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So far this year
I've read 6 titles and done 7 on tape (unabridged, of course). The first
title isn't really a book, but a Novella from Stephen
King's Different
Seasons. In December I decided it was time to do
those stories. I had done Rita Hayworth and Shawshank
Redemption a few years back and it put Stephen King in an
entirely different light for me. So I sat down and
tackled the others: Apt Pupil was a bit strange,
about a kid that discovers that a former Nazi SS officer
is "hiding" in the neighborhood. But the
"apt pupil", rather than turning him in,
"extorts" details from the old man on what it
was like. The film was fairly faithful to the story, but
neither grabbed me.
The
Body (the basis of the film Stand By Me) was touching
and poignant, but in all honesty, I thought the film did
a better job with this aspect of the story than did the
story itself.
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The
Breathing Method is more what you'd expect from
Stephen King. It's a bizarre story of a story. At a
business club, the evenings are spent telling stories and
the tale focused on was from a doctor, who early in his
career had helped a woman through an out-of-wedlock
pregnancy through lessons in a "breathing
method" later known as Lamaze. Bizarre conclusion. I keep forgetting
that Stephen King is not just a bunch of ghost stories.
Some of the best writing I've seen has been in his books
and the descriptions are surprisingly vivid for their
economy (he described bare trees once in 'salem's Lot
as looking like "...letters in an alien
alphabet..." etched in the sky). Some of the works
which are my favorite have little or no horror aspects at
all (Shawshank, The Body, Dolores
Claiborne, and, even (to some extent) The Green Mile)
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JA
Jance's Hour of the Hunter came out in the
early '90's and is a prequel to the current
Kiss of the Bees. It interlaces
native American folk lore with a story involving a killer
recently freed from prison who, 10 years earlier vowed to
return to get even with Diane Ladd. She was instrumental
in putting him away and now she, her 10-year-old son and
the Papago wise woman (the boy's "Nana Dahd")
are all at risk. Jance, herself, said this is her
favorite book. I can't testify about her JP Beaumont
mysteries, but this is certainly richer than the Joanna
Brady series. |
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A nice
find was Katy Munger's Money to Burn. Casey Jones
is hired to be a body guard for an "absent-minded
professor" type of tobacco research scientist who is
suing his former employer for residuals to a
"safe" cigarette he designed. He is getting
threats, hence the body guard. Munger spins an
intriguing, often witty, and, occasionally, poignant
story. And she has the best opening line I've read so far
this year: "'I never smoke after sex, though I've
been known to purr.'"
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The
Narrowback by Michael Ledwidge is set in New York and
focuses on Tom Farrel who has spent a year putting
together details of a hotel heist and pulls it off
flawlessly. But one of the team members tries to take him
out. Tom maintains the upper hand and has him
"disposed of". Unfortunately, that guy was IRA
and now Tom is on their list. It's Ledwidge's first novel
and is pretty gritty. One of those NYC Underbelly down
and dirty stories. |
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Of course
always delightful is Robert Crais' anything. In this case
it's Stalking the Angel. Cole spends most of his
time being fired from the job he's working on which
involves a missing Japanese manuscript called the
Hagakure, the Japanese mafia called the yakuzo, and
burnt-out "new wave" leader from the sixties. Jeffery Deaver's The
Bone Collector is another wow ride (I had done his Praying
for Sleep on audio last month). I moved it up on my
list when I noticed the film was coming out, but never
got to it until now (and only finished it this morning).
An expert in crime scene analysis is consulted to work on
a strange case of abduction with maim/murder while the
city (New York) is preparing for a big UN meeting. This
expert is a quadriplegic from an accident suffered while
he was on the force and now commands the investigation
from his bed. What I'm beginning to believe is his
calling card, Deaver has another surprising ending.
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On audio
so far this year I did Lee Childs third story,
Tripwire. This time Reacher
is drawn into a search for a Vietnam era MIA/BNR (Missing
in Action - Body not recovered) who's record is
classified and who's name was not on the Vietnam War
Memorial wall even though his buddies, MIA from the same
incident are. This is three in a row and I'm hard pressed
to pick the best one. |
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I did two
Joanna Brady's back to back;
Rattlesnake Crossing and
Outlaw Mountain. There's a serial
killer scalping victims in Rattlesnake Crossing
and an elderly lady is murdered leaving two grown,
bickering children behind in Outlaw Mountain. But
the story lines seem less important in this series than
what is going on with recurring characters. The hot items
right now are that Marianne is considering leaving the
ministry and Joanna is still involved with Butch Dixon
who she met back with Shoot/Don't Shoot (if I recall
correctly). |
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Jeffery
Deaver's Praying for Sleep got me all excited
about Deaver stuff in general. I need to find some stuff
to read while waiting for the next Michael Connelly and
this seems to be the guy. In this one, Michael Frubeck
engineers an escape from a mental institution and is
fixated on betrayal and revenge and in his wake is left
death and deception...a wow ending. |
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Dean
Koontz's False Memory focuses on
phobias. The first quarter shows depths that these fears
can take once someone is stricken with them. We slowly
begin to find out the cause. But since Koontz took so
long in revealing what's going on, I think exposing it
now would constitute a spoiler. Furthermore, since Koontz
is also known as a producer of mixed-genre novels, I
won't even say if the causes are natural, supernatural or
para-natural (?). But, there is a cause and our victims
work on ways to get to the bottom of it. As is usual,
Dean introduces us to some really nice wholesome people
who are going to have the holy hell scared out of them or
the b'jezus kicked out of them before everything gets
back to normal in beautiful downtown Orange County,
California --- wasted away again in Bougainvillea Ville :) |
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Another
Orange County saga is from T. Jefferson Parker's
The Blue Hour, which, if I
understand correctly will see a sequel or at least a
following up using some of the same characters in his
next book due out later this month (Red Light). Tim Hess an
aging detective (fighting Cancer and on Chemo Therapy) is
teamed up with Merci Rayborne, a young officer who has
filed a sexual harassment suite against the department
for actions by one of her fellow officers. The case she
and Hess are working involves the apparent butchering
(literally) of women. Evidence indicates the culprit is
actually stringing them up, gutting and embalming them at
the crime scene. If this does become a series, won't the
marketing people have fun with the colors in the titles
and the characters...I can see it now:
"Don't
miss the third in the series, The Yellow Streak --
Another Merci Killing"
Yeah, I
hear 'ya....don't quit my day job :)
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