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
According to my Avalon Ballroom 2010 calender, on this day in 1967 Quicksilver Messenger Service played the Avalon Ballroom and in 1968 Cream, Jeremy and the Satyrs and Blood Sweat and Tears played Winterland. Ok proof that I didn’t just start liking jam bands but liked jam bands before they were labeled jam bands. Quicksilver’s album Happy Trails and their cover of “Who Do You Love” are all time favorites and Cream’s fourteen minute drum solo “Toad” would make any of today’s jam bands proud!
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.
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.
Parnell Hall writes one of my favorite all-time series starring “Stanley Hastings, the world’s most reluctant private eye, is a failed actor/writer, who chases ambulances for a negligence lawyer in between gigs, which is most of the time” – (from ParnelHall.com). the books are just downright fun reads and a new one is due in July titled Caper! He also writes the Puzzle Lady series featuring Cora Felton also a good time. He obviously also can write music and sing as shown in the following video! I think I have the majority of those LP’s he’s looking at!
According to my Avalon Ballroom 2010 calender, on this day in 1967 Quicksilver Messenger Service played the Avalon Ballroom and in 1968 Cream, Jeremy and the Satyrs
and Blood Sweat and Tears played Winterland. Ok proof that I didn’t just start liking jam bands but liked jam bands before they were labeled jam bands. Quicksilver’s album Happy Trails and their cover of “Who Do You Love” are all time favorites and Cream’s fourteen minute drum solo “Toad” would make any of today’s jam bands proud!
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.
