45. Frenzy

Frenzy - Jonathan Craig

This was a foray into an old pulp fiction crime novel. It was kind of fun. An enjoyable plot with characters that were interesting and full of the expected stereotypes. The book was originally published under the name "Junkie!".

Steve is a trumpet player in a jazz ensemble. The chics really dig him. Kathy is an ex-heroine addict that he has fallen in love with. She is being framed for murder...by Lois, who is in love with Steve but married to Mel. Lois and Donna also happens to run a call girl service disguised as a secretarial pool. Hey, if Lois can get Kathy to work for her then maybe she can get her hooked on drugs again and Steve will be free again... Wait, Donna is also a nymphomaniac? Wow! There is a real twist.

Poor Loreen. All she wanted to do was go to work as a secretary. She did some work at the Pentagon and then embezzled a grand from Lois thinking it would be OK because Lois would not want to make noise. I will bet Loreen's dying body sure made a noise as she was run down by that huge Chrysler! 

Steve needs to be taught a lesson. Ahh...let's frame him for the murder of Mel. If Lois can't have him then NOBODY WILL! Lois and Donna will run off to Mexico with the profits from the call girl business and start a new life... but the double-cross happens and Lois kills Donna and tries to force Steve to go on the run with her...   Oh, the tangled webs that get woven.

It was great fun.

38. The Mystery Of The Yellow Room

The Mystery of the Yellow Room: Extraordinary Adventures of Joseph Rouletabille, Reporter - Gaston Leroux   An old mystery novel first published in 1908. Think Agatha Christie who-dun-it detective novel and you will be dead on.   This one is about a crime committed that is impossible to solve, but it does get solved eventually. There is the massive explanation in a court of law to save the day and prevent the conviction of an innocent man...all in the nick of time. Whew!   It was a good story and a decent who-dun-it. I could not figure it out at all.   Once again though, a detraction for me was all the French words and name pronunciations. French really bothers me for some reason. It is probably due to bad memories from Miss Roberts class in Junior High School and not actually caused by anything with a rational explanation. :-)

36. Black

Black - Christopher Whitcomb

Run of the mill thriller. I expected more. I read the book because of the helicopter on the front. I maintained those beautiful machines. They were never used int he book. Stupid book. LOL

I expected more of a military techno thriller from the cover and the description. It was not. It was more of a crime novel with some politics and a bit of terrorism. Whoop-de-doo.

It did not suck, but it was a waste of time compared to other books I have read.

87. The Vig

The Vig - John Lescroart

Good cops...bad cops...ex-cons gone straight...mafioso on the take...hot girls wanting to be famous...insurance money...understanding ex-wives...bartender buddies that should have an honorary psych degree...not so perfect goons and hitmen...whoopee!

It was OK. More of the same. No thrill. Just another story. Predictable. Even the best plans are doomed to overlook some minute detail that will unravel the entire plan in very convenient ways. Whatever.

86. Whitewash

Whitewash - Alex Kava

Eh. This was just your average every day run of the mill nothing special but it was entertaining.

The part I found most fascinating was the very idea that organic materials left over from processing plants (chicken heads, etc.) could be turned into oil by accelerating the supposed process by which oil is created naturally. Imagine the potential.

The part I found ridiculous is that they could do the same with hurricane debris (lumber, plastics, metals, etc.).

So, what it came to was that the company producing this new oil was having to pay for the chicken heads and stuff because fertilizer companies wanted that same stuff. There was cost involved. On the other hand, due to numerous hurricanes, the government was paying 50 dollars per ton for someone to haul stuff away. So, the corporation that spent billions on inventing and building this plant and making it work so that the country, and the world, would not be dependent on Middle East oil fields, was suddenly so short minded that they took shortcuts that they knew would put dioxins into a river...just to save a dollar short term.

I think that is ridiculous. A corporation invested billions. Now the author wants us to believe they would not refine the process for what they said would be two more years in order to recycle the debris waste safely? That is insane! No corporation is going to risk billions in order to save a few hundred thousand. Especially when they were just about to be awarded a contract that gave them exclusive rights to supplying the Department of Defense.

They threw away a future. They discarded an awesome invention and MASSIVE profit potential in order to save a dollar right now? Totally ridiculous.

Other than that, it was not bad, except that maybe there were too many characters and different story lines that just happened to all coincide in the end and make a nice neat little package. Yeah yeah yeah.

72. L.A. Outlaws

L.A. Outlaws - T. Jefferson Parker

This is a fun crime novel. Exciting and action packed. An LA County Sheriff with unwavering integrity. A beautiful dark and mysterious modern day Robin Hood type outlaw running around LA. She just happens to really be an award winning history teacher in the LA Unified school district, a single mom, and the last person anyone would suspect...except of course the super duper copper.

The book is no big thrill. The bad guys are bad. There are crooked cops to help them be even badder. There are ties to MS13 which gives things a more vicious feel. The "real" bad guy likes to hack people up with a machete that shoots shotgun shells. Yeah, whatever.

One of the best parts of this book was the cars. Allison Murietta, the "outlaw" bad ass, just happens to love boosting awesome rides. She not only steals them, but is a real car enthusiast. I liked some of her descriptions of the cars.

The ending was terrible. Talk about the worlds longest feel-good do-good wrap up. Everything ended happily. The cops relationship with his dad. The cops traumatic experiences from his Iraq war experiences. The family history. The kids are all cared for. blah blah blah blah... come on... and the option for a sequel was left glaringly open.

Like I said, it is just another crime story. In fact, there is probably nothing new here at all. I still enjoyed it. It required no thought at all. That was nice for a change.

70. Jeremiah: Terrorist Prophet

Jeremiah: Terrorist Prophet - Michael A. Smith

This was a fast paced thriller about a terrorist disguised as a prophet of God who wants to break America apart into separate countries based on cultural factors such as race and religion. One of those areas just happens to be the north west USA. It is to be named New America, will be a theocracy, and will be run by God's appointed superhero, none other than Jeremiah himself.

Jeremiah is part of a decades old plot set up by his mega-rich German uncle. Following each act of terrorism Jeremiah reveals a new chapter of the Book of Second Jeremiah as revealed to him by God. This is the book that shall be added to the end of the bible according to Jeremiah.

He murders a guy who is a rapist and killer. He murders two boys who have been a blight on society all through their teen years. He poisons the water supply to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. He blows up the New York Stock Exchange. He threatens the use of biological and nuclear weapons of mass destruction...and the race is on to catch the bad guy.

While all this is happening he uses a national news television program to get his message out to the masses. Of course, the masses, being crazy fundamentalist Christians looking for any "message from God" they can follow blindly and fanatically, no matter how absurd, insane, or non-biblical it is, they all join in and Jeremiah starts a movement. Yeah, right.

Then the heroic government agents and "enlightened few" (I swear, they used those exact words.) prove that Jeremiah is actually a kid from Minnesota who supposedly died on a ski trip to Europe, has been plotting and planning for years, is associated with all kinds of known terrorist, separatist, and fundamentalist extremest groups, and is blowing smoke up everyones booty.

So, Jeremiah has two nuclear weapons he plans to use to bribe Washington into giving up about a third of it's territory, abandoning military assets in place, and peacefully relinquishing the reigns to him. Sure. That is gonna happen. Oh, it doesn't.

But...Jeremiah gets away (again and again and again, ugh)...and the end of the book is him revealing himself to someone as they begin establishing their "nation" from within...for the sequel...in the trilogy...which I will pass on.

The book was fun and exciting and a real page turner. It was also predictable and full of me guessing correctly about where the author would go next. I enjoyed the read, but there was nothing challenging.

One paragraph I really did enjoy was when the FBI agent was explaining how Jeremiah was able to get such a following to the President's chief-of-staff. Superhero Steve said
         "I see a melting pot that no longer makes stew. It has quit boiling and the ingredients are starting to separate out. Not only have we given up on integrating people of different colors, cultures, and religious backgrounds, but we've got thousands of groups that have circled their philosophical wagons around some central belief, whether it's religion, abortions, guns, sexual orientation, whatever, and they don't want anything to do with anyone who believes differently."

Yup.

63. Sleepyhead

Sleepyhead - Mark Billingham

This is a police-procedural type book. It is the first novel by this author and was a hit. A big enough hit to spawn an entire series of books starring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne.

It was a creepy book. Weird in that it had a person killing people, but his intent was not for them to die. His goal was to put them into a semi-comatose state where they were alive and aware, but unable to move or communicate with the world outside their own minds.

That raised an interesting legal question for me early on. If and when they catch the "killer" would he be tried for first degree pre-meditated murder when the intent was NOT to kill? Would it actually be second degree? Maybe even manslaughter with reckless endangerment if they got a super lawyer?

Another interesting part to this book was the character of Allison. She was a 24 year old woman who was the "killers" first success. She is actually in this semi-comatose state all through the book. That could make for a seriously boring character, but it was the opposite. I found her to be the most interesting person in the book. Every second or third chapter was Allison alone. It was Allison within her head. Her thoughts. Her frustrations. Her desires and triumphs and failures. Rational and irrational. It was fascinating. Allison's character very much reminded me of "Johnny Got His Gun". That one freaked me out.

30. Immoral

Immoral - Brian Freeman

This book ended up being another one of those crime/trial novels.

I did not think that was what this would be when I started reading it. I thought it was going to flip morality on it's head and create a world where immorality was viewed as morality is in our own world. It had none of that. Just today's world with some folks doing bad stuff and cops investigating to solve the crime.

The back of the book compares this author to Dennis Lehane (Shelter Island, Mystic River, etc). Those are some pretty big shoes to fill in regards to plot twists and keeping the reader in suspense. This book failed to fulfill those promises.

I took almost a month to finish this book. I read the last half in the last three days just to get it over with. It got better with the last third, but to get there it felt like I was wading through quicksand. Slow. Infinitely boring at times. The ending did get better as it was "less boring", but it also just seemed like it took so many little twists and tried to tie them together in a way that would be difficult to solve the crime. Too many little twists and conveniences for my tastes. Unlike Lehane, who seems to use one massive twist to throw the entire perspective of the book on it's head.

This book did not live up to my expectations as far as the "immoral world", as a comparison to Lehane, or to keep me awake during the first half. It did end pretty well, though it felt forced. Not awful, but there are better books.

29. Swimsuit

Swimsuit - James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

This is one of those authors that I have avoided because he has written about 10,000 books. He may be popular, but I can't stand those writers that keep plugging in different names and places in order to tell the same story over and over. I figured this is a book about a bad guy who gets chased by cops and in the end justice is served.


That is essentially what this book was. Just another crime novel. What happened that surprised me was that I actually enjoyed it. Darn! Now I might have to check out another James Patterson book. What happens if I like that one too?

1. The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

This book has been sitting on our sehlves for years. My wife started reading it a long time ago and set it aside. I decided to pick it up. I never thought I would.

I thought it was a "girls" book. You know, like Janet Evanovich or Jackie Collins. Maybe more like Jodie Picoult and the Sister's Keeper type.

Then they made a movie and I heard that it was a "horror" movie. I still don't know where I heard that and I have yet to see the movie. I still don't understand why it was called "horror".

What I found was a book about the rape and murder of a fourteen year old girl in 1973. Her body was never recovered and the murder was never solved.

What was good is that the entire book is narrated by the murder victim herself over the years and decades following her own murder. She follows the lives of her family members, friends and her neighbors. She even follows the murderer at times.

It was a very interesting perspective from which to hear a story told. I do not recall another like it, though it has probably been done before.

Despite the violent and disturbing subject matter the author handles it with delicacy and grace. It is not overly gruesome or sexually distasteful. I mean, it is a rape, but it does not need to be overtly sexually descruptive to convey a sense of fear and desperation. The author did a good job with that balance.

I think she also did excellent showing the father's internal struggles trying to keep the rest of his family safe, deal with the death of his first born and to see justice served. It had to be immensely frustrating for him. I can not imagine being in his shoes.

It was a good book. I liked it. I did not love it. I will not jump up and down singing it's praises, but I will not tell anyone to avoid it either. If you pick it up you will most likely not hate it. That is a good thing.  :-)

99. First Blood

First Blood - David Morrell

This book shocked me. It was nothing like the movie. Well, other than having a character named Rambo being the person of interest during a police manhunt in a small town.

Before I cover the book I will relate my memory of the movie. It was a long time ago, so I may have forgotten some. The thing is, there is no way I got it as wrong as I would have to for this book to be what that movie was.

In the movie I remember Rambo being a good guy who was hassled by some overzealous sheriffs deputies in a small town. They didn't like him passing through the town and arrested him. While in the jail they abused him. That is supposed to be where the "first blood" was drawn. Then he escapes and the cops chase him. I remember policemen dying, but never because Rambo killed them. It was always something stupid the cops did that caused their own deaths. Eventually Troutman shows up and brings Rambo in. Everything turns out just peachy, Rambo is a hero. The corrupt and overbearing cops get their just desserts. All is well in the world. I recall this movie being one of those action adventure films.

The book on the other hand was nothing like that. Rambo is just a psycho ex-green beret who can't leave the war behind who goes on a rampage killing so many policemen that the National Guard and state police conduct a massive manhunt. THIS Rambo is not a hero. He is nuts. He likes killing. He convinces himself he is self-righteous, but he even argues with himself about his being full of shit and lying to himself to convince himself he is correct.

What sets him off in the first place? He is a drifter. He is dirty and unshaven. He is approached by the Sheriff (Teasle) who is not mean, but is not going to allow Rambo to be in his town causing problems like other drifters had in the past. He gives Rambo a ride through town and drops him off at the far side to continue his journey. Fair enough I think. Rambo decides he "won't be pushed" any more and heads right back to town. Again, Teasle picks him up and makes it very clear that he should continue on his way. Teasle lets Rambo eat in the diner and then gives him a ride out of town again. Once more, Rambo walks right back into town defying the Sheriff. Needless to say that defiance gets him in trouble. Teasle confronts him with questions. Rambo will not give a name, has no ID, is a wise-ass in every way he can be. Teasel then arrests him.

When they get to the jail Rambo realizes he did not think it through. He sees the cell and it brings back memories of being a POW and the cages he was imprisoned within. Does he explain any of this to the sheriff? Does he give his name? No, he starts planning his escape. He is told to shower before donning his prison clothes. He is then told that per policy he must have his hair cut. Everyone arrested gets a haircut. Even to this point the police have done nothing wrong at all. The only person being a jerk is Rambo.

When they attempt to cut his hair he takes a knife and slashes a deputy across his midsection. The man's internal organs fall out on the floor. Another deputy is brutally assaulted and Rambo escapes. From there the hunt is on to catch a crazy man who is now a cop-killer.

A group of police go into the mountains after him. He picks them off one by one. Shooting some. Slashing throats. Killing 17 or 18 all together. Eventually he works his way past the search lines and back into town. He blows up gas stations. He burns the court house. He blows up the police station with dynamite. All the while justifying his actions within his own head.

The book is not about being sympathetic to the plight of an American war hero being unjustly persecuted by a demonized police force. The book is about the actions of a man returning from Vietnam with such deep changes to his psyche that he never really left the war. The lines of morality have been obscured within him. The war is all he knows.

The end is totally different. In this story Rambo is killed by Troutman and Teasle dies also.

The story is totally different and I loved it. This was much better than the movie. Read it. I just hope I didn't give too much away in this post. Sorry if I ruined it for you.

I wish they would make a movie more in line with the story as the author has written this book. It could be a great statement of the psychological effects of war on some soldiers.

95. True Grit

True Grit - Charles Portis

This was an outstanding book with some fascinating characters.

Mattie is a 14 year old girl who's father is killed in Fort Smith, Arkansas and the killer flees into the frontier lands that would later become Oklahoma. She hires a US Marshal, Rooster Cogburn, to hunt the killer down and bring him to justice. A Texas Ranger also gets involved in the hunt because he has been chasing the same man for the murder of a Texas State Senator.

The character or Mattie was awesome. She was a spunky strong-willed girl who would do whatever it takes to get what she needs. She is a shrewd bargainer and haggler. That would all pay off for her later in life as she becomes a well-to-do bank owner.

I chose to read this book now because the remake of the old John Wayne movie based on this book is coming out soon. I want to see that movie. I remember liking the John Wayne version very much. I loved his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn. I wanted to read this book before seeing the new movie because I have a feeling they are going to ruin it. The movie trailers look very violent and dark to me. I am hoping they didn't do the typical Hollywood action adventure tricks to this story.

One thing I am expecting concerns Mattie. Nowhere in this book is there any sexual content. The closest it comes is when she meets LeBoeuf. He says to her something like "I would steal a kiss, but you are very young, and sick, and kind of ugly also." So, there is no sex...but I am willing to bet that somewhere in the new movie one of the bad guys will have have tendencies towards pedophelia and rape. he will be stopped, of course, but I expect something along those lines...and it is not in the book at all.

I recommend this one. I was pleasantly surprized. I will be keeping it on the shelf.

There were a few things that struck me as I was reading that I wish to post here, and then there are some old words that I had to look up.

The first is something that Mattie said while watching prisoners being taken to jail by some Marshals: "You must pay for everything in this world one way or another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God. You can not earn that or deserve it."

And then there was this one where Rooster was telling Mattie how he decided to accept that the North won the Civil War... "I've swallowed the puppy." I have no idea what that means.

SAT WORDS:

SANGUINARY AMBUSCADE: An attack from a concealed position with much bloodshed.

PETTIFOGGING: Bickering or quibbling over unimportant matters. To carry on a shifty law business.

PROBITY: Integrity and uprightness, honesty.

FETTLE: A state or condition of being.

BEEVES: beef

DEPREDATIONS: The act of preying upon or plundering, robbery, ravage

82. Drive

Drive - James Sallis

The protagonist in the book is named....drum roll, please..."Driver". Well, I am sure that is not his real name, but it is the only name used throughout the book when referring to this character. Why is that? Ask driver himself. That is what he does. That is all he does.

Driver was an orphan. He was raised in foster care. As a teen he left and headed to California. He met a man who was a stunt driver in movies and the man took a liking to the kid. Driver became a stunt driver for films himself.

And then there is the other kind of driving. Driver is also a getaway driver. He is one of the best. He works with professionals. When he is hired for a job he makes sure they understand he drives, and that is all. He does not carry anything. He does not arm himself. He does not plan the job. He does not rob or make phone calls or anything. He just drives...and he is the best.

So, does this Driver guy think that if he is only driving and not actually doing the job that he is no breaking the law? I doubt that, but I think somewhere in his subconscious he is able to live with himself easier.

During a job there is a double-cross and Driver ends up with a lot of loot and trying to clean up the mess so he won't be murdered. All he wanted to do was drive, but it didn't work out that way for him this time. The bad guys come after him. Then he goes after them. It gets pretty violent, but it also has a bit of a humorous side to it also.

This was one of those books that took a while to get used to the writers style, but once I did I wanted to read the whole thing. It was a fun and exciting story with a twisty curvy plot.

80. The Snake

The Snake - Mickey Spillane

A quick romp through solving a crime with an over confident lawman.

Mike Hammer is his name. With a name like that would you expect anything but over-confidence? To tell you the truth, that is exactly what I expected when I picked this book up. I did not think it would be outstanding writing or an intricate plot. I expected a "wham bam thank you maam" kind of book. That is exactly what this is.

It was called pulp-fiction back when it was written. I hear Spillane and Hemingway had a few arguments about if these books were worth publishing. Spillane didn't claim to be a great author. In fact, he even said once "I am a commercial writer, not an author."

Some other Spillane quotes:
"Authors want their names down in history; I want to keep the smoke coming out of the chimney."

"Hemingway hated me. I sold 200 million books, and he didn't. Of course most of mine sold for 25 cents, but still... you look at all this stuff with a grain of salt."

"If the public likes you, you're good."

"Now I'm not an author, I'm a writer, that's all I am."

"Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book."

"My work may be garbage, but it's good garbage."

 and my favorite:  "I have no fans. You know what I got? Customers. And customers are your friends."

So, when I read this book from a perspective that Spillane is writing it to make a buck rather than write the best book...then this is outstanding. It makes me want to read "I, The Jury" and "Kiss Me, Deadly". I will find them both and follow Mike Hammer through those ridiculous, never gonna happen, no way in the world scenarios that he kept getting into and out of a million times.  :-)

I couldn't help but think if the old Dragnet TV show. This guy was like that, but cockier.

It was fun. I will give it a rating of good, but it is a different kind of good. It is good because the expectation was not to find another Vonnegut type of writing.

74. Jennifer Government

Jennifer Government - Max Barry

This was an outstanding novel written by an Aussie fellow with some attitude.

What happens when a Capitalist society no longer has the Government keeping it in check? In this story the author calls it Capitalizm. This book is written in a world where big corporations are more like governments themselves. International borders are defined by corporate mergers and alliances more than they are by the borders of today.

People are different in this world also. They take the name of the corporation for which they work as their surname. Hence Jennifer Government. Jennifer actually works for the government. Her daughter, Kate, is not named government. She is named Mattel. Why? Her school is sponsored by Mattel, of course.

There are characters named Hack Nike, John Nike, Buy Matsui, McDonalds, NRA, Burger King, Exxon-Mobil, Shell, and every other company you could think of.

I found it very interesting how the NRA itself becomes a major player in the world as not so much a company, but as a security force. Kind of like BlackWater. The thing is that these guys have fighter jets, naval ships, and forces comparable to modern day military. They are able to get these things because they are allied with Boeing, Sikorsky, or other current government contractors.

The government still exists, but has serious limits to its powers. For instance, before Jennifer is able to investigate the murders of fourteen children as a publicity stunt by the Nike marketing department...she has to go to the victims families to raise the funds needed to do the investigation. There are no taxes and therefore no government funds to use for this purpose, or any other. Needless to say, this puts the ultra-rich corporations at a tremendous advantage.

The corporations have no fear of government at all. They eventually align into two groups of competitors trying to bring in customers. These two groups end up in a full out battle with missles and guns and all that stuff. They all get together in London with the government (President, etc) in London at Parliament. The groups make a declaration that government no longer exists and has no authority over them. Then the groups shoot down the government airplane as it flies back to Washington DC. There essentially is no government.

Well, eventually, after much action and manipulation, some of the corporations realize that anarchy is not what is best for the corporate environment and that they need some government. The world calms down and the story ends.

But, none of that is what the story is about really. It is about Jennifer, her daughter, the Nike Liaison (John) she is hunting down as a criminal, Billy NRA and his adventures, Hack Nike and Buy Matsui trying to work their way up the corporate ladder along with Violet, an unemployed entrepreneur, and Claire, a radical protestor, are sisters. All of them get caught up in a more than they bargained for.

And yes, Jennifer got a barcode tattoo under her left eye. Until the very last few pages I was wondering why and what it meant. It is kind of funny once you find out what it was for. :-)

Jennifer Government was a fascinating story that was fun to read. I liked it a lot. More Max Barry please. Syrup and Company are already on the list. Machine Man should be out soon.

FYI…Max Barry has also designed a website where you can run your own country. It is kind of interesting. I started goofing around with it about a week ago. It is called NationStates and is based on the research he did to write Jennifer Government. Check it out. I created “The Free land of Somnambulistic Peoples”. Max even had the United Nations write him a "cease and desist" letter because NationStates was able to accomplish more than they were. LOL

59. The Demolished Man

The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester

This may be the most enjoyable science fiction novel I have ever read. I loved it.

It was published in 1953 and was the winner of the first Hugo Award.

The year is 2301. There are no guns. There is no crime. There has not been a murder for 76 years. All this is accomplished through the use of telepaths ("Espers" or "peepers") who can read the minds of the population and detect intent to commit crimes before the events occur. The crimes are stopped before they are commited.

One man changes that. He is the richest businessman in the galaxy and only has one real competitor. He wants to own it all and will go to any lengths to accomplish this...including murdering his rival.

The story unfolds across a wide variety of places. Mostly New York City on Earth (Terra), but also Mars, Venus, Jupiter's moons, and a wildlife sanctuary built on an asteroid. The world in which these folks live is similar to what we have today, but is different in many ways. Personal cars that fly ("jumpers") for instance. Rockets to far away planets take off regularly from Idlewild (now JFK airport). They even use "computors". Interesting, since in 1951 they did not have such things available to all but governments and such.

The world of Terra, where most of the story takes place, was wonderful. It was a post nuclear war world, but the devastation had limited areas. it was still inhabitable. New York City contained large old homes and a devastated city area that has been taken over by an underworld dealing in whatever people needed. The society where the use of psychics is so prevelant was interesting also. The way Mr. Bester built this universe in order to tell the story was believable and sounds like it could actually happen in 300 years.

The characters were excellent. I especially liked Ben Reich (the businessman), Gus Tate (a peeper psychiatrist that runs interference for Ben), Lincoln Powell (police prefect peeper), and Duffy Wyg& (yes, written that way)

Some of the writing itself was different. Names like @tkins, Wyg&, and others stood out as something I had not seen before. The authors technique for writing what the Espers were communicating without speech was also interesting, even if it was difficult to read it with any semblance of understanding. These "styles" were called "graphologic deviations".

The book is science fiction but was not so far out there that it felt impossible. Maybe it did feel that way in 1951. We have come a long way since then. Maybe what felt totally fictional then feels reachable today.

55. Angel Rock

Angel Rock - Darren Williams

I read this book because I wanted to read something written by an Australian author and this one was on my shelf.

It was a good book whose strong point was probably the strength of the characters and the depictions of the surroundings. It was a bit like reading poetry as the author described people and places. I enjoyed that aspect of the story a lot.

The story itself took place in a small town in the Australian outback. Two young brothers get lost, one reappears days later. Shortly after a teen girl is found dead in Sydney, a suicide, and is from the same town, Angel Rock.

A Sydney policeman goes to Angel Rock to check on the suicide. A local policeman investigates the disappearance of the younger brother. They talk with lots of folks in the town and through these investigations a history is revealed.

The story meanders through the lives of many people in the town. What is revealed is that there are many folks who have had losses in their lives and they deal with these losses in different ways. The book spends a lot of time in the heads of a few people trying to deal with these hurts from their pasts.

I enjoyed reading the book despite the story being kind of depressing. Children die. Children are abused. Suicide. Depression. Sadness. Loss. I was impressed by the writing despite the dark subject matter.

43. Dead Even

Dead Even - Brad Meltzer

A crime novel. Lots of lawyers. Lots of criminals. This one didn't seem to be much different than most other crime novels I have read.

Bad guys do bad things. Lawyers and cops try to stop them. Bad guys win for a while. Good guys win in the end. Where is the suspense in that?

Despite the predictability, it was not all that bad. This was a story of a husband and wife who are both in the legal profession. She is a brand new rookie assistant district attorney. He is a defense lawyer seeking to make partner in a New York city law firm.

The bad guys do something bad and then manipulate the case so that the husband and wife will have to face each other in court.

I read these books and find them interesting because I just can't believe that folks find these characters anywhere near what they would be in reality. The good guys can't walk around doing anything they want to whomever they want and still make the case stick. The bad guys can't be as bad as they are supposed to be and still be unknown to the police in any way. Sometimes it is just a little too far-fetched and stretched to make it believeable at all, but it sure is fun.