MAX ALLAN COLLINS - MOURN THE LIVING (1988)

Synopsis/blurb……..

The original novel in Max Allan Collins's series about professional thief Nolan. The death of a friend's daughter leads Nolan to a small Illinois college town where the mob has murderous rivals in the drug trade.

Says The Big Book of Noir: "There's nobody better at the American crime novel than Max Allan Collins."

Mourn the Living is the last Nolan novel to see print, but apparently the first to be written. It pre-dates the action of Bait Money by about 10 years.

Best book ever? No, but enough here to keep me more than happy.

Lone wolf, Nolan is a man with a price on his head after killing one of Chicago’s mob bosses. A debt to a former friend has him returning to Illinois to look into the death of Sid Tisor’s daughter, Irene. She thought she could fly from the roof of a building after taking LSD.

Irene was a student in the college town, which is ostensibly being run by George Franco, the misfit brother from the Chicago mob’s top family. Reluctantly, Nolan takes a look.

Drugs, drugs, more drugs, bent cops, hippies, a heroin addict and dealer, a frightened journalist, an incompetent and powerless mob boss, a mystery man pulling the strings and running the show, some New York hoods, a bit of love interest, a few bouts of fisticuffs, some gun play – some answers and a big suitcase full of cash and a pretty girl! Happy days.

It was interesting to see the origins of the series. A review I’ve read said this book was for Collins’ completists only and his writing get much better over the course of his career. ( It's not too shoddy here in my opinion.) In Collins own introduction he says this was written about 1967 or 1968 when he was an undergraduate. 

I really enjoyed this one. I did guess one of the end of novel reveals, but kind of forgot about it until the reveal itself, which was a surprise. There’s not a tremendous amount of depth to the characters and the plot isn’t overly complex – but hey, I’m a fan.

4 from 5    

My journey through the 8 Nolan books has me wanting to read more from Collins. So roll on the 11 or 12 book Quarry series. Quarry’s a hitman - so should be fun to follow.

The full series is as follows:

Nolan

1. Bait Money (1973)

2. Blood Money (1973)

3. Fly Paper (1981)

4. Hush Money (1981)

5. Hard Cash (1981)

6. Scratch Fever(1982)

7. Spree (1987)

8. Mourn the Living (1988)

Max Allan Collins has his website/blog here.

Mourn the Living was bought for Kindle a year or two ago.

JAMES P. SUMNER - A HERO OF WAR (ADRIAN HELL ORIGINS) (2015)

Synopsis/blurb…..

Adrian Hell: Origins.

See where it all began...

The year is 1990, and an eighteen-year-old Adrian Hughes has joined the army.

Showing a natural talent for combat, and for disobeying senior officers, this first short story documents Adrian's initial training, and his eventual involvement in the Gulf War.

A thrilling introduction to the man who would become the most feared assassin ever to pick up a gun, packed with humour, emotion, and edge-of-the-seat action!

A 66 page novella and introduction to author James P. Sumner and his series character Adrian Hell.

We pick up with Hughes during his basic training, where an inability to curb his enthusiasm and smart mouth, brings unwanted attention from a brutal staff sergeant. Out on manoeuvres, a similar questioning of authority sees him become the “wolf-slayer” when saving a friend and colleague. He’s still up on a disciplinary for it though.

Fast forward to the Gulf and Hughes shows his abilities when tested in combat. His reward – a new career as an agent working for the intelligence service.

Fast-paced writing, decent characterisation, plenty of action and thrills, nothing too cerebral, plenty of humour. I really liked it. Ticks in most boxes and definitely an author I’ll be reading again in the future. Probably the kind of read that is enjoyable without being especially memorable and there’s a lot to be said for books like that.

4.5 from 5

James P. Sumner has his website here. 

Catch him on Twitter - @TheFirstHellion and Facebook here.

Author Todd Luchik – Forgotten Boy tipped me off to Sumner and his work. I think you can get the first book in the Adrian Hell series for free over on the author’s website.

The Complete Adrian Hell Action Thriller Series

True Conviction

Hunter’s Games

One Last Bullet

Deadly Intent

A Necessary Kill

A Hero of War was a FREEBIE from the author to his newsletter subscribers. 

2 BY DON WINSLOW

2 from Don Winslow this week. I first read Winslow back in the 90's with California Fire and Life and The Death and Life of Bobby Z.

I then dipped my toes in the waters of his Neal Carey series, though I was a little bit thwarted in reading all 5 in the series, because at the time the books were scarcer than rocking horse pooh and as a consequence were fairly expensive.












Since 2005 he has published 8 books and I've bought myself 7 of them and read exactly ZERO.







Power of the Dog
1. The Power of the Dog (2005)
2. The Cartel (2015)


Savages
1. The Kings of Cool (2012)
2. Savages (2010)

Novels
The Winter of Frankie Machine (2006)
The Dawn Patrol (2008)
The Gentlemen's Hour (2009)
Satori (2011)

The only one missing is this year's release The Cartel, which while sounding pretty good is a bit long for my liking!

THE KINGS OF COOL (2012)

In Savages, Don Winslow introduced Ben and Chon, twenty-something best friends who risk everything to save the girl they both love, O. Among the most celebrated thrillers in recent memory - and now a major motion picture directed by Academy Award - winning filmmaker Oliver Stone - Savages was picked as a best book of the year by Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly, Janet Maslin in The New York Times, and Sarah Weinman in the Los Angeles Times. Now, in this high-octane prequel, Winslow reaches back in time to tell the story of how Ben, Chon, and O became the people they are. Spanning from 1960s Southern California to the recent past, The Kings of Cool is a breathtakingly original saga of family in all its forms - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, friends and lovers. As the trio at the center of the book does battle with a cabal of drug dealers and crooked cops, they come to learn that their future is inextricably linked with their parents' history. A series of breakneck twists and turns puts the two generations on a collision course, culminating in a stunning showdown that will force Ben, Chon, and O to choose between their real families and their loyalty to one another. Fast-paced, provocative, and wickedly funny, The Kings of Cool is a spellbinding love story for our times from a master novelist at the height of his powers. It is filled with Winslow's trademark talents - complex characters, sharp dialogue, blistering social commentary - that have earned him an obsessive following. The result is a book that will echo in your mind and heart long after you've turned the last page.

THE WINTER OF FRANKIE MACHINE (2006)

The author of The Death and Life of Bobby Z. and The Power of the Dog now gives us a fierce and funny new novel—and a blistering new take on the Mafia story.

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.

LOGGING THE LIBRARY - PART FIFTY-NINE

Tub 59 and closing in on the 3000 book milestone. I do try and rationalise it by totting up the number of years I've been an avid reader........mitigation and all that.....

Tub 59!

Gar Anthony Haywood, Walter Mosley x 2, Robert Crais, Qunintin Jardine,

Discovered Haywood about 20 years ago in Murder One in London.

Simon Conway, Jim Nisbet, Robert F. Jones. Chris Simms, John Harvey,

San Francisco author

Double dealing and intrigue

Corey Lynn Fayman, Jake Arnott, Russell James, Needle Magazine, Bill Pronzini x 2

Nameless 36 - should be read around February 2018 at current rate of progress

A magazine of Noir!

Last in the Long Firm trilogy

Fred Willard, Charles Bukowski, Jeffery Deaver, Philip Kerr, Michelle Huneven,

Fred Willard - actor, comedian and author,

In Atlanta, Georgia, Ponce De Leon Avenue is a street full of whores, hustlers and hiding places. Sam takes against a malign yuppy who offers him money to kill his wife, and takes the money, and warns the wife. When she, the yuppy and the man Sam got to look after his trailer all end up dead, Sam feels in an abstract way that someone ought to pay, and killing people is nowhere near as satisfactory as taking away their money. He assembles a gang--his favourite psychopath, two crippled down-and-outs and a rockabilly undertaker--and poses as the man from the Columbian cartels. And then the plot begins to get seriously complicated...Fred Willard's bleakly funny first novel has a tone of voice as vigorous as its action sequences, a sense of location and milieu as sharp as its plotting. The planning and execution of jailbreaks and hijackings are ingenious and plausible; more unusually, they are carried out in inventive ways which have as much to do with the characters of Willard's charming foul-mouthed criminals as they do with mere practicality. Crime novels come no more hard-boiled than this. --Roz Kaveney

Debut novel - not crime!

Iceberg Slim, Walter Mosley, John O'Farrell, Greg Williams, OUT OF THE GUTTER Magazine,

Iceberg Slim!

Midgets with AKs and Chicks with Chainsaws!

Danny King, Thomas Eidson, Ian Sansom, Martin Amis,

Standalone Danny King novel

Martin Amis and a gun on the cover!

Len Deighton, Bill Pronzini, John Sandford, Scott Turow, Martin Cruz Smith,

Eugene Izzi, Dennis Lehane, Paul Levine, Nick Tosches, John J. McLaglen,

Posthumously published Izzi novel.

Jake Lassiter series book,

Read it, loved it, not sure I understood it!

Colin Dexter, Martina Cole, G. M. Ford x 2, James Hadley Chase,

1939 book

Graham Hurley, M. J. Rose, Nicholas Blincoe, Zoe Sharp, James Patterson,

2002 Blincoe book

Tub 59 sorted!

HIGHLIGHTS..... Jake Arnott, Gar Anthony Haywood, Eugene Izzi, Paul Levine, Bill Pronzini,

LOWLIGHTS..... not too sure on the Huneven book now I've read the blurb, will I get on with Morse and Dexter?

FULL LIST OF 50 AS FOLLOWS:

AUTHOR		TITLE	YEAR	SERIES
AMIS	MARTIN	NIGHT TRAIN	1997
ARNOTT	JAKE	TRUECRIME	2003	LF3
BLINCOE	NICHOLAS	WHITE MICE	2002
BUKOWSKI	CHARLES	HAM AND RYE	1982
CHASE	JAMES HADLEY	THE DEAD STAY DUMB	1939
COLE	MARTINA	FACELESS	2001
CONWAY	SIMON	A LOYAL SPY	2010
CRAIS	ROBERT	THE LAST DETECTIVE	2003	EC9
CRUZ SMITH	MARTIN	POLAR STAR	1989	AR2
DEAVER	JEFFERY	THE BURNING WIRE	2010	LR9
DEIGHTON	LEN	LONDON MATCH	1985	BS3
DEXTER	COLIN	THE WENCH IS DEAD	1989	IM8
EIDSON	THOMAS	ST AGNES' STAND	1994
FAYMAN	COREY LYNN	BLACK'S BEACH SHUFFLE	2006	RWM1
FORD	G. M.	A BLIND EYE	2003	FC3
FORD	G. M.	RED TIDE	2004	FC4
HARVEY	JOHN	GHOSTS OF A CHANCE	1992
HAYWOOD	GAR ANTHONY	WHEN LAST SEEN ALIVE	1997	AGM5
HUNEVEN	MICHELLE	ROUND ROCK	1997
HURLEY	GRAHAM	CUT TO BLACK	2004	F+W5
IZZI	EUGENE	THE CRIMINALIST	1998
JAMES	RUSSELL	PAINTING IN THE DARK	2000
JARDINE	QUINTIN	UNNATURAL JUSTICE	2003	OB7
JONES	ROBERT F.	BLOOD TIME	1990
KERR	PHILIP	A QUIET FLAME	2008	BG5
KING	DANNY	BLUE COLLAR	2009
LEHANE	DENNIS	DARKNESS, TAKE MY HAND	1996	K+G2
LEVINE	PAUL	MORTAL SIN	1994	JL4
LOUIS	MATT	OUT OF THE GUTTER 3 (ed.)	2007
McLAGLEN	JOHN J.	HERNE THE HUNTER 2: RIVER OF BLOOD	1976	HTH2
MOSLEY	WALTER	BLACK BETTY	1994	ER4
MOSLEY	WALTER	BAD BOY BRAWLY BROWN	2002	ER7
MOSLEY	WALTER	CINNAMON KISS	2005	ER10
NISBET	JIM	PRELUDE TO A SCREAM	1997
O'FARRELL	JOHN	THIS IS YOUR LIFE	2002
PATTERSON	JAMES	ROSES ARE RED	2000	AC6
PRONZINI	BILL	CAMOUFLAGE	2011	N36
PRONZINI	BILL	FEVER	2008	N33
PRONZINI	BILL	HARDCASE	1995	N22
ROSE	M. J.	THE HALO EFFECT	2004	BI1
SANDFORD	JOHN	BROKEN PREY	2005	LD16
SANSOM	IAN	THE DELEGATE'S CHOICE	2008	ML3
SHARP	ZOE	HARD KNOCKS	2003	CF3
SIMMS	CHRIS	SAVAGE MOON	2007	DIJS3
SLIM	ICEBERG	DOOM FOX	1998
TOSCHES	NICK	CUT NUMBERS	1988
TUROW	SCOTT	PRESUMED INNOCENT	1986	KC1
WEDDLE	STEVE	NEEDLE ISSUE 3 - WINTER 2010 (ed.)	2010
WILLARD	FRED	DOWN ON PONCE	1997
WILLIAMS	GREG	FOOTBALL CRAZY	1999

ALAN JONES - BLUE WICKED - BLOG TOUR!

Author Alan Jones is on the blog today, offering his thoughts on his favourite music, books and films.

Alan Jones is my pen name, as I need to keep working to pay the bills, and I wish for the time being to remain anonymous.

I've read and enjoyed both of Alan's books so far - The Cabinetmaker and Blue Wicked and he has previously participated in a Q+A session for the blog here. (Note to self  I must resurrect this feature soon, not sure I've done one this year!)

I do like other people's lists - being far too lazy to compile ones of my own!

MUSIC

To be Someone - The Jam

Pretty Vacant - The Sex Pistols

Teenage Kicks - The Undertones

Up the Junction - Squeeze

What can I say about the first four? I was 17 in 1977. It was a great time to be into music.

Common People - Pulp

Just when music got a bit stale for me, along came Pulp

Hurt - Johnny Cash

Old men can sometimes still sing - my favourite Johnny Cash song, although his cover of 'Bridge over troubled water' with June Carter came a close second

Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead

It was this or Creep. Both phenomenal.

Lay Lady Lay - Bob Dylan

That big brass bed.

Atmosphere - Joy Division

Some say he couldn't sing but I say sheer genius.

In the Ghetto - Elvis

I had a friend who had a much older sister. In the early 80's she dragged us to working men's clubs all over Yorkshire to show us some 'real' music. Fantastic people and they loved their Elvis!

BOOKS

This is the hardest category to narrow down to ten!

Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

Has everything - My favourite book.

Shogun - James Clavell

At over a thousand pages, it's still riveting the whole way through.

Mila 18 - Leon Uris

Based loosely on the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Gripping.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service - Ian Fleming

Totally underrated and so unlike the films. This one shows a side of Bond you'll never see at the cinema.

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

Best book we did in English at school, narrowly beating Lewis Grassic Gibbon's 'A Scots Quair'

Papillon - Henri Charriere

I don't read much non-fiction, but this reads like fiction.

Presumed Innocent - Scott Turow

My favourite legal thriller

Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

I love speculative sci-fi, where it could just about happen. This is a classic example.

A Town like Alice - Neville Shute

The Cruel Sea - Nicholas Monsarrat

My dad gave me a stack of books to read when I was about 11. The last two books on my list were among them. Both authors are out of vogue but fantastic storytellers, in an old-fashioned way.

FILMS

Silkwood

I think it's Meryl Streep's best, and a great performance from Cher

Trainspotting

Not as good as the book, but what film is?

The Shawshank Redemption

Sorry, this one is.

Godfather 1 - 3

Not cheating if you watch them all back to back

The Deerhunter

My favourite Vietnam War film.

The Life of Brian

Funniest film ever. When it was first released, we had to travel outside Glasgow to see it because the city council banned it!

Pale Rider

My favourite Eastwood film by a very small margin. Could have chosen any from six.

Apollo 13

A cliffhanger ending in a film of a true story?! Magnificent film-making.

Bull Durham

Fireworks between Sarandon and Costner. Then she got together in real life with her other co-star, Tim Robbins, and broke my heart.

...................................................................................................................................................................
Thanks to Alan for sharing his selections.

Alan Jones has his website here. You can catch him on Twitter - @alanjonesbooks.
He's also on Facebook here.

Not sure if Blue Wicked is one you want to read? Dip your toes in the water first with a sample - here.