BRIAN GARFIELD - THE HIT (1970)

Synopsis/blurb....

Simon Crane retired from the police force after a crooked cop tried to kill him. He was broke, out of work and thankful to be alive. It wasn't the end of the world -- until she appeared.

She was Joanne Farrell, Crane's ex-girlfriend. Her boss, a top Mafia man, was dead and nearly three million dollars was missing. She knew she was the prime suspect. What she didn't know was that the Mafia had two other suspects: Mike Farrell, her ex-husband, an organization fall-guy with a chip on his shoulder... and Simon Crane.

From then on Crane was on his own with forty-eight hours to turn over the three million or the real thief... or to find a quiet place to die...

An okay book from Garfield, which means I enjoyed it, not as much as I had hoped to and not as much as previous books I've read from him - Deathwish, Hopscotch and What of Terry Conniston?

A mob boss gets killed and his safe which holds cash and secrets of his fellow mobsters - papers and blackmail material is ransacked and the victim's secretary is a suspect. She runs to ex-cop Simon Crane, a man she previously had a relationship with before working for crims and now Crane is the fall guy unless he finds who did the killing and stealing, and returns the goods and he's on a deadline.

An investigation, a few visits from some mob bruisers, a dirty cop with a hard-on for our man, a beating, a bit of love interest, an ultimatum, time pressures, some likely suspects, a few Q+A sessions with them, an ex-con ex-husband soon expired, and a bit more.

It's a book I read over a month ago and to be honest, already some of the finer details are evaporating from my memory. Not a particularly memorable read obviously, but once I got into the story I was interested enough to find out what happened. No real dislike for anything in the book, I probably just didn't particularly warm to the main character Crane or the woman he was trying to save. If they had ended up dead in a ditch rather than the eventual outcome, I doubt I would have shed a tear.

Setting, pace, story. resolution - all okay. I quite liked the ending. Decent writing, decent action and dialogue.

An okay read which passed some time and put another tick on the scoreboard.

3 from 5

Read - March, 2020
Published - 1970
Page count - 200
Source - owned copy
Format - hardback omnibus edition with The Marksman

MATTHEW ROSS - DEATH OF A PAINTER (2020)

Synopsis/blurb.......

IN THE BUILDING GAME TIME IS MONEY AND MONEY IS EVERYTHING. UNFORTUNATELY FOR MARK POYNTER, HE’S RUN OUT OF MONEY AND HE’S FAST RUNNING OUT OF TIME.

When Mark Poynter discovers a murder on his worksite all of his financial problems suddenly seem a lot closer to home: was this a warning his debts are overdue?

Suspected of being the killer and worried at being the intended victim, the murder only makes Mark’s money problems worse, leading him to turn to the local villain, Hamlet, who has his own unique repayment plan in mind for Mark.

When two more deaths plunge him even further into debt, Mark finds himself faced with a choice – help the police and clear his name or help the villain and clear his debt.

Set in the Medway Towns on the grey margins of criminality, where no job’s too big, no dodge’s too small …

Death Of A Painter is the first in a new series of darkly comic crime fiction novels featuring the beleaguered builder Mark Poynter, aided and hindered in equal measure by his trusted crew of slackers, idlers and gossips, and the lengths they go to just to earn a living.

A debut novel which I really enjoyed.

Mark Poynter's best friend Tommy is murdered with one of Mark's hammers on one of his sites and the police fancy him for the crime. He's in a spot of bother financially and owes a lot of people a lot of money, including Tommy. Motive, means and opportunity - tick, tick, tick.

I quite enjoyed this outing. I liked the main character Mark and his mostly solo efforts to extricate himself from more than one tricky situation. These efforts are at various times helped and hindered by the police, another couple of deaths - one violent, one just suspicious, an annoying uncle, some angry skint builders, the local kingpin villain who's clutches Mark is trying to stay out of and the curious, fleeting reappearance of his long-lost brother, as well as the interesting arrival of a sexy new neighbour, annoyed clients, negative cash flow and a wish to do the best for his dead friend's family.
I had fun when Mark interacted with the police. The various encounters with the lead detective and Mark's verbal jousting with him were entertaining.


Secrets, an amateur investigation, compromises, conflicts, reluctant alliances, big cash money, schemes, ambitions, friendship, support, assault, threats, muted conversations with a much missed parent, family history, rivalries, a possible romance, funerals, threats, deadlines, money woes, robbing Peter to pay Paul and eventually answers and a satisfying outcome.

I enjoyed the Kent setting with the action taking place in and around the Medway towns of Rochester, Chatham, with Gillingham also putting in an appearance. It's not really a part of the county I've visited - I'm more familiar with Tunbridge Wells and Canterbury.

There's a lot of the everyday and ordinary life challenges of the building trade thrown into the narrative.... the struggles with money, the juggling of jobs and difficult clients, the absolute necessity of finishing a job first time out, no snags, no costly re-visits, the camaraderie of the trade, the contacts and the end of the day pub culture, the critiquing of other people's skills and practices and the fleeting pride in completing a job satisfactorily, before the next obstacle is quickly encountered.

All the above helps the flow of the story as the mundane mixes with Mark's more pressing worries. In a crisis, everyday life has to continue as best it can. There's no madcap relentless pace to the narrative, but neither does the story really stagnate or slow. There are elements of humour in the novel, though I would hesitate to call it comic. The deaths occur off-page, but there is some violence in the book with some disputes becoming physical, nothing gratutitous though.

We get answers to the deaths and the guilty are identified and we also have some more unanswered questions over Mark's relationship with his estranged and once feared dead brother. Questions I hope get answered in a future Poynter book, which I'll look forward to.

A great read once I got into it and had some uninterrupted time with the book. 

4 from 5

Read - April, 2020
Published - 2020
Page count  - 378
Source - review copy from publisher Red Dog Press
Format - paperback

*The buy link for all formats is mybook.to/DOAP

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET: V IS FOR..... VEGAS, VALIN, VOICES

On the home stretch now on my Alphabet journey - week 22 and V

V is for.......

Vegas....... Las Vegas, setting of a few novels on the Kindle and probably on the physical shelves though I can't lay my hands on any immediately. Probably a place I'm only interested in visiting via my reading.

Joey's Place was a cracking Vegas novel I enjoyed back in 2013 by author J.W. Nelson.

From my Kindle Vegas selection, I'll pick author P Moss, who I think hails from the city.

Vegas Knockout (2013)

The fight of the century is almost here, and everyone in Sin City feels the buzz. The young journalist on the make. The lovesick con man. The rich man’s daughter with a very dirty secret. The king of Vegas nightlife. A clown who wants waffles. As the frenzy builds and the stakes—financial, emotional, moral—get higher, these and other indelible Vegas characters will put everything on the line. In these linked stories, the one and only P Moss shows you a darker, wilder, more uproarious side of this neon paradise.

V is for.....

Valin.... Jonathan Valin,

Valin wrote an eleven book long series from the early 80s to the mid 90s featuring Harry Stoner. I read the first a few years ago and rated it a 5 STAR read - The Lime Pit. Not sure why I haven't got back to it. Extenuating Circumstances is the ninth in the series.

Extenuating Circumstances (1989)

Fully realized characters, complex plots and excellent writing are the qualities that attract readers to Valin's series about Harry Stoner, private eye. In his eighth appearance, Stoner describes his assignment to find missing Ira Lessing, a businessman from Cincinnati, Ohio, beloved for his generous help to troubled teens. The detective is with Lessing's childlike wife Janey, and his partner, Len Trumaine, when they learn that Lessing's body has been discovered, brutally beaten. A punk teenager, Terry Carnova, not only confesses but boasts of killing Lessing, but Stoner isn't convinced. Terry's pathetic lover Kitty insists the murderer is ''Tommy T,'' a male hustler who caters to masochists. With this information, the detective gropes his way through the fog that shrouds the facts about the victim and several suspects in the case. The story stands as a ''mainstream'' novel as well as a fine mystery. Mystery Book Club alternate. (Publishers Weekly)


V is for.... 


Voices

Arnaldur Indridason and one from his Inspector Erlendur series.
The Draining Lake  was enjoyed back in 2013.

Voices (2006)

The third novel in the award-winning Reykjavik Murder Mysteries.

The Christmas rush is under way in a big Reykjavik hotel when the police are called to the scene of a murder. The hotel doorman (and long-time resident of its basement) has been stabbed to death. With the hotel fully booked, the manager is desperate to keep the murder under wraps and his reputation intact.

Detectives Erlendur and Sigurdur Oli discover that the dead man had had a childhood brush with fame and that two old 45s on which he had sung have become prized collectors' items. Estranged from his family for decades, why had the man continued to pay secret visits to his boyhood home?


As Detective Elinborg investigates a separate case of child abuse, and Erlendur continues to struggle both with his troubled family relationships and the ghosts of his own youth, their parallel stories probe deeper into the riddle of this latest Reykjavik Murder Mystery.

V is for......

more Voices and Seymour Shubin. Shubin is an author I have yet to try.

Voices (1985)

With an alias and a confidential address, Lynn Shephard feels safely removed from the clients of her phone sex service, but a dangerously unstable caller is obsessively seeking her true identity



Next week ........ back with some Ws....... can't wait can you?


Previous Alphabet entries........

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - A IS FOR.... AX, ABBOTT, ABERDEEN

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - B IS FOR ....... BOSTON, BIRD, BONES

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - C IS FOR.........CAPE TOWN, CONFIDENCE MEN, CROSS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - D IS FOR ....... DETROIT, DISHER, DEAD

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - E IS FOR ....... EDINBURGH, EXCESS, ELLIS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - F IS FOR ....... FLORIDA, FRANCIS, FLOATERS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - G IS FOR ....... GALWAY, GUNS, GRAFTON

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - H IS FOR ....... HAMBURG, HAMMETT, HIDDEN RIVER

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - I IS FOR ....... ICE, ICELAND, IZZO

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - J IS FOR ....... JAPAN, JACK CARTER. JELLO SALAD

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - K IS FOR ....... KING, KOREA, KEEPER

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - L IS FOR ........ LE CRIME, LEONARD, LOS ANGELES 

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - M IS FOR ........ MIAMI, MACKAY, MUCHO MOJO 

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - N IS FOR ........ NORWAY, NISBET, NEMESIS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - O IS FOR ........ OWEN, ONE NIGHT STANDS AND LOST WEEKENDS, OXFORD

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - P IS FOR ........ PARKER, PHILADELPHIA, PAYDIRT

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - R IS FOR ........ RAYMOND, ROGUE COP, RUSSIA

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - S IS FOR ...... SWEDEN, SMITH, SILENT JOE

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - T IS FOR ...... THOMPSON, TEXAS, TOWER

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - U IS FOR ...... UHNAK, UTAH, UNDER THE BRIGHT LIGHTS

2 BY N.J. CRISP

A couple from the 70s and another new-to-me author - N.J. Crisp

Not an author I had previously heard of until a recent charity shop find. I do like old 70s crime fiction.

From the inside cover of THE GOTLAND DEAL
N.J. Crisp started his writing career in the fifties when he published a number of short stories. He quickly moved on to television drama and has become well known for his contribution to series including Dixon of Dock Green, Doctor Finlay's Casebook, Spytrap and Colditz. With Gerard Glaister he co-devised The Expert, The Brothers and Oil Strike North. This is his first novel.

According to his page at Fantastic Fiction, N.J. Crisp wrote nine novels in his career.

He died in 2005.




The Gotland Deal (1976)

THE MURDER
of a prostitute in Notting Hill...

THE TERROR
of a Foreign Office girl convinced she's ebing watched by the KGB...

THE DEATH
by bombing of a young policeman...

THE SPECTRE
of a Nazi revival in Germany...

For Detective Inspector Kenyon these apparently unrelated events hold the key to a conspiracy that threatens the balance of East/West detente, and lead to an electrifying climax in the pine forests of a remote island off the coast of Sweden.


"Intriguing plot.... high espionage and a riveting chase."
WESTERN DAILY PRESS

"Grips tight."
THE OBSERVER


The London Deal (1978)

KENYON'S BACK - WITH A VENGEANCE...

A child molester, badly beaten and drowned in a blocked-up lavatory basin; a nightclub boss,
dismembered and fed to a garbage shredder; the wife of a gangland leader who snares Detective Inspector Kneyon in a glamorous game of feath...

From the glittering roulette tables of the West End clubs, where fortunes and lives are won and Lost, to the bleak wasteland of the Essex marshes, every amn is his enemy, every enemy has a hand in

THE LONDON DEAL

And for Kenyon, survival is the stake.

R.C. HARTSON - FATAL BEAUTY (2015)

Synopsis/blurb.....

Ex-con Bart Hodgkins is abducting women at random in the windy city. A man without conscience; bold and high on drugs and alcohol, he is self-assured when he manipulates girls like Chelsea Rohrman into his web of evil and certain death.

His "silent partner" in subsequent serial killings is a former Cook County judge and university professor Lewis Lisecki, who is bald, unflappable, and soft-spoken. Plagued at birth, given a dumpy fat boy's body, one with flaccid arms, a short neck, and bad eyesight, he's forced to wear thick, round glasses that make him look like a goldfish staring out from a fish tank.

Ex-Chicago homicide cop and private eye Cleve Hawkins is a hard-boiled former Marine hired by Betty Rohrman to help in finding her missing sister. Through treacherous twists and turns, Hawkins works to solve the case of the missing woman but finds a clandestine world of evil.

An okay mystery but not without a few issues for me.

Decent enough storyline, interesting enough main character, fairly well-written scenes, with okay dialogue and action and build-up, but a plot twist which was telegraphed and no big surprise and almost seemed like an bolted on afterthought as opposed to part of the original tale the author might have envisaged. Maybe I'm wrong, but I was unconvinced by this turn of events and it somewhat marred my enjoyment.

I've read better, I've read worse and I don't leave the book behind ever regretting the time spent reading it. Elements were enjoyable. I like a Chicago setting. I liked the PI main character, Cleve Hawkins, though some of his intuitive investigative leaps also seemed a bit contrived. I think if he'd have bought a lottery ticket, he'd have come up trumps. Ching, ching!

The support cast was ok and there was a bit of an on/off love and romance angle which didn't annoy me. The villains were odious, but that was okay. There's a bit of graphic sex which didn't bother me either.

A lot of reviewers on Amazon rate this higher than me, but it's all about opinions, everyone's got one.

3 from 5

This is the first in R.C. Hartson's Cleve Hawkins series. Triple Crossed and Shadows of Sin follow this one.

Read - April, 2020,
Published - 2015
Page count - 241
Source - copy received from publisher Black Rose
Format - MOBI read on laptop Kindle app

PABLO D'STAIR - MAN STANDING BEHIND (2011)

Synopsis/blurb.....

Leaving work on a nondescript evening, Roger is held up at gunpoint when he stops at a cash machine. He attempts to hand everything in his bank account, but robbery isn’t on the gunman’s mind.

Roger is told simply to walk.

The gunman takes him on a macabre odyssey―from city pubs to suburban neighborhoods to isolated homes in the country―and as the night presses on, a seemingly not-so-random body count grows around him.

A moment-by-moment exploration of moral paralysis, Man Standing Behind charts the psyche of a random man caught in the roils of a mortal circumstance nothing to do with his own life. Is he a witness, a victim…or something altogether worse?

Praise for MAN STANDING BEHIND:

“This is where D’Stair shines. He has the ability to take a situation, one which might traditionally be addressed emotionally, and analyze it to the point of emotional emptiness. Life and death…is not a fight or flight, subconscious decision, but is one to be pondered, examined, weighed against context.” —Caleb J. Ross, author of Stranger Will, I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin, and The Soul Standard

Different, strange, puzzling yet curiously satisfying.

A man is forced to bear witness to another's controlled rampage of murder and an obvious settling of old scores, grudges and grievances. The fact that this is recounted in a matter of fact monotone makes it all the more disturbing.

Roger is abducted at gunpoint from a cashpoint and is forced to accompany the gunman on a long night of terror. Fear, paralysis, curiosity, apathy, resignation, hope, loneliness are ever changing companions during the evening that passes.

Fear - of robbery, of violence inflicted on him, of death.

Paralysis - opportunities present themselves at various times, to escape, cry for help, fight back ..... none are seized, all are over-thought, over-analysed and as the moment passes, ultimately avoided

Curiosity - who are the gunman's victims, what have they done to deserve their fate, why is Roger party to this, how's it all going to end.

Apathy - I can't influence this

Resignation - I think I'm going to die

Hope - maybe there's a way out

Loneliness - who will miss me

There's a starkness and reality to the scenes described that you don't often encounter in crime fiction. Death and extreme fear of death can provoke bowel loosening and voiding and it's not pretty. There's nothing exploitative here or titillating........ just pared down prose and an interesting drama played to a conclusion.

Pablo D'stair - he's a bit of a cult. Maybe 40 or 50 novels to his name. This was my first of his, but not my last. Originally published in 2011and recently brought to a new audience by All Due Respect Books

4.5 from 5

Read - March, 2020
Published - 2011 (2019)
Page count - 112
Source - copy received from Chris at the publishers
Format - paperback
 

WES MARKIN - A LESSON IN CRIME (2019)

Synopsis/blurb....

Your student years should be the most carefree years of your life.

Not for Michael Yorke.

When a student party ends in violent murder, Michael Yorke begins to realise he harbours a fascination with crime which goes way beyond the norm.

Driven to discover the truth behind a series of murders which shocks the university community, Yorke turns his back on those closest to him: His girlfriend, Charlotte, and his best friend, Brandon. With bloody and disastrous consequences.

A super-fast one-hour thrill ride, which will define the relentless and compassionate police officer who stars in One Last Prayer for the Rays.

A FREEBIE audible download generously offered by the author during the current COVID-19 disruption and my first time with Markin's series character, future cop Michael Yorke.

Student days, parties, friendships, 90s music, Leeds, rivalries, homophobia, intolerance, girlfriends, boyfriends, date rape, a stabbing, a death, a troubled relationship or two, lies, secrets, flings, infidelity, sex, break-ups, families, another violent death, a further attack and an outcome.

Quite a busy tale for an hour or so's listening. All of it viewed from the perspective of Michael Yorke a love struck student. I haven't been totally captivated by him as a character yet, though with a few more from Markin's series on my TBR pile maybe the next one will be the charm.

Decent enough story and I was a bit surprised by the culprit.
An enjoyable hour or so was had.

Emotive narration by Aubrey Parsons which I quite liked.

3 from 5

Markin has been busy. There's four full length Yorke books which been published in the last year or so. My next time will be the first proper novel in the series - One Last Prayer for the Rays.


Read - (listened to) April, 2020
Published - 2019
Page count - 47 (1 hr 15 min)
Source - Audible FREEBIE purchase
Format - Audible

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET: U IS FOR ........ UHNAK, UTAH, UNDER THE BRIGHT LIGHTS

Another week another slice of crime fiction from my collection. This week........ U

U is for...... 

Dorothy Uhnak ....... Uhnak was a NYPD police officer turned author. Her semi-autobiographical work Policewoman was the basis for the Angie Dickinson TV show of the 70s, something I dimly remember.

Policewoman (1964)

Dorothy Uhnak's no-holds-barred memoir about her life as one of New York's finest

The "original policewoman," Dorothy Uhnak was the first to write a procedural novel with a female cop as the protagonist. But before she turned her talents to fiction, Uhnak was a detective with the New York Transit Police. Policewoman chronicles her fourteen years on the force, where she was decorated twice for bravery.

This insider's view of law enforcement takes you behind the scenes into a city that was a no-man's land of corruption, drugs, and violence. Uhnak recounts the hurdles facing a female cop during New York's tumultuous 1950s and '60s, and the difficult adjustment to a new way of life once she gets her badge. She takes readers from firearms training to homicide scenes to interrogation rooms where detectives extract confessions. As gritty and relentless as Uhnak's novels, Policewoman is a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last, spellbinding page is turned.

Uhnak wrote about 10 books in all, including a three book series featuring Christie Opara. I've read her standalone - Codes of Betrayal (1997) back in 2014 and enjoyed it well enough to track down a few more of her books. The Witness is the second book in the Opara series.

The Witness (1969)

Christie Opara, the only woman on the DA's Special Investigation Squad, is assigned by her boss to shadow his daughter to a civil rights demonstration. An ugly group of hecklers soon turns the demonstration into a riot and someone gets shot. A cop with a bewildered look on his face stands over the body with a revolver in his hand.

The crowd and the public cry for the cop's blood in the days to come. Only Christie, who was standing next to the cop, saw another person pull the trigger. Now she must find the real murderer before matters get totally out of hand . . .

'Detective Opara is going to become one of fiction's most popular police people' Sunday Mirror



U is for......

Utah ...... and not the home of too much crime or mystery fiction from what I can see. I do have one book on order and written by an author born in Salt Lake City and set there as well.

At least, I'm sorted for when I eventually get back to an ongoing US 50 States Reading Challenge.


Linda Sillitoe - Secrets Keep (1995)

Secrets Keep (1995)

The trouble with Caitlin is that she's obsessed with her work as a crime reporter. And troubled by it. The scenes she writes about stay with her when she's in bed with her husband at night and when she's driving the children to school in the morning.Things go from bad to worse when Caitlin's older brother disappears. Not only is the era ire extended family thrown into a crisis, but the closer they become and the more they learn about each other, including a startling revelation about a hushed-up family suicide, the more uncomfortable they feel.

All in all Caitlin's is probably a typical Salt Lake City family. But Linda Sillitoe peels back layers of pretense in a story that begins like a dream that one remembers only well enough to be unnerved by. For Caitlin, it is a nightmare that has become real.


Lastly,

U is for.......

Under the Bright Lights from Daniel Woodrell

It's the first in the three book Rene Shade series.
Muscle for the Wing and The Ones You Do are the ohters

Under the Bright Lights (1986)

Jewel Cobb had come to St.Bruno to climb on the big city gravy train. His cousin Duncan set little Jewel up to do the killing. The boy was hillbilly raw but country rough, and pleasingly expendable.


It seemed a simple enough case for the authorities. Too bad the dead man was a prominent black city council man. But for the police detective Rene Shade it all looked too neat. Shade takes on city hall as he follows a twisting trail through the sleazy streets of the Cajun quarter into the murky swamps and bayous that ring the city. It is a trail that leads to corruption and yet more murder.


Previous Alphabet entries........

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - A IS FOR.... AX, ABBOTT, ABERDEEN

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - B IS FOR ....... BOSTON, BIRD, BONES

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - C IS FOR.........CAPE TOWN, CONFIDENCE MEN, CROSS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - D IS FOR ....... DETROIT, DISHER, DEAD

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - E IS FOR ....... EDINBURGH, EXCESS, ELLIS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - F IS FOR ....... FLORIDA, FRANCIS, FLOATERS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - G IS FOR ....... GALWAY, GUNS, GRAFTON

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - H IS FOR ....... HAMBURG, HAMMETT, HIDDEN RIVER

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - I IS FOR ....... ICE, ICELAND, IZZO

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - J IS FOR ....... JAPAN, JACK CARTER. JELLO SALAD

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - K IS FOR ....... KING, KOREA, KEEPER

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - L IS FOR ........ LE CRIME, LEONARD, LOS ANGELES 

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - M IS FOR ........ MIAMI, MACKAY, MUCHO MOJO 

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - N IS FOR ........ NORWAY, NISBET, NEMESIS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - O IS FOR ........ OWEN, ONE NIGHT STANDS AND LOST WEEKENDS, OXFORD

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - P IS FOR ........ PARKER, PHILADELPHIA, PAYDIRT

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - R IS FOR ........ RAYMOND, ROGUE COP, RUSSIA

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - S IS FOR ...... SWEDEN, SMITH, SILENT JOE

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - T IS FOR ...... THOMPSON, TEXAS, TOWER

2 BY LEE CHILD

2 from Lee Child this week.

You would probably have to have been living in a cave for the past twenty five years or so to have never heard of Lee Child or his main man Jack Reacher.

I've probably seen as many films with pint-sized Tom Cruise as the lead as I've read books in the series and I can't remember what ones they were anyway..... pre blog days when I wasn't making lists or keeping records.

I guess I'll try and start at the beginning again when I eventually get back to the series.

If I want to play catch-up the series is upto about 25 books at the minute. I think I have most of the first dozen on the shelves.


Killing Floor (1997)

"This was the first Jack Reacher novel and with its lean, spare prose it has one of the most intriguing heroes of our times and displays a gift for explosive drama." (Daily Express)

Jack Reacher jumps off a bus and walks fourteen miles down a country road into Margrave, Georgia. An arbitrary decision he's about to regret.

Reacher is the only stranger in town on the day they have had their first homicide in thirty years.The cops arrest Reacher and the police chief turns eyewitness to place him at the scene. As nasty secrets leak out, and the body count mounts, one thing is for sure.

They picked the wrong guy to take the fall.

Although the Jack Reacher novels can be read in any order, Killing Floor is the first book in the internationally popular series. It presents Reacher for the first time, as the tough ex-military cop of no fixed abode: a righter of wrongs, the perfect action hero.

Die Trying (1998)

Jack Reacher, alone, strolling nowhere.

A Chicago street in bright sunshine. A young woman, struggling on crutches. Reacher offers her a steadying arm.

And turns to see a handgun aimed at his stomach.

Chained in a dark van racing across America, Reacher doesn't know why they've been kidnapped. The woman claims to be FBI. She's certainly tough enough. But at their remote destination, will raw courage be enough to overcome the hopeless odds?

Although the Jack Reacher novels can be read in any order, this is the 2nd in the series.

LAWRENCE BLOCK - DEFENDER OF THE INNOCENT (2014)

Synopsis/blurb.......

The criminal defense lawyer. Redefined.

Martin H. Ehrengraf, dapper and diabolical, may be Lawrence Block's darkest creation. He's the defense attorney who never sees the inside of a courtroom, because all his clients are innocent - no matter how guilty they may seem. Some even believe themselves to be guilty: They remember pulling the trigger, or wiring the dynamite to their spouse's car, or holding the bloody blade. But things have a way of working out when Martin Ehrengraf is on the case. Evidence turns up, incriminating someone else. More murders occur, with the same M.O. And the gate of the jail cell opens, and the accused walks free.

But be careful - hiring Martin Ehrengraf comes with a price. A high price, one that comes due even if he appears to have done nothing on your behalf. And you'd better be prepared to pay...

Here at last are the complete exploits of Martin Ehrengraf: a dozen delicious tales of vice and villainy including one - ''The Ehrengraf Fandango'' - that is appearing for the first time anywhere. It's a 12-course meal of sinister surprises, exquisitely prepared and served simmering hot by the greatest living master of mystery fiction.

Another Lawrence Block book enjoyed on Audible during the month of February.

Twelve short stories, each comprising a case for Block's defense attorney Martin Ehrengraf.
I've briefly encountered Ehrenegraf before in The Ehrengraf Fandango last year.

Here for the sake of completists (of which I'm one) we have......
“The Ehrengraf Defense” © 1976
“The Ehrengraf Presumption” © 1978
“The Ehrengraf Experience” © 1978
“The Ehrengraf Appointment” © 1978
“The Ehrengraf Riposte” © 1978
“The Ehrengraf Obligation” © 1979
“The Ehrengraf Alternative” © 1982
“The Ehrengraf Nostrum” © 1984
“The Ehrengraf Affirmation” © 1997
“The Ehrengraf Reverse” © 2002
“The Ehrengraf Settlement” © 2012
“The Ehrengraf Fandango” © 2014
Afterword from the author

Most of these originally appeared as one-off stories in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine with a few appearances elsewhere, probably around the time of the copyright date.

I really enjoyed the collection and the narration, so much so I re-listened to it again during April.
Block's protagonist is a dapper defense attorney who only defends the innocent and never appears in court. Ehrengraf's clients in each and every case, with the exception of one I think, face murder charges and the evidence against them in always pretty compelling.....

A woman murdered with a fire axe - our client has such an axe and a drug habit which causes blackouts, memory loss and no alibi.

A man shot in his drawing room - our client owns the gun which killed him, was present and has gun shot residue on her fingers.

A girl strangled with a Cadman society tie - our defendant is a member of the Cadman society and had a relationship with the girl.

Ehrengraf outlines his terms, agrees a fee, and then after a suitable interlude he's meeting his client for payment, the charges against them miraculously dropped after new facts come to light...... a copy cat killing or two, a mass poisoning outbreak, a helpful suicide with a note confessing guilt and exhonerating Ehrengraf's client, etc etc.

All our accompanying killings take place off-page and Ehrengraf's involvement is all the more chilling for Block only ever alluding to his man's actions. On a couple of occasions, our lawyer has to explain certain actions which leave our clients in no doubt as to the capabilities of the man and the lengths to which he is prepared to go to achieve the desired outcome. It's usually when the client is rich and has second thoughts as to paying Ehrengraf's fee as from an initial glance his efforts do not appear to have resulted in the charges being dropped. As a reader we know the man's MO. It's fun seeing the realisation dawn on them and the terror on their faces as they appreciate just how dangerous the dapper little man is.

Overall I really liked the collection. Looking back some of the cases are kind of blurred and listening to them one after another they could lose some of their power. Typically the book on both occasions  took about three or four days to enjoy, so that wasn't really a problem. There's also plenty of variety in the material - a man of Block's abilities isn't really going to repeat himself 12 times over.

I think my favourites were the opener - The Ehrengraf Defense which introduces the well dressed lawyer and allows us a glimpse of his true nature and another case - name escapes me - which doesn't include murder but some conflict resolution between a disabled house bound troublemaker and his hapless victim.

4.5 from 5

Read - (listened to) February, 2020
Published - 2014
Page count - 237 (6 hrs 44 min)
Source - Audible download code received from author's assistant. (I do have a print copy somewhere)
Format - Audible

GRAHAM BRACK - LYING AND DYING (2017)

Synopsis/blurb...

An international crime thriller with an unforgettable detective. Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Jo Nesbo and Peter Robinson.

What do you do when the poison comes from within…?


The body of a young woman is found strangled by the side of the road.

There are no obvious clues to what happened, apart from the discovery of a large amount of cash concealed on her person.

The brilliant, but lazy, Lieutenant Josef Slonský is put in charge of the case.

With a wry sense of humour, a strong stubborn streak and a penchant for pastries, Slonský is not overly popular with the rest of the police force. But he is paired with the freshly-graduated, overly-eager Navrátil, whom he immediately takes under his wing.

When fingers start to point inwards to someone familiar with police operations, Slonský and Navrátil are put in a difficult position.

If what they suspect is true, how deep does the corruption run? Are they willing to risk their careers in their pursuit of the truth?

Anyone could be lying - and others may be in danger of dying…

LYING AND DYING is the first international crime thriller in the detective series featuring Lieutenant Josef Slonský: an atmospheric police procedural full of dark humour.

Lying and Dying is the first in a six book series featuring Czech policeman Joseph Slonsky from author Graham Brack. After a shaky start for me, one where I wasn't too sure I was going to find Slonsky's humour and mannerisms agreeable I found myself really enjoying it.

We have the puzzling murder of a young woman and an unlikely suspect - a Government minister who lies to Slonsky about his relationship with the girl. I don't usually read too many police procedural-cum-murder mysteries although I read a lot in the crime fiction genre, but I could make an exception for Slonsky.

Murder, cash, political undertones, a cheating husband, a cautious boss, a young pup policeman to train, or at least have fetching beers, food and coffee, Czech dissident history, corruption, blackmail, rivals, control, power, manipulation, radical politics and allegiances, family, and a lot more besides.

I read this a month or so ago and the finer details are fading including important character names. I feel like I'm hardly doing the book justice.

I liked the main character..... his past, his failed marriage, his outlook on life, his previous experiences, the on-going grief he gives his boss, his irreverence and general disdain for all around him, his doggedness and refusal to be cowed or intimidated by greater authorities, his intelligence and cunning, often concealed by his slovenly appearance and manner, the ease with which he can bend people to his will, his love of food and drink, the relationships he has with his colleagues and their willingness to participate in some of his slightly underhand schemes to soften up a suspect in order to advance the investigation, the mentoring of his pupil Navratil and his protection of him and the surprising lengths he is willing to go to to ensure justice for his victim.

I liked the blend of Czech history in the narrative, the recounting of events from the past and how they effected Slonsky. I felt like I learned something about the country and its people while at the same time having a few laughs at some of the antics Slonsky gets up to in the course of his investigation.

Pace, setting, character, plot, outcome - all massive ticks in the box.

4.5 from 5

Slaughter and Forgetting is the second book in the series. I'm looking forward to it in the not too distant future.

Read - March, 2020
Published - 2017
Page count - 297
Source - owned copy
Format - Kindle

ANDY RIVERS - THE SPY WHO BLUFFED ME (2014)

Synopsis/blurb...

The name's Palmer...Pagga Palmer...

Neville 'Pagga' Palmer is an over-sexed, run-of-the-mill doorman with delusions of grandeur. Despite being terrified of his local rivals and thicker than a whale omelette he's convinced that he's a highly trained spy who is simply 'sleeping' until needed by the security services. This isn't a scenario that anyone who has ever met him would think likely...until one day an upper-class, blonde-haired spook asks him to sign the official secrets act and tells him that his services are required for Queen and country...

Bad guys beware 'cos Pagga's coming to save the world!

A bit of a daft one to lighten the mood and one I thoroughly enjoyed without feeling like I'd just read the book of the century.

70-odd pages long, a bit laddish in tone with a likable main character, totally lacking in self-awareness and oblivious to how those around him perceive him.

Small town community, a plot which strains the bounds of credibility but which I was happy to buy into, a bouncer, drunks, trouble makers, a bargain basin tart - cheaper than a pound shop, a secret mission, more troublesome youths, job rivalry, the girl of his dreams and a happy ending in more ways than one.

Bawdy, funny, rude, crude, probably not everyone's cup of tea, the sort of thing Paul D. Brazill and Charlie Williams might come up with after a weekend out on the lash.

I have something else from Andy Rivers which has languished on the kindle for about 5 years or more - Maxwell's Silver Hammer. Hopefully I don't forget it in a few week's time as I think I'd have some fun if this one is anything to go by.

4 from 5

Read - April, 2020
Published - 2014
Page count - 68
Source - purchased copy
Format - Kindle

MARCH 2020 - ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY - 6 OF THE BEST!

Six of the best added to the collection in March......

a couple of review copies, a couple of FREEBIES and a couple of purchases

Patrick Hoffman - Clean Hands (2020) - Edelweiss early reviewer site

Clean Hands is the author's 3rd novel. I've not read his debut, The White Van yet, but I enjoyed his last one Every Man A Menace


Synopsis/blurb....

Corporate lawyer Elizabeth Carlyle is under pressure. Her prestigious New York law firm is working on a high-stakes case, defending a prominent bank that's been accused of fraud. When Elizabeth gets the news that one of her junior associates has lost his phone - and the secret documents that were on it - she needs help. Badly.

Enter ex-CIA officer Valencia Walker, a high-priced fixer who gets called in when wealthy corporations, people and governments need their problems solved discreetly. But things get complicated when the missing phone is retrieved: somebody has already copied the documents, and now they're blackmailing the firm. The situation gets murkier still when stories about the documents start appearing in the press and a tragic suicide appears staged, hinting that darker forces may be churning below the surface. With billions of dollars on the line, Elizabeth and Valencia must outmanoeuvre their tormentors, all the while keeping their hands clean.

In a world of private security, private diplomacy and private justice, a sharply-drawn cast of characters - including dirty lawyers, black-market traders and Russian criminals - take part in this breakneck tour through New York. Authentic, tense and impossible to put down, Clean Hands offers a vivid perspective on the connections between corporations, government and the underworld.

Tyler Dilts - A King of Infinite Space (2009) -  purchased copy

A new author for me and a bit of a punt after seeing this one on a recent list/essay about essential crime novels of LA. It's the first in a series of four books in Dilts's Long Beach Homicide series.

Synopsis/blurb.....

Awake in the darkness, long after midnight, Long Beach Homicide Detective Danny Beckett is trying to keep his past at bay. Haunted by all the things he's lost--his wife, his family, his hope--he begins to investigate the brutal murder of Elizabeth Williams, a popular High School English teacher. Soon Danny begins to understand that apprehending the murderer is not just a case to solved, but an act of personal redemption.

Andy Rausch - Until One of Us is Dead (2019) - Amazon Freebie purchase

I've enjoyed Andy Rausch's work before -  Riding Shotgun and Other American Cruelties - but he writes them faster than I can read them. There's a few more from him on the pile.

Synopsis/blurb......

When his young granddaughter Allie is suddenly abducted from a restaurant in rural Missouri, police officer Denny Davis' life takes a devastatingly dark turn.

After thirteen years, a fruitless manhunt has turned him into a troubled alcoholic plagued by guilt - but a twist of fate leads him stumbling down an unexpected path.

Trapped in a sinister game and shocked at its players, can Denny find revenge - and redemption - as he finally comes face to face with the perpetrator?

Cal Moriarty - Ten of Swords (2020) - Amazon Freebie purchase

Cal Moriarty's debut The Death of Bobbi Lomax still sits on the pile. This is the follow-on.

Synopsis/blurb.......

MEET STRONG, BRAVE, COURAGEOUS, WILD, VULNERABLE LISS

When cop’s daughter Liss uncovers a murdered girl’s frozen face on a snowy mountain, she feels compelled to investigate what might have happened to the nameless girl.

Days later while working for book & coin experts the Rook twins, whose sister has gone missing a decade earlier, the mystery begins to take a dangerous turn.

As Liss, together with her close friend Bobbi Lomax, begins to uncover the towns buried secrets and lies, she becomes convinced that she may be the killer’s next victim -- and when another teen friend goes missing and is found dead, she knows the killer is sending her a deadly warning.

But it’s too late now, Liss can’t stop even if she wanted to. But will she find the killer, before he finds her?

Ten of Swords can be read as a standalone novel, or as part of Cal’s Wonderland series. The Killing of Bobbi Lomax (Wonderland Book 1) is also available on Unlimited and for purchase. Death in Wonderland (Book 3) is available for pre-order on 3rd March 2020.

Kevin Doherty - The Leonardo Gulag (2020) - Edelweiss early reviewer site

Another new-to-me author. Sounds intriguing. It's his 4th book I think.

Synopsis/blurb.....

Perfect for fans who love the artistry of Daniel Silva and the passion of Greg Iles

Stalin's Russia, 1950. Brilliant young artist Pasha Kalmenov is arrested and sent without trial to a forced-labor camp in the Arctic gulag. This is a camp like no other. Although conditions are harsh and degrading, the prisoners are not to be worked to death in a coal mine or on a construction project. Their task is to forge the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. There is a high price to be paid for failing to reach the required standard of perfection; particularly as the camp commandant has his own secret agenda. When the executions begin, Pasha realizes that only his artistic talent can protect him. But for how long? Worse horrors are to come—if he survives them, will life still be worth living?
The Leonardo Gulag journeys to the sinister heart of Stalin's regime of terror, where paranoia reigns and no one is safe, and in which the whims of one man determine the fate of millions. Ultimately, the novel presents a moving portrait of the indomitability of the human spirit.

Ralph Dennis - Dust in the Heart (2019) - purchased copy

A standalone novel from Ralph Dennis. He's a forgotten author from the 70s and 80s brought back to a modern readership thanks to Lee Goldberg and Brash Books. I've enjoyed a couple of his Hardman series - 2 down only another 11 to go!

Atlanta Deathwatch
The Charleston Knife is Back


Synopsis/blurb......

There's a killer stalking children in a small, North Carolina town...and the only one who can stop him is the local Sheriff, a man crippled physically and emotionally by a war that he's still fighting within himself. The haunting, powerful new thriller by Ralph Dennis, author of the legendary Hardman series of crime novels

Wilton Drake's hip was shattered by a sniper's bullet in Lebanon...and his heart was ripped apart by the wife who left him as lay in a military hospital. Now, after fiteen years in the Navy, he's returned to Edgefield, North Carolina a broken man, looking for a way to hold himself together. He finds it in a bottle...and behind a badge as Webster County's newly elected Sheriff...but his forbidden attraction to a mysterious stripper and his harrowing investigation into a horrific string of child murders might destroy what's left of him, body and soul.

"Ralph Dennis has mastered the genre and supplied top entertainment." New York Times

"His prose is muscular, swift and highly readable. " Joe R. Lansdale, author of the Hap & Leonard novels, the basis for the hit TV series.