ROB KITCHIN - STUMPED

Synopsis/blurb……

“...a unique combination of comedy, both gentle and black, and Grand Guignol murder and mayhem. The story is full of clever and convincing twists at every turn and is packed with characters, especially villains, drawn with an almost Dickensian colour and intensity. Funny, engaging, fast-paced and hugely enjoyable. And the style is all Rob Kitchin’s. Thoroughly recommended.”

---Michael Russell, author of THE CITY OF STRANGERS

It is election time in Ireland and a lot more is about to change for Grant, a new arrival from England, and his wheelchair-bound friend Mary, than their political representatives.

Their friend, Sinead, has been kidnapped, and her brother, Pat, has disappeared. Charged with tracking them down, Grant and Mary are soon caught between a vicious Dublin gangster seeking the return of a valuable package and an ambitious politician determined to protect a secret that might harm his re-election prospects. To make matters worse, when someone they confront is found floating face down in the River Liffey, Inspector McGerrity Black, Dublin’s finest rockabilly cop, is soon hot on their trail.

With election day looming and Sinead’s fingers turning up on a regular basis they race through County Kildare suburbia, Dublin’s saunas, Manchester’s gay village and rural Mayo, crossing paths with drag queen farmers, corrupt property developers, and sadistic criminal gang members, as they desperately seek a way to save themselves and their friends while all the time staying ahead of the law.

There must be something in a name, as the last book I read by a Rob was equally as absurd and comedic; on that occasion Stinking Rich by Rob Brunet. Absurd in a praiseworthy way.

So how was my second outing with Rob Kitchin, after Stiffed - read in the middle of last year?

Enjoyable and amusing without ever being in danger of falling off my chair from laughter.

Friendship, disability, family, romance, loyalty, homosexuality, politics, elections, gangsters, police, kidnapping, amputated digits, investigative journalism, Dublin, Manchester, secrets, blackmail, murder, River Liffey, airports, saunas, dodgy builders, corruption and cross-dressing gay farmers – all feature to a greater or lesser extent in this novel with distinctly humorous undertones.

Some of Kitchin’s characters were likeable and decent and dependable. Others less so, but all were interesting. I wouldn’t mind seeing his Inspector McGerrity back in a future investigation for starters.

Kitchin touches on a couple of uncomfortable issues…….sex and the disabled and sterotyping in respect of gays…… how people badge individuals as having certain qualities and failings based on their sexuality. Whilst in this case, he disassembles the prejudices by imbuing his gay characters in the main with admirable traits such as loyalty, bravery and selflessness; in regards to the politician portrayed he reinforces the perception…….corrupt, sleazy and motivated by self-interest.

Decent plot, great characters, fast paced with a satisfying ending.

4 from 5…….but if I’m being totally honest, a fraction less enjoyable for me than the previous offering – Stiffed. Personal preference.

Rob Kitchin has a few other books available and his blog-website is over here – The View From The Blue House.

Thanks to Kjetil at 280 Steps for my copy of this.

KYLE MINOR - THE TRUTH AND ALL ITS UGLY

Synopsis/blurb…….

A father, a son, a suicide, a pink piano, an axe, a robot, yellow jackets affixed to the eyes of Precious Moments figurines, and the news about how "dead trees got not one thing on milkweed and sumac, horsemint and sweet William." A tour-de-force at story length from Kyle Minor, award-winning author of In the Devil's Territory. Available exclusively on the Kindle.

Another short story, another quick read and another click on the reading scoreboard with another new author.

The Truth and All its Ugly was a pleasing introduction to Kyle Minor, who’s two story collections already sit on the pile - In the Devil’s Territory and Praying Drunk.

Our tale is set some time in the not too distant future with some cloning and a form of re-birth possible, but in the main the theme is of family and loss and love and damage and pain and hurt and heartbreak and fractured relationships and poor choices and wrong decisions and consequences. No amount of future technology can overcome those emotions.

Not usually a fan of the future and yet to be invented science and technologies but I enjoyed this one. Well worth a look and I’ll be looking forward to reading his other work.

4 from 5

The others on the pile are, along with a brief introduction below……

In the Devil’s Territory

The debut collection of stories and novellas (including "A Day Meant to Do Less," a Best American Mystery Stories 2008 selection) from a young writer who is, as Benjamin Percy has said, a master of "the dark caverns of the human heart."

A schoolteacher escapes East Berlin at night, swimming the Spree River three times carrying elderly relatives on her back, so she can make her way to West Palm Beach, Florida, and "ruin the lives of fifth grade boys." A young husband reckons with the likelihood that his wife's troubled pregnancy will end with her death before Christmas. A preacher bathes his ill and elderly mother, not knowing that she has mistaken him for the long-lost cousin she watched murder his brother in her father's tobacco field. In six stories that read like novels in miniature, In the Devil's Territory plumbs the depths of human mystery, where meet our kindnesses and our cruelties, our generosities and our pettinesses.

Praying Drunk

The characters in Praying Drunk speak in tongues, torture their classmates, fall in love, hunt for immortality, abandon their children, keep machetes beneath passenger seats, and collect porcelain figurines. A man crushes pills on the bathroom counter while his son watches from the hallway; missionaries clumsily navigate an uprising with barbed wire and broken glass; a boy disparages memorized scripture, face down on the asphalt, as he fails to fend off his bully. From Kentucky to Florida to Haiti, these seemingly disparate lives are woven together within a series of nested repetitions, enacting the struggle to remain physically and spiritually alive throughout the untamable turbulence of their worlds. In a masterful blend of fiction, autobiography, and surrealism, Kyle Minor shows us that the space between fearlessness and terror is often very small. Long before Praying Drunk reaches its plaintive, pitch-perfect end, Minor establishes himself again and again as one of the most talented younger writers in America.

The author’s website is here.

Bought in the not too distant past on Amazon for Kindle.

MIKE MONSON - CRIMINAL LOVE AND OTHER STORIES

Synopsis/blurb…..

Dirty noir short and flash fiction stories of crime, criminals, love and sex in California's Central Valley and elsewhere

Another chance purchase when browsing Amazon recently and well worth the cost of the admission to these 20 plus stories of crime, criminals, love and sex.

Not a collection for the faint-hearted, but a really enjoyable couple of hours reading for me. In a couple of the Flash fiction workplace pieces Monson articulates the dark thoughts that inhabit all of our minds on fleeting occasions; those thoughts about colleagues that are rarely allowed oxygen, more usually suppressed. I know I have them myself!

In the longer narratives, he delivers harsh, often violent, fast-paced stories with intriguing situations and a climax, often with a twist.

A few highlights…….

Heritage Classic……..a wannabe biker, sets himself up as an object of ridicule….amusing and at the same time sad

Bitch Mother…….a family business has a falling out

The Price of Doing Business…..be careful who you try and shakedown, payback is a …….

Criminal Love……another family business with internal strife and a hostile takeover – the biter bit

Drink, drugs, sex, swinging, robbery, repo-men and the workplace…….my kind of stories

Mike Monson has a few novellas on Amazon which I have added to my library on the strength of these stories.

Tussinland - Addicted to cough syrup, television and Sugar Frosted Flakes, Paul Dunn is living in a state of torpor while staying at his mother's house after the humiliating ending of his third marriage. His inertia is broken when he becomes the chief suspect in the murders of his soon-to-be ex-wife and her new lover. Set in the town of Modesto, deep in California's Central Valley, Tussinland is about sex drugs, addiction, smart phones, Facebook and the internet, digital cable, anti-government militias, reality TV, fundamentalist homophobic Christians, families, 12-step groups, pornography, marriage, death, disease, and love. So noir it hurts.

What Happens in Reno - Matt Hodges goes to Reno and blows it. Blows his money. Blows his marriage. And then things really blow up. His wife wants his money. His wife’s lover wants his money. They track him down. But Matt gets into even more trouble on his own as he stumbles into some murderous trouble. When everyone gets together, their meeting is deadly.

The Scent of New Death - For twelve years Phil Gaines has managed to pull off bank job after bank job with Zen-like precision, occupying his time between robberies meditating in his nondescript Modesto, California apartment. His quiet and controlled criminal life ends abruptly, however, when he makes the fatal error of marrying a young, wild, and very kinky local bar maid.

Phil discovers too late that his new bride is unsuited for domestic tranquility when he learns not only that she's left him, but that she's run off with his business partner and his life's savings.

Now the stickup man is pursuing his ex-cohorts across the countryside as they lose themselves in 






My kind of reading I think, I'm looking forward to them

Criminal Love and Other Stories - 5 from 5

Mike Monson's website is here. Catch him on Twitter @mikemonson2

A recent Amazon Kindle purchase

OLEN STEINHAUER - YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON

Synopsis/blurb……..

"You Know What's Going On" is a novella (47 pages in the printed edition) originally published in Agents of Treachery, an espionage-fiction anthology edited by Otto Penzler.

Like my recent books (The Tourist, The Nearest Exit), "You Know What's Going On" deals with spies and spying, but with this story I wanted to move away from the European setting of most of my novels, and into Africa--specifically, Kenya and Somalia. I also wanted to deal with something I've kept at arm's length--Muslim extremism. Add to this Somali pirates, self-loathing Western agents, and a disastrous stop-over in Rome before heading on to Nairobi, and you have...well, you have the makings for some explosions.

I hope you enjoy it. If you do, then of course don't resist the impulse to run out and purchase my back catalog, but I'd also suggest picking up a copy of Agents of Treachery--it's an excellent collection for any fan of spy fiction. For fans of the genre, I'd call it required reading.

Another short but enjoyable read which keep the numbers ticking over. And as the man himself recommends above, I’d buy his back catalogue if I didn't already own it.

I think I have yet to be disappointed by his writing and this tale is no exception. What I like about him is how he hooks you into the story within a few short pages.     

We've an interesting mix of characters and our tale is narrated by alternate protagonists in each chapter; Paul, Nabil, Sam and Benjamin. Intrigue, betrayal, deceit, cowardice, loyalty, extremism with the odd pirate thrown in. Populated by a diverse cast, each with their own agenda and goals. Steinhauer pitches the reader inside everyman’s head. In a couple of instances our characters’ loyalties and motives seem to be set on a personal, rather than ideological level.

4 from 5

I have managed to read a couple from Steinhauer this year, one full length novel and another short piece.

The Cairo Affair

On the Lisbon Disaster

Early 2015, in March he has another novel out – All the Old Knives. I've no idea what it’s about at this stage, but I’ll be looking out for it.

        

Bought last year or early this year on Amazon for Kindle

JESS WALTER - DON'T EAT CAT

Synopsis/blurb….

In this brilliantly entertaining send-up of zombie lit, Edgar Award winner and National Book Award finalist Jess Walter offers a twist on America’s favorite monster: You don’t have to be dead to be a zombie. Walter creates a postapocalyptic nightmare that is as sidesplitting as it is moving—and all the more damning because it’s so recognizable.

Set in the year 2040, amid rolling epidemics, economic collapses, ozone tumors, genetic piracy, and an Arizona border war, “Don’t Eat Cat” is the story of Owen, a guy who just wants to forget the results of his recent full-body scan with a grande soy latte before going to work in Seattle’s food/finance district. The world has gone straight to hell, and the most horrifying part of it is that not a damn thing has changed: You still have to go to work, you still don’t have a girlfriend, and, unbelievably, the line at the Starbucks Financial still stretches on forever. Why? Because there’s a zombie working behind the counter, an addict of a club drug that causes its users to become aggressive, milk-pale, dead-eyed dimwits with an appetite for rodents and house pets—cats in particular (and, in very, very rare cases, humans).

When Owen finally makes it to the head of the line, the afflicted barista’s people skills falter under pressure and he mauls the store manager. It’s the first documented zombie attack in months, and it sets the sim-tweets buzzing, ultimately ending in a vigilante killing. As for Owen, he gets more than a free latte out of the incident: He’s forced to confront the brokenness of his present life by venturing into the past. With the help of a private investigator, he heads into Seattle’s Zombie Town to search

In “Don’t Eat Cat,” some highs are better than a lifetime of being human.

Jess Walter is one of my favourite authors, a position I have adopted on the strength of having read two of his 6 novels thus far. On the stacks still are The Zero, Over Tumbled Graves, Land of the Blind and The Financial Lives of the Poets, as well as his collection of short stories – We Live in Water.

So I had fairly high expectations approaching this 30-odd page novella.

Plus points – it was short and cheap and it notched up another score on the reading tally for the year. And in my OCD completist world it has ticked off another Walter title, adding to the couple I have previously read and enjoyed – Citizen Vince (5 star – but pre-blogging days) and Beautiful Ruins (4 star review – here). It would always have slightly niggled me knowing it was there and I hadn’t read it.

Enjoyable? Not especially. I hadn’t done my homework before purchasing this cheap kindle single. Not a fan of futuristic tales and not a fan of zombies or zombie tales, so a short lesson learned in that author name, even an author who you hold in the highest esteem, isn’t always everything.

I read until the end, I followed it, I didn’t get lost, I didn’t switch off and daydream, I didn’t want to be doing anything other than reading it.  It made sense. I just didn’t particularly enjoy it.

Jess Walter’s website is here. I’m looking forward to reading something longer from him in the next year or so. Still a favourite!

3 from 5

Purchased earlier this year or late last year on Amazon for kindle.

2 BY DAVID CRAIG (AKA BILL JAMES)

Bill James – prolific UK crime author and known best for his long running police procedural series with Harpur and Iles – up to 30 books and still going strong, has also published 17 books under the David Craig pseudonym. At one point I stupidly thought I would try and back-track on his extensive library and collect them all. I soon gave up.

I did manage to track down some of his early books, a couple which are here. One first appeared 1969, though my reprint is from 1971, The other was a 1974 book, before before reprinted with a new title. Bill James has continued to use the David Craig pseudonym up until 2005 on and off.

THE SQUEEZE (AKA WHO’S LITTLE GIRL ARE YOU?)

“Listen Forman, if you don’t go through with it…no police, no switches of van…I reckon I’ll kill you”

When security tycoon Riobert Forman’s daughter and mistress are kidnapped, it’s the first move in a big robbery that needs every angle covered.

The kidnappers wasn’t co-operation instead of cash.

The snag is Jim “Bottle” Naboth – a policeman who found booze the fastest way out of the force – because Forman’s mistress is Naboth’s wife….

On his own and dying for a drink, “Bottle” Naboth’s making his come-back – the hardest way there is……

My copy – a film tie-in reprint - depicts a couple of scenes from the 1977 film of the book which starred Stacy Keach, David Hemmings, Edward Fox and Freddie Starr – I will try and see if I can track it down at some point.

MESSAGE ENDS

No 2 in the Roy Rickman trilogy

Britain in the late 70’s…fiendish treachery, cryptic clues, hot suspense and corpses galore.

Special investigator Roy Rickman is assigned to unmask intrigue and corruption in Britain’s futuristic “Ministry of Information.”

The trail of treachery takes him on a dangerous trip half way round England… and despite his panache in the field of professional deceit, Rickman is tormented by doubts:

Are the clues he is following false?

Are his colleagues really loyal?

Is his girlfriend Rachel part of the plot – or just naturally elusive?

Less than 160 pages long, I think I will enjoy this, though I may wait and see if I uncover the first Roy Rickman during my cataloguing exercise. If I don’t I shan’t feel compelled to seek out the earlier one in the series! I quite like the sound of this though.

LOGGING THE LIBRARY - PART SIX

Another 50.......

Tub 6

Hans Keilson, Don Taylor, Daniel Friedman, a couple by Roger Simon 

I think most of these came from my trip to Lowestoft in July

Intriguing cover, what's the book about though?

MORNING DARK is a story of three generations of men, each consumed by the memories of war and violence. Big Walt is a WWII hero, his son Walt a Vietnam veteran, and Walt's nephew Tom Jane is a thirty-year old career soldier now dishonourably discharged. When Walt, drawn into a harrowing situation on unfamiliar soil, needs rescuing, Tom must forfeit his failure to save his desperate relative. The dangerous trip may be his only chance at salvation.

Review

An uncompromising novel about what the rough striving of our darkest selves has brought us to at the opening of the 21st century. And "Morning Dark" is a hell of an exciting read to boot."--Robert Olen Butler

"[An] unsparring vision...William Faulkner is supposed to have said that all great American novels are about sons looking for fathers. He would have found much to recognize and admire in Daniel Buckman's "Morning Dark"."--Tom Nolan, "San Francisco Chronicle"

"Buckman is a master of character development and interpersonal analysis, and his slice-of-life tale of family dysfunction is right on target. Many men will identify with this family as they struggle to save themselves from the war still raging within." --"Library Journal" (starred review)

"A painfully beautiful saga...exceptional writing compels the reader on to the last page. This is a book that won't be easily forgotten." --"Booklist"

Mark Timlin - PI series, Donald Goines, David Armstrong, Jack Higgins and Stan Lee - espionage-ish

Nele Neuhaus, Clay Reynolds, Bill James and Christopher Brookmyre

Scottish author

Gayle galore - though I have never read him, Tony Parsons

Brookmyre again, Mark Haddon x 2, Richard Price and Bill Fitzhugh

Fletcher Flora 50's crime, Robert Campbell, Herbert Lieberman, Jefferson Parker and Timlin again

Parker, Timlin, Rankin, Deaver and Iain McDowall

Child, Puzo, Koontz, Thompson, Harry Grey

Gerritsen (my wife's), Robert Wilson and 3 novelisations from an iconic UK TV show with Robbie Coltrane

Thoughts on the above........I do hope I like Mike Gayle when I eventually get around to reading him. He doesn't write crime fiction, more sort of modern man - naval gazing - male chick-lit. Ditto Tony Parsons. Dean Koontz - loved him about 25 years ago, though mostly the last 4 or 5 from him over the past 10 years or so have disappointed. I still hold out a bit of hope that I re-discover that feeling I used to have when reading him.

There's a few that kind of resemble house bricks. Not especially looking forward to the Gerritsen.

Highlights......nothing stand out that I want to read immediately. I reckon I will enjoy most of them if or when I get there. Jefferson Parker - I have enjoyed in the past, though I haven't read him for a good while now. Ditto Robert Campbell and Herbert Lieberman.

Fletcher Flora - might come in handy if 1958 comes up as one of Past Offences' reading years.

Of the 50, I think I may have read possibly 3 before - both Mark Haddon books - definitely the first plus the Jim Thompson book.

50 more next week!

FULL LIST.....

ARMSTRONG	DAVID	LESS THAN KIND	1994	JM2	F
BATES	QUENTIN	CHILLED TO THE BONE	2013	GM3	F
BROOKMYRE	CHRISTOPHER	NOT THE END OF THE WORLD	1998		F
BROOKMYRE	CHRISTOPHER	ONE FINE DAY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT	1999		F
BROOKMYRE	CHRISTOPHER	THE SACRED ART OF STEALING	2002	ADX2	F
BROWN	MOLLY	CRACKER - TO SAY I LOVE YOU	1994	C2	F
BUCKMAN	DANIEL	MORNING DARK	2003		F
CAMPBELL	ROBERT	RED CENT	1989	JH2	F
CHILD	LEE	PERSUADER	2003	JR7	F
DEAVER	JEFFERY	HELL'S KITCHEN	2001	JP3	F
FITZHUGH	BILL	CROSS DRESSING	2000		F
FLORA	FLETCHER	WHISPERS OF THE FLESH	1958		F
FRIEDMAN	DANIEL	DON'T EVER GET OLD	2012	BS1	F
GAYLE	MIKE	HIS 'N' HERS	1999		F
GAYLE	MIKE	MR COMMITMENT	2004		F
GAYLE	MIKE	BRAND NEW FRIEND	2005		F
GAYLE	MIKE	WISH YOU WERE HERE	2007		F
GERRITSEN	TESS	LIFE SUPPORT	1997		F
GIBSON	WILLIAM	SPOOK COUNTRY	2006	BAT2	F
GOINES	DONALD	BLACK GANGSTER	1972		F
GREY	HARRY	THE HOODS	1952		N
HADDON	MARK	THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME	2002		F
HADDON	MARK	A SPOT OF BOTHER	2006		F
HIGGINS	JACK	THE KEYS OF HELL	1965	PC3	F
JAMES	BILL	FORGET IT	1995	B+J1	F
KEILSON	HANS	LIFE GOES ON	1932		F
KOONTZ	DEAN	THE HUSBAND	2006		F
LEE	STAN	DUNN'S CONUNDRUM	1985		F
LIEBERMAN	HERBERT	NIGHT CALL FROM A DISTANT TIME ZONE	1982		F
McDOWALL	IAIN	PERFECTLY DEAD	2003	J+K3	F
McGILLOWAY	BRIAN	THE RISING	2010	IBD4	F
NEUHAUS	NELE	SNOW WHITE MUST DIE	2013	B+K1	F
PARKER	T. JEFFERSON	THE TRIGGERMAN'S DANCE	1996		F
PARKER	T. JEFFERSON	COLD PURSUIT	2003		F
PARSONS	TONY	MAN AND WIFE	2002	HS2	F
PRICE	RICHARD	FREEDOMLAND	1998		F
PUZO	MARIO	THE SICILIAN	1984	G2	F
RANKIN	IAN	THE FALLS	2001	IR12	F
REYNOLDS	CLAY	PLAYERS	1997		F
ROBERTS	GARETH	CRACKER - TO BE A SOMEBODY	1995	C4	F
ROBERTS	GARETH	CRACKER - BEST BOYS	1996	C8	F
SEATON	MATT	THE ESCAPE ARTIST	2002		N
SIMON	ROGER L.	PEKING DUCK	1973	MW1	F
SIMON	ROGER L.	THE BIG FIX	1979	MW3	F
TAYLOR	DON	DIRTY LAUNDRY	1998		F
THOMPSON	JIM	KING BLOOD	1973		F
TIMLIN	MARK	GUN STREET GIRL	1990	NS3	F
TIMLIN	MARK	SHARMAN AND OTHER FILTH	1996	NS	F
TIMLIN	MARK	A STREET THAT RHYMED AT 3AM	1997	NS13	F
WILSON	ROBERT	A DARKENING STAIN	1998	BM4	F