tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-194501912024-03-25T05:56:21.524-07:00reading & writing by pub lightSteve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.comBlogger1635125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-44770867677005328342024-03-16T09:15:00.000-07:002024-03-19T17:12:19.454-07:00The Rubber Band by Rex Stout<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinC7HrTTsDl0xSOE-TX_V6wv-nQPJjoMmPzc3JCxWUUO8opz_SHMlOloVDoO2-yKbelp7If1Fmsg8pduwSmRhqBgKuL8KmqinGK4QXf3cqau2ZMMqp7X-FY9WORTmnYzb7LKWPeL_sd1d8PvyUJGXjnFNaOipewWKUu2qhYwKT9XLANesqOGq6LA/s406/red%20box%20rubber%20band%20rex%20stout.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="255" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinC7HrTTsDl0xSOE-TX_V6wv-nQPJjoMmPzc3JCxWUUO8opz_SHMlOloVDoO2-yKbelp7If1Fmsg8pduwSmRhqBgKuL8KmqinGK4QXf3cqau2ZMMqp7X-FY9WORTmnYzb7LKWPeL_sd1d8PvyUJGXjnFNaOipewWKUu2qhYwKT9XLANesqOGq6LA/s320/red%20box%20rubber%20band%20rex%20stout.jpg" width="201" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 1937: third book in the
forty-six-book <a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/12/fer-de-lance-by-rex-stout.html" target="_blank">Nero Wolfe</a> detective series)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“What do a Wild West lynching
and a respected English nobleman have in common? On the surface, absolutely
nothing. But when a young man hires his services, it becomes Nero Wolfe’s job
to look deeper and find the connection. A forty-year-old pact, a
five-thousand-mile search and a million-dollar murder are all linked to an
international scandal that could rebound on the great detective and his
partner, Archie, with fatal abruptness.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Rubber Band </span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">finds the
erudite, stubborn Wolfe reluctantly harboring a pretty fugitive (Clara Fox) who’s
suspected not only of monetary theft but murder—and those seeking her are not
limited to wanting to arrest her. While the cops (often led by the sometimes-friendly
Inspector Kramer) and dubious characters try to pound down Wolfe’s door, Archie
Goodwin and Wolfe’s reliable butler Fritz actively form a further bulwark to
the urgent invaders while Wolfe susses out the details of Fox’s three-prong difficulties,
an effort that should earn him an impressive, calculated payday.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>Rubber</i> might be my favorite Wolfe
novel thus far. It’s dead-on, from its characterizations, its editing and clever
writing, and often laugh-out-loud smart dialogue. In some ways, <i>Rubber</i>
feels like the crystallization of the first phase Stout’s iconic detective (considering there are forty-six Wolfe books), and it’s a great entry not only
in Stout’s Wolfe series but the mystery genre in general. Followed by <i>The
Red Box</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-35212607723627259062024-03-11T06:04:00.000-07:002024-03-11T18:03:45.486-07:00Goth by Otsuichi, aka Hirotaka Adachi<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-aFWV8oJHVCqhi4PdWf23Vqm_T7IvQPSDzDtEwrTGgTRJNJloVUF5NdiH8wB8D1mcKTJd5RPs9Bwc2VA22aLGWEdVmjsDuW8b4tJ8t43gw1auyVxcKLrNdMOLj-_CDR267h1hDHC5kBgN9b-YSNvNGJ9iU1k93tMRg1l7XewF5oivwiUt9yAZFw/s1524/goth%20otsuichi%202002,%202005.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1524" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-aFWV8oJHVCqhi4PdWf23Vqm_T7IvQPSDzDtEwrTGgTRJNJloVUF5NdiH8wB8D1mcKTJd5RPs9Bwc2VA22aLGWEdVmjsDuW8b4tJ8t43gw1auyVxcKLrNdMOLj-_CDR267h1hDHC5kBgN9b-YSNvNGJ9iU1k93tMRg1l7XewF5oivwiUt9yAZFw/s320/goth%20otsuichi%202002,%202005.jpg" width="210" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 2002, 2005. Translated from
Japanese to English by <b>Andrew Cunningham</b>.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Morino is the strangest girl
in school—how could she not be, given her obsession with brutal murders? And
there are plenty of murders to grow obsessed with, as the town in which she
lives is a magnet for serial killers. She and her schoolmate will go to any
length to investigate the murders, even putting their own bodies on the line.
And they don’t want to stop the killers—Morino and her friend simply want to
understand them.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Goth</span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> is an
excellent, unsettling, clever and twisty work, with a world not set in our
reality and a plethora of amoral characters—not only the killers, who have a youkai-like
air about them—drawn to the unsmiling Yoru Morino, who’s “Goth” in the sense of
her melancholic air and primarily black colors, nothing more.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Animal lovers with little
stomach for occasional, semi-detailed acts of animal cruelty (early to midway
through <i>Goth</i>) might want to skip this tightly edited book—I considered putting down the
book and reading something else, but pushed through the brief
scenes/descriptions, and while I won’t read this book again (nor see its
resulting <a href="https://www.viz.com/goth" target="_blank">Shonen manga</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1092006/?ref_=tt_mv_close" target="_blank">live-action film</a>), I’m glad I read this, and might consider
checking out other Otsuiki works in the future (provided there’s no more animal
cruelty in them).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1SxdjKNiC9bP_KI3Vo6rR5oP5riEZUplNYGVREGCjdI8gfXV4Bu5aeh4gMBY65Tj4BlGwo-7u4TCcuExtFv6ATsUhKBrc4rg89M95rGrMzzlxGmqI96MmjXRHsHzHSS6h2MCBUaFAWEd9v8xhAjQ9tI-gyKtfOq78e10QnN299ZjWCLKovRpbhg/s1400/goth%202008.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1SxdjKNiC9bP_KI3Vo6rR5oP5riEZUplNYGVREGCjdI8gfXV4Bu5aeh4gMBY65Tj4BlGwo-7u4TCcuExtFv6ATsUhKBrc4rg89M95rGrMzzlxGmqI96MmjXRHsHzHSS6h2MCBUaFAWEd9v8xhAjQ9tI-gyKtfOq78e10QnN299ZjWCLKovRpbhg/s320/goth%202008.jpg" width="229" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioAGlpP144yz6cyxbs_Ejeela5jJTWkDZAe2aYOeu_xsKoUSmMF-A12L7W1CUlHdh24YaV44DNjQAzWMGu9hro4_C5e79YJBjkcH0rWCUVV_cKpdskkNddCy29u0pP-1vwt7wCZ-lo4feEst554zndf1DMTBK_BNtkg8Ljw_6Cmvx3DChcrioibw/s1200/goth%202008%20morino%20yokai%20friend.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioAGlpP144yz6cyxbs_Ejeela5jJTWkDZAe2aYOeu_xsKoUSmMF-A12L7W1CUlHdh24YaV44DNjQAzWMGu9hro4_C5e79YJBjkcH0rWCUVV_cKpdskkNddCy29u0pP-1vwt7wCZ-lo4feEst554zndf1DMTBK_BNtkg8Ljw_6Cmvx3DChcrioibw/s320/goth%202008%20morino%20yokai%20friend.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-52566359123629652512024-03-02T17:38:00.000-08:002024-03-11T18:26:42.211-07:00Suicide Hill by James Ellroy<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Paqgs5kD77fYiMLYQssey9pSbfm2ccOWOeghjSK099BIpl7N0qOlWrv0z-5kt51umgVZhmOhGAvBJfSngVVd4ib4QLrdodGZ1lFYA2fU6qhl0pPS0A2qrg00xIRxnDHznW_lWtvIXlQRSjV1YWwcmL0aT5XcIfGu-VrpvAlk5pKs15hFHbP6Eg/s219/suicide%20hill%20james%20ellroy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="219" data-original-width="141" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Paqgs5kD77fYiMLYQssey9pSbfm2ccOWOeghjSK099BIpl7N0qOlWrv0z-5kt51umgVZhmOhGAvBJfSngVVd4ib4QLrdodGZ1lFYA2fU6qhl0pPS0A2qrg00xIRxnDHznW_lWtvIXlQRSjV1YWwcmL0aT5XcIfGu-VrpvAlk5pKs15hFHbP6Eg/s1600/suicide%20hill%20james%20ellroy.jpg" width="141" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 1986: third book in the
<a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/12/blood-on-moon-by-james-ellroy.html" target="_blank">Lloyd Hopkins/L.A. Noir</a> trilogy)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Detective Lloyd Hopkins is
the most brilliant homicide detective in the Los Angeles Police Department and
one its most troubled. In his obsessive mission to protect the innocent, there
is no line he won’t cross. Estranged from his wife and daughters on the verge
of being drummed out of the department for his transgressions, Hopkins is
assigned to investigate a series a bloody bank robberies. As the violence
escalates and the case becomes ever more vicious, Hopkins will be forced to
cross the line once again to stop a maniac on a murder binge.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This edited review was
originally published on this site on October 13, 2006. That review has since
been deleted.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Suicide</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">,
likes its prequels <i><a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/12/blood-on-moon-by-james-ellroy.html">Blood on the Moon</a> </i>and <i><a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/12/because-night-by-james-ellroy.html" target="_blank">Because the Night</a></i>,
sports a nasty, tautly penned edge, but this time out, its character-based darkness
is offset with an unexpected grace and sense of mercy, with an interweaving,
often complex, plot focused and sharp book, with an underlying raw tone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Lloyd Hopkins embodies this progression.
While he’s still not exactly sensitive to others, he’s relatively more
restrained, and—with exciting results—sometimes finds his roles switched with
other characters (e.g., Capt. Fred Gaffaney, one of Hopkins’s chief foes),
putting me in the transcendent mindset of the closing moments of another lots-of-edge work,
<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001206/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Abel Ferrara</a>’s 1992 crime drama-thriller <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103759/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_bad%2520lieutenant" target="_blank">Bad Lieutenant</a></i>. Great capper to
the Hopkins trilogy, this, worth owning.</span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-35634820791222653272024-03-01T17:41:00.000-08:002024-03-02T18:40:50.286-08:00Farscape: House of Cards by Keith R.A. DeCandido<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIs19j_6ZrNh1MWLt7eXtN4JRuEi28t5qR543W0vpH9OALmlUGq9dq-zAqt6jZRh-Wentx5mXcQK0BxA0nKjdicluyZ_ovNYY0uUsO-2BOCKjtWz12ZRTn_Tl8UZRd21iu7XpV-kf7764IbCwsHYnrISgmgv2tTdZFb0bqpjO-1g1W0lxm4WXftw/s2344/farscape%20house%20of%20cards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2344" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIs19j_6ZrNh1MWLt7eXtN4JRuEi28t5qR543W0vpH9OALmlUGq9dq-zAqt6jZRh-Wentx5mXcQK0BxA0nKjdicluyZ_ovNYY0uUsO-2BOCKjtWz12ZRTn_Tl8UZRd21iu7XpV-kf7764IbCwsHYnrISgmgv2tTdZFb0bqpjO-1g1W0lxm4WXftw/s320/farscape%20house%20of%20cards.jpg" width="191" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 2000: television show
tie-in. Events in this book take place “towards the end of the second season of
<i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187636/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1" target="_blank">Farscape</a></i>, between the episodes “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0578152/?ref_=ttep_ep15" target="_blank">Won’t Get Fooled Again</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0578137/?ref_=ttep_ep16" target="_blank">The Locket</a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“The pleasure planet Liantac
was once the greatest gambling resort in the Uncharted Territories. Even now,
having fallen on hard times, it remains a spectacle of glitz and greed.
Astronaut John Crichton and his fellow interstellar fugitives see Liantac as
the source of much-needed supplies—except for Rygel, whose boundless avarice is
tempted by the promise of easy riches.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“To discharge the debt, and
liberate their ship from the planetary authorities. Crichton, Aeryn, and the
others must take on a number of challenging assignments. But all is not what it
seems, for treachery and deadly intrigue hides within this. . . <i>House of
Cards</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">House of Cards, </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">an
original-story novel inspired by the Rockne S. O’Bannon-created, Sci-Fi Channel
show, reads like a genuine, unfilmed <i>Farscape</i> episode, with its character-true
and sometimes flinty-humored dialogue and behavior, twisty and tight storyline,
and possibly devious new characters who may or may not be using Moya and her
crew for their own Liantac-centric ends. A fast-paced and hard-to-set-down book,
it’s a worthy addition to the <i>Farscape</i> series, one worth owning.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">House </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">is followed
by two character-/universe-linked sequels <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765340011?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tmmp_1&storeType=ebooks&qid=1709432226&sr=1-2" target="_blank">Dark Side of the Sun</a> </i>(by
Andrew Dymond, published September 2001, said to be wildly inconsistent with
the <i>Farscape </i>timeline) and <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076534002X?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tmmp_2&storeType=ebooks&qid=1709432226&sr=1-2" target="_blank">Ship of Ghosts</a> </i>(by David Bischoff,
published January 2002, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">which also has “better than </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Dark
Side</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">” but “bland” reviews on Amazon).</span></p><br /><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-87635033464007028202024-02-13T16:43:00.000-08:002024-03-19T17:07:36.280-07:00The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik5CeBvd5dPwEeytXmtUhEjgmJ2Mat73EB3PjYTcito7gmw53mE95Uiym0jSrfBPdhuSNgtorGkNgjFetRM6DYuZDZyfbeIjrq5Qqtmq-P6SMEv95U3gTLu9mDcUj6HRShMzsq-aZ-GszGDKYtSHczE5d6mqyGOEizDJOyF-WQKGl1_RiUqfC6Lw/s500/the%20league%20of%20frightened%20men%201935%20bk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="295" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik5CeBvd5dPwEeytXmtUhEjgmJ2Mat73EB3PjYTcito7gmw53mE95Uiym0jSrfBPdhuSNgtorGkNgjFetRM6DYuZDZyfbeIjrq5Qqtmq-P6SMEv95U3gTLu9mDcUj6HRShMzsq-aZ-GszGDKYtSHczE5d6mqyGOEizDJOyF-WQKGl1_RiUqfC6Lw/s320/the%20league%20of%20frightened%20men%201935%20bk.jpg" width="189" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 1935: second book in the
forty-six-book <a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/12/fer-de-lance-by-rex-stout.html">Nero Wolfe</a> detective series)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Paul Chapin’s college cronies
never quite forgave themselves for instigating the tragic prank that left their
friend a twisted cripple. Yet with their hazing days at Harvard far behind
them, they had every reason to believe that Paul himself had forgiven them—until
a class reunion ends in fatal fall, and the poems swearing deadly retribution
begin to arrive. Now this league of frightened men is desperate for Nero Wolfe’s
help. But are Wolfe’s brilliance and Archie’s tenacity enough to outwit a
killer so cunning he can plot and execute in plain sight?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The second Nero Wolfe mystery
finds the titular detective and his man-about-city assistant Archie Goodwin trying
to figure out how murder-book author and poet Paul Chapin—who by most
indications seems to be bumping off those who inadvertently wronged him a long
time ago—committed the crimes. However, as with most effective and entertaining
whodunnit (with Wolfe cases, howdunnit) works, situations and people are not
what they always seem.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Stout’s mystery-atypical story
setup is not unlike that of the first novel, <i><a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/12/fer-de-lance-by-rex-stout.html" target="_blank">Fer-de-Lance</a></i>, with Archie
having to wangle and compel Wolfe into setting aside his comfortable schedule
to solve the recent succession of small-group killings, with a probable key
villain who seems to mock them at every step—and once Archie’s efforts are
rewarded, barbed humor gives way to reader-gripping curiosity, brief instances
of danger and alarm, as well as sense of things tumbling rapidly into a
satisfying and memorable story resolution. This time, though, Chapin is an
especially memorable black-hat character, and Wolfe’s mercenary underpinnings—startling
in <i>Fer-de-Lance</i>—are more apparent early on, making <i>League</i> one of
my favorite Wolfe reads thus far. Followed by <i><a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-rubber-band-by-rex-stout.html" target="_blank">The Rubber Band</a></i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">#<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">League </span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">has
been filmed at least once, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029127/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_15_act" target="_blank">notably by Columbia Pictures in 1937</a>, with <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0175369/?ref_=tt_ov_st" target="_blank">Walter Connolly</a> playing the portly Wolfe and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0822034/?ref_=tt_ov_st" target="_blank">Lionel Stander</a> embodying the sarcastic
Archie Goodwin.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwP14IMjtnL-xS93l8sHIbGrjWq8UFf4EN62I9QmKB4htL_8r16bafhyphenhyphenMpX5P6BnpHTLd90rQPfabw3o4tY3ia3DWhApoKChSzZPYdtSIhWNqoaxNXraTqU5zQebhtVYZlMhKq-hp2YlzceTW1YZMLUbi7aRNMtJ-YBVbELP6Bb6W2kXLt14Be4A/s1280/the%20league%20frightened%20men%201937.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwP14IMjtnL-xS93l8sHIbGrjWq8UFf4EN62I9QmKB4htL_8r16bafhyphenhyphenMpX5P6BnpHTLd90rQPfabw3o4tY3ia3DWhApoKChSzZPYdtSIhWNqoaxNXraTqU5zQebhtVYZlMhKq-hp2YlzceTW1YZMLUbi7aRNMtJ-YBVbELP6Bb6W2kXLt14Be4A/s320/the%20league%20frightened%20men%201937.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p><br /><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-9455680270085891002024-02-03T15:26:00.000-08:002024-02-03T15:31:40.639-08:00The Gauntlet by Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcqL8CjOP2_CdWADV7MZDOv_UIfd5av-vAO7dO5CmlHAGzaW6ryxhLYJtC-xDKcJtgqOrRMwW6t8PgRvbkbn7fA8KQe8fMxhZbr_LV62diBSxH-ntog_V100cFSFLRCGyD2Q3oQ4l_87OgvdlAiE9NHZUJwHK684sVpL8Wx0RWenW3RnTcMJVUiw/s220/the%20gauntlet%201977.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="165" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcqL8CjOP2_CdWADV7MZDOv_UIfd5av-vAO7dO5CmlHAGzaW6ryxhLYJtC-xDKcJtgqOrRMwW6t8PgRvbkbn7fA8KQe8fMxhZbr_LV62diBSxH-ntog_V100cFSFLRCGyD2Q3oQ4l_87OgvdlAiE9NHZUJwHK684sVpL8Wx0RWenW3RnTcMJVUiw/s1600/the%20gauntlet%201977.jpg" width="165" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 1977: movie tie-in novel, <o:p></o:p></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">based on Butler and Shryack’s screenplay)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“He was a cop who ‘got a job
done.’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“She was a hooker set up by
both the law and the mob to have a job done on her.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“They were two people with nothing
left to do but run.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Gauntlet </span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">is a fun,
comic book-ish movie tie-in that tries to ground its absurd action-fantasy <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076070/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1" target="_blank">cinematic counterpart</a> in some semblance of reality and largely succeeds. Penned by
Butler and Shryack, who also wrote the screenplay, they add small details and
background to their lead characters (including a nice meta-crack about “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066999/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1" target="_blank">Dirty Harry</a>”), giving some heft to <i>Gauntlet</i>’s leads. Many of its situations,
especially in its last quarter, are still ridiculous but they’re less egregious
in their execution than in the film, which come as just silly. This book version
is worthwhile if you don’t expect too much and are just looking for something
violent but relatively light to fill an hour or two. Below is the iconic <a href="https://www.borisjulie.com/" target="_blank">Boris Vallejo</a> movie poster.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyjK4_vLJ93Xeq08bL36KxEhTytO7ezEXqghdrrjRmI-Xa3sYwzdak5KIbmXpRS7BdETyxZ9Vw7badUEFNma8fILOv2SsmAQSikEC_ADwohyphenhyphenLsPUced5qmdgA2xb3ItB5PJxljlWdu3-s0WCCc1shwBtWifwkOSK-UuV7lJ3ZhUlKU0XjLBz8tMQ/s600/the%20gauntlet%201977%20boris%20vallejo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="388" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyjK4_vLJ93Xeq08bL36KxEhTytO7ezEXqghdrrjRmI-Xa3sYwzdak5KIbmXpRS7BdETyxZ9Vw7badUEFNma8fILOv2SsmAQSikEC_ADwohyphenhyphenLsPUced5qmdgA2xb3ItB5PJxljlWdu3-s0WCCc1shwBtWifwkOSK-UuV7lJ3ZhUlKU0XjLBz8tMQ/s320/the%20gauntlet%201977%20boris%20vallejo.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><br /><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-41228833098991599012024-01-29T16:51:00.000-08:002024-01-29T16:55:33.501-08:00Escape from the Living Dead by John Russo<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwM3TR-Ka07EWLAaGCrqudqLx8mlczjQhxpzAD8SEQInBO_j9CVD9xWSmQ0TIvs3k-MeA3aTNu66oLcnA23EKBWTf81IabOh_HjVoHJEsiryN3Ye_T13K3QNI__-xBjyoQqUcBb9qxt2zMROPSXFJdDSfchW0JBeVouF3j9ly930X0tEc3gNff6A/s640/the%20hungry%20dead%20john%20russo.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwM3TR-Ka07EWLAaGCrqudqLx8mlczjQhxpzAD8SEQInBO_j9CVD9xWSmQ0TIvs3k-MeA3aTNu66oLcnA23EKBWTf81IabOh_HjVoHJEsiryN3Ye_T13K3QNI__-xBjyoQqUcBb9qxt2zMROPSXFJdDSfchW0JBeVouF3j9ly930X0tEc3gNff6A/s320/the%20hungry%20dead%20john%20russo.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 2013: sequel to the 1978
book version of John Russo’s <i><a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/10/return-of-living-dead-by-john-russo.html" target="_blank">Return of the Living Dead</a>. </i>Third book in
Russo’s <a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2020/03/night-of-living-dead-by-john-russo.html" target="_blank">Living Dead</a> series.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“In an isolated roadside
diner, a desperate group of strangers barricade themselves against a ravenous
horde of undead customers who crave something more than the early bird special.
They want flesh. Human flesh. With a side order of brains and stomach-turning
terror.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Escape</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, set
sixteen years after the events of <i>Night of the Living Dead</i> (1968) and
ten years after <i>Return of the Living Dead</i> (published in 1978), has the
same virtues and drawbacks (for some readers) as Russo’s two previous <i>Living Dead</i>
books, with a few series-fresh and world-expansive ideas thrown into the mix (e.g.,
a scientist, Dr. Harold Melrose, who’s infected with zombifying virus but doesn’t
“turn”).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If you like blunt action with
little nuance, short-lived characters whose pasts are effectively sketched out
(to keep the action going at rapid clip), and villains who are repulsive in
their outlooks and violence, <i>Escape </i>might be your pulpy, putrescent and gory
kick. If I have any criticisms of Russo’s writing, it’s usually this: he makes
philosophical statements that take me out of the story unnecessarily—these truths
and musings could easily be woven seamlessly into the story, within the
characters’ dialogue, actions, and situations themselves; also, some of his
characters’ dialogues are stilted, providing awkwardly stated story information
and information about their pasts (while talking to people who’ve known them
awhile and therefore should already know them).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">These minor nits aside, <i>Escape</i>,
like Russo’s other works, is a choppy-edit, gory, grim, violent and
character-sketched tale, one worth reading if you can embrace the above-stated
qualities of his writing, and don’t mind a bit of bleak-humored misanthropy.</span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-70279764927600513082024-01-25T17:00:00.000-08:002024-01-31T18:51:10.656-08:00The Girl with the Barbed Wire Hair by Carlton Mellick III<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_IJV7nuS5WGRpQ8MZRqnD11myNY_nQx-Zw39YG8JngLroVeQeJ626mbB9sgbn4e4ZW3pTDfst5NMX0qyF958Zi1niOgQaN7mlCnU9_ts0JQSF3UHwArmU3rMJBq-HDSV2iOcVdMMNpcPgIMkY71lYAGkL0AguXScaC1Qir9v-4y9NkUGQyLdjRQ/s1000/girl%20with%20barbed%20wire%20hair%202022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="714" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_IJV7nuS5WGRpQ8MZRqnD11myNY_nQx-Zw39YG8JngLroVeQeJ626mbB9sgbn4e4ZW3pTDfst5NMX0qyF958Zi1niOgQaN7mlCnU9_ts0JQSF3UHwArmU3rMJBq-HDSV2iOcVdMMNpcPgIMkY71lYAGkL0AguXScaC1Qir9v-4y9NkUGQyLdjRQ/s320/girl%20with%20barbed%20wire%20hair%202022.jpg" width="228" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 2022)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“This is a ghost story.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It is also a love story.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It is a story about
obsession, desperation, loneliness, and depravity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It is not a story that will
make you happy.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Girl</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> is an
instantly addictive (in a good way) read, seamlessly incorporating integral
facets of Japanese horror (aka J-horror) into a relatively straightforward, sometimes
clever-twisty tale: a kind, quiet boy (Yusuke) is thrown into wild situations
after helping a strange street girl (Akiko Mori) and, while doing so, attracting
the weird-affection attention of his popular, pretty and casually cruel junior
high classmate (Narumi Wada). Events spiral out of bloody, community-threatening
control when Akiko’s true nature is revealed, playing out in a way that feels
true to J-horror and its well-developed character while maintaining a fresh
take on it. <i>Girl, </i>Mellick’s sixty-fourth book, is less bizarre in tone
and execution, but still a wild, entertaining and standout work, one worth
owning.</span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-91181795938365274912024-01-20T18:51:00.000-08:002024-01-29T15:24:21.145-08:00Chamber of Horrors by Robert Bloch<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8m6FHUWJn8_dgixLHLGixPfJcmclzoGwlDl0-n-UtFgp2cHtq2AWWxX6TC9FYcbyrcFDXvf9DrL-prdIn-r_b4_Wqc27sR2R8KBXArFNAeYOs61URsG1B34DSe3EBJrOOCGZSlqMpIWdB8VgA9I_zd8MGUT4tycA6ADSMVrmFp0uqFNrhG93CUQ/s396/chamber%20of%20horrors%20robert%20bloch%201966.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="252" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8m6FHUWJn8_dgixLHLGixPfJcmclzoGwlDl0-n-UtFgp2cHtq2AWWxX6TC9FYcbyrcFDXvf9DrL-prdIn-r_b4_Wqc27sR2R8KBXArFNAeYOs61URsG1B34DSe3EBJrOOCGZSlqMpIWdB8VgA9I_zd8MGUT4tycA6ADSMVrmFp0uqFNrhG93CUQ/s320/chamber%20of%20horrors%20robert%20bloch%201966.jpg" width="204" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 1966: story anthology)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Overall review</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Chamber</span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> is an
excellent, twelve-story collection by an often-excellent author. All the tightly
written and twisty tales shine, even if Bloch-familiar readers guess/sense the character-
and fate-based turns within the works. Worth owning, this—a master class in
effective, get-regularly-published writing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review, story by story</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<b>The Living End</b>”: Nobel
Prize-winning scientist Herbert Zane is unpleasantly distracted from his groundbreaking
work by his shrewish wife (Hilda), in a life-altering way. While some readers may
guess how Herbert might be undone, it’s still—especially for the period it was
originally published (1963)—effective, clever, and rings true.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<b>The Headhunter</b>”: Otto
Kranz, an axe-wielding executioner for the SS (and full of wonder at the
mysteries of life and death) risks death to seek answers to nagging, core
questions. Good story.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<b>Impractical Joker</b>”: A
heartbroken, disgruntled bartender (Teddy), working his final shift at the Fun
House (a bar), goes for broke (im)practical joke-wise. For Bloch, this is a
relatively gentle work shade-wise, but still moralistic (in a good way) with
its twist(s).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<b>Pride Goes—</b>”: Alice
Aiken, an adulteress, plots her husband’s murder, and finds even the most
no-fuss killing too easily becomes tangled. Masterfully foreshadowed finish,
one of my favorite stories in this anthology—and one of my all-time favorite
Bloch stories.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<b>The Screaming People</b>”:
A post-car accident amnesiac (Steve Edmundson), dream-led by “The Voice,”
suspects he might’ve committed a murder. Thankfully, there’s his loving wife
(Roxie) and Dr. Carl Wagram (a neuropsychiatrist) to guide him back to complete
sanity. . . maybe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Bloch, again, masterfully
mines noir tropes and converts them into pulpy, twisty gold with his deftly
placed foreshadowing, gray-shade characters, sly humor and overall excellent
writing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<b>Fat Chance</b>”: A
longtime-married husband plots his wife’s (Mary) death after she puts on
seriously unhealthy weight and he meets Frances, a stimulating, weight-healthy
woman. Readers familiar with Bloch’s writing style and structure may see what “<b>Fat
Chance</b>”’s twist-finish is likely to be, but it’s still the work of a superb
writer spinning a worthwhile, clever tale.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<b>The Unpardonable Crime</b>”:
Sherry,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a desperate, lowlife actress,
returns to her husband (Roger, a film director) after disappearing for three
years. She hopes to revitalize her career, but things have changed in ways she
couldn’t foresee. Fun, Hollywood-dark read, offbeat and excellent twist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<b>Method for Murder</b>”: Madness—contagious?—dominates
this tale about a woman (Alice), sick of her husband’s obsession with his thriller
work; she finds an illicit and dangerous way to deal with it. Fans of Bloch’s 1982
novel <i><a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2009/11/psycho-ii-by-robert-bloch.html" target="_blank">Psycho II</a></i> might especially appreciate “<b>Murder</b>.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<b>Two of a Kind</b>”: A
wealthy man (Preston Lambert) offers a young couple (Mary Dexter and her
husband) a life of luxury if they’ll work with him on what seems like mad lark.
Memorable, great twist-finish in this story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<b>Untouchable</b>”: Race
Harmon, an arrogant and racist filmmaker in India, goes stir crazy beyond his
usual, drunken actions and slurs (which are language-explicit and may be
shocking for sheltered/sensitive readers). This being a Bloch tale, there’s a heavy
price to be paid for such behavior. Nasty, blunt and excellent story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<b>Beelzebub</b>”: A fly
torments a Hollywood writer (Howard). Fun story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<b> ‘Frozen Fear’</b>”:
Walter Krass realizes that his Cajun wife (Ruby) intends to kill him, so he tries
to respond in kind—but murder isn’t always the answer, nor is it the end of certain
situations. Good, solid work.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-6704514635251693922024-01-15T18:45:00.000-08:002024-01-29T16:06:24.792-08:00Poison Flower by Thomas Perry <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwhkr5Q75USy4T3TcGhs18NUOo9-fPioOkGcxKhxL2-snM6jLCkZyPBFJJP44MmagePUh2VVRXBJw50GxTXQWARx9XGqFQfzWpwoNj_k-Q_YXO6J3ffsye_YBf5mguK7r5IW1LvuPeGzfmSOv7ACj6QFS4FTleSvj18P89Yakqt0-rXCoZJ8Ovqg/s292/poison%20flower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="192" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwhkr5Q75USy4T3TcGhs18NUOo9-fPioOkGcxKhxL2-snM6jLCkZyPBFJJP44MmagePUh2VVRXBJw50GxTXQWARx9XGqFQfzWpwoNj_k-Q_YXO6J3ffsye_YBf5mguK7r5IW1LvuPeGzfmSOv7ACj6QFS4FTleSvj18P89Yakqt0-rXCoZJ8Ovqg/s1600/poison%20flower.jpg" width="192" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(hb; 2012: seventh book in the
<a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/02/vanishing-act-by-thomas-perry.html" target="_blank">Jane Whitefield</a> series)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“James Shelby has been
unjustly convicted of his wife’s murder. To save him from prison or death, Jane
orchestrates his escape from the heavily guarded criminal court building in Los
Angeles. Within minutes, imposters posing as police officers shoot Jane, take
her away, and tie her to a mattress in a small, dark room.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Jane’s captors are employees
for the true killer, who believes he won’t be safe until Shelby is dead. His
henchmen will do anything to break Jane’s mind, body, and spirit to get her to
reveal Shelby’s hiding place, yet Jane endures their sadistic torment using
techniques passed on via her Seneca warrior ancestors. Jane is alone, wounded,
thousands of miles from home with no money and no identification, hunted by
both the police and her ruthless captors. In an unrelenting cross-country
battle, Jane must use all her cunning to rejoin Shelby, get them both to safety,
and unmask the real murderer. And when at last Jane turns to fight, her enemies
face a ferocious warrior who has one weapon they don’t.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One of the many strengths of Perry’s
Jane Whitefield series (and overall writing) is that he, a prolific author,
regularly switches up the plot structures and setups of his books, often within
the same series, so that each book stands out from (most of) his other works. This
is especially true of <i>Poison Flower</i>, which focuses not on Jane guiding
her clients to safety, but her trying to escape kidnappers and, having done so,
making sure that she and those she cares about are safe from them—even if it
means her engaging in an activity she reluctantly engages in: revenge.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Poison</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, like
other Jane Whitefield novels, is a fast, entertaining work, making for another thriller
that feels fresh <i>and</i> familiar while expanding ongoing characters and
Jane’s world. The emotional gravitas of the dangers Jane and her friends and
family face are immediate, engaging, action-brutal and often hair-raising (especially
after Jane is kidnapped by Daniel Martel’s auction-minded killers). This is an
excellent work, not shocking considering its creator, fast-moving but not so
slick as to lack memorability or emotional heft. Followed by <i>A String of
Beads</i>.</span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-20818519428096202342023-12-29T19:02:00.000-08:002023-12-30T13:59:54.543-08:00“Moon Knight” Omnibus Vol. 1 by various artists and writers (Part 1 of 2)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVEmKYiEfmE8hBi31oC1tCTAJfCXKsijUa9W6nH_2m6sZpw9xNDg8eH1jqp73foVsxavRHCYPXVsKOMI2U1x-ECUwJGKIqGm23KTLggbYTcSMZ62pcc98c-J4f_x55JtqKoOX7LmENJZpBJUpwY5D5U4ulbl9xfkcqrHW44IzsdZMqj4cfBP7NUA/s2600/moon%20knight%20omnibus%20vol%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2600" data-original-width="1778" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVEmKYiEfmE8hBi31oC1tCTAJfCXKsijUa9W6nH_2m6sZpw9xNDg8eH1jqp73foVsxavRHCYPXVsKOMI2U1x-ECUwJGKIqGm23KTLggbYTcSMZ62pcc98c-J4f_x55JtqKoOX7LmENJZpBJUpwY5D5U4ulbl9xfkcqrHW44IzsdZMqj4cfBP7NUA/s320/moon%20knight%20omnibus%20vol%201.jpg" width="219" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(oversized hb; 2020: graphic
novel. Collects <i>Werewolf By Night</i> #32-33, <i>Marvel Spotlight</i>
#28-29, <i>Defenders</i> #47-50, <i>Spectacular Spider-Mani #</i>22-23, <i>Marvel
Two-in-One</i> #52, <i>Moon Knight #</i>1-20, and material from <i>Defenders #</i>51,
<i>Hulk!</i> magazine #11-15, 17-18 and 20, <i>Marvel Preview</i> #21 and <i>Amazing
Spider-Man #</i>220.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From the inside flap</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Soldier of fortune Marc Spector.
Millionaire playboy Steven Grant. Taxi driver Jake Lockley. All three are
aspects of the same man; together, they are Moon Knight! Spector’s fighting
skills, Grant’s resources and Lockley’s street smarts combine in the form of
Marvel’s strangest vigilante—aided by his loyal pilot, Frenchie, and Marlene,
the woman with whom he shares all his lives.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Meet him in the pages of <i><a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2022/06/werewolf-by-night-omnibus-by-various_14.html" target="_blank">Werewolf By Night</a></i>, where he is hired by the shadowy Committee to hunt the
lycanthropic Jack Russell. His crescent cape soon glides him across the Marvel Universe
as he fights alongside the dynamic Defenders, tussles with the Thing and shares
the first of many encounters with Spider-Man. But Moon Knight is no ordinary
costumed crimefighter, and his co-creator Doug Moench showed exactly why in the
<i>Hulk!</i> magazine, of all places—beginning a character-defining
collaboration with superstar-in-the-making Bill Sienkowicz.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Moench and Sienkowicz began
building the strangest rogues’ gallery in comics, pitting their silver-clad
vigilante against lethal threats, including Lupinar the Wolf, the Cobra and the
haunting Hatchet Man. Then, as Moench and Sienkowicz continued the adventures
in the first <i>Moon Knight </i>title, they explored Spector’s past to reveal
his true origin, his bitter rivalry with the bloodthirsty Bushman and his
uncanny connection with Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon! From there, they
continued to mix super-heroics with the supernatural, plunging Moon Knight deep
into New York’s darkest corners and introducing evermore bizarre adversaries,
such Arsenal, the one-man army; the nightmarish Morpheus and Stained Class
Scarlet, the nun with a crossbow!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Overall review</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Caveat: (possible) minor
spoilers in review. Part 2 of review is here.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Moon Knight is one of the
stranger comic book anti-heroes with his dissociative disorder as well as his often
out-there villains, creepy and street-gritty storylines and settings (usually
New York City), and overall unsettling feel and endings—the overall feel is one
of somewhere between <i>for mature audiences</i> and <i>teen friendly</i>
comics (if they are into dark stuff), leaning more toward pulpy <i>for mature
audiences </i>fare. On occasion, this grittiness lent itself to insensitive
language (the rare use of the words “pansy” and “slut”), but given the context
of their usage, it makes sense. His guest appearances are good introductions to
Moon Knight [MK], and the series was an excellent and crazy-in-tone expansion
on his character and the characters surrounding him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Moon Knight’s original run went
from 1975 to 1984; his second run went from 1985 to 1990.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Worth owning, this, if you
like your super-heroics gritty, dark, disturbing and sometimes hallucinogenic.<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review, issue by issue</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Werewolf By Night: “</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Stalker Called Moon Knight” (#32</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">): While Buck Cowan—seriously
injured in issue 31 of <i>Werewolf</i>—fights for his life in a L.A. hospital,
Jack Russell, moon-transformed, fights for <i>his </i>life after The Committee
hires a mercenary (Marc Spector, aka Moon Knight) to bring Jack Russell, in
werewolf form, to them. In Haiti, Raymond Coker (last issue seen in issue 21)
gets bad news from “Jeesal of de thousand years”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Werewolf By Night: “</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Wolf-Beast
vs. Moon Knight” (#33)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">:<b> </b>Jack Russell’s full-moon battle
with Moon Knight continues. L.A. detective Vic Northrup lands in Haiti,
continuing his search for Raymond Coker, who tells “Jeesela of de thousand
years” about an undead threat that killed his aunt and uncle “in a small
village north of Mirebalais” and terrorized his seven-year-old cousin (Banita).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marvel Spotlight: </span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“The
Crushing Conquer-Lord!” (#28)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: After foiling a
Watergate-style break-in, Moon Knight [MK] tangles with theft architect (Mr.
Quinn, aka Conquer-Lord, a pointy-headed, orange-and-blue spandex-wearing
villain). Cliffhanger finish to this issue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marvel Spotlight</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: “The
Deadly Gambit of Conquer-Lord!” </span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(<b>#29</b>): MK, as Steven
Grant, discovers that his new valet (the effeminate Merkins), is
Quinn/Conquer-Lord’s spy. MK engages in a bizarre, deadly chess match to save
Marlene (Grant’s live-in girlfriend) from being eaten by crocodiles, while the
mayor, shot by Conquer-Lord in the previous issue, is rushed to the hospital.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Caveat</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: Some
readers, especially sensitive to sexual preference slurs—remember, this issue
came out in August 1976, before political correctness—might take offense to
Grant/M.K.’s use of the word “pansy”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Defenders: “</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Night
Moves!” (#47): </span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Misperceptions between key characters (MK, Nick
Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D.) occur when Fury tries to kidnap Frank Norriss, a man with
vital information.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One of the Defenders, Hellcat,
visits the Avengers’ headquarters, where Wonder Man—no longer an Avenger—searches
their database for vital information. Hellcat and Wonder Man briefly fight. Other
notable characters in this issue: Valkyrie, The Hulk, and Nighthawk.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Defenders: </span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Who
Remembers Scorpio? Part One: Sinister Savior!” </span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(#48):
Wonder Man, Valkyrie, Hellcat and Moon Knight turn Jack Norriss over to Nick
Fury, unaware that Fury is under the sway of Scorpio.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Scorpio, within his “Zodiac
Chamber, the Theater of Genetic”—a wild-looking lab—hopes to punish mankind and
cleanse the natural world. Meanwhile, MK, trapped in Scorpio’s drowning pit,
must find a way out. Effective twist-finish in this issue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Defenders: “</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Who
Remembers Scorpio? Part Two: Rampage” (#49)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: In order to draw a
recalcitrant Hulk to Scorpio’s lab in New Jersey, where they hope to stop
Scorpio’s lab-created army, Valkyrie, Hellcat and MK engage in skirmish-and-run
tactics.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In his lab, Scorpio tells Jack
Norriss about Scorpio’s relationship with brother (Nick Fury), whom he hates.
All the while, Scorpio preps to unleash havoc on mankind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Defenders:</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “Who
Remembers Scorpio? Part Three: Scorpio Must Die!” (#50)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: The
gathered Defenders and MK wage all-out war with Scorpio and his lab-created
Zodiac army.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Scorpio is a quirky-weird
character, obsessed with beer (Schlitz) and hanging out with is super-human
fighters; he’s also obsessed with his ambivalent relationship with his brother,
Nick Fury LMD. This is an above-average, especially fun issue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Spectacular Spider-Man</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: “By
the Light of the Silvery Moon!” (#22)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: The “revitalized” (according
to MK) Maggia gangsters target him—they know his secret identity, thanks to
their access to Conquer Lord’s file (<i>Marvel Premiere</i> #28 and 29). While
MK thwarts a Maggia trap and Gena’s diner (The Other Place), Spider-Man—mistaking
MK’s intentions—fights him. Surprise, to-be-continued ending to this one, with
fun, multiple-character foreshadowing and development in this tightly penned
issue.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Spectacular Spider-Man</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: “Guess
Who’s Buried in Grant’s Tomb!” (#23</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">): </span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cyclone,
an assassin with the ability to create man-sized, hurricane-force wind, is
hired by the Maggia to kill MK and Spider-Man. (Cyclone, seeking revenge on
Spider-Man, was recently sprung from prison by his boss (“the big M”) after the
events of <i>Amazing Spider-Man</i> issues #143-44, whose crimes in those
issues landed him there in the first place. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marvel Two-in-One: </span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“A
Little Knight Music!” (#52)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: A red-costumed, ex-CIA brainwasher
(Crossfire, aka William Cross) tries to use his foul talents on The Thing (aka
Ben Grimm), with MK also caught up in Crossfire’s violent scheme: to end the
spread—and lives of—superheroes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Hulk!: </span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Graven
Image of Death” (#11)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: MK’s investigation into a series of street
murders draws him and Marlene Grant into a mystery involving a key, possibly
erstwhile murderers and greed. Cliff hanger finish to this one.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Hulk!</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">:
“Embassy of Fear!” (#12)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: Continuation of <i>The Hulk #</i>11. MK,
also utilizing his Steve Grant/millionaire persona, and Marlene (his personal
secretary-lover) take on a murderous, foul-mouthed museum curator (Fenton
Crane), a Chilean U.N. ambassador (Alfonse Leroux) and their security
forces—all of whom are looking for a priceless jade statuette of Horus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Hulk!</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: “The
Big Blackmail!” (#13)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: Informed by Conquer Lord’s in-depth file on MK
and his various personas, a wealthy swordsman “Lupinar. . . the Wolf!” (crime
lord) and one of his info men (Smelt) prepare to battle MK.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Meanwhile, MK’s investigation
of recent murders—begun with reporter Jim Poulhaus’s violent demise in <i>The
Hulk!</i> #11—twists into a thwart-a-nuclear-capable-terrorist situation,
forcing MK to resurrect his Marc Spector, merc-for-hire persona.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Artwork in this issue is
uneven, distracts from the story. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Hulk!</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: “Countdown
to Dark” (#14)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: The story arc begun in <i>The Hulk!</i> #11
concludes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marc Spector (aka MK) battles
an impostor MK during a plutonium/terrorist heist while Lupinar, afflicted with
“hypertrichosis—the ‘hirsute disease,’” and mastermind of the heist (as well as
a nuclear ransom-threat to NYC), preps for his meeting with the real MK.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Frenchie tries to contact
N.E.S.T. (Nuclear Emergency Research Team) about the location of the
about-to-blow terrorist nuke. Marlene shows a lot of skin (again), more than
usual.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As with the previous issue,
the artwork is spotty, distracting in a bad way. Aside from that nit, solid
issue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Hulk!</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: “An
Eclipse, Waxing”/”An Eclipse, Waning” (#15)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: MK and the Hulk, in
passing, tangle with three bungling criminals during a full moon on an
eccentric millionaire’s (name: Jase) estate. Fun, standalone issue.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Hulk!</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">:
“Nights Born Ten years Gone—Part I” (#17)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: A nurse-slaughtering,
Halloween mask-wearing madman (The Hatchet-Man) prowls benighted NYC—could he
be Marc Spector’s traitorous, gone-insane ex-merc partner, Rand, from a decade
ago?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MK and Marlene, the latter
nurse uniform-clad bait for Hatchet-Man, set a trap for the killer, with tragic
results.There’s some seriously specious/circumstantial logic going on in this
first-chapter story, especially on Steven Grant/MK’s part—not one of the better
<i>Hulk!/</i>MK stories thus far.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Hulk!</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">:
“Shadows in the City—Part II” (#18)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: With Marlene seriously
injured by the Hatchet-Man (previous issue), MK continues stalking and fighting
the increasingly dangerous madman, revealed to be Randall (“Rand”) Spector,
Marc’s merc-serial killer brother. This issue, story-wise, is an improvement on
the previous issue.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Hulk!</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: “A
Long Way to Dawn” (#20)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: MK, still reeling from the events of the
past night*^—Marlene getting shot and stabbed, battling his now-dead brother
(Randall Spector, aka Hatchet-Man)—waits through the metropolis-prowling night
to see if Marlene will pull through at the hospital. Effectively pensive,
tender, and memorable finish to the tri-part Hatchet-Man story arc.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>[*^shown in <i>Hulk!</i> issues 17 and 18]</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marvel Preview</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">:
“Moon Knight—The Mind Thieves”/”Vipers” (#21)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: The corpse of Amos
Lardner, a former CIA colleague, is delivered to Steven Grant’s mansion,
sending Grant/Spector/MK on a mission to find out what’s going on and to stop a
mind control experiment (“Operation: Cobra”), their aim to create remote
control assassins.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Accompanying MK are his sexy
secretary/lover (Marlene, often seen with little clothes or mostly nude) and
Frenchy, his right-hand man/helicopter pilot.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The artwork (racy when Marlene
is present) and themes are a bit mature for children, but it’s entertaining and
intriguing—that is to say, good.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-74915254359666154262023-12-29T19:00:00.000-08:002024-01-11T12:51:03.976-08:00In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHt_HPun4A9XU_JNTJufHhcsZTmNpL6za2YEsvZtslUkWyQVjhe00IEUQPsfTDcVjeRiV5dmWaP7KG0cDut-IEFhIBjp66S3miSu60X6ZIVTPnJ-dQ-nR82DmkIqBCvkWrhWKaJdyXM6laVQGZf8hoYIDhyTHzqeU3gVTVFqCZhH9SilXWzmbMg/s500/in%20god%20we%20trust%20jean%20shepherd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHt_HPun4A9XU_JNTJufHhcsZTmNpL6za2YEsvZtslUkWyQVjhe00IEUQPsfTDcVjeRiV5dmWaP7KG0cDut-IEFhIBjp66S3miSu60X6ZIVTPnJ-dQ-nR82DmkIqBCvkWrhWKaJdyXM6laVQGZf8hoYIDhyTHzqeU3gVTVFqCZhH9SilXWzmbMg/s320/in%20god%20we%20trust%20jean%20shepherd.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(hb; 1966)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Shepherd’s wildly witty
reunion with his Indiana hometown, disproves the adage ‘You can never go back.’
Bending the ear of Flick, his childhood buddy—now local bartender—Shepherd
recalls passionately his genuine Red Ryder BB gun, adolescent failure in the
arms of girls, and relives a fishing story of man against fish. From pop art to
The World’s Fair, the subjects speak with a universal irony and are deeply
grounded in American Midwestern life. A wonderfully nostalgic impression of a
more innocent era when life was good, fun was clean, and station wagons roamed
the earth. For many years Jean Shepherd was a cult radio and cabaret
personality in New York City, and the creator of the popular film <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085334/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_a%2520christmas" target="_blank">A Christmas Story</a></i>, which is based in part on this book and has become a
holiday tradition on the Turner Network.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Warm, witty, mixing childhood
wonder with brief adult-world (but still charming) cynicism, this chatty,
sometimes over-the-top revisiting-your-small-town back and forth between past
and present is a good, vivid read, with some zinger lines in the mix. Worth
reading, this.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2A1JWkzG0DVhXNkVDyNFANkyDiqLVCrMFVomUIrj-8t-o1tO4nKaX7sFCqUDsHL_Bttxz-W4Zvf0uR17Ke-Az89YUWzv58znij3ic854evtVyj74mBSFhmZ1qj9t2S9Jqp7r8Qc0LTHZovy-CNXj7-ey23LWmTb8Rj7OWYS0bYMlzvWuF51sZ5g/s2880/a%20christmas%20story%201983.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2880" data-original-width="2160" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2A1JWkzG0DVhXNkVDyNFANkyDiqLVCrMFVomUIrj-8t-o1tO4nKaX7sFCqUDsHL_Bttxz-W4Zvf0uR17Ke-Az89YUWzv58znij3ic854evtVyj74mBSFhmZ1qj9t2S9Jqp7r8Qc0LTHZovy-CNXj7-ey23LWmTb8Rj7OWYS0bYMlzvWuF51sZ5g/s320/a%20christmas%20story%201983.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><br /><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-48258004149332064352023-12-28T18:11:00.000-08:002023-12-30T14:49:22.361-08:00Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ePa_wcUnHRNPD4MErgE6gm9ALs_4qqkfY7V-bmt88n97ZTrlAZyoHEtspbwEX0uBtyb4nxFprIuvi8e7CtqpMNSyB5FAPej3Ud08nneUQNth4vzHIQ6Jfqefsabkan_JGcXEjFAij7v98azg6IbK4HIhzr1J1I3Rwu4_Nx7LP68nUEjztKrqlw/s500/fer-de-lance%201934.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="302" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ePa_wcUnHRNPD4MErgE6gm9ALs_4qqkfY7V-bmt88n97ZTrlAZyoHEtspbwEX0uBtyb4nxFprIuvi8e7CtqpMNSyB5FAPej3Ud08nneUQNth4vzHIQ6Jfqefsabkan_JGcXEjFAij7v98azg6IbK4HIhzr1J1I3Rwu4_Nx7LP68nUEjztKrqlw/s320/fer-de-lance%201934.jpg" width="193" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 1934: first book in the
forty-six-book Nero Wolfe detective series)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<i>Fer-de-lance.</i> As any
herpetologist will tell you, the fer-de-lance is among the most dreaded snakes
known to man. When someone makes a present of one to Nero Wolfe. Archie Goodwin
knows he’s getting dreadfully close to solving the devilishly clever murders of
an immigrant and a college president. As for Wolfe, he’s playing snake charmer
in a case with more twists than an anaconda—whistling a seductive tune he hopes
will catch a killer who’s still got poison in his heart.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Fer-de-Lance</span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> is often
charming, funny and sometimes maddening (the corpulent, comfort-ruled Wolfe works at
his own pace, and won’t be rushed, even when situations dictate haste)—it’s
also consistently interesting, bordering on suspenseful (especially when the
plot comes down to the wire), with eccentric Nero Wolfe and often-sarcastic,
lady’s-man narrator Archie Goodwin’s relationship at the heart of the action.
This is a great, hard-to-set-down read, and a promising introduction</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">—with a dark, mercenary, character-true
finish</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16px;">—</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">to Stout’s Nero-based seventy-four works (encompassing thirty-three novels and forty-one novellas and
short stories). Followed by </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The League of Frightened Men</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-48423835577369715382023-12-18T16:52:00.000-08:002024-03-11T18:35:32.062-07:00Because the Night by James Ellroy<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQaNbHvuuf04bp5xJFPc8_sF0HLHpvrqos6VmrHTmenAylDBQYqNZKZqb9dRM6v2gw95CzS28XlwbBjjQH4UvKkOsBWq4a1IR_zG5XqFMIgVyqRTREPe-OVmXYCmzauYMh78Zhnro1EIlvznMUA2oTVc1DC_J5ZcX72wcpjEFqpLh4YI_rM09kVA/s344/because%20the%20night%20james%20ellroy%201984.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="344" data-original-width="344" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQaNbHvuuf04bp5xJFPc8_sF0HLHpvrqos6VmrHTmenAylDBQYqNZKZqb9dRM6v2gw95CzS28XlwbBjjQH4UvKkOsBWq4a1IR_zG5XqFMIgVyqRTREPe-OVmXYCmzauYMh78Zhnro1EIlvznMUA2oTVc1DC_J5ZcX72wcpjEFqpLh4YI_rM09kVA/s320/because%20the%20night%20james%20ellroy%201984.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 1984: second book in the
<a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/12/blood-on-moon-by-james-ellroy.html" target="_blank">Lloyd Hopkins/L.A. Noir</a> trilogy)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“A botched liquor store heist
leaves three grisly dead. A hero cop is missing. Nobody could see a pattern in
these two stray bits of information—no one except Detective Sergeant Lloyd
Hopkins, a brilliant and disturbed L.A. cop with an obsessive desire to protect
the innocent. To him they lead to one horrifying conclusion—a killer is on the
loose and preying on his city. From the master of L.A. noir comes this
beautiful and brutal tale of a cop and a master criminal squared off in a
demented death match.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This edited review was
originally published on this site on October 4, 2006. That review has since
been deleted.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Set shortly after the events
of <i>Blood on the Moon</i>, Hopkins begins investigating the disappearance of
a decorated (later unfairly disgraced) cop, Jacob “Jungle Jack” Herzog, whose
secret, questionable affiliations lead Hopkins to a psychiatrist and cult
leader (Dr. John “The Night Tripper” Havilland) whose followers are committing seemingly
crazy murders at his behest. It’s <i>mano a mano </i>time as the two driven juggernauts
clash in an increasingly intense who’s-crazier-than-the-other showdown. Caught between
them is Linda Wilhite, a former patient and Hopkins’s lover, her life—of course—on
the immediate line.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Because</span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">, with
its fully fleshed key characters, excellent pacing and edgy-like-<i>Blood</i>
tone, shows Hopkins acting in a slightly more reasonable capacity, his <i>Blood</i>
troubles in his rearview mirror. He still hopes to get his wife (Janice) and two
daughters (Penny, aka “Penguin,” and Caroline) back, but he more balanced, even
as he and Havilland hurl toward each other like explosive-carrying trains. Excellent,
character-progressive sequel, this, followed by <i><a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2024/03/suicide-hill-by-james-ellroy.html" target="_blank">Suicide Hill</a>.</i></span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-12961016732556140312023-12-16T16:01:00.000-08:002024-01-29T16:08:40.173-08:00Runner by Thomas Perry<p><br /></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNXpFcU9oLKyWDiixZUVHF4IBSx1j1dIR5S5xVzqJoo75c0VFNq7Rp6DTBk_J78m7fb17MSf7dPNrqQ3HwFsdG-uFlsZzlsdgWmLcpPkAAyHy9EJkTuMdgwMu0pTGSE_DkBB2LXkf961chavAL-U1zF2N4NX6zB2LDY4nwu708cx4wj8x_b0RqyA/s400/runner%20thomas%20perry%202009.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="265" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNXpFcU9oLKyWDiixZUVHF4IBSx1j1dIR5S5xVzqJoo75c0VFNq7Rp6DTBk_J78m7fb17MSf7dPNrqQ3HwFsdG-uFlsZzlsdgWmLcpPkAAyHy9EJkTuMdgwMu0pTGSE_DkBB2LXkf961chavAL-U1zF2N4NX6zB2LDY4nwu708cx4wj8x_b0RqyA/s320/runner%20thomas%20perry%202009.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>(hb; 2009 – sixth book in the <a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/02/vanishing-act-by-thomas-perry.html" target="_blank">Jane Whitefield</a> series)</o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the inside flap</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“After a nine-year absence,
the fiercely resourceful Native American guide Jane Whitefield is back. . .</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“For more than a decade, Jane
pursued her unusual profession: ‘I’m a guide. . . I show people how to go from
places where somebody is trying to kill them to other places where nobody is.’
Then she promised her husband she would never work again, and settled to live a
happy, quiet life as the wife of a surgeon in Amherst, New York. But when a
bomb goes off in the middle of a hospital fundraiser, Jane finds herself face
to face with the cause of the explosion: a young pregnant girl who has been
tracked across the country by a team of hired hunters. That night, regardless
of what she wants or the vow she’s made to her husband, Jane must come back to
transform one more victim into a runner. And her quest for safety sets in
motion a mission that will be either a rescue operation—or a chance for
revenge.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Runner</span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> takes
place several years after the events of <i><a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/08/blood-money-by-thomas-perry.html" target="_blank">Blood Money</a></i>. In the now, a hit
team bombs the hospital where her husband, Carey McKinnon, works—they do this
to snatch an on-the-run, older and pregnant teenager (Christine Monahan) who’s
fleeing her ex-lover/former employer (Richard Beale) who’s into some shady
dealings. Christine is there, trying to engage Jane’s services, which might
require some technological updating.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Keeping with previous Jane
Whitefield entries, there’s plenty of hateable bad guys, great character
development (new and returning characters), action, an engaging story and solid
pacing, as well as enough variation in its structure and storytelling to offset
it, make it stand out from earlier Whitefield novels. Worth owning, this.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Followed by <i><a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2024/01/poison-flower-by-thomas-perry.html" target="_blank">Poison Flower</a>.</i></span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-75415884925634582222023-12-01T18:06:00.000-08:002024-03-11T18:27:58.307-07:00Blood on the Moon by James Ellroy<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG4nPzeBLEiW_GGHAqK8STm4d5Kt1XOHw61la_iTMptKA3efZyceHcHfs_WO0o4SHfVT5KJiajFnNYnUhmd_qYWpzYNUEnbkenT6aPD_8tHld3bLLBtRifu3a9svFnR-GnHkHMgMWOKgnkjvFR16NwqLz5wk9VAUhjTphElSmR7-XL-PEFn550Cg/s400/blood%20on%20the%20moon%20james%20ellroy%201984.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="261" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG4nPzeBLEiW_GGHAqK8STm4d5Kt1XOHw61la_iTMptKA3efZyceHcHfs_WO0o4SHfVT5KJiajFnNYnUhmd_qYWpzYNUEnbkenT6aPD_8tHld3bLLBtRifu3a9svFnR-GnHkHMgMWOKgnkjvFR16NwqLz5wk9VAUhjTphElSmR7-XL-PEFn550Cg/s320/blood%20on%20the%20moon%20james%20ellroy%201984.jpg" width="209" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">(pb; 1984: Book One of the <a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/12/blood-on-moon-by-james-ellroy.html" target="_blank">L.A. Noir/Harold Lloyd</a> trilogy) </span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<u><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">From the inside flap</span></span></u><br />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">“Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins can’t stand music, or any
loud sounds. He’s got a beautiful wife, but he can’t get enough of other women.
And instead of bedtime stories, he regales his daughters with bloody crime
stories. He’s a thinking man’s cop with a dark past and an obsessive drive to
hunt down monsters who prey on the innocent.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">“Now there’s something
haunting him. He sees a connection in a series of increasingly gruesome murders
of women committed over a period of twenty years. Hopkins will dump all the
rules and risk his career to make the final link and get the killer.”</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<u><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Review</span></span></u><br />
<br /><i><b>This edited review was originally published this site on September 20, 2006. That review has since been deleted.</b></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Lloyd Hopkins, a womanizing, high-strung supercop who's
turned his traumas into an unhinged and noble quest to “protect innocence,”
stumbles onto the bloody work of a rhyme-minded mass murderer. The victims are
almost always women; the killings are sexual, reflecting, in a warped/inverse
doppelgänger way, Lloyd's obsessive notions about women.</span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Racism, sacrifice, murder, redemption, rape and bad poetry
abound here, theme- and otherwise. This politically incorrect novel is
excellent, memorable, and often coarse. Author Ellroy isn't trying to sell us
prettiness; he's showing us blunt, surly veracities.</span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Followed by </span><i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/12/because-night-by-james-ellroy.html" target="_blank">Because the Night</a></span></span></i></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Those who’ve seen the
below film version, <i>Cop</i> (1988), should note that the novel has a
considerably different ending than the novel. Even if you ‘ve seen the film,
the book is a raw, worthwhile and stunning work, one worth reading.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">#<br />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">A </span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092783/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_cop%25201988" target="_blank">film</a></span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092783/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_cop%25201988" target="_blank"> version</a> of </span><em style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">Blood on the Moon</span></em><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">, retitled </span><em style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">Cop</span></em><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">, was released stateside in March 1988.</span> </span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0364805/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">James B. Harris</a> scripted and directed it.</span></span><br />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000249/?ref_=tt_ov_st" target="_blank">James Woods</a></span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> played Lloyd Hopkins. </span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000690/?ref_=tt_ov_st" target="_blank">Lesley Ann Warren</a></span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> played Kathleen McCarthy. </span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001164/?ref_=tt_ov_st" target="_blank">Charles Durning</a></span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> played Arthur “Dutch” Peltz. </span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0354024/?ref_=tt_cl_t_4" target="_blank">Charles Haid</a></span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> played Delbert “Whitey” Haines. </span></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background: white; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000855/?ref_=tt_cl_t_5" target="_blank">Raymond J. Barry</a> played
Captain Fred Gaffney. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0112205/?ref_=tt_cl_t_6" target="_blank">Randi Brooks</a> played Joanie Pratt.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><br /><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-87857299227436361032023-11-28T16:00:00.000-08:002023-12-05T16:47:40.211-08:00Edge by Koji Suzuki<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4BpCBujY4Ms0-cvmMqOTwaUTh8SC85HS1N3n3AFqueWUotnDPWZVSmLavO1x2zZ3PKq5f_jy75uMO3v6G0rG6MgDNTkMN68pLjwHWA5n_lPmQLIC0ku1nc-Ahy3_g4j2Z7rQM0nxoe6l-WFhHe6rnJn6m4moFkvjcga_1K0IGKmBHjfqj3K7hQ/s219/edge%20koji%20suzuki.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="219" data-original-width="146" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4BpCBujY4Ms0-cvmMqOTwaUTh8SC85HS1N3n3AFqueWUotnDPWZVSmLavO1x2zZ3PKq5f_jy75uMO3v6G0rG6MgDNTkMN68pLjwHWA5n_lPmQLIC0ku1nc-Ahy3_g4j2Z7rQM0nxoe6l-WFhHe6rnJn6m4moFkvjcga_1K0IGKmBHjfqj3K7hQ/s1600/edge%20koji%20suzuki.jpg" width="146" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(hb; 2012. Translated from the
Japanese into English by <b>Camellia Nieh</b> and <b>Jonathan Lloyd-Davies</b>.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the inside flap</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“When a team of American
scientists tests a new computer hardware by calculating the value of Pi into
the deep decimals, the figures begin to repeat a pattern where there ought to
be none. After older machines of certified reliability give the same result. A
seemingly irrational fear sets in. It’s mathematically untenable—unless the
physical constants that undergird our universe have altered, ever so slightly.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Suddenly, on the west coat of
the U.S., people start disappearing without a trace. Police and family—when it
isn’t the whole family that vanished—don’t have a clue as to why or how. In
Japan, too, similar incidents occur, and they seem to have something to do with
geological fault lines.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“TV director Hashiba who has
latched onto the story, at first in a flippant manner, employing a psychic to
investigate the mystery, is forced to recalibrate when the disappearances
increase in scale and frequency. What lurks behind them, far from being
supernatural, threatens to be natural—a profound disturbance in being itself.
Joining him on his quest for the devastating answer is his lover Saeko, whose
millionaire publisher father cryptically left her behind when she was still
young.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Eerie developments build up
to a mind trip of a crescendo in this tale of quantum horror.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Set in 2012, <i>Edge </i>is a
complex, hybrid genre (science fiction, mystery, with a touch of
existential horror) work with equally multilayered characters who sometimes, in
good way, surprise, just like the well-foreshadowed twists in this cosmic-horrific
and quiet-apocalypse read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While the science fact, spouted in brief intervals throughout <i>Edge</i>,
is a bit deep, prolonged and possibly dizzying for the casual reader, it
elevates the story and deepens the sorrow, horror, and dark delight experienced
by the characters (and hopefully readers). Like Suzuki’s <i><a href="http://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2008/03/ring-by-koji-suzuki.html" target="_blank">Ringu</a></i> (English
translation: <i>Ring</i>), <i>Edge</i> possesses the same chilly, steady-build pacing
mood and atmosphere of the <i>Ringu</i>. It, like <i>Ringu</i>, also is a
landmark work, one that haunts (at least this reader) while it informs and
entertains. Worth owning, this.</span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-67747204893637520482023-11-07T17:13:00.003-08:002023-11-07T17:21:32.516-08:00The Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morrell<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOpJZnI6Jgt2RE1bIWtnqUlEJdp9h10BNMluwZVbVSCYaOC02iYt353Vr61UCfmiTvZbZ1UhUJ7Cgv5C442RdwYGeQe-RF8bPQO_HdZRK6YG11S_omf8reEtiL3yrAuf2Zzs_s-N7vkbmP6ff1EZ36ehVnTxOba6y7Sg9LASPk3nK8WZvflvqrLg/s475/brotherhood%20of%20the%20rose%201984.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="281" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOpJZnI6Jgt2RE1bIWtnqUlEJdp9h10BNMluwZVbVSCYaOC02iYt353Vr61UCfmiTvZbZ1UhUJ7Cgv5C442RdwYGeQe-RF8bPQO_HdZRK6YG11S_omf8reEtiL3yrAuf2Zzs_s-N7vkbmP6ff1EZ36ehVnTxOba6y7Sg9LASPk3nK8WZvflvqrLg/s320/brotherhood%20of%20the%20rose%201984.jpg" width="189" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 1984: first book in the
Abelard Sanction quadrilogy)</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“They were orphans, Chris and
Saul—raised in a Philadelphia school for boys, bonded by friendship, and
devoted to a mysterious man called Eliot.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“He visited them and brought
them candy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“He treated them like sons.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“He trained them to be
assassins.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Now he is trying desperately
to have them killed.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: 134.4pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Brotherhood</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> is an
excellent, hard-to-set-down thriller with characters worth rooting for (from
the get-go), character-based action (with explanations of how characters set
traps and why they fight the way they fight), and an all-around tautly penned
storyline—what makes <i>Brotherhood</i> stand out from its typical-genre set-up
is Morrell’s detailed-but-not-yawnable explanations of fighting styles,
strategies and mindsets as well as how characters set traps. This is a great
read, one of the best conspiracy/violence novels I’ve read in a long while, a
promising start to a quadrilogy (two novels and a short story). Followed by <i>The
Fraternity of the Stone</i>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: 134.4pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Fun fact</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">:
according to the Internet, David Morrell said Eliot is “based a real CIA counter-espionage
master, James Jesus Angleton”.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: 134.4pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">#</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: 134.4pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
resulting two-part television/<a href="https://www.nbc.com/" target="_blank">NBC</a> miniseries, <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096985/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1" target="_blank">Brotherhood of the Rose</a>,</i>
aired on January 22-23, 1989. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0907296/?ref_=fn_nm_nm_1" target="_blank">Gy Waldron</a> wrote its screenplay; <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0159007/?ref_=fn_nm_nm_1" target="_blank">Marvin J. Chomsky</a>
directed it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: 134.4pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005471/?ref_=tt_cl_t_1" target="_blank">Peter Strauss</a> played Saul Grisman, aka Romulus. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001556/?ref_=tt_cl_t_4" target="_blank">David Morse</a> played Chris Killmoonie,
aka Remus. Robert Mitchum played John Eliot. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0783314/?ref_=tt_cl_t_3" target="_blank">Connie Selleca</a> played Erika Bernstein,
Saul’s ex-lover and Mossad agent. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001826/?ref_=tt_cl_t_6" target="_blank">M. Emmet Walsh</a> played the alcoholic former
agent Hardy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsV7qYhFmCWDPnl9Sg58SlOG7hqgMdCAc9KjUym9pD4OWaBnk9wisgjvSeISEUHz_HqASp8i4OG-jPStLBDqnH8bQH9f0pIhUjJOw4839rrh7mrZnLVLuIes-nWfDhkM1CUZZdC13qvNwXfLu2se0e7gMal6R7ikhyWGyrUJZS1-3AURP5DRaitQ/s1200/brotherhood%20of%20the%20rose%201989%20nbc%20miniseries.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="630" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsV7qYhFmCWDPnl9Sg58SlOG7hqgMdCAc9KjUym9pD4OWaBnk9wisgjvSeISEUHz_HqASp8i4OG-jPStLBDqnH8bQH9f0pIhUjJOw4839rrh7mrZnLVLuIes-nWfDhkM1CUZZdC13qvNwXfLu2se0e7gMal6R7ikhyWGyrUJZS1-3AURP5DRaitQ/s320/brotherhood%20of%20the%20rose%201989%20nbc%20miniseries.jpg" width="168" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-90335458047074861862023-10-12T17:00:00.014-07:002023-10-12T17:19:34.881-07:00Moon-Death by Rick Hautala<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSMy1AIcoDNXQm1JZ2zjM2LsTYfn7Zkuzat1saiuZsLEZsOvJ7t8PQuBH0HxpNfhNcr3N7gBJw2LiFWypiIBAnfwPFwomUs8sGnDMpBBceLWpvvgEcAdL-TYF9rMc5BFnyjamWYWSBeSlz-q3Gjb0xm53GxPZuFfOgE9ryYSm1kAiJ7_Ry_b_GOw/s1600/moon-death%20rick%20hautala.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="993" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSMy1AIcoDNXQm1JZ2zjM2LsTYfn7Zkuzat1saiuZsLEZsOvJ7t8PQuBH0HxpNfhNcr3N7gBJw2LiFWypiIBAnfwPFwomUs8sGnDMpBBceLWpvvgEcAdL-TYF9rMc5BFnyjamWYWSBeSlz-q3Gjb0xm53GxPZuFfOgE9ryYSm1kAiJ7_Ry_b_GOw/s320/moon-death%20rick%20hautala.jpg" width="199" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 1980)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Cooper Falls is a small,
quiet New Hampshire town, the kind you’d miss if you blinked an eye. But when darkness
falls and the full moon rises, an uneasy feeling filters through the air; an
unnerving foreboding that causes the skin to prickle and the body to tense.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Because faintly from across
the water, a low moaning howl begins to rise and a massive, black shadow with
burning green eyes stalks the night. It is part man, part beast—a victim of the
past, a creature of evil—who hungers for flesh, thirsts for blood and lives to kill
again. . . again and again and again. . .”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Fans of <a href="https://stephenking.com/index.html" target="_blank">Stephen King</a> and his creative ilk, 1950s-1970s
<a href="http://www.hammerfilms.com/" target="_blank">Hammer films</a>, sensualized Satanism and witchcraft, and small-town horror novels are the
target audience of this well-written, steady-pace terror tale with multilayered
characterization (even if the lead characters, Bob Wentworth and Lisa Carter,
have a weird, <i>constantly shouting at each other </i>vibe between them, early
on in their budding, melodramatic romantic relationship—one that does not bode
well for realistic longevity). The ending is fun, memorable, the suitable finish
for a good entry in the small-town horror subgenre. Worth owning, this.</span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-17656878127892084322023-10-03T16:57:00.005-07:002024-01-29T16:55:52.306-08:00Return of the Living Dead by John Russo<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFoTKIDJ4GrLa7iFz1-LbNcPWMHwvcpc1nzrmyY7WbwMWncxBsP5UtZNkP6csIiH_GnDR6SNrHqLQd2E6Sm2KaVPac6ZlKh09SSxkHHU9Do3LtZkFIkAHsg3Kbx3cRZVQyc0Ut9MZ1SIvcTAh_juDDCq5qwc4pkhi0ubYW9C7tSsFHSSgqDbRZaw/s293/return%20of%20the%20living%20dead%20john%20russo%20bk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="185" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFoTKIDJ4GrLa7iFz1-LbNcPWMHwvcpc1nzrmyY7WbwMWncxBsP5UtZNkP6csIiH_GnDR6SNrHqLQd2E6Sm2KaVPac6ZlKh09SSxkHHU9Do3LtZkFIkAHsg3Kbx3cRZVQyc0Ut9MZ1SIvcTAh_juDDCq5qwc4pkhi0ubYW9C7tSsFHSSgqDbRZaw/s1600/return%20of%20the%20living%20dead%20john%20russo%20bk.jpg" width="185" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 1978: sequel to <i><a href="http://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2020/03/night-of-living-dead-by-john-russo.html" target="_blank">Night of the Living Dead</a></i>; prequel to <i><a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2024/01/escape-of-living-dead-by-john-russo.html" target="_blank">Escape from the Living Dead</a></i>)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>This book should not to be confused
with the novelization of the 1985 horror comedy </i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089907/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_return%2520of%2520the%2520living%2520dead" target="_blank">The </a></span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089907/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_return%2520of%2520the%2520living%2520dead" target="_blank">Return
of the Living Dead</a>, <i>for which Russo co-wrote the original screenplay—which was
noticeably rewritten as a punk comedy later. John Russo also wrote the movie
adaptation of the 1985 film, which is NOT this book.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Russo, co-screenwriter of the 1968
film <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063350/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1" target="_blank">Night of the Living Dead</a> </i>and its 1974 novel counterpart of the same
name, keeps it raw, gory, and violent as the original film/novel, with posse-leading
Sheriff Conan McClellan (who famously said “They’re dead. . . they’re all
messed up” in <i>Night</i>) investigating what appears to be a fresh zombie outbreak
in his county—it’s been ten years since the original undead attacks, something
that haunts McClellan, who’s reluctant to publicly acknowledge this new zombie
uprising. Still, he’s leading a new posse of thirty or forty men to put down
this new spate of terror.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Meanwhile, taciturn farmer
Bert Miller and his three daughters (Sue Ellen, Ann, and Karen—the latter of
whom is pregnant) are four of the many people who also remember that pivotal
event ten years ago and put spikes in the heads of the dead. When he lets three
lawmen with two suspects in tow into their house, it might not be the best
decision he makes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As with his other works, Russo’s
characters’ histories, motivations and personalities are sketched out
throughout the book—thereby keeping their characters relatable, without cluttering
the flow of the stark, action-oriented pacing of his storyline and, at the same
time, maintaining <i>Return</i>’s palpable tension, effective gore, and stark, disturbing
<i>nothing and nobody is safe</i> vibe. <i>This is not a read for sensitive
readers who need to know what the characters’ agendas and politics are or need
their characters’ histories/emotions spelled out for them.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Was it the crashed Venus probe—also
mentioned in passing in <i>Night</i>—or a weird energizing cancer spreading
among the dead? It doesn’t matter for those in this tale; what matters is stopping
the new uprising, something McClellan and, elsewhere, police officers Carl
Martinelli and Dave Benton are keen on. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Return</span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">, like
<i>Night</i>, is about fear, violence, misunderstandings, and dark humanity, with
touches of grim humor and an unsettling finish spicing up this blunt, sometimes
horrific action read.</span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-91412497260698694292023-09-19T17:17:00.008-07:002023-09-19T17:29:59.739-07:00Rogues of Edomia by J.M. Kind<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWWuZxhJVOeoNqtpxfmqMmPQo48ef5O8o3_icrubMAouOczInTuAigPlhb0sNsFaZZPtQdmka8RUV_3eSBZAorfDgkFf9Yf69zay0RT54dPXIsKqLgb6wiJ5BlvSmHRsab7vjdu5RGT1G-qiFhOy8BmTdAdVnOnaGqGoSTb8JaxEcxd8YL8170Vw/s500/rogues%20of%20edomia.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWWuZxhJVOeoNqtpxfmqMmPQo48ef5O8o3_icrubMAouOczInTuAigPlhb0sNsFaZZPtQdmka8RUV_3eSBZAorfDgkFf9Yf69zay0RT54dPXIsKqLgb6wiJ5BlvSmHRsab7vjdu5RGT1G-qiFhOy8BmTdAdVnOnaGqGoSTb8JaxEcxd8YL8170Vw/s320/rogues%20of%20edomia.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 2023: third novel in the
<a href="http://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2022/08/edomia-fantasy-adventure-tales-from.html" target="_blank">Edomia</a> series; aka <i>Rogues of Edomia: Tales from the Edomian Mythos (Book 3</i>))<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Forced against his will to
take a risky job with scant hope of reward, diminutive swindler Drogn the
Magnificent has little to rely on save his own uniquely twisted set of wits.
Drawing on a shallow wellspring of dubious talent, the fast-talking dwarf must
find a way to convince a brazen would-be queen to give up her most cherished
ambitions: It’s either that or Drogn’s head when Svrosh, the ruthless
Serpent-Prince, demands his pound of flesh.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Architect of the coup that
marked the falloff Taugwadeth, the traitorous Stethine k’ Flerion is holed up
with her henchmen in the fortress-like Library of Rvnshrah. Now Drogn and his
companions must find a way to infiltrate the citadel, discover the location of
a priceless book of ancient lore, and get close enough to Stethine to
administer a dose of numbing spider venom, the better to deliver her into the
vile Prince-Regent’s clutches. Along with Vasto the giant (Svrosh’s musclebound
enforcer), stolid farmboy Bymno, two-headed scholar-bird Klevix-Wrder, and
lovely outworlder Gemma (a refugee from Medieval Scotland where she was once
accused of witchcraft), Drogn will face more than his share of hardships and
horrors, wonders, perils, and galling inconvenience in pursuit of liberty,
respect, and his own dreamed-of life of ease.”<br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Rogues</span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">, a
relatively short and light Edomia novel, is an entertaining, erudite and straightforward
tale, a side-work that serves as a bridge to the forthcoming <i>Empires of
Edomia</i>—<i>Rogues</i> maintains the themes, engaging characters and feel of
the previous Edomia books while being less plot- and character-intricate (it
helps that the first two books did the heavy lifting of being full-on world-builders),
making <i>Rogues </i>lighter on its story-telling feet. Excellent
series for those who like fantasy genre brains, brawn, humor and a touch of sex, a book worth
owning and revisiting (re-reading) at a later date, when all the books are published.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-83897742018637144382023-08-26T18:49:00.018-07:002023-09-11T11:25:56.657-07:00The Successful Novelist by David Morrell<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFBs9hWWCz_U4f9Sv5PInMIf5QYAO26pv1nuG2Th1IyFheQMiajPvGmNzPi0JTNuOqpY1EClcAASGFaXR9zOPubIwoZRk0rSEnvXn1Q-LWrlHeNpXXh7cEqpzlGkSmyY0DFyyQel_91Yxch3_ejUQEGJGzykErXjn0GGiQhfaJthVmQ0lht11o2Q/s470/the%20successful%20novelist%20david%20morrell.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="470" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFBs9hWWCz_U4f9Sv5PInMIf5QYAO26pv1nuG2Th1IyFheQMiajPvGmNzPi0JTNuOqpY1EClcAASGFaXR9zOPubIwoZRk0rSEnvXn1Q-LWrlHeNpXXh7cEqpzlGkSmyY0DFyyQel_91Yxch3_ejUQEGJGzykErXjn0GGiQhfaJthVmQ0lht11o2Q/s320/the%20successful%20novelist%20david%20morrell.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 2008: nonfiction)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“David Morrell, bestselling
author of <i><a href="http://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2010/02/first-blood-by-david-morrell.html" target="_blank">First Blood</a>, The Brotherhood of the Rose</i> and <i>The Fifth
Profession</i>, distlls four decades of writing experience and publishing experience
into this single masterwork of advice and instruction for fiction writers
looking to make it big in the publishing world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“With advice proven to create
successful novels, Morrell teaches you everything you need to know about: Plot,
Character, Research, Structure, Viewpoint, Description, Dialogue, The business
of publishing, and much more.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Successful </span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">is one
of the best books I’ve read on novel writing, branding one’s work, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>juggling life and work, and the financial end of one’s work after it’s reached a
multimedia platform-level. Whether or not your writing habits and notions gel
with Morrell’s, <i>Successful </i>is a worthwhile (and excellent) read for the
author’s hard-won common sense/dealing-with-rights-and-finances. Great writer’s
resource book, one of my all-time favorites in the business-of-writing genre.</span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-67852116082361187652023-08-22T17:13:00.025-07:002023-08-23T17:43:37.143-07:00Killing Moon by Jo Nesbø<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKuu1g1xBADQgKDgum2VN5VM9yaA_YbsGFAuwe0QZhJ7cwPEItLOvYlfcXLA0-hA_ig0ZAXcDQfmZNuWX70CMdLRP6RutMV9A992e-wtVX62GAj-OnWX0X0kzrIFAIhFa7zB0S3rINaqqm0tBmy-vpIpuU_q_OC6lsUjuqjiC6dr8hS-lCy3E73Q/s450/killing%20moon%20jo%20nesbo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="450" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKuu1g1xBADQgKDgum2VN5VM9yaA_YbsGFAuwe0QZhJ7cwPEItLOvYlfcXLA0-hA_ig0ZAXcDQfmZNuWX70CMdLRP6RutMV9A992e-wtVX62GAj-OnWX0X0kzrIFAIhFa7zB0S3rINaqqm0tBmy-vpIpuU_q_OC6lsUjuqjiC6dr8hS-lCy3E73Q/s320/killing%20moon%20jo%20nesbo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(hb; 2022: thirteenth book in
the <a href="http://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-bat-by-jo-nesb.html" target="_blank">Harry Hole</a> series. Translated from the Norwegian by <b>Seán Kinsella</b>)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the inside flap</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Two young women are missing,
and the only connection is a party they both attended, hosted by a notorious
real-estate magnate. When one of the women is found murdered, the police
discover an unusual signature left by the killer, giving them reason to suspect
he will strike again.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“They’re facing a killer
unlike any other. And exposing the killer calls for a detective like no other.
But the legendary Harry Hole is gone—fired from the force, drinking himself to
oblivion in Los Angeles. It seems that nothing can entice him back to Oslo.
Until the woman who saved Harry’s life is put in grave danger, and he has no
choice but to return to the city that haunts him and track down the murderer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Catching him will push Harry
to the limit. He’ll need to bring together a misfit team of former operatives
to prevent another killing. But as the evidence mounts, it becomes clear that
there is more to the case than meets the eye.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Killing Moon</span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">, like
Nesbø’s previous Harry Hole novels, is a near-impossible-to-set-down thriller,
with effectively foreshadowed twists and shocks, and an ending that introduces
a new (possible) deadly player in Hole’s life, a dark-hearted somebody who may
pop up in future Hole books—not the first time Nesbø has done this.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Many of Hole’s </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Oslo-based </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(ex-)lovers,
friends, and frenemies are, again, essential characters <span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">in</span> </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Killing</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">’s wild-ride storyline, spiced with plenty of red herrings (some easily
spotted, others not). Part of the attraction of Nesbø’s Hole series is the
author’s willingness to irrevocably turn his characters’ worlds upside down and
the bordering-on-quirky inclusion of science-based elements as well as a love
of music (especially rock ‘n’ roll, particularly David Bowie, Keith Richards, and
even, in Katrine Bratt’s case, death metal [hello, early-in-their-career
Carcass!]).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This is one of my favorite
reads this year, one worth seeking out. Looking forward to the next Hole
thriller.</span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-57203713374565420082023-08-22T17:12:00.017-07:002023-11-03T17:22:17.042-07:00Portus by Jun Abe<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVCId19IZYRe7oNHuwKbPpdlOdmKUtpOci1w9_SfwI5RMs7em9ig6OEKTTBPnGM4izrytNhigKX6LNFAMkDsxPdoW7hUldGLAtspNvOJ5L8xA-tjXAEa033PAIzdD4hXrRVc6g9a3ZqgbErQNUy7m7QZctQZJ26btQymV4HNjdBPsiLBwKDO7_g/s219/portus%20jun%20abe.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="219" data-original-width="146" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVCId19IZYRe7oNHuwKbPpdlOdmKUtpOci1w9_SfwI5RMs7em9ig6OEKTTBPnGM4izrytNhigKX6LNFAMkDsxPdoW7hUldGLAtspNvOJ5L8xA-tjXAEa033PAIzdD4hXrRVc6g9a3ZqgbErQNUy7m7QZctQZJ26btQymV4HNjdBPsiLBwKDO7_g/s1600/portus%20jun%20abe.jpg" width="146" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 2006: manga)</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Asami’s best friend Chiharu
has stopped coming to school and isn’t answering her phone. It seems she’s
found something that’s a little more addictive than school Art Club. But when
Chiharu mysteriously commits suicide, all Asami finds in her room is a strange
video game called <i>Portus</i>. With the help of two of her teachers, Asami
hopes to solve the mystery behind her friend’s macabre death and the bizarre
game itself. But is she prepared for the horrors of entering the twisted world
of <i>Portus,</i> a game where if you lose there is no option to continue? A
frightening vision of modern manga horror, Jun Abe’s <i>Portus </i>might put
you off video games for the rest of your life.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Portus </span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">is a fun,
fast-moving, creepy and atmospheric read about a video game with a cursed kokeshi-sourced code
“world” within it, one Asami, Chiharu, and others within their social circle
may not survive—highly recommended, one-book standalone story for fans of <i>Ringu</i>
and <i>Ju-On</i> (with, of course, manga-true/occasional, genre-annoying in the
mix). If you can put up with that latter, barely PG-13 feature, <i>Portus</i>
might be your perfect manga choice.</span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19450191.post-87465333097526157322023-08-16T17:32:00.023-07:002023-12-16T16:03:33.604-08:00Blood Money by Thomas Perry<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCf8_sj9iCjxtP6lOwDXr6yYVtbmNd46zIaP3BAXJx1HLp394nel1JEl0SHZMjTHJAgIYwt-xjmG9Y17ChVzgeMP6xMM0YWfr2m_x_6BW9pxJeFiqhoGGjflmQWBFrTlV5KKlE6GKKuQr1bDv6qPIeCBh9D1zTeQkdDcrPmqTZM8KvDgfj_Fczmw/s1695/blood%20money%20thomas%20perry%201999.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1695" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCf8_sj9iCjxtP6lOwDXr6yYVtbmNd46zIaP3BAXJx1HLp394nel1JEl0SHZMjTHJAgIYwt-xjmG9Y17ChVzgeMP6xMM0YWfr2m_x_6BW9pxJeFiqhoGGjflmQWBFrTlV5KKlE6GKKuQr1bDv6qPIeCBh9D1zTeQkdDcrPmqTZM8KvDgfj_Fczmw/s320/blood%20money%20thomas%20perry%201999.jpg" width="189" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(pb; 1999: fifth book in the
<a href="http://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/02/vanishing-act-by-thomas-perry.html" target="_blank">Jane Whitefield</a> series)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From the back cover</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Even before she heard the
teenager’s story, Jane Whitefield’s Native American intuition whispered <i>danger</i>.
For a year, Rita Shelford kept house for an old man in Florida. When he
disappeared, other men came and tried to kill her. That was before she knew that
her employer was the Mafia’s brilliant moneyman, recently reported murdred. Now
the mob suspects Rita of stealing the only record of a shady investment worth
billions. Unless Jane, Rita’s last hope, can spirit Rita into a new identity,
she’s a dead woman. As the mafioso army converges on airports and hotels,
highways and city streets, there seems to be no exit—except form life itself.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Caveat: (possible) element and
multi-series tie-in (not plot) spoilers in this review.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Another instant favorite of
mine in the Jane Whitefield series, <i>Blood</i> sports a bigger cast, some of
them returning characters: George Hawkes, who turned Richard Dahlman onto Jane
in <i><a href="http://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-face-changers-by-thomas-perry.html" target="_blank">The Face Changers</a></i>, 1998; Zinni, a Mafia soldier/airport watcher in
the employ of Richard Delfina, originally seen in an earlier book featuring
Nancy Carmody—I forget which one; and Martha McCutcheon, Native
American/Oklahoma clan mother who helped Mary Perkins (another Whitefield
client) after Perkins was “repeatedly beaten, raped and starved” in <i><a href="http://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/04/shadow-woman-by-thomas-perry.html" target="_blank">Shadow Woman</a></i>
(1997).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Blood’s </span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">original
characters are just as interesting: Bernie “the Elephant” Lupus, a Mafia
moneyman whose memory of their hidden financial accounts and amounts was
slipping prior to his death; and Tony Saachi, a retiree who still might be one of the sharpest Mafia
dons.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Blood </span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">has
all the action-oriented, tactical, Native American elements (including meaningful
dreams) and character-based thrills of previous Whitefield books, with more of
an ensemble cast—many of them of particularly delightful, nasty or both—making
this even more engaging and (sometimes) humorous.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m not sure about this, but some
of Tony Saachi’s dialogue on page 162 of <i>Blood </i>feels like a (possible)
reference to Thomas Perry’s <a href="http://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2022/05/sleeping-dogs-by-thomas-perry.html" target="_blank">Butcher’s Boy</a> quadrilogy: “You should’ve been with
us in ’87 when the Castiglione thing broke. Nearly two hundred guys went, just
like that, in one night.” Again, not sure about that, but I’d like to think so.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Anyhow, <i>Blood</i> <i>Money</i>
is worth owning, another high mark in Perry’s consistently charming and often
dark series. Followed by <i><a href="https://readingbypublight.blogspot.com/2023/12/runner-by-thomas-perry.html" target="_blank">Runner</a>.</i></span></p><p></p>Steve Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07162341357622058518noreply@blogger.com0