Lazy Sunday Service

I have bought at least one book a week since the start of the new year.  In fact, most weeks I have bought three or more.  This week I bought five and had one kindly sent to me by an author (Missing in Rangoon by Christopher G Moore).  The only plus side to this is I consistently read at least two books a week; nonetheless the pile of to-be-read is growing.  Up until now I've been pretty good at keeping the pile low by reading just about everything I've bought.  And I intend to read everything I've recently purchased.  The solution is to stop buying books for a while.  Or to up the read rate.  Which might be a possibility if all the books on the pile are as good as The Sea Detective by Mark Douglas-Home.  I bought it yesterday and started to read it whilst waiting in a car park.  I had it finished by this morning.  Review to follow, but it's fair to say I thought it was an exceptional read.  The other books I bought were:

White Dog by Peter Temple
Death in Bordeaux by Allan Massie
Stettin Station by David Downing (for a trip to Berlin in August)
The Dividing Line by Richard Parrish (for a trip to Tucson in April)


My posts this week:
Review of Piggyback by Tom Pitts
Scrapping of the National Spatial Strategy
Review of Ratlines by Stuart Neville
Tucson crime fiction?
Ireland's house prices in comparison to EU27, 2007-12
Number one at the end of the bar

Number one at the end of the bar

‘I think you’ve had enough, Sean.’

‘Enough?  I’ve, ’ve barely got started.’

‘Well, I think it’s time to stop already.’

‘Mike, Michael, how often do I ... I come in here?’

‘Every feckin’ day.’

‘And how much money do I spend?’

‘A small fortune.’

‘And you’re throwing out ... your best customer?’

‘I’m suggesting a coffee or a soft drink or water.’

‘Water?  I not a feckin’ goat!  Whiskey, Michael, that’s what men drink.’

‘Coffee or a Seven Up?  What’s it to be?’

‘How about we ... compromise on an Irish coffee?’

‘Cappuccino.’ 

‘With chocolate sprinkles?’

‘Don’t push it, Sean.’



A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words

Tucson crime fiction?

I'm travelling to LA and Tucson in April.  I have a small pile of books on the to-be-read pile set in LA, however, I'm looking for recommendations for crime fiction set in Tucson.  Any suggestions?

Review of Ratlines by Stuart Neville (Harvill Secker, 2013)

It’s 1963 and Otto Skorzeny, the legendary leader of the German commando raid to liberate Mussolini from an Italian mountain top in the Second World War, is living in Ireland, using it as a base to coordinate a series of ratlines to aid his former Nazi colleagues escape to new lives.  About hundred or so ex-Nazis or their collaborators are thought to reside on the island and someone has started to pick them off, one-by-one, leaving messages for Skorzeny.  The German, however, is very well connected politically and he convinces Charles Haughey, the Justice Minister, to investigate the cases and protect him.  With President Kennedy about to arrive in the country, the last thing Haughey wants is Ireland’s sheltering of war criminals becoming public.  Haughey orders Lieutenant Albert Ryan of the Directorate of Intelligence to undertake the task.  Ryan is a former commando himself, having served with the British army.  He reluctantly takes the case, seeking to protect a man he has little empathy for and as the case unfolds he finds himself not only battling the forces ranged against Skorzeny but his own conscience and government.

The strengths of Ratlines are the characterisation, plot, contextualisation, and pacing and prose.  Neville revels in tales of conflicted, outsider characters placed in difficult circumstances.  The lead character in Ratlines is Albert Ryan, an Irishman, but also protestant who has served in the British army fighting the Germans, who has some sympathies with those administering justice to Nazis on the run.  He thoroughly dislikes his mission of protecting Skorzeny and the politics underpinning it, but he’s prepared to do his duty.  However, when all around are using you as a pawn with little regard for your well-being or justice, fulfilling that duty stretches resolve and loyalties, and Neville very nicely explores such tensions.  Moreover, by using real events and characters, such as Haughey and Skorzeny, and capturing some of the social constrictors of 1960s Ireland, Neville firmly embeds Ryan and the story in the political landscape of Ireland of the time.  The result is a thriller that is not simply framed as good versus evil, but is much more textured, nuanced and ambiguous.  The prose is tight and expressive, and the story rattles along at a fair clip.  Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable read. 

Review of Piggyback by Tom Pitts (Snubnose Press, 2012)

Jimmy prides himself on being a pro in a business full of fools and fuck-ups who can’t keep their hands off the merchandise.  Paul is such a fuck-up.  He’s recruited two college girls to courier a shipment of weed to Utah, failing to tell them that they’re piggybacking five kilos of cocaine.  Only the girls have disappeared and so have the drugs.  Paul’s ruthless boss, Jose, doesn’t like fuck-ups, and he likes losing his drugs even less.  Desperate to recover the haul before Jose notices, Paul turns up at Jimmy’s apartment seeking help.  Jimmy agrees on condition of receiving a slice of the recovered goods and the pair set off from San Francisco on a road trip across northern California on the trail of the girls.  It should be a straightforward exercise - find the girls, recover the drugs - but things rarely go to plan when Paul is involved.

Piggyback is a short, sharp blast of a read; a noir novella with snappy dialogue, a relentless pace, cinematic visuals, and strongly etched characters.  The whole story has the feel of a movie narrative; indeed it would make a good film given its Tarrantinoesque qualities.  Jimmy and Paul make for an interesting double act: strong and thoughtful paired with weak, skittish and easily distracted; and the small cast of other characters are well penned.  The plotting is tight with a strong story arc, fashioned through a series of minor twists of fate leading to a very noir ending.  I was gripped from the first page and tore through it in one entertaining sitting.

Lazy Sunday Service

A week of contrasting reading with respect to endings.  Earlier in the week I reviewed Bed of Nails, a book that was significantly enhanced by a powerful ending.  Last night I finished reading The Search for Klingsor by Jorgi Volpi, a book that in my view was shaping up to be something of a masterpiece before being let down somewhat by a weak ending.  Interestingly, both books had strong philosophical and metaphysical undertones and slightly ambiguous conclusions, and both were thought provoking.  However, whilst Bed of Nails left me conflicted and reflective, The Search for Klingsor made me frustrated for what could have been, especially since the first three quarters of the book had been so exceptionally good.  Funny how an ending can colour a whole book.


My posts this week:

Review of Hard Bite by Anonymous-9
Reading conversations
Review of Bed of Nails by Antonin Varenne
330-up of new to me authors
Venice crime fiction
A ship without a rudder

A ship without a rudder

‘Well? How do you explain that?’

The boy shrugged.

‘You’re like a ship without a rudder, Danny; you just go wherever the tide and wind take you!  Or in your case, Kevin and Jamie.  They’re pirates in training.  On the fast track to a life of crime on the high seas.  And you, you’re on track to become cannon fodder.’

‘I’m not a rudderless ship?’

‘Ships are sunk by cannons and rudderless ones are sitting targets.  They spend eternity on the ocean floor.  Do you understand what I’m saying?’

‘Yeah, whatever.’ 

‘Start using a rudder, Danny.  Before it’s too late.’




A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words

Venice crime fiction?

I'm travelling to Venice at the end of March to attend a meeting.  I'm looking for some crime fiction set in the city, preferably translated Italian fiction, but happy to take a read of any written by Anglo writers.  Any recommendations? 

300 up of new-to-me authors

Last week I posted the 300th review of a new-to-me author.  I only know this because at the end of each year I list such authors (all my reviews are listed here).  The great joy of reading other crime fiction blogs is I get to learn about hundreds of books a year and I track down many of them.  It has led to me reading much more widely across the genre and fiction from dozens of countries.  It has been incredibly rewarding and I've discovered many wonderful books and authors.  My plan over the next couple of years is to continue to discover new authors, but also to shift my reading more to catching up with books by authors I've read previously.  This is reflected in my present to-be-read pile where over fifty percent of the book are by authors I'm already familiar with.  Many thanks to all those blogs and review sites through which I've discovered new authors.

Review of Bed of Nails by Antonin Varenne (MacLehose, 2012, French 2009)

Shunned by his colleagues for investigating a fellow police officer who seemingly committed suicide, Lieutenant Guérin has somewhat ironically been reassigned to deal with suicides in Paris.  His sidekick is the naive and jumpy, Lambert, who slides in and out of daydreams.  The socially awkward and intelligent Guérin was on the fast track before it took a sharp turn into a dead-end.  Now he lives in his dead mother’s apartment, accompanied by her aging parrot who heckles him, and quietly continues to investigate his colleague’s death, convinced he was murdered.  In fact, his over-active brain is constantly searching for connections and patterns in the city’s suicides, convinced that there is more going on.  One of those cases is Alan Musgrave, an American ex-soldier who suffers from post-traumatic stress and expresses his conflicted emotions through drugs and his fakir show (piercing himself with needles and hooks).  Like Guérin, Musgrave’s reclusive friend and former therapist, John Nichols, thinks that there might have been foul play and starts to investigate, aware that the US authorities would prefer if he did nothing.  Guérin and Nichols start to work the case from different ends, both seeing it as part of a larger but different conspiracy.

Bed of Nails is somewhat of a curious book - a police procedural that doesn’t easily fit the genre, with a misfit, and at times almost cartoonish, lead character.  The plot is quite complex, weaving together different strands, which veers towards being opaque on occasion; it not always clear quite how Guérin is fitting his clues together or what exactly is going on.  As a result, the first half of the book was interesting, but was not compelling.  In the second half, the narrative becomes more engaging, and in the last quarter shifted gear into a different register which recast the whole story.  The closing pages in particular were an emotional rollercoaster as Varenne provides a thoroughly noir ending to the story; one that opened up a number of questions about morality and just rewards.  Overall, a dark, quirky tale that progressively became more gripping, noirish and philosophical. 

Reading conversations ...

I tend to be a solo kind of reader.  It's just me and the book.  Sure, I write a review when I've finished and pass on my views, but I feel no great need to discuss the story with others, either while reading the book or afterwards, as might happen with a reading group or a literary event.  Every now and then though I read something that I wouldn't mind a good chat about.  The book I've just finished that fits in this category is Bed of Nails by Antonin Varenne.  For most of the book the story was engaging enough, but not particularly extraordinary.  In the last quarter, however, it shifts register and the ending is a powerful sucker punch to the gut that recasts the rest of the tale.  And this is what I'd be interested to explore some more as it completely drained me emotionally at the time and I've been mulling it over since Saturday night.  However, it's almost impossible to discuss the theme and twist here without giving spoilers.  I'll post my review tomorrow, but if you want a story that sends you off into a bit of reflective tailspin then Bed of Nails is worth a read.

Review of Hard Bite by Anonymous-9 (Blasted Heath, 2012)

Three years after his daughter was killed in a hit-and-run accident in LA, Dean Drayhart has turned vigilante, hunting and entrapping rogue drivers using some creative internet scams, then killing his victims.  This is no mean feat, as in the same accident, Dean lost the use of his legs, most of his colon, one of his hands, and in time his wife.  He’s aided in his quest by his new girlfriend, Cinda, an escort, and Sid, his wayward helper Monkey who he’s trained to administer a hard bite to the jugular.  His latest victim is the son of a widow who has inherited her husband's 'godfather' status in the Mexican mafia.  Suddenly the tables are turned and Dean and Sid become the hunted.  The only thing that might save them is LA cop, Detective Doug Coltson, who knows he’s investigating a strange case, but has little idea how bizarre it’s going to get. 

I’m not quite sure how I ended up with Hard Bite on my kindle as I don’t remember reading any reviews.  Someone must have pointed me towards the book.  Whoever it was, I’d like to thank them.  Hard Bite was a joy to read.  Original, witty, smart, dark, and hard with a soft-centre.  Elaine Ash (Anonymous-9) writes in very assured and sparkling prose that is all show and no tell, and which swaps between the first person narrative of Dean and the third person of the other characters, including Sid.  I was hooked from the first sentence (see here).  The plot is very nicely put together, and whilst it could have twirled off into a screwball noir, it manages to be darkly comic without descending into farce, and wheels an interesting path through a morally fraught landscape.  Dean is a remarkable lead character, strong in vision and drive but weak in body, and Ash doesn’t fall into the trap of portraying him in an ableist light.  Sid is great fun as a helper monkey who was dropped from his training programme for attitude problems, and the other characters are all nicely realised.  Along with good contextualisation, there is also a decent sense of place in both LA and Mexico.  One of the most original crime and enjoyable novels I’ve read in a good while and thoroughly recommended. 

Lazy Sunday Service

I finished reading Hard Bite by Anonymous-9 last Thursday and it's been rattling around my head ever since.  Just when you think there's no more angles left to explore in crime fiction, along comes a book with a fresh perspective.  Here's the opening page:

"I like to kill people. 

It's important to admit the truth to yourself even if you lie to others, and I do a lot of lying in my business. Inside my head I try to keep the truth black and white, no grey area: I like to kill. I love to kill people. Certain people. 

Sid knows we're going somewhere tonight because my eyes keep flicking to the clock, and it usually means we've got a job to do. 

I found my latest target online at a news site. A national story local to Los Angeles. Killing locally is a necessity since I'm not really mobile. A Mac with assistive technologies enables me to work the keyboard. 

Assistive technology is a code word for "stuff that helps cripples use a computer." Easy to understand, right? Because it's the truth. People have a hard time with truth when it comes bent and deformed, crushed, or hideous—so they invent terms like assistive technologies to sidestep the one word that makes it crystal clear: cripple. 

Crippled. 

Crippling.

I went from noun to action verb riding a year-long bed of pain. After flirting with suicide, which lost its appeal contemplated deeply, a fresh start in rough justice sounded right. Why settle for cripple when you can be crippling, ha ha. 

I admit, I don't look very imposing. It's my motorized wheelchair, the steel hand, my pencil neck that looks like it could flop over and crack from the weight of my head. I look useless, you think. You think wrong. And fuck you, by the way, for your perception. I bring righteous vengeance to evil people."

You've got to keep reading, right?  Well, I did as I was already hooked at this point.  I'll post my review tomorrow, but needless to say, Hard Bite was one of my favourite reads of the last couple of years. 



My posts this week:

Review of The Diggers Rest Hotel by Geoffrey McGeachin
Social media etc
New EU university ranking exercise - U-Multirank
Review of City of Heretics by Heath Lowrance
January reading
The signal in the noise

The signal in the noise

‘This is Needle.’

‘Drugs?’

‘Haystacks.’

Meyer cocked his head.

‘He’s a data analyst.’

‘A geek?’

‘I am here, you know,’ Needle said.

‘He thinks he’s found your man,’ the lieutenant continued.

‘Yeah?  I’ve got half the cops in the city out on the street and there’s no trace of him.’

‘He’s in an apartment block on Kings,’ Needle said.  ‘Jellicoe House.’

‘Let me guess, someone on Twitter told you?’

‘The data and my algorithms told me.  They isolate the signal in the noise.’

‘You believe this shit?’

‘Sounds better than your shit,’ the lieutenant said.  ‘Go and get him, Meyer.’



A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words.

January reading

My sense of January was that it was a very good month of reading.  I'd happily read other books by all of the authors listed below.  My pick of the month is Aly Monroe's Icelight (in a close run race with Diggers Rest Hotel).  I usually don't start in the middle of a series, but I'm glad I did in this case and I've every intention of catching up with the first two books.  It was definitely a January kind of book, set in London in the winter of 1947.

City of Heretics by Heath Lowrance ***.5
Diggers Rest Hotel by Geoffrey McGeachin ****.5
Liar Moon by Ben Pastor ****
Icelight by Aly Monroe ****.5
Go With Me by Castle Freeman ****.5
The Devil I know by Claire Kilroy ****
Broken Dreams by Nick Quantrill ***
The Silver Stain by Paul Johnston ****
I Hear Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty ****