FUZZ by Ed McBain

 Finished Tu 11/23/21

This is a paperback that I don't know when I bought it, but this was my first time through it.

This is one of the '87th Precinct Mysteries' and was published in 1968. When I was reading the book I thought that it was one of the first in the series, but the first one was released in 1956 and 'FUZZ' is #22 in the series.

This one deals with the arch-villian, 'The Deaf Man'. This master criminal extorts the city in a very novel way. He alerts authorities that he will kill a minor government official unless he receives $5,000. They don't pay, the official is killed, and the Deaf Man asked $50,000 for the next official on his list. Again, the ransom is not paid and the man is murdered. 

Here's where it gets interesting. The Deaf Man sends out one hundred letters asking for $5000 for each name on the list. 

Also, there is a subplot about a couple of youths who are setting homeless men on fire as they sleep. Steve Carella was posing as a bum and was burned by these guys. 

There is an excellent article on Wikipedia about all of the cops and criminals that are covered in the '87th Precinct Series'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/87th_Precinct

A review from GoodReads:

"In Fuzz, a master criminal nicknamed the Deaf Man returns to bedevil the detectives of the 87th Precinct. As is often the case in this series, the weather plays an important part in the book. It's the middle of winter; the snow is deep, and the temperatures are freezing. It's not fit weather for man or beast, but the criminals are not taking the winter off and so neither can the police.

In one particularly aggravating series of crimes, someone is pouring gasoline on sleeping homeless men and then setting them on fire. Detective Steve Carella goes under cover in order to catch the killers, but this means he's going to spend a lot of time freezing in alleys and doorways, playing bait for the attackers. It won't be any fun at all, and it's going to be a particularly frustrating assignment.

While Carella is thus occupied, someone calls the 87th Precinct and demands that he be paid $5,000 or he will shoot the Parks Commissioner. Almost everyone, including the Parks Commissioner, assumes the call is a prank. Sadly it isn't, and after the Parks Commissioner is shot and killed, the caller, who turns out to be the old nemesis of the 87th, the Deaf Man, steps up his game and puts the city in a panic."

The writing is rudimentary, but it's an entertaining read and the 'cop banter' is sharp and funny. 

Ed McBain was a pen name for Salvatore Albert Lombino. 'Ed McBain' was the most notable of his many names. Evan Hunter was second and he wrote 'BLACKBOARD JUNGLE' under this pseudonym.

THE SICILIAN by Mario Puzo

Finished Fr 11/19/21

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I had never read and when I bought the book is not mentioned. 

It's 'background' on the GODFATHER films and Puzo's novels of those characters. None of 'THE SICILIAN' takes place in New York, all the action is in and around Palermo and the northwest corner of Sicily.   

The book is mostly about a Sicilian bandit named Salvatore 'Turi' Giuliano on the island of Sicily during the 1940's and early 50's.

He's a kind of 'Robin Hood' hero. A violent and cruel man that puts his men and the rural people of Sicily above his personal needs and desires. 

Turi's best friend and second in command, Gaspare 'Aspanu' Pisciotta is the downfall of the gang. Pisciotta betrays and kills Turi before he can escape to America.

These two characters are based on real Sicilian gang leaders.

The political and social situation of rural Sicily is the most interesting part of the book. The aristocrats and the mafia rule the land and the powers that be are terrified of anything that smacks of socialism. 

Legally peasants can use land unused by the aristocracy, but if they try to enforce their rights the aristocrats will have them killed. 

A link to the book's page on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sicilian

I was surprised to learn that Mario Puzo wrote the original screenplay for the 1978 Superman film and its 1980 sequel. 

BRIGHT ANGEL TIME by Martha McPhee

Finished Sa 11/6/21

The title refers to layers of rock that record the earth's age. Eight year old Kate's (the novel's protagonist) father is a geologist and she wants to see the Grand Canyon and learn the secrets of the layers of rock that reveal thousdands of years of history. 

The novel is set in America in 1970. The geologist has left the family and mom has taken up with a hippie hustler named Anton. They travel from New Jersey across the country to California. Kate is the youngest and she has two older sisters, Jane and Julia.

Dad leaves the family on July 10, 1969. This is the day that American astronauts walked on the moon for the first time.

According to what I wrote on the flyleaf I purchased the book after a motorcycle ride on the VT 1100 to The Old Book Barn in Forsyth, Il on Su 8/10/03. There is no indication that I finished the book.

It's the first novel by Martha McPhee and she's gone on to create a following because she's a great writer.

The novel is a chronicle of their lives as seen through the eyes of eight year old Kate.

Some of what happens to her is pretty tragic, but it doesn't register because she's so young.

There's a possible rape scene involving Anton that's skimmed over and Kate's dropping acid isn't given the attention that it probably deserves. I guess an eight year old doesn't really have the depth to understand what is happening.

When the family was together the girls all wore matching outfits that were handmade by Eve, Kate's mother. Eve ironed the family's underware- very anal-retentive.  

From Goodreads:

"Set in the early 1970s, Bright Angel Time is a dazzling first novel about eight-year-old Kate and her two sisters, whose lives are turned upside down when their mother falls in love with Anton, a mysterious, seductive therapist with five children of his own.

'One of the most shocking and powerful books about childhood I've ever read. There is a whole generation of people waiting for this particular story to be told.'"

Someone wrote the following at Goodreads:

"Some folks should not have kids because they haven't grown up themselves, and when they do, it's a miracle any resulting children survive. The book may be set in the 70s, but some things never change!"

The Kirkus review:

"Yet another coming-of-age debut novel, this one dragging on a bit as it evokes the '60s-style wanderings of a divorced housewife and her three unhappy daughters. Until 1969, eight-year-old Kate lived in perfect contentment in a white house in rural New Jersey with her two older sisters, her geologist father, and her beautiful blond mother, a housewife named Eve. Unfortunately, that was the year that Dad elected to run off with his lover, and Eve, after a depression that kept her in bed for months, fell in love with an itinerant Gestalt therapist named Anton and allowed him to uproot their lives. Yearning to experience life truly in a way her anal-retentive husband never had, Eve follows Anton to the Esalen center in California. The couple gather up Eve's three well-brought-up daughters, put them in a camper with Anton's five hippie kids, and take off for a tour of the American West. The new, extended family wanders aimlessly through deserts and semi-abandoned towns, sneaking into unoccupied motel rooms for showers, dropping in on Indian settlements and millionaires' resorts, and absorbing various hitchhikers into their fold, while the children bicker and the adults preach free love along the way. Meanwhile, Kate tries to accustom herself to the loss of her father and happy former life, working hard (but often failing) to see the good in Anton's motherless children and to forgive her own newly liberated mom. Eve's reckless devotion to Anton has its consequences—one daughter becomes deathly ill, another runs away, and Kate herself becomes a religious fanatic for a while—and yet Eve's decision to return home at last seems motivated more by fatigue than by lessons learned, and it's unclear who, if anyone, has really come of age. McPhee's story holds interest, but much like its protagonists, it tends to wander without direction, in the end failing to provide much of a catharsis."

I really liked the book and I will read more by Martha McPhee