Mulholland – MostlyFiction Book Reviews We Love to Read! Sat, 28 Oct 2017 19:51:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.18 MURDER AS A FINE ART by David Morrell /2013/murder-as-a-fine-art-by-david-morrell/ Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:45:17 +0000 /?p=23578 Book Quote:

“May I touch the corpses?”

As with so much of what De Quincey said, the request suddenly seemed to be the most normal in the world. “If you think it’s necessary.”

“I do.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody  (DEC 2, 2013)

Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell is one of the best mystery books I’ve read this year. It is historically based, taking place in the nineteenth century. As some of you may know, Morrell is best-known for his book, First Blood, upon which the the Rambo movies are based. Murder as a Fine Art is very different from his first writings. It is literary fiction and page-turning at its best.

Set in the Victorian London, the story is about a serial killer and mass murderer who appears to be copying The Ratcliffe Murders which took place 43 years before the current murders. The current murders are indeed gruesome, the first one killing a storekeeper, his wife, a maid, and two children. The murderer uses a mallet and razor as his tools.

The murderer uses the essay by the distinguished Thomas de Quincey,  Murder as a Fine Art, as his guide. DeQuincey wrote that essay in 1827 about the Ratcliffe Highway Murders but is most famous for his scandulous book Confessions of an Opium-Eater.   De Quincey is hooked on Laudanum, a strong opiate-based liquid, which, at that time, could be purchased over the counter at most pharmacies  De Quincey is accompanied everywhere by his loyal and loving 24-years-old daughter Emily. She cares for her father with the utmost love.

Two detectives, Ryan and Becker, are told to arrest de Quincey but they end up sure that he is not the murderer and de Quincey ends up helping them to solve the crime. Because he wrote the essay that the real murderer imitates, he has insight into the clues and motivations that others miss.

The novel is a great read and I loved it through and through. For those of you who are mystery buffs and enjoy historical fiction, this is a great choice. In this novel you will also hear about Coleridge, Wordsworth, Kant and Betham. It is a true romp in the past and calls up the time and place as though you were there.

AMAZON READER RATING: from 218 readers
PUBLISHER: Mulholland Books (May 7, 2013)
REVIEWER: Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: David Morrell
EXTRAS:
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Bibliography:

Movies from books:

Rambo Trilogy

]]> HELL AND GONE by Duane Swierczynski /2011/hell-and-gone-by-duane-swierczynski/ Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:14:09 +0000 /?p=21892 Book Quote:

“There was no such thing as an escape-proof prison, because to sustain life inside the prison you need support from the outside.”

Book Review:

Review by Guy Savage  (OCT 31, 2011)

Hell and Gone, another nail-biting read from author Duane Swierczynski is the second volume in the Charlie Hardie Trilogy. In part one, Fun and Games middle-aged Charlie Hardie leads a driftless life as a house-sitter moving continually from gig to gig. Hardie hails from Philadelphia but left his wife and child after a shootout he blames on himself, and which caused the death of his long-time friend. Hardie reasons that his family is safer without him and never recovering from the guilt and depression of a case that went horribly wrong, Hardie finds it easier to take on the low-level stress of house-sitting gig. In Fun and Games, Hardie arrives in L.A. to housesit the remote Hollywood Hills home of an affluent composer. The house is supposed to be empty, but as it turns out troubled Hollywood starlet Lane Madden has taken refuge inside the home and claims that Hollywood star whackers want her dead. Hardie, while skeptical at first, discovers the hard way that Lane is telling the truth.

Part 2—Hell and Gone picks up where Fun and Games left off. Hardie, once more, has pissed off the wrong people. After being drugged and offered the choice of being recruited as a member of “The Accident People,” Hardie, who naturally has refused to be part of the team, is sent for permanent incarceration in the secret underground facility known as Site 7734. Hardie, however, isn’t a prisoner. Supposedly he’s the new warden, and he answers to the nebulous Prisonmaster:

“You call it in, the Prisonmaster has it sent down. He also controls the environmentals—-heat, cooling, water temperature. Without a warden, the Prisonmaster’s been just sending down the bare minimums, enough to keep the facility running. Even environmental requests were ignored.”

“So you want me to talk to this Prisonmaster guy and ask him to turn up the heat?”?

“If you would,” Yankee said with a smile that was meant to be charming but came off as slightly overeager, bordering on homicidal. “And there’s also the food situation.”

At Site 7734, paranoia reigns, and for this reader the hierarchal benefits of being the warden or one of the psychotic guards differs only slightly from being one of the prisoners. While the prisoners are “crammed into poorly lit rusty cages,” everyone lives nervously in poor living conditions. Both sets of people are given the same bland diet; both sets of people are essentially prisoners. The big difference is who gets to wield the batons.

By creating Site 7734, Swierczynski involves the reader in his psychological experiment. We are along for the ride as Hardie, much the worse for wear, tries to figure out and then game the system. Should he accept the role of warden and try to bring some sanity to the horrendously inhuman system? Can he relieve the suffering of a handful of anonymous prisoners who are subjected to brutal dehumanizing treatment on a daily basis? Hardie never was much of a team player:

“Hardie was a born loner. Not only did he not play well with others, he couldn’t fucking stand others.”

Site 7734 is rigged with various “death mechanisms” so that the successful escape of one resident will result in the deaths of those who remain behind. In an incarcerated-lord-of-the-flies scenario, Hardie tries to figure out just what is going on in this hellish dungeon, and the reader also tries to solve the puzzle as jail breaks, underhand deals, back-stabbing and betrayals guarantee that the day-to-day life in Site 7734 will be as evil, disruptive and as paranoid as possible.

While Fun and Games was non-stop action, a roller-coaster ride of explosions, chases and high-tech weaponry, Hell and Gone offers psychological suspense. My first reaction to the book was a shade of disappointment at the novel’s complete change of pace, but after mulling it over and as the story develops, I have nothing but respect for Swierczynski. He brings the action and motion of Fun and Games to a screeching halt and then digs in for long-term head games in Hell and Gone. Then there’s the issue of believability. Given the recent headlines,  secret Hollywood Star Whackers, in Fun and Games Swierczynski stretches the possibilities only marginally. But in Hell and Gone, “The Accident People” are clearly much more powerful than previously imagined, and while the power-brokers of Fun and Games could, theoretically be publicity agents and studio heads on a bloody, maniacal power trip, in this sequel, it’s clear that those who pull the strings can even fuck with the FBI. While Fun and Games Swierczynski offers an action thriller, in Hell and Gone, Swierczynski stretches genre seamlessly and cleverly so by the end of the novel, elements of science fiction appear.

The Third and final novel: Point and Shoot is scheduled for publication in 2012. It’s almost cruel to make us wait….

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-5from 3 readers
PUBLISHER: Mulholland Books; Original edition (October 31, 2011)
REVIEWER: Guy Savage
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Official blog for Duane Swierczynski
EXTRAS: Mulholland books page on Hell and Gone
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Bibliography:

Charlie Hardie trilogy:

]]> FUN AND GAMES by Duane Swierczynski /2011/fun-and-games-by-duane-swierczynski/ Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:09:17 +0000 /?p=18638 Book Quote:

“Said it was like someone pried off the lid and showed him how Hollywood really works.”

Book Review:

Review by Guy Savage  (JUN 20, 2011)

Imagine a kick-ass action flick–say one starring that perennial crowd-pleaser, Bruce Willis, and then imagine the source material, and you’d just about have an image of Duane Swierczynski’s latest book, Fun and Games. This is the first entry in the Charlie Hardie trilogy. Hell and Gone follows in October 2011, and the third novel, Point and Shoot is scheduled for publication in March 2012. Fun and Games delves into the old Hollywood story that studio fixers leap in to stabilize publicity nightmares. This legend has bounced around Hollywood for decades and still lingers over the deaths of notables such as Jean Harlow’s husband, Paul Bern. Recently actor Randy Quaid and his wife fled to Canada and applied for refugee status on the grounds that they are in fear of their lives due to the “Hollywood Star Whackers.” They state that their claims are substantiated by the mysterious deaths of various Hollywood luminaries, including David Carradine.

In an art-follows-life sort of way … enter Fun and Games….

The main character in Fun and Games is professional house sitter, Charlie Hardie. This is the latest gig for a man who hails from Philadelphia and has a shady past which includes a nebulous relationship with Philadelphia police and the FBI. But that was a few years back, and these days, Hardie is in danger of becoming a couch potato:

“Yes, he sort of used to be something like a cop. But that had been three long years ago. A lot of drinking and poor eating and general sloth had atrophied his muscles. He was slower, larger. His liver wasn’t talking to him anymore, and his heart gave him little friendly reminders every so often that he might want to get his ass up and move around a little. The mornings he felt good simply meant that he’d passed out before he could have any more to drink.”

House-sitting allows him to drift around the country while he lives out of a suitcase. Hardie likes to keep it simple, and he has a few rules for house-sitting: “He didn’t do plants, didn’t do pets. He made sure people didn’t steal shit.” His dream gig is to stay in a house, alone, and watch old films. He has only one rule when it comes to film. He won’t watch anything made after he was born. Hardie’s latest job is to watch the isolated Hollywood Hills home of Andrew Lowenbruck, a Hollywood music producer. Given that Lowenbruck has an extensive classic film library, it looks like a dream gig to Hardie, but he hadn’t counted Them into the equation….

When Hardie walks into Lowenbruck’s home, he walks slap bang into a “narrative” about to be staged by The Accident People. This is a team of highly trained, and deadly equipped assassins who are about to snuff out bit part action flick actress, Lane Madden. The Accident People have tried and failed to kill Lane in a fake car accident, so when Hardie walks into the deadly scenario at Lowenbruck’s home, he enters completely unprepared to meet a bruised, terrified, washed up-actress who’s fighting for her life against pissed-off, time-stressed assassins. Not good.

Fun and Games is breathless roller-coaster ride of non-stop action from cover-to-cover. There are simply no down times in the story, and Swierczynski’s comic book roots are evident in the plot and action sequencing. Hardie and Lane make a good team. Hardie is the laconic, practical sort who has walked away from a life he can no longer handle while Lane Madden is the bimbo bit player who discovers untapped reserves of courage and ingenuity. It’s no exaggeration to say that once I picked up this book, I was reluctant to put it down. I’ll hazard a guess that Swierczynski has a hit trilogy in his future.

Has Fun and Games been optioned for the film version yet? If not, Hollywood, what are you waiting for?

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-5from 35 readers
PUBLISHER: Mulholland Books; Original edition (June 20, 2011)
REVIEWER: Guy Savage
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Official blog for Duane Swierczynski
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Bibliography:

Charlie Hardie trilogy:

]]> A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF by Lawrence Block /2011/a-drop-of-the-hard-stuff-by-lawrence-block/ Sat, 14 May 2011 13:31:02 +0000 /?p=17911 Book Quote:

“I’ve often wondered,” Mick Ballou said, ” how it would all have gone if I’d taken a different turn.”

Book Review:

Review by Hagen Baye  (MAY 12, 2011)

A Drop of the Hard Stuff is the 17th and very likely final installment of Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series of crime fiction novels. In fact, Block had not even envisioned writing another Scudder book. He figured that as Scudder was already in his mid-sixties, semi-retired and collecting social security in All the Flowers are Dying, the immediately previous book six years ago, by now Scudder is in his 70’s and settled into a “comfortable retirement” and no longer up to the rigors of private investigating. In Hard Stuff Block finesses this by having Scudder relate events from the past. (All of the previous books, except one, followed in chronological order and if there were, for example, two years between consecutive books, Scudder was two years older in the latter book. The only exception to this was the sixth book in the series, When the Sacred Ginmill Closes, published after Eight Million Ways to Die; Ginmill is a prequel and can be said to be the savior of the Scudder series, for reasons stated in the post-script to MostlyFiction’s review of All the Flowers are Dying.)

So, A Drop of the Hard Stuff is noteworthy in part for the fortuitous fact that it may not have ever seen the light of day. But, further, one of the significant attributes of Block’s writing is the number of diverse series characters he has created over his writing career of 50-plus years. As already noted, the Scudder series, about a guilt ridden, ex-cop and eventually ex-drunk, has spanned 17 books since the first one, The Sins of the Father, in 1976. Block’s series about the affable burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr consist of ten books; the series about the spy who can not sleep who embraces screwy causes across the world, Evan Tanner, spans eight books; Block wrote four books about the pubescent private-eye in training, Chip Harrison; and four more about the brooding hitman, Keller. Hence, Block has authored some 43 books spread over five characters as different as different can be.

Without diminishing the quality of any of Block’s other series characters, Scudder is the most real of those characters and, likely for this reason, the Scudder series is the most celebrated by critics and reviewers. Each of the other characters has elements of unreality. Scudder is the most human, flesh and blood character. He is certainly flawed, besides due to his drinking. As a cop he learned and adhered to the “important precept” that if someone hands you money, put it in your pocket. He had a number of inappropriate affairs, even after he took up with his second wife Elaine. As a cop, he even falsified evidence if necessary to put a bad guy away (see A Ticket to the Boneyard). The hitman Keller has elements of unreality and is hard to relate to. The other characters have comic and cartoon-like qualities. In fact, when asked if he ever considered doing a book that included both Scudder and Bernie Rhodenbarr, Block said that would be impossible as “they both occupy different universes.” The same could be said about Scudder and the other series characters as well.

Scudder is existential man. When the series starts, he gives up wife, children and home, job, his possessions, strips himself down to just about nothing, other than the booze to ward off the demons confronting him, the occasional AA meeting, and the lost cause cases that come his way that pay his rent, keep him from starving and drunk —and then he rebuilds himself and his life step by step during the course of the series. Scudder truly stands out among the series characters who have populated crime fiction.

Another aspect of Scudder worthy of note is the parallels between Scudder and Block. Like Scudder, Block had a serious drinking problem that he overcame right around the time he started the Scudder series. Also, in the preface to Telling Lies for Fun & Profit, one his books for writers, Block relates how very similar to Scudder:

“In the summer of ’75 I hit the road. I gave up my New York apartment, sold or gave away most of the possessions of a lifetime, packed the remainder into the back of a diseased station wagon, and set out for Los Angeles.”

In his memoir, Step by Step, his most recently published book prior to Hard Stuff, Block relates that at the time his first marriage ended (in the mid-70’s), he would go to a nearby church for “peace and quite” and that this was the source for Scudder’s habit for visiting churches. Finally, Block assigned an age to Scudder that is similar to his own.

Does this mean that Scudder is Block’s alter ego? As fascinating a concept as that can be, one should be cautioned from reaching such conclusion on such sketchy evidence. It is entirely possible that these particular parallels were simply the source of inspiration for certain aspects of the Scudder character and that Block’s imagination took off from there. Also, keep in mind that Block authored over 100 books—there’s the 43 books devoted to his five series characters, then about 40 free standing novels (19 acknowledged in the “Also by Lawrence Block” page of Hard Stuff, and over 20 more early novels that Block wrote under assumed names (such as Jill Emerson and Sheldon Lord) that Block is only now bringing to light), and then there are four books for writers, seven collections of short stories and so on—the point being that to be as prolific (indeed, as prodigious) as Block, one must possess a uniquely fertile imagination. Thus, to reach the conclusion that the Scudder character is Block’s alter ego may be going too far. It really remains the task of Block’s biographer or literary scholars to do the extensive investigation to determine what inspired Block and the connection between Block’s life and that of this particular character of his.

As stated earlier, A Drop of the Hard Stuff takes place 6 years subsequent to the events of All the Flowers are Dying. Scudder is now in his seventies and the book opens with his having a late night session with his best friend Mick Ballou, who is also a septuagenarian. (“[T]wo old men up past our bedtimes, talking and drinking water.”) They get to talking about how differently people in similar circumstances turn out. Mick points out, as a suitable example, how he was a career criminal, while one of his brothers is a priest and another a legitimate businessman. Scudder then launches into a story about a boyhood acquaintance, Jack Ellery. After Scudder moved out of the Bronx neighborhood where they grew up, he lost touch with Ellery and the next time he sees him is some years later, when Scudder was still a cop. Ellery is in a police lineup. He had turned into a small time hood.

Scudder relates after that time,  the next time he sees Ellery is at an AA meeting some years later, after Scudder had left the force, and during his first year of sobriety, which would be just after the events of Eight Million Ways to Die, at the end of which Scudder himself finally stopped drinking “after too many blackouts and too many hangovers, after a couple of trips to detox and at least one seizure,” and before those of Out on the Cutting Edge, when he first befriends Mick Ballou.

Whereas they did not speak at the time of the lineup encounter, Scudder and Ellery do get reacquainted this latter time. Ellery admits to his life of crime and that he had done time. While in jail he realized that each time he committed crime he was high. He managed to stay sober in jail, wanted to remain so, but was unable to do so upon release. Then a most unlikely fellow (“a gay guy,…this wispy little queen, this guy I have less in common with than a … Martian”) agreed to be his sponsor. Greg Stillman was a real so called “Step Nazi” who had Ellery work his way systematically and rigorously through Alcoholic Anonymous’s 12 steps. Stillman gave Ellery the push he needed to get on the straight and narrow and it worked, as by the time Scudder met up with him again, Ellery was in his second year of sobriety.

At the time Scudder and Ellery reconnect, Ellery was working on Step 9, when a recovering alcoholic makes amends to those he/she had harmed. However, in the course of Ellery’s doing so, someone kills him, by shooting him first in the forehead, then in the mouth.

Stillman blames himself, fearing that he pushed Ellery so hard that he made amends to someone so annoyed with Ellery that he killed him. Stillman is also conflicted: Should he reveal to the police the names of the five persons Ellery set out to make amends to? Would this subvert Ellery’s intention to make up to these persons and instead cause them grief again? The sponsor feared that given these fellows unsavory pasts, the cops would presume them to be suspects and ride them hard.

Instead, Stillman utilizes Scudder’s services, aware that Scudder does “favors” for people who return the favor by paying him money. So, he gives Scudder $1,000 to investigate the five on Ellery’s Step 9 list and to report to the police any who appear responsible for Ellery’s death.

Scudder visits them all, except the one with the perfect alibi: he’s sitting in some jail. As it turns out, the others do not appear to be suspects at all. The array of reactions among the four is fascinating:

“[O]ne guy [whom Ellery burglarized and ruined financially] punched him out and wound up hugging him and weeping in his arms, and another guy [whom Ellery beat up during the course of a holdup] told him to take his amends and shove them (where the sun don’t shine). And one said beating me on a coke deal was doing me a favor, and the other said everybody [screwed] my wife.”

Scudder clears them all. But the killer remains at large and Scudder couldn’t stop there. Who wants to keep Ellery quiet? Scudder learns that he had a partner who initiated the events that led to Ellery’s participating in a murder during a burglary, which Ellery revealed to Stillman as part of Step 4. Could it be this partner, to whom Ellery had no amends to make, who killed Ellery to shut him up in case he revealed this partner’s identity while making amends to someone for the murder?

Next, one of the four to whom Ellery made amends is killed while being mugged and Stillman himself is found hung, the apparent victim of suicide. While there is no reason for the police to doubt that the murder was anything but a murder during the course of the mugging and the suicide was anything but that, Scudder was troubled by the coincidence. He realizes that the mugged fellow had been trying to reach him by phone, but he had a common name and Scudder did not realize it was this particular person who called. Also, Stillman failed to leave a note, which was unusual.

Then, Scudder himself is a target, as the killer is certainly aware that Scudder is on his trail. The killer attacks a particular weakness of Scudder’s, alcohol—at a particularly vulnerable time for him, his first anniversary of sobriety. As clever and insidious as the killer is, and as everyone knows that Scudder will survive to reach his 70’s (he’s 45 during the events of Hard Stuff), the ending of this book will not be spoiled to learn that Scudder manages to dodge this “bullet.”

There would be the inevitable showdown between Scudder and the killer, and suffice it to say that readers will find its ultimate resolution surprising and satisfying.

As this glimpse demonstrates, Hard Stuff is vintage Scudder. It is a must read for Scudder and Block fans and for those who love crime fiction in particular and masterful writing generally. Despite being the same age as Scudder, Block has certainly not yet settled into a “comfortable retirement,” as with A Drop of the Hard Stuff he has churned out a story that is worthy of the Scudder and Block brand.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 28 readers
PUBLISHER: Mulholland Books (May 12, 2011)
REVIEWER: Hagen Baye
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Lawrence Block
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our reviews of:

Hope to Die (Matt Scudder series)
Small Town
The Burglar on the Prowl (Bernie Rhodenbarr series)
Grifter’s Game (Hard Case Crime)
All the Flowers are Dying (Matt Scudder series)
Girl with the Long Green Heart (Hard Case Crime)
Hit Parade (John Keller series)
Lucky at Cards (Hard Case Crime)
Hit and Run (John Keller series)
A Diet of Treacle (Hard Case Crime)
Killing Castro (Hard Case Crime)

Bibliography:

Hard Case Crimes reprints:

Matthew Scudder Mysteries

Keller Series:

Bernie Rhodenbarr Mysteries (reprinted 2006)

Evan Tanner Mysteries (reprinted in 2007):

Writing as Paul Kavanagh

Nonfiction:

Movies from Books:

  • Nightmare Honeymoon (based on Deadly Honeymoon)
  • Eight Million Ways to Die (1985)
  • Burglar (loosely based on The Burglar in the Closet) (1987)
  • Keller (based on Hit Man)
  • A Walk Among the Tombstones
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