REASON TO DOUBT – Nancy Cole Silverman

Posted by Daniel on March 18, 2019
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Nancy Cole Silverman’s Carol Childs Mystery series just keeps getting better and better. In Reason to Doubt, Carol faces a parenting nightmare when her daughter’s boyfriend – an apparently serious, staying-overnight boyfriend – is accused of some grisly co-ed murders. Carol gets a look at some of the preliminary evidence and it definitely points to the boyfriend. But her daughter doesn’t believe it and asks Carol to prove him innocent.

Silverman brings us into the story by making it personal. Almost any parent can recognize the desire to protect a child – to keep a child safe from danger … even an adult child. But at the same time, trying to find that balance between protecting and being over-bearing. It seems even more difficult when your job brings you closer to the story. Carol Childs has to balance not only her concern for her daughter, but her objectivity with her job as well.  How does she report about the girlfriend of the prime suspect when that person is her daughter?

The mystery is well put-together – as we have come to expect from Silverman.  The evidence does seem overwhelming against the boyfriend and it’s only Childs’ determination to help her daughter that keeps her poking in to other leads when the police and DA are sure they’ve got their man.

A side plot (more than just a sub-plot) has a couple of female witnesses, who want to stay out of the police light, give Childs some clues, but a mystery around them seems almost as intense. And of course it all comes together.

I’m enjoying this series. What at first started out as a pretty light mystery read has developed into some strong, heavy mysteries. Fans of the mystery genre should definitely get in on this. I would consider this border-line ‘cozy’ with some intensity.

Looking for a good book? Reason to Doubt is a strong showing in the Carol Childs Mystery series by Nancy Cole Silverman.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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Reason to Doubt

author: Nancy Cole Silverman

series: Carol Childs Mystery #5

publisher: Henery Press

ISBN13: 9781635114225

paperback, 252 pages

KINGDOM OF NEEDLE AND BONE – Mira Grant

Posted by Daniel on March 15, 2019
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, SF/FANTASY, SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Powerhouse author Mira Grant takes an idea that appears to be ripped right out of the newspaper headlines and makes it even more terrifying because we all know who close to truth this fictional story is.

In a world where medical and technology knowledge grows at a staggering pace and vaccinations are so common that we can easily forget how terrible the diseases were that are now vaccinated against, the next biggest danger to mankind is probably man him (or her) self.

It starts as a simple fever. Nothing too serious, right? Shortly after the fever there are the spots that appear and now it’s already too late. The first person to contract this is dead and a pandemic has begun.  But to add insult to injury, this is a disease that we’ve already fought and had vaccinations for. But the movement to not vaccinate children – especially for a disease that no one’s contracted in decades – has opened the door for the disease to rush back in a lay claim to millions of people.

One doctor, related to the first person to contract the new strain of the old disease, sees a possible way out for humanity, but it’s not exactly ethical and she will be vilified by anyone and everyone who might ever mention her name.

The amazing thing about Mira Grant’s writing is that she can make even the eradication of humanity seem poetic. She also manages to make everything incredibly plausible with her detailed research and the way she presents the science behind the horror.

On the one hand, the book appears to be about vaccinations and immunizations but it’s the people in Grant’s books that make her stories rise up.  They are ordinary people.  Maybe doctors, maybe news reporters, maybe day laborers, but they all seem like someone we know in our own towns, and they are asked, by the circumstances presented to them, to challenge themselves – to rise above what they thought were their limits to combat the horror in front of them.  And Grant finds new ways for people to do that. And that is what keeps me reading her books … whether she is writing as Mira Grant, or Seanan Maguire … I’ll keep reading.

Looking for a good book? Kingdom of Needle and Bone is a science fiction horror story by Mira Grant and it is captivating.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Kingdom of Needle and Bone

author: Mira Grant

publisher:  Subterranean Press

ISBN: 159606871X

hardcover, 128 pages

A TASTE FOR BLOOD – David Stuart Davies

Posted by Daniel on March 13, 2019
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

This is one of the oldest books in my ARC queue and was requested at a time when I was requesting everything in the hopes that I’d be approved for something. I did not know that it was a part of a longer series. But all that aside, I don’t think you need to read the previous five books in the Johnny One-Eye Detective series to appreciate the story … though you might want to after reading this.

Johnny “One-Eye” Hawke is a private investigator and is currently looking in to a suicide that just doesn’t feel right. A police detective friend of his, David Llewellyn, is investigating a bloody crime involving an escaped convict and a psychiatrist. These appear to be separate, parallel stories until Hawke manages to come to a realization about his friend. The cases do teases us as coming together once in a while, but author Davies manages to keep us on our toes.

The book is set during WWII era and I’m not quite sure why.  I tend to like historical fiction, but nothing about the era mattered to the story. In fact I found it a bit of distraction because it read pretty modern and then something would pop up from the era and I’d be thrown off for a moment.

The book is well-written and the mystery is very intriguing.  The last few chapters had me on the edge of my seat. They were also somewhat gruesome in expectation of a nasty killing.

On the one hand, this is very much the sort of hard mystery you might want to read (if you enjoy mysteries with a bite).  It’s well-written, with interesting characters, and a plot that keeps you paying attention.  On the other hand, there is nothing really very spectacular here.  It’s a good story but not one that I will look back on and want to read again.  It is what I consider beach fare or an airplane read … something to keep me occupied and entertained (I find reading to be entertaining) and not much more.

In that sense, then, this is a perfectly average read.

Looking for a good book? A Taste for Blood by David Stuart Davies is a good hard mystery that won’t leave you longing for more but will entertain fans of the genre.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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A Taste for Blood

author: David Stuart Davies

series: Johnny One Eye #6

publisher: Sparkling Books Ltd

ISBN: 1907230467

paperback, 224 pages

WASTE OF SPACE – Gina Damico

Posted by Daniel on March 11, 2019
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, HUMOR, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Waste of Space by Gina Damico is a very clever idea, written in an interesting (appropriate for the subject matter) style, but still mostly a long, drawn-out story that doesn’t have the payoff for sticking with the book.

Some not quite top-of-the-line Hollywood producers are looking for the next great reality show and team up with some not quite top-of-the-line scientists at the organization NASAW to produce the first reality show in space. Auditions are held and the typical assortment of teens are lined up (including one who doesn’t speak English and thinks she’s been kidnapped).  The Hollywood producers have a plan, however, to not actually send anyone into space, but need the NASAW team to make it look like it. The NASAW team feels as duped as the teens will be.

The ratings are out of this world and very few watchers (or participants) seem to notice that the space ship is made with wood, or question that there is still gravity and that there’s a hot tub on the ship. The only one who does seem smart enough to question it is the one who doesn’t speak English.

But just as the nation seems enthralled and the ratings are at the top, NASAQ pulls the plug … literally … and no one seems to know where the set – or the kids – are, leaving the producers to scramble to try to come up with an explanation.

The concept here doesn’t seem too far off. I’d heard talk of hopes to do a reality show on the moon, but of course rumors in the entertainment industry are nothing new. And that’s precisely what this book plays with.

The set-up of coming up with the concept and bringing the science guys (NASAW) into the story, and the auditions to find the right teens to send off on a spaceship, is a lot of fun. It’s fast-paced and the sort of exciting where you want to rub your hands together and chuckle because you just know something delicious is about to happen.

But then it doesn’t.

Author Gina Damico tries to keep it moving along by giving us plot twists at every turn, but we don’t need plot twists! The story is fun and frightening and so much better than a reality show, that we are simple let down when this becomes ordinary. And that is what happens.  It becomes a YA relationship/mystery novel instead of something really kind of different.

The idea of writing the book as if it was found material and adapted for the book (mostly transcripts of video recordings – both private and part of the reality show film (aired and un-aired)) is clever and quite appropriate , but at 500+ pages, a little long to sustain this style of story-telling.

Maybe this was too much like a reality tv (or “unscripted dramas” – as one producer has referred to them) show … I’ve never enjoyed those. Perhaps this is truly a generational thing – for those who’ve grown up with reality show after reality show and fame simply for having a camera follow you around, perhaps this hit the spot.  For those of us of a different generation, we know that story-telling can be so much more.

Looking for a good book? Waste of Space by Gina Damico is a YA story – bringing ‘reality tv’ to the page in a great concept that doesn’t quite survive the story … a lot like actual reality tv.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Waste of Space

author: Gina Damico

publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for Young Readers

ISBN: 0544633164

hardcover, 400 pages

quotes – March 2019

Posted by Daniel on March 9, 2019
Posted in: OTHER. Tagged: . Leave a comment

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“It was hard enough to write a book – even a lousy book, much less one of such quality-without being constantly distracted by personal and family problems.”
Elizabeth Peters — Naked Once More

“People who don’t dream only exist from day to day.”
Michael Murphy — The Big Brush-Off

“This is a movement of words. Of thoughts and ideas. But what I’m asking you to do is to write something pure. Boil the Internet down to the purest most valuable thing it offers you and spread that around.”
Wayne Gladstone — Agents of the Internet Apocalypse

“They say knowing is half the battle, but they don’t tell you there is no second half, and fifty percent of anything is never a solution.”
Wayne Gladstone — Agents of the Internet Apocalypse

“There is an inherent insult implicit in rejection. The editor is essentially saying, ‘Your work isn’t good enough; it doesn’t measure up.’ What a dreadful thing to hear!”
Best American Mystery Stories 2104 introduction

“Readers are travelers; they move across lands belonging to someone else, like nomads poaching their way across fields they did not write.”
Michel de Certeau, quoted in Fan Fiction Studies Reader

“It’s like a Marvel Comic written by Beckett.”
What the Hell?: Angel’s “The Girl in Question” Cynthea Masson – Reading Joss Whedon

“People … need things to go wrong, they need tension. In my characters, there’s a core of trust and love that I’m very committed to … But at the same time, you can’t keep that safety.”
Joss Whedon, quoted in Reading Joss Whedon

“Why, in the face of such suffering, do stories matter?”
Aliya Whiteley — The Beauty

“It’s harder to write something short than something long.”
The Best American Mystery Stories 2013

HE STARTED IT!: MY TWITTER WAR WITH TRUMP – Danny Zuker

Posted by Daniel on March 8, 2019
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, HUMOR, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

While I would very much like to keep politics out of this blog (and this review), that’s going to be a little difficult with the reviewing of this book.

First I feel as though I need to note that I am not a fan of Donald Trump.  Not his politics, not his behavior, not his tweets.  In fact, I requested this book hoping to get a few laughs and to see him brought down to size a bit.

I say this because I didn’t enjoy this book and I don’t want it presumed that I’m simply a crazed fan of the POTUS and trying to enact some strange revenge. No … I just didn’t like the book.

This book, featuring mostly just the actual twitter exchange between the POTUS and a Hollywood writer, really doesn’t have much meat to it at all.

I feel as though there isn’t much of the Twitter war here at all, but rather just select bits of the longer Twitter battle.  If that’s not the case, then this “Twitter War” has been REALLY exaggerated.

Danny Zuker, the Tweets author, explains his intentions in the tweets and how Trump is clearly stymied by Zuker’s wit. And it’s a good thing he explains how he manages to ‘zing’ Trump because honestly, I’m not sure I’d get them all. Which suggests to me that Zuker is as enamored with himself and his own wit as Trump is with his.

Let’s face it … Trump is not a smart man. He’s a bully and a liar (I base this on his public behavior) he believes the truth is whatever is said the loudest and most often.

But he ‘wins’ this twitter war because he managed to engage someone.  And, sorry Zuker, telling someone that you are not responding to their requests is a response. It’s a childish, school-child response, but it still is a response.

And that’s really all this is – a school-yard brawl with abbreviated words. The more intelligent person thinks they win because they are smarter and quicker-witted and use better words. The bully thinks he wins because he has gotten attention and engaged someone to go toe to toe with him – and because he’s less intelligent, he doesn’t know when he’s beaten. In the end, we all lose because the rest of us wasted our time watching it.

I like that the proceeds from this book go to funding programs that Trump has cut, but I really wish I could recommend this book so that it would raise more money.  Unfortunately it’s just a pissing contest that isn’t very exciting to watch.

Looking for a good book? He Started It!: My Twitter War with Trump by Danny Zuker contains some of the public tweets he and Donald Trump exchanged over a few years. Once was bad enough … we have to experience them again and again?

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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He Started It!: My Twitter War with Trump

author: Danny Zuker (and Donald Trump)

publisher: Griffith Moon Publishing

ISBN: 0999845284

paperback, 94 pages

BRIEF CASES – Jim Butcher

Posted by Daniel on March 7, 2019
Posted in: MAGIC, SF/FANTASY, SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Despite all the reading I do, I haven’t read very many of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series. I’ve read one book, watched some of the television series, and read a number of graphic novel adaptations … and I’ve enjoyed them all.  In part, I haven’t read many Dresden Files books because I’m so back-logged with ARC’s (Advance Reading Copy) and a long list of books I’d like to read. Fortunately, for me, Brief Cases, a collection of short stories in the Dresden Files world became available as an ARC.

The Dresden Files are fun.

What more needs to be said?  A big part of the appeal to this series is that author Jim Butcher has made it fun.  Harry Dresden is a smart, sassy hero who gets himself into as much trouble as he gets out of – and we’re not always sure he’s going to get out of trouble.

You don’t really need to have read any other books in the series to enjoy this collection of short stories but let’s face it … people don’t usually buy collections of short stories so it’s most likely that if you pick this up, you are already familiar with the series and the characters.   However, most of these stories have been previously published in other collections, so true fans may already have read them. Butcher introduces each story and lets the reader know where in the order of the books, the story takes place. This didn’t mean much to me.  I simply enjoyed them as fantasy stories.

Three of the stories include a Bigfoot character. I think I enjoyed these the most as we see a number of different sides to Harry Dresden and the Bigfoot character fits in so well with the Dresden Files menagerie. I also enjoyed “Jury Duty” in which Dresden sits on a jury and suspects that there is paranormal involved and solves the crime before the case is concluded.

The stories in which Harry is not the narrator/POV, were my least favorite. They just didn’t have the charm of a Harry Dresden story.

I like short fiction, and I really enjoyed these stories, even though I’m not a regular follower of the books. We get a good idea of the fun, the danger, and the uniqueness of the series through these stories. It is worth reading if you like fantasy that has some danger and a touch of humor.

This book includes the following:

“A Fistful of Warlocks”
“B is for Bigfoot”
“AAAA Wizardry”
“I Was a Teenage Bigfoot”
“Curses”
“Even Hand”
“Bigfoot on Campus”
“Bombshells”
“Cold Case”
“Jury Duty”
“Day One”
“Zoo Day”

Looking for a good book? Brief Cases by Jim Butcher is a collection of short stories from the Dresden Files and showcases the fun and mysterious of the series in short snippets.  Each of the stories is worth reading, especially for fans of the series.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Brief Cases

author: Jim Butcher

series: The Dresden Files #15.1

publisher: Ace Books

ISBN: 0451492102

hardcover, 437 pages