Monday 5 September 2016

LOGGING THE LIBRARY - PART EIGHTY-ONE

Hopefully approaching the end of the physical book logging exercise, tub eighty-one and maybe 10 more to come.
Tub 81

Ross MacDonald, Tom Piccirilli, Thomas H. Cook, Bill Pronzini x 2, 

Thomas H. Cook - not an author I've tried yet.
Rich in character, complex in plot, Cook's second Frank Clemons novel, after the much-praised Sacrificial Ground , finds the former homicide detective relocated in New York. Now a private eye, Frank lives with Karen on the upper East Side, but he is falling out of love and becoming increasingly aware that his real sympathies lie with Manhattan's less-privileged citizens. That's one reason why he is drawn to the case of Hannah Karlsberg. Hannah, in her 70s, was brutally murdered (her right hand chopped off) in her apartment; her employer, a high fashion designer, hires Frank to locate Hannah's next-of-kin so the body can be released and buried. But Hannah's past is full of gaps and contradictions, and Frank is soon on a trail that begins in the Lower East Side sweatshops of the 1930s, where Hannah was a forceful strike leader for the American Garment Workers' Union. The scent then leads to a small village in Colombia, and ends in a settlement house in Brooklyn. Frank's investigation is steeped in a deep personal, lyrically evoked sorrow; talking with Hannah's old co-workers, he uncovers dark deeds and omissions that resonate with his own growing sense of isolation and betrayal. Cook constructs a many-layered and shimmering tale in which the history, locale and personality build to an unsuspected, satisfying end. BOMC alternate; Detective Book Club and Mysterious Book Club main selections.

John R. Maxim x 2, Bill Pronzini, Seymour Shubin, Brian Freemantle, 

Freemantle's Charlie Muffin series book!
On-the-run spy Charlie Muffin investigates the destruction of an ocean liner

They call Charlie Muffin a traitor. He has been on the run ever since the blow-up in Berlin, when British intelligence declared him obsolete and tried to kill him. Charlie outsmarted them then, and he has done so ever since, staying one step ahead by forgoing any semblance of an even halfway normal life. Now he is alone in Hong Kong and his only protector and friend, Rupert Willoughby, is a hemisphere away.

Now Rupert is in trouble. He has invested £6 million in a massive new ocean liner but the ship is destroyed by arsonists, burning completely down in a Hong Kong harbor. The owners blame Chinese agents, but Charlie smells a rat and agrees to investigate. But the conspiracy is more dangerous than anyone knew, and it's not long before Charlie realizes that his good deed could be his last.

Rod Stewart, Barry Maitland x 2, Darragh McKeon, Ian Rankin,

Ron Rash, Barry Maitland x 2, Brad Smith, W. T. Tyler,  

Ron Rash - short story collection
In Burning Bright, the stories span the years from the Civil War to the present day, and Rash's historical and modern settings are sewn together in a hauntingly beautiful patchwork of suspense and myth, populated by raw and unforgettable characters mined from the landscape of Appalachia. In "Back of Beyond," a pawnshop owner who profits from the stolen goods of local meth addicts - including his own nephew - comes to the aid of his brother and sister-in-law when they are threatened by their son. The pregnant wife of a Lincoln sympathizer alone in Confederate territory takes revenge to protect her family in "Lincolnites." And in the title story, a woman from a small town marries an outsider; when an unknown arsonist starts fires in the Smoky Mountains, her husband becomes the key suspect.

In these stories, Rash brings to light a previously unexplored territory, hidden in plain sight - first a landscape, and then the dark yet lyrical heart and the alluringly melancholy soul of his characters and their home.

Sam Hawken, Barry Maitland, Garry Disher, James W. Ziskin, Dennis Tafoya,  

David Mitchell, Max Allan Collins, Charles Alverson, Peter Robb, Stella Rimington,

Aussie noir from the last century!
Sal's being tried out as a hitman and being dumb's no problem. Baz is a wannabe celebrity chef - he can't cook, and he's got a secret.
Fayette's fourteen. She just wants to kill her step-father and have fun. Pig's Blood is about people with dreams. It ends badly. People die. A confronting yet comic novella that develops fully the darkness and violence that lurks in Robb's non-fiction books, as well as the irony and wit that also characterises his non-fiction writing. “So amoral and blackly comic that one feels that they are deliberately infected spitballs thrown against the virginal and pretentious window of Australian literature… one has a sense that, for Robb, too much excess is never enough.” - Sydney Morning Herald

P. B. Yuill, Leonard B. Scott, Len Deighton, Reginald Hill, Dick Lochte, 

Dick Lochte
First Holmes and Watson, then Nero and Archie, Now Leo and Serendipity--two detectives, two narrative voices, twice as much sleuthing and double the fun. First, imagine Katherine Hepburn at fourteen. Next, in your mind's eye, replay Humphrey Bogart, at his middle-aged best, as Sam Spade. Now picture this oddest of couples as the newest duo in detective fiction and you'll have a perfect portrait of the memorable leads in Sleeping Dog." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

Sleeping Dog won the Nero Wolfe Award and was nominated for the Edgar, the Shamus, and the Anthony Awards. In 1999, the Independent Mystery Booksellers's Association named it one of their 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century.

Magnus Mills, Adrian McKinty, Mark Pryor, Susan Froetschel, Todd Robinson, 

Todd Robinson - head honcho at Thug-lit
Boo Malone lost everything when he was sent to St. Gabriel's Home for Boys. There, he picked up a few key survival skills; a wee bit of an anger management problem; and his best friend for life, Junior. Now adults, Boo and Junior have a combined weight of 470 pounds (mostly Boo's), about ten grand in tattoos (mostly Junior's), and a talent for wisecracking banter. Together, they provide security for The Cellar, a Boston nightclub where the bartender Audrey doles out hugs and scoldings for her favorite misfits, and the night porter, Luke, expects them to watch their language. At last Boo has found a family.

But when Boo and Junior are hired to find Cassandra, a well-to-do runaway slumming among the authority-shy street kids, Boo sees in the girl his own long-lost younger sister. And as the case deepens with evidence that Cassie is being sexually exploited, Boo's blind desire for justice begins to push his surrogate family's loyalty to the breaking point. Cassie's life depends on Boo's determination to see the case through, but that same determination just might finally drive him and Junior apart. What's looking like an easy payday is turning into a hard bounce--for everyone.

David Hurst, Matt Haig, Derek Raymond, Duane Swierczynski, John Sandford, 

Charlie Hardie series book from Duane Swierczynski, 
Left for dead after an epic shootout that blew the lid off a billion-dollar conspiracy, ex-cop Charlie Hardie quickly realizes that when you're dealing with The Accident People, things can get worse. Drugged, bound and transported by strange operatives of unknown origin, Hardie awakens to find himself captive in a secret prison that houses the most dangerous criminals on earth.

And then things get really bad. Because this isn't just any prison. It's a Kafkaesque nightmare that comes springloaded with a brutal catch-22: Hardie's the warden. And any attempt to escape triggers a "death mechanism" that will kill everyone down here--including a group of innocent guards. Faced with an unworkable paradox, and knowing that his wife and son could be next on the Accident People's hit list, Hardie has only one choice: fight his way to the heart of this hell hole and make a deal with the Devil himself.

M. L. Eaton, Lynne Raimondo, Mike Resnick, Ed Chatterton, Karin Slaughter, 

Mike Resnick - Eli Paxton mystery,
Hired to guard a high-priced yearling of "Trojan," a recently retired classic winner in Lexington, Kentucky, Eli Paxton is only days into the job when the yearling's young groom goes missing. Asked by the boy's parents to investigate his disappearance, Paxton focuses on the Lexington breeding farm. It turns out that another staff member has disappeared in the past couple of months. As Paxton worries that the missing boys may never be found, he becomes a target himself when a secret threatens to derail the world of professional horse racing.
Tub 81 - put to bed!

HIGHLIGHTS....... I'm looking forward to trying Thomas H. Cook, Barry Maitland, Derek Raymond, Peter Robb, Max Allan Collins, Brian Freemantle among others.

LOWLIGHTS...... nothing really, though I think I've misfiled a couple of these as I'm certain the Pryor and McKinty books have recently (in the past two or three years) have been enjoyed already.

FULL LIST OF 50 AS FOLLOWS:
AUTHOR TITLE YEAR SERIES
ALVERSON CHARLES NOT SLEEPING JUST DEAD 1977 JG2
CHATTERTON ED DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN 2013 DIFK2
COLLINS MAX ALLAN QUARRY'S GREATEST HITS 2003 Q6
COOK THOMAS H. FLESH AND BLOOD 1989 FC2
DEIGHTON LEN SPY STORY 1974 HP5
DISHER GARRY SNAPSHOT 2006 HC3
EATON M. L. WHEN THE CLOCKS STOPPED 2013 MM1
FREEMANTLE BRIAN THE INSCRUTABLE CHARLIE MUFFIN 1979 CM3
FROETSCHEL SUSAN FEAR OF BEAUTY 2013
HAIG MATT THE HUMANS 2013
HAWKEN SAM THE DEAD WOMEN OF JUAREZ 2011
HILL REGINALD RULING PASSION 1973 D+P3
HURST DAVID RUMOUR FUELLED SOCIETY 2000
LOCHTE DICK SLEEPING DOG 1985 LB+SD1
MACDONALD ROSS THE WAY SOME PEOPLE DIE 1951 LA3
MAITLAND BARRY DARK MIRROR 2009 B+K10
MAITLAND BARRY THE CHALON HEADS 1999 B+K4
MAITLAND BARRY NO TRACE 2006 B+K8
MAITLAND BARRY THE MALCONTENTA 1995 B+K2
MAITLAND BARRY THE VERGE PRACTICE 2003 B+K7
MAXIM JOHN R. BANNERMAN'S PROMISE 2001 B5
MAXIM JOHN R. THE BANNERMAN EFFECT 1990 B2
McKEON DARRAGH ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR 2014
McKINTY ADRIAN THE COLD COLD GROUND 2012 SD1
MILLS MAGNUS THREE TO SEE THE KING 2001
MITCHELL DAVID CLOUD ATLAS 2004
PICCIRILLI TOM THE COLDEST MILE 2009 C2
PRONZINI BILL EPITAPHS 1992 N20
PRONZINI BILL SHACKLES 1988 N16
PRONZINI BILL JACKPOT 1990 N17
PRYOR MARK THE BUTTON MAN 2014 HM4
RAIMONDO LYNN DANTE'S POISON 2014 MA2
RANKIN IAN STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN'S GRAVE 2012 R18
RASH RON BURNING BRIGHT 2010
RAYMOND DEREK THE DEVIL'S HOME ON LEAVE 1985 F2
RESNICK MIKE THE TROJAN COLT 2013 EPM2
RIMINGTON STELLA CLOSE CALL 2014 LC8
ROBB PETER PIG'S BLOOD 1999
ROBINSON  TODD THE HARD BOUNCE 2012
SANDFORD JOHN NIGHT PREY 1994 LD6
SCOTT LEONARD B. CHARLIE MIKE 1985
SHUBIN SEYMOUR REMEMBER ME ALWAYS 1994
SLAUGHTER KARIN COP TOWN 2014
SMITH BRAD ALL HAT 2013
STEWART ROD ROD: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2012
SWIERCZYNSKI DUANE HELL & GONE 2011 CH2
TAFOYA DENNIS THE WOLVES OF FAIRMOUNT PARK 2010
TYLER W. T. ROGUE'S MARCH 1982
YUILL P. B. HAZELL AND THE MENACING JESTER 1976 JHM2
ZISKIN JAMES W. NO STONE UNTURNED 2014 ESM2

14 comments:

  1. With Disher, Maitland, Pronzini and Rankin in this tub, you can't go wrong, Col!

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  2. The Pronzini Shackles is an especially memorable one.

    What are your plans when you have completed logging the Tubs?

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    1. Nearly 5 months since I fell off my Pronzini-Nameless reading wagon. I'll have to get back on the horse, maybe January, 2017!

      I'm toying with logging the kindle, that's maybe another 1000. Actually 1160-odd but I'll ignore (and maybe delete) the ones I've already read) which must be a couple of hundred. That might keep me busy for another 6 months or so!

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  3. Obviously some great books there. I'm guessing you'll enjoy Thomas H. Cook really quite a lot once you get to him.

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    1. I really must shift him up the pile. I saw yesterday he has a new one out, but I ought to ignore new books for now and read some of the existing!

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  4. Col – Tom Piccirilli is an author I need to read. Thanks for the reminder.

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    1. I've read a couple by him, Elgin. He wrote a lot of horror, but I'm more drawn to his crime fiction.

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  5. Col, the Mike Resnick book sounds interesting, but then so do many others in this octogenarian tub.

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    1. Prashant, I think Resnick is better known for Fantasy/sci-fiction stuff, but he did write a three book mystery series. I enjoyed the first and THE TROJAN COLT is the second.

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  6. Some good ones there - Maitland and Cook always worth a read. I was surprised to see Rod Stewart! He was my pinup boy when I was a young thing, and I still have a soft spot for him, though haven't read this book.

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    1. Maitland and Cook - not read either yet, unsurprisingly. I did think Rod was a bit of a dick back in the 70s early 80s but I really like him now. I've seen and heard him give interviews on the TV and radio and he seems quite normal and a top bloke. I reckon he's led an interesting life.

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  7. I would like to try Thomas H. Cook, Derek Raymond, Max Allan Collins, and Brian Freemantle also. I have some of each, except for Raymond's books. Those belong to Glen.

    Glen is right, Shackles is memorable. I will be reading a Pronzini soonish.

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    1. I've yet to try Cook or Raymond - maybe 2017. And I need to get back on that Pronzini horse soon!I'm not too many read shy of Shackles.

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