V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

(hb; 2011: twenty-second book in the Kinsey Millhone mysteries)

From the inside flap

"A woman with a murky past who kills herself - or was it murder? A spoiled kid awash in gambling debt who thinks he can beat the system. A lovely woman whose life is about to splinter into a thousand fragments. A professional shoplifting ring working for the Mob, racking up millions from stolen goods. A wandering husband, rich and ruthless. A dirty cop so entrenched on the force he is imune to exposure. A sinister gangster, conscienceless and brutal. A lonely widower mourning the death of his lover, desperate for answers, which may be worse than the pain of his loss. A private detective, Kinsey Millhone, whose thirty-eighth birthday gift is a punch in the face that leaves her with two black eyes and a busted nose.

"And an elegant and powerful businessman whose dealings are definitely outside the law: the magus at the center of the web."

Review

Good, entertaining, fast-read book - the Kinsey tale is a crime novel, not a who-done-it. The mystery element, if there is one, lies in how the facts, events and characters fit together (and will end), not who the murderer is.

V is for Vengeance comes together in satisfactory fashion, with deft foreshadowings of possible sequel events.

Worthy entry in the Kinsey Millhone series.  Followed by W is for Wasted.

**Matthew Dexter's The wizard of the airport was published on the Microstory A Week site

A new story is up on the Microstory A Week site.

Matthew Dexter penned this week's story, The wizard of the airport, which takes readers on a disturbing tour of an airline employee’s mind.


Check this short story out, comment on it, if you're so inclined. =)

**John Flynn’s poem, “Olneyville,” was published on the Gutter Eloquence site, November 2011

John Flynn, aka Basil Rosa, had one of his poems, Olneyville, published in issue #18 of Gutter Eloquence. (Great job, John!)

John, by-lined as Basil Rosa, also published a story, He held on and she kept saying time to go, on the Microstory A Week site in October 2011.

If you have a moment, and are so inclined, check out John’s work!

Them Or Us, by David Moody

(hb; 2011: Book Three of the Hater trilogy)

From the inside flap:

"The war that has torn the human race apart is finally nearing its end. With most towns and cities now uninhabitable, and with the country in the grip of a savage nuclear winter, both Hater and Unchanged alike struggle to survive.

"Hundreds of Hater fighters have settled on the East Coast in the abandoned remains of a relatively undamaged town under the commandof Hinchcliffe - who'll stop at nothing to eradicate the last few Unchanged and consolidate his position at the top of this new world order. This fledgling society is harsh and unforgiving - your place in the ranks is decided by how long and how hard you're prepared to fight.

"Danny McCoyne is the exception to the rule. His ability to hold the Hate and to use it to hunt out the remaining Unchanged has given him a unique position in Hinchcliffe's army of fighters. As the enemy's numbers reduce, so the pressure on McCoyne increases, until he finds himself at the very center of a pivotal confrontation, the outcome of which will have repercussions on the future of everyone who is alive."

Review:

Like the first two Hater books, Hater and Dog Blood, this wrap-up novel is - for the most part - a hard-to-set-down, emotionally trepadatious and ferine read that deftly eschews and reworks zombie-work bromides into something bracing and worthwhile.

My only nit about Them Or Us is that near novel's end Moody has his main character, the melancholic and sick Danny McCoyne, uncharacteristically engage in two Plot Convenient Stupid Moments (aka PCSMs), in order to set up the novel's otherwise edge-of-your-seat finale.

I expect these PCSMs from The Walking Dead (hello, Clichéville!) - that is to say, Moody could have, with a few sentence trims, just as easily set up his homicidal conclusion without McCoyne acting wildly out of character.

That minor nit aside, Them Or Us is still a worthwhile and satisfactory wrap-up to this landmark series, and its end-image, nuanced but honest, is appropiately disturbing.

Worth owning, this.

**Walter Campbell's Big cats was published on the Microstory A Week site

A new story is up on the Microstory A Week site.

Walter Campbell penned this week's story, Big cats, where two hikers are confronted bythe wild.

Check this short story out, comment on it, if you're so inclined. =)

In the Flesh, by Clive Barker

(pb; 1986: story anthology)

From the back cover:

"In the depths of an abandoned steam bath, strangely beautiful women seduce two businessmen into a ritual of macabre sexuality; in a Greek asylum, wise men race frogs to decide the fate of the world; a petty convict's cellmate reveals to him the gruesome birth of evil; a young woman's slum research leads her into the hook-handed grip of The Candyman, a vicious supernatural killer."


Overall review:

This is one of the few perfect anthologies I've read. Barker's writing is word-tight, character-memorable and idea-wild, its themes relevant and relatable, with many of its lines quotable.

In the Flesh is easily one of my all-time favorite anthologies, as well as one of my favorite Barker reads.

Worth owning, this.


Review, story by story:


1.) "In the Flesh" - Cleve Smith, an incarcerated felon, gets a new cellie (Billy Tait), a young man whose quiet manners conceal a harsher, gorier world.

Perfect, gripping, exemplary read that references one of Barker's other stories, "The Books of Blood" (collected in the anthology Clive Barker's Books of Blood, Volume One).


2.) "The Forbidden" - A woman (Helen), writing a sociological theme paper, happens upon a shadowy urban legend that may be far more relevant than she ever imagined.

Thought-provoking, wise (in its roots-of-fear way), exciting and unique - not to mention (again), perfect.

Two directly-linked films resulted from this story.

The first, a 36-minute short titled after the story, was released in 1978.

Peter Atkins played Faust. Doug Bradley, Julia Blake, Phil Rimmer and Lyn Darnell also acted in the short, though their roles aren't named on imdb.com.

Clive Barker, who scripted and directed the film, also acted in it.

#

The second version, Candyman - this one a full-length work - was released stateside on October 16, 1992.

Virginia Madsen played Helen Lyle. Tony Todd played The Candyman (aka Daniel Robitaille). Xander Berkeley played Trevor Lyle. Kasi Lemmons played Bernadette 'Bernie' Walsh. Vanessa Williams played Anne-Marie McCoy. Ted Raimi played Billy. Rusty Schwimmer played "Policewoman".

Bernard Rose scripted and directed the film.

Two sequels, both of them starring Tony Todd, followed: Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) and the direct-to-video Candyman: Day of the Dead (1999).


3.) "The Madonna" - An abandoned bathhouse is the site of damnation or salvation for two men, a wealthy thug (Ezra Garvey) and his business partner (Jerry Coloqhoun).

Gripping, distinctive and science fiction-wild take on the themes of masculinity/femininity, religion and motherhood, with a story finish that is reader-resonant.

In 1989, Eclipse Books published a comic book mini-series, Tapping The Vein, that is based on Barker's writings.

Fred Burke adapted, and Stan Woch, Fred Von Tobel and Mark Farmer illustrated "The Madonna" in issue #4 (its front cover is seen below). This same issue contains an adaptation of one of Barker's other stories, "Hell's Event" (published in Clive Barker's Books of Blood, Volume Two).




4.) "Babel's Children" - Vanessa Jape, an insatiably curious, roadtripping woman, stumbles upon a long-held, world- and life-changing secret on a backroad.

Fun, relatively light work, that's as fascinating and relatably weird as the other stories in this anthology.

**Natalie McNabb's August at the Fair was published on the Microstory A Week site

A new story is up on the Microstory A Week site.

Natalie McNabb penned this week's story, August at the Fair, where an perspicacious girl visits a carnival.

Check this short story out, comment on it, if you're so inclined. =)

**Several of Dani Harris' pieces will be published on the Spark site, November 8 - 29, 2011

Dani Harris, whose prose-poetic stories have graced the Microstory A Week site, has had two poems, moonlight sonata and passionflower, published on the Spark site recently.

Her verses work in conjunction with Ainsley Allmark's colorful photographs.

If you're inclined, and have the time, check them, and dani's website out!

The Looking-Glass War, by John le Carré

(hb; 1965)

From the inside flap:

"Vital films of Soviet troop movements in the Eastern Zone of Germany are lost and the courier killed. A small intelligence unit is authorized to put an agent over the frontier. . ."

Review:

This is a decent read. It has interesting characters, intradepartmental intrigue and edge-of-your-seat action, particularly when British agent (Fred Leiser) finds himself pursued by German troops on foreign soil, cut off from any support his agency (the Department) might offer him.

As an added treat for le Carré's regular readers, George Smiley and his boss, Control, get in on the spy-play, as well.

The element that mars this book is some of the transitional segments, where le Carré shows the workings of the agencies as Department agents, long out of the field, analyze their information and train Leiser for his secret border crossing; while some of the character chatter is necessary, these parts run a bit long - perhaps, as they might, in real life: to the novel's minor detriment, it sometimes bogs down the storyline.

So-so book, with some great characters and intriguing bits.

#

The resulting film, The Looking Glass War, was released in the UK in September 1969. It was released stateside on February 4, 1970.

Timothy West played Taylor. Ralph Richardson played LeClerc. Paul Rogers played Haldane. Ray McAnally played "Undersecretary of State". Anthony Hopkins played John Avery. Christopher Jones played Leiser.

Maxine Audley played Mrs. LeClerc. Anna Massey played "Avery's Wife". Pia Degermark played "The Girl".

Frank Pierson, billed as Frank R. Pierson, scripted and directed the film.

**Jim Harrington's The good lie was published on the Microstory A Week site

A new story is up on the Microstory A Week site.

Jim Harrington penned this week's story, The good lie, where a potentially painful mother-adult child conversation is negociated.

Be sure to check this short story out, comment on it, if you're so inclined. =)

Damned by Chuck Palahniuk

(hb; 2011: prequel to Doomed)

From the inside flap:

" 'Are you there, Satan? It's me, Madison,' declares the whip-tongued thirteen-year-old narrator of Damned. . . The daughter of a narcissistic film star and billionaire, Madison is abandoned at her Swiss boarding school over Christmas while her parents are off touting their new projects and adopting more orphans. She dies over the holiday of a marijuana overdose - and the next thing she knows, she's in Hell. Madison shares her cell with a motley crew of young sinners that is almost too good to be true: a cheerleader, a jock, a nerd, and a punk rocker, united by fate to form the six-feet-under version of everyone's favorite detention movie. Madison and her pals must trek across the Dandruff Desert and cross the Valley of Used Disposable Diapers to confront Satan in his citadel, and all the popcorn balls and wax lips that serve as the currency of Hell won't buy them off."

Review:

Damned is a sly, snarky, voice-true, twisty and reader-addictive novel that ably melds YA fiction, dark hilarity and Dante's The Inferno.

Worth owning, this.