Category: Books

Genre:  Novel 

Grade:  B+

Notable People:   Pascal Mercier

Title: Night Train to Lisbon

Review:  after months of reading mysteries and femme fatale/noir novels- I felt guilty and that I needed something challenging and heady. Found this skimming through shelves at local library and…..mission for heady accomplished. Staid and hermetic middle aged man living in Bern, Switzerland and teaching esoteric languages at a small private school….has a chance encounter with a woman ready to jump of a bridge, who hands him a piece of unknown writing from a provocative Lisbon man. Our hero quits his job and goes off to Lisbon to investigate and re-create the life and times of the mysterious dead writer- Amadeus Prado. This book is DEEP…I found ten pages at a time were max for me (it’s a long 500 pager) . But I found myself more and more drawn  into this bizarre search for meaning that Gregorius undertakes…the totally immersed search to understand fully another person and connect with them beyond the grave. Very intricately written and very well translated from the German. You gotta have time to read this one.

Genre:  Novel  

Grade:  A-

Notable People:   Carl Hiaasen

Title: Skinny Dip

Review:  Been meaning to read Hiassen for years- as he is an icon in the Keys, where we go every late winter. A huge fan of John D. Macdonald (and his legendary Travis McGee), he has clearly styled his writings after the great master, and seems to get in a Macdonald kudo in every book (along with a Neil Young). A murder mystery, more or less, but extremely funny and biting resembling  MacDonald’s characteristic social commentary about the screwing of Florida. This one involves a woman tossed off a cruise ship by her scumbag husband , which is amazingly connected to a scheme to rip off, and ultimately destroy, the Everglades. Wonderful characters, great sense of the place, and good whodunit. I’m going to be on the chase for a lot more Hiassen.

Genre:  Novel   

Grade  A-

Notable People:   T. Coraghessan Boyle

Title: Talk Talk

Review:  Boyle’s books are dark and almost always verging on masterful. Psychologically daunting characters mixed up in fate clearly out of their control…and often not all that likeable…but seemingly real. Beautiful young deaf woman and her video game savant boyfriend have their identities stolen by a slick, black-belt con man aspiring to the high life…a true portrait of sociopathy. Police don’t do shit- so they chase this guy from one coast to the other. Pretty mesmerizing read…..short and hard to put  down…very quirky at the end. Not his best work…but awful good. If you don’t know Boyle- you should

Genre:  Novel       

Grade  A-

Notable People:   CJ Box

Title: Badlands

Review:  Frigid winter in North Dakota, a young autistic boy who witnesses a major drug killing and winds up with the booty, , the baddest drug gang in America, a young woman who is the Sheriff’s new Chief Investigator trying to fend off the hostility of the local law enforcement good ol’ boys club, dirty cops, meth heads…..and decapitations left and right….good formula for a new series from Box, who is the author of the wonderful Joe Pickett: Wyoming Game Warden series. Cassie Dewell is his first shot at a female lead character and he does it really well. Compelling story, good characters, gear portrait of the barren wasteland. Box is at the top of his game.

Genre:  Novel

Grade  B/B+

Notable People:   Paul Doiron

Title: The Poacher’s Son

Review:  First novel  in the series about a Maine Game Warden, takes place in remote Maine, and is a surprisingly complex yarn, about fathers and sons, the great north woods, and the lasting strengths of the ties that bind us…..and of course, murder and mayhem.  I had trouble at the start of this one and almost put it down. Doiron’s writing felt stiff to me and not quite the quality of the “mystery” people I’ve been reading lately (CJ Box, Philip Kerr, Archer)…but I have to admit- he seemed to get better and find a groove as the book wore on. Not a great writer- but maybe getting better….and a very strong sense of this place in the very remote part of Maine…..and that, serves him, and us, well. I’m going to give another one a try.

Genre:  Novel             

Grade  A

Notable People:   Pete Hamill

Title: River North

Review:  Brilliant! Hamill is my vote for least appreciated American writer of the 20^th century. More known as a newspaper columnist and drinking buddy of Norman Mailer, he amassed a really great body of work up until his death several years ago. His books are pure New York- written from the very strong perspective of the Irish immigrant. This one takes place during the Depression and centers on the life of Dr. Jim Delaney in Greenwich Village at a time when there’s was a  great sense of shared community amongst the Manhattan immigrants. A sweeping story of love, grief, poverty and tumultuous times, it stretched from the trenches of France during the first world war to the burgeoning mob in little Italy to the last great period of the Tammany Hall politicos that ran the city with an iron fist for centuries. Sweet, tender, full of angst and unknowns, it is a masterful piece of fiction- livened by many historically accurate characters. Hamill goes down swinging…a great book.  

 

Genre:  Novel

Grade  A-

Notable People:   Linda Castillo

Title:  After the Storm

Review:  The second in this series about small town police chief Kate Burkholder. I was mixed on the first one, but this one really captivated. Pretty unique setting in Amish country in northeast Ohio, so many familiarities for those of us who live around that country an culture. Castillo really gets under the uniqueness of the Amish and their uneasy relationship with the “Englishers”…and she knows Pennsylvania Dutch to boot. The stories are tensely written yarns with pretty interesting characters. Great sense of the place she writes about (especially for a British resident). This is a quick and fine summer read.

 

Genre:  Novel

Grade  B+

Notable People:   CJ Box

Title:  Vicious circle

Review:  The 17^th novel on Box’s wonderful Joe Pickett series weaves in characters form a number of previous novels to create another intriguing set of mysteries confronting our beloved Wyoming game warden. Joes’ erstwhile accomplice, the fabulous Nate Romanowski makes an unscheduled appearance- albeit too briefly. I thought this one is a bit theme repetitive- a few too many similarities to previous novels, but Box remains at the top of his craft and this series remains extremely compelling reading. The beauty of box’s descriptors of his Wyoming setting add immeasurably to the quality of the books. Good and very quick summer read.

Genre:  Novel

Grade  A

Notable People:   Philip Kerr

Title:  Prussian Blue

Review:  I have finally caught up with all of Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series. This one came out in 2017 , is the 13^th in the series and may be the best one yet. Set alternately in pre-war German Bavaria in 1339 and then again in many of the same places in post -war Eastern bloc FDG in 1956, it is a brutally honest look at the impending Nazi takeover of Europe and then of the broken post-war country. Gunther remains the inimitable tough guy detective, who underneath his harsh and cynical demeanor, does all he can to be the Anti-Hitler. Much of the book takes place on “Hitler’s mountain”- a multi- million dollar village constructed over dead bodies for the amusement and comfort of “The Leader”. As in all the books, this one is filed with real historical figures; with Kerr’s imagining of them combined with his acute knowledge of the history of that empire….it is spellbinding. Great writer- great read. Start at the beginning and read them all.

 

Genre:  Novel

Grade  A-

Notable People:   Steve Hamilton

Title:  A Cold Day in Paradise

Review:  this is the first in what has become a lengthy series with Alex McKnight, a PI in the remote upper Peninsula of northern Michigan. Gritty, black and white kind of book with classic tough guy with tortured soul type narrative. A lot of simple, but effective, twist and turns in this one…..and a great sense of the place in which the books take place. McKnight, a former Detroit cop, has sought refuge in the anonymity of the great north woods, and the metaphors take off from there. Exceedingly well written and very good character development. This one, like many, comes to me, from my old friend and former freshman English instructor at Ohio State- Neil Berman- who is my unofficial  (or maybe official) literature guru. I’m looking forward to many more of this series.