Make Trouble by John Waters

 

(miniature hb; 2017: humor/inspiration/nonfiction. Illustrated by Eric Hanson.)

 

From the inside flap

“When John Waters delivered his gleefully subversive advice to the graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design, the speech went viral, in part because it was so brilliantly on point about making a living as a creative person. Now we can all enjoy his sly wisdom in a manifesto that reminds us, no matter what field we choose, to embrace chaos, be nosy, and outrage our critics.

“Anyone embarking on a creative path, he tells us, would do well to realize that pragmatism and discipline are as important as talent and that rejection is nothing to fear. Waters advises young people to eavesdrop, listen to their enemies, and horrify us with new ideas. In other words, MAKE TROUBLE!”

 

Review

Trouble is everything you’d hope for from the iconic “Prince of Puke” (one of the many titles the media has bestowed upon him, and of which he’s proud)—a life- and media-pragmatic outlook, flavored with his clever, subversive and sometimes raunchy/icky wit, as well as a strong sense of acceptance (of himself and others) and warmth, all in equal measure. This is a great book, one most (not everyone is open-minded) creative types should read, and one that transcends its art-focus and functions as life-advice work (e.g., “Remember, a ‘no’ is free.”) as well.

Uzumaki by Junji Ito

 

(hb; 1998-1999, 2013: manga omnibus)

 

From the back cover

“Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Suichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but a pattern: Uzumaki, the spiral—a hypnotic secret shape of the world. This bizarre masterpiece of horror manga is now available in a single volume. Fall into a whirlpool of terror!”

 

Review

Narrated by Kirie Goshima, a schoolgirl who witnesses the escalating, increasingly grotesque spiral-centric horrors encapsulating her village (Kurouzu-cho), Uzumaki begins with her boyfriend Suichi Saito’s father becoming obsessed with circular patterns. After Saito’s father dies under seemingly near-impossible circumstances, the strangeness begins warping the emotional, psychic and physical fabric of reality for the people in the village bordering the mysterious Dragonfly Pond—and threatening to spread its cataclysmic ends to the world beyond it.

Each book-chapter of this omnibus is truly original in its tone, artistic and visual aspects, with a finish that, despite its holy-frak-that’s-wild elements and terrors, is masterfully personal.

Uzumaki is one of my favorite all-time manga, with its Lovecraftian though distinctive blend of crazy imagery, weirdness, ickiness, horror, romance, rural life and humor, a work that’s not for the faint of heart. Worth owning, this.

Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks

 

(hb; 1997: first novel in Brooks’s Word & Void trilogy, which, according to Wikipedia,  “precedes the action in [Brooks’s] Genesis of Shannara trilogy and serves as the start of Shannara saga”)

 

From the inside flap

“On the hottest Fourth of July weekend in decades, two men have come to Hopewell, Illinois, site of a lengthy, bitter steel strike. One is a demon, dark servant of the Void, who will use the anger and frustration of the community to attain a terrible secret goal. The other is John Ross, a Knight of the Word, a man who, while he sleeps, lives in the hell the world will become if he fails to change its course on waking. Ross has been given the ability to see the future. But does he have the power to change it?

“At stake is the soul of a fourteen-year-old girl mysteriously linked to both men. And the lives of the people of Hopewell. And the future of the country. This Fourth of July, while friends and families picnic in Sinnissippi Park and fireworks explode in celebration of freedom and independence, the fate of Humanity will be decided.”

 

Review

Demon is an immediately immersive, deft and character-intriguing rural/real-world fantasy with horror-ish and Americana elements thrown into its heady, swift-paced and cinematic-vivid mix, a read that fans of Clive Barker, Stephen King (albeit King with better editing) and other writers of that ilk may well thrill to—worth owning, this, and a prequel to Brooks’s second Word & Void trilogy, A Knight of the Word.

“Moon Knight” Omnibus Vol. 2 by various artists and writers (Part 1 of 2)

 

(oversized hb; 2021: graphic novel. Collects Moon Knight #21-38; Iron Man #161; Power Man and Iron Fist #87; Marvel Team-UP #144; Moon Knight #1-6 [second run, 1985]; Marvel Fanfare #30, 38 and 39; Solo Avengers #3; and Marvel Superheroes #1.)

From the inside flap

“Moon Knight’s first solo series comes to a close, including the climax of Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz’s artwork continues to evolve before your eyes, he and Moench put their tortured hero through a series of trials—including the return of the waking nightmare that is Morpheus and the vigilante Stained Glass Scarlet, now wielding a crossbow as her weapon of choice. But while encounters with these and other deadly adversaries take their toll, they have nothing on the task of juggling the identities of mercenary Marc Spector, millionaire playboy Steven Grant and cabbie Jake Lockley—not least the strain that puts on his love life. And just as Marlene Alraune starts to doubt their romantic future, her brother gets caught up in the madness—and things go from bad to worse. When a mystery man is inspired to seek power by becoming Moon Knight’s dark nemesis, will the schemes of the Black Spectre drive a final wedge between Marc and Marlene—or perhaps destroy the silver-and-ebon-clad marauder once and for all? Though that task may fall to Moon Knight’s very first foe, the Werewolf By Night—back and more ferocious than ever, as only Sienkiewicz could draw him.

“Other creators take Moon Knight in new directions as he fights killers, super villains and zuvembies—and shares adventures with Brother Voodoo, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Power Man and Iron Fist, the X-men, the Fantastic Four, and more. But as he falls further under the influence of a certain Egyptian god, he emerges stronger than ever—as the Fist of Khonshu! It’s the dawn of a new era for Marc Spector, but where does that leave Marlene?”

 

Overall review

Caveat: (possible) minor spoilers in this review. Part 2 of the review is here. Vol. 1 starts here.

Vol. 2 continues in the dark, pulpy, socially relevant and unsettling dissociative-lead vein of its previous omnibus, with its mostly gritty New York City settings, morally gray characters (some of them returning from earlier issues), making for another t(w)een-friendly read, with its experimental tones, storylines, and other elements. Moon Knight is one of Marvel’s more iconoclastic characters and comic book runs. This is an excellent collection, one worth reading if you’re a lover of pulp, 1980s vibes and artwork, and a seriously disturbed protagonist.

Moon Knight’s original run went from 1975 to 1984; his second run went from 1985 to 1990.

 

Review, issue by issue

Moon Knight: “The Master of Night Earth” (#21): Mirebalais, Haiti. Moon Knight [henceforth to be called MK] and Jericho Drum (aka Brother Voodoo) track the revolutionary soldiers in service of coup leader “Grand Bois, leader of the Unholy Trinity, Lord of the Crossroads and Demons. . . the Master of Earth and Night Forests.” While tracking the speedboating soldiers, with help from Daniel (spirit brother of Drum) they encounter violent zuvembies (zombies) and other spooky horrors.

Entertaining, good issue, atmospheric. Always a pleasure to see Jericho and Daniel—they also appeared in Werewolf By Night (issue 39).

Also included in this issue: another “Tales of Khonshu” story, titled “Murder By Moonlight.” In “Murder,” a cop-killer (Herb Russell) flees a crime scene and takes desperate refuge in the Brooklyn Museum, where Khonshu’s statue, along with mummies, is on display. Fun, EC Horror-esque morality work.

 

Moon Knight: “The Dream Demon” (#22): Morpheus—last seen in Moon Knight issue 12—terrorizes his former dream-study doctor (Peter Alraune) through nightmares, whose repercussions spill into waking life. Morpheus has been sedated and treated with a new drug to siphon off his mind-blast “ebon energy” (which allows him to create waking-life nightmares), it seems he’s getting more powerful, his black energy infecting others (MK included).

Meanwhile, MK, Frenchie and Marlene Alraune (Peter’s sister, MK’s girlfriend) must also fend off Morpheus’s attacks, psychic and corporeal. Cliffhanger finish.

Also included in this issue: “Khonshu Tales: Moon Over Alamein”: October 1942. Alamein, Egypt. Two American soldiers (Ezzie O’Gourke and Davie Wadler) accidentally discover Khonshu’s alabaster statue in a cave. They leave everything as they find it, and the next day—no suprise—Khonshu’s influence is felt (anew) by O’Gourke, Wadler, and others. Another enjoyable Khonshu-in-another-place-and-time mini-story.

 

Moon Knight: “Perchance to Scream” (#23): Morpheus (aka Robert Markham), escaped from his energized dream-sleep and his asylum-prison, follows MK, Marlene Alraune and her brother (Peter) and Frenchie to Steven Grant’s (aka MK) country cottage with violent and tragic results. Good, intense issue.

 

The Invincible Iron Man: “If the Moonman Should Fail!” (#161): Members of a subversive technologist group (A.I.M., Advanced Idea Mechanics) trap Tony Stark (aka Iron Man), Steven Grant (aka MK, etc.) and several other people in an ocean-submerged “experimental power generating facility” (Project Neptune), to hold them for ransom. Fortunately, Iron Man and MK are there to deal with the situation. Fun read.

 

Power Man and Iron Fist: “Heatwave” (#87): MK is trapped in an empty water tank during a heatwave while Power Man and Iron Fist track and battle thugs of Commodore Planet, a weapons smuggler, to rescue the missing-for-days MK. Solid, good issue.

 

Moon Knight: “Scarlet in Moonlight” (#24): Scarlet Fasinera’s crossbow crusade against the mobsters responsible for her son’s death continues. This time she’s targeting upper echelon mafioso. MK is torn between helping and stopping her. (Scarlet was last seen in Moon Knight issue 14). Excellent, moody and emotionally relatable issue, with superb artwork by Bill Sienkiewicz and Christie Scheele.

 

Moon Knight: “Black Spectre” (#25, double-sized issue): A Vietnam vet with PTSD (Carson Knowles) sets out to become MK’s opposite-number villain—namely Black Spectre, a medieval-armor-wearing and grudge-bearing agent of sudden violence, wielding a pike and political influence. Another anything-could-happen, exciting issue.

 

Moon Knight: “Hit It!”/”The Cabbie Killer” (#26) –

“Hit It”: A jazz-beat sets the citywide tone and narrative percussion, in which MK must stop a grief-crazed man (Joe) from assaulting everyone around him.

“The Cabbie Killer”: Someone has hired a behemoth of a man in military garb (Commodore Donny Planet) to blow up New York cabbies, and MK means to find out who, one fist fight at a time. Fun story.

Commodore Donny Planet and MK previously crossed paths in Power Man and Iron Fist, issue 87, also in this omnibus edition).

 

Moon Knight: “Cop Killer” (#27): MK investigates a spate of murders where the victims were cops, leading him down some unexpectedly character-twisted avenues. Good issue, featuring an appearance by the Kingpin (aka Wilson Fisk). Good issue.

 

Moon Knight: “Spirits in the Sand” (#28): In this especially atmospheric, often spooky and possibly supernatural issue, MK—traveling as Steven Grant—and Marlene Alraune return to the desert tomb where Khonshu (might’ve) resurrected Marc Spector/MK/etc., and where they must survive grave robbers intent on finding Khonshu’s rumored hidden treasure. Excellent, return-to-MK’s-roots work, one of my all-time favorite MK issues, between its stellar writing and art.

 

Moon Knight: “Morning Star”/”Colloquy” (#29)—“Morning Star”: Desperate to hang onto power, a high priest (Schuyler Belial, aka Morning Star) of a comic-book diabolical satanic cult has his followers hunt Jack Russell (aka Werewolf By Night), so Belial can use Russell as a sacrifice to raise a devil. When one of one of MK’s cop buddies (Detective Flint) and MK get involved, things become more complicated. First part of a two-part tale, good story. (Jack Russell’s last appearance in MK was issue 4.)

“Colloquy”: Steven Grant is revisited by a ghost of his mercenary self (Marc Spector). Solid reiteration of one of MK’s themes.

 

Moon Knight: “The Moon-Wraith, Three Sixes, and a Beast” (#30): Schuyler Belial’s satanic cult members—first seen in MK issue 29 (“Morning Star”)—continue to hunt Jack Russell, aka Werewolf By Night. Meanwhile, MK and Detective Flint try to forcibly surcease the black-robed, pointy-head-hooded cult’s pursuit of Russell, also MK’s friend.  Above-average, especially pulpy issue, even for the clad-in-white MK.

 

Moon Knight: “A Box of Music for Savage Studs”/”Fly the Friendly Skies” (#31)—“Fly the Friendly Skies”: On Dough Row—a stretch of an especially impoverished New York tenements—a youthful gang of toughs (Studs), led by the merchant-predatory and loathsome Shank, run violent and wild.

Meanwhile, one of the Studs (Lenny) struggles with his conscience after two of their crimes directly impact his home life, and MK steps in to end the Studs’ reign of intimidation.

 

“Fly the Friendly Skies”: Eco-terrorists seek to hijack an airship—their leader (Douglas Brenner) means to end mankind’s pollution of the Earth by ending mankind! Of course, MK can’t allow this, so he does his vigilante thing, even after Brenner has him temporarily blinded. Fun, James Bond-ish issue, with its group-of-female-terrorists storyline.

This issue marks Kevin Nowland’s debut as a MK penciller, taking over for the consistently excellent Bill Sienkiewicz.

 

Moon Knight: “When the Music Stops”/“Cancer” (#32)—“When the Music Stops”: Conclusion of the two-part story that began with “A Box of Music for Savage Studs” (MK, issue 31). Lenny, “war chief” for vicious gang leader Shank, sees his personal struggle intensify after one of the strongarmed and potentially vigilante shop owners (Lewis) fights back against the Studs (led by Shank). This story ends on a note of momentary hope, grace, making its two-part arc especially impressive for a comic book.

“Cancer”: The jaded attitude of a brilliant-but-cold doctor (Dr. Steele) prompts the brother of a dying cancer victim (Joseph Fixler) to take drastic actions, actions that draw the attention of Steven Grant/MK. Sad, grim (it almost feels MK-writer reactionary) tone throughout this issue.

 

Moon Knight: “Exploding Myths” (#33): The social-ills/moralistic (and still timely) tone of “Cancer” (MK, issue 32) carries over into this issue, with an overly ambitious reporter (Joy Mercado) pushing a small-time criminal (Druid Walsh, a Vietnam vet) to a big-scale extreme, forcing MK and the fanged skull-inked behemoth (Walsh) into a fiery conflict atop the Twin Towers. Good story, eerie end-image.

The Left-Handed Twin by Thomas Perry

 

(oversized pb; 2021: ninth book in the Jane Whitefield series)

 

From the back cover

“Jane Whitefield helps people disappear. Fearing for their lives, fleeing dangerous situations, her clients come to her when they need to vanish completely.

“Her newest comes fresh from LA with a whole lot of trouble behind her. After she cheated on her boyfriend, he dragged her to the home of the offending man and made her watch as he killed him. She testified against the boyfriend, but a bribed jury acquitted him, and now he’s free and on her trail. Jane agrees to help, and it soon becomes clear that outsmarting the murderous boyfriend is not beyond Jane’s skills. But the boyfriend has some new friends: members of a Russian organized crime brotherhood, intent to capture not only Sara but Jane, whose secrets could be worth millions.

 

Thus begins a bloodthirsty chase that winds through the cities of the northeast before finally plunging into Maine’s Hundred Mile Wilderness. But in a pursuit where nothing can be trusted, one thing is certain: only one party—Jane or her pursuers—will emerge alive.”

 

Review

“Three or four years” after Jane’s kidnapping and torture in Poison Flower, Jane guides a young woman (Sara Doughton, later renamed Anne Preston Bailey) into a safer, not-on-the-predatory-radar life after Sara breaks into Jane’s old family house—Sara’s reason for doing so is that she’s trying to escape an obsessive, murderous, and across-the-board abusive boyfriend (Albert) who’s terrorizing her, even more so after she testified against him in court. Initially (relatively) easy, things become more exponentially more difficult when one of Albert’s friends enlists the Russian mob to help the selfish, immature Albert to trap his erstwhile ex anew.

Like the best Jane Whitefield novels, Left-Handed has tight editing, excellent, reader-immersing pacing and characterization, Native American/Seneca lore, short and sharp action sequences, plot- and character-relevant mentions of Jane’s past (shown in previous franchise books), and a satisfying ending that pushes Jane and her husband Carey into new, life-altering situations, even as another new, possibly series-spanning villain (smart, nuanced Russian enforcer Magda, another Jane doppelgänger) rises into prominence. Looking forward to Perry's next Jane Whitefield book!

Alien Resurrection by Joss Whedon

 

(pb; 1997: screenplay)

From the back cover

“This is the real thing: the ultimate insider’s look at the fourth Alien film, Alien Resurrection, the new blockbuster starring Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder. You are about to see the film as the stars saw it.

“This studio-authorized edition contains the final script of the film as it appears on the big screen: unexpurgated and unaltered, detailing every live action scene, every chilling minute of suspense, every unforgettable line of dialogue, and every startling special effect from the eagerly awaited fourth film in the most popular sci-fi thriller series of all time.”

 

Review

Whedon’s script is excellent, fast-moving, suspenseful, mood- and character-effective in its word-spare description and dialogue, which left plenty of room for Resurrection’s director to fully flavor the resulting film with their (hopefully) unique vision. In this case, the director was Jean-Pierre Jeunet, known for being artsy and structured (to the point of obvious artifice); also consistent with Jeunet’s style, Resurrection bustles with eccentric, disturbing characters, and visual and aural elements —this made the actual film less great than it might've been. Still, a deft, entertaining and masterful screenplay, one worth owning and learning from (if you’re an aspiring writer of scripts or fiction that is screenplay-friendly).

Alien Resurrection was released stateside on November 26, 1997. Details for its cast and crew on here on Resurrection’s main IMDb page.

Graffiti in the Rubber Room: Writing for My Sanity by Will Viharo

 

(oversized pb; 2023: memoir)

 

Review

Viharo’s “experimental” memoir is an ambitious take on the genre. Framed in chapter-missives to famous musicians (Elvis, Tom Waits), fictional characters (those he created, or played by actors Viharo personally knows) and family, it’s a rambling, intuitive-flow, 462-page** work that may cause those who like tight, focused writing to want to immediately pull their hair out—Viharo says as much, later in the book, but he doesn’t care: his writing here, like much of his recent writings is self-indulgent, something he’s proud of. That’s not to say Graffiti’s not often interesting, as Viharo’s trademark blend of vivid description, clever charm, pulp appreciation, and deeply-personal-to-him references (including said fictional characters and famous folk) makes for a rollercoaster, era-bounce recounting of his surreal brushes with the iconic success he craves (he says as much, a lot) and deserves, given his charm, talent, and dedication to that those endeavors. His growth as a unique individual and creative being adds heart and memorability to his work as well. That he wormholes into details—he wants to remember everything, it seems—and your reaction to that will determine if this a worthwhile read for you. If you like word-rampant journal-intense missives with lots of famous names and movies heavily and organically sprinkled in, this might be your jam. If not, check out his earlier, more tightly edited works, starting with his first Vic Valentine novel Love Stories Are Too Violent for Me.

[**eighty of the pages are photographs]

Slowly We Die by Emelie Schepp

 

(pb; 2016: third book in the Jana Berzelius series. Translated from the Swedish by Suzanne Martin Cheadle.)

From the back cover

“A tragic incident on the operating table leaves a patient damaged for life and leads a young surgeon to abandon his profession as a physician. . . Now, years later, a series of senseless, gruesome murders are rocking the same medical community.

“Then murderous revenge. . . The weapon? A surgical scalpel. But who exactly is preying on these victims? And why? What does this grisly pattern reveal? And who will be the one to stop it? Special prosecutor Jana Berzelius, who has her own dark secrets to hide, is in charge of the investigation. What she can’t know, until she is finally closing in on the murderer, is just how her mother’s recent death is intimately connected.”

Review

Slowly, like the two Jana Berzelius books that preceded it, is a gripping, reader-immersive read. The set-up has changed, with Jana’s travails sharing equal story-space with a medical-personnel murder mystery, with Danilo Peña (who’s escaped police custody) posing a different kind of threat—seemingly relatively benign, but potentially more invasive. Slowly is another skillfully woven thriller by Schepp, one worth owning, and one that makes me wish that Schepp’s fourth Berzelius novel, Daddy’s Boy (Swedish: Pappas Pojke), was translated into English and released in English-reading countries.

In the Heat of the Summer (aka The Mean Season) by John Katzenbach

 

(pb; 1982)

From the back cover

“In Miami, they call July the ‘mean season.’ This summer, a clever, elusive killer is terrorizing the entire city—and making frequent phone calls to crack newspaper reporter Malcolm Anderson.

“Now Anderson is trapped by the hottest story he’s ever had—trapped between his editors who want him to keep the story alive, by the cops who want him to help catch the killer, by his girlfriend who wants their lives safe again, and by his own fascination with the tortured murderer looking to get even for the sins of Vietnam.

“The story is making Anderson a national celebrity—and could make him the killer’s next victim.”

 

Review

Summer, a good, sometimes hard-to-set-down thriller, begins rough and chatty, but once it gains focus (about a quarter of the way through, about the time the killer contacts reporter Malcolm Anderson) it becomes a solid read, with effective commentary on the media’s role in war and murder as well as a few plot-convenient-dumb-character moments (e.g., Anderson giving away key killer-capture information to the killer). The edge-lined ending leans more toward whimper than bang, but it works for the book, Katzenbach's first. The resulting film—I forget its ending—likely had a different more bang-oriented finish, given Hollywood’s penchant for more crowd-pleasing, easier-to-digest fare.

#

The resulting film (and the reason why the book was retitled), The Mean Season, was released stateside on February 15, 1985. Phillip Borsos directed it, from a screenplay by Christopher Crowe (billed as Leon Piedmont).

Kurt Russell played Malcolm Anderson. Mariel Hemingway played Christine Connelly. Richard Jordan played Alan Delour.

Richard Masur played Bill Nolan. Joe Pantoliano played Andy Porter. Andy Garcia played Ray Martinez. William Smith played Albert O’Shaughnessy [cinematic stand-in for Peter O’Shaughnessy].

Archie Meets Nero Wolfe by Robert Goldsborough

 

(pb; 2012: prequel to Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe book series)

 

From the back cover

“Archie Goodwin comes to New York City hoping for a bit of excitement. In his third week working as a night watchman, he stops two burglars in their tracks—with a piar of hot lead slugs. Dismissed from his job for being ‘trigger-happy,’ he parlays his newfound notoriety into a job as a detective’s assistant, helping honest sleuth Del Bascom solve cases like the Morningside Piano Heist, the Rive Gauche Art Gallery Swindle, and the Summer-Hayes Burglary. But it’s the kidnapping of Tommie Williamson, the son of a New York hotel magnate, that introduces Goodwin to the man who will change his life.

“Young Tommie has gone missing, and only one detective is built for the job: Nero Wolfe, the heavyset genius of West Thirty-Fifth Street. Together they will form one of the most unlikely crime fighting duos in history—but first Goodwin must find Tommie Williamson and prove to Wolfe that he deserves a place by his side.”

 

Review

Goldsborough, who’s authored eight other post-Stout Wolfe novels, has penned an excellent prequel to Stout’s first Wolfe book (Fer-de-Lance, 1934). Archie, slightly streamlined (appropriate for our current age), is as witty, all-around smart, and character-true (that includes Fritz Brenner and Wolfe’s freelance operatives) as any of the four Wolfe novels I’ve read.

This time around, Archie and Nero are less acerbic with each other, having just met, though Archie’s penchant for committing to necessary physical action (even hitting or killing someone) is still at the fore. Purists might grumble at Goldsborough’s streamlining of the actions and characters, but purity, is often the atmosphere of hypocrisy, existence not life, and joylessness. Great read. Might check out the author’s other works once I’m through reading Stout’s Wolfe works.

 

Note: In his post-novel “Author’s Notes” Goldsborough wrote that Archie was inspired by Fer-de-Lance: “In Fer-de-Lance, the first Nero Wolfe novel (1934), Archie refers briefly to the kidnapping of Tommie Williamson, the son of Burke Williamson, owner of a chain of hotels, and says that each year on the anniversary of the boy’s return, Mr. and Mrs. Williamson and their son dine at Wolfe’s brownstone to mark the occasion.”

A String of Beads by Thomas Perry

 

(oversize pb; 2015: eighth book in the Jane Whitefield series)

 

From the back cover

“A year after getting shot on a job that took a dangerous turn, Jane has settled into the quiet life of a suburban housewife in Amherst, New York—or so she thinks. One morning, coming back from a run, Jane is met by an unusual sight: the female leaders of the eight Seneca clans parked in her driveway in two black cars. They have come to her with a troublesome request. Jane’s childhood friend from the reservation, Jimmy [Sanders], is wanted by the police for the murder of a local white man and has fled. The clan mothers believe Jane is the only one who can find him. But when Jane begins to retrace a journey, she took with jimmy when they were fourteen years old, she realizes that the police aren’t the only ones after him. As the chase intensifies, the number of people caught up in this deadly plot grows, and Jane is the only one who can protect those endangered by it.”

 

Review

A year after Jane’s kidnapping, torture and revenge in Poison Flower, Jane—always wary of potential danger—has settled into semi-comfortable life with her doctor-husband (Cary McKinnon). But when the female members of an influential Seneca/Native American council seek her help in locating and rescuing her good, on-the-lam childhood friend (Jimmy Sanders) who’s been accused of murder, she takes on Sanders as a runner. The closer Jane gets to locating and helping Jimmy (and those related to her current run), the more complications arise—many linked to killer/thievery ringleader (Daniel Crane) and his Mafia-afiliate associates (Salamone and don Lorenzo Malconi).

There hasn’t been a less-than-excellent entry in the Jane Whitefield series thus far, and Beads is no exception. Beads has an especially strong Seneca-centric storyline to it, reminding me a lot of its source novel (Vanishing Act, 1995). Of course, there’s lots of physical defensive/tactical talk and elements, action, strong character development for its lead characters, and villains worth hissing at. Worth owning, this. Followed by The Left Handed Twin.