Category: Books

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: Tony Dunbar

Title: City of Beads

Review: this it he second in Dunbar’s N’Awlins- centric Tubby Dubonnet mysteries…and as I had previously intimated, the writing improved A LOT from book one to book two. This one is much more Noir-ish and philosophical. Dubonnet is an interesting character- torn daily between being a shyster lawyer and doing the right thing for his family, friends and the city he loves. He has a little bit of early Saul Goodman in him- for Better Call Saul fans. The books are a spectacular visit to the Big Easy, for anyone who has spent considerable time there…..Tony frequents all the classic out of the way places that you would want to go to, if you knew about them. The story is good, the characters are evolving impressively. There’s a lot more of these- so I will keep busy this winter.

Genre: Book

Grade: B+

Notable People: Tony Dunbar

Title: Crooked Man

Review: Got new one! My friend, The Nave, referred this series to me as he knows of my lust for all things N’Awlins. Dunbar has created a classic Big Easy shyster, Tubby Dubonnet (you gotta love that, right)…and he is a pretty interesting character. I cannot really say the first book is all that well written (though I started the second and it seems quite an improvement)….but the characters are appropriately sleazy for the environment, the story is rich….and well…it’s N‘Awlins- and Dunbar clearly loves and portrays his home very, very well. It’s definitely got the vibe of this unforgettable place for anyone who has spent considerable time there…and has a rich look at its filthy history to boot. Definitely going to play this series out.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: Paul Doiron

Title: Massacre Pond

Review: This guy and this series have really grown on me. Was not sue aft edit one that I would continue, but they have gotten better and better. Doiron’s Mike Bowditch is the complicated Maine Game Warden who finds more trouble than one can imagine in the woods of remote Maine. Bowditch is a conflicted character sounded by people who want to see him fail; he has a unique family history in Maine and keeps getting sent further into the boonies. The supporting characters are marvelous and Doiron’s knowledge of remote Maine is impressive (he is the publisher and editor of “Down East” magazine there). This is by far his best story yet….and it’s a barnburner.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: Robert Galbraith

Title: Lethal White

Review: JK Rowland is an excellent writer-as any fan of Harry Potter can attest. In this strange evolution, she turns her attention to her pseudonym as Mr. Galbraith……where she has written her fourth in the Cormoran Strike series. Strike is a large, one-legged and moody Afghan war veteran trying take to make is as private dick in London. This book is her most significant effort yet..delving way into the startlingly longing subconscious’ of her two main characters: Strike and his erstwhile partner, the lovely and troubled Robin Endicott. The story itself is a barn burner and the settings and characters are well thought out and presented. If you like London, this is a canvas of the city. These books are well worth the time, though at almost 700 pages, I thought this one a bit of an investment.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: Jon Talton

Title: Cactus Heart

Review: After four installments in his very fine David Mapstone series, Talton wrote a prequel, going back to the chaos of 1999 and the Y2K drama. This book provides a nice backdrop and history to the current in- progress series. As usual, Talton is focused on the criminal urbanization of the desert and Phoenix’s growth from sleepy 1950s hamlet to mega-giant snowbird fancy and developers’ dream. This one tells the story of a 60 year old murder (Mapstone is the erstwhile Deputy Sheriff in Maricopa County, who is also a PhD historian and works on very cold cases) of twin grandsons of one of the founding giants of Arizona. As usual the twist and turns are fabulous, the characters larger than life and the sex scenes are pretty dam vivid (the history Shamus is apparently a reluctant chic magnet). These books have steadily grown on me and I eagerly anticipate the next adventure.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: Steve Hamilton

Title: Misery Bay

Review: this is the sixth in Hamilton’s very fine Alex McKnight series. Back up in Michigan’s wild Upper Peninsula on the shores of Lake Superior where our retired Detroit cop hero’s quiet life as a cabin renter turns haywire with a the next set of mysterious deaths. This one is as convoluted and harrowing as it gets, with story that takes three quarters of the book to unfold. Went a bit long for my tastes, but the setting and the characters are superb and the details are amazing. Reading this will make you feel like you live in a comparative tropical climate. Hamilton is as good as it gets with the cornet crop of this genre.

Genre: Book

Grade: A

Notable People: John D. MacDonald

Title: A Bullet for Cinderella

Review: I have the serial reader syndrome. I order what I think is the next book in one of my series obsessions, from the library, only to get it home and find I have read that one already….ugghh….this has happened several times recently (senior momentitas?)…and recently left me heading out on the road with nothing to read. When this happens, I turn to my pile of ancient John D. paperbacks I liberated a few years ago from a Mexican Airbnb (shame ON me)….and the result is a few days with one of the absolute master storytellers of our times. Macdonald is most famous for the 70 or so he wrote in the Travis McGee series….but the man was utterly prolific, penning somewhere over 300 novels in his time . “Cinderella” is one of his “stand alones”…..and in my book, thus guy does stand alone. Dark, smoky, out of the ay places….with drifters trying to find some sense of meaning in their life against the odds. This one was written in 1955,an feels fresh and relevant today. Evil, lust, greed and the machinations of envy never go away. Warning- if you start, you may not put it down until you finish…..go to your local use bookstore, flea market, library used book sale…or on line…and grab some John D….you won’t be sorry.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-/B+

Notable People: Jon Talton

Title: Arizona Dreams

Review: There is something to be said about writers who are really attached to the place they write about. Talton is an umpteenth generation Phoenician and knows everything there is to know about the desert oasis…and clearly a love – hate relationship. This is the seventh installment in his David Mapstone series (can you say serial reader obsession?)…and it a good one. As long as his protagonist/antagonist, Mike Peraltha is in the story….it’s good bet for adventure. Talton is good writer by any standard, though maybe a bit predictable. Desert reading in the Midwest winter is a bonus….

Genre: Book

Grade: B+

Notable People: Paul Doiron

Title: Trespasser

Review: This is the 2nd in Doiron’s Maine Game Warden, Mike Bowditch series. I really like the “down east” Maine setting of these novels…remote backwoodsy and the general affinity for the region. These books are a bit of a one off on CJ Box’s Joe Pickett Wyoming game warden series….but bot nearly as compelling. One major difference is that if find the main character (Bowditch) to be hard to like. He seems to make every bad decision possible and is not very charismatic. That said, the stories are good and some of the supporting characters are pretty interesting..…though a little less than believable how much trouble and remote Maine Game Warden can get into… worth a shot…but I’d go with the Box books.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: John D. Macdonald

Title: The Beach Girls

Review: Ok-…I mow, the title…is…well… a bit cheesy and reeking of soft porn implications….but…this is John D. after all, and it is 1959….Whenever I run out of library books , like right now in transitioning from Vermont back to Ohio, I have a reserve of John D. paperbacks. Usually these are of the infamous Travis McGee series, but I had one in my stash that was a standalone. Titillating and ridiculous title aside, Macdonald is the real deal…the master of his genre- never has been another like him. So….. if you like tough old mysteries, a bit on the noir side, set in pre-boom south Florida and filed with ruminations on the human and social condition,…his books can’t be beat. MacDonald is the Hemingway of mystery types.