Richardderus reads mysteries & thrillers galore
This is a continuation of the topic Richardderus reads 50 mysteries & thrillers in 2013.
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2richardderus
I have a category called Orphans, which will still catch all the other reading I do.
My ORPHANED books ticker:
I want to treat the Short Story collection challenge as a ticker-to-itself thread, thinking 48 reviews as my goal. I'll keep the thread over in the Short Stories forum.
My SHORT STORY collections ticker:
My 75 Books Challenge Threads for 2014 start over here. . They are for reviews of non-fiction and non-genre-fiction books published in 2013 and 2014, plus recommendations from other 75ers.
My last thread of 2012.
My last reviews of 2013 in this thread.
My 2014 NEW books ticker:
THIS THREAD is my mystery series, thrillers, and related crime non-fiction homeplace. Way way way too many of my reviews have been, in all forums, mysteries and thrillers, and while I love them, I don't want to get too rut-ified and read only those books while keeping up my self-made review writing census.
My MYSTERY & THRILLER books ticker:
Books 1 through 70...this thread.
Books are reviewed in post:
1. The Track of Sand...#13.
My ORPHANED books ticker:
I want to treat the Short Story collection challenge as a ticker-to-itself thread, thinking 48 reviews as my goal. I'll keep the thread over in the Short Stories forum.
My SHORT STORY collections ticker:
My 75 Books Challenge Threads for 2014 start over here. . They are for reviews of non-fiction and non-genre-fiction books published in 2013 and 2014, plus recommendations from other 75ers.
My last thread of 2012.
My last reviews of 2013 in this thread.
My 2014 NEW books ticker:
THIS THREAD is my mystery series, thrillers, and related crime non-fiction homeplace. Way way way too many of my reviews have been, in all forums, mysteries and thrillers, and while I love them, I don't want to get too rut-ified and read only those books while keeping up my self-made review writing census.
My MYSTERY & THRILLER books ticker:
Books 1 through 70...this thread.
Books are reviewed in post:
1. The Track of Sand...#13.
3laytonwoman3rd
Here!
4richardderus
Here! :-)
6richardderus
>5 MsMaryAnn: Thanks, and welcome to the new venue!
7karenmarie
Expecting big things of this thread, RD!
May my wishlist grow exponentially.
*smoochity-smooch-smooch*
May my wishlist grow exponentially.
*smoochity-smooch-smooch*
8mysterymax
What a great idea, will be dropping by pretty regularly!
9richardderus
>7 karenmarie: Ha!! Like I can book-bullet such a fast-moving target as you, Horrible dearest. *smooch*
>8 mysterymax: Welcome! I'm always happy to see someone new come around to read and chat.
>8 mysterymax: Welcome! I'm always happy to see someone new come around to read and chat.
10tututhefirst
Hi Sweetie....I'm popping up to say hello...just returned from the DownEast LT meetup....escaped buying any books, but had a fab time meeting a few others. And a delicious lunch too! Great way to spend an early autumn afternoon.
Had to laugh at your topper. My dad was a TV engineer and had 4 times as many TVs as books (with at least 3 going at all times). It was like living in the electronics department of Wallie World, but he never objected when his daughters buried their noses in a book. Thank you daddy.
Had to laugh at your topper. My dad was a TV engineer and had 4 times as many TVs as books (with at least 3 going at all times). It was like living in the electronics department of Wallie World, but he never objected when his daughters buried their noses in a book. Thank you daddy.
11richardderus
>10 tututhefirst: Hiya Tina! Glad y'all had fun. I go a little nutso in the company of too much TV noise. I tend to leave the room where it's on after ~20min. Sports I can catch up on, and there's never been a TV show I wanted to watch enough to put my ears through that kind of pain.
I ***love*** watching on the computer! Stop, start, pause, go away for a few days, always right where you left off...this is bliss.
I ***love*** watching on the computer! Stop, start, pause, go away for a few days, always right where you left off...this is bliss.
12Cobscook
Hi RDear! Stopping by to say I loved your review of The Long Way Home from your previous thread. Also your review of Still Life makes me want to reread it, and that was the book that made me almost give up on the series before I really got started!
13richardderus
Review: 1 of sixty
Title: THE TRACK OF SAND
Author: ANDREA CAMILLERI
Rating: 3.9* of five
The Publisher Says: Inspector Salvatore Montalbano wakes from strange dreams to find a gruesomely bludgeoned horse carcass in front of his seaside home. When his men came to investigate, the carcass has disappeared, leaving only a trail in the sand. Then his home is ransacked and the inspector is certain that the crimes are linked. As he negotiates both the glittering underworld of horseracing and the Mafia's connection to it, Montalbano is aided by his illiterate housekeeper, Adelina, and a Proustian memory of linguate fritte. Longtime fans and new readers alike will be charmed by Montalbano's blend of unorthodox methods, melancholy self-reflection, and love of good food.
My Review: This is book 12 in the apparently immortal Camilleri's Montalbano series. Unlike many late books in other series, Montalbano is fresh and exciting. The plots are from Camilleri's toolkit, providing no sense of novelty. This is far from being a drawback, since Camilleri has such a full bag. Still and all, some new directions would be welcome.
I'll confess right here and now that horse racing bores me just a tiny bit less than cricket. I can maintain consciousness at a horse race. Cricket not so much. Camilleri's storytelling prowess make up for a lot of uninterest for me. And then we have the scrumdiddilyumptious menus. All fish, all gloriously nummy. Enzo, the new chef in the series after the the elderly man and his sister (I think) whose trattoria was Montalbano's previous altar for worshiping Poseidon's gifts, makes sure this incredibly loyal and very hungry regular customer gets only the freshest, the best, and the most carefully loved delicacies. The Sicilian diet is fish-heavy, as one would expect from an island culture. Spoiled for choice, Montalbano favors a few fishes that the US doesn't venerate (eg, mullet) and which the series has inspired me to search out (eg, mullet).
As always, Montalbano is having troubles with Livia, the most masochistic woman in Italy and the Inspector's ladyfriend for...well, forever it would seem. Nothing ever goes quite right for these starcrossed superannuated Romeo and Juliet. It's one of the charms of the series, at least for a while. Spacing out one's reads of the books prevents burnout on that plotline.
As always, Camilleri provides the reader with a full and satisfying resolution to the story's central puzzle. But this tale earned less than four stars from me because so much of the story felt like a lot of to-ing and fro-ing for too little reward. But even a ~meh~ Camilleri book is better than most other writers at their "peak."
Long live Camilleri! Long live Montalbano!
Title: THE TRACK OF SAND
Author: ANDREA CAMILLERI
Rating: 3.9* of five
The Publisher Says: Inspector Salvatore Montalbano wakes from strange dreams to find a gruesomely bludgeoned horse carcass in front of his seaside home. When his men came to investigate, the carcass has disappeared, leaving only a trail in the sand. Then his home is ransacked and the inspector is certain that the crimes are linked. As he negotiates both the glittering underworld of horseracing and the Mafia's connection to it, Montalbano is aided by his illiterate housekeeper, Adelina, and a Proustian memory of linguate fritte. Longtime fans and new readers alike will be charmed by Montalbano's blend of unorthodox methods, melancholy self-reflection, and love of good food.
My Review: This is book 12 in the apparently immortal Camilleri's Montalbano series. Unlike many late books in other series, Montalbano is fresh and exciting. The plots are from Camilleri's toolkit, providing no sense of novelty. This is far from being a drawback, since Camilleri has such a full bag. Still and all, some new directions would be welcome.
I'll confess right here and now that horse racing bores me just a tiny bit less than cricket. I can maintain consciousness at a horse race. Cricket not so much. Camilleri's storytelling prowess make up for a lot of uninterest for me. And then we have the scrumdiddilyumptious menus. All fish, all gloriously nummy. Enzo, the new chef in the series after the the elderly man and his sister (I think) whose trattoria was Montalbano's previous altar for worshiping Poseidon's gifts, makes sure this incredibly loyal and very hungry regular customer gets only the freshest, the best, and the most carefully loved delicacies. The Sicilian diet is fish-heavy, as one would expect from an island culture. Spoiled for choice, Montalbano favors a few fishes that the US doesn't venerate (eg, mullet) and which the series has inspired me to search out (eg, mullet).
As always, Montalbano is having troubles with Livia, the most masochistic woman in Italy and the Inspector's ladyfriend for...well, forever it would seem. Nothing ever goes quite right for these starcrossed superannuated Romeo and Juliet. It's one of the charms of the series, at least for a while. Spacing out one's reads of the books prevents burnout on that plotline.
As always, Camilleri provides the reader with a full and satisfying resolution to the story's central puzzle. But this tale earned less than four stars from me because so much of the story felt like a lot of to-ing and fro-ing for too little reward. But even a ~meh~ Camilleri book is better than most other writers at their "peak."
Long live Camilleri! Long live Montalbano!
14tututhefirst
one of my favorite series in any format. glad you're back.
15laytonwoman3rd
What is it with Sicilians butchering horses? I'm up to No. 9 in the Montalbano series, and my library is letting me down. I will probably have to start buying them now.
16Copperskye
Welcome back, Richard!
I love this series and am happy I have many to look forward to!
I love this series and am happy I have many to look forward to!
17richardderus
Review: 2 of sixty
Title: THE CHRISTMAS CAROL MURDERS
Author: CHRISTOPHER LORD
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: It’s the holiday season in Dickens Junction, Oregon. Local bookstore owner, Simon Alastair, is getting ready for the community’s annual celebration of Charles Dickens’well-known story. But when a mysterious stranger shows up in the Junction and is murdered hours later, Simon begins to suspect that his little community has been targeted for destruction by a shadowy organization.
With the support of Zach, a dashing young magazine reporter, Simon decides to investigate the crime himself. When a second murder follows, Simon must confront the worst question of all: which of his friends and business associates is a ruthless murderer?
The Christmas Carol Murders is the first of an exciting new cozy mystery series combining the atmosphere of a classic Agatha Christie puzzle, the deft touch of Charlotte MacLeod, a hint of Oscar Wilde’s humor, and the literary spirit of the great Charles Dickens.
My Review: Oh ha ha ha...one of y'all sadists played a joke on me and landed me up with the first two of these books while I was helplessly hostage to the kindness of book-readin' strangers for my fix. Ha ha. "Let's see what gives out first, his spleen from overuse or his desperation for any and all reading material over two pages in length," my tormentor chuckled evilly. No, seriously, I know the individual in question's nefarious ways, there was chuckling, there was mustachio-twirling leering, all topped off by a wicked, wicked polishing of the fingernails. On a blackboard.
So here I am reading away on the subject of Dickens. Which, I am pleased to report and surprised to learn, is a damn sight more pleasant than reading his actual works is. The usual cozy-series buttons are here to be pushed, with a charming amateur sleuth feeling that he is best placed and probably better suited to looking into the various traumas and disasters Lord heaps on the characters. There is the chosen-family heart string pulling. There is a congregation of pleasant and unpleasant suspects, and the entire community is stunned by The Big Reveal of the criminal's identity, including me.
A satisfying read indeed. It's a self-published first novel, with all the ooopsies and boo-boos that entails in spelling and in phrase-making. I overlooked these as the compensation for doing so was enough to make me feel good about the trade-off: Simon the sleuth is gay, in his middle years, and meets a dreamy young muffin with whom he decides to begin a relationship. It was rushed, very rushed indeed for a man portrayed as cautious and meticulous in all other ways. It's all handled as no big deal that Simon's got a male lover, instead the focus falls on how good it is to see Simon back in form and dating after his last very long term relationship ends.
That's how it ought to be, and it was worth a whole star on my rating. The book is an appealing, amusing way to spend three or four hours in the company of good people. Buy it, read it, and savor those warm fuzzies.
Title: THE CHRISTMAS CAROL MURDERS
Author: CHRISTOPHER LORD
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: It’s the holiday season in Dickens Junction, Oregon. Local bookstore owner, Simon Alastair, is getting ready for the community’s annual celebration of Charles Dickens’well-known story. But when a mysterious stranger shows up in the Junction and is murdered hours later, Simon begins to suspect that his little community has been targeted for destruction by a shadowy organization.
With the support of Zach, a dashing young magazine reporter, Simon decides to investigate the crime himself. When a second murder follows, Simon must confront the worst question of all: which of his friends and business associates is a ruthless murderer?
The Christmas Carol Murders is the first of an exciting new cozy mystery series combining the atmosphere of a classic Agatha Christie puzzle, the deft touch of Charlotte MacLeod, a hint of Oscar Wilde’s humor, and the literary spirit of the great Charles Dickens.
My Review: Oh ha ha ha...one of y'all sadists played a joke on me and landed me up with the first two of these books while I was helplessly hostage to the kindness of book-readin' strangers for my fix. Ha ha. "Let's see what gives out first, his spleen from overuse or his desperation for any and all reading material over two pages in length," my tormentor chuckled evilly. No, seriously, I know the individual in question's nefarious ways, there was chuckling, there was mustachio-twirling leering, all topped off by a wicked, wicked polishing of the fingernails. On a blackboard.
So here I am reading away on the subject of Dickens. Which, I am pleased to report and surprised to learn, is a damn sight more pleasant than reading his actual works is. The usual cozy-series buttons are here to be pushed, with a charming amateur sleuth feeling that he is best placed and probably better suited to looking into the various traumas and disasters Lord heaps on the characters. There is the chosen-family heart string pulling. There is a congregation of pleasant and unpleasant suspects, and the entire community is stunned by The Big Reveal of the criminal's identity, including me.
A satisfying read indeed. It's a self-published first novel, with all the ooopsies and boo-boos that entails in spelling and in phrase-making. I overlooked these as the compensation for doing so was enough to make me feel good about the trade-off: Simon the sleuth is gay, in his middle years, and meets a dreamy young muffin with whom he decides to begin a relationship. It was rushed, very rushed indeed for a man portrayed as cautious and meticulous in all other ways. It's all handled as no big deal that Simon's got a male lover, instead the focus falls on how good it is to see Simon back in form and dating after his last very long term relationship ends.
That's how it ought to be, and it was worth a whole star on my rating. The book is an appealing, amusing way to spend three or four hours in the company of good people. Buy it, read it, and savor those warm fuzzies.
18richardderus
Review: 3 of sixty
Title: THE EDWIN DROOD MURDERS
Author: CHRISTOPHER LORD
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: The Droodists have arrived in Dickens Junction. Local bookstore owner Simon Alastair has his hands full in his role as co-chair for the latest convention honoring Charles Dickens's uncompleted novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. A movie star, a pesky blogger, dueling scholars, a stage hypnotist, and an old family friend (among others) all have claims on Simon's time. In addition, some Droodists are clearly more-or less-than they appear, including a mysterious young man by the improbable name of Edwin Drood. When a priceless ring and a rare Dickensian artifact go missing, Simon and his reporter-partner Zach Benjamin learn that someone will do anything-including murder-to obtain an object of desire. The Edwin Drood Murders is the new entry in the Dickens Junction mystery series that began with The Christmas Carol Murders, a book that New York Times thriller writer Chelsea Cain called "a love letter to both Dickens and to the small town amateur detectives who've kept the peace in hamlets from River Heights to Cabot Cove."
My Review: As in all series books, there's an element of "been there, done that" to this volume. It's simultaneously the point and the bane of a series' life and longevity. Look at Camilleri, Salvo Montalbano goin' strong by adhering to the formula; look also at Miss Silver, Hercule Poirot, Kinsey Millhone...it can be done! It should be done!
That said, it's a very very difficult proposition for the author. S/he must deliver the expected points and actions, come up with high-stakes ways to get the sleuth into the story, and still have novelty to spare in the details. I rated this book a bit lower than the last one because there were elements of the tale that seemed to get away from Mr. Lord. A full and groaning smorgasbord of details and interrelationships, each jot and tittle important enough to introduce by not quite enough to stay "in play," mars this good and even exciting tale. The accustomed errors of a self-published novel are all here, too...one more book with these self-same errors in it and I'll have to reconsider the time commitment I'm willing to make to Simon and Zach's life together.
And that would be a shame.
Title: THE EDWIN DROOD MURDERS
Author: CHRISTOPHER LORD
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: The Droodists have arrived in Dickens Junction. Local bookstore owner Simon Alastair has his hands full in his role as co-chair for the latest convention honoring Charles Dickens's uncompleted novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. A movie star, a pesky blogger, dueling scholars, a stage hypnotist, and an old family friend (among others) all have claims on Simon's time. In addition, some Droodists are clearly more-or less-than they appear, including a mysterious young man by the improbable name of Edwin Drood. When a priceless ring and a rare Dickensian artifact go missing, Simon and his reporter-partner Zach Benjamin learn that someone will do anything-including murder-to obtain an object of desire. The Edwin Drood Murders is the new entry in the Dickens Junction mystery series that began with The Christmas Carol Murders, a book that New York Times thriller writer Chelsea Cain called "a love letter to both Dickens and to the small town amateur detectives who've kept the peace in hamlets from River Heights to Cabot Cove."
My Review: As in all series books, there's an element of "been there, done that" to this volume. It's simultaneously the point and the bane of a series' life and longevity. Look at Camilleri, Salvo Montalbano goin' strong by adhering to the formula; look also at Miss Silver, Hercule Poirot, Kinsey Millhone...it can be done! It should be done!
That said, it's a very very difficult proposition for the author. S/he must deliver the expected points and actions, come up with high-stakes ways to get the sleuth into the story, and still have novelty to spare in the details. I rated this book a bit lower than the last one because there were elements of the tale that seemed to get away from Mr. Lord. A full and groaning smorgasbord of details and interrelationships, each jot and tittle important enough to introduce by not quite enough to stay "in play," mars this good and even exciting tale. The accustomed errors of a self-published novel are all here, too...one more book with these self-same errors in it and I'll have to reconsider the time commitment I'm willing to make to Simon and Zach's life together.
And that would be a shame.
19laytonwoman3rd
I succumbed to the temptation to buy The Christmas Carol Murders for myself just lately. I would NEVER have dared send it to you...but I'm glad to see you found it enjoyable. I haven't read it yet, but it's "up" for March.
20richardderus
Review: 4 of sixty
Title: SOMEONE KILLED HIS BOYFRIEND
Author: DAVID STUKAS
Rating: 3.8* of five
The Publisher Says: It's tough being fabulously wealthy Michael Stark's closest pal, particularly when you're an underpaid copywriter for feminine hygiene products, with a lousy apartment and no lover of your own. But Robert can't resist Michael, even though the man's motto is Money Can Buy Happiness. And reformed megaslut Michael can't resist strapping southerner Max Crawford, who has agreed to marry him in a wedding that promises to be New York's ultimate gay event.
While Michael busies himself booking the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Homosexual and ordering enough exotic flowers to strip a tropical rainforest, Robert commiserates with Monette, who shares his envy of Michael, his affinity for practical jokes, and his inability to find a lasting same-sex love. Little do they know that what lies in store for Michael is far from wedded bliss.
The big day finds Michael, Robert, and Monette mingling with hundreds of Michael's closest friends, plus a crowd of drag queens in rustling taffeta. Curiously, the groom's husband-to-be is nowhere to be found... and neither is Michael's priceless Matisse painting.
What's a jilted lover to do? Purchase the finest rifle money can buy and vow to kill the SOB, that's what. With a reluctant Robert in tow, Michael tracks Max all the way to Provincetown, where, amidst throngs of beautiful thong-clad boys, Max turns up dead before Michael can shoot him. Primary suspects Michael and Robert swiftly go into full Hardy Boys mode, accompanied by their own personal Nancy Drew, Monette. When the clues indicate that the culprit is a murderous Bette Davis impersonator, Robert must endure the ultimate test of friendship. Does he dare go undercover with Michael in a drag revue to smoke out the real killer? Does he dare not to? Before you can say, "accessory to murder," Robert and Michael have made their drag debut in heels, sequins, and enough makeup to make Joan Collins look pasty, determined to find the real killer before the killer--and the cops--find them!
My Review: As a first novel, a mystery is an extra-big challenge. The cast of characters makes complex moves in the unforgiving limelight of a murder investigation, where every flaw in the logic is mercilessly exposed. Stukas manages this reasonably well, and also showcases a wit and sense of timing that aren't teachable to the tyro writer so much as born into him.
Prepare to suspend disbelief, much as you would while attending a play by Oscar Wilde. After all, Lady Windermere's Fan isn't exactly the equal of Scott Turow book in legal and criminal terms. Michael and Monette, narrator Robert's antithetical best pals, are fun to follow for a while, but they tend to disappear for extended periods.
Whatever other flaws there might be in the book's construction and concept are in the category of niggles and whinges. Don't go into this read expecting anything other than a passel of chuckles and a slap'n'tickle of smexy talk. It can't bear the scrutiny. But it can, and does, earn its keep on the playing field of comedy. In many ways, that's a bigger achievement than some po-faced police procedural where the technical minutiae are so tightly interconnected it ends up feeling as if the author's tying a garrotte around his computer monitor.
Fun, funny, fanciful? Check. Serious, believable, socially conscious? HAHAHA what's that mean? Know before you go!
Title: SOMEONE KILLED HIS BOYFRIEND
Author: DAVID STUKAS
Rating: 3.8* of five
The Publisher Says: It's tough being fabulously wealthy Michael Stark's closest pal, particularly when you're an underpaid copywriter for feminine hygiene products, with a lousy apartment and no lover of your own. But Robert can't resist Michael, even though the man's motto is Money Can Buy Happiness. And reformed megaslut Michael can't resist strapping southerner Max Crawford, who has agreed to marry him in a wedding that promises to be New York's ultimate gay event.
While Michael busies himself booking the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Homosexual and ordering enough exotic flowers to strip a tropical rainforest, Robert commiserates with Monette, who shares his envy of Michael, his affinity for practical jokes, and his inability to find a lasting same-sex love. Little do they know that what lies in store for Michael is far from wedded bliss.
The big day finds Michael, Robert, and Monette mingling with hundreds of Michael's closest friends, plus a crowd of drag queens in rustling taffeta. Curiously, the groom's husband-to-be is nowhere to be found... and neither is Michael's priceless Matisse painting.
What's a jilted lover to do? Purchase the finest rifle money can buy and vow to kill the SOB, that's what. With a reluctant Robert in tow, Michael tracks Max all the way to Provincetown, where, amidst throngs of beautiful thong-clad boys, Max turns up dead before Michael can shoot him. Primary suspects Michael and Robert swiftly go into full Hardy Boys mode, accompanied by their own personal Nancy Drew, Monette. When the clues indicate that the culprit is a murderous Bette Davis impersonator, Robert must endure the ultimate test of friendship. Does he dare go undercover with Michael in a drag revue to smoke out the real killer? Does he dare not to? Before you can say, "accessory to murder," Robert and Michael have made their drag debut in heels, sequins, and enough makeup to make Joan Collins look pasty, determined to find the real killer before the killer--and the cops--find them!
My Review: As a first novel, a mystery is an extra-big challenge. The cast of characters makes complex moves in the unforgiving limelight of a murder investigation, where every flaw in the logic is mercilessly exposed. Stukas manages this reasonably well, and also showcases a wit and sense of timing that aren't teachable to the tyro writer so much as born into him.
Prepare to suspend disbelief, much as you would while attending a play by Oscar Wilde. After all, Lady Windermere's Fan isn't exactly the equal of Scott Turow book in legal and criminal terms. Michael and Monette, narrator Robert's antithetical best pals, are fun to follow for a while, but they tend to disappear for extended periods.
Whatever other flaws there might be in the book's construction and concept are in the category of niggles and whinges. Don't go into this read expecting anything other than a passel of chuckles and a slap'n'tickle of smexy talk. It can't bear the scrutiny. But it can, and does, earn its keep on the playing field of comedy. In many ways, that's a bigger achievement than some po-faced police procedural where the technical minutiae are so tightly interconnected it ends up feeling as if the author's tying a garrotte around his computer monitor.
Fun, funny, fanciful? Check. Serious, believable, socially conscious? HAHAHA what's that mean? Know before you go!
21richardderus
Review: 4 of sixty
Title: GOING DOWN FOR THE COUNT
Author: DAVID STUKAS
Rating: 3.75* of five
The Publisher Says: The unlikely trio of gay sleuths from the critically acclaimed Someone Killed His Boyfriend are back in this fast-paced and delightful romp of a mystery that takes murder to fashionably funny new heights. It ain't easy being green--especially if you're Robert Willsop, a boy from Michigan searching for love in the Prada-filled, Chilean sea bass-eating world of gay New York. While his best friend Michael is perfectly content to detail every bit of his latest hot-wax demo over a plate of fifty dollar pasta, poverty stricken Robert longs for a good, old-fashioned romance. So when a chance meeting with the gorgeous, fabulously wealthy Count Siegfried von Schmidt leads to a whirlwind romance and a marriage proposal, Robert waves goodbye to his dumpy studio apartment and dives in with heart, soul and a brand-new Rolex wristwatch. Instead of being gloriously happy for him--and angling for a spot on the Count's private Lear jet--Michael and Monette are deeply suspicious. After all, Robert's dates aren't usually described as rich, handsome, and cultured. "Psychotic, mentally crippled, and pathetic" is more like it. Robert credits their lack of support to extreme jealously, and leaves for Germany in a huff, or as huffy as Midwesterners can get. For once, everything is going his way. In fact, until the Count is discovered dead--with a rather large knife in his back--life is just lucky. Suddenly trapped in the European vacation from hell and rapidly becoming murder suspect number one, Robert calls in the troops. Soon, Michael, Robert, and Monette are traipsing all over Germany, looking for clues to a killer cold enough to murder a man and leave a man and leave a mess on the Berber carpets. Could ithave been the spiteful ex-lover with the incredible chest? The servants who were tired of polishing the silver? A disgruntled art collector? One thing is becoming painfully certain--the Count was no prince in real life, and everyone had reason to stab him. With the cops closing in, the trio are in a race to find a moneyed murderer who has decided to tie up all loose ends...permanently.
My Review: Stukas found a winning formula in the first book of this series. He uses it again and comes up almost as well-served. The failings of this book center around the Robert-and-Siegfried romantic sub-plot. Its resolution has a strong, cat-boxy odor to it. And the comings-and-goings of the many denizens of the schloss are needlessly complexified for small ornamental bagatelles, which is how they're used. The book is fun to read. But the material is both overused (you can imagine how that can happen) and underexplained (no believable motive is ever given to any potential perpetrator).
What kept me reading along, grumbling about the relatively insignificant problems, was the sudden *BATOING* of inspiration: What a wonderful series of silly Rock-and-Doris movies could come from these light-hearted tales. Even the jacket illustrations are perfect take-off points for a cute era-appropriate opening credits sequence!
But, while the book is amusing, don't break something rushing around to find a copy. Reading these books out of order is not a problem, because they're always freshly sprung from the noggin of our perverse tour operator. Come to enjoy, see if you don't love it enough to move on in!
Title: GOING DOWN FOR THE COUNT
Author: DAVID STUKAS
Rating: 3.75* of five
The Publisher Says: The unlikely trio of gay sleuths from the critically acclaimed Someone Killed His Boyfriend are back in this fast-paced and delightful romp of a mystery that takes murder to fashionably funny new heights. It ain't easy being green--especially if you're Robert Willsop, a boy from Michigan searching for love in the Prada-filled, Chilean sea bass-eating world of gay New York. While his best friend Michael is perfectly content to detail every bit of his latest hot-wax demo over a plate of fifty dollar pasta, poverty stricken Robert longs for a good, old-fashioned romance. So when a chance meeting with the gorgeous, fabulously wealthy Count Siegfried von Schmidt leads to a whirlwind romance and a marriage proposal, Robert waves goodbye to his dumpy studio apartment and dives in with heart, soul and a brand-new Rolex wristwatch. Instead of being gloriously happy for him--and angling for a spot on the Count's private Lear jet--Michael and Monette are deeply suspicious. After all, Robert's dates aren't usually described as rich, handsome, and cultured. "Psychotic, mentally crippled, and pathetic" is more like it. Robert credits their lack of support to extreme jealously, and leaves for Germany in a huff, or as huffy as Midwesterners can get. For once, everything is going his way. In fact, until the Count is discovered dead--with a rather large knife in his back--life is just lucky. Suddenly trapped in the European vacation from hell and rapidly becoming murder suspect number one, Robert calls in the troops. Soon, Michael, Robert, and Monette are traipsing all over Germany, looking for clues to a killer cold enough to murder a man and leave a man and leave a mess on the Berber carpets. Could ithave been the spiteful ex-lover with the incredible chest? The servants who were tired of polishing the silver? A disgruntled art collector? One thing is becoming painfully certain--the Count was no prince in real life, and everyone had reason to stab him. With the cops closing in, the trio are in a race to find a moneyed murderer who has decided to tie up all loose ends...permanently.
My Review: Stukas found a winning formula in the first book of this series. He uses it again and comes up almost as well-served. The failings of this book center around the Robert-and-Siegfried romantic sub-plot. Its resolution has a strong, cat-boxy odor to it. And the comings-and-goings of the many denizens of the schloss are needlessly complexified for small ornamental bagatelles, which is how they're used. The book is fun to read. But the material is both overused (you can imagine how that can happen) and underexplained (no believable motive is ever given to any potential perpetrator).
What kept me reading along, grumbling about the relatively insignificant problems, was the sudden *BATOING* of inspiration: What a wonderful series of silly Rock-and-Doris movies could come from these light-hearted tales. Even the jacket illustrations are perfect take-off points for a cute era-appropriate opening credits sequence!
But, while the book is amusing, don't break something rushing around to find a copy. Reading these books out of order is not a problem, because they're always freshly sprung from the noggin of our perverse tour operator. Come to enjoy, see if you don't love it enough to move on in!
22richardderus
Review: 5 of sixty
Title: WEARING BLACK TO THE WHITE PARTY
Author: DAVID STUKAS
Rating: 3.75* of five
The Publisher Says: Fasten your seat belts because David Stukas, author of the riotously fun Someone Killed His Boyfriend and Going Down for the Count, is back with another wickedly entertaining outing featuring accidental sleuths Michael, Robert, and Monette. This time, the trio are off to Palm Springs, where a rivalry between the world-famous White Party and the upstart Red Party is sizzling, turning the hottest circuit in town into a festival of murder.
Mama said there'd be days like this. That's the refrain running through Robert's modest, Midwestern mind as he and Michael are driven to the home of party promoter Rex Gifford by the mogul's naked manservant, Vince. Never mind that the guy is sporting enough hardware in his not-so-software to be a human wind chime. Or that Michael's managed to join the mile-high club on the way down. Or that Rex's plan for a Red Party to rival the celebrated White Party has started an all-out war among the gay mafia controlling the circuit party world. At least the pool is heated, the décor is gorgeous, and they can hang out with Monette, who's in town for the Dinah Shore classic.
But things aren't absolutely fabulous in paradise.
Someone's moved up from sending threatening letters to T-Rex Productions to actualy trying to kill him, and since Michael's joined at the, er, hip with this ambitious mastermind, things are getting pretty personal. It isn't long before Rex is found face-down in his lap pool, and the trio's vacation turns into a working one. With milions of dollars and exclusive party contracts at stake, anyone could be a suspect, including gay mob mini-boss Jimmy Garboni, bitchy interior designer Colorado Jackson, sexy soap star David McLeish and possibly even gorgeous T-Rex partner Marc Baldwin, who's showing more than passing interest in Robert's non-investigative skills. But when another buff bod goes stiff, it's obvious that someone is determined to keep the Red Party from ever getting off the ground. As the DJs start spinning, the world's cattiest sleuths are going to have to seriously work every bit of the nightlife just to stay one step ahead of a ruthless killer....
In this third outrageous mystery from David Stukas, the bodies are bronzed, the one-liners are fast and furious, the tension is high, and the circuit life will never be the same again.
My Review: Well, yeah...the action's as described above...but this book's pace isn't up to the speed set in the first two entries in the series. It's very hard (!) to pull off (!!) a slamming-doors sex farce in this world of casual nudity and random sexual encounters. The story seems to sag a bit, a nipple ring that's no longer new or a Prince Albert that's a wee bit too loose for safety.
What's kept me going on this series is that there are only four in total, and I'm busily directing a movie of each book inside the megastudio of my imagination. As soon as I find Biceps of Death, fourth and last published book, I will dive in head first and hang on as the chlorination works its lovely, wrinkly magic.
If you're on the fence about the series because it's sold as a sex-drenched bed-hopping kerfuffle with dead nastys mixed liberally in, rest assured that the sex acts take place behind discreetly closed doors. They talk about sex a lot, but they have it under control, where I think it belongs. I mean, if you want one-handed reading, it's everywhere; let us have *some* grown-up stories with sex in its proper place as a part of life and not the ONLY THING we talk about.
Whatcha say to that, bookie people?
Title: WEARING BLACK TO THE WHITE PARTY
Author: DAVID STUKAS
Rating: 3.75* of five
The Publisher Says: Fasten your seat belts because David Stukas, author of the riotously fun Someone Killed His Boyfriend and Going Down for the Count, is back with another wickedly entertaining outing featuring accidental sleuths Michael, Robert, and Monette. This time, the trio are off to Palm Springs, where a rivalry between the world-famous White Party and the upstart Red Party is sizzling, turning the hottest circuit in town into a festival of murder.
Mama said there'd be days like this. That's the refrain running through Robert's modest, Midwestern mind as he and Michael are driven to the home of party promoter Rex Gifford by the mogul's naked manservant, Vince. Never mind that the guy is sporting enough hardware in his not-so-software to be a human wind chime. Or that Michael's managed to join the mile-high club on the way down. Or that Rex's plan for a Red Party to rival the celebrated White Party has started an all-out war among the gay mafia controlling the circuit party world. At least the pool is heated, the décor is gorgeous, and they can hang out with Monette, who's in town for the Dinah Shore classic.
But things aren't absolutely fabulous in paradise.
Someone's moved up from sending threatening letters to T-Rex Productions to actualy trying to kill him, and since Michael's joined at the, er, hip with this ambitious mastermind, things are getting pretty personal. It isn't long before Rex is found face-down in his lap pool, and the trio's vacation turns into a working one. With milions of dollars and exclusive party contracts at stake, anyone could be a suspect, including gay mob mini-boss Jimmy Garboni, bitchy interior designer Colorado Jackson, sexy soap star David McLeish and possibly even gorgeous T-Rex partner Marc Baldwin, who's showing more than passing interest in Robert's non-investigative skills. But when another buff bod goes stiff, it's obvious that someone is determined to keep the Red Party from ever getting off the ground. As the DJs start spinning, the world's cattiest sleuths are going to have to seriously work every bit of the nightlife just to stay one step ahead of a ruthless killer....
In this third outrageous mystery from David Stukas, the bodies are bronzed, the one-liners are fast and furious, the tension is high, and the circuit life will never be the same again.
My Review: Well, yeah...the action's as described above...but this book's pace isn't up to the speed set in the first two entries in the series. It's very hard (!) to pull off (!!) a slamming-doors sex farce in this world of casual nudity and random sexual encounters. The story seems to sag a bit, a nipple ring that's no longer new or a Prince Albert that's a wee bit too loose for safety.
What's kept me going on this series is that there are only four in total, and I'm busily directing a movie of each book inside the megastudio of my imagination. As soon as I find Biceps of Death, fourth and last published book, I will dive in head first and hang on as the chlorination works its lovely, wrinkly magic.
If you're on the fence about the series because it's sold as a sex-drenched bed-hopping kerfuffle with dead nastys mixed liberally in, rest assured that the sex acts take place behind discreetly closed doors. They talk about sex a lot, but they have it under control, where I think it belongs. I mean, if you want one-handed reading, it's everywhere; let us have *some* grown-up stories with sex in its proper place as a part of life and not the ONLY THING we talk about.
Whatcha say to that, bookie people?
23richardderus
Review: 6 of seventy-five
Title: WHAT ANGELS FEAR
Author: C.S. HARRIS
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: It's 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III's England. Then a beautiful young woman is found raped and savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol discovered at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man, Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experience in the Napoleonic Wars.
Now a fugitive running for his life, Sebastian calls upon his skill as an agent during the war to catch the killer and prove his own innocence. In the process, he accumulates a band of unlikely allies, including the enigmatic beauty Kat Boleyn, who broke Sebastian's heart years ago. In Sebastian's world of intrigue and espionage, nothing is as it seems, yet the truth may hold the key to the future of the British monarchy, as well as to Sebastian's own salvation....
My Review: BOOK ONE OF ADDICTIVE SERIES
You've been warned.
It's amazing how involving I *still* find the Regency, even after many and various outrages perpetrated on its remnant mummy corpse. People with ultramod unprejudiced 'tudes bearing titles like Lord Shavingrazorden and the Duchess of Murkwatter,entertaining. People traveling to far points without seeming to spend the required months. I mean seriously, how did all those East Indiamen get to Fort Thingummy in Malaya in a twinkling? Ye Olde Concorde?
*ahem*
This book does its share of anachronism-perpetuating. Devlin, our hero, is a straight (in all senses)-ahead 21st century romance hero. Doesn't make him unappealing; it makes me a little impatient, I guess.
What makes this book so appealing to me is the atmosphere, the evocation of the London that one writer characterized as "...diamonds gleaming in the manure pile." Rich was better than poor by right; titles better than all the masses by right; royalty? Fuhgeddaboudit.
The characters around Devlin are all very clearly delineated, and several recur (no spoiler in that, since it's a series mystery) with evolving storylines that tie them into a unit in some unexpexcted and, honestly, some surprising and upsetting ways. Of course the female characters are single-emotion placeholders. I say of course because a first mystery usually has this minor and female character flaw, giving them shorter shrift than is advisable early on.
Withal the book is very worthy of your shelf space; the series is high quality reading; and the price of entry paltry compared to the pleasures you'll get.
Title: WHAT ANGELS FEAR
Author: C.S. HARRIS
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: It's 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III's England. Then a beautiful young woman is found raped and savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol discovered at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man, Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experience in the Napoleonic Wars.
Now a fugitive running for his life, Sebastian calls upon his skill as an agent during the war to catch the killer and prove his own innocence. In the process, he accumulates a band of unlikely allies, including the enigmatic beauty Kat Boleyn, who broke Sebastian's heart years ago. In Sebastian's world of intrigue and espionage, nothing is as it seems, yet the truth may hold the key to the future of the British monarchy, as well as to Sebastian's own salvation....
My Review: BOOK ONE OF ADDICTIVE SERIES
You've been warned.
It's amazing how involving I *still* find the Regency, even after many and various outrages perpetrated on its remnant mummy corpse. People with ultramod unprejudiced 'tudes bearing titles like Lord Shavingrazorden and the Duchess of Murkwatter,entertaining. People traveling to far points without seeming to spend the required months. I mean seriously, how did all those East Indiamen get to Fort Thingummy in Malaya in a twinkling? Ye Olde Concorde?
*ahem*
This book does its share of anachronism-perpetuating. Devlin, our hero, is a straight (in all senses)-ahead 21st century romance hero. Doesn't make him unappealing; it makes me a little impatient, I guess.
What makes this book so appealing to me is the atmosphere, the evocation of the London that one writer characterized as "...diamonds gleaming in the manure pile." Rich was better than poor by right; titles better than all the masses by right; royalty? Fuhgeddaboudit.
The characters around Devlin are all very clearly delineated, and several recur (no spoiler in that, since it's a series mystery) with evolving storylines that tie them into a unit in some unexpexcted and, honestly, some surprising and upsetting ways. Of course the female characters are single-emotion placeholders. I say of course because a first mystery usually has this minor and female character flaw, giving them shorter shrift than is advisable early on.
Withal the book is very worthy of your shelf space; the series is high quality reading; and the price of entry paltry compared to the pleasures you'll get.
24katiekrug
>23 richardderus: - You got me with that one! I've put in a request for the library to get it, as I am trying not to purchase so many books...
25richardderus
I am trying not to purchase so many books...
*snort*
I mean, I mean, such a good (if doomed) resolution!
Dang, I just can't type the supportive lie.
*snort*
I mean, I mean, such a good (if doomed) resolution!
Dang, I just can't type the supportive lie.
28richardderus
Review: 7 of seventy-five
Title: WHEN GODS DIE
Author: C.S. HARRIS
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: Brighton, England, 1811. The beautiful wife of an aging Marquis is found dead in the arms of the Prince Regent. Draped around her neck lies an ancient necklace with mythic origins-and mysterious ties to Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin. Haunted by his past, Sebastian investigates both the Marchioness's death and his own possible connection to it-and discovers a complex pattern of lies and subterfuge. With the aid of his lover, Kat Boleyn, and a former street urchin now under his protection, Sebastian edges closer to the killer. And when one murder follows another, he confronts a conspiracy that threatens his own identity...and imperils the monarchy itself.
My Review: BOOK 2 OF HIGHLY ADDICTIVE SERIES
LAST WARNING! Don't tell me about it if you get hooked.
Second outing for author and sleuth. Some surprising twists in the pretty standard plot. More slightly annoying anachronisms, but they're completely forgotten because the author called George the Regent "Prinny."
I laughed until I stopped. What a name!
This book is a bit less romancey because the plot is driven by some fascinating political realities of the period. The biggest surprises are all personally relevant to sleuth Devlin; some will fester, some will free him. It's a very emotionally charged book, moreso than the first, and it's just about as surprising as an author can make it be without spoilering her next book.
I think it's possible to read the books out of order, since the author is so careful to provide backstory as needed, and without the dreaded infodump feeling to it. I'd say it's very much worth your eyeblinks.
Title: WHEN GODS DIE
Author: C.S. HARRIS
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: Brighton, England, 1811. The beautiful wife of an aging Marquis is found dead in the arms of the Prince Regent. Draped around her neck lies an ancient necklace with mythic origins-and mysterious ties to Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin. Haunted by his past, Sebastian investigates both the Marchioness's death and his own possible connection to it-and discovers a complex pattern of lies and subterfuge. With the aid of his lover, Kat Boleyn, and a former street urchin now under his protection, Sebastian edges closer to the killer. And when one murder follows another, he confronts a conspiracy that threatens his own identity...and imperils the monarchy itself.
My Review: BOOK 2 OF HIGHLY ADDICTIVE SERIES
LAST WARNING! Don't tell me about it if you get hooked.
Second outing for author and sleuth. Some surprising twists in the pretty standard plot. More slightly annoying anachronisms, but they're completely forgotten because the author called George the Regent "Prinny."
I laughed until I stopped. What a name!
This book is a bit less romancey because the plot is driven by some fascinating political realities of the period. The biggest surprises are all personally relevant to sleuth Devlin; some will fester, some will free him. It's a very emotionally charged book, moreso than the first, and it's just about as surprising as an author can make it be without spoilering her next book.
I think it's possible to read the books out of order, since the author is so careful to provide backstory as needed, and without the dreaded infodump feeling to it. I'd say it's very much worth your eyeblinks.
29richardderus
Review: 8 of seventy-five
Title: WHY MERMAIDS SING
Author: C.S. HARRIS
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: It's September 1811, and someone is killing the wealthy young sons of London's most prominent families. Partially butchered, with strange objects stuffed into their mouths, their bodies are found dumped in public places at dawn. When the grisly remains of Alfred, Lord Stanton's eldest son are discovered in the Old Palace Yard beside the House of Lords, the local magistrate turns to Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, for help.
Ranging from the gritty world of Thames-side docks to the luxurious drawing rooms of Mayfair, Sebastian finds himself confronting his most puzzling--and disturbing--case yet. With the help of his trusted allies--young servant Tom, Irish doctor Paul Gibson, and his lover Kat Boleyn--Sebastian struggles to decipher a cryptic set of clues that link the scion of a banking family to the son of a humble Kentish vicar. For as one killing follows another, Sebastian discovers he is confronting a murderer with both a method and a purpose to his ritualized killings, and that the key to it all may lie in the enigmatic stanzas of a haunting poem...and in a secret so dangerous that men are willing to sacrifice their own children to keep the truth from becoming known.
My Review: Oh my heck. Jeemenee Christmas. Holy Mongolia.
There aren't words...none that I know...for me to describe this entry's Big Reveal. It is truly a reveal, and "big" is a paltry small word for what goeth on here.
It makes perfect sense, in context, but it has a wallop that rocks my world.
Yeah. Make that two big reveals, each bigger than the last and holy maloley can I ever not wait for volume four to get here. NOW!!!!
Title: WHY MERMAIDS SING
Author: C.S. HARRIS
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: It's September 1811, and someone is killing the wealthy young sons of London's most prominent families. Partially butchered, with strange objects stuffed into their mouths, their bodies are found dumped in public places at dawn. When the grisly remains of Alfred, Lord Stanton's eldest son are discovered in the Old Palace Yard beside the House of Lords, the local magistrate turns to Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, for help.
Ranging from the gritty world of Thames-side docks to the luxurious drawing rooms of Mayfair, Sebastian finds himself confronting his most puzzling--and disturbing--case yet. With the help of his trusted allies--young servant Tom, Irish doctor Paul Gibson, and his lover Kat Boleyn--Sebastian struggles to decipher a cryptic set of clues that link the scion of a banking family to the son of a humble Kentish vicar. For as one killing follows another, Sebastian discovers he is confronting a murderer with both a method and a purpose to his ritualized killings, and that the key to it all may lie in the enigmatic stanzas of a haunting poem...and in a secret so dangerous that men are willing to sacrifice their own children to keep the truth from becoming known.
My Review: Oh my heck. Jeemenee Christmas. Holy Mongolia.
There aren't words...none that I know...for me to describe this entry's Big Reveal. It is truly a reveal, and "big" is a paltry small word for what goeth on here.
It makes perfect sense, in context, but it has a wallop that rocks my world.
Yeah. Make that two big reveals, each bigger than the last and holy maloley can I ever not wait for volume four to get here. NOW!!!!
30tiffin
What Angels Fear just galumphed its way onto my Kindle. Thanks, I think.
31richardderus
>30 tiffin: *wicked smirk*
32richardderus
58 of sixty
Title: MURDER IN THE RUE URSULINES
Author: GREG HERREN
Rating: 3.75* of five
The Publisher Says: As New Orleans continues to rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Chanse MacLeod becomes involved in a high profile case involving a golden couple of Hollywood who have committed themselves to helping New Orleans recover.
My Review: Chanse is the tortured hero, broken and cracked and split but keeping on moving forward. Stopping would mean thinking, reliving the awful end of the last entry in the series. That pain is, it seems, endless. Chanse, the big strong man who's omnicompetent like MacGyver, carries his hurts quietly, but at least he's going to therapy.
This story isn't quite up to the characters telling it. It's not bad. It's interesting, it's exciting, but...I don't quite know what to mention...there's something missing, perhaps because there's no romantic interest for our titillation...?
At all events, I'm into the series too deep to back out. The final book is already out, series-o-philes! No surprises!
Pardon me, I need to get to Death in the Arts District.
Title: MURDER IN THE RUE URSULINES
Author: GREG HERREN
Rating: 3.75* of five
The Publisher Says: As New Orleans continues to rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Chanse MacLeod becomes involved in a high profile case involving a golden couple of Hollywood who have committed themselves to helping New Orleans recover.
My Review: Chanse is the tortured hero, broken and cracked and split but keeping on moving forward. Stopping would mean thinking, reliving the awful end of the last entry in the series. That pain is, it seems, endless. Chanse, the big strong man who's omnicompetent like MacGyver, carries his hurts quietly, but at least he's going to therapy.
This story isn't quite up to the characters telling it. It's not bad. It's interesting, it's exciting, but...I don't quite know what to mention...there's something missing, perhaps because there's no romantic interest for our titillation...?
At all events, I'm into the series too deep to back out. The final book is already out, series-o-philes! No surprises!
Pardon me, I need to get to Death in the Arts District.
33Meredy
>23 richardderus: You got me with that one too. Wish-listed.
34rocketjk
I was just strolling down Ursulines Street a week and a half ago. It had been way too long since I'd been in New Orleans. 12 years, or something. I won't make that mistake again. Yeah, you right!
35richardderus
Review: 59 of sixty
Title: RED LIGHTS
Author: GEORGES SIMENON
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: It is Friday evening before Labor Day weekend. Americans are hitting the highways in droves; the radio crackles with warnings of traffic jams and crashed cars. Steve Hogan and his wife, Nancy, have a long drive ahead—from New York City to Maine, where their children are in camp. But Steve wants a drink before they go, and on the road he wants another. Soon, exploding with suppressed fury, he is heading into that dark place in himself he calls “the tunnel.” When Steve stops for yet another drink, Nancy has had enough. She leaves the car.
On a bender now, Steve makes a friend: Sid Halligan, an escapee from Sing Sing. Steve tells Sid all about Nancy. Most men are scared, Steve thinks, but not Sid.
The next day, Steve wakes up on the side of the road. His car has a flat, his money is gone, and there’s one more thing still left for him to learn about Nancy, Sid Halligan, and himself.
My Review: Norman Denny's translations are the kind of jobs I and my bookish kin adore when we find them: transparent. There isn't any evidence of the book being written in any language but English.
*happy sigh*
The book's plot isn't much, and I don't think that was accidental. Instead, it felt to me like the author's intention to examine the futility of modern America.
In the 1950s the modern-modern, computerized, small government and big truck fan world were a-bornin' and no one knew that to expect. Naturally enough, as the future resists being pinned down. The fact that Simenon, a Belgian gentleman of a certain age, had seen enough history to know what was coming. Short,amusing, solidly built...the kind of book I eat like olives. Too many to be good for me, too salty not to drool after.
Don't drool, get the book and start. You'll be about 2 hours happily stitched to your reading furniture.
Title: RED LIGHTS
Author: GEORGES SIMENON
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: It is Friday evening before Labor Day weekend. Americans are hitting the highways in droves; the radio crackles with warnings of traffic jams and crashed cars. Steve Hogan and his wife, Nancy, have a long drive ahead—from New York City to Maine, where their children are in camp. But Steve wants a drink before they go, and on the road he wants another. Soon, exploding with suppressed fury, he is heading into that dark place in himself he calls “the tunnel.” When Steve stops for yet another drink, Nancy has had enough. She leaves the car.
On a bender now, Steve makes a friend: Sid Halligan, an escapee from Sing Sing. Steve tells Sid all about Nancy. Most men are scared, Steve thinks, but not Sid.
The next day, Steve wakes up on the side of the road. His car has a flat, his money is gone, and there’s one more thing still left for him to learn about Nancy, Sid Halligan, and himself.
My Review: Norman Denny's translations are the kind of jobs I and my bookish kin adore when we find them: transparent. There isn't any evidence of the book being written in any language but English.
*happy sigh*
The book's plot isn't much, and I don't think that was accidental. Instead, it felt to me like the author's intention to examine the futility of modern America.
In the 1950s the modern-modern, computerized, small government and big truck fan world were a-bornin' and no one knew that to expect. Naturally enough, as the future resists being pinned down. The fact that Simenon, a Belgian gentleman of a certain age, had seen enough history to know what was coming. Short,amusing, solidly built...the kind of book I eat like olives. Too many to be good for me, too salty not to drool after.
Don't drool, get the book and start. You'll be about 2 hours happily stitched to your reading furniture.
36richardderus
Review: 60 of sixty
Title: --WITH ONE STONE
Author: FRANCES & RICHARD LOCKRIDGE
Rating: 3* of five
Review: 61 of sixty
Title: LET DEAD ENOUGH ALONE
Author: RICHARD & FRANCES LOCKRIDGE
Rating: 3* of five
The Publisher Says: Nuttin' hunny. Publisher Lippincott died a brutal death at the hands of the insensitive conglomeratizers at Simon and Schuster. My editions, unsurprisingly, no longer have jackets, and so lack the ever-useful sales department descriptions.
My Review: Thank you, Linda3rd, for the soothing, cozy, familiar stories while I was in the goofy garage!
They're definitely of their time, and for me at least, not terribly suspenseful. An' I lurved ever' minute! Brains need rest too, eh what? xoxo
Title: --WITH ONE STONE
Author: FRANCES & RICHARD LOCKRIDGE
Rating: 3* of five
Review: 61 of sixty
Title: LET DEAD ENOUGH ALONE
Author: RICHARD & FRANCES LOCKRIDGE
Rating: 3* of five
The Publisher Says: Nuttin' hunny. Publisher Lippincott died a brutal death at the hands of the insensitive conglomeratizers at Simon and Schuster. My editions, unsurprisingly, no longer have jackets, and so lack the ever-useful sales department descriptions.
My Review: Thank you, Linda3rd, for the soothing, cozy, familiar stories while I was in the goofy garage!
They're definitely of their time, and for me at least, not terribly suspenseful. An' I lurved ever' minute! Brains need rest too, eh what? xoxo
37laytonwoman3rd
Awww....Richard! I'm so glad to see you here, and doubly glad you found the Lockridges comfortable reading when you needed it. I've loved them since they were much, much newer, when I was reading them from the shelves of our public library. For me, it's the characters, rather than the stories, most of the time.
40jnwelch
>36 richardderus: Hiya, Richard! Sounds like a good comfort read.
41richardderus
I am running hard just now, attempting to make some changes round h'yar. I met with the owner, I'll meet with him again this week, and...? But I haven't forgotten any one of youse guys. I love you all!
43richardderus
Even though it will be 2016 in a few minutes, I'm going to keep on with my numbering system from when I started this thread in 2013 (!). Really, it's just meant to be a quick and easy reference system. Why change for new years when the forum doesn't change for them? Or such is my reasoning, anyway.
44richardderus
Review: 61
Title: THE LAST POLICEMAN
Author: BEN H. WINTERS
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway?
Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.
The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.
The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?
My Review: I just loooooooooove it when the author, while playing fair with me, still surprises me with the solution to the crime(s). Mr. Winters has done this, and to a very satisfying T.
As apocalyptic tales go, this is one of the few that doesn't make me wrinkle my nose and schplurgle my lips in distaste. I completely buy that, facing extinction, the privileged population of the US would go all Bucket List and do all the stuff they didn't or couldn't before The End was writ large across the skies. It seems solipsistic, selfish, and inconsiderate...pure-D Murrikin behavior. But even with The End coming, gun-hoarders are seen as nutballs, just like they are now. I can believe this.
I also completely understand Henry Palace, our detective, staying on the job. He loves the job. He needs a challenge so he doesn't go nuts. He believes in a large, abstract greater good called "Justice" and he doesn't think that a little detail like the impending end of the world diminishes the need for and the right to Justice.
Gag...I'm making him sound like some kind of Eagle Scout...if it helps dispel some of that distasteful miasma, he also sleeps with a key witness. What ensues from that has to be read to be absorbed, especially in light of the killer's identity.
Off to pick up book two for some bedtime reading!
Title: THE LAST POLICEMAN
Author: BEN H. WINTERS
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway?
Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.
The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.
The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?
My Review: I just loooooooooove it when the author, while playing fair with me, still surprises me with the solution to the crime(s). Mr. Winters has done this, and to a very satisfying T.
As apocalyptic tales go, this is one of the few that doesn't make me wrinkle my nose and schplurgle my lips in distaste. I completely buy that, facing extinction, the privileged population of the US would go all Bucket List and do all the stuff they didn't or couldn't before The End was writ large across the skies. It seems solipsistic, selfish, and inconsiderate...pure-D Murrikin behavior. But even with The End coming, gun-hoarders are seen as nutballs, just like they are now. I can believe this.
I also completely understand Henry Palace, our detective, staying on the job. He loves the job. He needs a challenge so he doesn't go nuts. He believes in a large, abstract greater good called "Justice" and he doesn't think that a little detail like the impending end of the world diminishes the need for and the right to Justice.
Gag...I'm making him sound like some kind of Eagle Scout...if it helps dispel some of that distasteful miasma, he also sleeps with a key witness. What ensues from that has to be read to be absorbed, especially in light of the killer's identity.
Off to pick up book two for some bedtime reading!
45AHS-Wolfy
>44 richardderus: I've seen a few good reviews for this one and it seems like something I should enjoy. Glad to see that it didn't disappoint for you. Now that the whole trilogy is available I really should get around to picking this one up.
46richardderus
>45 AHS-Wolfy: Far from disappointing me, it was gripping and written very well. I hope you can bookhorn this one in soon.
47Meredy
>44 richardderus: Have you read On the Beach? If so, given the essential similarity of scenarios, how would you compare them?
48richardderus
I found On the Beach more of an artifact of the Cold War than a mystery story. It was gripping, but it wasn't a book I could make an investment in as readily as in The Last Policeman.
49richardderus
Review: 62
Tittle: COUNTDOWN CITY
Author: BEN H. WINTERS
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: There are just 77 days to go before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth, and Detective Hank Palace is out of a job. With the Concord police force operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank's days of solving crimes are over...until a woman from his past begs for help finding her missing husband.
Brett Cavatone disappeared without a trace – an easy feat in a world with no phones, no cars, and no way to tell whether someone’s gone “bucket list” or just gone. With society falling to shambles, Hank pieces together what few clues he can, on a search that leads him from a college-campus-turned-anarchist-encampment to a crumbling coastal landscape where anti-immigrant militia fend off “impact zone” refugees.
The second novel in the critically acclaimed Last Policeman trilogy, Countdown City presents a fascinating mystery set on brink of an apocalypse – and once again, Hank Palace confronts questions way beyond "whodunit." What do we as human beings owe to one another? And what does it mean to be civilized when civilization is collapsing all around you?
My Review: This book has a helluva gut-punch in it. It has a gigantic eye-opening take on what catastrophe brings out...the apocalypse before the holocaust has surprising actors on its ever-darkening stage.
It gave my poor roommate a sleepless night or two as my light stayed on way past his comfort zone. Sorry, dude, there's books to be read!
I think, though I'm not sure, that one big reason our detective is developing and making his exit meaningful for as many as possible is that this series is a trilogy. The motivating factor being the annihilation of the planet and its people automatically limits the time available for anyone to act! It also allows Winters to load us up with telling details without making it feel like force-feeding a goose for a richer liver.
A point I'm appreciating more as the series goes on is the author's use of astronomical coordinates for the asteroid. It isn't something I saw right away, but it has slowly become a drumbeat of worry behind the plentiful action in the book. I particularly like the fact that, even though it's there from the beginning, its effect is cumulative. Sneakily so.
Off to book three!
Tittle: COUNTDOWN CITY
Author: BEN H. WINTERS
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: There are just 77 days to go before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth, and Detective Hank Palace is out of a job. With the Concord police force operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank's days of solving crimes are over...until a woman from his past begs for help finding her missing husband.
Brett Cavatone disappeared without a trace – an easy feat in a world with no phones, no cars, and no way to tell whether someone’s gone “bucket list” or just gone. With society falling to shambles, Hank pieces together what few clues he can, on a search that leads him from a college-campus-turned-anarchist-encampment to a crumbling coastal landscape where anti-immigrant militia fend off “impact zone” refugees.
The second novel in the critically acclaimed Last Policeman trilogy, Countdown City presents a fascinating mystery set on brink of an apocalypse – and once again, Hank Palace confronts questions way beyond "whodunit." What do we as human beings owe to one another? And what does it mean to be civilized when civilization is collapsing all around you?
My Review: This book has a helluva gut-punch in it. It has a gigantic eye-opening take on what catastrophe brings out...the apocalypse before the holocaust has surprising actors on its ever-darkening stage.
It gave my poor roommate a sleepless night or two as my light stayed on way past his comfort zone. Sorry, dude, there's books to be read!
I think, though I'm not sure, that one big reason our detective is developing and making his exit meaningful for as many as possible is that this series is a trilogy. The motivating factor being the annihilation of the planet and its people automatically limits the time available for anyone to act! It also allows Winters to load us up with telling details without making it feel like force-feeding a goose for a richer liver.
A point I'm appreciating more as the series goes on is the author's use of astronomical coordinates for the asteroid. It isn't something I saw right away, but it has slowly become a drumbeat of worry behind the plentiful action in the book. I particularly like the fact that, even though it's there from the beginning, its effect is cumulative. Sneakily so.
Off to book three!
51richardderus
>50 katiekrug: Thanks most kindly, Katie!
52karenmarie
I've read the first two and adored them. I'll have to get #3.....
53bell7
I really should move up The Last Policeman on the ever-growing list...
54richardderus
>52 karenmarie: Yes, indeed. Sooner rather than later. After all, you live in a state where you're one of eleven literate people, and about 50 with teeth!
>53 bell7: I don't see how you have resisted this long! *smooch*
>53 bell7: I don't see how you have resisted this long! *smooch*
55karenmarie
Yes, NC is ... interesting compared to SoCal, where I honestly don't remember knowing anybody without their full complement of teeth. NC was a huge shock when I moved here. And I still have to ask people to say things again because I don't get the accent.
But do love the quiet, the dark nighttime sky, and the noticeable seasons that aren't disaster themed (fire, flood, riot, and earthquake). Looking out the sunroom windows right now (180 degree view), all I can see are greenery and the gloaming. Not aa bad view at all, especially to a SoCal suburbs kid.
*smooches*
But do love the quiet, the dark nighttime sky, and the noticeable seasons that aren't disaster themed (fire, flood, riot, and earthquake). Looking out the sunroom windows right now (180 degree view), all I can see are greenery and the gloaming. Not aa bad view at all, especially to a SoCal suburbs kid.
*smooches*
56richardderus
Well, my dear Horrible, chacun à son goût. ::sideye::
57richardderus
63
Title: GOD'S DOG
Author: DIEGO MARANI
Rating: 3* of five
The Publisher Says: Set in a not-too-distant future, and moving between Rome and Amsterdam, God's Dog is a detective novel unlike any you have read before.
It is the eve of Pope Benedict XVIII's canonisation and Domingo Salazar, a Haitian orphan and now a Vatican secret agent, is hellbent on defeating the Angels of Death, pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia dissidents who are undermining the Pope's authority.
But as Salazar closes in on the cell he finds his life turned upside down. Suddenly it is Salazar and his closest friend Guntur who are under suspicion of sabotaging the administration. Their concept for a globalised religion called Bible-Koranism has upset the Church and they are in grave danger, as is Guntur's infamous Swahili-speaking chimpanzee Django.
God's Dog is a spoof on the absurdities of institutionalised religion that will delight aficionados of thrillers and detective novels as well as fans of Diego Marani.
My Review: A very short book indeed, though parts of it, eg a long section of journal entries, dragged like a caveman's wedding. The alternative world that's posited here is terrific, and I'd've loved it if I'd been more in that world while the action of the thriller was thrilling me.
In summation, I gave the book all the stars for a terrific idea, and took the others off for frustrating lapses of world-building and action. Peccato, mm?
Title: GOD'S DOG
Author: DIEGO MARANI
Rating: 3* of five
The Publisher Says: Set in a not-too-distant future, and moving between Rome and Amsterdam, God's Dog is a detective novel unlike any you have read before.
It is the eve of Pope Benedict XVIII's canonisation and Domingo Salazar, a Haitian orphan and now a Vatican secret agent, is hellbent on defeating the Angels of Death, pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia dissidents who are undermining the Pope's authority.
But as Salazar closes in on the cell he finds his life turned upside down. Suddenly it is Salazar and his closest friend Guntur who are under suspicion of sabotaging the administration. Their concept for a globalised religion called Bible-Koranism has upset the Church and they are in grave danger, as is Guntur's infamous Swahili-speaking chimpanzee Django.
God's Dog is a spoof on the absurdities of institutionalised religion that will delight aficionados of thrillers and detective novels as well as fans of Diego Marani.
My Review: A very short book indeed, though parts of it, eg a long section of journal entries, dragged like a caveman's wedding. The alternative world that's posited here is terrific, and I'd've loved it if I'd been more in that world while the action of the thriller was thrilling me.
In summation, I gave the book all the stars for a terrific idea, and took the others off for frustrating lapses of world-building and action. Peccato, mm?
58Jim53
>44 richardderus: >49 richardderus: Can't just hit me with a single bullet, gotta make it three! (guess I'm one of the other ten)
59richardderus
>58 Jim53: *brisk hand-dusting* Well! One more kill for my belt.
60richardderus
Review: 64
Title: DEAD WATER
Author: ANN CLEEVES
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Ann Cleeves returns to her critically acclaimed Shetland Island series with this stunning mystery featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez, who readers will remember from Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones, and Blue Lightning. When the body of a journalist is found, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted from outside to head up the investigation. Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his local knowledge is needed in this case, and he decides to help Willow. The dead journalist had left the islands years before to pursue his writing career. In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl. When Willow and Jimmy dig deeper, they realize that the journalist was chasing a story that many Shetlanders didn't want to come to the surface. In Dead Water, a triumphant continuation to her Shetland series, Ann Cleeves cements her place as one of Britain's most successful crime writers.
My Review: Cleeves' trademark simplicity of language, her amazing gift for limning a character in a sentence and a setting, her painterly use of color and composition to make the story richer: All present, all accounted for. And it's not one single bit of a surprise that British television pounced on these tales. May they have the monster (comparatively) success that Cleeves' other sleuth-series, Vera, has had.
Originally the books were to be a quartet, which I think we all know means four of something. Here we are on the *fifth* book in the quartet...and a cynical little part of me (known as "the whole body and soul") thinks this fifth entry was inspired by the TV show's existence. I feel it shows in the too-muchness of everything in the story. Too much angst, and from more than only Jimmy the widower. The secondary cast is all angst-ridden, frustrated, scared of something happening, something not happening, something coming out to embarrass them. This gets wearing. In the extreme. It took three days for me to read a book whose predecessors were devoured in hours.
One big surprise is the role of the Fiscal, previously a testy martinet. A new light is shone on her character and a resolution is crafted for her that I myownself felt was too sympathetic. The resolution of the mystery, in fact, seems too sympathetic, and the guilty are, well, sprung on us in a feat-of-detection solution to the logic puzzle that all mysteries are. This isn't my favorite of the series, but I can't deny myself the pleasures of reading even an oversized undermysteried Ann Cleeves novel.
Title: DEAD WATER
Author: ANN CLEEVES
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Ann Cleeves returns to her critically acclaimed Shetland Island series with this stunning mystery featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez, who readers will remember from Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones, and Blue Lightning. When the body of a journalist is found, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted from outside to head up the investigation. Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his local knowledge is needed in this case, and he decides to help Willow. The dead journalist had left the islands years before to pursue his writing career. In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl. When Willow and Jimmy dig deeper, they realize that the journalist was chasing a story that many Shetlanders didn't want to come to the surface. In Dead Water, a triumphant continuation to her Shetland series, Ann Cleeves cements her place as one of Britain's most successful crime writers.
My Review: Cleeves' trademark simplicity of language, her amazing gift for limning a character in a sentence and a setting, her painterly use of color and composition to make the story richer: All present, all accounted for. And it's not one single bit of a surprise that British television pounced on these tales. May they have the monster (comparatively) success that Cleeves' other sleuth-series, Vera, has had.
Originally the books were to be a quartet, which I think we all know means four of something. Here we are on the *fifth* book in the quartet...and a cynical little part of me (known as "the whole body and soul") thinks this fifth entry was inspired by the TV show's existence. I feel it shows in the too-muchness of everything in the story. Too much angst, and from more than only Jimmy the widower. The secondary cast is all angst-ridden, frustrated, scared of something happening, something not happening, something coming out to embarrass them. This gets wearing. In the extreme. It took three days for me to read a book whose predecessors were devoured in hours.
One big surprise is the role of the Fiscal, previously a testy martinet. A new light is shone on her character and a resolution is crafted for her that I myownself felt was too sympathetic. The resolution of the mystery, in fact, seems too sympathetic, and the guilty are, well, sprung on us in a feat-of-detection solution to the logic puzzle that all mysteries are. This isn't my favorite of the series, but I can't deny myself the pleasures of reading even an oversized undermysteried Ann Cleeves novel.
61richardderus
Review: 65
Title: THE BLACKHOUSE
Author: PETER MAY
Rating: 3* of five, but just barely
The Publisher Says: From acclaimed author and television dramatist Peter May comes the first book in the Lewis Trilogy--a riveting mystery series set on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, a formidable and forbidding world where tradition rules and people adhere to ancient ways of life. When a grisly murder occurs on the Isle of Lewis that has the hallmarks of a killing he's investigating on the mainland, Edinburgh detective and native islander Fin Macleod is dispatched to see if the two deaths are connected. His return after nearly two decades not only represents a police investigation, but a voyage into his own troubled past. As Fin reconnects with the places and people of his tortured childhood, he feels the island once again asserting its grip on his psyche. And every step forward in solving the murder takes him closer to a dangerous confrontation with the tragic events of the past that shaped--and nearly destroyed--Fin's life.
The Blackhouse is a thriller of rare power and vision that explores the darkest recesses of the soul.
My Review: This was a huge, long slog of a story, alternating between Fin (the main character) as narrator of his life of unremitting grimness and misery, and third person limited, basically the camera-eye PoV that one would expect to find in a novel by a screenwriter. This made the pace slow for me as each time we shift, I have to hit the brakes or push in the clutch to shift up.
This isn't to say that the author is a bad writer, his prose is limpidly clear. But keep Google open while you're reading, since there are unexplained, untranslated Gaelic words all over the place. There are exciting sea scenes and tense moments of nailbiting stress during the islanders' unique rite of passage for males.
There are also characters who are unnecessary, flashbacks of unconscionable length and questionable necessity, and an ending that will break a decent person's heart...that has holes the size of a gannet in it. (You'll get the joke later.) If the ending is true, and I think it is true to the character and the build-up, the obliviousness of the responsible adults of the island is unconscionable and unpleasant.
Trigger warning for animal rights activists and the tenderhearted towards all gawd's creation, and for child abuse.
Title: THE BLACKHOUSE
Author: PETER MAY
Rating: 3* of five, but just barely
The Publisher Says: From acclaimed author and television dramatist Peter May comes the first book in the Lewis Trilogy--a riveting mystery series set on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, a formidable and forbidding world where tradition rules and people adhere to ancient ways of life. When a grisly murder occurs on the Isle of Lewis that has the hallmarks of a killing he's investigating on the mainland, Edinburgh detective and native islander Fin Macleod is dispatched to see if the two deaths are connected. His return after nearly two decades not only represents a police investigation, but a voyage into his own troubled past. As Fin reconnects with the places and people of his tortured childhood, he feels the island once again asserting its grip on his psyche. And every step forward in solving the murder takes him closer to a dangerous confrontation with the tragic events of the past that shaped--and nearly destroyed--Fin's life.
The Blackhouse is a thriller of rare power and vision that explores the darkest recesses of the soul.
My Review: This was a huge, long slog of a story, alternating between Fin (the main character) as narrator of his life of unremitting grimness and misery, and third person limited, basically the camera-eye PoV that one would expect to find in a novel by a screenwriter. This made the pace slow for me as each time we shift, I have to hit the brakes or push in the clutch to shift up.
This isn't to say that the author is a bad writer, his prose is limpidly clear. But keep Google open while you're reading, since there are unexplained, untranslated Gaelic words all over the place. There are exciting sea scenes and tense moments of nailbiting stress during the islanders' unique rite of passage for males.
There are also characters who are unnecessary, flashbacks of unconscionable length and questionable necessity, and an ending that will break a decent person's heart...that has holes the size of a gannet in it. (You'll get the joke later.) If the ending is true, and I think it is true to the character and the build-up, the obliviousness of the responsible adults of the island is unconscionable and unpleasant.
Trigger warning for animal rights activists and the tenderhearted towards all gawd's creation, and for child abuse.
62karenmarie
Eep. My aunt Ann recently loaned me the trilogy, haven't started it yet. Now.... hmm.....
Anyway, darling RD, Happy Thanksgiving with hugs and smooches from your own Horrible
Anyway, darling RD, Happy Thanksgiving with hugs and smooches from your own Horrible
63richardderus
Thank you most kindly, my dear old friend. How I would have made it through this past difficult year without all my friends here, I don't know. But there was always an extra skip when something came from Nawth Ca'laahnaah!
64richardderus
>62 karenmarie: The trick is don't think of 'em as mystery or thriller novels. The Isle of Lewis is fascinating!
65laytonwoman3rd
May there be real, tasty, real tasty food put before you tomorrow, RD. And may it be served hawt. Happy Thanksgiving!
66richardderus
Thanks, Linda3rd! It's easy to wish the same to you, my good and kind friend.
67tututhefirst
>61 richardderus:
I have this one as an e-galley and have been looking forward to it, but now I'm not sure.....you are usually spot on with your assessments, so methinks this one slips in the queue.
I have this one as an e-galley and have been looking forward to it, but now I'm not sure.....you are usually spot on with your assessments, so methinks this one slips in the queue.
68richardderus
>67 tututhefirst: ...or becomes next so as to get it done. Personally, I'd do that, and pass forward into 2016 without it hangin' around.
Just sayin'
Happy St. Nick yesterday! (Today's remembrance is more sad than I can comfortably face.)
Just sayin'
Happy St. Nick yesterday! (Today's remembrance is more sad than I can comfortably face.)
69tiffin
I'm leaving messages all over the place about this: please pm your current address to me. Thank you!
70richardderus
Review: 66
Title: THE DAUGHTER OF TIME
Author: JOSEPHINE TEY
Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant is intrigued by a portrait of Richard III. Could such a sensitive face actually belong to a heinous villain — a king who killed his brother's children to secure his crown? Grant seeks what kind of man Richard was and who in fact killed the princes in the tower.
My Review: Many's the Golden Age mystery that, viewed by modern eyes and filtered through epithet-intolerant lenses, doesn't hold up well. This novel, published in 1951, not only holds up well but shows up many a modern "master" of the form. This isn't some bloated tome that makes your night table sag. This isn't some CSI-esque science class in blood chemistry or the digestive system. It is a beautifully constructed, interestingly conceived, historically extremely persuasive treatise on the subject of Richard III and the Little Princes in the Tower he allegedly murdered.
It is also a "thumping good read," as a Canadian friend of mine calls them: A book that sucks you in, seduces you with clarity and fascination, and at the end, leaves you fully satisfied. The Daughter of Time was her last completed novel, and the last published before her death from cancer at the absurdly young (to modern sensibilities) age of 56. However thoroughly delicious a catalog of work she left us with, including a posthumously published novel The Singing Sands, another decade or two would likely have given us many more delights. Call me greedy, but I crave those lost ideas. Curse you, cigarettes!
Title: THE DAUGHTER OF TIME
Author: JOSEPHINE TEY
Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant is intrigued by a portrait of Richard III. Could such a sensitive face actually belong to a heinous villain — a king who killed his brother's children to secure his crown? Grant seeks what kind of man Richard was and who in fact killed the princes in the tower.
My Review: Many's the Golden Age mystery that, viewed by modern eyes and filtered through epithet-intolerant lenses, doesn't hold up well. This novel, published in 1951, not only holds up well but shows up many a modern "master" of the form. This isn't some bloated tome that makes your night table sag. This isn't some CSI-esque science class in blood chemistry or the digestive system. It is a beautifully constructed, interestingly conceived, historically extremely persuasive treatise on the subject of Richard III and the Little Princes in the Tower he allegedly murdered.
It is also a "thumping good read," as a Canadian friend of mine calls them: A book that sucks you in, seduces you with clarity and fascination, and at the end, leaves you fully satisfied. The Daughter of Time was her last completed novel, and the last published before her death from cancer at the absurdly young (to modern sensibilities) age of 56. However thoroughly delicious a catalog of work she left us with, including a posthumously published novel The Singing Sands, another decade or two would likely have given us many more delights. Call me greedy, but I crave those lost ideas. Curse you, cigarettes!
71laytonwoman3rd
>70 richardderus: I'm in need of a thumping good read, and I have a copy of this around. Methinks I may partake thereof.
72richardderus
>71 laytonwoman3rd: Sally forth, banners waving and bearing my blessing!
73tututhefirst
>70 richardderus: I remember this one as being a surprisingly good read. So glad you enjoyed it. I've always intended to read another in the series, and have put this high on the list for 2016. One must have at least one New Year's Resolution to worry about.
74NorthernStar
>70 richardderus: - if you liked Daughter of Time you might also enjoy Brat Farrar if you haven't already read it.
75richardderus
>74 NorthernStar: Yes indeed, BRAT FARRAR and THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR were my introduction to Tey's work. Taken me years to get around to this one, since I was convinced I'd already read it.
76karenmarie
I have always loved Josephine Tey's books and have most of her popular books.
I don't remember, RD, if you are a re-reader or not?
I don't remember, RD, if you are a re-reader or not?
77richardderus
Nope, no re-reads...too old, maybe 25 years at the outside to go...and they WILL keep publishing good new work! Rat bastards.
78karenmarie
Yup, too much good stuff. I blame LT. I was content to read light mysteries and romances, with a few history and biographies thrown in. Now, everybody gives me great ideas on things to read and everything's fair game and there are Too Many Books, Too Little Time.
I've been re-listening to some of my favs, however..... to and from work. Aack. It just occurred to me that my listening time will go away after I give notice in January..... :) well, a nice problem to have, I guess.
I've been re-listening to some of my favs, however..... to and from work. Aack. It just occurred to me that my listening time will go away after I give notice in January..... :) well, a nice problem to have, I guess.
