BOOK REVIEW: Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan

If you had asked me if I’d ever willingly read a literary analysis of any specific genre of literature, I would have yelled a very loud, “NO!”  I hate that crap.  Really, I get these terrible flashbacks to all that required reading of excruciatingly dull authors in school.  If the next question was would I actually enjoying the experience, I would have laughed my ass off !  Well, I did laugh my ass off (unfortunately not literally) with Beyond Heaving Bosoms,  so I guess the joke’s on me.

Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan are known in the romance community as The Smart Bitches and run one of the most popular romance book blogs on the internet.  This funny and insightful analysis of one of the most popular genres in fiction is such a good read that I can unequivocally recommend it even for those who would normally loathe such books.  It’s obvious the writers love the genre and mostly they poke hilarious fun at the many shortcomings of the generic heroes and heroines – and plots.  The chapter on Choose Your Own Man Titty is a howl.  The paranormal one had me in complete fits – though it did avoid the mandatory group sex.  (I kept think of Bianca d’Arc’s Lords of the Were and so many more.)  They didn’t do futuristic, which is kind of a shame.  Sex in space can get pretty kinky.

BOOK REVIEW: The Killing Floor by Lee Child

Jack Reacher is an Army brat raised with his older brother on bases around the world. Schooled at West Point, and a following career in Army, his whole life is intimately tied to the service. In the service and became a first rate investigator in the MP’s, among other things. Now a retired major, thanks to the huge military downsizing in the ‘90’s, and free of the of the regimentation that has been there his whole life. Now he finds comfort moving around at will. Under the radar suits him just fine. No hometown, no family ties, other than a very distant relationship with his Secret Service bother whom he hasn’t seen in years, he’s truly free. But that’s about to change.

The Killing Floor, Lee Child’s first book, opens in machine gun style:

“I was arrested at Eno’s Diner. At twelve o’clock. I was eating eggs and drinking coffee. A late breakfast, not lunch. I was wet and tired after a long walk in heavy rain. All the way from the highway to the edge of town.”

As Reacher moves from the local jail, to a nite in a prison holding cell, to release next morning, his size and capacity for violence save his life and that of another man with him. Despite every effort, Reacher is still a curious man. He looks at things differently. The very frightened man in the cell with Reacher tells him just a little bit of information. Reacher refuses to be drawn. When they are both released, Reacher’s alibi confirmed, Reacher is planning to leave town. The lovely deputy changes his mind in the usual way. He also resents the people trying to force him out. Despite realizing there is something profoundly wrong in Margrave, despite the plea for help from the wife of the man he protected in prison, despite his attraction to a female deputy, he does not want to get involved. Then the Sheriff and his wife are murdered in a very gruesome fashion and Reacher decides to lend a hand.

Favorite Books, Authors and Series – Historical Fiction

Every reader has favorite books and favorite authors. I thought I’d just make a list of some of my favorites of the past and present. The first in this occasional list is for writers and books that are historical fiction. It doesn’t include books that are period romance or mystery, though to some extent both are present in these titles. Historical/period romance and mystery will have their own lists. Hey, feel free to tell me your favorites as well!

Historical Fiction: There doesn’t seem to be as much quality stuff out there as there once was. Most of the books on this list are OLD. But, hey, the stories are set in the past, so who cares?

Mary Renault – One of my favorite historical fiction authors, she set most of her books in ancient Greece. I cut my teeth on her Theseus trilogy – The King Must Die, The Bull from the Sea, and The Last of the Wine. It was these three books that sent me on a journey to read Edith Hamilton’s books on Greek mythology and also books on archeology. Renault went on to write many stand alones, like Mask of Apollo, and a trilogy on Alexander the Great as told by his male companion.

Gary Jennings burst onto the literary scene with an amazing first book – Aztec. Phenomenal! It remains one of the very best pieces of historical fiction ever. His Journeyer about Marco Polo was just as good. He lost me with Raptor and I gave his Spangles series a pass. He came back to the Aztecs, but I haven’t read his subsequent books that spun off from his first.

Thomas Costain made his living as an account. Late in life he became a writer, and a good one. He’ll be listed twice, once here in fiction for his wonderful book The Black Rose and again in non-fiction. Costain wrote many historic fiction books, but none more famous than The Black Rose. It was made into a pretty good movie starring Tyrone Power, Jack Hawkins and Orson Wells. His book, The Silver Chalice, also very good, became a movie as well. Very readable, but not in the same league as Jennings, Clavell or Waltari.

This list could not be complete without James Clavell and his amazing Shogun and equally impressive Tai-Pan and Gai-Jin. I burned more than one dinner because I got so caught up in the story I lost all track of time. Clavell also wrote King Rat, his first book, which is far better known as a movie starring George Segal. Alas, he wrote very few books and the story of the Nobel House went unfinished. But read and enjoy the gems he did give us.

A book that got the infamous ‘Banned in Boston’ label was The Egyptian by Mika Waltari, a Finnish novelist. It too was made into a movie this time starring Jean Simmons and Victor Mature. (He always looked good in skirts.) The Wanderer and The Etruscan are also excellent. Wonderful books.

I’m sure many will be surprised to see one author absent from my list – James Michener. I read 4 or 5 of his books and frankly, never really a fan.

Now it’s your turn, tell me what author or book you like best.

BOOK REVIEW: Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

Jennifer Crusie is the pen name for Jennifer Smith, a former teacher and well liked humorous romance author with lots of popular books including the Temptation series, Getting Rid of Bradley (a personal favorite) and Tell Me Lies. Bob Mayer, a West Point graduate, is a former Green Beret and prolific bestselling author of the Area 51 series and other thrillers under several pen manes, most notably Robert Doherty. Agnes and the Hitman is the second collaboration of the two authors following the successful Don’t Look Down in 2006. I sincerely hope there will be more. Their two ‘hybrid’ books are less than completely acceptable to some Crusie fans, but I liked them a lot. There seemed to be less ‘Mayer’ here than in Don’t Look Down, but there was still enough to make Shane very realistic.

The book opens with Agnes Crandall on the phone to Joey, dinner owner, former mobster, and inspiration for her cookbook Mob Foods and many of her ‘Crazy Agnes’ food columns. As they talk, a stranger enters her house, points a gun at her and demands her dog! Incensed, Agnes does what any crazy woman with anger management issues would do, she throws boiling hot raspberry sauce on him and then smacks him with a frying pan. Her erstwhile thief and dognapper falls through a hidden door into her basement, breaking his neck. Agnes calls the police, but Joey calls his estranged nephew, Shane Smith, to ask for his help in guarding his ‘little Agnes’.

Shane Smith is in Savannah on a sanctioned hit for a secret government agency and is between surprised and shocked to hear from his long estranged Uncle Joey, the only family he has. Shane finishes his job and heads to “Fucking Keys, SC. Armpit of the South,” a place he left nearly 30 years ago. He slips into the house thru an open window, surprising Agnes who clobbers him with her favorite weapon – a frying pan. Once he convinces her she’s there to protect her, she sums up what’s happening – “I got Joey in the kitchen, a cop in the front hall, a dead body in the basement and you in my bedroom. Where do you want to start?”

Who wants Agnes dead and why? Why is her fiancé so distant? And why is Brenda, the former owner of Two Rivers, Agnes’ home, and her best friend Lisa Livia’s mother trying to sabotage the wedding plans of her granddaughter at Two Rivers? Will Agnes’ history of ‘assault with a frying pan’ get her arrested? What are they supposed to do with the two flamingos? Can Agnes keep her temper around her, lying, cheating,

BOOK REVIEW: The John Rain Series by Barry Eisler

Rain Fall My Grade: A-

Hard Rain My Grade: A

Rain Storm My Grade: A

Killing Rain My Grade: A-

The Last Assassin My Grade: B+ to A-

Requiem for an Assassin My Grade: B-

Have you read Solo by Jack Higgins? Shibumi by Trevanin? If you have, sit back, relax and meet the heir – John Rain, assassin extraordinaire.

The product of a Japanese father and American mother, Rain never belonged in either country. As a young man he joins the US military and shows a real aptitude for killing. Part of a Special Forces team, he ends doing work for the CIA. Living and working in that ‘grey zone’ where right/wrong and good/evil gets blurred, his own instincts save him. He ‘disappears’, moves to Japan, even goes so far as to have surgery to make himself appear more ‘Japanese’. Here he lives a shadow life and makes his living as an assassin for hire specializing in ‘natural’ deaths. Killing someone is easy. Killing someone and making it look like a natural death is art.

From page one, Rain Fall captivates and holds the reader. It is an unusually well written combination of action and intrigue with the kind of rich, compelling, textured backdrop of locations and characters that is rare in a genre that typically forsakes depth for action. It begins with the death of a government official in a subway during rush hour and just does not quit. Trust no one and cover your back. Written in the first person, Rain is a compelling narrator. Eisler’s ease with the Japanese setting comes from years living in the country.

Hard Rain sees Rain having tough choices to make. His affair with jazz pianist Midori ended when she learned who and what Rain was. Tatsu, the shrewd and manipulative police official who seems to be both friend and mentor to the assassin, wants to use him for his own ends. The murky world of Japanese politics and crime lords are front and center once again as a Yakuza leader is targeted and escapes. Midori ends up being responsible, indirectly, for the death of one of Rain’s friends.

With both the Yakuza and the CIA after him, an injured Rain flees to Brazil which is where book 3, Rain Storm, starts. The CIA makes an offer of much needed money he can’t refuse that lures him back to Asia to track the activities of an unscrupulous arms dealer (is there any other kind?). This book introduces two more recurring characters – the beautiful Israeli spy Delilah, who has her own agenda and Dox, short for unorthodox, a giant of a sniper with an extrovert’s personality that grates on the assassin who lives by clinging to anonymous shadows. Yet Dox may end up being the one thing that Rain does not have, a friend.

Killing Rain, fourth in the series, has the assassin asking himself some hard questions. Rain is hired by the Mossad to take out a renegade Israeli scientist, now terrorist for hire and bomb expert, before the man can transfer any more technical expertise and training to radical Islamic militants. Partnering with Dox again is not entirely comfortable for loner Rain. Then he misses his chance at a quick take down and ends up signaling the target he’s being hunted. To makes matters worse, he kills two bodyguards to escape. Unfortunately, the guards are former CIA and part of renegade operative Jim Hilger’s operation. Now Rain is targeted by a furious Hilger.  The very annoyed Mossad no longer trusts him to do the job so he’s on their hit list too. Where does Delilah stand? The action once again moves across Asia and brings Rain, Dox and Delilah to Hong Kong. There Rain and Hilgar again cross paths. The ending here has Rain thinking of retirement and the son he wants so much to see.

The Last Assassin brings Rain back to Japan to settle old scores. He cannot go to Midori and his son until his past is put to bed. To do that, he ends up having to call in his friend Dox. Eisler moves back to the shady underworld of Yakuza and Chinese triads in Japan for this novel. Delilah comes in to help out as a lure for the Yakuza boss with a weakness for tall blondes. His old friend Tatsu may be dying, but he’s still pulling Rain’s strings. The ending has Rain and Midori finally see each other again and it sees that all of Rain’s ghosts are finally laid to rest – one way or another. I was left feeling the author intended this to be the last book in the series, and it would have served as a perfect coda for Rain, but was convinced by his publisher to write another.

Requiem for an Assassin brings Rain back into the game when Dox is kidnapped by Hilger to force Rain into carrying out a series of assassinations or Dox is dead. Rain has to get rid of people involved in a deep black CIA operation that might not have had official sanction. Thing is, he’s now on American soil and not at all happy about it. Of all the John Rain novels, I liked this book the least. It felt like Eisler lost his mojo. It’s a good read, all the necessary twists and turns, lies and half truths, but the magic is missing. The intangible something that raises a book from good to WOW! Eisler seems less engaged with his story and his characters here. I guess it’s so noticeable because his previous entries were so strong.

Though the last book is the weakest, for me at least, all of the series is so much better than just about anything getting written in the thriller genre these days, they rank as DO NOT MISS!

The John Rain series would all be rated R

Who would enjoy these books: Readers of Jack Higgins, Trevanian, Eric Van Laustbader’s Ninja series, Frederick Forsyth, and Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne.

NOTE: The paperback books are eligible for Amazon’s 4-for-3 promotion

BOOK REVIEW: The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie

Long before House became a popular TV series, before actor Hugh Laurie was well know in the US, he wrote a book. A very good book. The Gun Seller.

“Imagine that you have to break someone’s arm.

Right or left, it doesn’t matter. The point is you have to break it, because if you don’t …… well, that doesn’t matter either. Let’s say bad things will happen if you don’t.

Now, my question goes like this: do you break the arm quickly – snap, whoops, sorry, here let me help you with that improvised splint – or, do you drag the whole business out for a good eight minutes, every now and then increasing the pressure in the tiniest increments, until the pain becomes pink and green and hot and cold and altogether howlingly unbearable.

Well exactly. Of course. The right thing to do, the only thing to do, is to get it over with as quickly as possible. Break the arm, ply the brandy, be a good citizen. There can be no other answer.

Unless.

Unless, unless, unless.”

The arm being broken – and very, very slowly, is Thomas Lang’s, ex-para and minor thug for hire. But he does have scruples. Not many, but some. He doesn’t kill people. OK, he doesn’t kill people for money and the guy trying to break his arm doesn’t count. What follows is a caper thriller novel in the best tradition of Ross Thomas or Donald E Westlake. Blackmailed by threats to do something he really doesn’t want any part of, he never stops looking for the edge that will get him out alive.  Clever, witty dialogue and lots of plot twists keeps things moving.  No one is who they seem, not even Thomas Lang, who might just have a shade more good guy in him than he likes to admit. Written in the first person, with verve and character, Lang is an observant, sarcastic, sanguine about his circumstances, and morally flexible about most things when it comes to his own survival and that of the woman he’s become attached to. When the dust settles, he knows he has to ‘do the right thing’. And he does.

This book was a surprise and a very pleasant one. Settle in and go for a ride.

My Grade: A-

Who would like this book: Fans of caper novels by Donald E Westlake, Ross Thomas, Lawrence Block’s burglar series and those who like Blackadder TV series.  My rating would be PG-17

Locked Room Mystery Classic

Back in the day – and well before my time – several authors wrote ‘locked room’ mysteries.  These mysteries were as much about HOW the crime was committed as they were about WHO committed it!  The best know author specializing in this genre was John Dickson Carr with lead character Dr. Gideon Fell, who also wrote as Carter Dickson, with Sir Henry Merrivale as the detective.   But my all time favorites were penned by Clayton Rawson, amateur magician and editor of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.  The books starred The Great Merlini – a retired magician and magic shop owner in New York City.  I had to go to Alibris to get used copies of these books as are they are out of print more often than not.

Merlini had only four outings – Death From a Top Hat, Footprints on the Ceiling, The Headless Lady, and No Coffin for the Corpse published between 1938 and 1942.  Each book is a gem filled with atmosphere.  Like the John Dickson Carr books, these are supposedly penned by Merlini’s younger sidekick, in this case news reporter Ross Harte, and written in the first person.  Each is named for a magic trick and the solution is based on the kind of carnival sleight-of-hand and misdirection used in the old fashioned magic tricks.  Hard to find and more than worth the effort for any mystery fan!

Tour’s Rating – A+

Who would enjoy these books:  The books were written long before political correctness entered fiction, so some things need to be put in historical perspective.  The language is G rated as is the action.