Category: Books-Fiction

After a Great Read – Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan – I can’t wait to begin Very Bad Man!

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bad things happenA couple of Saturday’s ago, I was browsing through the books at Barnes & Noble and I came across The Last Dead Girl, Book # 3 in the David Loogan series written by Harry Dolan.

On the dust jacket of the book I read that Stephen King called Dolan’s book Bad Things Happen   “a “great f***ing book“! When I came home, I went to my local libraries website and requested the book. I was captivated by the book from the opening sentence, the pages flew by and it quickly became Book 29 of 2014, and I agree with Mr King in is  a great f***king book!

The reader first meets the protagonist of the book, the mysterious David Loogan, while he is purchasing a shovel and some assorted gardening supplies, only David is not going to be doing any gardening,, no he is going to be digging a grave! A grave in which he and  his new employer Tom Kristoll, owner and editor of the mystery magazine Gray Streets, will bury a body. Days later, Tom Kristoll plummets from his sixth floor office window the victim of an apparent suicide. Was it really suicide or was it murder? David thinks it’s murder, as does Elizabeth Waishkey a top detective in the Ann Arbor Police Department, Soon the action in the book begins to follow the typical formula of a Gray Streets mystery “Plans go wrong, Bad Things Happen, People Die”  As more bodies pile up, David is determined to discover who killed his friend, and while Elizabeth wants to believe David is an innocent player in the mystery, ,after a detective from New York shows up and reveals that Loogan was once indicted for MURDER, that becomes a little harder!

This book was a real page turner for me I agree wholeheartedly with what Publishers Weekly says about the book in their starred review of the book

“Dolan gets everything  right in his debut….Pitch-perfect prose and sophisticated characterizations driven by the noirish plot, which offers plenty of unexpected twists. Fans of Peter Abraham and Scott Turow will find a lot to like…. The talent Dolan displays suggests he has a bright future.”

I couldn’t have said it better himself!

Bottomline: A great page-turner, written by an expert at simple prose that conveys way more, in way less! A book that sends you looking for the next book in the series, which I have already requested from my library!!

Grade A – Check It Out!!

Treasures From a Library Used Book Sale! Does It Get Much Better?

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The other day I got to do one of my favorite things, go to a used book sale at the library. The visit was made even better because I The Things They Carriedgot to do it on the first day of the sale, when there were still a lot of books there! Typically, I’m there on the last day and sometimes during the last hour or so of the sale. When I went into the sale I decided that I was going to look, not for the typical mysteries that I usually go for, but for a few books that may be a more on the literature side.

Actually, the first books that I found were more on the mystery side, from the pen of Ken Follett I found some pretty nice copies of The Man from St Petersburg, The Key to Rebecca, and The Eye of the Needle. The only one of the three that I have read is the last which of course is great!!  So my first $1.50 was spent!

The next couple of books were of the literature mold. First Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried  I’ve seen this book on many list of the top 100 books or books that you should read. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Award. Next came The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. L A Times writes.. “A mystery, a thriller, a ghost story, and a literary tour de force“. Edward says and why haven’t I read this book!!

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney followed. I’ve looked at this book many times, but have never picked it up.  Once again the blurb on the back of the book leaves me scratching my head…..”An original and readable MIXTURE IF MYSTERY AND HiSTORY, with a  goo dollop of old-fashioned adventure” – The Times (London)

Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories was the next purchase. I have always heard read how great Atkinson is and yet I still have not read one of her books!  The blurbs are to many and make me feel pretty bad for never reading this book!!

Finally, the last book is truly great literature… the best of the bunch  Island of the Sequined Love Nun from Christopher Moore. I’ve had trouble getting into Moore’s last few books, not so, with his early works like Practical Demonkeeping, Coyote Blue and The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove. These books along with Lamb are just some of my favorite all time reads. Yeah, I know they’re not great literature but who cares!!

So there’s the next $5.00 that I spent for a grand total of  $6.50 for 8 books not bad, eh?? Now the hard par, finding time to read them all!

 

 

Those Who Wish Me Dead – Michael Koryta – A Grade A Thriller!

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Those Who Wish Me Dead - Michael Koryta

Those Who Wish Me Dead are the sadistic and evil Blackwell brothers, who Jace Wilson saw murder a man in a quarry in Indiana.

Their quest to hunt down and kill Jace leads the Blackwell brothers to the mountains of  Montana , where Ethan and Allison Serbin run a summer survival training program for troubled youths.

Jace was placed in the program by Jamie Bennett ,who was a former student of Serbin’s, Arriving in a snowstorm, Bennett asks Ethan’s help in getting Jace “off the grid” to protect him, something Bennett does not think she can do by herself.

Although both Allison and Ethan have doubts about Bennett, they agree to help for the sake of the boy.  Soon the Blackwell brothers arrive, bringing their evil to the mountains.

Can Ethan and Allison keep their promise to keep Connor safe?  The task becomes more difficult when Jace, sets out to escape from the brothers, alone!

 While the brother’s bring evil and a devastating fire to the mountains, Jace encounters an ex-elite firefighter Hannah Faber, who joins the fight to keep Jace safe.

 So begins Michael Kortya’s latest book Those Who Wish Me Dead about which Harlan Coben says…..

“Warnng: Michael Koryta‘s wonderful, riveting, and harrowing Those Who Wish Me Dead may just move you to tears. Enjoy at Your Own Risk” 

My Thoughts

I have been a reader of Michael Koryta’s work since I read several of the books in his Lincoln Perry series. (Note to self find The Silent Hour Lincoln Perry #4) I have enjoyed all of his books that I have read, they are typically filled with lots of action and a good story line and this one  joins the group!!

I don’t think that Koryta is as descriptive of either his characters or the setting of the story as other authors that  read but he does a great job holding your interest until the end.

At first, I wasn’t sure about the book, a survivalist teacher and a group of boys with two evil men on their trail, ho hum! But that’s not the way that the story develops at all!!

Actually, it seemed to me it became a quest for Jace to overcome his fears, for Hannah to  make amends for decisions that she made as a firefighter and Ethan to prove to a military father that he was capable of killing when necessary!

Bottom Line

Bottom line: a very good adventure that should make a terrific movie, so read it now so you’ll be ready to compare the two!!

Grade: A-     I figured out certain aspects of the story too early, but the action, twists,  and the details about forest fires and tracking overcame that!!

Author’s Website
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Michael Koryta

About Michael Koryta

Michael Koryta is a New York Times-bestselling author whose work has been translated into more than 20 languages and has won or been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Edgar® Award, Shamus Award, Barry Award, Quill Award, International Thriller Writers Award, and the Golden Dagger. They’ve been selected as “best books of the year” by numerous publications.

 

Visit the Michael Koryta Page

Kathleen Mallory #11- It Happens in the Dark – Carol O’Connell

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It Happens in the Dark

In Kathleen Mallory, Carol O’Connell created one of the most distinctive characters in the mystery–thriller world. Mallory is brilliant, relentless, and shaped by a brutal childhood—raised on New York streets until Officer Louis Markowitz took her in. She grows into an NYPD detective with a ferocious intelligence, an icy focus, and a small orbit of people who care about her: Riker, Charles Butler, Jack Coffey, and Markowitz’s old poker pals.

The Story

It Happens in the Dark (#11) drops Mallory and Riker into a Broadway theater where “a play to die for” keeps stopping for all the wrong reasons. Night one: an audience member dies during Act I. Night two: the playwright’s throat is slashed—suicide or murder? The production is somehow a hit and no one has even seen Act II. As Mallory digs, it turns out the script isn’t the playwright’s anymore—a ghostwriter has been rewriting it piece by piece. Now every cast and crew member is a suspect: a once-famous movie star, a troubled leading lady, a wardrobe mistress who isn’t what she seems, a gofer with secrets, and a pair of brothers as unhinged as the roles they play.

Final Thoughts

When I first discovered Mallory, I tore through the first six books. Then came a lull—#7–#9 still sit on my TBR stack. I picked the series back up with The Chalk Girl (#10) and then this one. I loved being back with Mallory, Riker, Charles, and the gang, but this entry didn’t land quite as hard for me. The plot threads were occasionally hard to track (I mixed up the two crew members and the two psychos at one point), the pacing sagged, and the culprit felt a bit easy to spot—the real question became “why?” more than “who?”

That said, the series remains terrific because the characters remain terrific. Some readers complain Mallory hasn’t changed much over time; my take is: why mess with a good thing? (Has Stephanie Plum changed that much?) When O’Connell’s machinery hums, Mallory is a force of nature and impossible to look away from.

Grade: B+   •   Book #25 for 2014

Book 2 in Peter May’s Lewis Trilogy – The Lewis Man – another winner!

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The Lewis Man is the second book in Peter May’s wonderful Lewis Trilogy and in the words of The Guardian it is…..The Black House

“As good as its predecessor…not only a good mystery, but also a moving and evocative portrayal of a place where the weather is matched only by the church’s harsh patronage….”

The place is the Isles of Lewis, from the book’s  prologue….

On this storm lashed island three hours off the northwest coast of Scotland, what little soil exists gives the people their food and their heat. It also takes their dead. And very occasionally, as today, gives one up.

 

The body that it gave up is that of a nineteen year old male found in a peat bog during the annual peat harvest. The body is a typical bog body, Bodies found in peat bogs are sometimes perfectly preserved, retaining their skin and internal organs due to the unusual conditions of the surrounding area. These bodies sometimes are thousands of years old! In this case it is the body of a nineteen year old boy, who was brutally murdered. He stabbed several times and had hos throat slit! The Elvis tatoo on his forearm though squashed any theories that the body was centuries old. Since the bodies internal organs were intact DNA was used to help determine who the boy was. Matched against DNA of male islanders (samples had been collected and tested a year prior see The Blackhouse) a match was found – Tormod MacDonald. Tormod is the father of Marsaili, the childhood sweetheart of Fin MacLeod. MacLeod is a recently retired Edinburgh police detective who has returned to Lewis to restore his family croft and maybe some personal relationships. Tormod suffers from dementia and lives in a hazy world of past and present. Soon Fin and Marsaili are on a quest to find out who the bog boy was and how and why he was murdered. The story of the murdered boy is told through the haze of Tormod’s dementia, as Tormod tells a tale of two brothers, neither of whom  Marsaili or other Lewis residents have any knowledge of, and reveals long lost and buried secrets that change everything  Marsaili thought about her past and ancestry! Last week, my wife sent the Facebook challenge to me to list 10 books that have stayed with me, The Blackhouse should have been included on that list and now The Lewis Man should be among those books also! As the quote at the beginning of this post says, the book is not only a good mystery that is not unraveled until the close of the book, but also a wonderful portrayal of the harsh lives of the MacDonalds, MacLeods, Murrays and other families who live in the harsh environment found on the Isle of Lewis. Scotsman Peter May now lives and writes in France. I have read several of his China Thrillers that feature Beijing detective Li Yan and American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell and they are also great reads. I have yet to read any of the books in his other series The Enzo Files which feature a Scottish forensic scientist Enzo MacLeod, but I should!! The Lewis Man has won…

  • the Prix des Lecteurs of Le Télégramme newspaper in France, a 10,000 Euro prize judged by readers of the newspaper
  • the Prix des Lecteurs 2012 at Les Ancres Noires Festival, Le Havre, France.
  • the 2012 Prix International at the Polar&Co Festival, Cognac, France.

and was shortlisted for…

  • the UK Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library Award for 2012
  • the Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2012
  • the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime novel of the Year 2013

So if you have never read a Peter May book grab a copy of  The Blackhouse, I do believe you will be moving quickly on to The Lewis Man!!  (Book 24 for 2014) (Grade 4.5 out of 5.0)

No Safe House – Linwood Barclay

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No Safe House - Linwood Barclay

 

The first Linwood Barclay books I read were his Zack Walker mystery books, and I loved them! After I fnished the third book and was ready to move on, I discovered that Mr. Barclay had left that series, and moved on to write stand alone thrillers.

The first one was No Time to Say Goodbye and it was great! Since then I have read and enjoyed all of his books.  The latest is No Safe House\. In No Safe House, Barclay treats his readers to further adventures of the Archer family,  the main characters in No Time to Say Goodbye!

No Safe House – The Story

In the prologue an elderly couple is brutally slain in the Archer’s hometown of Mitford, Connecticut by a sadistic duo, who are in search of something or someone…..

When we meet the Archer family, daughter Grace is now fourteen and as she moves into adolescence, she is rebelling, One night during an argument with her mother, Grace is seriously burned. Her mother, Cynthia decides that she needs time away from the family and moves out, leaving husband Terry and Grace on their own. Then disaster strikes, when Grace foolishly follows her date Stuart Koch, into a strange house. Grace ends up with a gun in her had, Stuart hears someone else in the house.  Shots are fired.  Were they from Grace’s gun?, Where’s Stuart? Did Grace shoot him?. Someone rushes past Grace! Stricken with panic Grace leaves the house, calls for help to a friend and her father.

Soon the Archers are thrown into the middle of a mess, because not only were shots fired, but valuables were stolen from the house, valuables that didn’t belong to the homeowner, but rather to a career criminal Vincent Fleming, who is also Stuart’s father’s boss!  This isn’t the Archer;s first encounter with Vince. Years ago,  Vincent helped the Archer’s with their problems.  His help saved the Archer’sbut left him needing a urine bag after being shot. Needless to say he is not a friend of the Archer’s. Through the rest of the book the Archer’s mainly Terry  try to unravel the mystery of what happened that night, to keep Grace safe and their family together!! What about those killers – what are they looking for? Their killing spree and search continues right up until the climax of the book.

My Thoughts

As in all of Barclay’s books the pace of the action is swift, and the pages keep flying by. This book lacked a little of the tension that I have encountered in other works by Barclay, but the whole story isn’t resolved until the closing pages of the book which makes for damn good reading!!

One of the complaints about the book was that other readers didn’t really like the characters. I don’t have a problem with the characters. For example Terry is resolute in finding the answers that will save his daughter and he goes well outside his comfort level to do such and while Vincent is a thug, he is also a father, all be it a stepfather, who will also do anything for his daughter!

Bottom Line

it was another great read from Barclay, a little less thrilling than past works, but the over all it was a good story. In the words of the New York Times Book Review…..

“Some days, all you really want is for someone to tell you a wicked-good story. Linwood Barclay answers the reader’s perpetual prayer.”

Amen to that!!

Linwood Barclay

About Linwood Barclay

Linwood Barclay continues to be a prolific author, releasing new, critically acclaimed thrillers annually. Known for his high-octane plots and relatable characters, his recent work has solidified his status as a master of contemporary suspense.

Visit Linwood Barclay Page

 

 

If You Like Standalone Mystery/Thrillers ……

You might also enjoy:

Charlie Donlea
Charlie Donlea
Michael Koryta
Michael Koryta
Riley Sager
Riley Sager
  • Charlie Donlea — tightly plotted thrillers often built around cold cases, missing persons, and strong female leads, with twists that keep coming
  • Michael Koryta / Scott Carson — blends crime, suspense, and sometimes the supernatural, with a darker tone and strong atmosphere
  • Riley Sager — modern psychological thrillers with big twists, often centered on isolated settings and unreliable pasts

Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals and Reagan’s Rise to Power – Now We Know!

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SubversivesAfter several months, yesterday I finally finished Seth Rosenfeld’s terrific book Subversives – The FBI’s War on Student Radicals and Reagan’s Rise to Power.

usually when I ‘m reading a book like this and I then pick up other books while reading it, I most time don’t go back to the book. This book an exception the book is just so good and the story that it tells about the FBI and the student protests at the University of California so much a part of my past that I couldn’t give up! While I was at the University of Florida (1970-1974) I was involved in two campus demonstrations one concerning black enrollment and studies and the other an antiwar demonstration after the announcement of the mining of Haiphong Harbor, etc nether approached the violence that was seen at Berkeley!

 Subversives is a fascinating book based on over 250,000 pages of FBI files, whose release the agency spent over a million dollars trying to stop, it took Seth Rosenfeld over thirty years to get the files released, but the fight was worth it. Subversives tells the story of the FBI’s program to combat the student protests not only at Berkeley but throughout the country. The book chronicles the story of the FBI’s surveillance, infiltration,planted news stories,poison-pen letters, and secret detention lists all revolving around the Free Speech Movement and other protests at the University of California , Berkeley!

The book centers around the intertwining of the lives of Clark Kerr, the liberal Quaker President of the University, Mario Savio, the leader of the Free Speech Movement and Ronald Reagan, former actor, President of the Screen Actors Guild and future President of the US. While we all knew that the FBI was keeping track of leftist radicals during this period I don’t know if anyone knew the extents of the agency’s actions, beyond J. Edgar Hoover’s inner circle!! Since I was young and not that politically active in the early to mid-60s a lot of the action in the book was new to me, I particularly unfamiliar or forgot the fight and protest that arose around People’s Park. What really struck me about Reagan was how the events of these early years shaped his actions as President.

Here’s some praise for the book…..

“Subversives is more than a documentary history  it has the insight that comes only with relentless reporting. This book is the classic history of our most powerful police agency and one of the most influential political figures of our time secretly joining forces” – Lowell Bergman investigative report for The New York Times and Frontline

“Subversives will shock even those who have become used to the national security state and its excesses. With this book,Seth Rosenfeld restores the California tradition of courageous muckracking of Lincoln Steffens, and the sharp indictment of the powerful that we associate with Jack London.”  Ishmael Reed  author of Juice! and Mumbo Jumbo.

If you are someone like me who lived through the sixties and seventies this book will bring back a lot of memories and maybe bring back some of that old fire. The actions of the police and government officials during this time should be studied because as we watch the action in Ferguson, Missouri, the police are responding in much the same way as they did back then, and you know what they say  “those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it” Let’s hope not! (Book 20 for 2014)!

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Missing You – Harlan Coben

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Missing You – Harlan Coben – Journeys into the Past are necessary and often painful!

 

When NYPD Detective Kat Donovan sends her ex-fiancée Jeff Raynes “Their Video” on the dating site  You are just my type.com and his response is “It’s Cute”, Kat doesn’t understand his response.  Eighteen years earlier, before he dumped her and left town, their love was real and magical. Sure his dating site biography says he is a widower, but should his response be that lame? Well, he just wants to move on thinks Kat and so does Kat.  She has more important things to do too, her father’s murderer is dying and she needs to visit one more time before he dies.  When she does the hit man who killed her father, once again proclaims his innocence.

Soon the son of a woman who has gone from her Connecticut home visits Kat in hopes that she will help him find his mother. Why thinks Kat- because the man she ran away with is none other than Jeff Raynes!  So begins Kat’s quest in Harlan Coben‘s latest  Missing You!. Maybe I should say quests because Kat needs to know what happened on the night of her father’s murder, along with what happened to Dana Phelps, the missing Connecticut woman and Brandon’s mother along with the reason that Jeff ran out on her with no explanation.  None of the quests are free from potential pain to those involved!!

So once again Harlan Coben builds  great story around a simple action i.e. a friend signs you up for an on-line dating service and the first time you go in you find an old love. How will he or she react?  Is it better to leave the past behind??? This time throws a potential danger in getting carried away by an on-line dating service!! The book is Harlan Coben at his best. It is one of the few books that I couldn’t put down this year!! When I found the book in the library I had a few days previously checked out two other books. I thought no I’ll just wait and read it later. Then I thought, no it’s Harlan Coben, it will go fast and it will be great! I was right on both counts.

This is the 19th book I’ve read in 2014.  if I can finish to more before the end of the month I’ll be averaging 3 books a month. That will be a great recovery considering the way that the year started!! It is also the 19th Harlan Coben book that is one my Goodreads bookshelf. And they all are good reads!!!

 

 

 

Patrick Lee – Runner – Sam Dryden #1 – I’m ready for Book #2 – Now Patrick!

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RunnerSam Dryden has retired after being an Army Ranger, a Delta, and spending five years doing off-the-book black ops with an elite team.t In Runner ,(Book 18 of 2014) the first book of the Dryden series by Patrick Lee, he has to use all his skill and cunning to keep young Rachael Grant alive.  Sam literally runs into Rachael when insomnia forces him out for a middle of the night run, and well, Rachael is on the run too only in Rachael’s case she has a passel of  military men after her using a lot of high-tech gadgetry, with one aim take her out! When Rachael runs into Sam, she hopes that he will save her  and Sam having lost his wife and child an accident five years earlier wants to do just that.

Together they set out to evade the killers and rediscover Rachael’s past, see she can only remember the last two months! Oh Rachael also has a skill that makes her very dangerous to these men and the hidden men in charge!

While Sam and Rachael are on the run, the reader is also introduced to Owen and “the gravel man” who talks to Owen, well actually he sometimes tells Owen what to do, not to his face but in OWEN’S mind, and well if it isn’t something Owen wants to do “the gravel man” gets him to do it by turning up the pain on Owen!! How does this tie into Rachael??

As the story unfolds, the questions continue to mount, who is Rachael and what are the extents of her abilities, and why do these guys want to kill her??? It’s a fast, and furious ride and one that no one knows, how it’s going to end! But along the way the reader surmises,  it’s not going to end well for everyone!!

Patrick LeeI enjoy that writing of Patrick Lee, his other work is the Travis Chase trilogy, that includes The Breach, Ghost Country and Deep Sky all of which are exceptionally good! That series has a little more science fiction in it, well actually a lot more science fiction, but in main characters in both books Travis Chase and Sam Dryden are heroes that you can root for!! So Check Out Runner as well as Lee’s other books! Here’s a few of the things that others say about Lee’s writing……

“Patrick Lee is a huge talent and Runner is his best book yet—breathless, involving, smart, and completely convincing.”
—Lee Child

“Pure adrenaline rush! Finally, an action-packed novel brimming with complex characters as well as genuine heart. Not to be missed.”
—Lisa Gardner, NYTimes bestselling author of Touch and Go and Catch Me

“I’m going to sue Patrick Lee for giving me whiplash: that’s how furiously paced this book is. A terrific cast of characters, unrelenting action—strap in and enjoy the ride.”
—Jesse Kellerman, author of Sunstroke and Trouble

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Patrick Lee Fiction
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Harold Schechter Masterfully Tells the Tale of “The Mad Sculptor” – The Maniac, The Model, and the Murder the Shook the Nation

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So if you like true crime stories, especially ones that rocked the nation, then Harold Schecther‘s The Mad Sculptor – The Maniac, The Model and the Murder that Shook the Nation is the book for you, it was for me! The Mad Sculptor is one Robert Irwin, he is also The Maniac. The Model is VerThe Mad Sculptoronica Gedeon  and the Murder was the grisly slaying of Veronica, her mother and their English boarder on Easter Sunday morning in 1937 in a New York City apartment at  Beekman Place.

Author Schecther does not only a fine job of telling the tale of madman/artist Robert Irwin, but in also detailing the way that his crime fits into the history of Beekman Tower and Beeckman Place, where prior murders, that captured the attention had occurred.  These murders included, the shooting of Fritz Gebhardt by his long-time mistress Vera Stretz, and the murder of Nancy Titterton. Schechter  opens the book describing  these murders, their investigations and trials, setting the stage for the Gedeon murders.

Schechter moves on to tell  the tale of the “Mad Sculptor” Robert Irwin, son of a philandering, evangelical preacher and an equally religiously zealot mother, who hailed from a dysfunctional family! Irwin, born Fenelon, along with his older brother Vidalin and Pember, were delinquents right from the start! Both Vidalin and Pember ended up in the Oregon State Penitentiary. Robert though went in and out of madness, when he was sane, he was well read, articulate and a very good sculptor, who studied with some of the masters of the day, but sooner or later wherever, he went, whatever job he held, a violent outburst and subsequent fight would cause him to move on!  Irwin finally ended up, a border with the Gedeon’s, where he became infatuated with the Gedeon daughter’s first Ronnie then Ethel. But when he attempted to control his sexual urges by self-emulation Irwin set himself on the road to Bellevue and other mental institutes, along,  the way he met  prominent psyschiatrist Fredric Wertham who would treat and befriend him.

After his final descent into madness, and the murders, the author leads the reader through the manhunt to find Irwin. Accompanying the search was the coverage of the murder and manhunt by the New York tabloids. i.e the forreunners of Fox News, The National Enquirer and World News.  Finally, the selection of Samuel Leibowiz as his defense attorney completes the cycle, because Leibowitz, the attorney for the Scottsboro Boys and Al Capone was also the defense attorney for Vera Stretz, whose murder of Fritz Gebhardt was written about in the opening chapters of the book.

All in all ,it was a terrific read and Schechter does a great job of presenting Robert Irwin, in all his madness, as well as capturing the atmosphere of New York in the 193os. Samual Baatz, author of For the Thrill of It: Leopold Loch, and the Murder that Shocked Jazz Age Chicago writes…..(note to self – check that book out)

“Harold Schechter has unveiled another sensational murder with a cast of characters that might have stepped from a novel by Dostoyevsky. Schechter’s absorbing narrative will fascinate everyone with an interest in New York City in the twentieth century”

So check out the tale of The Mad Sculptor as told by Harold Schechter……

P.S. The mention of Fredric Wertham and his attacks on the comic book industry served as the basis of a post at Socialstudious.….. and the mention of Irwin’s fascination with the hypnotism of Franz Mesmer led me to Wikipedia to find out more about the man who is the origin of the world mesmerized!!

(Book 17 0f 2014)

 

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