Jan 2011 Monthly reads

Books Jan 2011

King of the Wood: John Maddox Roberts

An alt history where it was the Vikings/ Norsemen that first settled North America. This was for a future FFB installment --- so more to come on this one.

Lawrence Block book of the Month: Hit Man

Existential, there I said it; it’s really what it seems that all great hit men stories are about, or at least a good chunk of them. It’s not the hit’s, it’s the in between Much like Ken Bruen did in Once Were Cops. There are the jobs, but in between there is a constant search for home, a family, there is a dog and stamp collection. Along the way there is are mistake, changes in the work place and thoughts of leaving. I enjoyed this book a lot and look forward to next month’s Lawrence Block book.

Stark House Press novel of the Month:

A Devil for O’Shaughnessy by Gil Brewer

Why is Florida such a destination for 50s Noir? Is it because it became the new La La land of that era? Was it the clash of culture with the rich and the poor? This is a classic noir set up with a looser meeting a woman; getting caught up in something illegal, and of course very little is what it seems. This is my second Brewer, The Hard Case Crime edition of The Vengeful Virgin, and it’s not going to be my last. This was a later Brewer that was previously unpublished, likely written in the early 1970s. The prose a clear but not overly poetic, they move the story along at a solid pace. Brewer manages to slip in

Dead Skip by Joe Gores

I had planned to read more Joe Gores since I had read Spade and Archer a couple of years ago. I have been picking up the odd paperbacks of his when I see them and have amasses a small stack of the Mysterious Press DKA Files books with those great Art Deco/ Art Nevo covers. For the last several months Dead Skip has been hovering around the top of my To Be Read pile and it’s strange that it would finally make it to the top in the days after Gores passing.

Thoughts, comment?