Well, we've reached the last week of February and I've had my fill of snow and really cold weather. But I think the worst days were the gray ones - and that was most of the month. Fortunately, there's always a book around to occupy my time.
Miscellaneous
The Murder of King Tut - James Patterson and Martin Dugard (L6.99/$.50, copyright 2009, 326 pages, Trade Paperback)
This has been referred to as a non-fiction novel and is yet another example of the Patterson Book Mill's ability to expand it's horizons. Patterson and Dugard did a great deal of research to put this together and it reads well, using Paterson's patented quick, short chapters approach. It jumps back and forth between the present day (research), the late 19th and early 20th century (the discovery of Tut's tomb by Howard Carter and others), and the 1300's B. C. (Tut's time). It's an interesting book but - in the end - speculation (and they never positively identify the actual murderer). It was OK.
Mine - Robert McCammon ($5.95/$.50, copyright 1990, 487 pages, Paperback)
Last year, I wrote about McCammon's novel "Boy's Life" and how much I enjoyed it. When I saw this in the Edison library I had to pick it up. McCammon usually tends more towards the traditional monsters, vampires, etc.; but here, he has taken on the human monster. Mary Terrell is an overweight and aging hippie, unstable and unable to let go of her past as a member of a radical and violent group. She kidnaps a baby from a hospital and the real mother, Laura Clayborne, goes after them. What we are left with is a fingernail-biting chase across three thousand miles, with close calls and near misses and horrific anxiety at every turn. I liked it.
Hammett - Joe Gores ($1.95/$1.95, copyright 1975, 253 pages, Paperback)
I've enjoyed Dashiell Hammett's books and I'm always up for a hard-boiled detective story. The fictional Hammett in Joe Gores' book was a detective and Pinkerton agent who's been writing for a while. He gets pulled back into the business when a former partner is killed. Gores paints a great picture of a vibrant and very corrupt California in the 1920's, and even has Hammett taking the streetcar instead of driving as he goes on dates or meets a contact in his investigation. He gives us the San Francisco that Hammett wrote about where the town is run by the cops, the crooks, and the big rich, and everything is for sale. I enjoyed it.
That's it for now. The weatherman just said we should be warming up over the coming weekend (which will lead us into March.)
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