Finished: "Blood Safari" by Deon Meyer

Finished: Blood Safari by Deon Meyer, 2007, 9780802119032, translated by K.L. Seegers.

Excellent. Damn good. This had a starred review and was one a two or three recent crime books based in South Africa. This was written in Afrikaans. I wonder if there is a big market for that language. SA is a big country but how many people get books in that language? I wonder that because Meyer makes it clear about the wide variety of languages that are spoken there.

Lemmer is a body guard for a private security company. He lives in a rural area of SA and travels to assignments. His newest client, Emma, thinks she is being targeted. Lemmer travels with Emma to the Kruger National Park area where she thinks a recent murder suspect is her long lost brother who disappeared in Kruger 20 years ago. Her brother had been a soldier assigned to stop poachers and went missing after a gun fight.

Lemmer is suspicious of Emma because she is rich and petite. Lemmer's Rule of Small Women is that they have learned to manipulate people because of their size. He starts falling for her anyway. Emma and Lemmer get flack from the local black cop investigating the murder case. They get stonewalled by conservationists and game parks people. They get ambushed and Emma has brain trauma during their escape and she lands in a coma.

Lemmer has been a bodyguard since he was 18 and joined the national police. He never had a client face a serious threat and attack before, and he is angry that the attempt almost succeeded. Lemmer's employer supports his goal to find those responsible and bankrolls his work.

A great novel with fantastic setting. The multiple cultures of SA are well explained and used in the plot. Multiple black tribes that compete against one another and the whites. White tribes of Afrikaans, English, Italian, etc. that also compete against each other and the blacks. The changing politics and economy of SA as blacks gain influence and power. Conservation versus development. The political and military policies of the past boomeranging back to effect the present. Whites with experience and skill who assume blacks are incompetent (and sometimes are).

Lemmer is a great character. He is still filled with rage from his shithole upbringing by a drunken father who beat him, and a slut mother who did nothing to protect him and disappeared when he was 13. Ten years working for the government until he was cashiered when more black bodyguards were needed. Two years as a karate instructor until his rage boiled over when he was pushed too far by four idiots and Lemmer went to prison on manslaughter for two years. He's an outsider who lives alone in a rural area and mostly works by himself.

Well done action scenes and good suspense. A neat intro to SA's geography and terrain.

Read: "Vampire a Go-Go" by Victor Gischler

Read: Vampire a Go-Go by Victor Gischler, 2009, 9781416552277.

More excellent writing by Gischler. The dude is on a roll. When Gischler was talking about Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse he mentioned how he slides some serious thoughts in with the fun stuff. He did that here but I cannot recall what it was.

Allen is a grad student at a low-rent university on the West Coast. Allen is a researching wiz and gets told he will be accompanying a professor over to Prague in the summer as the prof's research assistant. His gal-pal Chick #1 will be there for a poetry workshop. Chick #1 has a wet spot for Allen but Allen is clueless.

A weird killing happens at craphole-U and other characters are introduced including the ghost narrator. Allen gets to Prague, gets under the spell of a vampire, is kidnapped by well meaning witches (including hot chicks), pursued by machine gun shooting Jesuits, a Jewish spell caster and his golem, a werewolf who prefers to be called a Lupin or something.

Allen drinks beer with a Jesuit, goes on the run with Witch #1, teams up with Chick #1, fucks the vampire, gets captured by the Jewish mystic, evades and defeats the supremo bad-guy. Everyone is either looking to get or protect the Philosophers Stone. Narrated by a ghost who tells the story of the Philosphers Stone which the ghost was involved in back in 1599.

With beer, shooting, sex, hot chicks, radiation poisoning, magic, steam-punkish science, tours of Prague. Talk of hookers, slutty tourists, and cheap beer from a fictional guide book read by Allen.

Mostly Read: "Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps" edited by Otto Penzler

Mostly Read: The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps edited by Otto Penzler, 2007, 9780307280480.

There was some neat period stuff in here. Some stories were so-so but the editor did a full survey of different writers and story styles.

The big problem with this is that it is too thick and the paperback binding makes it too difficult to hold onto and read. I ended up getting burned out before I finished it. I've had it too long and need to check it back in.

Never Got Into: "Spinners" by Anthony McCarten

Never Got Into: Spinners by Anthony McCarten, 1999, 0688163033.

I ran across this somewhere. Not sure where though. Maybe the book was referenced, maybe I stumbled across it in the catalog. I just didn't get into it and it ended up at the bottom of a pile and it's now time to clear house on a bunch of overdue stuff.

Girl working at processing plant in rural New Zealand claims she was gangbanged by aliens from a flying saucer. Meanwhile the ex-con nephew of the town mayor (is 'mayor' the title ? I don't recall) has come to restart the library. That's where I quit.

Looked Through: "Secrets of BuIlding an Alcohol Producing Still" by Vincent R. Gingery

Looked through: Secrets of Building and Alcohol Producing Still by Vincent R. Gingery, 1994, 1878087169.

I wanted to learn about the distilling process so I ordered a couple books from other libraries. Gingery self-published this as a guide for people looking to produce alternative fuel. He himself had trouble finding directions in building and operating a still to produce alcohol based auto fuel and decided to write a guide.

I looked through this book a bit and the building process was a little interesting to read about. But, as Gingery himself notes, the manufacturing process he details would likely not be safe to produce booze for consumption. For that matter, Gingery's directions never address alcohol for consumption. Not that it matters to me. Even if I were inclined to distill my own booze I would never bother because of the multiple legal issues.

Just Finished: "Jenny Green's Killer Junior Year" by Amy Belasen and Jacob Osborn

Just Finished: Jenny Green's Killer Junior Year by Amy Belasen and Jacob Osborn, 2008, 9781416967927.

I ran across this when looking for fiction set in Montreal. I wish that John Farrow (pen name) would write another police novel. There is not a lot of logic and realism in the novel but I ended up liking it quite a bit.

Jenny Green has a craptastic sophomore year in HS back in Long Island. She convinces her parents to let her enroll at Molson Academy in Montreal. Molson is a private boarding school where her former junior high crush Joshua attends.

Molson student housing is college style with a housemom or dad in charge of each house or dorm. Jenny ends up in a house full of pot-smoking hippies and weirdos. Jenny is a stereotypical Jewish American Princess and is even more stuck-up and snotty than the average HS girl.

Jenny ends up meeting Josh and dating. Jenny loses her virginity to Josh. Jenny realizes Josh is an ass and dumps him. Josh wants her back. Josh shows up and tries to rape her. Jenny kills Josh by smashing her roommate's bong over his head and stabbing him to death with the broken glass shaft. Jenny dispoes of body and sets up convincing enough suicide scene.

This murder scene takes a while to get to but the book improves measurably after that. Jenny dates a guy calling himself Dizzy-D. Dizzy is a smooth guy but a drug dealer who takes her as a challenge to bang. She gives him a blowjob and sticks her thumb in his ass. Jenny finds ourt Dizzy filmed it all and shares it with friends. Jenny kills Dizzy by tasering him and jamming an apple down his throat.

Jenny kills guy at party who sticks a pill in her friend's drink. Jenny kills fellow student who was planning a school shooting. Jenny kills her favorite teacher when guy tries to screw her. Jenny goes on the run and is about to return to the U.S.

Comments:

1. This is exactly the kind of novel that you would expect to get challenged with teen sex - Jenny is 16, drug use, various sexual realtionships among students, vicious violence, a creepy professor, lesbians, etc.

2. Lots of cracks by Jenny and others at the expense of Jews.

3. The psychological/behavioral accuracy of Jenny must be suspect but I don't freaking care.

4. Co-author Osborn went to UW-Madison.

5. The five killings and the time leading to them were the best parts.

Read a Couple Weeks Ago: "Die A Little" by Megan Abbott

Read A Couple Weeks Ago: Die A Little by Megan Abbott,2005, 9780743261708.

I was incredibly impressed with this book. I have not read all of Abbott's books but I liked this one head and shoulders above them all. Abbott mentioned what a big fan of Ellroy she is. Die fits right into Ellroy's '50s novels of L.A. Booze, squares mixing with rough types, secret prostitution ring, wealthy and famous johns, secrecy and conspiracy, double dealing and distrust.

Lora King and her brother Bill are in their twenties and very close. They grew up orphaned and reaised by their grandparents in L.A. They share a house in Pasadena while Bill works as a investigator for the D.A. and Lora teaches high school. Bill meets and falls hard for the Alice. Alice is beautiful and lively. Alice's personality makes her the center of all attention. Alice and Bill marry. Lora is a bit jealous of losing her brother, she does move out after all, But, Alice's manic behaviour and intense efforts to be the perfect suburban wife are odd. Alice's past is very secretive. Alice, too, is an orphan and talks little of her life before working as a seamstress for a movie studio.

Lora meets Alice's messed up friend Lois and cracks start to show. Lois gets in trouble with men and to the reader is obviously doped up. Lois realtionship with Alice seems deeper than friends. By chance Lora also meets a sharkskinned suit operator friend of Alice's and starts to learn more and more about Alice.

Well, it turns out Alice is not that bad. But, Alice is an ex-hooker and a fairly ruthless pimp. Lois is murdered and Lora starts digging and brings in the police. Things happen. Lois has guilt. Lois worries for her brother. Lois uncovers it all and solves the problem without the professional or personal downfall of her beloved brother.

Comments:

1. Die is told by Lora and therefore we see her mistakes, misassumptions, and the lies about herself. For example, Lora has a relationship with a guy. Late in the novel the guy mentions how Lora was in his bed within three hours of meeting him and likes to get turned over and banged hard with her face in a pillow. That was a surprise to read. Lora does not portray herself as a wilting flower but she skips over a few details.

2. This is not a mystery. This is Lora's story of herself and her family. She had accepted Alice as a sister but when it seemed Alice may be playing with Bill or maybe ruining him she cuts Alice off.

3. Great setting by Abbott. Setting is definitely one of her great strengths just as in Queenpin and The-Arizona-one-I-cannot-remember-the-title-to. Alice's cooking fanaticism, mixed drinks, cocktail parties, cultural mores of the time. I did spot an anachronism but do not recall what it was.

4. How long until Abbott's mother googles her way over here? Again?

5. Strength of setting is not to say her plot and characters are weak.

6. I really have to get those Muskego interviews transferred off that damned, digital tape and onto my hard drive.

7. The whole femme-fatal- from-the-inside-out was a great idea for Abbott to pursue.

8. I did not get too into the dichotomy/duality of Lora/Lois and Lora/Alice but did cathc on to it. Am I less dense than I used to be, or did Abbott make it clear?

9. If I had typed in these notes directly after reading this I would have gushed. I'm glad I took a while before getting to it.