In The Electric Mist by James Lee Burke

In this weeks foray into modern fiction, I actually started off with something called Brighton Rock by Graham Greene, a mid 20th century British mystery writer. Can't recall how I found out about this book, but it delved into the mind of a 17yo Brighton gang member as the world was coming out of WWII. Pinky was pure evil according to some post I read, what one reader thought Hitler might have been as a teenager. Now this wasn't 'fiction' as much as it was 'literature' and I must not have the right mindset for literature (I fought and struggled to get through Madame Bovary a few years ago), so after about 100 pages, I put it down and returned to comfort food - modern US crime fiction.

The full title is actually In The Electric Mist With Confederate Dead. Burke takes us to New Iberia parish in rural Louisiana and his main character, police Lt. David Robicheaux. Now Robicheaux has a typical character history . . . high school baseball player of some note, college, a tour in Vietnam, 15yr on the New Orleans PD, a long deep tour with the bottle, then downsizing to New Iberia Parish with his 3rd wife and adopted daughter. Coming home one evening, he pulls over a careening Caddy driven by a Hollywood star and his girlfriend. Seems a civil war movie is being filmed nearby and everyone in town is sucking up to the Hollywood money trough. But Dave arrests the guy and now has to deal with city hall, the chamber of commerce and everyone else with a vested interest in Hollywood's millions. But the movie star takes a shine to Dave as Dave tries to drag our star, kicking and screaming, into sobriety.

Years ago, at dusk one evening, a 17yo Dave witnessed 2 white guys lynch a black man and it has stayed with him; a mid 1960's lynching was a low priority in rural Louisiana. Today, Dave's case involves the mutilation of 2 young prostitutes that just could have a connection to that old lynching.

Seems that anyone with a fat checkbook willing to finance a movie can move up the mogul ladder. A high school baseball teammate of Dave's is doing just that. Julie "Baby Feet" Balboni is a local thug who has managed to stay clean with the law because he gets other low life types to do his bidding. 'Feet' is helping finance the movie and everywhere he seems to go, people end up assaulted, shot at, or dead. Dave is sure that the mutilations are connected to 'Feet' but can't prove it. The FBI (Fart, Barf and Itch) is brought in and a feisty Latino lady partners up with Dave.

Our star is an odd duck. Says he's been seeing in the mists around the bayous, a company of what appears to be confederate soldiers. Everyone thinks, yeah, just another drunk's delusions. But after Dave's Dr. Pepper gets doctored with LSD at a picnic thrown by the movie's producer, Dave sees them, too and the apparitions of General John Bell Hood and company, both haunt and direct him closer to the real culprits behind the lynching and the mutilations.

This is my first Burke novel (http://www.jamesleeburke.com/) and I had read commentary about his work, thinking it might be fun. And it was, but not just on the novel level. Burke fully describes the rural Louisiana life, some of which hasn't changed a lot in the last 100 years. You can dang near feel the heat and humidity suck the moisture right out of the trees. This is straightforward story telling, brash, crass, politically incorrect, and riveting. For the reader of the down and dirty rural, semi-redneck noir, Burke is a worthy exit off the freeway of current big city crime fiction.

I read a post that this book was optioned to Hollywood with Tommy Lee Jones to play Robicheaux (type casting if you ask me), so in my mind, the dialogue and visions of each scene contained TL Jones which brought the book even more to life. When I went to IMBD, I found out the movie had been released in April 2009. Now I follow the movies but can't recall this hitting the local theaters. I couldn't believe a TL Jones movie was a straight to video release. It's on the shelf on the back wall at Blockbuster. Strange. IMBD comments were that this movie (the 2nd Robicheaux film, the first was done in the early 90s with a miscast Alec Baldwin in the lead) was the most faithful to the book, so I'll probably rent it soon. Good cast, too. John Goodman as Baby Feet, Mary Steenbergen as Dave's wife, Levon Helms (former drummer for The Band) as General Hood, Ned Beatty as the old die hard of the community, and Buddy Guy as a blues musician. How did I miss this one?

If you decide to check out Robicheaux, read it with Tommy Lee Jones pictured in your head.

East Coast Don

update 27 June

Rented the movie tonight. Not great, not bad. The best part was always reliable Tommy Lee Jones, but as usual with any movie, some things from the book were dropped or left on the proverbial cutting room floor. Too bad that most of the parts with Robicheaux and General Hood didn't make it to the screen. Those were some of the best scenes in the book. It was OK, but having seen it, I'm not surprised it was a straight to DVD release. The 2 bucks at Blockbuster seemed about right.

The Dawn Patrol by Don Winslow

This was my second Don Winslow book, another donation by Boedeker who continues to read voluminously, but report meagerly (much like he handles his paycheck, except when he is in a brewery). This was a very fun and easy read. It is a murder mystery (and more), but it all happens locally for me – in San Diego, but especially in the area of Pacific Beach. It takes place within the surfing culture, so there are some stereotypic dudes, but is a fun look at the culture, the language, etc. But, you never take it too seriously until near the end when you realize there are some very sick crimes that are going on. The protagonist is Boone Daniels (how would that read on a library card?), a good guy dedicated to his own surfing, and doing as little private detective work as possible. Enough said – you’ll enjoy the brief time it takes to read this one, and I’m up for more Winslow.

West Coast Don

The Increment by David Ignatius

I read Enterainment Weekly's review of the book and thought it sounded reasonable. In the end, that was all it was...reasonable, nothing to shout about and glad when I was finally finished.

An ashamed young Iranian nuclear scientist decides to tell the west that yes, Iran is indeed working on details designed to develop a nuclear device. He goes to an anonymous computer, visits cia.gov and sends a cryptic note off to Langley.

The note lands in the Iran Operations Division on the lap of it's chief, Harry Pappas. Harry is a career covert ops type who soured on the policy makers when they ignored his advice during the Iraq war; ignored advice that ultimately led to the death of his son. Now he is a desk jockey with, if not the smoking gun, at least, the some smoke from the gun proving that Iran is developing a trigger for a bomb. While the info is good, Harry still wants to know more about his source and whether the data is accurate, a tease, or a plant by Iranian intelligence. Trouble is, policy makers in the Pentagon and White House think they have all they need to start the process that will eventually lead to war with Iran.

After Iraq, Harry doesn't trust his own agency and certainly not the suits across the Potomac, so he enlists the help of an old British friend high up in the UK intel biz. Together they hash out a plan to get their mysterious contact out of Iran so they can fully interrogate him to see if this is the real deal. To do so will require the use of a shadow unit called The Increment; a unit of modern day James Bond types, authorized to kill, but not to stand out in a tux, sipping martini saying "So sorry, old man." These are former special forces types, immigrants - arabs, pakis, eastern europeans, hispanics, you name it - with total commitment to Queen and country. They hide, become invisible, and live for the rush of covert operations.

The information passed to the CIA shows attempts, not successes, in making the trigger. Seems the Brits have a man selling the equipment to the Iranians that is doctored to fail, but in such a way that the Iranians can quite figure it out. Once the process starts to extract the reluctant scientist, the story jumps into a higher gear as The Increment carries out its extraction, then reinsertion and another extraction.

But, somehow, Iranian intelligence gets wind of the plot and intervenes in a most unfortunate way. In the subsequent after-action hand wringing, Harry figures out how the plan failed, but that the end result, a crippling of the Iranian nuclear program, was successful. Of course, Harry spills the details and quits as a bitter retiree who lost not only his son to policy wonks, but this young nuclear scientist to business vs. intelligence bickering.

As I started this book, I thought it had promise; trying to figure out who this random contact was and how to verify what he was saying. When The Increment came in, the story move right along, but it ended the way so many do, with a world-weary burnout suffering further losses and eventually quitting. In addition, I thought the author, a Washington Post columnist and author of 4-5 other spy novels, tried too hard to have poignant, flowery insights at the end of each chapter and ended up sounding trite. Entertainment Weekly gave it a B. I'd say C+ tops.

EC Don

L.A. Outlaws by T. Jefferson Parker

T. Jefferson Parker is the Pelacanos of Southern California, but this book was not up to his usual good story line. The main story is about a woman who has two identities. One is Suzanne Jones who is a 30-something 8^th grade history teacher, and the mother of three. The other is Allyson Murietta, the descendent of Joaquin Murietta, a bandito who lived from 1830 until his beheading in 1853. Allyson identifies with the truth/myth of her ancestor and brings his persona back to current day life. She has acquired his severed head and keeps it in a glass jar, along with some of Joaquin’s other artifacts. She steals high end cars and robs fast food joints, especially the ones where she worked as a teen. At the start of the book, she stumbles across a black market diamond deal that has gone bad. After a fire fight in which 10 men, everyone on both sides of the battle, are all killed. So, she slips into the scene and steals the diamonds before anyone else can get there. Of course, there are people who know the diamonds exist, and she is pursued by several people, including her foil, Deputy Charlie Hood. In the course of investigating Murietta/Jones, Hood falls in love with her and ends up in bed with her. Meanwhile, Murietta becomes famous in California because of the crime spree and the fact that she makes generous donations to various charities, something she believes that Joaquin had done. She also has business cards which she leaves behind at the scene of crimes. In the fast food heists, she sometimes stops to pose for pictures with the customers. Charlie Hood figures out that the current-day Murietta and Jones is the same person, but he helplessly continues the affair until Jones is killed by a Crip in the process of robbing another fast food place. The book closes with the funeral and Hood’s apparently unsuccessful attempt to convince Jones’ very bright 17-year-old to go to college and not follow his mother’s path to crime.

As much as I have liked Parker’s books as a quick and easy read, this one does not cut it, much like Kirkendall felt about Lee Child’s “Nothing to Lose.” It was a pedestrian effort by a usually good novelist. Once again, this was a book given to me by Boedeker, one that he did not report in the blog. So, Chris, do you have a phobia about book reviews? Am I just being used – you read a book, pass it to me, and wait for my review? You could have saved me the trouble of reading this one. This was the 7^th of my week-long vacation books, and I’m now back to my usual life, so it may be a while until you see another post from me.

West Coast Don

Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child

Guess this is the Lee Child weekend from both coasts. Gone Tomorrow is Child's latest of 13 Jack Reacher novels. His previous book, Nothing to Lose, for me was a disappointment. Not nearly up to previous Reacher stories, and I've read them all.

Reacher is riding the NY subway at 2am with 5 other people. Persons #4's behavior meets all 12 criteria for a suicide bomber except one; wrong time of day - not enough human damage. Reacher approaches her, tries to talk her down, but instead she pulls a gun and puts a bullet through her skull. The police come and question the 3 other people in the car and release them, but as Reacher sees all, he notices that one of the others took off.

After giving his statement in typical obtuse Reacher style, he is approached by a series of shadowy investigators, none of whom show ID. He is asked repeatedly if the woman said anything about a guy named Sansom or a woman named Hoth. Did she give him anything? No one believes the answer to all questions was "No."

Sansom turns out to be an ex-Delta major, now a NC congressman with eyes on the Senate, and maybe the White House - a genuine decorated Army veteran. At first Hoth says she is the daughter of a Ukrainian woman looking for a man who was kind to her in the early 1980's, just before the USSR dissolved. But, obviously, all is not as it seems. The story twists and turns multiple times as Reacher tries to find out what the woman was carrying, its current location, what it has to do with Sansom, and who is Lila Hoth. The story jumps form NYC to DC to Greensboro to Germany to Russia and Afghanistan (at a time when no American boots were supposed to be on the ground there).

Got this on Monday evening from the library, and finished it Friday. 421 pages in 4 days...one of the fastest reads I've had in some time...don't plan anything once you start reading or don't start reading if something is pressing. After a less than satisfactory Nothing to Lose, Child is back with a compelling, exciting, confounding, testosterone-laced story...Reacher using his deductive skills at the peak of his abilities, not to mention some serious butt kicking.

According to the jacket liner, Child has optioned all Reacher novels to Hollywood. After the success of the Bourne series and Taken (Liam Neeson's latest) I would suspect the suits on the left coast would fast track one of these. Biggest problem in the lead...Reacher is 6'5" and 250 lbs. Who would play him?

WC Don had a favorite line from his story. Here is mine: Save the last bullet for yourself. You don't want to be captured, especially by the Afghan women.

EC Don

Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child

Another great Jack Reacher novel. This book portrays him as a total loner who has earned very little money since his discharge from the military about 12 years earlier. He travels without a credit card or ATM card, and he has never owned anything digital. But, he is contacted by one of his old group of eight who were elite Army investigators, which leads to the tag line of the book: “Don’t mess with the special investigators.” One of the eight has been murdered, so Jack begins the effort to figure out what happened with one of the two women on the old team. All team members have moved on to be private investigators in civilian life, and while they have not seen one another since soon after their mutual discharges, their loyalty to one another remains intact. The mystery revolves around some terrorist action – the attempt to hijack 65 missiles for terrorist use in the U.S. There were plenty of bad guys, and Jack shows his usual skill at dispatching them. One of the bestlines of the book was when they confronted a woman who was working for a corporation on behalf of the bad guys, by saying, "You've been telling a lot of lies, Ms. Berenson." And the response was, "She's from Human Relations. That's what they do." This one was hard to put down.

WC Don

City of Thieves by David Benioff

Once again, I’ve dipped into my wife’s stack of books, from one of her book clubs, and I’ve found another winner. This one is currently on the New York Times Bestseller list. The action starts out and ends during the siege of Leningrad during WWII. The main action is between two men who are thrown together due to the war, one a deserter from the Russian army, the other a 17 year-old civilian who chose to stay behind in Leningrad rather than flee the city with his mother and sister before the Germans encircled the town. The author novelizes a story that he knew from his grandparents. He has some facts and filled in the rest with a very good story. Lev is the character representing the author’s grandfather, and the story is told from Lev’s perspective. Lev’s companion, the deserter and would-be novelist, is Kolya, a man whose sexual exploits and appetites are his own constant preoccupation. What starts out as a search for eggs somewhere in Leningrad morphs into a hunt for a German commandant who is the responsible for the murders of thousands of Russians. The prose in this book is far superior to what we usually read, and the plot line is equally good.

WC Don

The Messenger by Daniel Silva

Another great book by Daniel Silva. His usual protagonist, Gabriel Allon, is also the central figure in this book. This book starts with a massive terrorist attack on the Vatican in which more than 700 people die and the basilica is badly damaged. Gabriel then becomes the main guy who pursues the terrorists who were responsible, a new group called the Brotherhood of Allah. We learn that the leader of this event was Ahmed bin Shafiq, a man responsible for many prior terrorist undertaking. His efforts are funded by Abdul Aziz al-Bakan, the 15^th wealthiest man in the world. But Zizi, as he is so affectionately called, a Saudi, is determined to be untouchable because of his wealth, his connection to oil, and his political connections that are at high levels world wide. Any action against Zizi would be quickly halted by political influence from all prominent nations, including the U.S. So, the focus is on Shafiq who is nearly invisible. No one has his picture, and little is really known about him. After the tragedy in Rome, he is hidden by Zizi within his opaque corporate structure. So, the story has to do with the hunt for this man. The CIA is involved, as are resources at the Vatican and in Jerusalem. Silva does a great job with character development of all the secondary characters, including a beautiful art curator and a team of Israeli agents. To tell you more would spoil the adventure for you, and this book is worth the read.

WC Don

Corsair by Clive Cussler

Jack Du Brul is the co-author with Cussler on this one, just as he was on Plague Ship. A corsair is a pirate ship and Cussler, as usual, puts the modern day adventure in a historical context. This one starts with the Jeffersonian era Barbary pirates of Libya, works its way to modern day Somali pirates, and then to the specific current action in modern day Libya. He intertwines two main plot lines. One is solving the ancient day mystery and the other is the current action that involves the kidnap of today’s Secretary of State as she flies to Libya with promising plans to bring peace to the Middle East and to bring harmony to Arabs and all of their perceived enemies. Of course, at the end of the book, Cussler brings the two story lines together. For the most part, this book is plausible, but there was one dire fight scene that was hysterical. The protagonist is Juan Cabrillo, not Dirk Pitt, who is only mentioned once in the book. This is one of the “Oregon Files” books, the Oregon being the ship run by Cabrillo. Cabrillo had one of his legs blown off in a prior altercation. (I can’t remember whether it was right or left leg, but forgive me, that is an error that doctors have been known to make.) It was replaced with a remarkable prosthetic. The fight scene takes place on top of a moving train and it takes place between Cabrillo and a terrorist. At one point, Cabrillo unsnaps his prosthesis and starts clubbing his adversary with it. As he pursues the terrorist, with Cabrillo’s superior balance, he is hopping atop the moving train on one leg while swinging at his foe with the other. Maybe it’s just me, but I found that one to be a bit over the top. This was fun and quick read, and I’d put in my “airplane book” category – make sure you buy it in paperback.

West Coast Don

The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow

This book was given to me by Boedeker, so he’s obviously been reading books and not sharing the info. What’s up with that? The book was well dog-eared. I think he may have been sleeping with it.

Anyhow, I don’t remember anyone reporting on a book by Don Winslow, but he has written a number of books, and he may be a worthy addition to our list of good authors. This is a story mostly about the drug trade in Mexico, but it extends to the U.S., but south to Columbia, as well. The primary action is the insider fighting among different Mexican gangs/cartels, and the interaction between them and the U.S. forces of the FBI and CIA. Given that it is Mexico, the Catholic Church is also woven in and out of the fabric. Also, there is a beautiful hooker that is involved with all of the main characters. The main protagonist is Art Keller who is one bad ass CIA guy, who throughout the book, builds his insider connections with the Mexicans. He is obsessed with getting even with one Mexican, Tio, having set him up to enrich Tio’s own drug empire. The obsession costs him his marriage, and the lives of many. Although Art is the main guy, he does not occupy a lot of the copy – but you know he is always there. There are a lot of characters to keep track of (probably the cause of some of Boedeker’s dog ears), but this is a good read.

WC Don

Borrowed Time by Robert Goddard

Had this been my first Goddard book, I'm not sure I would've read Sight Unseen or Never Go Back, both of which I enthusiastically reported on earlier.

Robin Timariot is living an unpretentious life as a Eurocrat in Brussels, working for the European Union offices, when his older brother, head of the family business, dies suddenly. Robin returns for the funeral and considers joining the business, Timariot and Smalls, makers of cricket bats. To mull over his decision, he takes off on a weeklong hike. At one overlook, he is surprised by a casual comment from an older woman, Louise. They exchange what would become an intimate moment (not what you fools think) and both go on their separate ways. After the hike and the decision to move back home, Robin learns that this lady and another man, a local artist, were murdered within hours of their meeting.

From here, two stories run in parallel. Timariot and Smalls take over a sporting firm in Australia, but the acquisition turns sour and the company is awash in red ink. A larger Aussie firm puts in an offer that tears the family apart. The other story is the murder investigation that puts a small time thief away for murder and rape. Robin gets to know the deceased's 2 daughters, one a law student (Sarah) and the other, Rowena, is seriously imbalanced. The widower ends up marrying Robin's widowed sister-in-law and Rowena also manages to get married, but out of the blue, commits suicide. And of all things, Rowena's husband goes mental and confesses to the original crime. Huh? So, while I was thinking this somewhat laborious tale was running its course, I still had 150 pages to go.

I'll skip the details and hooks to get you to read it and get right to the punch. Sarah and Rowena's husband cook up this confession to get the trial re-opened, get the guilty party released so they can extract some justice that the UK legal system seems unable to carry out. But we still have to find out the motivation for the original crime. Turns out Louise is fed up and plans to leave her husband and he thinks she is leaving him for the artist (remember him? the other victim). So he hires a guy who hires a guy who hires the thief to kill the artist, but also has to kill Louise when she stumbles in on the crime. And just as we learn this, Louise's schmuck husband ends up dead at the bottom of a cliff in Portugal. In the end, Sarah and her co-conspirator have the thief bound and ready to kill, but Robin finds them, talks them out of having their revenge with only Rowena's husband killing himself. So, the husband/father did it, drives a daughter to suicide and ends up dead himself. Fun times.

As I said, this is a story of two disintegrating families, one to business and the other to jealousy, hypocrisy, rage, and revenge. After reading it . . . not my cup of tea - learned to read the jacket liner closer. And I chose this over a Ken Bruen book. go figure.

But things are looking up. the library called toady. . . a copy of the latest Jack Reacher book has my name on it. Life is good. Check back in a week.

east coast don

Transfer of Power by Vince Flynn

This one is about a terrorist attack on the White House, the forces that bring that about, and the interplay of the politicians and CIA/FBI people who are trying to regain control. This was a very fast read, nearly impossible to put down.

WC Don

The Mark of the Assassin by Daniel Silva

This is one of his early books, so all the usual characters do not make it to this novel. It starts with a terrorist blowing an airplane out of the air as it leaves JFK. It was written in 1998, and he does a great job with explaining the terrorist networks. A very good book.

WC Don

Just re-read this in 2018, and it predates Silva's introduction of Gabriel Allon. Michael Osbourne is a great protagonist who Silva chose to abandon after two books in favor of Allon. Who can argue with the author's success, but this is really a very good story.

Hard Time by Sara Paretsky

I tried a second Sara Paretsky novel, "Hard Time," and this one was a much better detective-mystery story than the first one I read, "Fire Sale." She uses Chicago as her stage, and she really does a good job of giving a full picture of life across multiple cultural and socioeconomic slices. It all starts with the PI, V.I. Warshawski, nearly running over a woman, and then spending the rest of the book trying to figure out how that happened, who she really was, who was behind her being in the middle of the street, etc. I have another one of her books in my stack of books to read, and I'm sure I'll give her another go.

WC Don

The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva

"The Unlikely Spy" by Daniel Silva was a good read. It's about WWII and the Nazi attempt to get spies in place in order to learn the time and location of the D-Day invasion. Countering that is the English efforts to find the spies. This was a 1995 and must have been Silva's first. His usual hero, Gabriel Allon, is not in this book. However, Churchill is. I know something about WWII, and this seems to be true to the times and the events of which I'm aware, so it is quite well done. Perhaps, the first 100 of 700 pages are a bit slow as he works his way through character development, but he makes up for that very quickly.

WC Don

The Quick Red Fox by John D. MacDonald

An old friend, John D. MacDonald and one of the Travis McGee books. This one was from 1964, and surprisingly, not too dated. "The Quick Red Fox" is about a Hollywood megastar who has a remarkable indiscretion that gets caught on film by a blackmailer. Travis gets lots of inducements to cheat and steal, but of course, anyone who lives in The Busted Flush would rise above that. There are lots of characters involved, but MacDonald makes it all flow. It is a page-turner, one that kept me up late so I could finish it.

WC Don

Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky

She has a prolific V. I. Warshawski novel series. Warshawski is a woman PI in Chicago (at least in this book, “Fire Sale”) who is originally from the deep Southside which she has abandoned for a better neighborhood. But, her old high school coach, who is dying, gets her to be the substitute head coach for a year, so Warshawski is pulled back to her old neighborhood. She gets involved in the shenanigans and troubles of the Southside. Paretsky writes about the gut-wrenching poverty and the greed of others taking advantage of the downtrodden. Of course there are murders to be solved. Overall, the story line is good, but in this book, she was rather wordy at times and the story did not always keep me interested. I was given this book and a couple more by her, so I'll give her another chance. Having spent some time in Chicago, including a visit to Comisky Park which is in the South, I enjoyed getting to more about these parts.

WC Don

The Marching Season by Daniel Silva

Daniel Silva is my latest and favorite. "The Marching Season is about the conflict in Northern Ireland between the Protestants and the Catholics, the attempts at peace, the people who stand in the way, the US Ambassador to London who is the target of assasination, good CIA/MI5 characters.

WC Don

The English Assassin. by Daniel Silva

I just finished another book by Daniel Silva, my latest favorite author: “The English Assassin.” It is an excellent international-spy-murder-mystery-manbook, and I’m now going to order all the Silva books that I’ve not read. This one takes place mostly in Switzerland, and the content has to do with the recovery of art that was confiscated, mostly from Jews, during WWII. The primary character is Gabriel Allon, the former Israeli agent, a compassionate and plagued hero. This was a very good book.

WC Don

The Guernsey and the Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

By that time, it was time to board a plane from Rome to London, and I was out of books. You may wonder whether I need to up my testosterone supplementation, but I once again took a risk of digging into my wife’s traveling library and read, get this – no man would unknowingly read a book with this title: “The Guernsey and the Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Have I enticed anyone yet? I don’t think so. It is a book written about the channel island of Guernsey and the occupation of it by the Nazis during WWII, so you see the connection to Tallgrass. I’ve read so much about WWII, but like Tallgrass, it captures another perspective of it that I had not thought about before. Uniquely, it is written entirely with the use of letters of correspondence among the principles and sometimes peripheral characters. I never would have picked it up except under these very unusually circumstances, but it was a very enjoyable read and good literature.

WC Don

Cold Pursuit by T. Jefferson Parker

I ripped through T. Jefferson Parker’s Cold Pursuit, primarily because I realized I had already read this one. I think EC Don and I agree that he’s the Southern California version of Pelacanos. It’s a good story, a fast paced story. I think his books were originally suggested to me by my brother-in-law, who is a writing/literature prof at Long Beach State. It is not his type of genre and he tends to stick to higher brow literature.

WC Don

Choices and Illusions by Eldon Taylor

I have no idea where I came up with this book. I don’t remember getting it, and I certainly cannot blame it on nephew Boedeker for sending it to me (as much as I would like to). It was in my suitcase and my wife swore it was not hers. This was one of those new age, find yourself, self-actualization books of the sort that I read in the 70s and 80s, although it is a 2007 book (behind its time). I got through several pages before my gag reflex became overwhelming, and then I skimmed through the rest of it. In the concluding chapter, he made reference to The Celestine Prophesy, a 1993 book that I thought was one of the best examples of pseudoscience that I have ever seen – intolerable. So, I spent about 20 minutes with this book, and my advice is not to waste your time.

WC Don

Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas

Being on the edge of running out of books, I was getting desperate and took a chance of diving into my wife’s book supply and came up with Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas, a story about the Japanese internment camps during WWII. I was surprised that I actually enjoyed the writing and the quality of the story. It is definitely a chick book, but it also compliments the second to last book of the trip, as you’ll see below. (a reference to “The Guernsey and the Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows)

WC Don

Gang Leader For A Day – A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh

This is NOT one of the funniest books I’ve read in a long time. I came across this after reading Freakonomics. That book has a chapter on Venkatesh and his economic analysis of selling crack. This book goes into much more detail about how things work in both a crack selling gang and project housing on the South Side of Chicago. Venkatesh spends much of 10 years with a gang leader named JT and a group of other people in the Robert Taylor projects. The book was very good because it wasn’t preachy and had no agenda. He describes in detail life in the projects and in a gang, how things get done, how disputes are resolved, etc. I could not put this down.

Chris Bo in Austin

The Ridiculous Race by Steve Hely and Vali Chandrasekaran

These two guys are sitcom writers in LA. During a production hiatus, they make a bet as to who can make it around the world first without the use of airplanes. The prize is the best bottle of scotch they can find. They start in opposite directions and chronicle their adventures around the globe, having convinced a publisher to foot the bill. This is one of the funniest books I’ve read in a long time. It’s the perfect combination of sarcasm, mean-spiritedness, and alcohol-induced buffoonery chronicled by two guys who are as immature as they are articulate. That’s a fantastic combination. Read this and you will not be disappointed.

Chris Bo in Austin

Angel Flight by Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly and Harry Bosch. when it comes to murder mysteries, they are quite the team. Got a lot read this morning cooling my buns to see if my day on jury duty would bring service or a bust.

Los Angeles is a powder keg, on the edge of burning. Michael Harris, a local low life, was accused of a brutal abduction and murder of the young daughter of a politically well-placed family. But he gets off and turns around and brings a civil rights case against the LAPD, saying he was tortured and beaten during the interrogation. His attorney is Frank Elias who has made a good living out of suing the police for civil rights violations. But this time, Harris is right...he really was tortured and Elias has the proof to make the case that will put him on Nightline, 60 Minutes, Larry King and Oprah....and he has proof about who killed that little girl that he will unveil during the trial. Friday night before the trial opens, Elias is brutally murdered on a small funicular rail car, the Angel Flight, that runs between his office building and his apartment. A bystander was also killed.

Normally, division robbery/homicide would handle the case, but that is the unit Harris and Elias are after. Bosch and his team work out of Hollywood division and get the case to ward off potential conflict of interest. Because it is possible that a cop killed Elias, internal affairs is brought in at the start as well as the FBI on possible civil rights violations. IAD calls in one cop that Harry is sure had nothing to do with Elias's murder, but he is eventually released throwing gas on a smoldering tinder that is LA. The city starts to erupt with fires and looting in the southern neighborhoods and protest spring up around the LA basin. Bosch sees a connection between the murders of Elias and the little girl. The trail moves away from Harris to the family's security man, her family, through the pedophilia and dominatrix underground, to an old partner of Harry, then right to ground zero of riot central. All this happening just when Harry's wife of about a year succumbs to a gambling addiction and leaves to sort things out in Las Vegas.

The Connelly/Bosch stories are among my favorites, and so far I can't rank them, they all are consistently plotted and presented with enough unseen twists and dead ends to keep you turning the pages. I was in a break between requested books from the library so I picked this up and my time reading it was well occupied. I have a more recent Ken Bruer book on my nightstand, but it will have to wait. The first of my summer books rose up the request queue and I will start it tonight. Have to, only have it for a week. The Expediter by David Hagberg, one of my power rotation authors. political thriller. Check back in a week.

East Coast Don

p.s. jury service was a bust. left the jury room around noon.

The Bug Funeral by Sarah Shaber

I'm sitting in limbo awaiting spring/summer releases of new books of some authors in my power rotation: Pelacanos, Brad Thor, Lee Child, David Hagberg, Stuart Woods, Michael Connelly, and Robert McCammon (fall) all have new releases coming out and I'm on the wait list at the library. In the meantime, I have to find some comfort reading to while away the time.

So, I went back to these interesting short mystery stories of Sarah Shaber. You may remember, she is a local Raleigh author who writes about her fictional Professor Simon Shaw, the small college history professor turned 'forensic historian' because of his knack for solving decades old crimes. The Bug Funeral is a bit of a departure. This time, a doctor friend asks for a favor to meet with this woman who claims to be the reincarnation of an Annie Evans who she thinks was a matron at an old Raleigh orphanage and may have a bit of a dark past...something about burying an infant. Most medical folks toss her off as a nut, but something in her tale catches his interest and reluctantly, he starts digging. He learns that there indeed was an orphanage in the early 1900's and there was a matron named Annie Evans. The real trick is finding out details of her life before, during, and after the orphanage and just how his client Helen is somehow attached to her. All details point to this really being a case of reincarnation. Simon puts the final pieces together when he manages to get into the attic of the family Annie worked for after the orphanage and finds some of Annie journaling. Turns out Annie lived at this family's lake house in the final years of her life. Years later, when Helen was very young, her family used to rent the lake house for vacations. The owner kept plenty of reading material on hand and young Helen was quite the reader. Seems she read one of Annie's old journals and many of Annie's entries ended up deep in Helen's mind that came to the surface as an adult...a condition we are told is called 'crypto-amnesia'. Maybe WC Don knows what that is. Anyway, case solved, Prof Shaw doesn't get the girl (not for a lack of trying) and this adventure comes to a close.

As I've said, these are simple, tasty little mystery stories set in my hometown; airport books, fluff reading, really good stuff to occupy reading time while waiting on more manly books. I've really gotten to like this Professor Shaw. He is a half Baptist half Jewish, short little guy from the NC mountains with a love of beer, T-birds (FIFA David - that is am American sports car) coke-cola and Goody's headache powders. I know I will come back to finish the Shaw series, maybe get another one soon as currently, only the Hagberg book is actually in the stores.

East Coast Don

p.s. the title comes from a mean activity at the orphanage. Older boys would kill a bug, put it in a box and bury it, all the while intimidatingand threatening younger kids to the point of tears so there would be some real emotion at the 'funeral.'

Whiskey Rebels by David Liss

I had received this as a Christmas present and it sat on my nightstand until I finally decided to tackle it. A full size hardback of a bit over 500 pages.

This is an historical novel set just after the Revolutionary War as the new nation struggles to set itself on a new experiment in liberty and freedom. Washington is President, Aaron Burr is a Senator from NY, Alexander Hamilton in Secretary of the Treasury and Jefferson is on the sidelines, hating everything Hamilton represents. There are 2 main characters. Ethan Saunders was a cunning spy who was disgraced as a traitor and is now a useless drunk. The other is Joan Maycott, a thoroughly modern woman who reads, dreams of being a novelist. She finds a man she likes and pursues him to the alter.

Now here is where if can get a bit complicated. For the most part, the tales are told in parallel in every other chapter. Ethan's mentor as a spy had a daughter whom Ethan was set to wed. Then the father was murdered and the rumor was he was partly to blame. Cynthia marries for money and comfort and out of Ethan's life. now, 10y later, she seeks him our to help her find her missing husband.

Joan's husband was in the war and like most veterans, held worthless script for back wages. They are tricked into exchanging the script for land west of Pittsburgh. While in the wilderness, they perfect the trade of whiskey making and run afoul of the local baron who wants to corner the market.

Now as disparate as the two stories seem, there is a connection. Hamilton is trying to set up the Bank of the United States and to help set it up, he gets congress to pass a whiskey tax. This is an affront to those in the wilderness who view this as a burden on the poorest of citizens. Ethan's search for Cynthia's husband brings him into the world of traders who are positioning to score big when either the Bank of the US or a competitor Million Bank of NY open. Joan sets out with a band of woodsmen back to Philadelphia with a plan to break Hamilton and his bank. to do so, she must use cunning and manipulation to get her house of cards built and then at the right time, to cause it to collapse.

The author is very clever in how he winds these stories together. The way he tells the tale, each appears to be parallel in time, but actually, the Maycott story covers a much longer period of time and the two tales actually meet in time on the last 50-100 pages. As Ethan reforms and gets off the bottle, an investigator working for Hamilton tells Ethan he was nothing but a useless drunk when they met. And now? Now, Ethan is a useful drunk. In the end, Joan is successful in destroying the man who tricked her and her husband so many years ago, but fails to bring down Hamilton and his bank. I was sort of reminded of the last scene in the movie The Sting when Paul Newman asked Robert Redford if scamming the bad guy was enough to pay back for the loss of his friend and Redford replies something like 'No, but it's close.' Joan won . . . sort of.

good stuff, once I got used to the formal language and behavior of the characters of the time. In this age, honor and reputation ruled and to insult one's honor was to invite a challenge. Smears one's reputation and you best be watching over your shoulder and these folks had a very long memory.

EC Don

The Guards by Ken Bruen

The last Bruen book I read was Once Were Cops that was a downright creepy tale of a deranged Irish cop stationed in NYC. Scared the crap right out of me. When I was in the library, I wandered over to the "B" rack to see what was on the shelf. I found 4-5 novels each with the heading "by the award winning author of The Guard." Well, The Guard was on the shelf so I figured why not start with the prize winner?

Jack Taylor is a 50-ish ex-guard, now sort of a private investigator in Galway. He is the son of a decent man who introduced Jack to literature, so a book or a quote is not far from his consciousness. He now walks a narrow ledge that only drunks can understand and navigate. He spends his days at a pub with it's 90ish year old publican as his closest (only?) friend. In Galway, a series of teenage girls have committed suicide. One of the mothers hates that her daughter is tagged as a suicide and asks Jack to look into it. He joins up with a sometime friend and painter who is entirely amoral. They probe around and find a couple of pedophiles preying on young girls who work at this one firm. The story wanders back and forth between Jack's personal battle with the bottle, the girl's mother, his landlord, and other colorful (and mostly old) characters, like the sentries, in Galway. Between rehab, sobriety, binges, deaths (murders?), we are genuinely happy to see Jack stay sober and sad when he dives back into his own personal hell in the bottom of the bottle. Jack is basically a good guy with a sense of morality and a decaying liver. His problem is he and his painter friend seem to get mixed up in death not always of their doing, but mostly deserved and most certainly outside the rule of law. Small, but significant plot shifts sometimes come out of nowhere with occasional audible gasps, at least out of me. Bruen is all about dialogue, not extensive narrative setting up a scene. And the dialogue is great. I put the dialogue of Bruen right up there with Pelacanos, Price, Connelly, Palahniuk. Well worth a further look to see how Jack Taylor battles the bottle and demons as his life spirals barely in control.

BTW, according to the website (www.kenbruen.com), one of his books (London Blvd) is due for the movies, written for the screen by the guy who did The Departed (William Monahan). Colin Farrell and Keira Knightly are featured. Dark, talky and violent would by my guess.

east coast don

Plague Ship and The Chase by Clive Cussler

I haven’t provided too many reviews in the club. Most of my recent readings have been work related and I wouldn’t want to bore everyone with that stuff! I took a break and read a couple of Clive Cussler books, Plague Ship and The Chase. I loved The Chase. It starts in the 1950s with a salvage team pulling a train out of Flathead Lake in Montana. We then go back to 1906 to a series of bank robberies with a cunning and brutal thief. Authorities enlist the assistance of Detective Isaac Bell to bring in the “Butcher Bandit”. Bell tracks the bandit all across the west with stops in Denver, Salt Lake City, and Bisbee, AZ before getting to San Francisco. He finds that apprehending the thief is much harder than simply identifying him.

Plague Ship is the 5^th in the Oregon series. East Coast Don had correctly equated another book in the series, Golden Buddha, to an A-Team episode. Plague Ship is much better, but still has some of those elements. The team of socially-conscious mercenaries aboard the Oregon (high-tech command center disguised as dilapidated freighter) starts this story stealing nuclear submarine missiles from the Iranians. As they depart, they come across a drifting cruise ship and find almost all the passengers are dead. They rescue the one survivor just before the ship explodes. I’m not giving anything away here as there’s a big picture of a ship exploding on the cover of the book!!! The team finds this incident is only a small piece of a cult’s plan to change the future.

I give The Chase top marks and highly recommend it. Plague Ship was also very entertaining. It’s a fairly predictable genre, but still enjoyable for a long plane ride.

Chris Bo in Austin

Dust Devils by James Reasoner

I decided to return to a comfort genre last week and did a search on authors who write 'red neck noir' stories, which I find fun to read. An author that came up was James Reasoner who works in the field and is a heavily published writer of westerns. I went to his website and looked at his bibliography that said he has something like 200 novels in a wide variety of genres written under around 30(!) pseudonyms and has cracked what appears to be a writer's milestone of 1,000,000 words a year on more than one occasion. How do these people do this?

Dust Devils takes place in ugly west Texas. 20yo Toby McCoy's mother abandoned him at birth and he lived in a succession of foster homes in Oklahoma. His search for family is the foundation of the book. We meet up with Toby as a hitchhiker looking for work and gets hired on at a dirt farm of Dana, a 40something woman on her own in the barren plains of west Texas. While digging around when the lady was occupied, he finds a veritable arsenal of weapons. Just as she confronts him, 2 bad guys burst in and she swiftly and professionally takes them down. Then they are off on the run.

I'll leave one bizarre (but highly entertaining) twist out as it would spoil the book, but it turns out the farmer lady is hiding out from a bank heist gone bad and the 2 guys were out for revenge. Now she has to tell the other crooks she isn't to blame for the double cross, another of the group is. So they pack up for Dallas looking to make things right. Toby is now an unwitting accessory.

In Dallas, they hook up with the original double crosser for an armored car heist. More double-crossing and the remaining bank robbers are after her and Toby. The tale ends with a shootout in a parking lot of an observatory in SW Texas. Toby and the lady are free, flush with money, and off to make a new life, until the radio stories report a link to the farm shootings, the armored car holdup, and the bodies in the observatory parking lot...the link is Toby and his continuing life of loss and search for family.

As is the case in most noir stories, not all is as it seems. The reader follows Toby's search for some permanence that keeps getting uprooted by bad things from Dana's past. One never knows quite who should be trusted. People who get shot and left for dead wind up surviving, quiet scenes explode in gunfire, and a link to Oklahoma surfaces to tie everything together at the very end. What happened in Oklahoma and will that give any answers to the trail of mayhem left behind by Toby and Dana.

Not bad. not bad at all. Reasoner is credited with a cult private eye noir story called Texas Wind that I will have to find. too bad our library doesn't carry it. may actually have to buy a book!

East Coast Don

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Max Tucker

I needed some nonsensical diversion after the Ken Bruen book that spooked me like Silence of the Lambs spooked movie audiences.

A friend of my son's had loaned him "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" by Tucker Max for our cruise. I read the back cover blurb and thought, why not?

Tucker Max is his real name. He is a self-professed asshole who was raised in Miami, went to U Chicago, then to Duke Law on a full academic scholarship so dumb, he ain't.

He is 'that guy' who can be found on any college campus. The guy who drinks to excess, says anything to anybody and may or may not get away with it, and gets dang near any girl he sets his sights on. You all knew 'that guy'.

This is a series of escapades, mostly from his time around law school. Drunken debauchery that would make some college guys envious, but would gross others out completely. Make no mistake about it, this is vile, crude, profane, disgusting, and hilarious. This guy has a knack for sarcastic prose and dialogue. There were definite laugh out loud segments.

But would i recommend this? probably not. Despite it being a NY Time bestseller, I am sure it was because it penetrated its target demographic...twenty-something males and there are a ton of them out there. I actually got bored with chapter after chapter of tales about drinking, puking, screwing, fighting, yadda, yadda, yadda that I finally just said 'enough' and gave it back to my son to return.

But, I know you are curious...check out some samples at www.tuckermax.com

I dare you.

East Coast Don

Once Were Cops by Ken Bruen

Brief background . . . I read for maybe an hour in the morning over breakfast, feed the dog, etc. then over lunch ( I work from home, so this works for me), maybe a few minutes before falling asleep.

I read Once Were Cops in 4 sittings. 3 yesterday and this morning. Not that it was a long narrative. It was written much like so many online newspaper stories with one sentence paragraphs, double spaced between paragraphs; lotta while space on the page. This was mostly dialogue so the paragraphs were short, many were one line, so it went very quickly . . . and it was downright creepy.

I came across the author's name referenced in a story about another author. Bruen is Irish and I was skeptical. I've tried an Irish mystery writer twice before (Ian Rankin) and was never able to get into those stories, but I checked it out of the library anyway...and as a new release, I only had a week, no renewal, so yesterday morning, I decided to get at it.

Michael O'Shea is the Galway son of a police unit called the Guard. His dad was Guard and it was foregone that he would be Guard. But he has a secret . . . good cop/bad cop in separate personalities (and the bad cop part of his personality is reeeeeaaaallllly bad, we never really learn why, he just is evil). He keeps markers close to his chest to use later on and uses one to get added to the list of 20 Guards to be part of an exchange with US police. He wants NYC, not some backwater posting. Why NY? better hunting . . . a target rich environment.

He gets partnered with a hard case who tries to intimidate Shea in his first day on the job. But Shea remembers. He learns why his partner is on the take, and remembers. His captain has strange sexual tastes, and Shea remembers. He meets a barmaid and gets involved . . . with prey. Internal Affairs is looking into his partner and Shea sees some of the same traits in one of the IA guys, and he remembers.

Women are being strangled in NY and a task force is formed. Shea calls in markers and gets the case twisted towards the scum who have his partner on the take and when the case closes, the creeps paying his partner are either dead or on death row and Shea, the exchange cop, is the shining star of the NYC police department. In the future, he can do no wrong, all the while increasing his power base in the department.

One problem. the brother of his barmaid girlfriend is an investigative reporter . . .

Shea is one twisted character. He was on the wrong side of the jail cell, but you expect him to say the police equivalent of "hello, Clarise." Bruen paints a frightening picture of a demented sociopath. Makes you wonder what would heave happened if the Hillside Strangler was a cop. A short, psychological tale of a desperate personality. If all of Bruen's books are like this, I may not sleep well.

East Coast Don

The Fugitive King by Sarah Shaber

This will reduce my pile of Shaber's Simon Shaw mystery stories to zero and will venture into other territories, but first...

You will recall that these tales are based at a fictitious NC college in Raleigh and Prof Simon Shaw, a historian with a knack for solving really cold cases getting the moniker of 'forensic historian'. This one opens with the escape of a murderer from the prison in Raleigh. Surprise, surprise when the escapee turns up at Prof Shaw's house. This guy has served 40y of a life sentence for a murder he says he didn't commit and asks for help in proving his innocence. says he was forced to confess. The body was never found, but a drug hunting plane spots something in the mountain forest. turns out to be a truck with the remains of the corpse in the passenger seat. 40y? why wait so long? was he protecting something or someone?

The murder in question took place near where Prof Shaw grew up, Boone, NC, the home of Appalachian State University. Summer term is over so after learning what he can in Raleigh, he heads for the mountains to stay with family and do some digging. And dig he does. aunts and uncles, Big Momma and Rocky, cousin Luther, the retired sheriff, the retired history department chairman, mixed race lovers, games of checkers (the title comes from a particular checker board setup that serious players use to get past the typical opening of the game), the dead girl's sister, hours in the university library, evidence of old Cherokee settlements, and the chance of lost long gold up there in them thar hills.

As usual, Shaber delicately and gently takes the reader through his family and environs as Prof Shaw puts seemingly unconnected bits of information together to lead him to solving the case. following the clues in this one is like wandering around a spider web. I think this lady is good. easy reading, intelligent plotting, realistic characters, genuine dialogue...I will come back. I think there are 7 Shaw novels, so I look forward to spending more time with Prof Shaw.

East Coast Don

Mounting Fears by Stuart Woods

Woods is a prolific writer of fluff fiction. Stories with continuing characters and decent plotting. He has 3 main continuing characters: Holly Barker, Stone Barrington, and Will Lee (there is a 4th, the Dead series: LA Dead, NY Dead, Santa Fe as well as a couple books from years past in the LA movie scene, and a couple others). He writes at a rate of about 1 novel a year. This is his current release.

This is a Will Lee story. Lee is the democratic President. This one opens up with Lee wakening from a dream of middle east terrorists and a nuke. His day when he to accept his party's nomination for another term begins with his nightmare revealed...terrorists have taken control of a Pakistani nuke base and control 2 missiles. then his VP tells Lee his prostate cancer has returned with a vengeance and is due for surgery that afternoon (he dies), and they have to scramble not only to get a running mate but a successor for the rest of the first term. then there is a problem with an actress from Lee's past wanting access for a favor...another typical day in the Oval Office. They choose the current Gov of California who, after accepting the nod, tells Lee he is in the tail end of a quiet but amicable divorce (yeah, right). The other problem that shows up is that this governor's idea of governance is focused on the gentler sex, not public policy. He can't seem to keep from tripping over his libido. Then, a character from past Will Lee novels shows up again. Teddy Fay is an ex-CIA identity expert who's idea of influencing policy is to assassinate right wing politicians, fake his own death and get away with it - the topic of 2 earlier Will Lee stories. Anyway, Fay is living the quiet life in Panama City and a chance sighting alerts the CIA and a supermarket tabloid to his existence. While Teddy tries to silence all who've recognized him, he flies back to the US and plans to kill a black candidate who threatens to sabotage Lee's campaign. A young CIA operative in Panama figures this all out and chases Fay to Jacksonville FL to thwart the attempt.

Anyway, Lee manages to get the ex-wife to quite being a creep about the divorce, convince one lady friend of the VEEP to back off, and for the VEEP to make an honest woman out of the third. Plus, he orders SEALS into Pakistan to recapture a missing Nuke. just another day as the POTUS. Our intrepid CIA agent manages to stop the assassination attempt and in doing so, shoots some holes in the gas tanks of Teddy's plane bound for Bermuda (or was it the Bahamas?) and we are left to wonder if Teddy crashes into the Atlantic (not likely) or manages to survive his predicament (very likely).

Don't go into a Stuart Woods book expecting great literature cuz that just ain't happening. There is little descriptive narrative to set a tone or mood for the story. just lots of good, quick dialogue that keeps the pages turning at a rapid pace. This is travel lit, on a plane, in the terminal, just before sleep in a hotel. if you know what you are in for, Woods will deliver and his multiple best sellers speak to his connection with his fans. I've read I don't know how many of his novels and will keep coming back. i like the Holly Barker series the best and she shows up in a supporting role here. If i'm in the need of a book, I can count on a Woods book to fill the time, I've still a number to get through when the mood strikes.

East Coast Don

Snipe Hunt by Sarah Shaber

I last said an extra day on the cruise would've given me time to finish the 2nd Shaber book I took, so I finished it middle of last week.

my last post was about Simon Said and Shaber's reluctant slueth, Professor Simon Shaw. Remember Shaw is a history prof at a small Raleigh NC college. This time he and a couple families and friends are at the NC outer banks for Thanksgiving on a barrier island where the Army Corps of Engineers is doing their routine dredging of the channel. Shaw's archeological buddy has a deal with them to sift through the junk that gets hauled up and in this one load, they find the remains of a body in rudimentary diving gear. The body is an island resident who became one of the Navy's first divers in WWII, thus the old gear. Attached to his belt is a bucket with about a dozen gold Confederate coins. Upon autopsy, the remains contain a knife blade and evidence of a stabbing on the ribs. Prof Shaw, still flush with notoriety from the previous case, wants nothing to do with it, but the coins make him more interested in just what happened. was the corpse looking for treasure from the Civil War, or just what was the reason for the murder? The year round residents all seem to be related, so it's likely one of this family is connected to the death. soon, evidence of another death pops up around the same time so now everyone wonders if the two are connected. Finally, the patriarch of the clan falls off the widow's walk of their house. Falls or was he pushed? is this new murder connected to the earlier killings? and how does the gold fit in? Everyone wants to know because the locals fear an onslaught of treasure hunters ruining their little corner of heaven.

I like Shaber and glad I stumbled across her books. I am reading another now. My 80yo mother in law is here this month and she read this next book in 2 days. Easy reading, interesting views of a unpretentious way of life interrupted by an old unsolved death. She presents hers tales in a lively, descriptive, and cleaver narrative. As traditional mystery writers go, she is pretty good. I said last time that it's too bad because her books might be hard to find being NC regional books. But I accessed my mother in law's local library up in Wisconsin and all Shaber's books are there, so there is hope if you are interested. 5 of her novels are in the San Diego County library system for you on the left coast.

EC Don

Simon Said by Sarah Shaber

Simon Shaw is a young history professor at the fictional Raleigh small college, Kenan College (the Kenan family is a major benefactor to NC colleges-Kenan Stadium at UNC for example). A local archeological dig on the grounds of a historical house on campus produces the body of a girl shot in the head and the cops ask Dr. Shaw for help as he is the local expert on the house and family. quickly he figures out it is the remains of a daughter missing since the early 1920s.

What happens now is that Dr. Shaw becomes quite enthralled with trying to find out what happened and who was responsible. He digs through archives, manages to find a few people still alive who knew the missing girl and slowly manages to piece together what happened. All the while is dealing with his wife walking out on him, petty jealously within the history department, angry students, an ex-NC State football player detective, the police lawyer, 2 attempts on his life, and some interesting faculty friends that I wouldn't mind having as friends.

When a book is based in your back yard, you get caught up in the accuracy of the locale as a character and this was no exception. This gentle stroll through Raleigh and Kenan summer school was, to me, thoroughly engrossing, very witty, with characters I want to revisit (already ordered two more from the library). Shaber carefully brings the reader into the small world of this accidental detective that Simon Shaw becomes, much to his own chagrin.

After doing a little digging about the author, turns out she works in a Raleigh PR company and this book won an award for Best First Traditional Mystery. Never knew there was such a thing, but this short (just over 200 page in paperback) tale was everything it was advertised. Problem is, I am sure you will never find it in your library. the local Barnes and Noble bookstore didn't even carry her books, not in the mystery section or the North Carolina writers section. Their loss. If you want a copy, probably have to hit Amazon. buy it used, could probably get it for a couple bucks.

East Coast Don

Aquitaine Progession by Robert Ludlum

I have been enjoying reading you since east coast don kindly invited me to join the club but rarely contributed. I shall try to report on an old book which a friend gave me recently and which was my first ludlum experience. You may have read the book or may not be ludlum fans but as far as I am concerned I thought a man who sold dozens of millions would be worth knowing more about.
John converse, vietnam vet captured tortured escaped decorated hero, has turned 10 years later into a succesful international lawyer, meets old friend in geneva, switzerland. Friend reports secret diabolic plan led by old generals in developed western countries to create chaos and establish military rule, 'Aquitaine'. Former saigon merciless general leads the bunch with allies in germany, france, uk, israel and south africa.
Friend is shot dead minutes after the conversation and converse finds himself propelled into an incredible adventure which takes him to paris, bonn, amsterdam and on the roads of europe.

Converse is a good lawyer, remarkable fighter, smart in all situations and even manages to get his wife back in the end, as he saves the free world. This being said, the book is a page turner. Action is very good and so are the descriptions of cities and atmosphere. Plenty of characters and most are interesting. Aquitaine has good story telling, plotting and above all dialogues.

David

David

Excellent and thanks for the Ludlum review. I've read one of the Bourne novels (and can say the movies are only 'loosely' based on the books) and tried his one attempt at humor, 'The Road to Omaha' but couldn't finish it. Always sort of thought the Ludlum novels really required a commitment because of the length and complexity. But hey, I read Nelson DeMille or Robert McCammon and both of them write long involved stories (try The Charm School by Demille or Boy's Life by McCammon...two of the best stories I have EVER read). But based on your comments, I will give Ludlum another go.

thanks for giving me a gentle nudge back toward Ludlum.

East Coast Don

Tsar by Ted Bell

I took a break from the historical fiction and returned to a political thriller I received for Christmas.

Tsar is an acronym for a Russian corporation called Technology, Science, And Research owned by a genius who is a little off his rocker.

The Russian bear is awakening from its post break up slumber and the US and the Brits are concerned, opening up a new ultrasecret spy network based in Bermuda. The story opens up with our hero, Alex Hawke, sunbathing nude on an isolated beach in Bermuda when the topless skindiver lady surfaces with a bag full of shells (yeah, like this happens every day). Turns out she is the daughter of this Russian nut (tres coincidental). Meanwhile, the Tsar in waiting has a bomber running lose killing anyone they don't like, blowing up a prison, a birthday party for a Chechian (did I spell that right?) rebel, then the entire town of Salinas, Kansas. Hawke follows his new girlfriend to Russia to snoop around and stumbles across a plot to reestablish the former Soviet Union, seat a new Tsar and provoke the West into World War III-your average vacation for a spy, right?

Anyway, the plot moves along crisply, tracking the clues and double-crosses from Bermuda to Russia to a Russian prison (where Hawke is imprisoned with Putin of all people, patiently waiting to be placed back in power and return Russia to some level of sanity) back to Bermuda to an attack class sub to a hostage rescue operation on a blimp hovering over the Atlantic to Stockholm for the violent conclusion.

For the most part, this book has all the cliches of a political thriller: our fit, muscled, scar riddled hero who is the son of privilege and moves with the easy grace of an athlete, the breathtakingly beautiful femme fatale who happens to be the daughter of the bad guy and falls in love with the hero, SEAL team rescue, double agents who seem to know more than is plausible, flushing the bad guy out in public (entirely unrealistic...I chuckled when it happened saying to myself 'no way in hell'), violent end with our hero nearing death, miraculously recovering to live in a drunken haze of guilt and loss back in the Bermudian paradise. Political thriller novelists must have a boilerplate they follow.

anyway, this moved right along and might be a reasonable diversion. just realize it stretches the limits of believability. I was reminded of Bob Uecker's call of a pitch by the Wild Thing in the movie Major League, "Juuuuuust a bit outside" the realm of reality.

Cheers for a good year of interesting reading

East Coast Don

The Closers by Michale Connelly

Greetings fellow readers. Just back from my last big trip of the year, this time to Slovenia (which I would enthusiastically recommend a trip combining Slovenia and Croatia, especially the Dalmatia coast on the Adriatic in your dream travel plans). 2 books to report on.

The first is a return to one of my current favs, Michael Connelly. This is my 3rd or 4th Connelly book. I seem to be working backwards in the Harry Bosch series. Seems Harry spent 25 years in the LAPD then retired for 3 years. This is the first week of his return to the police force. He has been assigned to the open-unsolved (i.e. Cold Case) unit. The first case is the 17 year old unsolved case of a half-black/white high school girl in Chatsworth. The clues lead around a west valley hate crime group, her family, HS friends, potential political pressure within the police force. The case takes an unusual turn during a stakeout that directs the investigation in an unexpected way that all comes together in a matter of what seems like minutes. Now I need to go back a book to see what caused Harry to leave the force. Might be easier if I read these in chronological rather than reverse order. But it works for me. Connelly remains in my power rotation.

The second was recommended to me during a meeting a had 2 weeks ago with the UNC women's soccer coach (as an aside, if you don't follow women's college soccer, which I'm sure you don't, Anson Dorrance is probably the most successful coach in NCAA history. I think his record is over .900 for the last 25 years, and has won the NCAA women's national championship something like 18 of 25 times. Sports Illustrated listed UNC women's soccer as one of the NCAA's top dynasty's in history, the only women's team so honored. Dean Smith used to say UNC wasn't a men's basketball factory, it was a women's soccer factory..but enough of that). Anson brought up Moneyball during the conversation, so I checked it out of the library.

The theme of Moneyball is just how do the Oakland A's, with one of baseball's lowest salary structures, manage to compete in baseball. The General Manager is Billy Beane, but the book, while it revolves around Beane, is not about Beane. it's about a new generation of baseball people and how they view the game, its ridiculous volume of statistics, and how it gets used to identify diamonds in the rough. The minutae of detail about baseball probably make it unreadable to anyone without knowledge of the game (FIFA David, I am guessing). You really need to know something about the game. There are some really fascinating chapters, like baseball draft day, picking up a free agent, signing an undervalued pitcher, trades and the sort of liar's poker that goes on when trading players back and forth, how they lost Jason Giambi to the Yankees and filled his production with a player being paid maybe 10% of what the Yankees paid for Giambi, and throughout is the finding, drafting, signing, and development of a player no one ever heard of into a front line big league player. A fascinating book if you like baseball.

East Coast Don

Extreme Measures by Vince Flynn

OK, I'm prejudiced. I like Vince Flynn's books. Based on his prior work, I can't imagine not liking his latest, whatever it is. When I saw that Extreme Measures was due out in late October, I immediately put my name on the reserve list at the library...I was number 5 on the list. with the library buying 70 copies of the book, that meant I was on the first group to get it. Then my travel schedule showed I'd be on the road and I groaned....now i'd be put at the bottom of the list and I might come back to the top by December if I was lucky (there are over 300 requests on the list as of today). While at the library checking out books for this latest trip, I told the librarian my dilemma and was told no problem, they'd put my request on hold until a specific date when it would go active and I'd probably be at the top of the list. Sure enough, I got home on Saturday Nov 1 and on Tuesday I got the call. Good system.

For those guys who don't know (Flynn writes man fiction, can't ever see a woman reading his stuff), Flynn's stories revolve around a CIA counter terrorist operative Mitch Rapp whose view of the world could be summed up as 'kill them all before they kill us'. Two high level Taliban operatives are captured in Afghanistan and held on a US air force base. Mitch impersonates an Air Force officer and does what he does best...convince the bad guys it's in their best interest to cooperate. problem is a limp dick panty waist AF captain doesn't like what he's doing and draws down on Rapp...not a good idea and Rapp none-too-gently disarms the guy who then decides to press charges. This sets in motion a series of congressional hearings on Rapp, the CIA, counter terrorism, while a previously unknown al Qaeda cell prepares for a big strike inside the US and Rapp is stuck on Capitol Hill rather out than finding the bad guys.

In Flynn's prior books, we follow the trail of clues and events that eventually lead to Rapp sending the terrorists off to Paradise earlier than expected, thwarting the plot and saving the day...and you silently cheer Rapp's every move, decision, and action as he gets closer and closer to the source. In this one, the main protagonist is a liberal Senator from New England who has the neanderthal knuckle draggers at the CIA in her crosshairs. As the the hearings get closer and closer, you can't wait to see the verbal sparring that will ensue with her committee. That the terror cell is getting closer and closer to carrying out their plan is almost secondary. The one difference with this book vs other Flynn books is that there is an obvious connection to the next novel. I can see the upcoming book picking up 'the next day.'

Also read that the first Flynn book to be green-lighted by Hollywood is Consent to Kill. Flynn has 9 novels out and this CTK is about novel #6 or 7, well into the character, but the only one with a love interest as a major player...guess H'wood thought that was necessary. I thought they should've started with earlier stories, but they didn't ask me. If you are new to Flynn, start at the beginning, which I think was Transfer of Power.

An interesting sidelight. When doing some work for US Soccer some years ago, the coaching/training staff were all sitting around drinking some beers when the trainer, a woman from Minneapolis, asked what kinds of books I like. i said political thrillers and crime. She asked if I had read anything by a relative newcomer named Vince Flynn and I said 'Oh yeah, Mitch Rapp is the baddest character going. It was right about then I put 2 and 2 together and realized this trainer, Vicki Flynn, was Vince's sister. Needless to say, Vince Flynn is a hit amongst the US national soccer team.

A solid 'A' in my book. but remember, I'm prejudiced.

East Coast Don

Bonk The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach

I previously wrote about Mary Roach’s first book, Stiff, the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Her second book, Bonk, the Curious Couple of Science and Sex is much better. Perhaps that’s because I’d rather read about sex than dead bodies, and if that’s the case so be it. She was less digressive in this book as she reviews the work of Masters and Johnson, Kinsey, etc., but what is better than reading those peoples’ original work is that she is interested in who they are as humans. She is very clever in her approach, and is quite open about when she submits herself as a subject to some research efforts. She even gets her husband to go along with having sex while they are having an ultrasound. He should probably be a member of this club. I thought one of her more clever lines had to do with the term, “I’m dating myself,” which we use when referring to an old song, or some other more distant event. She now understands the term as a euphemism for masturbation. As a psychiatrist, I love that.

WC Don

The Black Echo by Michael Connelly

It is a fast moving piece, but the last 150 pages are getting a little tedious in terms of bringing together all the subplots. That’s another reason I’m writing this now rather than finishing the book first. It’s a 1992 book, and I think, the first of this author’s books. He writes an LA detective genre book about the maverick detective Harry Bosch who has a beautiful FBI counterpart in Eleanor Wish (I wish). They are working to solve crimes that date back to the 70s, but crimes that have a current impact on the Vietnamese community of LA. So there are frequent references to war and crime in Vietnam in the 60’s and 70’s, something I know too much about as the result of having done my residency training in psychiatry at several VA hospitals around the country in the immediate post-Vietnam era. So, this author is in a class under Daniel Silva, Cussler, and Rosenberg, but a better writer than Brad Thor.

WC Don

So Wild a Dream by Win Blevins

Win Blevins’ So Wild a Dream is not the usual kind of book we read. It takes place in the 1820’s and starts out with an 18-year-old boy’s decision to leave his home in Pennsylvania and travel west. He ends up in the far west, as far north as Montana, with mountain men, buffalo hunters, Indians and Indian fighters, etc. His encounters and travels with one woman of the night are told so well. The author’s research is incredible and he actually only uses a couple fictional characters. Much of what he has written is entirely based on contemporary accounts of people of the time. Given its dedication to the reality of the times, it sometimes is not as fast moving as other books we read, but if you like good history and are interested in that time period, this is a book for you. It is not as well written as McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove, but what is (that’s probably my favorite novel of all time). The dialogue is good. I liked it.

WC Don

New York Dead by Stuart Woods

Back in the US after 2 weeks in Senegal then Zurich and finished my 3rd book on the trip. Previously reported on The Watchman and Echo Park. This was New York Dead by Stuart Woods, long time New York Times best selling author.

Woods is, for me, like comfort food...tasty, but not all that fulfilling. WC Don might call this one of those airplane books. Easy to read, fast paced, a reliable crime story, a decent waste of time, but hardly anything resembling great fiction. when it comes to crime fiction, my tastes run more toward Pelecanos or Price.

One of the continuing characters of Woods is Stone Barrington (who names their kid that?). I'd read a couple more recent stories, but I chose this earlier copyright looking for some backstory on Barrington. Seems this guy finished law school, but went to the New York City police academy instead of the bar. worked 15y as a cop, then unceremoniously retired on a disability pension before going back to take and pass the bar. In this story, our hero is walking, a little tipsy, back from dinner, looks up to see a body falling into a construction site pile of sand. The jumper was the next network TV news anchor. Problem is that after the EMS people leave the scene, the body disappears and no one can find her. With his partner, Stone (turns out his mom's maiden name was Stone and he dropped using his first name, thus the moniker). In parallel, NYC also has a serial killer of taxi drivers. The case gets closed when a prime suspect unexpectedly commits suicide, but Barrington thinks there is more to this case. As he moves to work on contract with a legal firm, little clues seem to hint that maybe the jumper actually survived the fall and is in hiding.

Like I said, nothing spectacular, but when I've look at my nightstand and see no book, I know I can check out a Woods book from the library and get a satisfying read. He actually has 2 continuing characters, Barrington and Holly Barker, an ex-MP now police chief of a small town on the coast of Florida. I actually prefer the Holly Barker series, but there are only about 4 of them (they all have the word Orchid in the title)and maybe a dozen of more Barrington novels. Now I've read maybe 6 books by Woods and will read more, but they are strictly fillers. safe bets all.

East Coast Don

The Watchman by Robert Crais

I had reported to the group on another Crais novel, The Two Minute Rule, where Crais painted a picture of a career criminal just off a 10y prison stint trying to learn why his cop son was murdered the day before his release. The trick was in making the ex-con a character you’d pull for.

If you remember, at the end of the movie Dirty Harry, the disillusioned cop Harry Callahan threw his shield into the pond after killing the serial killer (“do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”). It looked like Harry was quitting. The next movie picked up with Harry back on the force with no mention of the end of the prior story.

This story by Crais is sort of what I thought might have happened to Callahan had he actually quit. In this story, the Callahan character is named Joe Pike, an ex-marine who was part of a clandestine unit that operated outside the rules of war. After Vietnam, he joined the LAPD and forged a father-son relationship with his training officer. After 4 years, he up and quits, and takes a job as a mercenary (the story behind why he quit the LAPD would’ve made a great book by itself). Now, he gets hired to do things others can’t or won’t do.

A Paris Hilton-type girl has a car accident late at night. 2 people hurt and a third runs off. Her description of the runner sets of a series of attempts on the girl’s life. That’s where Pike comes in; protect the girl where witness protection failed. In the first chapter, Pike kills 5 bad guys at 2 supposedly safe houses and decides he can do better without the help of the police of Justice Dept. With the help of his former T.O. father figure, a buddy PI recovering from a shotgun injury, and a geeky, ‘poon tang’ hound from the LAPD CSI unit, the piece together clues that tie information from LA to Colorado to Ecuador, to the Czech Republic. Is she slated for death or some other purpose? Who is behind the attempts? Does the trail lead to the Department of Justice? Higher up in the LAPD? Drug lords? Or who?

As you can imagine, I pictured the Pike character as what Harry Callahan would’ve done after the first movie. Crais portrays Pike as a lean, hard man almost devoid of personality, regret, or humor. Pike makes Jack Reacher seem like the life of the party, if you can imagine that. He just sees right or wrong. His PI friend and the CSI guy were more likable characters, especially the CSI guy. But our femme fatale is actually the one who changes most over the week of the storyline. She starts out like Paris Hilton but by the end of the week and what she sees and experiences, you could see her potentially potentially becoming La Femme Nikita….or not…

Not bad by my reckoning. After 2 novels, I’ve come to like Crais. On to something else now. Still have a week left on this trip to rainy and overcast Zurich.

Nothing to Lose by Lee Child

just
finished lee child's latest Jack Reacher novel, Nothing to Lose...all I lost was
some time...not nearly as entertaining as his earlier work, but still enough for
fans to get another Reacher fix. I've read them all and i'd place this in the
lower half, maybe lower third...but Reacher still cuts a wide path through the
bad guys with a high body count...

EC Don

Lush Life by Richard Price

this week's new author recommendation is Richard Price.

just finished reading Lush Life, his latest. He wrote Clockers and The
Wanderers, both made it to the movies. also did the screenplay for The Color Of
Money (oscar nominated), Sea of Love, Shaft, some episodes of The Wire.
Entertainment Weekly said Lush Life was the best crime novel of the year. read
somewhere that in some distant future, when the natives want to know the dialect
of the underclass in 2000-ish NYC, they will turn to Price's novels.

while I thought it was good, and the dialogue gritty and harsh, I still
like Pelacanos better (my DC bias). but it's worth a read.

Echo Park by Michael Connelly

WC Don reported recently on an early Harry Bosch novel by Michael Connelly, not too favorably as I recall. A couple weeks ago I added a more recent Harry Bosch novel called The Overlook. In that book, the Harry Bosch character repeatedly referred back to a case in Echo Park so I decided to get it.

Harry Bosch was a police detective, got disillusioned and retired, then unretired. This book is early in his 2nd stint with the LAPD open-unsolved crimes unit. 13 years earlier he had failed to solve a particularly grizzly murder and periodically goes back to the files and sort of reopens the case. He thought he had his guy, but could never make the case stick. Now, an under the radar serial killer gets picked up in a routine stake out on another case. His lawyer tries to work a deal to save his client from the needle by having him to confess to all his previously unknown crimes as well as Bosch's old case. But Bosch thinks it's too clean. Things go horribly wrong with the deal, officers die, and loose ends start to unravel that end up looking like a plate of spaghetti (Italian reference in honor of WC Don’s October holiday in Italy). How he puts the case together, moving from one lead to another, from one suspect to another, is an interesting web of lies, deceit, and manipulations. A solid B for me. Not as good as Richard Price or George Pelecanos, better than Stuart Woods, maybe on a par with T Jefferson Parker? Anway…I have another Bosch novel to read on this trip.

WC Don called Bosch a ‘maverick’. Now I’m not as literate as he, so I don’t really know what a maverick is…only maverick I hear about today is McCain and that might not be the best example. Regardless, I’ve tried to envision who might play him were a movie to be made, something I often do. His history includes being a tunnel rat in Vietnam, so that places him to be in his late 50’s, at least in Echo Park. So who’d play him in the movies? Harrison Ford is too good looking I think. Vigo Mortensen is too hard (if you don’t believe me, see Eastern Promises). Actually thought Richard Dreyfuss might work. Gene Hackman has retired for the most part. Maybe Chris Cooper (Bourne’s CIA boss in Bourne Identity) or David Strathairn (played Edward R. Murrow in Good Night and Good Luck), or even Ed Harris. Anyway…I like the recent Connelly work and based on WC Don’s statement, will probably work backward until I get bored rather than starting from the beginning as he thought the book he read, one of Connelly’s early works, was a bit weak. But I’ll be coming back to more Connelly novels for now.

East Coast Don