Category: Books

Genre: Book

Grade: A-/B+

Notable People: Howard Frank Mosher

Title: The Fall of the Year

Review: Mosher is the novel laureate of Vermont…a living legend in these parts…who I knew of but had somehow never read before. After 20 pages, in was thinking he and I were not a match. But, I stuck it out and the book and his style really grew on me. A little bit of Mark Twain in the most remote part of Vermont…the great Northeast Kingdom. Mosher has created a thinly veiled Kingdom County and the surroundings are all very familiar for this part of the world. This is apparently his autobiographical novel (1999) and it is a rich story centered around a young man and his adoptive priest father- the “greatest scholar and third baseman in the history of The Kingdom”-who has spent his life writing a “A Short History of Kingdom County” (now at 5000 pages!!). Full of fortune tellers, circus folk, mystical Quebecois and trout fishing….it is a quaint picture of life in remote Vermont in the 1950s. I’ll be giving Mosher some more attention going forward…he is pretty prolific.

Genre: Film

Grade: A-

Notable People: Tessa Thompson, Lily James, Luke Kirby, James Badge Dale, Directed by: Nia DeCosta

Title: Little Woods

Review: Made the one hour schlep up to Dartmouth to the art theater to get our monthly adult movie fix…and worth it. Quiet, very dark movie about two down and out sister trying to get by in oil boom North Dakota. They find themselves falling into the illegal world of the cross-border drug trade ingot Canada after their mother dies. Very real, non- glamorous movie about average people getting in over their heads in drug peddling for survival reasons, and the dark world that surrounds this business- no glory, no super heroes, no happy endings or violent shoot outs. The characters are very well developed and the two leads (Thompson, who wrote the film and James) are excellent. This is a sleeper worth seeing.

Genre: Book

Grade: B++

Notable People: Yaa Gyasi

Title: Homegoing

Review: A birthday gift from my daughter, this read took me as far from my current serial noir expression, as could be. A pretty impressive first novel that traces one Ghana family starting in the 1770s for over 200 years. Each chapter successively tells the story of the next generational ancestor, moving fluidly from the Gold Coast, to London, Jim Crow Alabama, Harlem and back to Africa. It is an amazing depiction of the slave trade, white(British in this case) imperialism ,and the plantation south, in all its bloody glory. An extraordinary work and exceptionally well written….though I found it very, very slow to read and could not read more than 20 pages at a time. Maybe just too much of a Travis McGee habit…

Genre: Book

Grade: A

Notable People: John D. MacDonald

Title: The Quick Red Fox

Review: Last days of getting ready to head back to the mountains for summer/fall…and out of reading material while packing for days…so hit the archives and found an old hardcover edition of this 1964 entry in the legendary Travis McGee series. A revelation!. Every time I read Johnny Mac, I am reminded of how magnificent a writer he was. McGee is the quintessential everyman hero and he gets ingot surreal misadventures in his quest to maintain his wandering sailing lifestyle aboard the fabled “Busted Flush”….and this one is not only a riveting story (uncharacteristically finding McGee schlepping around the country-northern California coast, Colorado skiing, Phoenix)…but it may feature McGee at his most ruminating, philosophical self- pondering the ruining of the environment, questing for the elusive “real love” thing, and considering the meaning of life (he has four ages on what McGee believes to be the ”Freud-Fraud”….Wow…). If you’ve never tried McGee, go to the library or buy a used a paperback and start with this one. What a character!

Genre: Book

Grade: A

Notable People: CJ Box

Title: The Wolf Pack

Review: After 23 installments in his Joe Pickett, Wyoming Game Warden series, this is Box’s best yet. a humdinger of a story with crazed hit men (and one especially psychopath hit- woman), wolves, killer falcons, teen angst, witness protection mob guys …and the great character, Nate Romanowski. Just out last month…..run out to get this one. A thing of beauty.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-/B+

Notable People: Jon Talton

Title: High Country Nocturne

Review: After an initial week offering, Talton’s’ David Mapstone entries have been consistently very high quality. The character have been well developed over time and are believable…even the fabulously exotic Peraltha (now the ex-sheriff of Maricopa County). Talton and Mapstone mix in lots of Arizona history, philosophical meanderings, just the right amount of sex and a boatload of intrigue. This installment benefits from the lurking of a drop dead/ stone cold mystical killer dancing around the periphery of the story. This series is definitely worth any mystery lovers’ and any Arizona-phile’s attention.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: Paul Doiron

Title: The Precipice

Review: Doiron’s tales of Maine Game Warden, Mike Bowditch, just keep getting better and better. His love for the great North Woods and all things “down east” are quite evident. I’ve had my fill of serial killer stories of late, but this is a really good one…set on the remote Maine portion of the Appalachian Trail. His characters keep evolving, and you can really feel the angst, fear, anger and jubilation. I like these a lot.

Genre: Book

Grade: B/B+

Notable People: Steve Hamilton

Title: Dead Man Running

Review: This was my fist disappointment in the wonderful Alex McKnight series. Our ex-Detroit cop, normally sequestered in the woods along remote Lake Superior, takes off across the country (for reasons too complicated to mention) in search of a serial killer. Phoenix, St. Louis, Grand Rapids and …even… Columbus, Ohio. The whole story seemed a bit farfetched and the writing seemed disjointed. Still, kind of a barn burner, I must say, but missing all the allure of the usual cast of characters in the Paradise, Michigan setting. and the serial killer was a little too much cereal. Look forward to McKnight being back home , finding the usual weird mischief, with his feet up by the fire at the Glasgow Inn in Paradise.

Genre: Book

Grade: Not Sure

Notable People: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Title: Mark Haddon

Review: This is one of the strangest books I’ve ever read. Was in the Keys and ran out of reading material- so perused the cottage bookshelves…and was intrigued by the blurb on this one. It’s a British mystery…of sorts. The book is in the first person and told from the perspective of a 13 year old boy, Christopher, who is clearly high on the autism spectrum. When I started the book, I was not sure I would finish it..…but could not stop reading…totally captivating. This is not a book for everyone. The kid is early frustrating and surrounded by very flawed adults……plus there is a murdered dog…..BUT…worth a try……fascinating….

Genre: Book

Grade: A

Notable People: New Iberia Blues

Title: James Lee Burke

Review: This is the second new Dave Robicheaux novel in the last two years –after a ten year hiatus. Robicheaux pursues his demons like no one else…by my calculation he should be in his 80’s by now…but he and his sidekick, Clete Purcell, do not get any more mellow with age. Fighting evil in all its most extraordinary incarnations in the swamps and bayous of south Louisiana. One part mystery, one part AA big book and one part philosophical meanderings…these books are not just great mysteries, but great American literature. Burke, Robicheaux and Clete Rock!