Matthew Scudder #1. I must of read this before 1998 because it isn't on my list of books read, and I know I read a ton of the Matthew Scudder books. Well, they are so excellent that I can just read them again!!
Matthew Scudder, #2. Scudder is drinking in this one, I guess he hasn't started AA yet. An acquaintance, a blackmailer, is murdered and Scudder finds himself trying to figure out who done it. Great story!
Quote:
I got to my feet and brushed myself off. I was shaking, and badly rattled. She said, "Mister, if you could spare..." then her eyes clouded slightly and she frowned at some private puzzlement. "No," she said. "You just gave me money, didn't you? I'm very sorry. It's difficult to remember." -- So touching!!.
Manhattan Noir, #1. Fifteen Noir stories taking place in Manhattan, duh! Mostly pretty good!
Contents:
The good Samaritan / Charles Ardai
The last supper / Carol Lea Benjamin
If you can't stand the heat / Lawrence Block
Rain / Thomas H. Cook
A nice place to visit / Jeffrey Deaver
The next best thing / Jim Fusilli
Take the man's pay / Robert Knightly
The laundry room / John Lutz
Freddie Prinze is my guardian angel / Liz Martínez
The organ grinder / Maan Meyers
Why do they have to hit? / Martin Meyers
Building / S.J. Rozan
The most beautiful apartment in New York / Justin Scott
The last round / C.J. Sullivan
Crying with Audrey Hepburn / Xu Xi
Paul's family moves to Florida, where the citrus trees have been cut down for housing developments. Awful stuff is eventually revealed about his jerk older brother. Very good story, I had a good sense of time and place.
Maddie is a teen that hasn't left her house since she was a little girl, for a reason that she cannot name, but WE suspect it has something to do with the sinister town library, don't we? And just WHO could the mysterious prisoner in the library basement be, eh?
Owen and his uncle (who adopted him after his parents died) rob wealthy Republicans at dinner parties for a living. but uncle Max is starting to lose his mental faculties, and Owen wants to go to acting school.
A violent and profane book, with a bit of humor. I enjoyed it.
Read:
6/2009
Quote:
...home had turned into a house made of knives; there was nowhere he could move that did not hurt. (pg. 255) -- Now, there's a phase after my own heart.
A sequel to The Compound, which I have not read. Yet. How to sum up? Teen boy restored, with most of his family, to civilization after living underground for years (see previous book), has a lot to deal with.
Guy meets girl. Girl is a plant or a nudibranch or autotroph or something. More plant, I guess. But not green. Bad Scientist tries to get girl back to The Laboratory. Good/Bad Scientist turns out to be boy's missing father. Good Scientist takes plant girl to a Safe Place.
Paul Vickers is the new boy in a small town, son of the head of a government scientific outpost on Cape Cod. The story takes place in the near future after ecological changes and pollution have killed off the fishing and tourism industry in the area. Good story. I wish the author had used more real place names in the story so I could visualize where the action takes place.
A novel of Merrill's Marauders. A Nisei joins the army during World War II, is sent to Burma. Small amateur radio mention, his radio is smashed by "patriotic Americans" after Pearl Harbor.
Words I Had To Look Up:
L-4 plane (pg. 112) -- A light military aircraft based on the Piper J-3 "Cub".
they'll have the trails ambuscaded (pg. 123) -- To have ambushes set. AN-PRC-1 radio (pg. 205) -- PRC-1/RT-30; Suitcase portable, HF, CW transmitter receiver. Built into a common suitcase, the PRC-1 was originally intended for use by the OSS in WW-II. It was however rejected as too heavy. Regardless, it saw extensive service with them and other Intelligence and Guerrilla forces. Ops 2-12mc in two continuously tunable bands, AM or CW (rec). Two bands with Xtal control, CW only (trans). RF power output is 30 watts. Size 18 x 13.25 x 17.25" 32lbs,OD color.From CONDENSED PRC RADIO DATA; by Dennis Starks. Nambu (pg. 209) -- Sounds like the author is talking about a machine gun, of which Kijirō Nambu designed several. The only weapon I find bearing his name is a pistol.
Quote:
"Let's get some sleep," Jerry said.
Matsumoto rubbed his rifle-stock. "You know, my mother lives in Japan," he said gloomily.
"Be glad she's not a soldier," Jerry tried to joke.
"No, I guess she's all right. She lives a long way from Tokyo--just a little city. I guess she's a lot safer than I am."
"Where does she live?" Jerry asked.
"Hiroshima," Matsumoto said.-- (pg. 218)
Juvenile novel about the Battle of the Bulge, as experienced by twin American soldiers during the first days of their time on the front. Pretty good, seems pretty realistic, for a juvenile. Pub. in 1968. A map! A Discarded Book.
First published in 1912, this may be a later edition, maybe 1929. An e-book from Project Gutenberg. A group of boys go to Yuma to start a search for a valuable mineral. Not a bad story. I wonder that they are going down river to search. Wouldn't that be into Mexico?