TEENAGE WASTELAND – Anne Tyler

Posted by Daniel on November 24, 2020
Posted in: SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Back sometime in the late 1980′ or early 1990’s, when I was working in a bookstore, I remember publishers trying out a ‘new’ trend, releasing very thin paperback books – novelettes and novellas really – usually older works by noted authors.  The idea was that with the quickly rising costs of printing books, this was an affordable way for readers to connect with their favorite authors. The idea did not catch on. (Some of those books were so thin it was hard to understand how they could get a perfect binding.)

But as almost any self-published author today will tell you, selling a novelette or novella in digital format is not only easy, it makes a lot of sense.  People will often shell out a dollar or two for a quick read.  And now that the publishers are getting back on board with this, publishing a recognizable and renowned author’s short works for a $1, I suspect that the market might just explode.

The only problem here, however, is that publishers are taking old works, easily found in a collection elsewhere, and trying to get us to buy them again.  Will we do it?  I guess it depends on how much you want to reread that story and would rather just put it on a Kindle for a dollar rather than search your bookshelf or your library for the same story.  It so happens that I really like Anne Tyler and I’d but this for a buck.

Tyler writes brilliantly about ordinary people and ordinary tragedies. “Teenage Wasteland” is one of those ordinary tragedies.

Daisy Coble tries to be a good mother. She only wants what’s best for her son, but she’s not equipped with the life skills to provide. She’s distraught when she learns that Donny is misbehaving at school, and she is sick with grief that she has failed as a parent.

Doing the best she can, she hires a tutor for Donny, though the tutor has some unusual ideas on how to help the boy, and the gap between mother and son widens until it is too much of a chasm to bridge.

This is not a feel-good story. This is a tragedy and reading a short story that isn’t necessarily positive (I think there are some positive aspects here) is difficult for a lot people.

One of the bigger issues with the story is actually that it leaves the reader with so many questions. I don’t mind some questions when I finish a book or a story, but this little slice of Daisy and Donny’s lives with so many unanswered  questions, and a lost and bewildered Daisy that it’s hard to understand what benefit there was to reading this.

This is the sort of book or story that needs to be read in a classroom or a book club so that people can talk about it. The story begs discussion.

Looking for a good book? If you don’t belong to a group that talks about books, you might want to skip Anne Tyler’s “Teenage Wasteland.”  But if you do have a reader’s group, consider giving this a read.

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

* * * * * *

“Teenage Wasteland”

author: Anny Tyler

publisher: Vintage

ASIN: B08H19LY7X

Kindle Edition, 18 pages

THE YOUNGER GODS – Michael R. Underwood

Posted by Daniel on November 23, 2020
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Jacob Greene is a child of cultists – extremists with a deep connection to powerful gods.  To stay in good favor and receive great powers from these gods Jacob’s family (both biological family and cult group family) must occasion a sacrifice now then.

Jacob doesn’t seem to question this (it’s how he’s been raised, after all) until the time he brings his best friend home to be brutally sacrificed. Jacob believes that his friend is a willing participant, honored to be chosen, informed of what was about to take place by Jacob’s father.   Of course nothing could be further from the truth and the friend does NOT go willingly.

This shatters Jacob’s belief and has him question his faith and he leaves his family and cult in order to think things through. But it’s not easy to escape powerful gods, and despite being in the city of New York, all signs point to the fact that the gods know where he is and that something big is about to go down.

Although the description of the book was not necessarily appealing to me, I really enjoyed author Michael R. Underwood’s modern urban fantasy Ree Reyes series, so I was interested in giving this a read as well.  Unfortunately it really does not fare too well.

The fact that this is all pretty dark is fine, and there’s no reason to think it would be anything other than a dark fantasy series, with blood, death, and some bad intentions. But usually there is something in a story like this that will hold a reader’s interest. It should be Jacob Greene in this book, but there’s nothing at all interesting about him. He seems pretty clueless and while we want to root for him, we’re mostly left thinking, “Maybe he will, maybe he won’t.  Oh well.”

This is one of those unusual books where it has fewer than 300 pages, it reads like a 500 page book.  It was a bit of a slog.

Looking for a good book? Michael R. Underwood has a great fantasy series that I would recommend to anyone, but this book, The Younger Gods, is one to avoid.

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

* * * * * *

The Younger Gods

author: Michael R. Underwood

series: Younger Gods #1

publisher: Pocket Star

ASIN: B00IWTWNZ6

Kindle edition, 255 pages

UNDER THE CAPE – anthology

Posted by Daniel on November 20, 2020
Posted in: ROMANCE, SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Superheroes and sex – two big topics in today’s market.  I’ve read a number of superhero-related books in the past couple of years, but never one specifically one looking at erotic/sometimes-graphic sexual scenarios, but, why not?  I would think this is the perfect time for a book like this. This particular book is a collection of short fiction and like nearly every anthology I’ve ever read, there are some stories here that i liked, some I didn’t, and some that were fairly average.

The first of three that stood out in a positive light was “Time for No Mercy” by Elizabeth Schechter. I liked the look at politics and political correctness, but I also liked the science and the idea of developing a widespread morning-after type spray that would allow women to not get pregnant any time they didn’t want to, and here the hero was trying to stop it.  This was well written and thoughtful and it really had me thinking afterward.

Next was “No Words Needed” by David T. Valentin in which a young man can’t decide what’s caught his attention the most – that he has superpowers he’s only just discovered, or that the guy he likes happens to like him back. This was well-written and tasteful.

And finally, by the editor of the anthology, Rachel Kenley, we have “Just Be Yourself.”  This was probably the best written story here. The ‘romance’ is dialed up a notch – in fact gets pretty graphic.  But unlike a lot of erotica, where the sex drives a meager plot, this is definitely plot-driven with some steamy sex.  And I chuckled at the sentence: “She had a moment to wish her underwear was sexier, then decided it didn’t matter because she wouldn’t be wearing it much longer.”

On the negative end I’d start with “Swiftly in Love” by Stella B. James. I don’t even want to go into it.  This was just a big ‘no’ for me.

“The Little Push” by Christopher Peruzzi was also at the bottom.  the story, the writing, the characters … nothing clicked.

The rest were quite average.  Nothing was interesting enough that I wanted to read more by any particular author (other than Rachel Kenley).  For an anthology, especially one with only a dozen or so stories, average is about what I would expect.

This anthology includes:

Introduction by Rachel Kenley
“Flying Fast, Falling Hard” by Kim Strattford
“Where There’s Smoke” by E.D. Gonzalez
“Trust Paradox” by Naomi Hinchen
“Time for No Mercy” by Elizabeth Schechter
“No Words Needed” by David T. Valentin
“Swiftly in Love” by Stella B. James
“Supergay” by Julie Behrens
“The Little Push” by Christopher Peruzzi
“Foolproof” by Louisa Bacio
“Just Be Yourself” by Rachel Kenley
“Love, Law, and the Whippoorwill” by Austin Worley
Author Bios

Looking for a good book? The anthology, Under the Cape, edited by Rachel Kenley is a pretty average collection of short fiction featuring superheroes and romance/erotica.

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

* * * * * *

Under The Cape: An Anthology of Superhero Romance

editor: Rachel Kenley

publisher: Riverdale Avenue

ISBN: 1626015597

paperback, 320 pages

ANXIOUS PEOPLE – Fredrik Backman

Posted by Daniel on November 19, 2020
Posted in: OTHER. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

A small town is rocked by a bank robbery when the robber runs to a nearby apartment viewing and holds the group of people gathered hostage and then disappears in thin air even as the police and media vans surround the apartment. The local police department brings all those who had been in the apartment at the time in for questioning to try and understand how the bank robber escaped.
But as the leading police investigators meet with the former hostages they run into a little problem – the witnesses are no help. Some seem to have a grudge with the police. Some are more concerned with appearances. And some border on being absolute idiots.

Slowly, these people come to realize that their lives have intersected in an unusual way and they begin to open up to one another. And the police leading the investigation, who happen to be father and son, come to realize a few things – not just about the bank robber or the lives of these anxious, ordinary people, but about one another as well.

Like many, I am a Fredrik Backman fan, so I was very eager to read this.

One of the first things that strikes me is that this seems much different from most of the books I’ve read by Backman before. The humor, almost slapstick at times, with our two policemen like Keystone Cops, is almost over the top. We run in to idiot after idiot in the police interview room, and I must say that there were times I thought Backman went too far. The lunacy had gone a little bit beyond what I was willing to accept as standard behavior.

But Backman is a master storyteller and I should know enough to trust that he’s setting us up. There is a purpose for all of this, and he will get to it.

It’s ridiculous, and touching, and there are more than a few surprises in store for the reader.

One of the things I find most interesting is that there’s almost no central character here. It could be the bank robber, but we don’t really know much about this person until much later in the book. It could be the father police officer who does play an important role in the story but it’s not really his story being told. Maybe it’s the police officer son? Or the real estate agent who led the apartment viewing? Or maybe … No. It’s everybody’s story, merged at the intersection of a bank robbery gone wrong.

Let me diverge for just a moment … for a little over a decade I worked for a Shakespeare Festival and one of the things the directors would talk about was the reason Shakespeare remained so popular was because he wrote so well about what it was to be human. From his histories, to his comedies, to his dark tragedies, Shakespeare relayed what it meant to be human better than anyone else.

I bring this up, because I think Backman is our present-day Shakespeare. He’s now shown a variety of styles – humor to tragedy – and I can’t think of any living writer who does a better job relaying the complex human experience to readers. Even our hostages – who we think are nothing but a group of idiots – come to show us a tremendous giving spirit, as do our Keystone Cops.

The book is fun, funny, and quite moving. I did think that the process of the interviews with our goofball hostages went on a little too long without much variety and there were moments that I grew bored with the book while reading it. Though upon reflection, I’ve come to understand it better.

This, like all of Backman’s books, is highly recommended.

Looking for a good book? Read Anxious People by Fredrik Backman – you won’t be disappointed.

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

* * * * * *

Anxious People

author: Fredrik Backman

publisher: Atria Books

ISBN: 1501160834

hardcover, 352 pages

OLAV AUDUNSSON: I. VOWS – Sigrid Undset

Posted by Daniel on November 17, 2020
Posted in: HISTORICAL FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

It is interesting for me that I just purchased a set of Sigrid Undet’s Kristin Lavransdatter series because it looked very interesting to me. And shortly after doing so, I find out that translator extraordinaire Tiina Nunnally has translated a different series by Undest. My ancestors are Scandinavian (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish) and I’ve been doing a lot of ancestry research lately, so literature that gives me a feel for life in medieval Scandinavian has a special appeal for me.

Olav Audunssøn’s father is dying and the father asks his old friend, Steinfinn Toressøn, to raise his boy when he passes on. Steinfinn agrees to raise the child as his foster son and also promises that Olav will be betrothed to Steinfinn’s daughter, Ingunn. Olav and Ingunn then spend their youth as both siblings, knowing they will be husband and wife as they get older.

But Olav and Ingunn couldn’t be much more different from one another and the medieval time in which they live is turbulent as church rules and law clash. There are some in the community who don’t believe they are legally married but for Olav and Ingunn all that matters is that they’ve been intimate and they believe they are married.

But when Steinfinn passes away, Olav and Ingunn travel to the city of Hamar to ask the church to bless their union. The Church, however, is trying to enforce more control over religious behavior and makes this difficult.

Olav does some traveling and is gone for a decade and Ingunn combats her loneliness by being extra friendly with a young man who works for a local priest. This has Ingunn and Olav examining their relationship upon his return.

Undset’s writing, and Nunnally’s translation, is beautiful and extremely accessible. We get drawn in to the story by the language, we are held in the story by the remarkable characters who are ordinary and real and fascinating.

In many ways this reminds us that everyone has a story to tell. You don’t need to be a superhero or the leader of a rebels in a dystopian world to be worth reading about. You can be a young couple in medieval Norway, looking to find your own way and dealing with the changes going on in the world and have a story worth sharing.

But there’s so much going on here. In addition to the story of these two people, we are getting a story about a country going through a religious revolution and a Church finding itself in a position to influence its beliefs into a government, through the people. The title “Vows” is incredibly apt here, telling not only of the vows people make to each other, but the religious significance of vows.

I enjoyed this and am eager to dig into the Kristin Lavransdatter series but will wait until I’ve read the rest of the books in the Olav Audunssøn series.

Looking for a good book? Olav Audunssøn: I. Vows by Sigrid Undset and translated by Tiina Nunnally is a book you don’t just read, but experience, and this is well worth experiencing.

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

* * * * * *

Olav Audunssøn: I. Vows

author: Sigrid Undset

translator: Tiina Nunnally

publisher: Univ of Minnesota Press

ISBN: 151791048X

paperback, 336 pages

THE REMARKABLE INVENTIONS OF WALTER MORTINSON – Quinn Sosna-Spear

Posted by Daniel on November 16, 2020
Posted in: CHILDREN'S, YA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Young Walter Mortinson is an inventor.  Perhaps more mad-scientist than genius inventor when you consider that some of his inventions include animating a dead rabbit. Needless to say, Walter Mortinson doesn’t have a lot of friends at school.  No one else seems interested in what he is able to invent.  And to add to what his classmates would find odd about him, Walter lives with his mother who runs the family mortuary business. Walter has inventing in his blood as his father Maxwell, was also a noted inventor.

One of Walter’s inventions goes awry and causes some havoc in their small town  which has his mother pushing for Walter to settle in and learn the mortuary business, but at about the same time, Walter gets a letter from Horace Flasterborn.  Flasterborn is the biggest name in inventions.  Maxwell Mortinson worked for Flasterborn – was even heir to the Flasterborn empire – and now Horace, who has been keeping tabs on Walter from afar, has invited him to come be part of the Flasterborn Family just as his father was.

Along with a neighbor girl, who is also a school outcast, Walter takes the family hearse and heads off to meet the fabulous Flasterborn. But Walter will have to learn what’s really important in life before he makes a commitment.

This is a really great middle-grade novel. It starts out with a lot of fun as we see all the strange inventions.  Young readers will definitely giggle as they read.  And of course the names (of inventions and of people [Horace Flasterborn, Tippy Tedesco, etc]) are fun to say.  I’ve written before about something I once heard Bruce Coville say about “Cool Things Per Page” and how the success of children’s books can often be attributed to the CTPP level (and Coville should know),  The famous boy wizard books have a very high CTPP of course, and this book grabs our attention with a high CTPP qoutient.

But it’s almost as if this is two books.  We turn a page (literally and figuratively) and the CTPP drops significantly as the book switches from fun exploration to a message novel of some youthful introspection. It’s all good work here, but it definitely could have been stronger if the two different aspects of the book could have been pulled together a bit more.

Author Quinn Sosna-Spear is definitely an author to watch for.  This is a strong first showing and I look forward to whatever she brings next.

Looking for a good book? The Remarkable Inventions of Walter Mortinson by Quinn Sosna-Spear is a fun, middle-grade read with unique characters who make strong choices.

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

* * * * * *

The Remarkable Inventions of Walter Mortinson

author: Quinn Sosna-Spear

publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

ISBN: 1534420800

hardcover, 336 pages

THE OUTSIDE – Ada Hoffman

Posted by Daniel on November 13, 2020
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Yasira Shien, an autistic scientist, has developed a new energy drive that is very unconventional, but she’s confident in her abilities and has no worries about whether or not it will work.  When she starts the prototype, her engine creates a warp in reality and the space station where they are departing from – and everyone on board – is destroyed.  Now, the AI Gods, who are rulers of the galaxy, have declared Shien’s new drive heretical and the gods send their henchmen to kidnap her.  Execution would be the normal punishment for heresy, but the gods make an offer. They will be lenient if she will help them find a bigger, more dangerous individual.  And why would Shien have any special talent to find this individual?  Because the target is Shien’s mentor who disappeared years ago. But along the way, Shein will have to decide if she can trust the gods, or if a run-away scientist holds the key to her salvation.

The opening chapters of this book were really strong.  I was drawn into the story and I could sense right away that this was something very unique with this story. Both the character of Yasira Shien and the science of her new energy drive, and the AI gods … wow, this should be a really phenomenal read! But it’s not.

The gods aspect is most interesting and carries through the entire novel and is also the least defined. We get a sense of the hierarchy (there are angels that work for these gods!), but I didn’t understand why they were concerned over the actions of such a mortal.  It’s entirely possible the answers were here but I didn’t see them, because…

Yasira Shien completely bored me.

Shien is the central character, our heroine that carries the story.  She was motivated and exciting and engaging when she was dealing with her new energy drive at the start of the book, but once she was taken out of her element and put in the hands of the gods, she was about as dull as any main character I’ve ever read.

I have to say that I don’t know enough (or much) about autism, so this could very well have an effect on my reading of the character.  But at the same time, if this is important to understanding the character, then it needs to be presented and explained more directly.

She’s also supposed to be a genius, which we see at the beginning but I never sensed or saw it after she warped reality.  We’re told that she a genius a few times, but we don’t see it after the opening.

This was a decent book with a lot of promise but it didn’t hold together well for me.

Looking for a good book?  The Outside by Ada Hoffmann has a number of unique qualities poising it for a strong sci-fi novel, but it suffers from a main character who can’t quite shoulder being the main focus.

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

* * * * * *

The Outside

author: Ada Hoffmann

series: The Outside #1

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857668137

paperback, 400 pages

THE FIVE – Hallie Rubenhold

Posted by Daniel on November 12, 2020
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

By today’s standards, sadly, a mass murderer or serial killer who kills five women is hardly even worthy of front page news.  But mention the name Jack the Ripper and most people will have at the very least heard the name and many will know he was a notorious killer from the late 1800’s, and those who think they are moderately knowledgeable will say he killed five prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London.

There is no shortage of books about Jack the Ripper, fiction and non-fiction alike. Author Hallie Rubenhold takes a new direction here however. Rather than looking at Jack the Ripper and his heinous murders, she looks at the five women the Ripper is believed to have killed.

The common perception is that Jack the Ripper murdered five prostitutes.  But as Rubenhold asserts in her preface:

There is, and never was, any proof of this either. To the contrary — over the course of the coroner’s inquests, it became known that Jack the Ripper never had sex with a single victim. Additionally, in the case of each murder there were no signs of struggle and the killings appear to have taken place in complete silence. There were no screams heard by anyone in the vicinity. The autopsies concluded that all of the women were killed while in a reclining position. In at least three of the cases, the victims were known to sleep on the street and on the nights they were killed did not have money for a lodging house. In the final case, the victim was murdered in her bed. However, the police were so committed to their theories about the killer’s choice of victims that they failed to conclude the obvious — the Ripper targeted women while they slept.

Using statements made by those who knew the victims best, Rubenhold makes a very strong case for the fact that these women, from very diverse backgrounds, had fallen on hard times (sometimes by their own making) yet none had been actively engaged in prostitution.

This information is essentially covered in the preface, but Rubenhold goes on with exhaustive research into each of these women and shares their life stories – brief as the available information might be. What this does is remind us that these victims – Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elisabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Jane Kelly – are more than just names, famous for the terrifying name of their killer.  They were daughters, mothers, sisters, wives.

Rubenhold gives us a surprising amount of information about these women, especially given that:

The cards were stacked against Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Kate, and Mary Jane from birth. They began their lives in deficit. Not only were most of them born into working-class families; they were also born female. Before they had even spoken their first words or taken their first steps, they were regarded as less important than their brothers and more of a burden on the world than their wealthier female counterparts. Their worth was compromised before they had even attempted to prove it.

I can honestly say that this changed how I think about the events of the Ripper murders, and it will have an affect on how I think about the victims of violent crimes in the future.

I’ve been fascinated by the Ripper legends for a very long time.  It probably started when I first the Star Trek episode, Wolf in the Fold, sometime in the early 1970’s. I then read nearly every book I could find on the subject, wrote papers about it in college, and even wrote a full-length play with my theory of who the Ripper was (that play safely tucked away in a folder, deep in my file cabinet). In all that time, though, I never thought about these women other than as victims and as prostitutes. This book is fascinating and a great reminder that the crimes committed by the Ripper, were committed against people who lived and dreamed.

Looking for a good book? The Five, by Hallie Rubenhold, is a new, very human, approached to the Jack the Ripper murders, looking at the victims, and reminding us, not only were they not five prostitutes, as the media of the time sensationalized them, but women with histories and families and struggling to survive despite the odds against them.  Is it incredibly well researched.

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

* * * * * *

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

author: Hallie Rubenhold

publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN-13: 978-0358299615

hardcover, 333 pages

NEXT TO LAST STAND – Craig Johnson

Posted by Daniel on November 10, 2020
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized, WESTERN. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Sheriff Walt Longmire is still taking it kind of slow after his ordeal in Mexico (book #14 in the series) but as long as he’s still sheriff, he’s got some work to do. Walt pays visits periodically to the folks over at the Wyoming Home for Soldiers & Sailors, so he’s familiar with resident Charley Lee Stillwater. When Carlie passes away, Walt is surprised to discover that Charlie leaves behind a piece of original artwork that is somehow familiar, and a shoebox containing three million dollars.

The painting, Walt discovers, was a study for a larger painting … Custer’s Last Fight. The original was copied and distributed (by the millions) by a major beer producer.  The original painting however, was destroyed in a fire at the 7th Cavalry Headquarters in Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1946.  A place where Charlie Lee Stillwater happened to be stationed at the time.  Is it possible that the painting was not destroyed, after all? Could Charlie have been hanging on to it for 70+ years without letting on? Could it be worth the kind of money Charlie had in his shoebox? And most importantly, Would a painting like this be something worth killing for?

Walt’s investigation takes him on a journey through the art world and connects with the Russian mob. Meanwhile, he reflects on how much longer he wants to stay in the job, while his speed-obsessed deputy, Victoria Moretti, requisitions a new truck.

The Longmire books are like comfort food for readers.  Walt’s a comfortable, easy-going character who also happens to be tough as nails when he needs to be.  He’s very good at what he does (stop bad guys and solve mysteries) and he’s very direct with no nonsense. To counter Walt’s slow, measured demeanor we get his deputy, Victoria ‘Vic’ Moretti – a former Philadelphia detective who’s always in high gear.  This book gives a little extra attention to Ruby – the dispatcher and apparent office manager who keeps everything in order for the sheriff and deputies.

This book isn’t as intense with action as some of the previous Longmire books have been, and the addition of the Russians … in Wyoming, interested in a piece of Western American art … feels like a bit of a stretch, but Craig Johnson is a very good writer and this is still more entertaining than most fiction published in today’s market.

Looking for a good book? Next to Last Stand by Craig Johnson is the 16th book in the Walt Longmire series.  It’s a quick read and a little light on substance, but it’s entertaining and appears to be a bridge for some upcoming changes in store for the Absaroka County Sheriff’s Department.

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

* * * * * *

Next to Last Stand

author: Craig Johnson

series: Walt Longmire #16

publisher: Viking

ISBN: 0525522530

hardcover, 336 pages

DARK TERRITORY – Terrence McCauley

Posted by Daniel on November 9, 2020
Posted in: Uncategorized, WESTERN. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Dover Station, Montana is a boom town. Railroads tracks have been laid and the train will be going through town, so anyone already with property is bound to make a profit. A growing city brings a lot of different kinds of people, including those looking to take advantage of others, and a sheriff in a boom town like Dover Station is bound to stay busy. And Sheriff Aaron Mackey definitely being kept busy.

There has been a rash of train robberies on select trains headed in to Dover Station and Mackey figures out how the robbers know which trains to rob and lays a trap for them. But Mackey and his deputies are surprised at what they find when they end up killing all but one of the train robbers and it turns out that they are some otherwise upstanding men from the community. When the lone survivor talks, Mackey learns some surprising things about the robberies and how they are funded – the robbers make more in payments from an unknown source than they do from the train robberies themselves.

But there’s other trouble brewing – the wealthiest man in town, the one who is seeing to it that buildings are being built and the train is coming through, is making a run for mayor for the newly incorporated town, and he’s also looking for a local police force so that there’s no need for Sheriff Mackey. But Mackey takes it in stride – there are issues at stake much larger than whether or not a sheriff is needed – and he’s got a few surprises up his sleeve.

This is the second book in the Sheriff Aaron Mackey series, but I don’t feel as though I missed out on too much by not having read the first.  Most of what we need to know we get through the narrative, and the rest we can infer.

The story moves along swiftly and my biggest complaint is that it maybe moves along too quickly for me.  It’s a western, and the direct approach, with lots of action, is the style here and we don’t get to spend any time really getting to know any of the characters (other than their useful to further the action) and there’s no real subplot or misdirection: it’s plot, plot, plot … find out how train robberies are done, stop them, face off against the future mayor. Done.

Still, I did enjoy this book. Though it moved along quicker than I was expecting, I found that I was engaged in the story and in Aaron Mackey and I see that there’s a larger story being covered over the course of multiple books, which will be fun to keep reading. But this is a complete book – the next book is hinted at, but not required to enjoy what here.

Looking for a good book? Dark Territory by Terrence McCauley is a fast-paced western – a great vacation read for fans of the genre.

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

* * * * * *

Dark Territory

author: Terrence McCauley

series: Sheriff Aaron Mackey #2

publisher: Pinnacle Books

ISBN: 078604344X

paperback, 336 pages

THE UNKINDEST TIDE – Seanan McGuire

Posted by Daniel on November 6, 2020
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

An October Daye book?  Yes, please.

History has it that there was a bargain between the Selkies and the Sea Witch. The Selkies would be allowed to live in the sea for as long as the Sea Witch allows it. At any time she can put an end to the bargain and call in their debt.  But this all happened so long ago that it’s become just legend and no one expects that debt ever to be called in. But the Sea Witch is calling in that debt now, which would permanently bind their skins to their bodies.

Another debt is called in when the Luidaeg tell October ‘Toby’ Daye that she needs to be a part of the bargain and the process – a debt October can’t refuse. The meeting between the Queen and the Selkies will be at the Duchy of Ships, where October will help the Selkies decide if they will forever live in the sea or on the land in their permanent skins. But at the location, one of the Selkies is found dead and Toby goes to work to get justice for the dead. Toby’s got more than she bargained for.

I’ve really come to like the character of October Daye and all of the others that she interacts with. Author Seanan McGuire is such a wonderful author who gives us intelligent, exciting characters that are ‘real’ and whom we care about. Is there anyone writing urban fantasy better than this?

And while I think strong characters are key to driving a story, it’s still important to have a good story and McGuire excels here as well. The history of the Selkies is brought to the fore and the change in their entire way of life is what’s at stake. The higher the stakes, the stronger the dramatic climax and this is not a disappointment.

As with all the other October Daye books that I’ve read, there is a novella included. This one, “Hope is Swift,” takes place at the same time as October sets out for the Duchy of Ships and features Raj and Cait Sidhe.  This was a strong work and a really good way to end.

Looking for a good book? The Unkindest Tide by Seanan McGuire is the 13th book in the October Daye series. It is a strong work with a great fantasy character.

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

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The Unkindest Tide

author: Seanan McGuire

series: October Daye #13

publisher: DAW Books

ISBN: 0756415071

hardcover, 368 pages

KISS KISS, BANG BANG – Mike Ripley

Posted by Daniel on November 5, 2020
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

I can’t imagine anyone who reads this review not knowing who James Bond is. He is the epitome of the British spy – he gets the job done, he looks great doing it, and he plays, sexually, as hard as he works. But while Bond may be the most famous name in the literary spy business (thanks, I’m sure, in great part due to the movie franchise) he is far from the only spy.

Author Mike Ripley explores the rise of spy thrillers, specifically British thrillers, from the late 1950’s through the revolutionary 1960’s, to the early 1970’s.  Ripley examines the biggest names in action/thriller fiction, but gives adequate attention to some of the lesser-known authors.

Ripley has done some remarkable research and his analysis of the authors, characters, and books herein is quite strong. Based on my reading of this book I have added a few authors in my ‘to be read’ list and I’ve read a couple of books that I found through mention by Ripley.

The book is definitely interesting, but it seems to me that the audience for this non-fiction read is somewhat limited.  I was hoping, perhaps for a little comparative association for the times in which these books were written.  How did the ‘free love’ movement impact Bond?  Did news reports of Nazis discovered living quietly in rural neighborhoods have an impact on the cold war spy stories? How could they not?

But really this is an examination of the books and the authors among all the other books and authors in the field. It was an educational read and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in the genre, but it’s not a ‘must-read’ for the general reading public.

Looking for a good book? Kiss Kiss Bang Bang by Mike Ripley is an examination of British spy thriller fiction, primarily in the 1960’s, and anyone interested in this specific genre will find some valuable insights here.

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

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Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: The Boom in British Thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed

author: Mike Ripley

publisher: HarperCollins

ISBN: 0008172234

hardcover, 448 pages