Alan Williams's Blog, page 83
March 14, 2012
Book Review: Bullets for a Ballot by Nik Morton
Another tale of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles, told at the pace of a galloping pinto.
The story starts with a much younger Cash Laramie, making the acquaintance of Esther Traynor, when he steps in to save her life from the menaces of the harsher side of the old west. Moving quickly forward it takes up the story when Marshall Laramie goes to the aid of Esther again, now married and known as Esther Tolliver she is living in the town of Bear Pines; and preparing to run for town Mayor. There...
March 13, 2012
Greetings!
Hello!
If you've stumbled across this blog, you're a little early to the party!
I have been blogging at Posterous for some time; but posterous has recently been taken over by Twitter. Whilst I'm sure this is a good thing for the owners of posterous, I'm not so sure it is for it's users. Therefore I'm jumping ship, or at least I will be, over the next couple of months.
Check back soon, I hope to get this site up and running as soon as I can.
February 25, 2012
Book Review: Around The World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read this for the "Classic Translation" category of the back to the classics challenge that I am doing through 2012.
I think this story is probably fairly well known, and so I won't go into the details of that, but this is by far my favourite of the classics that I read so far this year.
As I had a kindle version of this book, I had no idea just how long it was going to take me to get through it, have no "real" book to...
Mr Blackbird
Just watching a blackbird take a drink and a bath in our garden pond. Judging from the colouration of his feathers and beak, he's probably one of last years young, so not quite fully adult.
Photo was the best I could get with the crappy camera on my iPad.
Sent from my iPad
February 24, 2012
Guest Post From Peter Leonard, Author of Voices of the Dead
I've been lucky enough to review "Voices of the Dead" by Peter Leonard, as part of his tour with Partners In Crime Tours.
Peter Leonard also kindly agreed to a short guest post as part of the tour. Now some of the readers here may not know that Peter Leonard is Elmore Leonard's son. Of course that raises some interesting questions about how his dad has influenced his writing, but I guess that's the predictable question, so I thought I'd asked something related but different.
I posed the...
February 23, 2012
Book Review: Voices of the Dead by Peter Leonard
TITLE: Voices of the Dead
AUTHOR: Peter Leonard
PUBLISHED BY: The Story Plant
ISBN-10: 1611880327
ISBN-13: 978-1611880328
GENRE: Suspense
300 pages, Publication date 01/17/12
SYNOPSIS: The year is 1971. The place is Detroit. Harry Levin, a scrap metal dealer and Holocaust survivor, has just learned that his daughter was killed in a car accident. Traveling to Washington, DC to claim the body, he learns that the accident was caused by a German diplomat who was driving drunk. This is only...
February 21, 2012
Book Review: At The Mountains of Madness by H P Lovecraft
Back To The Classics Challenge Category: Classic Mystery / Horror / Crime Fiction.
At the Mountains of Madness & Other Novels of Terror by H.P. Lovecraft
I read this as the Classic Mystery/Horror/Crime Fiction entry for the Back to the Classics Challenge. I've had a copy of this for sometime, and have never gotten around to reading it, so this was the perfect excuse.
It's really interesting to see how writing has changed over time. At the Mountains of Madness contains many long winded...
February 18, 2012
Book Review: The Way Out by Craig Childs
The Way Out: A True Story of Ruin and Survival by Craig Childs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I wish I could write descriptive narrative text the way Craig Childs does. His use of language is inspiring, as is the use of flashbacks to tell the various parts of this story.
At times however the descriptive narrative style can overtake the story, and become just a little too much. Too much detail, too often and the story falters rather than flows. It's a bit of a harsh criticism for a book that I...
February 11, 2012
Book Review: Bonegrinder by John Lutz
Book Synopsis:
A bloodthirsty lake monster menaces a small town in the Ozarks.
When the men find him, the boy's legs look like they were run through a wood-chipper. He's bleeding heavily and near death, but he still has strength to tell them of the monster that attacked him: a dark, massive creature that emerged from the bottom of the lake. The child dies before he can say more.
Sheriff Billy Wintone has seen too much superstition, drunkenness, and rage in this small Ozarks town to believe t...
