Done: Rake by Scott Phillips, 2013, 9781619021518.
More brilliance by Phillips with another self absorbed, sex obsessed, asshole-without-a-conscience as protagonist. Phillips excels at these self-absorbed and conscience-less guys. Dudes who live for sex and booze and their own well-being. They do feel some guilt and realize he should not have
Wait a minute. Does the protagonist, an actor, ever give his name? I don't think he does. This is all first person and he only identifies himself with the name of his most famous character in France, Dr. Crandall Taylor. Taylor was a lead in a minor U.S. soap opera that runs in prime time syndication in France. The show is a huge hit and Taylor loooooves the attention. He loves that people recognize him on the street and talk to him in shops. He looooves that people ask for his autograph or medical advice. He reaaaaallllly loves how he gets laid all the time with all sorts of gorgeous women. He loves that normally restrained women go ga-ga for a celebrity actor.
Crandall is in Paris for no particular reason but looking to make a movie. What kind of movie? Well, he hasn't gotten that far but his name is so big and high profile he can surely find a backer. He meets with an executive from the French TV network running the soap and is hoping to get them to back a feature film.
Crandall also engages in fisticuffs. You learn that he had a bad upbringing and a violent life. Once he started acting he channeled that anger into his perfromances but he'll still break another persons bones now and then. Crandall recalls bragging at his anger management group therapy how he hadn't been arrested or assault and battery for 15 years.
Anyway. Crandall ends up screwing three different French women and one American porn star. All the women know about each other. Two are married, one is a student, and the porn star used to work on the soap opera. One married woman's husband may finance the picture. Crandall starts winging it with getting a story for the film He goes into a bookstore figuring to find a novel and option it. Instead he meets a store clerk who just wrote a novel. Crandall talks him into writing a script. Without pay.
More things happen. The husband tries to kill Crandall. Crandall subdues him and kidnaps him. A couple of the women and the screenwriter help keep the husband captive and then help kill him. Everything ends happily. Except for two dead guys and the several people Crandall beats down.
Comments:
1. Major lack of Wichita lore. Okay, I understand that in this one.
2. Gratuitous reference to film version of The Ice Harvest.
3. Crandall is a masters degree graduate of Anthony Neil Smith's current employer.
4. Great stuff and a fun novel with plenty of black humor.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Read: "Summer of the Star" by Johnny D. Boggs
Read: Summer of the Star by Johnny D. Boggs, 2013, 9781432826307.
I cannot recall why I got this book. I've read or listened to 2-3 Boggs books. This is set in Ellsworth, KS. Maybe I grabbed this to read while vacationing only a few miles away from the novel's setting.
Sixteen-year-old Texan Madison Carter MacCrae is on his third (or maybe his fourth) cattle drive from South Texas to Kansas. His father died of fever during the Civil War and his family needs the money he earns. Madison - Mad for short - is eager to act like, and be considered, a man. On the way to KS they are talked into going to Ellsworth by another Texan. Abilene has mostly been shut down to the cattle trade, and rowdy TX cowboys. Ellsworth has big stockyards and cattle buyers and is closer than Great Bend.
The cowboys arrive to Ellsworth and range the cows outside of town to fatten up. Mad likes some fellow crew members and dislikes others. The Texas cowboys are not always welcome to towns and the Ellsworth police force is more concerned with force than police. Ellsworth cops are eager to beat or kill cowboys. Mad stays working the herd as the owner awaits a better price. More and more herds arrive with more and more cowboys.
Mad goes on a bender and meets a local shop keeper's daughter after waking up in his vomit. Mad is bonkers fro the girl, Estrella (Star). Things happen. The County Sheriff is a good guy and makes friends with Mad. Mad backs him up during a showdown and alienates crew members and other Texans. Mad is lovey-dovey for Star but falling short. Mad is fired from his crew when he goes on a second bender against orders. A nearby farmer is overwhelmed by his daughter's rape and murder and hunting the killer he suspects is a drover.
Mad is deputized. The Sheriff is shot. Star starts dating another guy from Mad's old crew. Another crew member tries to rape Star. star takes his gun and shoots him. The guy dating he says he shot the guy and is lynched. Mad goes to arrest the lynchers and kills one. Mad flees and is accused of murder by the corrupt local cop. Mad tells the story forty years later in this book
Comments:
1. Horse love.
2. Obscure handgun manufacturer love.
3. Good book and good story.
4. Nice look at trail life and cowtowns.
5. I told my wife we should go to Ellsworth tomorrow. She wants to go to Wichita. I say that Boggs writes, "I must also thank Paden's Place Restaurant in Ellsworth for that filling chicken-fried steak dinner."
I cannot recall why I got this book. I've read or listened to 2-3 Boggs books. This is set in Ellsworth, KS. Maybe I grabbed this to read while vacationing only a few miles away from the novel's setting.
Sixteen-year-old Texan Madison Carter MacCrae is on his third (or maybe his fourth) cattle drive from South Texas to Kansas. His father died of fever during the Civil War and his family needs the money he earns. Madison - Mad for short - is eager to act like, and be considered, a man. On the way to KS they are talked into going to Ellsworth by another Texan. Abilene has mostly been shut down to the cattle trade, and rowdy TX cowboys. Ellsworth has big stockyards and cattle buyers and is closer than Great Bend.
The cowboys arrive to Ellsworth and range the cows outside of town to fatten up. Mad likes some fellow crew members and dislikes others. The Texas cowboys are not always welcome to towns and the Ellsworth police force is more concerned with force than police. Ellsworth cops are eager to beat or kill cowboys. Mad stays working the herd as the owner awaits a better price. More and more herds arrive with more and more cowboys.
Mad goes on a bender and meets a local shop keeper's daughter after waking up in his vomit. Mad is bonkers fro the girl, Estrella (Star). Things happen. The County Sheriff is a good guy and makes friends with Mad. Mad backs him up during a showdown and alienates crew members and other Texans. Mad is lovey-dovey for Star but falling short. Mad is fired from his crew when he goes on a second bender against orders. A nearby farmer is overwhelmed by his daughter's rape and murder and hunting the killer he suspects is a drover.
Mad is deputized. The Sheriff is shot. Star starts dating another guy from Mad's old crew. Another crew member tries to rape Star. star takes his gun and shoots him. The guy dating he says he shot the guy and is lynched. Mad goes to arrest the lynchers and kills one. Mad flees and is accused of murder by the corrupt local cop. Mad tells the story forty years later in this book
Comments:
1. Horse love.
2. Obscure handgun manufacturer love.
3. Good book and good story.
4. Nice look at trail life and cowtowns.
5. I told my wife we should go to Ellsworth tomorrow. She wants to go to Wichita. I say that Boggs writes, "I must also thank Paden's Place Restaurant in Ellsworth for that filling chicken-fried steak dinner."
Listened: "Drood" by Dan Simmons
Listened: Drood by Dan Simmons, 2009, OverDrive donwload.
I listened to Simmons's The Terror a few years ago and loved it. John Lee narrated The Terror too
The best of historical fiction with another great performance by John Lee. Another nonfiction shielded in fiction. A long book whose plot covers several years. A mixed, fictional biography of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. The novel is narrated by Wilkie who says the piece was meant to available after 100 years.
Charles Dickens survives a rail wreck in England afte returning from a trip to France with his secret mistress. Dickens's rail coach is still on the tracks and he descends an embankment to try and assist in the rescue. Dickens tells his good pal Wilkie Collins that Dickens met a strange man at the wreck. A tall, extremely pal man in a black coat and stovepipe hat. The man called himself Drood and had no eyelids and no nose. He mentioned he was traveling to the slums of London.
Dickens and Collins travel to the slums to look for Drood. Drood is a mysterious character with all sorts of legends about him. A retired police detective has been hunting Drood for years and claims Drood is responsible for over 300 murders. Drood is supposedly almost 100 years old, born in Egypt, murdered in London and brought back to life. Drood lives in the underworld of London below the slums and even the sewers.
Wilkie and Dickens dance around their trip to find Drood and their various written and spoken performances.
Things happen with lots of atmosphere and history. The awful sewers of London. Wilkie's writing career and absurd family life. Dickens's writing career and absurd family life. Drood's looming presence. Blackmail by retired detective after Drood. Collins is captured by Drood and put under his control.
That's enough plot recap because there is a lot of plot and story in a 30 hour narration.
Collins is an asshole. An asshole and a half. He is conceited, classist, jealous, paranoid, selfish, rude, misogynistic, and several other unsavory adjectives. He refuses to marry a long term live-in mistress and pretends she is a servant in his home. He has a second mistress hidden from the first in an apartment paid for by Collins. Collins has weird love-hate relationship with Dickens driven by professional jealousy. He alternately praises Dickens skills while comparing Collins book sales and publisher advance payments versus Dickens. He seems to despise Dickens's behavior of kicking his wife out of their home and carrying on with a much-younger and secret mistress. But, Collins acts no better - and likely worse.
Collins is in his early forties but rheumatic, gout ridden, overweight and dependent on heavy does of laudanum. He eats way too much. He sluts around in Paris during a business trip.He drinks too much. He is self-absorbed and narcissistic.
Many hints of things to come during the novel. Of what seems to be Collins's subconscious bleeding through. Some of what Collins sees appears drug induced hallucinations and black-outs - green skinned woman on his stairs, an alternate Collins who takes his written work and revises it. How much of Wilkie's experiences are drug induced hallucinations.
Comments:
1. Reminder: make sure the digital audio player is not set to 'shuffle' when listening to an audio. You'll skip forward 22 chapters and wonder if the narrative jumped forward in time or, maybe, you were not listening closely as you jogged on the track at Lakeside.
2. There is a tie-in between this and The Terror. Collins and Dickens wrote and performed a play based off the voyage. I wonder if Simmons discovered this while research The Terror and became interested in Dickens.
3. Money issues at the time. Collins often wrote his novels with stage productions in mind. Dickens made a crapload of money on his speaking tours - I remember that piece of history.
I listened to Simmons's The Terror a few years ago and loved it. John Lee narrated The Terror too
The best of historical fiction with another great performance by John Lee. Another nonfiction shielded in fiction. A long book whose plot covers several years. A mixed, fictional biography of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. The novel is narrated by Wilkie who says the piece was meant to available after 100 years.
Charles Dickens survives a rail wreck in England afte returning from a trip to France with his secret mistress. Dickens's rail coach is still on the tracks and he descends an embankment to try and assist in the rescue. Dickens tells his good pal Wilkie Collins that Dickens met a strange man at the wreck. A tall, extremely pal man in a black coat and stovepipe hat. The man called himself Drood and had no eyelids and no nose. He mentioned he was traveling to the slums of London.
Dickens and Collins travel to the slums to look for Drood. Drood is a mysterious character with all sorts of legends about him. A retired police detective has been hunting Drood for years and claims Drood is responsible for over 300 murders. Drood is supposedly almost 100 years old, born in Egypt, murdered in London and brought back to life. Drood lives in the underworld of London below the slums and even the sewers.
Wilkie and Dickens dance around their trip to find Drood and their various written and spoken performances.
Things happen with lots of atmosphere and history. The awful sewers of London. Wilkie's writing career and absurd family life. Dickens's writing career and absurd family life. Drood's looming presence. Blackmail by retired detective after Drood. Collins is captured by Drood and put under his control.
That's enough plot recap because there is a lot of plot and story in a 30 hour narration.
Collins is an asshole. An asshole and a half. He is conceited, classist, jealous, paranoid, selfish, rude, misogynistic, and several other unsavory adjectives. He refuses to marry a long term live-in mistress and pretends she is a servant in his home. He has a second mistress hidden from the first in an apartment paid for by Collins. Collins has weird love-hate relationship with Dickens driven by professional jealousy. He alternately praises Dickens skills while comparing Collins book sales and publisher advance payments versus Dickens. He seems to despise Dickens's behavior of kicking his wife out of their home and carrying on with a much-younger and secret mistress. But, Collins acts no better - and likely worse.
Collins is in his early forties but rheumatic, gout ridden, overweight and dependent on heavy does of laudanum. He eats way too much. He sluts around in Paris during a business trip.He drinks too much. He is self-absorbed and narcissistic.
Many hints of things to come during the novel. Of what seems to be Collins's subconscious bleeding through. Some of what Collins sees appears drug induced hallucinations and black-outs - green skinned woman on his stairs, an alternate Collins who takes his written work and revises it. How much of Wilkie's experiences are drug induced hallucinations.
Comments:
1. Reminder: make sure the digital audio player is not set to 'shuffle' when listening to an audio. You'll skip forward 22 chapters and wonder if the narrative jumped forward in time or, maybe, you were not listening closely as you jogged on the track at Lakeside.
2. There is a tie-in between this and The Terror. Collins and Dickens wrote and performed a play based off the voyage. I wonder if Simmons discovered this while research The Terror and became interested in Dickens.
3. Money issues at the time. Collins often wrote his novels with stage productions in mind. Dickens made a crapload of money on his speaking tours - I remember that piece of history.
Done: "Groucho Marx, Master Detective" by Ron Goulart
Done: Groucho Marx, Master Detective by Ron Goulart, 1998, 031218106X.
I ran across a reference to this on a forgotten books comment. Cannot recall what other book was being discussed. I figured to try this out. This was well done but Groucho is a main character and I kept wondering if Goulart was writing new jokes or using old ones that Groucho used.
Scriptwriter Frank Denby used to be a police reporter for a few Los Angeles newspapers. Come 1937 he is a writer for Groucho's soon-to-premier radio show. On his way to a meeting with network executives Denby's car is run into by a woman on a bicycle when he stops for traffic. Denby is smitten with Jane, drives her and her wrecked bicycle home, and heads to his meeting. Groucho is introduced. Groucho cracks jokes.
Turns out the traffic jam that resulted in Denby meeting Jane was rubbernecking at a crime scene. An actress committed suicide. Groucho used to bang the actress. Groucho was still fond of her and does not believe the suicide report. Groucho asks Denby to help investigate. Denby uses his old police and newspaper contacts. Groucho acts silly.
Dead Girl looks to have been beaten to death. Her place was ransacked. She bragged about signing a multi-year studio contract. Groucho is upset. Groucho still cracks jokes. Croucho and Denby sleuth. Denby and Jane do the dirty deed. Groucho and Denby find suspects. Someone is trying to kill Groucho.
More things happen. Hollywood happenings with big-name stars of the time. Fans love to meet Groucho. Groucho cannot resist telling jokes and pulling their legs (not literally, he's not Harpo). Another murder attempt on Groucho. More sex with Denby and Jane. More suspects and sleuthing. Groucho and Denby solve the crime and Denby and Jane escape a nasty murder attempt. The bad guys get a public comeuppance via very public handgun action. Groucho cracks jokes.
Comments:
1. Old cars.
2. Many Marx monkeyshines.
3. Several people speak to Groucho throughout the novel expressing how sorry they are his and the Marx Brothers movie careers are washed up.
I ran across a reference to this on a forgotten books comment. Cannot recall what other book was being discussed. I figured to try this out. This was well done but Groucho is a main character and I kept wondering if Goulart was writing new jokes or using old ones that Groucho used.
Scriptwriter Frank Denby used to be a police reporter for a few Los Angeles newspapers. Come 1937 he is a writer for Groucho's soon-to-premier radio show. On his way to a meeting with network executives Denby's car is run into by a woman on a bicycle when he stops for traffic. Denby is smitten with Jane, drives her and her wrecked bicycle home, and heads to his meeting. Groucho is introduced. Groucho cracks jokes.
Turns out the traffic jam that resulted in Denby meeting Jane was rubbernecking at a crime scene. An actress committed suicide. Groucho used to bang the actress. Groucho was still fond of her and does not believe the suicide report. Groucho asks Denby to help investigate. Denby uses his old police and newspaper contacts. Groucho acts silly.
Dead Girl looks to have been beaten to death. Her place was ransacked. She bragged about signing a multi-year studio contract. Groucho is upset. Groucho still cracks jokes. Croucho and Denby sleuth. Denby and Jane do the dirty deed. Groucho and Denby find suspects. Someone is trying to kill Groucho.
More things happen. Hollywood happenings with big-name stars of the time. Fans love to meet Groucho. Groucho cannot resist telling jokes and pulling their legs (not literally, he's not Harpo). Another murder attempt on Groucho. More sex with Denby and Jane. More suspects and sleuthing. Groucho and Denby solve the crime and Denby and Jane escape a nasty murder attempt. The bad guys get a public comeuppance via very public handgun action. Groucho cracks jokes.
Comments:
1. Old cars.
2. Many Marx monkeyshines.
3. Several people speak to Groucho throughout the novel expressing how sorry they are his and the Marx Brothers movie careers are washed up.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Done: "Beethoven Conspiracy" by Thomas Hauser
Done: Beethoven Conspiracy by Thomas Hauser, 1984, 0025490001.
Hauser has had an interesting career. He currently writes on online boxing column and I discovered him by picking up one of his yearly column compilations at the library. Hauser started out lawyering and in 1978 published the nonfic The Execution of Charles Horman on which the film Missing was based. Hauser has written 41 books - according to the bio on the boxing website - and most of those are about boxing.
This mystery is kinda short at 205 pages and Hauser does not spend much time on description and setting. I'd compare the novel to an 87th Precinct novel. Hauser has us following the investigator, Richard Marritt, through the investigation with some coverage on his home life. You learn some about Marritt's political and personal views and meet his partner. We also follow the main witness, Judith Carr, through her job and personal feelings. The more I think about it the more this seems like a 87th homage.
Judith Carr is in her late twenties and a professional viola player. Carr is freelance ad plays in some smaller quartets and fills in at New York symphonies. Carr is contacted by a German-sounding guy, meets him for dinner and is asked to accept $10,000 in return for learning a piece of music, keeping open dates in November, and maintaining absolute secrecy. This is weird, but $10,000 is a lot of cash for Carr.
Marritt enters the picture when three extremely talented young symphonic musicians are murdered outside Lincoln Center. The victims' apartments were tossed and the only valuable item missing is a Stradivarius. Marritt cannot find a motive for the three murders. Marritt and his partner start questioning friends, neighbors, musicians, etc. Marritt finds some clues and a note in one victim's diary about Beethoven. Marritt is questioning Carr and asks about dates. Carr talks and Marritt starts to piece things together.
Marritt finds that two murder victims deposited $10k in their accounts and the third bought a $10k bow. Carr is the only person Marritt has found who spoke to the German Carr talks to sketch artist and the police identify the German. German once worked with a reclusive rich music lover. Marritt is still at a loss and continues researching Beethoven. Each musician must have been given their own part of a symphony and the German, who once led a Beethoven research library, must have an unknown 10th symphony.
Time passes. Married Marritt starts to dig single gal Carr. Carr gets mail saying, "Go to Vienna". Carr and Marritt go to Vienna. Carr is whisked away to Salzburg. Marritt is able to figure out where she went. Carr arrives a remote and rural Salzburg mansion where she and 99 other young, talented musicians have gathered. Rich Music Lover owns the mansion. They are to practice and play the symphony under conduction of Rich Music Lover. They are to be murdered en masse after the performance. Marritt arrives and saves the day.
Comments:
1. Kinda fun but not a great book.
2. No cell phones and internet to solve problems.
3. Beaucoup Beethoven biography love.
Hauser has had an interesting career. He currently writes on online boxing column and I discovered him by picking up one of his yearly column compilations at the library. Hauser started out lawyering and in 1978 published the nonfic The Execution of Charles Horman on which the film Missing was based. Hauser has written 41 books - according to the bio on the boxing website - and most of those are about boxing.
This mystery is kinda short at 205 pages and Hauser does not spend much time on description and setting. I'd compare the novel to an 87th Precinct novel. Hauser has us following the investigator, Richard Marritt, through the investigation with some coverage on his home life. You learn some about Marritt's political and personal views and meet his partner. We also follow the main witness, Judith Carr, through her job and personal feelings. The more I think about it the more this seems like a 87th homage.
Judith Carr is in her late twenties and a professional viola player. Carr is freelance ad plays in some smaller quartets and fills in at New York symphonies. Carr is contacted by a German-sounding guy, meets him for dinner and is asked to accept $10,000 in return for learning a piece of music, keeping open dates in November, and maintaining absolute secrecy. This is weird, but $10,000 is a lot of cash for Carr.
Marritt enters the picture when three extremely talented young symphonic musicians are murdered outside Lincoln Center. The victims' apartments were tossed and the only valuable item missing is a Stradivarius. Marritt cannot find a motive for the three murders. Marritt and his partner start questioning friends, neighbors, musicians, etc. Marritt finds some clues and a note in one victim's diary about Beethoven. Marritt is questioning Carr and asks about dates. Carr talks and Marritt starts to piece things together.
Marritt finds that two murder victims deposited $10k in their accounts and the third bought a $10k bow. Carr is the only person Marritt has found who spoke to the German Carr talks to sketch artist and the police identify the German. German once worked with a reclusive rich music lover. Marritt is still at a loss and continues researching Beethoven. Each musician must have been given their own part of a symphony and the German, who once led a Beethoven research library, must have an unknown 10th symphony.
Time passes. Married Marritt starts to dig single gal Carr. Carr gets mail saying, "Go to Vienna". Carr and Marritt go to Vienna. Carr is whisked away to Salzburg. Marritt is able to figure out where she went. Carr arrives a remote and rural Salzburg mansion where she and 99 other young, talented musicians have gathered. Rich Music Lover owns the mansion. They are to practice and play the symphony under conduction of Rich Music Lover. They are to be murdered en masse after the performance. Marritt arrives and saves the day.
Comments:
1. Kinda fun but not a great book.
2. No cell phones and internet to solve problems.
3. Beaucoup Beethoven biography love.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Finished: "Private Wars" by Greg Rucka
Finished: Private Wars by Greg Rucka, 2005, 9780553802771.
Fun stuff. Espionage, despicable bad guys, shooting, sex, acronyms, Audi cars, remote and foreign lands, culture shock (for the reader), tragic ending.
Englishwoman Tara Chace is works for British Secret Intelligence Service. She travels around the world doing dirty deeds. IN the last book (one I have not read) she and her fellow agent were ambushed and the other agent was killed. Tara and that guy were lovers and Tara is pregnant.
Tara resigns her SIS job, has her child with help of the father's mother, and is recruited back to work. Tara is asked to escort the adult son of Uzbekistan's President out of Uzbekistan. The President's daughter and her goon had arranged the torture and murder of the Son's wife. The Son wants he and his own son out of Uzbekistan. Daughter wants power, Daughter shuts away Son in Son's house under guard. Goon is murderous. Subplot of man portable anti-aircraft missiles sold by English and now loose.
Tara arranges things. Tara kills several Uzbeks keeping the son under house arrest. Tara and Son and Son's Son head out to a rendezvous in an Audi. Tara and Co are found. Their helicopter ride goes down in flames. Subplot involved. Son is shot outside of the Audi. Tara and Son's Son try and flee but are caught. Tara is tortured by Goon but released through demands of the local CIA guy before she is raped by Goon and his own goons.
Six months later Tara is back to work at SIS. Son is alive and found in neighboring Afghanistan. Son is hijacking heroin shipments run by Daughter (now Uzbek President) and keeping the cash to keep himself in Afghanistan. Son is suspected of planning an invasion to overthrow daughter. Tara is told to dissuade him "by any means possible".
More things happen. Tara wants revenge on Goon. Ambush and shootout by Chase and fellow agent in Afghanistan. Arrangements made to get Son's Son to Son in return for Son to never return. Goon is killed. Son wants to murder his sister. Tara kills Son while Son's Son is hugging Son's leg. Tara goes home to her daughter.
Comments:
1. Nice change with the tough guy spy being a woman.
2. Plenty of realpolitik and Kissinger doctrine. Money rules and deal with who is there.
3. Sadists turned on by power. Rape as a tool of torture. Beatings bring boners to bastards.
4. Walther P99 love.
5. Browning love (presumably Hi-Power).
6. Makarov hate. What's with that? Maks are quite good. The cartridge is kinda weak but the pistols are accurate and extremely reliable.
7. Maps and geography love.
8. Acronym love.
9. Bureaucratic backstabbing and scheming as Tara goes about her business. Half the story is about her handler, Crocker, back in the U.K.
Fun stuff. Espionage, despicable bad guys, shooting, sex, acronyms, Audi cars, remote and foreign lands, culture shock (for the reader), tragic ending.
Englishwoman Tara Chace is works for British Secret Intelligence Service. She travels around the world doing dirty deeds. IN the last book (one I have not read) she and her fellow agent were ambushed and the other agent was killed. Tara and that guy were lovers and Tara is pregnant.
Tara resigns her SIS job, has her child with help of the father's mother, and is recruited back to work. Tara is asked to escort the adult son of Uzbekistan's President out of Uzbekistan. The President's daughter and her goon had arranged the torture and murder of the Son's wife. The Son wants he and his own son out of Uzbekistan. Daughter wants power, Daughter shuts away Son in Son's house under guard. Goon is murderous. Subplot of man portable anti-aircraft missiles sold by English and now loose.
Tara arranges things. Tara kills several Uzbeks keeping the son under house arrest. Tara and Son and Son's Son head out to a rendezvous in an Audi. Tara and Co are found. Their helicopter ride goes down in flames. Subplot involved. Son is shot outside of the Audi. Tara and Son's Son try and flee but are caught. Tara is tortured by Goon but released through demands of the local CIA guy before she is raped by Goon and his own goons.
Six months later Tara is back to work at SIS. Son is alive and found in neighboring Afghanistan. Son is hijacking heroin shipments run by Daughter (now Uzbek President) and keeping the cash to keep himself in Afghanistan. Son is suspected of planning an invasion to overthrow daughter. Tara is told to dissuade him "by any means possible".
More things happen. Tara wants revenge on Goon. Ambush and shootout by Chase and fellow agent in Afghanistan. Arrangements made to get Son's Son to Son in return for Son to never return. Goon is killed. Son wants to murder his sister. Tara kills Son while Son's Son is hugging Son's leg. Tara goes home to her daughter.
Comments:
1. Nice change with the tough guy spy being a woman.
2. Plenty of realpolitik and Kissinger doctrine. Money rules and deal with who is there.
3. Sadists turned on by power. Rape as a tool of torture. Beatings bring boners to bastards.
4. Walther P99 love.
5. Browning love (presumably Hi-Power).
6. Makarov hate. What's with that? Maks are quite good. The cartridge is kinda weak but the pistols are accurate and extremely reliable.
7. Maps and geography love.
8. Acronym love.
9. Bureaucratic backstabbing and scheming as Tara goes about her business. Half the story is about her handler, Crocker, back in the U.K.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Read: "Fringe: the Zodiac paradox" by Christa Faust
Read: Fringe: The Zodiac paradox by Christa Faust, 2013, 9781781163092.
Tie-in to the TV series. I've only watched about 15 total minutes of the show but I enjoy Faust's work. I bought this one for work and need to return it.
It's 1968 and Walter Bishop and William Bell are grad students testing their own experimental hallucinogen. A night time experiment next to a lake is intended to test, or create, the possibility of, for lack of a better phrase, mind-reading and emotional empathy.
Meanwhile, in an alternate universe, the Zodiac killer is tripping on acid and preparing to murder a young couple parked by a lake. Ambushed by the police the Zodiac beats feet into the woods by the lake. Walter and Bell's mushroom mind meld musters open a pathway between the two universes. Zodiac falls through the hole when escaping the police. Walter experiences Zodiac's memories, thoughts, and even his future. Zodiac beats up Walter and Bell and Zodiac takes off.
Years later, in 1974, Walter and Bell are presenting a paper at UC-Berkeley. Neither guy knows much about the Zodiac killer. Neither guy was sure if there lakeside experience in 1968 was a hallucination. While at their conference they hear about Zodiac and put things together. Walter is determined to stop the killer.
Walter recalls one of those mind meld memories of Zodiac murdering people coming off a bus. With the help of Nina Sharp in San Francisco they figure out where the shooting is to happen. They get there early. They stop Zodiac. Zodiac beats them up again but drops his coded diary.
More chasing ensues. Walter is slovenly and socially inept. The FBI gets involved. Walter really digs a psychedelic band. Hallucinogens ensue. Zodiac is a nasty dude. Nina and Bell sex ensues. Shifty FBI antics ensue. Innocents die. Zodiac is killed. Walter and Bell and Nina avoid legal trouble. FBI starts the Fringe Unit.
Comments:
1: The copy editor fell asleep during some parts of this.
2. 911 anachronism. Or not, depending on when the system was put into use in SF or Berkeley.
3. The chase sequence early in the book with Zodiac kept me quite interested. I cannot say why. I think it is because Faust knows what she is doing.
4. Faust had a comment about her Supernatural tie-in saying that she had to add in something to keep her interested in the story. She added a hot Hispanic chick character to that novel. No one like that this time. Unless I missed it.
5. I presume there are several characters in here that appear in the TV show. I wouldn't know.
6. I distract myself wondering which characters show up in the TV show.
7. Lots of Bay Area detail and geography.
8. Lots of character for Walter.
Tie-in to the TV series. I've only watched about 15 total minutes of the show but I enjoy Faust's work. I bought this one for work and need to return it.
It's 1968 and Walter Bishop and William Bell are grad students testing their own experimental hallucinogen. A night time experiment next to a lake is intended to test, or create, the possibility of, for lack of a better phrase, mind-reading and emotional empathy.
Meanwhile, in an alternate universe, the Zodiac killer is tripping on acid and preparing to murder a young couple parked by a lake. Ambushed by the police the Zodiac beats feet into the woods by the lake. Walter and Bell's mushroom mind meld musters open a pathway between the two universes. Zodiac falls through the hole when escaping the police. Walter experiences Zodiac's memories, thoughts, and even his future. Zodiac beats up Walter and Bell and Zodiac takes off.
Years later, in 1974, Walter and Bell are presenting a paper at UC-Berkeley. Neither guy knows much about the Zodiac killer. Neither guy was sure if there lakeside experience in 1968 was a hallucination. While at their conference they hear about Zodiac and put things together. Walter is determined to stop the killer.
Walter recalls one of those mind meld memories of Zodiac murdering people coming off a bus. With the help of Nina Sharp in San Francisco they figure out where the shooting is to happen. They get there early. They stop Zodiac. Zodiac beats them up again but drops his coded diary.
More chasing ensues. Walter is slovenly and socially inept. The FBI gets involved. Walter really digs a psychedelic band. Hallucinogens ensue. Zodiac is a nasty dude. Nina and Bell sex ensues. Shifty FBI antics ensue. Innocents die. Zodiac is killed. Walter and Bell and Nina avoid legal trouble. FBI starts the Fringe Unit.
Comments:
1: The copy editor fell asleep during some parts of this.
2. 911 anachronism. Or not, depending on when the system was put into use in SF or Berkeley.
3. The chase sequence early in the book with Zodiac kept me quite interested. I cannot say why. I think it is because Faust knows what she is doing.
4. Faust had a comment about her Supernatural tie-in saying that she had to add in something to keep her interested in the story. She added a hot Hispanic chick character to that novel. No one like that this time. Unless I missed it.
5. I presume there are several characters in here that appear in the TV show. I wouldn't know.
6. I distract myself wondering which characters show up in the TV show.
7. Lots of Bay Area detail and geography.
8. Lots of character for Walter.
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