Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Nancy Willard, R. I. P.

Nancy Willard, June 26, 1936 – February 19, 2017: Nancy Willard was the author of more than 70 books, including more than 40 books for children, such as the Anatole trilogy, Firebrat (1988), East of the Sun and West of the Moon: A Play (1989), and Pish, Posh Said Hieronymus Bosch (1991), illustrated by the Dillons. She won the Newbery Award in 1982 for her book of poetry, William Blake’s Inn, illustrated by Alice & Martin Provensen. It was the first book of poetry to win the Newbery.

Off Rock -- Kieran Shea

It's the year 2278, and there's still no cure for the flu, which is just one of the many problems that plague Jimmy Vik in Off Rock. Not that he has the flu, but the guy supervising his shift does, and that means that Jimmy's former girlfriend is his supervisor when he discovers a huge hunk of gold on the asteroid where he's working as a miner. The gold isn't supposed to be there, and Jimmy is contemplating ways of getting it for himself. And if he can, the problem becomes one of how to get it "off rock."

In a way, Off Rock is a caper novel, at least to begin with, because there's a lot of careful planning involved with moving that gold. Unfortunately for Jimmy Vik, he has to team up with a shady character named Jock, who's not only treacherous but marked for death by a shady organization that's sent a beautiful assassin to the asteroid to kill him. And then things get complicated.

One of the things I enjoyed about Off Rock, besides the story, was the very real world that Shea creates. It's a scruffy, lived-in world, and it's very well done. The book zips right along, the plotting is clever, there's humor, and Shea has a great time telling the tale. Check it out.

Rusty Puppy -- Joe R. Lansdale

Hap and Leonard are back in another East Texas crime novel in which Joe Lansdale blends humor and grim events as skilfully as ever. Hap and Leonard seem to attract trouble, and this time when they're hired to look into the death of the son of the woman to lives across the street from the detective agency where they work, things take a real turn for the dark and dangerous side. They also spend a heck of a lot more money working on the case than they get paid.

The woman suspects that the police might be involved in her son's killing, and Hap and Leonard discover themselves involved with what might be the most corrupt police department in all of East Texas. One of the members of the department is an old enemy of Leonard's, which leads to even more trouble.

As usual, it's the characters and the dialogue that make a Lansdale novel special, and this one introduces Reba, a young girl whom Leonard describes as a 400-year-old vampire. I suspect she's going to be back in a future book or two. There are a couple of big martial arts battles, and plenty of sex and cussin'. I suspect that everyone who reads this blog is already familiar with Lansdale's work, but if you're not, it's time to find out what you're missing. Highly recommended.