Review: Reckless

Reckless by Ed Brubaker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The RECKLESS graphic novels are unique in that they are true novels, not a collection of short comic books stitched together. This frees the creators, the acclaimed team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, from artificial page counts (the length of a comic book) for their chapters. Brubaker’s stated intention for the RECKLESS books were to create a series character like those popular in the 1960s-70s. James Bond, Nick Carter, Matt Helm, and mostly Travis McGee come to mind for me. The first novel introduces Ethan Reckless who spends much of his time surfing and then taking on side jobs to recover stolen money from  clients for a cut when he needs cash. Contacted by a former lover whose take from a robbery has been stolen by the ringleader named Wilder, Ethan methodically goes about tracking down Wilder while dealing with his own damaged memory and a ton of buried secrets. Both Brubaker’s scripting and Phillip’s artwork are amazing and the story is the type that I love. Highly recommended and an easy five stars.

I borrowed this from my public library with the Hoopla app on my iPad.

Review: The Scarlet Ruse

The Scarlet Ruse by John D. MacDonald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The closer I get to the end of my time rereading John D. MacDonald's novels the more I'm feeling that the Travis McGee series has not held up as well as MacDonald's noir novels. In this the fourteenth in the McGee series we have Trav doing mostly investigative type work, and the only action comes in the final third when we are treated to another of MacDonald's stellar rollercoaster structured climactic sequences. Not a fan of the long anti-climactic summary ending which follows, so let me tell you what I like about this one. The teasing out of a stamp collecting scam; and then learning all about stamp collecting. Watching the Mary Alice character deconstruct before our eyes by what she says and does. Her stinging dialogue is stunning and brilliantly crafted to reveal character. The edginess between Trav and MA, the jousting, whenever they are in a scene together keeps a live current rippling throughout this novel. MacDonald, the old OSS guy, deploys a lot of his spy craft via McGee and it is fascinating anthropology to follow along as McGee navigates back in the day before cell phones and google and the metaverse. Among the thematic highlights are McGee's declining capabilities, his suffering another near-death beating, and McGee once again throwing Meyer into the path of a scythe wielding reaper. These all foreshadow a series working its way to the end.

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Review: Too Black for Heaven

Too Black for Heaven by Day Keene
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This one was pretty boring. Although it does have a murder I certainly wouldn’t call this a crime novel. It could just as easily be classified as a romance novel because that is its ultimate direction. I did read it all the way through - albeit finishing it by speed reading the ebook version on my phone - just to find out what happens, but was disappointed as the story never really got into high gear. The basic plot is a child of rape seeking revenge, but the depiction of racism and the subplot of miscegenation do take over.

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Review: The Lusting Drive

The Lusting Drive by Ovid Demaris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A variation of the good brother/bad brother theme with noble lawman, a one-armed Longmire type sheriff, forced to face his inner conflicts while investigating his sociopathic brother who is potentially a suspect in a small town murder. The bad brother is exceptionally well drawn, a nasty, manipulative liar who is charismatic and powerful enough to enthrall the unwitting town folks and susceptible females. His efforts to scapegoat a simple minded boy for the murder are ruthless and relentless which fosters resentment against him, especially from his lawman brother, threatening his well laid plans to inherit a fortune. This only serves to escalate his machinations and violence throwing the book into high gear and leading to an exciting (and very abrupt) ending. In general a terrific book that I recommend. Four stars.

Available now digital or paperback from Cutting Edge Books and Amazon.

Review: Celebrity Suite Nurse

Celebrity Suite Nurse by Suzanne Roberts
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Repetitious and repetitious. With that said, we follow nurse Poppy as she wrestles with the decision of whether to return to the clinic in her small Georgia home town or to stay in glamorous Miami Beach. And which of the two men in love with her will she choose? Handsome Dr. Harper or pop idol Nicky Farrell? All three of these characters are emotionally high strung, so that at least keeps the narrative pinging from emotional high to low with ricochets everywhere in between. If it were half as long it would have a made a tight if predictable novella. Instead we have sixty pages of repetition and that makes a boring novel. True to the formula, you know how this ends before it starts.

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Review: Sin Doll

Sin Doll by Orrie Hitt
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Basic good girl gone bad plot. Cherry's motive is money and heavy hitting the booze makes her go further than she intended. Plus she's constantly berated with “you are no good, just like your mother, she was a tramp and put you up for adoption.” Next thing you know she is quitting her factory job and becoming the sin doll of the title by posing nude for 1950s era pornography. As with most of Hitt’s books he stays on the good side of the censors by omitting the sex scenes and skewing the narrative with moralizing. It gets redundant as she has the same don’t-be-a-bad-girl-be-a-good-girl arguments with her parents over and over. And her boyfriend wants to have the same argument over and over about getting married. Having to listen to all that, no wonder she drinks and has a lesbian affair instead.

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Review: New Gun For Kingdom City

New Gun For Kingdom City by Ray Hogan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hogan was a prolific writer of Westerns, a contemporary of, and perhaps overshadowed by, Louis L’Amour in the 1960s and ‘70s. The 100 or so pages of Ace Double novelettes seem to be the optimal length for Hogan’s fast-paced and action-packed stories. This one tells the story of a hard-boiled and somewhat shady loner seeking vengeance for his brother’s murder in Kingdom City, a town run by a corrupt and lawless family. Hogan interjects an adversarial US Marshall who is tracking bank robbers and duped mail order bride into the mix and the result is a terrific and lean thriller without an ounce of fat or padding. Hogan’s tales never disappoint and this is a really good one. Four stars.

Review: Quick-Trigger Country

Quick-Trigger Country by Clem Colt
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Clem colt was a pseudonym for Nelson K. Nye. I haven't read anything else by him so don't know how typical this is of his writing. Although there are plenty of action scenes the plot proceeds either by coincidence or non sequitur, in other words it makes no damn sense. The narration at times reads as if it were copied from old newspaper articles or tourist brochures celebrating the good old days of Tombstone. We even have a Wyatt Earp sighting. The dialog is hokey and it was like listening to Billy Crystal and Jake Palance in the movie City Slickers - minus the humor. Did I mention it has plenty of action scenes? I didn't say they were great action scenes. The lead character's name is Turkey. Totally fits this book. Not recommended.

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Review: The Last One Left

The Last One Left by John D. MacDonald
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Starts really slowly with multiple third person narratives, each with detailed character introductions and much backstory. I stalled out lost after a few chapters and had to restart from the beginning. I have a deep admiration for JDM’s early stand alone novels with their taut linear plots and low word counts. This novel is far more ambitious telling the tale of a complex scheme initiated by the devious and deadly beauty Crissy Harkinson to steal a load of dark money by faking a boating accident. This personally involves Texas lawyer Sam Boylston, an overbearing perfectionist with a marriage on the rocks, and with a kid sister on the missing boat. MacDonald was an exceptional writer and the prose here, albeit a bit wordy for my tastes, is superb. Yeah, the plot is complex and there are probably too many characters but MacDonald deftly ties the multiple narratives into a cohesive and compelling story. It takes a some effort and focus by the reader to get pulled past the slow start but the rewards are substantial. An excellent book that I’m going to dock one half star for the slow start and the excessive verbosity. Four and a half stars.

Review: On Company Time

On Company Time by Daniel A. Morton
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A shallow tale of office romance. Robin arrives in the city from a small town in Iowa and quickly lands a secretarial job for the publisher of a scandal sheet. She falls almost instantly in love with co-worker Jim but before she can consummate that love, her boss - "Just call me Nails, everyone does" - goes into full seduction mode. Soon he's groping her in the office, in the restaurant, and in the taxi cab, where he, yes, you guessed it, nails her. It is that kind of book. What follows is a few dates with both the boss and Jim, more hanky panky, and some petty office jealousies, which causes a few people to get fired. Jim and Robin quit, but not before telling off Nails. That's it. Only 123 pages of large type and I read this in the amount of time it took to slowly drink a beer. Which may or may not be a recommendation. It's a Midwood paperback. Vintage 1960s sleaze. Not much to this one and not worth tracking down.

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