Monday 15 August 2016

LOGGING THE LIBRARY - PART SEVENTY-NINE

Tub 79 and another 50 from the tubs in the attic!

Tub 79

Lisa Gardner, Jack O'Connell, James O. Born, Nick Gaitano, Christopher Brookmyre, 

James O. Born - Bill Tasker series book.
Florida lawman James Born follows one of the most highly praised crime debuts of the year with a literally explosive novel of hunter and hunted.

FDLE agent Bill Tasker, still smarting from a run-in with the FBI that almost got him killed, reluctantly teams up with the bureau again on a case involving a stolen Stinger missile. The op goes smoothly enough (though the feds take all the credit-what else is new?), but something about the whole setup just doesn't feel right to him. Tasker pokes around a bit-and stirs up more trouble than a nest of rattlesnakes: with his boss, with the FBI, with the ATF, and, worst of all, with a certain gentleman who loves to see things blow up . . . bigger and bigger things,as it turns out. The bomber hasn't killed anybody yet, but if this FDLE agent keeps interfering-well, there's always a first time, isn't there?
Robert Daley, James Frey, Lauren Henderson, Peter Straub, Lee Martin,

Robert Daley from the 80s.
This latest novel by the author of Prince of the City may end by focusing on the controversy over a green Deputy Commissioner who commits accidental homicide, but it is really about the fascinating distribution and realignment of power at the top of the nation's largest police force. Foreign correspondent Phil Keefe has been selected right-hand man to New York Police Commissioner Timothy J. Egan, a small, strong-minded former police academy instructor bent on reform of the department. Keefe is coached by a sergeant who has seen awful cruelties on the streets of New York. He is suspected by top brass who fear their power slipping into his hands. And he is resented by his girlfriend, an actress whom he leaves each night to visit the city's cops at work. He is in over his head, though, when police officials saddle him with a difficult hostage negotiation that results in the death of a distraught black trucker. Daley himself is on slightly unfamiliar ground when he brings to task an ambitious senator and assistant DA. And he sometimes pushes too far his recurring theme of the cop as society's martyr. But when Daley describes working cops, he makes clear the aggravation and ugliness of their jobs. And when he examines the methods by which major police officials quietly protect their careers and extend their grasp, he writes like a dazzling pre-glasnost Kremlinologist scrutinizing small changes in photos of Soviet leaders for revealing clues.

James Frey - I like him even if Oprah doesn't.
One of the most celebrated and controversial authors in America delivers his first novel - a sweeping chronicle of contemporary Los Angeles that is bold, exhilarating, and utterly original.

Dozens of characters pass across the reader's sight lines - some never to be seen again - but James Frey lingers on a handful of LA's lost souls and captures the dramatic narrative of their lives: a bright, ambitious young Mexican-American woman who allows her future to be undone by a moment of searing humiliation; a supremely narcissistic action-movie star whose passion for the unattainable object of his affection nearly destroys him; a couple, both nineteen years old, who flee their suffocating hometown and struggle to survive on the fringes of the great city; and an aging Venice Beach alcoholic whose life is turned upside down when a meth-addled teenage girl shows up half-dead outside the restroom he calls home.

Throughout this strikingly powerful novel there is the relentless drumbeat of the millions of other stories that, taken as a whole, describe a city, a culture, and an age. A dazzling tour de force, Bright Shiny Morning illuminates the joys, horrors, and unexpected fortunes of life and death in Los Angeles.
Gar Anthony Haywood, Jim Frederick, George MacDonald Fraser, Barry Maitland, John McCabe,

Barry Maitland - Brock & Kolla 5!
 One cold December day a shop assistant at Silvermeadow recognises a customer as Gregory 'Upper' North, a vicious bank robber who's been on the run for years. When DCI Brock and DS Kathy Kolla follow up the sighting, they discover that another major investigation is underway at the mall, into the disappearance of a teenage girl who worked as a waitress in the food court there. They agree to work with the Essex police on both cases, and the body of the missing girl is discovered, having apparently been crushed in one of the rubbish compactors in Silvermeadow's vast basement. Kathy and Brock explore the strange hermetic world of the mall, a place of perfect temperature and constant sunshine, in sharp contrast to the bleak winter landscape of the surrounding Essex countryside. They meet the different groups of people who inhabit the place: somewhere among them is not only a gang planning a violent robbery, but also a serial killer, stalking young women in the mall - a shark in warm, teeming waters. Like the mall they are drawn to, the people we meet are not what they appear. Illusion and fantasy mask the hard realities of need and dependence, and others have to die before Kathy and Brock finally trace those realities to their unexpected source. This dark and brilliantly plotted crime thriller bears comparison with Michael Connelly and Ian Rankin.

Alan Furst, John Grisham, Tim O'Brien, Georges Simenon, Jon A. Jackson,

Mulheisen series book from Jon A. Jackson
Hit-man Joe Service is on the run from would-be assassins and suffering from partial memory loss. He enlists the help of his love-struck nurse, Cate Yoder, as he searches for his long-time lover Helen Sedlacek and the millions of dollars they heisted from the mob in the prequel "Deadman".
Vietnam stories - Tim O'Brien
 "They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing--these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice.... Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to."

A finalist for both the 1990 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Things They Carried marks a subtle but definitive line of demarcation between Tim O'Brien's earlier works about Vietnam, the memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone and the fictional Going After Cacciato, and this sly, almost hallucinatory book that is neither memoir nor novel nor collection of short stories but rather an artful combination of all three. Vietnam is still O'Brien's theme, but in this book he seems less interested in the war itself than in the myriad different perspectives from which he depicts it. Whereas Going After Cacciato played with reality, The Things They Carried plays with truth. The narrator of most of these stories is "Tim"; yet O'Brien freely admits that many of the events he chronicles in this collection never really happened. He never killed a man as "Tim" does in "The Man I Killed," and unlike Tim in "Ambush," he has no daughter named Kathleen. But just because a thing never happened doesn't make it any less true. In "On the Rainy River," the character Tim O'Brien responds to his draft notice by driving north, to the Canadian border where he spends six days in a deserted lodge in the company of an old man named Elroy while he wrestles with the choice between dodging the draft or going to war. The real Tim O'Brien never drove north, never found himself in a fishing boat 20 yards off the Canadian shore with a decision to make. The real Tim O'Brien quietly boarded the bus to Sioux Falls and was inducted into the United States Army. But the truth of "On the Rainy River" lies not in facts but in the genuineness of the experience it depicts: both Tims went to a war they didn't believe in; both considered themselves cowards for doing so. Every story in The Things They Carried speaks another truth that Tim O'Brien learned in Vietnam; it is this blurred line between truth and reality, fact and fiction, that makes his book unforgettable. --Alix Wilber

Bill Bryson, David Baldacci, Stuart Neville, John Burdett, Charles Williams,

Charles Williams - 1950s
 Two Chicago hoodlums and a beautiful nightclub singer on the run decide to hide out in the bayou country of the deep South, land of moonshine whisky and easy loving. Then Miss Choo-Choo Caroline disappears wearing nothing but a very tiny G-string encrusted with diamonds, and the neighbourhood erupts into a fevered search of the woods. Only one thing is certain, and that is that Sagamore Noonan aims to- make himself some big money from the whole scandalous business.

Stephen Greenleaf, Jonathan Valin, Norman Mailer, James Slant, Alex Garland, 

A crystal meth memoir!
Leaving Dirty Jersey is the compellingly crafted tale of James Salant's descent into crystal meth addiction. Written at the age of only twenty-two, this memoir chronicles his year-long addiction with complete honesty and heartbreaking candour. 

Brought up in a stable, middle-class family, the second son of two therapists, he was introduced to heroin at seventeen by his brother Joe. This resulted in a spell in rehab where he met a bunch of ex-convicts, and he soon fell into the thuggish, drifting lifestyle of meth addiction. It was to take a near-psychotic event to finally get him to clean up.

With graphic descriptions of life on crystal meth - the insatiable sex drive, the paranoia, the desperate need for more drugs to sustain the high - James' writing mimics the emotional detachment of the drug and the wired yet aimless life it induces. His voice is so open and authentic, it is hard to believe he is still so young. 

Given the nickname Dirty Jersey, while living as a tough guy-junkie in California, James had it tattooed on the inside of his left arm. There it remains as a graphic and permanent reminder of his past life as a junkie.

Frank Lean, Walter Mosley, Graham Greene, Luke Rhinehart, Richard Aleas, 

Walter Mosley, Fearless Jones book
Paris Minton doesn't want any trouble. He minds his used bookstore and his own business. But in 1950s Los Angeles, sometimes trouble finds him, no matter how hard he tries to avoid it. When the nephew of the wealthiest woman in L.A. is missing and wanted for murder, she has to get involved--no matter if she can't stand him. What will her church think? She hires Jefferson T. Hill, a former sheriff of Dawson, Texas, and a tough customer, to track him down and prove his innocence. When Hill goes missing too, she tricks his friend Fearless Jones and Paris Minton into picking up the case. Paris steps inside the world of the black bourgeoisie, and it turns out to be filled with deceit and corruption. It takes everything he has just to stay alive through a case filled with twists and turns and dead ends like he never imagined. Written with the voice and vision that have made Walter Mosley one of the most entertaining writers in America, FEAR ITSELF marks the return of a master at the top of his form.

I read this years ago and saved it for another turn - The Dice Man.
 LET THE DICE DECIDE


This is the philosophy that changes the life of bored psychiatrist Luke Rhinehart - and in some ways changes the world as well.

Because once you hand your life over to the dice, anything can happen.

Entertaining, humorous, scary, shocking, subversive, The Dice Man is one of the cult bestsellers of our time.
Martin Booth, Charles Williams, John B. Spencer, Joseph Finder, Martin Cruz Smith, 

1st Arkady Renko - this'll be a re-read!
 A thriller featuring Chief Investigator Arkady Renko who is investigating the discovery of three corpses in a Moscow park. But why have the trio been mutilated, and why have they been buried in Gorky Park? From the author of HAVANA BAY and RED SQUARE.

Dick Francis, Joseph Koenig, John Baker, David Simon, Lee Child, 

Joseph Koenig - I loved his book Floater.
 This crime thriller from the author of "Floater" takes the reader on an entertaining tour of New York City's sleazier side. It centres around Russian-born Kate Piro, who has no difficulty attracting men, but soon finds that they are about to lead her into some complicated trouble.

Jake Needham x 2, Kris Nelscott, Laura McBride, Francis Gilbert, 


Debut novel from Laura McBride,
An accessible, beautifully crafted and heartbreakingly topical novel about PTSI and the unseen effects of global conflict on ordinary lives.

Beyond the bright lights and casinos lies the real Las Vegas, a forces town. In the predawn hours, a woman's marriage crumbles with a single confession. Across the city, Bashkim, the young son of an immigrant family, observes how they are struggling to get by in the land of opportunity. Three thousand miles away on the other side of the United States, a soldier, recently returned from active service in Iraq, wakes up in hospital with the feeling he's done something awful. 

In Laura McBride's heartbreaking and authentic novel, these disparate lives are brought together by one split-second choice; this is a story about families, the ones we are born to and the ones we choose to make. Faced with seemingly insurmountable loss, each person must decide whether to give in to despair, or to find the courage and resilience to rise. 

'A powerful story of the way in which war detonates far from battlefields, exploding lives in a single irrevocable moment. We Are Called to Rise reverberated long after I'd put it down. I can't stop thinking about it' Sarah Blake, The Postmistress 

Tub 79 - put to bed!

HIGHLIGHTS..... Charles Williams, James Salant, Jake Needham, Barry Maitland, Richard Aleas, John Baker, Jon A. Jackson and others. Looking forward to enjoying a bit of non-fiction from this tub.

LOWLIGHTS...... hmm, not too much to be scared of, maybe Baldacci and Brookmyre aren't especially singing out to me.

FULL LIST OF 50 AS FOLLOWS: 


AUTHOR TITLE YEAR SERIES
ALEAS RICHARD LITTLE GIRL LOST 2004 JB1
BAKER JOHN KING OF THE STREETS 1998 ST3
BALDACCI DAVID TRUE BLUE 2009
BOOTH MARTIN HIROSHIMA JOE 1985
BORN JAMES O. SHOCK WAVE 2005 BT2
BROOKMYRE CHRISTOPHER A TALE ETCHED IN BLOOD AND HARD BLACK PENCIL 2006
BRYSON BILL NEITHER HERE NOR THERE 1991
BURDETT JOHN BANGKOK TATTOO 2005 SJ2
CHILD LEE THE HARD WAY 2006 JR10
CRUZ SMITH MARTIN GORKY PARK 1981 AR1
DALEY ROBERT MAN WITH A GUN 1988
FINDER JOSEPH POWER PLAY 2007
FRANCIS DICK IN THE FRAME 1976
FREDERICK JIM BLACK HEARTS 2010
FREY JAMES BRIGHT SHINY MORNING 2008
FURST ALAN THE WORLD AT NIGHT 1996 NS4
GAITANO NICK JADED 1996 JP2
GARDNER LISA GONE 2006 Q+R5
GARLAND ALEX THE BEACH 1996
GILBERT FRANCIS I'M A TEACHER, GET ME OUT OF HERE 2004
GREENE GRAHAM A GUN FOR SALE 1936
GREENLEAF STEPHEN DEATH BED 1980 JMT2
GRISHAM JOHN THEODORE BOONE 2010 TB1
HAYWOOD GAR ANTHONY BAD NEWS TRAVELS FAST 1995 J+DL2
HENDERSON LAUREN CHAINED! 2000 SJ6
JACKSON JON A. DEAD FOLKS 1996 DSM6
KOENIG  JOSEPH LITTLE ODESSA 1988
LEAN FRANK THE RELUCTANT INVESTIGATOR 1997 DC3
MACDONALD FRASER GEORGE FLASHMAN AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD 1994 FP10
MAILER NORMAN WHY ARE WE IN VIETNAM? 1967
MAITLAND BARRY SILVERMEADOW 2000 B+K5
MARTIN LEE GANGSTER'S WIVES 2004
McBRIDE LAURA WE ARE CALLED TO RISE 2014
McCABE JOHN STICKLEBACK 1998
MOSLEY WALTER FEAR ITSELF 2003 FJ2
NEEDHAM JAKE THE BIG MANGO 2011
NEEDHAM JAKE LAUNDRY MAN 2002 JS1
NELSCOTT KRIS STONE CRIBS 2004 SD4
NEVILLE STUART THE TWELVE 2009 JLI1
O'BRIEN TIM THE THINGS THEY CARRIED 1990
O'CONNELL JACK BOX NINE 1992 Q1
RHINEHART LUKE THE DICE MAN 1971 DM1
SALANT JAMES LEAVING DIRTY JERSEY 2007
SIMENON GEORGES MY FRIEND MAIGRET 1957 M?
SIMON DAVID HOMICIDE: A YEAR IN THE STREETS 1991
SPENCER JOHN B. A CASE FOR CHARLEY 1984 C1
STRAUB PETER MYSTERY 1989 BR2
VALIN JONATHAN THE MUSIC LOVERS 1993 HS10
WILLIAMS CHARLES THE DIAMOND BIKINI 1956
WILLIAMS CHARLES AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA 1971

8 comments:

  1. You have a really interesting mix here, Colin. But with Francis, Grisham, Maitland, Mosley and Simenon, I think you've got some great reads ahead. I hope you'll enjoy them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Margot - I could quite easily spend the next 6 months reading this tub.....but I won't :-(

      Delete
  2. Quite a mix here. Someday I want to read Homicide by David Simon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too, plus I want to get back to finishing THE WIRE - not enough time for all I want to watch and read!

      Delete
  3. Col, I have been planning to reread GORKY PARK, too. I liked the book a lot. I have a couple of Cruz Smith's other novels, including HAVANA BAY, that I haven't read yet. I didn't care for the film version where William Hurt plays Arkady Renko, one among the more memorable characters in crime fiction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would like to restart the Renko series at some point and see how I get on. I never knew it had been made into a film, I think I'd like to check it out. I quite like William Hurt.

      Delete
  4. Not many authors with more than one book there - new statistic for you to check on? My perception is that many of the tubs have multiple books by some authors, but I could be wrong...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you are right. Some of the tubs initially were more organised, as a lot of them were kind of decanted from shelf to tub, before it all got a bit frenzied in the relocation. Those ones seem to have multiple books by the same author.

      Delete