ROBERT WRIGHT CAMPBELL - PLUGGED NICKEL (1988)

Synopsis/blurb….

The night was pitch black, filled with driving rain when the California Zephyr jolted to a stop on a desolate stretch outside McCook, Nebraska. Somebody pulled the emergency brake, catapulting Jake Hatch out of the train --- and onto a severed corpse. He stumbled over the trousered bottom half. Someone else found the torso, neatly divided at the belt.

It was Hatch's job to piece together the truth. All he had to go on was a book of sonnets and a money clip in one pocket, and three cigarette butts and a lipsticked handkerchief in the other. And a plugged nickel, now hidden in his own pocket, leading him to a criminal mastermind, a case of espionage, and an almost perfect murder.

Robert Campbell was one of my first forays into crime and mystery fiction back in the late 80s/early 90s and he's an author I still have a soft spot for. 

Plugged Nickel provided 220-odd pages of a fast reading mystery in the company of railroad detective Jake Hatch. As I read it, elements of the story came back to me, so I'm fairly sure it was a re-read - just long enough ago that the details remained tantalizingly out of reach second time around.

Hatch is on board a train when the emergency brake is pulled. Pretty soon half a torso is found, shortly followed by the other half - only a bit further down the road we discover that the halves don't match up and are from two separate bodies.

More searching ensues. All our body parts are eventually recovered as well as other bits and pieces - namely the Plugged Nickel of the title - which provide sufficient clues for Hatch to try and identify the victims and come up with a hypothesis for their murder.

Hatch with some of the facts at his command has to set up a sting operation to flush out the guilty, but not before another death occurs.

Easy reading, really enjoyable, an interesting setting with a lot of our narrative occurring in and around the railway, a great main character in Jake Hatch - a variation on the sailor with a girl in every port - there's a warm bed and a meal waiting for him at most of his train destinations. Clever use of one of his girlfriends to help unravel the mystery. Elements of humor throughout - a good time read!    

I enjoyed this one just as much second time around.

4 from 5 

In his lifetime Robert Wright Campbell (died 2000) wrote around 30 books, mainly in the mystery genre. There was a second Jake Hatch book - Red Cent which I have somewhere. I can't remember whether this one was read or not, not that it matters. It will be at some point.  

Bought copy second hand no doubt about 25 years ago.

Read in June, 2016

I highlighted another of his books in a 2 BY post last month.

T. F. MUIR - BLOOD TORMENT (2016)

Synopsis/blurb…..

When a two-year-old girl is reported missing, DCI Andy Gilchrist is assigned the case. But Gilchrist soon suspects that the child's mother - Andrea Davis - may be responsible for her daughter's disappearance, or worse, her murder.

The case becomes politically sensitive when Gilchrist learns that Andrea is the daughter of Dougal Davis, a former MSP who was forced to resign from Scottish Parliament after being accused of physically abusing his third wife. Now a powerful businessman, Davis demands Gilchrist's removal from the case when his investigation seems to be stalling. But then the case turns on its head when Gilchrist learns that a paedophile, recently released from prison, now lives in the same area as the missing child. The paedophile is interrogated but hours later his body is found on the beach with evidence of blunt force trauma to the head, and Gilchrist launches a murder investigation.

As pressure relentlessly mounts on Gilchrist, he begins to unravel a dark family secret, a secret he believes will solve the fate of the missing child.

Praise for T.F. Muir:

'Rebus did it for Edinburgh. Laidlaw did it for Glasgow. Gilchrist might just be the bloke to put St Andrews on the crime fiction map.' Daily Record

'A bright new recruit to the swelling army of Scots crime writers.' Quintin Jardine

'Gripping and grisly, with plenty of twists and turns that race along with black humour.' Craig Robertson

'Gilchrist is intriguing, bleak and vulnerable... if I were living in St Andrews I'd sleep with the lights on.' Anna Smith

Read a couple of months ago in May and albeit against limited competition numbers-wise was May’s pick of the month.

This was my first time with Scottish author Frank Muir and his series character Detective Andy Gilchrist.

Gilchrist is pitched into a difficult case with the disappearance of a two year old girl. Things are further complicated by the fact she is the granddaughter of a former Scottish MSP. A quick resolution appears close at hand when it comes to light that a convicted paedophile has recently moved back to the area. This line of enquiry draws a blank – more so when the suspect is himself found dead.

An interesting police procedural – my first in a while – enhanced by some of the dynamics. Tensions almost leading to violence between Gilchrist and a fellow officer, an on-off relationship with one of the forensic officers, pressure from the hierarchy for a quick close on the case and the recovery of the missing girl, the high profile nature of the case – the press all over it like a rash, with our disgraced ex-MSP fuelling the fire.      

Gilchrist has other issues to contend with, in conjunction with the case, namely his love life and the impact it has on his grown-up children, especially his son Jack. Things aren’t too great between the pair of them, his son has used drugs in the past and now appears flush with money. Gilchrist suspects dealing as opposed to a run of luck and some success in his career as an artist. Mistrust and suspicion is mutual, especially when Jack is suspected of sex with a minor.

Back on the job, the difficulties thrust in his way by the fractured factions of the dysfunctional Davis family and the secrets they closely guard make life and the safe recovery of the young child further away than ever. Gilchrist needs to penetrate and unravel …. allegations of abuse, broken marriages, estrangements, mysterious Eastern European connections, smarmy well-heeled lawyers, mental illness, a dead husband and more.

5 from 5

This is the 6^th book in the DI Andy Gilchrist series that T.F. Muir (T. Frank in the US) has penned. 

If money and time were limitless I'd happily read the earlier 5!

The author’s website is here. 

Catch him on Twitter - @FrankMuirAuthor

Thanks to Helen at publishers Little Brown for the review copy. Sorry for the delay!

       

ROBIN YOCUM - A BRILLIANT DEATH (2016)

Synopsis/blurb….

Amanda Baron died in a boating accident on the Ohio River in 1953. Or, did she? While it was generally accepted that she had died when a coal barge rammed the pleasure boat she was sharing with her lover, her body was never found.

Travis Baron was an infant when his mother disappeared. After the accident and the subsequent publicity, Travis’s father scoured the house of all evidence that Amanda Baron had ever lived, and her name was never to be uttered around him. Now in high school, Travis yearns to know more about his mother. With the help of his best friend, Mitch Malone, Travis begins a search for the truth about the mother he never knew. The two boys find an unlikely ally: an alcoholic former detective who served time for falsifying evidence. Although his reputation is in tatters, the information the detective provides about the death of Amanda Baron is indisputable—and dangerous.

Nearly two decades after her death, Travis and Mitch piece together a puzzle lost to the dark waters of the Ohio River. They know how Amanda Baron died, and why. Now what do they do with the information?

Last month’s best read and another US-set small town mystery as two friends Travis and Mitch seek answers to the disappearance of Travis’ mother in an unexplained river accident nearly 20 years previously.

There’s a clever construction to the narrative. The friends’ enquiries occur in the late 60s early 70s, trying to find answers to a happening in the 50s with the outcome and aftermath revealed to us in the 90s – after the death of a main player. An 80s twist also occurs. I really bought in to the author’s style of presenting the story.  

The boy’s enquiries hit a wall of silence almost immediately. No-one in Brilliant wants to discuss Amanda Baron, no-one wants to get on the wrong side of town bully Frank Baron. Everyone sympathises with Travis, no mother and an abusive and neglectful father. He’s almost been adopted by Mitch’s mother who feeds him daily. 

“That boy eats like he just got out of a concentration camp.” Mitch’s father observes. 

Travis appreciated normality – “You guys are like normal people,” he often said. “You eat meals at the table and talk to each other without screaming.”

Against a background of fear; fear of Frank Baron discovering what Travis and Mitch are up to, the boys slowly uncover Amanda Baron’s life and secrets.  With the assistance of the library, old police reports, a risky bladder-releasing search of Frank’s attic and garage hidey-hole, a one-time town hero now damaged Vietnam veteran and a disgraced ex-cop who ran the case back in the day, the pair find answers to the puzzle and for Travis something a bit more meaningful.

Ticks in every box – pace, plot, setting, characters and resolution.     

I liked the easy friendship of the boys, the relationship they both had with Mitch’s parents, the progression through school towards graduation and the rivalries within their own school and those of Mitch’s cousins, the football games, the home-coming parades for the Vietnam returnees - Yocum just sucks you into his Brilliant environment. A brilliant Brilliant book!

5 from 5

Highly recommended – it’s a lot better than this inadequate review makes it sound!

Robin Yocum is the author of a couple of other novels – The Essay and Favorite Sons. His website is here.

Thanks again to Seventh Street Books for this one.

LARRY D. SWEAZY - SEE ALSO DECEPTION (2016)

Synopsis/blurb….

In a small North Dakota town in 1964, indexer Marjorie Trumaine investigates the alleged suicide of the local librarian, uncovering a web of secrets that puts her own life in jeopardy.

October 1964 just months after freelance indexer Marjorie Trumaine helped solve a series of murders in Dickinson, North Dakota, she is faced with another death that pulls her into an unwanted investigation. Calla Eltmore, the local librarian, is found dead at work and everyone considers it suicide. But Marjorie can't believe that Calla would be capable of doing such a thing.

Marjorie's suspicions are further aroused when she notices something amiss at Calla's wake, but the police seem uninterested in her observations.

Despite pressing job commitments and the burden of caring for a husband in declining health, Marjorie sets out to uncover the truth. What she finds is a labyrinth of secrets and threats from someone who will kill to keep these secrets hidden."

Following on from Sweazy’s See Also Murder which introduced indexer Marjorie Truman, See Also Deception brings another case and more heartache for Marjorie. Her best friend, librarian Calla Eltmore has inexplicably committed suicide – or has she?

Another enjoyable and satisfying read. I did like the first with slight reservations, second time around I had no such qualms.   

Marjorie has it tough. It’s the mid-60s in rural North Dakota and after her husband’s paralysis following a hunting accident Marjorie is trying to care for him, keep the family farm afloat, as well as contend with the pressures from her New York editor for her to meet her indexing deadlines.

There’s still time to comfort Calla’s friend, Herbert – the war-damaged library janitor and rumour has it – Calla’s secret beau. Time to take an instant dislike to the temporary replacement at the library – Delia Finch. Time to fret over her deceased neighbours’ son, Jaeger Knudson and his romance with Betty Walsh – she of the twenty five cent perfume!  

Time to start asking a few awkward questions herself, after the police won’t take action on the anomaly she’s noticed when viewing Calla at the funeral home. Time to wonder who was it she bumped into, fleeing the library in a panic when she arrived there. Time to become jealous of Betty when she finds her joking with her bed-stricken husband conspiratorially, whilst she minds him.

Time to put herself and Hank in danger when the police eventually take notice and reluctantly start an investigation. Time to worry when she discovers all four of her truck tyres have been slashed and her phone line’s been cut!  

Great sense of time and place. Sweazy brings to life the isolation of Marjorie’s out-of-town farm as well as the struggle to maintain it and endure the vagaries of the seasons and the fears of crop failure and economic reality.

Great sense of small community – the gossiping, the listening in on the party phone lines, the town rumour factory, the neighbourliness, the frowning at the lady entering the bar or smoking in public.

Great main character – Marjorie – a 60s Superwoman – headstrong, determined, loyal, brave and admirable.

Not everyone’s a fan of the amateur sleuth, but I enjoyed it and think it’s well worth a read.   

  

4 from 5

See Also Murder was reviewed here.

Larry D. Sweazy has his website here.

Thanks to the publisher Seventh Street Books for the copy of this one.

Read in May, 2016.   

2 BY TODD MORR

2 from the Kindle this week and author Todd Morr.

Not an author I know a lot about if I’m truthful, only that he seems to be writing the kind of stuff I want to read. I’ve read the first chapter or two from each of these and it was a struggle to set them aside and get back to the three other books currently on the go.

He did have an earlier novel out which no longer seems to be available - Captain Cooker - I suppose I ought to worry about these two bad boys first and then the other 5000-odd books in the library before fretting over the one that got away!

Todd Morr has a Facebook page here and you can catch him on Twitter - @toddmorr1

Jesus Saves Satan Invests (2014)

IT STARTED with a message on her answering machine: ‘JESUS SAVES SATAN INVESTS.’ Living comfortably off the spoils of her ill-gotten gain as the centerpiece of a blackmail ring, Janet did not need to know the caller was currently sharing trunk space with a fresh corpse.

How could the day get any worse?

Easily... Jesus Saves, Satan invests is an action packed warp-speed rollercoaster ride through hell with a few pit-stops to load up on ammo along the way.

ABOUT TODD MORR

"The man has an ear for great dialogue. It was compelling just enough to read the characters stab back and forth with their words. The scenes were well-constructed and tight. Morr managed to keep the lead character floating in that shade of grey where yeah, he was exonerated, but does it really matter? I want another book out of this guy. Tomorrow." - Ryan Sayles

"Todd Morr has done something incredible with Jesus Saves, Satan Invests. He's written a crime book that almost seems like instead of being written, it was choreographed like some massive movie fight or action sequence, or really, directed like the ultimate chase movie. I mean, wow, with some kind of plot genius, he created about 20 fascinating and dangerous characters -- all engaged in a desperate chase of the one main and completely fascinating and very dangerous character -- Janet, or Margarita Corona. No need for boring back story or descriptions of setting Morr just keeps things moving from start to finish while managing to somehow slip in back story and vivid details without the reader even noticing that the action has slowed for a moment, like some kind of magician. So do you get what I am saying? This book is simply one of the most wonderful crime books I've ever read." - Mike Monson.

"Fast and freaking furious." - James Newman

Upon graduating from Adams State College with a degree in fine art Todd Morr decided if he was going to be a starving artist, he preferred music and writing. Morr lives in Salinas, California with his wife and children. He has published short stories in Out of the Gutter, Shotgun Honey and Death Throes Webzine. His first novel Captain Cooker, is out with Snubnose Press.

If You’re Not One Percent (2016)

Rem had found a girlfriend, work as a handyman and settled into anonymous life in a small mountain town.

Unfortunately, some young locals have decided to go on a killing spree, and Rem knows it. It would be nice to go the law, but Rem has secrets of his own, and decides to stop them himself.

Even in a small personal war things rarely go as planned, and Rem did not intend to end up trapped in a house with his girlfriend Delany, her best friend Denise, and a gutshot tourist--surrounded by a group of murderous rednecks who would be happy to add Rem's name to their growing list of victims.

Another amazing 280 Steps cover!

LOGGING THE LIBRARY - PART SEVENTY-SIX

Could possibly be the tub of The Vietnam War this week.....

I had a big fascination with this conflict, probably because I could dimly recall seeing news reports in the TV as I was growing up. Back in the 80s and early 90s I used to read a lot about it both memoirs and fiction. I can't recall the last Vietnam book I read. I ought to read something related soon - does the fascination still hold or have I moved on?

Tub 76

Ian Rankin x 2, David Corbett, David Mark, Tom Kakonis,

One of my all time favourite authors!

“A cracking good crime thriller that resurrects both the gambling hero of Kakonis' Michigan Roll and the exhilaratingly tough, yet deeply humane, storytelling that made that first novel one of the most memorable in recent crime fiction,” Kirkus Reviews

A mob boss has given professional gambler Timothy Waverly two weeks to make good on a $300,000 debt…or die at the hands of two hit men. Waverly’s only hope is convince a pill-popping, ex-girlfriend and her loser husband to set him up in a series of high-stakes poker games in Palm Beach with a rich Arab prince who cheats at cards. But that’s not the only game that’s rigged. Waverly knows he’s going to be killed as soon as he pays his debt…and that somehow he’s got to cheat death in the ultimate gamble.

Charles Cumming, Frances FitzGerald, Pete Dexter, Peter Temple, Tom Mangold/John Penycate,

Pete Dexter - not an author I have tried yet.

Ian Rankin x 3, Pete Dexter, Ryan David Jahn,

3 x Rebus, probaby not one for bedtime reading! I'll break my arm.

Ryan David Jahn 

From the author of the award-winning debut crime novel Good Neighbors-a white-knuckle thriller about the lengths a man will go to for his daughter.

The phone rings. It's your daughter. She's been dead for four months.

So begins East Texas police dispatcher Ian Hunt's fight to get his daughter back. The call is cut off by the man who snatched her from her bedroom seven years ago, and a basic description of the kidnapper is all Ian has to go on. What follows is a bullet-strewn cross-country chase from Texas to California along Interstate 10- a wild ride in a 1965 Mustang that passes through the outlaw territory of No Country for Old Men and is shot through with moments of macabre violence that call to mind the novels of Thomas Harris.

Justin Rose, Robert Newman, Martina Cole, Rick Gekoski, Andrew Weist (ed.)

Sporting diary following Coventry City's fortunes!

Justin Scott and a series book

Harlan Coben, Tonino Benacquista, Sebastian Faulks, Anthony Horowitz, Blaine Harden,

Fun times in North Korea

Made into a film starring De Niro

Imagine The Sopranos transplanted to the French countryside... .

This thrillingly comic, internationally bestselling Mafia farce is the inspiration for the major motion picture The Family starring Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Tommy Lee Jones, and produced by Martin Scorsese.

The Blakes are newcomers to a small town in Normandy. Fred is a historian researching the Allied landings, Maggie enjoys charity work, and their kids are looking forward to meeting other teenagers at the local lycee. Or so it seems.

In fact, Fred is really Giovanni Manzoni, an ex-goodfella turned stool pigeon who's been relocated from New Jersey to France by the FBI's witness protection program. He's got a two-million-dollar bounty on his head, but he and his family can't help attracting attention (imagine the Sopranos in Normandy). And when imprisoned mobster Don Mimino gets wind of their location, it's Mafia mayhem a la Josh Bazell's Beat the Reaper, or like The Godfather as if written by Carl Hiaasen. Because while you can take the man out of the Mafia, you can't take the Mafia out of the man.

Time-Life Vietnam series books

One from a 25 book series, I didn't manage to stay subscribed for the whole run.

Part-work magazine on Nam - 36 episodes in all. Published 1990 - I suppose I ought to start reading them! 

James W. Hall, Oliver Stark, Harry Crews, John Lanchester,

Harry Crews - quite a rare book!

Straight out of college, a guy joins a karate troupe on a Florida beach, The "Karatekas." Action adventure w/ babes, sun & sand.

Poetry in the tubs! James W. Hall better known for his Thorn mysteries! 

Dick Francis x 3, Val McDermid, William Marsden/Julian Sher

Tony Hill/Carol Jordan

Francis 3-fer from the 60s

Adam Blade, James Patterson, Breece D'J Pancake, Stephen King

Collection of short stories from short-lived author.

Tub 76 - put to bed!

HIGHLIGHTS....... Ryan David Jahn, a bit of Ian Rankin, David Corbett, Tom Kakonis

LOWLIGHTS....... a couple of children's books I seem to have hoovered up from my son's collection when he was a lot younger. If I read them I read them, but unlikely.

FULL LIST OF 50 AS FOLLOWS:

AUTHOR		TITLE	YEAR	SERIES
(NTVE-10)		NAM: THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE 10 THE AFTERMATH	1990	10
(NTVE-11) BAKER	MARK	NAM: THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE 11 NAM	1990	11
(NTVE-12) MASON	ROBERT	NAM: THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE 12 CHICKENHAWK	1990	12
(NTVE-8)		NAM: THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE 8 CAMBODIA AND THE EASTER INVASION	1990	8
(NTVE-9)		NAM: THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE 9 AIR WAR AND THE SOUTH ABANDONED	1990	9
(NVTE-13) CHANOFF/VAN TOAI	DAVID/DOAN	NAM: THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE 13 PORTRAIT OF THE ENEMY	1990	13
(NVTE-14) O'BRIEN	TIM	NAM: THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE 14 IF I DIE IN A COMBAT ZONE	1990	14
(TVE-10) MILLS	NICK	THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE: A NATION DIVIDED	1984	10
(TVE-12) DOUGAN	CLARK	THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE: A COLLISION OF CULTURES	1985	12
(TVE-13) DOLEMAN	EDGAR C.	THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE: TOOLS OF WAR	1985	13
(TVE-17) FISCHER	J.	THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE: IMAGES OF WAR	1986	17
(TVE-8) DOYLE	EDWARD	THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE: COMBAT PHOTOGRAPHER	1984	8
BENACQUISTA	TONINO	BADFELLAS	2010
BLADE	ADAM	NANOOK THE SNOW MONSTER	2007	BQ5
COBEN	HARLAN	CAUGHT	2010
COLE	MARTINA	BROKEN	2000
CORBETT	DAVID	THE DEVIL'S REDHEAD	2002
CREWS	HARRY	KARATE IS A THING OF THE SPIRIT	1972
CUMMING	CHARLES	THE TRINITY SIX	2011
DEXTER	PETE	BROTHERLY LOVE	1991
DEXTER	PETE	THE PAPERBOY	1995
FAULKS	SEBASTIAN	BIRDSONG	1993
FITZGERALD	FRANCES	FIRE IN THE LAKE	1972
FRANCIS	DICK	BLOOD SPORT	1967
FRANCIS	DICK	FLYING FINISH	1966
FRANCIS	DICK	ODDS AGAINST	1965	SH1
GEKOSKI	RICK	STAYING UP: A FAN BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE PREMIERSHIP	1998
HALL	JAMES W.	THE MATING REFLEX	1980
HARDEN	BLAINE	ESCAPE FROM CAMP 14	2012
HOROWITZ	ANTHONY	ARK ANGEL	2005	AR6
JAHN	RYAN DAVID	THE DISPATCHER	2011
KAKONIS	TOM	DOUBLE DOWN	1991	TW3
KING	STEPHEN	BAG OF BONES	1998
LANCHESTER	JOHN	CAPITAL	2012
MANGOLD/PENYCATE	TOM/JOHN	THE TUNNELS OF CU CHI	1985
MARK	DAVID	ORIGINAL SKIN	2013	DSAMA2
MARSDEN/SHER	WILLIAM/JULIAN	ANGELS OF DEATH	2006
McDERMID	VAL	THE TORMENT OF OTHERS	2004	TH+CJ4
NEWMAN	ROBERT	DEPENDENCE DAY	1994
PANCAKE	BREECE D.	TRILOBITES & OTHER STORIES	1992
PATTERSON	JAMES	MARY MARY	2005	AC11
RANKIN	IAN	A QUESTION OF BLOOD	2003	JR14
RANKIN	IAN	STRIP JACK	1992	JR4
RANKIN	IAN	THE BLACK BOOK	1993	JR5
RANKIN	IAN	MORTAL CAUSES	1994	JR6
RANKIN	IAN	RESURRECTION MAN	2002	JR13
SCOTT	JUSTIN	STONEDUST	1995	BA2
STARK	OLIVER	88 KILLER	2011	H+L2
TEMPLE	PETER	IN THE EVIL DAY	2002
WIEST	ANDREW	ROLLING THUNDER: IN A GENTLE LAND (ed.)	2006

JUNE 2016 - READING LIST AND PICK OF THE MONTH

Back on track with a great month's reading after a couple of months in the doldrums. Assisted by a lazy week sitting around a pool in Spain, sipping cold San Miguel's, I read 13 books in the month - only a few of which I've managed to pen some thoughts on.

The full list of reads were.......

Steven Hayward - Jammed Up (A Debt Gone Bad Novella) (2016) (4)

Robin Yocum - A Brilliant Death (2016) (5)

Sarah M. Chen - Cleaning Up Finn (2016) (4.5)

Stephen Jay Schwartz - Boulevard (2009) (4)

Robert Campbell - Plugged Nickel (1988) (4)

Kenneth Cook - Fear is the Rider (2016) (4.5)

Iain Ryan - Four Days (2015) (4.5)

Augusto De Angelis - The Hotel of the Three Roses (1936/2016) (3.5)

J. Frank James - Lou Malloy: The Run Begins (2013) (4)

Lou Berney - Whiplash River (2012) (4)

Harry Dolan - Bad Things Happen (2009) (4)

Patrick Hoffman - Every Man a Menace (2016) (4)

Duane Swierczynski - Canary (2015) (4.5)


Book of the Month - Robin Yocum's A Brilliant Death - the only book scoring top marks.

4 reads a shade below at 4.5, 7 rating 4 stars and 1 slightly less - Augusto De Angelis at 3.5. Nothing sucked, nothing wasted my time.

A bit more trivia or data........

9 of the 13 were new-to-me authors, 4 have been read before - Robert Campbell, Iain Ryan, Lou Berney and Duane Swierczynski.

No surprises here - 12 dudes, only 1 dudess - but Sarah M. Chen more than held her own.

9 authors hail from the US, 2 from Australia, 1 from Italy, 1 from England

All 13 were fiction.

7 were paperback reads, 5 were Kindle editions, 1 was a PDF - printed and read (sod the trees!)

1 originally published in the 1930s, 1 from the 1980s, 2 from the noughties, 9 from this decade - 5 from this year.

5 of the 13 books I pre-owned, 1 was accessed via Net Galley, 1 was accessed via Edelweiss, 4 were sent to me by publishers and 2 from the authors/publicists on their behalf.

Favourite cover? A few contenders - Yocum's isn't too bad. Swierczynski's is fun and eye-catching. Campbell's is quite interesting, Sarah M. Chen's is cool.

A couple I really don't like - sorry Mr Hayward and Mr James, though I probably haven't done Steven Hayward any favours using a crappy out of focus image - sorry!

On balance, Patrick Hoffman's Every Man a Menace is a winner, with a lot more going on there than at first glance!