Goodbye, 2020

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy New Year!  Here's hoping for a happier and healthier 2021 filled with all manner of great books, movies, and binge-worthy TV shows- in other words all the stuff we like to talk about on this blog. And let's hope we enjoy all those these because we want to, not because we'll still be quarantined in our homes and can only do those things!

And I'll also look forward to re-emphasizing the Taproom part of this blog's name in the coming year and more regularly discuss the fun world of adult beverages again.  Tune in to see if I actually start doing that!

Once again, Happy New Year!

Dark yet fun story

Here's an easygoing review for a book starring an easygoing character.  Dark of the Moon is the first book in John Sanford's Virgil Flowers series, which I'm finally starting. Virgil is a laid-back, easygoing guy who like who likes women, bars, and fishing. And though redneck would be taking the description too far, Virgil definitely does have a, let's say, a relaxed, country sensibility.

And that quality often drives his law-enforcement colleagues crazy, until they are reminded that Virgil, once he gets started on a case, is sharp as a tack, tracking a solution like a barracuda searching prey (Virgil, by the way, often appears as a supporting character in Mr. Sandford's Prey series, starring police investigator Lucas Davenport). You don't want Virgil Flowers sniffing around, no matter how relaxed he may appear, if you don't want him to find out about something you did.

Dark of the Moon finds Virgil investigating a couple of murders in a small community, and then several more murders that occur shortly after he arrives in town to investigate (the first of the additional murders, with arson thrown in to boot, occurs the very night Virgil hits town to investigate the initial murders). As well as the interesting case he's working on, Dark of the Moon also entertains with colorful local politics and a romance or two- one for Virgil, and one for the sheriff assisting him. And yes, a double date is thrown into the mix during some downtime.

Anyway, after enjoying Virgil's presence as an entertaining supporting player in the Prey series over the years, it was great to see that he can ably occupy the spotlight in his own series, the other entries of which I'll look forward to checking out in 2021.

Hard epilogue

All Kinds of Ugly, the 13th and final (for now) book in the recently-reissued 1970's Hardman action series, was a terrific end to the series I've been reading for the past year or so. Thanks to Brash Books, this long-out-of-print series by the late Ralph Dennis is now available to a new generation of thriller fans and All Kinds of Ugly ends it on a high note.

In some ways, the most recent book is the best in the series, because it's deeper, more serious and introspective, and willing to take on deeper, more melancholy themes than the other entries.  The prose is richer and more descriptive, too.  

However, in some ways, this tale of unofficial P.I. Jim Hardman searching for an old millionaire's missing grandson in London is not as good as the others because it's mostly missing the fun banter between Hardman and his friend and associate Hump Evans and a lot of the action and danger we're used to enjoying.

But those elements not being a big part of this book doesn't mean it's somehow flawed, but simply that the story being told this time out is a bit different. It's not the usual fun team up between Hardman and Hump as they solve a case in around 1970's Atlanta.  This is Hardman on his own in London as he's simultaneously attempting to get over some personal problems.  It's a dark, more serious P.I. story that actually would make for a nice, moody film.  I'm just glad we also have all those lighter, more fun Hardman adventures, too (Atlanta Deathwatch is the first book).

This most recent Hardman novel was completed by author and Brash books head Lee Goldberg, who found an unpublished non-Hardman novel that (as he convincingly demonstrates in an afterword) most likely began life as a Hardman book that Dennis then altered into a standalone novel with different characters but then abandoned. Goldberg then skillfully converted the book back into a Hardman, and a very good one.

And though the book feels like a natural end to the series, I wouldn't mind seeing more of Jim Hardman and Hump Evans (who, though largely absent this time, still has a couple of memorable scenes). After all, though Jim seems to be moving on to bigger and better things as the book closes, an occasional trip back into the muck of gritty P.I. work might not be out of the question. Might be a fun thing for Mr. Goldberg or one of his colleagues to think about.

But, if things are over, these 13 Hardman novels have been a great ride.

I'll murderlize you!

Murderlized, by Max Allan Collins and frequent collaborator Matthew V. Clemens, reminded me a lot of the movie Grindhouse.  That film, also by two frequent collaborators, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, celebrated the violent, sexy, over-the top world of drive-in cinema of years past: tales of rough men and beautiful, deadly women, monsters human and otherwise, extreme violence, and sexy hijinks that barely got the "R" rating it required for exhibition. 

Most of the stories in this fun collection reminded me of Grindhouse and the movies it paid tribute to, and even the couple of the more traditional Collins/Clemens crime thriller stories included here are still a little out there.

The lead story, for example, Murderlized, is a nice piece of historical crime fiction, except of all people the real-life person trying to solve a murder is Moe Howard of The Three Stooges. And that's one of the more normal stories.  From there we move onto stories about a werewolf terrorizing a sex-starved wife in the Bayou, a vampire P.I. taking on a particularly formidable serial killer, and a James Bond-type figure whose sexy night with his wife keeps getting interrupted by femme fatales from his spy career who want to bed him down, too, and- oh, yes- then kill him.  All over the top, but intentionally so, making all of them a lot of fun. 

A couple of down to earth crime stories, of both the historical fiction and modern crime investigation variety, are also entertaining.  But it's the crazy stuff that really shines, in part because it's fun to see examples of Collins and Clemens working ousidet of their usual, more polished and disciplined comfort zones.

Bookending these day-glo stories of supernatural monsters hiding in the fog, human monsters who are even scarier, and normal but clueless men being helplessly manipulated by gorgeous women, is an efficient, informative introduction on how the Collins/Clemens collaborative relationship came about and an index telling us where the stories originally appeared.  Both are interesting and helpful.  But it's the stories with all their craziness that you'll remember.  Grab some popcorn and curl up with them one night.

 

Trick or Treat

It's Halloween time, so I thought you might like a suggestion or two about something scary to watch, as if the current times weren't scary enough.  Oh, well, what's a few more scares, right?

The other day I watched The Blackcoat's Daughter on Netflix and found it well worth my time. Now streaming on Netflix, this 2015 slow-burn horror film is beautifully shot and acted, only occasionally outright scary, and leaves it up to the viewer to piece together exactly what happened when it's over. 

I often find movies like that somewhat frustrating, but this tale of two girls stranded alone at their boarding school during a semester break because both girls' sets of parents were delayed in picking them up is so well crafted and has such gorgeous cinematography and lighting that I just ate it up. Besides, it's not too hard to figure out what happened.  And, at only a little over 90 minutes, the movie doesn't overstay its welcome.

If you'd like something a little more rollercoaster-ride scary, without all the arty ambiguity, try out the 2006 version of The Hills Have Eyes, now showing on HBO. Mutated townspeople hiding out in the desert in the American Southwest terrorize a family when their RV breaks down in that same desert (creepily, the RV is actually sabotaged by those who want to make an offering to the mutants).  It's a pretty brutal movie, but also exhilarating and exciting when the family members refuse to just get picked off one by one and start to fight back.  It's a fast, fun, and scary 90 minutes or so.  HBO is also offering the sequel, The Hills Have Eyes 2, and that's okay, too, but not as tense and involving as the first. The sequel features an army unit sent into the desert to take on the mutant threat.

Anyway, there are tons of other horror films out there now to stream at the moment, so I'm sure you'll find something else appropriate to the season, if these suggestions don't wow you. But whatever you end up watching, I hope the scares of a good Halloween movie will nicely distract you for a while from all the real-life scares we're inundated with every day. Happy Halloween!

Discovering Scudder

Thanks to a new deal at Audible.com, which now lets members access a vast library of older titles in addition to the one book a month its basic membership previously allowed, I've been getting into some new series I've always meant to check out.  In particular, lately I've really been enjoying Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series.

With a character name like "Scudder", I always thought this series was about a "tough guy" detective who engaged in fisticuffs, gun play, and all that gritty P.I. stuff. But no, Matthew Scudder is an introspective type, who quietly interviews those involved in the cases we accepts, then thinks about those interviews, usually over a drink or two in a quiet bar, while he puts the pieces together.

It's almost like author Block writes his Scudder novels (well, at least the first three I've experienced so far) as if they were meant to be adapted into community theater productions with limited budgets.  There are no action scenes, no jet setting, nothing "big".  The first three books are basically Matthew Scudder getting his case, interviewing people in their offices, apartments, or on the phone, then finally figuring things out and confronting whodunit. And no, despite the talkiness, none of this is dull. These efficient little novels move along nicely and the cases feature interesting puzzles.

Two other elements were also compelling in the first novel, The Sins of the Fathers, and the two follow-ups I've read (actually, listened to) so far. Scudder himself is an interesting guy who carries some guilt on his shoulders from his time on the police force (with him possibly being too hard on himself), and that guilt informs his musing and mulling over his cases.  The other thing is that, despite the general quietness of the books and the Scudder charcter himself, Matthew Scudder is a kind of avenging angel who in his own way demands eye-for-an-eye justice from those he ultimately confronts with their crimes, and he does so in ways that can make you feel bad for the accused, even if what they did in the first place was pretty bad. But again, his retributions, memorable as they are, are done in quiet, introspective ways. That's not something I've seen a lot in other detective novels.

I'm glad I'm finally getting into this series that's been around since the early 1970's.  I have a feeling that as I move along it's going to go into some intertesting places.

 

When dads read books...

On this fine September day, here are a few "dad jokes" about our favorite pastime of reading.

I read a thriller in Braille. You can really feel the suspense.

I read a book about submarine construction. It was riveting.

I'm reading a book about adhesives. It has me glued to my seat.

I've written a book on penguins. In hindsight, using paper would have been better.

My friend was recently seriously hurt when a huge pile of books fell on him. Of course, he only had his shelf to blame.

Whenever I read a comic book I always tear the last page out. I like to draw my own conclusions.

I saw a book on how to resolve 50% of your problems, so I bought two.

That's it for now. Enjoy these nice autumn days!

No grudge here

It's nice to have Sunny Randall back again. Starting with Blood Feud last year, the late Robert B. Parker's intrepid female detective was the last of his series characters to get continuation novels after Mr. Parker's passing in 2010. But with Mike Lupica at the helm, we're finally getting more of Sunny and her new adventures have been solid.

For the record, I'm not against new writers being commissioned to produce new novels in a series after the original author passes away.  After all, don't we all continue watching a favorite TV show even though writers, showrunners, and even stars come and go?  The only reason to leave is if the stories aren't good anymore. End of disclaimer,

And, as said, Mr. Lupica's Sunny Randall stories have certainly been entertaining and exciting so far, with Sunny being the same Sunny we remember from Mr. Parker's half dozen or so Sunny novels.  What always made Sunny interesting were her opposing, contradictory qualities, and how she reconciles them over the course of the novels.  She's dangerous and tough but also revels in being girly and feminine.  She won't let men push her around or decide things for her, but- when she chooses to- she is not opposed to being vulnerable and and wanting to be taken care of by the men in her life.  And, often the most fun, even though she is always fiercely loyal to her current romantic interest (in this case, her ex-husband Richie) she is not above flirting and showing interest in other men who cross her path, and even second guessing who should actually be her current romantic interest.

Mr. Lupica has fun with all of the above, while also delivering a cool thriller plot once again (his first Sunny book was the engaging Blood Feud).  This time Sunny is hired by her sometimes underworld ally Tony Marcus, who wants Sunny to find his missing girlfriend and business associate. Does Tony want to find his lady love Lisa purely for the sentimental reasons he tells Sunny, or is he worried the missing woman might know a little too much about his illegal business dealings and thus needs to be dealt with in some way?  As there are indications that the woman might be in real trouble, Sunny takes the case, but then has to decide just how much to tell Tony about her progress.

Grudge Match (the full title is Robert B. Parker's Grudge Match, in tribute to the character's creator) was a lot of fun and I look forward to future Sunny Randall novels by Mike Lupica.  The author, by the way, will also be writing Mr. Parker's Jesse Stone series for the time being, too. His first novel in that series will be Fool's Paradise, which will be out before the end of the year.  I hope it's not revealing too much to say that, based on Grudge Match, our gal Sunny may actually put in an appearance in Mr. Lupica's first Stone novel, too!

Thrillers and the pandemic

Even though we're still well under a year into the current pandemic, fictional works incorporating quarantine, social distancing, etc. have already started to appear, though mostly in the form of shorter audiobook productions. Inside Jobs by Ben H. Winters was pretty good, consisting of a few short crime thrillers, all incorporating or complicated by the Covid 19 situation.

Even better was The Cuckoo's Cry by Caroline Overington, a 4-plus hour Audible Original.  Just released, it involves pleasant senior citizen Don Barlow being suddenly confronted by the 16 year old granddaughter he never knew he had, courtesy of a youthful indiscretion occurring long before Don's marriage. After the initial surprise, widower Don is delighted by the company and lets the girl quarantine with him, with Don's grown daughter becoming very suspicious about the girl and her murky past.

Is there more to granddaughter Morgan than meets the eye?  It's well worth listening to find out. While definitely a thriller, the story employs character interaction and themes worthy of a good straight-up drama or literary work.  And the inclusion of the Covid crisis as a backdrop doesn't come off as a gimmick, but an effective detail that enriches the narrative.

The story is also nicely read by Aimee Horne, who navigates the many emotions and moods of Ms. Overington's fast-paced but rich narrative.

Both Inside Jobs and The Cuckoo's Cry are available to download at Audible.  I listened to them free as part of the two Audible originals productions subscribers are allowed to select each month at no cost, but their normal costs are pretty modest if you go that route instead.

Real fast now...

I usually enjoy writing richer, longer reviews (see my "Antiques Ravin'" review a couple of posts down), but it's hot, I'm tired, and the ongoing pandemic is sapping my creative energies.  But short, quickie tips can be fun, too. Here are a few that may lead you to some good entertainment experiences...

Want to watch some creepy horror movies but nothing too gory? Try The Darkness, with Kevin Bacon, on Netflix and Winchester, with Helen Mirren, also on Netflix. Both are PG-13, which means they had to work a little harder for their tension and scares, not just throw in lots of profanity and violence (not that there's anything wrong with a good R-rated horror movie). Anyway, I found both these movies to be nicely creepy with enough good scares to move things along.

The Soho series of mystery novels by Greg Keen continues to entertain. Each one is set in London's Soho district, a major center of dining and nightlife in the UK.  I'm enjoying Soho Angel now.  The first two books are Soho Dead and Soho Ghosts. For whatever reason, these books have been free for me to borrow on my Kindle as part of the Kindle Lending Library. This may be a free program for anybody who has a Kindle for all I know, and not something you have to subscribe to.  Anyway, check out the program and check out this series.  Kenny Gabriel is an engaging investigator, even if he eats, drinks, and smokes too much.

Finally, Stephen King's If It Bleeds presents four new novellas by the master.  All are solid and immersive, and are actually growing in my estimation as I think back on them (even though I liked them just fine as I was reading them). My favorite story is probably the last one, Rat, which is about writer's block, or more precisely, about a writer reveling in the fact that his chronic writer's block and writing-related stress have lifted and he is happily hammering out a new novel like gangbusters.  But is there a price? Anyway, it's always great when Stephen King writes about writing, and this is no exception.  Too lazy to read? Well, pretty much all four of these stories have been announced as future Netflix movies. But heck, try to read the book first if you can.

Anyway, that's it for now. I hope some of this has been helpful.  Be good and we'll talk again soon.

Wear your mask.

I hope everyone is doing the best they can these days to stay positive and to do everything they can to curb the current pandemic. Probably the biggest thing one can do on that last point is to wear a mask, at least when one is indoors in places containing a sizable amount of people. 

As I read somewhere recently, if there was a drug out there that could vastly reduce your chances of getting this virus, we’d all be taking it. But that’s exactly what mask wearing does: greatly reduces to chance of catching the virus, or passing it on if we already have it. But it only works if we all do our part by wearing masks when we’re around other people, especially in close quarters.

This virus is going to be around for a while, so try to see past the inconvenience and minor discomfort of masks and do your part when you’re out on the front lines! End of the lecture for now, and normal posts will shortly follow. But thanks for listening.

Can't resist: Ravin' about Ravin'

Though I usually read more straight-up thriller fare, it's always fun to dive into another entry in the Trash 'n Treasures cozy mystery series, and Antiques Ravin' was no exception.  Written by "Barbara Allan", who is really the husband and wife writing team of Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins, each book features a clever murder mystery set in the world of antiques buying and selling, with said mysteries being tackled and solved by mother and daughter antiques dealers Vivian and Brandy Borne.  Over the dozen or so books in the series so far, the mysteries are always good and the overall stories satisfyingly light and funny, though never so cozy as to totally avoid an occasional wince-inducing murder.  I like that fact, as these give the books some weight.

In fact, I particularly enjoyed Antiques Ravin' because this time the plot was dialed up a little bit more than usual into the "rich and dark" arena and the humor was alternately turned down the tiniest bit to let the meatier story nicely simmer.  Because the murders are modeled after creepy, classic death scenarios in various Edgar Allan Poe stories (and occur during a Poe festival being held in a small, quaint town heavy with antiques dealers, with maybe a David Lynch-like dark underbelly), maybe the authors decided to give the naturally-developing darker mood a long leash.  Whatever the case, I enjoyed the somewhat darker and scarier flavor this time.

But I don't want to overstate: this is, after all, a Trash n' Treasures cozy mystery, so there's a lot of the usual reliably funny banter between the eccentric Vivian and her stylish, put-upon narrator daughter, and a goofy scene here and there as the creatively-staged crimes are investigated.  But I appreciated that the authors resisted the many obvious opportunities for humor that were positioned like low-hanging fruit throughout the story. What do I mean? Well, you see, in this book the happily theatrical, often clumsy, half blind, usually reckless Vivian Borne is now the new county sheriff, thanks to developments in the previous entry in the series.  And that means there must have been many, many comic opportunities arising from the new situation of a woman many think of as crazy now wielding power and able to arrest people as she sees fit.  As make no mistake, there are some funny moments and scenarios mined out of this situation (for example, I loved how Brandy has to drive her drivers license-less mother around to crime scenes, and is introduced by Vivian as her "deputy daughter"), but I liked that overall the authors give Vivian some dignity and credit for some smarts, and some genuine talent for the job.  There are no Inspector Clouseau-like slapstick laughs at Vivian's expense.

If you've never read a book in this series, this one is fine to just pick up and enjoy.  While all the Trash 'n Treasures novels are stand-alone mysteries, some feature soap opera-like developments (always interesting) about Brandy and Vivian's extended family that build from book to book, as well as developments surrounding the other residents of Vivian and Brandy's town of Serenity, Iowa.  This one has none of that, and the story doesn't even take place in Serenity.  It's 100% focused on the mystery at hand, which further makes the already richer and darker story more so.

This review is probably a little long for what is still ultimately a fast-paced, banter-filled, very entertaining cozy, but I haven't talked about this series at length in a while and it's a good series to spread the word about.  Available on Kindle and now in paperback, Antiques Ravin' is well worth your valuable mystery-reading time.
   

Pandemic Theater

Well, the title of this post isn't strictly accurate, because I'm not going to just recommend movies to watch during the current pandemic and lockdown (which is still going strong on April 28, 2020, in case my future self looks back on these posts to reflect on these weird times), but a couple of other things, too.


You probably don't need my recommendation, but if you haven't watched Ozark yet on Netflix, now is a good time to dive into its 30 episodes (ten per season).  The third season was especially good, telling both a great crime story and (as usual) examining with great sensitivity and skill the normal family dynamics we all go through, the only difference being that those dynamics are often being activated by the stressful crime situation the family is immersed in rather than the more mundane stresses the rest of us face.  But, boy, are those emotions still recognizable.  Give the show a shot if you haven't already.

I sailed through Woody Allen's memoir, Apropos of Nothing, earlier this month, and it was a great, immersive time killer.  If you are at all interested in Mr. Allen's movies, and are willing to at least listen to his side of the story regarding the allegation of abuse from years past (which has regained new traction during the Me Too era), give this interesting and very entertaining autobiography a try.  I just went ahead and bought the book on Kindle, as that seemed easiest during these current strange times.

And the movie I saw recently was Yesterday, about a young musician who wakes up in the hospital after being hit by a car, only to shortly discover that no one but him seems to know about The Beatles and their music anymore.  So, of course, he starts singing Beatles songs in coffee houses and such, claiming the band's works as his own.  The interesting thing is that he doesn't quite become an overnight success, because at least part of the success of The Beatles was the charm of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, but, yeah, eventually the strength of the material does propel our protagonist into the stratosphere.  And then what happens?  Well, see the movie, which is now streaming on HBO.  It's a lot of fun, and a great and fun tribute to the Fab Four.

Save safe, be well, and talk to you all again soon!

Listen in...

During the current Covid crisis, Audible.com is making social distancing a little more tolerable by generously offering scores of audiobooks to stream for free.  The emphasis is on titles with an educational bent, for younger readers, as well as storybooks for kids.  But there are plenty of literary classics aimed at readers of all ages.

I think I just might start Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, read by Dan Stevens, later today.  I always meant to tackle that one.  Then maybe I'll hit Brave New World (strangely appropriate for our current period, I would say) and Call of the Wild.

Thanks, Audible, for a great gesture during these uncertain times!

February smiles

Courtesy of grammarly.com, here are a few amusing (I thought) jokes and observations about books:

Why did the Romanian stop reading for the night?

To give his Bucharest.

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Never judge a book by its movie. -- J.W. Eagan

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What's the difference between a boring person and a boring book?

You can shut the book up.

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Woman to a man hiding in a clothes dresser: What are you doing in that wardrobe?

Man: Narnia business!

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Enjoy the rest of your day!

Movies, movies

It's Oscar season again, and I'm having fun catching up on those films that got nominated for big awards but I haven't yet seen.  Most recently I finally saw both Marriage Story and The Two Popes on Netflix, and actually ventured out to a theater (call me old fashioned) to see Parasite. Of those three, I enjoyed Marriage Story and Parasite best, as they were bracing, involving dramas with some big and/or surprising moments.  The Two Popes was very good, too, if a little bit predictable and polite.  All are very much worth seeing, though.

Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood was also a favorite from the past year, but you can read what I said about that one by scrolling down a few posts.  And I should get around to writing something about Joker and The Irishman, both of which I enjoyed, too.

I still need to focus on seeing 1917 (the current frontrunner, based on all the other industry awards its already won); Ford v Ferrari; Little Women; and Jojo Rabbit.  Then I will have at least seen all the Best Picture nominees, which is something I like to do every year if at all possible.  Wish me luck!