QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE by Max Allan Collins

Writers are always telling each other to steal, but cover your tracks. So it’s funny that Max Allan Collins, in his new novel QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE, has decided to blatantly admit his inspiration by way of three epigrams at the beginning of the book. The epigrams are quotes from Dashiell Hammett, Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone, one novelist and two film directors who each told stories about lawless men who played one gang of criminals against another in the hope of getting paid by each. Perhaps Collins thought his rip off was too blatant and it was better to display rather than hide his appropriations. This was unnecessary because QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE stands very well on it’s own and merely nods to the works of these other artists.

October 27, 2009 · Judi Clark · One Comment
Tags: , , , , ,  · Posted in: Noir, Thriller/Spy/Caper, US Midwest, y Award Winning Author

FIFTY GRAND by Adrian McKinty

Adrian McKinty’s latest thriller FIFTY GRAND begins in Wyoming on a frozen lake as a masked assailant forces a naked man at gunpoint to hammer a hole in the ice and then jump into the freezing water. Sobbing and begging for mercy, the man asks, “How did it come to this?” Then the novel goes back in time to answer that question.

August 18, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  · Posted in: Cuba, Mystery/Suspense, US Frontier West, y Award Winning Author

VANILLA RIDE by Joe R. Lansdale

If you like novels that are riveting, wildly profane and yet strangely profound, then welcome to VANILLA RIDE, the latest novel in the Hap & Leonard series from author Joe Lansdale, and if you haven’t read one of his novels yet, then what are you waiting for?

July 23, 2009 · Judi Clark · One Comment
Tags: , ,  · Posted in: 2009 Favorites, Humorous, Noir, Sleuths Series, Texas, Wild West, y Award Winning Author

The Bitter Little World of MEGAN ABBOTT

Comments by Guy Savage on Megan Abbott’s novels including her latest, BURY ME DEEP.

July 8, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  · Posted in: Facing History, Noir, y Award Winning Author

KRAPP’S LAST CASSETTE by Anne Argula

HOMICIDE MY OWN introduced menopausal Spokane detective Quinn, and the second novel, WALLA WALLA SUITE finds Quinn divorced and working as a PI in Seattle. Quinn is an engaging protagonist; intelligent, cynical and tough, she scrapes a living while thinking about rebuilding her personal life. In KRAPP’S LAST CASSETTE, Quinn is hired by a wealthy Hollywood screenwriter, Alex Krapp. It seems that Krapp has written a screenplay for HBO based on the best-selling memoir of a fifteen-year-old kid named Danny.

June 29, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  · Posted in: California, Sleuths Series

A DATE YOU CAN’T REFUSE by Harley Jane Kozak

A DATE YOU CAN’T REFUSE is the fourth novel from author Harley Jane Kozak to feature serial dater, minor TV celebrity, and “alternative” greeting card designer, Wollie Shelley. Laugh-out-loud funny, this hilarious novel follows Wollie’s blunders as she attempts to lead a double life. SEE AUTHOR INTERVIEW, as well!

April 26, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  · Posted in: California, Humorous, Sleuths Series