Mystery Crime Books

The first time I read this book through, I read quickly, devouring the plot. The second time, I was delighted to find scrumptious tidbits of wit that I'd missed. Lady Julia's family is amusingly quirky, and her disillusionment with her husband is heartbreaking and realistic. Nicholas Brisbane is wonderful to read about, though I suspect he'd be fatiguing in real life. While Julia quickly discovers her attraction to him, the focus of the book is on Julia's self-discovery rather than the romance.

Which brings me to the point: if you have any intention of buying this book, do it now, while you can get it in the elegant red cover. The author has published the new covers on her website, and they are cheesy and inappropriate for the subject matter and time period. I'm afraid the publishers have seriously misjudged their audience.

The mystery to me is why I didn't enjoy this more. The author writes very well and the characters are terrific -- Lady Julia Grey (and her family) and Nicholas Brisbane are fascinating, and even minor characters are well drawn and three dimensional. The mystery itself, however, was lame; I'm not very good at prefiguring the culprit, but I spotted this one really early on and never had a red herring or a twist to make me second guess my conclusion, which turned out to be correct. Also, our heroine was often boringly, stultifyingly inactive; whenever Brisbane told her to stay home and be good when he was incapacitated by his mysterious illness -- she DID! What self-respecting heroine stays home and waits for the detective?! That was kind of shocking to me, and made for a boring read. I don't really want to read paragraphs and paragraphs about how the narrator is home, packing boxes or reading or wandering the rooms, waiting for the detective to make something happen. BORING! The plot was inventive in some ways (no spoilers), but tedious in others, and a great many interesting characters were introduced never to be heard from again.

If I could, I'd give it 3+ stars, but I'll round up because I think others may enjoy it more than I did -- I just have such precious little time to read that I want excellence when I do. I want great writing AND great characters AND a great mystery, and I didn't get that here. All in all I found it a frustrating read and won't get another in the series; instead I'll focus on other authors in this genre.

I bought this book because Amazon had recommended the 2nd book, Silent in the Sanctuary, and it sounded pretty interesting. Since it was the 2nd book, I bought this one as well so I could read them in the right order.

Plus I read the first 2 sentences online and I was hooked. Despite the fact I was reading something else when this arrived, I put that down so I could read this.

This book was well worth the purchase! The glimpse at upper crust life in the 19th century just made the mystery more enticing. Lady Julia, the sheltered 9th child in a rich but odd family, starts the book by saying that she didn't meet Nicholas Brisbane over her husband's dead body. It should be noted that her husband was still twitching on the floor.

What an opening! And the rest of the book did not disappoint. Lady Julia is fully dimensional, Nicholas Brisbane is appropriately mysterious. The supporting characters (family members and servants, Fleur and Dr Bent) are fleshed out and varied enough to be interesting. I'm hoping that Fleur shows up in the second book, which I am going to start reading as soon as I finish this review.

The attention to detail was fascinating, but never intrusive. The pace was slow, but it moved at the pace it needed to in order to give the right amount of atmosphere without smothering you with it.

Highly recommended.

I actually loved this book and can't wait to read the next in the series. I found it entirely enjoyable and thought the chemisty between Julia and Brisbane is infectious! As an avid historical mystery fan, I recommend this to anyone else who enjoys them, also.

Very disappointing let me count the ways. At first it was entertaining and witty. But after the first 100 pages I kept waiting for the mystery to snag me. Soon after I figured who the murder was (predictable) and I lost all interest on the motive. When I jumped to read the ending I was glad not to have wasted another minute on this book. I bought it because the book was recommended as being similar to books by Tasha Alexander. I beg to differ!

Exactly how many times will Professor Moriarity and Sherlock Holmes rattle literaty sabres?

John R King writes an interesting book that centres around the question...what if Holmes survived the fall from the Falls and lost his memory?

Mr King postulates that the daughter of Professor Moriarity found him (along with Thomas Carnacki) and in their escape from Moriarity, we learn about the 'real' Professor and his twisted life. A professor of mathematics at Jesus College, he descended into a personal hell after the murder of his wife by Jack the Ripper, and his subsequent possession. His daughter, Anna, vows to free him from the demon and through the course of the book, does so at a high cost to herself.

Holmesians will love the book. Much of the characterization is in tune with Doyle, and even Moriarity seems to be a shadow of his literary self here. Mr King must watch numbers, as the middle of the book reads like an episode quantizing human interaction by intergration and differentiation. This is the only weakness of the book.

Completists note, another entry has been made in the world of Sherlock Holmes.

Tim Lasiuta

I found this book to be a wonderful, page-turning read. It is well written and served as an excellent introduction to the Holmes canon. I am looking forward to more work from Mr. King.

Bloody Mary is one of the greatest books I have ever read. J.A. Konrath is spectactular this is a book you will not be able to put down. I normally take awhile to get through books. I have gotten through Whisky Sour, Bloody Mary, and Rusty nail all 3 books under 2 weeks. They keep you going there is always something happening. I promise you will not be disappointed with Konrath's books. They are a combination of Mystery/Thriller/ and graphic horror. *****'s to J.A. fantastic keep up the good work.

J.A Konrath is one of my favorite new authors. His writing style is fast and fun, even when he is describing horrible instances. The books are fast paced, and are great page turners. The characters are very well written, and the story lines are compelling. I enjoyed getting to know the characters deeper, that were first introduced in the first book of the series "Whiskey Sour." If you like mystery/thriller/cop fiction you will enjoy this series.

While Patterson is my all time favorite mystery writer, I loved reading Konrath because his stories revolved in the Chicago area where I recognize all the nooks and cranies he writes about. That adds even more to the story for me since I'm from the area.

Bloody Mary starts with Lieutenant Jacqueline Daniels being called down to the county morgue because a few extra body parts have been found. Not just any body parts though. This pair of arms was found held together with Daniels' own handcuffs. Like it? It gets better from there.

If you told me that the bad guy would be revealed and caught in the middle of the book and that the remainder of the story would still be just as intense and suspenseful as the hunt for the perp I never would have believed you. But finding the killer's name is just the beginning of the story.

Konrath must have been laughing at the idea that all mysteries reveal the bad guy at the climax. He absolutely shattered my preconceived notions of what a mystery should be.

Bloody Mary is fun, funny, incredibly dark, and completely pulled me in. My only regret is that I finished it at 3am, and alas all the book stores that carry the third book in the series were closed.

I really enjoyed Whisky Sour, the first story about "Jack" Daniels, a female police officer. I liked her strong character, the witty writing, and the characters in general. In many ways it struck em as a female "Spenser" character. The only issue I had was the sometimes extreme, nasty gore in it. I struggled through that because the rest of the story was so enjoyable.

I had really hoped that Bloody Mary would provide the same great characters and environment, and tone the gore down. Unfortunately, this was not to be. If anything, the gore level was cranked up here. Now we have a sadistic psychopath who enjoys torturing his victims for days, if possible, with as gory a result as humanly possible. He literally covers the walls with plastic to make the cleanup of blood and body bits easier. It gets overly disgusting.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy the rest of the book! I love the writing style. I love the one-liners and the sharpness of the characters. I love how generally strong Daniels is - although she does slip quite a lot here, for some reason becoming more like a "stereotypical female in a cop job" than she had in the first book. I liked the fact that her mom, a retired cop, was also still sharp, active and had a sex life.

The mid-life crisis, the dealing-with-an-aging-parent, and many other side stories were integrated in an interesting, although sometimes over the top, manner. For someone who spends her life evaluating peoples' discussions and seeking for meaning in a questioning, Daniels seems blissfully clueless about the importance of communication in her own life. So be it, some people are like that.

In the end, though, the gore levels are just too much for me. A lot of it was in there just for gross-out factor and had little real plot meaning. Even if a serious motivation was laid out, it might help - but there wasn't. It was more of a "this incredibly, completely insane person has landed in Daniels' life, so let's have fun with the idea." Somehow Daniels personally seems to attract more complete psychopaths in 2 years than most states see in a 50 year period.

So I'm afraid that for me, personally, I can't read any more of these. There are tons of other writers out there who give me the same level of enjoyability without the detailed body ripping apart. If someone wants to contact me should future books tone down the gore level, I'd be quite happy!

While this novel may have an important place in the history of crime fiction it is simply an awful read. The plot is convoluted and the violence is over the top. If you were going to read only one Dashiell Hammett novel please make it The Maltese Falcon which I have read over and over.

I had problems with this novel. I couldn't follow all of the complexities of the ultra-complicated, ever-shifting plot of wholesale corruption in a small, industrial Western city (corporate, police, mob, etc.). And it all seemed so familiar, hackneyed. But then I remembered a couple of things: That this was so familiar because hundreds of other authors and thousands of other books have tried with varying degrees of success to mimic and further develop Hammett's "hard-boiled", noirish style in the past 75 or so years. And also, that perhaps it wasn't necessary to follow the incredibly convoluted plot, or even keep full track of who each of the legion of sleazy characters are, in order to best enjoy the book. After I made those decisions, the rest of my reading experience was much more pleasurable and rewarding. In a strange way it reminded me of some the French "nouveau romain" authors where the style, the words, the way things are expressed, the endless repetition of certain motifs, words, and concepts become the primary or perhaps only true point of the novel. After a while, it became hypnotizing, marvelous, and, for me, laugh-out-loud hilarious, particularly with the "Laudinum" chapter (and actually, a lot of the second half of the book) beginning to remind me of things like Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a favorite book of mine. Always very granular and factual, the overload of facts, events, wise cracks, sleaze, and more sleaze and wise cracks becomes like some kind of demented (but amazing) symphony. I believe I'll remember this one for quite a while -- although I'm not sure I'm ready to jump into another one of his works right now. I'll save it for later when I've recovered from this one.

I have just finished reviewing in this space all of Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe detective series. It occurred to me that I might as well review the work of that other exemplar of the modern hard-boiled noir detective story, Dashiell Hammett. Most of those familar with his work know it from Nick Charles of the Thin Man or, more likely, Sam Spade of the immortal Maltese Falcon but Hammett, like Chandler, did not blossom forth with these classics without a grinding apprenticeship in pulp detective fiction. Red Harvest represents Hammett's baptism. This story of an unnamed shamus who moreover works for a detective agency runs against the type we have come to expect from Hammett and Chandler-the independent, no-holds barred character. Have no fear our Continental Op has most of those qualities and the single-mindeness to clean up a rotten crime-dominated town no questions asked. While there is not the plot or character development of Hammett's later work here this is still a good read.

RED HARVEST arose from a series of short stories Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) wrote between about 1923 and 1927 that featured "the Continental Op," specifically an operative for the The Continental Detective Agency, San Francisco office.

Hammett has to jump through a lot of narrative hoops to consolidate these short stories into the novels RED HARVEST and the slightly later THE DAIN CURSE, and the result is often excessively convoluted; readers often have to turn back several pages to figure out who has done what. Even so, both novels continue to crackle today, and in creating them Hammett not only essentially created the American P.I. novel, he also developed a uniquely sparse, often brutal, yet often poetic style. To say that both accomplishments have cast a long shadow indeed would be a profound literary understatement.

RED HARVEST finds the nameless detective summoned by newspaper publisher Donald Willson to Personville, a mining town crammed to overflowing with corruption of every variety imaginable--and before the Op can meet with his client Willson is gunned down in highly suspicious circumstances on Hurricane Street, not far from the home of notorious good-time girl Dinah Brand. It happens that Willson's father Elihu Willson, who founded the city, is now a captive to its corruption in more ways than one, and after the Op settles the question of who killed Douglas, the Op blackmails the old man into allowing him to clean up the town.

The Op seldom plays by law-and-order rules, and his solution to the problem is both clever and direct: he creates a series of situations that sets the various crime bosses at odds. Before you know they are gunning each other down in the streets, leaving both the Op and Dinah Brand to do some mighty frisky hopping in an effort to stay clear. But can they, when there are so few easy ways out?

A mixture of alcoholism and politics cut Hammett's career short; his short stories aside, he produced only five novels, and critics are quick to point out that THE MALTESE FALCON is his finest work. I would agree with that, but while RED HARVEST may be less smoothly written, it has the unexpected energy of a great talent's first major work, and that more than makes up for the occasional rough edge in technique. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Some novelists are great in their genre. Some novelists create a genre. In many respects, this book exemplifies the birth of the genre referred to as the American crime novel - one which Raymond Chandler said ". . . took murder out of the Venetian vase and dropped it into the alley. . . ." And, oh how from-the-street this novel is.

This novel started a critically acclaimed writing streak for Hammet - 1929 ("Red Harvest"and "The Dain Curse"), 1930 ("The Maltese Falcon"), and 1931 ("The Glass Key"). Hollywood was right behind the publishers as they produced his books to film almost as soon as the print dried on the second printing: 1930 ("Roadhouse Nights" based on "Red Harvest), 1931 ("Maltese Falcon" ) and 1935 ("Thin Man" and 5 other movies to follow with the Thin Man theme.)

Hammett was hot. Maybe the hottest commodity in print and screen the first five years of the 1930's. Then in 1936 he secretly joins the Communist Party and you can guess the rest.

This book reviews many of his personal experiences. At 31, he became a private detective (Pinkerton Agency) and the major character of this book is a 190-pound 5'6" solidly built unnamed character who works for a similar agency. He is called an Op. And, his "Old Man" sends him to Personville which is affectionately referred to as Poisonvile - dank and mysterious, it lost its innocence when old man Willsson hired Italian goons as union busters to preserve his bottom line for his many capitalistic ventures. After they did their dirty business, they stayed and the old man could not live as he had before - in total control of the city.

When the Op is shot at by goons and cops, he decides that even though his business is over, he will stay and earn $10,000 while making himself a Poisonville regular. Thereafter, 24 bad people are murdered - cleaning the streets of the bad blood - and the worst injury suffered by the Op is a burn. Good conquers all, or mostly all. The Op meant what he said, and said what he meant, he hated the town 100%.

Hammett, probably from having to gumshoe streets following leads for the Pinkerton Agency, understood American vernacular. Implementing the same created his "style" which probably was not consciously done. But, it was artistic. And, this artistry is purely Americana. American vernacular was new in literature - something which was also brought to readers by another hot commodity of the 1930's - Ernest Hemingway.

His curt and precise statements, dialogue, and great descriptions of the physical appearances of characters are Hammett's best weapons. And, this is one of his best books - probably only exceeded by "Maltese Falcon." It seems only a shame that he could not produce more of these novels

I really enjoyed Caught Stealing, and was ready to find out how the story continued in Six Bad Things. While exciting, and an equally fast read, Six Bad Things doesn't quite live up to the original. Hank started out as an almost lovable everyman in Caught Stealing, but that softer edge was missing here. His feelings for his parents felt a little forced, and the situations he found himself in were over the top. I had to try pretty hard to suspend disbelief a couple times.

On the positive, Huston did a nice job setting up the final book in the series, which I will definitely read. All in all, this is still a fun roller coaster of a book, its just that Caught Stealing was so good, it made it hard for Six Bad Things to live up to it.

Crime is probably my favorite genre, be it literature or film, and this book came strongly recommended. After letting it gather dust on the shelf for over a year, I finally dove into it and was instantly hooked. The story kicks off with protagonist Hank lounging on a quiet Mexican beach, hiding out from all manner of villains seeking him and the $4.5 million he made off with following a rather violent and complicated weekend in New York three years previously. I loved how the book just launched in without spending too much time explaining the specifics of what had brought Hank to this point. However, after about fifty pages I started to have a sneaking suspicion that this ultraviolent backstory had all been detailed elsewhere. So I checked online and discovered that this is the second book in a trilogy, and that the first (Caught Stealing) follows Hank's journey from nice catsitter to FBI Most Wanted list. Unfortunately, this violates one of my pet peeves, which is reading a series out of order. But already committed to the book, and having absorbed enough of Hank's backstory to make reading Caught Stealing redundant, I read on.

The book is basically one long chase scene, hurtling from Hank's hideaway on the Yucatan Peninsula, to Tijuana, to suburban California, to Vegas. Hank's problem is that the Russian mob has finally tracked him down and threatened the lives of his parents, so he's forced to make a move. A move that involves sending his cash to his one friend back in the U.S. and going back to his parents' house. It's not really clear why (other than sentiment), after being so cautious, careful, and crafty, he would make the colossally stupid move of showing up back home -- but the chase must go on. It's all very Tarantinoesque, or perhaps Pekinpaughesque -- there are Russian mobsters, a corporate blackmailer, a pair of psycho surf burnouts, and a truckload of white trash vigilantes after Hank and his loot. Many of these highly colorful supporting characters will die along the way, as will many of the equally memorable people Hank enlists in his bid to keep his parents safe. It's not just the outsize characters and violence that remind one of Tarantino though, it's also the dialogue, which is snappy and permeated with dark humor (which is also somewhat reminiscent of Elmore Leonard).

Ultimately, one's appreciation of the book will more or less depend on your taste for shoot 'em ups. That, and the extent to which you find Hank a sympathetic enough character to follow in his blood-soaked wake. Hank is enough of an everyman to be likable, but he's also killed in cold blood and caused the deaths of several innocent people. And while he wrestles with this at length, going so far to tattoo hash marks on himself to reflect the number of deaths he's caused, it feels kind of proforma, as if all the agonizing is there to keep him sympathetic to the reader. As entertaining as the lengthy chase is (for those who like such frenetic hijinks), my major problem is that the book shouldn't be a standalone. It ends in limbo, and one really has to read the next book (A Dangerous Man) to finish Hank's story. The trilogy should really have been published a a single longer volume and having it split up among three books feels like profiteering by the publisher (ie. I don't blame the author).

Six bad things is one of my favorite books. At first I read the german edition when I was visiting my family in Germany and Dad brought a stack of his books for me to read. He warned me that it was "violent"... I read the whole thing in one day!
Coming back to the US I had to get the first book in the trilogy, "Caught stealing", as I was dying to know the story from the beginning! Then I read "Six bad things" again, this time in english!
It keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time you're reading, you suffer and cringe with Hank as he gets pummeled and stumbles from one bad situation into another! Bud, the cat, is my second-favorite character... he's just too cool! Of course I had to get "A dangerous man", too, to know how it continues... Great writing, Charlie!
A true fan.

If you're looking for some fast-paced, relatively believable, hard-boiled fiction, look no further than ANY of the Charlie Huston novels. WOW!

*** WARNING ***
*** THIS IS THE SECOND IN A TRILOGY ***
*** OF HANK THOMPSON STORIES! ***
*** IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE FIRST BOOK, "CAUGHT STEALING" **
YOU MAY WANT TO READ MY REVIEW ON THAT FIRST, AND THEN READ THAT BOOK, BEFORE READING THIS REVIEW, SO THIS REVIEW WON'T GIVE AWAY THE ENDING OF "CAUGHT STEALING.
***************

Like all of Charlie Huston's prior books, the writing style and tone of the story starts off at warp speed, and though it doesn't seem possible, things actually increase in speed and violence from there! When we last left Hank, he had made his way from New York in to Mexico with 4 million dollars of Russian Mob money and his beloved cat Bud. Hank settles into a serene life on a Mexican beach and after a bout with alcoholism, he gets sober, smokes a lot, including a cigarette in "EACH-EAR" after his daily swims. Despite his tranquil routine, he is always looking over his shoulder, and through his dreams/nightmare's, awaiting numerous un-named mercenaries after his life and his money.

When Hank decides to try to go back to California to see his parents, the fact that Hank has evolved into an "urban-legend" with books written about him and TV programs spotlighting him, completing that trip successfully "may be" a problem. Without giving away too much to future readers, let me summarize that the death toll that follows Hank from Mexico to California would keep an accountant busy full-time. By the time Hank gets to Las Vegas in an attempt to re-claim his fortune, you would need an entire staff of accountants, to not only add up the dead bodies, but to calculate the total consumption and types of drugs involved.

Once you start reading this book, it's like being in an Indianapolis 500 Race Car made of death and drugs, and your car has no breaks! This is a must read book for anyone who enjoys un-throttled speed and excitement!

Planetary Romance, 1980s style?


A clever idea this, in that aliens have seeded Venus with life, including humans and dinosaurs - and all the large scale other fauna that goes with that - canines, bugs and more.

So, discovering this in the 60s the space race becomes all important, and other areas of science suffer a little more than our current situation.

Nuclear propulsion gets manned crews of the Eastern bloc and America and allies to Venus - the main part of the story has some reasonably well established groups on the planet.

The politics are pretty simple and ham-fisted, which fits this sort of story somewhat, the good guys and bad guys as far as Earth goes. There are some groaningly bad incongruous paragraph dumps of the 'Americans are the best, of course' type, but also one of two jokes as in 'Norman Mailer and crew are upset at being marginalised as Edgar Rice Burroughs is now easily the USA's most preeminent author.' One author is when Stirling has a neandernthal mow down a character of no-importance named Jondlar - who was also the prettyboy guy in Jean Auel's the Mammoth Hunters. Could be just a joke, or Stirling pointing out he really doesn't like those - wouldn't be a surprise from the other bits of this book.

The rest of the story is pretty good, as a crashed Eastern Bloc shuttle asks for help from the Americans - who send a crew out which includes an airship pilot who is an experienced resident, and a couple of newer arrivals, as wellas the captain, and the wife of one of those in the crashed shuttle.

Now is when we get to the fighting dinosaurs and neanderthals with machine guns, chatting up local smart priestesses and alien technology part. This is all pretty good, as the airship survivors try and make an alliance with the enemies of the neanderthals and their alien overlords.

Given I have read a few Stirling stories before and didn't like them at all, I did like this more than I thought I would.

A bit over 3.5 rating for this one, perhaps.


3.5 out of 5

This book started out OK but then went down hill towards the end.
It seemed like Stirling wanted to finish this book off to go do something else leaving the ending pretty lame.

This is of a totally different style for those who have read the "Nantucket" series and are used to a more 'realistic' Steve Stirling. This reads more like a cross between 'Buck Rodgers and the Mole Men' and 'John Carter on Mars'. It's written to be fun and very tongue in cheek so leave your Stirling conventions at the cover page.

What would life on Venus be like if it had an extra heavy oxygen atmosphere and a slightly (90%) lighter gravity; and in the past 'someone or something' had seeded the planet with dinosaurs, neaderthals and humans? When the east and west try to 'settle' the planet, politics raises its' ugly head, with the involvement of an unknown third party. It bad Commies and obnoxious Frenchmen (are there any other kind) versus the 'aw shucks m'am' Cajun. Who do you think will win?

Stirling has done it again. As with PESHAWAR LANCERS, he has told a new story of an old type by settling it in an alternate universe. In this case, the type is an adventure story set in the youngish steamy Venus with primitive peoples and reptiles beloved of SF writers from Burroughs through Heinlein, and he's achieved it by having aliens terraform the planet in the distant past. So science develops differently--more emphasis on space travel, less on DNA, as examples--and at about the end of the 20th Centuries the Cold War continues on Venus. An Eastbloc probe crashes in the middle of nowhere, and Americans and Commonwealth must ride a rigid airship to the rescue. Of course it's more complicated than that, but more would be telling. It's a good straight adventure story, complete with princess to be rescued, well worth the paperback purchase price. Do NOT miss the Martian sequel, IN THE COURTS OF THE CRIMSON KINGS.

Venus and Mars are habitable, that's the basis for S. M. Stirling's Lords of Creation series. And they're exactly like what the pulp fiction and Golden Age Writers wrote.

The Sky People starts off in a Soviet bunker in Kazakhstan as their probe lands on Venus and the US probe lands on Mars. What the Soviets see is a group of ?humans? being attacked by Neanderthals.

Skip ahead to 1992 and enter Marc Vitrac, one of Jamestown's Rangers.

When an EastBloc (the USSR and China: there was no Sino-Soviet Split in this history) shuttle crashes at the far end of the continent where Jamestown and Cosmograd are situated Vitrac is a member of the expedition to recover the crashed shuttle. Sabotage causes their dirigible to crash, forcing them to march towards the shuttle. The sole serving EastBlocker, a Russian has been captured by beastmen (Neanderthals) and possessed by an alien artifact. Vitrac and the dirigible survivors encounter a tribe descended from proto-Europeans who are under threat from the beastmen.

That's a short description of maybe two-thirds of the book. The resolution is a little hollow and I didn't find the plot to be the best in the world. For anyone who is a fan of Golden Age science fiction this would be an enjoyable book, if not for the ideas that are re-represented.

There is one clear reuse from Stirling's Nantucket Trilogy; Vitrac finds a Venusian wolf-creature and raises it. This bares striking resemblance to the Nantucket Trilogy's Peter Giernas (who is also a Ranger) and the half-wolf he has, Perks.

I like Robert Parker's Spenser novels, and have read almost all of them. The early ones are quite good, but the ones after 1990 or so are pretty much a mixed bag.

STARDUST is pretty much a by-the-numbers effort, about Spenser's attempts to bodyguard an incredibly famous TV actress, who just happens to be the most neurotic, promiscuous woman on the planet. This book is mildly funny and entertaining, but not particularly original or exciting. It doesn't help that the TV actress character isn't the least bit sympathetic. The dialogues between Spenser-Susan and Spenser-Hawk are pretty much the same old stuff Parker has written many times before.

There's little in this novel you won't find in other, better Spenser books. My advice is to try those books and forget about STARDUST.

I usually enjoy the Spenser books, but "Stardust" was really disappointing. I didn't like the Jill character at all, so it was impossible for me to care about her and/or what happened to her. Too bad Spenser didn't walk away from this case at the get-go.

Also, is anybody else sick of Susan's perfection? And the way she eats - or doesn't eat, I guess would be more correct - makes me cringe.

I'll go on to the next Spenser and hope it's better than this one, and also hope that Spenser and Susan don't go to any restaurants.

Spenser is hired by Zenith Meridian Television to protect their star television personality, Jill Joyce - who says she has been receiving harassing telephone calls and letters. When Spenser tries to find out more about these calls, Jill refuses to elaborate - insisting, however, that he protect her from "Him," as she calls her stalker, while all the while refusing to answer any questions relating to details about the problem, her past or pretty much anything at all and at the same time alternating between trying to get Spenser into bed and drinking herself into a torpor. Finally Spenser leaves her in Hawk's care and sets out to find out what he can on his own.

Jill is probably one of the least appealing people Spenser has ever set out to "save." He, however, sets out with great patience nonetheless, to do just that. He follows every lead, steps on toes from the East to the West coast in the process, has his life threatened several times and finally gets to the bottom of the situation. It ain't pretty.

Of course, you'll have to read the book to find out what happens.

I enjoyed this story, mostly because the character dynamics were so interesting. Jill Joyce was so terribly unpleasant, yet at the same time she engendered great sympathy and loyalty among so many people that it was really unbelievable. As one character remarked, she had a "quality" about her, something deep inside her that got buried under the booze and drugs. Parker did a good job with his writing skills of showing that vulnerability as well as the prickly and unpleasant exterior. Very good job. Strong recommend from me.

Two stars because Parker is able to write, zero for plot (what plot?) characters(Puh-leeze). I tripped over this in the library needing an easy read. What amazes me is that this was apparently a popular series in the 80's. So much for the 80's. Spenser and Susan are so superior to the rest of the human race we should all be ashamed. They are witty, they are sensitive, they are honest, they are loving, they are perfect. As a natural offshoot of this they are tiresome, they are snide, they are racist, they are class-driven in their outlook and tastes. They are, frankly, very creepy. Anyway I guess something happens in the novel, I was too sick to stay around.

What might burn to what purification and perfection, within the ashes of impoverished beginnings ...

Again, a Spenser novel kept my focus away from the snow-packed, icy curves of a Rocky Mountain corridor over the Continental Divide on Colorado State highway 50, edging the high, steep cliffs over Monarch Pass. If any feat would recommend the ability of a novel to hold a reader captive, that should.

The fascination in this # 17 in the series seemed to pivot around a flickering disgust Vs appeal of the Star of the plot, Jill Joyce, as those dark/bright flashes played through Jill's evolving relationships with Spenser, Susan, and residual characters, who mostly viewed "Jillie" as a "high-octane pain in the ..." (quoting one the book's descriptive terms of her). Parker worked an amazing double-sided realism into the plot, contrasting Jill's spoiled, impatient, sour personality; to her youthful vulnerabilities, her having not one true friend, and her carrying the weight of the job title's specific and actual demands. With drunk, druggie, an nympho added to the liabilities in this Star's aura, the scales slipped south, and provided Spenser with a challenge he couldn't refuse. I may have left out a couple descriptive terms of the down side of Jill Joyce's personality, but guessing what they might be would be a snap.

STARDUST is a classic character study, and an excellent example of fine writing, especially given Parker's vivid, delightfully sardonic descriptions of various settings, descriptions based on weather conditions and wealth divergence, contrasting Boston and surrounding areas with the San Diego and LA extended environments.

During the writing of my previous review on PLAYMATES, # 16 in this series, I began noticing an edge of embarrassment about my ongoing compulsion to write reviews on each novel in the Spenser series. Therefore, I seem to be pushed at the moment by a nag from my Left Brain to explain personal and professional motivations in feeding the continued pursuit of this "study." Actually, that's precisely what my dedication to reviewing this series has become, a study. I feel blessed to be able to observe three decades (and counting) of cultural evolution through Parker's liberal notations of styles of dress, tastes in food, ways of thinking, repartee dance-steps, etc. Yet, I'm making note of much more than that.

I'm observing the steady, methodical, dedicated evolution of an author's voice, talent, perspective, and ethical philosophy ... over thirty years of annual production in a sequential offering repeating characters, locale, and genre.

I'm observing "current" events unfolding within Parker's plots. I'm noticing subtle publisher presence and reader preference as that backdrop appears to play into Parker's choices of subject, theme, and style variances in each novel in this chain adding links upon links of evolving ethical considerations.

My interest was maintained well in STARDUST as my curiosity grew about how Spenser could save this child, who was screeching in repulsively offensive ways, for someone to take care of her, someone, anyone to care about anything in her, qualities beyond beauty, which might lie more deeply and lastingly in Jill's soul... someone to care about more than her capacity to draw in dollars. As a prostitute to overwhelming demands on her presence and physical perfection, given nothing truly refueling of self in return; Jill reminded me of Spenser's April Kyle, clearly showing that money, fame, success, and adulation are able to starve the life out of a young heart needing TLC, compassion, and a savior.

As has become Parker's relished signature, several scenes of dialogue exchanges in STARDUST were highly satisfying. One of the cheer inducements I regularly enjoy in a Spenser novel is his ever-growing-repertoire of ways to burst odorous balloons of pompous buffoons who overrate their importance by metaphoric measures of mountains of compost heaps. (See Marty Riggs in this one, especially the scene in chapter 29 with Quirk, regarding Jill having been misplaced. And, for a story about mountains of coal dust and a young Mom starring in a bull-dog win, see Coal & Coca-cola)

And then, we had here the entrance of Victor del Rio and gang-of-two, Chollo and Bobby Horse. Yep, another fascinating bad, bad, bad dude ... with a couple honorable qualities, who related well with Spenser in scene after engrossing scene.

My favorite scene in STARDUST, though, was the one noted above, with Riggs, Quirk, a collection of big wigs at Zenith, and Spenser. Quirk gives Riggs a prime-spot-comeuppance to either kill or die for. Parts of that chapter I had to read aloud to my husband. After I had read a couple paragraphs, then asked a few minutes later if he wanted to hear more, his positive pose slid immediately into an ear-toward-my-direction.

The last line in this one could serve as the beginnings of purification of poverty, if not an outright activation of alchemy.

What is Hope,
Linda Shelnutt

I picked this up at an airport bookstore, browsed through it and though: "Wow! A James Ellroy noir atmosphere in post-WWII Japan - this MUST be the best of both worlds!" Well, it turn out to be more of a disappointment than not...

The prose is a collection of tiresome staccato repetitions. That is not style.
The obsession with bodily functions, sounds and endless fidgeting is insatiable. This is not insightful realism.
The story is not overly original. It does not save the day.

I never abandon a book once started but I have to confess: I was really tempted with this one...

The "Year Zero" in Japan is 1946, the first year of defeat, of the Allied occupation, of the "Emperor MacArthur." It's a year of disease and near starvation, of ragged clothing and war crimes trials, of false identities and political purges, of gang warfare and the constant sound of hammering. Most of all, it's a year of lies and secrets. Many of the upper ranks of the civilian police have been dismissed for their political affiliations and solving "ordinary" murders in a country with several million unidentified dead has become nearly impossible. But that's Detective Inspector Minami's job, as far as he can manage it. The story -- the visible one -- involves a series of similar sex-murders and the complex investigation into the identities of the often skeletal remains and the search for evidence to convict the suspected killer, all of which is made more difficult by the secrets in the lives of nearly all the principle characters, on both sides of the law. And it's those secrets that make up the real story. Minami, as we gradually discover, has a secret involving the Japanese military police in the brutal occupation of China. His boss has his own secret regarding a cover-up, and his subordinate detectives have yet more secrets. Minami also has the head of the local gang on his back, and he's probably responsible for the murder of a journalist, and perhaps for the murder of another detective. It's a dark plot in a dark world, filled with people living dark lives, and in most respects Peace succeeds quite well. My only real complaint is with his attempt at a self-consciously "literary" style, in which he frequently repeats the same sentence fragments over and over (and over and over), and in which the same phrases (apparently the product of Minami's damaged psyche) crop up again and again, and always in italics. An unadorned, straightforward writing style would have been more successful and less obtrusive in communicating the despair and the horror of the time and place. The story and the raw emotional milieu in which it is set would have been sufficient to convey the feelings Peace obviously wants the reader to share -- and the book would have been probably fifty pages shorter. But if you *bleep* over that part of the story, it's a pretty good book.

I found the story compelling despite the author's extremely annoying stylistic tics (turn to page 176 for a perfect example) but about halfway through I realized that I been conned into crawling across a bed of sharp rusty nails. So does the author force the reader to experience for himself/herself the horrors of postwar Japan, year zero. This approach has validity -- want to look through the knothole? well, go ahead, hypocrite lecteur... and get a finger poked into your eye. By all means read it if that's your sort of thing, but be aware that this is crime fiction as a means, not an end, and when you put the book down, you'll find a vulture has eaten your liver.

Like any mystery or thriller, the story basically is about a murderer and how he/she was caught. But what sets this story above others is the noir like background of how the Japanese reacted to their defeat at the end of World War 2. More than anything, the surrender of the Japanese shattered a culture based on the 'living God/Emperor' and the forced introduction of democracy and free trade.

The narrator, is a police officer who served in the Japanese Army in China and came back to Japan during the last year of the war. He speaks of the 'May Bombing' of Tokyo that led to a firestorm like the one in Hamburg and Dresden. More people died in the Tokyo firestorm than died in Hiroshima or Nagasaki. But before the 'Bombs' the Japanese were planning on fighting the Americans on the home islands the same way they had fought in Okinawa.

On August 15, 1945, the Emperor Hirohito spoke to his people over the radio for the first time. From then on everything was different. Peace has done a fabulous job of communicating the environmental and sociological changes that Japan was going through in the first year after the surrender.

Peace has a very distinctive style, and depending on your tastes, that's either a very good thing or utterly annoying. I found the internal monologue jarring. You might like Peace's style.

My suggestion for anyone who thinks (from other reviews) that this sounds like a great novel is to pick up a copy at your local bookstore or library, read about 15 - 20 pages, and then decide if it's worth purchasing (or read the excerpt here on Amazon). I was very disappointed.

And BTW, if you are fascinated with this novel's setting and subject matter, I recommend that you check out Akimitsu Takagi's classic Japanese crime novel, The Tattoo Murder Case. It was originally published in the late 1940s, was a big bestseller in Japan and covers much of the territory in Tokyo Year Zero.

I highly recommend this book. It is a great follow up to Death's Acre. I am currently finishing this book (should wrap up over my lunch hour today), but I have read Death's Acre and had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Bass and Mr. Jefferson a few months ago at a book signing for one of their new fiction books. I had actually purchased this book prior to the meeting, but hadn't gotten the opportunity to read it. The authors are just as interesting in person and were gracious enough to sign my book! As an aspiring prosecutor I find the information both interesting and insightful. I have gleaned information about the human body that will help me understand the questions I need to ask of potential law enforcement and other key witnesses to better develop my cases. I hope there will be another nonfiction book by the duo. I recently came back from Tennessee, traveling through some of the areas mentioned in the book- it was an interesting experience. I also highly recommend Teasing Secrets From the Dead- written by Emily Craig, one of Dr. Bass's former students mentioned in this book and Death's Acre. It too is a real treat.

Great!! Loved the part on the Big Bopper. The whole book is wonderful just like the original!

I found this book to be as engrossing as Death's Acre. Dr Bill Bass is truly a pioneer in forensic science. I found that I couldn't put this book down!

This is a quickie review for a quickie book. Dr. Bill Bass, the man who revolutionized forensics by examining the corruption of the flesh with scientific exactitude, follows up his memoir "Death's Acre" with a collection of stories of the cases he's worked on.

With the help of writer Jon Jefferson, Bass is an avuncular storyteller, exhibiting a pleasure in his work that readers who are uncomfortable with the thought of spending one's life hanging around the dead might find offensive. Of course, one should have a means of protection, a detachment that is vital when dealing with someone so elemental as witnessing for the dead.

Over 16 chapters, Bass and Jefferson recount 13 cases, some of which were solved or advanced due to research performed at the Body Farm. There's the case of the body found in the burnt-out car, whose time of death was determined by the age of the maggots breeding on him. There was the assistant DA, found trussed and stabbed inside his home, whose time of death helped convict the man who did it.

The high point of the book was a guest appearance by The Big Bopper, who died in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and Richard Valens. The rumored presence of a gun on board the plane, and the possibility of it going off and killing the pilot, led the family to request an exhumation. The Bopper's son, who was born after the singer's death, was present, and the tale acquires a thin sheen of fiction as he, surprisingly to all, finds a bit of closure with his tragically absent father, due in a large part to very, very good embalming.

True crime finds will probably treat "Beyond the Body Farm" like a treat, gobbled quickly and mostly forgotten -- apart from the Bopper's tale and that poor man's intestines -- but it also serves as a tonic against the "CSI effect". Solving mysteries in real life takes money, time, human effort, and is never interrupted by commercials. And in some of the cases, we're still left with questions.

Dr. William Blass has written an entertaining and informative book about real forensic science. While he discusses the differences between television forensic science, such as show like "CSI", and the less flashy day to day life of a real CSI, he still makes real life forensics seem exciting and interesting.

Dr. Blass has written novels based on his experiences at the Body Farm, but I haven't read any of them. This real life look at crime scene investigation is as interesting and compelling as any screenplay or novel.

Although some of the cases were very touching, and all of them tragic in one way or another, this book still offered entertainment, information, and built a true respect for real forensic scientists.

This is a good book for my 4th grade son. It is hard to find books on his reading level that hold his interest. The narator of the story is Hank the cowdog (also self proclaimed head of ranch security). The chapters are only 3 or 4 pages and give my son a sense of accomplishment for being able to read a couple of chapters each night.
Hank also has a few pronuciation problems, allowing the young reader to identify correct pronunciation and grammer. The stories are interesting and funny and have really improved my son's interest in reading as well as his grades in reading and language skills.

I love all the Hank books, and this is a great one for the Christmas season. These books are hilarious and more important to the young reader, fun to read. I'd also check the rest of the series.

Author of "Hobo Finds A Home" editor "Of A Predatory Heart"

Hank the cowdog is about a dog named Hank and he lives in a farm.Everything is going right fo Hank because he is the leader of the dogs and nobody ever dared to talk back to him until one day another dog named Rufus came to take over.Then Rufus starts making fun of Hank for having crossed eyes (he got crossed eyes because he tried to see the part where his nose had no skin on it).One time Rufus was acting like Hank (imitating Hank)and Hank ran away.Hank confronted (met) snakes and big birds which he had trouble with.Hank had to deal with Rufus.Do you think he (Hank) might get away with still being the leader?,well if you keep on reading the ending you will know.

My ten year old son is a rapidly developing avid reader who has fallen absolutely in love with this excellent series. Erickson creates rapid narratives filled with honest (and yes, corny) humor and pleasently comic action and an occasional moral or two.

This series provides young readers with a simple, yet appropriately challenging vocabulary. It also provides fine entertainment as it can hold a young man, who favors outdoor activities and sports, and his attention span for countless hours. A most highly reccomended series of books designed to encourage and develop young readers.

This is my all time favorite Hank the Cowdog book! I love Madam Moonshine and Wallace and Junior. It's witty and humorous throughout the book. I'm impatiently waiting for #34 to come out. I recomend any of these books to children and adult alike.