Fort Freak

I took two books with me on my recent vacation. I started one and never finished it. This was a bold move on my part because both were bulky hardbacks, but I refuse to get an e-reader until libraries are given fair access to titles. It was also bold because normally I bring about 5 or 6 books on a week vacation.

In the case of FORT FREAK, it was the book I didn't start. The other novel remains unfinished, mostly because I tend to read library editions first due to their limited time use. And I have about 4 or 5 books from the library I should get to first...maybe.

FORT FREAK is the latest book in the Wild Cards series. I remember reading the first two book as I worked at Camp Mach-kin-o-siew in Elcho, Wisconsin. From there, I was a diligent follower of the series. I have all the books (including the very hard to get DEATH DRAWS FIVE) and all the comics (Including the uncollected EPIC anthology title). Wild Cards is a great example of "superheroes in the real world." All powers are psychically based and even the radical transformations of the Jokers come down to a one-time telekinetic shift in DNA.

FORT FREAK is a little different from most of the books. Partially because it focuses on Jokers and partially because it is a police procedural. Past novels dealt with superheroic battles, alien invasions, politics and world domination - big themes. This book is like the Yellowthread Street stories of William Marshall. We see all levels of cops and follow their investigations. All the tropes are there: the retiring detective, the rookie, the beat cop, the undercover cop, the corrupt cop, the sergeant, the lieutenant, the DA, the PD, the snitch, the whore with a heart of gold, the cold case, internal affairs, and so on. The characters weren't rockstars, but they carried the book. I guessed the mystery early on, but missed a couple of key points that played out. It is still entertaining reading. Even a weaker Wild Cards novel is better than most other series.

On the good news front, series creator George R.R. Martin said there will be another book. I for one can't wait.

Vanilla Ride

So I got this book from the now-departed Trover Book Shop in Capitol Hill just before they went out of business. I happened to be in the neighborhood that day and just dropped in to find they were in the last vestiges of business. I should almost make a bookshelf devoted to long lost book shops such as Trover, Olsson's, Chinook, Stars Our Destination, MysteryBooks, Borders, and the Western Springs Book Rack. These were friends who are greatly missed. Here in Tampa, I'm now limited to Barnes & Noble, the mostly-used Almost New Books, and the excellent, yet science-fictionally challenged, Inkwood Books. If I want to go over to St. Pete, they have the excellent Haslam's. But that is it. Hopefully, my meager dollars can help keep them going.

Back to our novel, VANILLA RIDE is another in Joe R. Lansdale's Hap and Leonard series. When I got it, it was the latest book. Now there are two more out. I'll get to them as soon as I get through the newest Wild Cards. (Maybe one day Champion Joe can write one of those tales.) Hap is an East Texas guy and Leonard is his best friend. Leonard is gay, black, out and proud. These books usually center around some crime and meander a lot.

In this case, Hap and Leonard are asked to get back the granddaughter of a friend. Over the course of the book, they fight drug dealers, the Dixie Mafia, hitmen, corrupt cops, rednecks, but thankfully no rabid squirrels. They eat a lot of fast food, talk about their pasts, and generally find their way to where they are going.

Sometimes, Hap and Leonard can ramble too much. A couple of books just seemed to happen, but VANILLA RIDE keeps you going despite the fact that not much is going on.

Lansdale's books are fun to read. He has an ear for patter and can make disgusting references sound normal. He is one of my five favorite authors and I cannot recommend him more highly.

Shadow Season

So I read a review of SHADOW SEASON in one of my favorite magazines, Cemetery Dance, and thought it might be interesting. I enjoyed THE COLD SPOT and THE COLDEST MILE, but felt a little detached from the characters. Still I felt I should give this book a try. And it was interesting. Our hero, Finn, is a blind ex-cop teaching English at a private boarding school. How he got blind and what brought him to this job are the reason for the story.

Tom Piccirilli is a different sort of a thriller writer. His style is more introspective than most and he allows his readers to draw their own pictures and conclusions. The pacing of this book was slow but steady. I was a full hundred pages in before I asked my self where this was going. But there was something about it that wouldn't let me just put the book aside. I wanted to know what happened to Finn and what was going to happen to him. Piccirilli didn't insult my intelligence by telegraphing everything. I was never sure of what was happening or why until I got there. I wasn't exactly trying to intuit the details before reaching the conclusion, but they weren't thrown at me either.

All that put together makes a good read. Everything about the book clicked just right. The characters were a little more approachable than past works and the plot was not overdone. Even the crimes fit the story perfectly. I think that is where most authors overreach - the crimes/criminals are too big, too perfect or too bad to be believable. Banality is the soul of evil. If I had to compare, I would say that Piccirilli is the author that Marcus Sakey wants to be.