie infection spreads and pretty soon a flooded Houston is overrun by zombies. The government quickly builds a containment wall to quarantine the city and everyone - zombie and living alike - are stuck inside. The Quarantine Authority is established and they and the Coast Guard are tasked with air patrols to make sure no one escapes by land or water. Anyone escaping is shot. Some people do sneak out on a fishing boat, have a sick person aboard, land in Florida and spread the disease.

McKinney follows several groups of people from Las Vegas, Houston (escaping), Florida, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and South Texas. At first everyone is fleeing to a zombie-free safe zone but the zombies spread just as fast. A revivalist preacher in Mississippi has a vision to head to North Dakota and build a safe haven. Word spreads and McKinney's different groups arrive there. The new town, named Grasslands after the park they built on, is well made and organized but the preacher is a nut job, a cult leader. Things happen. People are bitten. People die. Some parts of society fall apart including an Anthony Neil Smith styled biker gang taking over Van Horn, TX. Characters change. Characters interact. Many gunshots. Little sex aside from rape.

Comments:

1. McKinney's zombies change over the time of the disease. He has several characters talk about how zombies move and react. They sleep, don't freeze in the snow, "stage 3" zombies can climb ladders and sometimes respond to names, etc.

2. Insane character Barnes is a wicked fast gunman.

3. Van Horn is very small. I thought about using the Google street view for some of the locations but will not bother.

4. This was 502 freaking pages long. He could have cut 200 of those.

Read/Viewed: "No Man's Land" by George Pratt

2011-06-01T13:24:00.003-05:00

Read/Viewed: No Man's Land: a postwar sketchbook by George Pratt, 1992, 187945064x.

I saw something online about a World War I sketcher. The website was about a Canadian soldier whose work took him from the ditches into a safer job. There was a compilation book of the guy's work and while checking the catalog (it was not available) I ran across this.

But, this is not the same. This is work by a cartoonist who was doing research for a WWI themed book. Heck, I recognize some of the photographs that Pratt worked from. The work itself is good - mostly - but I wanted to see work by a participant.

This is mostly ink sketches and grey monotypes. There are a few color pieces with washed out, earth colors. I do not care for most of the ink sketches, they were too rough and quickly done for me. There is one (untitled and no page numbers) I did like with some Limeys looking over a ditch's parapet with their rifles on the sandbags.

Quotes are spread throughout.

Listened to: "Beat" by Stephen Jay Schwartz

2011-05-28T21:38:00.004-05:00

Listened to: Beat by Stephen Jay Schwartz, 2010, 9781441768698.

Started out great and ended with a lame climax. Climax is maybe a poor choice or words considering the main character, Hayden Glass, is a sex addict. I should go back and change that to "finale". I won't.

Glass is a detective with LAPD Robbery/Homicide and is on extended leave after going nutso on a killer and tearing him apart with his bare hands. Glass is a sex addict, divorced, in disgrace at work (although officially on approved leave), and in recovery. He falls out of recovery while cruising porn sites and doing live sex chats. Glass quickly makes a favorite of one girl, Cora. Glass spends many online hours with Cora when she says she is in San Francisco. Glass heads north to bone the whore.

Time skips ahead with Glass in a seedy hotel room with Cora when Russian thugs break in, beat-up Glass, rape the girl, and shoot Glass in chest. Glass stumbles around until he gets hit by a cable car and is taken to the hospital. The cops interview him and Glass gets all cop-talk and convinces them about Cora raped and kidnapped.

Things progress: feuding Russian gangsters, women forced into prostitution, Glass pining for Cora, Glass finding out gal pal from previous novel is in SF, Glass makes friends, Glass makes enemies, Cora declared dead, Cora seen alive, rescue operation undertaken.

Comments:

1. Glass finds out that Cora thinks he is a pathetic fool. He blames the girl. "She's a whore...he was a walking wallet" Blaming her for his delusions. Blame the hooker when he openly goes into the deal: this is a cash transaction, she pretends to like you - even love you - for payment.

2. How was this guy ever successful enough to make it into Robbery Homicide? He is freaking mess. Impulsive. Obsessive.

3. Glass likes to see chicks fist themselves.

4. Glass has booze problems as well.

5. Schwartz's description and writing about Glass's problems was very interesting. The frank discussions probably turn many readers away in the first few pages. A scene with a gal who helps women out of the life was neat.

6. Underage girl forced to work a whorehouse by the Russians. Russians make such good villains.

7. The climax fell apart because it just sops and starts. Glass goes to rescue the girl and Schwartz gets off track with crap about poor Det. Glass and his many "issues". He should have kept the action moving along faster.

8. Glass also adds a lame-assed confrontation with an SFPD detective during the damn climax.

9. SPOILER: Turns out that the Russians have a lot of underaged girls - including Cora. Glass was banging a 15-year-old.

Finished: "The Silent Men" by Richard H. Dickinson

2011-05-23T22:57:00.000-05:00

Finished: The Silent Men by Richard H. Dickinson, 2002, 9781590710043.

I found this when looking for a Vietnamese author that I read several years ago. I ran across this in NoveList and placed a reserve. I rarely describe a novel as "gripping" but this one was.

Monroe and Patterson are a sniper team in the Mekong Delta in 1968. Patterson is not smart and knows it. Monroe is distant to everyone and distrusts everyone, white or black. They are teamed together because both are black and the white snipers did not want to work with Monroe. Monroe and Patterson shoot a single, woman soldier on a path and recover the 7.62mm ammo she is carrying. The ammo is judged to be headed to a local Vietnamese sniper who has been killing Americans in the area using a Remington recovered from a dead U.S. sniper.

Divisional intelligence determines where the woman was headed and figure out a general may be there. Monroe and Patterson's next mission is to go over the border into Cambodia and assassinate the general. They do. They also shoot a ARVN general who landed his personal Huey to meet with the NVA. A resulting gunfight finds Patterson rescued and Monroe dropped from a rescue chopper into a canal.

The story splits among several characters. Patterson back at base. Monroe on a slooow escape path. The Division's General Vandermeer and his staff. American reporter Brady. The Vietnamese sniper. Others.

Realpolitik rules the day at Division and MACV, and the political and career maneuverings of the brass control much of the action. The scandal of a ARVN general secretly meeting with the NVA (scheming with the NVA to kill the President of South Vietnam) and then killed by the U.S. in Cambodia would not be good. So when the reporter, Brady, hears about the ARVN general several of the U.S. officers scheme to shut him out or kill him off rather than let the let the story out.

Comments:

1. Great detail on the patrol tactics and actions of snipers. The slooow movement, absolute silence and covering of their trails. The long hours without sleep while settled it one position.

2. Stephen Hunter has gained fame as a "sniper writer" but he focuses more on the hardware, ballistics and hero building of Swagger. Dickinson focuses more on fieldcraft.

3. Dickinson has a brief bib. in the back for the sources that helped him to build a realistic setting. Racial clashes between black and white soldiers. The cultural disconnect between Viet. and American regarding truthfulness and subterfuge. REMF versus combat troops. Journalistic work that is so cued into reality but occasionally clueless to honor and integrity.

4. Regarding Brady, the reporter. He is a smart reporter but fooled several times. His actions towards the end of the novel are not good.

5. The Vietnamese sniper was a nice touch. A political diehard but a skilled soldier. A look into the other side's life and the schism between the rag tag VC and the professional NVA.

6. I looked up more about Dickinson. He has another novel featuring Monroe in modern day Afghanistan. I am surprised he is not a better known author.

7. Officers out to improve their careers over principle. General Vandermeer comes to some harsh realizations about politics. You can bet the same actions are taken in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hopefully not so blatantly and awfully as in fiction.

Finished: "Uncage Me" edited by Jen Jordan

2011-05-21T20:16:00.003-05:00

Finished: Uncage Me edited by Jen Jordan, 2009, 9781606480168.

I ordered two copies by mistake for the library. I bought this second copy and only now got to reading it. 24 stories by as many authors. There is a forward by John Connolly. Did I read the forward? Of course not.

Short story collection by the usual mid-list people I follow or run across online. The stories usually have a theme or aspect of sex or sexuality. Maybe if I read the foreword I would find out the factors for selection. Will I now read the forward? Of course not.

Comments:

1. My favorites: Scott Phillips, Victor Gischler, Patrick Shawn Bagley, Nick Stone, Talia Berliner.

2. Berliner's story was absolutely repulsive. A story about a murderer with a fetish for taxidermying his victims or their select body parts. Murder is bad enough but the killer deserved to be drowned in manure; which, interestingly, appears in a different author's tale.

3. I stopped reading Stephen Blackmoore's blog when I scaled back. His story was decent. Young idiots in a rock band.

4. Scott Phillips and Victor Gischler always continue to produce high quality stuff.

5. I've discovered that I tend to quickly burn out on short stories. I prefer to have a longer story to follow when reading a whole book.

6. I t read J.D. Rhoades newspaper columns much more than his fiction. (Many commenters on his columns classify that as fiction, too.) His story about a gambling addict was good. Addict stories interest me. I'm not sure why. I've written before that all I know about AA I learned from Matt Scudder. I learned to appreciate the taste of Tullamore Dew through a friend of Matt Scudder.

7. Blake Crouch's tale of white yuppie's suspecting a relative of murder was well done. In real life I could most easily relate to that kind of character but still prefer the down and out types in fiction.

8. Christa Faust has a story about models who do foot fetish work.

9. Nick Stone's story about a shlubby PI being conned for an unknown reason really deserves a novel length version.

10. JA Konrath crammed as many jokes as he could into his story. I was annoyed. I assume the main character appears as a secondary characters in his Daniels series.

11. Maxim Jakubowski was good. An older man and his young lover in Spain. I read a Jakubowski novel, It's You That I Want to Kiss, when it came out in '99. I don't remember anything about it.

Read: "Night Over the Solomons" by Louis L'Amour

2011-05-13T13:54:00.005-05:00

Read: Night Over the Solomons by Louis L'Amour, 1986, 0553063073.

I was weeding the large print collection a month or so ago and withdrew our copy of this. I looked through the copy and decided to try out the regular print version. This edition is part of the faux-leather covered L'ouis L'Amour Collection advertised on television in the '80s.

L'Amour was of the Unemployable Author Generation. Those guys who plugged the numerous and brief jobs worked during a traveling youth. I don't see that as much in author bios: Bob has been a truck driver, miner, bartender, smuggler, encyclopedia salesman, longshoreman, and manwhore. Bob lives on a ranch in Montana and has sex with many beautiful women. This is his first novel. As if the author writes from adventurous personal experiences and isn't sitting in a dank room, typing on a third-hand typewriter with a sticky "e". How many of those guys were a gussied up Harvey Pekar?

L'Amour did travel about in his youth or, as he writes, his "knockabout days". L'Amour's forward talks about how the stories evolved from some of those travels and the tales of acquaintances.

Hell, why beat around the bush? I've always thought of L'Amour as a hack. A bestselling hack but still a hack. That opinion is not backed up by much research and I know it is unfair. So it's best you read that caution because I think the stories in here are mostly crap. Entertaining in a old-time, pulpy way but still crap.

Most stories involve pilot-for-hire Turk Madden. Madden flies into adventures on his Grumman Goose amphibian plane in South America, South Pacific, and Siberia. He's a tall, broad shouldered and "rugged" man. All L'Amour's heroes are "rugged" and tough and broad shouldered. With dense, coiled muscles. Those muscles must be pheromone production factories because hot babes appear out of nowhere and fall for the manly man.

Comments:
1. Many exclamation points!
2. Characters say "brother" a lot and lay down tough guy lingo.
3. A focus on aviation. This is paralleled in Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps. Heroes in airplanes rather than horses and police cars.
4. Madden flies around in a specially modified Grumman Goose carrying several machine guns. Madden takes on fighter planes in several stories. Bullshit. Look at some pictures of the Goose.
5. There is a reason these magazines and books were called pulp. There were gems in there and then there was this.
6. Where do these beautiful women come from? If they are Asian or Latin American they are taken away to a better life with white men.
7. I do love the sense of adventure and exploration of unknown wilderness. Indiana Jones has had a hell of an impact on me and this touches that nerve.

Finished: "Power of the Dog" by Don Winslow

2011-05-10T09:53:00.003-05:00

Finished: Power of the Dog by Don Winslow, 2005, 0375405380.

Very good. Fictionalization of the Mexican drug war and US intervention in Central and South America from the mid-1970s to 2000. Winslow fictionalizes Enrique Camarena, the Arrellano brothers, murdered Catholic Cardinal Posadas and many other real characters interwoven.

Four main characters with many secondary characters. Art is a DEA agent, Nora is a high end whore, Callan is a NYC Irish gangster and then CIA hitman, Adan Parada is a Mexican kingpin (Arellano Felix, I think).

Art's friend (fictionalized Camarena) is murdered and Art spends twenty years getting revenge against the Parada family. Callan imports coke and dope from Mexico and is drafted into the CIA by a mafiosa that works for both. Nora ends up the full-time mistress of Parada. Art convinces and threatens Nora into informing on Parada. All characters join in the end with death and destruction.

Comments:
1. How much is based on reality and how much is made-up? I assume Winslow would not have to make much of this up. There are plenty of real atrocities and murders he could pick and choose from and use in the plot.
2. I regularly see the news reports of murder and massacre in Mexico. Winslow highlights the gruesome and horrid things that the narcos do to the public. Murdering children and torture before murder.
3. Parada and his brother are complete murderous scum. But, Winslow's real villains are the CIA and right-wing hacks behind the scenes. CIA agent Hobbs and mafia hitman Sal are both veterans of Project Phoenix in Vietnam. After that loss they continue the same tactics in Central and South America with operation Red Mist that focuses on "communists" and other non-establishment people. The CIA equally makes deals with death squads, drug dealers, and arms traders. They constantly get away with murder and even Art has to cut a deal with them to continue his fight against the Paradas.
4. The amount of money going back to the Paradas is $8 million a week. They can buy most anyone off and just kill the rest.
5. No characters finishes the novel innocent. All the good guys are killed.

Mostly Read: "The Fire Diaries" by Matt Schumacher

2011-05-10T09:47:00.003-05:00

Mostly Read: The Fire Diaries by Matt Schumacher, 2010, 9781877655678.

Poems on theme of fire. I liked the ones that were based on real events. I felt more insight and relevance with those poems.

I just cannot get into most poetry. Mark Kraushaar goes on about how there is great poetry out there but I say it's best as a spoken art.

DNF: "Spur and the Sash" by Robert Grede

2011-05-10T09:44:00.003-05:00

DNF: Spur and the Sash: Middle Tennessee, 1865 by Robert Grede, 2010, 9781595980922.

Not great, not bad. Have to turn it back in. I'm going to order it for me, maybe I can get back to it. Stopped on page 112.

Short Stories: "Paris is a Bitch" and "Lost Coast" by Barry Eisler

2011-05-03T19:53:00.003-05:00

Short Stories: Paris is a Bitch and Lost Coast by Barry Eisler, digital on the Nook, 2011.

Lost Coast.

A story featuring Larison, the bad guy from Inside Out. Larison is driving North through California and stops in a remote coastal town. Larison gets cheap room, eats dinner, goes for walk. Larison goes into bar, scopes out young dude, gets a hard-on. Larison chats to guy, he and guy leave. Larison and guy get ambushed in back alley. Larison does his usual angry and vicious attack on the ambushers. Ambushers and guy from bar were gay bashing. Larison kidnaps bar guy, takes him into woods and rapes him.

Comments:

1. Larison needs to be in jail or a mental health facility. He's a danger to everyone.

2. I could swear I read something about a hot sex scene in this story. What freaking scene are those people talking about? ITS A RAPE! An abduction followed by a sexual assault at knife point is not a sex scene. Larison justifies his crime saying the victim is gay or probably gay.
3. Larison despises the gay-bashers in their attempts to terrorize victims but Larison does the exact same thing when he gets turned on by the fear of his victim.

Paris is a Bitch.

Rain and Delilah are having dinner in Paris. Rain is still adjusting to "civilian" life after his long career as a hired killer. He has cut down on his fanatic preparation and security concerns. Delilah ad he have an argument in the restaurant about her still working as a spy and him not. Rain spots guys casing the restaurant and assesses they are bad guy. They figure the guys are there to snatch Delilah her was banging a Saudi in her last job that wants her dead. Rain and Delilah take out the dudes. Rain calls an end to the relationship and plans to never see Paris again.

Comments:

1. Rain is one fucked up dude. He's lived a vicious and dangerous life and has significant trouble adjusting to anything resembling normality. Delilah's continued work in a similar career makes rain's adjustment tougher.

Read: "King of Plagues" by Jonathan Maberry

2011-05-03T19:21:00.002-05:00

Read: King of Plagues by Jonathan Maberry, 2011, 9780312382506.

Third in the Joe Ledger series. Pretty decent. Certainly decent enough that I keep reading the series - which certainly says something.

This follows a few months after the last book when Ledger's co-worker and girlyfriend bought the farm. Ledger took a break away from the Department of Military Sciences (DMS) for a mental break and to catch the guy who killed the dead girlfriend.

Ledger is in London with his trained attack/bomb dog and gets a call from Mr. Church, the DMS boss. The Royal London Hospital has been blown up and is burning down and killing about 4,000 people. Ledger rejoins the job and is on the hunt for those responsible. Shooting happens. Tough guy things are said. Stuff blows up. People are murdered. Conspirators conspire. Backs are stabbed.

Comments:

1. Recurring themes: dark conspiracies by the rich and powerful, droll tough-guy humor in times of crisis, highly trained super commandos, mysterious and powerful leader of DMS, DMS has unlimited resources.

2. Fun escapist fiction. Long at 435 pages.

Finished: "Black Dahlia Avenger" by Steve Hodel

2011-04-25T13:33:00.004-05:00

Finished: Black Dahlia Avenger by Steve Hodel, 2003, 9781559706643.

There are many things I thought about while reading this. I think everything boils down to: wishful thinking bullshit.

Hodel's father was a babe hound who chased and controlled women and then dumped the women and their children and moved on. The guy was a louse and a jerk, but since he was a charming physician he kept on doing so successfully. Hodel Author had a distant relationship with his emotionally and physically distant (lived in the Philippines) father. In later years Dr. Hodel had moved to San Francisco and the author and dad had started to regularly communicate and socialize until the father's death in 1999.

While visiting his father's widow (fourth wife?) Hodel came across a small photobook that included an old photo of Hodel Author's first wife - a marriage that ended badly. The photo pre-dated author's marriage and the wife and dad met only once after the marriage Another two photos also seem quite familiar and he recognizes the girl as Elizabeth Short - the Black Dahlia of 1947. Hodel starts to dig. Hodel thinks dad killed Short. Hodel digs more and presents his "evidence" in the book. That is correct, I put quotes around evidence.

Hodel believes Hodel Senior murdered Short and several other women. Hodel Author believes Hodel Senior was protected by the police due to Hodel Seniors participation in a local abortion ring. Hodel Senior was a friend of Man Ray and Hodel Author thinks Hodel Senior used bodies as homage to Ray's work.

Comments:
1. I do not know Hodel Author but I think hatred for his craphead father who abandoned author and family when author was only 5-years-old (or so). Hodel's mom was an alcoholic who moved the family from apartment to apartment. Hodel and siblings were taken in by social services several times.
2. The only compelling evidence is hand writing analysis of dad's writing versus notes penned by the killer. I don't have much faith in that evidence. Everything else is conjecture: proximity of body dump and Hodel's office and home, possible connections between Man Ray's photos and the display of Short, descriptions of suspects as tall, dark-haired and handsome, etc.
3. Hodel Author had a Los Angeles District Attorney, Stephen R. Kay, look at his case presentation to determine if Hodel's work would merit charging Hodel Senior if he were alive. Kay writes, "Yes, there is enough". I say, "Bullshit!" If I were on the jury my eyes would be stuck from rolling my eyes so much.
4. Hodel Author does have a follow-up book and continues to dig and find more connections. But, all the connections are tenuous. Yes, he seems to place Hodel Senior near and around Short. Yes, he seems to place Hodel Senior into a police protected abortion ring. But, so what? It's all conjecture and guesswork and wishful thinking with no (or minor) paperwork or witnesses to back it up
5. Hodel Author was a policeman and detective with the LAPD for 24 years. He was a homicide detective for a massive chunk of those years. I really think if he were to look at this objectively he would see the many holes in his case.

EDIT 6: One thing I do like about the book is Hodel Author's extensive research on LAPD and LA crime history. I have already received a book he mentions in the text. There are others by police and reporters that I would like to read.
EDIT 7: I don't believe those are Short's photos in Hodel Seniors photobook. I wonder if the recent work by Hodel Author involved trying to match those photos versus known photos.

Read: "Dark Matter" by Peter Straub

2011-04-13T17:51:00.003-05:00

Read: Dark Matter by Peter Straub, 2010, 9780385516389.

I read this for the committee. In a previous meeting another committee member judged it good but not great. I think it was better than that.

High school kids in 1967 Madison are a tight knit group. All but one of them are agog over a handsome guru who comes to town. They join guru in a nighttime ceremony in a field that leaves one college student torn to pieces and another student disappeared. The event effects them all in different ways. One girl goes blind, another girl becomes convinced in her self-interest (the proper word escapes me), another goes to a mental asylum, so on, so forth.

The one high school kid who does not fall under the guru marries the blind-to-be girl and becomes a famous novelist. One day in a coffee shop he sees a crazy guy who brings to mind is friend in the loony bin. Novelist starts wondering more about what happened during the night time ceremony. Novelist starts researching by reading and also reconnecting with the old friends.

Weird things happen. Ceremony is told from perspective of all the living participants except the guru. Straub shows the '60s characters versus the present day characters. Much mystery and unexplained magic. A neat book.

Comments:
1. I could reference Rashomon when describing the plot but only because I read that on the flyleaf. I never saw the movie.
2. I could go into more detail on the plot and characters but the story moves along several paths and I don't want to rehash everything.
3. I'd classify this as literary horror. But not much horror.
4. I like the Madison and Milwaukee settings.
5. Novelist is famous for a big hit from 1980 (or so) not unlike Straub's Ghost Story. Straub also spent time in England like Novelist and wife.
6. I thought about looking up the Madison locations Straub references but did not.
7. A neat juxtaposition between the scary event in the field and the everyday life and normality of present day. That one time of collapsing and intersecting worlds with demons and anthropomorphic dogs versus aging guys drinking too much. Each character has a later instance in the '70s or '80s where the dogs return but otherwise the time came and went without return. 8. Everyone is in agreement that whatever happened did happen, there was not a mass hypnosis or hallucination.

Read: "The Hunter" by Richard Stark Adapted by Darwyn Cooke

2011-04-10T10:50:00.002-05:00

Read: The Hunter by Richard Stark, adapted by Darwyn Cooke, 2009, 9781600104930.

I watched the director (Brian Helgeland) cut version of Payback a month or two ago. I liked that version of Payback and, until reading this, did not know how closely it followed the novel. Heck, I read the novel several years ago and remember little of it. (I know the Lee Marvin version of this is considered great but that Alcatraz crap in the end was stupid.) I enjoyed comparing Helgeland and Cooke's visual recreations and how much they matched. Helgeland did his first so I wonder how much Cooke was knowingly or unknowingly influenced by Helgeland and John Boorman's Point Blank.

Anyway. This was well done. Cooke adds in some narration to fill in the story about Parker, his wife, and Mal's weasel-ness. It's interesting to read this adaption and compare it to the flick. They both have limited space and Cooke adheres to the novel more than the film. Parker is a amoral fucker. Cooke keeps the limited humanity that Westlake gave Parker in the early novels.

I still think Parker loses more emotion and humanity in later novels. In this first novel Parker is acting off emotion and anger as much as anything. Cooke includes that discussion from the novel, "He wasn't sure himself anymore how much was a tough front to impress the organization and how much was himself. He knew he was hard, he knew he worried less about emotion than other people, but he'd never enjoyed the idea of killing." Parker never seems to enjoy much of anything except work and that is performed with a cold, analytical action.

The artwork is all two color and set in 1950s or 1960s New York: I suppose a cars or clothes nut would make a guess on the year and I don't recall the novel's initial pub date.

Barely Finished: "Picture This" by Lynda Barry

2011-04-08T13:48:00.002-05:00

Barely Finished: Picture This by Lynda Barry, 2010, 9781897299647.

Not my kind of comic book. Barry's thoughts and drawings about drawing and art peppered with family memories. At least I think those were family memories; she might have been using characters.

In summary, Barry writes and draws about: What is art? Why do people stop drawing after childhood? How does mood and feeling influence an artist's work as the work is being done? Is my (Barry's) art any good and how is it judged to be good or not? As a child she was ridiculed for drawing as a child.

Comments:
1. I didn't care.

Finished: "The Reversal" by Michael Connelly

2011-04-08T13:37:00.003-05:00

Finished: The reversal by Michael Connelly, 2010, 9780316069489.

Defense attorney Mickey Haller is asked by the LA County District Attorney himself to be a special prosecutor. A convicted child murderer has been granted a new trial and blame placed on the DA from 30 years ago. The current DA wants to distance himself from the case and the huge publicity the case is getting.

Haller takes the case so he can show his daughter he doesn't work for scumbags only. Haller gets the DA to assign Haller's ex wife and Harry Bosch to the case. Haller legalizes. Bosch re-investigates the case and tracks witnesses. Things happen.

Murderer is let out on bail and constantly followed by LAPD's SIS. Murderer's actions draw suspicions he may have killed others. Much gamesmanship and conniving by Haller and the defense attorney.

Comments:
1. This is a straightforward legal and procedural novel. I expected a big twist at the end - and Connelly hung out the possibility - and there was none. There was a small twist though.
2. Do SIS really carry those Kimbers that Kimber was crowing about a few years ago? Does Kimber make that model anymore? Nope, I just checked and the model was discontinued. SIS gets a lot of suspicion as a kill squad and naming the gun, and the SIS shaped slide serrations, was not positive press.
3. The story is split between Mickey and Harry in the second person. Maybe the ex-wife was in there but I do not recall.
4. Long nights and hours for Detective Bosch. Bosch is a character I have not followed.
5. A well told tale and Connelly's insight and exposure of day-to-day legal practices always draws me back to the series.

DNF: "A Short History of Wisconsin" by Erika Janik

2011-04-08T13:21:00.002-05:00

DNF: A Short History of Wisconsin by Erika Janik, 2010, 9780870204401.

I read 44 pages and lost interest. I may have kept with the book but have other things waiting.

I liked hearing about the early years with the mixture of Indian, French, English and others. Early WI and IL history and the extent of French influence interests me. As a Boy Scout I visited the rebuilt Fort De Chartres and liked the place. It feels odd to me seeing non-British, foreign influence predating the U.S..

Thoughts:
1. Maybe I should have read further into Prohibition. WI is such a beer state and populated with so many Germans and I wonder how well things went.
2. Culture clash of immigrants. Foreign languages, newspapers in foreign languages, bias against certain countries and not others. Fast forward to 2010 and it's the same thing. That issue always reminds of this cartoon.
3. I pulled a hangnail and bled on my keyboard.

Read: "Come Closer" by Sara Gran

2011-03-28T14:44:00.002-05:00

Read: Come Closer by Sara Gran, 2003, 9781569473283.

Since I read her and Megan Abbott's blog I figured I ought to read one of her books. I was looking at her bib. on Novelist and picked this one. A review had a neat comment, "[could not find the quote]". Basically the quote said Gran takes a cliched topic but avoids the pitfalls and keeps it interesting. She did, too, because my interest was kept through all 168 pages. I say that speaks to Gran's skill because most books like this are uninteresting to me.

Amanda and her husband, Ed, live in a NYC loft. They get along pretty well until ademon starts possessing Amanda. Amanda recognizes what is happening, reads up on possession, pursues spiritual, medical, psychological, and magical help but continues to let reason and doubt keep her from a complete cure. After a while her attempts at rescue are hopeless as her demon, Naamah, takes firmer control of her. When Amanda tries to speak out loud to Ed or others her voice is constricted and different words come out.

Naamah is the second wife of Adam who was rejected by Adam when he witnessed God put her together. Or so I recall from the book.

Comments:
1. Gran skips a lot of the usual stuff and keeps Amanda's narration internal. There is little dialogue and Amanda blacks out whenever Naamah starts to take over. Those blackouts mean there are no extended explanations and descriptions of the various crimes and misbehaviors Naamah undertakes. Amanda is kept in the dark about many of the bad things that are going on.
2. Amanda likes some of the things Naamah enables her with and makes her do. Increased assertiveness, heightened sexuality, a "presence" of beauty and power.
3. I've forgotten what else. I'm listening to an old Howard Stern episode on my headphones and it distracted me.
4. There was another book similar to this where the narration was almost all the internal thoughts of the main character with little dialogue. I don't recall the story I only recall writing similar comments. Will I now look for those comments? No.
5. Gran's personal interests (deduced from reading her blog) come through in this novel. Her online essays on magic, psychology, disassociation, the subconscious explore the same things she puts Amanda through.
6. As a result of Abbott and Gran's blog a copy of Black Dahlia Avenger by Hodel is sitting at home. I have a pile of stuff and may not get to it.

Finished: "One Soldier's War" by Arkady Babchenko

2011-03-27T18:50:00.004-05:00

Finished: One Soldier's War by Arkady Babchenko, 2007 (for translation, 2006 for Russian), 9780802118608.

Very good. A veteran's memoir of life in the Russian Army during both Chechen wars.

This is much different than most war memoirs because Babchenko does not write about combat. He refers to the terror of mountain fighting and the many dead friends and comrades but never writes blow-by-blow accounts of attacks, and defenses, and shooting the enemy. Maybe Babchenko's memoir is more "Russian" with it's focus on friends and his experiences in barracks. Maybe the brutality of the conflict is so well known to Russians that he sees no need to rehash the events.

Babchenko's book is chronological but, due to his refusal to write about time in combat, has many gaps. Babchenko was drafted in '95 or '96 and after six months "training" was sent to Chechnya, assigned to a rear area, then assigned to a combat unit. He was demobilised but signed up again in '99 or '00 to fight in the Second Chechen War. Through both campaigns he ended up serving in rear areas, Grozny, the mountains, "the gorge", and elsewhere.

Comments:

1. Never, ever, ever join the Russian Army. The daily brutality of hazing, bullying, and beatings is incredible. Babchenko was at an airfield in his first tour and his face was constantly swollen from beatings. Many conscripts would just walk away from base and risk the Chechens and inevitable arrest than accept the treatment of soldiers with more time in service. I knew about the brutality of Army hazings, dedovschina, but did not know how bad it could get. Suicides and murders are probably much more common then reported. Cruelty for cruelty's sake paired with starvation and humiliation.

2. Babchenko received little to no training. After six months of basic training he was sent to Chechny after having fired a rifle two times.

3. Babchenko's PTSD is the same as any other soldier in any other conflict. Survivor guilt, sorrow, unable to walk without checking for traps, walking scrunched over to avoid enemy fire, unable to sleep, etc. Babchenko's last essay tells how he slowly recovers to civilian life and how once he stats to write about his experiences all the terror and sounds of war fill his head again. How many veterans try to put down their history and stop so they can rebury the memories and sensations that burst out?

4. There are so many passages worthy of quotation. I'll try and pick just one that occurred at the end and is therefore most fresh in my mind. Babchenko is writing about how irrevocably he is changed from the war:

The you start to get drawn into life. You get interested in this game, which isn't for real. You pass yourself off as a fully fledged member of society, and the mask of a normal person grows onto you, no longer rejected by your body. And those around you think you are just the same as everyone else.

But no one knows your real face, and no one knows you are no longer a person. Happy, laughing people walk around you, accepting you as one of their ow, and no one knows where you have been.
5. You hear bad things about all armies. The U.S. Army seems very well run. No beatings, paid on time, food to eat, proper gear (aside from hillbilly armor in Iraq), and lots of training and organization.

Read: "DMZ: On the Ground" by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli

2011-03-21T16:14:00.001-05:00

Read: DMZ: On the Ground by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli, 2006, 9781401210625.

Not bad. An alternate view of Escape from New York.

A Civil War has occurred and there is a territorial split between New York and New Jersey. Manhattan is a demilitarized zone without any outside services like water, electric, etc. Manhattan is incredibly dangerous with no news coming out.

Matty Roth signs up as intern to a famous photojournalist going into Manhattan. Roth's helicopter is shot down and and everyone is killed but him. Roth's initial attempts at escaping Manhattan are foiled by chance and explosions. Roth stays in Manhattan and starts filing stories.

This compilation has Roth adjusting to life in the city and discovering that a lot of people are living there and that several neighborhoods are thriving. The island is still very dangerous and territorial lines are not to be crossed. Roth's press credentials are like an informal travel visa gaining him access around the city.

Comments:
1. Much use of Manhattan scenery. This meant nothing to me.
2. Roth ends up being rescued by a medic/doctor named Zee. Zee is tattooed, dreadlocked and has multiple piercings.
3. Where did that awful motif begin? Post-apocalyptic and dystopian films and comics are big on characters having multiple piercings, crazy hair, and tattoos. These tales have societies evolve (devolve?) into tribal communities and, apparently, tribal means copying the real (and imagined) fashions of uncivilized cultures. These people have a lot of time on their hands while scrabbling for food and shelter.
4. Some of the artwork I liked and some I didn't. A lot dark colors were used. Shades of brown, tan, grey, and black give a depressing view of a depressing place.

Read: "Echo Burning" by Lee Child

2011-03-16T18:05:00.002-05:00

Read: Echo Burning by Lee Child, 2001, 9780515143829 (2005 paperback).

The weakest of the Reacher novels I have read. Child took awhile to get into the mystery aspect. Most of this was Reacher dealing with intense summer heat and Child detailing the endless flat plains of West Texas.

Reacher is leaving Abilene quick in the middle of the summer heat. He gets a ride from an attractive Hispanic gal, Carmen. Carmen starts feeling him out and telling him about her awful husband who beat her but is now in prison. Carmen asks Reacher for help to kill the husband when he is released. Reacher says, "No" but believes her tale of violent abuse.

Reacher travels with Carmen to BFE West Texas. Reacher hired on as horse hand as reason to stay on husband's family's ranch. Husband's brother Buddy thinks Reacher is fucking Carmen - he isn't. Bobby schemes to get rid of Reacher and Reacher puts two other horse hands in hospital. Bobby has DPS Troopers evict Reacher from bunkhouse on same day husband comes back from prison. Assassins go to work on tangential characters.

Carmen is arrested for killing her husband the same night Reacher is driven away in back of squad car. District Attorney is sympathetic because he needs Hispanic votes for a judgeship and likes Carmen. DA says Carmen is a liar and an ex-whore which is the opposite of what she told Reacher. Reacher still believes in Carmen. Reacher gets her a lawyer. Reacher thinks. Reacher says little. Carmen's daughter is kidnapped. Reacher kills people with both brute violence and brains. Assassins and bad guy are defeated and Reacher hits the bricks.

Comments:
1. This different from other Reacher books in that Reacher is not shagging anyone. Carmen offers herself as payment which Reacher declines. Carmen's lawyer is a hot lesbian with a girlfriend.
2. American details. Child calls DPS troopers Texas Rangers. They are not the same. As I recall the Rangers do promote from within DPS.
3. Reacher can be a dickhead. He is grouchy and taciturn overly violent. Child usually has Reacher squaring off against irredeemable scumbags but there are times in Echo where Reacher's violent reactions go beyond reason.
4. Constant mention of Reacher's size and weight. Nothing new there.
5. Typical Reacher behavior of sizing up competence and abilities of people, especially police officers.
6. What happened to Reacher's ability to always know the time? He wears a watch in this one and checks it. One novel had him explaining his natural ability to always know the time. That is a large slip in continuity.

Finished: "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

2011-03-16T13:42:00.004-05:00

Finished: The Road by Cormac McCarthy, 2006, 9780307265432.

Eh. What is the big deal on this book? It's post-apocalyptic science fiction with cannibals. This is a less interesting version of Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse. McCarthy throws in some flowery language that I just skipped over anyway.

I was getting bored and ready to quit after about 50 pages. I decided to finish because, damnit, I had not finished a Men's Book Club book in months and would finish this one. I also wanted to know if the man and son would be eaten by cannibals.

Man and son - no names given - are traveling South across a post-apocalyptic landscape to warmer weather. McCarthy provides no geographical names and no explanation for the event(s) that caused the world to be covered in ash, dying plants, and constantly overcast weather.

Man and son repeatedly have overcome three problems: 1-No food, 2-Freezing weather, 3-Cannibals. At least until the father dies and the son is taken in by non-cannibals.

Comments:
1. If you skip through the flowery crap the story is not so bad the threat of the characters being eaten kept me involved.
2. The novel's plot ans story are very neutral. McCarthy sticks to man, boy, and daily survival. There is little on morality and nothing on causes and politics.
3. During the Book Club discussion I realized how easily the novel's neutrality can be used by any political persuasion. The left: peace, kindness, working together. The right: the world will fall apart and it's every man for himself.
4. I do like how McCarthy sets this about 7 years after the apocalyptic events. Man and son are left scavenging. Food and ammunition stockpiles are no more, the population is way down, no wildlife for hunting.
5. Cannibals.

Listened to: "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander

2011-03-11T09:25:00.003-06:00

Listened to: The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander, 1964, downloaded digital copy from Overdrive.com

I know I previously read this book and the others in the series. I remember the pig, the bad guy with a horned helmet, and the traveling. I was completely blank on the plot. I checked it out to both relearn the tale and consider the novel's maturity level for Boy #1.

Jack had copies of the Prydain series in his room. I cannot recall if I wanted to read these at the time or not. I have a split memory on whether I, A) wanted to read them but was reluctant because of sibling clashing. Or, B) I was reluctant to read them but did anyway because Jack did and I felt I should, too.

I am sure I liked the girl, Eilonwy, much less on the first reading. Teenage and pre-teen girl characters would aggravate and annoy me when I was in elementary and middle-school. The narrator's voice for her was very well done with little barbs of anger and sarcasm throughout the novel when she would get angry at Taran.

Anyway. Taran is an orphan living on a farm with an old wizard and Coll, who runs the farm. Taran is about 14 or 15 and years old and chafing to get away from farm life and live adventurously. One of Taran's chores is caring for Hen Wen the "oracular pig". Hen Wen has a freak-out one day and escapes her pen because she knows the bad guys are invading the kingdom. Taran takes off into the woods after her.

Taran blunders through the woods and meets a prince and the man/animal/bum, Gurgi, who follows the prince around. Taran is enamored with the warrior prince. Both are captured by evil witch. Taran escapes dungeon through help of Eilonwy, the witch's charge. Taran and Eilonwy team up with Fflewddur Fflam, a traveling minstrel. All set out to find the pig and warn the king about the coming invasion of bad guys. Gurgi tags along.

Fleeing and fighting follow. Bad guy zombies chase the group. Taran and the rest are heroic with sword play and arrows and spears. Not too much fighting though. Taran faces off against the novel's main bad guy, Helmet Horns Head. Novel ends with Taran returning to the farm and Eilonwy staying at the farm with everyone rather than return to the family who gave her to the witch. Taran is glad to be home but his adventures have changed the way he sees the farm.

Comments:
1. The relationship between Taran and Eilonwy has the young teenagers behavior of sparring and arguing alternating with kindness and compliments.
2. A standard, modern, YA quest novel. Disparate group traveling and working together. Self-discovery by the hero. Teenage confusion on what choices to make when under pressure. Split loyalties in the decisions. First time making adult decisions without guidance of an elder. A pretty girl with a forceful personality.
3. How much did quest novels change after Tolkien? The pre-Tolkien stuff I read in college English and classics classes focused on a lone hero. After Tolkien's Frodo traveled around with a group did other authors join in?