Gone to the Dark Side

They say that if you start with small addictions, like gateway drugs, it can lead to harder stuff.  Well, it’s true.  I’ve always liked hard-boiled mysteries, and after being introduced to the likes of Charlie Huston, I’ve finally gone over to the dark side.  I’ve become addicted to John Connolly’s books.

I first read Connolly’s The Unquiet (2007), which was a finalist for the Gumshoe award and the Macavity award.  I thought it was profound and unlike anything else that I had read.  Connolly’s writing not only challenged me, but the gothic style simply mesmerized me.  Then I read his first book, Every Dead Thing (1999), which won the Shamus award for Best P.I. First Novel.  Among readers, however, Every Dead Thing received mixed reviews for the violence described within its pages.  Some people may be frightened by such horrors, but Connolly pushes the envelope in the first book so that Charlie Parker is thoroughly transformed by the violence.  Like Bruce Wayne losing his parents, Parker has to rise above the tragedy and commit himself to something greater.  While other readers may think that Every Dead Thing is a masterpiece, I would refrain from such a compliment.  I think Connolly’s craft is constantly improving.   His subsequent books are better simply because they become more layered, blending the hard-boiled detective story with supernatural elements.  The addition of Louis and Angel, as reoccurring characters in the series, is also simply brilliant.  For much of April, I was an addict, reading one Charlie “Bird” Parker mystery after the other, until I had read them all.

Fair Warning: Unlike other authors, Connolly writes about the dark side of the human psyche, and his villains ooze with evil.  As perfect foils for the protagonist, Connolly’s bad guys are well written and almost supernatural.  If you can’t stand reading about sadistic serial killers, spiders, ghosts, angels, and demons, then don’t bother.

I love Connolly’s hints of the supernatural.  He never goes overboard or writes overtly, instead there is always something that remains hidden, something going on beyond the surface, something more than a fairy tale…

Every Dead Thing (1999)
First line: “The patrol car arrived first on the night they died, shedding red light into the darkness.” When you read Every Dead Thing, you get two books for the price of one.  This haunting thriller is written in two acts, which could easily have been two separate books; however, they work well together.  The first introduces you to ex-Detective Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker, and the second, shows you the depths that he will go to.
As the book opens, Parker’s wife and daughter are brutally murdered by a serial killer, known as the Traveling Man.  The descriptions of the violence are visceral and often repugnant.  This is not a story for the squeamish.  Connolly wants readers to understand why Parker believes that true Evil does exist.  At the beginning, you can’t help but empathize with Parker.  His tragedy transforms him though, and that’s why he’s such a fascinating character.  The first act is about Parker’s search for a missing girl in New York.  In the second act, Parker chases the serial killer, who killed his white and daughter, to Louisiana, where the pace quickens and Parker confronts his worst nightmare. In the end, the soulful way Connolly writes about morality and how Parker deals with the pain in his life are the main enticements of this first novel.

Dark Hollow (2001)
First line: “I dream dark dreams.” Book Description: Haunted by the murder of his wife and daughter, former New York police detective Charlie Parker retreats home to Scarborough, Maine, to rebuild his shattered life. But his return awakens old ghosts, drawing him into the manhunt for the killer of yet another mother and child. The obvious suspect is the young woman’s violent ex-husband. But there is another possibility — a mythical figure who lurks deep in the dark hollow of Parker’s own past, a figure that has haunted his family for generations: the monster known as Caleb Kyle….

The second book, featuring avenging angel/P.I. Charlie Parker, suffers from an over abundance of villains.  Even though it all comes together in the end, the pursuit of Billy Purdue’s stolen millions involves Mafia hit men, two sadistic assassins-for-hire, and a legendary serial killer named Caleb Kyle.  Like the Boogeyman, parents have used Kyle’s name for thirty years to keep their children under control.  His name alone expresses fear: “Caleb Kyle, Caleb Kyle, when you see him run a mile.”  Nevertheless, the action is swift and abundant, especially with introduction of Parker’s new partners: Angel and Louis.  While Angel happily provides the comic relief, Louis rounds out the partnership as a stone-cold killer.  The three of them make a lethal team.

The Killing Kind (2002)
First line: “This is a honeycomb world. It hides a hollow heart.” Book Description: Did Grace Peltier commit suicide? When a mass grave in Northern Maine reveals the final resting place of a religious community that disappeared almost 40 years earlier, detective Charlie Park realizes that their deaths and the violent passing of Grace are part of the same mystery.

The Killing Kind is, by far, my favorite in the series so far.  Not for the faint-hearted, Connolly’s third Charlie Parker novel is deliciously evil.  He’s created one of the best villains ever with the fiendish, arachnid-loving Mr. Pudd.  In addition, Parker must solve a case involving the disappearance of a cult-like religious group in the 1960s.   More tightly written than his previous books, Connolly’s plot unravels to reveal something truly sinister.  Only Parker can stop it.

The White Road (2003)
First line: “They are coming.” Book Description: In South Carolina, a young black man faces the death penalty for the rape and murder of Marianne Larousse, daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the state. It’s a case that nobody wants to touch, deeply rooted in old evil — and old evil is Charlie Parker’s specialty. He’s about to enter a living nightmare, a dreamscape of sorrow haunted by the murderous specter of a hooded woman, by a black car waiting for a passenger that never comes, and by the sinister complicity of both friends and enemies in Larousse’s brutal death. Soon, all will face a final reckoning in an unearthly realm where the paths of the living and the dead converge. A place known only as the White Road.

Set in the South, away from the usual New England setting, Connolly’s fourth Parker thriller is an excellent sequel to The Killing Kind. Readers learn more about Parker’s two pals, Angel and Louis, and some unfinished business from The Killing Kind is finally resolved. Plus, this book unveils Parker’s true role in this wonderfully gothic series of good and evil.

The Black Angel (2005)
First line: “The woman stepped carefully from the Greyhound bus, her right hand holding firmly on to the bar as she eased herself down.” Book Description: When a young woman disappears from the streets of New York City, ties of friendship and blood inevitably draw ingenious, tortured detective Charlie Parker into the search. Soon he discovers links to a church of bones in Eastern Europe, a 1944 slaughter at a French monastery, and to the myth of an object known as the Black Angel — considered by evil men to be beyond priceless. But the Black Angel is not a legend. It is real. It lives. It dreams. And the mystery of its existence may contain the secret of Parker’s own origins.

Except for a lengthy tangent about two American WWII veterans, this book tells an amazing story about an object protected for centuries by Cisterian monks.  Connolly also finally delves more deeply into the supernatural aspects of the Charlie “Bird” Parker series, as Parker must face the truth about his origins.  Overall, it was a compelling read from start to finish.  If I were to recommend three books to read in a row, it would be The Killing Kind, The White Road, and The Black Angel.  They’re really one story, and The Black Angel ends it brilliantly.

Nocturnes (2004)
Connolly also wrote a Charlie Parker novella in Nocturnes, an anthology of short stories.  In “The Reflecting Eye,” he introduces the Collector, who also appears in The Unquiet.  Before The Unquiet, I highly recommend reading this short story.

Book Description: Bestselling author John Connolly’s first collection of short fiction, Nocturnes, now features five additional stories — never-before published for an American audience — in a dark, daring, utterly haunting anthology of lost lovers and missing children, predatory demons, and vengeful ghosts. In “The New Daughter,” a father comes to suspect that a burial mound on his land hides something very ancient, and very much alive; in “The Underbury Witches,” two London detectives find themselves battling a particularly female evil in a town culled of its menfolk. And finally, private detective Charlie Parker returns in the long novella “The Reflecting Eye,” in which the photograph of an unknown girl turns up in the mailbox of an abandoned house once occupied by an infamous killer. This discovery forces Parker to confront the possibility that the house is not as empty as it appears, and that something has been waiting in the darkness for its chance to kill again.

Other books written by John Connolly:

Bad Men (2004)
Book Description: In 1693, the settlers on the small Maine island of Sanctuary were betrayed to their enemies and slaughtered. Since then, the island has known three hundred years of peace. Until now…

A group of men are descending on Sanctuary, their purpose to hunt down and kill the wife of their leader and retrieve the money that she stole from him. All that stands in their way are a young rookie officer, Sharon Macy, and Melancholy Joe Dupree, the island’s strange, troubled policeman.

Joe Dupree is no ordinary policeman. He is the guardian of the island’s secrets, the repository of its memories. He knows that Sanctuary has been steeped in blood once; it will tolerate the shedding of innocent blood no longer. Now a band of killers is set to desecrate Sanctuary and unleash the fury of its ghosts upon themselves and all who stand by them.

On Sanctuary, evil is about to meet its match….

The Reapers (2008)
Book Description: As a small boy, Louis witnesses an unspeakable crime that takes the life of a member of his small, southern community. He grows up and moves on, but he is forever changed by the cruel and brutal nature of the act. It lights a fire deep within him that burns white and cold, a quiet flame just waiting to ignite. Now, years later, the sins of his life are reaching into his present, bringing with them the buried secrets and half-forgotten acts of his past.

Someone is hunting him, targeting his home, his businesses, and his partner, Angel. The instrument of revenge is Bliss, a killer of killers, the most feared of assassins. Bliss is a Reaper, a lethal tool to be applied toward the ultimate end, but he is also a man with a personal vendetta.

Hardened by their pasts, Louis and Angel decide to strike back. While they form a camaraderie that brings them solace, it offers them no shelter from the fate that stalks them. When they mysteriously disappear, their friends are forced to band together to find them. They are led by private detective Charlie Parker, a killer himself, a Reaper in waiting.

If you’re one to venture into the dark, try John Connolly’s books.  They’re definitely worth it.

A Thrilling Summer Preview

It’s that time again.  However, I think I’m a bit late.  Most of the summer’s best thrillers have already come out in May.

MAY

The Scarecrow – Michael Connelly
Last seen in The Poet, Jack McEvoy is back.  With Connelly at the top of his game, this one sure looks like a winner.
Synopsis: Forced out of the Los Angeles Times amid the latest budget cuts, newspaperman Jack McEvoy decides to go out with a bang, using his final days at the paper to write the definitive murder story of his career. He focuses on Alonzo Winslow, a 16-year-old drug dealer in jail after confessing to a brutal murder. But as he delves into the story, Jack realizes that Winslow’s so-called confession is bogus. The kid might actually be innocent. Jack is soon running with his biggest story since The Poet made his career years ago. He is tracking a killer who operates completely below police radar–and with perfect knowledge of any move against him. Including Jack’s.
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Dark Places – Gillian Flynn
Flynn’s Sharp Objects was nominated for the Edgar, Barry, and Dagger awards.  With all the critical praise and buzz, this new thriller is a shoe-in.  This is definitely on my TBR list.
Synopsis: Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived–and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her. The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details–proof they hope may free Ben–Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club . . . and maybe she’ll admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby’s doomed family members–including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started–on the run from a killer.

The Last Child – John Hart
Hart is on a roll.  Both of his previous books were outstanding, and Down River won the Edgar award for Best Novel in 2008.
Synopsis: Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents; a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he’d been taught since birth to trust. No one else believes that Alyssa is still alive, but Johnny is certain that she is—confident in a way that he can never fully explain. Determined to find his sister, Johnny risks everything to explore the dark side of his hometown. It is a desperate, terrifying search, but Johnny is not as alone as he might think. Detective Clyde Hunt has never stopped looking for Alyssa either, and he has a soft spot for Johnny. He watches over the boy and tries to keep him safe, but when Johnny uncovers a dangerous lead and vows to follow it, Hunt has no choice but to intervene. Then a second child goes missing . . . Undeterred by Hunt’s threats or his mother’s pleas, Johnny enlists the help of his last friend, and together they plunge into the wild, to a forgotten place with a history of violence that goes back more than a hundred years. There, they meet a giant of a man, an escaped convict on his own tragic quest. What they learn from him will shatter every notion Johnny had about the fate of his sister; it will lead them to another far place, to a truth that will test both boys to the limit.

Road Dogs – Elmore Leonard
The loveable Jack Foley (George Clooney in the movie Out of Sight) is back.  After reading a great review, Road Dogs is a TBR definite.  It should be a hilarious.
Synopsis: Jack Foley, the charming bank robber from Out of Sight, is serving a thirty-year sentence in a Miami penitentiary, but he’s made an unlikely friend on the inside who just might be able to do something about that. Fellow inmate Cundo Rey, an extremely wealthy Cuban criminal, arranges for Foley’s sentence to be reduced from thirty years to three months, and when Jack is released just two weeks ahead of Cundo, he agrees to wait for him in Venice Beach, California. Also waiting for Cundo is his common-law wife, Dawn Navarro, a professional psychic with a slightly ulterior motive for staying with Cundo: namely, she wants his money. And with the arrival of Jack, she sees the perfect partner in a plan to relieve Cundo of his fortune. Cundo may be Jack’s friend, but does that mean he can trust him? And can either of them trust Dawn?

JUNE

The Lovers -John Connolly – June 2 (US) and July 9 (UK)
After reading the entire Charlie Parker series from Every Dead Thing to The Unquiet, I will be first in line when this book comes out.  Lyrical and haunting, Connolly never disappoints.
Synopsis: Charlie Parker is a lost soul. Deprived of his private investigator’s license and under scrutiny by the police, Parker takes a job in a Portland bar. But he uses his enforced retirement to begin a different kind of investigation: an examination of his own past and an inquiry into the death of his father, who took his own life after apparently shooting dead two unarmed teenagers. It’s a search that will eventually lead Parker to question all that he believed about his beloved parents, and about himself. But there are other forces at work: a troubled young woman who is running from an unseen threat, one that has already taken the life of her boyfriend; and a journalist-turned-writer named Mickey Wallace, who is conducting an investigation of his own. And haunting the shadows, as they have done throughout Parker’s life, are two figures: a man and a woman who seem driven to bring an end to Charlie Parker’s existence.

JULY

The Girl Who Played with Fire – Steig Larsson – July 28 (US) and January 6 (UK)
The highly anticipated sequel to Larsson’s award winning Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Synopsis: Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government. But he has no idea just how explosive the story will be until, on the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander—the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and who now becomes the focus and fierce heart of The Girl Who Played with Fire. As Blomkvist, alone in his belief in Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation of the slayings, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.

The Dead of Winter – Rennie Airth – July 23 (US) and May 1 (UK)
One of my all-time favorite mysteries is Airth’s first book: River of Darkness.  After a disappointing second book, I’m hopeful that the end of the John Madden trilogy will be worth it.
Synopsis: On a freezing London night in 1944, Rosa Novak is brutally murdered during a blackout. The police suspect she was the victim of a random act of violence and might have dropped the case if former police investigator John Madden hadn’t been the victim’s employer. Madden’s old colleagues at Scotland Yard are working on it, but their scant clues lead them to Europe, where the ravages of the war halt their inquiries. Madden feels he owes it to Rosa to find her killer and pushes the investigation until he stumbles upon the dead girl’s connection to a murdered Parisian furrier, a member of the Resistance, and a stolen cache of diamonds.

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Shadow of Betrayal – Brett Battles – July 7 (US) and AKA The Unwanted - July 2 (UK)
After enjoying Battles’ first thriller, The Cleaner, I’m ready for another Jonathan Quinn adventure.
Synopsis: Jonathan Quinn, freelance operative and professional ‘cleaner’, is on a mission in Ireland – purely as an observer – but things go wrong when a hidden assassin kills four men and suddenly Quinn has bodies to dispose of and a clue which is to lead him on an extraordinary odyssey to Africa and back. Along with his beautiful Vietnamese colleague, Orlando, Quinn is charged with finding a disappeared UN aide worker and the child she is protecting. But as soon as he finds her, she flees – and Quinn and Orlando become involved in a terror plot so insidious that it could change the world.

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Ravens – George Dawes Green – July 15 (US) and Aug 6 (UK)
After hearing NPR’s stellar review, this one looks too good to miss.
Synopsis: When Shaw McBride and Romeo Zderko pull up at a convenience store off I-95 in Georgia, their only thought is to fix a leaky tire and be on their way again to Florida-away from their dull Ohio tech-support jobs. But this happens to be the store from which a 318,000,000 million dollar Jackpot ticket has just been sold — and when a pretty clerk accidentally reveals to Shaw the identity of the winning family, he hatches a ferociously audacious scheme: He and Romeo will squeeze the family for half their prize. That night, he visits the Boatwright home and takes the family hostage, while Romeo patrols the streets nearby, prepared to murder the Boatwrights’ loved ones at any sign of resistance. At first, the family offers none. But Shaw’s plot depends on maintaining constant fear-merciless, unfaltering terror-and soon, under the pressure, everyone’s sanity begins to unravel . . .

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Rain Gods – James Lee Burke – July 14 (US and UK)
Burke, like Michael Connelly, are so good that you can bank on it.  Sounds like a great read…
Synopsis: When Hackberry Holland became sheriff of a tiny Texas town near the Mexican border, he’d hoped to leave certain things behind: his checkered reputation, his haunted dreams, and his obsessive memories of the good life with his late wife, Rie. But the discovery of the bodies of nine illegal aliens, machine-gunned to death and buried in a shallow grave behind a church, soon makes it clear that he won’t escape so easily. As Hack and Deputy Sheriff Pam Tibbs attempt to untangle the threads of this complex and grisly case, a damaged young Iraq veteran, Pete Flores, and his girlfriend, Vikki Gaddis, are running for their lives, hoping to outwit the bloodthirsty criminals who want to kill Pete for his involvement in the murders. The only trouble is, Pete doesn’t know who he’s running from: drunk and terrified, he fled the scene of the crime when the shooting began. And there’s a long list of people who want Pete and Vikki dead: crime boss Hugo Cistranos, who hired Pete for the operation; Nick Dolan, a strip club owner and small-time gangster with revenge on his mind; and a mysterious God-fearing serial-killer-for-hire known as Preacher Jack Collins, with enigmatic motives of his own. With the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a host of cold-blooded killers on Pete and Vikki’s trail, it’s up to Sheriff Holland to find them first and figure out who’s behind the mass murder before anyone else ends up dead. In this thrilling and intricate work, James Lee Burke has once again proven himself a master storyteller and a perceptive chronicler of the darkest corners of the human heart.

AUGUST

The Silent Hour – Michael Koryta – Aug. 4(US) and Sept. 2 (UK)
Koryta has always been one of my favorite new authors.  His first novel, Tonight I Said Goodbye, is one of the best first books that I have ever read.  Last year’s Envy the Night blew me away though.  I can’t wait for this one.
Synopsis: Whisper Ridge—Home to Dreams—November 6, 1992– April 27, 1996. So reads the strange epitaph carved beside the door of the home called Whisper Ridge, a multimillion-dollar piece of architectural majesty that once housed the beginnings of a unique program for paroled murderers. It was the passion of Alexandra Sanabria, the daughter of a deceased Mafia don, but the program never got off the ground. Uninhabited for twelve years, the home now remains as a strange monument to dangerous secrets. Private investigator Lincoln Perry’s first involvement with the house and its legacy comes when Parker Harrison—a convicted killer and former tenant of Whisper Ridge—asks him to find Alexandra, who disappeared with her husband after the failure of the program. Disconcerted and embarrassed by his own immediate mistrust of Harrison, Perry decides to take the request at face value until he discovers that the bones of the Alexandra’s husband were discovered at the exact same time Harrison began his quest to locate her. Now the investigation is active again and decade-old threats are circling, confronting Perry with a sordid family mystery that will challenge both his abilities as a detective and his commitment to that calling.

The Amateurs – Marcus Sakey – August 6 (US and UK)
Along with Koryta, Sakey is another new author, who I’ve become obsessed with reading.  As the highly acclaimed author of Good People, The Blade Itself, and At the City’s Edge, his urban thrillers are simply riveting.
Synopsis: The Amateurs asks a chilling question: Do you get what you deserve, or what you take? Alex is failing as a father. Ian keeps dangerous secrets. Jenn is pining for adventure; Mitch is pining for Jenn. Four friends just getting by. Every Thursday night they’ve found solace in a couple of beers and a couple of laughs. But months turn to years, and suddenly a decade is gone. None of them are where—or who—they hoped to be. And they’ve decided to do something about it. To stop waiting, and start taking. But what was supposed to be a victimless crime has become a bloody nightmare. People have been killed. A child is in danger. Ruthless men pursue them with relentless fury. And tensions they thought were long-buried threaten to destroy them. As their whole world begins to unravel, each will have to choose between their own life and the lives of others—including their best friends.

Heart of the Assassin – Robert Ferrigno – August 11 (US and UK)
I loved the first book in the series, Prayers of the Assassin, and the second, Sins of the Assassin, will be read shortly -  just in time for this third and last book of the trilogy.   Don’t miss it.
Synopsis: Time is running out for the Islamic Republic and the Bible Belt, the two warring nations that arose when the former United States split apart after an economiccollapse left tens of millions unemployed and desperate for leadership. Weakened by their endless conflict, both countries are now threatened by the expansionist dreams of the Aztlán Empire (formerly known as Mexico) to the south, which has steadily encroached deep into the regions once called California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Riven by intellectual and social decay, both the Islamic Republic and the Belt are at the brink of collapse. The only solution is to reunite the countries and regain America’s former power and global standing. And there’s only one man who can do it: Rakkim Epps, genetically enhanced shadow warrior and hero of the two previous books in Robert Ferrigno’s astonishing Assassin Trilogy. Time is also running out for Epps’s archenemy, the Old One, the sly, immensely rich Muslim fanatic who seeks to create one world under his domination. Now more than one hundred and fifty years old, he is dying and unhappily knows it. His solution is to reunite the Islamic Republic and the Bible Belt his way, and his plan involves his voluptuous but deadly daughter, Baby, and none other than Rakkim himself. The Old One is aided by his sadistic, carbon-skinned enforcer, Gravenholtz, whom Rakkim failed to kill in an earlier encounter and who now wishes to kill Rakkim and those he loves. Meanwhile, there is a rumor of a discovery of a sacred relic in the contaminated ruins of Washington, D.C., a radiation zone peopled by diseased zombies and daring treasure hunters. It is into this deadly wasteland that Rakkim must secretly travel and retrieve the icon if he is to defeat Gravenholtz, Baby, and the Old One, and have even a chance to unite the two halves of America.

Vanished – Joseph Finder - August 18 (US and UK)
Finder is the king of the corporate thriller.  This new one looks like another tantalizing read.
Synopsis: Nick Heller is tough, smart, and stubborn.  And in his line of work, it’s essential.  Trained in the Special Forces, Nick is a high-powered intelligence investigator–exposing secrets that powerful people would rather keep hidden.  He’s a guy you don’t want to mess with.  He’s also the man you call when you need a problem fixed. Desperate, with nowhere else to run, Nick’s nephew, Gabe makes that call one night.  After being attacked in Georgetown, his mother, Lauren, lies in a coma, and his step-dad, Roger, Nick’s brother, has vanished without a trace. Nick and Roger have been on the outs since the arrest, trial, and conviction of their father, the notorious “fugitive financier,” Victor Heller.  Where Nick strayed from the path, Roger followed their father’s footsteps into the corporate world.  Now, as Nick searches for his brother, he’s on a collision course with one of the most powerful corporations in the world–and they will stop at nothing to protect their secrets.

Quick Post of Latest Reads

Yes, I know it appears that I fell off the face of the planet.  I haven’t.  I’ve been in the process of moving.  So here’s what I’ve been reading…

As you can see, for most of May, I read the rest of the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly.  I enjoyed every minute of it!

HOLY COW BATMAN! (Translation: Highly Recommended!)

The Killing Kind by John Connolly

The Black Angel by John Connolly

Free Fire by C.J. Box

GOOD BUT NOT GREAT (Translation: Recommended with some reservations)

Dark Hollow by John Connolly

The White Road by John Connolly

Thunder Bay by William Kent Krueger

Prayers for the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno

DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME (Translation: Not recommended)

Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
I love the Jack Reacher series, but Child is losing his touch.  Utterly unbelievable plot.

Manfiction

In the publishing world, it’s a well-known fact that most mystery/thriller readers are women.  However, there are some authors whose writing attracts more men than women.  In a 2008 article “Chick lit vs. Manfiction,” Stephen King dubbed this type of thriller – “manfiction” – and listed the likes of Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Richard Stark, and Lee Child as the best manfiction writers today.

I’m proud to say that I love “manfiction”.  You wouldn’t want to mess with these tough guys, but you’d love to be like them.  They are crime fiction’s superheroes.

I recently recommended a Lee Child book to a male colleague, and he loved it!  His wife isn’t too happy with me though because now he’s addicted.

Here are some of my favorites:

1. Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, especially The Killing Floor, The Persuader, and Bad Luck and Trouble

2. Barry Eisler’s John Rain series, especially Rain Fall and Hard Rain

3. Robert Crais‘ Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series, especially L.A. Requiem, Free Fall, and Voodoo River

4. Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series, especially The Last Coyote, City of Bones, and Lost Light

5. John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series, especially The Killing Kind and The Unquiet

6. Charlie Huston’s Joe Pitt series, especially Already Dead and No Dominion

7. T. Jefferson Parker’s Silent Joe

8. James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series, especially Black Cherry Blues

9. Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series, especially Looking for Rachel Wallace

10. Nelson DeMille’s John Corey series, especially Plum Island

What are your favorite manfiction authors and books?

February and March Readings

HOLY COW BATMAN! (Translation: Highly Recommended!)

Sovereign by C.J. Sansom

This is now my favorite book in the Matthew Shardlake series.  Like no other historical mystery writer, C.J. Sansom brings the sights, sounds, and even smells of 16th century England to life.  Unlike his other traditional mysteries, Sansom’s third book in the series is a heart-pounding political thriller with eerie assassination attempts and a centuries old secret.  In the end, you come away totally believing Sansom’s narrative actually happened and the story of King Henry VIII’s ancestry is absolutely true. (Which it is.)

Synopsis: It was autumn, 1541. Following the uncovering of a plot against his throne in Yorkshire, King Henry VIII has set out on a spectacular Progress to the North to overawe his rebellious subjects there. Accompanied by a thousand soldiers, the cream of the nobility, and his fifth wife Catherine Howard, the King is to attend an extravagant submission of the local gentry at York. Already in the city are lawyer Matthew Shardlake and his assistant Jack Barak. As well as assisting with legal work processing petitions to the King, Shardlake has reluctantly undertaken a special mission – to ensure the welfare of an important but dangerous conspirator being returned to London for interrogation. But the murder of a local glazier involves Shardlake in deeper mysteries, connected not only to the prisoner in York Castle but to the royal family itself. As the Great Progress arrives in the city, Shardlake and Barak stumble upon a cache of secret papers that holds danger for the King’s throne, and a chain of events unfolds that will lead Shardlake facing the most terrifying fate of the age.

GOOD BUT NOT GREAT (Translation: Recommended with some reservations)

Every Last Drop by Charlie Huston

Joe Pitt reemerges from his exile in the Bronx to do what he does best: stir up trouble.  With a new clan, the so-called Cure, disturbing the delicate peace between the other Vampire clans, Pitt makes a deal with the Coalition to find out if the new clan is actually close to discovering a cure for the Vyrus.  But the plot takes an unexpected turn, when Pitt ventures to Queens to look for the source of the Coalition’s blood supply.  What he learns there changes him.  And if people know what he knows, it will definitely lead to an all-out war.  But can Joe keep a secret?

After a slow and confusing start, Huston finds his rhythm when familiar characters, like Predo, Amanda Horde, and Terry, appear in the story.  This fourth book in the series doesn’t wrap up as nicely as the first two, but damning secrets are revealed, which have stark implications for the future.  Huston’s writing is hypnotic, and I just love the world Huston has created.  I look forward to the next installment.

Synopsis: It’s like this: a series of bullet-riddled bad breaks has seen rogue Vampyre and terminal tough guy Joe Pitt go from PI for hire to Clan-connected enforcer to dead man walking in a New York minute. And after burning all his bridges, the only one left to cross leads to the Bronx, where Joe’s brass knuckles and straight razor can’t keep him from running afoul of a sadistic old bloodsucker with a bad bark and a worse bite. Even if every Clan in Manhattan is hollering for Joe’s head on a stick, it’s got to be better than trying to survive in the outer-borough wilderness. So it’s a no-brainer when Clan boss Dexter Predo comes looking to make a deal. All Joe has to do to win back breathing privileges on his old turf is infiltrate an upstart Clan whose plan to cure the Vyrus could expose the secret Vampyre world to mortal eyes and set off a panic-driven massacre. Not cool. But Joe’s all over it. To save the Undead future, he just has to wade neck-deep through all the archenemies, former friends, and assorted heavy hitters he’s crossed in the past. No sweat? Maybe not, but definitely more blood than he’s ever seen or hungered for. And maybe even some tears–over the horror and heartbreaking truth about the evil men do no matter who or what they are.

DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME (Translation: Not recommended)

L.A. Outlaws by T. Jefferson Parker

Parker gives us a great heroine in Alison Murrieta, who loves to steal cars and stick-up fast-food joints.  In the great tradition of bandits, she even gives some of her take to poor charities, but there ends my love-affair with the book.  What remains is a struggling plot, which ultimately fails to deliver.  The Latino hit man is borrowed right out of the pages of No Country for Old Men.  One caveat though: the way Parker has Murrieta dispose of her relentless, psychopathic pursuer is quite brilliant and deservingly brutal.  Often authors make female characters superhuman, capable of incapacitating hardened criminals in the most unbelievable ways.  Here, Alison Murrieta dispatches the Latino hit man with style.  Loved the character, but it didn’t make up for an awfully boring story.

Synopsis: Allison is an L.A. celebrity, a folk hero, and a modern-day Jesse James who loves a good armed robbery. She has a compulsion to steal, a knack for publicity, and the conscience to give it all to charity. In fact, one of her biggest fans is a cop. And no one’s ever been hurt—until last night. Now she and the rookie deputy are on the run for their lives.

The Deceived by Brett Battles

In the same league as Barry Eisler and Lee Child, Brett Battles is one of today’s best writers of action-packed thrillers.  Every single action sequence in the book is pitch-perfect.  Nevertheless, despite a rousing ending, The Deceived doesn’t have enough breadcrumbs throughout to sustain interest.  Battles should have slowly unveiled pieces to the puzzle, but instead, readers are kept in the dark up until the last 150 pages.  At which point, everything is revealed all at once.  Great ending, but it took awhile to get there. The Deceived isn’t up to the standard set in his first book: The Cleaner.

Synopsis: A freelance operative and professional “cleaner,” Quinn knows better than to get emotionally involved in any of his jobs. But in this superb powerhouse of suspense, Quinn’s latest job is different. A friend and old colleague has been murdered. A woman has gone missing. And for Jonathan Quinn, this time it’s personal.

Pondering a Change…

When I first started this blog, my original intention was to help others discover truly great mysteries and thrillers.  As a very critical reviewer, I wanted to post only the best books in the genre.  However, I’m finding it difficult to post every week, simply because I haven’t read a truly great book in awhile.  Most books are mediocre and only the few excellent ones deserve to be mentioned here.  This means that I don’t write much until a book comes along and blows me away.

So now I’m wondering if I should post about all the books I read (or don’t finish), no matter whether they are great reads or not.

What do you think?  Should I keep the blog focused on the best of the best or everything I read?

New Additions to the IMBA’s Best Mysteries List?

In 2000 the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association looked back at a century of murder and compiled a list of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century.  Booksellers, who belong to the association, submitted their favorite mysteries and the results were printed in Jim Huang’s paperback, 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century. I’ve used the list as a guide, especially to make sure that I eventually read all the classics. Since no author appears more than once, it gives readers one title that IMBA deems the author’s best.  While I’ve read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler, the list introduced me to authors that I hadn’t read before, like James Crumley and James Lee Burke.  I’m not finished reading all of the books on the list, but I intend to.

Even though the list is limited to books published in the 20th century, I wondered what books, published after 2000, deserve their place in this esteemed pantheon of “Best Mysteries”.  After much deliberation, and taking account the prolific number of superb books these authors have written, I believe the following three books should (and will) be on IMBA’s future “Best Mysteries” list.

Laural Lippman – What the Dead Know (She also deserves credit for her Tess Monaghan series)

Val McDermid – A Place of Execution

George Pelecanos – Right as Rain

What authors and books, since 2000, would YOU add?  Please comment below.

REVIEW: A Stolen Season by Steve Hamilton

Since the very first book in the series, A Cold Day in Paradise, I have been a huge fan of the Alex McKnight series.  Part of the reason is Steve Hamilton’s excellent, terse writing.  However, it’s the character of Alex McKnight that really intrigues me.  McKnight isn’t like all those “smart” P.I.s out there. He often makes stupid decisions, reacts impulsively, and uses brute force. Unfortunately, he always seems to think with his fists first.

This latest McKnight adventure sees Alex as happy as he’s ever been, and the reason is his girlfriend, Natalie Reynaud. As she goes undercover in Toronto to take down a gun smuggling ring, he constantly worries about her, even though they talk every night on the phone. When a boat collides at full-speed with some old bridge pilings, McKnight manages to save the occupants.  However, they’re not as grateful as one would think.  Then Natalie shows up in Paradise to surprise McKnight, only to be caught in the same web with the shady characters from the boat accident.

There’s raw emotion in the pages of this novel, and McKnight’s travels all over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula keep the plot moving along. There’s something about a cold, wintry mystery that I just love, and Hamilton delivers better than most.  (If you’ve never read an Alex McKnight novel, start at the beginning with A Cold Day in Paradise.  You won’t be disappointed.)

10 Favorite Authors I Look Forward to Reading in 2009

1- The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death – Charlie Huston (Bought this hardback as soon as it was released in January)
2- The Reapers - John Connolly (Finally out in paperback in the UK, but released on April 28 in the US)
3 – The Renegades – T. Jefferson Parker (I’m currently reading L.A. Outlaws right now and loving it. Out now in hardback.)
4 – The Dead of Winter – Rennie Airth (His third John Madden mystery coming out in hardback on July 23)
5 – The Scarecrow – Michael Connelly (Connelly brings back Jack McEvoy on May 26 in hardback)
6 – Revelation – C.J. Sansom (Shardlake’s fourth adventure. Out now in hardback.)
7 -  The Way Home – George Pelecanos (Released in hardback on May 12.)
8 – The Last Child – John Hart (The author of Down River has become one of my favorite storytellers.  This one comes out on May 12th.)
9 – The Deceived – Brett Battles (Thoroughly enjoyed Battles’ first thriller. His second one finally comes out in paperback in June.)
10 – Gone Tomorrow – Lee Child (Another Jack Reacher adventure not to be missed on May 19.)

My FACEBOOK Essential Mystery/Thriller List

There have been lots of reading lists going around Facebook, so I decided to post my own:

How many mystery/thriller authors have you read?

Instructions: Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those AUTHORS that you’ve read. (Included are some of the titles that they are known for.)

50. Edgar Allan Poe (Murders of the Rue Morgue, Tell-Tale Heart) – X
49. Wilkie Collins (The Woman in White, The Moonstone) – X
48. Arthur Conan Doyle (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles)- X
47. Agatha Christie(The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, And Then There Were None)- X
46. Daphne Du Maurier (Rebecca)
45. Rext Stout – (The League of Frightened Men)
44. Dashiell Hammett (Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man) – X
43. Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye)- X
42. James M. Cain (Double Indemnity, Postman Always Rings Twice)
41. Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley) – X
40. Ross Macdonald (The Chill)
39. James Crumley (The Last Good Kiss)- X
38. John D. MacDonald (The Deep Blue Good-by)- X
37. Robert B. Parker (Looking for Rachel Wallace, The Godwulf Manuscript)- X
36. Carl Hiaasen (Tourist Season, Skinny Dip) – X
35. Elmore Leonard (Get Shorty)
34. Ed McBain (Saidie When She Died)
33. Sue Grafton (A is for Alibi)- X
32. Janet Evanovich (One for the Money)- X
31. Laura Lippman (Baltimore Blues, What the Dead Know)- X
30. Sara Paretsky (Deadlock)
29. Lawrence Block (When the Sacred Ginmill Closes)- X
28. James Lee Burke (Black Cherry Blues)- X
27. James Ellroy (Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential)
26. Walter Mosley (Devil in a Blue Dress)- X
25. Donald E. Westlake (The Hot Rock)
24. Scott Turrow (Presumed Innocent)- X
23. John Grisham (The Firm, A Time to Kill)- X
22. Tony Hillerman (A Thief of Time)- X
21. John Sandford (Hidden Prey)
20. Jeffrey Deaver (The Bone Collector)- X
19. Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October)- X
18. John le Carre (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold)
17. Daniel Silva (The Confessor)
16. Nelson DeMille (Night Fall) – X
15. Joseph Finder (Paranoia. High Crimes) – X
14. Barry Eisler (Rain Fall)- X
13. Lee Child (The Killing Floor)- X
12. P.D. James (Unsuitable Job for a Woman)- X
11. Peter Robinson (In a Dry Season)- X
10. Ian Rankin (Resurrection Men)
9. Val McDermid (A Place of Execution) – X
8. Laurie King (The Beekeeper’s Apprentice) – X
7. Harlan Coben (Tell No One) – X
6. Robert Crais (L.A. Requiem, The Watchman) – X
5. Michael Connelly (Blood Work, Echo Park) – X
4. George Pelecanos (Right as Rain) – X
3. Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone) – X
2. John Hart (Down River) – X
1. C.J. Sansom (Dissolution, Sovereign) – X

Knowing the audience, I listed some popular fiction authors too.  But I draw the line at putting rubbish, like James Patterson or Patricia Cornwell, on the list.  (Yeah, I couldn’t resist putting the last two, they’ve become my favorite authors.)