Deep Shadows

This slam-bang thrill ride is the latest Doc Ford adventure by Randy Wayne White and I'm voting for best. Ford, sidekick Tomklinson, tough old Arlis Futch and a troubled Indian teenager leave Sanibel Island on an inland expeditiuon to search for Batista's missing treasure at the bottom of a Florida lake. What they find there is danger and deadly when they encounter a pair of runaway felons and a lake full of mysterious creatures. 90% of the story unfolds in a two-hour time span, much of it underwater and every minute of it perilous. Lots of info about scuba diving and marine biology. I could hardly put this one down.

Also watched The Way We Get By about the veterans who greet the incoming and outgoing troops at the Bangor Airport. It was sad and touching and heartwarming. I hate the war, but bless those young men and women - and these elderly people who are determined to make them feel appreciated.

I can write poetry.

The New Poet Laureate of Smith's Tavern, wearing my crown.

Wine Country

Erica Spindler wrote a good one here in Blood Vines, a whodunit set in the CA wine country and beginning with the discovery of a 25-year-old body - of an infant uncovered in an old grape planting. Plenty of suspects, secrets and motives. Fast read.

The Vogels

Herb and Dorothy (dvd - documentary)
Off the book record, I watched Dorothy and Herb today, a documentary about the librarian and postal clerk who married in the 60’s and starting buying cheap art. The Vogels became legends in the art world as their collection of modern art grew to astronomical proportions. They eventually donated the priceless collection to the National Gallery (which could not accommodate the entire body of works). Truly an interesting tale for the art appreciator. Also cat lovers, they Vogels had a flame point Himalayan who was so like my Oliver it brought tears to my eyes. I could feel my hands caressing him. Truly interesting story.

Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman
Although this got good reviews, I found it to be plodding. I started because of the subject matter – two eleven year-olds who kidnap and murder an infant – and finished just to find out why they had done it, but it was disappointing.

Never Look Away by Linwood Barkley

I raced through this one, too. David Harwood's wife Jan disappears on a trip to a Lake George amusement park (6 Flags?)and his steadfast love for her makes him oblivious to the mounting evidence that not only was she not who she appeared, but that she skillfully framed him for her murder. THis plot was cleverly constructed, out of the ordinary, and ties up all the loose ends successfully. It was a true thriller and a non-stop rainy day read. I never did wash the kitchen floor.

30+ on tap

I am such a book hog. I have 30 - yes, more than 30 - books checked out to read, a mix of fiction and non-fiction, true crime and poetry, history, political, health and eating, dogs, favorite authors, recommends. I can't seem to pass one by. I am so afraid that someone else might grab something that looks interesting and I'd miss out somehow on reading it, that I just keep checking out and checking out. I am a madwoman. Well, this is the weekend I must sort and return all but the most desirable. Control, control.

Finally got and quickly read Vincent Zandri's Moonlight Falls. He has a strong new protagonist, Richard Moonlight(!), an ex-cop in trouble with the cops after an illicit sex affair with the alluring and beautiful Scarlet Montana, his ex-cop boss' now dead wife. Was it suicide, accident, did Moonlight kill her, or did the husband? Zandri writes very readable prose, full of twists and turns and set right here in good old Smallabany, which is fun. Zandri seems to be making ripples to a much larger audience than ever. Lots of promotion and good press going on.

Also finished Caught, another fast read by Harlan Coban who is the best at crime fiction. An attractive television reporter, a widow with an engaging teenage son, is being upstaged by a younger rival and then fired after outing a pedophile on national tv. The cops are investigating him in the disappearance of a high school girl when he is beaten and murdered and Wendy begins to question his guilt. The plot thickens, as they say, with the introduction of the Father's Club, a group of unemployed guys who hang out at a coffeshop. Everybody has secrets. Nobody writes a more entertaining tale than Coban. Whipped through this one and want more.

No Golden Retrievers

David Rosenfelt, my Andy Carpenter/golden retriever guy has produced a winner with another protagonist, Chris Turley, a newspaper journalist who is suddenly catapulted into the limelight when targeted by a madman to be the recipient of the killer's communications. But is there a special reason why Chris was chosen? Is there a connection between them that no one can figure out? Chris finds the FBI is doubting his veracity and considering that he might be the killer. As the reign of terror continues unchecked, Chris' life comes literally Down to the Wire.

Also really enjoyed Liar's Anonymous. Jessie Dancing, living under an alias, is one of the voices on an auto GPS system. When she answers an emergency call, she hears a frightening plea for help. Then the man in the car is found murdered, and because Jessie has been tried and acquited of a murder she actually committed, she becomes a suspect in the investigation.

Steven Cannell and James T. Hall

When Shane Scully was growing up abandoned in Huntington House, Walter "Pop" Dix became the closest thing to a father he would know. Early mornings at the beach, Dix would shepherd six youngsters out into the surf and give them life lessons along with teaching them how to ride the waves. Scully grew up to lead a successful life as a police detective with a smart, beautiful wife and a great son, but, ashamed of his painful beginnings, turned his back on the early years and the love he felt for the man who meant so much to him. When he learned that Pop had committed suicide, Scully was overwhelmed with remorse and guilt, especially when he found out that Dix had requested that Scully be one of his pallbearers. The other chosen five turn out to be colorful and well drawn characters whose determination to prove Pop's death was not a suicide bonds them in a fast moving plot. Stephen Cannell has been one of my favorite authors for years and I raced through this novel with characteristic enthusiasm. The Pallbearers is a definite winner.

I love Florida mysteries and I am fond of James Hall’s protagonist Thorn and his trusty sidekick Sugarman, a black/white relationship similar to Robert Parker's Spenser and Hawk. Thorn is abducted from his own ranch and spends a portion of the book trapped in a deserted pit terrorized by a pair of psychotics, resulting from his philanthropic attempt to designate a huge tract of Florida land as forever wild while Sugar and Thorn’s woman Rusty try to track him down. The Silencer is well worth a read.

I have read other Tami Hoags

but don't remember enjoying them as much as this one, Deeper than the Dead. Kept me guessing til almost the end. Semi-retired FBI profiler falls for school teacher involved in a gruesome set of torture murders when some of her students find a body. Suspects include some of the kids' parents, including a bad cop. Family secrets unfold and the kids are traumatized. Very readable.

Trying to catch up

I'll never catch up, but here are the good vacation books I just read in FLorida. More Vincent Zandri, Albany author with a great PI named Jack Marconi, plots good stories in familiar locations which I like. In Godchild, Marconi accepts the challenge of rescuing a beautiful journalist from a Mexican prison in the hopes that it is a connection to the man who killed his wife. Drug running, double crossing, and danger ensue to a satisfying and surprise conclusion. You can keep track of Zandri on Facebook and at local book signings of his newest book Moonlight Falls, which I haven't read yet.
Sailed through Dirt by Sean Doolittle, an author I learned about through Marcus Sakey (one of my new favorite who you can also follow on FB). This one starts off with a bang and never lets you off the hook as it romps through an expose of the funeral industry and its chicanery. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Involuntary Madness was more difficult to get through. Written by Nora VIncent, the lesbian who fed you the male perspective on women and dating by disguising herself and living as a guy for over a year and writing about it in Self-Made Man. Vincent subsequently suffered a breakdown and writes of her several committments to mental health facilities. Interesting. Enlightening. Depressing.
Finally got around to reading Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella, which I had been meaning to read for years. It was a lighthearted gavort through the life of an empty-headed and superficial financial writer who can't control her own finances. I was quite fascinated by the woman's thought processes as she rewards herself with chocolate biscuits, lattes and cashmere sweaters, both to celebrate happy occasions and cheer herself up through hard times. Perfect beach read because you can doze off in the middle and not miss much. Don't think I'll waste time on another Kinsella, but this one was fun.
The last one I read on the plane home was another winner. PJ Parish, who is actually a pair of sisters, tempted me into buying The Little Death (we all know what that is, don't we?. It sucked me right in and I read straight thru getting my roots touched up today. The snooty women of Palm Beach are screwing the beach boys while their husbands are out making the big bucks. Problem: the gigolos are turning up dead in nasty ways, and three down-and-out investigators are attempting to solve the crimes. It was a great read and I am now going to finish the last chapter before bed and back to work tomorrow.

Something worth reviewing

Yes, yes, at last a book worth writing about - The First Rule by Robert Crais. I love Joe Pike and Elvis Cole and they have help in this one from Jon Stone, also a good character. Pike is out for revenge when his old mercenary friend Frank Meyer is murdered in his own home with his entire family. Altho he has not seen Frank in twelve years, the old loyalties are strong. The story leads to a complex web of intrigue which involves a Serbian mob, a kidnapped baby, a shipment of illegal guns and the mystery man responsible for the deaths, villain Michael Darko. The action is fast and Pike is superb, as always, and demonstrates an usual tenderness for the kidnapped boy. After two months of mediocre reading, finally a good one.

I just remembered Rainwater by Sara Dallas which I did read earlier this year and loved. It was a memorable book about a single mother in the 1930s who takes in a remarkable boarder who changes her life and the life of her autistic son.

A Couple in December

Relentless struck me as kind of a Christmas story although the holiday is not mentioned in the novel. Grady Adams and his Irish wolfhound Merlin discover a pair of unidentifiable creatures in a meadow near their home. When the pair appear to be stalking their house, Grady calls his friend, the local vet, to find out what they are, and finds her as baffled as he is. Unfortunately for all, the idiots at Homeland Security catch wind of the amazing creatures and launch a full out takeover, endangering the future of what is the discovery of the millenium. This is not Koontz' best writing, some iffy and seemingly irrelevant subplots, but real suspenseful moments and an imaginative and delightful tale. I vote yes.

I also just read the new bio by - yes - Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) with a collaborator whose name I can't remember. Fascinated as I have been for over 30 years with the professional wrestling world, I was very interested in the private persona of this mega superstar and this seemed to be a fairly honest portrayal of his, including his drug and steroid usage, and his failings as a father. It was enlightening and a real easy read. My confession here includes that I have also read the bio of Mick Foley, aka Mankind, and found that quite astonishing.

I could elevate my reading matter a little, I guess, as I have Rainwater, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Three Cups of Tea all sitting on my coffee table waiting for me, but I am distracted with other things such as online shopping. I am waiting for the coffee to brew and must get on with the Christmas wrapping.

Two good ones

I love Andy Carpenter because Andy loves dogs and all the books are dog-centered. Andy is a rich lazy lawyer who is forced to accept a pro-bono case involving the custody of a show quality (and endearingly rascally) Bernese Mountain dog. It turns into a murder whodunit when one of the combatants is exploded and the other, her stepson, is accused of killing her. New Tricks is the name of this book, but any of the David Rosenfelt series is good, light and very readable. Andy's girlfriend, Jen, also plays a role in this one when she is shot and nearly dies when playing with the dog.

Smokey Barrett, the detective badly scarred from the encounter with a killer who murdered her beloved husband and daughter a few books ago, is right on with another serial kidnapping/lobotomizing killer who preys on men in chat rooms who hate their wives. One of the wives, who has been missing for 8 years, is dumped out of a car on the beach where Smokey is celebrating her friend Callie's wedding. Good plotting and a reassuring love story as Smokey's future begins to look brighter. Cody MacFadyen is a more serious and in-depth writer than Rosenfelt and I love Smokey and her cast of characters. Title is Abandoned.

Also in the middle of a good tattoo book called Ink. I learning a lot.

November drags on

Boy, this tattoo business has really cut down on my reading time. I'm going to tattoo Lauren's butterfly today. It is raining and dreary. Eli doesn't even want to go out. The siding guys just picked up their tools and left. I guess there's no work going on today. It's a good reading day.

The Last Child was a good one, my daughter particularly loved it, with an out-of-the-ordinary plot, interesting characters and action, a good cop, bad cop, abusive lover, a messed up teenager, an abducted 12-year old, a little love story and pedophilia, if you can stomach that.

I also read the newest Sara Paretsky, Hardball, which is a V.I. Warshawski, mixing politics, a civil rights murder and a black man who has been missing since the 60's, who Vic is searching for on behalf of his dying aunt. Paretsky is one of those writers who do not continuously churn out popcorn books, which leads to more thoughtful plots and descriptions. And smaller print. Not good for reading in bed.

Now reading about a bombing in the Mall of America with heroine Maggie O'Donnell, which I am enjoying, although I find the short chapters and back and forth settings a little disconcerting. Maybe I'll get back under the covers this afternoon and try to finish it. I have a real pileup of books waiting for me. Brought home Three Cups of Tea on the strong recommendation of Suzanne.

I'm bad

Not even going to try to catch up on the month of reading I've missed blogging. The last two weeks have been all tattoo school. I've read one book - Nine Dragons, which took Harry Bosch to Singapore to rescue his daughter Maddie. Eleanor, his ex, is killed. Love Michael Connelly but this was not one of my favorites, don't know why. I can't even remember the others, altho I know there was at least one good one. I'll think of it. Oh, I guess it was Robert Parker's new Spenser, The Professional. Now started The Last Child, about an unusual kid trying to find his abducted sister who has been missing for a year.

Hunter Thompson

I've been really bad about blogging my reads. Busy, busy, but no excuse. It's been so long, I've forgotten half of what I've been reading. I did another Chelsea Cain, Evil at Heart, continuing Gretched Lowell's wicked pursuit of poor Archie, who is in a mental health facility recovering from more torture. And it goes on. My good book for today is Hell's Angels by Hunter Thompson, which I tracked down following the Gonzo movie. All you ever wanted to know about the group circa the 60's when Thompson spent a year in their midst. Lots of interesting stuff, both confirming and refuting the wild tales that have circulated about them. My daughter spent last weekend at a motorcycle convention in the Catskills and told me some good stories, piqued my curiosity. I now want to find an update, wondering how the group has changed in the new century.

A Movie P.S.

Also this weekend, between following the coverage of the Kennedy funeral which I found sad and moving, I sandwiched in two dvds. The first was Gonzo, the bio of Hunter S. Thompson. I don't generally do biographies, but was curious about him because my 20-year-old grandson read his book about the Hells Angels and has been talking about him. Thompson was a manic, freaky, creative, doomed journalist who hung out with both the HAs and the Merry Pranksters in the 60s. It was a good way to pass a very rainy afternoon.

After Gonzo, I watched Before the Fall, which I had brought home from the library and was thinking about returning unwatched. What changed my mind was another grandson. This one, at age twelve, had watched it and told me how good it was (despite the subtitles). He was right. A German teenager in 1942 runs away from home and forges his father's signature on the application to a school which trains young men to fight for the Fatherland. The young man is a talented boxer who is eagerly welcomed into the organization. His zeal and naivity is soon compromised by the life he is forced to live and the lessons he is expected to accept without question. It is both a hope and a tragedy.

Child 44

I almost rejected this book before I started it. I admit it - I have trouble with Russian names. I ploughed my way through all the Russian classics as a young woman and enjoyed them tremendously. After that, I (unconsciously?) avoided them because the names confuse me. Child 44 reminded me of that. How glad I am that I did not let it deter me, because once I got into it, I was mesmerized. Set in the period of Stalin's iron-handed rule and prodigiously researched by this first time novelist, Tom Rob Smith, I was surprised at what I learned that I did not realize. This author was gifted in his ability to draw the reader into the thought processes of the era and characters, whose lives were so controlled by the State that it made Hitler's Germany look mild by comparison. Child 44 is, among other things, a murder mystery. Scores of children have been victim to a serial killer, a fact that the government refuses to acknowledge because there is no such crime in a police state. The murders are all explained away as aberrations. One man refuses to conform to this belief, however, and his loses the life that he has worked for and valued because he fights to prove the truth. It is an amazing story, made more so by the idea that this kind of thinking exists and is promulgated by those in authority, who have such control over the lives of their citizens. It left me open-mouthed in places and even a little frightened. It is a story well worth reading, although, yes, I did struggle in spots to keep the characters straight.

CJ Box and Linwood Barclay

If you are a fan of Joe Pickett, the game warden hero, you'll recognize April, his foster child, who was killed. Well, April appears to have turned up in Zero Down via text message to Joe's daughter Sheridan and the whole family wants to find her, if indeed, she exists. How could this have happened? Good question and it seems pretty unlikely, but the story is good and very readable as always. Joe's friend, the fugitive falconer Nate, is part of the action, as well as a pitiable bad guy, and his despicable son, who has taken a young blonde runaway under his wing. Is it April?

I should add Barclay to my list of authors to watch as he has written some good ones. Another disappearing daughter, this time Tim Blakes's 17-year-old Sydney. While staying with her divorced dad for the summer, Tim discovers Syd has been lying to him about where she works, and he is consumed with the quest to track her down when she doesn't come home. Her bloody car is located and someone sends Tim on a goose chase across the country following a lead while they trash his house and plant cocaine there. I'll be finishing this one today.

The end - this was a definite winner (titled Fear The Worst). The action never stopped and the ending revealed a surprising and emotional twist.

Misc. Poetry

Finally got around today to catching up on some poetry books I brought home from VPL. I love Billy Collins and found a book of his on my shelf that I had forgotten about. My favorite of his is Ballistics which I got as a gift from my son, bless him. Also enjoy Mark Strand, who has some of the best one-liners I've read. Check out the blog I write for the Every Other Thursday Night Poets (www.Thursdaypoets.blogspot.com) for some quotes. I read some Lucille Clifton who I had the pleasure of hearing at Russell Sage a couple of years ago. I also had The Tin Horn, a new anthology, and Charles Simic's Walking the Black Cat. I now have a poem in my head that I will write tonight, inspiration permitting. That's what hearing others' poetry does for a writer. That is why every poet needs a support group. To get the brain stimulated. So, I'm returning my overdues tomorrow and you can all check them out. In the meantime, the two novels I have going are another Don Winslow and Ravens, by a new author. I'll have to let you know.