Gilbert M. Stack's Blog, page 10

The Mysterious Etruscans by Stephen L. Tuck

The Mysterious Etruscans by Stephen L. Tuck

The Etruscans may have been a fully indigenous people of the Italian Peninsula. They are generally considered mysterious because we don’t know very much about them, but after reading this Great Courses book, you’ll realize that we actually know an awful lot about them. They were major influencers of Rome and the modern world. In fact, a considerable amount of what we think of as Romans were actually Etruscan innovations such as the bridges and the roads, divination, gladiatorial games, and quite probably, living in city states, getting rid of kings, and so much more. In fact, much of what we think of as the great works of the Renaissance were actually building on Etruscan culture, not Roman. And much of modern society that we think was influenced by Rome was actually derived from their Etruscan neighbors and subjects. This is a very good book.

 

Expanded Universe I by Robert A. Heinlein

Expanded Universe I by Robert A. Heinlein

This is a collection of Heinlein’s short stories from the first part of his career. They’re all good tales because it’s—Heinlein. What else would you expect? What makes Expanded Universe really worth reading are the forwards from Heinlein in which he talks about his life and how he got writing and sometimes about the stories themselves. Most amusing was Heinlein’s early conviction that he was only going to write until he paid off some bills and then his house. Then he was going to retire. A friend tells him that there are no retired writers, just people who are writing but not getting published anymore. How true.

 

The Shadow: Partners of Peril by Maxwell Grant

The Shadow: Partners of Peril by Maxwell Grant

‘Who knows what evil lurks in the minds of men?’ Is one of the most famous superhero quotes of all time, right up there with, ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ The Shadow is the man who knows about evil and this shoot-em-up dramatization of an original pulp story has all the fun in it of an early Spider or Batman. The bad guys are really bad and the Shadow has to be faster and deadlier not just to triumph but to survive.

 

The plots of individual Shadow books never stick very strongly with me. I read them for the breathless action and the glimpse back into the pulp era of vigilante crime novels. In this audio version, you get a full cast and sound effects to evoke the old radio dramas that all featured this hero.

 

Romeo's Rules by John Scott Bell

Romeo’s Rules by John Scott Bell

This is a very fun novel packed with action from the first moment to the last. The hero, Romeo, is a former mixed martial arts fighter with devastating physical skills who gets involved in trying to find the kidnapper of two children. He knows he shouldn’t get involved and he makes a half-hearted effort to stop being involved, but the bad guys are worried about him and won’t let him stay out of their trouble. So, they hurt him really bad, and he starts hurting them back. There really isn’t anything more to this book. It’s a lot of fighting. There was one thing, however, that bothered me a lot. Romeo believes he has a constitutional right to not tell the police anything about himself even when he is reporting a crime or being questioned about one. Anyone who watches any of the live cop shows knows that once the police begin investigating a crime or potential crime, that right goes straight out the window. Not cooperating is obstruction. But every cop Romeo runs into lets him walk away without even leaving his name. And that was a serious flaw in the story because it threatened my suspension of disbelief. But I still had a lot of fun reading it.

 

Too Far to Fall by Shane Sawyer

Too Far to Fall by Shane Sawyer

This is a delightful mystery centered on Edie, a young woman who inherits a property in a small town from her aunt, Jane. The moment she opens the door to her aunt’s home, she knows something is wrong. Someone has broken in and ransacked the entire place, and the police are nice but not overly concerned. The next day, her car has been defaced with a key and her tires slashed. Again, cops are nice, but not overly concerned. In fact, they don’t get too concerned until the dead body is found and the fact that Edie hadn’t even come to the area yet when the death happened doesn’t stop at least one cop from speculating that she is a killer.

 

The town comes across as a frankly evil place. I’m not sure that was the intention, but there are so many mean people who relish spreading malicious gossip that it doesn’t come across as even slightly friendly. That’s good for the mystery, because Edie hadn’t actually intended to stay in her aunt’s property, but she has a mulish streak within her and when she’s pushed, she pushes back. That’s not good for the bad guys, because their efforts to get her to move on are having the opposite effect.

 

So why is someone so anxious to get Edie to leave? That really is the heart of the mystery that results in deaths and property destruction galore. At the same time, Edie has profound personal issues of her own to resolve that have to do with her parents dying when she was seven years old and her Aunt Jane turning her over to another aunt and uncle who mistreated Edie in some fashion and institutionalized her. There are a lot of angry feelings there, many of which are directed at the deceased aunt, and they make Edie a very complex character. She did not like her dead aunt and yet, finds herself trying to fulfill her wishes in the face of a hostile town. (Not that everyone is terrible, just almost everyone.)

 

This one’s a page turner. My one complaint is that a lot of the side and personal issues still have to be resolved at the end of the book. That was very frustrating until I realized that this is the opening act in a series. Now I’m anxiously awaiting the next book.

 

Godzilla by Greg Keyes

Godzilla by Greg Keyes

Godzilla has been around for a very long time. I can remember watching black and white Godzilla movies on the weekends growing up and there have been some recent blockbuster movies. My point is that there is actually a long and rich history of the king of monsters and while I didn’t know that history very well before reading this book, I feel like Keyes has ret-conned it together in a wonderful package for me. This is an amazing book with both human and monstrous villains, and human and monstrous heroes. And I enjoyed every page of it.

 

Keyes really has a gift for bringing the monsters to life and making them relatable even while they are still terrifying. And the humans just muck everything up so incredibly well, always doing the wrong thing, it seems, even when they are desperately trying to do what is right.

 

I may just have to watch the movie.

 

Cold Call by Dean Wesley Smith

Cold Call by Dean Wesley Smith

I absolutely loved the first book in this series—so much so that I was nervous about trying book number two because it would be so difficult for Smith to write a sequel worthy of the original. And yet he comes very close to pulling it off by having the wisdom to write a different kind of story. Instead of presenting his retired detectives with an old-fashioned mystery, he gives them a problem they resolve in a manner that is reminiscent of the old movie The Sting. I’m not saying that they create a con, but they do lay a trap that is designed to bring a very clever serial murder out into the light of day.

 

The bulk of the book is almost a police procedural. They find a body that they have reason to believe might be the victim of the serial murderer and that body almost immediately leads them to a ghastly treasure trove of other victims. Realizing the opportunity this creates for them, they set apart laying a trap that they hope will provide justice for a startlingly high number of victims. It’s no Kill Game, but it is a very good story.

 

Brotherhood of War 8 The Aviators by W.E.B. Griffin

Brotherhood of War 8 The Aviators by W.E.B. Griffin

I would not be surprised to learn that Griffin originally wrote The New Breed and The Aviators as a single novel that his editor suggested he break them into two. It is essentially the same story told from the POVs of two separate groups of soldiers. Fit the two POVs together and you have a much more complete tale. The New Breed follows the men who went into the Congo to gain information and rescue hostages during a civil war and The Aviators tells the story of men who helped make the mission in The New Breed possible. It’s interesting to get the second perspective, but the novel is not as exciting as The New Breed was. It did, however, have a subplot about a soldier’s sister trying to steal a couple of million dollars from him that was the only part of the book I remembered from the first time I read it more than 20 years ago.

 

God Save the Child by Robert B. Parker

God Save the Child by Robert B. Parker

In the second Spenser novel, the detective is hired to find a boy who looks like he has run away from home. He’s just gotten started on the case when a ransom demand comes followed later by threats against the mother. So, Spenser’s investigation keeps getting sidelined by other problems, until he finally decides that finding the boy is actually the quickest way to resolve all of the trouble.

 

It's a good novel, exciting from beginning to end, and it introduces Spenser’s love-interest, Susan Silverman, who is a guidance counselor in the high school the boy attends. Susan adds a lot of important information to the story and also gives Spenser a sounding board to clue the reader into what he’s thinking about the case. The real highlight of the novel, however, is the ending in which both of the boy’s dysfunctional parents (and the two and their marriage are a serious mess) get the opportunity to show that their screwed-up son really is the most important thing in their lives. I get choked up just thinking about that scene. It by itself is worth reading the whole novel for.

 

The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rachon

The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rachon

I didn’t actually plan to read this book when I got it out of the library. I only wanted to learn what Taylor got stuck in jail for at the end of the previous book, The Boyfriend Project. (By the way, the reason was totally lame.) But while working through the first couple of chapters toward that information, I got hooked on the storyline. Taylor is a fitness instructor who is on the verge of bankruptcy, desperate for a job that won’t let her parents continue to drive home the point of what a great disappointment she is to them. She ends up connecting with an injured NFL player who is trying to get back in shape to play again. And for somewhat complicated reasons, he doesn’t want anyone else to know he’s trying to make a comeback. So when he brings Taylor to a situation that any idiot would have suspected would “out” him, she covers for him by pretending they are dating. Again, this is crazy, because her big rule is that she doesn’t date clients but here’s she’s in the classic pretend dating situation with a client.

 

This is a much-used plot device, but Rachon makes it works and I liked it. It is no surprise that they are going to get together. The real questions revolve around Taylor’s problems with self-esteem and whether or not her boyfriend’s knee injury is so severe that he really can’t return to professional play. It’s a good story.