Books I've Read
Books Listed by Author
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Skin Tight
A plastic surgeon mucks up operations and murders. Interesting prosthetic hand in this one.
QUOTE:
"Where's the bubble?" he said. "Smack dab in the center." "Right," Stranahan said. "See--they're lined up perfectly."Read:
10/2000
Skink No Surrender
Mallory runs away from home, her friend Richard meets Skink and they team up to find her. A "teen"-downed story, pretty good, a little slow near the end, good ending, though.
Read:
10/2015
Skinny Dip
Woman survives murder attempt by husband, gets back at him. Swamps, snakes, gators, and a large hairy guy.
Read:
11/2004
Star Island
Untalented pop star Cherry Pye falls to revive a faltering career. No one loses a limb to a Floridian animal in THIS book, although one guy gets shot in the butt.
Read:
11/2010
Stormy Weather
Big hurricane wipes out a goodly portion of Florida.
QUOTE:
"Accept no imitations"Read:
4/2000
Striptease
"Funny as hell.", "Hilarious..." say the blurbs. I was roused to laughter only five times. On pages 170, 287, 260, 364 and 414 of the paperback edition. Never the less, it was entertaining so I am going to try his other books.
QUOTE:
"This is a classy operation,... didn't you notice the napkins?" BONUS QUOTE:
...Shad...was... reading a large-print edition of The Plague by Albert Camus. The book made Shad feel slightly better about living in South Florida.Read:
2/2000
Tourist Season
A newspaper man comes up with a solution to the tourist problem in Florida.
QUOTE:
With a shift in economic fortunes Wilson had been forced to quit shooting heroin, so he'd turned to reading in his spare time.Read:
2/2000
Trap Line
A crawdad fisherman in Florida (imagine that!) has problems drug smugglers and the law.
Read:
11/2000
The Eyeball collector
Hector swears revenge on the man with one eye (and a big nose) who blackmails his father, causing him to die of a heart attack. Very good, now I have to read the rest of the related books!
Read:
12/2009
The Boy Who Followed Ripley
Ripley meets an American lad who has run away from home and ended up in France. My second Ripley book, I rather found this one better than the first.
Read:
12/2012
The Talented Mr. Ripley
I could only find this book in a collection "Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s". It was so ungodly LONG that I'm entering as a separate entry! Since the collection contained four other NOVELS, one can assume the print was rather tiny. It was. I didn't much care for this book, and do not intend to read any others in the Ripliad. There were 340-odd pages of, did I mention it, TINY, print? I didn't feel any sympathy for any of the characters. About eight pages from the end, just before Ripley boards the Hellenes, he mentions THREE murders. I only remember two. I'm sure I just missed the point of the sentence. Hadas recommended this book. I don't hold it against her, though, it just didn't work for me.
Words I Had To Look Up:
celeri remoulade -- a type of salad. (op cit, pg. 175)
faute de mieux -- for lack of something better. (ibid, pg 202)
Read:
6/2007
Hunting Badger
Chee and Leaphorn looks for three guys who robbed a casino.
Read:
1/2001
Shape-shifter
Joe Leaphorn investigates a rug that was supposed to have been burned a few years ago. Good story. I WAS confused when the gift box of cherries made their appearance on page 199. I cannot find any reference to it before that, and I LOOKED!!
Read:
2/2007
Sinister Pig
Bernie becomes a Customs agent. A satisfying story, but not overly complicated. Chee finally gets his stuff sorted out.
Read:
12/2003
Skeleton Man
Jim Chee goes into the Grand Canyon to search for diamonds from an airliner mid-air collision back in 1956. Dup entry under last name of Tony.
Read:
5/2005
The Fallen Man
Another good mystery set in the Navajo nation. I got a little confused though.
Read:
7/1998
The First Eagle
Jim Chee investigates a policeman's death, Joe Leaphorn searches for a missing fleacatcher. Curiously these come across as "clean air", while the Lovejoy books seem so dark.
Read:
2/1999
The Wailing Wind
Chee and a retired Leaphorn look for clues in a tragic story of a lost gold mine, murder, and a missing wife. Very good.
Read:
12/2002
Lost Horizon
The classic story of four people who end up in the remote valley in Tibet at the Shangri-La monastery. Non a lot of action, and I was depressed at the end. I wonder how the movie versions came out?
Words I Had To Look Up:
esplanade (pg. 17) -- A long stretch of open level ground (paved or grassy) for walking beside the seashore
quia impossibile est (pg. 19) -- From the Tertullian quote, which freely translates as "It is certain, because it is impossible."
cantonments (pg. 24) -- A temporary or semi-permanent military quarters.
laconic (pg. 34) -- Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.
leitmotif (pg. 45) -- A melodic phrase that accompanies the reappearance of a person or situation. A dominant recurring theme.
inculcate (pg. 69) -- Teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions.
iniquitous (pg. 75) -- Characterized by iniquity; wicked.
convolvulus (pg. 91) -- Any of a genus (Convolvulus) of erect, trailing, or twining herbs and shrubs of the morning-glory family.
chiaroscuro (pg. 119) -- Pictorial representation in terms of light and shade without regard to color.
illimitably (pg. 177) -- Incapable of being limited or bounded, measureless.
altiplano (pg. 177) -- A high plateau or plain.
Read:
3/2009
A Rage In Harlem
First published in 1957 as "For Love Of Imabelle", this gritty crime novel introduces us to Harlem police officers Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones.
Quote:
Exclamations in seven languages were heard -- No doubt!!Quote:
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. -- I know that song, it's from Then Came Bronson!Read:
10/2023
20 books displayed
[Haddix - Hale] [Hale - Hallinan] [Hallinan - Harrison] [Harrison - Heinlein] [Heinlein - Heley] [Heley - Henry] [Henry - Hess] [Hess - Hiaasen] [Hiaasen - Himes] [Hines - Holm] [Holman - Howe] [Howe - Hyman]