Johnny L. Wilson (Author of The Simcity Planning Commission Handbook)

Johnny rated a book liked it Trouble in Triplicate (Nero Wolfe, #14) by Rex Stout	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Three novellas on an underworld theme by Rex Stout, Trouble in Triplicate is pleasant escape-reading. Some of Stout’s lines are perfect. For example, Dazy Perrit is an underworld figure of whom Archie Goodwin thinks: “The idea of Dazy Perrit being pes ...more
Feb 17, 2026 06:53AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Trouble in Triplicate by Rex Stout. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Trouble in Triplicate by Rex Stout <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Johnny rated a book it was amazing Faith in Fakes: Travels in Hyperreality by Umberto Eco	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I once read an anecdote about Umberto Eco’s fantastic personal library. Allegedly, someone asked him if he had read all of those volumes, and he laughed the possibility off as preposterous. So, he was asked why he had accumulated so many volumes. The ...more
Feb 16, 2026 10:09AM · like · see review
Johnny rated a book it was amazing Steel Fear (Finn Thrillers, #1) by Brandon Webb	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Not since the early novels of Larry Bond, Dale Brown, Tom Clancy, and Stephen Coonts have I experienced the feeling of getting an insider’s view of the workings of our military. At least, that was my impression before my brother gave me a copy of Ste ...more
Feb 13, 2026 08:25AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Steel Fear by Brandon Webb. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Steel Fear by Brandon Webb <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Johnny rated a book really liked it Enter a Murderer (Roderick Alleyn, #2) by Ngaio Marsh	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The amazing thing is that without seeing an episode of the British television show based on the Ngaio Marsh Inspector Roderick Alleyn novels, I might never have picked one up. It is strange that, as a mystery novel reader, I’ve never been found of Ag ...more
Feb 11, 2026 08:48AM · like · see review
Johnny rated a book liked it Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just by Timothy J. Keller	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just is a challenging book from the late Pastor (and former seminary professor) Timothy Keller based on his graduate research and personal experience with an inner city church. It deals with the uncomfortabl ...more
Feb 11, 2026 07:45AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Generous Justice by Timothy J. Keller. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Generous Justice by Timothy J. Keller <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Johnny rated a book really liked it The Girl in Blue by P.G. Wodehouse	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Finding a P. G. Wodehouse novel that one hasn’t read is always a delight. With chaos, apparent disaster, and happy endings, his novels are the perfect example of the “U” in analyzing comedy. The Girl in Blue is no exception with lost love, lost fortu ...more
Feb 05, 2026 03:04PM · 3 likes · like · see review
Johnny rated a book liked it Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just by Timothy J. Keller	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just is a challenging book from the late Pastor (and former seminary professor) Timothy Keller based on his graduate research and personal experience with an inner city church. It deals with the uncomfortabl ...more
Feb 05, 2026 11:54AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Generous Justice by Timothy J. Keller. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Generous Justice by Timothy J. Keller <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Johnny rated a book really liked it Preparing for Easter: Fifty Devotional Readings from C. S. Lewis by C.S. Lewis	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Harper Collins has just released a new anthology of C. S. Lewis essays as a devotional book under the William Collins imprint. Preparing for Easter: Fifty Devotional Readings from C. S. Lewis isn’t particularly new to those of us who have already rea ...more
Feb 02, 2026 08:10AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Preparing for Easter by C.S. Lewis. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Preparing for Easter by C.S. Lewis <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Johnny rated a book really liked it Never Cross a Vampire (Toby Peters, #5) by Stuart M. Kaminsky	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I discovered the Toby Peters novels decades ago when I would buy them through the, presumably now defunct, Mystery Book Club (a genre-specialty, discount-by-mail service similar to the Book-of-the-Month Club and a Science-Fiction/Fantasy “club” to wh ...more
Feb 02, 2026 08:07AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Never Cross a Vampire by Stuart M. Kaminsky. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Never Cross a Vampire by Stuart M. Kaminsky <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Johnny rated a book really liked it The Lacquer Screen by Robert van Gulik	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
As with all of Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee novels, The Lacquer Screen is a fictionalized version of what an actual 7th century Chinese prefect (for want of a more precise word) might have done in investigating crimes. Robert van Gulik is familiar wi ...more
Jan 24, 2026 06:02AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Lacquer Screen by Robert van Gulik. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Lacquer Screen by Robert van Gulik <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Trouble in Triplicate (Nero Wolfe, #14)
by Rex Stout

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Three novellas on an underworld theme by Rex Stout, Trouble in Triplicate is pleasant escape-reading.

Some of Stout’s lines are perfect. For example, Dazy Perrit is an underworld figure of whom Archie Goodwin thinks: “The idea of Dazy Perrit being pes Three novellas on an underworld theme by Rex Stout, Trouble in Triplicate is pleasant escape-reading.

Some of Stout’s lines are perfect. For example, Dazy Perrit is an underworld figure of whom Archie Goodwin thinks: “The idea of Dazy Perrit being pestered by a blackmailer was about the same as Billy Sunday being pestered by an evangelist trying to convert him.” (p. 7) Even an ordinary sentence when Archie was performing guard duty is enhanced by an almost whimsical (but probably well-calculated) alliteration: “I felt foolish, futile, and fatuous,and still I had to keep alert, looking in all directions, with the gun in my hand resting on the seat.” (p. 114)

The first novella involved a proposal from the aforementioned gangster, Dazy Perrit, involving both a biological daughter (identity hidden) and a faux-daughter (con-artist playing a role to deflect from the biological daughter). The latter is apparently blackmailing the gangster and he wants Nero Wolfe to convince her to back off without blowing the subterfuge. Naturally, things don’t fit together like today’s Velcro™ would, and that’s where the intriguing part of the story begins.

The second novella involves death threats, one of which requires the hiring of a decoy as part of the defense strategy. What’s delightful about this is one of the regular conceits used by Stout, Nero Wolfe starts out uninterested and ends up invested enough to solve the murder or murders. I also liked that, in my opinion, Archie’s instincts seemed superior to Wolfe’s in a large part of this story.

The third novella is similar to the first two in that a murder is announced in advance, and in that same scene is some vital foreshadowing that comes into play during the revelation/exposition scene. The one announcing that he is to be murdered is a partner in a novelties firm. He believes his partner wants to kill him to take over the business completely and assures Wolfe that the partner has the acuity and skill to make it happen. Of course, when the murder comes, it is effected with a novelty from that company. The story was nicely done, but in typing a synopsis, I wonder what Bill Finger would have done with this plot in a Batman story where the Joker featured prominently.

I enjoyed this anthology entitled Trouble in Triplicate, but since I still prefer full-length novels to short stories and novellas, I’ll just go on record as “liking” it. ...more

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Faith in Fakes: Travels in Hyperreality
by Umberto Eco

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I once read an anecdote about Umberto Eco’s fantastic personal library. Allegedly, someone asked him if he had read all of those volumes, and he laughed the possibility off as preposterous. So, he was asked why he had accumulated so many volumes. The ...more

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Steel Fear (Finn Thrillers, #1)
by Brandon Webb

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Not since the early novels of Larry Bond, Dale Brown, Tom Clancy, and Stephen Coonts have I experienced the feeling of getting an insider’s view of the workings of our military. At least, that was my impression before my brother gave me a copy of Ste Not since the early novels of Larry Bond, Dale Brown, Tom Clancy, and Stephen Coonts have I experienced the feeling of getting an insider’s view of the workings of our military. At least, that was my impression before my brother gave me a copy of Steel Fear by Brandon Webb and John David Mann. I don’t read a lot fo military thrillers anymore because it seemed like the plots and characters were relegated to the background while authors danced as close as they could to classified technology without actually endangering national security. Fortunately, Webb and Mann have tapped into the human along with the operations and managed to hook me in from the beginning.

As a total civilian, I know that I never thought about an FOD, Foreign Object Debris walk (p. 28) where all available hands would walk the flight deck shoulder-to-shoulder looking for anything out of place. I knew that a loose bolt or piece of metal could cause loss of life and plane, but never really thought about how maintenance was performed. Frankly, I was delighted with the way these insights were pieced into the story.

The pacing of the story was incredible. I wasn’t particularly enamored with the protagonist, a SEAL mysteriously packed off on an aircraft carrier on a special assignment of which he knows nothing. Finn X is a man who generally lacks empathy. However, the very fact that he was caught in a trap which may or may not be of his own making and experiencing hostility from those who might have helped seemed to give me page-turning empathy for him. And, speaking of pacing, the authors cleverly introduced characters who did demonstrate empathy and generated empathy. So, at any point one might feel that Finn was too mechanical and unfeeling, the novel would segue to more sympathetic characters. And even better, the authors tapped into a vulnerability within Finn himself.

The conceit of the story could easily have gone wrong. Many on the ship think that the serial murders taking place are being perpetrated by Finn and, because of (more than one) traumatic experiences, Finn can’t be positive that he isn’t the perpetrator. He doesn’t think so, but neither he nor the reader is certain. It is that well-handled.

The conclusion is incredibly satisfying, but unlike many thrillers, the so-called happy ending is not universal. The costs are there. People who should be held accountable are not, but there is some good news, too. Indeed, even the conclusion (obviously setting up the sequel) offers a certain ambiguity, almost like the question mark at the end of a ‘50s “B” movie.

Steel Fear was annoyingly good. I lost a workday because I couldn’t stop reading and would sneak a chapter or two in between minimal effort on my projects. I have to give it the highest rating, even though I’m not positive I want to go any further with this character. Since this one was so good, I’ll probably try the sequel, but I feel it would be hard to match this initial encounter. ...more

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Enter a Murderer (Roderick Alleyn, #2)
by Ngaio Marsh

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The amazing thing is that without seeing an episode of the British television show based on the Ngaio Marsh Inspector Roderick Alleyn novels, I might never have picked one up. It is strange that, as a mystery novel reader, I’ve never been found of Ag The amazing thing is that without seeing an episode of the British television show based on the Ngaio Marsh Inspector Roderick Alleyn novels, I might never have picked one up. It is strange that, as a mystery novel reader, I’ve never been found of Agatha Christie. For me, Marsh and Christie might as well have been shelved together. I even think my Grandma used to check both authors out of the library at the same time. But where I always felt Christie withheld vital information from her audience, I haven’t felt that way about Marsh. And therein lies the difference.

I made the mistake of reading Artists in Crime first, and though I very much enjoyed it, suddenly realized I hadn’t started at the beginning of the series. I’ve rectified that error and am reading them in order now. That’s not a big deal as I’m just to Enter a Murderer which would be #2 (for a total of three counting the out of sequence one). Enter a Murderer is built around a West End stage production. Even in the frontispiece, Marsh is a bit theatrical by hinting that the murderer will be introduced extremely early with a note from the fictitious Inspector Alleyn.

So, the murder takes place on stage in full view of everyone. We know that the one who pulls the trigger (thinking it has “dummy” bullets while “blanks” are fired off-stage) isn’t necessarily the murderer and it seems that everyone in the cast and crew has a motivation for killing the deceased. So, while it appears that Alleyn is relatively certain of the murderer from the beginning (I won’t give you the line on page 29 of the paperback edition that let me know, as that would be an overt spoiler.), there are enough literary foxes to chase that an entire hunt of mystery aficionados may freely run in multiple directions.

Interestingly (or maybe only to me), the most interesting characters in this series to me are supporting characters. While Nigel Bathgate may not be Alleyn’s amanuensis as Watson to Holmes, he proves a marvelous foil and sounding board. In Enter a Murderer, Bathgate puts himself in mortal danger without realizing it, and much like Watson, all the more shocked when the murderer (alluded to early on) is officially revealed.

There is also a detective named Fox, called “Brer Fox” after the character in Joel Chandler Harris’ tales adapted from African slave stories and adapted to Old South situations during slavery. Fox is also something of a foil and sounding board, though he (like the forensic specialist, Bailey) is a vital part of Alleyn’s team. Fox is vital for allowing the author to unwind rival theories to that of Alleyn, as well as to uncover additional information and pull things together. It is amazing to me that, in the days before “hyperactive” (later ADHD) was well-known, Marsh creates a character like Alleyn with multiple interests and both the distraction factor and the focusing factor of an ADHD personality, and instantly surrounds him with the kind of assistant who can pull loose ends together and keep the protagonist on track. Maybe I really like Fox because he reminds me of an unsung executive editor who literally saved me from myself on multiple occasions when I was editor-in-chief, as well as another editor who never came to me with a problem without at least one suggested solution.

Meanwhile, despite practically writing the name of the murderer on the marquee of the theatre (British spelling chosen on purpose), Enter a Murderer keeps one hopping between love triangles, old school scandals, profligate greed and blackmail, betrayal, and misplaced loyalty. There are certainly enough moving parts to make one uncertain of one’s diagnosis in the early days. The modern meme of pointing behind someone’s back and saying, “Look, there’s a monkey!” isn’t voiced, but it is effectively executed with the preponderance of “red herrings” and “mini-mysteries” which the reader must track.

To be honest, I was somewhat disappointed upon reading the frontispiece about identifying the murderer early on, but I was nowhere near disappointed upon reading the novel. Enter a Murderer is a classic piece of mystery fiction. I like the historical nature, the pre-war setting (WWII with Alleyn as opposed to post-WWI with the Inspector Rutledge series) of the series, but with this novel written in 1935, the historical flavor is more subtle than when a writing team like Charles Todd sprinkles flavor throughout the volume. Enter a Murderer is a classic murder mystery. Even though I only saw the one televised episode, I shall be grateful longterm for showing me that Marsh is NOT Christie, and well worthy of my time.

[NOTE: I know that this may strictly be personal, but I received a bad taste from Christie when I read one of my Grandma’s novels borrowed from the library, feeling that Christie deliberately withheld vital clues and hid the perpetrator till deep in the volume. I’ve read a couple of her works since then, but still find them unsatisfying. So, write me off as an outlier, but I greatly prefer other mystery novelists to the grande dame.] ...more

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Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just
by Timothy J. Keller

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Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just is a challenging book from the late Pastor (and former seminary professor) Timothy Keller based on his graduate research and personal experience with an inner city church. It deals with the uncomfortabl ...more

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The Girl in Blue
by P.G. Wodehouse

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Finding a P. G. Wodehouse novel that one hasn’t read is always a delight. With chaos, apparent disaster, and happy endings, his novels are the perfect example of the “U” in analyzing comedy. The Girl in Blue is no exception with lost love, lost fortu Finding a P. G. Wodehouse novel that one hasn’t read is always a delight. With chaos, apparent disaster, and happy endings, his novels are the perfect example of the “U” in analyzing comedy. The Girl in Blue is no exception with lost love, lost fortune, lost hope, and then, the something for almost everyone for which we were serenaded in the opening of the musical comedy “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (though it had nothing to do with Wodehouse). Wodehouse has not only delighted readers and audiences (both on television and on stage) with Jeeves and Wooster, but the late novelist’s Stormy Weather was responsible for the naming convention for a character in a series of computer games (The Secret of Monkey Island where Wodehouse’s “Threepwood” was added to a Deluxe Paint file name “GUY.BRUSH” and became Guybrush Threepwood).

The Girl in Blue begins with shoplifting, jury duty, and one form of a girl not specifically described as being in blue, when one of the main characters in the cast becomes enamored with another juror, only to remember that he is betrothed to another woman (also not described as being in blue). So, we finally discover that the eponymous The Girl in Blue is a Thomas Gainsborough miniature analogous to his famous “The Boy in Blue (currently in residence in California’s Huntington Library in San Marino). The figurine is fictional, but it is extremely valuable in the context of the plot.

As with many, if not most, Wodehouse yarns, the action ends up in a decaying country home not far from Salisbury Cathedral. Indeed, it is just that dilapidated nature of the family estate that leads to wagering on a hot tip on a horse named “Brotherly Love.” Since the bet has been placed by a character who has sworn off gambling, one senses that this is more of the “U” headed toward its nadir in the plot. And how would Wodehouse describe that character? “…if men were dominoes, he would be the double-blank.” (p. 122)

Burgled rooms, individuals cosseted in wardrobes for nefarious purposes, slapstick antics, pranks on a local constable, and misunderstandings galore weave together in an elaborate tapestry of chaos. For a while, it looks like there might be a gaggle of happy couples bound for marital bliss, but given the characters involved in at least one potential coupling, it is a relief that they don’t all come to the expected fruition. Wodehouse ties together the disparate threads delightfully after one has paged through the bulk of the novel with head spinning. It is a delightful dizziness. And while I still prefer Jeeves and Wooster stories, I will never turn down a Wodehouse novel. ...more

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Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just
by Timothy J. Keller

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Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just is a challenging book from the late Pastor (and former seminary professor) Timothy Keller based on his graduate research and personal experience with an inner city church. It deals with the uncomfortabl ...more

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Preparing for Easter: Fifty Devotional Readings from C. S. Lewis
by C.S. Lewis

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Harper Collins has just released a new anthology of C. S. Lewis essays as a devotional book under the William Collins imprint. Preparing for Easter: Fifty Devotional Readings from C. S. Lewis isn’t particularly new to those of us who have already rea Harper Collins has just released a new anthology of C. S. Lewis essays as a devotional book under the William Collins imprint. Preparing for Easter: Fifty Devotional Readings from C. S. Lewis isn’t particularly new to those of us who have already read most of the Lewis’ canon, but when something is repackaged with scripture readings to enhance the material and collated to align with the Lenten and Easter season, one is bound to gain fresh or reinvigorated insights. The selections are not only drawn from Mere Christianity, The Weight of Glory, Problem of Pain, Miracles, God in the Dock, The Four Loves, and Reflections from the Psalms, but they are also pulled from the imaginative works (The Great Divorce, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Pilgrim’s Regress, Perelandra, and Screwtape’s Letters along with more personal letters and the very personal A Grief Observed and Surprised by Joy. In short, it takes the breadth of Lewis’ work seriously.

The value for me was being reminded of the very powerful illustration toward the end of Mere Christianity called “The Obstinate Toy Soldiers.” I remember this making a profound impact on me at university as I was struggling with submission to a calling I didn’t want. As I re-read it in this collection, the illustration about imagining one’s military miniatures with the opportunity to come to life but refusing it, proved helpful in more than one situation (pp. 26-27.) Living in a world where relativity is valued over certainty, I very much appreciated the observation: “…change is not progress unless the core is unchanged.” (p. 37) We understand what he means when he states that counting apples is different from advanced physics but both rely on mathematical consistency [albeit “quantum physics” adds a new wrinkle in some ways] .

On a different “front,” I found renewed insight and joy in his observations on forgiveness excerpted from an essay in The Weight of Glory. Why do we repeat the line on forgiveness of sins in The Apostles’ Creed so often? “The people who compiled the Creed apparently thought this was a part of our belief we needed to be reminded of every time we went to church.” (p. 67) He goes on to say that belief in forgiveness seems to be something that slips away if we don’t keep “polishing it up.” One reason for this is that when we ask for forgiveness, we are frequently “…asking Him not to forgive me but to excuse me.” (p. 68) But excusing means one couldn’t help it and if we are truly confessing our sins, we are admitting that we are guilty, not excusable. Similarly, to condone a sin is not forgiving, either. “To condone an evil is simply to ignore it, to treat it as if it were good. But forgiveness needs to be accepted as well as offered if it is to be complete: and a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness.” (p. 162)

Since I’ve been preaching from 1 Corinthians 15 of late, I was delighted to read some of Lewis’ thoughts on the resurrected body. In one place (p. 114), he cites St. August as saying that the rapture of the saved soul will “flow over” into the glorified body. And that expectation of a glorified body is reflected in the following thought: “Tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless.” (p. 147)

One of my favorite analogies came from Surprised by Joy. “If Shakespeare and Hamlet could ever meet, it must be Shakespeare’s doing. Hamlet could initiate nothing.” (p. 153) A close analogy in terms of my delight came in an excerpt from The Weight of Glory. “This is my endlessly recurrent temptation: to go down to that sea (I think St. John of the Cross called God a sea) and there neither dive nor swim nor float, but only dabble and splash, careful not to get out of my depth and holding on to the lifeline which connects me with my things temporal.” (p. 164) This was followed with a similar thought on discipleship: “Swimming lessons are better than a lifeline to the shore.” (p. 166)

All in all, Preparing for Easter: Fifty Devotional Readings from C. S. Lewis did exactly what it needed to do for me: challenged me in areas where my devotion had been slacking and my thinking less rigorous and reminded me of analogies and principles with which I agree, but needed better ways to state them. ...more

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Never Cross a Vampire by Stuart M. Kaminsky

Never Cross a Vampire (Toby Peters, #5)
by Stuart M. Kaminsky

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I discovered the Toby Peters novels decades ago when I would buy them through the, presumably now defunct, Mystery Book Club (a genre-specialty, discount-by-mail service similar to the Book-of-the-Month Club and a Science-Fiction/Fantasy “club” to wh I discovered the Toby Peters novels decades ago when I would buy them through the, presumably now defunct, Mystery Book Club (a genre-specialty, discount-by-mail service similar to the Book-of-the-Month Club and a Science-Fiction/Fantasy “club” to which I subscribed). Since then, I’ve had to settle for pass-along copies from both of my younger brothers (this one from my middle brother) and the occasional score in a used bookstore. I rarely see them on shelves.

The Toby Peters schtick is to have a hard-boiled ‘40s detective (with both police and film studio security background) who keeps have motion picture celebrities (and others, including the Roosevelt White House) as clients. Never Cross a Vampire features an aging Bela Lugosi (not pictured as the addict of Ed Wood) and a William Faulkner who is failing as a screenwriter as clients. Not only is Never Cross a Vampire entertaining, but is is one of those mysteries where I kick myself for intuitively discerning the perpetrator extremely early on and discounting said “suspect” until the revelation. It was so obvious that I couldn’t believe it, but allowing myself to float on the tides of clever situations and WWII Era nostalgia was worth the leisurely trip to find out what I instinctively knew. So much for clever armchair sleuthing.

Nostalgia-wise, being reminded of rubber rationing wasn’t necessary but it was embedded cleverly in a couple of scenes. The Monogram Studio, home of an incessant stream of “B” movies, seemed like the perfect venue for a meeting with the fading Lugosi. When Peters gets a suspect to make a false identification of Harry James, the famous trumpeter and orchestra leader, as William Faulkner, he hums “You Made Me Love You,” a tune successfully covered by James. He is somewhat obstructed by a Rainer (sic—actually, Rainier from Mt. Rainier and brewed in Seattle till 1999) Beer truck, and drinks from Horlick’s to fortify himself. I didn’t know Horlick’s, the UK version of Ovaltine licensed to a Wisconsin company which also made malted milk balls during the war), being an Ovaltine kid (whenever I couldn’t have Nestle’s Quick). I was also informed about the Chicago Bears vs. Pro All Stars game, an interesting factoid about the team that keeps breaking my heart that appears several times in the story. I remember the newspaper strips like Red Ryder, Brenda Starr, Tarzan, and Joe Palooka, but not Kit Cabot and Texas Slim. I also like references to radio shows like Vic ‘n Sade, The Shadow, Our Gal Friday, and A Man Called X. Amazingly enough, I’ve been fortunate enough through the magic of Radio Classics and the internet to hear episodes of all of those except Our Gal Friday (and might have heard it such that it was forgettable—I plead amnesia). Of course, there is the ubiquitous reference to Max Fleischer’s Koko the Clown cartoon that appears in Toby Peters novels whenever the gumshoe is hit on the head and sent down the inkwell of his subconscious as he loses consciousness.

Never Cross a Vampire is not brilliant literature by any means. It is not even a particularly realistic mystery. However, it is brilliant at parody and light-hearted action. Think of an extended television mystery episode, done for laughs but with enough serious moments to make you gasp. That’s my experience with these and this one was top of the line for me. And no, I haven’t read them in order. And yes, I read the late Stuart M. Kaminsky’s Lieberman novels and television adaptations, as well. So, I’m biased! ...more

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The Lacquer Screen
by Robert van Gulik

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As with all of Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee novels, The Lacquer Screen is a fictionalized version of what an actual 7th century Chinese prefect (for want of a more precise word) might have done in investigating crimes. Robert van Gulik is familiar wi As with all of Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee novels, The Lacquer Screen is a fictionalized version of what an actual 7th century Chinese prefect (for want of a more precise word) might have done in investigating crimes. Robert van Gulik is familiar with ancient manuscripts and adapts his cases from ideas gleaned in those actual manuscripts. Unlike the colorful screen adaptations of Judge Dee stories, van Gulick keeps us close to the historical reality.

One interesting facet of The Lacquer Screen is that the judge, returning from a mission to the provincial capitol, has been given permission to stay in a town in an incognito identity to recover from his mission before returning to his duties. He has been given an official notice to inform the local prefect of his privileged status, and seems to be looking forward to a real, as opposed to the proverbial busman’s, holiday. Naturally, however, there were be little story to tell (and a much less intricate weaving of a veritable tapestry of crimes) if said holiday did not become the latter.

When the local judge believes that he is compromised in a matter, Judge Dee and his headman are in an ideal position, due to their false identities, to investigate from within the ranks of local ne’er-do-wells. Indeed, faithful companion Chiao even finds a companion of a more pleasant sort, only to discover that things are not always what they seem. In fact, this novel has the most sensuous and, at times, perverse overtones of any of the Judge Dee novels I’ve read. Betrayal and bitterness regarding gender expectations proves to be the undoing of more than one character in the narrative. Indeed, the eponymous The Lacquer Screen is a four panel carving (depicted in some of the stylized pen and ink images within the book) representing the seasons of matrimonial bliss. Yet, despite the deliberate defacing of the screen that serves as a clue, Judge Dee senses something off from the beginning.

And, as a reader who loves mysteries, let’s just say that I picked out the murderer for the main plot from early on, backed off, came back, backed off, and only really grasped the full mystery until the judge revealed all. Based on an ancient text, reworked in 1961, and read this week, The Lacquer Screen is more complex and sophisticated than many mysteries I’ve read of more modern provenance. I grab copies of these novels wherever I can, and never regret picking one up. The Lacquer Screen will not discourage this habit. ...more

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