Saturday Miscellany — 7/27/19

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On July 27, 2019

In Books, News/Misc.

Unexpected fatigue and dadding kept me from being as productive this week as I’d thought I would be six days ago — I spent an entire day without touching my laptop! Practically un-heard of.

Still, I managed to find a few odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

    This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:

  • The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H. G. Parry — Literary characters being pulled from their books into our world, sounds like a great idea. Until someone starts pulling the villains out for their own ends. Killer concept. Read what my pal over at Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub had to say about it
  • The Last Astronaut by David Wellington — in a future where humanity has given up on space exploration, something unknown shows up in our solar system so the last person trained to go into space is called into action. Interesting concept, seeming great execution. See what Char’s Horror Corner had to say.
  • The Wolf’s Call by Anthony Ryan — second week in a row for a fantasy title that makes me think about diving into the world some more.
  • Jade War by Fonda Lee — I liked Jade City (just not as much as the collective reading community did), an am intrigued by the second volume in the trilogy. Looking forward to seeing what people say about it.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to brian2010, TooFullToWrite and fionac13 for following the blog this week.

Base Cowboys by Mark Farrer: Enjoyable Scottish Crime Novellas about a wandering antihero

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On July 26, 2019

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Base CowboysBase Cowboys

by Mark Farrer
Series: Cullen, #1

Kindle Edition, 356 pg.
Funny Business Press, 2019

Read: July 22, 2019

This is a collection of three novellas featuring Farrer’s character of Cullen in and around a city near the Scottish border — Dirty Barry, Bronchial Billy and Pale Ale Rider. As you can probably guess from the plays on Eastwood film titles, we’re supposed to be thinking of an Eastwood-hero type, wandering into the midst of someone else’s (or several someone elses) life and setting things right, stopping a crime, etc. Also, from the play in the titles, they’re of a lighter tone — they’re described as comic, I didn’t particularly find them that, but they are clearly written for the fun side of Crime Fiction, not the serious, dark, or brooding side.

Dirty Barry tells the story of the world’s sleaziest dentist. For sport, he has affairs/one night stands/flings with as many married patients as he can — blackmailing them to continue as he sees fit. Until one day, Cullen walks in with some tooth pain. We meet Big Paul here (more on him later), and three other characters who more than make up for the sleaze brought in by Barry.

Bronchial Billy is about a boorish octagenarian would-be-slumlord (if he had more than one house he rented, he might qualify). He annoys Cullen one night due to his drunken revelry, which ends up toppling a series of dominoes — Billy’s family, hobbies, and livelihood will never be the same. Big Paul’s around for some of this and has a connection to one of Billy’s tenants.

Pale Ale Rider is probably my favorite of the three. It’s the story of a teenage petty criminal with the eyes of a serial killer, the young woman who puts him on a trajectory toward more serious crime and the small brewery (and some employees thereof) that unwittingly provide him a home base and the means for his crimes.

The central character, who really isn’t around as much as you might expect is Cullen, an ex-police detective anti-hero type. Homeless by choice, and living entirely off-the-grid (and unaware of much happening on the grid), he wanders around the country righting wrongs and living life on his own terms (like TV’s David Banner — without the gamma-radiation-induced temper issue). I don’t particularly mind or dislike him, I just don’t think he’s that interesting — I see where he’s supposed to be, but he never clicked for me. I think I need a little more of/about him before I could be hooked.

On the other hand, there’s one other character who shows up in each story that I did find pretty interesting, and would happily read more of — Big Paul/Beep (a nickname we see explained repeatedly, but not used) is a laid-back carpenter, with a very casual attitude toward life, money and punctuality. He’s not the most educated of men, but later shows some signs of effort to change that. He’s just a fun character, someone you’d probably like to hang out with.

Almost every other character is pretty well-drawn and fleshed-out. Yeah, we learn a bit too much about them in info dumps, but Farrer does a good job of building on those descriptions and rounding out the characters in the following pages. From the titular characters to their victims, family or friends these characters are what make the novellas compelling and interesting. They’re the real stars of the various novellas and the reason to keep reading.

Aside from a pretty non-compelling protagonist, my major complaint is the amount of crass descriptions and depictions of sex. Yes, sex is very important to one plot and is a powerful motivator in the others, and thankfully we’re not given a detailed description of the act. But it’s too pervasive for me, particularly the way it’s talked about (by both characters and narration). Call me a prude, or whatever, but it just struck me as distasteful.

These are fast, off-beat, readable works full of compelling characters (if you ignore the protagonist, who isn’t bad, he’s just not as interesting as the rest) — this book/these novellas are just the thing for a quick, refreshing read — not a full meal, but a hearty snack. I do recommend reading them separately, I think they’d be more enjoyable not read back-to-back-to-back, but that’s tough to say with any degree of certainty. Give them a shot.

—–

3 Stars

LetsReadIndie Reading Challenge 2019 Cloak & Dagger Challenge


My thanks to damppebbles blog tours for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including a copy of the collection) they provided.

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Base Cowboys by Mark Farrer

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On July 26, 2019

In Book Tour, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Today I welcome the Book Tour for the entertaining Base Cowboys by Mark Farrer. Along with this spotlight post, I’ll be giving my take on the novel here in a bit. But before I get to talking about the book, let’s start by learning a little about this here book, okay?


Book Details:

Book Title: Base Cowboys by Mark Farrer
Release date: July 22, 2019
Format: Paperback/Ebook
Length: 356 pages

Book Blurb:

BASE COWBOYS is a comic crime trilogy set in the Scottish Borders. It is the sixth laugh-out-loud book in the CULLEN series written by Borders author Mark Farrer and will appeal to readers of Christopher Brookmyre, Carl Hiaasen, Nick Spalding or Tom Sharpe. The book tells the stories of three amoral ne’er-do-wells, their unfortunate and accidental intrusion into Cullen’s life, and the imaginative ways he finds of ensuring (his) justice is done:

Dirty Barry
The first casualty of adultery is… the tooth!

Barry Sullivan is a sordid dentist who resorts to blackmail to keep his string of married women in line. But now Cullen has toothache – and a very different interpretation of the dental code of practice.

Bronchial Billy
Meet Billy – the fastest gun in a vest.

Billy is a geriatric slum landlord desperate to win first prize in a Country & Western gunfight competition. But his trigger-happy birthday celebrations provoke Cullen, and now Billy must pay. Will he meet his High Noon at the Grand Ole Opry or will he go out with a bang? Whatever happens, there’s sure to be fireworks.

Pale Ale Rider
There’s trouble brewing…

Tyler is a teenage tearaway with the eyes of a serial killer. But when he decides to rob Big Paul’s local pub, he gets more than he bargained for. Will Tyler lose his bottle, or just get smashed? Cullen thinks he’s seen dead eyes like those before, and now he has a plan: he’s not bitter, he’s just a little twisted.

About Mark Farrer:

Mark FarrerMark Farrer is the author of six comedy novels and novellas, each set in the Scottish Borders with a distinctive Scottish backdrop – whether salmon farming, textile mills, Rugby Sevens or the Scottish criminal justice system. His books are multi-stranded storylines involving larger-than-life characters, whose plans and incompetence inevitably exceed their wits. All feature an itinerant loner, Cullen, who lives off the grid and finds himself inadvertently drawn into someone’s crazy scheme, only for his own (very individual) sense of right and wrong to be offended. That’s generally when things start to go wronger.

Mark Farrer’s Social Media:

Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Website ~ Amazon Author Page

Purchase Links:

Amazon UK ~ Amazon US


My thanks to damppebbles blog tours for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including a copy of the collection) they provided.

Heart of Barkness by Spencer Quinn: Chet & Bernie are Back in Action as they Work to Clear a Country Music Legend

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On July 24, 2019

In Chet and Bernie, Dogs, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Spencer Quinn

Heart of BarknessHeart of Barkness

by Spencer Quinn
Series: Chet and Bernie, #9
Hardcover, 299 pg.
Forge Books, 2019

Read: July 9 – 10, 2019

It’s been 4 years—4 long years (28 dog years!) since the publication of Scents and Sensibility, so it’s understandable (but personally troubling) that I’d forgotten it ended on something of a cliffhanger. It came back to me rather quickly as Quinn resolved it in the opening pages, but I’d still encourage those whose memory might be equally sketchy to re-read at least the last chapter of Scents before starting this.

For those who aren’t familiar with the series, Chet’s a very large mixed-breed dog, who flunked out of Police Dog Training at the very end of the course. Since then, he was adopted by Bernie Little, a Private Investigator. The two make a fantastic team, and Chet narrates the novels recounting some of their adventures. Chet’s a fantastic character and a very good dog. He’s got a short attention span and will frequently lose track of what he was talking about, he is utterly devoted to Bernie and is convinced that everything his partner does is the greatest. Bernie seems to be a pretty good PI, thankfully (but you have to read between the hagiographic lines from Chet).

The core of this novel revolves around an elderly legendary country singer, Lotty Pilgrim (I see her as latter-day Loretta Lynn-type). She’s fallen on hard times (a tried and true mix of being too trusting and bad business management) and is playing in a dive bar in Phoenix when she meets Bernie and Chet. Bernie foils an attempt to steal her tip jar, and then when he attempts to follow up on that attempt, he learns somethings that disturb him. Soon after this, Lotty’s current business manager is killed and Lotty is the chief/only suspect — and is even on the verge of confessing to it.

Bernie doesn’t believe it for a second—neither does Chet, I should add—and can’t stomach the idea of her confessing like that. So he launches an investigation of his own—despite very insistent suggestions from local Law Enforcement to mind his own business. Bernie’s investigation involves a lot of digging into the past as well as the expected digging into the present. The more he digs, the more questions it seems to raise Chet would interject here to say that’s Bernie’s plan.

Throughout the series, Chet will compare what they’re doing with to something they did in a past case—usually not one that’s recorded in a novel. We learn a lot about Bernie through these quick flashbacks. Chet seems to reveal a lot more this time then he has in the past, and I’m glad we don’t get the full story about at least one of those cases—it sounds pretty grim.

The one thing I want to mention that separates this from the rest of the series is pretty tricky without giving anything away. But there’s something that happens in every book—a well that Quinn returns to too often for my taste. And it’s absent in this book. I loved that. Variety is good for the fans.

I don’t want to take the time to talk about all the new characters—but as the plot centers around Lotty Pilgrim, I want to talk about her for a moment. She’s not technically Bernie’s client, but his efforts are focused on keeping her out of trouble—especially if she doesn’t deserve it. She’s an intriguing character—an object of admiration and pity at the same time; she’s still actively writing and performing, while relegated to a trivia quiz answer in the culture; she’s fiercely independent and feisty, but she’s also clearly the victim of her past, several people in the music industry, and (as I said before) a trusting nature. She’s ridden with guilt, and a lot of her problems may be self-inflicted in a twisted form of penance. All said, I liked her as a person. I wouldn’t think that there’s more for Quinn to do or explore with her, I’d be happy to be proven wrong

Of course, the book’s not all business for the Little Detective Agency. Bernie’s been divorced for a while and sees his son (Chet’s second-favorite human) regularly, and started seeing Suzie in the first novel. There are big developments on the Suzie front here—but that seems kind of par for the course over the last two or three novels, and while I’m not crazy about them, I don’t know that I’m opposed to it. I think the next book (thankfully, I’ve seen Quinn state it’s finished) will tell me a lot about that

Is this a decent jumping-on point? Yeah, it’d work—almost the entire series works as one (I’m not sure Paw and Order or The Sound and the Furry would be). But obviously, you’d pick up on nuances, background, and so on if you start at the beginning. It was so good to spend time with these two again, and the book itself is one of the best in the series—both in terms of plot and character moments for the protagonists. It’s funny, heartfelt, clever, suspenseful, and satisfying. And it features a dog. Really can’t ask for more.

At one point, Lotty writes a song about Chet, cleverly entitled “Song for Chet.” It was recorded and a video made with clips provided by Quinn’s fans. I just can’t leave this post without sharing it:

—–

4 Stars

2019 Cloak & Dagger Challenge

✔ A book with your favorite animal on the cover or in the title

The Iron Gate (Break Kickstarter)

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On July 22, 2019

In Books, Fiction, News/Misc., Twenty Palaces, Urban Fantasy

Iron Gate Break Kickstarter

Next year will see the publication of the next story in one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series, the criminally underselling Twenty Palaces. This is music to these ears, I will read just about anything Harry Connolly puts out, and will read Twenty Palaces until he stops. Kickstarter is trying something new, and Connolly is taking advantage of it. He’s running the campaign on a on a per-word rate.

So here’s the deal: the minimum pro rate for short fiction is five cents/word, so for every five bucks pledged to this campaign, I’ll write a hundred words. Upper limit… let’s say two hundred thousand words, which would be two new Twenty Palaces novels.

Not that I expect to reach that limit–to be honest, I’m half-expecting that I won’t make the basic goal.

The good news: he hit the bottom level of funding in less than an hour, and is over 600% of it right now. I’ve got to wait a couple of days to figure out how much I can kick in, but I’ll be sponsoring over 100 words. You should, too!

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey: A PI, a Horrific Death, and a Magical High School combine for a solid novel

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On July 22, 2019

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Magic for LiarsMagic for Liars

by Sarah Gailey


Hardcover, 333 pg.
Tom Doherty Associates, 2019

Read: June 24 – 25, 2019

           But this? A real murder case? This was the kind of thing that private detectives didn’t do anymore. It was what had made me get my PI license in the first place―the possibility that I might get to do something big and real, something nobody else could do. I didn’t know the first thing about solving a murder, but this was my chance to find out if I could really do it. If I could be a real detective, instead of a halfway-there failure. If this part of my life could be different from all the other parts, all the parts where I was only ever almost enough.

I won’t try to pinpoint the first lie I told myself over the course of this case. That’s not a useful thread to pull on. The point is, I really thought I was going to do things right this time. I wasn’t going to fuck it up and lose everything. That’s what I told myself as I stared at the old picture of me and Tabitha.

This time was going to be different. This time was going to be better. This time, I was going to be enough.

I can’t describe the book more succicently than the blurb does, so let’s use it and save us all some time (if you ignore the 4 drafts of it that I’ve abandoned):

When a gruesome murder is discovered at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages, where her estranged twin sister teaches Theoretical Magic, reluctant detective Ivy Gamble is pulled into the world of untold power and dangerous secrets. She will have to find a murderer and reclaim her sister―without losing herself.

Ivy is a PI (much more on that in a moment), a Muggle (if you will allow me to import a term), who is totally not jealous of her twin sister, Tabitha, a gifted magic user. Except that she’s absolutely jealous and angry with her sister for somethings she did and didn’t do back in high school. But she knows about the world of magic―at least that it exists―which makes her the best candidate to come in and investigate the murder that has been officially described as an accident.

There’s a Hogwarts joke on page one, which was a relief for me―it was going to be that kind of book. Yeah, there’s magic and fantasy elements, but there’s also SF/F fiction and an awareness of it. So there’s a Potter-esque element to this, but there’s a very The Magicians feel, too. The magic in it is at once like most Fantasy/Urban Fantasy magic, but Gailey puts a distinctive stamp on it―it’s as fantastic as you want it to be, but it’s also pretty dull (except in a couple of scenes). Dull’s not the right word, but most of the time you see magic, it’s not as exciting as it was the first few times you saw it in Hogwarts (or Diagon Alley) or in Brakebills. Which is because the focus isn’t on the magic―the focus is on the relationship between Ivy and Tabitha, Ivy coming to terms with her Muggle-ness/place in the world, and events and relationships with the students. Now, when the story calls for magic to take center stage, it does so in a wonderful way―but typically, the magic takes a back seat to other things.

Ironically enough, given the setting, Ivy Gamble might be the most realistic PI that I’ve read about lately. The types of cases she works, her financial situation, her awareness of her liabilities (as quoted above, she knows the case she’s taken on is beyond her grasp―but that doesn’t mean she won’t try), the way she thinks about life. She screams authentic―at least compared to most fictional counterparts. She’s good at what she does, but she’s no Spenser, Elvis Cole or Lydia Chin―she’s close to Kinsey Millhone, but not quite. I love listening to her talk about being a private detective:

           Here’s the truth about most detective work: it’s boring, grueling, and monotonous. It involves a lot of being in the right place at the wrong time. But if you spend enough hours being in the right place, eventually, it’ll be the right time. You have to be able to recognize it.
           The other active cases were small potatoes-two disability claims, three cheating spouses, one spouse who wasn’t cheating after all but whose husband couldn’t believe that she had really taken up pottery. She was pretty good at it too.
           I’ve always had a good memory for names. Someone once told me at a conference that’s all it really takes to be a private detective: a good memory for names and faces, an eyeball for details, and. a halfway decent invoicing system.

And while Ivy may not be the best detective in the world, she’s good―and she knows how to put on enough of a show that she can convince everyone else that she’s good enough for the task at hand. While she’s lying to herself about a lot, she’s lying to everyone around her, too. She’s not the only one who’s gifted at self-delusion/self-deception. The word “Liars” is in the title for a reason, and the attentive reader (even the half-awake reader) will see why.

The book’s about a lot more than self-deception, there’s a lot about the role of/importance of family to one’s identity―and how a lack of communication coupled with poor assumptions can warp that.

Gailey kept the plot moving quickly―even as the emotional and familial aspects of the story took their time to work things out. Which is a pretty neat trick, a lot of authors would’ve let things slow down so Ivy and Tabitha could rebuild their relationship, so Ivy could do the soul-searching she needed to, to get deeper into some of the high school relationships, etc. And Gailey hits all those beats (and more), but she does it while keeping the pace going, so you’re turning the pages as fast as you can even while you want to explore the quieter aspects of the story.

Magic for Liars is well-written, well-paced, with a great solution―both to the main plot and to the other storylines, in a wonderful world told in a creative way. But I wanted a little more from it. I can’t put my finger on just where it came up a little short for me, but it did. But make no mistake―I recommend people go read this, because I think most readers will like it more than I did. And I did like the book, I just wanted to like it more. I can’t imagine that Gailey will return to this world (or to these characters, anyway)―but if I’m wrong, I’ll definitely read a sequel. Either way, I’ll definitely be on the lookout for whatever Gailey’s got coming next

—–

3.5 Stars

2019 Library Love Challenge2019 Cloak & Dagger Challenge

Saturday Miscellany — 7/20/19

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On July 20, 2019

In Books, News/Misc.

Here’s a facepalm moment, I thought I posted this before I closed my browser this afternoon. But…well, what are ya gonna do? Better later than never, eh?

Here are the odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

    This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:

  • Bark of Night by David Rosenfelt — one of the stronger non-Christmas-related installments in years. A fast, fun mystery. As I said using more words
  • The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter — for reasons beyond my ken, I’ve become resistant to jumping into a new Epic Fantasy series, but this Game of Thrones meets Gladiator, drawing on African traditions adventure just might make me give it a go. Looks great, and my feeds have been glowing about it.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to penninkreviews, Diana and miscellanypages for following the blog this week.

Indie Crime Crawl: Ad Fontes — The Publishers

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On July 20, 2019

In Books, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, News/Misc.

Okay, for my last couple of posts for the Indie Crime Crawl, I’ve decided to go back to the sources—the authors and publishers of the Indie Crime books I’ve been thinking about/talking about all this week. Check them out. Without them, we wouldn’t have anything to talk about.

I’ve put a few in bold that you definitely want to check out—but I’ve enjoyed offerings from all of these.

(N.B.:this is not an exhaustive list, nor is it intended to be—there are a lot of indie publishers out there, I’m not going to pretend to know them all; I just pulled these lists from glancing through my logs and I might have not recognized some as indies without checking further; I couldn’t find an active site for some; and/or avoided some that I wasn’t that impressed with.)

Indie Crime Crawl: Ad Fontes — The Authors

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On July 20, 2019

In Books, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, News/Misc.

Okay, for my last couple of posts for the Indie Crime Crawl, I’ve decided to go back to the sources—the authors and publishers of the Indie Crime books I’ve been thinking about/talking about all this week. Check them out. Without them, we wouldn’t have anything to talk about.

I’ve put a few in bold that you definitely want to check out—but I’ve enjoyed offerings from all of these.

(N.B.:this is not an exhaustive list, nor is it intended to be—there are a lot of indie publishers out there, I’m not going to pretend to know them all; I just pulled these lists from glancing through my logs and I might have not recognized some as indies without checking further; I couldn’t find an active site for some; and/or avoided some that I wasn’t that impressed with.)

A David Ahern
Carolyn Arnold
B Cheryl Denise Bannerman
C.G. Barrett
Gray Basnight
Clare Blanchard
Leopold Borstinski
Simon Bower
Rebecca Bradley
Steph Broadribb
Matt Brolly
Jonathan Charles Bruce
Nathan Burrows
C Jacqueline Chadwick
Jim Cliff
E. J. Copperman, Jeff Cohen
D Russell Day
F Alan J. Field
Tony J. Forder
G Paul Gadsby
Dave Gehrke
Robert Germaux
M.K. Graff
Chris Grams
H Nancy Hersage
Noelle Holten
J Michael RN Jones
Brent Jones
K Joe Klingler
Nick Kolakowski
Charles Kriel
L Neil Lancaster
David Harris Lang
Rich Leder
Ken Levine
Jim Lusby
M Max McBride
Russel D. McLean
Duncan MacMaster
Luna Miller, Aidan Isherwood (Translator)
Dreda Say Mitchell
Fidelis Morgan
Todd Morr
N David Nolan
O Judith O’Reilly
P Richard Paolinelli
Ian Patrick
Nicky Peacock
Jo Perry
Matt Phillips
Q Nick Quantrill
Bryon Quertermous
R Mark Rapacz
Gary Raymond
Betsy Reavley
Miranda Rijks
Nathan Ronen
S. J. Rozan
Desmond P. Ryan
OMJ Ryan
S Carl Schmidt
Mindy M. Shelton
Rob Sinclair
Dave Sinclair
James Stansfield
Jay Stringer
Ruth Sutton
V Jon Voss
W Chuck Waldron
Frank Westworth
Dale Wiley
Anna Willett
Erica Wright
Erich Wurster
Z Mark David Zaslove

IndieCrimeCrawl — a couple more highlights

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On July 20, 2019

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

So who forgot to hit “Publish” last night?
Hey, I found time to do another one of these. The hashtag has primarily been sales (great sales) from various publishers and various and sundry Indie publishers shining the light on other Indie publishers. How cool is that? So seriously, go check out the hashtag and find some great reads — #IndieCrimeCrawl.

Beyond that, there were two things that I wanted to highlight — the list shoudl probably be longer, but I ust don’t have the time, so again, I refer you to Twitter.:

I expect this weekend will be pretty quiet, but that hashtag will still be worth checking out.

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