Robert B Parker RIP

I stopped reading Parker back in the 90s when I stopped reading series books. I had found Parker and really discovered crime novels because of the TV show Spencer for Hire. When I started to read crime novels again a couple of years back I intended to return to works of Parker and picked up a battered copy of the The Godwulf Manuscript, which I had intnded to read some time soon. With Parker's passing maybe it's time to move it up to the top of the TBR pile.

Where every you are, thank you.

Hard Case Crime Alternative: Queenpin

Hard Case Crime Alternative: Queenpin

January 2010 is a month where Hard Case Crime won't have a new book out. For those of you that have read all of them and are looking for something to fill the void I suggest

Queenpin by Megan Abbott

here is my take on the book back in July of 2008
I almost didn’t pick up Megan Abbott's Queenpin. I’d heard an interview
with her a couple of years ago and been inspired to pick up a copy of
her first book… The Song is You, and wasn’t all that impressed….
However after running across a clip of her reading from Queenpin on
Youtube I was inspired to check it out of my library. I am so glad I
did, it radiates that pure Noir rhythm, and feel. I could almost hear
the Jazz, and taste the cocktails as I devoured the book. It’s the
story of a small time gal, who is plucked from the trenches of low
level casino grind and becomes the right hand of the local organization
runner. Soon she is also involved with a louse of a man, one that has
her number and gets her hips twitching…. And it’s all afoot from
there. I really like the sound and the tone, I love the feel of the
book, and I can’t wait to check out what ever Abbott has for us next…
hell I might even go back and check out The Song is You again, or her
second book Die a Little.

Since then:

I've had the chance to meet Megan and talk with her a couple of times. She confirmed that her goal with the book was to write a plot driven crime novel that would fit nicely next to the Hard Case Line. Her follow up book Bury Me Deep came out in 2009 and was a great look into the world of Phoenix in the 1930s, and another story about a man leading a woman astray. I know that she is working on a contemporary mystery currently, and I for one am looking forward to what ever she publishes next.

Thoughts, comments, HCC off Month recommendations?

Recent Reads

Here are two books that I have finished recently and enjoyed... both are recommended as fun, fast and hard boiled crime novels. 

Baby Shark by Robert Fate

Texas 1952, Pool Hall, Murder, Rape, Bikers are to blame. You can almost hear the Hank Williams on the Juke; you can feel the dusty wind and smell the stale beer and sweat. Baby Shark is the story of a girl left to die, a girl with everything taken from her, and looking for revenge. The stripped down story telling, the simple driving theme, return from trauma, taking vengeance, the long road back, it’s all in this sharp, quick, engrossing story.

In the hands of Fate (groan here pun haters) this material, which let’s face it isn’t exactly original, is crafted into something between the psychological quest for self, and the action adventure Rape Revenge stories of the 1970s and 80s. It drags a little in the middle and the end feels a little rushed. For a debut novel it’s solid and I look forward to reading the next entry.