Well, everyone was right. This was great, and the marketing/art department at Avon should be shamed heavily for the way they did this book and this entire series dirty*. I imagine there are many, many readers who would enjoy this book, and presumably the rest of the series, if the covers weren’t a) heinously misrepresenting the contents of the story, and b) butt ugly and embarrassing. I was one of those readers! And then people whose tastes I trust kept pushing them on me until […]
Shoulder pads and shootouts
G is for Gumshoe (1990) by Sue Grafton
CBR Bingo Square: Relation”ship” (Fiercely independent PI Kinsey Millhone has to allow fiercely protective PI Robert Dietz be her bodyguard) I read a bunch of the ‘Alphabet Mystery’ series in my teens, when there was somehow time to read everything, and I would stock up on library books rather than booze for staying up all night on New Year’s Eve. They star, and are usually narrated by, Private Investigator Kinsey Millhone, a young-ish woman in California. She and Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski (1982-2022) were probably […]
Titanium Noir
Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway
I was lured in by another beautiful cover on the library shelf. A reference to William Gibson mixed with Raymond Chandler on the back, and I obviously had to bring this one home. Now that I’ve finished, I can say I’m glad that bright green caught my eye, but I’m not sure I’ll be actively searching out more Nick Harkaway. I’ve said before I love a gritty detective novel with a twist, and that’s just what this is. This is set in a future with […]
Literally, Off the Rails…and So, So Good!
Point Blank by Peter Vonder Haar
This is the second Clarke & Clarke mystery from Peter Vonder Haar where we follow the Clarke twins once again, up to their necks in danger. Of course, Cy and Charlie aren’t alone in the mayhem set against a Houston background, their big brothers attempt to help as they can. Can you really help Cy when he succeeds so often by running into danger head first? You know what the law of diminishing returns is, right? If you keep doing something enough times you won’t […]
End of Watch
End of Watch. Once again, I’m sorry to say that there’s not much good to be said about this one. It’s a real downer, and I waited several weeks after I read it to write this review, because I didn’t want to ruin it for anyone. Problem is, I also don’t want to have to reread it, and unlike some other books, my head doesn’t want to hold on to it. My major issues were how irritating it was that King returned to drugging people […]
Harper Blaine died and came back and all she got were these crummy nebulous powers
After private investigator Harper Blaine wakes up in the hospital after apparently being legally dead for two minutes, she thinks she must be having hallucinations. Her world seems to get blurry, with grey mist, strange creatures and scary monsters more and more frequently. She is told to consult a university professor and his wife, who tell her that she’s a Greywalker now. There is a nebulous dimension close to ours, between the human world and the after life, and those like Harper, who have been […]