en-US Sun, 30 Mar 2025 06:15:28 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 208960 Argo, a colonization ship bound for Eta Cephei IV, people are very close--there's no other choice. So when Aaron Rossman's ex-wife dies in what seems to be a bizarre accident, everyone offers their sympathy, politely keeping their suspicions of suicide to themselves. But Aaron cannot simply accept her death. He must know the truth: Was it an accident, or did she commit suicide? When Aaron discovers the truth behind her death, he is faced with a terrible secret--a secret that could cost him his life.]]> 252 Robert J. Sawyer 0312868650 Roger 0 3.74
author: Robert J. Sawyer
name: Roger
average rating: 3.74
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/30
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]]> 12125412 10 Frank R. Stockton Roger 0 3.94
author: Frank R. Stockton
name: Roger
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/28
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]]> 39030 464 Douglas Preston 0765354950 Roger 0 favorites 4.03 1997
author: Douglas Preston
name: Roger
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> 1443057 64 Chris Claremont 0871351536 Roger 0 3.61 1985
author: Chris Claremont
name: Roger
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
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]]> 124862
So begins Homer "Sonny" Hickam Jr.'s extraordinary memoir of life in Coalwood, West Virginia - a hard-scrabble little mining company town where the only things that mattered were coal mining and high school football and where the future was regarded with more fear than hope.

Looking back after a distinguished NASA career, Hickam shares the story of his youth, taking readers into the life of the little mining town of Coalwood and the boys who would come to embody its dreams.

In 1957 a young man watched the Soviet satellite Sputnik shoot across the Appalachian sky and soon found his future in the stars. 'Sonny' and a handful of his friends, Roy Lee Cook, Sherman O'Dell and Quentin Wilson were inspired to start designing and launching the home-made rockets that would change their lives forever.

Step by step, with the help (and occasional hindrance) of a collection of unforgettable characters, the boys learn not only how to turn scrap into sophisticated rockets that fly miles into the sky, but how to sustain their dreams as they dared to imagine a life beyond its borders in a town that the postwar boom was passing by.

A powerful story of growing up and of getting out, of a mother's love and a father's fears, Homer Hickam's memoir Rocket Boys proves, like Angela's Ashes and Russell Baker's Growing Up before it, that the right storyteller and the right story can touch readers' hearts and enchant their souls.

A uniquely endearing book with universal themes of class, family, coming of age, and the thrill of discovery, Homer Hickam's Rocket Boys is evocative, vivid storytelling at its most magical.

In 1999, Rocket Boys was made into a Hollywood movie named October Sky starring Chris Cooper, Jake Gyllenhaal and Laura Dern. October Sky is an anagram of Rocket Boys. It is also used in a period radio broadcast describing Sputnik 1 as it crossed the 'October sky'. Homer Hickam stated that "Universal Studios marketing people got involved and they just had to change the title because, according to their research, women over thirty would never see a movie titled Rocket Boys" so Universal Pictures changed the title to be more inviting to a wider audience. The book was later re-released with the name October Sky in order to capitalize on interest in the movie.]]> 428 Homer Hickam 0440235502 Roger 0 4.14 1998
author: Homer Hickam
name: Roger
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/18
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]]> 40389348 Boston Globe) New York Times bestselling author Tim Dorsey—comes a diabolically madcap adventure featuring the indomitable Serge A. Storms.

No one worships the Sunshine State as much as Serge A. Storms. Perpetually hunting Floridian arcana and lore, he and his permanently baked sidekick, Coleman, are on the road again. This time they’re on a frenzied literary pilgrimage that leads them back to Riviera Beach, the cozy seaside town where the boys spent their formative years.

Growing up, Serge was enthralled by the Legend of Riviera Beach, aka Darby, a welder at the port who surfed the local waves long before the hot spots were hot. A god on the water, the big-hearted surfer was a friend to everyone—the younger surfers, cops, politicians, wealthy businessmen and ordinary Joes—a generosity of spirit that earned him the admiration of all. Meanwhile, there was a much murkier legend that made the rounds of the schoolyards from Serge’s youth—that of the crazy hermit living in a makeshift jungle compound farther up the mysterious Loxahatchee River than anyone dared to venture.

Then Serge moved away. But never forgot.

Now he’s back, with those legends looming larger than ever in the rearview mirror of his memory. As his literary odyssey moves north from Key West, closer and closer to his old stomping grounds, Serge digs into the past as only Serge can. Along the way, he unintentionally disturbs some long-forgotten ground, attracting the attention of a cast of villains that only Florida can produce.

As the body count grows, so does the list of

Why are the guys in the hard hats worried about the monkeys? When do you hack a motel air-conditioner? How does Coleman get high with cat toys? Who is expecting the dildo? And will book tours ever be the same after Serge decides to check one out?

Told in alternating flashbacks between Serge and Coleman’s childhoods and the present day, The Pope of Palm Beach is a witty and deliciously violent delight from the twisted imagination of Tim Dorsey.]]> 357 Tim Dorsey 0062429272 Roger 5
Merged review:

Tim Dorsey is a deft hand at comedy, which I think may be the hardest genre to write in. Dorsey is consistently funny, but he really outdoes himself with The Pope of Palm Beach. I have been on the fence regarding this series (featuring semi-demented serial killer and Floridaphile Serge A Storms) but this book has convinced me to stick around. The scene in which Pharmabro Martin Shkreli (or at least a suitable doppelganger) is dealt with is priceless. Yes, certainly, this is some dark humor and so not for necessarily for everyone. But I think most of us want to see justice done and have entertained some type of revenge fantasy in our lives. Serge is like a vast and devious force of nature who descends upon the various morons we all have to deal with and...punishes the guilty.]]> 4.06 2018
author: Tim Dorsey
name: Roger
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2018/03/23
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:
Tim Dorsey is a deft hand at comedy, which I think may be the hardest genre to write in. Dorsey is consistently funny, but he really outdoes himself with The Pope of Palm Beach. I have been on the fence regarding this series (featuring semi-demented serial killer and Floridaphile Serge A Storms) but this book has convinced me to stick around. The scene in which Pharmabro Martin Shkreli (or at least a suitable doppelganger) is dealt with is priceless. Yes, certainly, this is some dark humor and so not for necessarily for everyone. But I think most of us want to see justice done and have entertained some type of revenge fantasy in our lives. Serge is like a vast and devious force of nature who descends upon the various morons we all have to deal with and...punishes the guilty.

Merged review:

Tim Dorsey is a deft hand at comedy, which I think may be the hardest genre to write in. Dorsey is consistently funny, but he really outdoes himself with The Pope of Palm Beach. I have been on the fence regarding this series (featuring semi-demented serial killer and Floridaphile Serge A Storms) but this book has convinced me to stick around. The scene in which Pharmabro Martin Shkreli (or at least a suitable doppelganger) is dealt with is priceless. Yes, certainly, this is some dark humor and so not for necessarily for everyone. But I think most of us want to see justice done and have entertained some type of revenge fantasy in our lives. Serge is like a vast and devious force of nature who descends upon the various morons we all have to deal with and...punishes the guilty.
]]> 44612689
T. K. hates a lot of things, but at the moment, it's how she becomes the #1 target during dodgeball at gym. Everything changes, however, when she discovers that she has the ace ability to direct spherical objects � and she makes her classmates pay! But her powers are made for more than petty revenge, as she soon discovers while on a family vacation.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 44 Marko Kloos 1250206871 Roger 4
Merged review:

Short tale, short review: How to Move Spheres and Influence People introduces an new and interesting character. It's well written and fun.]]> 3.96 2019
author: Marko Kloos
name: Roger
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/10/12
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves:
review:
Short tale, short review: How to Move Spheres and Influence People introduces an new and interesting character. It's well written and fun.

Merged review:

Short tale, short review: How to Move Spheres and Influence People introduces an new and interesting character. It's well written and fun.
]]> 330110 240 Edgar Rice Burroughs 0809599848 Roger 2 3.75 1914
author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
name: Roger
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1914
rating: 2
read at: 2023/01/04
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves:
review:
I wanted to like The Beasts of Tarzan so much. What a disappointment. Both Tarzan and Jane Porter prove to be unsophisticated idiots, able to be deceived just as easily as any seven-year-old. This is the clever and crafty Lord of the Jungle? Jane is a professional hostage. The racism is indisputably present it hurts my heart to read it. Yes, I know this was written circa 1914 and is a child of its time. And there are some good things to say about this Edgar Rice Burroughs book. The motley crew Tarzan assembles provided the majority of the entertainment and some of the action sequences are first rate. But the good does not outweigh the bad. Two stars.
]]> 3788525 246 William L. DeAndrea 0802732895 Roger 0 3.50 1996
author: William L. DeAndrea
name: Roger
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> 1557943 Wild Cards shared-universe series, created and edited since 1987 by New York Times #1 bestseller George R. R. Martin along with Melinda Snodgrass, is the tale of the history of the world since then--and of the heroes among that one percent.
Ěý
Originally begun in 1986, long before George R. R. Martin became a household name among fantasy readers ("The American Tolkien" --Time magazine), the Wild Cards series earned a reputation among connoisseurs for its smart reimagining of the superhero idea.ĚýNow, with Inside Straight, the Wild Cards continuity jumps forward to a new generation of major characters, entirely accessible to Martin's hundreds of thousands of new readers, with all-original stories by Martin himself, along with Daniel Abraham, Michael Cassutt, and Stephen Leigh, among others.]]> 384 George R.R. Martin 0765317818 Roger 0 3.78
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Roger
average rating: 3.78
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> 15767172
In Rusty Santoro's neighborhood, the kids carry knives, chains, bricks. Broken glass.Ěý And when they fight, they fight dirty, leaving the streets littered with the bodies of the injured and the dead.Ěý Rusty wants out - but you can't just walk away from a New York street gang. And his decision may leave his family to pay a terrible price. Ěý

First published more than half a century ago and inspired by the author's real-life experience going undercover inside a street gang, Web of the City was Harlan Ellison's first novel and marked the long-form debut of one of the most electrifying, unforgettable, and controversial voices of 20th century letters. Ěý

Appearing here for the first time together with three thematically related short stories Ellison wrote for the pulp magazines of the 1950s, Web of the City offers both a snapshot of a lost era and a portrait of violence and grief as timely as today's most brutal headlines.]]> 284 Harlan Ellison 1781164207 Roger 3 3.26 1958
author: Harlan Ellison
name: Roger
average rating: 3.26
book published: 1958
rating: 3
read at: 2016/11/21
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
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It has been nice to read some Harlan Ellison again. Ellison is my personal God of Writing-I first discovered him when I stumbled across a copy of an anthology he edited (Again, Dangerous Visions) in our public library when I was a teen. Fortunately my parents did not pay a lot of attention to what I was reading in those years. (Funny story: a lot of Ellison's work was reissued in the eighties and I can distinctly remember carrying my copy of Love Ain't Nothing But Sex Misspelled around in high school. Wow the reactions in a Catholic HS were interesting.) Web of the City is Ellison's first novel, written nearly six decades ago. It still has a little zing to it, but several factors lessen its' impact today. It is written in what I am going to call "HepCatSpeak" and the jargon is jarring. If you can get past that (and trust me you can) there are a few good twists and turns here but in the end I found they made the story less believable. This novel was based on Ellison's own experiences going undercover with a NY street gang (per the back cover of the book) so I expected things to be a little more grounded in reality. This edition of Web of the City also features three short stories Ellison wrote in approximately the same time period, one of which is a short reworking of the Web of the City novel itself. These read a lot like early Spillane, especially the last entry "Stand Still and Die!" But that is okay-where you start is not necessarily where you finish. Ellison went on to become one of the most award winning SF authors ever. He wrote what is literally the best original series Star Trek episode filmed, City on the Edge of Forever, and has won ten Hugo awards. He is one of the writers I hold in the highest esteem.
]]> 3477269 176 Roy Thomas 091541905X Roger 0 4.17
author: Roy Thomas
name: Roger
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/06
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]]> 121743 292 Kathryn Lindskoog 0940895366 Roger 0 4.32 1952
author: Kathryn Lindskoog
name: Roger
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1952
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/31
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]]> 321005 Bookworm, Run! (1966)
True Names (1981)
The Peddler's Apprentice (1975) with Joan D. Vinge
The Ungoverned (1985)
Long Shot (1972)
Marooned in Realtime (excerpt) (1987)]]> 275 Vernor Vinge 0671653636 Roger 0 4.09 1981
author: Vernor Vinge
name: Roger
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 164379 352 Jon Winokur 0525934898 Roger 0 3.95 1995
author: Jon Winokur
name: Roger
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/05
shelves:
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]]> 1112018 226 John Westermann 1569472238 Roger 0 3.43
author: John Westermann
name: Roger
average rating: 3.43
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/22
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]]> 970282 304 Beverly Gray 1580631460 Roger 0 3.41 2000
author: Beverly Gray
name: Roger
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves:
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]]> 1001556
Soon, though, Mitch senses trouble: two of the partners die in a suspicious diving accident off Grand Cayman; the firm's management is overly proud of the fact that no one has ever resigned, and security measures at the firm are-even for a company with billionaire clients—more than a little stringent. Then, suddenly, Mitch's vague suspicions come to life. While eating alone at a nearby diner, he is approached by a man named Tarrance who claims to be with the FBI. Tarrance tells Mitch that the firm's "security" people have bugged his phone, his house, and probably his can that he is in great danger and should......
--front flap]]> 432 John Grisham Roger 0 3.89 1991
author: John Grisham
name: Roger
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/25
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]]> 55502882
Welcome to the world of the malevolent monarch of the Hollywood underground - a tale of pervasive paranoia teeming with communist conspiracies, FBI finks, celebrity smut films and strange bedfellows.]]> 336 James Ellroy 0593319346 Roger 3 3.31 2021
author: James Ellroy
name: Roger
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/12/05
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves:
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Widespread Panic is the latest novel by James Ellroy. This story was a lot like bathing in sleaze for 300 plus pages. The action takes place in the 50’s and though that decade is before my time I recognized the celebrities involved in various scandals of the day. Fred Otash is a pimp extortionist who (disturbingly enough) was also a real person. He is one of the most venal characters I have ever read about. I truly loathed him and that made enjoying this book a challenge-one I never fully overcame. Otash is casually cruel, with a mostly crippled conscience. His reeferspeak rebop speech pattern is a constant distraction, though one gets used to it. Not Ellroy’s best though he excelled at creating a character you love to hate.
]]> 296960
When Kidd � artist, computer whiz, and professional criminal—learns of a colleague’s murder, he doesn’t buy the official story that a jittery security guard caught the hacker raiding the files of a high-tech Texas corporation. He's certain that it’s not what his friend was looking for that got him killed. It’s what he already knew. For Kidd and his special friend LuEllen, infiltrating the firm is the first move. Discovering the secrets of its devious entrepreneur is the next. But it’s more than a secret � it’s a conspiracy. And it’s landed Kidd and LuEllen in the cross-hairs of an unknown assassin hellbent on conning the life out of the ultimate con artists....]]> 354 John Sandford 0425179885 Roger 0 3.85
author: John Sandford
name: Roger
average rating: 3.85
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/10
shelves:
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]]> 1067289
London, 1880. A series of gruesome murders attributed to the mysterious 'Limehouse Golem' strikes fear into the heart of the capital. Inspector John Kildare must track down this brutal serial killer in the damp, dark alleyways of riverside London. But how does Dan Leno, music hall star extraordinaire, find himself implicated in this crime spree, and what does Elizabeth Cree, on trial for the murder of her husband, have to hide?

Peter Ackroyd brings Victorian London to life in all its guts and glory, as we travel from the glamour of the music hall to the slums of the East End, meeting George Gissing and Karl Marx along the way.]]> 281 Peter Ackroyd 0749396598 Roger 3 3.74 1994
author: Peter Ackroyd
name: Roger
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/26
date added: 2023/10/24
shelves:
review:
Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem suffered from one flaw. The novel constantly shifts perspective. Sometimes this is a literary device that really works-sadly this is not one of those times. What starts out as a clever way to tell the story soon becomes an an exercise in frustration. The book has a good payoff but you won't get there if your tendency is to ditch a book early- despite the shortness of the chapters and some nifty cameos it does drag in the middle. Perseverance is key.
]]> 13061
"Hysterically funny...Hiaasen at his satirical best." - USA Today

Two honeymooners wake up early, make love twice, and brace themselves for a spectacle they won't be watching from the sidelines. A seductive con artiste stumbles into a scam that promises more cool cash than the lottery. A shotgun-toting mobile home salesman is about to close a deal with disaster. A law school dropout will be chasing one Gaboon viper, a troop of storm-shocked monkeys, and a newfound love life, while tourists by the thousands bail from the Florida Keys. We're now entering the hurricane zone, where hell and hilarity rule. And in the hands of the masterful, merciless Carl Hiaasen, we're going to have some weather.]]> 388 Carl Hiaasen 0446677167 Roger 0 3.94 1995
author: Carl Hiaasen
name: Roger
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/29
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]]> 58271287 217 Donald E. Westlake Roger 1 3.26 1980
author: Donald E. Westlake
name: Roger
average rating: 3.26
book published: 1980
rating: 1
read at: 2022/02/07
date added: 2023/06/21
shelves:
review:
I truly loathed Castle in the Air by Donald Westlake. I realize this is played for laughs but I honestly did not care about any facet of this book or any character in it, so it was almost not even finished by yours truly. There is a reason this was out of print-it’s awful.
]]> 55320732 118 Lawrence Block 1951939689 Roger 4 3.50 2016
author: Lawrence Block
name: Roger
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/20
date added: 2023/06/15
shelves:
review:
Lawrence Block is a former Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and even at eighty four he is still crafting sharp and stylish fiction. Keller’s Fedora features Block’s popular and strangely likable hit man. In this installment Keller has to dispatch a married woman’s lover-of course first he needs to find out who he is. Complications ensue. Four stars.
]]> 76776
The only god living in Green Town, Illinois, that Douglas Spaulding knew of.

The facts about John Huff, aged twelve, are simple and soon stated.

� He could pathfind more trails than any Choctaw or Cherokee since time began.
� Could leap from the sky like a chimpanzee from a vine.
� Could live underwater two minutes and slide fifty yards downstream.
� Could hit baseballs into apple trees, knocking down harvests.
� Could jump six-foot orchard walls.
� Ran laughing.
� Sat easy.
� Was not a bully.
� Was kind.
� Knew the words to all the cowboy songs and would teach you if you asked.
� Knew the names of all the wild flowers and when the moon would rise or set and when the tides came in or out.

He was, in fact, the only god living in the whole of Green Town, Illinois, during the twentieth century that Douglas Spaulding knew of.

“[Ray] Bradbury is an authentic original.”� Time]]> 239 Ray Bradbury 0553277537 Roger 0 4.13 1957
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Roger
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1957
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/14
shelves:
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]]> 40701777 Peace is just another kind of battlefield...

Savine dan Glokta, once Adua’s most powerful investor, finds her judgement, fortune and reputation in tatters. But she still has all her ambitions, and no scruple will be permitted to stand in her way.

For heroes like Leo dan Brock and Stour Nightfall, only happy with swords drawn, peace is an ordeal to end as soon as possible. But grievances must be nursed, power seized and allies gathered first, while Rikke must master the power of the Long Eye... before it kills her.

The Breakers still lurk in the shadows, plotting to free the common man from his shackles, while noblemen bicker for their own advantage. Orso struggles to find a safe path through the maze of knives that is politics, only for his enemies, and his debts, to multiply.

The old ways are swept aside, and the old leaders with them, but those who would seize the reins of power will find no alliance, no friendship, and no peace, lasts forever.]]> 506 Joe Abercrombie 0575095911 Roger 0 currently-reading 4.59 2020
author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Roger
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 127591053 100 Joseph F Combs Roger 4 4.00
author: Joseph F Combs
name: Roger
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/31
date added: 2023/05/31
shelves:
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Joe Combs wrote a number of articles for my hometown newspaper. This was back in the 60s; lots of them are connected by topic. Legends of the Pineys is exactly what it sounds like-a collection of regional legends many which I was not even aware of. Fun to read. Four stars.
]]> 26150742 375 Alex Grecian 0399176101 Roger 4 3.87 2016
author: Alex Grecian
name: Roger
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/22
date added: 2023/05/22
shelves:
review:
I have been waiting a long time to read Lost and Gone Forever. In Alex Grecian I’ve discovered the mystery genre’s equivalent of George RR Martin. (Grecian: “Sorry I can’t hear you over the sound of my characters screaming.�) A great climax to a five part series. Hunt these down folks they are worth reading. Four stars.
]]> 1938470 214 Walter Irwin Roger 0 3.47 1980
author: Walter Irwin
name: Roger
average rating: 3.47
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/16
shelves:
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]]> 87588 Introduction: A Variety of Monsters � essay by Alfred Hitchcock
� The Day of the Dragon (1934) � novelette by Guy Endore
� The King of the Cats (1929) � shortstory by Stephen Vincent Benét
� Slime (1953) � novelette by Joseph Payne Brennan
� The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles (1951) � shortstory by Margaret St. Clair [writing as Idris Seabright ]
� Henry Martindale, Great Dane (1954) � shortstory by Miriam Allen deFord
� The Microscopic Giants (1936) � shortstory by Paul Ernst
� The Young One (1954) � novelette by Jerome Bixby
� Doomsday Deferred (1949) � shortstory by Murray Leinster [as by Will F. Jenkins ]
� "Shadow, Shadow, on the Wall ..." (1951) � shortstory by Theodore Sturgeon
� The Desrick on Yandro (1952) � shortstory by Manly Wade Wellman
� The Wheelbarrow Boy (1950) � shortstory by Richard Parker
� Homecoming (1946) � shortstory by Ray Bradbury (variant of The Homecoming)]]> 207 Alfred Hitchcock 0394912306 Roger 0 3.86 1965
author: Alfred Hitchcock
name: Roger
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1965
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/29
shelves:
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]]> 23281833 Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad—and Jack the Ripper—return, in the extraordinary new historical thriller from the author of the acclaimed national bestseller The Yard.
Ěý
In The Devil’s Workshop, London discovered that Jack the Ripper was back, sending the city—and Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad—into chaos. But now it is even worse. Not only is the Ripper still at large, but so is another killer just as bad.

For Inspector Walter Day, it has been a difficult time. His wife has given birth to twins, his hostile in-laws have come to stay, and a leg injury has kept him at his desk. But when the Harvest Man begins killing, carving people’s faces off their skulls, the Yard knows they need Day in the field.

Not so Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith. Rash actions have cost him his job, but that doesn’t stop his obsessive hunt for the Ripper. When the mutilated bodies of prostitutes start turning up again, Hammersmith enlists the help of a criminal network to stop Saucy Jack, his methods carrying him further and further from the ideals of the Yard, so far in fact that he may never be able to find his way back.

Of course, the Ripper’s been playing a game with him—with Walter Day, as well. He is pushing both of them to their limits, and what happens when they get there . . . no one can say.]]> 384 Alex Grecian 0399166440 Roger 4 4.04 2015
author: Alex Grecian
name: Roger
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/26
date added: 2023/04/26
shelves:
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I have been looking for a copy of Alex Grecian’s The Harvest Man “in the wild� for years but I’ve never found one. I finally broke down and bought a copy and I’m glad I did. I really enjoy Grecian’s novels about Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad, of which this is the fourth-they are suspenseful and sinister, and feature a memorable cast of characters. It has been years since I read the third installment but I was able to pick things up as if I just saw it yesterday. The action takes place in post-Ripper London. Scotland Yard has gotten a large black eye for failing to catch Jack the Ripper. But is Jack really gone? And he is not the only killer out there…Four stars.
]]> 133291051 207 Joseph F Combs Roger 0 0.0
author: Joseph F Combs
name: Roger
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/04/26
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]]> 618604 225 Richard Stark Roger 4 4.00 1963
author: Richard Stark
name: Roger
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1963
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/25
date added: 2023/04/25
shelves:
review:
Parker is the creation of Richard Stark a.k.a. Donald Westlake. If I remember correctly I once described this character as having nails for eyes. He is unrepentantly a criminal with a very practical streak-if it is easier for him to kill you to solve a problem he will. In The Man With the Getaway Face he has run afoul of The Outfit (organized crime syndicate) and been forced to have plastic surgery to avoid a nasty end. Parker soon gets back to “work� planning a heist while protecting his new identity. Complications ensue. A quick enjoyable crime novel. I can read one of these a day and be delighted. Four stars.
]]> 220937
Soon his more earthly home is no less terrible than his bizarre vision, as swine-like creatures boil from a cavern beneath the ground and besiege it. But a still greater horror will face the recluse - more inexorable, merciless and awful than any creature that can be fought or killed.

A classic of the first water - H. P. Lovecraft]]> 152 William Hope Hodgson 1426438281 Roger 5 favorites 3.64 1908
author: William Hope Hodgson
name: Roger
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1908
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/25
date added: 2023/04/25
shelves: favorites
review:
To think that The House on the Borderland was written in 1907! This is a terrifying tale, full of wonder, and one of the best examples of “weird� fiction I have ever read. William Hope Hodgson was a favorite of HP Lovecraft’s and I can see why-the influence is easy to discern. Reading this late at night in a hospital room was a chilling experience. Five stars and this joins my list of favorite books.
]]> 32814023
For sex-crimes detective Livia Lone, a position with a government anti-trafficking task force is a chance to return to Thailand to ferret out Rithisak Sorm, the kingpin behind her own childhood ordeal.

But after a planned takedown in a nightclub goes violently awry, Livia discovers that she’s not the only one hunting Sorm. Former marine sniper Dox has a score to settle, too, and working together is the only way to take Sorm out.

Livia and Dox couldn’t be less alike. But they share a single-minded creed: the law has to serve justice. And if it doesn’t, justice has to be served another way.

What they don’t know is that in threatening Sorm, they’re also threatening a far-reaching conspiracy—one involving the highest levels of America’s own intelligence apparatus. It turns out that killing Sorm just might be the easy part. The real challenge will be payback from his protectors.]]> 316 Barry Eisler 1477809910 Roger 4 4.36 2018
author: Barry Eisler
name: Roger
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/23
date added: 2023/04/23
shelves:
review:
Human traffickers and slavers are the modern equivalent of Nazis, which is to say they are perfect villains. Barry Eisler really makes them suffer in the second Livia Lone novel, The Night Trade. The author is a former intelligence officer, and he writes very convincingly about the dark world of covert operations. This is a hard book to read because of the subject matter, but Eisler is a good author. Plus this book features a second character I really love, some great action sequences, and a resolution to the questions raised in Book One. Four stars.
]]> 102268
The dead woman in the car had been running from something—but she didn't run far or fast enough. Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot would like to question the man the victim was apparently racing to meet: Annie's superior—and former lover—Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. But Banks has vanished into the anonymous chaos of the city, drawn into a mad whirl of greed, inhumanity, and death, by a frantic phone call from the brother he no longer knows. Banks is unaware that the threads connecting a sinister kidnapping with a savage slaying are as thick as rope . . . and long enough for a haunted and broken rogue cop to hang himself.]]> 416 Peter Robinson 0060544341 Roger 4 3.96 2005
author: Peter Robinson
name: Roger
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/10
date added: 2023/04/10
shelves:
review:
A very solid four stars for Peter Robinson’s Strange Affair. Very little about this book that was not to my liking. There’s a good set of mysteries to solve and we get to spend a little time getting to know DCI Banks� family. Which in turn teaches us more about Banks himself. There is a small fly in the ointment at the very end of the book (you will know when you see it) but it is not enough to keep you from enjoying the book Constant Reader.
]]> 59918843
The small town of Paradise is devastated when a star high-school baseball player is found dead at the bottom of a bluff just a day after winning the team’s biggest game. For Jesse, the loss is doubly difficult—the dead teen was the nephew of his colleague, Suitcase Simpson, and Jesse had been coaching the young shortstop. As he searches for answers about how the boy died and why, he is stonewalled at every turn, and it seems that someone is determined to keep him from digging further.

Jesse suddenly must divide his attention between two cases after the shocking murder of former Paradise police chief, Charlie Farrell. Before his death, Farrell had been looking into a series of scam calls that preyed upon the elderly. But how do these “ghost calls� connect to his death? When threats—and gunshots—appear on Jesse’s own doorstep, the race to find answers is on. Both old and new enemies come into play, and in the end, Jesse and his team must find the common factor between the two deaths in order to prevent a third.]]> 368 Mike Lupica 059354028X Roger 4 4.23 2022
author: Mike Lupica
name: Roger
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/03
date added: 2023/04/03
shelves:
review:
Fallout was just what I needed-an enjoyable, fast moving mystery/police procedural. Mike Lupica does a great job of channeling the late Robert B Parker. I enjoyed this outing with Jesse Stone and Company. These novels consist of a lot of dialogue or as we like to call it snappy patter, mixed in with small bits of description. It makes for an entertaining and quick moving read. Four stars.
]]> 17260972
The suspects range from several individuals at the college where he used to teach to a woman who knew the victim back in the early '70s at Essex University, then a hotbed of political activism. When Banks receives a warning to step away from the case, he realises there is much more to the mystery than meets the eye - for there are plenty more skeletons to come out of the closet . . .]]> 389 Peter Robinson 1444704915 Roger 4 3.79 2013
author: Peter Robinson
name: Roger
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/28
date added: 2023/03/28
shelves:
review:
I loved Peter Robinson’s Children of the Revolution. It is a well written mystery featuring DCI Banks, a character I am coming to really like. Unfortunately, I have no more Peter Robinson books in the house. Sounds like a trip to the library may be an order. This proved to be a very nice police procedural slash whodunnit. Four stars.
]]> 85778 600 Martin H. Greenberg 0786713712 Roger 3 3.81 1988
author: Martin H. Greenberg
name: Roger
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1988
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/25
date added: 2023/03/25
shelves:
review:
I am so delighted to have finally finished The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories. I have been whittling away at this thing for far too long-much longer than a week-as I am extremely stubborn. And there are some good stories here: a Lew Archer tale from Ross Macdonald, for instance. There is a Lawrence Block story featuring Matthew Scudder, plus the compulsively readable Max Allen Collins. And some guy named Raymond Chandler. Well for every treat there seemed to be two stinkers. Editor Bill Pronzini managed to include a story by himself as well as a story by his spouse Marcia Muller. Surely this was a statistical coincidence. Plus, they’re not very good stories. A lot of these tales just were not stand outs. There is enough entertainment value here to garner a grudging three stars.
]]> 16001043 336 George Mann 1781160058 Roger 4 3.86 2013
author: George Mann
name: Roger
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/11
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves:
review:
The Executioner’s Heart starts another trilogy of steampunk adventures featuring Sir Maurice Newbury and his assistant Veronica Hobbes. George Mann has written some stylish and exciting adventures and these characters have great rapport-reminiscent of Steed and Peel. The action takes place in a transmogrified England in 1903. Victorian science has advanced and we have double-decker trains, horseless carriages, and esoteric life extending apparatus (all steam powered.) Magic also works, however-it makes for an interesting world. This time round Newbury and Hobbes face off against the Executioner, an assassin with a clockwork heart who never fails. Four stars. I do not own the remaining two books so it will be a while before I get to read and review the rest of this trilogy.
]]> 120560 The One Who Waits (1949)
Tyrannosaurus Rex (1962)
The Vacation (1963)
The Drummer Boy of Shiloh (1960)
Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar! (1962)
Almost the End of the World (1957)
Perhaps We Are Going Away (1962)
And the Sailor, Home from the Sea (1960)
El Dia de Muerte (1947)
The Illustrated Woman (1961)
Some Live Like Lazarus (1960)
A Miracle of Rare Device (1961)
And So Died Riabouchinska (1953)
The Beggar on O'Connell Bridge (1961)
Death and the Maiden (1960)
A Flight of Ravens (1952)
The Best of All Possible Worlds (1960)
The Lifework of Juan Diaz (1963)
To the Chicago Abyss (1963)
The Anthem Sprinters (1963)]]> 213 Ray Bradbury Roger 0 4.03 1964
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Roger
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/10
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review:

]]> 886229
He can make you see things that have never been seen by human eyes.... feel things that no flesh-and-blood creature has ever felt. He can create visions so compelling that they literally seem to dance before your eyes. He can push you back to the beginnings of time and then suddenly, without warning, thrust you forward t the outmost limits of the future. He can make you so much a part of his strange worlds that you literally scream to get out.

Seventeen breathtaking stories by the master of the weird and wonderful, including the space-age classic, FROST AND FIRE.]]> 184 Ray Bradbury 055325040X Roger 0 4.13 1962
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Roger
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/10
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]]> 91885 1 � In a Season of Calm Weather � (1957) � short story by Ray Bradbury
7 � A Medicine for Melancholy � (1959) � short story by Ray Bradbury
16 � The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit � non-genre � (1958) � short story by Ray Bradbury
39 � Fever Dream � (1948) � short story by Ray Bradbury
46 � The Marriage Mender � (1954) � short story by Ray Bradbury
51 � The Town Where No One Got Off � (1958) � short story by Ray Bradbury
59 � A Scent of Sarsaparilla � (1953) � short story by Ray Bradbury
66 � The Headpiece � (1958) � short story by Ray Bradbury
74 � The First Night of Lent � [The Irish Stories] � (1956) � short story by Ray Bradbury
81 � The Time of Going Away � (1956) � short story by Ray Bradbury
88 � All Summer in a Day � (1954) � short story by Ray Bradbury
94 � The Gift � (1952) � short story by Ray Bradbury
97 � The Great Collision of Monday Last � [The Irish Stories] � (1958) � short story by Ray Bradbury
104 � The Little Mice � (1955) � short story by Ray Bradbury
109 � The Shore Line at Sunset � (1959) � short story by Ray Bradbury (variant of The Shoreline at Sunset)
118 � The Day It Rained Forever � (1957) � short story by Ray Bradbury
129 � Chrysalis � (1946) � short story by Ray Bradbury
150 � Pillar of Fire � (1948) � novelette by Ray Bradbury
188 � Zero Hour � (1947) � short story by Ray Bradbury
198 � The Man � (1949) � short story by Ray Bradbury
210 � Time in Thy Flight � (1953) � short story by Ray Bradbury
215 � The Pedestrian � (1951) � short story by Ray Bradbury
220 � Hail and Farewell � (1953) � short story by Ray Bradbury
228 � Invisible Boy � (1945) � short story by Ray Bradbury
237 � Come Into My Cellar � (1962) � short story by Ray Bradbury (variant of Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!)
254 � The Million-Year Picnic � [The Martian Chronicles] � (1946) � short story by Ray Bradbury (variant of The Million Year Picnic)
264 � The Screaming Woman � [Green Town] � (1951) � short story by Ray Bradbury
278 � The Smile � (1952) � short story by Ray Bradbury
284 � Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed � (1949) � short story by Ray Bradbury
299 � The Trolley � [Dandelion Wine] � (1955) � short story by Ray Bradbury
303 � Icarus Montgolfier Wright � (1956) � short story by Ray Bradbury]]> 307 Ray Bradbury Roger 0 4.16 1998
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Roger
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/10
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]]> 74586 336 Ray Bradbury 0380789620 Roger 0 4.07 1969
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Roger
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/10
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]]> 93251
Contents:

· The Dwarf · ss Fantastic Jan/Feb �54
· The Next in Line · nv Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947
· The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse · ss Beyond Fantasy Fiction Mar �54
· Skeleton · ss Weird Tales Sep �45
· The Jar · ss Weird Tales Nov �44
· The Lake · ss Weird Tales May �44
· The Emissary · ss Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947
· Touched with Fire [“Shopping for Death”] · ss Maclean’s Jun 1 �54
· The Small Assassin · ss Dime Mystery Magazine Nov �46
· The Crowd · ss Weird Tales May �43
· Jack-in-the-Box · ss Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947
· The Scythe · ss Weird Tales Jul �43
· Uncle Einar · ss Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947
· The Wind · ss Weird Tales Mar �43
· The Man Upstairs · ss Harper’s Mar �47
· There Was an Old Woman · ss Weird Tales Jul �44
· The Cistern · ss Mademoiselle May �47
· Homecoming · ss Mademoiselle Oct �46
· The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone · ss Charm Jul �54]]> 334 Ray Bradbury 0380973871 Roger 0 4.13 1955
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Roger
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1955
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/10
shelves:
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]]> 76778
The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity’s repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist. They felt they had never been born. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.

But more rockets arrived from Earth, and more, piercing the hallucinations projected by the Martians. People brought their old prejudices with them � and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams. These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame.

Contents:
Rocket Summer
Ylla
The Summer Night
The Earth Men
The Taxpayer
The Third Expedition
-And the Moon Be Still As Bright
The Settlers
The Green Morning
The Locusts
Night Meeting
The Shore
Interim
The Musicians
Way in the Middle of the Air
The Naming of Names
Usher II
The Old Ones
The Martian
The Luggage Store
The Off Season
The Watchers
The Silent Towns
The Long Years
There Will Come Soft Rains
The Million Year Picnic]]> 182 Ray Bradbury 0553278223 Roger 0 4.16 1950
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Roger
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1950
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 7975415
Now, one man wakes up. Ripped from a dream of a new home-a new planet and the woman he was meant to love in his arms-he finds himself wet, naked, and freezing to death. The dark halls are full of monsters but trusting other survivors he meets might be the greater danger.

All he has are questions-- Who is he? Where are they going? What happened to the dream of a new life? What happened to Hull 03?

All will be answered, if he can survive the ship.

HULL ZERO THREE is an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride through the darkest reaches of space.]]> 307 Greg Bear 0316072818 Roger 2 3.36 2010
author: Greg Bear
name: Roger
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2023/03/06
date added: 2023/03/06
shelves:
review:
We lost Greg Bear at the tail end of 2022. I have been meaning to read something by him by way of tribute but there were only a few choices in my personal library. I finally settled on Hull Zero Three, which is sad because I really hated this book. The main character finds himself on a generation ship with no memory of who he is. My theory is Bear is trying to communicate just how confused and disoriented the main character is by essentially putting us in his shoes. We are confused and disoriented too but this backfired if it was supposed to generate any sympathy in this reader. I HATE the amnesia trope-it was old when I was young. In my opinion the payoff at the end of this book is just not worth the effort it took to get there. I enjoyed Bear’s thoughts on how a generation ship would function and what it might take to be successful. (Remember we cannot go faster than the speed of light so it will take hundreds of years to get to the stars. The only solution? Build a vast ship capable of supporting humanity for centuries. AKA a generation ship.) But those thoughts of Bear’s are buried deep in mounds of crap. Don’t ask me what happened Bear was an excellent writer. This must be a one off. Two stars.
]]> 7896556
Her abduction was clearly a sophisticated, professional job, done with extraordinary precision, leaving no trace evidence. Alexandra, whom Nick has known since she was an infant, is now buried alive, held prisoner in an underground crypt, a camera trained on her, her suffering streaming live over the internet for all to see. She’s been left with a limited supply of food and water and, if her father doesn’t meet the demands of her shadowy kidnappers, she’ll die.

And as Nick begins to probe, he discovers that his old friend Marshall Marcus seems to have been running a Ponzi scheme. His fund has collapsed, the FBI has arrested him, and now he’s become the most hated man in America. He has a lot of powerful enemies who may have the motivation to go after his daughter. But to find out who’s holding Alexandra Marcus hostage, Nick has to find out why. And once he does, he uncovers an astonishing conspiracy that reaches up to the highest levels of government.

If he’s going to find Alexandra, he has to flush out and confront some of the most deadly opponents ever…]]> 390 Joseph Finder 0312379145 Roger 4 3.95 2011
author: Joseph Finder
name: Roger
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/02
date added: 2023/03/02
shelves:
review:
Buried Secrets was not as good as Vanished, the first Nick Heller book. It was predictable and Heller’s vast network of friends and acquaintances made this pretty boring-there is no challenge present when you always have a buddy who can provide support or counter intelligence. Four stars grudgingly awarded.
]]> 15797793 Ěý
A brand-new collection of Sherlock Holmes stories from a variety of exciting voices in modern horror and steampunk, including James Lovegrove, Justin Richards, Paul Magrs, Guy Adams and Mark Hodder. Edited by respected anthologist George Mann, and including a story by Mann himself.

Introduction by George MannĚý
The Loss of Chapter Twenty-One by Mark Hodder
Holmes and the Indelicate Widow by Mags L Halliday
The Demon Slasher of Seven Sisters by Cavan Scott
The Post-Modern Prometheus by Nick Kyme
Mrs Hudson at the Christmas Hotel by Paul Magrs
The Case of the Night Crawler by George Mann
The Adventure of the Locked Carriage by Stuart Douglas
The Tragic Affair of the Martian Ambassador by Eric Brown
The Adventure of the Swaddled Railwayman by Richard Dinnick Ěý
The Pennyroyal Society by Kelly Hale
The Persian Slipper by Steve Lockley
The Property of a Thief by Mark Wright
Woman’s Work by David Barnett
The Fallen Financier by James Lovegrove]]> 352 George Mann 1781160031 Roger 4 4.09 2013
author: George Mann
name: Roger
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/01
date added: 2023/03/01
shelves:
review:
Encounters of Sherlock Holmes is a very steampunk-y collection of Holmes tales. Each story has some thing good to recommend it. Featured authors include Mark Hodder, George Mann (who also edits this volume) plus Eric Brown and James Lovegrove. I always enjoy, watching the interaction between the worlds, greatest consulting detective and various other characters, both real and imagined. It is interesting to see Holmes and HG Wells, Raffles, or Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton together. (By the way, if you are unfamiliar with Burton, there is an excellent eponymous biography of him by Edward Rice. No idea if it is still in print. Burton is a real life explorer and scholar who is at least as interesting as Sherlock.) Four stars.
]]> 53205854 No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall.

When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!

Again!]]> 168 Martha Wells 1250765374 Roger 4 4.25 2021
author: Martha Wells
name: Roger
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/22
date added: 2023/02/22
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed Martha Wells’s Fugitive Telemetry. Wells is a clever writer who is perfectly capable of mixing and matching genres as it suits her-this entry in the Murderbot series is a very nicely constructed science fiction murder mystery. I have come to really love these books and I’m looking forward to the next novel which I think will be released before the end of 2023. I think I should take a moment to discuss the future society Martha Wells has created-it is both fascinating and horrifying. Corporations run the universe. Most people are locked into what is essentially indentured servitude. (Read: slavery.) Not that corporations would ever really act this way towards people cough cough. Scary. Four stars.
]]> 52381770
It worries about the fragile human crew who've grown to trust it, but only where no one can see.

It tells itself that they're only a professional obligation, but when they're captured and an old friend from the past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.

]]> 350 Martha Wells 1250229863 Roger 5 4.44 2020
author: Martha Wells
name: Roger
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/21
date added: 2023/02/21
shelves:
review:
If anyone ever tells you that female authors can’t write action sequences you can give them a copy of Martha Wells’s Network Effect to totally prove them wrong. This is a superb addition to The Murderbot Diaries. This novel picks you up and carries you along which is why I find myself awake at three am writing this review. After which I am going to immediately start the next book. Five stars. Absolutely fantastic I cannot say enough good things about these books.
]]> 438538
In the midst of the devastating Hundred Years� War between France and England, Jean de Carrouges, a Norman knight fresh from combat in Scotland, returns home to yet another deadly threat. His wife, Marguerite, has accused squire Jacques Le Gris of rape. A deadlocked court decrees a “trial by combat� between the two men that also leaves Marguerite’s fate in the balance. For if her husband loses the duel, she will be put to death as a false accuser.

While enemy troops pillage the land, and rebellion and plague threaten the lives of all, Carrouges and Le Gris meet in full armor on a walled field in Paris. What follows is a fierce duel, the final one sanctioned by governing powers, before a massive crowd that includes the teenage King Charles VI, during which both combatants are wounded—but only one fatally.

Based on extensive research in Normandy and Paris, THE LAST DUEL brings to life a colorful, turbulent age and three unforgettable characters caught in a fatal triangle of crime, scandal, and revenge. THE LAST DUEL is at once a moving human drama, a captivating true crime story, and an engrossing work of historical intrigue with themes that echo powerfully centuries later.]]> 242 Eric Jager Roger 4 3.91 2004
author: Eric Jager
name: Roger
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/20
date added: 2023/02/20
shelves:
review:
The Last Duel tells the tale of the last legally sanctioned trial by combat held in Paris in 1386. Eric Jager tells us the story from genesis to denouement and it is extremely exciting. Jager never lets the duel’s outcome slip so tension is naturally present and builds to a jaw dropping crescendo worthy of a Hollywood production. The glimpses we get of life and the legal system present at that time are fascinating. Four stars.
]]> 60395678
Things are changing for Decker. He’s in crisis following the suicide of a close friend and receipt of a letter concerning a personal issue which could change his life forever. Together with the prospect of working with a new partner, Frederica White, Amos knows that this case will take all of his special skills to solve.

As darkness falls, evil comes to light . . .

Judge Julia Cummins seemingly had no enemies, and there was no forced entry to her property. Close friends and neighbours in the community apparently heard nothing, and Cummins� distraught ex-husband, Barry, and teenage son, Tyler, both have strong alibis. Decker must first find the answer to why the judge felt the need for a bodyguard, and the meaning behind the strange calling card left by the killer.

Someone has decided it’s payback time.]]> 448 David Baldacci 1538719797 Roger 5 4.44 2022
author: David Baldacci
name: Roger
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/19
date added: 2023/02/19
shelves:
review:
Long Shadows may be the best book in the Amos Decker series so far. David Baldacci takes everything he has built in the last six books and totally ravages it. I think the technical term is deconstruction. The safe world with the same supporting characters that we have grown used to is washed away. This took guts on Baldacci’s part it would have been easy to leave things as they were he chooses to take a different approach. New situations new characters a good mystery and a swiftly moving plot make for a winning read. Five stars.
]]> 57623348 Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory was originally given free to readers who pre-ordered Martha’s Murderbot novel, Network Effect, the fifth entry in the series. The events occur just after the fourth novella, Exit Strategy.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 19 Martha Wells 125083886X Roger 0 4.03 2020
author: Martha Wells
name: Roger
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2023/02/18
date added: 2023/02/18
shelves:
review:
Home is a Murderbot story by Martha Wells. Good stuff happens here. We get a better look at the relationship between Murderbot and Dr. Mensah. We also may be starting to deal with the PTSD engendered by Mensah’s earlier abduction. I am looking forward to getting back into this series again soon.
]]> 62820820
A short story published in Wired magazine as part of a series "The Future of Work" on December 17, 2018.]]> 2 Martha Wells Roger 3 4.20 2018
author: Martha Wells
name: Roger
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/02/18
date added: 2023/02/18
shelves:
review:
The Future of Work: Compulsory is an ultra-short Murderbot story by Martha Wells. I would only read this if you are A) a Murderbot fan and B) an obsessive completist who likes to finish ALL the parts of a series. I am both of those things. You won’t gain any new insight into the existence of our favorite homicidal mech here-I found a free link to this story I think it is on the Wired magazine website. I would be hacked if I had to pay $$$ for this. This is a fun story but nothing new or noteworthy.
]]> 58885794
Mothers know best . . . But who will listen?

Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles are newly plagued by what seems like a completely senseless murder. Sofia Suarez, a widow and nurse who was universally liked by her neighbors, lies bludgeoned to death in her own home. But anything can happen behind closed doors, and Sofia seemed to have plenty of secrets in her last days, making covert phone calls to traceless burner phones. When Jane finally makes a connection between Sofia and the victim of a hit-and-run from months earlier, the case only grows more blurry. What exactly was Sofia involved in? One thing is clear: The killer will do anything it takes to keep their secret safe.

Meanwhile, Angela Rizzoli hasn't had a decent night's sleep in all the years since her daughter became a homicide detective. Maybe the apple didn't fall too far from the tree: Nothing in Angela's neighborhood gets by her--not the gossip about a runaway teenager down the block and definitely not the strange neighbors who have just moved in across the street. Angela's sure there's no such thing as coincidence in her sleepy suburb. If only Jane would listen--instead she writes off Angela's concerns as the result of an overactive imagination. But Angela's convinced there's a real wolf in her vicinity, and her cries might now fall on deaf ears.

With so much happening on the Sofia case, Jane and Maura already struggle to see the forest for the trees, but will they lose sight of something sinister happening much closer to home?]]> 307 Tess Gerritsen 0593497139 Roger 4 3.99 2022
author: Tess Gerritsen
name: Roger
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/18
date added: 2023/02/18
shelves:
review:
Listen to Me is really a Jane Rizzoli book. Maura Isles is present but she is definitely a secondary character in Tess Gerritsen’s latest Rizzoli and Isles novel. And that’s ok. Each character has assumed primacy in previous entries in the series depending on the structure of the story-this time it is Jane’s turn. We have a good mystery to solve, plus Jane’s mother Angela Rizzoli has a nice storyline of her own. I think long time readers will enjoy both plot lines. Our two leads remain tough strong and competent-these are the types of women I enjoy reading about. Four stars.
]]> 15766671 It should have been a night to remember, but Maura Isles can’t recall a thing.

Maura is at a party. A handsome man approaches. He’s charming and sophisticated. She flirts and drinks champagne. And then nothing. Total blackness. Nothing, that is, apart from these two facts: a man is dead and her address is found in his pocket . . .]]> 49 Tess Gerritsen 1448154650 Roger 4 3.88 2012
author: Tess Gerritsen
name: Roger
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/15
date added: 2023/02/15
shelves:
review:
Tess Gerritsen’s John Doe was a nice appetizer for her newest Rizzoli and Isles book, Listen to Me, which I somehow managed to miss entirely when it was released in 2022. (Naturally that is next on my list.) John Doe was well written and plotted. I think the ending was a bit too abrupt but that seems to be typically true of these ultra-short features. Dr. Maura Isles meets a charming man at a soirée who later turns up quite dead. Things quickly go from bad to worse-Dr. Isles cannot remember the events of the night before and is soon suspect number one. Four stars.
]]> 52838845 Amos Decker -- the FBI consultant with a perfect memory -- returns to solve a gruesome murder in a booming North Dakota oil town in the newest thriller in David Baldacci's #1 New York Times bestselling Memory Man series.

When Amos Decker and his FBI colleague Alex Jamison are called to London, North Dakota, they instantly sense that the thriving fracking town is ripe for trouble. The promise of a second gold rush has attracted an onslaught of newcomers all hoping for a windfall, and the community is growing faster than houses can be built. The sudden boom has also brought a slew of problems with it, including drugs, property crimes, prostitution -- and now murder.

Decker and Jamison are ordered to investigate the death of a young woman named Irene Cramer, whose body was expertly autopsied and then dumped in the open -- which is only the beginning of the oddities surrounding the case. As Decker and Jamison dig into Irene's life, they are shocked to discover that the woman who walked the streets by night as a prostitute was a teacher for a local religious sect by day -- a sect operating on land once owned by a mysterious government facility that looms over the entire community.

London is a town replete with ruthless business owners, shady government officials, and religious outsiders, all determined to keep their secrets from coming out. When other murders occur, Decker will need all of his extraordinary memory and detective skills, and the assistance of a surprising ally, to root out a killer and the forces behind Cramer's death. . . before the boom town explodes.]]> 432 David Baldacci Roger 4 4.17 2020
author: David Baldacci
name: Roger
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/15
date added: 2023/02/15
shelves:
review:
In Walk the Wire we get to see Amos Decker display his investigative skills. David Baldacci focuses on that more than Decker’s “superpower� his photographic memory. There are lots of puzzles to unravel, and it is a lot of fun to see the characters put thru their paces. I am especially enjoying seeing our main character “evolve� it might have been easy to keep Decker as he was when we first met him but Baldacci is allowing our protagonist to do a little growing. Four stars.
]]> 51188639
Inspector Aloysius Pendergast is at home in New York when he receives an obituary. Mr. Bertin passed away at the age of 81.

Accompanied by Constance Greene, his protege, Pendergast goes to New Orleans, to the place of his childhood, to attend the funeral of the man who was his tutor.

Although it seems natural, Pendergast cannot help but find Mr. Bertin's death strange. As if it announced the imminence of a danger...

Preston & Child offer this unpublished news to their readers. The unique opportunity for those who do not yet know Inspector A.X.L. Pendergast of the FBI to meet the modern-day Sherlock Holmes.]]> 70 Douglas Preston 1538717581 Roger 4 4.03 2019
author: Douglas Preston
name: Roger
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/12
date added: 2023/02/12
shelves:
review:
The Strange Case of Monsieur Bertin is an Agent Pendergast tale I stumbled upon that I did not know existed. This is a fun little gem-an adventure with Constance that takes us to New Orleans and features-ah! But that would be telling. Constant Reader you will enjoy this. This story is free on the net-thanks Preston and Child!
]]> 61030725
AN INCREDIBLE JOURNEY

Astoundingly, Constance has found a way back to the place of her New York City in the late 1800s. She leaps at the chance to return…although it means leaving the present forever.

A DESPERATE OPPORTUNITY

Constance sets off on a quest to prevent the events that lead to the deaths of her sister and brother. But along the road to redemption, Manhattan’s most infamous serial killer, Dr. Enoch Leng, lies in wait, ready to strike at the slightest provocation.

UNIMAGINABLE ODDS

Meanwhile, in contemporary New York, Pendergast feverishly searches for a way to reunite with Constance—but will he discover a way back to her before it’s too late?
Ěý]]> 400 Douglas Preston 1538736772 Roger 5 4.14 2023
author: Douglas Preston
name: Roger
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/12
date added: 2023/02/12
shelves:
review:
The Cabinet of Dr. Leng did not disappoint me in any way. I have been in a delicious reading frenzy tearing through this book. We are way too far along in this series for me to tell you to read these in order-so I am going to assume, Constant Reader, that you have already done so and are as big a fan of A X L Pendergast as I am. Lots of shocks and surprises that will delight and amaze. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child really do write some of the most gripping and exciting thrillers, though happily the authors do not really confine themselves to that genre alone. The science fictional elements spice everything up tremendously. Five stars.
]]> 7479040
The year was 1958. James Ellroy was ten years old. His mother, Jean Hilliker, had divorced her fast-buck hustler husband. She gave her son a choice: live with his father or her. He chose his father, and Jean—“half gassed”—attacked him. He wished her dead. Three months later, she was murdered.

Ellroy writes, “I owe her for every true thing that I am. I must remove the malediction I have placed on her and on myself,� and in The Hilliker Curse, he narrates his quest for “atonement in women.� He unsparingly describes his shattered childhood, his delinquent teens, his writing life, his love affairs and marriages, a nervous breakdown and the beginning of a relationship with an extraordinary woman who may just be the long-sought Her. It is a layered narrative of time and place, emotion and insight, sexuality and spiritual quest. And all of it is reported with gut-wrenching and heart-rending candor.

A brilliant and soul-baring revelation of self—and unlike any memoir you have ever read.]]> 203 James Ellroy 0307593509 Roger 1 3.22 2006
author: James Ellroy
name: Roger
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2006
rating: 1
read at: 2023/02/10
date added: 2023/02/10
shelves:
review:
The Hilliker Curse is truly terrible. James Ellroy is a favorite author of mine; I find it difficult to be critical but I had to force myself to finish this. Though this appears to be an uncompromising autobiography I have read enough about the author to feel dubious about his narrative. In these pages Ellroy becomes a caricature of himself. Constant Reader do not let my sacrifice be in vain-skip this one. Stick to Ellroy’s fiction which is typically fantastic. One star.
]]> 41064227
Amos Decker and his FBI partner Alex Jamison are visiting his hometown of Burlington, Ohio, when he's approached by an unfamiliar man. But he instantly recognizes the man's name: Meryl Hawkins. He's the first person Decker ever arrested for murder back when he was a young detective. Though a dozen years in prison have left Hawkins unrecognizably aged and terminally ill, one thing hasn't changed: He maintains he never committed the murders. Could it be possible that Decker made a mistake all those years ago? As he starts digging into the old case, Decker finds a startling connection to a new crime that he may be able to prevent, if only he can put the pieces together quickly enough...]]> 417 David Baldacci 1538761416 Roger 4 4.09 2019
author: David Baldacci
name: Roger
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/08
date added: 2023/02/08
shelves:
review:
Redemption is David Baldacci’s fifth Amos Decker novel. This adventure moves at a brisk pace with plenty of action plus life is cheap-corpses everywhere. This time around Decker is compelled to look at his first arrest as a homicide detective-did he help convict the wrong man? I’m hoping this is the last novel we see with Decker’s past as a springboard. That could get old. Enjoyed seeing Amos experience some “personal growth� this time around-I’ll say no more for fear of committing a spoiler.
]]> 70787
In the Bicentennial Man, Isaac Asimov returns to his first and most enduring love � robotics. The result is a brilliant book of first-class entertainment and mind-spinning ideas which confirm Asimov's supreme status as Grand Master of science fiction.

Content

"Feminine Intuition" (1969)
"Waterclap" (1970)
"That Thou Art Mindful of Him" (1974)
"Stranger in Paradise" (1974)
"The Life and Times of Multivac" (1975)
"The Winnowing" (1976)
"The Bicentennial Man" (1976)
"Marching In" (1976)
"Old-Fashioned" (1976)
"The Tercentenary Incident" (1976)
"Birth of a Notion" (1976)

Cover Illustration: Don Dixon]]> 211 Isaac Asimov 1857989325 Roger 4 4.12 1976
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Roger
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1976
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/05
date added: 2023/02/05
shelves:
review:
The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories is an anthology by Isaac Asimov published in (naturally) 1976. I am certain I have read this before but I only started recording what I read years after this book’s publication. So let’s just say I rediscovered this particular work. Of all the stories here the only one I remember is the one the book is named after. I think that is ok considering over four decades have passed. Say what you will about Asimov his stories can always be relied upon to be solidly constructed, entertaining, and well written. These are. Several stories featuring Asimov’s three laws of robotics are included and those are always fun and thought provoking. Four stars.
]]> 612328 132 John Gregory Betancourt 0809511517 Roger 4 3.67 2004
author: John Gregory Betancourt
name: Roger
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/04
date added: 2023/02/04
shelves:
review:
The Emperor of Death is the first adventure of The Phantom Detective. I was unfamiliar with this character so I did some digging. Trivia: The Phantom Detective (in the books he is just called The Phantom) was the second pulp hero of the nineteen thirties to see print. (The Shadow beat him by a month-Doc Savage saw print a month later.) However this character stayed in publication longer than either of those two esteemed gentlemen, finally ceasing publication in the nineteen fifties. In The Emperor of Death The Phantom dukes it out against the Mad Red Hesterberg who is operating a massive network of criminals-he is dedicated to destroying peaceful diplomatic relations between nations so the Soviet Union can come out on top. In structure this book reminds me of the adventures of another pulp hero, The Spider. The Phantom (really Richard Curtis Van Loan, wealthy bachelor and veteran of the Great War) stands alone against the Mad Red and his network of evil. Van Loan is not quite as bloodthirsty as Richard Wentworth-however he will kill if he must. The action seesaws back and forth as the novel progresses and The Phantom faces increasingly desperate straights. Wow did I enjoy this!
]]> 36004075 David Baldacci returns with the next blockbuster thriller in his #1 New York Times bestselling Memory Man series featuring detective Amos Decker--the man who can forget nothing.

Amos Decker and his journalist friend Alex Jamison are visiting the home of Alex's sister in Barronville, a small town in western Pennsylvania that has been hit hard economically. When Decker is out on the rear deck of the house talking with Alex's niece, a precocious eight-year-old, he notices flickering lights and then a spark of flame in the window of the house across the way. When he goes to investigate he finds two dead bodies inside and it's not clear how either man died. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. There's something going on in Barronville that might be the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country.

Faced with a stonewalling local police force, and roadblocks put up by unseen forces, Decker and Jamison must pull out all the stops to solve the case. And even Decker's infallible memory may not be enough to save them.]]> 432 David Baldacci 1538761378 Roger 4 4.30 2018
author: David Baldacci
name: Roger
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/02
date added: 2023/02/02
shelves:
review:
I love the Amos Decker series; The Fallen is the fourth book and here we see Decker operating without much assistance from the FBI as he is on “vacation� but just like crime Decker never really rests. David Baldacci has really created a memorable character here I am happy there are three more volumes for me to track down which reemphasizes why I love my local library so much. The Fallen is a little more streamlined than previous entries (translation this is about a hundred pages shorter than we are used to) but that works perfectly. Constant Reader this is an enjoyable novel of suspense with conundrums aplenty. Four stars.
]]> 1051097 352 J.A. Jance 0380896389 Roger 1 3.86 1985
author: J.A. Jance
name: Roger
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1985
rating: 1
read at: 2023/01/29
date added: 2023/01/29
shelves:
review:
Sadly, there is no court of law I can go to to get back the time I spent reading JA Jance’s Until Proven Guilty. What a colossally unsatisfying book. This is my second attempt to read this author-there will not be a third and I feel perfectly content to purge my shelves of anything else she has written. Our protagonist JP Beaumont is a characterless and colorless homicide detective. This is a miserable book with a miserable ending. Don’t waste your time. I promise you’ll regret it.
]]> 57056557 THREE NEW PASTICHE MYSTERY STORIES OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE.

These stories are shorter than the other novels in the New Sherlock Holmes Mysteries series and were published in response to invitations to contribute to anthologies of Sherlockian stories.

In �The Adventure of the Humble Mr. Hier,� Sherlock Holmes encounters the famous Mr. and Mrs. Micawber from �David Copperfield� by Charles Dickens. They have returned to England from Australia in pursuit of justice and call upon our hero to help them.

�The Adventure of Blood and Fire� is a fictional story about an exceptional non-fictional woman, Evangeline Booth. In this story she is still a young Captain in the Salvation Army. In later years she rose in the ranks to be the General of the Salvation Army International. In this account, we have a brief glimpse of the bravery and determination that would become the hallmark of this larger-than-life individual.

The final story, �The Adventure of the Suicidal Sister� is set in the tumultuous years after the Great War when Holmes is called upon to rescue a brave widow who has been falsely accused.

If you love the stories of Sherlock Holmes, these new mysteries will appeal to you.]]> 193 Craig Stephen Copland Roger 4 4.67
author: Craig Stephen Copland
name: Roger
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/28
date added: 2023/01/28
shelves:
review:
Craig Stephen Copland can write a very enjoyable Sherlock Holmes pastiche! I picked Sherlock Holmes Never Dies up on my Kindle without knowing Copland has a ton of collections of Holmes stories with the same title-but the ones featured in “Collection Eleven� were fun to read and the characterization of Holmes and Watson was good. It does not matter how clever a story you tell if your Holmes and Watson don’t act like the characters we know and love. Good stuff.
]]> 31562247
Even with Decker's extraordinary powers of observation and deduction, the killing is baffling. Decker and his team can find absolutely no connection between the shooter--a family man with a successful consulting business--and his victim, a schoolteacher. Nor is there a hint of any possible motive for the attack.

Enter Harper Brown. An agent of the Defense Intelligence Agency, she orders Decker to back off the case. The murder is part of an open DIA investigation, one so classified that Decker and his team aren't cleared for it.

But they learn that the DIA believes solving the murder is now a matter of urgent national security. Critical information may have been leaked to a hostile government--or worse, an international terrorist group--and an attack may be imminent.]]> 434 David Baldacci Roger 4 4.21 2017
author: David Baldacci
name: Roger
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/28
date added: 2023/01/28
shelves:
review:
The Fix is a thundering good read-Amos Decker and company are faced with a variety of problems big and small to solve. And those problems just get bigger. I was right to make the effort to read these novels in order-David Baldacci can crank them out but my enjoyment would have certainly been lessened if I had read these books out of sequence.
]]> 564249 A Hamish Macbeth Mystery by the author of "Death of a Snob."
When it comes to murder, Constable Hamish Macbeth can't see the joke. Rich, old practical joker Andrew Trent summons his kin to remote Arrat House in the dead of winter for a deathbed farewell. But when they arrive, the old coot is in perfect health, cackling at his joke and ready to torment them with others.
But it turns out the joke's on Trent. As the saying goes, he who laughs last, kills first! And when Trent is murdered, Constable Macbeth must step in and solve the crime before the punchline of the next killing joke knocks him right into an early grave!]]> 168 M.C. Beaton 0804111022 Roger 4 3.73 1988
author: M.C. Beaton
name: Roger
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/26
date added: 2023/01/26
shelves:
review:
Death of a Prankster is popcorn. Like the other novels in the late MC Beaton’s Hamish Macbeth series (or for that matter the entries in her Agatha Raisin series) there is a lot of tongue in cheek humor and quirkiness at play. You can put your brain in neutral and enjoy yourself knowing you are in great hands. These books never fail to delight.
]]> 55228104
Until Pamela, the most sensible of them, suddenly breaks all the rules and brings down a Nazi bomber with her bare hands. The three resolve to tell no one about it, but they soon learn that a crew member is missing from the downed bomber. Charred corpses are discovered in nearby houses and it becomes apparent that the women have unwittingly unleashed a monster.

Through a city torn by the Blitz, the friends must hunt the enemy before he kills again. Their task will take them from the tunnels of the Underground to the halls of power, where they will discover the secrets that a secret organization must keep even from itself.

Today. Lynette Binns, a librarian with a husband and child, is a late recruit to the Checquy, having discovered only as an adult her ability to electrify everyday objects with her touch.

After completing her training, she is assigned to examine a string of brutal murders of London criminals and quickly realizes that all bear the unmistakable hallmark of her own unique power. Unable to provide an alibi and determined to prove her innocence, she flees, leaving behind her family to venture into the London underworld to find answers. But now she is prey, being tracked by her own frighteningly capable comrades.

As Lyn fights off powered thugs and her own vengeful colleagues, she will find that the solution to the murders and to the mystery of her own past lies in the events of World War II, and the covert actions of three young women during the Blitz.]]> 496 Daniel O'Malley 146075638X Roger 4 3.96 2022
author: Daniel O'Malley
name: Roger
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/24
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:
Blitz is a lot of book. A lot. (Technically, I think there was enough material here for two books.) We are faced with intertwining stories-one taking place at the beginning of World War II and another in the modern day. This is the third novel in Daniel O’Malley’s The Rook Files series. I love these and wish there were more. I am old enough to remember when reading the X-Men was fun: You were treated to a great story with art by Dave Cockrum or John Byrne or Paul Smith. And you didn’t have to have the equivalent of a car loan each month to buy all the “X� related books. It was a dollop of pure wonder each time. These novels are like that. What a joy! I dearly hope there will be a fourth entry. The closest equivalent to O’Malley’s series is the aforementioned X-Men, or George RR Martin’s Wild Cards books.
]]> 60383020 Prof. Brandt Savage—grandson of the legendary action hero Doc Savage—is forced into a top-secret training program where he discovers his true calling...as the perfect assassin.
Ěý
Dr. Brandt Savage is on sabbatical from the University of Chicago. Instead of doing solo fieldwork in anthropology, the gawky, bespectacled PhD finds himself enrolled in a school where he is the sole pupil. His professor, “Meed,â€� is demanding. She’s also his captor.Ěý
Ěý
Savage emerges from their intensive training sessions physically and mentally transformed, but with no ideaĚýwhyĚýhe’s been chosen, andĚýhowĚýhe’ll use his fearsome abilities. Then his first mission with Meed takes them back to her own training ground, where Savage learns how deeply entwined their two lives have been.ĚýTo prevent a new class of killers from escaping this harsh place where their ancestors first fought to make a better world, they must pledge anew :ĚýDo right to all, and wrong to no one.Ěý Ěý ĚýĚý]]> 336 James Patterson 1538721856 Roger 1
The Perfect Assassin is the latest attempt to bring Doc (of at least his brand) into the modern era. In case you don’t know, Doc is a character that originated in the 1930s and 40s. Reared by a more than slightly maniacal father, Clark Savage Jr. is raised from birth to be superhuman. He is a physical and mental marvel. He is also definitely (in my opinion) a child of his time.

Doc is owned by Conde Nast who must not be making a lot of money with this property. So they have brought in superstar author James Patterson to presumably help generate some revenue along with Patterson’s ghost writer I mean co-author Brian Sitts. These geniuses totally raped The Shadow, another 30’s pulp hero when they revamped him recently. In their defense this novel (The Perfect Assassin) is not quite as bad.

Warning! Spoilers ahead. This novel is divided into two parts. The first part is incredibly boring as it features, the kidnapping and transmogrification of Dr. Brandt Savage, Doc’s grandson, from mild mannered university professor to ubermensch-in six months! If you can make it through that part two is relatively exciting. It is also filled with some incredible coincidences that stretch suspension of disbelief well past the breaking point. Brandt Savage finds his grandfather’s abandoned Fortress of Solitude (yes, Virginia, Clark Savage had a Fortress of Solitude before that other Clark did) and he successfully manages to call in Interpol for assistance-because anytime you call Interpol they will respond with a full strike team just because you asked nicely.

Unoriginal plot points abound-including an almost direct rip-off of the Black Widow’s backstory. Plus an incident near the end of the book seems to indicate our new Doc has now become bulletproof-what? At least the authors seem to be somewhat familiar with Doc’s backstory. One star.]]> 3.85 2022
author: James Patterson
name: Roger
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2023/01/14
date added: 2023/01/14
shelves:
review:
I found the character of Doc Savage (or he found me) when I was ten years old. I am a lot older than that now, but Doc had a big influence on me when I was a young person. So to say that I have a great amount of affection for Doc Savage would be an understatement.

The Perfect Assassin is the latest attempt to bring Doc (of at least his brand) into the modern era. In case you don’t know, Doc is a character that originated in the 1930s and 40s. Reared by a more than slightly maniacal father, Clark Savage Jr. is raised from birth to be superhuman. He is a physical and mental marvel. He is also definitely (in my opinion) a child of his time.

Doc is owned by Conde Nast who must not be making a lot of money with this property. So they have brought in superstar author James Patterson to presumably help generate some revenue along with Patterson’s ghost writer I mean co-author Brian Sitts. These geniuses totally raped The Shadow, another 30’s pulp hero when they revamped him recently. In their defense this novel (The Perfect Assassin) is not quite as bad.

Warning! Spoilers ahead. This novel is divided into two parts. The first part is incredibly boring as it features, the kidnapping and transmogrification of Dr. Brandt Savage, Doc’s grandson, from mild mannered university professor to ubermensch-in six months! If you can make it through that part two is relatively exciting. It is also filled with some incredible coincidences that stretch suspension of disbelief well past the breaking point. Brandt Savage finds his grandfather’s abandoned Fortress of Solitude (yes, Virginia, Clark Savage had a Fortress of Solitude before that other Clark did) and he successfully manages to call in Interpol for assistance-because anytime you call Interpol they will respond with a full strike team just because you asked nicely.

Unoriginal plot points abound-including an almost direct rip-off of the Black Widow’s backstory. Plus an incident near the end of the book seems to indicate our new Doc has now become bulletproof-what? At least the authors seem to be somewhat familiar with Doc’s backstory. One star.
]]> 26245853
Amos Decker, newly hired on an FBI special task force, takes an interest in Mars's case after discovering the striking similarities to his own life: Both men were talented football players with promising careers cut short by tragedy. Both men's families were brutally murdered. And in both cases, another suspect came forward, years after the killing, to confess to the crime. A suspect who may or may not have been telling the truth.

The confession has the potential to make Melvin Mars--guilty or not--a free man. Who wants Mars out of prison? And why now?

But when a member of Decker's team disappears, it becomes clear that something much larger--and more sinister--than just one convicted criminal's life hangs in the balance. Decker will need all of his extraordinary brainpower to stop an innocent man from being executed.]]> 644 David Baldacci 1455566020 Roger 4 4.14 2016
author: David Baldacci
name: Roger
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/13
date added: 2023/01/13
shelves:
review:
The Last Mile is an entertaining novel by David Baldacci. It is popcorn, but that’s OK because it’s good popcorn. If you are reading this book and expecting deep philosophical insight you are in the wrong place. This is a thriller that takes several exciting left turns before it is over. Amos Decker’s remarkable brain is on full display which is good because I like this character. FBI Agent Bogart, however, has been reduced to being a facilitator and the plot was just this side of too much but this was still a four star book because it delivered on the promise of the first one. Looking forward to more books in this series; it looks like my library has them so let’s toast (fruit juice) my tax dollars at work.
]]> 23153154
When Amos Decker returned home to find the bodies of his wife and only daughter, he didn't think he could carry on living.

Overwhelmed with grief, Decker saw his life fall apart, losing his job as a detective, his house, and his self-respect. But when his former partner visits to tell him that someone has confessed to the murder of his family, he knows he must seek justice for them.

Then tragedy strikes at the local school: teenagers are gunned down and the killer is at large. Following the serious brain injury Amos suffered as a professional footballer, he gained a remarkable gift - and the police believe that this unusual skill will assist in the hunt for the killer.

Amos Decker must endure the memories he would rather forget, and when new evidence links the murders, he is left with only one option...]]> 416 David Baldacci 1455559822 Roger 4 4.04 2015
author: David Baldacci
name: Roger
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/10
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves:
review:
I am not a big fan of David Baldacci but I enjoyed Memory Man quite a bit. The title of this book is a little clunky and so are some aspects of the plot, but I look at the first novel in any series as the author’s opening salvo. Now that characters and circumstances have been fleshed out let’s see where Baldacci runs with his creation. Amos Decker is our eponymous protagonist a former NFL player who suffers an earth-shaking hit on the playing field. Decker dies (twice) but is resuscitated-and awakens to find his brain/consciousness has been completely rewired. Now gifted and/or cursed with what we would call a photographic memory he cannot turn off and additional savant level mental abilities, Decker is a stranger to everyone including himself. And then things really go to hell. Four stars.
]]> 37955626 #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
Sara Blaedel returns with another thrilling novel in her series featuring homicide detective Louise Rick--a strong-willed police investigator perfect for readers of Lisa Gardner, Tami Hoag, Tess Gerritsen, or Jo Nesbo.

A young woman is found strangled in a park, and a male journalist has been killed in the backyard of the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen.

Detective Louise Rick is put on the case of the young girl, but very soon becomes entangled in solving the other homicide too when it turns out her best friend, journalist Camilla Lind, knew the murdered man. Louise tries to keep her friend from getting too involved, but Camilla's never been one to miss out on an interesting story. And this time, Camilla may have gone too far...

Emotionally riveting and filled with unexpected twists, THE MIDNIGHT WITNESS is a tour-de-force from international phenomenon Sara Blaedel.]]> 281 Sara Blaedel 1538759799 Roger 4 3.31 2004
author: Sara Blaedel
name: Roger
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/31
date added: 2022/12/31
shelves:
review:
The Midnight Witness is the first book in Sara Blaedel’s Louise Rick series of police procedurals. This initial offering is a little slow at first but in this novel Blaedel is setting all her pieces on the board-and rest assured the pace does pick up. Something is rotten in Denmark-specifically Copenhagen. Rick finds herself investigating the murder of a young woman found in a public park as well as that of a veteran crime reporter. I think it’s a really good idea to spice up your reading journey by looking at offerings from other countries. The rhythms and language choices are just a little different from what Americans are used to and it is refreshing to experience a different slice of life. I find most Nordic crime fiction to be really accessible and enjoyable. You should check out authors like Blaedel, Asa Larsson, Jo Nesbo, and Camilla Lackberg.
]]> 126492 288 C.J. Cherryh 0886770130 Roger 1 3.81 1983
author: C.J. Cherryh
name: Roger
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1983
rating: 1
read at: 2022/04/22
date added: 2022/12/29
shelves:
review:
CJ Cherryh’s The Dreamstone was published as a DAW paperback in 1983. So potentially this tome has been with me for nearly 40 years. It has travelled from house to house and city to city waiting to be read. How sad that I ignored my original instincts and read it-I would have been much better off leaving it to look pretty on the shelf. This book is written in what I am going to call Pretentious RenFaireSpeak. If the author had added a few thee’s and thou’s the prose would read like a 1970’s The Mighty Thor comic book. The last twenty five pages are exciting everything else is a snoozefest of epic proportions. That’s what I thinkest anyway. I am definitely skipping the sequel.
]]> 28503973 416 Kim Newman 1781165688 Roger 5 3.48 2016
author: Kim Newman
name: Roger
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/09
date added: 2022/12/29
shelves:
review:
Angels of Music is a hybridization of The Phantom of the Opera and Charlie’s Angels. I know that is a bizarre idea but believe it or not it actually works. It’s Kim Newman�s universe we just live in it. Newman is very clever he populates his Paris with a host of ass-kicking women and half the fun is figuring out all of his fiendish literary references. Irene Adler is here, as is Trilby, Alraune and many others. We get to visit Paris in several different time periods and this includes a trip to the Grand Guignol theater which is perfect timing for Halloween. Excellent.
]]> 1312273 12,000 B.C.

They were four trained scientists, each of them skilled in several disciplines - because this was an opportunity that would never occur again. There would never be another chance for men form the world of 2070 A.D. to examine in person the world of 12,000 B.C. What they learned and taped would be the only record ever made of this dim, enigmatic period of prehistory. But absolutely no one in the world of 2070 or in the borrowed time of 12,000 B.C. could have imagined what the tapes would reveal...

A superb novel of adventure and intrigue in a vanished era

Cover illustration: Geoff Cummings]]> 352 Philip José Farmer 0812537645 Roger 4 3.68 1972
author: Philip José Farmer
name: Roger
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1972
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/26
date added: 2022/12/26
shelves:
review:
I hate time travel and rarely enjoy a book that features this particular trope. (Exceptions: The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers and Roadmarks by Roger Zelazny plus Ray Bradbury’s short story A Sound of Thunder.) Philip Jose Farmer’s Time’s Last Gift bluntly does not measure up to those classics but it is entertaining. Four scientists travel back in time to 12000 BC. Of course one of them is not who he appears to be…No spoilers this is all on the back cover. I must admit I like the theory of time travel presented here by Farmer: do whatever you like in the past as it is the past and “already happened� so you cannot change anything. It’s a different angle and makes for a different type of story. Four stars.
]]> 55892263
Nelson DeMille introduced readers to NYPD Homicide Detective John Corey in Plum Island , who we first meet sitting on the back porch of his uncle’s waterfront estate on Long Island, recovering from wounds incurred in the line of duty.

Six novels later, The Maze opens with Corey on the same porch, having survived new law enforcement roles and romantic relationships—wiser and more sarcastic than ever. Corey is restless and looking for action, so when his former lover Detective Beth Penrose appears with a job offer, Corey has to once again make some decisions about his career—and about reuniting with Beth.

Inspired by and based on the actual and still-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders, The Maze takes us on a dangerous hunt for an apparent serial killer who has murdered nine—and maybe more—sex workers and hidden their bodies in the thick undergrowth on a lonely stretch of beach.

As Corey digs deeper into this case, he comes to suspect that the failure of the local police to solve this sensational mystery may not be a result of their incompetence—it may be something else. Something more sinister.

The Maze features John Corey’s politically incorrect humor, matched by his brilliant and unorthodox investigative skills, along with the shocking plot twists that are the trademark of the bestselling author Nelson DeMille, “the master of smart, entertaining suspense� ( Bookreporter ).]]> 415 Nelson DeMille 1501101781 Roger 1 3.37 2022
author: Nelson DeMille
name: Roger
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2022/12/24
date added: 2022/12/24
shelves:
review:
If you bought a paper copy of Nelson DeMille’s The Maze let me comfort you with one thought: you can always use the pages to wrap fish. This is the eighth novel featuring John Corey, DeMille’s wisecracking antiauthoritarian sleuth. I have truly enjoyed the other entries in this series-but The Maze never even gets going till around one hundred pages and things do not start to attain the level of mildly interesting until around page one hundred and fifty. I have never fallen asleep while reading as many times as I did while reading this book. The last fifty pages are exciting but it’s a case of too little too late because I stopped caring. I am so glad I checked this out from my library rather than purchased it. Downside: no paper to wrap fish in. One star.
]]> 1886928
1."Introduction"
2."The Return of Hastur"
3."The Whipporwills in the Hills"
4."Something in Wood"
5."The Sandwin Compact"
6."The House in the Valley"
7."The Seal of R'lyeh"

Cover Illustration: Bruce Pennington]]> 175 August Derleth 0586041397 Roger 3
Derleth also wrote many a tale of his own featuring Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos as a central plot point. (Lovecraft kindly invited others to play in his sandbox.) I remember reading and enjoying some of those when I was a teen. But as Thomas Wolfe wrote you can’t go home again.

Which brings us in roundabout fashion to Derleth’s The Mask of Cthulhu. This is a collection of six stories. I found them to be slavish imitations of Lovecraft’s tales, down to borrowing far too many plot points. I always knew exactly where these stories were going. I think reading this type of fiction is a form of calculated nostalgia on my part. I want the same feeling I got when I first read Lovecraft’s The Outsider or The Lurking Fear or The Statement of Randolph Carter (and so many others.)

Not happening. But I keep looking. Three stars-if you are out of Lovecraft stories to read these might tide you over.]]> 3.80 1958
author: August Derleth
name: Roger
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1958
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/19
date added: 2022/12/19
shelves:
review:
August Derleth was the Keeper of the Flame. H P Lovecraft died a relatively unknown and obscure writer-he might have remained so but for Derleth’s nigh obsessive promotion of his works. Today Lovecraft’s fiction has spawned (you see what I did there) countless movies, comics, games and TV and film productions. I wonder what H P would have thought.

Derleth also wrote many a tale of his own featuring Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos as a central plot point. (Lovecraft kindly invited others to play in his sandbox.) I remember reading and enjoying some of those when I was a teen. But as Thomas Wolfe wrote you can’t go home again.

Which brings us in roundabout fashion to Derleth’s The Mask of Cthulhu. This is a collection of six stories. I found them to be slavish imitations of Lovecraft’s tales, down to borrowing far too many plot points. I always knew exactly where these stories were going. I think reading this type of fiction is a form of calculated nostalgia on my part. I want the same feeling I got when I first read Lovecraft’s The Outsider or The Lurking Fear or The Statement of Randolph Carter (and so many others.)

Not happening. But I keep looking. Three stars-if you are out of Lovecraft stories to read these might tide you over.
]]> 21946770 30 A.E. van Vogt Roger 4 3.72 1939
author: A.E. van Vogt
name: Roger
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1939
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/16
date added: 2022/12/16
shelves:
review:
A E van Vogt’s Black Destroyer. This was van Vogt’s first professional sale and it appeared in the July 1939 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. The author would later integrate this story into his larger work The Voyage of the Space Beagle but I wanted to read the original. Lots of promise here and the eponymous creature of the title was certainly more than I bargained for. Things spiral quickly from an alien encounter to all out war. Thrilling story that is considered to have ushered in the golden age of SF.
]]> 16648
An Exorcism of Sorts (1989) (Introduction)
Permafrost (1986)
LOKI 7281 (1984)
Dreadsong (1985)
Itself Surprised (1984)
Dayblood (1984)
Constructing a Science Fiction Novel (1984)
The Bands of Titan (1986)
Mana from Heaven (1984)
Night Kings (1986)
Quest's End (1987)
24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai (1985)
Fantasy and Science Fiction: A Writer's View (1985)

A frozen planet where the Gods dream miracles... A mythic beast in love with its destroyer...

The extraordinary Roger Zelazny brings otherworlds and wonders to breathtaking life in this magnificent new collection of short fiction. Including two Hugo Award-winning moderm classics, "Permafrost" and "24 Views of Mr. Fuji, by Hokusai," this remarkable anthology carries the reader across time and space into bizarrd realms of the imagination � where Berserkers roam, and alien races die in silence... and computers plot murder...]]> 288 Roger Zelazny 0380757753 Roger 4 3.88 1989
author: Roger Zelazny
name: Roger
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/16
date added: 2022/12/16
shelves:
review:
Roger Zelazny was a (prose) poet and artist as well as a science fiction writer. A copy of his anthology Frost and Fire fell into my lap a few weeks ago and it has proven to be a fine read full of essays and award winning stories. I loved it! Zelazny is on a long list (and it keeps getting longer) of favorite authors who have crossed over. He was special and tonight I lift a glass (cranberry juice) to him.
]]> 1640223
Far Centaurus (1944)
The Monster (1948)
Dormant (1948)
The Enchanted Village (1950)
A Can of Paint (1944)
Defence (1947)
The Rulers (1944)
Dear Pen Pal (1949)
The Sound (1950)
The Search (1943)]]> 160 A.E. van Vogt 0425019128 Roger 4 3.87 1952
author: A.E. van Vogt
name: Roger
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/12
date added: 2022/12/12
shelves:
review:
I was talking to a friend about reading Destination: Universe! “My copy is a sixth edition� I said “with a nice Richard Powers cover. Not worth any money.� But the thing is: there is more than one way to measure the worth of a book. Books by A E van Vogt are not common in my slice of the secondary market. Even though no story in this collection was written after 1950, they show off the inventiveness of an SFWA grandmaster. So this book is worth a lot and I am privileged to have read it. SF this old can be a lot of fun, despite the various anachronisms of the day that creep in. (“You are upset darling-go shopping and spend $500.00 on yourself.� Ouch.) Good stories in the puzzle solving tradition of classic science fiction, if you can forgive the zanier aspects.
]]> 60219987 LAPD detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch work together to hunt the killer who is Bosch’s “white whale”—a man responsible for the murder of an entire family.

A year has passed since LAPD detective Renée Ballard quit the force in the face of misogyny, demoralization, and endless red tape. Yet, after the chief of police himself tells her she can write her ticket within the department, Ballard takes back her badge, leaving “the Late Show� to rebuild the cold case unit at the elite Robbery-Homicide Division.
Ěý
For years, Harry Bosch has been working a case that haunts him but that he hasn’t been able to crack—the murder of an entire family by a psychopath who still walks free. Ballard makes Bosch an offer: come work with her as a volunteer investigator in the new Open-Unsolved Unit, and he can pursue his “white whale� with the resources of the LAPD behind him.

The two must put aside old resentments to work together again and close in on a dangerous killer. Propulsive and unstoppable, this new novel demonstrates once again why “Connelly is the real deal� (Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review).]]> 400 Michael Connelly 0316421464 Roger 4 4.49 2022
author: Michael Connelly
name: Roger
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/10
date added: 2022/12/10
shelves:
review:
Desert Star was another enjoyable Harry Bosch novel. I think I have grown to take it for granted that Michael Connelly will always deliver a good book. But so far that is the case. The first few chapters seemed to run a little rough to me but then we got in the groove. I am a little upset because I can see the writing on the wall and I think I just read the next to last Harry Bosch novel. I have come to truly love this character and hope I am wrong but Connelly’s characters definitely operate in the “real world� so we shall see. Lots of good sleuthing here. Four stars.
]]> 63432
On an ill-fated mission to Jupiter in 2001, the mutinous supercomputer HAL sent crewmembers David Bowman and Frank Poole into the frozen void of space. Bowman’s strange transformation into a Star Child is traced through the novels 2010 and 2061. But now, a thousand years after his death, Frank Poole is brought back to life—and thrust into a world far more technically advanced than the one he left behind.

Poole discovers a world of human minds interfacing directly with computers, genetically engineered dinosaur servants, and massive space elevators built around the equator. He also discovers an impending threat to humanity lurking within the enigmatic monoliths. To fight it, Poole must join forces with Bowman and HAL, now fused into one corporeal consciousness—and the only being with the power to thwart the monoliths� mysterious creators.

�3001 is not just a page-turner, plugged in to the great icons of HAL and the monoliths, but a book of wisdom too, pithy and provocative.� —New Scientist]]> 272 Arthur C. Clarke 0345438205 Roger 4 3.58 1999
author: Arthur C. Clarke
name: Roger
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/08
date added: 2022/12/08
shelves:
review:
In 3001: The Final Odyssey Arthur C Clarke resurrects Frank Poole (last seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey.) This is actually quite clever as it allows us to see what life is like ten centuries from now through the eyes of another fish out of water. (No not a spoiler this is info that is right there on the back of the book.) We finally learn the purpose behind the Monolith(s) and humanity fights “dirty� to preserve its� existence. The ending was too abrupt for my taste-hence, four stars.
]]> 35816 302 Arthur C. Clarke 0586203192 Roger 5 3.61 1987
author: Arthur C. Clarke
name: Roger
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/06
date added: 2022/12/06
shelves:
review:
Arthur C Clarke’s 2061:Odyssey Three is written as a straight up adventure story, and I found it to be quite thrilling. Yes the Monolith and by extension the alien powers behind it are present but they are essentially background noise. Which is okay by me-I imagine any encounters humanity ever has with aliens will be essentially incomprehensible anyway so I am perfectly content that the Monolith is still an unresolved mystery. To me that simply makes the most logical sense. One note: the author does a good job of showing us the wonders of our solar system. I remember when I started reading science fiction-I found it to be full of wonder and awe. That feeling has faded over the years. So nice to get to experience it again.
]]> 219326 288 Robert Bloch 0812500709 Roger 5 3.65 1984
author: Robert Bloch
name: Roger
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/05
date added: 2022/12/05
shelves:
review:
Reading Robert Bloch is such a pleasure. The Night of the Ripper was fabulous. Bloch touches upon nearly every suspect ever named as a potential Jack the Ripper before proposing his own unique solution. (Which I am of course not going to share with you-read the book.) This is a clever suspenseful novel. Yes be warned it is gory (naturally considering the subject) so this may not be your cup of tea. I have no idea if this is still in print but it is worth seeking out.
]]> 6685128
Los Angeles, the 1930’s.
The city of angels. Attracting beautiful people from all over the world with its glitz and glamour. But just beneath the surface is a city stinking of corruption with criminal bosses and politicians squeezing the life out of the city.

Stunned and enraged by the murder of her crusading politician father, beautiful socialite Ellen Patrick becomes determined to bring her father’s killers to justice…at any cost. A talented Berkley graduate, she knows that to truly fight the men who killed her father she must break all the rules. Donning a distinctive white dress and a black domino mask, she becomes The Domino Lady, one of the sexiest –and most elusive—crime fighters of all time.

The greatest adventurers and detectives of all time join her:
THE PHANTOM,
SHERLOCK HOLMES,
THE BLACK BAT (The original inspiration behind the creation of Batman)
And AIRBOY!


stories:

The Domino Lady and the Crimson Dragon
K.G. McAbee
Captured in Shanghai and thrown onto a slave ship, lovely Ling Chin escapes while wearing her family heirloom of protection, a crimson dragon. Rescued by Domino Lady, this duo becomes invincible as they attempt to bring to justice the slave traders and the power brokers.


Blondes in Chains
C.J. Henderson
Domino Lady partners with another hero-New York's former D.A. Anthony Quinn, who secretly operates as the Black Bat. Together they thwart members of the criminal underworld of NYC as well as some apparent pillars of the community and also solve the case of the enslaved missing blondes.


Target: Domino Lady
Bobby Nash
Because Hollywood's movie studios have become mob-infested, Domino Lady is determined to expose this evil. Instead, she becomes the object of a manhunt herself, accused of murdering a small fry mobster. Although the evidence against her is overwhelming, Domino Lady uses her wiles and her wisdom to turn the tables on her enemies once again.


Stealing Joe Crick
Chuck Dixon
The happy-go-lucky hero Airboy, Davy Nelson, and his one-of-a-kind personal airplane, Birdie, assist Domino Lady when her long-time family friend, Dr. Joe Crick, is kidnapped. The Doctor is the victim along with his latest invention, a "magic goop" a chemical concoction of value to the world ... and to a vile criminal as well.


The Claws of the Cat
Ron Fortier
When bizarre cat-heists challenge Ellen Patrick's sleuthing skills, she deduces not only the where-abouts and the who done-it but also the devious why behind these thefts. This knowledge turns this seemingly light-hearted romp into serious business and potential danger.


The Strange Case of the Domino Lady and Mr. Holmes
Nancy Holder
Domino Lady teams with the legendary Sherlock Holmes as they seek the stolen vial of the potion used to transform Dr. Jekyll into the evil Mr. Hyde. With masterful disguises the pair of sleuths glides through London immobilizing enemies; happily, they find the opportunity for romantic interludes.


The Devil You Know
James Chambers
Ellen Patrick is pitted against the dashing Sol Rath, the power-hungry master of a cult of blood-thirsty disciples led by the whip-wielding dominatrix, SalĂ­t. Desperate to have Domino Lady in his plan to rule the world, Rath proposes an unholy alliance-power for him and vengeance for her-a most tempting offer for our lady.


Masks of Madness
Martin Powell
Following a shipwreck in exotic waters, Domino Lady is rescued by an island pygmy and a ghostly giant, known in legend as The Phantom or The Man Who Cannot Die. Charmed by him, she forms an alliance with this hero with wise "Old Jungle Sayings" and eventually encounters one of her father's assassins.]]> 256 Lori Gentile 1933076399 Roger 4 4.24 2009
author: Lori Gentile
name: Roger
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/03
date added: 2022/12/03
shelves:
review:
Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon was pulpy popcorn. (I’d like to thank Pat Benatar for unknowingly providing the soundtrack to this book.) Our heroine is really socialite Ellen Patrick, who swears revenge when her father (who is that rare thing an honest politician) is murdered. So logically she puts on a mask and fights crime. Ellen looks great in an evening gown with a plunging neckline and so finds a way to distract a lot of male crooks (and I am sure some female crooks as well.) The eight stories here were pretty entertaining and I did enjoy the encounters with an older Sherlock Holmes and The Phantom. No heavy lifting plus a few irritating errors (for example Ellen Patrick becomes Ellen Parker for an entire story) but the original pulp tales of the Domino Lady took place during the golden age of pulp (the thirties) so these modern pastiches set in same era being riddled with similar gaffes only adds authenticity I suppose.
]]> 2666792 44 Gene Wolfe 1561465402 Roger 3 3.77 1991
author: Gene Wolfe
name: Roger
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 2022/11/22
date added: 2022/12/03
shelves:
review:
Gene Wolfe’s The Hero as Werwolf (not a misspelling folks) is a story that begins and ends in the middle. A lot of fascinating concepts are introduced, such as a genetically perfected ruling class, and a class of under men that prey on them etc. Cannibalism is the only way to survive apparently. Depressing anomic view of the future that feels like it should have been expanded upon. Three stars.
]]> 12114336 Lightspeed () is the critically-acclaimed, online science fiction magazine edited by bestselling anthologist John Joseph Adams. Lightspeed publishes all types of science fiction, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between. Each month, Lightspeed features a mix of originals and reprints, from a variety of authors - from the bestsellers and award-winners you already know to the best new voices you haven''t heard of yet.
Now, in Lightspeed: Year One, you will find all of the fiction published in Lightspeed''s first year, from new stories such as Nebula Award finalists, Vylar Kaftan''s "I''m Alive, I Love You, I''ll See You in Reno" and "Arvies" by Adam-Troy Castro, and Carrie Vaughn''s Hugo Award-nominee "Amaryllis," to classic reprints by Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, and more.

Contents:
"I'm Alive, I Love You, I'll See You in Reno" by Vylar Kaftan
"The Cassandra Project" by Jack McDevitt
"Cats in Victory" by David Barr Kirtley
"Amaryllis" by Carrie Vaughn
"No Time Like the Present" by Carol Emshwiller
"Manumission" by Tobias S. Buckell
"The Zeppelin Conductors' Society Annual Gentlemen's Ball" by Genevieve Valentine
"...For a Single Yesterday" by George R. R. Martin
"How to Become a Mars Overlord" by Catherynne M. Valente
"Patient Zero" by Tananarive Due
"Arvies" by Adam-Troy Castro
"More Than the Sum of His Parts" by Joe Haldeman
"Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain" by Yoon Ha Lee
"The Long Chase" by Geoffrey A. Landis
"Amid the Words of War" by Cat Rambo
"Travelers" by Robert Silverberg
"Hindsight" by Sarah Langan
"Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back" by Joe R. Lansdale
"The Taste of Starlight" by John R. Fultz
"Beachworld" by Stephen King
"Standard Loneliness Package" by Charles Yu
"Faces in Revolving Souls" by Caitlin R. Kiernan
"Hwang's Billion Brilliant Daughters" by Alice Sola Kim
"Ej-Es" by Nancy Kress
"In-Fall" by Ted Kosmatka
"The Observer" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
"Jenny's Sick" by David Tallerman
"The Silence of the Asonu" by Ursula K. Le Guin
"Postings from an Amorous Tomorrow" by Corey Mariani
"Cucumber Gravy" by Susan Palwick
"Black Fire" by Tanith Lee
"The Elephants of Poznan" by Orson Scott Card
"Long Enough And Just So Long" by Cat Rambo
"The Passenger" by Julie E. Czerneda
"Simulacrum" by Ken Liu
"Breakaway, Backdown" by James Patrick Kelly
"Saying the Names" by Maggie Clark
"Gossamer" by Stephen Baxter
"Spider the Artist" by Nnedi Okorafor
"Woman Leaves Room" by Robert Reed
"All That Touches the Air" by An Owomoyela
"Maneki Neko" by Bruce Sterling
"Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son" by Tom Crosshill
"Velvet Fields" by Anne McCaffrey
"The Harrowers" by Eric Gregory
"Bibi From Jupiter" by Tessa Mellas
"Eliot Wrote" by Nancy Kress
"Scales" by Alastair Reynolds]]> 575 John Joseph Adams 1607013045 Roger 5 3.87 2011
author: John Joseph Adams
name: Roger
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/03
date added: 2022/12/03
shelves:
review:
Lightspeed is an online magazine edited by John Joseph Adams that is entering its� eleventh year of existence. Lightspeed: Year One features all the fiction from in its� initial year of publication. This was an excellent anthology and all of the stories are well written, even the tales I did not like, and there were very few of those. The contributors to this collection are absolutely stellar and include Le Guin, McCaffrey, King, Card, Lansdale and Silverberg. (And those are just some of the authors with “last name only� recognition.) The story that packed the most punch was probably Tannarive Due’s Patient Zero, which was written long before anyone had hear of Covid. Constant Reader, this book is long which I admit was both a joy and an irritant. There is an embarrassment of riches here. Enjoy!
]]> 2091566
Armaja Das by Joe Haldeman
Camps by Jack Dann
Dance of the Dead by Richard Matheson
Doctor of Dreams by Ray Russell
Flash Point by Gardner Dozois
Neither Brute Nor Human by Karl Edward Wagner
Preface (Master of Darkness) by Dennis Etchison
Preparations for the Game by Steve Rasnic Tem
Saturday's Shadow by William F. Nolan
Sea Change by George Clayton Johnson
Teeth Marks by Edward Bryant
The Animal Fair by Robert Bloch
The Dead Man by Ray Bradbury
The End of the Carnival by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
The Test Tube by Ray Russell
The Words That Count by Ramsey Campbell
Third Wind by Richard Christian Matheson]]> 338 Dennis Etchison 0812517628 Roger 4 3.57 1986
author: Dennis Etchison
name: Roger
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/24
date added: 2022/11/24
shelves:
review:
Perhaps the best way to talk about Masters of Darkness is to consider what the late Dennis Etchison said about how he put this anthology together. Etchison contacted a number of quality authors and asked them to submit a story that was their favorite. The authors could write an afterward, and say as much or as little about how the story came to be, why it was their favorite, etc. The result was a very high quality book full of interesting tales. The stand-out here has got to be Robert Bloch’s The Animal Fair. Bloch really was a master and it shows. What an excellent collection!
]]> 8428028 208 Lori Gentile 1933076712 Roger 3 3.67 2010
author: Lori Gentile
name: Roger
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2022/11/22
date added: 2022/11/22
shelves:
review:
Chicks in Capes is a female superhero anthology. Contributors include Trina Robbins, Nancy Holder, and Elaine Lee. This book is popcorn-mostly very frothy and light but six months from now I do not think I will be able to remember a lot about it. Very few of these stories have any real bite. Enjoyed Kirby Girls-I think most comic fans would like this tale-and Nightingale also stood out. Three stars, sadly.
]]> 664642 394 S.L. Viehl 0451457730 Roger 4 3.78 2000
author: S.L. Viehl
name: Roger
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/20
date added: 2022/11/20
shelves:
review:
For a book that I chose at random, I really enjoyed Stardoc by S L Viehl. The episodes of Star Trek featuring a medical puzzle Dr. McCoy had to solve have often been my favorite and that element is certainly present here. And Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil has her own problems that are very reminiscent of another favorite ST character tho I will say no more for fear of committing a spoiler. So you may be asking yourself how derivative this novel is. Well, they are really no new stories under the sun. But this book is more than the sum of its parts. This looks like the start of a really enjoyable extended space opera. I am looking forward to continuing this series.
]]> 60312252 Private investigator Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner Joe Pike are back on the case in this brilliant new thriller from number-one 'New York Times' best-selling author Robert Crais.

Adele Schumacher isn't a typical worried mom. When she hires Elvis to find her missing son, a controversial podcaster named Josh Shoe, she brings a bag filled with cash, bizarre tales of government conspiracies, and a squad of professional bodyguards. Finding Josh should be simple, but Elvis quickly learns he isn't alone in the hunt - a deadly team of mysterious strangers are determined to find Josh and his adult film star girlfriend first.

With Elvis being watched and dangerous secrets lurking behind every lead, Elvis needs his friend Joe Pike more than ever to uncover the truth about Josh, corrupt politicians, and the vicious business cartels rotting the heart of Los Angeles from within. And when Elvis Cole's estranged girlfriend Lucy Chenier and her son Ben return, Elvis learns just how much he has to lose...if he survives.

Written with the heart, humor, and relentless suspense for which Crais is famous, 'RACING THE LIGHT' delivers Elvis Cole's most dangerous case yet.]]> 368 Robert Crais 0525535756 Roger 5 4.26 2022
author: Robert Crais
name: Roger
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/19
date added: 2022/11/19
shelves:
review:
Robert Crais was one of the first mystery authors I ever read. I had lived on a steady diet of SF and fantasy for many years-my reading experience became too predictable. So I intentionally branched out, and one of the first new authors I discovered was Mr. Crais-I loved The Monkey’s Raincoat and I have been following the adventures of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike ever since. Racing the Light is another fantastic entry in the series. Elvis gets hired to locate a mother’s missing son. Sounds simple. It is anything but. Constant Reader these books are best enjoyed in order, so my advice is to start with the aforementioned Monkey’s Raincoat. I know when I tell you things like that I am really asking for a big commitment, not everyone can commit to reading over fifteen novels to work up to the “present� but really I just want you to feel the same happiness I do when I reconnect with favorite characters and that is a joy you won’t feel if you start at the end instead of the beginning. Either way, bon appetit!
]]> 60067154
“We’re going to murder people who need to be murdered.�

So begins a press release from a mysterious group known only as 'The Five,' shortly after a vicious predator is murdered in San Francisco. The Five is made up of vigilante killers who are very bored…and very rich. They target the worst of society—rapists, murderers, and thieves—and then use their unlimited resources to offset the damage done by those who they’ve killed, donating untraceable Bitcoins to charities and victims via the dark net. The Five soon become popular figures in the media …though their motives may not be entirely pure.

After The Five strike again in the Twin Cities, Virgil Flowers and Lucas Davenport are sent in to investigate. And they soon have their hands full--the killings are smart and carefully choreographed. With no apparent direct connection to the victims, the killers are virtually untraceable. But if anyone can destroy this group, it will be the dynamic team of Davenport and Flowers.]]> 416 John Sandford Roger 4 4.42 2022
author: John Sandford
name: Roger
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/11
date added: 2022/11/11
shelves:
review:
Righteous Prey is the thirty-second Lucas Davenport novel-I am happy to report that John Sandford never disappoints. If you are expecting action, humor, and a fast paced story you have come to the right novel. Some bored bitcoin billionaires have decided to eliminate “jerks� (not the word actually used but I am keeping this review clean) and Davenport and Virgil Flowers get pulled into the investigation. Our villains have vast resources, anonymity, and extensive knowledge of forensics and police procedures on their side. But we have Davenport and Flowers. Manhunting and hilarity ensue. I love these books and love the Flowers series as well this team up is very welcome.
]]> 51197659 Edgar award-winning author Joe Lansdale returns with the hard-boiled story of a no-nonsense used car salesman ready to turn his life around

Ed Edwards is in the used car business, a business built on adjusted odometers, extra-fine print, and the belief that "buyers better beware." Burdened by an aging, alcoholic mother constantly on his case to do something worthier of his lighter skin tone and dreaming of a brighter future for himself and his plucky little sister, Ed is ready to get out of the game.

When Dave, his lazy, grease-stained boss at the eponymous dealership Smiling Dave's sends him to repossess a Cadillac, Ed finally gets the chance to escape his miserable life.

The Cadillac in question was purchased by Frank Craig and his beautiful wife Nancy, owners of a local drive-in and pet cemetery. Fed up with her deadbeat husband and with unfulfilled desires of her own, Nancy suggests to Ed- in the throes of their salacious affair- that they kill Frank and claim his insurance policy. It is a tantalizing offer: the girl, the car, and not one, but two businesses. Ed could finally say goodbye to Smiling Dave's, and maybe even send his sister to college. But does he have what it takes to see the plan through?

Told with Joe Lansdale's trademark grit, wit, and dark humor, More Better Deals is a gripping tale of the strange characters and odd dealings that define 1960s East Texas.]]> 258 Joe R. Lansdale 0316479918 Roger 4 3.70 2020
author: Joe R. Lansdale
name: Roger
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/08
date added: 2022/11/08
shelves:
review:
There used to be a car dealership in my area owned by a Morris Moore. The tagline to all his advertisements was “Moore Better Deals.� Joe Lansdale writing a book with essentially that title about a used car salesman was synchronicity. I managed to miss this book in 2020 when it was published but I was happy to play catch up. More Better Deals is dark as pitch. There are no heroes in this book. I would’ve enjoyed it more if the main character hadn’t dropped around forty IQ points midway through the action (thus the four stars.) I found this very reminiscent of the work of James M Cain and (if film is your thing) the Coen Brothers movie Blood Simple. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
]]> 5352 And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atlee, a beloved and powerful official who has towered over local law and politics for forty years. No longer on the bench, the Judge has withdrawn to the Atlee mansion and become a recluse.
With the end in sight, Judge Atlee issues a summons for both sons to return home to Clanton, to discuss the details of his estate. It is typed by the Judge himself, on his handsome old stationery, and gives the date and time for Ray and Forrest to appear in his study.
Ray reluctantly heads south, to his hometown, to the place where he grew up, which he prefers now to avoid. But the family meeting does not take place. The Judge dies too soon, and in doing so leaves behind a shocking secret known only to Ray.
And perhaps someone else.]]> 384 John Grisham 0385339593 Roger 4 3.71 2002
author: John Grisham
name: Roger
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/05
date added: 2022/11/05
shelves:
review:
The Summons reads like it is written by the John Grisham I used to enjoy. It certainly was better than The Racketeer which I read earlier this year. The Summons even has a nice twist at the end. I wanted a little more courtroom drama than I received. I would describe this as a suspense novel with some “lawyering� factored in rather than the legal thriller I was hoping for. Four stars happily given.
]]> 18404175
When the shogun summons Hiro and Father Mateo, the Portuguese Jesuit priest under Hiro's protection, to find the killer, Hiro finds himself forced to choose between friendship and personal honor.

The investigation reveals a plot to assassinate the shogun and overthrow the ruling Ashikaga clan. With Lord Oda's enemy forces approaching Kyoto, and the murderer poised to strike again, Hiro must use his assassin's skills to reveal the killer's identity and protect the shogun at any cost. Kazu, now trapped in the city, still refuses to explain his whereabouts at the time of the murder. But a suspicious shogunate maid, Saburo's wife, and the shogun's stable master also had reasons to want Saburo dead. With the shogun demanding the murderer's head before Lord Oda reaches the city, Hiro and Father Mateo must produce the killer in time . . . or die in his place.

Susan Spann's Blade of the Samurai is a complex mystery that will transport readers to a thrilling and unforgettable adventure in sixteenth-century Japan.]]> 293 Susan Spann 1250027055 Roger 4 3.97 2014
author: Susan Spann
name: Roger
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/05
date added: 2022/11/05
shelves:
review:
Blade of the Samurai is the second In the Shinobi Mystery series and I think I am hooked. The action takes place in Shogunate Japan-and I do mean action as this book is paced in such a way as to be a very swift read. I think I finished it in six hours. You do not have to have read book one to enjoy this, tho it might be preferable. Good mystery too I should have figured it out but didn’t. Good stuff.
]]> 31812150 The Mammoth Book of the Mummy presents a collection of classic and contemporary tales on the legendary monster. From the classic Egyptian mummies to modern psudo-mummies and mummies from other cultures, this will include stories by new and established writers like Kage Baker, Ramsey Campbell, Gail Carriger, and more.

Contents
Introduction: My Mouth Has Been Given to Me That I May Speak � by Paula Guran
Private Grave 9 � (2003) � by Karen Joy Fowler
The Good Shabti � (2015) � by Robert Sharp
Egyptian Revival � by Angela Slatter
The Queen in Yellow (The Company Short Fiction) � (2002) � by Kage Baker
On Skua Island � (2001) � by John Langan
Ramesses on the Frontier � (2013) � by Paul Cornell
The Shaddowwes Box � (2011) � by Terry Dowling
Egyptian Avenue (The Diogenes Club series) � (2002) � by Kim Newman
The Curious Case of the Werewolf That Wasn't, the Mummy That Was, and the Cat in the Jar (The Parasol Protectorate Universe) � (2013) � by Gail Carriger
The Night Comes On � (1998) � by Steve Duffy
American Mummy � by Stephen Graham (I)
Bubba-Ho-Tep � (1994) � by Joe R. Lansdale
Fruit of the Tomb: A Midnight Louie Past Life Adventure (Midnight Louie series)] � (2012) � by Carole Nelson Douglas
The Chapter of Coming Forth by Night � (2000) � by Lois Tilton and Noreen Doyle
The Mummy's Heart � (2013) � by Norman Partridge
The Emerald Scarab (Kamose the Magician) � (2001) � by Keith Taylor
The Embalmer � by Helen Marshall
Tollund � (2013) � by Adam Roberts
Three Memories of Death � (2013) � by Will Hill]]> 480 Paula Guran 1607014823 Roger 4 3.64 2015
author: Paula Guran
name: Roger
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/04
date added: 2022/11/04
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed every story in The Mammoth Book of the Mummy. Ironically the two stories that really stand out in this collection are two stories I had already read: Bubba Ho-Tep by Joe Lansdale and The Mummy’s Heart by Norman Partridge. I happily reread them. Top notch anthology and that’s a wrap.
]]> 62330020
The holly-jolly holidays aren’t for everyone, least of all when you look back on that one Christmas when there were two definitely haunted dolls waiting for you and your sister under the tree. You have to assume that’s where it all started.

And so it was for Jenny Lawson. Now, she lives in the land of eternal Halloween, as evidenced by her interior decor and general state of darkness. (Although, if you ask her, her taxidermy zoo is less dark, more delightful. But not everyone has taste, so what are you going to do?)

This essay takes Jenny back to where it all started, from her humble beginnings as a trick-or-treater in the 1980s, on high alert for (logistically improbable) candy laced with razor blades and the (allegedly) ever-present threat of satanists on the loose. From there, she has risen from the candy-wrapper ashes of her childhood to claim her rightful lifestyle as the queen of Halloween.]]> 25 Jenny Lawson 1662511116 Roger 4 3.95 2022
author: Jenny Lawson
name: Roger
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/23
date added: 2022/10/23
shelves:
review:
Jenny Lawson is extremely funny. I Choose Darkness tells the tale of her quirky adolescent Halloween adventures. This is an essay so it is a very fast read. Lawson is a bit younger than me (I looked it up) but her rememberances of Halloweens past dovetail with my own-the cheap costumes and “Fall Festival� really took me back.
]]> 62005
In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff � gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.

Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut.

And now the dread night approaches � so let the Game begin.]]> 280 Roger Zelazny 0380771411 Roger 4 4.16 1993
author: Roger Zelazny
name: Roger
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/23
date added: 2022/10/23
shelves:
review:
I have been looking for a copy of A Night in the Lonesome October for many years. I have never found one “in the wild� so I finally purchased one (with the help of a book credit) for $4.00. Money well spent. This was a grand and humorous romp thru a lot of horror tropes. The late Roger Zelazny is a favorite author and as far as I know this was his last book. This edition is illustrated by the late Gahan Wilson but it’s really gilding the lily. This was a quick and delightful read-something light to while away a Sunday. Loved it!
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