Finished: "Secret Diary of Laura Palmer" by Jennifer Lynch

Finished: Secret Diary of Laura Palmer by Jennifer Lynch, 1990, found no ISBN.

I'm 17 years out of date on this one. I'm surprised the book was still available anywhere and not withdrawn. I never was interested in this when it came out because it seemed like such a cash in on Twin Peaks mania. Especially since the author is David Lynch's daughter.

I enjoyed this though. Laura Palmer was one mixed-up teenager. When Twin Peaks was on television I was the same age as the main characters and the chicks were very hot, including Laura Palmer. But now, the story of Laura as a sexually abused, cocaine addicted, amoral, manipulative, promiscuous and protstituting sixteen year old is really, really, really, really, creepy and disturbing.

I need to reserve the DVDs of the first and second seasons of Twin Peaks and watch them. When the show first premiered I read the promos about it and got real excited about seeing it. Since I didn't have a TV I was in the dorm's TV lounge where some other people were watching something else. I was hugely disappointed, but then two girls came in and asked if anyone minded if they changed the TV to the premier. Yeah!

Listened to: "The Hard Way" by Lee Child

Listened to: The Hard Way by Lee Child, downloaded from Overdrive.com.

Pretty good. Child writes about the main character, Jack Reacher, as living a really violent life. But, Reacher is not a particularly scary dude. Reacher is always the good guy; he can be ruthless and his size and personality are intimidating but he's not a scary character to the reader.

This took a while for me to to finish between walking to and from work and exercising. There were several parts about the plot that did not compute. Reacher gets hired by a mercenary, Lane, in New York to help find the mercenary's kidnapped wife. But, Lane is hiring Reacher right off the street. I suppose desperation and stupidity play into Lane's decision but I thought that was far fetched.

There were several points iin the first half of the novel where I was mightily impressed with Child's plotting. He kept things moving and kept me guessing. I thought I knew exactly what was going on but Child switched things around convincingly. Toward the end I could figure out a major plot point but Child had set-up the surprise very well. I was not surprised simply because I figured Child would logically explain it using clues provided earlier. He did.

I wonder if Child has a grudge or dislike for special operations/special forces soldiers. I've read two of his books, this one and The Enemy, and both feature SF guys as bad guys and not the super-soldiers they are usually portrayed as in both fiction and non-fiction.

Just Finished: "The Wheel Man" by Duane Swierczynski

Just Finished: The Wheel Man by Duane Swierczynski, 2005, 0312343787.

Quite good. A pulp caper novel set in Philadelphia. A good amount of twists and turns leaving you guessing who knows what and who else is to blame.

Lennon is a professional get away driver who teams up with a couple guys robbing a bank in downtown Philadelphia. After the crew get away and stash the cash their Subaru is rammed by a van and Lennon is knocked unconscious. Lennon comes to as a couple guys are about to drop his naked body down a pipe at a construction site.

Lennon escapes and has to figure out who ratted him out, avoid the cops, avoid the Russian mafia, rescue his now missing co-conspirator sister, and find the now missing $650,000. Swieiriiczzzyynkkkkis keeps things moving quickly and both plotting and pacing are very good. Characters are done well, too; kind of Richard Stark-ish.

Read: "Booked to Die" by John Dunning

Read: Booked to Die by John Dunning, 1992, 0380718839 (pbk)

Eh. Good plotting and the information on the antiquarian and used book market is interesting but I disliked the main character.

Cliff Janeway is a Detective for the Denver Police Department and a major book nerd. Cliff has been a book collector for several years when he beats the crap out of a suspect and resigns from his job before he is fired to open his own book shop. Janeway's constant wisecracking got on my nerves. Dunning was trying just too hard for the wise-acre, hardboiled type.

Some of the characters, like red herring Jackie Winston and his beat-up girlfriend, were plot devices and poorly drawn. Hell, the damn book was 374 pages and by cutting out those two characters Dunning could have streamlined things and improved the story.

I read a different Dunning book several yearts ago, Bookman's Wake. That novel also featured Janeway and I remember liking it. The mystery plotting was good and the information on the rare book trade was really well done. Wake suffered from a lame romance storyline like Booked to Die has. Dunning's relationship writing about Janeway and would be girlfriend's was odd. I cannot explain it further than that without re-reading and analyzing my thoughts on the book - that effort will not happen.

Listened To: "Kidnapped" by Robert Louis Stevenson

Listened to: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, Blackstone Audio Edition, downloaded from Overdrive.

Pretty good. I was surprised by this; the story was not what I expected.

I tried reading this book quite a while ago in either elementary school or junior high and gave up after a chapter or so. I was very surprised about how much of the story I remembered. All of the storyline that I initially read came back very quickly.

I cannot quite recall why I quit reading Kidnapped the first time around. I suspect the storyline of the main character being kidnapped and taken aboard ship queered the whole thing for me. Too creepy, maybe. Or, I didn't want to read what appeared to be a sea story.

Recap: In 1745 sixteen year old Scotsman David Balfour's father dies and David is sent to an uncle he never knew existed. The uncle, although a Lord, lives as a hermit in a decaying mansion. After trying to kill David by sending him up a decaying staircase in the dark, David forces the uncle to take him to town for his proper inheritance. But, the uncle ends up selling David to a ship captain who will take David to the Colonies as a slave in the tobacco fields.

In the voyage around Scotland the ship runs over a smaller boat and they rescue the passenger, Alan Breck. Long story short: Alan and David take arms against the crew, the ship wrecks, and David and Alan walk across Scotland - with the added danger that Alan is a much wanted man.

A well written book. It fits in as a "classic".

Finally finished: The Brothers Bulger by Howie Carr

Finally Finished: The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century by Howie Carr, 2006, 0446576514.

Very good and scary story. I ordered this after seeing Howie Carr speak on C-SPANs BookTV. Carr works for the Boston Herald and has followed the story of the Bulgers for several years.

Billy and Whitey Bulger grew up in South Boston. Whitey started out as a nutjob crook and was one of the last convicts to serve time in Alcatraz. Billy went to college and law school and then got elected to the state legislature. After doing a few years time for bank robbery, Whitey murdered his way up the Boston crime world to be the boss of his own crime ring. Billy worked his way up to be President of the Massachusetts Senate and was the most powerful politician in MA, even more powerful than the governor.

Billy Bulger's corruption was astonishing; the fact that he was in charge of the Senate for so many years and got away with so much is difficult to believe. Whitey co-opted several FBI agents and used his status as an informer to destroy the Italian Mafia in Boston and other crime rivals. Whitey killed the crooks he could not use the corrupt FBI agents against.

The sad part is that Billy weaseled his way into a $200,000 year pension and his murderous piece of shit brother is still on the run. Carr's suspicions, voiced on BookTV, are that Whitey is in Europe and stuck there. Carr's theory is that Whitey was stuck overseas after 9/11 when the newer, stricter customs rules were to much to chance his false passports against.

Listened to: "Red, White and Blue Murder" by Bill Crider

Listened to: Red, White and Blue Murder by Bill Crider, 2004, 1402583664 (CD).

I had not read a Sheriff Dan Rhodes novel in a while and this one was good. Rhodes is the Sheriff of Blacklin County, TX. Blacklin is a rural county with little crime - except for the regular murders Rhodes has to investigate. Rhodes loves Dr. Pepper, is watching his weight, and always has people threatening his job with their votes.

After a body is founding a burned down cabin Rhodes has to figure out why the local historian was killed. Was it his slutty wife? A County Commissioner? The convicted arsonist from up the road?

Like usual, Rhodes gets beaten up. Four times in this book; twice by women. Rhodes is soaked by rain once and covered in mud twice. His jailers are a pain in the ass several times. Throughout it all Rhodes keeps his cool, maintains his manners, and doesn't have to shoot anyone.

I have three other Crider books here that I can think. One of them is a short story collection with a Crider that received an Edgar nomination.