Saturday, May 12, 2012
Free Today for Kindle Today & Tomorrow
Amazon.com: Horse Money eBook: Richard Wormser, Tom Roberts, Robert J. Randisi: Kindle Store: HORSE MONEY—The Cases of Chief Van Eyck, Race Track Detective.Four hard-boiled novellas of crime and intrigue around the Sport of Kings.
Known from Saratoga to Belmont and throughout the racing circuit, Chief Van Eyck keeps the bookies and fix games in check—whether using a little strong-arm, or the nickel-platted death secured in his wide right fist—in the process.
And Van Eyck is never above picking up a few greenbacks on the side thanks to an inside tip or two from the jockey club.
Grab a stool, order a strong one and slid to the edge of your seat as the ponies and Van Eyck both give a thrill ride from wire to wire!
First time in book form.
The Hearts of Horses -- Molly Gloss
Here's another modern western that I really liked. The setting is eastern Oregon in 1917. Martha Lessen is a young woman (age 19) who's left home, for good reason, and who's looking for work as a broncobuster. Except that she doesn't break horses. She's kind and gentle and loves them too much for that. Her training is more of the horse-whisperer variety, and she's very good at it.She finds work with a family named Bliss, and George Bliss soon recommends her to his friends and acquaintances. She begins doing a "circle ride" from one ranch to the next as she trains horses for many people in the county. Because of her circuit, she gets to know a great number of people, and they come to rely on her for things other than training horses as she becomes more involved in their lives.
This is a dandy book. Some fine writing, lots of characters, a little romance, some sadness (a couple of things really got to me), and some laughter. Great descriptions, and I got so cold at a couple of points that I almost forgot how hot it is here right now.
One thing I thought about while reading this was that mainstream or literary writers get to have all the fun. What we have here is an omniscient narrator, shifting point of view at will, telling instead of showing, and having a wonderful time of it. I had a wonderful time, too. Highly recommended if your taste runs to something a little more leisurely than the latest thriller.
Geezer Alert!
Tampa Bay Times: With a bit of chalk on a blackboard, Scooter Gabel unleashed a fury. Smudgy and handwritten, the sign that went up nearly two months ago says this: "For the comfort and safety of everybody, if you allow your child to run, scream or misbehave, you will be asked to leave." The owner of Cappy's pizzeria in Seminole Heights had had enough.
This article is one of those things that makes me feel really old. (Sure, I am really old, but most of the time I don't feel that way.) I can't imagine the need for such a sign back when I was a kid or even when my own kids were growing up. I suppose I'm permanently scarred, and so are my kids, because we weren't allowed to run wild in restaurants. I can't speak for my kids, but the truth is that it would never have occurred to me to. There were places where you could be loud and run around, but restaurants weren't included in them. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to walk along the beach with the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
This article is one of those things that makes me feel really old. (Sure, I am really old, but most of the time I don't feel that way.) I can't imagine the need for such a sign back when I was a kid or even when my own kids were growing up. I suppose I'm permanently scarred, and so are my kids, because we weren't allowed to run wild in restaurants. I can't speak for my kids, but the truth is that it would never have occurred to me to. There were places where you could be loud and run around, but restaurants weren't included in them. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to walk along the beach with the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Joyce Redman, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Joyce Redman, a distinguished Irish-born actress widely acclaimed for her intelligent stage presence in Shakespearean drama and French comedy, though probably best known to American audiences for her silent improvisation with a lobster, an oyster, a pear and Albert Finney in the exuberantly lascivious eating scene in the 1963 film “Tom Jones,” died on Wednesday in Kent, England. She was 96.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Carroll Shelby R. I. P.
Houston News: Racing and car legend Carroll Shelby died today in Dallas at the age of 89.
He'd been ill for some time, but it's still a sad day in the auto world. Not to mention the decadent Texas chili world.
Shelby played a role in developing both the Cobra and the Mustang, and he won races like the 24 Hours of Le Mans before he had to retire from the track and spend the rest of his days building cars.
He also played a role in establishing the legendary Terlingua Chili Cook-Off, an annual bacchanal in West Texas that began in 1967.
He'd been ill for some time, but it's still a sad day in the auto world. Not to mention the decadent Texas chili world.
Shelby played a role in developing both the Cobra and the Mustang, and he won races like the 24 Hours of Le Mans before he had to retire from the track and spend the rest of his days building cars.
He also played a role in establishing the legendary Terlingua Chili Cook-Off, an annual bacchanal in West Texas that began in 1967.
Free for Kindle -- Today and Tomorrow!
This is a collection of short pieces, fiction and nonfiction, by my friend Paul Bishop. Great stuff, and it's free for two days!
Amazon.com: Running Wylde eBook: Paul Bishop: Books
Free for Kindle this Weekend!
Amazon.com: Skin Deep (Simeon Grist #3) (Simeon Grist Mystery) eBook: Timothy Hallinan: Kindle Store: The six Simeon Grist private-eye novels by 2011 Edgar and Macavity Award nominee Timothy Hallinan have become cult favorites and are now available fot the first time since the 1990s. For a fee so big he can't turn it down, Grist is hired to watchdog the kind of guy he'd usually prefer to throw through the nearest window. Toby Vane is the golden boy of prime-time TV, whose gee-whiz smile and chiseled features mask a dark secret that would take the shine off for his millions of adoring female fans: every now and then he beats up a woman, and almost any woman will do. When some of the women around Toby begin to turn up dead, Simeon has to figure out whether he's protecting a murderer – or whether one of Toby's multitude of enemies wants to put him away forever. And when Simeon meets the beautiful Nana, the whole situation becomes very personal, very fast.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
The Courier-Mail: A CHURCH meeting in New Zealand ended in a vicious assault when a woman ripped a chunk of a man's earlobe off after discovering the dishes had not been done following a Sunday service.
F. Marion Crawford, Khaled, Ballantine, 1971
The Fabulous G-Strings Merchandise!
For years people have been asking this important question: Where can I buy merchandise featuring photos of The Fabulous G-Strings. And now there is an answer. You can buy it here. This is one of the more tasteful items. Trust me.
Forgotten Books: The Day the Sea Rolled Back -- Mickey Spillane
Did you remember the Mickey Spillane wrote children's books? I did, but then I got my copies signed at the Milwaukee Bouchercon long ago and I still have them. Two of them were published, and The Day the Sea Rolled Back was the first. I think at the time Spillane said that he'd written a couple of others. If so, they didn't see print as far as I know.This one's about lost treasure. Two boys, Larry and Josh, are the ones who find it. The circumstances are unusual. There's a tidal drop in the waters around the island were the boys live (Peolle Island, not a real place). When the sea rolls back, old wrecks are exposed. Just about everybody wants to find treasure, and when somebody does, there's bound to be someone who wants to take it away. So we have the dastardly Jimson brothers, who are willing to kill Larry and Josh if that's what it takes. The sea rolls back in, of course, as it always does, and what Larry and Josh are left with is . . . you'll have to read the book to find out.
Far be it from me to say anything (very) bad about a book by Mickey Spillane, but this one lacks the narrative drive of his novels for adults. It also has some clumsy writing and could've used a better editor. Still, it's fun for what it is, and it's worth a look if your curious about what Spillane could do outside his usual playground.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention
Amazon.com: EARTHQUAKE WEATHER eBook: Terrill Lee Lankford, Michael Connelly: Books: EARTHQUAKE WEATHER - An L.A. Times BestsellerA veteran filmmaker and novelist now creates a riveting noir set in the power-mad jungle of Hollywood. In Earthquake Weather a natural disaster shakes a city and an industry to their cores, revealing new layers of deceit, desire, and deadly aggression.
Hollywood. The land of dreams and schemes. Mark Hayes has a dream. To make movies. But that’s easier wished for than done. Years of frustrating career moves have yielded little progress and Mark now finds himself in a dead end job as a “creative executive” for the loathsome producer, Dexter Morton at Prescient Pictures, the hottest new production company in town. A job like that could lead to big things—but Dexter Morton has no interest in promoting Mark’s ambitions. Then a major earthquake rocks Los Angeles and all deals are off. And when Mark finds a body floating in Dexter’s pool he goes from D-Boy to murder suspect before he can say “three picture deal”.
Infamous Players: A Tale of Movies, the Mob (and Sex)
Peter Bart was working at the New York Times when he left journalism to become the right-hand man of Robert Evans at Paramount Studios. At the time (mid-60s) Paramount was nothing special, but while Bart was there, it produced some of the best-remembered movies of the era: Love Story, The Godfather, Chinatown, and Rosemary's Baby, to name only four. Bart's memoir tells about his time at the studio, and it delivers everything the title promises. It's a breezy anecdotal account, and it's full of insider stories about Hollywood. You may have heard some of them before, but it's always fun to hear them again when they're recounted in such an engaging way. My only problem with the book is that it's not linear. Bart jumps around from year to year and back again with little indication of when he's writing about. I got lost a time or two. Maybe he did, too. At any rate, it's a quick entertaining trip through a time when movies mattered. Check it out.
Jack the Ripper Update
Gather: Was Jack The Ripper really a Jill? A new book about the most celebrated unsolved murder mystery in the history of crime reporting proposes that investigators have long overlooked the real killer. Simply because he was a she.
And guess what? It seems to make sense.
And guess what? It seems to make sense.
Double Feature Time!
MFAH | Films | Rainbow Over Texas On Friday, May 18, at 7:00 P. M., the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, will be showing, free of charge, a great double feature. Check it out.
Like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers was a singing cowboy who cranked out westerns for the Saturday matinee crowd. Rainbow Over Texas was Rogers’s 60th film since 1935, counting uncredited roles and the twenty-seven films in which he played a version of himself. Then there was Trigger, his faithful horse, and Dale Evans, who had already been his steady squeeze for fifteen films, and would later marry Roy and star in a TV show that ran for six years. The sidekick, Gabby Hayes, likewise starred in at least twelve films with Rogers, having previously served as William Boyd’s (alias Hoppalong Cassidy) sidekick. However, Rainbow was not just routine; Dale Evans appears first as a boy to travel west. – UCLA
Followed by Heart of the Rio Grande (directed by William Morgan, USA, 1942, 68 min.)
Gene Autry’s 51st film in less than eight years, Heart of The Rio Grande was different because it’s a contemporary Western, taking place in 1942, the first year of America’s involvement in World War II (reflected in the narrative in Gene’s plea for folks to buy war bonds.) It’s less of an action film than many of Autry’s westerns, and more of a lyrical, musical western. Autry runs a dude ranch and must contend with the spoiled daughter of a millionaire and a disgruntled ex-foreman. Gene manages to find time to sing a few tunes of course, including “Deep in the Heart of Texas.” – UCLA
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
ARLnow.com: A man was arrested outside the Pentagon City Ritz-Carlton hotel early this morning after police say he became upset at the hotel’s rates and brandished two handguns.
Or Maybe We Do
I, for one, never get tired of Bob Seger's songs, even the one on this list.
Readers’ Choice: 10 More Classic Rock Songs We Never Want to Hear Again
Readers’ Choice: 10 More Classic Rock Songs We Never Want to Hear Again
Uh-Oh
German drops Mayan skull, endangers mankind: An ancient Mayan skull stolen from Tibet by Nazis - said to have magical powers to enable humanity to survive the December 2012 apocalypse - has been dropped by a lab assistant in eastern Germany, chipping its chin.
Ernest Warren, R. I. P.
VVN Music: Ernest Warren, one of the five original members of the Spaniels, passed away on Monday in Gary, Indiana. He was 78.
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Criminal Geniuses of the Day, Arkansas Edition
FOX16.com Little Rock, AR: Police say the suspects ordered delivery, had the food dropped off at their house, and paid for it with counterfeit bills. One phone call later from the restaurant to police – and the case was closed.
Hat tip to John Duke.
Hat tip to John Duke.
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention
Amazon.com: Cliff Walk: A Liam Mulligan Novel (9780765332370): Bruce DeSilva: Books: Prostitution has been legal in Rhode Island for more than a decade; Liam Mulligan, an old-school investigative reporter at dying Providence newspaper, suspects the governor has been taking payoffs to keep it that way. But this isn’t the only story making headlines…a child’s severed arm is discovered in a pile of garbage at a pig farm. Then the body of an internet pornographer is found sprawled on the rocks at the base of Newport’s famous Cliff Walk.At first, the killings seem random, but as Mulligan keeps digging into the state’s thriving sex business, strange connections emerge. Promised free sex with hookers if he minds his own business—and a beating if he doesn’t—Mulligan enlists Thanks-Dad, the newspaper publisher’s son, and Attila the Nun, the state’s colorful Attorney General, in his quest for the truth. What Mulligan learns will lead him to question his beliefs about sexual morality, shake his tenuous religious faith, and leave him wondering who his real friends are.
Cliff Walk is at once a hard-boiled mystery and an exploration of sex and religion in the age of pornography. Written with the unique and powerful voice that won DeSilva an Edgar Award for Best First Novel, Cliff Walk lifts Mulligan into the pantheon of great suspense heroes and is a giant leap for the career of Bruce DeSilva.
Vidal Sassoon, R. I. P.
CBS News: (CBS/AP) LOS ANGELES - Vidal Sassoon, the celebrity hairstylist whose 1960s wash-and-wear cuts freed women from endless teasing and hairspray, has died. He was 84.
New Blog of Note
Something is Going to Happen is the new blog from Janet Hutchings, editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Check it out!
Digby Wolfe, R. I. P.
Digby Wolfe, Actor and ‘Laugh-In’ Writer, Dies at 82 - NYTimes.com: Digby Wolfe, a writer and actor whose acerbic wit, absurdist sensibility and political edge helped shape “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” the zany collage of televised comedy that captured the tumultuousness of the 1960s, died on May 2 in Albuquerque. He was 82.
Hat tip to Jeff Segal.
Hat tip to Jeff Segal.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Free for Kindle -- 3 Days Only!
Amazon.com: Every Precious Thing (A Logan Harper Thriller) eBook: Brett Battles: Kindle Store: From award winning author Brett Battles comes the second Logan Harper thriller. It was supposed to be a fun weekend, a celebration of a marriage and growing family. Alan Lindley couldn't have been happier...until his wife Sara disappeared. Asked by a mutual friend to help look for her, Logan Harper is sure he'd discover a wife who simply wants out of the marriage. What he finds instead is a woman who didn't exist, a diabolical plan, and people who would do anything to keep it a secret, including taking the life of the person most important to him. What would you do for those precious to you?
Lin Carter, Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos, Ballantine, 1970Maurice Sendak, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Maurice Sendak, widely considered the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century, who wrenched the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark, terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche, died on Tuesday in Danbury, Conn. He was 83 and lived in Ridgefield, Conn.
Hat tip to Toby O'Brien.
Hat tip to Toby O'Brien.
Tintinology: The Ongoing Adventures of Tintin
AbeBooks: Tintin was born, figuratively speaking, on January 10, 1929 when Georges Remi’s comic strip hero appeared in a children’s supplement of the Belgian newspaper, Le XXe Siecle. The strip has survived various political regimes, a world war, changing consumer tastes and accusations of racial stereotyping and colonialism.The youthful Belgian reporter is still going strong. Movie, TV, radio and theatrical adaptations, exhibitions and books about Herge – Remi’s pen-name – keep the cult of Tintin alive. It has been translated into dozens of languages and featured a series of characters that have become iconic in popular culture – for instance, there are few more famous fictional dogs than Snowy, or Milou as he is known to French readers. Tintin’s fame can also be measured by the good number of parodies that abound.
Overlooked Movies -- The Assassination Bureau
Once upon a time Jack London started writing a book based on an idea he'd bought from Sinclair Lewis. London couldn't finish the book, so he put it aside. Many years later it was completed by Robert L. Fish, and then it was made into a movie. A pretty entertaining one, too. The Assassination Bureau was founded by the father of Ivan Dragomiloff (Oliver Reed) to rid the world of people the world needed to be rid of. You know the sort, tyrants and such. Now the Bureau's lost sight of its lofty beginnings and become pretty much just a murder-for-hire business. So Sonia Winter (Diana Rigg) hires Dragomiloff to assassinate himself. He accepts. (See the clip embedded below.) But while he does think it would be a fine idea to but an end to the Bureau, he doesn't really plan to have himself killed. Instead, he issues a challenge to the employees: Kill me before I kill you. And we're off on a rop around Europe as Dragomiloff, with Winter along, too, of course, begins to wipe out the members of the Bureau.
There's lots of great scenery, a good bit of suspense, lots of clever stuff, and a big ending with a zeppelin. It's all a lot of fun if you're in the right mood. Check it out.
e as
Monday, May 07, 2012
Free Book for Your Kindle!
Amazon.com: The Captain Must Die eBook: Robert Colby: Kindle Store: For twelve long years they remembered. For twelve long years they plotted. And now Captain Driscoll was going to pay for what he had done to them during the war.They weren’t going to kill him right away. First there would be only little things, irritating things, that would build and grow and tighten until Captain Driscoll became afraid. Then they’d begin their reign of terror. That would be the best part. The three revenge-hungry men would savor those moments like a good wine.
And when Captain Driscoll was a broken, sobbing man, when his sanity was almost gone, they would murder him.
Jim McCrary, R. I. P.
Rock photographer dies at 72 - latimes.com: Jim McCrary was staff photographer for A&M Records, shooting more than 300 covers for groups including the Carpenters and the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Hey, It Could Happen
Daily Star: JAMES Bond has survived 4,662 shots fired at him in 22 films – an almost impossible feat, say experts.
Antiques Disposal -- Barbara Allan (Barbara Collins & Max Allan Collins)
Brandy Borne and her mother/grandmother, Vivian, are back. So is Sushi, Brandy's blind, incontinent dog, and also Brandy's mother (it's complicated), Peggy Sue, now living in the house with Brandy and Vivian. Brandy and Vivian win a bid on a locked storage unit, which contains, among other things, a pencil drawing of Superman, signed Siegel and Shuster and dated 1946. There's also a cornet that belonged to Bix Beiderbecke. Somebody's eager to get hold of it, and when that someone burgles the Borne house, both Sushi and Peggy Sue are injured. Oh, and there's now a dead body in the storage unit. Once again the intrepid Borne detective team goes into action, with Vivian leading the way, as usual.
Another body turns up, and a number of story arcs are covered. It's all very funny, with lots of great dialogue. At the conclusion there's even a Nero Wolfe homage, with Vivian, who can't resist a good role, acting the part of Wolfe. The criminal is revealed, but there are a few threads still dangling. Those, along with the cliffhanger ending, assure a sequel, which is good news for us fans.
If you've been needing a break from all the noir fiction you've been reading, here's something to brighten your day.
Michael “Iron Man” Burks, R. I. P.
Arkansas bluesman Michael “Iron Man” Burks dies after collapsing at Atlanta airport - The Washington Post: LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Alligator Records says Arkansas bluesman Michael “Iron Man” Burks has died after collapsing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. He was 54.
Sunday, May 06, 2012
George 'Goober' Lindsey, R. I. P.
George 'Goober' Lindsey -- 'Andy Griffith Show' Star Dead at 76 | TMZ.com: George Lindsey -- who appeared on such classic TV shows as "The Andy Griffith Show," "Gunsmoke" and "Hee Haw" -- died Sunday morning after an extended illness. He was 76.
Free Today for Kindle
Amazon.com: Found Money eBook: Trent Zelazny: Kindle Store: Have you ever randomly come across $3,087? Nick did.Problem is, it's blood money. And now unemployed Nick finds himself involved in way more than the money is worth.
NOTE: This is a novelette, not a full-length novel. It also appears in The Day the Leash Gave Way and Other Stories.
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