PETER TEMPLE - ITHACA IN MY MIND (2012)

Synopsis/blurb…..

On a lazy summer morning, ageing author Vincent Duncan takes an unsettling phone call from his literary agent. Peter Temple indulges his humorous side in this scathingly brilliant portrayal of a writer past his peak.

Crisis time in the library, my reading mojo has upped and vanished, so in an effort to speed things up and get things moving, I got this 21 page short from Amazon.

Temple is an author I’ve enjoyed in my pre-blogging days, though like most on my shelves there’s more from him unread than read. (The Broken Shore is highly recommended though.)

We have a disgruntled author waiting on news from his agent regarding his latest work. Our man in question is living on past glories and his star is waning, though naturally he is oblivious to this. His agent and not without a small amount of satisfaction soon enlightens him as to his current situation. A none too pleasant parting of the waves occurs.

In the background, our author’s work situation with his university contract close to expiration is somewhat fraught, though again his grasp on the seriousness of the situation is limited. Similarly our relationship with our Bohemian artist partner is somewhat strained. For an arty type she does like spending on the good things in life, as well as getting down and dirty with her latest young model. Financial meltdown is imminent.

However salvation beckons, rumour has it that our unpublished but much touted manuscript has scooped a major Canadian prize accompanied by a big fat cheque.

Hope springs eternal………sod the job, ditch the bitch and its blue skies all the way……. or not.

4.5 from 5

Great story, I doubt Temple’s poking fun at himself though undoubtedly he may have encountered a few writerly types whose persona may fill our main character’s shoes. Hilarious with a sting in the tale.

Sad to say whilst this temporarily lifted the October reading gloom, it was a short-lived revival. (4 days in the month left at time of writing and only 5 books/stories read. Time to check out the stacks for some more 20-page gems!)

Bought on Amazon this month for less than a pound.

PIERO CHIARA - THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SIGNORA GIULIA (1970/2015)

Synopsis/blurb……..

A delightfully Italian mystery, with undercurrent of satire, which keeps the reader guessing.

Every Thursday for three years, Signora Giulia takes the train to Milan to visit her daughter. But one Thursday she simply disappears. And the case is left in your hands. You're a born detective, but you have so many unanswered questions - how can a young, beautiful high society woman just vanish into thin air? Why does her husband - a prominent criminal lawyer and much older man - know nothing about it? And who was she really visiting during those trips to Milan?

For Detective Sciancalepre, the mystery is darker and more tangled than he imagined. Shadows are lurking in the grounds behind Giulia's house. Incriminating letters are exchanging hands. And no one is who they seem. Every twist and turn takes us closer to Giulia - and further from the truth....

Piero Chiara (born in 1913) worked as a court employee until the outbreak of World War Two. When the Fascist authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in 1944 he fled to Switzerland, where his first work of literature, a collection of poetry entitled Incantavi, was published in 1945. After the war he returned to Italy, and became one of the most celebrated writers of the post-war period. The winner of more than a dozen literary prizes - including the 1964 Campiello and the 1979 Bancarello - he is widely read and studied in his home country, and his stories and novels have been adapted for both television and film. Piero Chiara died in 1986. The Disappearance of Signora Giulia is his first book to be translated into English.

A short book at 128 pages long (though it seemed to read a lot longer) and an interesting mystery that was enjoyable overall, but doesn’t have me clamouring to learn Italian and read everything else he’s ever written. I did have a slight sense of frustration at the conclusion and a bit of irritation towards the long deceased author, who must have felt a bit smug and self-satisfied as he put down his pen at the end of this one. Me, I just think he was trying to be a bit too clever.

It’s a gentle mystery, no real violence on canvas. The undercurrent of satire, escaped me, but then this month I have been a somewhat grumpy reader. Our two main characters are not overly interesting. One – Esengreni - the husband of our disappeared Signora is a lawyer. The other –Sciancalepre, the man engaged by the former to investigate is a detective.

Our pace is pedestrian, with the investigation into Giulia’s disappearance unfolding over a matter of many months. Sciancalepre uncovers the secret life Giulia has been living and with the complicity of someone in her household how she arranged it. Small discoveries lead our investigator to new avenues of enquiry, which quickly fizzle into nothing and a sense of ennui takes over. Until the next little nugget, appears.

Eventually a big nugget is discovered and in the latter part of the book we speed up slightly, towards a conclusion which still niggles a bit. Maybe a bit of distance from this book, will have me reconsidering my verdict, as putting this on the page, a small portion of my brain is thinking, maybe it was the perfect ending and my initial thoughts were too hasty. Perhaps the best books are the ones which leave you conflicted and scratching your head?

I've deliberately left the events which unfold vague in order to avoid spoiling anything for anyone who wants to pick this one up. There is a fair bit to like about it, not least the realistic time frame in which our narrative unfolds. No sense of urgency or compression to have things resolve themselves in a matter of days. Worth a look, a bit of a cerebral read as opposed to event driven.

Overall – enjoyable but frustrating. A lot different from my usual kind of reads, and no bad thing for that. Decent Italian setting – not somewhere I’ve visited for a while in my reading. Another slight irritation, as our location is portrayed as M-------, throughout the book, something which irrationally annoyed me beyond belief.

4 from 5

The book was originally published in 1970 and has recently been translated and issued by Pushkin Vertigo. Thanks to them for my copy of this. 

2 BY DAN FANTE

2 from Dan Fante this week.

Dan’s biography at Fantastic Fiction tells us he’s been around the block a few times……

Dan Fante was born and raised in Los Angeles. At twenty, he quit school and hit the road, eventually ending up as a New York City resident for twelve years. Fante has worked at dozens of crummy jobs including: door to door salesman, taxi driver, window washer, telemarketer, private investigator, night hotel manager, chauffeur, mailroom clerk, deck hand, dishwasher, carnival barker, envelope stuffer, dating service ounsellor, furniture salesman, and parking attendant. Fante is married and has a two year old son named Michaelangelo Giovanni Fante. He hopes eventually to learn to play the harmonica.

His father was author John Fante, noted for his Bandini Quartet of novels, which sits somewhere in the piles.

He has a series of 4 books with his protagonist Bruno Dante – Mooch and Spitting are the second and third in the series. Chump Change and 86’d open and close the series. His most recent novel was Point Doom in 2013, which I have but haven’t yet read (unsurprisingly) and there a biography of his father, enigmatically titled Fante which looks interesting, but I may have to pass on it.

I did read his short story collection – Corksucker (Short Dog in the US) a few years ago. Review here.

Dan Fante has a website here.

Mooch (2000)

Bruno Dante is trying to straighten out selling printer supplies for a company ruled by a straight, militaristic disciplinarian. Unfortunately for Bruno, a former gangbanger, lap-dancer and crackhead called Jimmi turns up and soon he's back in free fall.

Spitting off Tall Buildings (2001)

Bruno Dante - aspirant playwright and long-time drunk - has hitch-hiked cross country, escaping the sunshine of LA, for the more cynical climate of New York. He should fit right in. But if there's money for beer he's sure to fuck things up.

LOGGING THE LIBRARY - PART FIFTY-TWO

Another week, another 50 from the madhouse........

Tub 52 and I still can't take a decent photo!

Henry Chang, Douglas Kennedy, Nicholas Blincoe, Chris Offutt, James Sallis,

Manchester crime!

Stephen Fry, Stieg Larsson, Robert Lewis, Michael Simkins, Kevin Wignall,

Intriguing

Welsh Crime

National treasure

Italian author

Short-lived Crime magazine

Bullet 7 - the last issue

Niccolo Ammaniti, Dave Boling, Bullet x 3

Ian Banks, Bill Pronzini, Lynne Raimondo, Charlotte Carter, plus a horror anthology

Nameless 2012 book

Bill Pronzini, R.D. Wingfield, Anthony Bourdain, Mark Billingham, Val McDermid,

Chef-cum-author

Stella Rimington, James Patterson, Val McDermid, Robert Wilson, Charles Williams,

60s pulp

Liz Carlyle book 3

Lynn Kostoff, Bill Pronzini, Friedrich Durrenmatt x 2, T. Jefferson Parker, M.J. McGrath,

Read one from him so far and loved it - The Long Fall

Early Parker standalone novel

Nameless mystery

P.G. Sturges, Ben Elton, Stan Jones x 2, Bill Bryson,

Alaskan mystery

Brian Freemantle, P.G.Sturges, Albert French, Margaret Miller, Manning O'Brine,

Late 60s espionage - crap photo!

Margaret Millar from the 50s

Shortcut Man book 3

 William Lindsay Gresham, William Marshall, James Hawes, John Sandford,

Hong Kong set series, book 3 from the 70s

40s crime

Tub 52 put to bed

HIGHLIGHTS.... I'm looking forward to a bit of Kevin Wignall, P. G. Sturges and Lynn Kostoff in particular. T. Jefferson Parker hasn't disappointed yet either. Neither has Bill Pronzini.

LOWLIGHTS..... I'm not too sure why I bought the Iain Banks book and similarly Robert Wilson. Hopefully reading them changes my mind!

FULL LIST OF 50 AS FOLLOWS:

AUTHOR		TITLE	YEAR	SERIES
AMMANITI	NICCOLO	STEAL YOU AWAY	2006
BANKS	IAIN	ESPEDAIR STREET	1987
BILLINGHAM	MARK	SCAREDY CAT	2002	TT2
BLINCOE	NICHOLAS	ACID CASUALS	1995
BOLING	DAVE	GUERNICA	2008
BOURDAIN	ANTHONY	GONE BAMBOO	1997
BRYSON	BILL	DOWN UNDER	2000
CARTER	CHARLOTTE	WALKING BONES	2002
CHANG	HENRY	CHINATOWN BEAT	2006	DJY1
DUHRENMATT	FRIEDRICH	THE JUDGE AND HIS HANGMAN	1954
DUHRENMATT	FRIEDRICH	SUSPICION	2006
ELTON	BEN	PAST MORTEM	2004
FREEMANTLE	BRIAN	THE VIETNAM LEGACY	1984
FRENCH	ALBERT	I CAN'T WAIT ON GOD	1998
FRY	STEPHEN	THE FRY CHRONICLES	2010
GRESHAM	WILLIAM LINDSAY	NIGHTMARE ALLEY	1946
HAWES	JAMES	RANCID ALUMINIUM	1997
JEFFREY	KEITH	BULLET 5 (ed.)	2005	B5
JEFFREY	KEITH	BULLET 7 (ed.)	2006	B7
JEFFREY	KEITH	BULLET 3 (ed.)	2004	B3
JONES	STAN	WHITE SKY, BLACK ICE	1999	NA1
JONES	STAN	FROZEN SUN	2008	NA3
KENNEDY	DOUGLAS	THE DEAD HEART	1994
KOSTOFF	LYNN	LATE RAIN	2010
LARSSON	STIEG	THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE	2009	M2
LEWIS	ROBERT	THE LAST LLANELLI TRAIN	2005	RL1
MARSHALL	WILLIAM	GELIGNITE	1975	YS3
McDERMID	VAL	CLEAN BREAK	1995	KB4
McDERMID	VAL	BENEATH THE BLEEDING	2007	TH+CJ5
McGRATH	M. J.	THE BOY IN THE SNOW	2012	EK2
MILLAR	MARGARET	BEAST IN VIEW	1955
MORRELL	DAVID	CREEPERS	2005	FB1
O'BRINE	MANNING	MILLS	1969	M1
OFFUTT	CHRIS	THE GOOD BROTHER	1997
PARKER	T. JEFFERSON	LITTLE SAIGON	1988
PATTERSON	JAMES	FOUR BLIND MICE	2002	AC8
PRONZINI	BILL	SCHEMERS	2009	N34
PRONZINI	BILL	FEMME	2012	N
RAIMONDO	LYNNE	DANTE'S POISON	2014	MA2
RIMINGTON	STELLA	ILLEGAL ACTION	2007	LC3
SALLIS	JAMES	CRIPPLE CREEK	2006	T2
SANDFORD	JOHN	HIDDEN PREY	2004	LD15
SIMKINS	MICHAEL	FATTY BATTER	2007
STONE/HALL	MICHAEL/CHRISTOPHER J.	BADASS HORROR (ed.)	2006
STURGES	P. G.	TRIBULATIONS OF A SHORTCUT MAN	2012	SM2
STURGES	P. G.	ANGEL'S GATE	2013	SM3
WIGNALL	KEVIN	AMONG THE DEAD	2002
WILLIAMS	CHARLES	THE LONG SATURDAY NIGHT	1962
WILSON	ROBERT	THE HIDDEN ASSASSINS	2006	JF3
WINGFIELD	R.D	A TOUCH OF FROST	1987	JF2

ANONYMOUS-9 - CRASHING THROUGH MIRRORS (2014)

Synopsis/blurb…..

Named "BEST CRIME FICTION 2014" alongside Matthew McBride, Joe Lansdale and Karin Slaughter by JustaGuythatLikestoRead blog.

Bern Aldershot, former bass player for the legendary band Aldershot is attacked in a parking lot. His 1965 Rickenbacker bass is stolen, and that's not all. Desperate to avoid publicity Bern refuses to tell the police or anyone. Big mistake. Three months later depression has him staring down the barrel of his own gun. When his attacker resurfaces there is no one to help or confide in except one: a 16-year-old fangirl named London. Together they play cat and mouse with a suspected serial killer across Los Angeles, piecing together clues from a series of rapes and murders, challenging disbelieving cops and pissed off bikers in a wildly unusual chase and raging conclusion. If you enjoy this book, would you please come back and leave a review?

Anonymous-9’s CRASHING THROUGH MIRRORS is one wild, funky adrenaline rush—you don’t read it; you inhale it, like Peruvian marching powder on a mirror in the bathroom at the Viper Club, trying to get it all sucked up before the gendarmes bust down the door. This is one mighty talent. My heart’s still pounding. —Les Edgerton, author of THE RAPIST, THE BITCH, and THE GENUINE, IMITATION, PLASTIC KIDNAPPING

"I loved the way Aldershot is portrayed. There is something so real about this character that makes him jump off the script and land in reality..." --Just a Guy that Likes to Read blog

"A novelette that locks you in the moment and smacks you through each page. Great depiction of Los Angeles, good tension in the subplots. I'd love to see this as a full novel. Recommended." —Liam Sweeny, author of Welcome Back, Jack!

"A suspenseful novel with characters you care about... give us more. --Scott Alderberg, author Jungle Horses

Another trip on the wild side with one of my favourite contemporary authors, Anonymous-9 aka Elaine Ash.

A novella this time and another trip down the dark side of LA’s mean streets. Bern Aldershot, a once famous bass-player has lost his mojo. Another session in the studio and he can’t play for toffee…..embarrassing. A fading, aging rock star and he’s staring down the barrel of his own shotgun. When he was attacked and had his prized guitar stolen, his assailant took more than his Rickenbacker; he took his dignity and his pride.

Eat the gun or try and take it back……  

Ticks in every box… setting, character, pace, dialogue, action and food for thought when reconciling violent crime and the impact on the victims.

4.5 from 5

Bought on Amazon last year.

Anonymous-9 has featured on the blog a few times already

Q+A, Hard Bite, Bite Harder and Just So You Know I'm Not Dead .

Catch up with her on her website here. 

WILLIAM CRAIG - THE STRASBOURG LEGACY (1975)

Synopsis/blurb…..

Decades after the defeat of the Third Reich, the SS rears its sinister head in this captivating thriller from the bestselling author of Enemy at the Gates and The Fall of Japan

In the chaos of defeat, while Germany's roads teemed with desperate refugees and jumbled armies, Hitler's inner circle tried to disappear. Heinrich Himmler donned an eye patch and posed as a farmer. Captured by British troops, he bit into a cyanide capsule concealed in a tooth cavity. Rudolph Hoess, former commandant of Auschwitz, was discovered working as a farmhand near Bremen. But many of the most notorious Nazis escaped, including Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann. Martin Bormann, the Fuehrer's private secretary, was rumored to be living everywhere from the Soviet Union to South America.

Almost 3 decades later, CIA agent Matt Corcoran is sent to Bad Nauheim to investigate possible Soviet involvement in the theft of US Army munitions. He hears whispers of German Reds blowing up NATO ammo dumps, neo-Nazis aiding the Arab cause against Israel, and a plot to assassinate the German chancellor. Corcoran soon begins to suspect that behind the turmoil is an organization as diabolical as it is improbable: a cadre of loyal Nazi officers, under the command of Bormann, who are bent on bringing about the Fourth Reich.

As action-packed and suspenseful as The Odessa File and The Boys from Brazil, The Strasbourg Legacy is 1st-class entertainment from an acclaimed historian of World War II.

A Net Galley book and an interesting enough thriller with Espionage undertones, without being the best book ever.

It is the mid-70s and some sleeper Nazis have decided the time is right to overthrow Willy Brandt’s government and instigate the Fourth Reich. Plans that have been 30-plus years in the making.  Matt Corcoran is the American agent, trying to join all the dots up and with the assistance of an adversary-cum-friend in Russian intelligence thwart the plan – once of course he has realised what is going on.

There’s misinformation and red herrings aplenty – why are the Russian’s ramping up the Cold War with troop movements towards the West? Is it Baader-Meinhof Gang raiding American arms depots in Germany? Why now are the Arabs instigating an oil-shortage which could cripple an Allied response to Russian aggression, or is it all part of a bigger smokescreen?

Interesting plot, though I don’t know too much about the time period to offer a considered response as to whether it was all plausible, though the author does a convincing job in persuading me. Could the Nazis have made a comeback? Would the civilised world have tolerated them?

Not too much depth to our characters, which in this instance was quite good because it kept things hurrying along. Enough there to ensure the main characters were more than brush-strokes but insufficient to allow for any feelings of fellowship from this reader, for the good guys. That said, only brush strokes or not – who doesn’t find Fascism and Nazis odious.    

Overall a fairly quick read in a month where my reading has slowed up. Interesting and a bit of food for thought on a “what if” basis, but I wouldn’t especially rush to read anything else by the author.  

4 from 5

Accessed via Net Galley and available from Open Road Media.

William Craig was a US author and historian with a couple of books on World War II, as well as the 1971 fictional offering The Tashkent Crisis. He passed in 1997.

2 BY G. M. FORD

2 from G.M. Ford this week.

Ford has written two series – Leo Waterman with 8 books in total – the first 6 of which were published between 1995 and 2000. He then wrote a 6 book series with a journalist – Frank Corso which hit the racks between 2001 and 2006. Since then there have been 3 standalone novels and a return to the Leo Waterman books.

I’ve read from both series. The Corso books are darker, harder. The Waterman – lighter, a bit caperish – maybe a la Westlake. The Thrilling Detective website describes Waterman thus…….

A hapless, rumpled, heart-on-his-sleeve, middle-aged, intelligent, grumpy smart-ass, Seattle private eye LEO WATERMAN stumbles from one bizarre case to another, in this highly-entertaining, sometimes laugh-out loud funny, critically-acclaimed series, by G.M. Ford. Aiding him in his escapades are "the boys," a gang of "residentially-challenged devotees of cheap alcohol." Yep, not to put too fine a point on it, Leo's sidekicks are a bunch of mostly fun-loving winos and bums .

G. M. Ford has his website here.

The full list of Leo books are as follows:

Leo Waterman

1. Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca? (1995)

2. Cast in Stone (1996)

3. The Bum's Rush (1997)

4. Slow Burn (1998)

5. Last Ditch (1999)

6. The Deader the Better (2000)

7. Thicker Than Water (2012)

8. Chump Change (2014)

The Bum’s Rush (1997)

Leo Waterman, a man who has taken the dregs of society and turned them into a surveillance team, is on the trail of the truth, along with his hapless crew of deviants, when a homeless woman claims to be a dead rock star's mother.

Slow Burn (1998)

Aided by his band of scruffy irregulars - "the Boys," a team of residentially challenged connoisseurs of inexpensive spirits who specialize in going unnoticed as they trail a suspect - Leo remains Seattle's most unorthodox and politically connected private investigator. Anticipating disaster, Le Cuisine Internationale, a prestigious global restaurant convention, hires Leo as its own Special Security Officer. His relatively simple assignment is to monitor the movements of the society's bone of contention: two adversarial steakhouse competitors, whose "beef" has previously made for some nasty confrontations; and the food critic who's caught in between the warring factions. Cleaning up the Boys, Leo sends them off to shadow the entourages and report back to him at day's end. What could be easier! But even the simplest of plans can cascade into catastrophe. Leo finds himself served up as the prime suspect in a murder, gets thoroughly grilled by the police, and realizes that both his life and career are at stake.