Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

How many of these characters is David going to drag down with him…

Will my favourite by Highsmith always be The Tremor of Forgery? I don’t know, but she’s got lots of chances to outdo that one!

Humming along smartly - not me, the book, I'm clueless - and I hope to finish it tonight.

Absolutely thrilled with this one. And, it turns out this is a wonderful fact-checker when it comes to determining whether Don McGregor’s cultural references in that Nathaniel Dusk comic book mini-series I’m in the middle of are accurate and well-researched (it’s set in 1934, and this novel was probably written then). This novel and those comics both mention Carnera, and small bathing suit shock. I’m impressed.

Yeah, I might just take a star of my rating solely because of the big pink lettering on the cover of a noir/hardboiled comic. I'm gonna try and not do that, but...

I have decided that Fredric Brown’s The Late Lamented can wait a bit - and instead, for the one novel by a male author I will read in Sept., I’m going with Ellery Queen.

This will be a re-read. Issue 1 of a 4-issue mini-series. I love Gene Colan’s art on this, and the original mini-series for which this serves as a sequel (I’ll do that re-read too, but this sequel was easier to find among my stash of comics and graphic novels).

The book starts pretty strong, with ‘The Adventure of the Frightened Baronet’. Basically, we have Holmes & Watson here, but called Solar Pons and Parker. I read one other of these collections years ago, and vaguely recall being satisfactorily entertained, but not bowled over by the pastiches on offer. Getting into this stuff again now, I am keeping an open mind.

I’m very happy with this, up to this point. When characters are snarky - especially Millie - there’s a bit of that Ramsey Campbell thing going on. And it’s reminding me of Dard, or Japrisot, or even Simenon (all in translation, to be clear), when it comes to the clipped, less-is-more, “how can matter-of-fact have this much meaning?” vibe. Calm, and powerful.

I like it; the writing style - first-person narration, and the dialogue - is terse, staccato. Cold, even. But overall, it’s an interesting start. Maureen O’Brien was on Doctor Who in the 1960s, and I confess, as a fan of the show, that makes this a fun book to check out. I know I passed on s sale-priced hardcover of a novel by Jean Marsh, who was also on the show, but this one is a Crime novel, more tempting.

After reading several chapters in a sitting, instead of just one or two as an appetizer - I see the end is in sight. I’m going to finish this tonight, so that my three go-to books for quick reading between long works are all short story collections, for Sept. and Oct., at least.

This will be the only novel by a male author I read this September. All other full-length fiction will be written by women, as will my single nonfiction pick. Short stories in between novels can be by anyone, and I will be dipping into chapters of The Life of Crime, by Martin Edwards, every now and then. I wish I had more Horror novels by women for Sept., but I have enough for every third pick or so.

I’m actually quite shocked at myself, that I’m loving this. I think what it means is (a) if I get a good story, I’m okay with the splatterpunk (the book is really gross), (b) in a world of books that can sometimes offer similar vibes and experiences, going in this direction is at least not familiar and routine. But I don’t want to read stuff like this all the time. It’s too gross.

First out of the box is ‘A Modest Proposal’ by Jonathan Swift. I had read this before; this collection is supposed to be all genre fiction, so apparently this gets in as Horror. I always think of it as satire, but yes, my re-read has just horrified me.

I’m going to go to this right after This Symbiotic Fascination, because I think I’m going to need a somewhat light and trad whodunit to recover from that symbiotic fascination. Also, you’re gonna be mad, I might read The Late Lamented by Fredric Brown in Sept.; supposed to stick with only novels by women, but I did read two books by women to end August, and Brown is tough to put off. Please don’t hate this little git

Well, who knows - I might love this. We don’t know.

I love it…and it’s set in Toronto!

I am very happy to be returning to Millar. So far, my favourite by her is Beyond This Point Are Monsters.

Gonna finish it tonight.