Friday, August 24, 2012

Wondrous Return of Bill Crider and Charlie Stella

Charlie Stella

Rough Riders by Charlie Stella.  Crook working as FBI informant to bust heroin ring running to North Dakota. Crook teams with an Air Force Colonel to smuggle in dope from Afghanistan.  Ignore Stella's self-deprecation and modesty over his writing skill; he puts out some great novels.

Bill Crider

Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen by Bill Crider.  More murder in Blacklin County. Someone should make a gazetteer of the County and put it online.  I'm not sure if people count the Sheriff Dan Rhodes books count as "cozies" or not.  (A cozy is a murder mystery with barely any blood and little to no cursing and lots of Dr. Pepper.)

Other, Lesser Arrivals

Orchardist by Amanda Copland.  The Pacific Northwest in 1900 and a solitary orchard owner, William, takes in two pregnant teenagers.  This had a big, fancy review so I ordered it.

Bones Are Forever by Kathy Reichs.  More murder investigation.  I placed a hold on this title for someone yesterday.  This series entry is set in Montreal. I really enjoyed my visit to Montreal.  I've written on here before how after my trip there my wife and I were going to move there.  I was only half-kidding about the move.  I therefore dislike Reichs out of spite.

A Sunless Sea by Anne Perry.  Popular Perry produces piddling pablum.  Well, not really.  I hear Perry writes neat stuff but that alliteration just came to me.

Last to Die by Tess Gerritsen.  Gerritsen seems like a nice lady.  I watched a couple episodes of the TV version of this series.  The automated spelling check does not like Gerritsen's name.

NonFiction

The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House by Edward Klein.  I often skip many political books because so many are flash in the pan and gone in a month.  I've been focusinG on buying more since people like to read them.

Visiting Tom: a man, a highway, and the road to roughneck grace by Michael Perry.  Perry is running out of things to write about with books on pigs, chickens, trucks and neighbors.  Up next is 250 pages on hair dryers.  Perry is an exceptionally good speaker and well worth your time to drive and listen to.  We have a couple of his performances on CD.  Plus his band on CD.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Bartender King's Black Mask

Fiction

Wards of Faeire: Dark Legacy of Shannara by Terry Brooks.  Elves.  Magic.  Swords.

By Starlight by Dorothy Garlock.  Obviously a romance.  Depression era gal runs speakeasy and recently returned love interest unable to tell her that he is a revenuer.

Trickster's Point by William Kent Krueger.  Cork O'Connor is set-up as the murderer of his pal, the future Governor of Minnesota.

BARTENDER'S TALE BY iVAN dOIG.  mY caps LOCK IS ON.

AudioBooks on CD

Last Victim by Karen Robards.  13.6 hours on 11 CDs.  Some psychic criminal pathologist.

Black Mask Stories edited by Otto Penzler.  6.5 hours on 6 CDs.  Crime fiction from the '30s.

Black Mask Stories edited by Otto Penzler.  7 hours on 6 CDs.  More crime fiction from the '30s.  Or '20s. Or whatever.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  19 hours on 15 CDs.  Flynn's other two novels were quite good.

The Stand by Stephen King.  47.83 hours on 37 CDs.  The big dog of post-apocolyptic books.