Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 1995: first book in the Jane Whitefield series)

From the back cover

“Jane Whitefield is a Native American guide who leads people out of the wilderness—not the tree-filled variety but the kind created by enemies who want you dead. She is in the one-woman business of helping the desperate disappear. Thanks to her membership in the Wolf Clan of the Seneca tribe, she can fool any pursuer, cover any trail, and then provide her clients with new identities, complete with authentic paperwork. Jane knows all the tricks, ancient and modern; in fact, she has invented several of them herself.

“So she is only mildly surprised to find an intruder waiting for her when she returns home one day. An ex-cop suspected of embezzling, John Felker wants Jane to do for him what she did for his buddy Harry Kemple: make him vanish. But as Jane opens a door out of the world for Felker, she walks into a trap that will take all her heritage and cunning to escape.”

 

Review

Vanishing is an excellent thriller, one of the best works I’ve read from Perry thus far. His slick, well-edited action and usual solid characterization is on display, the latter taken to a new level through a touch of mysticism and his deep-dive, main-protagonist’s knowledge of her multi-tribal-integral knowledge of her peoples’ history, practices and skills (thus making Vanishing an edutaining and effectively heartfelt-but-not-sappy read). Standout novel from a standout writer, worth owning. Followed by Dance for the Dead.

American Neo-Noir: the movie never ends by Alain Silver and James Ursini

 

(oversized pb; 2015: nonfiction)

From the back cover

“After scores of books and commentaries on film noir and its classic period, experts Alain Silver and James Ursini turn their full attention to neo-noir—the self-conscious, occasionally mannered, sometimes ersatz, and often surprising genre that sprang from the original movement. This volume surveys the full breadth of American neo-noir—its style and substance, its evolution over succeeding generations of filmmakers from activist through post-modern to millennial and onward—with extensive illustrations, black-and-white and full color, that capture the genre’s dramatic and visual essence.”

 

Review

American is a great entry in neo-noir nonfiction in that it functions as an educational, sometimes entertaining primer for those unfamiliar with the genre and as an entertaining read, possibly reminder, for those already well-versed in its plays of shadow and light. If Silver and Ursini sometimes come off as cinematic snobs in their tastes (they especially disparage, with moralistic zeal, Brian DePalma and his work), it’s almost something to be expected from critics and not people who’ve created anything (fictional) worth noting—I don’t write this to be mean, but as something for readers to be aware of. I give them credit for their often on-target takes and focused, narrowly defined analyses, but every viewer has their filmic opinions, so don’t let theirs compel you to avoid certain filmmakers’ works just because Silver and Ursini don’t like them. Worth reading, this.

Raylan Goes to Detroit by Peter Leonard

 

(hb; 2018: fourth book in the Raylan Givens series)

From the inside flap

“Plato o plomo. These are the last words Special Agent Frank Tyner hears before getting dealt the business end of a .22 Sport King, a gift from known drug trafficker and murderer, Jose Rindo. Nora Sanchez, to track down Rindo and bring him to justice before he slips across the Mexican border. Further complicating things, she’s got some unwanted help from the US Marshall fugitive task force—the kind that’s quick on the trigger and always shoots to kill—in the form of recently reassigned Deputy Marshall Raylan Givens. The duo follows Rindo’s bloody trail through the dusty plains of the Midwest, across the deserts of Arizona and El Centro, and deep into the heart of Mexico.”

 

Review

Set a few years after the events of the show Justified (2010-15) Peter Leonard’s Detroit maintains the same burn-through, tightly written, humor-, character- and violence-driven feel of his father’s previous Raylan Givens novels and stories, making this a worthwhile legacy read, one worth checking out.

Metzger's Dog by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 1983)

From the back cover

“A soldier of fortune. His cat. His ex-lover. With a clean shot at 10 million.

“All they have to do is read the want ads. Blackmail the CIA. Shut down a major American city.

“And get away with it.”

 

Review

Metzger’s is a fun, action-punctuated and relatively light-in-tone heist and blackmail tale, one that sports a 1970s-cinematic, semi-loose-in-telling (but always focused and character-centric) feel, especially in comparison with Perry’s four-book, tightly edited Butcher’s Boy series. This touch of the offbeat in this ambitious, animal-friendly heist/ransom story makes Metzger’s and its characters a joy to read (about, particularly Chinese Gordon, a.k.a. Leroy Charles Gordon). Worth owning, this, especially for fans of Charles Willeford and his creative ilk.

The Folks by Ray Garton

 

(hb; 2001: novella. Published by Cemetery Dance Publications.)

From the inside flap

“Welcome to Pinecrest, an isolated mountain village halfway up rural Mt. Crag. . . a place of natural beauty and solitude. . . a place where village life has remained unchanged for decades. . . but also a place where dead bodies have a strange way of showing up every couple of years. . . ravaged, mutilated bodies.”

 

Review

Told from the point of view of polite, non-religious twenty-one-year-old Andy Sayers, whose fire-scarred face scares many of his fellow Pinecrest residents, Folks details what happens when a mysterious benefactor offers Sayers a scholarship to the nearby College of Hand of God, and he’s seduced at a Halloween party by a mysterious, wealthy Amanda Bollinger whose familial, vine-covered house is hidden within neighboring Mt. Crag, hotbed of unyielding Christianity (and the aforementioned college).

Folks’s hybrid horror tropes and set-up may likely be familiar to those longtime genre readers but that’s a moot in point in this Old School 1980s, 130-page novella, given Garton’s excellent, tightly edited play-with-cliches writing, quick-but-effective characterization, and equally effective pacing. For Garton fans, the author’s fondness for well-written (brief in Folks) sex scenes and effective/cringe-worthy ickiness may further sell the tale to them. This is a great, hourlong read, with a finish that brings to mind the ending of King Diamond’s Conspiracy (1989) album. Folks is worth owning if the above description appeals to you.

George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead: Dissecting the Dead by various authors

 

(hb; 2020: nonfiction/essay collection – the 156-page book is included in Second Sight’s seven-disc Dawn of the Dead Blu-Ray/CD set)

From the back cover

“George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead has long been considered one of the high points of the zombie genre. Like its predecessor, Night of the Living Dead [1968], it blends extreme horror with broad, social commentary. Much has been written about Dawn of the Dead as a critique of consumerist society. However, as this collection of contemporary writing demonstrates, it much more than that. Here, leading voices from both genre film publications and academia bring a diverse range of new perspectives to Dawn of the Dead. In addition to fresh takes on the gender, race and class aspects of the film, there are also essays which explore the Gothic roots of Dawn of the Dead, its rocky reception in cinemas and home video in the UK and how it spawned an entire sub-genre in Italian exploitation cinema. . .”

 

Review

If you’re a big fan of Romero’s Dead series and/or the zombie genre in general, this is an overall interesting read. Not all the essays thrilled me, but for the most part they were interesting, and lent themselves to a more intriguing, deeper understanding of Dawn, creation, design, and influence-wise. Standout essays, at least for this reader, include:

Kat Ellinger’s “Romero’s New Gothic,” Jon Towlson’s “Superschlock!,” Martin Conterio’s “Combat Shock: Reflections on Vietnam and the War Movie Genre in Dawn of the Dead,” Daniel Bird’s “A Form of Punk: The Production and Distribution of Dawn of the Dead” and Jim Cironella, from his essay “Needle-Drop Nightmares.” Worth owning, this.