The Dishwasher by Dannie M. Martin (a.k.a. Dannie Martin)

(hb; 1995)

From the inside flap

“’The Dishwasher’ of the title is Bill Malone, a stoic, tough-as-nails ex-con who just finished a stretch of fourteen hard years in prison for bank robbery. What he wants more than anything is peace and refuge from the chaos and mortal danger of penitentiary life. Release in Fresno, he quickly finds a room at the Star Motel on the edge of town and a job as a dishwasher at Ferrarro’s restaurant. The motel owner is Bail, a retired exotic dancer and wife of Tough Tony, Malone’s friend from the joint. Gail and her ravingly nubile thirteen-year-old daughter, June, take Malone under their wing; Leona, a bluntly sensual black waitress, ministers to Malone’s aching need for sex. He seems finally to have arrived at a safe place.

“The safety disappears at once when Malone is forced to take brutal revenge against a Mexican drug dealer who rapes June. That moment of explosive violence sets him on an inexorable collision course with the Sandinos, a dysfunctional Mafia family in stark decline. Somebody is going down─and Malone is determined to stand his ground.”

Review

Dishwasher is an impressive first novel, moving along at a streamlined clip, with well-written and interesting characters, a consistently sharp, brutal tone (effectively balanced with an underlying sense of kindness and respect). Martin takes a familiar ex-con-pulled-back-in setup and works it in a way that is fresh and new. This is an excellent book, one worth owning, especially if you are a fan of Edward Bunker’s writings.

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Dishwasher is the basis for the notably different 2014 film A Bluebird in My Heart, scripted and directed by Jérémie Guez.

Roland Møller played Danny. Lola la Lann played Clara. Veerlee Baëtens played Laurence. Lubna Azabal played Nadia. Jonathan Robert played “Young Dealer.” Steven Struyven played “Homeless Guy.” Bashkim Topojani played “Mean Guy.”

Firefox by Craig Thomas

(pb; 1977: first book in the Mitchell Gant quadrilogy)

From the back cover

“Firefox. Code name for the deadliest warplane ever built., the Soviet Mig-31. Its lethal weapons system is controlled by pilot thought-impulses. So invincible it could wipe America out of the skies.”

Review

The first Firefox novel is a gripping, tightly written action thriller that got this reader from its first word to its last. One of the admirable things about it is how Thomas keeps the technical information balanced, interesting enough─I would guess─to maintain the interest of tech-heads, but brief and mainstream enough that an average reader like myself would get [and enjoy] the gist of it. This is a fun, Cold War-era blast of sweaty-PTSD prose, a good kick-back-for-a-couple-of-hours book.

Followed by Firefox Down!

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The resulting film was released on June 16, 1982. Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the film (he played the main character, Mitchell Gant). The screenplay was written by Alex Lasker and Wendell Wellman.

Freddie Jones played Kenneth Aubrey. Nigel Hawthorne played Pyotor Baranovich.

Kenneth Colley played Colonel Kontarsky. Klaus Löwitsch, billed as Klaus Lowitsch, played General Vladimirov. David Huffman played Captain Buckholz. Warren Clarke played Pavel Upenskoy. 

After the Funeral (a.k.a. Funerals are Fatal) by Agatha Christie

(pb; 1953)

From the back cover

“The bodies seem to be piling up at Enderby Hall. First the very wealthy Richard Abernethie dies suddenly. Then his sister is murdered with a hatchet. Several days later, her companion is sent a slice of wedding cake steeped in arsenic. No wonder the family solicitor calls in master sleuth Hercule Poirot.”

Review

Funeral, the thirty-first Hercule Poirot novel, is a good, fun mystery, a great way to burn a couple of hours during the afternoon. The characters are an entertaining bunch with elitist-minded quirks, and the reveals interesting, as is often the case with Christie’s writing. Worth reading.

Criminal: Coward by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

(2015: graphic novel, collects issues 1-5 of the Image comic book, Criminal)

From the back cover

“The traditional heist story is turned on its head in Coward. Leo can plan the perfect score, but only if he can be convinced the job is safe, because Leo is not a shoot-first think-later type of criminal. Leo is a professional, whose biggest desire in life is not to end up exactly where he belongs: in a prison cell.”

Review

The characters and storyline are familiar, solid and pulp-true, perhaps cliché in spots (e.g., the ending). The chiaroscuro art suits the sharp, epigrammatic writing. It’s a fun, fast neo-noir comic book, one worth reading. Followed by the graphic novel Criminal: Lawless.