Michael A. Draper's Blog, page 30

A slice of life of poor folk in Northern Mississippi

When I read Larry Brown's "Joe," I knew I was experiencing the writing of a first rate writer.

This novel describes a short time in the life of Glen Davis who just returned to his home in Mississippi after serving time for vehicular homicide.

The story is revealed gradual fashion as we see the destructive attributes of Glen and meet his father, a wounded WWII vet. Glen's former girlfriend and his son still live in town but Glen shows no love for his son and only aggressive behavior toward his former girlfriend.

The county sheriff loves Glen's old girlfriend and would like to marry her but her choice is still Glen.

The author does a good job in his descriptions of life in Mississippi in the 1960s and showing the relationship between white and black people in rural Mississippi.

This book won the Southern Book Award and is well written.

Corruption in New York City

This is as much a family drama as it is a murder mystery and thriller. The main focus of the story is a New York City detective, Boots Littlewood. He's skilled in using his resources to find the suspects he wants to interview. He also has a good relationship with his father, who is planning to remarry, and with his son, a college student and a skilled computer analyst.

The author is a former cab driver in New York and his knowledge and descriptions of the streets of Brooklyn, New York and surrounding areas is right on.

There have been a number of murders involving New York. One cop was on the job, investigating the Lipstick Murderer, a serial killer. Another police officer who was murdered was a captain who thought he was invincible.

Boots investigates these murders and, when one of his sources is arrested for one of the murders, he knows someone is trying to cover up the crime and he must take actions to prove his man was not guilty.

He's assigned a partner, Jill Kelly, the daughter of one of the murdered police officers and the niece of the chief of detectives.

Boots is also a gambler, mostly on Yankee baseball games and while going through the investigatory process, he listens to the Yankee games. He has a friendly bookie who also gets mixed up in the investigation.

I read this book in a couple of days and enjoyed every minute of it.

Memorable, readable picture of American West.

Craig Johnson's "As the Crow Flies" is a penetrating story of life on the Indian Reservation and the poverty and desolation of those living in the area.

Sheriff Walt Longmire is in the midst of preparing for his daughter's wedding. His good friend, Henry Standing Bear is acting as wedding planner.

The novel, written as if the author was standing on Sheriff Longmire's shoulder. The original location of the setting for Walt's daughter's wedding has met with a snag and Walt and Henry are looking for a new location when a woman falls to her death from a nearby cliff. Luckily, her infant survives.

Each character is finely drawn and their plight in the panoramic scope of the area is depicted as if the viewer was watching the action unfold before them. There has been a successful TV series based on Longmire's actions that has been very successful.

The list of suspects is long and Walt works with newly appointed Chief Lola Long, Cheyenne Tribal Police Chief, in attempting to find the killer.

This is a complex story, gradually unfolding before the reader. We wonder how some characters live in corrugated lined homes with the outside filled with broken down cars and maybe having electricity and water but reminiscent of Indian life many years ago.

Well done and brings back memories of the wonderful writer of American Indian life, Tony Hillerman.

Recommended.

Six years can pass swiftly

Six years pass since Jake fisher watched his love, Natalie, marry another without giving Jake any explanation other than getting his promise to leave her alone.  However, he never stopped thinking of her.

Then, he sees a notice that her husband died. He decides to attend the funeral but when the grieving widow turns around, it isn't Natalie.

Jake tries to get answers and returns to the Vermont area where he and Natalie were happy. However, her friends don't recognize him and are antagonistic. In addition, someone else is looking for her, aggressively.

Harlan Coben has woven an excellent plot where the main character searches for his love who seems to have disappeared without reason. The intricacies of the plot are masterfully put together.

Jake becomes a victim of those looking for Natalie but, again, he can't figure out a reason. In addition, there seems to be three groups looking for her, her old friends, a number of thugs, and the police.

The answers are provided in a wonderful manner and the well plotted novel will hold the reader grasping the book to the last page.

Southern literature with a flair

"Joe" is a story about life in Mississippi with down to earth people trying to eek out a living. The reader views the deserted shacks, privately owned stores where the owner shoots game to offer to his customers and a look at very real people that aren't seen every day.

Joe Ransom is foreman for a number of men working to clear land. He's also trying to maintain a relationship with his daughter.

Gary Jones is a fifteen-year-old boy who is with a family with no permanent ties. His father is a drinker and abusive. His mother is insane.

Gary meets Joe and Joe sees something in him, in Gary's work ethic and inner goodness. Feeling sorry for Gary, Joe decides to give him a chance.

This is a well plotted story with excellent descriptions of the life in the economically deprived areas of Mississippi in past years.

How a person with Tourette's can have a normal life.

As someone with a medical condition, (cancer), I'm appreciative of anyone who can overcome their own health setback.
Paul Skoglund has Tourette's and has had difficulty finding work. His aunt asks him to repair her hunting lodge in Hudson Valley which was damaged by vandals.
Mo Ford is a new trooper in the Lewisboro Barracks of the state police, transferring in from another agency. He picks up a number of open investigations including that of Richard Mason and the disappearance of three teenagers.
Mo is an appealing character. He's determined and compassionate. In his investigation, he finds a connection between the damage to the hunting lodge and the missing teens.
The story is interesting and unique in that we can see how a person with Tourette's can overcome their handicap.

The Highway provides a reading reward

In this engrossing novel, two teenage girls set out to visit one of the girl's boyfriends in Montana but never arrive at their destination. Since one of the girls told her father she'd be somewhere else, the investigation is slow to develop.

Cassandra Dewell of the Montana Sheriff's Department runs the investigation.

This is an area of Montana where a truck stop is the base from which a man preys on his victims. Since many of them are prostitutes, their disappearance fail to get the attention that the teenagers now receive.

Another interesting character is Cody Hoyt who taught Cassie much of what she knows. However Cody has personal issues which are well brought out by the author.

There are twists and surprises that add to the enjoyment and the conclusion is something that will leave the reader thinking about the novel well into the future.

International intrigue

In Uzbekistan, photojournalist Charlie Davis goes to a small village to take photographic evidence of atrocities of the ruler.
His pregnant wife, Julie, is also there and a protest erupts with Charlie and Julie barely escaping.
Six years go by and suddenly Julie disappears leaving Charlie with their two children.
Charlie begins searching for Julie and starts to unravel a secret world Julie was part of. After he is interrogated by government officials, he gets a feeling that she may be in danger and is certainly up to something.
In a very complicated plot, a college friend of Julie at Cambridge is now planning some kind of terrorist plot. He has taken Julie as a hostage.
Charlie must try to find his wife who he now thinks is some kind of government agent with the British government.
The author is the producer of the award winning TV hit, Without a Trace, and this work of literature demonstrates how well he can capture and maintain the reader's attention.
Recommended.

A Nostalgic Noir Mystery

Philip Marlowe is a middle class PI who marries a millionaires daughter and moves to Poodle Springs and the world of the wealthy.

Marlowe wants his life to be as much the same as possible so gets an office in the middle class part of town and immediate gets a client who wants his health in a life or death situation. The man tells Marlowe that a man signed a note for a great deal of money and now can't be found.

It's a clash of cultures as Marlowe and his new wife, Linda, try hard to make their marriage work.

Marlowe introduces himself to the local police department and gets to work,  Linda would rather be at the country club but gives in to her husbands desires.

Soon Marlowe is involved in murder, lies, bigamists and gamblers. It's a world he's seen before but now, some of the participants are the wealthy, the friends of Linda's rich father.

This story grabs the reader's emotions. It's a story of life, of regular folk mixing with the wealthy and wondering who had a better life. Marlowe is an excellent character who carries the story.

Be careful when you pick your target

In a novel loaded with political intrigue, lost love, political ambition and revenge, Dewey Andreas has done his job so well that he becomes the target for assassination.
Dewey helps uncover Chinese intelligence's highest level asset in Israel's Mossad. The spy also has done damage to US and Great Briton. With Dewey revealing the man's name, Chinese authorities want to retaliate.
Fao Bhang is the head of China's state security and places an immediate kill order on Andreas.
Dewey is engaged to Jessica Tanzer a top state official. They are in Cordoba when the plan to target Dewey goes into action.  Unfortunately for the killers, they don't succeed in their goal.
This is a wonderful novel with many twists and surprises and is packed with suspense. The reader's attention is grabbed and held on to from the beginning. I enjoy Dewey as a character. 
Highly recommended.