KILLALOT – Cindy Brown

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

Ivy Meadows (the stage name for Olive Ziegwart) is an actress and part-time private investigator working for her uncle Bob Duda of Duda Detectives. Things are looking up for Ivy … a famous playwright is in Arizona and he’s planning something that could be even bigger than his hit musical, Hello Dolly Madison – a musical version of Camelot with the Kennedy’s and Marilyn Monroe as the leading characters. And Ivy manages to snag the coveted role of Marilyn Monroe. This could easily be the job that gets her to Hollywood!

But first Ivy needs to help her uncle with a new assignment. At a Renaissance Faire! A jouster was killed in front of a large crowd, but the murderer, wearing a full suit of armor, couldn’t be identified, and escape on horseback.  Ivy must go undercover at the faire, as a British/Cockney belly dancer to see if she can learn who might have had it in for dead jouster.  Unfortunately, her top suspects are her best friend Riley, and the man who could propel her career in Hollywood, the playwright behind the Kennedy Camelot.

I really do enjoy the Ivy Meadows Mystery series. The theatre mash-ups are ridiculously fun and Ivy/Olive comes across as tremendously ‘real.’  Her sense of eagerness, both for her acting career and for her detective work, strike me as appropriate for a young woman finding her own way and striking out on her own.

This particular volume in the series was not quite as endearing to me, but mostly because of the location.  This takes place mostly on site at a Renaissance Faire. Despite my own interest in theatre, fencing, and a one-time member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, I don’t enjoy Renaissance Faires! I have some specific reasons for this, which I won’t go into, but my non-enjoyment of RenFaires definitely killed my interest in this story.  And while I chuckled periodically over the Kennedy-themed Camelot and Ivy’s portrayal of Marilyn Monroe (which didn’t strike me as believable as her roles in previous books), this was really quite secondary to the plot and not really a mash-up as we’ve had before.  In fact this idea was quite on-track – the theme wasn’t as outrageous as the implementation of the project.

I recommend this series, but for new readers to the Ivy Meadows Mysteries, I wouldn’t recommend starting with this book.

Looking for a good book? Killalot is the 6th book in the Ivy Meadows Mystery Series by Cindy Brown and budding actress/part-time detective Ivy Meadows steps out of the theatre and into the sun to go undercover at a Renaissance Faire.

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

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Killalot

author: Cindy Brown

series: An Ivy Meadows Mystery #6

publisher: Henery Press

ISBN: 1635114306

paperback, 282 pages

A WHORE’S MANIFESTO – Kay Kassirer, editor

Posted by Daniel on December 12, 2019
Posted in: OTHER. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

When I saw this book offered up to reviewers I was really interested in getting a copy.  I felt that a book like this would contain works that really come from the gut.  Visceral emotions.  And I wasn’t disappointed.

The subtitle of the book is “An Anthology of Writing and Artwork by Sex Workers” and one of the first things I learned in this book is what constitutes a ‘sex worker.’  It seems pretty obvious, right?  But I’ll admit that I hadn’t thought much about this and I hadn’t pictured phone sex workers, internet camming, and ‘sugar babies’ (I had to think for a bit about what that meant – and then it never occurred to me that some thought of this as a job) as sex workers. I had definitely thought more along the lines of physical touch.

The book is primarily poetry, which I guess isn’t a surprise, but I was definitely wishing that there was more artwork/photography included – there was one drawing and one photo. The drawing was a little too obvious for me (an idea I’ve seen many times [given its nature, I won’t say too much about it, other than it is genitalia]) though the photo was interesting and artistic.

I am not typically a fan of poetry – it’s just a literary form I’ve never been real fond of – but there were some poems here that I thought were really well done and powerful. Starting with the first piece, “naked on the internet” by Vivienne L’Crave, which was really raw and powerful and definitely set a tone for the rest of the book.  Though I’m happy to say that not all the works here were as gritty or dark as this.

Gigi Genet’s “AFTER ANIMORPHS” is shorter, but no less dark and powerful.

I also really liked Lux Aeterna’s “Gods & Monsters” and all the pieces by someone referred to as ‘Strawberry’ and the two poems by the editor, Kay Kassirer.  Kassirer’s “Work Follows Me Home” is probably my favorite poem in the book.  It might be the shortest work in the book, but it packs a lot into it.

In short fiction, “The Retiree” by Kristy Lin Billuni stuck out for me as one of the few works here with a bit more upbeat tone and deals with a subject that I quite expected to read more of – women looking for work after leaving the sex industry.

“Reluctance” by June Sayers was a little strange to me, but I liked seeing the intelligence of the sex worker. Still, she’s a ‘for hire’ worker and despite very likely being the smarter, wiser of the pair, she’s the one trying to do the impressing.

While not everything impressed, that’s not unusual with an anthology.  Fortunately there weren’t any real written works that were duds.  Kassirer has done a really fine job of putting this collection together.

Looking for a good book? The Whore’s Manifesto is a collection of poems and stories written by sex workers and is a powerful assortment that makes it pretty clear that this is a line of work that doesn’t offer up very many positives.

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

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A Whore’s Manifesto: An Anthology of Writing and Artwork by Sex Workers

editor: Kay Kassirer

publisher: Thorntree Press

ISBN: 1944934898

paperback, 104 pages

TREASURE ISLAND – Robert Louis Stevenson

Posted by Daniel on December 11, 2019
Posted in: Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Although I’m not lacking for reading material I decided that it’s important to read some of the ‘classics’ of literature to see how they stack up for the modern reader. Much of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island has become standard pirate lore in modern media.  They way we think of a pirate – how they talk, what they sing (“Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum”), how they behave, maps with treasure marked by an ‘X’ – comes almost exclusively, still, from this book.

Young boy Jim Hawkins encounters a man, old Billy Bones, at the Admiral Benbow Inn in England.  Billy Bones tells young Hawkins to keep an eye out for a one-legged scoundrel (Long John Silver).  With that moment, Hawkins is pulled into a dangerous adventure.

Bones is attacked by former shipmates and dies (of a stroke) a short time later.  The shipmates attack the lodge, but Hawkins and his mother have already taken the pirate’s map from Bones’ belongings and made their escape from the inn.  Jim shares the map with some local respectable men, who decide to seek this treasure and take Jim on as a cabin boy.

On the island where the treasure should be buried, Jim encounters Ben Gunn, a former shipmate of the dreaded pirate who buried the treasure they now seek.  Jim navigates the rough world of the pirate life while trying to remain a good, solid young man despite Silver’s taking him under his wing. And when the treasure chest is found and the chest is empty, Jim, and Silver, face a mutinous crew ready to kill the leader and his protected boy.

So often we find literature from this era to be a bit dry and difficult to read due to our changes in reading habits and styles of writing, but this book holds up incredibly well.  It moves along swiftly and is quite exciting to read.  This can still be considered a page-turner as we can’t wait to find out what happens next to Jim along his journey.

This is definitely highly recommended.

Looking for a good book? If you think you can’t read that ‘old stuff’ because it’s slow reading, then pick up this classic, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, and be brought into an exciting adventure story.

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Treasure Island

author: Robert Louis Stevenson

publisher: Open Road Media

ASIN: B07B6BH3J6

Kindle Edition, 99 pages

THE SHADOW KILLER – Arnaldur Indriðason

Posted by Daniel on December 9, 2019
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I first discovered Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason about three years ago and I was immediately captivated by the tone of his novels and I’ve now got our small town library filled with his books. When I saw his name and this book available for request for reviewers, I was excited to make the request.  What I didn’t know was that this is part of a new series (the second book) known as the Reykjavik Wartime Mystery series.  This definitely threw me off as I read the first few chapters … Why are we in 1941?  Where is Inspector Erlendur? … Of course I caught on that this was not part of the Inspector Erlendur series and I just sat back to enjoy my mystery.

A man is found dead, shot in the head execution style, in a small apartment in Reykjavik. The bullet belonged to a Colt .45 pistol – standard issue for American GIs! Icelandic Detective Flóvent must work with U.S. Military Police Officer Thorson (a Canadian with Icelandic parents) since there is a strong possibility that the killer is a U.S. serviceman.

But the first surprise comes when the landlady informs them that the dead man is not the man who rents the apartment, as they first suspected.  Now they must identify who was murdered while also looking for the killer.  The deeper Flóvent and Thorson get into the case, the more disturbing the connections to the world war become.

I found this book to be very straightforward and without the entanglements of multiple subplots. My reaction, as I neared the end, that this was a very straight-forward detective mystery. We arrive on the scene with the detective(s) and follow them as they look into the case.

This makes it a slow-moving book.  Slow is not always a bad thing.  I enjoyed following along and making these discoveries. And the history of Iceland’s involvement as a strategic location in WWII was very interesting.

I missed, though, the moodiness that is typically concomitant with Icelandic mysteries.

I’ve seen this book identified as a ‘thriller’ and as a ‘police procedural.’  ‘Police procedural’ – Definitely!  ‘Thriller’ – not so much.

Looking for a good book? If you enjoy detective novels, police procedural stories, and WWII history, Arnaldur Indriðason’s The Shadow Killer is just the right read.

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

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The Shadow Killer

author: Arnaldur Indriðason

translator: Victoria Cribb

publisher: Minotaur Books

ISBN: 1250124042
hardcover, 356 pages

THE BEATLES ON THE ROOF – Tony Barrell

Posted by Daniel on December 6, 2019
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

How do you write an entire book about an incident that last only a couple of hours? By using the moment as the center point and moving outward, like the ripples in a pond.

I’ve been seeing a fair number of books about The Beatles in the last few years and I suspect there’s a bit of a rush to gather as many first-hand accounts as possible before we lose access to those who were there for The Beatles’ various moments. This is no exception and author Tony Barrell nicely captures the memories of as many people involved in the actual performance on the rooftop, the people who worked in the the Apple Records building at the time, people who worked in the offices around Apple Records whose afternoon was interrupted by the loud music, and those who were either passing by or those who rushed to the scene when word got out that The Beatles were playing some new songs, live at the Apple Records building.

For those of us who have even a modest interest in The Beatles (and if you didn’t why would you consider this book?) we probably now a few basic things about the ‘concert on the roof.’ First, ‘concert’ is a bit of a misnomer.  It wasn’t a concert as much as it was a recording session. And filming was a means to an end … a way to fulfill an obligation for a film.  But it was quite spur of the moment, and we get some good inside information from those who worked at Apple.  Sometimes the information is contradictory, but that definitely adds to the ‘realness’ of the moment.

Things we don’t often think about when we talk about an event such as this are the non-players who are affected.  Reading about the neighbors who were annoyed by the loud music and the disruption caused by people standing around to watch and listen at first seems inconceivable, but of course it makes a certain amount of sense.  Only those of us who are Beatles fans would prioritize the impromptu concert/recording session over any other daily business.

I enjoyed reading about some of the other people who were there at the recording. From secretaries who wanted to be a part of this momentous occasion to assistant engineer Alan Parsons.  Barrell even manages to get comments from some of the police who we remember from the film coming to stop the playing.  What I didn’t know before this was that someone had previously checked in with the local police station and were told that if the owners of the building didn’t complain, they wouldn’t have a problem with it.  Since the Beatles owned the building, they assumed they were good to play.

When I’ve watched the film, I’ve wondered why there weren’t more people around (aside from the smaller space) and this is addressed as well (concerns about the roof being able to support the weight).

This was an interesting book and while the distinction is slight, this was more about a moment in time, featuring The Beatles, than it was about The Beatles specifically. We don’t really get as much about the Fab Four themselves as we might in many other books written about the group.  But we do get a number of first-hand accounts about what it was like being there, and the reactions to this group who didn’t perform in public much any more, making a surprise rooftop appearance.

Looking for a good book? The Beatles On the Roof by Tony Barrell explores reactions from many different people to The Beatles’ noted rooftop concert.

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

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The Beatles on the Roof

author: Tony Barrell

publisher: Omnibus Press 

ISBN: 1785585789

paperback, 192 pages

THE FAR-TIME INCIDENT – Neve Maslakovic

Posted by Daniel on December 4, 2019
Posted in: MYSTERY, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

St. Sunniva University in Minnesota is is home to a deadly accident in the time-travel lab of one of the university’s esteemed professors.  The university is eager to keep this information under wraps and university security officer Nate Kirkland and Julia Olson, assistant to the dean of science, are assigned to investigate.  The investigation is going to require that they take advantage of the time travel machine to go backward in time to find out what lead to the events in the present.  But the evidence is pointing to a murder and a cover-up and when Kirkland, Olson, and a pair of grad students enter the time machine, they find themselves whisked back to ancient Pompeii just a day before the devastating eruption. Now they must overcome history in order to save themselves and find the answers they’re looking for.

I found this book to be a great deal of fun at times, and tremendously dull at other times.  When the characters were left to explore and experience events, this was entertaining.  When we were provided with information about the characters or the school or the time-machine (or even moments in history) it felt like a dull info-dump session.

You do need to buy into the basic premise that the school is trying to protect itself against academic espionage (not the most exciting of themes for me) which is why it won’t report a murder.  Once you’ve given in to that, you are ready for the rest.

The moments I enjoyed, typically the exploring of the past, I enjoyed a lot.  But when the book didn’t hold my interest I struggled to want to read any more.

Looking for a good book? The Far Time Incident by Neve Maslakovic is a time travel romp mystery story that has moments of real enjoyment but lacks novel-length consistency.

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

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The Far Time Incident

author: Neve Maslakovic

series: The Incident Series #1

publisher: 47North

ISBN: 1611099099

paperback, 342 pages

A VERY SCALZI CHRISTMAS – John Scalzi

Posted by Daniel on December 3, 2019
Posted in: HUMOR, SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

There are only a handful of authors whose work I will go out and buy as soon as I am aware of a new published work.  John Scalzi has become one of those authors for me.

If you’re familiar with Scalzi you can probably already imagine that a book titled A Very Scalzi Christmas is going to be irreverent and sarcastic and full of humor. And you’d be right. Scalzi’s wit is in full force here.

One of the main features of this collection are a series of ‘interviews.’  We have interviews with Santa’s lawyer, Santa’s reindeer wrangler, the Christmas bunny, and the Nativity innkeeper.  Each of these has a moment or two that will likely make you snort with a burst of laughter.

There are some short short stories and other oddball tidbits, each usually good for a Christmas snort.  Sometimes the humor is pretty apparent before you even read the piece. In “Script Notes on The Birth of Jesus” for instance, we Scalzi goes with the obvious choice of having Hollywood producers suggesting improvements on the Birth of Jesus story – from adding slapstick to the pregnancy situations, and keeping spin-offs in mind.

My favorite section was “The Least Successful Holiday Specials of All Time.”  Scalzi is at his most creative here, I think, and even though each of these are only a couple of paragraphs long, I was in full belly-laugh mode. Of course I loved “The Lost Star Trek Christmas Episode: “A Most Illogical Holiday.””

If you’re a Scalzi follower you should note that most of these pieces first appeared on his blog and have been collected for this special edition book.  But of course, if you’re a Scalzi follower, you probably want the book anyway.

Looking for a good book? A Very Scalzi Christmas by John Scalzi is a lot of fun and I can imagine reading these as a Christmas tradition.

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

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A Very Scalzi Christmas

author: John Scalzi

publisher: Subterranean Press

ISBN: 1596069325

hardcover, 144 pages