James has
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| # | cover | title | author | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages | avg rating | num ratings | date pub | date pub (ed.) | rating | my rating | review | notes | recommender |
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votes | read count | date started | date read | date added | date purchased | owned | purchase location | condition | format | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0316069418
| 9780316069410
| 4.08
| 14,186
| Jan 01, 2011
| Nov 28, 2011
|
This is another excellent entry in Michael Connelly's series featuring LAPD homicide detective, Harry Bosch. Bosch, who had earlier retired from the de...more This is another excellent entry in Michael Connelly's series featuring LAPD homicide detective, Harry Bosch. Bosch, who had earlier retired from the department is now back under the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP). He has a little more than three years left before he will be forced to retire for good and he is anxious to accomplish as much as he possibly can in the time he has remaining. Harry is now working in the Open/Unsolved Unit, investigating cold cases, and as the book opens, he and his partner, David Chu, are assigned a particularly interesting case from over twenty years earlier. A child was sexually assaulted and murdered and now DNA evidence has linked the crime to a convicted sex offender. It seems like an open and shut case, except for one small problem: at the time of the crime, the offender whose DNA was found on the body was only eight years old. While Harry pursues this puzzling cold case, he's assigned to a new live case by special request. The son of an old nemesis, city councilman Irvin Irving, has dropped to his death from a balcony at a posh hotel. The councilman insists that Bosch investigate the death personally. While he and Harry may have at times been bitter opponents, Irving knows that Harry is a man of integrity and that he will find the real truth, irrespective of whether the son's death was an accident, suicide or murder. Inevitably, Harry will face any number of obstacles in both investigations and in the end, he has to wonder whom, if anyone, he can trust. Both cases are very interesting and as always, it's enormous fun to watch Harry work. Michael Connelly, like his fictional detective, seems to just be getting better and better with age. This is a real page-turner that should appeal to anyone who enjoys crime fiction and that will be treasured by fans of this great series.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| not set
| Dec 03, 2012
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Dec 03, 2012
| Hardcover
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| 0061872148
| 9780061872143
| 3.57
| 438
| 2009
| May 12, 2009
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People who do not live in California, Arizona or Utah probably have difficulty appreciating the fanatic devotion that many residents of those states e...more
People who do not live in California, Arizona or Utah probably have difficulty appreciating the fanatic devotion that many residents of those states exhibit for In-N-Out Burger. But once you've eaten at one of their stores, it pretty much dashes your desire to ever eat at any other fast food restaurant. Just thinking about it makes me want to abandon this review and race down the street for a Number Three and a Coke. Stacy Perman has done an admirable job describing the founding and (very) slow growth and development of the chain that was the brainchild of Harry Snyder and his wife, Esther. The couple built their first store in Baldwin Park, California in 1948. Harry's guiding principle was a simple one: "Keep it real simple. Do one thing and do it the best you can." Snyder was fanatically devoted to quality, cleanliness and customer service. He oversaw virtually every detail of each of his restaurants and so expanded at a glacial pace. At a time when McDonalds, Burger King and other such fast food operations were franchising and opening new stores by the scores, Harry Snyder refused to franchise, resisted all offers to sell to a large corporation, and opened only a handful of new stores, even in his most active years. While his competitors were using frozen meat and processed fries, Snyder insisted on using only fresh ingredients and on washing, peeling and cutting potatoes for fries in his stores, moments before the potatoes went into the fryer. When Harry died in 1976, Esther remained a pivotal figure in the company, but control passed to their younger son, Rich. An older son, Guy, had drug problems and did not have the devotion to the company that his father and younger brother had, and so he was effectively passed over. Unfortunately, Rich was then killed in a plane crash in 1993, throwing the family into further turmoil. At that point, Guy Snyder began to assume a larger role in the company's operations, but most of the work and most of the major decisions were made by a team of long-time managers who were in place when Rich Snyder was killed. Through a complicated series of trusts, ownership of the company would ultimately come to be held by the Snyder's only grandchild, Guy's daughter Lynsi, who was only eleven at the time of her Uncle Rich's death. Perman describes as best she can the tension and turmoil that resulted, both within the family and the company following Rich's death, especially as Esther Snyder grew older and more distanced from the company's operations. Through it all, though, the company has remained small by fast-food standards and has remained tightly held by the family. It has also, thus far at least, continued to follow, almost religiously, the path set by its founder, Harry Snyder. This is an entertaining story that will probably mean a lot more to those who form the almost cult-like following that In-N-Out Burger has developed through the years than it will to people who have never visited an In-N-Out and who have thus sadly spent their lives eating substandard fast-food burgers. Perman conducted over a hundred interviews in researching the book, but given the company's almost obsessive desire to avoid publicity, In-N-Out Burger refused to cooperate in her effort to tell the story. This naturally poses some significant obstacles in the way of Perman's effort to tell the whole story, but the story she tells is, nonetheless, engrossing.(less) | Notes are private!
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| not set
| Feb 25, 2013
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Feb 25, 2013
| ebook
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| 0151013667
| 9780151013661
| 3.45
| 487
| 2006
| Aug 01, 2010
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This unconventional novel by Karin Fossum will delight some readers and, I suspect, confuse and frustrate others. Fossum, a Norwegian, is perhaps best...more
This unconventional novel by Karin Fossum will delight some readers and, I suspect, confuse and frustrate others. Fossum, a Norwegian, is perhaps best known for her crime fiction series featuring Inspector Konrad Sejer. Here she attempts something completely different and unusual. As the book opens, a middle aged female writer whose name we never learn, is cowering behind her curtains one night, looking down her driveway at the long line of characters who are waiting for her to tell their stories. The weight of the burden the characters impose upon her is almost too much to bear and she turns to drink and pills to get her through the night. On this night, though, she awakens, panicked, in the middle of the night to find a man in her room. One of her upcoming characters has jumped the line and invaded her bedroom. He insists that the writer tell his story now. The writer tries to explain that the man must wait his turn, but he's worried because the writer is getting older and is not taking very good care of herself. He's desperately afraid that she might die before getting to him and that his story will never be told. Reluctantly, the woman agrees to his request, and the man comes to life on her computer as Alvar Eide. He's single, in his early forties, and works in an art gallery. He's a very quiet, mild-mannered man who has difficulty relating to other people. But his life is well-ordered and he is content with it. Then one bitterly cold afternoon a young female drug addict stumbles into the gallery in an effort to get warm and Alvar does something totally out of character. Rather than immediately insisting that she leave the gallery, he offers her a cup of coffee, and this simple act will change the course of his life. As the story progresses, Alvar continues to periodically interrupt the writer. He is concerned about the way he is being portrayed; he fears for what might happen to him. The writer patiently explains that once things are set in motion, she has little or no control. She must follow the story wherever it leads her, and Alvar must accept the consequences. Alvar is not sure he likes this at all, but watching his progress and observing his interaction with his creator is a fascinating experience. Writers often say that characters sometimes assume a life of their own and I suspect that this is a difficult thing to grasp for people who are not writers and who assume that writers have complete control of the stories they write and the characters they create. But while a writer might consciously plan out a book to the last detail, that carefully constructed plan often cannot account for the actions of a mischievous subconscious. Perhaps only another writer who has experienced that moment when, seemingly out of nowhere a character says or does something that takes you completely by surprise, can really appreciate what Fossum has done here. Which is to say that I enjoyed this book immensely, but I can understand why others might not be as enthused about it as I am.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| not set
| Mar 02, 2013
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Mar 02, 2013
| Hardcover
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| 0312938993
| 9780312938994
| 3.75
| 58,031
| 1982
| Nov 01, 2005
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This is the book that introduced Kinsey Millhone and helped inaugurate a new era in crime fiction when female investigators like Millhone and Sara Par...more
This is the book that introduced Kinsey Millhone and helped inaugurate a new era in crime fiction when female investigators like Millhone and Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski could go toe-to-toe with the bad guys and more than hold their own with their male counterparts like Spenser, Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. Millhone has a modest solo practice as a P.I. that she runs out of a small office in the fictional town of Santa Teresa, California. Orphaned as a child and twice divorced, she lives a quiet, solitary life, eschewing the kinds of possessions and personal connections that most people take for granted. But this is her life and she's perfectly happy with it. Certainly she would never be mistaken for Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher. And unlike any number of other female sleuths, she is perfectly capable of solving difficult mysteries without the assistance of a cat. Enter Nikki Fife, recently released after an eight-year stint in prison for murdering her husband. One might wonder why Nikki got only eight years for a premeditated murder, but this is never explained. Nikki continues to insist that she was innocent and she hires Kinsey to find the Real Killer. The husband, Laurence Fife, was a philandering attorney with a loose moral code who had antagonized any number of potential suspects. But the police and prosecutors argued that only Nikki could have poisoned one of Laurence's allergy capsules and she was thus convicted on this rather flimsy evidence. Kinsey takes the case and almost immediately discovers that there was a lot more going on in the case than the police and prosecutors revealed at the time of the trial. To make matters worse, as soon as Millhone begins poking around, people with ties to the case start turning up dead, and before long, Kinsey may find herself in the line of fire. This is a good introduction to a series that would develop very long legs and attract a huge fan base. Thirty years after the publication of "A" Is for Alibi, Kinsey Millhone still soldiers on and Grafton has nearly reached the end of the alphabet. Some have questioned Grafton's decision to leave her protagonist and these stories glued to the 1980s, and the books have become, as a practical matter, historical crime novels in which there are still no personal computers, cell phones or Internet and where the heroine remains perpetually in her middle thirties. But Grafton has attracted legions of fans to the series, so she must be doing something right. And certainly any fan of crime fiction should be at least marginally acquainted with Kinsey Millhone.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| not set
| Sep 12, 2012
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Mar 23, 2010
| Paperback
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| 0440141966
| 9780440141969
| 3.98
| 2,708
| 1978
| Jun 01, 1992
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This is the fifth book in Robert B. Parker's Spenser series. By this entry, the character of Spenser, the tough, wise-cracking P.I. has largely taken...more
This is the fifth book in Robert B. Parker's Spenser series. By this entry, the character of Spenser, the tough, wise-cracking P.I. has largely taken shape. The two other principal characters, Spenser's lover, Susan Silverman, and his sidekick, Hawk, are still rounding into form. The relationship between Spenser and Susan is already showing signs of becoming alarmingly saccharine, but has not yet become nearly as obnoxious as it would be in later books. Hawk is a bit rougher and more menacing than the character would later become. The book opens with a scene strongly reminiscent of Philip Marlowe's arrival at the Sternwood mansion at the opening of The Big Sleep. In this case, Spenser arrives at the luxurious mansion and is escorted by a servant into the sanctuary of the home's wealthy owner who wants to hire Spenser. The man's wife and children were killed by terrorist bombers in London. The man lost the use of his legs in the attack, but survived, having burned into his memory the descriptions of the nine killers. He has now worked with an artist who has created Identi-Kit portraits of the nine. The client gives the drawing to Parker and tells him that he will pay $2500 per head for the capture of the killers, dead or alive. Parker accepts the job, goes to London and by virtue of a simple trick quickly finds a way to get to his targets. Hawk will later join Spenser and help him track the terrorists through England, Amsterdam and Canada. The plot is preposterous and beggars belief at too many points to mention. But this is one of those books where you simply have to suspend disbelief and go with the flow. It's fun watching Spenser and Hawk at work and cringing at the relationship between Spenser and Susan. This is not one of the better books in the series, but those who enjoy Spenser's adventures will not want to miss it.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| not set
| Sep 11, 2012
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Sep 11, 2012
| Paperback
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| 0060872799
| 9780060872793
| 3.84
| 1,201
| 1995
| Oct 31, 2006
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This is another light, entertaining book in Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr series. Bernie, for those who haven't met him, is a gentleman burglar w...more
This is another light, entertaining book in Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr series. Bernie, for those who haven't met him, is a gentleman burglar who also runs a New York City bookstore. He often finds himself in sticky situations that he has to resolve himself before the police decide to pin whatever mischief is involved on him. In this case, Bernie is strongly attracted to a beautiful eastern European woman who wanders into his bookstore one afternoon. It turns out that they share a love of the movies of Humphrey Bogart. Conveniently, there's a major Bogart film festival underway and so Bernie and Ilona begin meeting every night to share a tub of popcorn while watching a Bogie double feature. Inevitably the plot will thicken as it does when Bernie is hired to burgle some valuable documents. So after the movies one night, Bernie puts Ilona into a cab and lets himself into the apartment where the aforementioned documents are to be found. Complications arise, as they always must, and soon bodies are dropping and Bernie is up to his neck in murder and in the affairs of a miniscule would-be eastern European country that only a philatelist like Lawrence Block could love. Certainly nothing very dark or gruesome here, just a fun read with a lot of references to classic Bogart movies. Perfect for a lazy November afternoon when you just want to sit outside in the yard, read a good book and let the Thanksgiving dinner continue to digest.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Nov 25, 2012
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Mar 24, 2010
| Paperback
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| 0451150791
| 9780451150790
| 3.79
| 1,518
| 1956
| Apr 01, 1987
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Originally published in 1956, this is the first novel in Ed McBain's long-running 87th Precinct series. It introduces Steve Carella, who would be the...more
Originally published in 1956, this is the first novel in Ed McBain's long-running 87th Precinct series. It introduces Steve Carella, who would be the most prominent of the detectives that McBain created to populate his mythical precinct; it also introduces the large mythical city where the books are set and which is based loosely on New York City. As the book opens, a plain clothes police detective is shot and killed as he is walking to work. The investigation into the killing has barely begun when two other detectives are killed by bullets fired from the same gun. The obvious conclusion is that someone hates cops and has decided to start killing them off. While the city swelters though a stifling heat wave, Steve Carella and his fellow detectives sort through every scrap of evidence while dealing with other assorted criminals, juvenile delinquents and pain-in-the-ass newspaper reporters. But they're getting nowhere fast until Carella comes up with an alternate theory of his own about the killer's possible motive, and before long, Carella may find himself squarely in the killer's sights. Now over fifty years old, this book is clearly dated and doubtless doesn't pack the same punch that it delivered in the middle 1950s. It's also not as entertaining as many of the books that would follow it. But readers who like classic crime fiction or who would like to go back to see how this venerable series started will certainly enjoy it.(less) | Notes are private!
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| not set
| Jan 30, 2012
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Jan 30, 2012
| Paperback
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| 1889540021
| 9781889540023
| 3.46
| 13
| Jan 25, 1998
| Apr 01, 1999
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I received this book as a gift and so felt obligated to read it. Having read it, I feel honor-bound to review it, but this book is really outside my a...more
I received this book as a gift and so felt obligated to read it. Having read it, I feel honor-bound to review it, but this book is really outside my area of expertise and so I have asked my cat, Buster, to step in and write the review in my place. Her comments follow: Although reviewing books is not my usual gig, I’m happy to slide in here and help out. I note that my owner has about eight million reviews posted on this site and at least now he’ll have one that’s reasonably literate. This will be fairly brief, though. It’s approaching time for my thirty-fourth nap of the day and I get kind of surly when I don’t get enough rest. Truth to tell, though, being a cat I’m pretty surly most of the time anyhow, regardless of how much sleep I get. I have to say that I was not all that knocked out about this book. There’s no mystery to solve; there’s no ticking clock; there’s no explosions and there’s precious little violence. Even worse, there’s almost no sex in this book, and so I had a hard time staying interested in it. The book purports to explain the reasons why cats behave as we do, as if any mere mortal could begin to comprehend what goes on in the mind of a cat. I mean, let’s be honest here. Compared to the average cat, even somebody like Albert Einstein had an I.Q. equivalent to that of your basic cantaloupe. Still, I suppose you can’t blame the author for trying. There’s an interesting chapter in the book that tells you how to grow your own catnip and suggests that one of the few times cats “completely lose their dignity is when they are in the throes of a catnip high.” Rubbish! In the first place, of course, cats never lose their dignity, and in the second place this whole catnip business is highly overrated. And as my owner’s friend, Kemper, could tell you, there’s at least one thing we cats enjoy a helluva lot more than catnip. The author also describes the reasons why some cats enjoy eating houseplants and she maintains that “eating greenery is a pretty harmless activity.” She should try telling that to my owner’s wife. I still bear the psychic scars from the tongue-lashing I got six years ago, when I decided to try lunching on her philodendron. I got really excited when I saw the title of the chapter, “Prey Play,” because I naturally thought that Lucas Davenport was about to make an appearance and finally get this party started. No such luck, though. It turned out to be a chapter about cats in pursuit of prey and it suggests that cats really get off on the “thrill of the hunt.” Wrong again! I get off on the thrill of somebody popping open a can of Tasty Treat Salmon Delight and setting it down right in front of me. I’ve got a multitude of more important things to do than hunting up my own damned dinner. Finally, there’s a chapter on bathing your cat in which the author actually claims that “cats don’t necessarily mind getting wet.” Are you freakin’ kidding??? Any sumbitch dumb enough to get within a hundred yards of me with the intent of giving me a bath had damned well better already have a couple of gallons of blood lined up at the hospital because he’s definitely going to be needing a transfusion! Despite these reservations, I’m giving this book three stars because I’m sure that the author is a very nice lady and I know she meant well. I’m also sure that the human beings who read this book will enjoy it and will come way from the experience believing that they do have a better understanding of the cats who deign to share their lives with them. Personally, though, I much prefer the books of that Lawrence Block guy. There’s nothing I like better than having my owner pour about a half a pint of gin into my water bowl so that I can curl up with one of LB’s Bernie Rhodenbarr novels. I like it that Bernie has a cat at Barnegat Books, and as we all know, the cat actually runs the store, especially when Bernie is out burglarizing somebody’s home and tripping over the usual dead body. I also like it that Bernie’s best friend, Carolyn, owns a pet-grooming business. No doubt about it: Block rocks! Of course like everyone else of the feline persuasion, I’m also very fond of the work of Lilian Jackson Braun, who is one of the few writers who really understands the true place of cats in the natural order of things. I love all her books, but my favorite is #217 in the series, The Cat Who Raised Elvis From the Dead. Well, enough of this. It’s Sunday, and it’s supposed to be a day of rest. (Hey, aren’t they all?) While I’m slaving away in here at the keyboard, my owner is sacked out on the couch, pounding down beers and watching football. It’s time for me to slip on out there and join him and if I’m lucky, perhaps I can score a little beer for myownself. I just pray that my Steelers will put a gigantic can of whoop-ass on the Titans this afternoon so that I can get a good night’s sleep... (less) | Notes are private!
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| not set
| Oct 09, 2011
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Oct 09, 2011
| Paperback
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| 0380725355
| 9780380725359
| 3.99
| 1,085
| Oct 07, 1998
| Nov 09, 1999
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I've long run out of superlatives to use when describing Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder novels which remain, easily, my favorite crime fiction serie...more
I've long run out of superlatives to use when describing Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder novels which remain, easily, my favorite crime fiction series. This is due entirely to the richly-drawn character that Block has created in Scudder who has continued to grow and evolve through seventeen novels and a number of short stories, published over a period of thirty-five years. It's hard to imagine a fan of crime fiction who has not yet encountered these books, but for those who might not know, Scudder is a former New York cop and recovering alcoholic who has spent most of his career as an unlicensed P.I. doing favors for "friends" who then pay him what they think the job is worth. For most of this time, Matt lived alone in a tiny hotel room in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York, and the city has become a major character in the books. Now well into middle age, Matt has recently married Elaine Mardell, his longtime girlfriend, and moved into an apartment across the street from his old hotel room. He's also finally gotten a license as a private investigator, which enables him to work for attorneys and others from whom he can command a better rate of pay. The neighborhood is gentrifying which is both good and bad as Matt (along with the reader) mourns the passing of landmark institutions that had long populated his neighborhood. In short, life is good, but then Matt's long-time best friend, the gangster and saloon owner Mick Ballou, comes under attack from a mysterious unidentified enemy. He appeals to Matt for help and almost immediately, Matt becomes a target as well. As always, the real pleasure in this book is watching the interaction among the characters and listening in as Matt ruminates about the developments in the case and the changing world around him. This is one of the more violent books in the series, and the blood starts flowing early on. From almost the first page the bodies are dropping left and right, and the only question that matters is who will survive in a dangerous world where everybody dies. (view spoiler)[I confess that when I read this book for the first time, I did so with great trepidation. By the time this book appeared, the series had run for twenty-two years; Scudder was apparently hovering around sixty years old,, and Lawrence Block was already suggesting that he was through with Scudder. Given the title of the book, I was especially afraid that Block was going to allow Scudder to die in the end, and this fear was reinforced when two of the series characters did die along the way. Happily, my fears proved unfounded and Scudder would survive to appear, thus far, in three more books and a few additional stories. But I always put down a new Scudder novel fearing that it might be the last. The latest Scudder A Drop of the Hard Stuff, appeared in 2011 and demonstrated that Block was still at the top of his game. I very much hope that there are others yet to come. (hide spoiler)](less) | Notes are private!
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| not set
| Sep 03, 2012
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Sep 03, 2012
| Paperback
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| 0345466608
| 9780345466600
| 3.94
| 24,293
| 1981
| Nov 04, 2003
|
This is the first book in Jonathan Kellerman's long-running series featuring Alex Delaware, a child psychologist. Burned out, Alex has retired from hi...more
This is the first book in Jonathan Kellerman's long-running series featuring Alex Delaware, a child psychologist. Burned out, Alex has retired from his practice at the age of thirty-three after consulting in a particularly unsettling case involving the young victims of a serial pedophile. The children are well on the road to recovery, but Alex is in desperate need of some down time. But then Dr. Morton Handler, a psychiatrist, is brutally murdered along with his girlfriend in the apartment that they shared. A little girl named Melody Quinn, who lives in a neighboring apartment, was up in the middle of the night and may have seen the killers. But the child is deeply troubled and is unable to give the police any useful help. Alex's friend, homicide Detective Milo Sturgis, convinces Alex to examine the girl in the hope that Alex can get her to open up and give the police the description of the killers that they so desperately need. Alex reluctantly agrees and is immediately drawn into a dark and very dangerous world populated by wealthy, powerful and amoral men. But despite the threat to both his professional reputation and, ultimately, his personal safety, Alex cannot turn his back on the evil he's uncovered or on the little girl who has no one else to defend her. This is really an excellent introduction to a series that may have lost its way a bit in later books. The idea of a child psychologist as the main protagonist in a series of crime novels was a brilliant stroke, and Kellerman, who was himself a child psychologist, created a very convincing character in Alex Delaware. In this, and in most of the early books in the series, Alex's psychological skills were central to the stories. Alex was called in to consult, perfectly legitimately, by a police department that clearly needed his help. Alex was the central character and most of the others, including Milo Sturgis, rotated around him. As in this book, Alex spent a great deal of time investigating on his own, unraveling the mystery and dealing with the bad guys in a way that made perfect sense. Perhaps there were only so many plots that would legitimately accommodate a main character like Alex Delaware, but in the last few novels especially, the character of Milo Sturgis has come much more to the fore and there really doesn't seem to be much of a legitimate reason for Alex to be tagging along. Milo will simply call Alex and say, "Hey, I've got an interesting case. Wanna ride along?" Alex may offer the occasional psychological insight, but often there's no credible reason for him to be involved in the investigation and even the casual reader understands that no police department would tolerate a civilian like Alex playing such a prominent role in a homicide investigation. That may well be unjustified nitpicking, especially since I continue to enjoy these books. But going back to the beginning and re-reading this opening installment reminds one of how brilliant this series was initially and can only make you wish that the later books were still this good.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Aug 10, 2012
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Mar 23, 2010
| Paperback
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| 0061000027
| 9780061000027
| 3.94
| 4,595
| 1973
| Apr 04, 1990
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This is the second of Tony Hillerman's celebrated books featuring Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police. Later, Leaphorn would be assist...more
This is the second of Tony Hillerman's celebrated books featuring Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police. Later, Leaphorn would be assisted by a younger officer, Jim Chee, but this book, which won The Edgar Award, belongs to Leaphorn alone. A young Zuni Indian boy, Ernesto Cata, disappears while training for his important role in an upcoming tribal ceremony. A large pool of blood suggests that something very bad has happened to Ernesto, and Joe Leaphorn is assigned to fine Ernesto's best friend, George Bowlegs, a Navajo. George has disappeared and the authorities believe that he might have important information about the fate that has befallen Ernesto. It is even possible, they believe, that George might have been responsible for the crime committed against Ernesto. In his pursuit of the boy, Leaphorn crosses paths with George's alcoholic father, a group of hippies in a rather peculiar commune, and a determined archeologist who's working on a dig that may significantly change what we know about early man in what is now the southwestern United States. Along the way, Leaphorn reveals and in return discovers a great deal about the cultural and religious traditions of both the Navajo and the Zuni peoples. This is among the most unique crime fiction series of the last fifty years. Hillerman, who died in 2008, wrote seventeen books in this series. The mysteries themselves are always captivating, but what set the series apart was the window it provided into the culture of the Indian people of the Southwest and the way in which Hillerman captured the physical setting in which these people live. This is truly a fascinating book in an excellent series.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Jul 12, 2012
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Jul 12, 2012
| Paperback
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| 044945715X
| 9780449457153
| 4.01
| 1,476
| Dec 1968
| Aug 01, 1997
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As the tenth book in John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series opens, McGee is once again called upon to restore a grieving widow to psychological and s...more
As the tenth book in John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series opens, McGee is once again called upon to restore a grieving widow to psychological and sexual health. The grateful woman, Helena Pearson, returns to her normal life, but several years later, she is dying of cancer and calls upon McGee for one last favor. Helena's daughter, Maurie, has become mysteriously suicidal and Helena would like McGee to diagnose the problem and find a solution. McGee dutifully journeys to Fort Courtney, Florida, where Maurie lives with her husband, Tom, a high-flying local developer. Maurie's younger sister, Bridget, is also in residence, helping Tom look after Maurie. Sadly, by the time McGee arrives, Helena has succumbed to her cancer and so McGee is left to feel his way through a very complicated situation if he's going to be of any help. As is usually the case in one of these novels, things get complicated in a big hurry. A number of folks seem to be very interested in McGee's arrival; a couple of people will have to die; everyone will be enormously confused and only McGee may be smart enough and devious enough to sort things out. Like all of the McGee novels, this one is obviously dated, and McGee spends a lot of time philosophizing about the world around him. There's not as much action in this book as in most of the others in the series--things are a bit more cerebral--and there's not a hulking, giant, Neanderthalish brute of an adversary as there often is. The climax beggars belief a bit, but still, it's a fun read and anyone who enjoys the series will certainly want to find this entry.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Sep 25, 2012
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Sep 25, 2012
| Mass Market Paperback
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| 0743297431
| 9780743297431
| 3.88
| 834
| 2009
| Nov 03, 2009
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While historians have generally ranked James K. Polk on the list of America's greatest presidents, he remains largely unknown and unappreciated by the...more
While historians have generally ranked James K. Polk on the list of America's greatest presidents, he remains largely unknown and unappreciated by the vast majority of American citizens, dwarfed in reputation by Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, the two Roosevelts et al., who also populate the list. Robert W. Merry speculates that this is due in part to the fact that Polk lacked personal magnetism and was, even in his own day, largely unable "to pull large numbers of fond acolytes to his side....Unlike other successful presidents, he had no appreciable personal following to breathe life into his story and promote his standing in history." Despite the fact that he is not better known these days, Polk had, by almost any standard, one of the most successful of American presidential administrations. A protege of Andrew Jackson, Polk entered office with several major objectives: to complete the annexation of Texas to the Union, to annex Oregon to the U.S. and to acquire from Mexico California and the vast Southwest between Texas and California. On the domestic side, he was determined to lower tariff rates and to re-establish the independent treasury system originally put in place by Martin Van Buren. On taking office, Polk promised that he would limit himself to one term as president and by the end of that four years, he had achieved all of his stated objectives. The U.S. had grown in size by more than one-third and now stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. More amazing, perhaps, is that he accomplished all of this against considerable opposition from the Whig minority and with a badly divided Democratic party that often frustrated the president even more than the Whigs. In part, Polk established this record by working harder than any other president before or since. He devoted long hours to the job day in and day out and was absent from Washington D.C. for only a handful of days during his entire presidency. He once explained his rare devotion to duty by confiding to his diary, "No President who performs his duty faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure. If he entrusts the details and smaller matters to subordinates constant errors will occur. I prefer to supervise the whole operations of the Government myself...and this makes my duties very great." So great, in fact, that Polk wore himself out at the job and died only three months after leaving office at the (even then) relatively young age of fifty-three. Polk quickly proved also to be one of the most stubborn and determined presidents we have ever had. Once he set his mind on an objective, he worked relentlessly and often very skillfully to accomplish it. A prime example was his determination to win most of the Oregon country for the U.S. Merry describes how Polk effectively outmaneuvered the British to win a settlement of the Oregon controversy that was very advantageous to the U.S. Polk's most controversial actions, both in his own time and down to the present day, were those he took in his determination to place the border between Texas and Mexico on the Rio Grande River, rather than on the Nueces, which was this historic border between Texas and the neighboring Mexican province, and to secure from Mexico California and the Southwest. Polk's opponents in the 1840s, including a young congressman named Abraham Lincoln, and others since have accused Polk of ginning up a war with Mexico to secure the territory when other means failed. Merry defends Polk against the charge, although not all that convincingly, by arguing that Mexico was also at fault for the events that led to the war and by arguing further that, in effect, might makes right. Logic dictated that the United States and not Mexico would be the nation to dominate California and the Southwest, and that by his actions that led to the war, Polk was simply acknowledging and promoting the nation's destiny. This is not an argument likely to mollify all of Polk's critics, but one need not agree with all of Merry's conclusions to note that he has written as full and complete an examination of the Polk administration as we are likely to get or to need. Whatever one may think of him, Polk accomplished a phenomenal record. People will continue to debate that record for a good many years, and, of course, the acquisition of all of that new territory would open a bitter debate over the question of the expansion of slavery. That, in turn, would propel the United States into a cataclysmic civil war, as some of Polk's opponents feared at the time. In the end, perhaps the fairest and most lasting judgment on the Polk administration was rendered by the venerable diplomatic historian Thomas A. Bailey, who once wrote that, "one can fairly criticize Polk's methods, but one can hardly fail to be impressed by the results."(less) | Notes are private!
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| Jan 13, 2012
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Jan 13, 2012
| Hardcover
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| 184343217X
| 9781843432173
| 3.85
| 17,687
| Jan 01, 2000
| Nov 02, 2009
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Jo Nesbo may be the best Scandinavian crime fiction writer going these days. He's created in Detective Harry Hole an interesting, deeply flawed protag...more
Jo Nesbo may be the best Scandinavian crime fiction writer going these days. He's created in Detective Harry Hole an interesting, deeply flawed protagonist who may remind American readers of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch. The Redbreast is the third novel to feature Hole, and it's a complex story that moves back and forth between the Second World War and the turn of the Twenty-First Century. In the earlier action, a group of Norwegian soldiers are fighting for Hitler's Germany on the Eastern Front. The tide of the war is turning against them; casualties are increasing, and the ties among the men are tested severely. One of the Norwegian soldiers winds up wounded in a hospital where he falls in love with a beautiful nurse and begins a romance that will reverberate through the next fifty years. In the present day (actually, 1999 and 2000) Oslo Detective Inspector Harry Hole makes a tragic, if unavoidable mistake. For this, and to save the government from being embarrassed, he is "promoted" into the Security Service. He becomes involved in an investigation of the neo-Nazis who are active in Oslo. One of them, a thug named Sverre Olsen, has been recently acquitted of a brutal assault on a small technicality, but clearly other crimes are in the works. Along the way, Harry discovers that someone in Oslo has recently come into possession of a very rare and extremely expensive sniper's rifle. He has no idea who the owner is, or what he intends to do with the rifle. Harry only knows that this can't possibly be good. As Hole tries to track down the rifle and figure out what the neo-Nazis are up to, the two story lines collide, leading to a great climax. The story is very well-told; the characters are fully developed, and the suspense is virtually non-stop. Any reader of crime fiction is almost certain to enjoy it. A word of caution: If you are interested in reading any of Nesbo's Harry Hole books, it is critically important that you read them in order. There are developments in each of the books, particularly regarding the characters, that will spoil a good deal of the suspense if you read the books out of sequence. (less) | Notes are private!
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| Sep 08, 2012
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Sep 08, 2012
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| 0752852043
| 9780752852041
| 3.90
| 3,111
| 1941
| 2002
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James M. Cain's Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice have always been two of my favorite crime novels. While Mildred Pierce was turned...more
James M. Cain's Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice have always been two of my favorite crime novels. While Mildred Pierce was turned into something of a crime story in the movie starring Joan Crawford, the book is the fairly straight-forward story of a California woman who struggles to make a life for herself and her daughter, Veda, during the years of the Great Depression. As the book opens, Mildred throws her lazy, unfaithful husband out on his ear and become the single mother of two young daughters. Forced to fend for herself, she becomes a pie maker. She later takes a job as a waitress and through hard work and grim determination parlays the skills she learns on the job into owning her own restaurant. However, Veda, Mildred's elder daughter, has nothing but contempt for her mother's efforts and is embarrassed that her mother is so declasse. Veda, who is most certainly the daughter from Hell, aspires to higher things and never stops to appreciate the sacrifices that her mother makes on her behalf. Nor does she apparently ever stop to wonder how she, her sister and their mother would survive save for Mildred's efforts that Veda so casually mocks. The amazing thing is that Mildred is totally enchanted by this ungrateful urchin and bends over backwards to please her. Mildred constantly ignores and forgives the hateful things that Veda says and sacrifices her entire life to pleasing the little snot until, in the end, a serious crisis results. Cain has created here two of the most memorable characters in American fiction and has woven around them a gritty story of Mildred's struggle to survive and succeed, both in business and in her plaintive attempt to win her daughter's favor. I admire what he has done, but I can't say that I really enjoyed this book all that much. I simply could not identify or empathize with any of the characters, and my patience with Mildred Pierce ran out very early on. As terrible a thing as it is to say, were I Mildred Pierce, by the third or fourth chapter of this book, her darling Veda would have been in traction and I would have been in jail. But that, of course, would have made for a much shorter novel. (less) | Notes are private!
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Jul 24, 2012
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| 0380699079
| 9780380699070
| 4.37
| 304
| 1974
| Jun 01, 1985
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First published in 1974, this is the sixteenth book in Richard Stark's acclaimed series featuring Parker, the amoral antihero criminal mastermind. Whi...more
First published in 1974, this is the sixteenth book in Richard Stark's acclaimed series featuring Parker, the amoral antihero criminal mastermind. While the book can be read as a stand-alone, it is really the capstone of the series to that point and the last Parker novel that would appear until Comeback, a full twenty-three years later. The original plan seems simple enough: Two years earlier (in Slayground), Parker and several confederates hit an armored car in the Midwestern town of Tyler for $73,000. But before they could get away, the cops closed in and Parker was forced to hide out in an amusement park that was closed for the winter. A group of mobsters and a few corrupt cops laid siege to the park in the hope of separating Parker from the money. Ultimately, Parker hid the money in the park and managed to escape. Now, after another job has come up empty, Parker decides to go back to Tyler and retrieve the $73,000. He recruits Alan Grofield, one of his long-time associates, and the two of them quietly go to Tyler, wait for the amusement park to close for the night, and head for the spot where Parker hid the loot. It isn't there. This will come as no great surprise to the reader because this is the longest of the Parker novels and Parker and Grofield discover that the money is gone on page 21, which means that they will have to spend the rest of the book attempting to get the money back. Parker is not really surprised to find the money missing either. He reaches the logical conclusion that, in the wake of his escape, the mobsters searched the park until they found the money and appropriated it for their own purposes. Parker explains to Grofield that he knows who the boss of the local mob is. Parker calls the guy and politely asks that he return Parker's money. Not surprisingly, the mobster claims that he doesn't have it. He insists that his men did search the park but couldn't find it. Parker naturally refuses to believe him and takes several steps to demonstrate that the mobster should not take his threats lightly. As it happens, Parker and Grofield have arrived in town at a critical time for the local mob. A gang war is brewing and Parker decides that he'll show the locals what a real gang war looks like. He recruits his own gang, composed of a number of characters from the earlier Parker novels, and goes after the mobsters, leading to a sensational climax befitting what Stark originally intended to be the last book in the series. This is a gripping and very entertaining book that will appeal especially to those who have read the earlier Parker books and who will recognize so many of the characters that Stark resurrects. But it's hard to imagine that anyone who loves crime fiction will not thoroughly enjoy Butcher's Moon.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Oct 28, 2012
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Mar 24, 2010
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| 0802120466
| 9780802120465
| 3.55
| 92
| Oct 02, 2012
| Oct 02, 2012
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This book is subtitled, "A Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller," but in truth it moves at a pretty languid pace until the last quarter of the book or so...more
This book is subtitled, "A Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller," but in truth it moves at a pretty languid pace until the last quarter of the book or so. That is not to suggest that it's a bad book by any means, only that it does not race along at the pace one would normally expect of a thriller. Christopher Cobb is war correspondent for a Chicago newspaper who finds himself in revolutionary Mexico, covering the American occupation of Vera Cruz in 1914. Mexico is a country in turmoil; President Wilson's intentions are not exactly clear, and the American "invasion" does not sit well with the Mexican populace. Shortly after American forces occupy Vera Cruz, a German ship appears in the harbor. Cobb employs a young pickpocket to watch the ship and under the cover of night, a mysterious German official disembarks. Cobb is naturally curious and senses an important story. He resolves to tail the German and discover his intentions. Along the way, Cobb becomes enamored of a beautiful Mexican sharpshooter, and before long he finds himself on a perilous journey into the heart of the Mexican Revolution that will dramatically affect his own life and which may change the course of history. This is an interesting tale, and Christopher Cobb makes a sympathetic protagonist. It will appeal especially to those who enjoy historical fiction and who have an interest in this period of Mexican and American history.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Mar 07, 2013
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Mar 07, 2013
| Hardcover
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| 1569474818
| 9781569474815
| 3.62
| 61
| Nov 01, 2007
| Nov 01, 2007
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This is the fifth book in Martin Limon's excellent series set in the South Korea of the 1970s and featuring George Sueno and Ernie Bascom, two Army of...more
This is the fifth book in Martin Limon's excellent series set in the South Korea of the 1970s and featuring George Sueno and Ernie Bascom, two Army officers from the Criminal Investigations Division. Sueno, the narrator, is the brains of the pair and the one who will usually attempt to find a peaceful resolution to the difficult situations in which he and his partner all too often find themselves. Bascom has the shorter fuse and would sooner use his brawn rather than his brains, and together they made a powerful team. In this case, the two are dispatched to Camp Casey, near the DMZ, to find Corporal Jill Matthewson, the only female MP on the base and one of the few in the Army at that time. Matthewson has disappeared; the investigators on the base itself have been unable to find her; Matthewson's mother has written to her congressmen seeking his help, and thus Sueno and Bascom have been dispatched from HQ in Seoul to assist in the investigation. Upon arriving at the base, they get a pretty frigid reception and it soon becomes clear that the Powers That Be don't seem to be all that interested in finding Matthewson. As usual, Sueno and Bascom are less than impressed by the PTB, and are determined to complete their mission in spite of the obstacles that are thrown up in their way. Before long, it becomes clear that the Case of the Missing Corporal is only the tip of a very rotten iceberg at Camp Casey. Sueno and Bascom are resolved to unearth and expose the corruption and other crimes that seem to permeate the base and to find Jill Matthewson as well. But before long, their own careers and lives are in grave danger as they press ahead with an investigation that a lot of people would rather be short circuited. This is a very entertaining story, and as usual, the real pleasure of the book lies in the setting that Limon creates. His descriptions of the culture and geography of South Korea and of the relations between the Koreans and the G.I.s are extremely interesting and have the ring of truth. Limon has created a world unlike any other in contemporary crime fiction and it's hard to imagine any fan of the genre who would not enjoy visiting it.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Feb 18, 2013
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Feb 18, 2013
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| 0399158278
| 9780399158278
| 4.11
| 5,173
| Jan 24, 2012
| Jan 24, 2012
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Krista Morales and Jack Berman are young and in love. After meeting a group of friends one night out in the California desert, Krista and Jack remain...more
Krista Morales and Jack Berman are young and in love. After meeting a group of friends one night out in the California desert, Krista and Jack remain behind when everyone else leaves. Even the most casual reader will understand that this is a huge mistake. A few days later, Krista's mother, Nita, retains Elvis Cole, the World's Greatest Detective, to find her daughter. Nita assumes that Krista, an honor student who is about to graduate from college, is simply dallying with a boyfriend that Nita does not approve of. But Nita, a successful business woman, has also received a couple of strange phone calls from Krista, claiming that she has been kidnapped and asking for a ransom of $500.00. Nita thinks that the calls are a joke, especially given the amount of the desired ransom. But Elvis isn't so sure. He investigates the spot from which Krista and Jack disappeared and discovers evidence suggesting that the two have, in fact, been kidnapped by bajadores. The bajadores are bad-ass bandits who rip off other criminals who smuggle drugs and illegal immigrants into the U.S. from Mexico. Their standard M.O. is to bleed the families of the immigrants they seize until the families can pay no more. At that point, the bajadores kill their victims and dump the bodies in the desert so that there are no witnesses left to identify them. Elvis recruits his best friend and partner, Joe Pike, to assist in the investigation. But then, after attempting to infiltrate the bad guys, Elvis disappears. Anyone who has read an Elvis/Joe Pike novel will understand that Pike is going to be enormously upset about this and that this is going to be very bad news for the outlaws who might have taken his friend. This is a furiously fast-paced thriller that should delight the fans of Robert Crais, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. Crais cuts back and forth in time and place, watching Elvis search for Krista and Pike searching for Cole, leaving the reader with scarcely any time to catch his or her breath. All in all, it's an excellent addition to the series.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Jan 19, 2013
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Jan 19, 2013
| Hardcover
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| 0440153166
| 9780440153160
| 4.03
| 2,772
| 1980
| Aug 01, 1987
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This is an early entry (number six) in Robert B. Parker's long-running series featuring Spenser, the tough, wise-cracking Boston P.I. It's also one of...more
This is an early entry (number six) in Robert B. Parker's long-running series featuring Spenser, the tough, wise-cracking Boston P.I. It's also one of the best, before the plots became less compelling and before Spenser's relationship with his long-time lover, Susan Silverman, became virtually insufferable. Susan appears in the book, but she's not at it's center and she and Spenser are not constantly cooing over each other in a manner that would embarrass the average junior high school couple. In this case, Spenser is hired to act as a bodyguard for Rachel Wallace. Ms. Wallace is an outspoken gay, feminist author whose new book is bound to antagonize a good number of people. The advance reading copies have barely been distributed when Wallace begins to receive threats against her life. Enter Spenser. As a determined feminist, Wallace seems suspicious of most men and hates the thought that she might be dependent upon one, even for her own safety. Spenser is a large, tough guy and Wallace makes some snap judgments about him that are not strictly justified. She also does not appreciate Spenser's brand of humor and the relationship gets off to a somewhat prickly start. Wallace lays down some basic ground rules, but Spenser makes it clear that he will defend her as he sees best, irrespective of her directives. Early on, Spenser acts in a way that displeases Wallace and she fires him. Shortly after that, she is kidnapped, apparently by the people who threatened her initially. Spenser is angry with himself, even though he was no longer on the job, and his moral code demands that he rescue her. This will take some doing. This is an intriguing plot with one of Parker's better casts of characters. Rachel Wallace is an well-drawn character and watching her and Spenser spar with each other is a lot of fun. There are other interesting characters as well, although Spenser's sidekick, Hawk, is only briefly mentioned and does not make an appearance. Rereading the book reminds one of what a great series this was in its prime and makes a fan of the series more than a little sad that many of the later books did not begin to measure up to this one. (view spoiler)[ This book was first published in 1980. In it, Spenser references the fact that he had served in the Korean War. Also, Susan teases him about the fact that some men his age have trouble performing in bed. Assuming that Spenser might have been twenty when he served in Korea, this would make him about fifty in this book. This means that by the time Parker finished Sixkill in 2011, our intrepid hero would have been over eighty. Even at that age, he was not having any problems performing in the sack. But the thought of Spenser and Susan at that age, carrying on as they do in the later books, might be the scariest thought I'll have all day. (hide spoiler)](less) | Notes are private!
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| Jan 29, 2013
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Jan 29, 2013
| Paperback
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| 1590581814
| 9781590581810
| 3.52
| 2,526
| Sep 01, 2005
| Sep 01, 2005
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This is an excellent contemporary noir novel in which a character becomes caught up by circumstances largely beyond his control and must then struggle...more
This is an excellent contemporary noir novel in which a character becomes caught up by circumstances largely beyond his control and must then struggle to somehow survive. The main protagonist, Driver, is a stunt driver for the movies, and there's none better. But he also moonlights driving for robberies, and the thrill is principally in the driving itself rather than in the monetary rewards. He makes his position clear to anyone who wants to employ his services: "I drive. That's all I do. I don't sit in while you're planning the score or while you're running it down. You tell me where we start, where we're headed, where we'll be going afterwards, what time of day. I don't take part, I don't know anyone, I don't carry weapons. I drive." Apart from his driving, Driver leads a minimalist existence, moving frequently, paying cash, leaving virtually no trail. But then, as must always happen in a book like this, things go wrong on a number of levels; Driver winds up alienating some very bad people and the game is on. This is a beautifuly written book, lean and taut without a single wasted word. One hopes that the release of the movie made from the book will finally garner for it and for James Sallis the wider attention that both he and this book certainly deserve.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Sep 27, 2011
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Mar 23, 2010
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| 0380699060
| 9780380699063
| 4.13
| 245
| 1972
| Jun 28, 1985
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Richard Stark's amoral protagonist, known only as Parker, is low on cash and looking for work. Parker specializes in planning and executing elaborate...more
Richard Stark's amoral protagonist, known only as Parker, is low on cash and looking for work. Parker specializes in planning and executing elaborate heists and this inevitably involves working with others. Sadly, not all criminals are as talented and trustworthy as Parker and this means that his first task in planning any job is ensuring that those around him are dependable and up to the task. This can occasionally be a problem, and that's certainly the case as this book opens. A man Parker knows principally as a driver has come up with a plan to heist some valuable art work. But this is the first job that the guy has devised himself, and the plan is not even half-baked. If that weren't problem enough, the driver has a sexpot of a wife who seems determined to complicate matters by making a play for Parker. Parker's got to figure out if he can make a realistic plan out of the driver's idea, while at the same time steering clear of the wife. He's also forced to deal with an old protagonist who's suddenly turned up determined to remove the danger that Parker poses to him. To say any more would be to say too much, but the premise sets Parker off on another absorbing journey through the dangerous underworld that is his natural habitat. Writing as Richard Stark, the Edgar Award-winning Donald Westlake has created one of noir fiction's great protagonists and this, his fifteenth entry in the series, will delight fans old and new.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Jul 22, 2012
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Jul 22, 2012
| Mass Market Paperback
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| 042523830X
| 9780425238301
| 3.54
| 301
| Jan 01, 2010
| Nov 02, 2010
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Adam Lee, a businessman who has not entirely outgrown his troubled childhood, is on trial for the murder of his wife. He claims that he loved his wife...more
Adam Lee, a businessman who has not entirely outgrown his troubled childhood, is on trial for the murder of his wife. He claims that he loved his wife and that he is innocent. He insists that, tragically, his wife was killed by their mentally ill son, Albert, who was home on a visit from the institution where he is normally committed. Adam is represented by his older brother, Monty, a handsome and successful lawyer, whom Adam has always worshipped. Initially, the authorities had also concluded that Rachel, Adam's wife, was killed by their son. Adam is on trial only because of the efforts of Leo Hewitt. Leo once had a great career in the prosecutor's office until he was blamed for allowing a child killer to go free. He has since been reduced to the lowest rungs of the prosecutor's office and is desperate to redeem himself. He refuses to believe Adam's account of the events surrounding Rachel's death and doggedly pursues the case until charges are filed against Adam. This is a very dark, well-written and cleverly-plotted novel, which grabs your attention in spite of the fact that the two main protagonists, Adam and Leo, are both amazingly unsympathetic characters. There is really no one you want to root for in this book and yet you can't stop turning the pages. The book should appeal to all fans of noir-inspired crime fiction.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Aug 20, 2011
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Aug 20, 2011
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![The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, [#1])](http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320404203s/1375400.jpg "The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, [#1])")
| 0394499735
| 9780394499734
| 4.49
| 3,355
| Jan 01, 1982
| Nov 12, 1982
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Published in 1982, this is the first volume in Robert Caro's massive biography of Lyndon B. Johnson. Originally scheduled to run three volumes, the fo...more
Published in 1982, this is the first volume in Robert Caro's massive biography of Lyndon B. Johnson. Originally scheduled to run three volumes, the fourth has just been published and there is at least one more to follow. Caro has devoted the last forty years of his life to this project. He has done a staggering amount of research, which includes interviews with scores of the former president’s contemporaries, and the result is the most complete study of the life of LBJ that we are ever likely to get. This is from the "warts and all" school of biography, and it's not an especially pretty or inspiring picture. Those who still yearn to believe that the American government operates the way their seventh-grade civics book described will doubtless want to avert their eyes. Caro's Johnson is an immensely complex figure, a man with an extraordinary talent for politics who emerged from the womb desperate for power and attention. Caro describes at length Johnson's ancestry and his early hardscrabble life in the Texas Hill Country. This biography is also very much in the "life and times" tradition and we learn almost as much about Johnson's surroundings as we do about the man himself. Johnson's political abilities and his lust for power were first on full display at Southwest Texas State Teacher's College in San Marcos. There, Johnson organized a group of students, the White Stars, taking over the student government and demonstrating early on that he would do whatever it took to win. There Johnson also demonstrated a pattern that he would exhibit all of his life, toadying up to older men whose support could advance his own career. In this case, it was the college president; later it would be much more powerful men like Sam Rayburn and Franklin D. Roosevelt. After briefly teaching school, Johnson first made his way to Washington, D.C. as an aide for a congressman who was largely absent and inattentive. Johnson used the opportunity to essentially take over the office and begin building a base of power for himself. When FDR came to the presidency, Johnson landed a job as Texas State Director of the National Youth Administration, a New Deal program aimed at providing jobs for unemployed youth. As he had at every stage of his career, he threw himself into the job, exhausting himself and his employees, but bringing much-needed work for large numbers of Texas young people. In the process, he also created a program that would be imitated in several other states. This position gave Johnson further opportunities to network and to expand the base of power he was building both in Texas and in Washington. In particular, Johnson earned the friendship and the critical support of Herman and George Brown of the construction firm, Brown and Root, which would later become part of Haliburton. With Johnson’s support, the company would become a huge construction and engineering giant with projects around the world. And in return, the grateful Browns would become Johnson’s principal patrons. In 1937, Johnson ran in a special election for the congressional seat for the Tenth District in Texas when the incumbent died suddenly. The odds against him seemed impossibly high, given that Johnson was only twenty-eight, given that he had basically no name recognition in the district and given that a number of much more powerful and better-known candidates had announced for the position. But Johnson ran a brilliant and exhausting campaign, with a considerable amount of help from the Browns and won the race. Once in office, Johnson worked night and day to capitalize on federal programs to pour as much federal money into his district as he possibly could, dramatically improving the lives of the people there. But he sponsored no legislation at all of his own and worked very hard to obfuscate his views on the larger issues of the day. He was determined not to take a stand on any issue that might impede his rise to power in the future. Thus, to his constituents and to the President and his advisors, Johnson claimed to be a solid supporter of both FDR and his New Deal programs. But back in Texas, behind closed doors with the power brokers and others who hated the New Deal, Johnson insisted that he did too and that he was just exploiting the programs to bring as much money into the state as possible. In 1941, still only thirty-two, Johnson had a chance to run for a Senate seat, when one of the state’s Senators died. Again, it was an uphill campaign against huge odds and against much better-known candidates. But Johnson had the support of Brown and Root and others in their circle, and they poured huge amounts of money into Johnson’s campaign—more than had ever been spent in a Texas Senate campaign, and much of it raised and spent in violation of the law. As a result, Johnson basically had the election in the bag. But then, surprisingly, on election day he made a dumb rookie mistake. Johnson’s campaign had bought a large number of votes in the southern part of the state and instead of holding them back until late in the day, Johnson announced the results early. That allowed his principal opponent, who had bought a large number of votes in the eastern part of the state, to know what Johnson’s final total would be and to massage his own numbers so that, in the end, he defeated Johnson by a little over a thousand votes. It was a very hard lesson and Johnson would not make that same mistake when he ran for the Senate again in 1948. Following the election, the IRS began an investigation of the way in which Johnson’s campaign had been financed, focusing principally on the activities of executives at Brown and Root. The investigators believed that they had more than enough evidence to support criminal prosecution against a number of Johnson’s contributors, and it appeared that Johnson’s political career was about to take a massive and perhaps fatal hit. But Johnson pleaded with the White House to intervene and in the end, the investigation was shut down. Brown and Root paid a tiny fine for “irregularities,” and the case was closed. This volume ends in 1942, when Johnson took a temporary leave from the House of Representatives to join the Navy during World War II. This is a monumental study of politics and biography and is certain to stand for a very long time as a classic work of American History. Those who enjoy biography and political history will certainly want to read it. (less) | Notes are private!
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Jun 28, 2012
| Hardcover
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| 0446562424
| 9780446562423
| 3.80
| 5,407
| 2005
| May 04, 2010
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Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent has always been one of my favorite books, and I still think that it's the best legal thriller I've ever read. I've als...more
Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent has always been one of my favorite books, and I still think that it's the best legal thriller I've ever read. I've also enjoyed the novels that Turow has written since Presumed Innocent, but I approached this sequel with reservations. I wasn't sure why Turow would resurrect these characters and attempt to write a sequel to a virtually perfect book. Why not leave well enough alone? In the end, I wish he would have. That is not to say that I didn't enjoy Innocent; it's generally a good read, and if I had never read Presumed Innocent, I probably would have been perfectly content with the time I spent with the book. But I have read the first book I couldn't help comparing Innocent to the original virtually page-by-page, and the newer book constantly came up short. In Presumed Innocent, Kindle County prosecutor Rusty Sabitch was accused of the brutal murder of a female colleague with whom he was having an affair. Tommy Molto, another prosecutor, fanatically pursued the case against Sabitch in a book that grabs your attention from the first line and refuses to let go. The plot is brilliantly conceived with shocking twists and turns, all of which are totally plausible and convincing. Now, twenty-two years later, Sabitch is an appellate judge and is running for election to the Illinois State Supreme Court when his wife suddenly dies under mysterious circumstances. His old nemesis, Molto, is now acting prosecuting attorney, and his ambitious chief deputy goads Molto into pursuing murder charges against Rusty Sabitch once again. The story is told from a variety of different viewpoints, principally those of Sabitch, Molto, and Rusty's son, Nat. As in the first case, Sabitch hires a brilliant attorney, Sandy Stern, to represent him, and the second half of the book focuses on Rusty's trial. In this case, though, the tension is not as high as in the first book, and the courtroom scenes, while gripping at times, lack the spark of the first case. In the first case, the protagonists on both sides seemed to be caught up in a life and death struggle with everything on the line. Here they seem to be going through the motions, as if they don't have nearly as much at stake. My real problem with this book, though, is that at the beginning Sabitch does two incredibly stupid things, which seem totally out of character for someone as smart as he is, and especially for someone who has previously been tried by fire. To be sure, if he doesn't do these things, there is no story here. But still, I couldn't help feeling throughout the book that the whole plot rested on the shakiest of foundations, and it never grabbed me the way that Presumed Innocent did. In fairness, few books have ever grabbed me as Presumed Innocent did and, as I suggested above, had I never read the first book, I would probably have been perfectly content with this one which, for all its faults, is still better than a lot of other legal thrillers that one might read. But Innocent attempts to stand on the shoulders of one of the best books I've ever read. It's hardly surprising that it falls a bit short. (less) | Notes are private!
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| Oct 31, 2011
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Oct 31, 2011
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| 0399157484
| 9780399157486
| 3.66
| 599
| May 14, 2011
| Jun 09, 2011
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Quinn Colson is an Army Ranger who returns on leave to his home in Tibbehah County in northeastern Mississippi, to attend the funeral of his uncle who...more
Quinn Colson is an Army Ranger who returns on leave to his home in Tibbehah County in northeastern Mississippi, to attend the funeral of his uncle who had been the local sheriff. Upon arriving, he is shocked to learn that his uncle apparently committed suicide. He is even more upset when Lillie Virgil, a deputy sheriff, suggests that his uncle was actually murdered. Quinn is also troubled by the fact that while he has been overseas defending his country, both his family and his home town have badly deteriorated. His father, a former movie stuntman, had abandoned the family years earlier. Now his sister, Caddy, has left home as well, tumbling into a sordid world of drugs and other vices. Caddy has left her small child with Quinn's mom, who is not coping with the world all that well herself. Meanwhile, Tibbehah County is sadly overrun with schemers, thugs, and corrupt local officials and is sinking under the tide of a meth epidemic. Quinn's uncle has left his home and farm to Quinn, but then a local would-be wheeler-dealer named Johnny Stagg shows up, claiming that he has liens against the property and that he intends to take possession. Quinn has only a few days before he's due back at his Army post, and clearly he's got a lot of work to do before then to sort all of this out. As he probes more deeply into his uncle's death and the other problems of the county, he stirs up a proverbial hornets' nest and the blood begins to flow. This is the first book in a new series and Ace Atkins has created here a very intriguing protagonist. He has also surrounded him with a great cast of characters both good and bad and set them in a very well-drawn world that is interesting in and of itself. The book is somewhat reminiscent of Ken Mercer's Slow Fire, which also portrays the way in which the scourge of meth can eat away at a small town and its inhabitants. Ace Atkins has been much in the book news lately for taking over Robert B. Parker's Spenser series, and his first Spenser book, Robert B. Parker's Lullaby, has just been released. But Quinn Colson is at least as compelling a character as Spenser and I'm looking forward to the coming books in the series.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Jun 10, 2012
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Jun 10, 2012
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| 0345505670
| 9780345505675
| 3.89
| 7,133
| 2010
| Mar 30, 2010
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When a teacher at a very exclusive prep school is found dead in a tub of dry ice, L.A. Homicide Detective Milo Sturgis is assigned to the case. The mu...more
When a teacher at a very exclusive prep school is found dead in a tub of dry ice, L.A. Homicide Detective Milo Sturgis is assigned to the case. The murdered teacher has left behind a DVD on which she claims that she was subjected to relentless sexual harassment by three other members of the school's staff, whom she names on the video. Because it looks like an interesting case, Milo invites his old pal, Alex Delaware, to tag along during the investigation. Logically, Milo's investigation should start with the school and the accused staffers. However, the Deputy Chief's son attends the school. The Deputy Chief very much wants his son to be admitted to Yale and fears that any whiff of scandal connected to the school might dim his son's chances. So the D.C. orders Milo to give the school a wide berth, except as a last resort and then only with the D.C.'s permission. The D.C. would prefer that Milo nail the victim's boyfriend for the crime, or anyone else not associated with the school. Milo pursues the investigation in his own inimitable way, meaning that he will do things as he sees fit, irrespective of what the D.C. or any other Big Cheese might prefer. The faithful Alex will be at his side throughout to drive him, feed him, offer moral support, and occasionally ask the pertinent question. Inevitably there will be lots of twists and turns along the way to the conclusion of the case. As crime novels go, this is not bad and it's better than a lot of others. My problem with this book, as it was with the last Jonathan Kellerman book that I read, is that it is billed as "An Alex Delaware Novel," when, in fact, Alex is basically just along for the ride, essentially serving as Dr. Watson to Milo's Sherlock Holmes. Even Delaware's domestic situation, which was once fairly interesting, has apparently settled into a bland, run-of-the-mill relationship. As a result, Robin, his girlfriend, gets an obligatory couple of paragraphs, but that's about it--just enough to say, "Hi," 'Bye," and "Have a great time investigating, boys!" In the beginning, this series was distinguished by the fact that the lead, Alex Delaware, was a brilliant child psychologist. The department asked him to consult on cases that involved children and where he had a legitimate role to play, Inevitably, Alex wound up in the middle of everything and was always the one to solve the case, but he was there for a logical reason--his presence always made sense. In these books, Milo Sturgis was the second banana, there to provide an official police presence as needed. In the last couple of books or more, Alex has no legitimate reason to be involved whatsoever. He's not officially consulting and in the real world, no citizen would ever be allowed to tag along in an investigation like this. He occasionally does some grunt work for Milo on the computer--usually something that any competent high school kid could do equally well. Alex also occasionally offers some psychological insight about one or another of the suspects, but never anything particularly deep, and certainly nothing that Milo would not be able to observe himself after hanging out with Alex for the better part of twenty friggin' years. Again, this is a pretty good crime novel, but sooner or later the agency that regulates truth in advertising needs to get involved here. This is really "A Milo Sturgis Novel," and there's no reason at all for Alex Delaware to be involved. This used to be one of the really good crime series out there. The protagonist was interesting and unusual; the cases were different and compelling, and the series stood apart from anything that anyone else was writing. I'm not going to give up on this series, but it would be nice to get a REAL Alex Delaware novel again sometime.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Apr 13, 2011
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Apr 13, 2011
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| 1590170431
| 9781590170434
| 3.96
| 689
| 1951
| Aug 31, 2003
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Frank Friedmaier is not quite twenty years old. World War II is raging but for some reason that is never specified, Frank is a civilian and not a sold...more
Frank Friedmaier is not quite twenty years old. World War II is raging but for some reason that is never specified, Frank is a civilian and not a soldier. His country, apparently France, has been occupied by enemy forces. Most of the citizens are barely scraping by, but Frank lives in his mother's small whorehouse which caters principally to officers of the occupation army. Frank, his mother and the mother's whores have ample food and other necessities. Mainly, they have ample coal to stay warm through a bitterly cold winter. Needless to say, most of their neighbors hate them, but the neighbors are powerless to do anything about this situation since Frank's mother is obviously protected by the authorities. Frank is totally self-absorbed and is determined to make a name for himself. He runs with a rough crowd and as the book opens, he kills a man just for the thrill of it. Frank is also insensitive to the women in his life, his mother included, and constantly takes advantage of the young women in his mother's "employ," totally heedless of any thoughts or feelings that the women might have. Frank is particularly insensitive to a young female neighbor who, for some inexplicable reason, has a crush on him. Dirty Snow is a novel that contains a great deal of criminal activity but it is not a crime novel in the traditional sense. Rather, it is an exploration of character. We never really know for sure the forces that have combined to make Frank the young man that he has become. Was it the war? Was it the fact that he grew up the fatherless son of a woman who exploited other women? Was it the other low-lifes with whom he associated or some combination thereof? Whatever the case, it's interesting in a sick sort of way to watch the progress of Frank's life through the period covered by the book. It's like watching a dreadful accident taking place in slow motion right in front of your eyes. It's not remotely pretty, but you can't look away. George Simenon has sketched some memorable characters and placed them in a well-conceived universe. The end of the book dragged a bit for me, but the first two-thirds of it will linger in my memory for a long time to come.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Feb 23, 2012
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Feb 23, 2012
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| 1846687322
| 9781846687327
| 3.43
| 103
| Aug 12, 2010
| Jan 18, 2011
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Dan Wilson is a middle-aged software engineer. He's out of work; he's going blind, and then his wife gets laid off from her job as well. All in all, t...more
Dan Wilson is a middle-aged software engineer. He's out of work; he's going blind, and then his wife gets laid off from her job as well. All in all, things are not going well. Dan's last job of any consequence was designing the security system for a local bank. But then the penny-pinching bankers outsourced the writing of the software Dan designed to a firm in India. Dan is righteously angry and so decides to take his revenge and secure his family's future all in one fell swoop by robbing the bank in question. Dan conceives a fairly ingeneous plan and recruits several of his friends to assist. They are all out of work software engineers as well and they eagerly sign on to the plan. As always happens in a book like this, things will inevitably go amiss; the law of unintended consequences will come into play, and in fairly short order, Dan has major problems. I loved the premise of this book, but I was less satisfied with the execution. My main problem was that I didn't find any of the characters to be at all sympathetic, including Dan, whose situation should have made him enormously sympathetic. But I found that I couldn't root for him or anyone else in the book, and in the end I didn't really care what happened to any of them. In particular, the crew that Dan recruits consists of a bunch of hopeless misfits. I wouldn't think of trusting any of these guys to go along for a ride during which I planned to run a red light, let alone rob a bank. Reading the book, I kept thinking of Donald Westlake. "Outsourced" sounds like a plot that might have worked well as one of Westlake's "Parker" series (written as Richard Stark), although if Westlake had written it, it would have been grittier and more believeable. Mainly, though, the premise of this book reminded me of Westlake's The Ax, in which the protagonist is also out of work and designs a criminal plan to save himself that is much more interesting than the one in "Outsourced." This is not a bad book, and I'm sure a lot of readers would enjoy it more than I. Perhaps my expectations were simply too high.(less) | Notes are private!
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Jul 29, 2011
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| 0394718283
| 9780394718286
| 4.03
| 8,561
| 1929
| Jul 17, 1989
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Originally published in 1929, Red Harvest is a classic crime novel that helped established the hard-boiled genre. This is most definitely not a polite...more
Originally published in 1929, Red Harvest is a classic crime novel that helped established the hard-boiled genre. This is most definitely not a polite, parlor mystery where most of the blood is spilled off of the page. As the title suggests, this book is filled with mayhem and the bodies are falling left and right. The main protagonist is the Continental Op, who doesn't remotely resemble the genteel Hercule Poirot or any of the other fictional detectives who were so popular in the 1920s. The Op is certainly smart and skilled, but he's a squat, overweight man who's more than willing to cut whatever corners are necessary in order to achieve what he believes to be the greater good. The Op, who is employed by the Continental Detective Agency in San Francisco, is detailed to the Personville, a mining town known to most as Poisonville. The town was, for a long time, under the thumb of Elihu Willsson who owned the Personville Mining Corporation, the local newspapers, and a number of other businesses as well. He also controlled all of the politicians of any consequence, up to and including the state governor. During the First World War, Willsson had made whatever deals were necessary with the miners' unions to ensure that the company's operations were unimpeded. But once the war ended, he determined to break the unions and in doing so, invited in a number of thugs and crooks to assist him. The unions were effectively cowed, but the thugs and crooks stayed in town and carved out interests for themselves, effectively reducing Willsson's authority. As the book opens, Elihu's son, Donald, has asked the Continental Detective Agency for assistance. Elihu has now turned the town's newspapers over to his son and the son is something of a reformer. But before the Op can even meet with Donald, Donald is murdered. The Op believes that it is his obligation to identify the killer. As he attempts to do so, old Elihu Willsson offers the Op $10,000.00 to clean up Personville. In reality, he wants to get rid of the gangs that are competing for control of the town so that he can dominate it unchallenged once again. The Op is repulsed by the level of corruption in the town and by Elihu himself. But he decides to take the job so that he can indulge his own desire to clean up the town and cleverly drafts his agreement with Willsson to effectively give himself carte blanche, even if Willsson should ultimately change his mind about turning the Op loose on the problem. The plot that unfolds is dense and convoluted, but the strength of the book lies in Hammett's prose style, in the characters he develops, and in picture he paints of Personville. As a practical matter, there is not a single moral, selfless person in the entire town, the Continental Op included. He quickly proves that he's ready to get down in the muck with the croooks, grafters and corrupt city officials and do whatever is necessary to complete the quest he's assigned himself. As a young man, Hammett had worked as a detective for the Pinkerton agency in San Francisco and had spent some time during the war in the mining town of Butte, Montana as a strikebreaker. People have long speculated that "Poisonville" was modeled on Butte, a company town controlled by the Anaconda Mining Company. People have also speculated about Hammett's motives for writing the book, suggesting that he might have been seeking some redemption for the actions he had taken in Butte. Whatever the case, the result is a seminal work that stands as one of the great classics of American crime fiction and that has influenced scores of writers who have attempted to follow in Hammett's footsteps.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Jun 30, 2012
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Mar 23, 2010
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