Saturday, May 25, 2013
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
Kill the Boss Good-by / Mission for Vengeance: Peter Rabe, Introduction by Rick Ollerman: 9781933586427: Amazon.com: BooksStart House does it again. Kill the Boss Good-by is in my opinion the best of Peter Rabe's novels. Mission for Vengeance is another powerful book, and getting these two in one volume is a huge bargain. Highly recommended.
Free for Kindle Today Only
Amazon.com: WHIMSEY: A NOVEL eBook: Kaye Wilkinson Barley: Kindle Store: WHIMSEY is a novel of southern fiction with a splash of magic and a touch of fantasy, topped with a sprinkling of humor.The magic was already there when cigar-smoking matriarch Elizabeth Calhoun established an artist’s colony on an island off the coast of Georgia and named it Whimsey.
Elizabeth’s ghost still drops in from time to time to make sure things are going as she planned.
There’s also a wicked pixie named Earlene who fancies tight-fitting designer clothes and Louboutin stilettos.
Elizabeth’s grandniece, Emma Hamilton Foley, a once-promising jewelry designer who moved away from the island, now fears her talent has deserted her.
Along with her four best childhood friends, she has been invited to be a resident artist at Whimsey’s new upscale gallery, Les etoiles. To join them, she’ll need to regain her talent, face the demons from her past and her feelings about Eli Tatnall, whom she loved as a girl.
Will moving back to the Island of Whimsey bring the magic back?
WHIMSEY is a story of hope and affirmation, about families and best girlfriends, connections and feelings. It’s about the things in life that make us happy and the things that scare us to death. And the people who walk through life with us.
Uh-Oh
Jason Statham and Tom Hardy in a battle of the Brits to star in 'Escape From New York'
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Friday, May 24, 2013
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
Amazon.com: The Guns of Retribution eBook: Icy Sedgwick: Kindle Store: The search for a murderous outlaw has brought the long roving Grey O'Donnell near to his hometown of Retribution, Arizona. Bounty hunters might not be popular but old fashioned manners, kindness to regular folk and a face for the ladies make Grey an exception when he rides into town. Grey has a job to do, upholding the law when others won't, but the odious Jasper Roberts has made himself Sheriff of Retribution and he has a score to settle with Grey. Jasper isn't going to let morals or the law get in the way of a good hanging and the townsfolk are cowed by their villainous lawman. Can you really mess with a man's momma and get away with it? Sometimes there is more than one bullet with your name on it.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
American Ghoul: Walt Morton: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: AMERICAN GHOUL tells the story of seventeen-year-old Howard Pickman, a boy with odd problems. He just got dumped into the worst high school in the state of New Jersey, but that's nothing compared to his secret family history of digging up corpses for dinner. This is a novel filled with the creepy funkiness of the 1970s, a bygone age of punk rock, bad disco and muscle cars roaring through hot summer nights. AMERICAN GHOUL explores the good times of teenage friendships and the darkness at the heart of American youth. It's a fun, scary, and zany look at a time when being a teenager was so dangerous you just might have to be a monster in order to survive. AMERICAN GHOUL is recommended for readers from age 13 on up. If you lived through the 1970s, a few flashbacks are guaranteed, both pleasant and shocking.
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Forgotten Books: Blackburn -- Bradley Denton
Jimmy Blackburn is a killer. He kills only people who, in his judgment, deserve to die, like oil-change scam artists, crooked encyclopedia salesmen, people who kill dogs. He doesn't stay in one place very long, as you can imagine. As he travels, he occasionally manages to fit in somewhere, but not for long. Somebody always needs to be killed.
Blackburn winds up where any killer might, and I won't go into that. The circumstance of just how he gets there are complicated, and the ending even offers a hint that Blackburn might have found what he was looking for on his travels. Some of Blackburn's early life is brought out in flashbacks to his childhood. Denton's not saying the character's upbringing made him a killer. He's just showing the casual cruelty and inhumanity that can be found anywhere, including a small town in Kansas. Sometimes our end is our beginning, maybe.
Bradley Denton tells his story in straightforward prose, unadorned by any frills. It's a very effective method. Oh, and I should mention that as grim as the subject matter is, and as terrible some of the events are, parts of this book are hilarious. You'll laugh even if you don't think you should. Trust me.
There are several other stories about Blackburn. "Blackburn's Lady" is one of them. You can read it here. "Blackburn Bakes Cookies" is another. It's here. And "Blackburn and the Blade" can be found here. All are recommended.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Steve Forrest, R. I. P.
Steve Forrest, star of TV’s ‘S.W.A.T.,’ dead at 87� - NY Daily News: The TV action series "S.W.A.T." only ran for 37 episodes in 1975-76, but it left a permanent imprint on popular culture and a big part of that mark was Lt. Dan "Hondo" Harrelson, played by Steve Forrest.
Forrest died last Saturday in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 87 and no cause of death was announced.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
CBS Pittsburgh: A couple face charges after police in York County say they stabbed each other during an argument over which contestant should win ‘American Idol.’
Neil Brittlebank: Meet the man who collects rare bricks
Metro News: Some people collect stamps, others coins and trainspotters have to accumulate engine numbers – but have you ever heard of anyone collecting bricks?
Sure I have. My father collected bricks. I suspect he had more than 1000. That was a long time gone, but they're probably still where he put them all those years ago.
Sure I have. My father collected bricks. I suspect he had more than 1000. That was a long time gone, but they're probably still where he put them all those years ago.
Booker International Prize Winner
NPR: American author Lydia Davis was awarded the Man Booker International Prize, worth about $90,000, at a ceremony Wednesday in London. Davis is renowned for her works of (very) short fiction. One story, "Samuel Johnson Is Indignant," reads in its entirety: "that Scotland has so few trees." Another, called "Certain Knowledge from Herodotus" says, "These are the facts about the fish in the Nile:"
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Finally Available in all eBook Formats!
Amazon.com: Shotgun Saturday Night - A Dan Rhodes Mystery (Dan Rhodes Mysteries) eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store: Sheriff Dan Rhodes knows it's going to be a bad day when Bert Ramsey arrives at the jail with a neatly wrapped arm and lays it on Dan's desk. He has another out in the truck, he tells the sheriff, and "a couple of legs, too, but they don't match up." To Rhodes's relief, the severed limbs—part of a large cache Bert has discovered while clearing brush—are not evidence of a mass murderer at large in Blacklin County, but something more on a par with the usual emergencies the Texas lawman has to deal with: cows loose in the churchyard, ninety-year-old Mrs. Thurman's periodic attacks of "blindness" (which Rhodes cures by sending out a deputy with fresh light bulbs), and the like. Meanwhile, back at the jail, his attenuated employees are bristling about the new deputy, a highly qualified police officer, but a woman, and the air conditioner has collapsed during the heat wave. Plus his personal life has its own problems; does he or does he not want to marry Ivy Daniel?
Carol Burnett Update
Carol Burnett to receive Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the Kennedy Center: “I can’t believe I’m getting a humor prize from the Kennedy Center,” Burnett said in a statement. “It’s almost impossible to be funnier than the people in Washington.”
Why Don't They Just Buy Him a Tinfoil Hat?
Man ‘Controlled By Satellites’ Makes 100 Calls To 911 In A Month, Vows To Continue : “My brain, I can feel it starting. I’m blasted by the signals, every couple of minutes,” he said. “I yell and I scream, ‘Stop it, I don’t need this,’ but they never listen.”
Trevor Bolder, R. I. P.
The Raw Story: Trevor Bolder, the bass guitarist in David Bowie’s Spiders From Mars band, has died at the age of 62 following a battle with cancer, it was announced Wednesday.
Bolder joined the British rock star’s backing group in 1971, appearing on classic albums including “Hunky Dory” and “Aladdin Sane”.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Amazon.com: The Four Last Things (Simeon Grist #1) (Simeon Grist Mystery) eBook: Timothy Hallinan: Kindle Store: Fans of Robert B. Parker's Spenser books should try this one. Hallinan, a 2011 Best Novel Edgar finalist, began his six-book Simeon Grist series with this white-knuckle mystery. Simeon Grist knows L.A. inside and out--the sex for sale, the chic seductions, every rip-off from City Hall to Venice. So when he's hired by a Hollywood recording company to shadow one Sally Oldfield, suspected of embezzlement, Grist discovers she's entangled in The Church of the Eternal Moment--a million-dollar religious scam built around a 12-year-old channeler and the voice of a man who has been dead for a millennium. When Sally turns up dead, Simeon knows he's become the next target of a very flesh-and-blood entity waiting in the back alleys of sin and salvation to give him a brutal look at the four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell--revelations he could definitely live without...
Finally Available in all eBook Formats!
Too Late to Die - A Dan Rhodes Mystery (Dan Rhodes Mysteries): Bill Crider: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Everyone knew her. A lot of them like her. One of them killed her. Jeanne Clinton was a pretty and well-liked woman—though in her younger days she'd been known to be a bit wild. But she married an older man and settled down to a quiet, respectable life. Now she is dead, brutally murdered in her home.
Dan Rhodes, the thoughtful, hard-working sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas, has enough to worry about already: a rash of burglaries in town and an election coming up against a hot-shot opponent. Now he's got to find a killer among the residents of his little town—a wily killer, bound and determined not to be caught.
The deeper Rhodes digs into the hearts and minds of his neighbors, the more secrets he turned up...and the more violence he encounters. But Rhodes doesn't give up easily. And neither does the killer.
Overlooked Movies -- The Doolins of Oklahoma
When I was a kid, one of my favorite western stars was Randolph Scott. His movies had higher budgets than the Saturday matinee films, more accomplished actors in the cast, and stories that were at last a little bit different. One of my favorites is The Doolins of Oklahoma, which is based on a historical character, the outlaw Bill Doolin, but if you're looking for facts, this wouldn't be the place to go.
Doolin gets lucky in the opening, the robbery of the Coffeyville bank by the Dalton Gang of which he's a part. His horse pulls up lame, so he misses out on the slaughter of the gang, which was set up by a squealer. Later Doolin shoots said squealer in self-defense, not that anybody believes that. He's now a wanted killer, so he goes off and starts his own gang. Successfully, I might add. The gang members are well played by John Ireland, Noah Berry, Jr., Jock Mahoney, and others. While being pursued by the law, Doolin takes refuge in a church, where he meets and falls for a deacon's daughter. He renounces his outlaw ways (the deacon and his daughter don't know about them, anyway) and settles down to be a husband and farmer.
But that can't last. The gang shows up and outs Doolin, who nobly walks away from his wife for her own good and rejoins the gang. You know this can't end well, and one by one the gang members pay the price. Eventually Doolin returns to his farm and asks his wife to leave with him to start a new life. If you think that’s going to work out, you haven’t seen any movies from the ‘40s.
As usual, Randolph Scott gives a fine performance. There’s a lot of action (riding, shooting, brawling), a little humor, and some nice scenery that looks nothing like Oklahoma. Check it out.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Ray Manzarek, R. I. P.
EW.com: Ray Manzarek, the founding keyboardist for the Doors, passed away this morning in Germany, according to a statement from his publicist. The cause was bile duct cancer.
As a member of the legendary rock band that formed in 1965 in Los Angeles and effectively ended with the death of frontman Jim Morrison in 1971 (though the group continued to perform and release music in other iterations for many years), Manzarek became an enduring symbol of the era — he was portrayed by Kyle McLachlan in the 1991 Oliver Stone biopic The Doors, and wrote a best-selling memoir about his experiences, Light My Fire: My Life with The Doors, in 1998.
Bernard Waber, R. I. P.
Bernard Waber, 1921-2013: Children’s author-illustrator Bernard Waber, creator of much-loved picture books about Lyle the crocodile and other anthropomorphic animals, died on May 16 after a long illness. He was 91.
Joyland -- Stephen King
Joyland is the story of Devin Jones' summer of working at a North Carolina amusement part in 1973. It's a first-person narration by an older Jones, a sadder and a wiser man whose memory of that time is vivid and precise. It's a story about first love and heartbreak and the satisfaction that learning to do a job and do it well can bring. It's about hurting and healing and growing up and even a little about growing old.
As you might expect, there's a bit of the supernatural involved, and there's a mystery plot that simmers on the back burner for most of the book before coming to a boil in the last quarter. But there's nothing over the top here. King keeps it all low key, and the tone is just right for the story. I don't want to spoil the pleasure of reading the book by saying any more. Even the predictable parts were handled so well that I didn't mind at all. In fact, I enjoyed this more than any book I've read by King in years. It's already been optioned by the movies, but you should read the book. Highly recommended.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Stream this Album for Free
Some song titles might look familiar if you're a fan of noir and hardboiled fiction. And then there's the great photo.
Since Man Left the Cave | Modern Silent Cinema
Since Man Left the Cave | Modern Silent Cinema
Paying for It -- Tony Black
Dury was a drinker before he lost his job (thanks to a slight accident that wasn't really his fault), but losing his position really sends him into the bottle. When a friend's son is murdered (the cops call it suicide), the friend hires Dury to look into it. Almost from the start, Dury is told that he'd be much better off doing something else because the people he's about to get involved with are harder and more ruthless than he can imagine. Dury doesn't really believe this, but he finds out the hard way that he should have. When it comes to the end, Dury's found out what he wanted to know, but it comes at a big price. This one's hard and fast, leavened with humor black as midnight.
New Pulp Press hasn't been doing reprints up to now, but they've found someone whose books fit right in with the bleak, tough novels they're known for. They've also published Gutted, the second book in the series. Check 'em out.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
And keep off his lawn!
STANLEY A. KANIEWSKI ARRESTED ON AGGRAVATED ASSAULT CHARGES: Stanley A. Kaniewski, 72, of Salt Springs fired shots with a handgun. The victim said Kaniewski was angry about a 16-year-old playing his music loudly. "He came out of his house and began yelling obscenities and threatening to kill him, if he did not turn the music down," the report reads.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
STANLEY A. KANIEWSKI ARRESTED ON AGGRAVATED ASSAULT CHARGES: Stanley A. Kaniewski, 72, of Salt Springs fired shots with a handgun. The victim said Kaniewski was angry about a 16-year-old playing his music loudly. "He came out of his house and began yelling obscenities and threatening to kill him, if he did not turn the music down," the report reads.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Deployed (Called to Serve): Mel Odom: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Lance Corporal Bekah Shaw joined the United States Marine reserves to help support herself and her son when her ex-husband, Billy Roy, decided they were no longer his responsibility. But when her team is activated and sent to Somalia on a peacekeeping mission, Bekah struggles with being separated from her son and vows to return safely. Once a successful Somalian businessman, Rageh Daud has lost everything. Determined to seek revenge on the terrorists who killed his wife and son, he teams up with a group of thieves, killers, and others displaced by war. Despite his better judgment, Daud becomes the protector of a young orphaned boy—who becomes a pawn between the warring factions.
To defeat the terrorists and bring peace to the region, Bekah and her team must convince Daud that they are on the same side.
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Alan O'Day, R. I. P.
Billboard: Alan O'Day, who crafted popular songs for artists like the Righteous Brothers and Helen Reddy before scoring a No. 1 of his own with the bouncy 1977 hit "Undercover Angel," lost his battle with cancer on Friday, his record label announced. He was 72.
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