Hyenas

Now I'm all caught up with Hap and Leonard, Joe R. Lansdale's masterful East Texas mystery series. This small-press short novel isn't so much a mystery than Hap and Leonard kicking ass, but it is still great fun.

Our heroes are asked to help out the younger brother of a man who Leonard beat up. His brother is falling in with the wrong crowd, and he hopes Hap and Leonard can get him out of trouble before he gets in too deep. Of course things don't exactly go to plan.

In a bonus short, we get a disturbing story from Hap's childhood. In both, we see how great a writer Lansdale is. He has an ear for dialogue and for setting the scene. If this were a just world, he would top the best seller lists with each book.

Finally let me plug the small press. Subterranean has more key places on my bookshelves than any other publisher. They make an excellent product with an excellent author selection.

V is for Vengeance

I didn't know there was a new Sue Grafton novel out until I saw it at the book store one day. Then I was number 346 on the waiting list at the library for quite some time and then right after Christmas it arrived. I had to finish the novel I was reading first, but then it was Kinsey time.

As with Grafton's most recent novels, this book presents both Kinsey's point of view and another character's, or two in this case. Kinsey is told in first person, while Nora and Dante are given the third-person treatment. Although I think this is the first novel where we meet Kinsey directly in someone else's chapter. The mystery centers around a mobster, his clients, his business and some bad timing. Although it wasn't much of a mystery, more of a procedural - Kinsey figuring out what was going on than actually solving a murder. The reader knows who did the crime, just not necessarily the motives. This isn't a bad thing because a good story sets you up to reach a destination in the way the author intended.

All in all this was a good addition to the Millhone canon. Now we have to wait two more years for W.

Legacies

There's nothing stranger than an inadvertent seasonal book. I decided to give Repairman Jack another try and started reading this Christmas-themed book just in time for Christmas. Every year I try to read a holiday-related book, but never seem to start or finish it in time. This year's title was SILENT NIGHT, a history of the Christmas truce during the Great War. Needless to say I didn't make it past the first chapter. Not because it was poorly written or too trying, but because I just was not in the mood. I did read the short novel ROADS about Santa Claus, but not HOGFATHER or THE BATTLE FOR CHRISTMAS or MIRACLE or any of the other Christmas-related titles I have gathering dust in a box that only gets trotted out at the holidays.

Enter Repairman Jack. I picked up a copy of the fourth novel ALL THE RAGE from the local swap rack and decided to get started on this series again. Off to thei library I went and picked up book number two, LEGACIES.

This story centers around an juvenile HIV clinic in New York City. Repairman Jack is a loner who solves problems for people. He lives off the grid with no social security number, no taxes, and no permanent ties. He does have friends, but he belongs only to himself. Jack's friend Gina asks him to help catch a thief who stole Christmas presents from the clinic. From there, he gets pulled into a bigger mystery surrounding the center's director. Where as his adventures usually have a tinge of the supernatural surrounding them, Jack's yuletide fun is strictly earthbound this time. The bad guys are simply bad. No monsters other than that which the human spirit can create.

I like the Repairman Jack novels, but I think I have to piece through them or the conceit could get tougher to swallow. I have Conspiracies from the library, but may wait to read it at a later date.