Pandaudio: "The Whites" by Harry Brandt (Richard Price)

 Pandaudio: The Whites by Harry Brandt (Richard Price), 2015, Wisconsin Digital Library. 

Cop novel I've completely forgotten about. Better look it up... OK. I kinda remember.

1. I remember trimming back a tree/bush while listening to this. What a pain that was.

2. Late shift NYPD Detective is in charge of squad. He gets a case where a victim quickly bleeds to death after a knifing in the subway. Detective recognizes the guy as a suspect from years ago with his old squad mates. The suspect got away and the lead Detective vowed to get him

3. Another long ago suspect is dead and he too had a lead Detective on the old squad vow to get the suspect.

4. Protagonist digs deeper. 

5. Protagonist is dedicated to the Rule of Law. Protagonist is also dedicated to his fellow police. Protagonist is in conflict with himself.

6. Meanwhile, another cop is a bit of a sociopath and deeply mourning his dead wife and dead brothers. He has vowed vengeance on the woman he holds responsible for the brothers's murders. The woman is Protagonist's wife. Tension and violence ensue. Protagonist has work stress, personal stress, and marital stress.

A strong novel. The Sociopathic Guy is not sociopathic exactly, he grew up under awful circumstances and his few social skills and a stunted ability to love and relate. Self loathing has him thinking his daughter would be better off living with a distant cousin. I may be off on who Sociopathic Guy is mourning but that does not matter too much.

Sociopathic Guy is competent enough as a policeman because he can follow policy and law. He's done well enough to somehow makes Detective but he is not skilled enough for the position. During the novel he starts an affair with his Guatemalan housekeeper, gets her pregnant, proposes marriage. Price's subplote of that relationship and it's resolution was very well done.

Pandaudio: "Swift Vengeance" by T. Jefferson Parker

 Pandaudio: Swift Vengeance by T. Jefferson Parker, 2018, downloaded from Wisconsin Digital Library.

Listened to this a while ago and right now I am simply getting this down in my list. Let me check the plot... Ok, I remember.

Roland Ford gets a call or visit from a former renter. The renter is a former Air Force drone pilot who fell apart with booze and gambling problems. AF Lady is in a custody battle for her young son. AF Pilot has a death threat sign Caliphornia - as in caliph, as in ISIS caliphate. AF Lady is still rebuilding her personal and work lives and does not want to put her custody case in danger by going to the cops. AF Lady figures that if she is under a death threat then the court won't want her child with her.

Roland looks into things. First he investigates the uber-rich Arabic guy AF Lady briefly dated. AF Lady former team members are then murdered. Roland teams up with the FBI. Things happen. People die. Roland rescues.

Comments:

1. Parker did his usual great job. 

2. Would the FBI really partner up with some private investigator running a one-man shop? 

3. More driving across Southern California. Hours of driving.

Pandaudio: "The House of Secrets" by Brad Meltzer and Tod Goldberg

 Pandaudio: The House of Secrets by Brad Meltzer and Tod Goldberg, 2016, downloaded from Wisconsin Digital Library.

I was looking for Tod Goldberg books and this is the only one I found. This a bit of a "meh" international thriller. 

• Protagonist Hazel-Ann wakes up after a post-car crash coma that killed her father. 
• Hazel-Ann flies to different countries. 
• A secret assassin is tracking Hazel-Ann and her brother. 
• There is a history of a small bible owned by Benedict Armold surgically emplaced into people's chests. 
• There are secretive poisonings with a secretive toxin. 
• FBI Guy gets involved. 
• Family secrets are revealed. 
• Hazel-Ann walked away from her father's rich business and TV show.
• So on. 
• So forth.

This kind of novel is not my speed.

Pandaudio: "The Room of White Fire" by T. Jefferson Parker

 Pandaudio: The Room of White Fire by T. Jefferson Parker, 2017, download from Wisconsin Digital Library.

Roland Ford series. Roland hired to find a guy who escaped from a private and secure mental health facility. The escapee is an Air Force vet and presumed dangerous. Roland finds he has hooked up with a younger woman and worries for her safety.

The mental health place is kinda sketchy. The mental health place is run by a doctor who defended and run torture facilities during the recent wars. The woman psychiatrist at the facility is sorta hot and sorta not for Ford. Ford is suspicious. Ford ask questions. Ford gets violent.

More COVID Audio: "You Can't Touch My Hair" by Phoebe Robinson

 More COVID Audio: You Can't Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson, 2016, Wisconsin Digital Library.

Well done humor book. Robinson narrated and kinda sounds like Amber Ruffin from Seth Meyers show and her own, newer, show. I kept conflating the two. That's OK, they won't know. Or care.

I don't have much to say about this because I don't remember specific details. Robinson grew up in Cleveland. Has many things to say about pop culture. Talks about her dating life. Talks about show business. Talks about a lot of things. 

She wrote a couple more books that I may check out.

Listened to in 2020 pandemic and notes typed July, 2021 and backdated.

Comments:

1. I kinda remember something about her stories about high school and being a black kid. Something else about her brother as a high school kid. Maybe something about her brother being a doctor now and,  therefore, having a much fancier job than her work as comedy writer and actress.

2. Oh, something else! Being in entertainment requires constant self-promotion and job hunting. One nice role is not guarantee of future work. 

Pan-Audio: "The River" by Peter Heller

 Pan-Audio: The River by Peter Heller, 2019, Wisconsin Digital Library.

I listened to this in Spring or Summer, 2020 and it made me want to take a canoe trip. I did get to attend a Troop trip on the Black River in July or August for two nights, and Boy #1 came along. 

Two college dudes take a weeks long remote trip in Northern Canada. Traveling down the river and lake to lake with portaging. Fishing along the way and sharing a canoe. The only concerns are weather and bears. They run across some drunk dudes who look like tenderfoots who will die but see no people.

Later, they find a woman. I don't recall everything but basically it's a Mysterious Woman In Danger story. She is suffering from exposure and a beating (pretty sure about the beatings part) and cannot communicate much. The two dudes are trying to figure out who was trying to kill her. The drunk dudes? Escaping a bear and separated from her party? Those angry voice they thought they heard one night? Should they use their bear rifle to kill the guy who is after her?

Things happen. I'm sure there are some interesting morality discussions and deeper character "stuff" I did not give a damn about. It's an adventure story with young men wanting to do right and well for an injured woman in mortal peril. With canoes.

The Black River canoe trip referenced above was a great trip. Perfect weather during the day. The water was not too high or fast. The river not too crowded. We found sand banks to camp on. There was rain both nights but I stayed dry in my bivy sack under a pop-up shelter. The water drained quickly through the sand each morning. No bears.

Notes written July, 2020 and backdated.

COVID-io: "Psych 101" by Paul Kleinman

 COVID-io: Psych 101 by Paul Kleinman, 2012 (I think), Wisconsin Digital Library download.

I never took a psychology class and figured this would be a nice intro to some topics. It is. 

Kleinman give pithy entries for famous concepts, theories, experiments, scientists, researchers, and more. I was a bit surprised about how much I already knew through other academic disciplines and regular-every-day-learning.

One aspect I enjoyed was hearing how thinking and theory have changed over the years with new research and recognition that so many psychological theories about human behavior were built on cultural bias. As brain science advanced, the methods of study and research evolved a lot as well. Spoke about the transition of drug treatments.

A relatively brief book that I listened to on walks to and from work and exercise. 

Listened to during pandemic and never entered notes. Notes written July, 2021 with backdating.

Pandemic Audio: "Force of Nature: by Jane Harper

 Pandemic Audio: Force of Nature by Jane Harper, 2018, downloaded from Wisconsin Digital Library.

I finished this in 2020 and never entered notes. I'm writing this in July, 2021 and backdating to December, 2020.

This novel and Harper's previous novels always have a great sense of place. All of the geography - weather, terrain, water, local customs, local behavior - work for me. This had me wishing I could go on a backpacking trip. 

Corporate retreat in the Australian forest ends up with a small group going missing. One woman is found dead, murdered with a head bash (as I recall). The cops get involved early because one of the missing women was an informant regarding a financial crime within the corporation. One of the cops is dude from Harper's THE DRY. Extra spice is added because two of the women are battling sisters with one an achiever and the other a boozer. There are also: 

• Personal angers dating to school-age. 
• Multiple family dramas and tensions
• Beginners lost in the cold and wet forest without proper gear or food. 
• Memories of a serial killer who stalked the area.
• Race against time to locate the missing hikers with bad weather coming in.

We bebop back and forth from the cop to a couple of the missing women. The cops have to be very circumspect because they received a weird and partial voicemail from the informant. They are worried for her safety because she may have been found out. But, they have to not tip there hats on why they are really there.

My memory of this book is being on a trip to Cable, WI in July, 2020 for the MTB team's adventure ride at Namakagon. I think that was the trip where the humidity was super high and our campsite had no showers. Boy #1 and I did a ride for a couple hours on Saturday and were soaked in sweat with no easy way to clean off. I thought of going into the state campsite's swimming lake but I would have smelled like lake water. 

We also drove up to Ashland, WI since we were right there. We walked around a bit but the crowd's were slight because of the pandemic. We checked out some stores and a grocery store. I bought a super cheap mug at the public library. After getting coffee at the Black Cat Coffehouse I dropped the damn library mug and it shattered. We also bought a new axe at the hardware store. There is a artesian well right shore of Lake Superior. We made lunch at the lakeside, bought things at Solstice Outdoors, and filled some water bottles at the spring.

Comments:

1. And, I remember this, there was a small farmer's market by the coffee joint and an older lady in a short skirt bent over at the waist and showed everything I did not want to know.

2. I always spell artisanal and not artesian.

Pandemic Trilogy: "The Pool of Fire" by John Christopher.

 Pandemic Trilogy: The Pool of Fire by John Christopher, 1968, (2003 copy in hand), 076714004993.

Will has escaped from the City of God and Lead and rejoined his group in the mountains. Part of Will's report included news that the aliens are looking to make all of Earth into an alien hospitable environment and kill all the humans. 

Will and Fritz - whose escape from the City was delayed - have reunited in the mountains and are sent to the Middle East as recruiters. After a year of traveling and adventure they return to the mountains as the human resistance group accelerates plans to attack the aliens and their cities. The group ambushes a tripod and capture an alien. 

Things happen. People argue. Captured alien is accidentally killed by alcohol. Resistance realizes they can poison the alien water supply with alcohol. Will and resistance leader Julius discuss philosophical issues. Will keeps learning to curb his impulsiveness and quick temper. 

More action as the nearby City is attacked and destroyed. Will joins that group and then joins another group voyaging across the Atlantic to attack the last remaining alien city. More stuff. More happening. Personal sacrifice by one character to win the day.

Will attends a convention of leaders from around the world. Leaders get into big arguments and start fighting and Will is very disillusioned.

A fun YA tale but I did start to lose some interest.

Finished sometime in October, 2020?

Audio-Demic: "Prodigal Son" by Dean Koontz

Audio-Demic: Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz, 2009 (I think), Wisconsin Digital Library.

My wife and I used to listen to audios when in the car and before the childrens arrived. We listened to a fair amount of Nero Wolfe mysteries. We also tried, or maybe I listened when traveling back-and-forth in KS, to a couple Koontz shoot-em-up-SciFi-government-conspiracy novels. Koontz is a great storyteller but he would lay on the schmaltz. And I recall he had to have a Hero Dog all the time.

Anyhoo. New Orleans cops Carson and Michael start investigating murders that look like serial killer stuff. Carson has little personal life aside from caring for her autistic son. Michael, her partner, is a standard cop dude and they have a thing for each other that neither will pursue.

Meanwhile some super human guy gets involved. Super Human Guy has been alive for a couple hundred years. Super Human Guy is actually Frankenstein. I think they is a kidnapping? Maybe some sort of medical experiments to turn people into zombies? More government conspiracy stuff?

Doesn't matter. This was popcorn stuff that I'm not going to recall and I listened to it mid-pandemic or right before. I do know there was some more Koontz-style-stuff that annoyed me but I cannot what that was.

Writing this in July, 2021 but backdating to 2020.

More COVID-Dio: "Career of Evil" by Robert Galbraith (Rowling)

More COVID-Dio: "Career of Evil" by Robert Galbraith (Rowling), 2015, Wisconsin Digital Library.

Meh. These Cormoran Strike novels always go on too long. And the will-they won't-they stuff of Strike and his assistant Robin gets on my nerves. So does Cormoran "Mr. Grouchy Pants" Strike's grouchiness.

Anyway, some guy wants revenge on Strike for something. Strike cannot figure out who the guy is and the guy is killing people and stalking Robin. We follow Robin and Strike around after Strike narrows the suspects to four people. All four of the guys are long time dirtbags. 

Everything turns out OK in the end. Except for the dead people or people who were raped or stabbed or whatever.

Comments:

1. Strike's chronic pain from a missing leg is always well incorporated into the story by Rowling. Strike has to plan his trips to avoid too much walking or suffer the consequential pain.

2. Robin and her fiance arguing and fighting. Robin never quite coping with a university rape that caused her to withdraw from school.

Listened to in 2020. Notes written July, 2021 when I don't recall much about the book except there are lots of street scenes as they tail guys around or do surveillance.

Pandaudio: "Police At the Station and They Don't Look Happy" by Adrian McKinty

 Pandaudio: Police At the Station and They Don't Look Happy by Adrian McKinty, 2017, downloaded from Hoopla.

McKinty's Duffy series has been very well done and very enjoyable. Duffy gets involved in more turmoil with a drug dealer murdered with a crossbow and another dealer surviving a murder attempt.

Lots of pop culture references from 1987-1988 for music and current politics. Duffy listens to a lot of orchestral music and BBC radio and it is a neat time capsule. Whether the time capsule is accurate or not is debatable. 

Anyhoo. The drug dealer murder of course ties into intrigue involving McKinty's preferred Belfast set themes: 1. IRA. 2. Unionist militias. 3. Police misconduct. 4. UK government's murderous manipulations.

Plot: Duffy's girlfriend gets pregnant. Duffy is a dick to his girlfriend's family. Duffy is kind of a pain the ass. Duffy stumbles on a IRA connection dating back to the '60s.

Comments:

• SPOILER Duffy ends up with a kill order on him from the IRA Army Council.  Duffy is abducted in Derry and the Derry commander makes an appearance. But, and this was weird, the name of the guy is redacted. I don't know if McKinty used the real name but had to avoid getting sued.
  
• BMW 535i Sport love. We know Duffy's BMW 535i car is a 535i because Duffy has to constantly tell us about his 535i car. Give it a fucking rest, Duffy.
  
• A reminder from Say Nothing (the notes of which I've not yet entered) is that NO ONE ADMITS TO IRA MEMBERSHIP. EVER. You may have left the organization 30 years ago but you say nothing.
• Famous clusterfuck love. If you did not know or cannot recall: 
• The British SAS were tailing a Active Service Unit through Spain and Gibraltar in early 1988. The IRA were planning a car bomb on Gibraltar aimed at attacking the changing of the guard ceremony. As I recall, the SAS sorta lost track of the IRA people and the car bomb and were not sure how or when the bomb would be detonated. The SAS team approached the three IRA people at a gas station and shot and killed all three. One IRA person was a woman. The reunification/Catholic side got extra pissed off that the SAS 'assassinated' a woman. 
• The funeral for the three dead IRA people was a few days later in Belfast. A Loyalist paramilitary man showed up, threw freaking grenades at mourners, shot at everyone with a pistol, ran off, was beaten, and captured. 
• The next set of funerals was for the people killed at the first funeral and involved a huge foot procession. Two British Army guys got lost in their car and drove right among the procession. The car was surrounded, one soldier pulled his Hi-Power, the soldiers were pulled from the car, beaten, and shot in the head. 
• Duffy gets involved with all the resulting riots.
  
• The clusterfuck brings up an argument I've never understood. The IRA proclaim themselves asn an Army with soldiers and at war. But, when they get shot and killed during an active operation to bomb people they complain that the IRA soldiers were not arrested. They also complain of ill-treatment and standards in British prisons but the IRA would kidnap, torture, and murder people.

More Pandaudio: "Green Hell" by Ken Bruen

 More Pandaudio: Green Hell by Ken Bruen, 2015, downloaded from Hoopla. Narrated by John Lee.

I've been noticing over the past two novels that John Lee is much more of a narrator than a performer. His dialogue is not laced with the emotions that the author provides. Lee does not whisper, sound urgent, or throw much of any emotion.

I've not read any of these in a while. I watched all the film versions and now think of Iain Glen as Taylor. Except written Taylor is much more of a drunken, sorry, violent bastard than television Taylor.

Chock-a-block of cultural references: television, novels, music, film, nonfic, poetry. Taylor reads book reviews and a bartender comments on a book reviewer who crap off an author "for using too many cultural references". References to other authors that I presume are real people.

Taylor spends his time in bars drinking and at home reading or watching film and television. No job to go to and no responsibilities. Sounds kinda idyllic until you remember he is a full-time alcoholic with raging hangovers and frequent vomiting.

Comments:

• Gratuitous reference of Sara Gran's Claire DeWitt novels. Three times! Four!
  
• Can't blame Bruen for that. The third DeWitt novel was absolutely fantastic.
• Gratuitous reference to Michael Schumacher's skiing accident.
• Gratuitous Adrian McKinty.
  
• Way too much booze.
• Galway is 80,000 people. Jefferson County is 85,000 people. Galway is 20.9 square miles. (Ireland is 32,535 square miles.) Jefferson County is 525 square miles. In 2019 Ireland had a homicide rate of .9 per 100,000. Jefferson County had 0 for 100,000. In Bruen's Galway there are, what, 5-10 murders a year?  
• What's my point?  I don't have one. I also did not look hard for Galway homicide stats.
• Gratuitous Iain Glen reference. Glen plays Taylor in the TV films. 
• Damn, I really enjoyed this novel.

Plot?Man, I'm finishing this up a month later. 

OK I recall mow: American in grad school is researching and class taking in Ireland. American is narrating all this for us. He is studying WhatsHisFaceFamousIrishAuthor. American meets Jack and, surprisingly, becomes his pal. American witnesses Jack's comfort and fondness for violence as a problem solver. American and Jack Taylor drink. American and Jack Taylor snort cocaine. American decides to write a book about Jack Taylor. Jack Taylor hears about a Uni professor who is a serial rapist and murderer. American meets a girl. 

 Things happen. Professor finds out Jack Taylor out to get him. Professor ingratiates into American's girlfriend's life and career. Professor murders girlfriend and sets up American. American goes to jail. American commits suicide.

Jack's narration takes over. Jack deals Jack Justice.

Pan-Hard-Demic-Cover: "Bye Bye, Baby" by Max Allan Collins

 Pan-Hard-Demic-Cover: Bye Bye, Baby by Max Allan Collins, 2011, 9780765321794. Backdated to correct year.

Nathan Heller gets involve in more Hollywood shenanigans and investigates Marilyn Montoe's death. Included are Sam Giacana, Frank Sinatra, Monrow, Dimaggio, secrets, sex, murder.

Again, I don't remember too much. Doesn't matter. Collins always gives us solid and entertaining novels.

More Pandemic Fiction: "Smonk" by Tom Franklin

More Pandemic Fiction: Smonk by tom Franklin, 2006, 9780060846817. Backdated to correct year.

Franklin is more of a literary novelist I guest but this is more crime novel with some supernatural elements. I enjoyed the book.

Smonk is a short, fat, syphilitic rat bastard who cannot seem to die. in 1911 he returns to a small town to exact revenge. The town wants revenge on Smonk. Many people die in the conflict and a couple town survivors pursue Smonk. 

There is hardscrabble survival. Children left on their own. Teen girl left to survive on sex work. Religious nutjob with a personal cavalry unit. Vampires.

More Pandemic Hardcover: "Solo" by William Boyd

 More Pandemic Hardcover: Solo by William Boyd, 2013, 9780062223128. Backdated to correct year.

In 1969 Bond goes to Zanzarim in West Africa to stop a rebel group from breaking away and taking oil territory with them. A fictionalization of the Nigeria-Biafra war. M sends Bond there to stop the war - kind of an absurd assignment, no? Send some English guy to a strange country and he is supposed to just work magic and and a war?

I enjoyed the novel. Bond meets his contacts. Bond is betrayed. Bond somehow survives. Bond has the sexy-sex. Bond goes undercover and acts as military advisor.

Pandemic Hardcover: "Red Herring" by Archer Mayor

Pandemic Hardcover: "Red Herring" by Archer Mayor, 2010, 9780312381936. Backdated to correct year. 

 

More Vermont crime and murder with Joe Gunther. This one has child rape, I think. I don't really remember. Gunther link's a couple murders.

Mayor has a real strength is explaining and showing how police interviews are a skill and how they are done.

Paris Pandemic: "The Black-Eyed Blonde" by Benjamin Black

 Paris Pandemic: The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black, 2014, 9780805098143. Backdated to correct year.

I did not know this was a Philip Marlowe novel until I started reading. I don't recall the plot. Let me check... Yeah, I don't recall much. Marlowe deals with super rich with big secrets.

I do remember Marlowe getting ambushed in a rural, hilly area. Marlowe getting a bad concussion.

Pan-Paper-Dem-Back-Ic: "The Assault" by Harry Mulisch

 Pan-Paper-Dem-Back-Ic: The Assault by Harry Mulisch, 1982 (Dutch) and 1985 (English translation), 9780394744209. Backdated to correct year.

This is one of many books at my parents place that I once read or never got back to. I think I took this back to WI in late 2019 or early 2020. Maybe mid-2020 when I went down to assist with doctor appointments. My mother's cousin grew up in the Netherlands during WWII and said that my grandfather's aid packages from Maryland to them were a Godsend. She also once said that Quislings (wrong country but I cannot her wording) would fall to the back of an army unit's marching line and shoot others in the back.

 My father once gave a short description of the novel to me. Since he read it I held it in high regard.

My recall of the story: Young Anton lives with his father and brother (sister?). There are four houses on their block and in front of one of the homes in 1945 a Dutch nazi is assassinated. Everyone knows a dead nazi in front of the house means everyone in the house will be murdered in retribution. The family of the neighboring house drags the body in front of Anton's home.

Anton spends his life dealing with the trauma of his murdering father and sister (brother?). He is taken in by relatives. He goes to school with the son of the dead nazi.He occassionally meets those old neighbors. As a teenager he one day he bikes several miles from his current home to visit his childhood home. 

Everyone is trying to pick up the pieces, rebuild, and either forget or cope with their wartime experiences. Anton is stuck on the event. Why did the neighbor pull the body right and not west? Did they have it out for us? Were they panicked?

End of the novel has a bit of a revelation in Anton's adulthood but it's no resolution for him.

Another Paper-demic-back: "The March" by E.L. Doctorow

Another Paper-demic-back: The March by E.L. Doctorow, 2005, 9780812976151. Backdated to correct year.

I tried listening to this a few years ago and the audio file was all corrupted. I bought this used.

I've enjoyed other Doctorow novels - except the one about the hermit brothers - and recall this being decent. We follow several characters as Sherman's Army marches along to destroy those motherfuckers in the CSA.

I recall: Frred slaves falling in love but living in constant danger, a sociopath deserting the US Army and becoming a photographer. Nt much to remember except I think there was a Georgian woman and daughter of a controlling rich man.

Paper-demic: "Las Vegas Noir" edited by Jarret Keene, Todd James Pierce

 Paper-demic: Las Vegas Noir edited by Jarret Keene, Todd James Pierce, 2008, 9781933354491.  Backdated to correct year.

 I don't remember any of these except that the Tod Goldberg one is in his recent short story collection. There is a Scott Phillips story as well.

More Pandemic A-Fic: "Scavenger" by David Morrell

 More Pandemic A-Fic: Scavenger by David Morrell, 2007, 9781593154417. Backdated to correct year.

A sequel to Creepers. Not really a sequel though, just the same characters.

Frank Balenger's girlfriend goes missing and is kidnapped by the Game Master. Frank follows clues from NYC to Montana (Wyoming? Idaho? North Dakota?) where a mining ghost town and the surrounding area are set-up like a game board. Frank and several other people have explosive necklaces and have to work together to solve a puzzle.

I recall this being pretty decent but the bad guy Game Master is some super-rich dude with all sorts of dastardly plans and powers. I generally don't dig those kinds of bad guys.

Pandemic Novel: "The Dead Yard" by Adrian McKinty

 Pandemic Novel: The Dead Yard byAdrian McKinty, 2006, 9780743266437. Backdated to correct year.

Dustcover says "breathtaking sequel" but I never caught my breath. And, since I've read several McKinty novels over the past year I'm not sure what this novel is about without reading the rest of the dustcover. Let's see...

OK, yeah, I remember. The previous Michael Forythe had the Irish mobster in NYC fleeing and fighting and killing. He started working with the FBI and stayed out of prison. On vacation to the Canary Islands he gets caught in a soccer hooligan riot and a English intelligence officer strongarms him into an undercover assignment in the States. 

Forsythe has to infiltrate an IRA splinter group on the East Coast that only numbers a handful of people. Forsythe does so and he drinks too much, argues with most people, keeps secrets and fakes it 'til he makes it.This is a mcKinty novel so you know Forsythe will suffer, be tortured or beaten, will escape, will exact revenge.

Pandem-erback: "The Rat on Fire" by George V. Higgins

 Pandem-erback: The Rat On Fire by George V. Higgins, 1981 (2011 reprint), 9780307947244. Backdated to 2020.

I read Friends of Eddie Coyle not too long ago and, according to the receipt tucked into the front cover, I bought this at Milwaukee's Boswell Books on January 19, 2020, just before 5PM. That may have coincided with a Cat Cafe visit.

Small time crooks try to avoid prison, lie to the cops, commit murder, live at the poverty line, and try to balance family and career. 

 This is another plot I don't recall too much of. A slumlord wants to burn down his building to rid himself of a white elephant. An arsonist is hired. things happen but for some reason all I can think about is the scene from the film adaptation of Friends of Eddie... where the cops stake-out a commuter rail station and arrest some crooks with car crashes and shotguns.

Pan-dome-dio: "Under the Dome" by Stephen King

 UNDER THE DOME by Stephen King. I'm not looking up the other stuff. Backdated to correct year.

I ran through my monthly allotment of four titles on Hoopla. Wisconsin Digital Library has a bunch of immediately available titles and I'd not listened or read Kind in a while.

I realized - or remembered - that King is a horror writer but the supernatural and monsters often take a backseat to everyday horror or everyday assholes. King always has real-life dirtbags of:

• Small town tyrants.
• Religious nutbags.
• Narcissists with a revenge streak.
• Mob action.
• Imbeciles who love to follow orders.
• Plucky young teens.
• These guys are a trope of sorts because King always uses them. But, he always writes complex and believable characters. Well... I believe them at least. 
• Plenty of mysogeny.

Comments:

1. Gun Nerd Errors: A "Beretta Taurus". One cop carrying a Smith and Wesson Schofield? (Speaking of which, I often enter online gun giveaways and, of course, never win. As I write this I just entered a giveaway for a reproduction Schofield with an MSRP of $1,187. Zoinks! 

2. Town in rural Maine and characters cannot find guns?

Pandemic Audio: "Goblins" by Charles Grant

 Pandemic Audio: Goblins by Charles Grant, 1994 (I think), downloaded from Hoopla.

Original X-Files novel and set after first season (I think). Mulder and Scully are reinstated into the X-Files. Some murders are happening outside Fort Dix in New Jersey. A Senator says, "Hey, I'm a Senator, and I say the FBI should look into these local murders. So get cracking."

Mulder and Scully head to New Jersey with two junior agents tagging along. There is scientific intrigue. There are mysterious murders from what people think are goblins. There is small town intrigue. There are stonewalling Army dudes. There are secretive scientists doing secretive experiments. There are small town eccentrics and weirdos.

I enjoyed the story. This is story with a 25-years-younger Mulder and Scully than the final X-Files season I watched a couple months ago. Not much else to say. I finished this back in September. Maybe August.

Pandemic: "Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" by Suzanne Collins

 Pandemic: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, 2020, Hoopla audiobook download.

Nuts. I listened to this back in May and apparently missed typiing any notes.

Well... it's a Hunger Games novel. A prequel with the teen version of President Snow. It's a nice standalone novel and basically a focus on life after wartime. The Capital is pretty new and there are food shortages and rubble. I'd compare it to post-war Berlin except the dirty, rotten, filthy, stinking, no-good nazis won.

Other thoughts: Teen protagonist wants regular teen things like acceptance, love, and respect of peers. He also wants to reclaim the family name and wealth. 

Plot: former rich kid Snow is enrolled in an elite school for the wealthy and powerful. He does well in school. He and fellow classmates are chosen as patrons of the provincial teens who are brought in to compete in the Hunger Games. The Games are held in a abandoned stadium. 

Snow gets hotsy-totsy for the girl he is assigned. The girl wins. Snow gets in big trouble and has to join the army (or whatever they call it). Snow is sent to girl's district and has teenage fancies of lovey and dovey and a life together. Reality intrudes as cruelty and power are the way the world runs.

More Pandemic: "The Price of Malice" by Archer Mayor

 More Pandemic: The Price of Malice by Archer Mayor, 2009, Hoopla download.

I forgot the plot, man. let me look it up... OK. I recall it now. Child rapist is murdered in his run-down apartment and Joe Gunther also finds out his girly-friend's long missing father and brother may have been murdered.

Mayor often writes about the down-and-out crooks of Vermont. Small town hoods and ne'er-do-wells following paths of misdemeanors and a small felonies. Those people live and work alongside the heavies of crime who deal in prostitution, loansharking, drugs, and the rare murder. Well, rare in real life but not in Guntherland.

Living in apartments where the entire building will rattle when someone climbs the stairs. Wide ranging families formed by ties of blood, romance, convenience, and business. Cars that sometimes work. Poor paying jobs that'll cut you loose at short notice. People who get cut loose because they'd rather drink and smoke than go to a lousy job. People see things. People hear things. People don't trust the police and won't tell the police.

Meanwhile the local cops deal with a few cases of burglary, murder, and sexual assault. The rest of the time they deal with substance abuse and people who cannot or will not form healthy romantic relationships. Called back to the BS squabbles every weekend night they try to get along with the locals misfits. When a murder happens the state investigators like Gunther show up run the case.

Anyhoo. Gunther is even keeled and supports and trusts the cops he supervises. He's been involved with a new girly friend but works loooooong hours during a case and his personal life suffers. Mayor also saddles Gunther with long-time asshole Willy Kunkle. Kunkle is a prick who, in real life, would have been fired from law enforcement long ago. But, this is a novel.

Meanwhile the subplot has New Girly Friend looking into a new lead on her missing family. The father and brother disappeared years ago at sea when working their fishing boat. New found clues are followed that show a possible murder. 

I dropped reading Mayor about 15+ years ago after one novel was not well done. I started up again a couple years ago and have stayed with it. I have 2-3 withdrawn paperbacks and hardcovers I've been going through plus a couple audiobooks I've downloaded.

More Pandemic Audio: "Sunburn" by Laura Lippman

 More Pandemic Audio: Sunburn by Laura Lippman, 2018, downloaded from Hoopla.

Short: Woman dumps a husband and lands in small town Maryland near to the coast. Woman is pretty redhead who gets job, boyfriend, and we learn her story with sex and murder.

So noir-y that even I recognized some of the plot points as homages to other stories. Redhead is Polly. She shows up in a local restaurant and catches the eye of a guy there. 

Look, I'm not going to try and do a fancy-schmancy write-up. There are plenty of reviews online and I listened to this back in April. For all that has happened this year that seven months may as well be seven years.

Things I do remember: a woman with no trust in men starts to trust one. A woman who seems sociopathic is not. A woman dedicated to her children has to carry out a difficult long-term plan to ensure the freedom of herself, her children, and her finances. 

Pandemic Audio: "Light It Up" by Nick Petrie

 Pandemic Audio: Light It Up by Nick Petrie, 2018, Wisconsin Digital Library.

Peter Ash gets a call from someone he worked with before. The guy is in his 70s and owns a security company in Denver that specializes in cash courier trucks for the all-cash marijuana dispensaries and grow facilities. One of the guarded trucks disappeared and the men are also missing. Did they steal the money or were they murdered?

More intrigue and violence. The series started to sour for me on this entry. I cannot recall why exactly. But, Ash and his good buddy from Milwaukee are both itchy combat veterans. They have become adrenaline junkies. Apparently sky-diving or motorcycle racing are not good enough for them.  Instead they feed the adrenaline need and comfort their psychological problems with violence. That includes gunfights in public and car chases across public golf courses.   

Anyhoo. Ash and his fellow dudes are ambushed on a rural road. A couple colleagues are killed, Ash gets captured with another guy. Ash makes a dramatic escape with lots of killing and a downhill chase. Ash calls his buddy in Milwaukee and Milwaukee Buddy flies over for some tourism terror. 

Meanshile, Ash has been on the move and away from the girly-friend he made in the last novel. She tells him to get his shit straight and cope with his mental health issues. She flies over to join them, gets caught, and gives Ash something to be angry and worried about.

More things happen and the bad guys are bad and the good guys are imperfect. Don't get me wrong: imperfect heroes and anti-heroes are fine. For whatever reason this character has been rubbing me the wrong way. 

Comments:

1. Old gun love.

2. House building and car love.

3. Denver street map love during chase scenes.

4. Super fit Ash does lots of running. Lots and lots of running. Like Tom-Cruise-in-every-damn-movie running.

5. Trekking through the forest in snow storm love.

EDIT: 

6. Remembered the gratuitous Jon Jordan character. I recall a murder.

Pandemic Audio: "Burning Bright" by Nick Petrie

 Pandemic Audio: Burning Bright by Nick Petrie, 2017, Wisconsin Digital Library.

Second novel with drifter-dude Peter Ash. A recap: Ash was an infantry officer in the Marine Corps with several war tours. When he was discharged he ended up with a severe claustrophobia that makes him unable to endure being inside any buildings. He has been living in his pickup - an old one with a big windscreen window that makes him feel more outside - and working outdoor jobs like construction. He also has retirement or disability money (I don't recall which. Maybe both. Doesn't matter.) from the Corps.

Ash has been working with a trail building crew in the redwood forest of Northern California. When the job ends Ash starks hiking. While taking a break on the trail he downs his pack and leans against a tree. A bear shows up Ash climbs the tree. The bear tears apart all of Ash's belongings and sits at the bottom of the tree. Ash figures, "Fuck it" and starts climbing with the intention of traversing branches until he can get several trees away from the bear.

Ash finds a hanging climbing rope. Ash figures "Fuck it" and climbs the rope. Ash climbs more ropes into the redwoods and traverses tree-to-tree until he finds a woman with a gun living in the trees. Tree Woman's famous computer professor mother was killed and people are trying to kill Tree Woman. Ash figures "Fuck it" and he and Tree Woman team up to fight the power. 

Anyhoo. Ash and Tree Woman get lovey-dovey. The bad guy's are ruthless mercenaries. Ash is a ruthless killer. Ash and Tree Woman move around the Pac Northwest figuring things out with some cat-and-mouse and death.

Comments:

1. These are knight errant novels. An easy comparison is to Jack Reacher but Ash seems more ruthless somehow. And that is saying something.

2. Pickup truck love.

3. Eccentric mathematician love.

4. Easy chair tourism with Ash and Tree Woman moving around the forests and a couple cities.

Pandemic Ebook: "I Was Dora Suarez" by Derek Raymond

 Pandemic Ebook: I Was Dora Suarez by Derek Raymond, 1990, from Wisconsin Digital Library.

I finished this in September. I've enjoyed the Factory novels and many reviews say this is the best one. I disagree. I think How the Dead Live is better.

This one is kinda weird. The Police Inspector is brought back to work after getting canned in the previous novel. There is a high profile double murder and post-mortem butchering - actual butchering because he ate part of one victim - and another crime related murder a short distance away. Both murder scenes look to be linked.

Inspector gets all lovey-dovey for the young dead woman who was the focus on the killer's wrath. The novel is sort-of partly epistolary with Inspector reading the dead woman's journals. Meanwhile, we follow the insane killer around whose psychosis seems more made up by Raymond than realistic.  

Inspector is partly assisted by another cop. Both of them are brutal and cruel but never, never ever, put hands on a suspect or interviewee. They take great pride in breaking a man down with words and mental pressure. The cops finally track down the killer to his squat in an abandoned building where he has a weird self torturing set-up. 

There is a lot about the killer's self-punishment and how dangerous and unstable he is. I never quite understnad Raymond's description of the self-punishment device that involved a bicycle wheel and that the man's penis has been mutilated.

Comments:

1. My annoyance with the novel is the ongoing and sometimes interminable philosophizing by Inspector of love, crime and fate and the dead woman. Ugh. 

2. Suarez has full blown AIDS with Sarcoma lesions. This was done in a time and place where AIDS was still mysterious and guaranteed death. The characters spoke about a very unusual disease. 

3. Great setting of the London Metro police and urban setting. Raymond was a small-time crook himself and his crooks are always human: they act like real people are sometimes amoral thugs.

Another Audio: "Bad Men" by John Connolly

 Another Audio: Bad Men by John Connelly, 2003, Downloaded from the library's Hoopla service.

Terrible narration. Fun story that mixes horror and crime.

A island off Maine is one of the more remote and difficult ones to get to. A small population has a cop living there full time who is supplemented by a rotating schedule of cops from Portland PD. The local Native tribes never much went there and the first Europeans were murdered on a snowy night by a crazed former resident who was banished from the island.

There are:

• The local cop who is a legitimate giant at 7-feet-plus.
• A Woman On The Run with her young son.
• An island possessed by spirits of murdered people.
• A bad guy and his crew of bad guys who are killing there way from South Carolina to Maine so he can recover the money his wife, Woman On The Run, took from him.
• Psychopaths in the bad guy crew.
• A big snow storm.
• Small town life and gossip on the island.
• A local bad guy cop who is a child rapist.
• A local rookie cop woman.
• A kid in danger.
• Ghosts.

More Audio: "The Lost Man' BY Jane Harper

 More Audio: The Lost Man by Jane Harper, 2018, Wisconsin Digital Library download.

Another Australian whodunnit heavy on the setting of remote Australia. Gloriously heavy. "I can feel the heat threatening death" heavy.

I read the initial plot description and this sounded like a pile of crap. That plot intro was roughly "two brothers meet at a remote property marker with a third brother dead at their feet". This novel is so much better than the intro that made it sound like a boring family drama.

Briefly: Three brothers rasied by a violent father on a middle-of-nowhere cattle station in Australia. Thousands of acres of land. The oldest brother has a station next to the family land and is a 90 minute drive away. Harper brings home the remoteness and solitude throughout the novel because the loneliness is integral to life. No neighborly chats. No chatty phone calls. No streaming Netflix. Instead there is always farm work to do and the semi truck comes every couple months or so to stock up your cold room with provisions. The cold room protects against the regular 100+ F heat.

Anyhoo. One of the brothers is found dead at a 100-year-old grave marker. The oldest brother (he's about 35-40 years old) narrates and wondering what the fuck happened. Because, no one goes out into the Bush without a truck stocked with food and water, a radio, and telling everyone the destination and schedule. When the dead brother's truck is found a few kilometers away things are inexplicable.

Harper's books have nice, paced reveals for all the character's histories. Fun stuff.

Comments:

1. After the brother's death no one says 'suicide'. No one says 'killed himself. All the familiy, far-off neighbors, police, and local health guy are thinking he had to have killed himself. But no one says the words.

2. Isolation as a necessity for that way of life. Farming requires lot of hours and a trip to the pub is three hours of driving. You have a few beers at the bar and then sleep in your truck.

3. Got me thinking of Sara Gran's PI, Claire DeWitt. The eldest brother is lonely by choice after a rotten father, dumped by a unhappy wife, money trouble, banished from town, poor farming land, poisoned dead dog, etc. He is lonely by active choice. Does not have or want close relationships. DeWitt has plenty of clients, friends, and one-night-stands but little intimacy.

4. Harper has some perceptive comments on loneliness. That being alone is tolerable and manageable because you shut down a few emotions. When returning to society you visit friends and family and smile and enjoy yourself. That may be for a few hours, maybe a day or two, and then you have to return to isolation. Easier to just avoid those brief human interactions when you know the loneliness that will come afterwards.

Pan-Paperback: "Fear the Worst" by Linwood Barclay

 Pan-Paperback: Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay, 2010, 9780553591750. Backdated to correct year.

Not sure where this book came from. Maybe the first Barclay book I've read.

Tim is a car salesman in Connecticut, is divorced, and his teenage daughter goes missing. The daughter went missing when going to her part-time job.Tim has been looking for her for months. Posting fliers, asking questions, checking with her friends. Someone sees her or something.

 I don't really remember the plot too much but there are some elements that are a bit of stretch. SPOILERS. That the daughter's best friend is actually Tim's unknown daughter. That Unknown Daughter is a scheming crook. That Tim's crazy ex-girlfriend is causing so much trouble.

 Anyway. It was a decent paperback thriller.

Pandemic Paperback: "Fire Season" by Stephen Blackmoore

Pandemic Paperback: Fire Season by Stephen Blackmoore, 2019, 9780756412944.\

I enjoyed this a fair amount. I'm fairly certain I read the first novel in this series featuring necromancer Eric Carter. The novels have a second, secret world of magic. The magicians (or whatever Blackmoore called them as a group) have their own society and keep the magic stuff secret. They also don't get along well and tend to murder one another.

This novel carries over events and characters from previous books but Blackmoore tidily connects everything together for new readers.

Anyhoo. Carter lives in Los Angeles. He's a bit of an outcast among the local witchy people. He's suspected of murdering several other witchy people. Witchy people are out to kill Carter. Carter has to make deals to both save his skin and stop a God from murdering regular people and starting an apocalyptic event in Los Angeles.

There is murder of witchy people and regular non-witchy people. There spells, enchantments, ghosts, Gods, cocaine, Adderall, car chases, and complaints about freeway traffic. 

Fun stuff. The same vibe and attitude of that other guy's books. What's his name? Dang. Let me think... Charlie Huston. A balanced mix of human cruelty, dark humor, and absurdity.

Comments:

1. Old car love.
2. Freeway talk.
3. Browning Hi-Power love.
4. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I enjoyed Blackmoore's true crime blog that focused on crime in Los Angeles. I don't think the blog contents are online anymore.

Pandemic Audio: "I'll be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara

Pandemic Audio: I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara.

McNamara really did put together a nice book. She died before completion and the two guys who completed the book did have a different style.

McNamara had nice telling details. She - or maybe the afterword - mentions how she never writes guts and gore, supermarket crime. McNamara does not dwell on crime scene and autopsy details. The horror of the serial rapist and murdered shows through loud and clear.

Impossible to listen to this without thinking about the guy they caught after publication. McNamara was correct in thinking commercial databases like 23 And Me would provide the needed leads. She had many online collaborators and true crime hobbyists who would dedicate themselves to searching but most everything was done with online searching and pontificating. They were not researching the multiple case files that covered several jurisdictions. They were not re-interviewing multiple victims and witnesses.

But, McNamara did get access to case files and interviewed people. She used all the information to great effect. 

Much later thoughts as I finally post this:

1. Unknown crook takes on mythical aspects. He can run like the wind, climb like a monkey, and surveils each night for hours on end. 

2. Rapist/Murderer was awful, awful, awful. So glad he was caught and brought to account.

Pandemic Audio: "What You Break" by Reed Farrel Coleman

Pandemic Audio: What You Break by Reed Farrel Coleman, 2017, downloaded from Hoopla.

Second novel featuring retired patrolman Gus Murphy. Murphy is happy living working as a hotel van driver and hotel nightclub bouncer at a second rate hotel on Long Island. He gets a salary and a free room and, therefore, does not have to live in the house that is a reminder of his dead teen son.

Gus is asked via a pal of his to look into why a recent college graduate was murdered. Secondary subplot has Gus assisting his somewhat mysterious co-worker Slava. Immigrant Slava has unusual spy guy skills and some serious guilt. Gus helps Slava and has a dangerous Russian spy guy going after Gus to get to Slava.

Much later notes from late September: 

International intrigue in Long Island at a mid-range hotel by a mid-range airport. 

Gus is still not working through his grief for his deceased son but starts doing so now that he has a new girlfriend he has to send into protection as the bad guys threaten Gus and her. 

Pandemic Audio: "The Acolyte" by Nick Cutter.

Pandemic Audio: The Acolyte by Nick Cutter. 

I could never find a print copy of this and lucked out on seeing this in the Hoopla catalog. Cutter is Craig Davidson's horror novelist pen name. I've really enjoyed the horror books.

I started listening to Acolyte in the van with Boy #1.  Acolyte is set in a dystopian theocracy and the street mob murder of a Muslim man had me turning off the book. The theocracy is 'Christian" based and other religions are either outlawed or ostracized and segregated. The country seems to be split into cooperative City States with rural no man's land patrolled by bandits.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. Cutter puts together a great lead character and a fucked up society. No time to write much more.

Comments:

1. Love means a lot of nothing. No sex, because that is sin. But, the ultra rich have orgies.

2. No booze. But, there is a strong strong black market trade in communion wine and speed. 

3. Being gay means being dead.

4. Theocratic leaders are based off televangelists of mega churches.

Pandemic: "NADA" by Jean-Patrick Manchette

 Pandemic: NADA by Jean-Patrick Macnhette, 1972 (2019 this translation), 9781681373171.

Revolutionaries in early '70s Paris kidnap the U.S. Ambassador to France. Trouble ensues.

This was fun. A neat time capsule. 

• Revolutionaries differing over politics while teamed together. 
• Revolutionaries with waning dedication and idealists. 
• Idealistic revolutionaries vs. realistic revolutionaries. Drunken louts who're there for no reason in particular.
• Brutal police willing to torture for answers. 
• Police willing to work nonstop to find kidnappers and murderers. 
• High end bordellos.
• Walther PP love.
• Shoe-string operation with beat up cars and an old farm hideout.
• Police willing to shoot up the whole damn farm and kill anyone inside. Fuck arresting, charging, and trying; just shoot them.

Pandemic Print: "Solo" by William Boyd

Pandemic Print: Solo by William Boyd, 2013, 9780062223128.

I've done more listening than reading over the past six months. I started this one and got right into it. The cover design is very well done.

Bond is getting close to fifty. It's 1968 (69?) and M has given Bond a rather vague assignment to West Africa where he is to use his cover as a journalist to enter a breakaway republic and 'influence' the commanding General into defeat. 

My history of Africa is like most Americans: piss poor. But, I did figure out Boyd is fictionalizing the Biafra conflict. I'd heard of Biafra but knew nothing of it. Biafra was a breakaway attempt by part of Nigeria to form Biafra in the massive river delta. The delta was also a newly discovered and massive oil field desired by Euro and US oil companies. There was fighting and mass starvation. 

Anyhoo. Bond heads South as a journalist for a French press agency since France was inclined to support Biafra. Before leaving Bond plays woo-woo with an actress in London. Bond has the sexy-sexy with his English contact in Nigeria-Stand-In-Country. Bond heads into Biafra-Stand-In-Country. Bond meets cruel bad guy mercenary. Bond finagles his way into the confidence of Cruel Mercenary and Biafra-Stand-In military dudes. Bond is found out, shot, and left for dead as Biafra-Stand-In collapses under final attack by Nigeria-Stand-In.

Bond is rescued by Brit military advisors (tank crew) with the Nigeria-Stand-In Army. Bond goes to recuperate in private clinic. Bond is out for revenge. Bond does the sexy-sexy with Actress. Bond heads to Washington DC under cover and without authority: his is solo. Bond has more sex-sexy. Bond buys an anachronistic OC spray. Bond has fights. Bond kills. Bond wins.

Comments:

1. This was fun. And I enjoyed reading about 50-year-old political shenangins and realpolitick rather than the current day bullshit.

2. Two stories: A. Africa and B. Revenge.

3. Lots of British car love for Jensen Interceptor and Interceptor 2 and FF variant. I just did a quick search and the Interceptors for sale by Hemmings really range in price. From $10,000 to $160,000. 

4. Mustang Mach 1 love. Hemmings has those ranging at $31,000 to $60,000. I used to see the Mach 1s kinda regularly in the '80s.

Pandemic Audio: "The Last Good Guy" by T. Jefferson Parker

 Pandemic Audio: the Last Good Guy by T. Jefferson Parker, 2019, downloaded from Wisconsin Digital Library.

I really enjoyed the Charlie Hood series and after Parker ended that I took awhile to try another of his books. This showed up as I was canning through the catalog so I figured to try it out. Third in the Roland Ford series.

Ford is a PI in San Diego. His wife died when her private plane crashed into the Pacific. He quit the San Diego PD after a shooting involving his partner. He was in the Marines for several years and fought in the first Battle of Fallujah.

Ford is hired by a women to find a missing teen girl. The client is the girl's older sister and guardian. Client is a bit of a weirdo but really good looking. Client tells tale of highly successful TV preacher being after the girl. Ford looks into things, gets snot beaten out of him, so on, so forth.

Parker has a real skill at letting us know his characters and he always puts the San Diego (and the rest of Southern California) setting to good effect. 

Comments:

1. More muscle car love.

2. Recurring Parker themes of fighting realistic venality and corruption.

3. No magical realism of later Charlie Hood novels.

Pandemic Audio: "Leviathan Wakes" by James S.A. Corey

Pandemic Audio: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey, 2011, downloaded from Wisconsin Digital Library.

I started watching The Expanse TV series on Amazon earlier in the pandemic. I enjoy the show, it is very well done. So, why not try the book?

Result: the TV show is actually more in-depth for the characters and politics and details of life in space or low gravity. I'm guessing that later novels in the series cover the same time period but with different characters and that the TV show blended all those characters into one narrative. That's a guess though.

Anyhoo. Space has been colonized. Mars and Earth have been feuding for decades and narrowly averted a disastrous war about 10-20 years ago. Mars is not a military dictatorship but their society has been built upon a single goal of terra-forming Mars. Kinda like Israel with kibbutzes and the strong drive for self-defense.

Earth is overpopulated, has one government, and looks down on the martial Martians and the Belters.

"Belters" live in the low-gravity asteroid belt or on the moons of outer planets. Belters mine for the water and other resources needed to survive outside Earth. They looked down on by the Martians as well as Earthers.

Mix it all up and you've basically got colonists and imperialists fighting over resources, government  representation and limits of authority, and independence.

Pandemic DNF: "When Deadly Force is Involved" by Bruce M. Lawlor

 Pandemic DNF: When deadly force is involved: a look at the legal side of stand your ground, duty to retreat, and other questions of self-defense by Bruce M. Lawlor, 2017, 9781442275287.

I read a quarter of this and never got back to it. Interesting questions addressed and analyzed and legal decisions explained. 

Pandemic: "Last of the Gaderene" by Mark Gatiss

 Pandemic: Last of the Gaderene by Mark Gatiss, 2000 (2013 reprint), 9781939647528.

I was looking for any novels by Gatiss and this came up. This is a reprint after Doctor Who started new production.

What Doctor is this? Ok, the back of the book says Third Doctor. I enjoyed the story: Small village with abandoned airbase is taken over by aliens who want to open a passage to their dying planet to take over earth. Pretty standard stuff I suppose but I enjoy these characters.

Anyhoo. An old pal of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart lives in the village and gives a call asking for help when black uniformed troops employed by a brand new airline arrive in town and take over the base. The new company says they are there to start the airline but they act weird, weird, weird. There are some escapes, a deadly monster in the marsh, Jo works on her own for a while, a village festival.

Comments:

1. Gratuitous Spitfire airplane love.

2. A lot of villagers are killed.

Pandemic: "Smonk" by Tom Franklin

 Pandemic: Smonk by Tom Franklin, 2006, 9780060846817.

Interesting fact: I've read three Franklin novels. Huh.

A crime novel with some vampire kind of thing. I don't know, man, I read this back in April. Or May. Or March.

Smonk is a bad, bad man. Old, short, hunchbacked, syphilitic, tuberculosis, and all around revolting and murderous. It's 1920, or so, and Smonk has been living outside of a town where everyone hates him. He's headed to town to face trial for something-or-other at the saloon where circuit court has been arranged. But, Smonk, being a sneaky and cruel bastard has arranged a machine gun ambush with the gun set-up on a wagon outside the saloon.

Smonk walks away and most of the town is dead. Things move along as Smonk is pursued by the surviving town Deputy. A 14-yeard-old wandering prostitute crosses paths. A Philadelphia (Pittsburg?) fop leads paid group of cavalry who crusade for God. 

It's all kind weird. I liked the book but I think it went a bit long.

Comments:

1. Rifles.

2. Horses.

Pandemic: "The Fort" by Bernard Cornwell

 Pandemic: The Fort by Bernard Cornwell, 2010, 9780061969638.

A stand alone novel about a fairly minor battle in the Revolutionary War. On the coast of what will be Maine some Scottish infantry have moved onto a peninsula. The locals are mostly Loyalists. The Continental Army dispatches Colonial Army and Colonial Navy forces to take back the peninsula and the new fort under construction.

An interesting book but kinda slow. Cornwell cannot just add another battle for excitement so he's stuck - I assume - with a timeline that does not fit a dramatic pace.

Some neat details about the relationships among the Colonial armies and navies and Continental Army. How they did not get along. How they were organized. How training and leadership varied greatly. The different loyalties of locals and how loyalties change. The terror of battle and the difference between professionals and recently enlisted volunteers.

Not much else to say I think I read this in March.

Pandemic: "Rowdy in Paris" by Tim Sandlin

 Pandemic: Rowdy in Paris by Tim Sandline, 2008, 9781594489747.

A withdrawn book I finally go to. 

Rowdy is a professional bull rider at the bottom end of the circuit finally wins a tournament, earns some cash, and earns a buckle. A buckle. He's been rodeoing around The West for years and finally won something of substance (literal and figurative). Now he wants to give that buckle to his young son in WY who he barely knows. 

But, Rowdy's drunken celebration includes a night of threesome sex with two visitors from Paris. When he wakes up he finds his buckle missing. One of the Frenchies took the buckle and are on their way to the airport. Rowdy has no choice but to spend some of that bull championship prize money to follow the women to Paris and track them down at their university.

So, Rowdy heads out to Paris. Meets a cute French student. Meets a weird hippy with a prostitute wife. Meets revolutionaries who hate McDonald's.Spends lots of time figuring out what the hell is going on. Gets into plenty of fistfights. Plays bull in a China shop. Is mostly incapable of adjusting to another culture.

A decent book with a good amount of fun.

Pandemic Audio: "The British Are Coming" by Rick Atkinson

 Pandemic Audio: The British Are Coming: the War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777: the Revolution Trilogy, Book 1 by Rick Atkinson, 2019, Wisconsin Digital Library download.

Typed notes I put in my phone as I listened.

Ben Franklin lived in London 15 years before the War.

Relations to modern life. In many ways so much is always the same. Cost of war for the gov. Hurrying to purchase, store, and ship war supplies. Sourcing raw materials. A 6 week transport across ocean and many vessels lost or the stock animals dying en route.

British were rebuilding and equipping an army after a mostly peaceful period. Something important to remember when reading about how the Colonies took on the world's greatest empire.

Prime Minister North had less then 2 voters in his parliamentary district. He also bought votes for supporters with parties on election day

General Gage served 20 years in America. An American wife and owned lots of land in America, Canada, and West Indies.

1775 had English soldiers bored. Lots of cheap booze and desertions.

Refugees from Boston during siege of. Passes to exit city w no place to go. British would refuse exit to deter bombardment by Continentals. Business shuts down.

Bunker hill attack by British was a chance to gain high ground outside Boston for some relief. And then use the high ground to attack out from the Boston area. The Brit plan soon leaked out.

Bunker Hill at 110 feet overlooking land and water

War as a financial boon. Even payoff is for support, newspapers notably.
More money. Split from Britain seen as a cash opportunity in South for land expansion into Crown lands to the west. Tobacco and slaves brought wealth and big debt. A winning war would nix debt to English banks.
Lord Dunmore in the southern campaign interfered in slave owners hierarchy by getting blacks to join up. His actions threatened a society built on slavery and caused a shitfit. "Join the crown for freedom".

Small Pox. Typhus. Scurvy. Illness issues plagued both sides. Small Pox was a major threat and even though innoculations had been practiced for years they would be forbidden in the army. Soldiers would drag needles through open sores of sick men and then stab themselves. 

Salted food and resupply trouble to renew Boston.
Resupply from England to Boston was sketchy. Live animals died during voyages. Ships were lost to weather and pirates. Food would rot and spoil en route from heat and moisture.
Many ships beaten by the weather and ended up in Antigua

British abandoned Boston after surrounded. Not enough shops to carry every one and thing and abandoned much equip. Some British ships scuttled.
A 330 day siege. Loyalists shipped to Halifax.

After the English retreat Washington saw Boston defenses and knew any attack would have failed.

Ben Franklin visited the Canada campaign?! Dude was 70-years-old and traveled overland.
Continental Army in Canada was worn out. Ultimately retreated with a long trip down Lake Champlain into New York. A lot of time spent discussing the Canadian campaign and it's failures. 

Losses of thousands of Colonials from disease, wounds and misadventure before any large battle with English.

Colonial Generals averaged 2 years experience and English Generals had 30 years

Supply and manufacturing issues including gunpowder. Supplies started to build up in 1776 but Continental Army was very, very short on powder and could not have sustained any fighting. Colonies sent ships to Europe and many powder mills built in colonies.

Odd how political and civil repression of loyalists would be addressed by 1st and 2 and amendments and due process.

Loyalties to colonies of England were across all economic classes.

So much of SC campaign was driven by slavery. Property. Insurrection. Militia originally formed to stop slave rebellion.

Disastrous UK navy artillery attack on Charleston defenses. Dead and wounded (later dying or w amputations) and ships lost.

Side war in South Carolina against the Cherokee who lost another 5 million acres of land.

Southern campaign a failure. Local loyalists stopped being a factor. Ships sent south were not available for up North for breaking problems like the Delaware blockade. Colonial gunrunners sailed unimpeded.

Winter 1777 after Trenton. Re-enlistments rare. Money needed for paying soldiers

2nd battle of Trenton also a success. One I recall reading about. Brits were attacking w Russians. January. Attack failed. Colonial troops sneaked out all 6,000 soldiers under night. No talking allowed and the 150 wagons had wheels wrapped in cloth and rope for silence.
Brit troops exhausted from battle and marching through winter mud. Temps dropped 20 degrees and the mud froze. Frozen mud allowed easier passage for colonial wagons.

FYI: A gil is 4 ounces. 

Pandemic Audio: "Chat" by Archer Mayor

Pandemic: Chat by Archer Mayor, 2007 (2007-ish, I had a paperback).

Mayor kinda tries out a computer angle but not really. This is still a police procedural with crime scene evidence and lots of interviews. Mayor is good at writing police interviews with witnesses and suspects. All the strategy and thinking and experience that is used with people. Mayor's characters recognize their tactical screw-ups during interviews and change tack as needed.

Willie Kunkle as comic relief. Kunkle the long-term grouch who Gunther acknowledges is an asshole and unemployable anywhere else because of it. I wonder if more recent novels reflect societal changes and push for police reform. Kunkle goes beyond the legally allowed lying of police and beats a witness. Kunkle is worse than a flawed character with a heart of gold. 

Anyhoo. Two dead bodies show up in the winter. Middle aged guys with no ID. Police have no idea who they are or why they were in VT. Investigations follows with links to chat rooms and men looking for sex with teen girls.

Pre-Pandemic: "Battle for the Rhine" by Robin Neillands

Pre-Pandemic: Battle for the Rhine: the Battle of the Bugle, and the Ardennes Campaign, 1944 by Robin Neillands, 2005, Wisconsin Digital Library.

I never cleaned up my notes before the Pandemic. Here they are.
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Montgomery was a good general. Experienced. Well liked by troops. Skilled at planning. Knew importance of supply. Planned his operations in mind that he had a smaller force and had to probe for weaknesses and then collect his troops in number to attack.

Monty has  a bad rep in the US that exists to today. Narrator started about Monty and I thought "oh, that guy" because his reputation as pompous and ineffective has worked down to dilettantes like myself. Monty's reputation in US based off the memoirs of US Generals who did not like the guy.

Monty knew his shortcomings and could accept criticism.

Complex operations of 7 Allied Armies over 600 miles of front. Supplies only coming in from limited port facilities and rail lines destroyed pre-Overlord.

Market Garden a complex operation filled with minor and major trouble that flubbed things up. Many myths about the operation that author works to dispel. Airborne operation were meant to secure the roads and bridges through Holland so armor and infantry could drive on through. Narrow roads surrounded by marsh or flooded country and not enough roads. Thousands of vehicles were queued up on one road. So, when the dirty rotten stinking nazis set up a good defense on the road everything had to stop until the krauts were removed.

If a bridge was not taken the same delays would happen. Primarily in Nijmegen.

Nijmegen priority was 'immediately capture the bridges' in a thunderclap (predecessor of shock and awe?). US Airborne General Gavin instead focused on first capturing the high ground surrounded by thick woods. Gavin's record seems to be of a General tooting his own horn (author mentions how US Generals would often put down Brit efforts and accomplishments). Gavin cited evidence that 1,000 tanks were in the forest. I'm still a dilettante but think of hiding 1,00 tanks which have, what, 4-5 crew per tank? Then add in all the support trucks for fuel, food, ammunition, spare parts, and transport for all the repair guys and supporting infantry. How would you hide that many people in the woods? Besides, when the first groups of the 82nd got there they said the woods were too thick for tanks to operate in anyway.

Drop zones determined by the air force not the paratrooper or glider people. English 1st Airborne had to walk up to 8 miles to the Arnhem bridge.

About 39 planes taken from troop landings to land a headquarters outfit.

So much of war is dealing with allies. Monty was a great planner and soldier but most US people disliked him. The Americans wanted to run things and get credit. Soldiers and politicians were already angling for post-war life and advancement.

Much is made of Antwerp and what could have been a vital supply port. That the competing Generals each had competing plans. Those plans said that the best place to attack from just happened to be where their army was. Monty's plan of attack through the Northwest made plenty of sense. Monty still gets a bad rap from American Generals who use him as a scapegoat for their own foul-ups. But, hey, the winners write the history.

A description of the different top American generals goes into their strengths and weaknesses. Author praises Eisenhower as being the perfect man for the time and place. But, Eisenhower still had weaknesses: he would not issue clear and direct orders, he would not reign in Generals like Patton and Monty who'd forge ahead and ignore some orders.

Bulge: Omar to blame. But, US generals constantly aware of US press and the interests of Congress. Ardennes was a screw-up and they didn't want anyone looking too closely. Talk about the Bastogne bravery.

Monty again requested to be in charge of more troops after his help in getting rid of Germans. There was still not a coherent structure of command.

Huge losses in campaigns. Huertgen forest with 90% and more as replacements were pushed in and carried out

Patton good but not the god he said. Big successes post Normandy because everyone was chasing a fleeing enemy. Patton was chasing through unwanted or unneeded ground. To have him continue would be to go into Germany against heavy defenses.

Bulge as victory. At the best a draw. Especially if arguing krauts lost irreplaceable men and equipment.

Monty couldn't be blamed for the Bulge. It was all Omar Bradley's blame. Monty took the north flank and Patton the south.

Aka Monty got the shaft. Aka let's clear Monty. A lot of time spent clearing Monty's reputation.

Congress and Marshall pushing US presence. Afraid of fuckups being known. Blame the english and monty.

Huertgen meat grinder. Thick forests and everything marked by kraut artillery. Interlocking defenses.
Replacements come in, die or wounded, more replacements. The goal becomes the battle instead of tactics or strategy. This and the Bulge kill a lot of soldiers. 

EDIT: A lot of information about the campaign heading northwest to free Antwerp's port. Lots of heavy resistance and some amazing stories. Much the estuary and the islands are the same as '44 and you can check the battle locations out on Google satellite view..