Monday 20 June 2016

LOGGING THE LIBRARY - PART SEVENTY-FIVE

Another tub of 50, all male authors with a sprinkling of non-fiction.

Pre-logging look!

Tom Kakonis, William Ryan, David Finkel, Colin Bateman, Joe R. Lansdale, 

Book 7 - Hap Collins and Leonard Pine!

One of my favourite books of all time, I've read it twice and I'm ready to go again!
Ex-con, professional poker player Timothy Waverly travels to Traverse City, Michigan for a break... and falls into bed with a seductress named Midnight. She's an out-of-towner, too, there to rescue her self-destructive brother, who has stupidly ripped off a fortune in cocaine from a vicious Chicago mobster. Now she is being chased pursued by Shadow, a hemorrhoidal hitman who gleefully specializes in torture and rape, and Gleep, his muscle-bound henchman. The odds are stacked against her, but Waverly is a gambler who knows how to play them...

"A sure narrative voice, a richly shaded hero and heroine, nightmare-vivid villains, and a plot paved with switchbacks and big curves add up to classy, if brutal, crime entertainment: this one cooks," Kirkus Reviews

"Aptly compared to Elmore Leonard, Kakonis builds exquisite tension." Publishers Weekly

"Original, brutal, nightmarish. Kakonis is a sharp new gambler in the literary crap game. He just takes the pot,"
The New York Times
Non-fiction travelogue, looking at the weirdness of the US.

John Baker, Gerald Seymour, Gregory McDonald, Scott Wolven, Barry Eisler,

Stories of prison, crime and men!
Brooding, edgy, and sometimes violent, Controlled Burn's loosely linked stories are each in some way a distillation of hard time -- spent either in prison, the backwoods of Vermont, or the badlands of the American West. Peopled by boxers, drunks, truck drivers, murderers, bounty hunters, drifters traveling under assumed names, and men whose luck ran out a thousand miles ago, these stories feel hard-won from life, and if they are moody and stark, so too are they filled with human longing.

Controlled Burn is divided into two sections: "The Northeast Kingdom" and "The Fugitive West." In each, Scott Wolven reveals a broken world where there is no bottom left to hit. In the haunting "Outside Work Detail," convicts stoically dig graves for their fellow prisoners yet reserve their deepest grief for the senseless death of a deer. "Crank" introduces Red Green, a maniacally brilliant addict who brews his own crystal meth in a backwoods lab, and whose high-energy antics inspire both cautious admiration and mortal fear in his business associates. In "Ball Lightning Reported," Red Green's ultimate fate is revealed. In "Atomic Supernova," a revenge-obsessed sheriff deputizes a known cop-killer to help him hunt down a counterfeiter and drug lord. The unexpectedly tender and heartbreaking "The Copper Kings" concerns a father facing the dark truth behind his son's disappearance. And in "Vigilance," a hunted man struggles to escape his past, always yearning for an honorable yet perhaps unreachable future.

Powered by a spare, ruminative prose style that recalls the best of Denis Johnson and Thom Jones, Controlled Burn is an unforgettable debut.
Arnaldur Indridason, Albert French, Mark Jacobson, Bill Pronzini x 2

Nameless number thirty-something from Bill Pronzini!

Non-fiction account of Vietnam and the US - a black man in a white world.
Personal, lyrical, and extraordinary, Patches of Fire is a memorable exploration of the black soldier's experience in Vietnam, the plight of the Vietnam veteran, and the redemptive power of writing.

With the same passion for truth and stunning honesty that marks his highly acclaimed fiction, Albert French's remarkable memoir tells the story of a young man's encounter with a war and with deaths beyond his understanding; of his return to a country torn by racial unrest in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and of his painstaking efforts to defeat his inner demons and make a place for himself as a black man in white America.

With a starkness tempered by humor, French brings to life the horrors of Vietnam, and recounts in compelling detail his uneasy tenure as a newspaper photographer, his heady days as publisher of his own magazine, his confrontations with the ghostly images of Vietnam that haunted his dreams--and the sense of renewal and purpose he achieved as a novelist.


Hugh C. Rae, C. J. Box, David Corbett, Buddy Giovinazzo, Leif Davidsen,

Joseph O'Neill, Bill Pronzini, Russel D. MacLean, Howard Marks, Don Winslow,
Don Winslow - Frankie the hitman!

Frank Machianno is a late-middle-aged ex - surf bum who runs a bait shack on the San Diego waterfront when he's not juggling any of his other three part-time jobs or trying to get a quick set in on his longboard. He's a stand-up businessman, a devoted father to his daughter, and a beloved fixture in the community.
Frank's also a hit man. Specifically: a retired hit man. Back in the day, when he was one of the most feared members of the West Coast Mafia, he was known as Frankie Machine. Years ago Frank consigned his Mob ties to the past, which is where he wants them to stay. But a favor being called in now by the local boss is one Frank can't refuse, and soon he's sucked back into the treacherous currents of his former life. Someone from the past wants him dead. He has to figure out who, and why, and he has to do it fast.
The problem is that the list of candidates is about the size of his local phone book and Frank's rapidly running out of time.

And then things go really bad.
Nameless again!
Don Winslow, Adam Baron, Martin Cruz Smith, Derek Raymond, Daniel Jeffreys,

Hugh C. Rae - Scottish crime from the 60s!
Tale of a pathological killer at large in a quiet Scottish community.
Elmore Leonard, David Goodis x 4,

40s and 50s crime,

Len Deighton, John King, Mark Powell, Rod Kane, Richard Ford,

John King
For Joe, the summer of 1977 meant punk rock, fun and violence. Fast forward to 1988 and Joe is on the Trans-Siberian express coming to terms with his best mate's suicide back in 1977. In the present, Joe still has to come to terms with Smiles's death.

Iain McDowall, David Baldacci, Jeffery Deaver, John Sandford, Ian Rankin,

Police procedural - 2nd in a series of 7 from Scottish author,

Cass Pennant, Sam Hill, Eugene Izzi, Jason Pinter, Donald Goines,

Eugene Izzi
With a hot blonde and two million in cool cash on the line, small-time hustler "Tone" Nello is ready to score. But there are those out there willing to make sure the only thing Tone scores is a bullet. On the mean streets of Chicago there are plenty of crooks, and when they killed George's father they made a big mistake. Now he is after revenge from Tone--tooong man. 

"Right up there with Elmore Leonard and Ed McBain".--Chicago Sun Times.
Donald Goines


For twenty-three years of his life Donald Goinse lived in the dark, despair-ridden world of the junkie. It started while he was doing military service in Korea and ended with his murder at the age of thirty nine. He had worked up to a hundred dollars a day habit and out of the agonizing hell came Dopefiend! It is the shocking nightmare story of a black heroin addict. Trapped in the festering sore of a major American ghetto, a young man and his girlfriend- both handsome, talented, and full of promise- are inexorably pulled into death of the hardcore junkie!





Tub 75 put to bed!



HIGHLIGHTS...... I'm looking forward to Tom Kakonis, Don Winslow, Hugh C. Rae, Joe R. Lansdale, and others.


LOWLIGHTS....... Not sure I want to read David Baldacci to be honest. Everything he writes seems to be the size of a housebrick - as I keep telling my wife "size isn't everything"



FULL LIST OF 50 AS FOLLOWS:


AUTHOR TITLE YEAR SERIES
BAKER JOHN POET IN THE GUTTER 1995 ST1
BALDACCI DAVID THE WHOLE TRUTH 2008 S+KJ1
BARON ADAM IT WAS YOU 2004 BR4
BATEMAN COLIN SHOOTING SEAN 2001 DS4
BOX C. J. TROPHY HUNT 2004 JP4
CORBETT DAVID BLOOD OF PARADISE 2007
CRUZ SMITH MARTIN HAVANA BAY 1999 AR4
DAVIDSEN LEIF THE WOMAN FROM BRATISLAVA 2009
DEAVER JEFFERY GARDEN OF BEASTS 2004
DEIGHTON LEN SPY SINKER 1990 BS6
EISLER BARRY REQUIEM FOR AN ASSASSIN 2007 JR6
FINKEL DAVID THE GOOD SOLDIERS 2009
FORD RICHARD THE SPORTSWRITER 1986 FB1
FRENCH ALBERT PATCHES OF FIRE 1996
GIOVINASSO BUDDY POTSDAMER PLATZ 2004
GOINES DONALD DOPEFIEND 1972
GOODIS DAVID NIGHTFALL 1947
GOODIS DAVID THE MOON IN THE GUTTER 1953
GOODIS DAVID DARK PASSAGE 1946
GOODIS DAVID DOWN THERE 1956
HILL SAM BUZZ MONKEY 2003
INDRIDASON ARNALDUR ARCTIC CHILL 2008 IE5
IZZI  EUGENE KING OF THE HUSTLERS 1989
JACOBSON MARK AMERICAN GANGSTER 2007
JEFFREYS DANIEL AMERICA'S BACK PORCH 1996
KAKONIS TOM MICHIGAN ROLL 1988 TW1
KANE ROD VETERAN'S DAY 1989
KING JOHN HUMAN PUNK 2000
LANSDALE JOE R. VANILLA RIDE 2009 HC+LP7
LEONARD ELMORE DJIBOUTI 2010
MACLEAN RUSSEL D. THE GOOD SON 2008 JM1
MARKS HOWARD MR NICE 2010
McDONALD GREGORY SON OF FLETCH 1993 SOF1
McDOWALL IAIN MAKING A KILLING 2001 J+K2
O'NEILL JOSEPH NETHERLAND 2008
PENNANT CASS CASS 2000
PINTER JASON THE GUILTY 2008 HP2
POWELL MARK SNAP 2001
PRONZINI BILL HELLBOX 2012 N37
PRONZINI BILL SAVAGES 2007 N32
PRONZINI BILL KINSMEN 2013 N
RAE HUGH C. SKINNER 1965
RANKIN IAN BLOOD HUNT 1995 JH3
RAYMOND DEREK DEAD MAN UPRIGHT 1993 F5
RYAN WILLIAM THE HOLY THIEF 2010 CADK1
SANDFORD JOHN CERTAIN PREY 1999 LD10
SEYMOUR GERALD CONDITION BLACK 1991
WINSLOW DON THE KINGS OF COOL 2012 S1
WINSLOW DON THE WINTER OF FRANKIE MACHINE 2006
WOLVEN SCOTT CONTROLLED BURN 2005

18 comments:

  1. Very heavy, very male! But some on there I know, including Michigan Roll, a book I read on your sayso. Not my favourite ever, but it had a certain something.

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    1. Testosterone city! Ha - I do remember you taking one for the team and reading Kakonis! What do I have to read as penance?

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  2. Moira's right, Col: lots of testosterone here! You've got some good 'uns, that's a fact. Deighton, Leonard, Pronzini, Indriðason, Rankin, Ryan.... Yes, lots I think you'll like.

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    1. Margot - thanks, I just need 10 years in solitary confinement and I'll get this and a few other tubs read!

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  3. Part seventy-five. All I have to say Col, is that you have a lot of damn books. Will you read them all? That is the million dollar question. Just dropping by to say hello and hope all is well.

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    1. Ha - the $64000 question! Unlikely, though I have slowed down adding more books. 90 tubs = 4500 books, plus the files, PDF'S, downloaded digital books. Maybe another 1500 maximum! If I live for another 30 years @ 120 books a year - no way, can I go warp speed to 200 a year unlikely!

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  4. Col, I'm looking up Albert French's PATCHES OF FIRE, which looks good to me. As for the rest, many new authors I have never heard of before.

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    1. Prashant, I've read some of French's fiction years ago and enjoyed it. It's been a few years since I read a war/combat memoir.

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  5. Golly, it's Nostalgia City here at sight of that Black Box omnibus of Goodis novels. I bought several of the Black Boxes. This particular one was my introduction to Goodis's work.

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    1. John, I have another one with a Jim Thompson 4-fer. They were the only 2 I ever set eyes on. I suppose reading my first Goodis would be a productive use of my spare time!

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    2. I remember also a Marc Behn threefer that included Eye of the Beholder, oh yes. I think there was also a Cornell Woolrich vol, but I may be misremembering.

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    3. Jogging my memory, I think you're right on the Woolrich. I've just looked up the Behm - I can buy a copy secondhand for £125 if I like!

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    4. I can buy a copy secondhand for £125 if I like!

      Oh, bloody hell. I gave mine away to Oxfam (with lots of other books) when I moved across here.

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    5. Link attached in case you want a re-read! Scroll down for available copies! https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/marc-behm/eye-of-beholder-queen-of-night-ice-maiden.htm

      Behm's someone I've been meaning to read for a few years now!

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  6. Col – Of this group, the Kakonis and the Izzi are the ones I want to read, now. (Well, soon, anyway.) Thanks.

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    1. I love Tom Kakonis and his work and Izzi doesn't rate too far below him either. I'd like to read something else from both quite soon, but there's never enough time!

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  7. Lots of good ones here, Col. I have read Poet in the Gutter, although I never moved on to the 2nd one, which I have. I did like Garden of Beasts by Deaver a lot. I have read almost all of the Arkady Renko by Martin Cruz Smith. I think I liked the first 4 of them the best.

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    1. I never got past Poet in the Gutter either, though I have the rest of the series. I only tried one Deaver book Tracy and whilst I liked it, I wasn't rushing back to him. The length of his books, kind of put me off. I don't know whether I ever got further with Renko than Gorky Park and Polar Star TBH, it was so long ago - before records began!

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