It isn't often I find a truly funny author. There are plenty that are humorous and even parts of the story have laugh-out-loud moments. For someone to come along with to true, continuous, riotous wit, but not to the point of distraction is a rare gift. Janet Evanovich is one; Robert Crais comes close. Well, Tim Cockey is another genuine article. He even has a funny name. I was laughing out loud before I got off the copyright page. Hitchcock Sewel is our hero and he's a mortician (can ya dig it?).

 The Hearse You Came in On  is Cockey's first book. Hitch becomes involved with a young woman who, initially, he meets at the funeral parlor asking about making arrangements for her own funeral. From there on its one mystery after another. Who is this lady? Why does she think she'll need a funeral? Or does she? It's not all laughs, either. There are moments of introspection, "I always figured that people without baggage have never been anywhere." A fabulous book; I highly recommend it.

My grandson introduced me to this book. It was one of the first (actually, THE first) he's ever read and was pretty proud of himself. He also liked it a ton. So did I, a ton. Holes by Louis Sachar has Stanley Yelnats being sent to a reform school after he's found guilty of stealing a pair of shoes from a thrift shop. He was wrongfully accused, of course, and soon discovers that the "councilors" at the school, Camp Green Lake (which is neither a camp, green or a lake), are corrupted and are using the boys to dig holes for ... well, that's part of the story. This is why Stanley is down on his luck and not surprised by it. The reason is explained in a historical story intertwined with the main one and is of Stanley's "...no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather...."

I did Stephen King's Dreamcatcher on audio. This book got me into the next two. It was longish (so what else is new for King?) and centers around three childhood friends, now grown, and sharing a weekend at the beginning of hunting season. It's in the Maine woods where there is landing of an extraterrestrial source. It was a story of how these three guys and a fourth friend from their childhood, meet this crisis and the consequences of the military forces which also came to deal with the invasion. It was an okay story and if you are "into" those kinds of stories, it might even be called exceptional. The problem I have with it, is the premise.

I find it extremely difficult to accept, even as a premise, alien visitations. I know, it's fiction, but the problem is that recent readings (late '80's early '90's) that I've done has ruined my ability to "suspend disbelief".  The reasons are long, involved and technical. If you are interested in them, I've written up the specifics of my thoughts on alien visitations and you can see them at http://www.jne-ent.com/jeff/aliens.htm. Nevertheless, Stephen King's opening struck my interest.

Like many authors, he opens the book, and some chapters, with quotes from various sources. Two were headlines from newspapers. The first said that the Army reports that a "Flying Disk" crashed on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico in July of 1947. Another headline, three days later reported that the Army retracted the story and said it was a weather balloon. Really? I thought the story was that people reported seeing a flying saucer and the Army eventually said, "No, it was a weather balloon." Given my particular flavor of skepticism, this struck me as odd.
 

A few years ago I picked The Day After Roswell by Col Philip Corso (ret). It was on a remainder table and I figured that maybe I should know something about the other side. Because of the King story, I figured I'd pick it up. Sorry, but this is  so full of crap, I'm surprised it isn't bigger. I actually put it down, not wanting to finish. I've never done that before and since I planned to ridicule it, I figured I'd have more credibility if I could say I read the whole thing and it didn't get any better. Corso claims to have worked at the Pentagon during the early 60's just before he retired and was in charge of the Foreign Technology Department. Their job was to introduce technologies to American business from information garnered from foreign resources. He claims that that included technologies from the Roswell crash site (an apparent matter of fact). This technology included semi-conductor circuitry, lasers, fiber-optics, and navigation by electromagnetism. But time-after-time he talked more about the emergence of the technology, rather than any details on what he did with it and to whom he gave it. He maintains that he kept quiet these last 40 years because it was classified, but due to recent declassifications, he could now talk. However, the documents he presents and the photos he had nothing to do with Aliens, Technology or Roswell and there was no indication they were ever classified..

Mr. Security-Conscience, who stayed mum since the sixties about the Roswell stuff (even though he disagreed with the policy), also claims to have been the one to blow the whistle about the Cuban Missile Crisis to the press in October 1962, because, if he didn't, Kennedy wouldn't have done anything about it. My Hero … I may barf. 

I checked a few UFO sites on the internet and they seem to be, for the most part, pretty sensational (a-la Erich Von Daniken). There was one that seemed to take itself somewhat seriously Computer UFO Network (http://www.cufon.com). They didn't have many nice things to say about Corso at all. The only thing I can think of (whether you subscribe to alien visitations or not), is that maybe he was trying to cash in on the 50^th anniversary of the Roswell event (the book was published in 1997).
 

As I was finishing the above, I noticed that Whitley Strieber was going to do a signing for his new book, The Last Vampire, so I figured I'd read his Communion, which he claims is a true story. Unlike the Roswell book, this one had some credibility. Or, at least, I believed he believed he had the experience. Even he doesn't claim that he was, in fact, abducted by aliens (at least, not in so many words). He lists a number a scenarios which may be the truth behind his experiences, only one of which is an alien visitation.

Also, his focus, in the book, was not so much on the experiences, but on how he and others dealt with it and how the experience has affected him. He laments that science hasn't done more to investigate or explain these phenomena. Another thing I found interesting is that it appears that hypnotism isn't the panacea of suppressed memories that is the common belief. It is no wonder that testimony from hypnotized witnesses is inadmissible. In the sense that it was not a presentation by a raving lunatic, his own skepticism in exploring the phenomenon was evident, I found the book refreshing and interesting. I don't believe for a minute he was visited by aliens, and even he doesn't say he was, but if you're interested in the subject, this is a must.

I had an opportunity to talk with him briefly at the signing. I ask him, "Have you continued to experience the visitations since your book was published?" He said that he did up until about 1998. I then asked him, "During any of these experiences, did you ever have the wherewithall to ask them where they came from or how they found us?" (according to his book, these experiences where highly traumatic, it isn't the atmosphere which lends itself to academic discussions). He said, "...they said they saw a glow..." and then he shrugged as if to say that he wasn't sure what that meant either.

Also on audio I did the third from Patrick A. Davis. In The Colonel, Martin Collins is a retired Air Force investigator and is called upon to help investigate the murder of Colonel Margaret Wildman and her two young children. The case slowly unravels into a power-politic, -brass, -money and -government involved cover-up. At stake, setting aside for the moment the trivial event of the murder itself, is the livelihood of higher ups in the military and government, hundreds of lives per incident, and millions of dollars. Col. Wildman was investigating airline crashes. This probably isn't the best thing to read in the present climate, but I did enjoy it when I listened to it in August.

James Patterson seems to be making a habit of running off the beaten path. 1st To Die is another non-Alex Cross novel. It introduces a female detective from San Francisco who forms the "Women's Murder Club". She, along with a reporter, Assistant DA and a medical examiner (all female) comprise the team. They don't commit murders, they solve them. In this first case someone seems to be stalking newlyweds and usually kill both the bride and groom (brutally) while they are still on their honeymoon.

This is the first from Steve Hamilton (who now has three out). A Cold Day in Paradise won an Edgar award for the best first novel. It's been fourteen years since Alex McKnight took a medical disability from the Detroit police department and he's still having nightmares about the experience. His partner was killed and he was left for dead. The man was caught and put away, but suddenly the maniac murders start again and Alex's nightmares are becoming real. What can you say about an Edgar winner that hasn't already be said? I liked it. It's dark and desperate. The setting, in Paradise, Michigan by the shores of Lake Superior in November, is vivid … your fingers will go numb. Also, I thought the dialog was exceptionally fluid. A great book (AND I found a hardcover!)

Orchid Beach is my first Stuart Woods' novel. A really nice surprise. Holly Barker retires from the Military Police to take an Deputy Chief position in Orchid Beach, Florida. She finds that she is Chief by the time she gets there 5 weeks later. The guy that hired her (the old chief), was killed the night before. Great story! I did this on unabridged audio and will definately do some more his (see below).

Opal Eye Devil is the first novel from John Hamilton Lewis and is wonderful! It is set during the Boxer Rebellion in Shanghai at the beginning of the last century. It's not quite an epic, but the introduction does begin about 1887 and then jumps to 1900. Our hero is involved in trade between England and China. The world is slowly turning from coal to oil and these guys are right in the middle of it. A great thriller. But, probably more significant, is John's sense of period and sense of place. I really had a feeling of being there. I haven't had such a "sense of culture", history and place since I read Shogun. I had a chance to talk with John at the signing where I picked up the book. He spent a great number of years living and working in China, so he has certainly knows the terrain.
 

I found another Stuart Woods on unabridged audio. Worst Fears Realized  has Stone Barrington return. He is a retired cop turned attorney, and is brought into a serial killing investigation. The killer is targeting people close to him and his old partner. The MO patterns a guy they put away about 10 years earlier, and it appears, he's still behind bars.

A really nice find I did this last quarter was James Elliot's 1994 novel, Cold Cold Heart. A former CIA agent, Mike Cully, is in prison because he took the wrap for the agency who, of course, turned their back on him. But, being true blue, he isn't talking. But they need him and can arrange for his release. It seems that a Soviet defector, with whom Cully had helped defect, is suspected of a rash of serial murders. He agrees and soon finds himself teamed up with a women, an ex-cop, turned reporter.

As an aside, James Elliot is a pseudonym and for quite a while speculation had it that the real author was Ridley Pearson (who, insistently denied it). A few years back, I picked up The Genesis Code, by John Case and though I haven't read him, yet, I've picked his other books. It turns out that John Case is also a pseudonym and also "lives near Washington DC" as does "James Elliot". On the flap of John Case's latest book, The Syndrome, it reveals that John Case is really a the husband and wife team, Jim and Carolyn Hougan. He is an "Intelligence Consultant" and she is an investigative reporter. I believe they also wrote as James Elliot.

John Saul's The Right Hand of Evil is a suspense, horror story with supernatural trappings. Ted and Janet Conway, on the verge of splitting up their marriage due to Ted's drinking, get a new lease on life. Ted's estranged Aunt dies and leaves them a house that has been vacant for 40 years. The small pious town of St. Albans on the outskirts of Shreveport, is less than thrilled with the prospect of the Conway's coming back. Ted is still fighting his drinking and shortly after their arrival in town, during a drunken stupor, he seems to see the light and asks for help, but now his son seems to have gone by the way side.

This is a fictionalized account of the investigation into Warren Commission's report by the Senate Select Committee in 1976. Butch Karp is asked to head up the investigation team, but soon finds that politics and personal agenda's are in the way, still. Yet, Karp does manage to get an answer. Tanenbaum, himself, was an investigator for the Select Committee working on the JFK Assassination, though was not in charge of it. He warns in his introduction to this book that though there are similarities between him and Butch Karp, that this work "...like the Warren Report, is a work of fiction..." When I saw Tanenbaum at the signing for his most recent book, Enemy Within I had just read the introduction and said, "I guess you don't have much use for the Warren Committee's investigation" and he said, "What investigation? They didn't do one!"

His account is interesting and the solution, overall, has a nice packaging, but it doesn't really tie everything up. I'm not sure how well received this book might be in general. If you're a Karp fan, it's as good as any. If you interested in the assassination, there is some good, factual, eye-brow raising information about the assassination that might not be common knowledge. If you are extremely familiar with the various conspiracy theories, the fictional elements may stand out and become very obvious. If, like me, you are somewhere in the middle, being somewhat familiar with some of the theories, the fictional elements will blur in with the facts. If you are in the first category, you may be a bit confused wondering if the eye-brow raising events depicted are true or just part of the fiction incorporated into the story. If you are in the later category, you might be a bit disappointed that all the aspects of the event were not tied up. Most of the assassination theories ignore some aspects or entire paths of the historical record, you might expect that someone making this stuff up could tie a better bow around it. For those in the middle, it might be more enjoyable. Having the line between the "historical record" and "this fiction" being blurred, helped with the flow of the story and the suspense. But being in this category myself, I found that though it was a nice ride through the story, I was disappointed in the loose solution.

With the release of Oliver Stone's JFK, in 1992, I was reminded about the tragedy and the subsequent "problems" with the lone assassin theory. I picked up a number of books on the subject, and read a few of them. I have created a separate report of those books, see http://www.jne-ent.com/jeff/jfk.htm if you are interested. The above story, got me back into the whole JFK thing and so I did Mark Lane's Rush to Judgment. This is the 1966 critique of the Warren Commission's Report on the Assassination of John Kennedy. Unlike many books about the event, this does not propose a solution, it merely underscores the problems with the apparent "agenda", investigative procedures and conclusions of the Commission's report. It is well documented and footnoted. He uses footnotes and annotations liberally. Chapter three, for instances (more or less, typical), has about 10 footnotes and 242 endnote references. Since it's one of the first books out challenging the Commission's report, it really is a must read if you are at all interested in the assassination.

I had some problems with the book, but it is mostly that of expectation. The whole JFK assassination thing is an issue of confidence. What do we know? How do we know it? Who says so. Can you believe it? And what is the evidence upon which the conclusion is drawn? This critique goes straight to the heart of that problem with the Commission, but he almost creates a similar one himself. Around page 93, for example, he is talking about Howard L Brennan who had seen someone in the 6th floor window of the book depository where Oswald was thought to have shot the president. He (Lane) provides a dialog between the commission and Brennan which suggests that the commission felt that Brennan had talked with George Murray, then of NBC, about seeing "smoke" from a rifle shot by the grassy knoll, and not from the book depository. Brennan denied that he made such a statement to anyone. Lane then points out that rather than questioning Murray, they just dropped it. Lane said that Murray didn't even know "...the Commission had questioned Brennan about him until after the testimony was published...." Lane's point was that the Commission should have called him or his reporter's as witnesses or secured an affidavit or something. But my observation was if Lane talked to Murray and found out he didn't even know about Brennan's questioning, why didn't Lane ask him if Brennan talked with him or his reporters? The answer is, probably, that the book is about what the Commission did or didn't do, not about gathering evidence. But then in other places Lane does expound on what he's leaned.
 

Also, who the hell is Mark Lane? The copy I read was a second printing from October 1966. The dust jacket flap says that he was asked by Oswald's mother to represent her son at the Commission's investigation. The text is obviously British (single quotes for dialog, quotes within quotes are double quotes) yet it was published in the US by Holt, Rinehart, Winston and no reference to a UK publishing. It is clear the Mark Lane was called to testify, but it is not clear why or in what capacity. I had to dig out an old Playboy (February, 1967), to get at least some background on the guy. To be fair, the 1992 edition of Rush to Judgment contains a bit more information. It contains a "Lastword", which is like a "Foreword". The difference, he says,  is that he has put together "...some of the important and relevant events of the last twenty-five years...." Though it precedes the text of his book, he calls it a "Lastword" because "...substance being more relevant here, in my view, that placement..." The point is, that if you are looking for biographical information on Lane, it's not here. He was a New York Attorney and had written an article about the assassination suggesting that the DA's "proof" of Oswald's guilt had some flaws. This is when Marguerite Oswald called as asked him to represent her son. The other thing in this edition is a discussion about Oliver Stone's film. JFK, which Mark Lane was going to contribute to until Stone said he was going to fictionalize part of it. Lane, then, pulled his support of the film and asked that none of his material be used. In my opinion, the article is Mark Lane having a snit.

Actually, the book was fine. The above are just minor problems. It does not appear that any source of JFK material has "the answer". Though some have opinions and use their text to support it. The point of reading these volumes is to collect information from a variety of perspectives. Maybe, then, you'll be able to draw some conclusions. Each one of these books is a piece of the puzzle (or the piece of "a" puzzle). So far, of the six books I've read on the subject, only one did I fine to be close to worthless (see the above link for details) and even it had some value, though, probably, not the value the author intended. If that is characteristic, your chances are only 1 in 6 that you'll pick up a loser.