**Kyle Hemmings' Simple sister was published on the Microstory A Week site

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

Kyle Hemmings penned this week's story, Simple sister, where a child's life takes dark and tragic turns.

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

Jar City, by Arnaldur Indriđason

(hb; 2000, 2004: third* book in the Reykjavik Thriller series. Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder. . . *The first two books, Sons of Dust [1997] and Silent Kill [1998], haven't been translated from the Icelandic to English yet.)


From the inside flap:

"When a lonely old man is found murdered in his Reykjavik flat, the only clues are a cryptic note left by the killer and a photograph of a young girl's grave. Inspector Erlendur, who heads the investigation team, discovers that many years ago the victim was accused, though not convicted, of an unsolved crime. Did the old man's past come back to haunt him?

"As the team of detectives reopen this very cold case, Inspector Erlendur uncovers secrets that are much larger than the murder of one old man - secrets that have been carefully guarded by many people for many years. As he follows a fascinating trail of unusual forensic evidence, Erlendur also confronts stubborn personal conflicts that reveal his own depth and complexity of character."


Review:

Jar City is an excellent, focused police procedural with engaging (and succinctly drawn) characters, riveting action and equally riveting case-based revelations.

Comparisons between Indriđason's Reykjavik Thrillers and the ten-book Martin Beck Mysteries have been repeatedly made, and rightly so: both are reader-grabbing-from-the-git-go, character-progressive and humane reads.

Worth owning, this.

Followed by Silence of the Grave.

#

The first film version was released in Iceland on October 20, 2006.

Ingvar Eggert Sigurðson, billed as Ingvar E. Sigurðson, played Erlendur. Áugústa Eva Erlendóttir played Eva Lind. Björn Hlynir Haraldsson played Sigurður Óli. Ólafía Hrönn Jónsdóttir played Elínborg. Þorstenn Gunnarsson played Holberg. Theodór Júlíusson played Elliði. Kristbjörg Kjeld played Katrín. Þórunn Magnea Magnúsdóttir played Elín. Guðmunda Elíasdóttir played Theodóra.

Baltasar Komákur directed and scripted the film.

#

An American remake is scheduled to hit theatrical screens sometime in 2012. Michael Ross is set to script the film.

When more remake information becomes available, I'll update this book review.

**My new poetry anthology, Behind the wheel, is available for purchase at Lulu.com

My new mainstream poetry anthology, Behind the wheel: selected poems, is available for $10 (+shipping and handling) at Lulu.com.

The seventy-five dark humored poems in this collection span multiple poetic forms, moods and locations - it details the journey of a man, from youth to middle age, from joy to heartache and back to (relative) joy: interspersed in this road trippy mix are a few nature-appreciation verses.

Have a great day. =)

The Secret Pilgrim, by John le Carré

(hb; 1990: sixth novel in the George Smiley series)

From the inside flap:

"Nothing is as it was. Old enemies embrace. The dark staging grounds of the Cold War - whose shadows barely obscured the endless games of espionage - are flooded with light; the rules are rewritten, the stakes changed, the future unfathomable. . .

"The man called Ned speaks to us. All his adult life he has been in British Intelligence - the Circus - a loyal, shrewd, wily officer of the Cold War. Now, approaching the end of his career, he revisits his own past - an intricate weave of suspicion, danger, boredom and exhilaration that is the essence of espionage and of his own sentimental education. He invites us on a tour of his three decades in the Circus, burrowing deep into the twilight world where he ran spies - 'joes' - from Poland, Estonia, Hungrary, men and women to whom he gave his most profound love and hate. Along the way we meet a host of splendid new characters and reacquaint ourselves with the legendary old knights of the Circus and the notorious traitor, Bill Haydon.

"Telling the story of his own life's secret pilgrimage, Ned illuminates the brave past and the even braver present of George Smiley - reluctant keeper of the flame - who combines within himself the ideal and the reality of the Circus. Smiley, Ned's mentor and hero, now gives back to him the 'dangerous edge' of memory which empowers him to frame the questions that have haunted him - and the world - for thirty years, and that haunt us still."

Review:

Excellent, intimate capping novel for the George Smiley legend (within the Circus) and the mindsets that made up the Circus - Ned, the narrator, is alternately the voice of appropriate awe and character balance as he recounts some of his more notable cases; many of these cases also involve Smiley, whose post-retirement wrap-around recountings anchor and create further layers of wisdom, intrigue and, again, intimacy.

Worthy finish to an exemplary, dare I say, epic-in-scope series.

**Richard Cody's Alice was published on the Microstory A Week site

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

Richard Cody penned this week's story, Alice, where love gone awry takes on a new vividity.

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

**dani harris's haboob {another creepy tail} was published on the Microstory A Week site

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

dani harris penned this week's story, haboob {another creepy tail}, where a dust storm hides a more universal truth.

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

Dead Reckoning, by Charlaine Harris

(hb; 2011: twelfth entry in The Sookie Stackhouse Novels)

From the inside flap:

"With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. But Sookie suspects otherwise, and she and Sam work together to uncover the culprit - and the twisted motive for the attack.

"But her attention is divided. Though she can't 'read' vampires, Sookie knows her lover, Eric Northam, and his 'child' Pam well - and she realizes that they are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, she is drawn into the plot - which is much more complicated than she knows.

"Caught up once again in the politics of the vampire world, Sookie will lean that she is as much of a pawn as any ordinary human - and that there is a new [vampire] queen on board."

Review:

Another fun, blast-through pop-culture take on vampires, fae, weres, shifters (and elves!), with Harris's usual blend of character- and plot-complicating revelations (particularly for Sookie), supernatural action, quirkiness and flirtiness.

It will be interesting to see how Harris handles the game-changing fall-out from Dead Reckoning in her next Sookie novel.

Good read, worth checking out from the library.

Followed by Deadlocked.

**MorningAJ's Disguise was published on the Microstory A Week site

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

MorningAJ penned this week's story, Disguise, where a woman changes herself, for reasons that may not be as clear-cut as they seem.

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

The Ghoul, by Steve Niles & Bernie Wrightson

(hb; 2010: graphic novel)

From the back cover:

"When Los Angeles Detective Lieutenant Lloyd Klimpt finds himself in the middle of a Hollywood mystery that falls way outside the norm, he knows he's going to need a different kind of help he's used to. He finds it in the bizarre form of the The Ghoul, a monstrous investigator with a reputation for solving the world's weirdest crimes."

Review:

The first story, "The Ghoul," has a solid, if familiar, action storyline, and great artwork by EC/Creepy (and legendary) Bernie Wrightson.

The second story, "My Ghoul," which is a prose story with a few illustrations by Wrightson, is more interesting: Kevin (aka "The Ghoul"), sans Klimpt, encounters a femme fatale, who may or may not provide answers to their mysterious, separate pasts. Excellent, open-ended, noir-true entry, this.

Worth checking out from the library, if possible. If not, The Ghoul is worth owning - as long as you can overlook the first stock tale, and don't pay full price for it.

Red Nails, by Robert E. Howard

(hb; 1977: third book in a four-book fantasy/horror anthology series, edited by Karl Edward Wagner & supervised by Glenn Lord)


From the inside flap:

"Red Nails, the third volume in the authorized edition of Conan edited by Karl Edward Wagner and supervised by Glenn Lord, trustee of Robert E. Howard's estate, assembles the authentic versions of three of Howard's greatest Conan stories: 'Shadows in Zamboula,' 'Beyond the Black River,' and the long novelette 'Red Nails.' These first appeared in Weird Tales during the flowering of the pulps in the 1930s. Since Howard's tragic suicide in 1936, no one has written tales of such magnitude. Also in this volume is Howard's own masterful essay on the world of Conan, 'The Hyborian Age.'

In 'Beyond the Black River,' we find Conan in the employ of the governor of Conajohara, defending the settlement on the westernmost frontier of civilization. The town Velitrium and the protecting Fort Tuscelan are under attack by the Picts, a barbarian tribe whose land the settlers have taken. But it becomes apparent that their real enemy is the wizard Zogar Sag and his demon spirits. In a struggle to the death, Conan prevails over Zogar's hideous manifestations.

"In 'Shadows in Zamboula,' Conan falls into the hands of a mercenary inn-keeper who drugs and sells innocent guests to a nearby tribe of cannibals. But ever-alert Conan outwits everyone, rescues a beautiful damsel from the tribe's hungry clutches. . . For her favors, Conan fights a deadly duel with the evil lord Totrasmek and his grotesque minions.

" 'Red Nails' chronicles Conan's adventures in the demon-haunted city of Xuchotl and his encounter with Valeria, the fiery adventuress."

Review:

Howard's vivid, brutal, overheated and sexist/xenophobic sword & sorcery fare is, once again, on full display here, within the intense and fantastical scope of these Conan tales.

1.) "Beyond the Black River," with its atypical-Conan tale structuring, is an homage to the American Western, with a sword & sorcery overlay. This is one of my all-time favorite Conan stories.



2 - 3.) "Shadows in Zamboula" sports an Asian fairy/horror tale feel, with its treacherous inn-keeper set-up, twists (some of them predictable, some of them not) and less focus on Conan's rude version of chivalry and romance - an element that's also, refreshingly, downplayed in "Beyond the Black River." Again, excellent, clever work.


"Shadows in Zamboula" was "freely adapted" into comic book form in issue #14 of The Savage Sword of Conan, by Roy Thomas (writer), Neal Adams and "The Tribe". This magazine was published by Marvel Comics in September 1976; it was republished in expanded, graphic novel form (The Savage Sword of Conan Volume Two) by Dark Horse Books in March 2008. (The cover for that graphic novel, illustrated by Boris Vallejo, follows this review.)



4.) "Red Nails" is the weakest of the stories in this collection. Part of the reason for its disappointing delivery is because of its extended length - it's a novelette, not a short story.

The tale's familiar set-up is stock and generic. "Red Nails," more ambitious in its piled-upon elements, sports less twists, and Conan - as pointed out by Karl Edward Wagner in his dead-on "Afterword" - is less a down and dirty adventurer this time out, due to the presence of Valeria, a woman who (for the most part) dishes back what he throws at her.

Valeria is interesting, because while she's more of a fully realized character than most of Conan's women, she occasionally she lapses into Howard-familiar, spiteful hussy fits. At the same time, the tale is more generic in its delivery because she casts Conan in a more heroic light.

This last tale is still an okay read.



5.) "The Hyborian Age," a Howard-penned overview of Conan's world, is interesting in that it not only shows what came before Conan, but also shows Howard's fictional-bible/history that the author adhered to when writing his Conan stories.

Worth owning, this, if you enjoy pulp-y fiction.

Followed by the series-novel The Hour of the Dragon.

Old Gods Almost Dead by Stephen Davis

(pb; 2001, 2002: biography)

From the back cover 

"The saga of the Rolling Stones is the central rock mythology. From their debut as the intermission band at London's Marquee Club in 1962 through their 2002/2003 world tour, the Rolling Stones have defined a musical genre and experienced godlike adulation, quarrels, addiction, legal traumas, and descents into madness and death - while steadfastly refusing to fade away. Now, Stephen Davis, the New York Times best-selling author who has covered the Stones for three decades, presents their whole story, replete with vivid details on the Stones's musical successes - and personal excesses."


Review

Intimate, electrifying read about the Stones - their personalities (and inherent flaws), their music (varied in its influences, sometimes groundbreaking, sometimes not) and their lives.

One of the best rock bios I've read in a long while. Worth owning, this - perhaps one of the most comprehensive Stones/rock bios I've ever read.