My poor buddy

Recently, my buddy and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. However, my friend soon realized that he would need his wife to wake him up at 5.00 a.m. for an early morning business flight to Chicago. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence, he finally wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake me at 5.00 a.m.", and left the note where she would see it.

Well, the next morning my buddy woke up, only to discover that it was 9.00 a.m., and that he had missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't woken him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. Written on it was this: "Wake up, it's 5:00 a.m."

No swooning here

Blood-sucking armies of the undead, anyone?

While sometimes a little sketchy and derivative, overall I enjoyed Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan's horror novel The Strain, appreciating the book's old-school approach to vampires. No sexy, seductive specimens who look good with their shirts off here: these vampires are scary, dangerous and gross. This horror fan appreciated that.

Also, I liked the way the story has it both ways: there's a scientific explanation for the vampires, but also a kind of evil vibe throughout the whole affair that suggests there likely was a supernatural curse somewhere in the distant past that got the whole vampire virus started.

With its handful of reluctant heroes operating on a near-apocalyptic battleground (the "near" may be gone by the second book in the trilogy), The Strain felt like one of those big Stephen King epics about the end of the world, but with a somewhat lighter, more comic-booky touch (but I'm talking good comic book here). There are even a couple of cliffhangers (including one involving a mysterious second strain of vampires) that felt like the cliffhangers in old Marvel comics from the 80's (but again, the good comics).

While I can't quite say that The Strain is a spectacular, entirely original, must-read horror novel, I can say it's a more-than-decent horror novel that's worth one's time. Heck, on the "originality" point, it's clear that the book isn't even trying to be super original, just a refreshing return to the kind of vampires horror fans used to enjoy before they became way too good-looking, stylish, and blow-dried (and played by teen idols in the movies). So kudos for that aspect of the story alone.

I'll definitely move onto The Fall, book two of the trilogy.

I listened to "The Strain" via an unabridged audio production (nicely read by Ron Perlman), that I acquired from Audible.com. Audible's prices vary, depending on your purchasing plan. You can also read "The Strain" on your Kindle for $8.99.

Move it, soldier!

I caught Battle: Los Angeles this past weekend (wife opted out). It turned out to be an agreeable, watchable alien invasion movie. To tell the truth, though, the battle action and war spectacle were pretty generic and didn't have much to do with the fact that the invaders were aliens from another world.

For the most part, with the exception of an occasional glance at an alien soldier or one of their flying drone ships, the invaders could just as well have been the Red Chinese. In short, during the course of the movie, the emphasis was pretty much on how cool and brave the U.S. Marines were. Which was fine. Just don't go looking for a long, detailed look at an imagined alien culture, and you might not be disappointed.

Further, a movie like this definitely goes to show you the value of a good actor. Aaron Eckhart (he was Harvey Dent, a.k.a. Two-Face in The Dark Knight) plays a battle-scarred sergeant who helps a group of Marines undertake a rescue mission. Eckhart's portrayal- earthy, tough, heartfelt- makes you forget you're watching a big special effects movie and gets you to genuinely care about his and his soldiers' fates.

Demonic fun

The decently entertaining Demon's Night is the first installment of Guido Henkel's supernatural adventure series starring his Jason Dark, Ghost Hunter creation. Though the writing in this self-published offering is sometimes a little repetitive and clunky, it never sinks to sloppy or slapdash levels. Besides, the scene setting and descriptions of Victorian London more than compensate: both aspects are moody and effective, nicely drawing the reader into Henkel's world of demons and supernatural investigation.

My other criticisms are basically quibbles. I would have liked to see more dialogue between Dark and his supporting cast members; it would have enabled us to get to know everyone a little better, as well as break up the large blocks of dense description (usually of streets and buildings) in the prose. Also, an occasional plot twist or dramatic revelation would have punched things up a little, especially at the end, where all we get is a long fight scene (though not a bad one). But, again, I liked the moody, creepy vibe Henkel delivers throughout, and more importantly, I cared about Jason Dark and the people around him.

From reading Mr. Henkel's book description on Amazon (as well as his recent blog postings), I learned that I apparently just missed a revised version of Demon's Night, which includes a new cover, a lower price, and a polishing of the prose. So the most recent version of this book might be better than I'm giving it credit for here. It's certainly cheaper.

Will I come back for more? Sure. While perhaps lacking the crispness and total polish of a novel one might pick up at your local book store, the sudden availability of interesting self-published offerings like Guido Henkel's Jason Dark books on the Kindle more than compensates for any slight shortcomings in the final product, at least in this case.

And, as we all well know, it's not like "officially" published books are perfect, either.

Demon's Night is currently bargain-priced at 99 cents on Kindle. It's to the book's credit that I paid $2.99 for the title and don't feel like I got ripped off. The accompanying illustration depicts the book's new cover.

Wise words

The following tip, spotted on a bumper sticker, is good advice for Kindle owners and avid readers in general:

Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

Esoteric gripe

While I'm generally pleased with the formatting of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine on my Kindle, I do have one complaint. The Kindle version of the anthology magazine routinely removes spaces intended to divide scene changes within a particular story. With the spaces removed, you'd be surprised how many spaces each story's author intended to include, and how awkward the reading experience can be without the space there to provide the intended beat or pause in your head before proceeding to the next scene in a story.

What kind of spaces am I talking about? The kind of space I just inserted between this paragraph and the preceding one, and are clearly in place in the print versions of the stories presented in Dell's family of short-story magazines.

C'mon, Dell, Amazon, or both of you... this is an easily-solved coding problem, and if fixed will bring about a smoother reading experience for your customers.

K Is For Kinsey

With the late Robert B. Parker's Spenser series about to grind to a halt, I've been looking for another long-running mystery series to immerse myself into. Nothing too avant garde, too self-consciously "literary", or anything like that... I just wanted another no-nonsense, long-running series with a main character I can get to know as I move through each installment. So I decided to try out Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone Alphabet mysteries (at least the first one), that for one reason or another I've never dove into before.

So far, so good. A Is For Alibi is a straightforward mystery that doesn't try to re-invent the wheel, just taking us through a murder investigation in a methodical, compelling manner. It's basically 32 year-old P.I. Kinsey Millhone interviewing one person after another about an old murder, trying to see if the person originally convicted of the crime (Kinsey's client) actually did it or not.

It's not like a Spenser book where there's an occasional fistfight or shootout or scary threat by someone who doesn't want the murder investigated any further. No, there's really no danger or action at all until the closing pages, when Kinsey finally figures things out. But all that is okay. I found it refreshing that Sue Grafton doesn't try too hard to entertain us with flash and sizzle, and trusts that the cumulative facts of the investigation will keep us turning the pages. And they do. Hey, I like scenes of action and danger as much as the next person, but I liked the different approach taken here.

Is the book nothing but the investigation? No, we get a couple of quirky supporting characters, some humorous banter and observation, and even a romance for Kinsey. But, again, I liked that the story confidently kept these things as occasional supporting elements and let the case take precedence. It'll be interesting to see if future installments maintain that balance.

So, yes, B Is For Burglar is definitely on the horizon for me. Make no mistake, I'm still going to greatly miss new adventures in Robert Parker's Spenser, Jesse Stone, Sunny Randall, and Hitch & Cole series, but jumping aboard this (so far) interesting little series with its tough, not always likable, but ultimately sympathetic heroine will make things a little easier for this mystery fan.

A Is For Alibi is available on Kindle for $7.99.