A story worth revisiting

EVEN THE WICKED
by Lawrence Block
ISBN-0-380-72534-7
pb from Avon, 373 pgs, pub 2/98

The Grand Master does it again. Now a licensed private investigator, Matthew Scudder is faced with a most perplexing case. Even if, strictly speaking , he has no client. Of course, for those who follow the tracks of recovering alcoholic, ex-cop Scudder, know that the absence of a client, indeed, the absence of much of anything that might be called a case has never stopped him from pursuing whatever fragile thread captures his attention. Part of the time, he does have a client, other times, not, it's just one of the fascinating aspects of this book.

As always, Block's writing deftly brings the nature and the ambiance of the city right off the page and into your immediate presence. His principal secondary characters, as usual, play important roles in moving the story forward and adding fine texture to the mix. Block's writing remains as smooth as ever was.

With the publication of the first letter in a local newspaper, the city's attention focuses on someone who calls himself the Will of the people. He suggests that certain criminals whom the law of the land has thus far been unable to snare, ought to be disposed of, done away with, dispatched. Who would care? Who indeed. So the Will of the people announces his targets and begins his cleanup campaign. And even though Scudder has no client connected to the Will of the People, as his erstwhile partner, TJ points out, "Dude's the whole city's problem." But all too soon the Will of the People becomes Scudder's immediate problem, and a complex, cerebral as well as action-filled adventure begins as Scudder pursues a serial killer through the city. EVEN THE WICKED is a thoughtful examination of parts of our society which need more light. It invites reflection on certain aspects of our life and is a distinct pleasure to read.

RED SKY NOW PUBLISHED

Mary Whitney and Tanner embark on a romantic sailing vacation in the British Virgin Islands. During a quick swim, Tanner finds three hundred dollar bills floating beside their charter. Contact with the authorities leads to confusion and murder of a local Treasury agent. Believing Tanner has stolen millions of dollars from a smuggling cartel, Tanner is kidnapped by the cartel to force him to reveal the location of the missing money. Mary goes on a frantic quest to save both Tanner and herself. With help from a young secret Service agent, Hilda Martin, Mary offers herself as bait in an attempt to rescue her husband and trap the killers. In the violent final confrontation at sea, Mary pits her sailing skills against a powerful motor yacht and Hilda Martin is forced into a frightening gun battle with the enemy.

Buy RED SKY here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/43440

A STRANGE TALE OF DARK MADNESS

The Deadly Percheron
By John Franklin Bardin
Millipede Press, 2006
Trade Paper, 207 pages
ISBN:1933618108

John Franklin Bardin was born in 1916 and during his lifetime he wrote ten dark or noir crime novels. He refused to recognize any difference between genres, once stating his belief there are only good and bad novels. According to Jonathan Lethem, who wrote a thoughtful and lengthy foreward to this edition, Bardin once said that Graham Green, Henry Green and Henry James were noticeable influences on his writing. This novel, Bardin’s first, was published in 1946 and it is a very interesting noir novel indeed.

Amnesia and paranoia are the subjects and the characters, all unusual and distinct, sustain a complicated and bizarre plot through an abrupt but eminently satisfying conclusion. This is by no means a perfect novel, and the sixty-year-old style is sometimes disturbingly devoid of emotion. Shocking action is abruptly presented and just as abruptly disposed of. There is a fairly lengthy center section in which the amnesiac who is the protagonist, is established in his new and very much lower class life on Coney Island. Dr. George Matthews, a prominent psychologist, with a practice in midtown, and a comfortable upper class living, is confronted by a new client who arrives with a fresh hibiscus in his hair. For today’s readers, especially those of us who lived through the seventies and eighties of the last century, that is nothing special about a man with a flower in his hair.

We sense something odd and a little off kilter about the good Dr. Matthews. He appears to have more than passing interest in burgeoning sexuality he observes around him and he seems to identify rather too strongly with his new patient, Jacob Blunt. Blunt reveals that while he is wealthy enough to afford the counseling service of Dr. Matthews, he is working for a couple of midtown leprechauns, not Irish, he assures the doctor, American leprechauns. What’s more, he is really anxious to be told that he must be hallucinating, is withdrawing from reality and the events he is witnessing and doing are not real. He is happily losing his mind, which is far better than being trapped in this strange alter world.

The reader is rather suddenly brought up short when the doctor almost eagerly agrees to enter Mr. Blunt’s world. From there we are drawn farther and farther with the doctor, into this weird world of murder, large horses, amnesia and paranoia.

Difficult to locate, perhaps, a novel that is well worth the effort. This edition, from Millipede Press of Colorado, carries a striking cover painting by Salvador Dali.

A NON-MCGEE LOOK AT FINANCIAL CRIME

Barrier Island
Author: John D. MacDonald
Publisher: Fawcett Books
Copyright: 1986
ISBN: 0-449-13179-3
259 pages

Unfortunately, readers won't find this book in most on-line or regular bookstores. The novel is out of print. And, unlike the recent reissue of the Travis McGee series, much of MacDonald's canon will remain in the hands of used book retailers. But this novel by a master of the crime novel, is one of many that brought MacDonald considerable notice and accolades for his unremitting efforts to protect the fragile coastal regions of Florida and the Gulf Coast, in addition to the recognition of his gifts as a writer. Readers of the excellent Emma Lathen series of chicanery in high financial circles, will find Barrier Island to their liking. This is clearly a work whose themes are of considerable interest and even passion to the author.

This novel could have been written yesterday, testament to the genius and skill of the author. I found nothing which was not germane and up to date. MacDonald's characters are interesting, well-developed and consistent. The book probes conflicting situations between partners in a real estate firm, and follows the conflicting desires of the partners in the ways they define a successful business.

Greed, avarice, ecological concerns and healthy community growth are all considered in this action-filled novel. There are surprises and misdirections, all couched in MacDonald's excellent prose. An excellent, thoughtful, novel.

MAYHEM AT THE GREAT GET-TOGETHER

Short PI, Sean NMI Sean, is up for escorting his statuesque lady love to the Great Minnesota Get-together, as the State Fair is known. The annual event draws millions of folks, most regular, law-abiding types. There are many opportunities for the irregular types. Pick-pockets, grifters, hustlers and scam artists. And that’s just the ordinary ones.

Minnesota and neighbor Wisconsin are noted for their cheese production, both hard and soft. So Sean, watching a small stage performance by a polka band, barely registers a comment about hard cheese when he overhears two men talking. But later, things get dark and slippery when he enters the horse barn. Well, here, see what I’m saying....

“We were somewhere in the center of the big barn, having encountered several enormous equine creatures being maneuvered here and there down the aisles. The horses’ hooves made sharp clopping sounds on the concrete. Some of the animals seemed a little skittish so we avoided getting close. I was a few steps ahead of Catherine, who had stopped to peer through a barred grate at a small brown ass. Maybe it was a donkey. I’m no expert on these things. I went on around the corner and came face to face with an open stall. I remember there was a lot of what looked like fresh hay on the floor. Also a body.
He was slumped on the floor against a corner of the stall, one arm raised as if he were about to wave at somebody. The effect was ruined because his wrist was pinned to the wooden wall by one steel tine of a pitchfork. His striped black and white boat shirt glistened red down the front. His head drooped forward but it looked to me like his throat had been slashed.”

The short story is titled “Hard Cheese.” If you want to know the why’s and wherefores, you can download this charming bit of diversion for a ridiculously low price from Echelon Press.
The easy way is to go to the website, www.echelonpress.com/index Then click on my name in the lower left panel. Easy.

The page gives you access not only to this story but a few others I’ve produced for Echelon.
And do come back and visit. I’ve several other nice bits and a few pieces that Echelon has promised to publish in the next few months.

Meanwhile, Good reading!

Janice Halley Interview

This one is a reverse. She interviewed me
here's the link
http://research-writing-techniques.suite101.com/article.cfm/writers_rituals_carl_brookins