Finished We 12/27/17 This is a paperback that I'd never read. Bought on Sa 1/11/03 at the library paperback sale at the main branch.
Usually I don't waste my time on 'novelizations' that are based on a movie screenplays, but this wasn't bad. And it performed as intended- I will order the film from Netflix.
Set in Los Angeles- 1953, and features four detectives who consider themselves above the law. They are not corrupt personally, but will use 'any means necessary' to combat organized crime- constitutional rights be damned!
'Mulholland Falls' refers to Mulholland Drive. This is an east/west road that winds far above the canyons of Hollywood and LA. These cops throw off 'offenders' and they slide to the bottom and are seriously injured, but not killed. This is regarded as a kind of warning- Cease And Desist or Get Out Of Town!
The leader of this elite squad, Max Hoover is secretly involved with a beautiful starlet. This woman is also involved with an older man who runs an agency tied to the atomic energy program in Nevada. She is murdered and it's discovered that this agency has been doing experiments on civilians as to human resistance to radiation exposure. Certain government officials feel that she must be silenced because she is a security risk- The Law Be Damned.
Link to the movie's page at wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulholland_Falls
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
DR. FUTURITY by Philip K. Dick
Finished Tu 12/26/17 After reading THE LATHE OF HEAVEN I saw this one on the shelves and thought that it might be similar, but the Ursula K. Le Guin novel was far superior.
This is probably one of my oldest paperbacks. It's an Ace edition from 1960 that contains two science fiction novels- one by PK Dick, and when you turn the book over, another complete novel by John Brunner- SLAVERS OF SPACE. If this book were in better shape, it would be very valuable.
This is a 'time travel' novel, and all of the inherent confusion is here in spades.
Dr. Jim Parsons, a medical doctor, is transported back to California during the 16th century. He's to link with one of the English explorers, Sir Francis Drake, on the California coast.
At first Parsons goes back and visits a society where death is welcomed for the good of society. It's very tribal and all of the people are inter-related.
A very muddled presentation, and not one of Dick's finest- mediocre at best. The plot summary at Wikipedia is better than the book, and makes much more sense. A waste of my time, but I plan to give the John Brunner novel a shot...in the future.
Plot at wikipedia-
"Dr. Jim Parsons is a doctor from 2012 who was born in 1980. Abruptly, he undergoes involuntary time travel to 2405 and finds that his profession is treated with disdain. In the future, the population is static, with no natural births; only a death can cause the formation of a new embryo. The result is a society ambivalent toward death, as controlled genetics ensures that each successive generation better benefits the human race as a whole. By killing off the weak and the malformed, poverty and disease are eliminated, and humanity has an optimal chance for survival. Moreover, a single race derived from a mix of races controls this future world, as white men had become extinct centuries earlier.
After Parsons cures a dying woman (not knowing that this is considered a heinous crime in this time period), Chancellor Al Stenog exiles him to Mars, but the spaceship is intercepted en route, and Parsons is returned to a deserted Earth far in the future. On finding a marker with instructions on how to operate the time travel controls on the spaceship, he is directed to a Native American-style tribal lodge, where he must perform surgery to hopefully restore the life of a cryogenically suspended time traveler, Corith, subsequent to the latter's death from an arrow wound 35 years earlier. Parsons extracts the missile but it later mysteriously rematerializes in Corith's body.
To resolve this situation, Parsons travels with Corith's relatives back to Corith's previous assignment in 1579 on the Pacific Coast of North America, where Corith was to kill Sir Francis Drake in order to change history and preserve the Native American way of life, avoiding their subjugation by European colonial powers. While observing the assassination attempt on Drake, Parsons realizes that Drake is actually Chancellor Stenog. It seems that Stenog, in an ironic twist of fate, has taken Drake's place long enough to ensure that Corith's mission fails. Parsons tries to warn Corith, but Corith discovers that Parsons is a disguised white man and attacks him. In the ensuing struggle, Parsons inadvertently stabs Corith in the heart with one of the arrow replicas that were intended to make it appear that Drake was killed by a Native American of that period.
In retribution, Parsons is left stranded by Corith's relatives in 1597, a year in which the European explorers had removed themselves for many years to come. But Parsons is quickly rescued by Loris, Corith's daughter, when she has a change of heart after learning that she is pregnant with Parsons' child.
While briefly back in 2405, Parsons realizes that the reason the arrow mysteriously reappeared in Corith's chest after he'd removed it was because he had apparently murdered him for a second time to cover his own tracks. If Corith were to recover, he would have revealed that it was Parsons who killed him, and an unwitting Parsons from slightly earlier would have been left helpless at the hands of Corith's relatives. As he stands over Corith, ready to kill him for a second time, he decides against it and flees. But a nagging curiosity obliges him to return yet again. He sees two unknown people kill Corith with the second arrow to the heart. Parsons discovers that the murderers are the children he will one day have with Loris, traveling back to 2405 from an even more distant future.
His children take Parsons forward in time to meet with Loris again, and he struggles with the decision to return to 2012. Eventually he goes back to the same day that he left and to the doting wife who saw him off earlier that morning. He sets about his old life with a new task at hand. The novel closes with him designing the stone marker that will eventually save his life on that desolate future Earth."
This is probably one of my oldest paperbacks. It's an Ace edition from 1960 that contains two science fiction novels- one by PK Dick, and when you turn the book over, another complete novel by John Brunner- SLAVERS OF SPACE. If this book were in better shape, it would be very valuable.
This is a 'time travel' novel, and all of the inherent confusion is here in spades.
Dr. Jim Parsons, a medical doctor, is transported back to California during the 16th century. He's to link with one of the English explorers, Sir Francis Drake, on the California coast.
At first Parsons goes back and visits a society where death is welcomed for the good of society. It's very tribal and all of the people are inter-related.
A very muddled presentation, and not one of Dick's finest- mediocre at best. The plot summary at Wikipedia is better than the book, and makes much more sense. A waste of my time, but I plan to give the John Brunner novel a shot...in the future.
Plot at wikipedia-
"Dr. Jim Parsons is a doctor from 2012 who was born in 1980. Abruptly, he undergoes involuntary time travel to 2405 and finds that his profession is treated with disdain. In the future, the population is static, with no natural births; only a death can cause the formation of a new embryo. The result is a society ambivalent toward death, as controlled genetics ensures that each successive generation better benefits the human race as a whole. By killing off the weak and the malformed, poverty and disease are eliminated, and humanity has an optimal chance for survival. Moreover, a single race derived from a mix of races controls this future world, as white men had become extinct centuries earlier.
After Parsons cures a dying woman (not knowing that this is considered a heinous crime in this time period), Chancellor Al Stenog exiles him to Mars, but the spaceship is intercepted en route, and Parsons is returned to a deserted Earth far in the future. On finding a marker with instructions on how to operate the time travel controls on the spaceship, he is directed to a Native American-style tribal lodge, where he must perform surgery to hopefully restore the life of a cryogenically suspended time traveler, Corith, subsequent to the latter's death from an arrow wound 35 years earlier. Parsons extracts the missile but it later mysteriously rematerializes in Corith's body.
To resolve this situation, Parsons travels with Corith's relatives back to Corith's previous assignment in 1579 on the Pacific Coast of North America, where Corith was to kill Sir Francis Drake in order to change history and preserve the Native American way of life, avoiding their subjugation by European colonial powers. While observing the assassination attempt on Drake, Parsons realizes that Drake is actually Chancellor Stenog. It seems that Stenog, in an ironic twist of fate, has taken Drake's place long enough to ensure that Corith's mission fails. Parsons tries to warn Corith, but Corith discovers that Parsons is a disguised white man and attacks him. In the ensuing struggle, Parsons inadvertently stabs Corith in the heart with one of the arrow replicas that were intended to make it appear that Drake was killed by a Native American of that period.
In retribution, Parsons is left stranded by Corith's relatives in 1597, a year in which the European explorers had removed themselves for many years to come. But Parsons is quickly rescued by Loris, Corith's daughter, when she has a change of heart after learning that she is pregnant with Parsons' child.
While briefly back in 2405, Parsons realizes that the reason the arrow mysteriously reappeared in Corith's chest after he'd removed it was because he had apparently murdered him for a second time to cover his own tracks. If Corith were to recover, he would have revealed that it was Parsons who killed him, and an unwitting Parsons from slightly earlier would have been left helpless at the hands of Corith's relatives. As he stands over Corith, ready to kill him for a second time, he decides against it and flees. But a nagging curiosity obliges him to return yet again. He sees two unknown people kill Corith with the second arrow to the heart. Parsons discovers that the murderers are the children he will one day have with Loris, traveling back to 2405 from an even more distant future.
His children take Parsons forward in time to meet with Loris again, and he struggles with the decision to return to 2012. Eventually he goes back to the same day that he left and to the doting wife who saw him off earlier that morning. He sets about his old life with a new task at hand. The novel closes with him designing the stone marker that will eventually save his life on that desolate future Earth."
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
THE ICE STORM by Rick Moody
This is one of my hardbacks that I finished Fr 10/17/97, and I refinished very early the morning after Xmas; (3am-430am, in bed) Tu 12/26/17. I remember the movie, another smash by Ang Lee, and I want to watch it again.
New Canaan, Connecticut- Friday, the day after Thanksgiving- 1973
Ben and Elena Hood- Ben, stock broker/ alcoholic. Elena, is looking for a change and fed up with Ben's detached drunkenness. She's an advocate of 'self help'.
Wendy Hood- 14 yr old; sexually promiscuous (curious). Has sex with Mike Williams. Her father, Ben, has had sex with Janey, his lover, when he finds Mike and Wendy in the basement after a grope. Ben resents Mike; "The little shit". Wendy has also tried lesbian sex with a girlfriend.
Paul Hood- At a private academy and he is pursuing a very rich girl, Libbets Casey. Her family lives on Park Avenue in NYC. She only wants to be friends with him.
Jim and Janey Williams- Jim ends up with Elena after Ben passes out in the bathroom at the swingers party. When the keys are exchanged, Ben, drunk out of his mind, tries to leave with Janey, but she goes with the teenager who drew her key.
Mike Williams- During the height of the ice storm, Mike walks through the neighborhood and is electrocuted when he stopped to sit on a guardrail. A downed power line connects with his seat.
Sandy Williams- Sandy is also 14 yrs old and drinks vodka and has sex with Wendy the night of the ice storm. They are discovered by Jim and Elena shortly before everyone learns that Mike has been killed.
Plot summary from the book's page at wikipedia-
"The novel takes place over Thanksgiving weekend 1973, during a dangerous ice storm and centers on two neighboring families, the Hoods and the Williamses, and the difficulties they have dealing with the tumultuous political and social climate of the day, in affluent suburban Connecticut, during the height of the sexual revolution. The novel is narrated from four different perspectives, each of them a member of the two families, who are promoting their own opinion and views of the several complications that arise throughout the novel, including their encounters and daily life. The Hood family is overridden with lies: Ben is currently in an affair with his married neighbor Janey, his wife Elena is alienated, her daughter ventures on her own sexual liaisons with both females and males of her age, including her neighbors Mikey and Sandy.
The Hoods are Ben, Elena, Paul and Wendy and the Williamses are Jim, Janey, Mikey, and Sandy. The story focuses on the 24 hours when a major ice storm strikes the town of New Canaan, Connecticut, just as both families are melting down from the parents' alcoholism, escapism and adultery, and their children's drug use and sexual experimentation."
New Canaan, Connecticut- Friday, the day after Thanksgiving- 1973
Ben and Elena Hood- Ben, stock broker/ alcoholic. Elena, is looking for a change and fed up with Ben's detached drunkenness. She's an advocate of 'self help'.
Wendy Hood- 14 yr old; sexually promiscuous (curious). Has sex with Mike Williams. Her father, Ben, has had sex with Janey, his lover, when he finds Mike and Wendy in the basement after a grope. Ben resents Mike; "The little shit". Wendy has also tried lesbian sex with a girlfriend.
Paul Hood- At a private academy and he is pursuing a very rich girl, Libbets Casey. Her family lives on Park Avenue in NYC. She only wants to be friends with him.
Jim and Janey Williams- Jim ends up with Elena after Ben passes out in the bathroom at the swingers party. When the keys are exchanged, Ben, drunk out of his mind, tries to leave with Janey, but she goes with the teenager who drew her key.
Mike Williams- During the height of the ice storm, Mike walks through the neighborhood and is electrocuted when he stopped to sit on a guardrail. A downed power line connects with his seat.
Sandy Williams- Sandy is also 14 yrs old and drinks vodka and has sex with Wendy the night of the ice storm. They are discovered by Jim and Elena shortly before everyone learns that Mike has been killed.
Plot summary from the book's page at wikipedia-
"The novel takes place over Thanksgiving weekend 1973, during a dangerous ice storm and centers on two neighboring families, the Hoods and the Williamses, and the difficulties they have dealing with the tumultuous political and social climate of the day, in affluent suburban Connecticut, during the height of the sexual revolution. The novel is narrated from four different perspectives, each of them a member of the two families, who are promoting their own opinion and views of the several complications that arise throughout the novel, including their encounters and daily life. The Hood family is overridden with lies: Ben is currently in an affair with his married neighbor Janey, his wife Elena is alienated, her daughter ventures on her own sexual liaisons with both females and males of her age, including her neighbors Mikey and Sandy.
The Hoods are Ben, Elena, Paul and Wendy and the Williamses are Jim, Janey, Mikey, and Sandy. The story focuses on the 24 hours when a major ice storm strikes the town of New Canaan, Connecticut, just as both families are melting down from the parents' alcoholism, escapism and adultery, and their children's drug use and sexual experimentation."
Friday, December 22, 2017
THE LATHE OF HEAVEN by Ursula K. Le Guin
Finished Fr 12/22/17
A Science Fiction Classic- This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I bought at the West Branch on Sa 2/7/04, and finished a few days later. In May of 2008 I carried in my work bag to read on 'the dispatcher's desk'.
From the blurb at Amazon-
"A classic science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, one of the greatest writers of the genre, set in a future world where one man’s dreams control the fate of humanity.
In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George’s dreams for his own purposes.
The Lathe of Heaven is an eerily prescient novel from award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin that masterfully addresses the dangers of power and humanity’s self-destructiveness, questioning the nature of reality itself. It is a classic of the science fiction genre."
Her writing style and subject matter is very close to PK Dick. THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS is one of her novels that I want to read again.
From wikipedia-
"Oneirology- is the scientific study of dreams. Current research seeks correlations between dreaming and current knowledge about the functions of the brain, as well as understanding of how the brain works during dreaming as pertains to memory formation and mental disorders. The study of oneirology can be distinguished from dream interpretation in that the aim is to quantitatively study the process of dreams instead of analyzing the meaning behind them."
George Orr- tries to stop dreaming
Dr. William Haber- tries to control George's dreams to shape the present and future.
The Augmentor- the machine (similar to a lie detector/EKG machine for the brain) that Dr. Haber builds to shape and control George's dreaming.
Heather LeLache- she's George's girlfriend/ legal rep/ wife. Her mother was white and her father was a Black Panther.
The Aldabaranians- The Aliens that George facilitates to stop humans from fighting each other.
The plot from wikipedia-
"The book is set in Portland, Oregon, in the year 2002. Portland has three million inhabitants and continuous rain. It is deprived enough for the poorer inhabitants to have kwashiorkor, or protein deprivation. The culture is much the same as the 1970s in the United States, though impoverished. There is also a massive war in the Middle East, with Egypt and Israel allied against Iran. Global warming has wrought havoc upon the quality of life everywhere.
George Orr, a draftsman, has long been abusing drugs to prevent himself from having "effective" dreams, which change reality. After having one of these dreams, the new reality is the only reality for everyone else, but George retains memory of the previous reality. Under threat of being placed in an asylum, Orr is forced to undergo "voluntary" psychiatric care for his drug abuse.
George begins attending therapy sessions with an ambitious psychiatrist and sleep researcher named William Haber. Orr claims that he has the power to dream "effectively" and Haber, gradually coming to believe it, seeks to use George's power to change the world. His experiments with a biofeedback/EEG machine, nicknamed the Augmentor, enhance Orr's abilities and produce a series of increasingly intolerable alternative worlds, based on an assortment of utopian (and dystopian) premises:
When Haber directs George to dream a world without racism, the skin of everyone on the planet becomes a uniform light gray.
An attempt to solve the problem of overpopulation proves disastrous when George dreams a devastating plague which wipes out much of humanity and gives the current world a population of one billion rather than seven billion.
George attempts to dream into existence "peace on Earth" – resulting in an alien invasion of the Moon which unites all the nations of Earth against the threat.
Each effective dream gives Haber more wealth and status, until he is effectively ruler of the world. Orr's economic status also improves, but he is unhappy with Haber's meddling and just wants to let things be. Increasingly frightened by Haber's lust for power and delusions of Godhood, Orr seeks out a lawyer named Heather Lelache to represent him against Haber. Heather is present at one therapeutic session, and comes to understand George's situation. He falls in love with Heather, and even marries her in one reality; however, he is unsuccessful in getting out of therapy.
George tells Heather that the "real world" had been destroyed in a nuclear war in April 1998. George dreamed it back into existence as he lay dying in the ruins. He doubts the reality of what now exists, hence his fear of Haber's efforts to improve it.
Portland and Mount Hood play a central role in the setting of the novel
Heather has seen one change of reality and has a multiple memory – remembering that her pilot husband either died early in the Middle East War or else died just before the truce that ended the war in the face of the alien threat. She tries to help George but also tries to improve the world, saying that the aliens should no longer be on the Moon. George dreams this, but the result is that they have invaded the Earth instead. In the resultant fighting, Mount Hood is bombed and the dormant volcano starts to erupt again.
They go back to Haber, who has George dream another dream in which the aliens are actually peaceful. For a time there is stability, but Haber goes on changing things. His suggestion that George dream away racism results in everyone becoming gray; Heather, whose parents were of different races, never existed in this new reality. George manages to dream up a gray version of her, married to him and with a less prickly personality. Mount Hood continues to erupt and he fears the world is losing coherence.
Orr has a conversation with one of the aliens, suddenly comes to understand his situation, and thereby gains the courage to stand up to Haber. Haber, frustrated with Orr's resistance, uses what he has learned from studying George's brain during his sessions of hypnosis and controlled dreaming, and decides to take on effective dreaming himself. Haber's first effective dream represents a significant break with the realities created by Orr, and threatens to destroy reality altogether. Orr is able to shut off the Augmentor – even as coherent existence is dissolving into undifferentiated chaos – reaching the "off" switch through pure force of will. The world is saved, but random bits of the various recent realities are now jumbled together. Haber's mind is left broken. Heather, presumably her original self, exists, though with only a slight memory of George."
A Science Fiction Classic- This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I bought at the West Branch on Sa 2/7/04, and finished a few days later. In May of 2008 I carried in my work bag to read on 'the dispatcher's desk'.
From the blurb at Amazon-
"A classic science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, one of the greatest writers of the genre, set in a future world where one man’s dreams control the fate of humanity.
In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George’s dreams for his own purposes.
The Lathe of Heaven is an eerily prescient novel from award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin that masterfully addresses the dangers of power and humanity’s self-destructiveness, questioning the nature of reality itself. It is a classic of the science fiction genre."
Her writing style and subject matter is very close to PK Dick. THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS is one of her novels that I want to read again.
From wikipedia-
"Oneirology- is the scientific study of dreams. Current research seeks correlations between dreaming and current knowledge about the functions of the brain, as well as understanding of how the brain works during dreaming as pertains to memory formation and mental disorders. The study of oneirology can be distinguished from dream interpretation in that the aim is to quantitatively study the process of dreams instead of analyzing the meaning behind them."
George Orr- tries to stop dreaming
Dr. William Haber- tries to control George's dreams to shape the present and future.
The Augmentor- the machine (similar to a lie detector/EKG machine for the brain) that Dr. Haber builds to shape and control George's dreaming.
Heather LeLache- she's George's girlfriend/ legal rep/ wife. Her mother was white and her father was a Black Panther.
The Aldabaranians- The Aliens that George facilitates to stop humans from fighting each other.
The plot from wikipedia-
"The book is set in Portland, Oregon, in the year 2002. Portland has three million inhabitants and continuous rain. It is deprived enough for the poorer inhabitants to have kwashiorkor, or protein deprivation. The culture is much the same as the 1970s in the United States, though impoverished. There is also a massive war in the Middle East, with Egypt and Israel allied against Iran. Global warming has wrought havoc upon the quality of life everywhere.
George Orr, a draftsman, has long been abusing drugs to prevent himself from having "effective" dreams, which change reality. After having one of these dreams, the new reality is the only reality for everyone else, but George retains memory of the previous reality. Under threat of being placed in an asylum, Orr is forced to undergo "voluntary" psychiatric care for his drug abuse.
George begins attending therapy sessions with an ambitious psychiatrist and sleep researcher named William Haber. Orr claims that he has the power to dream "effectively" and Haber, gradually coming to believe it, seeks to use George's power to change the world. His experiments with a biofeedback/EEG machine, nicknamed the Augmentor, enhance Orr's abilities and produce a series of increasingly intolerable alternative worlds, based on an assortment of utopian (and dystopian) premises:
When Haber directs George to dream a world without racism, the skin of everyone on the planet becomes a uniform light gray.
An attempt to solve the problem of overpopulation proves disastrous when George dreams a devastating plague which wipes out much of humanity and gives the current world a population of one billion rather than seven billion.
George attempts to dream into existence "peace on Earth" – resulting in an alien invasion of the Moon which unites all the nations of Earth against the threat.
Each effective dream gives Haber more wealth and status, until he is effectively ruler of the world. Orr's economic status also improves, but he is unhappy with Haber's meddling and just wants to let things be. Increasingly frightened by Haber's lust for power and delusions of Godhood, Orr seeks out a lawyer named Heather Lelache to represent him against Haber. Heather is present at one therapeutic session, and comes to understand George's situation. He falls in love with Heather, and even marries her in one reality; however, he is unsuccessful in getting out of therapy.
George tells Heather that the "real world" had been destroyed in a nuclear war in April 1998. George dreamed it back into existence as he lay dying in the ruins. He doubts the reality of what now exists, hence his fear of Haber's efforts to improve it.
Portland and Mount Hood play a central role in the setting of the novel
Heather has seen one change of reality and has a multiple memory – remembering that her pilot husband either died early in the Middle East War or else died just before the truce that ended the war in the face of the alien threat. She tries to help George but also tries to improve the world, saying that the aliens should no longer be on the Moon. George dreams this, but the result is that they have invaded the Earth instead. In the resultant fighting, Mount Hood is bombed and the dormant volcano starts to erupt again.
They go back to Haber, who has George dream another dream in which the aliens are actually peaceful. For a time there is stability, but Haber goes on changing things. His suggestion that George dream away racism results in everyone becoming gray; Heather, whose parents were of different races, never existed in this new reality. George manages to dream up a gray version of her, married to him and with a less prickly personality. Mount Hood continues to erupt and he fears the world is losing coherence.
Orr has a conversation with one of the aliens, suddenly comes to understand his situation, and thereby gains the courage to stand up to Haber. Haber, frustrated with Orr's resistance, uses what he has learned from studying George's brain during his sessions of hypnosis and controlled dreaming, and decides to take on effective dreaming himself. Haber's first effective dream represents a significant break with the realities created by Orr, and threatens to destroy reality altogether. Orr is able to shut off the Augmentor – even as coherent existence is dissolving into undifferentiated chaos – reaching the "off" switch through pure force of will. The world is saved, but random bits of the various recent realities are now jumbled together. Haber's mind is left broken. Heather, presumably her original self, exists, though with only a slight memory of George."
TRUE EVIL by Greg Iles
Finished Tu 12/19/17 This was a hardback novel that I picked up at last summer's library book sale- Sa 6/10/17.
I was blown away- an unforgettable thriller, and I Want More by this author!
Essentially, it's a tale of a crooked pathologist and a corrupt divorce lawyer. If you want to get rid of your spouse, these are the two guys you need to see. The scientist has developed a virus to cause cancer, and the lawyer screens clients to make sure that they have the ridiculous amount of cash and that they are dependable (no squealers!). The downside of the procedure is that it could take eighteen months for the death to occur, but the death will always be viewed as 'natural causes'. Seen through the 'big picture', it's actually a lot cheaper and 'cleaner' than a prolonged, messy divorce.
The plot-
Discredited, female FBI agent, Agent Alexandra Morse contacts Dr. Chris Shepard to inform him that his happy marriage is just a sham, and his wife is trying to kill him. Alex's sister, Grace, has recently died of cancer and before she died she told Alex that her husband, Bill, was responsible, and she must save Grace's son, Jamie.
Dr. Eldon Tarver- The scientist
Andrew Rusk- The lawyer
From the blurb at Amazon-
"Dr. Chris Shepard has never seen his new patient before. But the attractive young woman with the scarred face knows him all too well. An FBI agent working undercover, Alex Morse has come to Dr. Shepard's office in Natchez, Mississippi, to unmask a killer. A local divorce attorney has a cluster of clients whose spouses have all died under mysterious circumstances. Agent Morse's own brother-in-law was one of those clients, and now her beloved sister is dead. Then comes Morse's bombshell: Dr. Shepard's own beautiful wife consulted this lawyer one week ago, a visit Shepard knew nothing about. Will he help Alex Morse catch a killer? Or is he the next one to fall victim to a deadly trap of sex, lies, and murder?"
I was blown away- an unforgettable thriller, and I Want More by this author!
Essentially, it's a tale of a crooked pathologist and a corrupt divorce lawyer. If you want to get rid of your spouse, these are the two guys you need to see. The scientist has developed a virus to cause cancer, and the lawyer screens clients to make sure that they have the ridiculous amount of cash and that they are dependable (no squealers!). The downside of the procedure is that it could take eighteen months for the death to occur, but the death will always be viewed as 'natural causes'. Seen through the 'big picture', it's actually a lot cheaper and 'cleaner' than a prolonged, messy divorce.
The plot-
Discredited, female FBI agent, Agent Alexandra Morse contacts Dr. Chris Shepard to inform him that his happy marriage is just a sham, and his wife is trying to kill him. Alex's sister, Grace, has recently died of cancer and before she died she told Alex that her husband, Bill, was responsible, and she must save Grace's son, Jamie.
Dr. Eldon Tarver- The scientist
Andrew Rusk- The lawyer
From the blurb at Amazon-
"Dr. Chris Shepard has never seen his new patient before. But the attractive young woman with the scarred face knows him all too well. An FBI agent working undercover, Alex Morse has come to Dr. Shepard's office in Natchez, Mississippi, to unmask a killer. A local divorce attorney has a cluster of clients whose spouses have all died under mysterious circumstances. Agent Morse's own brother-in-law was one of those clients, and now her beloved sister is dead. Then comes Morse's bombshell: Dr. Shepard's own beautiful wife consulted this lawyer one week ago, a visit Shepard knew nothing about. Will he help Alex Morse catch a killer? Or is he the next one to fall victim to a deadly trap of sex, lies, and murder?"
Sunday, December 17, 2017
THE DEATH OF SWEET MISTER by Daniel Woodrell (THE MAID'S VERSION)
I finished THE DEATH OF SWEET MISTER on Sa 12/16/17, and a couple of weeks ago I read an Ebook copy of Woodrell's THE MAID'S VERSION- but never wrote it up.
THE DEATH OF SWEET MISTER is a slim novel about a young, overweight 13 year old boy, Shug Aiken, his mother, and his cruel step-father- their lives on the fringe of criminality.
Shug- Real name is 'Morris'- probably after his real father who might have been some kind of gangster from Cleveland. His mother lived and worked there several years ago. Now they live in the middle of a cemetery employed as groundskeepers.
Glenda- Alcoholic floozy, but really loves her son. She wants to protect him from Red, her present lover. She has a 'quasi- un-naturally sexual' relationship with Shug. She doesn't know how to handle this (or her feelings). She should know better, but you can kind of understand how she's in way over her head.
Red- Red-headed criminal and bully. He and his good friend, Basil, locate patients that are homebound. They break into these people's homes and take their drugs- or anything of value. When Shug is old enough (13 years old), they use him to enter the houses. When Red takes him from Glenda, he's supposed to tell her that he's doing,... "Men's stuff".
Jimmy Vin Pearce- An older man who drives a flashy sea-green Thunderbird. He's a chef and tries to get Glenda to leave with him to cook in New Orleans. This falls through and at the end of the novel he was going to work on a cruise ship- Shug was to go live with his grandmother.
The crux of the novel is the murder of Red. Jimmy and Glenda did it, but the scene is never told. It happens in Shug's house and Shug cleans up the carnage- the body is not found. Shug saves one of Red's boots. In the end, probably because Glenda and Jimmy are scheming to leave him, he gives the boot to Basil, and Basil seeks revenge.
Basil is the only one who cares what happened to Red. He probably has killed Jimmy and coming to get Glenda in the end- and maybe Shug.
In the final scene, maybe Shug and Glenda have a sexual encounter. Basil is coming, maybe to murder both of them.
From the blurb at Amazon-
"Shug Akins is a lonely, overweight thirteen-year-old boy. His mother, Glenda, is the one person who loves him--she calls him Sweet Mister and attempts to boost his confidence and give him hope for his future. Shuggie's purported father, Red, is a brutal man with a short fuse who mocks and despises the boy. Into this small-town Ozarks mix comes Jimmy Vin Pearce, with his shiny green T-bird and his smart city clothes. When he and Glenda begin a torrid affair, a series of violent events is inevitably set in motion. The outcome will break your heart".
THE DEATH OF SWEET MISTER is a slim novel about a young, overweight 13 year old boy, Shug Aiken, his mother, and his cruel step-father- their lives on the fringe of criminality.
Shug- Real name is 'Morris'- probably after his real father who might have been some kind of gangster from Cleveland. His mother lived and worked there several years ago. Now they live in the middle of a cemetery employed as groundskeepers.
Glenda- Alcoholic floozy, but really loves her son. She wants to protect him from Red, her present lover. She has a 'quasi- un-naturally sexual' relationship with Shug. She doesn't know how to handle this (or her feelings). She should know better, but you can kind of understand how she's in way over her head.
Red- Red-headed criminal and bully. He and his good friend, Basil, locate patients that are homebound. They break into these people's homes and take their drugs- or anything of value. When Shug is old enough (13 years old), they use him to enter the houses. When Red takes him from Glenda, he's supposed to tell her that he's doing,... "Men's stuff".
Jimmy Vin Pearce- An older man who drives a flashy sea-green Thunderbird. He's a chef and tries to get Glenda to leave with him to cook in New Orleans. This falls through and at the end of the novel he was going to work on a cruise ship- Shug was to go live with his grandmother.
The crux of the novel is the murder of Red. Jimmy and Glenda did it, but the scene is never told. It happens in Shug's house and Shug cleans up the carnage- the body is not found. Shug saves one of Red's boots. In the end, probably because Glenda and Jimmy are scheming to leave him, he gives the boot to Basil, and Basil seeks revenge.
Basil is the only one who cares what happened to Red. He probably has killed Jimmy and coming to get Glenda in the end- and maybe Shug.
In the final scene, maybe Shug and Glenda have a sexual encounter. Basil is coming, maybe to murder both of them.
From the blurb at Amazon-
"Shug Akins is a lonely, overweight thirteen-year-old boy. His mother, Glenda, is the one person who loves him--she calls him Sweet Mister and attempts to boost his confidence and give him hope for his future. Shuggie's purported father, Red, is a brutal man with a short fuse who mocks and despises the boy. Into this small-town Ozarks mix comes Jimmy Vin Pearce, with his shiny green T-bird and his smart city clothes. When he and Glenda begin a torrid affair, a series of violent events is inevitably set in motion. The outcome will break your heart".
THE MAID'S VERSION is set in two different eras. But it's basically the 60's when a boy visits his grandmother and she tells him of events that occured in 1929.
I wasn't wild about the book, and I liked SWEET MISTER much more, but WINTER'S BONE is clearly his best work.
From the blurb at Amazon-
"Alma DeGeer Dunahew, the mother of three young boys, works as the maid for a prominent citizen and his family in West Table, Missouri. Her husband is mostly absent, and, in 1929, her scandalous, beloved younger sister is one of the 42 killed in an explosion at the local dance hall. Who is to blame? Mobsters from St. Louis? The embittered local gypsies? The preacher who railed against the loose morals of the waltzing couples? Or could it have been a colossal accident"?
Friday, December 15, 2017
THE NEVER-OPEN DESERT DINER by James Anderson
Finished Fr 12/15/17
The featured selection for the Contemporary Book Club. This is a hardback copy that I got through Amazon.
From the blurb at Amazon-
"BEN JONES, the protagonist of James Anderson s haunting debut novel, The Never-Open Desert Diner (Caravel Books, February, 2015), is on the verge of losing his small trucking company. A single, thirty-eight-year-old truck driver, Ben s route takes him back and forth across one of the most desolate and beautiful regions of the Utah desert. The orphan son of a Native American father and a Jewish social worker, Ben is drawn into a love affair with a mysterious woman, Claire, who plays a cello in the model home of an abandoned housing development in the desert. Her appearance, seemingly out of nowhere, reignites a decades-old tragedy at a roadside café referred to by the locals as The Never-Open Desert Diner. The owner of the diner, Walt Butterfield, is an embittered and solitary old man who refuses to yield to change after his wife s death. Ben s daily deliveries along the atmospheric and evocative desert highway bring him into contact with an eccentric cast of characters that includes: John, an itinerant preacher who drags a life-sized cross along the blazing roadside; the Lacey brothers, Fergus and Duncan, who live in boxcars mounted on cinderblocks; and Ginny, a pregnant and homeless punk teenager whose survival skills make her an unlikely heroine. Ben s job as a truck driver is more than a career; it is a life he loves. As he faces bankruptcy and the possible loss of everything that matters to him, he finds himself at the heart of a horrific crime that was committed forty years earlier and now threatens to destroy the lives of those left in its wake. Ben discovers the desert is relentless in its grip, and what the desert wants, it takes. An unforgettable story of love and loss, Ben learns the enduring truth that some violent crimes renew themselves across generations. The Never-Open Desert Diner is a unique blend of literary mystery and noir fiction that evokes a strong sense of place. It is a story that holds the reader and refuses to let go and will linger long after the last page".
p. 79- John Wayne Quote; "Life is tough. It's even tougher when you're stupid".
Walt Butterfield and Bernice
Price, Utah
Howard Purvis...."Or something"... P. 62
BEN'S DESERT MOON DELIVERY SERVICE
Claire- cello woman; more than meets the eye- pretty crafted and calculating, with a temper.
Duncan and Fergus Lacey- Desert Rat Brother's, but really father and son bank robbers.
THE WELL KNOWN DESERT DINER
p.229- begins The Interrogation.
I loved the book and I wonder if this might be a movie. It could be really good, or completely miss the mark.
The featured selection for the Contemporary Book Club. This is a hardback copy that I got through Amazon.
From the blurb at Amazon-
"BEN JONES, the protagonist of James Anderson s haunting debut novel, The Never-Open Desert Diner (Caravel Books, February, 2015), is on the verge of losing his small trucking company. A single, thirty-eight-year-old truck driver, Ben s route takes him back and forth across one of the most desolate and beautiful regions of the Utah desert. The orphan son of a Native American father and a Jewish social worker, Ben is drawn into a love affair with a mysterious woman, Claire, who plays a cello in the model home of an abandoned housing development in the desert. Her appearance, seemingly out of nowhere, reignites a decades-old tragedy at a roadside café referred to by the locals as The Never-Open Desert Diner. The owner of the diner, Walt Butterfield, is an embittered and solitary old man who refuses to yield to change after his wife s death. Ben s daily deliveries along the atmospheric and evocative desert highway bring him into contact with an eccentric cast of characters that includes: John, an itinerant preacher who drags a life-sized cross along the blazing roadside; the Lacey brothers, Fergus and Duncan, who live in boxcars mounted on cinderblocks; and Ginny, a pregnant and homeless punk teenager whose survival skills make her an unlikely heroine. Ben s job as a truck driver is more than a career; it is a life he loves. As he faces bankruptcy and the possible loss of everything that matters to him, he finds himself at the heart of a horrific crime that was committed forty years earlier and now threatens to destroy the lives of those left in its wake. Ben discovers the desert is relentless in its grip, and what the desert wants, it takes. An unforgettable story of love and loss, Ben learns the enduring truth that some violent crimes renew themselves across generations. The Never-Open Desert Diner is a unique blend of literary mystery and noir fiction that evokes a strong sense of place. It is a story that holds the reader and refuses to let go and will linger long after the last page".
p. 79- John Wayne Quote; "Life is tough. It's even tougher when you're stupid".
Walt Butterfield and Bernice
Price, Utah
Howard Purvis...."Or something"... P. 62
BEN'S DESERT MOON DELIVERY SERVICE
Claire- cello woman; more than meets the eye- pretty crafted and calculating, with a temper.
Duncan and Fergus Lacey- Desert Rat Brother's, but really father and son bank robbers.
THE WELL KNOWN DESERT DINER
p.229- begins The Interrogation.
I loved the book and I wonder if this might be a movie. It could be really good, or completely miss the mark.
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT by Michael Connelly
Refinished Tu 12/12/17
This is a discarded from the library hardback book that I got at the Lincoln library book sale on Sa 6/11/05 and first read and finished on Sa 7/30/05. My initial impression was, "...good book, THE POET was better". I think that I liked it better the second time, and although THE POET is probably the better novel, I truly enjoyed this second look at Jack McEvoy (he has a relatively small part in the book), and the new character, ex-FBI profiler, Terry McCaleb. I ordered THE SCARECROW a few weeks ago, and Jack McEvoy is featured in this novel.
TWO STORYLINES;
1) A man is murdered. Trussed up and strangled; the body position is based on a character in a painting by Hieronymous Bosch. This man had gotten off for the murder of a prostitute. Harry Bosch always believed that this man stabbed the woman, but he pleaded that it was only self defense, and he was able to turn the knife on her. Harry had it in for this man.
2) A prominent Hollywood director is on trial for murder. He is accused of strangling a sex partner, and he has a history of autoeroticism.
The director and his security man killed the first man and arranged the body like the character from Hieronymous Bosch so that it would appear that Harry did that murder. Then, Harry's testimony would be disregarded at the director's trial.
Terry McCaleb is recovering from heart surgery and lives on Catalina Island. He makes a living chartering his boat. He is married and has a very young daughter. He loves them more than he can imagine, except he can't forget his passion- profiling criminals. McCaleb gets involved on the cases and at first he believes that Harry has 'gone rogue', but later learns of the director's plot to frame Harry.
From the description at Amazon-
"LAPD Detective Harry Bosch crosses paths with FBI profiler Terry McCaleb in the most dangerous investigation of their lives.
Harry Bosch is up to his neck in a case that has transfixed all of celebrity-mad Los Angeles: a movie director is charged with murdering an actress during sex, and then staging her death to make it look like a suicide. Bosch is both the arresting officer and the star witness in a trial that has brought the Hollywood media pack out in full-throated frenzy.
Meanwhile, Terry McCaleb is enjoying an idyllic retirement on Catalina Island when a visit from an old colleague brings his former world rushing back. It's a murder, the unreadable kind of murder he specialized in solving back in his FBI days. The investigation has stalled, and the sheriff's office is asking McCaleb to take a quick look at the murder book to see if he turns up something they've missed.
McCaleb's first reading of the crime scene leads him to look for a methodical killer with a taste for rituals and revenge. As his quick look accelerates into a full-sprint investigation, the two crimes - his murdered loner and Bosch's movie director - begin to overlap strangely. With one unsettling revelation after another, they merge, becoming one impossible, terrifying case, involving almost inconceivable calculation. McCaleb believes he has unmasked the most frightening killer ever to cross his sights. But his investigation tangles with Bosch's lines, and the two men find themselves at odds in the most dangerous investigation of their lives."
I loved the book and would read anything by Michael Connelly. James Patterson doesn't even have the writing talent to sharpen pencils for Connelly.
This is a discarded from the library hardback book that I got at the Lincoln library book sale on Sa 6/11/05 and first read and finished on Sa 7/30/05. My initial impression was, "...good book, THE POET was better". I think that I liked it better the second time, and although THE POET is probably the better novel, I truly enjoyed this second look at Jack McEvoy (he has a relatively small part in the book), and the new character, ex-FBI profiler, Terry McCaleb. I ordered THE SCARECROW a few weeks ago, and Jack McEvoy is featured in this novel.
TWO STORYLINES;
1) A man is murdered. Trussed up and strangled; the body position is based on a character in a painting by Hieronymous Bosch. This man had gotten off for the murder of a prostitute. Harry Bosch always believed that this man stabbed the woman, but he pleaded that it was only self defense, and he was able to turn the knife on her. Harry had it in for this man.
2) A prominent Hollywood director is on trial for murder. He is accused of strangling a sex partner, and he has a history of autoeroticism.
The director and his security man killed the first man and arranged the body like the character from Hieronymous Bosch so that it would appear that Harry did that murder. Then, Harry's testimony would be disregarded at the director's trial.
Terry McCaleb is recovering from heart surgery and lives on Catalina Island. He makes a living chartering his boat. He is married and has a very young daughter. He loves them more than he can imagine, except he can't forget his passion- profiling criminals. McCaleb gets involved on the cases and at first he believes that Harry has 'gone rogue', but later learns of the director's plot to frame Harry.
From the description at Amazon-
"LAPD Detective Harry Bosch crosses paths with FBI profiler Terry McCaleb in the most dangerous investigation of their lives.
Harry Bosch is up to his neck in a case that has transfixed all of celebrity-mad Los Angeles: a movie director is charged with murdering an actress during sex, and then staging her death to make it look like a suicide. Bosch is both the arresting officer and the star witness in a trial that has brought the Hollywood media pack out in full-throated frenzy.
Meanwhile, Terry McCaleb is enjoying an idyllic retirement on Catalina Island when a visit from an old colleague brings his former world rushing back. It's a murder, the unreadable kind of murder he specialized in solving back in his FBI days. The investigation has stalled, and the sheriff's office is asking McCaleb to take a quick look at the murder book to see if he turns up something they've missed.
McCaleb's first reading of the crime scene leads him to look for a methodical killer with a taste for rituals and revenge. As his quick look accelerates into a full-sprint investigation, the two crimes - his murdered loner and Bosch's movie director - begin to overlap strangely. With one unsettling revelation after another, they merge, becoming one impossible, terrifying case, involving almost inconceivable calculation. McCaleb believes he has unmasked the most frightening killer ever to cross his sights. But his investigation tangles with Bosch's lines, and the two men find themselves at odds in the most dangerous investigation of their lives."
I loved the book and would read anything by Michael Connelly. James Patterson doesn't even have the writing talent to sharpen pencils for Connelly.
Sunday, December 3, 2017
THE WOODEN SEA by Jonathan Carroll
Finished Th 11/30/17
I got this novel and FROM THE TEETH OF AN ANGEL from Amazon (the first time I had two items wrapped together) after reading AFTER SILENCE.
The first third of this novel really blew me away, but it got just too complicated to be believed. It's designed to be 'unbelievable', but there is a limit.
It's set in upstate New York and kicks off when the town's chief of police, Frannie McCabe is visited by a three legged pit bull, Old Vertue. The dog seems to be attracted to the chief, and when the dog drops dead, Frannie buries him, but the dog resurrects. And, this jump starts a series of extraordinary and audacious adventures that involve time travel, aliens, and otherworldly beings.
"Is it mischief or metaphysical"?
"How do you row a boat on a wooden sea"? This is kind of a zen koan that really is not answered. The best guess is that if the sea is wooden, you would just walk away. Or maybe the question is not 'sea', but 'C'.
From a review on Publishers Weekly and I fully agree-
"Immensely popular abroad, Carroll (The Marriage of Sticks) has yet to achieve commensurate stature on his native shore. His latest novel combines George Perec's pleasure in puzzles and Philip Dick's interest in metaphysics. Frannie McCabe is the 47-year-old police chief of Crane's View, N.Y., who one day adopts an old, three-legged stray dog. This is typical of his style, as his wife, Magda, recognizes: "The more goofy they are, the more you like them, huh, Fran?" The dog, Old Vertue, dies; the weirdness begins when McCabe tries to bury him. The burial is interrupted by a report about the perpetually battling Schiavo couple, who seem to have tidied up and abandoned their usually squalid house. McCabe's investigation of the domicile turns up a bizarrely patterned feather which, along with the dog's carcass, reappears in the trunk of Magda's car the next day, spooking McCabe. Even spookier, Pauline, McCabe's stepdaughter, now has a tattoo that exactly matches the feather. Then McCabe's world turns surreal: he is visited by his teenage self. The adolescent McCabe, who had been a notorious delinquent, leads his older self to Astropel, a black extraterrestrial. The aliens know Crane's View has some connection to the cosmic puzzle of the universe itself, but they need McCabe to figure out the specifics. Astropel shuttles Frannie back and forth in time, piling up such clues as a maniac Dutch millionaire from 2030 and a koan ("How do you row a boat on a wooden sea?") pronounced by a dead high school girl. Carroll's best set piece shows McCabe watching Crane's View physically fast forward from the '60s to the '90s.
"Although the story's resolution is weaker than its build up, this wonderfully offbeat novel will further augment Carroll's growing reputation as the pop writer's pop writer".
I got this novel and FROM THE TEETH OF AN ANGEL from Amazon (the first time I had two items wrapped together) after reading AFTER SILENCE.
The first third of this novel really blew me away, but it got just too complicated to be believed. It's designed to be 'unbelievable', but there is a limit.
It's set in upstate New York and kicks off when the town's chief of police, Frannie McCabe is visited by a three legged pit bull, Old Vertue. The dog seems to be attracted to the chief, and when the dog drops dead, Frannie buries him, but the dog resurrects. And, this jump starts a series of extraordinary and audacious adventures that involve time travel, aliens, and otherworldly beings.
"Is it mischief or metaphysical"?
"How do you row a boat on a wooden sea"? This is kind of a zen koan that really is not answered. The best guess is that if the sea is wooden, you would just walk away. Or maybe the question is not 'sea', but 'C'.
From a review on Publishers Weekly and I fully agree-
"Immensely popular abroad, Carroll (The Marriage of Sticks) has yet to achieve commensurate stature on his native shore. His latest novel combines George Perec's pleasure in puzzles and Philip Dick's interest in metaphysics. Frannie McCabe is the 47-year-old police chief of Crane's View, N.Y., who one day adopts an old, three-legged stray dog. This is typical of his style, as his wife, Magda, recognizes: "The more goofy they are, the more you like them, huh, Fran?" The dog, Old Vertue, dies; the weirdness begins when McCabe tries to bury him. The burial is interrupted by a report about the perpetually battling Schiavo couple, who seem to have tidied up and abandoned their usually squalid house. McCabe's investigation of the domicile turns up a bizarrely patterned feather which, along with the dog's carcass, reappears in the trunk of Magda's car the next day, spooking McCabe. Even spookier, Pauline, McCabe's stepdaughter, now has a tattoo that exactly matches the feather. Then McCabe's world turns surreal: he is visited by his teenage self. The adolescent McCabe, who had been a notorious delinquent, leads his older self to Astropel, a black extraterrestrial. The aliens know Crane's View has some connection to the cosmic puzzle of the universe itself, but they need McCabe to figure out the specifics. Astropel shuttles Frannie back and forth in time, piling up such clues as a maniac Dutch millionaire from 2030 and a koan ("How do you row a boat on a wooden sea?") pronounced by a dead high school girl. Carroll's best set piece shows McCabe watching Crane's View physically fast forward from the '60s to the '90s.
"Although the story's resolution is weaker than its build up, this wonderfully offbeat novel will further augment Carroll's growing reputation as the pop writer's pop writer".
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