Tuesday, October 31, 2023
SleuthSayers: What is Real Courage?
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly
Monday, October 30, 2023
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 75 Calls for Submissions in November 2023 - Paying Markets
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: She Talks to Angels by James D. F. Hannah
James D. F.
Hannah is the author of six books in the Henry Malone series and two other
novels, as well as a number of pieces of short fiction. Henry Malone is a
retired state trooper and recovering alcoholic eking out an existence in the
beautiful but impoverished state of West Virginia. He joins Rush McKenzie, Tom
Bethany, Frank Quinn, Matt Scudder, and others in a long line of fictional unofficial
and unlicensed private investigators.
In the third
Henry Malone, She Talks to Angels (Down & Out Books, 2021) Malone is
approached by local resident Katie Dolan, who wants Malone to re-investigate a
murder that her brother Eddie confessed to years earlier but now from his jail
cell says he didn’t commit. The victim was Meadow Charles, the popular daughter
of the wealthiest man in Parker County. She was also a heroin addict; she and
Eddie shared a drug habit. Prosecution postulated that Eddie killed Meadow in a
drug-induced haze and that he was a danger to society. Eddie’s lawyer convinced
him to plead guilty to escape a death sentence.
Malone’s queries
don’t get much encouragement from anyone and before long, Meadow’s father calls
him in and offers him a large sum of money to drop the probe. Malone needs the
money badly enough that he intends to back away but then Meadow’s sister offers
Malone more money to investigate. So he continued turning over rocks and asking
objectionable questions, discovering a number of unsavory facts about the
Charles family and about Parker County politics and arousing the ire of local luminaries
along the way.
It’s
impossible to talk about West Virginia these days and not talk about the opioid
problem there. The issue is pressing and ongoing, and Hannah does not sugarcoat
it or the grinding deprivation of the residents who live in one of the most
beautiful states in the Union. He draws a sharp contrast between the two.
Malone’s AA
sponsor Woody does double duty as Malone’s sidekick on the more active parts of
his investigation. Their dialog is the wittiest I have seen in months and give
me a reason to look for the rest of the series. Woody and Henry make a fine
substitute for Spenser and Hawk. Readers who miss the incomparable Boston duo
will want to add this series to their reading lists. A very fine piece of
Southern noir. Recommended.
·
Publisher: Down & Out Books
(May 30, 2021)
·
Language: English
·
Paperback: 282 pages
·
ISBN-10: 164396173X
· ISBN-13: 978-1643961736
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2023
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works
on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, October 29, 2023
Little Big Crimes: Scariest. Story. Ever, by Richard Van Camp
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Hit List: Top 10 Favorite Cases from Motohiro Katou's Q.E.D. vol. 1-25
SleuthSayers: Going to Bouchercon
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
Scott's Take: Batman/Superman: World's Finest Vol. 2: Strange Visitor by Mark Waid
Batman/Superman: World's Finest Vol. 2: Strange Visitor by Mark Waid is a read where the duo team up to rescue Robin in a time travel adventure. Then a child from another Earth lands on the prime DC Earth and the child has strange powers. Superman decides to take the child in. The Key and Joker team up to cause chaos in Gotham. This action packed second volume also guest stars Supergirl and the original Teen Titans team and follows Batman/Superman: World's Finest Vol. 1: The Devil Nezha.
It’s always
nice to see a villain like The Key return as it has been years since I have
read anything including him. Joker is terrifying and Supergirl as well as the Teen
Titans are proper heroes. This is a fun read with great art. Some of the covers
are some of the best I have seen all year.
Readers are also warned that there is a lengthy torture scene involving
the Joker.
There is a
twist at the end that many new readers will not understand why this is so
important. I did not see this coming. This volume sets up the third volume
which is currently untitled and a separate series about the original Teen
Titans which includes the same creative team.
My reading copy
came by way of the Hoopla App via The Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple
©2023
Friday, October 27, 2023
Barry Ergang's FFB Review: Secret Of The Red Arrow (2013) by Franklin W. Dixon
From the massive archive…
I’m pretty but not one hundred percent sure that I stopped reading juvenile fiction at around age eleven, because I am certain I read The Hound of the Baskervilles at that age, after which I moved on to the likes of Agatha Christie and Erle Stanley Gardner. I mention this for the benefit of those who might not recognize the name of the author of the book under consideration here—someone who, if his weren’t a “house” name, would be well into his second century.
That’s right, America: at a few weeks shy of 71 years-old as of January 2018, yours truly, unapologetic curmudgeonly old fart that I am, decided to read a new Hardy Boys mystery.
And new is the operative word, particularly with regard to its approach. The books I originally read, thanks to my mother having given me the first two in the series, The Tower Treasure and The House on the Cliff, when I was seven or eight, as well as those I acquired during the several years that followed, were published before I was born. They were written in an older style, and narrated in the third person. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, which also published the Nancy Drew, Tom Swift (junior and senior), Bobbsey Twins, and other series aimed at young and young adult readers, many of the original Hardy Boys titles were subsequently “updated" to appeal to readers born in the late Fifties and early Sixties. (This probably happened with the Nancy Drew series as well.) Some of this is explained at The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page, as is the fact that a court battle gave Simon & Schuster the rights to publish new Hardy Boys series. Secret of the Red Arrow is the first in the “Adventures” series.
There are some significant differences between the original and this new series. Instead of a third-person narrative, we now have alternating chapters by Frank and Joe Hardy told in the first-person, and in a very contemporary style which includes, among others, references to Quentin Tarantino, David Letterman, the war in Afghanistan, and the movie Halloween. Their father, Fenton Hardy, has retired as a private detective and now “writes books on the history of law enforcement.” In the original books, the boys lived with their father and their Aunt Gertrude. Mom’s absence was never explained, as far as I can recall, but I always suspected that she had died rather than divorced Fenton and moved on. In this series, Mom is alive and well, selling real estate and living with her husband. Aunt Trudy also lives with them.
As far as the local authorities in the town of Bayport are concerned, teenagers Frank and Joe have become subject to what’s known as “the Deal”: “Growing up, Joe and I would help him [Fenton Hardy] on his cases. We were proud of our successes. But after one too many close calls, things started to get a little out of hand, for reasons having to do with private investigators’ licenses (we didn’t have any), insurance (none of that, either), and the threat of being sued by every hoodlum we ever put under a citizen’s arrest….So with a few phone calls, including references from our principal and assurances to the police chief and state attorney general, we ‘retired.’” But as Frank later admits: “That cozy arrangement…lasted about a month before Joe and I started going crazy. Maybe being a detective is something in your blood….Since then, we’ve started taking the occasional case for a good cause or to help a friend, but we try to keep it confidential.” The potential consequence for violating the Deal is being shipped off to a behavior modification facility. Suffice it to say that the local police inevitably clash with them throughout the course of their “non-Deal” investigations.
Secret of the Red Arrow starts out with Frank being one of the many victims of a bank robbery which turns out to be a frightening but elaborate prank, courtesy of amateur film-maker and fellow student Seth Diller. It revs into high gear when Sharelle Bunyan implores the brothers to help them with what seems some kind of impossible crime: someone somehow breaking into the Bunyan family home to make a video recording of the boys’ schoolmate, Neal (star linebacker known as “Neanderthal”), while he’s sound asleep and after he’s begun receiving strange e-mails. Subsequently, two masked figures break in and assault him, and leave a red arrow painted above the bedroom door frame.
What is Red Arrow, a mysterious individual or a sinister criminal organization? As the boys investigate, putting themselves in danger of violating the Deal as well as in physical peril, they learn that Red Arrow has tentacles which extend to merchants and others in the town of Bayport.
I have to admit
that I thoroughly enjoyed this visit with fictional characters from my boyhood.
It moves swiftly—I read it in just a few hours—and nicely mingles mystery,
suspense, and humor. My only disappointment was that the “impossibilities” were
never explained. In spite of that omission, deliberate or otherwise, I can
recommend Secret of the Red Arrow to adults who are feeling
nostalgic, and who might be curious about a modern take on a classic series.
Barry Ergang © 2018, 2023
Derringer Award winner Barry Ergang’s own
fiction can be found at Amazon and Smashwords.
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