My new favorite book. I am a fan of crime fiction, but I’ll admit the genre can be a bit stale at times. Someone I know, not a fan, described it as too “rat-a-tat-tat” for his taste. Fair enough, I guess. Much of the time the formula is part of the fun. Readers of crime fiction don’t necessarily want to be challenged with experimentation or … Continue reading Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
The detective in Syndrome E is a paranoid schizophrenic. While solving cases he is constantly accompanied by his hallucinations of his deceased six-year-old daughter. She is not giving him hints to help solve the case but acting like a six-year-old: crying out for attention; becoming sick at the sight of bloody crime scenes; complaining that she wants her father to play with her, feed her … Continue reading Syndrome E by Franck Thilliez – translated from the French by Mark Poliotti
This would make an excellent television series. I think there is one in the works, or there may be one already airing by now. This is the first time I have spent a book with Joe R. Lansdale’s duo, Hap and Leonard. Hap is a perpetually down-on-his-luck, sometime oil rig worker with an acerbic wit and a take-it-as-comes attitude. Imagine a different Dude who used to … Continue reading Bad Chili by Joe R. Lansdale
This probably isn’t a fair fight, but each side sure did put up a strong battle. For this final bout in the first round of my mini-tournament of short stories William Roughead’s account of the famed 1765 trail of Katherine Nairn who was accused of murdering her husband with the help of her lover who was also her husbands brother. This made her guilty of … Continue reading William Roughead vs. Francis Wyndham
Jim Thompson is considered one of the masters of American crime fiction. So how is it that I never read him until now? I’ve no reason for not reading him before, but I have to say that I was not all that impressed. Reading After Dark, My Sweet was a deja vu experience, I kept sensing that I’d already read something just like this before. After … Continue reading After Dark, My Sweet by Jim Thompson
No good deed goes unpunished. Not in Dublin, anyway. Danny Callaghan is fresh out of prison after eight years, trying to get his life back on track, an honest track, when two armed men enter the Dublin pub where he is quietly enjoying a drink. When the two men approach a third man weapons drawn, Danny instinctively intervenes, attempting to save the third man’s life. … Continue reading Dark Times in the City by Gene Kerrigan
May Contain Spoilers 