So, four weeks plus later and two books read in between, I finally finished Alex Berenson‘sThe Midnight House.The Midnight House is the fourth book in the John Wells series and I loved the first three. The story lines were good and John Wells was a well developed character who I liked. So I had high expectations when I picked up this book, unfortunately, the book fell short of those expectations. It’s not that the book was bad, it’s just that there really was no hook that brought me into the story and made me want to keep reading.
The novel revolves around interrogation unit 673 that operated in Poland at what they called The Midnight House. After their operation ended, the majority of the soldiers have been killed and John Wells is called in to find out the whys and wherefores. The story goes back and forth in time to tell the story of what happened at the Midnight House and at times that seemed awkward and confusing. The last one hundred or so pages were better than the first two hundred some and overall the ending was satisfying. But the story lacked any personal development in Wells’ character, though some things were touched on. Overall this book rates a 2 out of 5 stars for me. Maybe it would be more enjoyable for first time readers of the series. Those with no expectations. But will I be waiting for the next John Wells book, yes I will, because Berenson may just knock one out of the park next time!
C.J.Box’s Joe Pickett series has been a favorite of mine since I read Savage Run (Book #2) in 2004. I quickly went back and read book #1 Open Season (which won an Edgar Award for Best First Novel)and have continued from there. From the beginning, I have loved the characters of Joe Pickett and his family. Joe Pickett is a game warden originally living in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming and now Saddlestring. Joe is a kinda’ normal guy living a normal life and correcting the wrongs that he encounters and there have been enough to fill ten books. From his website:
the New York Times once wrote, “…Box introduced us to his unlikely hero, a game warden named Joe Pickett, a decent man who lives paycheck to paycheck and who is deeply fond of his wife and his three daughters. Pickett isn’t especially remarkable except for his honesty and for a quality that Harold Bloom attributes to Shakespeare — the ability to think everything through for himself.” and Joe Pickett has been compared to Gary Cooper by both reviewers and the actor’s only daughter for his quiet, but determined, approach.
Joe moves through life with the help of his beloved wife, Marybeth and his daughters Sheridan and Lucy and helped by his right hand man Nate Romanowski, falconer and man of the land who often appears at just the right time to help Joe. Joe’s life is of-times complicated by his mother-in-law Missy (with several last names due to her penchant for moving up the social ladder through divorce). All of the novels are great Box really creates a great “sense of place” in his novels muc like James Lee Burke, so that even though I’ve never visited Wyoming, I’ve been there many times thanks to Box. Box says this about his books and particularly about Trophy Hunt
:
My novels include environmental issues that are integral to the modern West.Trophy Hunt is no different. The boom in coal bed methane development in the Rocky Mountains has literally transformed the terrain – and the economy– in ways both good and bad. I was researching the issue for background when something entirely unrelated happened: the discovery of dozens of mutilated cattle in Montana. Remembering the stories of cattle mutilations from my youth, I contacted the lead reporter covering the story and she supplied me with clippings, reports, and extremely disturbing photos. The details of the deaths were eerily similar: no obvious cause of death; faces and genitals surgically removed; no tire tracks, footprints, or evidence near the bodies; and, strangest of all, the bodies were untouched by natural predators. I knew as I leafed through the documents that Joe Pickett would have a new case – one that would test his sense of reality.
While many of the stories stand on there own, I do think that this is a series that deserves to be read in order. So much of the character development and ancillary story lines develop from book to book that if you haven’t read the other books you’ll not get the full effect of the book. If you don’t like to read series books, you can still experience Box’s writing talent by reading his two standalone novels, the Edgar Award winning Blue Heaven or Three Weeks to Say Goodbye both excellent reads. I can’t wait for the April 6th release of Pickett’s next adventure chronicled in Nowhere to Run. As for you who have never read any you got lots of readin’ to do, but it will be worth the effort!
While I am still working my way through The Midnight House I finished book 9 of 2010 Reed Farrel Coleman‘s Redemption Street.Redemption Street is the second book in Coleman’s Moe Prager series and my first read of this series. Prager is a retired New York City police officer, now running a wine shop with his brother. The story opens when a vagrant Arthur Rosen comes into the shop and wants Prager to find his sister Karen, only problem is that his sister died in a fire in the Catskills sixteen years prior, with two other girls and sixteen other guests. Rosen, his sister and the other girls all went to the same high school as Prager, with one of the girls being a major crush of Prager’s. Rosen is convinced his sister is still alive. Prager brushes him off as a crazy and when he goes to apologize a few days later, Rosen finds him, shortly after he has committed suicide and Prager’s name written in blood on his wall. So Prager sets out to set things right and find out what really happened the night of the fire.
I really enjoyed Coleman’s writing and Moe Prager’s wise-cracking attitude. Most of the story takes place in the Catskill town of Old Rotterdam and Coleman captures the “”sense of the town” and the last gasps of the Catskills after the demise of the Borscht Belt. The story line was interesting and the characters all believable. Overall a definite 4 out 0f 5. and I will go back and find Walking the Perfect Square the first book in the series and then catch up with the three books that follow.
While I am still working my way through The Midnight House I finished book 9 of 2010 Reed Farrel Coleman‘s Redemption Street.
Redemption Street is the second book in Coleman’s Moe Prager series and my first read of this series. Prager is a retired New York City police officer, now running a wine shop with his brother.
The Story
The story opens when a vagrant Arthur Rosen comes into the shop and wants Prager to find his sister Karen, only problem is that his sister died in a fire in the Catskills sixteen years prior, with two other girls and sixteen other guests. Rosen, his sister and the other girls all went to the same high school as Prager, with one of the girls being a major crush of Prager’s. Rosen is convinced his sister is still alive.
Prager brushes him off as a crazy and when he goes to apologize a few days later, Rosen finds him, shortly after he has committed suicide and Prager’s name written in blood on his wall. So Prager sets out to set things right and find out what really happened the night of the fire.
Thoughts About Redemption Street
I really enjoyed Coleman’s writing and Moe Prager’s wise-cracking attitude. Most of the story takes place in the Catskill town of Old Rotterdam and Coleman captures the “”sense of the town” and the last gasps of the Catskills after the demise of the Borscht Belt.
The story line was interesting and the characters all believable. Overall a definite 4 out 0f 5. and I will go back and find Walking the Perfect Square the first book in the series and then catch up with the three books that follow.
Called a hard-boiled poet by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and the noir poet laureate in the Huffington Post, Reed Farrel Coleman is the New York Times-bestselling author of thirty-one novels—including the Nick Ryan series and six in Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series—short stories, poetry, and essays.
In addition to his acclaimed series characters, Moe Prager and Gus Murphy, he has written the stand-alone novel Gun Church and collaborated with decorated Irish crime writer Ken Bruen on the novel Tower.
Reed is a four time Edgar Award nominee in three different categories: Best Novel, Best Paperback Original, and Best Short Story. He is a four-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel of the Year. He has also won the Audie, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards.
With their kids moved away to far off Brooklyn, Reed, his wife Rosanne, and their cats live in the wilds of Suffolk County on Long Island. Read More
While this book is my first read of a book by James W. Hall it is the sixth book in the eleven book series featuring Hall’s iconoclast beach bum fisherman Thorn. (Anyone know his full name?). The book centers around the senseless slaughter of eleven dolphins at a Key West park that Thorn and his current girlfriend Monica had visited a few days previous. The slaughter is tied to the experiments in pain alleviation being performed on wounded veterans by an old boyfriend of Thorn’s Bean Wilson Jr. Wilson is also being investigated by the DEA for illegal actions and they have placed an undercover agent Greta Masterson in Wilson’s clinic. As Thorn starts to investigate he becomes a target and the rest of the story revolves around solving the mystery of the slaughter of the dolphins and rescuing Greta!
It was a good read and I enjoyed the character development of many of the characters including Bean Wilson, Pepper Tremaine and Thorn. However, I know that there’s a lot of background on Thorn’s life that was missing, so overall I don’t think I enjoyed the book as much as I would have had I started at the being of the series. So now, I have to go back and learn about Thorn from the first five books before I travel forward to the next five. Like I need another series. So check James W. Hall out but start with Under Cover of Daylight.
Last night my wife and I treked to the Electric Factory to see her favorite band Flogging Molly. This is either the eight or ninth time we have seen them live. We have gone several times to Philly venues, the Electric Factory and the Trocadero, twice to the House of Blues in Atlantic City and once to Sayreville, NJ. As always the show was great. Last night, I thought that the leader of the band and lead vocalist Dave King was in rare form and had a really good time. The band played for about two hours and played a set that consisted of standards like “Drunken Lullabies”, “Requiem for a Dying Song”, “Float”, “Seven Deadly Sins”, “Rebel with a Sacred Heart”, “Factory Girl”, with Bridget singing the Lucinda Williams part, a short acoustic set and a few songs that they typically don’t play like “The Wanderlust” and “Lighting Storm” and I am sure a couple more and since they don’t play them I don’t know them. The show ended with the typical encore song “Black Friday Rule”, which was one of the first songs they wrote when they formed the ban and as usual King played the bodhran in the song.
If you don’t know Flogging Molly you should! They are a seven member American Celtic Rock Band and have their own unique sound. From their website Dave King the leader says about their music:
“If it didn’t have mandolin, accordion, fiddle and whistle, it would be punk rock, and if it didn’t have guitar, bass and drums, it would be traditional Irish music,” King admits, adding, “You can’t be bothered being labeled.”
The band consists of:
Dave King: Vocals and acoustic guitar
Dennis Casey – Electric guitar and vocals
Matthew Hemsley- Accordion, Concertina, piano and vocals
Robert Schmidt – Mandolin, mandola, tenor banjo, five string banjo, vocals
George Scwindt- Drums and percussion
Each of these great musicians, particularly Bridget Regan, Hemsley and Schmidt add to the overall sound of Flogging Molly.
The band started in Los Angeles and played every Monday night at Molly Malone’s and that is where the name originated. King says:
“We used to play there every Monday night and we felt like we were flogging it to death, so we called the band Flogging Molly.”
Opening the show was a band called The Architects playing typical punk rock they put on a lively show. At moments the guitarist caught my interest but otherwise standard fare for me. The second act was Frank Turner an artist my wife has been listening to since she knew he was going to be on the bill. Frank is from Wikipedia:
Frank Turner (born 28 December, 1981) is an English folk/punk singer-songwriter from Meonstoke,Winchester. Initially the vocalist of post-hardcore band Million Dead, Turner embarked upon a primarily acoustic-based solo career following the band’s split in 2005. To date, Turner has released three solo albums, a rarities compilation album and two EPs. His most recent album, Poetry of the Deed, was released on September 7, 2009.
My wife says that his song lyrics are quirky and good , but at show like last night it’s hard to hear the lyrics, but his set was still enjoyable. Here’s a neat video from his opening song.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfGLzDQ7e-k
All in all it was a great night of music that thankfully wasn’t cancelled because of bad weather! As usual you can check put some videos on the sidebar!
An additional note for fans from their website:
It was announced by the band on Jan 8th on their Twitter page that they will be releasing a new live dvd/cd set called “Live At The Greek Theater” on March 2nd, 2010.
This three disc set (Double CD + full-length DVD) captures Flogging Molly’s performance at the Greek Theatre on September 12, 2009. Featuring over 90 minutes of music spanning the band’s entire catalog, from Swagger to Float. The DVD, shot in HD with over ten cameras, showcases the explosive performance. DVD bonus content includes seven Flogging Molly videos as well as behind the scenes interviews with the band.
Book 7 of 2010 – Dark Tiger is most likely the last Stoney Calhoun novel by William G. Tapply. Tapply passed away in July of 2009 after a battle with leukemia. Tapply is best known for his Brady Coyne series which spanned twenty-six years and twenty-five books.
Dark Tiger is the third book in the Stoney Calhoun series. Stonewall Jackson Calhoun is currently a fishing guide in Maine and runs a bait shop with his lover Kate Balaban.
Stoney has a past that he doesn’t quite remember, a result of being struck by lightening years ago. Through glimpses of muscle memory and other memory flashes Stoney knows he was a trained agent of some sort. Now though he runs his bait shop and occasionally serves as a deputy sheriff when the need arises. Keeping an eye on Stoney is “The Man in the Suit” who knows about Stoney’s past but he’s not telling and every so often pops into Stoney’s life checking on Stoney’s memory.
As this novel opens, Stoney is told that he and Kate will soon loose their lease on the bait shop and Kate is told her husband Walter, who suffering from MS and lives in a rehabilitation center will soon be kicked out! Stoney soon figures this is the work of “The Man in the Suit” ,which turns out to be correct. “The Man in the Suit” and his boss tell Stoney they will make everything in his life OK, if he takes an assignment to go to Loon Lake Lodge in the wilds of northern Maine and solve the murder of one of their agents. The agent was found dead along with a sixteen year old girl in what was made to look like a murder suicide. Only problem is Stoney can’t tell anyone where he is going or why, which does not endear him to Kate! But off he goes. I didn’t think this was a great read, but it was a comfortable one! I enjoy the characters and the story line was ok!
I liked the series and it ended before we learned the complete story about Stoney’s past and if Stoney and Kate will have a life without the guilt they both feel about their relationship in light of Kate’s husband’s illness. Stoney, Brady Coyne and William G Tapply you will be missed!
In honor of the opening of Shutter Island (which from the trailers looks great) today based on the book by Dennis Lehane. I thought I’d write something about his series featuring Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro.
Before he turned to standalones after the success of Mystic River, Dennis Lehane wrote five novels featuring Kenzie and Gennaro, starting with A Drink Before the War, which won a Shamus award and ending withPrayers for Rain , including Gone, Baby Gone turned into the movie starring Casey Afleck.
The books are gritty and deal with the underbelly of Dorchester a suburb if Boston, but the writing is terrific and the story lines are fast paced. I think I read these books about as fast as any I’ve read.
They are the kind you just can’t put down and when you do you can’t wait until you can pick them up again! Lehane said he wasn’t going to write anymore of these books but from what I understand his next book will be a Kenzie and Gennaro, can’t wait! So if you’ve never read them and enjoy gritty novels pick them up you won’t be disappointed!
A Whisper to the Livingmay have been the last novel in Stuart Kaminsky’s long-running Porfiry Rostnikov series, and reading it felt like returning to old friends. Kaminsky once again blends mystery, Russian politics, and family drama into a tightly woven 256 pages.
The Story
In this entry, Porfiry tracks the Bitsevsky Park Maniac, a serial killer seeking notoriety, while his team splits across parallel cases: Sasha and Elena protecting a British journalist investigating a prostitution ring, and Arkady with Iosef pursuing a heavyweight boxer wanted for murder. As always, Kaminsky mixes crime with the human side of his detectives—their families, flaws, and loyalties—set against the backdrop of a changing Moscow.
My Thoughts
At just over 250 pages, it’s not War and Peace, but Kaminsky never needed that. He gave us believable characters, intriguing cases, and a window into Soviet and Russian life. Spending time again with Porfiry and his circle reminded me why this series has been a favorite—these characters will be missed.
band and lead vocalist Dave King was in rare form and had a really good time. The band played for about two hours and played a set that consisted of standards like “Drunken Lullabies”, “Requiem for a Dying Song”, “Float”, “Seven Deadly Sins”, “Rebel with a Sacred Heart”, “Factory Girl”, with Bridget singing the Lucinda Williams part, a short acoustic set and a few songs that they typically don’t play like “The Wanderlust” and “Lighting Storm” and I am sure a couple more and since they don’t play them I don’t know them. The show ended with the typical encore song “Black Friday Rule”, which was one of the first songs they wrote when they formed the ban and as usual King played the bodhran in the song.
