It's the weekend, bookies, what are you doing reading this blog when you should be outside enjoying the spring weather? Anyway, here's another review for those of you who can't get enough of my scintillating prose. If you like spy novels, this one should get your attention.
FREE AGENT by Jeremy Duns
Spy novels are supposed to be paranoid, claustrophobic affairs. Who do you trust? Who is lying, who isn’t? When is the author misleading you? Half the fun is trying to figure out what’s really going on. At least, that’s how spy novels unfold when they are done right. And so, it’s quite the compliment to say that with Jeremy Duns’ first novel, Free Agent, it’s quite a while before the reader has a clue to what is really happening.
Paul Dark is a young and eager officer in MI6 when World War II comes to a close; his father is also an officer, and while no longer young he is certainly eager to keep killing. When he recruits his son to help it seems like a straight forward proposition: assassinate Nazis before they can escape, a top secret assignment no one must ever know about. Then the father is killed, murdered, and Paul finds himself being recruited by the Russians.
Twenty-five years later a Russian KGB officer wants to defect, offering details of a British officer recruited by his forerunners right after the end of World War II. Is Paul the double agent? It certainly seems so, and in short order he is running from both the KGB and MI6.
Paul Dark is no knight in shining armor, however. He can kill without compunction, even those he has known and liked for years. And he does. Like the best of his predecessors, the author knows that in the shadow world of spies and counter-spies, no one is ever wholly good and no one wholly evil. So it is with Paul Dark. He’s the protagonist, but calling him a hero might be stretching things.
The author’s style is fast, dialogue clipped. The characters’ internal realities are all strictly maintained, meaning that the reader who pays attention will pick up small details that reinforce the reality and move the story. It’s a fast, well thought out debut. And fortunately there are more on the way.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
WICKED BREAK by Jeff Shelby
Hiya bookies! Some books stick with you long after you read them, and so it is with today's review. It wasn't great literature or anything, but it was fast and well written. The author wasn't trying to be Raymond Chandler, he was just trying to tell a story.
WICKED BREAK by Jeff Shelby
Noah Braddock is minding his own business in the surf off of Mission Beach, California, riding the swells and forgetting the stresses of life as a P.I. He sees the man on the beach watching him, feeling in his gut it’s about a case and not wanting any part of whatever the man wants. But money is money and bills don’t pay themselves.
Peter Pluto’s brother is missing. Linc Pluto is a college student who took their mother’s recent death from cancer quite hard and has dropped out of sight. Worried, Peter wants to make sure all is well. A mutual friend sent him to Noah. A missing person’s case doesn’t seem too threatening so Noah takes the money and the case. Bad choice.
Linc isn’t what he seems to be and Peter doesn’t survive long enough for Noah to question him further. Indeed, it’s when he tries to do find out what Peter isn’t telling him that he almost winds up dead himself, right next to what is left of Peter Pluto. Beaten to a pulp by the same skinheads who killed Pluto, Noah enlists the help his giant friend Carter, (think defensive end with more propensity for violence), and vows to find Linc and get even with those who attacked him.
The author is mining familiar territory in Wicked Break. The young, brash but reluctant P.I. who lives by his own rules; Carter, the tough, deux-ex-machina sidekick who does the dirty work and enjoys it; gangsters, gangsters’ tough-but-loveable women-folk, Nazis, shootouts, ex-girlfriends. All of the classic elements of the P.I. novel are here. And yet, as unoriginal as this all may seem, Wicked Break works beautifully because the author knows exactly what he’s doing. The prose is sharp and fast, the dialogue tough but real, the characters defined. In short, what has always made P.I. novels work well is on display in this book.
If you like other contemporary authors such as Steve Hamilton, Harlan Coben or Robert Crais, it’s almost a sure bet you’ll find Noah Braddock and Carter as welcome as old friends you’ve just never met before.
WICKED BREAK by Jeff Shelby
Noah Braddock is minding his own business in the surf off of Mission Beach, California, riding the swells and forgetting the stresses of life as a P.I. He sees the man on the beach watching him, feeling in his gut it’s about a case and not wanting any part of whatever the man wants. But money is money and bills don’t pay themselves.
Peter Pluto’s brother is missing. Linc Pluto is a college student who took their mother’s recent death from cancer quite hard and has dropped out of sight. Worried, Peter wants to make sure all is well. A mutual friend sent him to Noah. A missing person’s case doesn’t seem too threatening so Noah takes the money and the case. Bad choice.
Linc isn’t what he seems to be and Peter doesn’t survive long enough for Noah to question him further. Indeed, it’s when he tries to do find out what Peter isn’t telling him that he almost winds up dead himself, right next to what is left of Peter Pluto. Beaten to a pulp by the same skinheads who killed Pluto, Noah enlists the help his giant friend Carter, (think defensive end with more propensity for violence), and vows to find Linc and get even with those who attacked him.
The author is mining familiar territory in Wicked Break. The young, brash but reluctant P.I. who lives by his own rules; Carter, the tough, deux-ex-machina sidekick who does the dirty work and enjoys it; gangsters, gangsters’ tough-but-loveable women-folk, Nazis, shootouts, ex-girlfriends. All of the classic elements of the P.I. novel are here. And yet, as unoriginal as this all may seem, Wicked Break works beautifully because the author knows exactly what he’s doing. The prose is sharp and fast, the dialogue tough but real, the characters defined. In short, what has always made P.I. novels work well is on display in this book.
If you like other contemporary authors such as Steve Hamilton, Harlan Coben or Robert Crais, it’s almost a sure bet you’ll find Noah Braddock and Carter as welcome as old friends you’ve just never met before.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
THE INVISIBLE by Andrew Britton
Good morning bookies! Your friendly neighborhood bookseller is pretty tired today. He spent most of yesterday and into the wee hours this morning helping someone move, waking up to rain and cold weather. Yesterday's high was 71, tonight we may have snow, Wednesday back into the low 70's. West Tennessee weather is rarely dull.
Before posting today's review, I should explain the format for most of these. Right now the reviews I'm putting up were mostly done for iloveamysterynewsletter.com. They all need to be of a certain length, I generally shoot for 300-400 words. Given that, there isn't time to do major in-depth examination, and I don't want to give away major plot points, so instead I shoot for an overall feel of the author and his/her work. Sometimes I get there, sometimes not, that's for you to judge.
THE INVISIBLE by Andrew Britton
Ryan Kealey has had enough. After almost being killed thwarting a terrorist attack in New York City, an attack that wounded his girlfriend and estranged the pair, he disappeared into the wildernesses of the world, seeking solitude and maybe even peace. The shadow world of the CIA was no longer his and he was glad.
Except that’s not how things work when you are a highly trained operative. In the Kashmir region of Pakistan a busload of western adventurers has gone missing, kidnapped, followed quickly by a violent attack on the motorcade of the US Secretary of State who had come to discuss measures to retrieve the hostages. The US ambassador is killed and the Secretary is also in the hands of the terrorists. But the Pakistanis are not happy with the US over an arms deal with India and their cooperation is lukewarm, at best. What is needed is a small team of experts to covertly infiltrate Pakistan and find the Secretary. What is needed is Ryan Kealey.
Given the chance to re-unite with his girlfriend, Naomi, on the mission, Kealey signs on and gets to work. But there are things he doesn’t know and other things he wasn’t told, things that might get him and his team killed, and he’s not happy about it. A fact-finding mission to Spain leads to a much higher price than anyone had anticipated.
The action is realistic, the characters well though out and the locales quite believable. For those who love the genre of action thrillers, Britton is certainly a new voice that commands attention. One might wish for some judicious editing, the descriptions do occasionally bog down in unnecessary detail, but that’s a quibble. The Invisible is an entertaining read with thought-provoking overtones, which is exactly what you would hope for.
Before posting today's review, I should explain the format for most of these. Right now the reviews I'm putting up were mostly done for iloveamysterynewsletter.com. They all need to be of a certain length, I generally shoot for 300-400 words. Given that, there isn't time to do major in-depth examination, and I don't want to give away major plot points, so instead I shoot for an overall feel of the author and his/her work. Sometimes I get there, sometimes not, that's for you to judge.
THE INVISIBLE by Andrew Britton
Ryan Kealey has had enough. After almost being killed thwarting a terrorist attack in New York City, an attack that wounded his girlfriend and estranged the pair, he disappeared into the wildernesses of the world, seeking solitude and maybe even peace. The shadow world of the CIA was no longer his and he was glad.
Except that’s not how things work when you are a highly trained operative. In the Kashmir region of Pakistan a busload of western adventurers has gone missing, kidnapped, followed quickly by a violent attack on the motorcade of the US Secretary of State who had come to discuss measures to retrieve the hostages. The US ambassador is killed and the Secretary is also in the hands of the terrorists. But the Pakistanis are not happy with the US over an arms deal with India and their cooperation is lukewarm, at best. What is needed is a small team of experts to covertly infiltrate Pakistan and find the Secretary. What is needed is Ryan Kealey.
Given the chance to re-unite with his girlfriend, Naomi, on the mission, Kealey signs on and gets to work. But there are things he doesn’t know and other things he wasn’t told, things that might get him and his team killed, and he’s not happy about it. A fact-finding mission to Spain leads to a much higher price than anyone had anticipated.
The action is realistic, the characters well though out and the locales quite believable. For those who love the genre of action thrillers, Britton is certainly a new voice that commands attention. One might wish for some judicious editing, the descriptions do occasionally bog down in unnecessary detail, but that’s a quibble. The Invisible is an entertaining read with thought-provoking overtones, which is exactly what you would hope for.
Friday, March 19, 2010
It's Friday already? How about another review? OUT OF RANGE by C.J. Box
Good morning bookies! The sun is shining in West Tennessee today, a high of 72 expected, with the high Sunday going to hit all of 45. In between? Storms. Don't be surprised if your friendly neighborhood bookseller's house does a Wizard of Oz thing and goes spinning off into the stratosphere. Anyway, none of the news from the book world seemed exciting, so here's another review to keep you occupied.
OUT OF RANGE by C.J. Box
“Before going outside to his pickup for his gun, the Wyoming game warden cooked and ate four and a half pounds of meat.” This first line from ‘Out of Range’ by C.J. Box pretty much sums up the writer’s outlook on telling a story: get to the meat of the story (pun intended) and forget the fancy trimmings. And so he does in this fifth installment in the increasingly popular series about game warden and detective Joe Pickett.
Pickett is happy enough in his hometown of Saddlestring. His mother-in-law is getting married, and to a rich local rancher no less, he and his wife are making plans and generally enjoying life. Then comes word that his friend and fellow warden Will Jensen has committed suicide and Pickett is needed to fill in at Jensen’s post in Jackson until a permanent replacement can be found. But Jackson isn’t like Saddlestring and suicide just might be murder.
Before he knows it, Pickett is in the middle of some powerful people with layered agendas, both open and secret, environmentalists at all levels of commitment, the obscenely rich who are used to being obeyed and, not least, a beautiful (but married) lady who catches Pickett’s eye. But if a murdered is afoot, as seems likely, who is it and has done an out-of-his-element Pickett find the culprit?
C.J. Box never fails to entertain the reader and his straight forward style is ideal for a series based in the open west, where long descriptions are just as useless as short ones for describing the wonders of the area, where the people don’t talk much and make sure they say something when they do. Out of Range continues a series the reader has come to rely on for originality and style, and it no way does it disappoint.
OUT OF RANGE by C.J. Box
“Before going outside to his pickup for his gun, the Wyoming game warden cooked and ate four and a half pounds of meat.” This first line from ‘Out of Range’ by C.J. Box pretty much sums up the writer’s outlook on telling a story: get to the meat of the story (pun intended) and forget the fancy trimmings. And so he does in this fifth installment in the increasingly popular series about game warden and detective Joe Pickett.
Pickett is happy enough in his hometown of Saddlestring. His mother-in-law is getting married, and to a rich local rancher no less, he and his wife are making plans and generally enjoying life. Then comes word that his friend and fellow warden Will Jensen has committed suicide and Pickett is needed to fill in at Jensen’s post in Jackson until a permanent replacement can be found. But Jackson isn’t like Saddlestring and suicide just might be murder.
Before he knows it, Pickett is in the middle of some powerful people with layered agendas, both open and secret, environmentalists at all levels of commitment, the obscenely rich who are used to being obeyed and, not least, a beautiful (but married) lady who catches Pickett’s eye. But if a murdered is afoot, as seems likely, who is it and has done an out-of-his-element Pickett find the culprit?
C.J. Box never fails to entertain the reader and his straight forward style is ideal for a series based in the open west, where long descriptions are just as useless as short ones for describing the wonders of the area, where the people don’t talk much and make sure they say something when they do. Out of Range continues a series the reader has come to rely on for originality and style, and it no way does it disappoint.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Hiya bookies. Today's review is for one of the seminal books of the last 10 years. If you haven't read Child 44, it's your loss. I hope you enjoy my review.
CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith.
There is no crime. Not in Stalin’s USSR of 1953. The Soviet society is so perfect, so ideal, that there is no reason for crime and therefore it follows that crime does not exist. Which makes it very hard to catch criminals.
Leo Demidov is an officer of the MGB, the State Security Police, a prestigious job that requires him to hunt down and arrest traitors and spies. And while there might not be crime in the Soviet Union, there are lots and lots of traitors to the Revolution. They can be anyone, anywhere, and treason may be nothing more than a momentary lapse in revolutionary zeal, a thought, a doubt, that betrays independent thought that works against the common good. Protecting the state from such deadly internal enemies is Leo’s job, and Leo is very, very good at his job. Too good, as it turns out.
Two vignettes, seemingly unrelated to the following plot, should not be ignored. A boy disappears in the forest while chasing a cat during the years of collectivization, when millions of Russian citizens were intentionally starved to death. The cat isn’t his pet, it’s to be his dinner. Later, in Moscow, two brothers have a snowball fight that turns ugly.
Like all truly great thrillers, the place and time are as much a character as Leo, or his wife Raisa, or his commander. The paranoia of the times pervades all. A mis-spoken word isn’t necessary to condemn a person; a glance at the wrong moment at the wrong person is plenty to bring a death sentence. Life is lived knowing that no one has rights and at any moment a sinister knock may bring twenty years in the gulag. There is no color here, only gray, bleak and cheerless.
And the criminal that does not exist, the one Leo becomes obsessed with catching, is a serial killer of children. Unless this man is a spy, or perhaps unbalanced or homosexual and therefore outside the norms of Soviet society, unless there is a reason for his actions, then having a criminal in their midst contravenes the rules of the state. In turn, that means the state can be wrong, which is not possible. So it must be subversion.
Child 44 is a riveting story in itself, but it is also a story that teaches while keeping the reader glued to their seat. There is very little dialogue here, and at first it can be annoying. But as the pages turn the reader realizes that in Soviet Russian the spoken word was precious, people never spoke their mind and so speech was innocuous, meaningless. What dialogue there is becomes special, cherished. A neat trick by a new author, from whom one can only expect great things.
CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith.
There is no crime. Not in Stalin’s USSR of 1953. The Soviet society is so perfect, so ideal, that there is no reason for crime and therefore it follows that crime does not exist. Which makes it very hard to catch criminals.
Leo Demidov is an officer of the MGB, the State Security Police, a prestigious job that requires him to hunt down and arrest traitors and spies. And while there might not be crime in the Soviet Union, there are lots and lots of traitors to the Revolution. They can be anyone, anywhere, and treason may be nothing more than a momentary lapse in revolutionary zeal, a thought, a doubt, that betrays independent thought that works against the common good. Protecting the state from such deadly internal enemies is Leo’s job, and Leo is very, very good at his job. Too good, as it turns out.
Two vignettes, seemingly unrelated to the following plot, should not be ignored. A boy disappears in the forest while chasing a cat during the years of collectivization, when millions of Russian citizens were intentionally starved to death. The cat isn’t his pet, it’s to be his dinner. Later, in Moscow, two brothers have a snowball fight that turns ugly.
Like all truly great thrillers, the place and time are as much a character as Leo, or his wife Raisa, or his commander. The paranoia of the times pervades all. A mis-spoken word isn’t necessary to condemn a person; a glance at the wrong moment at the wrong person is plenty to bring a death sentence. Life is lived knowing that no one has rights and at any moment a sinister knock may bring twenty years in the gulag. There is no color here, only gray, bleak and cheerless.
And the criminal that does not exist, the one Leo becomes obsessed with catching, is a serial killer of children. Unless this man is a spy, or perhaps unbalanced or homosexual and therefore outside the norms of Soviet society, unless there is a reason for his actions, then having a criminal in their midst contravenes the rules of the state. In turn, that means the state can be wrong, which is not possible. So it must be subversion.
Child 44 is a riveting story in itself, but it is also a story that teaches while keeping the reader glued to their seat. There is very little dialogue here, and at first it can be annoying. But as the pages turn the reader realizes that in Soviet Russian the spoken word was precious, people never spoke their mind and so speech was innocuous, meaningless. What dialogue there is becomes special, cherished. A neat trick by a new author, from whom one can only expect great things.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
NO SLEEP FOR THE DEAD by Adrian Magson
Good morning bookies! Time comes on apace and today's blog is another beautifully crafted, well reasoned crime review from one of the best reviewers in the world. Me, of course. I go to great lengths to make sure that you only get the best.
NO SLEEP FOR THE DEAD by Adrian Magson. In 1989 an Eastern
German is killed by border guards while fleeing through no-man’s land into the West. No big deal, really; it’s happened enough times before. Except this time the defector was set-up by those he was fleeing to join, a double-cross that comes back to haunt the junior Military Policeman assigned to the case, Frank Palmer.
Many years later Palmer is a PI in London, working with long-time friend Riley Gavin, an investigative reporter looking for reports to investigate. The world of freelance journalism isn’t all that lucrative at the moment, or particularly busy, so when Palmer asks her to join him in serving some papers to a local scam artist she’s happy to oblige. It’s easy enough, the papers are served without a hitch, but as they are riding the elevator back downstairs Frank encounters the ghost of a man who should have died long before, a man who was, and is, very dangerous.
Following up this weird encounter, Frank discovers that the man who should have been dead, who should have died in a car wreck with Frank’s partner investigating the border shooting, has become a smuggler of art and possibly things much, much more dangerous. Things become sticky as Frank and Riley investigate, trailed by an old nemesis come back for revenge.
The tale is well told, the pacing good, the characters well though out...and yet it sometimes feels as if the author is going through the paces. The danger level is high yet the reader never quite feels as through the Frank and Riley are really in danger, that something bad might actually happen to them. Imagine the classic movie ‘Casablanca’ without Bogart and Bergman in the roles of Rick and Ilsa. It still would have been a great movie, but it would not have been the same movie. So it is here. ‘No Sleep For the Dead’ is highly entertaining and well told, but the reader might be left thinking it could have been something more.
NO SLEEP FOR THE DEAD by Adrian Magson. In 1989 an Eastern
German is killed by border guards while fleeing through no-man’s land into the West. No big deal, really; it’s happened enough times before. Except this time the defector was set-up by those he was fleeing to join, a double-cross that comes back to haunt the junior Military Policeman assigned to the case, Frank Palmer.
Many years later Palmer is a PI in London, working with long-time friend Riley Gavin, an investigative reporter looking for reports to investigate. The world of freelance journalism isn’t all that lucrative at the moment, or particularly busy, so when Palmer asks her to join him in serving some papers to a local scam artist she’s happy to oblige. It’s easy enough, the papers are served without a hitch, but as they are riding the elevator back downstairs Frank encounters the ghost of a man who should have died long before, a man who was, and is, very dangerous.
Following up this weird encounter, Frank discovers that the man who should have been dead, who should have died in a car wreck with Frank’s partner investigating the border shooting, has become a smuggler of art and possibly things much, much more dangerous. Things become sticky as Frank and Riley investigate, trailed by an old nemesis come back for revenge.
The tale is well told, the pacing good, the characters well though out...and yet it sometimes feels as if the author is going through the paces. The danger level is high yet the reader never quite feels as through the Frank and Riley are really in danger, that something bad might actually happen to them. Imagine the classic movie ‘Casablanca’ without Bogart and Bergman in the roles of Rick and Ilsa. It still would have been a great movie, but it would not have been the same movie. So it is here. ‘No Sleep For the Dead’ is highly entertaining and well told, but the reader might be left thinking it could have been something more.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
HADES by Russell Andrews
Heya bookies! An old online friend wrote me today, Dan Schrager, author of The Code, it was damned good to hear from him. We knew each other on the old AOL boards, back before AOL decided too many people were using their service and they needed to run most of them off. If you make it here Dan, say hello to the nice people who are bored enough to read this.
So here's another review, from 2007, a book that still works very well. Find a copy and you'll love it.
HADES by Russell Andrews. You have a choice. You can take one empty55 gallon drum, fill it with liquid rocket fuel, seal it, install a fuse, wrap a saddle around it, sit on said saddle and light said fuse, then hold on for dear life. Or you can read Russell Andrews’ newest Justin Westwood thriller. Take your pick, the experience will be about the same either way.
Westwood has left the cozy confines of his hometown, Providence, Rhode Island, to become police chief in East End Harbor, Long Island, a quiet enclave filled with rich people looking for quiet lives. He has a new girlfriend, Abby Harmon, who comes complete with rich husband Evan Harmon. She’s fun, hubby doesn’t much seem to care what she does. Convenient and stimulating. Until Evan Harmon turns up dead and ambitious DA Larry Silverbush sees headlines and the governor’s mansion rising over the conviction of a chief of police with a motive to kill. Before he knows it Justin is suspended and suspected.
He is not without friends, however. Going home to Providence, Justin hooks on to the Providence Police Department and a consult and begins digging into the tangles of deceit surrounding the dead man. Or two dead men, as the bodies begin to pile up. The stew is mixed with a third victim, an FBI agent, no less, an old girl-friend, high stakes finance, international trade, missing platinum, mafia dons and hit-men, rogue FBI agents and, of all things, ninjas. It’s enough to make a lesser man look for a different line of work.
But not Justin Westwood. Andrews has a terrific ear for dialogue and uses it precisely, knowing when to let it flow and when to cut it short. There is little wasted language here; unlike some books, the reader is never tempted to skip paragraphs of narrative that interrupt the flow. Like the newly ignited 55 gallon drum, Hades takes off and never stops until the truth splatters across the page like a missile that has run out of fuel and plunged back to Earth.
So here's another review, from 2007, a book that still works very well. Find a copy and you'll love it.
HADES by Russell Andrews. You have a choice. You can take one empty55 gallon drum, fill it with liquid rocket fuel, seal it, install a fuse, wrap a saddle around it, sit on said saddle and light said fuse, then hold on for dear life. Or you can read Russell Andrews’ newest Justin Westwood thriller. Take your pick, the experience will be about the same either way.
Westwood has left the cozy confines of his hometown, Providence, Rhode Island, to become police chief in East End Harbor, Long Island, a quiet enclave filled with rich people looking for quiet lives. He has a new girlfriend, Abby Harmon, who comes complete with rich husband Evan Harmon. She’s fun, hubby doesn’t much seem to care what she does. Convenient and stimulating. Until Evan Harmon turns up dead and ambitious DA Larry Silverbush sees headlines and the governor’s mansion rising over the conviction of a chief of police with a motive to kill. Before he knows it Justin is suspended and suspected.
He is not without friends, however. Going home to Providence, Justin hooks on to the Providence Police Department and a consult and begins digging into the tangles of deceit surrounding the dead man. Or two dead men, as the bodies begin to pile up. The stew is mixed with a third victim, an FBI agent, no less, an old girl-friend, high stakes finance, international trade, missing platinum, mafia dons and hit-men, rogue FBI agents and, of all things, ninjas. It’s enough to make a lesser man look for a different line of work.
But not Justin Westwood. Andrews has a terrific ear for dialogue and uses it precisely, knowing when to let it flow and when to cut it short. There is little wasted language here; unlike some books, the reader is never tempted to skip paragraphs of narrative that interrupt the flow. Like the newly ignited 55 gallon drum, Hades takes off and never stops until the truth splatters across the page like a missile that has run out of fuel and plunged back to Earth.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Killer View by Ridley Pearson
KILLER VIEW by Ridley Pearson.
Walt Fleming likes being the Sheriff of Sun Valley, Idaho, playground and sometime residence of the rich and famous; he likes it despite all of the rich and famous people. Being a native, Walt prefers the back-country way of life to the glitz of people whom the paparazzi chase down as prey for their cameras. He prefers living slow, raising his twin daughters and spending time with his loving wife.
Except Walt no longer has a loving wife, he has an estranged wife, who happens to be living with his best deputy. And while Walt does have his kids, he just doesn’t have time to take care of them properly because he’s the sheriff, not the deputy. And that’s all before one of his best friends gets killed during a night-rescue operation in the mountains.
It takes a while to figure out exactly what happened to Randy Aker and, when Walt goes in search of Randy’s brother Mark, it takes a while to figure out that Mark is missing and quite possibly kidnapped. Things begin getting very complicated very quickly, and the girls need their supper.
Mining a well-known but still rich vein of the mystery sub-genre, the modern western sheriff, Pearson joins the ranks of such writers as C.J. Box or Michael McGarrity as the best of the lot. Killer View noses on any number of occasions into some pretty familiar territory, yet it stays well above the average by the deft touch of veteran Pearson, never feeling stale, never taking the easy way out, with some truly well-written dialogue. This second entry in the Walt Fleming series may finally earn Pearson the thriller audience he has long deserved.
Walt Fleming likes being the Sheriff of Sun Valley, Idaho, playground and sometime residence of the rich and famous; he likes it despite all of the rich and famous people. Being a native, Walt prefers the back-country way of life to the glitz of people whom the paparazzi chase down as prey for their cameras. He prefers living slow, raising his twin daughters and spending time with his loving wife.
Except Walt no longer has a loving wife, he has an estranged wife, who happens to be living with his best deputy. And while Walt does have his kids, he just doesn’t have time to take care of them properly because he’s the sheriff, not the deputy. And that’s all before one of his best friends gets killed during a night-rescue operation in the mountains.
It takes a while to figure out exactly what happened to Randy Aker and, when Walt goes in search of Randy’s brother Mark, it takes a while to figure out that Mark is missing and quite possibly kidnapped. Things begin getting very complicated very quickly, and the girls need their supper.
Mining a well-known but still rich vein of the mystery sub-genre, the modern western sheriff, Pearson joins the ranks of such writers as C.J. Box or Michael McGarrity as the best of the lot. Killer View noses on any number of occasions into some pretty familiar territory, yet it stays well above the average by the deft touch of veteran Pearson, never feeling stale, never taking the easy way out, with some truly well-written dialogue. This second entry in the Walt Fleming series may finally earn Pearson the thriller audience he has long deserved.
Carpe Carp!
Good morning bookies! I didn't have a title for today's blog, I thought Seize the Carp! made as much sense as anything else. With West Tennessee again grey and overcast this short blog entry is just to let everyone know that I'll be working through my rather extensive backlist of reviews and posting them here over the next few weeks and months, and encouraging anyone with reviews they might like published to send them to me.
School is taking a LOT of time. The paper I'm writing now has to be at least 15 pages, I'm on page 13 and am probably less than half done. Gack! That means some serious editing ahead. The one after that I'll be padding out, I can tell, which is much harder than hacking off. Double gack and Carpe Carp!
Oh, one final thing. My website is just about done, now just getting the domain name back in place, then it's live. Cool stuff, at least for me.
School is taking a LOT of time. The paper I'm writing now has to be at least 15 pages, I'm on page 13 and am probably less than half done. Gack! That means some serious editing ahead. The one after that I'll be padding out, I can tell, which is much harder than hacking off. Double gack and Carpe Carp!
Oh, one final thing. My website is just about done, now just getting the domain name back in place, then it's live. Cool stuff, at least for me.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Lying is good business
Good morning bookies! Spring is still begrudging the mid-south her shining face, even as temps rise very slowly into the realm of normal and slightly above. Yet, whether winter comes back or not, it does seem a corner has been turned. Thank God!
You've known it for a long time, I'm sure, but accuracy does not matter if the subject matter is good enough. That's the lesson-re-learned from Charles Pellgrino's Last Train From Hiroshima. Essentially, the entire book has been compromised by the lies that have already come to light and inferences that more are in there. So what? After Henry Holt announced they were shutting down production sales sky-rocketed and James Cameron avowed that just because it wasn't accurate didn't mean he wouldn't make the movie.
So what's the lesson? I don't know, I really don't. I'm a historian, I sweat every little detail, no matter how inconsequential it may seem. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Maybe all I need to do is write something wildly inaccurate but popular with a certain group, sell the film rights and cash the royalty checks. It would seem that if the politics are popular, nothing else matters.
Last Train catches fire after lies exposed
You've known it for a long time, I'm sure, but accuracy does not matter if the subject matter is good enough. That's the lesson-re-learned from Charles Pellgrino's Last Train From Hiroshima. Essentially, the entire book has been compromised by the lies that have already come to light and inferences that more are in there. So what? After Henry Holt announced they were shutting down production sales sky-rocketed and James Cameron avowed that just because it wasn't accurate didn't mean he wouldn't make the movie.
So what's the lesson? I don't know, I really don't. I'm a historian, I sweat every little detail, no matter how inconsequential it may seem. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Maybe all I need to do is write something wildly inaccurate but popular with a certain group, sell the film rights and cash the royalty checks. It would seem that if the politics are popular, nothing else matters.
Last Train catches fire after lies exposed
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Ghost Train From Hiroshima
Good morning bookies! It cloudy and grey and 35 degrees in West Tennessee. Nothing like weatherman's spring, eh?
Charles Pellegrino's Last Train From Hiroshima was widely acclaimed, won awards, was optioned for a movie by no less a personage than James Cameron and generally was accepted as great historical writing. Books implying that America was wrong for using the A-bomb are nothing new, of course, or telling pitiful stories of Japanese civilians who were there when hell came to Earth, or any one of about a thousand other agendas that seem to get wrapped around any controversial subject. And few subjects are as controversial as the sole use of atomic weapons.
The big problem with Pellegrino's book is that, well, some of it didn't happen. Indeed, it would appear that a lot of it was made up out of whole cloth. For political reasons? I don't know. Did Pellegrino get duped? Maybe. Or was this nothing more than greed from an author who has known controversy before? I don't know. Whatever the reasons, Pellegrino's publisher has pulled the book, which means they can no longer stand by it.
To be clear, however: I am damned glad we dropped those bombs. Not that I enjoy the thought of civilians being incinerated, but that was already happening. The Tokyo fire raids killed at least as many civilians as the Hiroshima attack, but you never hear about those. Because the Japanese were willing to accept such losses to keep the war going. If the two atom bombs had not worked the only alternative was to invade Japan.
I had 4 uncles serving in the military at the time, 3 in the Army, 1 in the Seabees. All 4 were scheduled to have been included in the invasion of Japan, an invasion that would have cost more than 1 million US casualties, based on what happened at Okinawa. Chances are good I would have lost at least one of my uncles, and one was too many.
Oops.
Charles Pellegrino's Last Train From Hiroshima was widely acclaimed, won awards, was optioned for a movie by no less a personage than James Cameron and generally was accepted as great historical writing. Books implying that America was wrong for using the A-bomb are nothing new, of course, or telling pitiful stories of Japanese civilians who were there when hell came to Earth, or any one of about a thousand other agendas that seem to get wrapped around any controversial subject. And few subjects are as controversial as the sole use of atomic weapons.
The big problem with Pellegrino's book is that, well, some of it didn't happen. Indeed, it would appear that a lot of it was made up out of whole cloth. For political reasons? I don't know. Did Pellegrino get duped? Maybe. Or was this nothing more than greed from an author who has known controversy before? I don't know. Whatever the reasons, Pellegrino's publisher has pulled the book, which means they can no longer stand by it.
To be clear, however: I am damned glad we dropped those bombs. Not that I enjoy the thought of civilians being incinerated, but that was already happening. The Tokyo fire raids killed at least as many civilians as the Hiroshima attack, but you never hear about those. Because the Japanese were willing to accept such losses to keep the war going. If the two atom bombs had not worked the only alternative was to invade Japan.
I had 4 uncles serving in the military at the time, 3 in the Army, 1 in the Seabees. All 4 were scheduled to have been included in the invasion of Japan, an invasion that would have cost more than 1 million US casualties, based on what happened at Okinawa. Chances are good I would have lost at least one of my uncles, and one was too many.
Oops.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Weatherman's Spring
Good morning bookies! Weatherman's Spring begins today, the unofficial meteorological beginning of the season of newness and rebirth. Thank God. The paper today said our average high temperature for February was 37.5 degrees, about 8 degrees below normal. I didn't know it had been that warm.
*** For you mystery lovers out there, the new issue of iloveamysterynewsletter has been posted, better known as ILAM. Quite simply, this is the best mystery review site on the web, because yours truly reviews there. I will tell you in advance that I had quibbles with two reviews in this issue, the new Robert Crais and James Hall books. Neither reviewer seems to have read these authors before, whereas I've written every scrap they've published and, in the case of Hall, a lot of stuff he hasn't published. They appear to be clueless about the backlists and that flaws their reviews. Sorry to those authors for my negative review of their reviews, but the reviewer has to review as he or she sees fit.
***Today, we look at a couple of new books about World War II as it affected women. In the first, Why Did I Have to be a Girl?, Gabriele Kopp becomes the very first woman ever to write under how own name about being raped when the Red Army poured into Germany during World War II. No one knows exactly how many women were raped and/or murdered by the Red Army, but the low side estimates are in the 2 million range. The Western Allies, aka England and America, took the view that Germany more or less had it coming, since it attacked the USSR without provocation. Of course, that ignores the fact that the USSR attacked Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Rumania without provocation, but who's keeping track, right? And as for what a 15 year old girl could have done to 'deserve' such treatment...well, that's not a question the Allies were worried about at the time. Anyway, Kopp survived and went on to have a fine career and has bravely told her story.
*** Our second book about women in World War II is a novel based on history, the history of British women working on farms to feed the country during the war. Known as the British Land Girls a number of their survivors aren't happy with this book, as it makes them out to be nymphomaniacs, or so they say. Not having read it I can't comment, and not being overly familiar with the British Land Girls. However, not much has been written about the contribution of women to the war efforts only all sides, so this book fills in a gap, regardless of any flaws. And let's face it, it's a novel intended to sell and titillate. Sounds like it did that.
Once a Land Girl by Angela Huth
*** For you mystery lovers out there, the new issue of iloveamysterynewsletter has been posted, better known as ILAM. Quite simply, this is the best mystery review site on the web, because yours truly reviews there. I will tell you in advance that I had quibbles with two reviews in this issue, the new Robert Crais and James Hall books. Neither reviewer seems to have read these authors before, whereas I've written every scrap they've published and, in the case of Hall, a lot of stuff he hasn't published. They appear to be clueless about the backlists and that flaws their reviews. Sorry to those authors for my negative review of their reviews, but the reviewer has to review as he or she sees fit.
***Today, we look at a couple of new books about World War II as it affected women. In the first, Why Did I Have to be a Girl?, Gabriele Kopp becomes the very first woman ever to write under how own name about being raped when the Red Army poured into Germany during World War II. No one knows exactly how many women were raped and/or murdered by the Red Army, but the low side estimates are in the 2 million range. The Western Allies, aka England and America, took the view that Germany more or less had it coming, since it attacked the USSR without provocation. Of course, that ignores the fact that the USSR attacked Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Rumania without provocation, but who's keeping track, right? And as for what a 15 year old girl could have done to 'deserve' such treatment...well, that's not a question the Allies were worried about at the time. Anyway, Kopp survived and went on to have a fine career and has bravely told her story.
*** Our second book about women in World War II is a novel based on history, the history of British women working on farms to feed the country during the war. Known as the British Land Girls a number of their survivors aren't happy with this book, as it makes them out to be nymphomaniacs, or so they say. Not having read it I can't comment, and not being overly familiar with the British Land Girls. However, not much has been written about the contribution of women to the war efforts only all sides, so this book fills in a gap, regardless of any flaws. And let's face it, it's a novel intended to sell and titillate. Sounds like it did that.
Once a Land Girl by Angela Huth
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