In this intricately mapped detective novel, Macdonald’s ex-cop P.I. Lew Archer finds himself investigating three murders, committed at ten-year intervals and in multiple states. The interconnected nature of the killings and of the cast of characters speak to an expert at plotting out a story, while the nearly endless series of reversals and revelations speak to the imagination and wit of Macdonald, an author who deserves the same status as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Accosted right outside a courtroom where his testimony has just helped […]
Going South
This is a novel about whaling. You have to hand it to an author so willing to set out on a new book knowing with absolute certainty that they are definitely not going to write the best book on their chosen subject. Patrick Sumner is an Irish surgeon court-martialed from the British army and forced to settle for a position as the doctor aboard a whaling vessel. Hiding his secret shame from his employers and fellow crew-members, Sumner copes with his fall from grace through […]
Lost and Found?
When you decide to read a book that is already a popular phenomenon, such as a book with a lengthy stay on the best-seller lists and a Hollywood film adaptation, you often find yourself liking the book or, if not particularly enjoying the work itself at least understanding the aspects that allowed it to become so popular in the first place. For me though, The Lost City of Z falls into a rarer category wherein I at least sort of liked it but have no […]
All Tied Up
This novel, the first in a long-running and popular mystery series, introduces the reader to John Rebus, the most reserved and cantankerous inspector on the Edinburgh police force. Like seemingly all fictional cops Rebus has an ex-wife and a growing daughter he rarely sees. He lives in a crummy flat where the hallway smells like cat piss and the pilot light keeps going out. He also has a past that haunts him, having left military service without discussing the reason with anyone. At the start of […]
Pee Wee, Jackie, and the Duke
The Boys of Summer isn’t quite what you expect. Though it covers the familiar ground of the great Brooklyn Dodger teams of the ’50s, the author’s unique position and the hybrid framework of this memoir create a little gem of a book that is full of the stuff of life. Heartbreak, struggle, accomplishment, valor, friendship, bigotry and death all arising from a child’s game played by adults. Kahn served as the Herald Tribune’s beat reporter for the Dodgers for a few seasons in the early […]
Amusement with a Capital “A”
In the six stories and one novella that make up his debut collection, the inimitable Saunders pokes and prods at the nagging difficulties of living an ordinary life in an utterly insane world. The protagonists of these stories are people who for the most part just want to go about their day and provide for their families without running into too much trouble, but the zaniness and frenetic pace of American life, recognizable as a fractured possible future version of our own, complicate their lives […]
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