Untouchable. Elie Honig, author (2023). This book could be considered a sequel to Hatchet Man, although superficially that was about DJT’s AG William Barr. (Will there be another to make a trilogy?) I make this connection because both books compare DJT to mob figures whom the author has prosecuted during his career. But Barr only figures as a secondary character because he was only one of the many tools DJT has used to avoid prosecution of his mob family: Too many layers of nefarious scumbags, all Trump’s “hit men,” sheltered him (and continue to do so). It’s quite difficult to peel back the rotten onion to get to the rotten core at the center of it all, DJT.

Most of what’s included here will be familiar to any reader who’s been following the public peccadillos of Trump, but the author makes two new revelations that I heartily agree with: One, the 1/6 committee showed DoJ how to find hard evidence against Trump. (But see Michael Cohen’s book below that documents their failure.) Two, Garland’s time at the helm of DoJ has showed how to stonewall so that DJT will never be prosecuted. Garland has done everything in his power, like Barr before him, to give DJT multiple free get-out-of-jail cards if you consider the list of possible charges. He has made DoJ so apolitical that it’s impossible to prosecute any crooked politician, DJT being the worst.

As hinted, there is a nice list at the end of nine counts that should be brought against DJT to help any reader understand some of the cases going on right now. (That excludes most of Trump’s MAGA maniacs, of course, because, like their fuehrer, they don’t read much, especially anything that speaks truth to power.)

Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind. Robert Draper, author (2022). How time flies! This book ends with candidates especially chosen by DJT winning primaries over more serious GOP candidates that included Liz Cheney. (Other GOP members like Kinzinger and Upton, thinking that their party had lost its mind, had already decided to leave Congress, turning the adage “rats leaving the sinking ship” upside-down because the rats stayed behind.) In other words, Mr. Draper has nothing to say about how the 2022 midterm elections demonstrated that DJT was again the Big Loser, a fact which might have give him a bit more hope for the future. (He lost the popular vote in 2016, the entire election in 2020, and nearly destroyed his party’s chance for a majority in 2022.)

Although this book is now dated (hence my opening sentence in this short review), it still is a good study pf the psychotic sociopaths (Trump included, as determined by dozens of mental-health pros) who have destroyed the GOP. Marjorie Taylor Greene is featured, but many others are also studied here, including the current House Speaker, a conniving, professional politician with no scruples and drugged out on hypocrisy pills.

Unfortunately, while the details included in the book added to my knowledge about how low some GOP members have sunk, these details won’t resonate with the MAGA maniacs out to destroy their party and democracy. This nightmarish battle will continue in 2024. Stay tuned.

Revenge. Michael Cohen author (2022). The great revelation here (as if any more against DJT were needed!) is that there’s a bifurcation in America’s justice system between how it treats the worker bees of the unscrupulous and those monsters who employ them. After reviewing Cohen’s references, it’s clear that all the charges to which Cohen pleaded guilty in the case brought by the SDNY lawyers, only the Stormy Daniels case’s were true, and Trump, who engineered that against his ex-fixer, got off free while Cohen went to jail!

Ex-SDNY attorney Elie Honig’s two books, Hatchet Man and Untouchable (see above), all too often lauds the work of the SDNY, almost an independent entity of DoJ in its actions. After reading this Cohen book, though, I’ve lost some of my respect for the SDNY and, using guilt by association, Mr. Honig. (His lucrative contract now as a CNN consult didn’t improve my opinion.) In particular, the SDNY went after Cohen big time, even threatening his wife with the tax evasion charges levied against Cohen, and declined to go after DJT for the Stormy Daniels hush-money payment. (Their use of the Steele Dossier, shown to be BS, was over the top!)

(more…)

[Note from Steve: I’m one of the few reviewers who reviews entire series. Below I review yet another series of British-style mysteries, interesting police procedurals with scary criminals and interesting coppers filled with intrigue and suspense. They have greatly influenced my recent stories. (See the ad at the end for an example.)]

The “Inspector Nikki Galena” series. Joy Ellis, author. This series begins darkly with the inspector as a loner and loose cannon whom none of her colleagues in the nick like very much—she’s obsessed with finding the drug dealer who put her daughter into a coma with some bad drugs. She’s forced to work on another case with a new sergeant, Joseph, and he turns her life around, basically saving her from herself. She helps him a lot too. Case after case, sometimes multiple ones at a time, the two become closer, even though he has a daughter who hates him and all coppers. She changes her mind when she becomes romantically interested in one of Nikki’s detective constables.

What’s odd about this series is that I’m not quite sure where it all takes place. The titles all contain the word “Fens” (Americans might call them marshes or wetlands), and their location must be somewhere on England’s east coast. It’s the same location as a secret RAF airbase in WWII that figures prominently in one of the novels. Some of the names of nearby towns and villages are recognizable. I get the feeling that the author is from this area or knows it well, so she presumes her readers will have no problem recognizing it, but I don’t. Of course, I’m not British! This is only a very small nit to pick in this otherwise excellent series.

I’ve read a lot of good British-style mystery series. This is one of the best. Dark and foreboding at times, with the protagonist having to come to terms with death, the coppers also have some successes despite the twists and turns of their cases. Highly recommended.

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules on my “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment is considered to be spam.)

Fear the Asian Evil. My British-style mysteries are more complex and international than most. This third book in the “Inspector Steve Morgan” series might seem ripped from the headlines after reports that President Biden strongly warned President-for-Life Xi about invading Taiwan. The book deals more with China’s long-standing policy of industrial espionage and fomenting unrest in western democracies. While it starts out as a typical police procedural not unlike the books in the above series—the sister-in-law of Morgan’s sergeant is shot—it acquires a spy-fi flavor that goes far beyond Christie’s typical British-style mysteries. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (but not on Amazon).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Crystal Blue Murder. Saralyn Richard, author (2022). This third novel in the “Detective Parrott” series (Murder in the One Percent and Palette for Love and Murder were the first two) builds on the previous ones but can stand alone. I’ve been waiting for it for some time, and I was not disappointed. It’s an excellent mystery, crime story, and police procedural with thriller elements that’s better than the first two novels, and that says a lot because those first two set the bar rather high.

There’s enough background that the reader easily becomes familiar with Detective Parrott and his wife Tonya. He’s the plain-clothes detective in a three-man police department in a region of rural Pennsylvania not far from Philadelphia. The region has a lot of people with old wealth, yet murders still occur. In this case, an eighty-year-old woman’s bank barn remade into a million-dollar residence explodes as if it was a meth lab. A body is found among the rubble, but it turns out the man had died before the explosion.

From thereon, Parrott’s case becomes complicated with enough twists and turns to satisfy any mystery lover. I shall not give away anymore of the plot; I’ll only state that it’s a good one that kept me flipping the “pages” on my Kindle.

I only have one nit to pick: I could have used a cast of characters, not so much for the police officers but for the many other intriguing and well-developed characters.

Highly recommended for your reading pleasure!

Project Hail Mary. Andy Weir, author (2021). Better than that potato-growing story, The Martian, and much better than Artemis, which belies the prospects we have in the new NASA moon landing program, this novel still has many negatives.

First, it’s tedious. The parts occurring on Earth are okay and in many ways more interesting than the struggle for survival orbiting a planet in the Tau Ceti system where the reader suffers through too many details about the MC’s struggle to communicate and cooperate with an ET from a planet in the 40 Eridani system.

Second, I was continuously reminded of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, another detailed tale more dedicated to undersea flora and fauna—classic, plodding sci-fi that’s far too short on plot (again, except for the flashbacks to the Hail Mary project’s beginnings on Earth).

So, what’s the project? A strange ET organism is eating Earth’s sun! And the MC and his ET sidekick must try to save their home planets. Fred Hoyle portrayed this much better in The Black Cloud and did it all on Earth!

Not recommended, but Mr. Weir should still receive kudos for trying to make this all scientifically plausible (he fails) and running the Iron Man race to finish the novel.

“DI Ruth Hunter” series. Simon McCleave, author. My binge-reading of entire series of British-style mysteries (which has led to several more of my own) continued with this series of novels. They are a bit darker and grittier than average (even more so than my “Inspector Morgan” mysteries, my work in progress—see below) and worlds apart from fluffy cozies! Too much attention is given to the MC’s search for her lesbian lover and her sergeant’s battles with alcoholism, but if you skip over those continuing side stories, you’ll find some intriguing plots that will entertain you for many hours. (Side stories are useful to flesh out the principal characters’ backgrounds, of course, but the author overdoes it here.)

The worst of the series is the one where the inspector and her sergeant are tasked with babysitting an ISIS-radicalized terrorist. While the novels could be described as mystery/thriller fiction in general, this novel is more thriller than mystery and doesn’t seem too believable. The author seems out of his comfort zone here in his writing.

Better than average with flashes of really good storytelling, I can recommend this series to anyone who loves the genre.

***

Comments are always welcome! (Please follow the rules listed on the “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment will go to spam.)

“Inspector Steve Morgan” mysteries. Inspired by a character introduced in The Klimt Connection, #8 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, I plotted and wrote the first three novels (there might be more) as a set in order to ensure a high degree of consistency. I’ve published only #1, Legacy of Evil. I’m considering options for the next two, Cult of Evil and Fear the Asian Evil. Obviously evil is the common theme. In #1, it originates in Russia; in #2, it comes from a con man who creates a cult (think of Jim Jones, David Koresh, or Charles Manson); and in #3, it originates is China. Thus local evil around Bristol, England is caught in a sandwich between two international evils from Russia and China, respectively. Try #1 and watch for #2 and #3.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

In Trump’s Shadow. David M. Drucker, author. This book was mostly a waste of my time, but I can classify it as reading to “know the enemy.” (The author might be in that group?) The author goes through a list of potential contenders for the Good Ole Piranhas’ presidential nomination in 2024. The only one I can give a slight nod to is the governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, who’s a bit conservative for this progressive looking for a candidate who’s not VP Kamala Harris. (I doubt Biden will run, or can run, again for the Dems.)

Sen. Ted Cruz, for example, is one of the author’s potential candidates. He recently showed he’s one of the world’s biggest asses by dissing Big Bird’s getting the Covid vaccine, and the rest in Drucker’s list go downhill from there.

If you’re a Good Ole Piranha still adhering to some logic and reason (an endangered species these days!), you might like the parts about the Never-Trump movement. Otherwise don’t bother to spend your good money on this trash. (I received it as a gift.)

“DI Tom Mariner” Series. Chris Collett, author. I continue my binge-reading of British-style mysteries, sometimes entire series, in fact, and this was a new one for me. It’s not among the best I’ve perused, but it’s definitely different. The main character’s a bit of a loser and loose cannon, a Detective Inspector in the Birmingham PD (that’s Birmingham, England, of course). He doesn’t know how to commit with women, and they find him to be too much a loner, but he’s no James Bond either. His sidekick Knox is even more a loser, although he’s “reformed” as the series progresses. It’s almost as if the author is trying to paint all coppers as losers with a lot of baggage. The best character is an “Asian woman” Millie.

It’s all a bit sleazy at times (Mariner’s ED problems, for example), but many times better than anything you’ll find on streaming video. Try a novel and see for yourself.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone!

***

Comments are always welcome.

Looking for more British-style mysteries? My collections Sleuthing, British-Style, Volumes One and Two contains some of my own! Volume One is available on Amazon, and Volume Two can be downloaded for free—see the list on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page at this website (More can be found in the “Friday Fiction” archive and will eventually end up in PDF downloads found in the list.) As explained above, I’m binge-reading these, and they’re influencing my short fiction as well as the last novels in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. They’re a great way to learn about the milieu and culture of our friends across the pond!

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

[Note from Steve: Long after the category “Book Reviews” was created, which contains my longer reviews, I started this category on my blog in order to archive shorter reviews (they’re still longer than most you’ll find on Amazon). I can’t believe I’m approaching #50! It’s hard to count all my reviews between Bookpleasures.com, “Book Reviews,” and these mini-reviews, especially since lately I’ve been binge-reading and reviewing entire series. The fact that I would have to do some serious work to count them all at least shows I do a lot more reading than writing. The reviews in this blog are hopefully useful to blog readers looking for interesting books too.]

Tough Love. Susan Rice, author (Simon & Schuster, 2019). With all the tell-all non-fiction from celebs and pols (or fiction, depending on your political proclivities?), it was refreshing to read Ms. Rice’s memoire that describes her life of service to this country. She’s a woman who considers herself black, and is my choice for Biden’s running mate.

Susan also has creds that far surpass any of the other potential candidates, which is why the Good Ole Piranhas will be gnashing their teeth and salivating as they prepare to attack her. She took a lot of heat for Benghazi until Hillary became a better target for them, but she excelled as ambassador to the UN (a welcome change after the hawkish Bolton) and as National Security Advisor under Obama. She has a Stanford BA and a masters and doctorate from Oxford (Rhodes scholar). Moreover, she got along with old Joe well and was Obama’s confidant. I’m sure she has no love for Donald Trump, der Feuerteufel (German name for Trump meaning “the fire devil,” as reported in a NY Times editorial), although Il Duce is only a footnote in this memoir, which is what I hope he’ll be historically after the 2020 election.

If I were Biden, I’d be giving her serious consideration. By the way, and contrary to what the NY Times claimed in a recent article, she has ample experience on the campaign trail, stumping for Obama in both his elections. But this marvelous book doesn’t look forward that much. It’s a nostalgic examination of a life of struggle and service that every American should read.

“Jack Harris” Series. John Dean, author (The Book Folks, various dates). Susan Rice’s book was a gift I greatly appreciated because I refuse to pay Big Five prices, even if a book looks interesting. This seven-book mystery/crime series set in northern England cost me $21 (7 x $2.99), and it provided me many hours of entertaining reading. Jack Harris, the DCI doing the hard work in a rural police station, and his DI Roberts and DS Gallagher have to solve crimes mostly committed by lowlifes who have come north to prey on their peaceful valley’s inhabitants. Manchester is the source of that flow, and Jack knows it well. He cut his investigative teeth there in the GMP (Greater Manchester Police). Roberts is a local woman who looks harmless but is as tough as nails. And Gallagher did time in Scotland Yard until his wife wanted to live closer to her parents.

This series is a bit darker compared to other British-style mystery series I’ve binge-read, but it’s worth a look from mystery and crime fiction fans. The dialect is a bit heavy at times, as well as the spellings (scroat for scrote, i.e. lowlife, is an example), but you can derive most of the meanings from context. I have never had any problems with across-the-pond dialects for that reason. While most of the themes aren’t huge ones (the motivations for serious crimes are often quite banal), both the good guys and bad are well-drawn and the plots full of enough twists and turns to keep any fan of the genre happy.

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Comments are always welcome.

Soldiers of God. This is a bridge novel between the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” and the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.” An FBI agent and a priest are out to stop a fanatical religious group’s terrorist attack plans. In the background, a maniacal industrialist is pulling the strings, using religion to further his agenda. Will they succeed? This is one of my evergreen books, and it’s available wherever quality ebooks are sold.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Stray Cat Blues. Robert Bucchianeri, author. I often read “evergreen books” because they’re just wonderful, old-fashioned good vs. evil stories, even when they’re without major universal themes. The latter makes them more evergreen, of course. (An “evergreen book” is one that seems as current and relevant as the day it was written.) This novel is in the first category. No reader should find its themes politically or culturally controversial because it’s basically just about good vs. evil.

Frankie is looking for Johnnie. The first girl is a young twelve-year-old (Warning, Will Robinson! This is not a book for tweens!) who has a big sister, Johnnie. The big sister takes care of her, but goes missing. If this sounds a bit like A.B. Carolan’s Mind Games (which is a sci-fi mystery for young adults also featuring another young girl who’s poor, smart, and sassy), congratulations! You’ve discovered how universal good vs. evil stories can be.

Frankie hires Max Plank to find Johnnie, and Max is akin to a PI who likes to solve people’s problems—he doesn’t accept any money, of course (how does he make a living?), but Frankie doesn’t have much anyway. Max lives on a houseboat in San Francisco (that sounds a bit familiar too). He has some lethal friends and even more lethal enemies, like a crook named Poe who loves to recite Edgar Allan. (There are no similarities between this book and Steinbaum’s The Poe Consequence, though—see last week’s review for that.)

Besides the nits I picked above, my major complaint is the name of the protagonist. Maybe I’m one of many reviewers who will recognize the Americanization of the name of the famous German physicist who started the quantum revolution rocking and rolling, turning classical physics on its head. That’s like naming a PI Albert Einstein…just not right. (While a physicist can like to read and write sci-fi, he’s generally not an action hero or villain!) And this Plank doesn’t even look like Planck.

If you’re looking for a great evergreen book that’s a fun read, this is it. If you’re looking for the great American novel, it isn’t (and there’s no such thing, in spite of what your high school English teacher told you). But it’s set in SF, one of my two favorite cities (the other is Boston…in every season except winter). Great characters too, especially Frankie.

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Comments are always welcome.

More than Human: The Mensa Contagion. Another “evergreen book” from yours truly, that is, as current and relevant as the day it was published, and just maybe a story that might make you feel better during the pandemic (maybe COVID will force us to make some positive changes in our society?—it has certainly revealed some flaws!). An ET virus comes to Earth and creates Homo sapiens 2.0. What do the new humans do? They don’t go to Disney World after that big win—they colonize Mars! This is an epic sci-fi saga all in one novel. Available in .mobi (Kindle) ebook format at Amazon, and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lending and library services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardners, etc.).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Prince of Spies. Alex Gerlis, author (Canelo Action, 2020). I’ve reviewed some of the author’s earlier books in this blog. Looks like he has a new publisher that republished those earlier books. This one starts a new series featuring Richard Prince, a smart police officer from Britain who becomes a spy during WWII (the author’s books are all spy novels about that era). Because Prince speaks Danish (his mother was a Dane), he’s a find for Britain’s spy masters.

He’s a reluctant spy, though. He lost his wife and daughter in a motor accident, so he’s the only one left to take care of his small son. After a brief introduction to the spy game in Denmark, his big assignment is to infiltrate the special Nazi base where they’re developing the V-1 and V-2 rockets for the Third Reich. Any student of history knows that’s no trivial assignment with paranoid Nazis always lurking around.

Gerlis’s books are always well researched to the point it’s often hard to tell where historical fact ends and the fiction begins. While this novel isn’t as good as his previous ones, it’s an excellent story on a par with Deaver’s Garden of Beasts and Follett’s Eye of the Needle. This author’s spy stories offer many hours of entertainment for readers loving this genre, including me.

The Poe Consequence. Keith Steinbaum, author (Black Opal Books, 2020). In a tale that is an eerie mix of a Dean Koontz Odd Thomas novel  and a Michael Connelly Harry Bosch crime story, the author delves into East LA gang life, two gangs in particular. It’s a tale of ghostly revenge that’s a thrill ride from beginning to end. It starts with a Tarot card reading that sets the stage for supernatural revenge. It continues with a botched robbery that ends in death for one twin brother. And all the way through you hear the beating of Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart” that sounds like a primitive drum calling a restless spirit to wreak revenge.

I love this story that conjoins two genres. The plot moves, the characters are complex, and a little boy will rip your heart out but not freeze it. The settings are the mean streets where good people try to survive and bad people try to make sure they don’t, at least not in any safe sense. What’s more, it’s not just a tale of good vs. evil defining two groups of characters, the boy, the uncle, and the cops vs. the two gangs. Each character is very human, and the reader learns their backstories that prove there’s no absolute good or absolute evil, at least in East LA.

The fight against gang violence continues in the US, and it’s worse with Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13—“mara” is Salvadoran slang for “gang,” and “trucha” is slang for “alertness”). That the author can turn the story of LA gangs (MS-13 was created to protect Salvadorans from other LA gangs) into a meaningful novel that transcends the gang story is evidence for his skill. Highly recommended for those readers who want to read something new and profound.

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Comments are always welcome!

The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan. This is one of my “evergreen books,” a novel as exciting and current as the day it was published; it’s also a bridge between two series, “Detectives Chen & Castilblanco” and “Clones & Mutants.” A DHS agent looking toward retirement finds a lot of excitement as she uncovers a conspiracy and meets a new love. The conspiracy answers the following question: What will a future US government do with its old retirees who know too many secrets? The romance answers the question: Can a divorced woman heading for retirement find love in her golden years? DHS agent Ashley Scott is the main character. She had important supporting roles in the “Chen & Castilblanco” books, so I thought it was only fair to give her a starring role! Available in .mobi (Kindle) ebook format at Amazon and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and all its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lending and library services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardners, etc.)

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

[Note: Given the dark times we live in, I’m taking a chance reviewing these two important political books.  The Far Right and Far Left hordes (a lot more numerous than those at the US’s southern border) might rise up against me. I’ll admit that a lot of my non-fiction reading is political, simply because I’m worried about what the future might have in store for human beings on this planet. I still read more science, though, as if studying the physics of global warming and how climate change deniers and polluters are causing extinctions will get me any reprieve from those extreme groups. Honestly, I’d read conservative tomes too if they weren’t grim fairy tales written by Krugman’s fascist zombies (did you catch the pun?). Anyway, here are the reviews.]

A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America. Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, authors. I could just make this review a mini-mini: If you don’t already know most of what’s in this book, you’re part of the problem. It just elaborates on Trump’s legacy of incompetence in everything and this tendencies for paranoid authoritarianism. Trump is by far the worst president in US history, but any US citizen who already knows that can read this book and find out more details about why, even a Trump supporter (assuming they can read—their vainglorious leader rarely does, of course, but don’t take my word for it; it’s documented in the book!). And the book barely gets to that infamous phone call with the Ukrainian president where he illegally pressures him to meddle in the 2020 election, a mob capo’s favor.

Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and Fight for a Better Future. Paul Krugman, author. Economics is like anthropology for me, a pretend-science if only because it deals mostly with human beings and their complex and often irrational behaviors. Most of this book analyzes, in a direct and understandable way, why Trump’s economic policies are both stupid and downright dangerous for the US. It’s a bit more dense than the first book but nicely complements it. The section titled “Trump” actually summarizes the first book: Our democracy, if not dead, is in a hospice. Sound the bag pipes, MacDougall.

The section on Pelosi should be mentioned. Being a native Californian who loves San Francisco might bias me, but she’s one damn smart woman who doesn’t get the credit she deserves. Her recent fame comes from standing up to Trump, who, with the help of the Good Ole Piranhas like ticks on a dog, might have already succeeded in destroying the country and the world without the Speaker. She is 1000 times better than the previous GOP House speakers and has done far more to improve Americans’ lives than Ocasio-Cortes can even dream of achieving. GOP House members (and a few senators too) hate Pelosi, of course, emotions from mostly small-minded men who  can’t stand the fact that she’s much smarter than they are…or ever will be.

Krugman showed some laziness by simply reprinting many of his earlier NY Times’ columns (contrary to Trump’s lawsuit against the Times, and the opinions of Trump supporters, those are fairly balanced as is the rest of the paper–there’s no fake news). But the inclusion of those posts creates a historical flow in each section that shows our spiral down into the maelstrom of fascism in the US and the world (he correctly mentions both Hungary and Poland) is not a new phenomenon. Very interesting reading. Of course, if you prefer fiction, you can read Trump’s Art of the Deal…or just read the Tweeter-in-Chief’s tweets from the vulture himself. Hmm. Maybe those latter are just noir comedy?

***

Comments are always welcome.

The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan. What will the US government do in the future with its agents and other employees who know too many secrets? Find out in this tale about a frightening government conspiracy. While fiction, you might ask yourself, “Could this really happen?” I wrote it, so you already know my answer! Available in .mobi (Kindle) ebook format at Amazon, and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardners, etc.).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

[Note from Steve: Two very different books today—more evidence for my varied reading tastes, I suppose—I’ll read most anything that attracts my attention. One is a mystery, the other is a sci-fi thriller, and they are both excellent…and excellent examples of evergreen books.]

Just Another Termination. Linda Thorne, author. I’d been meaning to read this for some time, but I was distracted a bit by my recent binge reading of series. I’m happy to say that it’s like a fine wine, aging nicely on my Kindle and giving me a great deal of reading pleasure just recently.

Judy Kenagy is an HR director in a small firm who had bad experiences at two previous companies. One was taken over and the new owners drove out a young employee who subsequently committed suicide, giving Judy a condition something like PTSD. And her last company had a dingbat psycho CEO who thought everyone was her slave. She hopes to get beyond these experiences in her new post, but when she checks up on a usually reliable employee who doesn’t show up for her shift and finds her murdered, her past haunts her. As HR director, she has to work with the local police, led by the able Carl Bombardier. They work together even when the body count increases.

This suspenseful and well plotted tale with ordinary everyday characters thrown into extraordinary situations will keep the reader guessing. And there are themes never touched befor in a mystery/crime story. The evil ex-boss reminded me of a dean I once had to work with, and I loved the police chief, an able man dedicated to his job, as is Judy, who let me get on the other side of HR work.

The Voyage of the Stingray. Richard Steinitz, author. Who’d have thunk it? Finding books to read on LinkedIn. An email thread with this new author led me to this excellent book. While I read it, I couldn’t help thinking Tom Clancy would be smiling if he could read it. Clancy’s Hunt for Red October set the bar high for submarine stories; this book moves it up a notch. Hunt for Red October was a thriller; this book is a sci-fi thriller, the sci-fi being in the author’s unusual submarine design (that makes sense, according to an ex-admiral quoted in the book).

The USS Stingray’s captain and lead character is Lt. Commander James Jefferson. He’s in charge of training the new boat’s crew and running several test dives and maneuvers. And the crew never has time to celebrate their successful completion either, because they are soon sent on their first black ops mission, where most of the suspense occurs.

I don’t know enough about submarines except for a wee bit of family history, but everything here seems authentic. There are a few situations that might test readers’ credulity, but they are easily explained away by the USN’s haste to deploy the new boat and send it on its first mission. Great plot, great characters, authentic settings and dialogue…what more could you ask for?

***

Comments are always welcome.

Mind Games. Androids with ESP? What could go wrong? As a gifted teenager tries to find the murderer of her adopted father, she discovers an evil conspiracy bent on controlling all of near-Earth space. A.B. Carolan’s terrifying novel gives new meaning to technology run amok where government programs have unintended consequences. This is the third book in the “ABC Sci-Fi Mysteries” and is available in print and Kindle formats on Amazon and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lenders and library services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardners, etc.).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Reviewers rarely write them. Amazon promotes series (if only saying what the next book in the series is when you finish a book), but they want reviews for the individual books, which they just treat like other “products.” Smashwords lists series but never promotes them as such—in fact, they basically ignore evergreen books (older books that are as current as the day the author published them), so only the latest books in a series are promoted. And bookstores and libraries also ignore series for the most part.

Like Amazon, most retailers, online or otherwise, now treat books like products and ignore series and other literary aspects associated with books, so none of this should come as a surprise. But hardly anyone writes series reviews either, so I thought I’d write a few here, especially because I’ve binged on some recently (they’re excellent for doing just that).

The order in the following is ugly, bad, and good, so play Morricone’s score backwards (the leit motif still sounds good).

The ugly: The Kate Redman series. I started bingeing on this, but ran into a bit of a roadblock. Celina Grace or her publisher became sloppy. When I tried to download yet another book in the series (it met my $6 threshold, but many don’t), I found a corrupted file residing on my Kindle. Returning to Amazon, I saw it announced there that the book has a “quality control” problem. I thought I’d lost my money, and everyone knows Amazon’s return policy sucks. But the next day the file seemed okay. Did Amazon magically change it? Scary if true. Still, fair warning.

That said, let’s talk about Grace’s Kate Redman character. Compared to the principals of the other series listed here, she’s the most conflicted, a thirty-year-old with a lot of baggage who can’t deny the attraction she has for her boss or get past it. Frankly, there’s too much focus on Kate’s hang-ups. I like complex characters, but those hang-ups become tiresome the farther I go into the series. I’ll keep reading, though, at least the ebooks under my $6 limit (for the book that was initially corrupted, even $5.99 is too much for 262 equivalent pages). Stay tuned.

The bad: A, B, C, etc. is for whatever. Okay, I’ve never binged on this series—Big Five prices are exorbitant—but let me consider this long crime trek through the alphabet by Sue Grafton and say why it’s bad (in that, it has a lot in common with other over-extended American crime series). I haven’t read many of these books, thank goodness, so it’s only fair to say why they turn me off.

Grafton’s is a “good” series to illustrate what an author should not do: Don’t keep a series going even when new books in the series are formulaic and uninteresting and simple variations on what has come before. Authors should know when to stop. (I suppose readers should know when to stop reading such series too. I did.)

I mostly blame the Big Five for all these flawed series. Those publishing conglomerates continue to publish them because they’re moneymakers—an uncritical fandom continues to buy the books, unwilling to try something new, just like the author of this series. I hate to criticize dead artists, but she only stopped because she passed away in 2017. I pass belated condolences on to her family, friends, and fans. She was an interesting person and into my preferred hard-boiled style of mystery and crime writing, but I just grew tired of the series.

More on similar series later.

Top o’ the good: The Kirby/Langdon series. In contrast, author Daniella Bernett has a winner here—books with original twists on traditional crime stories I found extremely entertaining. No old-style PIs or forensics experts here as main characters. Instead, they are Kirby, an investigative reporter, and Longdon, a jewel thief. A British inspector (his name really belongs in the series’ name) firmly places these books firmly into the category of Brit-style mysteries even though the author is American. The villain(s) vary from novel to novel as the author fills in background material and develops the main characters, including Kirby and Longdon’s on-again, off-again romance (Kirby often mentally beats herself up for having fallen for that rascal rogue Longdon). The mostly European settings vary from novel to novel too, and the plots are intriguing and entertaining. (Note: Daniella was my most recent interviewee to grace this blog and is December’s featured author on the Black Opal Books home page.)

Second place among the good: The rural mysteries series. Author Diana J. Febry takes the reader into the English countryside where her principal characters often find a murder to solve in spite of the peaceful setting. (You have to wonder how, like Cabot Cove, so many murders occur there, but I learned to not question that too much because the plots are fine.) Fiona can’t decide whether to make a play for her boss Peter, but, at the end of the series (so far), he’s divorced, so we might see a bit more romance in future books. Again, each book in this series is well plotted, and each novel tells us more about the main characters. Another winning series readers might not know about…and it might just satisfy readers’ appetites for cozies, although there’s nothing cozy about the crimes considered.

A tie for second among the good: The Yorkshire murder mysteries. Author J. R. Ellis has also created some highly entertaining stories also in a rural setting for the most part, namely the Yorkshire area, where old mills once clothed the English public and mineral spas pampered English aristocrats (as if they needed more pampering, poor devils). I find DCI Oldroyd more interesting than Rankin’s Rebus and James’s Dalgliesh. More interesting than most crime fighters, in fact.

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