Chapter One Hundred and Three

As I mentioned last time, I've been waiting for a few books on order to come in so I've dug into the piles of books on my shelves. I spent about 1/2 a day doing this and picked out about 10 that piqued my curiosity. I've had a lot of down time recently so I've gotten through a couple of these as well as a couple of the ones I ordered. Here we go ….

Series

14 Peck Slip Station - Ed Dee ($5.99/$4.28, copyright 1994, 302 pages, Paperback)
This is the first book in a series that I wrote about a few months ago and mentioned at that time that I'd ordered from a Discount site. Now I finally got around to reading it. Flynn and Gregory are detectives in NY and have been partners for a very long time. They've been checking out the Fish Market for a few days looking for one of the mob bosses when they watch a bunch of goons drop a barrel off a pier. Gregory is convinced that there's a body inside and calls out Special Services. They wind up recovering the wrong barrel but it holds something interesting - the body of a cop who's been missing for over 10 years. A cop who was openly on the take and doing business with and for the mob when he got nailed by IAD and was going to testify. There's a lot at stake for Flynn and Gregory as they deal with mobsters and senior police officials who may have all been involved in the corruption. This book is different from the one's that followed because the violence takes place on the page though none of it is gratuitous. Also, Dee spends a lot of time dealing with families and their relationships. We learn more about Flynn's home life and get to see Gregory's interaction with his father. His descriptions of the city and the various locations the guys drive through are spot-on but I felt that some of the supporting characters were interchangeable. Still, the ending we get feels right under the circumstances. I enjoyed it.
(NOTE: I have the feeling that Dee did not originally intend to build a series out of Flynn and Gregory. The ending here does not gibe with the subsequent books and there are a few things that happen that are changed in the follow-ups. Still, it's a good series and I recommend it.)


Series - Off the Shelf

You Bet Your Life - Stuart Kaminsky ($2.25/$2.25, copyright 1978, 213 pages, Paperback)
There's a formula for certain Detective stories that goes back to the days of Hammett and Chandler. A
down-on-his-luck ex-cop turned Private Investigator gets hired by a rich guy to help a client of his whose being threatened unless he pays a gambling debt that the client swears isn't his. A lot of writers have followed this - some successful some not. Kaminsky has added something interesting - specifics. Toby Peters (the PI) is hired by Louis B. Meyers of MGM (the rich guy) to help Chico Marx (the client) get out of a gambling debt that Chico swears isn't his. Toby has to fly to Florida to speak to Al Capone then take the train to Chicago to meet with Frank Nitti as he tries to find out who's behind things. During his investigation, he gets to interact with Chico and the other Marx Brothers and gets rescued from a tough spot by Ian Fleming. Kaminski does a great job with the characters including the secondary ones and I particularly liked the way he depicts Toby - a 40-ish guy who winds up underdressed in Chicago during the winter and catches a cold. I enjoyed it.
(NOTE: This is the third book in the series. I'm pretty sure I originally read this back in the mid-seventies as a selection from a book club I subscribed to. I can't find the first of the series around here so - you know me -I found it online and ordered it.)

The Monkey's Raincoat - Robert Crais ($7.99/$7.99, copyright 1987, 201 pages, Paperback)
This is the first in the Elvis Cole series and I actually found it in the stack on my bookshelves. Cole is a PI in LA and he's a real wise-ass. He's hired by a woman to track down her husband who appears to have run off and taken their son with him. It seems like a pretty simple case so he starts at the family house to see what he can find.Things start to get out of hand right there. The family house has been ransacked and the cops (including his friend Lou Poitras) get involved. Turns out the husband was in the film industry but not very successful. He's murdered and the boy turns up missing. Cole finds out that a Mexican drug dealer is missing a package and the dead husband is the suspect. He's given a deadline to produce the goods so he brings in his partner, Joe Pike,who's an ex-cop and a sometimes mercenary. This is a short, fast book that intensifies quickly. Cole and Pike are very interesting characters and Crais gives us some background to each of them as the book progresses.There's a lot of violence here but Crais offsets it with humor and some quiet moments between Cole and his client (and Pike). I enjoyed it.


A Drink Before the War - Dennis Lehane ($6.99/$3.75, copyright 1994, 277 pages. Paperback)

I found another of the books in this series within the pile on my bookcases and - you know me - I had
to order the first. It came in while I was reading something else. Patrick Kenzie is a PI in Boston with
a female partner, Angie Gennaro, a decent practice, and he's from the wise-ass school . They get hired by a State Senator and his cronies to recover some "documents" they accuse a cleaning lady of stealing. It seems like a quick job and easy money, but the cleaning lady is black and Boston is boiling over with racial tensions. The Partners track down the woman but Kenzie has a change of heart and they agree to help her out. That lasted until she was murdered in cold blood in a public square. Now they find themselves caught between two rival gangs trying to wipe each other out. Lehane has created a couple of interesting, likeable characters in Kenzie and Gennaro. They've been friends since kids, growing up in the same neighborhood, and the conversations between them ring true. Their back stories - especially Gennaro's abusive marriage - bring in a certain realism and Lehane goes one step further. Other characters who could've been clichés are fleshed out nicely and he wraps up the book with something unexpected. I enjoyed it.


Here's something that I felt I had to add even though most of you probably don't bother with them. I've included totals every year since I've been doing this but, due to circumstances, I missed posting last months. Bear in mind that these are from December, 2017, through November, 2018.

Off the Shelf - 5 books, 22.88 actual cost, 22.88 out of pocket
Miscellaneous - 13 books, 124.16 actual cost, 20.61 out of pocket
Series - 11 books, 76.18 actual cost, 4.75 out of pocket

2018 totals 29 books, 223.22 actual cost, 25.36 out of pocket

grand totals for 9 years 353 books, 3444.97 actual cost, 380.29 out of pocket)

I don't have anything else on order for now and I'm hoping to do a Library Run soon. In the meantime, I'm juggling 2 books so we'll see what happens. the days are getting longer and the weather's getting warmer. Enjoy yourself and ….

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Chapter One Hundred and Two

I'm going to do something different this time so bear with me. When I buy a book - and I presume it's the same for everyone - I'm motivated by the Author's name (especially if it's a continuation of a series), the subject matter, the cover, and/or the description and blurbs on the back. Still, the old adage is true - Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware). I've mentioned in the past that there are a lot of books I start but then put aside or wind up disappointed with. I thought that I'd give you an example so here are 2 books where the Author's name drew me in.

Series

Deep Freeze - John Sandford ($9.99/$.50, copyright 2017, 385 pages, Paperback)
Sandford is the author of the "Prey" series starring Lucas Davenport, who leads the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. I've read and enjoyed a number of these so when I came across this I picked it up eagerly. Virgil Flowers is an investigator for the Bureau who operates in the more  rural areas of the state. Here, he's given two cases to work on in the small town of Trippton- a place he solved another case years ago and where a lot of people know him. The first is the murder of a prominent woman in her own home after hosting a meeting for a 20 year school reunion. The second involves tracking down whoever is adapting Barbie and Ken dolls so they can simulate sex. Virgil
is an interesting character and Sandford does a great job with the townspeople (especially Virgil's friend Johnson Johnson) and the winter scenes in Minnesota but it's entirely too long. Virgil interviews everyone who was at the meeting and asks them all the same basic questions which became tiresome. Plus, we know who the murderer is because he's revealed in the first chapter. As far as the second case, it only popped up intermittently and I lost interest. It's now in the "Donate To The Library" pile.

Miscellaneous

The Third Man - Graham Greene ($12.95/$3.98, copyright 1968, 120 pages, Trade Paperback)
I read a few of Greene's books years ago and recently came across a reference to one that I hadn't. I, of course, went to my favorite Discount site to look for it. I forgot about it as soon as I came across this. I didn't know that Greene had written it and it's one of my favorite movies. I ordered it immediately. My excitement on it's arrival evaporated quickly. It's a copy of the Screen Play. Again, this is one of my favorite movies and I'm not going to go into any details. It was interesting to read the dialog between Holly Martins and Harry Lime, and the descriptions of the scenery in bombed-out Vienna (which are short, clipped film references) give you a sense of the location . My problem is that I was expecting a novel, and a novel - in my opinion - should give you insight into the characters and their motivations. Through the Author, you should get to read their minds and try to understand what makes them tick. I was disappointed but I did finish it. It was OK.

Right now, I've got several books on order and they're all in transit. While I'm waiting I browsed through my shelves and came across several books that I remember enjoying years ago. They are all from different series' and different genres. Maybe the next Chapter will be a Throw-back one.
It's cold and we've had some snow. Typical February weather. Bundle up, pour a drink and …

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Chapter One Hundred and One

I actually reached my goal for this month and finished 2 books. I was hoping for a 3rd but got bogged down with some details I'll discuss later. Also, I really don't have as much time on my hands as you'd think. Yes, I'm retired and a stay-at-home kind of guy but my meds are all on different schedules - one is every 4 hours, another every 6 hours, and the food tube every 3 hours. It's not easy getting into a comfortable reading habit when you have to keep getting up. Anyway, I did what I wanted to and here are the results.

Series

Little Boy Blue - Ed Dee ($6.99/$.50, copyright 1997, 290 pages, Paperback)
This is the second book in this series that I've read (and the third chronologically). Again, Dee starts off with the crime already having happened - the theft of a large amount of cash at JFK airport. There were shots fired and several airport employees killed including a young man who was wearing his father's old heavy, woolen police coat. The boy's name was Johnny Boy Counihan and he died in a hail of bullets. Detectives Anthony Ryan and Joe Gregory wind up on the case and it turns out Gregory has a personal connection - the victim was the son of his ex-partner.  The Italian mob is suspected and the investigation leans that way but Ryan and Gregory have a different take on things which may included the IRA. Dee gives us more of Ryan's family life and Gregory gets more to do here. The characters and well-defined for the most part although there are a couple that border on caricatures. There are several nicely done twists and the ending has a few surprises. I enjoyed it.

I mentioned last month that I'd ordered the first book in the series from a Discount site I use and it came in pretty quickly. At the time, I also ordered another book for reasons that should become obvious and that came in at the same time. I chose to hold off on the Ryan/Gregory book so as not to blur things and I went with the other one.

Miscellaneous

The Con Man's Daughter - Ed Dee ($6.99/$5.88, copyright 2003, 400 pages, Paperback)
I'm sure you've noticed by now that the author of this book is the same guy who wrote the one mentioned above - Ed Dee. This is a stand-alone novel and has a grittier, harder edge to it. In the Ryan/Gregory books the violence takes place off-screen, here the violence is in-you-face and largely caused by the main character. Eddie Dunne is an ex-cop forced to retire for taking bribes. He's also an ex-boxer and former gofer for a Russian mobster. these past careers influence his attitude throughout the book. He's spent the last 4 years trying to stay straight and help his daughter raise his granddaughter. Then, the daughter is kidnapped and Eddie vows to do everything he can to get her back. Eddie starts with the Russians and it becomes pretty obvious that they are involved. The cops join in and the FBI wants a piece of what's going on. Eddie doggedly pursues his own agenda - strong arming people and getting beat up in the process. Dee tries to soften all this with scenes of Eddie with his family, especially his granddaughter, and a love interest but he can't forget what's happened. Again, Dee has created some interesting characters and situations and throws a nice twist in that changes everything. I found the beginning to be very tedious but the pace picked up about halfway through. It was OK.
NOTE: Another reason that I had trouble with this book was that it was missing pages 148 to 180 and after page 210 pages 181 to 212 were reprinted. The binding didn't look tampered with so it must've been printed this way. This is curious because it comes from a library in New Mexico and the borrower's card shows that it was taken out at least 5 times. You pays you're money, you takes you're chances.

(If you're interested, the Discount site I use is Better World Books and they don't charge for Shipping and Handling. I've also used Thriftbooks but they charge S&H for orders under $10.)

That's it for January. I'm going to hold off on the first Ryan/Gregory book and try one of the other books I've picked up recently. February's coming and the weather's been cold. Bundle up, hunker down, and

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Chapter One Hundred

I've been putting this Chapter off because I haven't been in much of a mood to read over the last few months. No need to go into that now but last month I did mention that I'd started bringing a book to my chemo sessions (there's a lot of sitting around). I actually got through 80 pages then. I finished that book this month and started on a second. I thought I'd share the story about why I chose this book.

I was having some soup (actually broth only) in the Living Room while watching the afternoon news. I was looking around while it cooled off a little when I noticed 2 books on one of the shelves. They were by the same author and I remember picking them up at a library sale in Woodbridge about a year ago. What attracted me to them was the fact that they took place in The Bronx, my hometown. I started with the one with the oldest copyright date,

Series

Bronx Angel - Ed Dee ($6.50/$.50, copyright 1995, 350 pages, Paperback)
The basic plot is simple enough. A young cop is found dead with his pants around his ankles on a back street in The Bronx. Nearby, water has seeped through a retaining wall and frozen into what the locals believe is an angel. Police Detectives Anthony Ryan and Joe Gregory get assigned to the case and they have some ideas about how to pursue it but an ambitious boss has other ideas. She has them working nights interviewing prostitutes and investigating a sex club for transvestites. Along the way they have to deal with what may be a gang of rogue cops and Gregory's running for President of the Hibernian Society. All this while they ride around a Bronx that was very familiar to me. Ryan is the narrator and we learn a lot about his past, especially what he regrets, while he and Gregory try to make sense of the murder and it's aftermath. Dee is a retired cop and he must've worked in The Bronx because his characters and locations ring true. I enjoyed it.

I've started the other Dee book I had and have gotten through 98 pages. I noticed that "Bronx Angel" is actually the second book in the series and the one I'm reading is the third. I'm enjoying these so much that I ordered a copy of the first of the series from a Discount site that I use. It came in over the weekend,

One book is a start. I'm hoping next month that I can tell you about two or more.

I hope you had a Great Christmas. I wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year. And, until next month …

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Bookmark 2

I took a "time out" last month because of the various medical issues I had to deal with. I'm now half-way through the chemo and the radiation and now I've developed another problem - I can't swallow anything solid.

I spoke with the Radiologist yesterday and I agreed to have a feeding tube installed. I have to meet with a Gastroenterologist with a local office. We went back and forth on the timing of the meeting but finally agreed on 2:45 Friday (after the chemo). He's only in this office Mondays and Fridays with afternoon appointments so I'm hoping he does his surgical procedures in the mornings and I can get mine done Monday.

Also, I called my Cardiologist to tell them that I can't swallow anything hard which includes most of my pills - specifically the Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium. She told me that I could crush the Potassium and take it with Apple Sauce, Then she said she'd ask their pharmacist about what to do with the others. I haven't heard back yet.

I'll continue with my treatments and wait for some answers.

I did have several books that I tried getting into since last month. They were part of a  batch of mystery/espionage titles that I picked up a couple of months ago. I've tried picking them up again but I still can't get interested.

A Small Town in Germany - John LeCarre
I first read this book back in '78.I was called for Jury Duty in The Bronx and during a break walked down the street and picked this up in a convenience store. I remembered it being pretty good.

Trouble Is My Business - Raymond Chandler
I don't normally read short story collections but this is more of a series of novelettes revolving around the classic detective Philip Marlowe. It's classic Chandler but I can't seem to get into it.

Funeral in Berlin - Len Deighton
This is one of those books that I've always wanted to read and, now that I have the opportunity, I can't.

I brought a book with me to my chemo session last week and have made some progress. I've read about 80 pages so far and will probably read some more later on. Maybe I've turned a corner. I hope so.

Anyway, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! December is up next and with it - Christmas!

Till then...

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Bookmark

I've mentioned before that I usually have more then 1 book that I'm reading at any given time. Right now I have 4 - 3 on my night table and 1 on the table next to my recliner in the Living Room. I haven't been able to finish any of them.

Since my last "Chapter" I've had 15 different doctor visits and medical tests that took up most of the month. Some were scheduled and some came up as a result of others. I've tried to read but I keep getting distracted.

There's some treatments that I have to deal with and I've got them scheduled over the next month and a half. There are some questions that I still have for the doctors that I'm dealing with but I'm gonna have to go forward with the treatment anyway.

I intend to get back to finishing the books I mentioned earlier. Hopefully you'll hear about them next month. Until then ……

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Chapter Ninety-nine

It was a long, hot summer but we've made it to September and some cooler, much welcome, weather. My local Library has a set of shelves in the lobby that hold their sale books. They're 4 for $1.00. I've been stopping by every now and then but there wasn't anything interesting until last month. They must've gotten a donation of old mystery/adventure books and I spent $3.00 on a random selection. Here's the first few.

Series

Confessional - Jack Higgins ($.25/$6.99, copyright 1985, 293 pages, Paperback)
I've read a few of Higgins' books over the years and always enjoyed them. I'm considering this as a part of a series because the protagonist is a character that he's use in 3 other novels. Liam Devlin is a former IRA gunman and German spy who was once sent to England in a plot to kidnap Winston Churchill. He's an antihero with a silvery Irish tongue and a ready wit despite being a well-honed killer. In this book, Devlin is recruited by British intelligence to ferret out an unknown assassin who has used murder to sabotage peace efforts in strife-torn Northern Ireland for decades. Neither Devlin nor British intelligence know the assassin is Michail Kelly, an Irish-born Soviet agent whose has literally been living under their very noses. With Britain and Argentina at war over the Falkland Islands, Kelly sets out to sabotage a last minute peace effort by assassinating the man responsible for organizing it--the Pope. Thus the stage is set for an action-jammed manhunt ranging all throughout the United Kingdom. Higgins' characters are never caricatures and he knows how to build suspense until he reaches a typically satisfying ending. I enjoyed it.

The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife - Erle Stanley Gardner ($.25/$3.95, copyright 1945, 245 pages, Paperback)
This is the first Perry Mason book that I've ever read - although I grew up watching his various incarnations on TV (specifically Raymond Burr's). All the main characters are here - Perry, Della (his secretary), Paul (his investigator), and Lt. Tragg - although their physical descriptions are different from the TV portrayals. Here, Perry joins a woman named Jane on her yacht to meet with her sisters and some businessmen. She wants to sell an island and share the money with her family but there are oil right issues that Perry is there to figure out. There is the obligatory foggy night and Perry hears a scream followed by him seeing an armed woman run by. Some clues lead Perry to accuse someone which turns out to be a mistake and he winds up getting fired and getting sued. It's complicated but Garner pulls it all together in the end. Two things: there's a relationship here between Perry and Della that was never addressed on TV and the language is very formal/stilted which took away from the enjoyment. I liked it.

Nightcrawlers - Bill Pronzini ($.25/$6.99, copyright 2005, 301 pages, Paperback)
I don't recall having read anything by Pronzini before but I'll keep my eye out from now on. This is a part of series about a "Nameless" detective who started as sort of a Lone Wolf but now works with a couple of partners. There's Jake Runyon, a (younger version of himself) and Tamara Corbin (the office manager who tries to get out in the field). In this book the "Nameless" detective is now referred to as Bill and he's trying to track down his dying friend's mother-in-law to deliver a package. Jake is trying to help his estranged son by finding whoever is severely beating gay men. Tamara is looking for a dead-beat dad and winds up getting kidnapped so Bill and Jake set out to help. Pronzini does a great job with these characters. They work well together but they also work well as stand-alones, each with their own back story. He's good with location details and the plot moves along briskly. I enjoyed it.

The A. B. C. Murders - Agatha Christie ($.25/$4.99, copyright 1935, 184 pages, Paperback)
I've read a few of Christie's books many years ago and didn't really care for them. Still, this one sounded interesting and the price was right. There's a serial killer on the loose and each of his victims has been in a different town starting at Andover then working him way alphabetically through the ABC Railroad Guide. He's gotten away with 3 before he makes the mistake of challenging Hercule Poirot to stop him. Of course, Poirot is intrigued and comes out of retirement to catch him. What follows is  a complicated "catch me if you can" story. Christie has always had a great way with plots and plot twists and her writing style can only be described as elegant. Still, for some reason, I just don't like Poirot. It was OK.

October is coming. The weather should get cooler. The leaves will change colors then fall. The days will get shorter. And Halloween will come. Maybe I can find a few Horror Books to read. Till then ..

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