THE BURGLAR WHO LIKED TO QUOTE KIPLING by Lawrence Block

 Refinished Th 3/31/22

This is one of my old paperbacks that I finished over a three day weekend; Su 4/7/02

From the book's page at Goodreads.com:

"Bernie Rhodenbarr has gone legit – almost – as the new owner of a used bookstore in New York's Greenwich Village. Of course, dusty old tomes don't always turn a profit, so to make ends meet, Bernie's forced, on occasion, to indulge in his previous occupation: burglary. Besides which, he likes it.

Now a collector is offering Bernie an opportunity to combine his twin passions by stealing a very rare and very bad book-length poem from a rich man's library.

The heist goes off without a hitch. The delivery of the ill-gotten volume, however, is a different story. Drugged by the client's female go-between, Bernie wakes up in her apartment to find the book gone, the lady dead, a smoking gun in his hand, and the cops at the door. And suddenly he's got to extricate himself from a rather sticky real-life murder mystery and find a killer – before he's booked for Murder One."

Premise:

'The Deliverance of Fort Bucklow' is a book length poem by Rudyard Kipling. According to the novel (I don't know if this is true) Kipling was an anti-Semite and this poem revealed his sentiments. Supposedly there was only one copy left as the entire printing was destroyed. One of the copies is autographed by Adolf Hitler and he possibly used this verse to firm up his thinking before he wrote Mein Kamp. H. Rider Haggard was the original owner of this remaining copy.

A man approaches Bernie Rhodenbarr is arrange a sale of this very valuable volume. However, the scam is that there are numerous 'last' copies. Since the deals are always secret, no one is aware that there are many 'one of a kinds'.  

I would read anything by Lawrence Block, but I prefer the Matthew Scudder series. Bernie Rhodenbarr is just a good as Donald Westlake's character John Dortmunder.

GEORGIANA by Amanda Foreman

 Finished Mo 3/28/22

I ordered the hardback book from Amazon after watching 'THE DUCHESS' with Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Dominic Cooper, and Charlotte Rampling. Won 1 Oscar; 8 wins & 21 nominations.

I loved the film and felt it really captured the lives of the nobility during the British Regency Period.  

Georgiana was the 5th Duchess of Devonshire

Lady Elizabeth Foster (Bess) became a very close friend of Georgiana and possibly a lover to both the Duke and Duchess. This was clearly a ménage a trois by any standard. 

'The Ton' (le bon ton)- members of the upper class who were obsessed with fashion. Georgiana was a true icon of fashion for the age.

An ardent supporter of the Whig party

Georgiana was a profligate gambler and lost and gained several fortunes. She was constantly after the Duke to give her money, but she was always afraid to tell him exactly how much that she owed. 

Georgiana popularized various styles of dress including the huge wigs for women. Some creations were three feet high and sometimes topped with figurines. Also, tall feathers that extended far above the wig.

Georgiana belonged to the Spencer family, one of the richest and oldest in Britain. Lady Di is a distant relative. The Cavendish family was the Duke's relatives and they were one of the richest families in all of Britain. 

The House of Lords was filled with the richest men and The House of Commons was made up of the 'next richest' men in the country. 

Although Georgiana and her compatriots wanted 'Freedom' it wasn't exactly equality, just more representation in government and less by the aristocracy. 

I really liked the book and it was chockfull of tidbits and information about the people and the life of the '1 percenters' of the 18th century.  

Charlotte Williams was an illegitimate daughter of the duke and raised by Georgiana as her own. 

Over 1,000 personal letters written by the Duchess of Devonshire are still in existence and many excerpts are included in the book. 

A DANCE AT THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE by Lawrence Block

 Finished Mo 3/21/22

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I bought at the library bike sale on Sa 1/12/02, but I don't think that I ever read it. No notation on the flyleaf.

This was a great novel and starred Matthew Scudder and I just saw a film with Liam Neeson in the lead role.

TWO CASES:

1) A very rich couple is attacked when they walk in on a neighbor's robbery. The wife is raped and murdered and the man is assaulted. The brother of the wife retains Scudder because he thinks that the man killed his wife and used the incident as a coverup. 

2) A man rents 'The Dirty Dozen' video tape and finds a snuff film hidden in the middle of the movie. A rich man and his wife are having sex with strangers and then killing them

The Tie-in:

The man with the murdered wife is involved with the couple that is snuffing strangers.

From the review at Kirkus:

"A wrenching and lurid Matt Scudder outing that pits the unlicensed p.i. against childkilling slime and climaxes in vigilante violence. Perhaps the plot externals are so fierce here because Scudder's internal demons have mellowed: He seems to have won his battle with the bottle, and his loneliness has been banished by love for call-girl Elaine and by friendship with Irish gangster Mick Ballou. The only enemy left is the evil of others—which is waged war upon in two related cases here. In the first, Scudder is hired by a dying man (AIDS) to determine whether, as both he and the cops suspect, the robbery/rape/murder of the man's sister was really a setup by her greedy husband, cable-TV magnate Richard Thurman, to cash in on her life insurance. In the second, Scudder is asked by an A.A. colleague to watch a rented video of The Dirty Dozen; hidden on the tape is a snuff film in which a costumed man and woman torture, then kill, a teenage boy. In one of several coincidences that gear the plot (and which Block doesn't try to hide), Scudder, trailing Thurman, recognizes the man from the film—Bruno Stettner, who, with seductive wife Olga, had mesmerized Thurman into joining their sadistic sex games and killing Mrs. Thurman for profit. This Scudder learns by winning Thurman's confidence during several chats (which, added to his long talks with Ballou, Elaine, and a cop-pal, give the narrative a lazy, even slack, feel); but although Thurman's confession solves that case—and leads to his murder by the Stettners—it takes Scudder and Ballou's vengeance by cleaver and gun, in a grand guignol finale, to close out the second. Written with great heart and care, but even less of a mystery and more of a melodrama than A Ticket to the Boneyard (1990), and smacking a bit too much of Andrew Vachss (the child-abuse vigilantism), as if Scudder/Block were treading water, albeit it dark and deep."

 

PEN 33 by Roslund & Hellstrom

 Finished Tu 3/15/22

I bought this hardback on Amazon after I saw the movie 'THE INFORMER', starring Joel Kinnaman. The movie was based on a novel by these two writers. Roslund is a famous journalist and Hellstrom is an ex-con. 

This is an easy read and I finished in a couple of days, yet very compelling.

General Premise: 

A serial pedophile brutally rapes and murders two very young girls. He is apprehended by police, but escapes. The authorities cannot find the fugitive but one of the father's of the dead girls locates the perpetrator and kills him. The rapist had notes that he was going to kill two other young girls, and the father uses this as his defense. If he hadn't killed this violent murderer, two other girls would have died. At first a judge sees it his way, and he is freed. 

Then, other Swedes take matters into their own hands and begin attacks on pedophiles living in their neighborhoods. The judicial system changes it's ruling, and the father is jailed. 

I wonder if this is based on a true incident.

The review at Publishersweekly.com:

"Roslund and Hellström’s blistering sixth series novel to be published in the U.S. (after Three Minutes) opens with the vicious rape and murder of two nine-year-old girls by a psychopath, Bernt Lund, who has escaped from custody. The authors explore the ramifications of Lund’s crime from multiple viewpoints, including those of 60ish Det. Sgt. Ewert Grens, who’s disillusioned and cynical; Grens’s 40-year-old assistant, Sven Sundkvist, who’s burning out; and Fredrik Steffansson, the father of one of the victims. Steffansson, who was abused as a child, kills Lund and is put on trial for murder. In one of Sweden’s most high-profile trials, ambitious prosecutor Lars Ågestam feels he must demand life imprisonment for Steffansson, even though doing so will likely end his career. In addition to subjecting readers to the stomach-wrenching minutiae of prison life, Roslund and Hellström force them to consider who in this denunciation of governmental policies and practices are the victims and who are the criminals. The authors’ most chilling observation: these characters “are all somewhere among us.” Hellström, an ex-convict, died earlier this year."

  

FALLEN by Karin Slaughter

 Finished Fr 3/11/22

This is a relatively new paperback that I bought at the library book sale on Sa 1/11/20 and this was my first time through the book.

I saw a series on Netflix, 'PIECES OF HER' that was based on a book by Karin Slaughter and the film starred Toni Collette.

From the novel's review at 'curledup.com':

"Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Faith Mitchell draws her weapon and carefully enters the blood-spattered kitchen of a house in suburban Atlanta. The only person in the room is already dead, so she moves deeper into the house. In a bedroom she finds an Asian man holding a pistol to the head of a Latino. Within minutes, both men are dead. The woman who lives in the house - Evelyn Mitchell, Faith's mother - is nowhere to be found.

Evelyn Mitchell had been captain of the APD's narcotics division five years ago when five of her squad members were convicted of corruption and theft. Though never charged herself, Mitchell quietly retired and became just Grandma. Has it all come back now to haunt her? It sure looks like it has, as dead members of Atlanta's two most violent gangs lie in Evelyn's little ranch house. It falls to Faith's partner, Will Trent, to investigate the kidnapping - the second time he's investigated her mother.

Trent and boss Amanda Wagner make the rounds of Asian and Latin gang leaders, with stops at a couple of state prisons to question Evie's former squad members. The consensus? the kidnappers are a youth movement, their plans based on TV show and movie plots. Just why they were after Evelyn was a mystery, one that Will has to solve while Evelyn still remains alive.

With Fallen, Atlanta-based mystery writer Karin Slaughter completes the merger of her twin series starring cop Will Trent and Dr. Sara Linton - accent on the “merging” part (oooh-la-la). Four years after her husband's violent death, Linton is on the cusp of moving on, and she's set her sights on Trent as her go-to guy. Faith sits this case out, leaving the action to her partner and Linton - and to Amanda Wagner, who calls in an amazing (and sometimes amusing) array of other members of the "old girl network" to lend a hand with the investigation.

Though Slaughter depends heavily on coincidences to move her plot forward - really, Atlanta's a lot bigger than the action in Fallen would probably require – she gives her readers a plot that takes some most surprising twists. Whether the old saw about women cops starting out as meter maids and ending up deputy chiefs is overused or not, you can't accuse Slaughter of not inventing a couple of fresh twists to dress out her plot - and they're definitely not the sort of plot twist you'd get from the likes of James Lee Burke or Michael Connelly."

There's something for everyone here: Slaughter manages to craft a police procedural that plays the violence of a Paretsky thriller against romantic interludes worthy of the O'Shaughnessy sisters. Whatever floats your boat, though - Fallen is clearly one hundred percent Slaughter.

A fairly compelling story that is violent and has a nice twist at the end. The bad guy is actually the son of the police woman that has been kidnapped and tortured. 

I would read more by Slaughter, but she's no Greg Iles. 

***A very curious detail in the book:

"In the city of Atlanta, Georgia the black police were not even authorized to arrest whites until 1962".- p. 106

 

THE SOCIOPATH NEXT DOOR by Martha Stout, ph.d.

Finished Su 3/6/22

According to the flyleaf I bought the book on the internet in late August of 2007 and finished on We 9/5/07

The premise is that one out of twenty-five people have no conscience. This condition is far more common than colon cancer, yet the lack of empathy is rarely mentioned. 4% of the population is afflicted with this condition which is essentially an absence of guilt. 

Einstein quote: "The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."

"Wasting Away Disease"

In the late 80's Nicolae Ceausescu, the dictator of Romania, was running a country that was crippled by poverty and ignorance. He banned all birth control and abortions and hundreds of starving children were the result. Ratio of children to staff was over 40 to 1. The kids were fed, but never touched and largely ignored. People from around the world rushed to adopt these children, but later it was found that these kids suffered from all kids of behavioral issues. "Children who suffer from attachment disorder are impulsive and emotionally cold, and are sometimes dangerously violent toward their parents, siblings, playmates, and pets." 

The author helps you to identify these people who lack a conscience. And, what she says is that you should leave. Count your loses and get out. 

The review at Kirkus:

"Readers eager for a tabloid-ready survey of serial killers, however, will be disappointed. Instead, Stout (Psychiatry/Harvard Medical School) busies herself with exploring the workaday lives and motivations of those garden-variety sociopaths who are content with inflicting petty tyrannies and small miseries. As a practicing therapist, she writes, she has spent the past 25 years aiding the survivors of psychological trauma, most of them “controlled and psychologically shattered by individual human perpetrators, often sociopaths.” Antisocial personality disorder, it turns out, occurs in around four percent of the population, so it’s not too surprising that treating their victims has kept Stout quite busy for the past quarter-century. Employing vivid composite character sketches, the author introduces us to such unsavory characters as a psychiatric administrator who specializes in ingratiating herself with her office staff while making her patients feel crazier; a captain of industry who killed frogs as a child and is now convinced he can outsmart the SEC; and a lazy ladies’ man who marries purely to gain access to his new wife’s house and pool. These portraits make a striking impact, and readers with unpleasant neighbors or colleagues may find themselves paying close attention to Stout’s sociopathic-behavior checklist and suggested coping strategies. In addition to introducing these everyday psychopaths, the author examines why the rest of us let them get away with murder. She extensively considers the presence or absence of conscience, as well as our discomfort with questioning those seen as being in power. Stout also ponders our willingness to quash our inner voice when voting for leaders who espouse violence and war as a solution to global problems—pointed stuff in a post-9/11 political climate.

Deeply thought-provoking and unexpectedly lyrical." 

Part of the book concerned the Milgram Experiment:

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

60% of people will inflict pain on someone they don't know if 'an authority figure' tells them to do it. So it's a 'perfect storm' if 4% of the populace has no conscience and 60% of people will inflict pain if told to do it. Does this explain Trump's presidency. 

COURTNEY LOVE: The Real Story by Poppy Z. Brite

 Refinished Mo 2/28/22

I noticed this book on the shelf and read it when I was half way through 'WALDEN TWO'. Finished the bio, and back to BF Skinner.

I first finished the book on Sa 12/14/02 and according to the note on the flyleaf that "...will rent 'THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT'. 

And after this reading, I will get that film from Netflix. Apparently this was Love's best performance of her life.

The only problem with the book is that it was written in 1997 and a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. 

Biggest New Fact: Courtney's mother was part of the Bausch optical fortune and Courtney had an inheritance. 

From the book's page at Amazon:

"Poppy Z. Brite, better known for her punk-gothic horror and dreadful taste in clothing (the jacket photo shows her looking like a reject from a 1985 audition for a Cure video) here gets her hands on something much scarier than club-hopping vampires: the life of Courtney Love. Born Love Michelle Harrison, Courtney's childhood combines the worst of doped-up hippie parenting with her innate autism to produce a life that could only lead to rock-and-roll stardom. Starting with her first acid trip at age 4, administered by her father, a paragon of parental responsibility, Courtney went on to four name changes, two years in juvenile detention, a trip to Japan courtesy of a white slave ring, living with gloom rockers in Liverpool, and a melange of drugs and sexual experiments all prior to leaving her teens. This makes for quite the page-turner--in a guilty sort of way and in spite of Poppy Z.'s occasionally cutesy-teen prose: "Courtney Love has always been surrounded by chaos, triumph, pain, and glamour." Still, in spite of the taboo of reading celebrity bios, this one stands out because of the truly odd and, perhaps, innovative life of its subject. Not simply a rock-and-roll musical bedrooms romp, Love's life is far enough out of the mainstream, or even the alternate streams, to offer challenges to many of the values we take for granted in living our lives. Things such as safety, stability, and even hygiene are thrown out the window in a life that reads like the outsider fiction of Hesse or Kerouac, only with more electric guitars."

On Tuesday morning, March 1st, 2022, the next morning I learned about who the author was. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppy_Z._Brite