A new book arrived today from The Book Depository UK. I also finished a book yesterday. I hope to finish one more at least before the end of the month, maybe, just maybe two, but I'm not holding my breath on that.
I'll update the new book and the book I just finished and then I'll continue with my ongoing look at the Mystery genre with Part 10 of the American PI sub-genre.
New Book
"In a world half of light, half of darkness, where science and magic strive for dominance, there dwells a magical being who is friendly with neither side. Jack, of the realm of shadows, is a thief who is unjustly punished. So he embarks on a vendetta. He wanders through strange realms, encountering witches, vampires, and, finally, his worst enemy: the Lord of Bats. He consults his friend Morningstar, a great dark angel. He is pursued by a monstrous creature called the Borshin. But to reveal any more would be to spoil some of the mind-boggling surprises Jack of Shadows has in store. First published in 1971 and long out-of-print, Jack of Shadows is one of fantasy master Roger Zelazny's most profound and mysterious books."
Just Finished
"The Death Of Grass by John Christopher was written in 1956 and in some ways reminds me of John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids and The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
It's a grim, tense dystopic story. A virus, the Chung Li virus, has affected the grasses (read rice, grass, etc) of China and other Asian countries. The story is told from Britain, where the main group that we will follow, track the disaster that is occurring from the comfort of their lives. 100's of millions are dying in China, there are riots, panic. John and David Custance and John's friend Roger Buckley follow the news and try to prepare for the future. Roger is a government spin doctor so has inside information and tries to guide John. David lives in a valley in northern England and wonders what to do with his grain crops.
Of course, efforts to contain the virus fail and threaten the whole world. This begins a journey by John and Roger and their families to get to David's sanctuary. For the shortness of the story, there is a lot of impact and Christopher packs a lot of punch into the story. The characters are transformed by the events and once again Christopher tries, and I think successfully, to show their attitudes and how they are forced to change them to the new situation.
Everything happens in a very short time frame once the disaster strikes but don't let that fool you. The story is tense, at times scary and will leave you somewhat uncomfortable. Very powerful and worth reading. (4.5 stars)"
My Ongoing Look at the Mystery Genre - American PI's Part 10
In my last entry I looked at Jane Haddam's Gregor Demarkian mystery series. In this entry I'll look at a new author and one of the classics of the noir genre.
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| Steve Hamilton |
"Other than the bullet lodged near his heart, former Detroit cop Alex McKnight thought he had put the nightmare of his partner’s death and his own near-fatal injury behind him. After all, the man convicted of the crimes has been locked away for years. But in the small town of Paradise, Michigan, where McKnight has traded his badge for a cabin in the woods, a murderer with the same unmistakable trademarks appears to be back. McKnight can’t understand who else would know the intimate details of the old murders. And it seems like it’ll be a frozen day in Hell before McKnight can unravel truth from deception in a town that’s anything but Paradise."
"Ex-cop and sometime-P.I. Alex McKnight endures the bitter winter of Michigan's Upper Peninsula in his log cabin with warm fires and cold Molsons. When Dorothy Parrish, a young Ojibwa woman asks him for shelter from her violent boyfriend, McKnight agrees. But after secreting her in one of his cabins, he finds her gone the next morning. McKnight suspects vicious, hockey-playing Lonnie Bruckman of abducting the woman, but his search for her brings on more suspects, bruising encounters, and a thickening web of crime, all obscured by the relentless whiplash of brutal snowstorms. From the secret world of the Ojibwa reservation to the Canadian border and deep into the silent woods, someone is out to kill--and McKnight is driving right into the line of fire..."
"Alex McKnight isn't a man with many friends, but the few he has know they're never alone in a fix. So when Vinnie LeBlanc asks for his help in taking a trip deep into Canada in search of his missing brother, he knows he can count on Alex. His brother had taken a job as a hunting guide for a rough crew of Detroit "businessmen." The group was due back days ago, yet there's been no sign of them, and there's mounting evidence of something odd about their disappearing act. The trackless forests of northern Ontario keep many secrets, but none more shocking than the one that Alex is about to uncover. And the more closely Alex looks for answers, the more questions there become."
The remaining books in this series are -
- The Hunting Wind (2002)
- North of Nowhere (2003)
- Blood is the Sky (2004)
- Ice Run (2005)
- A Stolen Season (2006)
- Beneath the Book Tower (2011)
- Misery Bay (2011)
- Die a Stranger (2012)
- Let it Burn (2013)
- Dead Man Running (2018)
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| Dashiell Hammett |
"I've read before and was very happy to enjoy as much again this time. Dashiell Hammett has produced an excellent example of a hard-boiled mystery and Sam Spade is the penultimate gumshoe, staying one step ahead of trouble and playing off the baddies against each other. It's a classic mystery, turned into an excellent movie by John Huston, one of Humphrey Bogart's best movies. A great cast of characters, from Brigid O'Shaugnessy to Joel Cairo and Kasper Gutman, through his faithful, lovely secretary, Effie Perine. A story that everyone should read and marvel about. (5 stars)
The remaining Sam Spade books are -
- A Man Called Spade (1932)
- Too Many Have Lived (1932)
- They Only Hang you Once (1932)
- A Knife Will Cut for Anybody (published posthumously 2013)
Well there you go, some possible reading material to start your weekend. Enjoy!
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