JACK MacLANE - BLOOD DREAMS (1989)

Synopsis/blurb.....

Hubert is a killer. He loves the sport of it - the thrill of the hunt - and Hubert can feel and share in the pain of his victims as they breathe their final breath.

Larry is a young boy who dreams about death before it happens. He can't remember his dreams by day, but by night he is haunted by the faces and words of the dying. When the two end up in the same town, and become aware of one another, a classic battle of good and evil ensues. Blood Dreams is an old school supernatural thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Another book enjoyed on Audible over a couple of days and one with crimes in it; i.e. murders though with a supernatural twist to it. I've seen it classified as horror, but I wouldn't necessarily agree with that. Horror fiction I kind of expect to be, if not necessarily scared at the very least made to feel uncomfortable and I didn't get that vibe here. Supernatural thriller sounds about right.

Small town setting, a bereaved family with a young boy and his mother relocating, a bookseller with a cruel streak and a semi-normal front, an elderly loner and a new cop in town, dreams and nightmares - a precursor to death, a certain inevitability about confrontation, conflict and a settling of matters.

I liked the characters and their stories, their histories and the paths that got them to where they were now. I liked the new connections and friendships that came from the arrival of Larry and his mum in the town. I was probably less enamoured by the supernatural bits...... the connectivity between the good Larry and the evil Hubert, the conversations Hubert had with his first human victim etc etc. I didn't necessarily dislike these bits as they were important to the story the author was telling, just they didn't really grab me. I would probably have enjoyed it more if the author had found a way of pitching the protagonists into combat through a more normal manner.

Overall more to like than dislike though.

3 from 5 

Jack Maclane was a pseudonym of the late Bill Crider. Bill Crider's work has been enjoyed before - Piano Man and Outrage at Blanco   

Read - (listened to) August, 2020
Published - 1989
Page count - 352 (7 hrs 32 mins)
Source - Audible purchase
Format - Audible

EVAN BALDOCK - BANG BANG YOU'RE DEAD (2020)

Synopsis/blurb....

WHEN IT COMES TO VENGEANCE, AGE IS JUST A NUMBER.

Gloria Jones has had enough. She’s sixty-five, approaching retirement, and nearing the end of her tether. If she gets abused in the street by another toerag, someone’s going to swing.

When Gloria collects a gun she saw being thrown into her local park, her decision to turn it in is quickly scuppered after she’s attacked on her way to the police station. Using the gun to make her attackers back off, she accidentally pulls the trigger, and ends up killing them both. In that moment, her life changes forever.

As she struggles to come to terms with what she’s done, Gloria begins to realise there is injustice all around and finds herself transforming from a shy, peaceful woman into a confident and ruthless vigilante, determined to help victims of crime unable to defend themselves. And so begins a three-month campaign, taking revenge against violent criminals up and down the country, helping those who can’t help themselves.

After all, who’s going to question a little old lady just going about her business? Turns out, quite a few people, on both sides of the law, and one in particular seems to know exactly what she’s been up to.

A fast fun read in the company of a granny vigilante, snapping after one bruising encounter too many with the local pond life terrorising her community. What begins as an accident, soon builds up a head of steam as Gloria Jones travels the country dispensing terminal justice to those the law seems incapable of dealing with.

Straightforward street justice? Maybe but with a consequence not just for her victims. Random notes keep dropping through her letterbox, informing Gloria that someone knows exactly what she’s been up to and that they’ll be keeping a keen eye on her. Who is onto Gloria and what’s their grand design?

Parking my incredulity meter at the door, I really enjoyed this one. Fun, frantic, implausible, unlikely and a great read. Our main character, despite an impressive list of kills to her name at only the halfway point in the book, is likable, friendly, loyal and loving. She cares for her family, friends and community and despairs at the damage done to all of them by the curse of drugs and the criminality it causes after addiction takes hold. Despite her path and journey, she isn’t some embittered hag, yearning for the days of hanging and national service. She just longs for a kinder and safer society.

Decent characterisation, an improbable but fun plot, a pre-millenium setting of 1999, a bit of a road trip – ok rail trip around England….. London as a main base for the action, Bristol, Birmingham, Newcastle and the wilds of Essex, plenty of incidents, a fair pace and some decent prose which collectively kept this reader turning the pages.

Bang Bang You’re Dead is an impressive debut novel from Evan Baldock. I’ll be interested in seeing what he turns out next.

4 from 5

Read – August, 2020
Published – 2020
Page count – 342
Source - review copy from publisher Red Dog Press
Format - paperback

P.B. YUILL - HAZELL AND THE THREE-CARD TRICK (1975)

Synopsis/blurb....

"James Hazell, private investigator, is engaged by a widow to prove that her late husband was a murder victim and not a suicide. Hazell discovers that they key to the problem lies with a gang of small-time con men who work the Three-Card Trick... The result is a satisfying comedy thriller you will be sorry to finish"  - Manchester Evening News

"A cunning plot and full-blooded characters" - Police

"Good, wry humour and ripe Cockney dialogue" - Oxford Times

"A bit of orl right" - Liverpool Echo

A warm fuzzy glow of nostalgia washed over me as I read this one, remembering fondly the TV drama featuring Nicholas Ball as PI James Hazell. As a shy, spotty, ill-at-ease-in-my-own-skin teenager, Nicholas Ball was everything I wasn't....... smooth, cocky, charming, confident and attractive to the opposite sex. I suppose I should have hated him really.

Here, Hazell is setting up as his own man and scrambling for jobs and cash. A small case to help a bereaved widow claim her late husband's life insurance leads to Hazell being led a merry dance around London by an aging conman. One with more faces than a town clock ....... the hen-pecked husband, the down at heel card sharp, the one-room lodger, the successful car salesman, businessman and gigolo....

Great dialogue, great characters, London 70s setting, full of charm, nostalgia, rough edges, seediness, villains including a Mr Big and the rumours surrounding his plundered safety deposit box, irate cops, good time girls, a cruise ship, hustlers, heavies, solicitors and more. There's a fair few twists along the way as Hazell strives to stay in step with the geriatric conman and his buxom companion. 

There were three Hazell series books in total and I'm looking forward to reading the others at some point. This soft-hearted and not so cynical PI is great company.

An interesting side note to the books concerns the author(s). P.B. Yuill is a pseudonym for Gordon Williams (author of The Siege of Trencher's Farm aka Straw Dogs) and Terry Venables, better known as a successful footballer and manager - England, Tottenham, Barcelona and others.

I'm forever curious about author collaborations... who did what, how big a role did x play versus y. Here we have a professional writer and a sportsman. Did Venables write or did he just throw a few anecdotes and jokes at Williams? I don't suppose I'll ever know.

4 from 5

Read - August, 2020
Published - 1975
Page count - 208
Source- owned copy
Format - paperback

TOM PICCIRILLI - THE DEAD PAST (1997)

Synopsis/blurb.....

Welcome to Felicity Grove....

This upstate New York village is as small as it is peaceful. But somehow, Jonathan Kendrick's eccentric grandma, Anna, always manages to find trouble. Crime, scandal, you name it...this wheel-chair-bound senior citizen is involved. So, when the phone rings at four a. m. in Jonathan's New York City apartment, he knows to expect some kind of dilemma. But Anna's outdone herself this time. She's stumbled across a dead body in her trash can.

The first in a two book series featuring Jonathan Kendrick and his grandmother Anna and a bit of amateur sleuthing.

Small New York village setting, a family history and back story featuring alcoholism, murder, life-changing injuries, bereavement, marriage, divorce, betrayal, jail time, a dog, a maybe new romance, football, - and that's without mentioning the body in the dustbin. 

I quite liked the two main characters, their bonds and their shared history and their inability to leave things alone when they feel the local police chief isn't working the case properly and has something to hide. The chief's deputy, an old school friend of Jonathan's isn't averse to Kendrick and Anna sticking their nose in and is happy enough discussing the investigation amidst his own concerns about his boss.

Quite a busy book with the backstories woven into the narrative. I enjoyed the small town setting where everyone seems to know everyone else;  where some characters have evolved and have seen the wider world and the contrast with others who have never left the town and who hark back to the glory of their school and college days when they were a minor somebody.

The investigation gets complicated when another body appears at the same location with a different murder method.

Enjoyable enough, no real annoyances or irritation while listening to the audio book, neither was I ever overly excited or left breathless by a turn of phrase or a descriptive passage. It just did it's job by holding my interest throughout and providing a plausible outcome to the questions that needed answering.

Author Tom Piccirilli sadly died in 2015. He's left behind a decent body of work in multiple genres - crime, horror, mystery and thriller. I've read him previously, before I started blogging - The Cold Spot and Fuckin' Lie Down Already - and I look forward to reading more from him in the future.

3.5 from 5

Read - (listened to) August, 2020
Published - 1997
Page count - 226 (5 hrs 35 mins)
Source - Audible purchase
Format - Audible

PAUL D. MARKS - THE BLUES DON'T CARE (2020)

Synopsis/blurb.....

Bobby Saxon lives in a world that isn’t quite ready for him. He’s the only white musician in an otherwise all-black swing band at the famous Club Alabam in Los Angeles during World War II—and that isn’t the only unique thing about him...

And if that isn’t enough to deal with, in order to get a permanent gig with the band, Bobby must first solve a murder that one of the band members is falsely accused of in that racially prejudiced society.

A compelling 40s set LA murder mystery, concerning itself with questions of race and identity against the back-drop of the second World War.

I don't think I've encountered such an interesting protagonist for a long while in my reading. Bobby Saxon is a pianist trying to get a start in the music business. There's more to Bobby though than meets the eye.... he's conflicted, confused, secretive, naive, brave, talented and desperate.

In return for a permanent gig with a black band, Bobby has to try and solve the murder of a German industrialist for which a hostile band member has been fitted up for. It's a task he's ill-equipped for, though he does possess the advantage of being able to move in circles, denied to his band's manager.

I quite liked Bobby's blundering around. During the course of the investigation he forges alliances with a cop, a gangster and the boyfriend of another missing women connected to the murder victim. His confidence grows as the books unfolds.

There's a musical backdrop to the novel which I enjoyed despite not been a big fan of jazz or swing. I liked the other strands which Marks also wove into the narrative ....... race, gender identity, discrimination, anti-semitism, Nazis, the war effort, organised crime, graft, gambling and elements of romance/sexual attraction amidst the confusion over self. Sad to say that 80 years on, some of the same issues are prevalent in today's world.

4 from 5

Paul D. Marks has been enjoyed before - White Heat and Broken Windows  

Read - July, 2020
Published - 2020
Page count - 396
Source - review copy from author
Format - Kindle on laptop

HELEN MACIE OSTERMAN - MAKER'S MARK (2012)

Synopsis/blurb....

Why do a sleazy antique dealer and a wealthy collector suddenly become interested in an unknown artist named Jo Allison? Is it the mysterious goblet she used in three still-life paintings? Jo's apartment is burglarized, and she is followed and threatened. When she attempts to determine the provenance of the goblet, she discovers that it might be a priceless artifact. Thieves follow her to Chicago and to the home of a blind woman in Riverside who also owns one of the goblets. The exciting climax takes place on the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago, between the roaring lions.

Not a book I would have contemplated reading other than the need to read a Helen for a Goodreads challenge. The ones I had on the pile weren't really singing out to me.... Helen MacInnes mainly and the advantage to this was it was an Audible book, so I could multi-task - not something you can say about many men - by working and reading at the same time.

The plot is exactly as above and I was moderately interested in the goings-on. Our main character, is Jo Allison. Events are related as they impact on her. Namely an unhealthy interest in her work as a ruse to possess a priceless goblet... burglary, stalking, threats, intimidation, escalation and on the upside a chance to get close to the cop looking into the initial burglary. Romance and a possible brighter future if the goblet mystery can be put to bed.

Overall it was okay, nothing amazing or stunning, conversely nothing too irritating. The main character was likable and the author does a decent job in building tension and portraying Jo's increasing isolation and fears as she worries over who she can trust throughout the book.

Not great, not awful, bang average if I'm honest. If I was a big fan of cozy type mysteries I'd probably have enjoyed it more.

3 from 5

Read - (listened to) August, 2020
Published - 2012
Page count - 229 (6 hrs 14 mins)
Source - Audible purchase
Format - Audible

PETER CARROLL - DRIVERS (2014)

Synopsis/blurb.....

What would you do if..

..someone offered you a great job with a company car, an expense account and the chance to drive the girl of your dreams around all day? You'd bite their hand off, right?

What if the guy offering the job is a violent gangster and the girl of your dreams is his only daughter? Still keen?

Ross Fleming decides to go for it but his dreams turn into nightmares as the girl takes him on a ride he'll never forget.

Revenge, justice, loyalty, lies, love, anger and an identity crisis. Turns out, the new chauffeur is not her only driver.

My first outing with author Peter Carroll, but after enjoying this one, definitely not my last.

Scottish crime, mostly in the company of villains and reprobates, lots of complicated relationships and family histories and secrets, different motivations for our main characters which puts them in conflict with each other.

Best book ever? No but really enjoyable. I like reading about criminal sorts and their antics. They're usually a lot more interesting than honest Joes. Great dynamics at play here. Just the book I needed to get me in the reading mood, after stalling while reading something else.

Setting, pace, plot, character, outcome - all ticks in the box.

4 from 5

Peter Carroll is the author of the DI Adam Stark series of books. There's a couple on the pile. I'll be interested in seeing what he does with keepers of the peace rather than law breakers.

Read - July, 2020
Published - 2014
Page count - 186
Source - owned copy
Format - Kindle