Too Late to Die - A Dan Rhodes Mystery (Dan Rhodes Mysteries): Bill Crider: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Everyone knew her. A lot of them like her. One of them killed her.
Jeanne Clinton was a pretty and well-liked woman—though in her younger days she'd been known to be a bit wild. But she married an older man and settled down to a quiet, respectable life. Now she is dead, brutally murdered in her home.
Dan Rhodes, the thoughtful, hard-working sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas, has enough to worry about already: a rash of burglaries in town and an election coming up against a hot-shot opponent. Now he's got to find a killer among the residents of his little town—a wily killer, bound and determined not to be caught.
The deeper Rhodes digs into the hearts and minds of his neighbors, the more secrets he turned up...and the more violence he encounters. But Rhodes doesn't give up easily. And neither does the killer.
J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Signet, 1963
When I was a kid, one of my favorite western stars was Randolph Scott. His movies had higher budgets than the Saturday matinee films, more accomplished actors in the cast, and stories that were at last a little bit different. One of my favorites is The Doolins of Oklahoma, which is based on a historical character, the outlaw Bill Doolin, but if you're looking for facts, this wouldn't be the place to go.
Doolin gets lucky in the opening, the robbery of the Coffeyville bank by the Dalton Gang of which he's a part. His horse pulls up lame, so he misses out on the slaughter of the gang, which was set up by a squealer. Later Doolin shoots said squealer in self-defense, not that anybody believes that. He's now a wanted killer, so he goes off and starts his own gang. Successfully, I might add. The gang members are well played by John Ireland, Noah Berry, Jr., Jock Mahoney, and others. While being pursued by the law, Doolin takes refuge in a church, where he meets and falls for a deacon's daughter. He renounces his outlaw ways (the deacon and his daughter don't know about them, anyway) and settles down to be a husband and farmer.
But that can't last. The gang shows up and outs Doolin, who nobly walks away from his wife for her own good and rejoins the gang. You know this can't end well, and one by one the gang members pay the price. Eventually Doolin returns to his farm and asks his wife to leave with him to start a new life. If you think that’s going to work out, you haven’t seen any movies from the ‘40s.
As usual, Randolph Scott gives a fine performance. There’s a lot of action (riding, shooting, brawling), a little humor, and some nice scenery that looks nothing like Oklahoma. Check it out.
EW.com: Ray Manzarek, the founding keyboardist for the Doors, passed away this morning in Germany, according to a statement from his publicist. The cause was bile duct cancer.
As a member of the legendary rock band that formed in 1965 in Los Angeles and effectively ended with the death of frontman Jim Morrison in 1971 (though the group continued to perform and release music in other iterations for many years), Manzarek became an enduring symbol of the era — he was portrayed by Kyle McLachlan in the 1991 Oliver Stone biopic The Doors, and wrote a best-selling memoir about his experiences, Light My Fire: My Life with The Doors, in 1998.
Bernard Waber, 1921-2013: Children’s author-illustrator Bernard Waber, creator of much-loved picture books about Lyle the crocodile and other anthropomorphic animals, died on May 16 after a long illness. He was 91.
As I've admitted many times here on the blog, I'm a sucker for a good coming of age novel, or even one that's not so good. I'm happy to report that this one is not just good -- it's very good.
Joyland is the story of Devin Jones' summer of working at a North Carolina amusement part in 1973. It's a first-person narration by an older Jones, a sadder and a wiser man whose memory of that time is vivid and precise. It's a story about first love and heartbreak and the satisfaction that learning to do a job and do it well can bring. It's about hurting and healing and growing up and even a little about growing old.
As you might expect, there's a bit of the supernatural involved, and there's a mystery plot that simmers on the back burner for most of the book before coming to a boil in the last quarter of the book. But there's nothing over the top here. King keeps it all low key, and the tone is just right for the story. I don't want to spoil the pleasure of reading the book by saying any more. Even the predictable parts were handled so well that I didn't mind at all. In fact, I enjoyed this more than any book I've read by King in years. It's already been optioned by the movies, but you should read the book. Highly recommended.
Brad Anderson & Phil Leeming, Marmaduke Rides Again, Monarch, 1959
Some song titles might look familiar if you're a fan of noir and hardboiled fiction. And then there's the great photo.
Since Man Left the Cave | Modern Silent Cinema
If you've been looking for a private-eye who can keep up with Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor when it comes to drinking and taking punishment, you'll want to grab this book right now. It's the first in a series about Gus Dury, once a journalist, now a guy who's drinking his way into oblivion while trying to avoid signing divorce papers. The setting is Edinburgh, mostly the really mean streets, which is appropriate because this is a really mean book.
Dury was a drinker before he lost his job (thanks to a slight accident that wasn't really his fault), but losing his position really sends him into the bottle. When a friend's son is murdered (the cops call it suicide), the friend hires Dury to look into it. Almost from the start, Dury is told that he'd be much better off doing something else because the people he's about to get involved with are harder and more ruthless than he can imagine. Dury doesn't really believe this, but he finds out the hard way that he should have. When it comes to the end, Dury's found out what he wanted to know, but it comes at a big price. This one's hard and fast, leavened with humor black as midnight.
New Pulp Press hasn't been doing reprints up to now, but they've found someone whose books fit right in with the bleak, tough novels they're known for. They've also published Gutted, the second book in the series. Check 'em out.
And keep off his lawn!
STANLEY A. KANIEWSKI ARRESTED ON AGGRAVATED ASSAULT CHARGES: Stanley A. Kaniewski, 72, of Salt Springs fired shots with a handgun. The victim said Kaniewski was angry about a 16-year-old playing his music loudly. "He came out of his house and began yelling obscenities and threatening to kill him, if he did not turn the music down," the report reads.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Deployed (Called to Serve): Mel Odom: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Lance Corporal Bekah Shaw joined the United States Marine reserves to help support herself and her son when her ex-husband, Billy Roy, decided they were no longer his responsibility. But when her team is activated and sent to Somalia on a peacekeeping mission, Bekah struggles with being separated from her son and vows to return safely.
Once a successful Somalian businessman, Rageh Daud has lost everything. Determined to seek revenge on the terrorists who killed his wife and son, he teams up with a group of thieves, killers, and others displaced by war. Despite his better judgment, Daud becomes the protector of a young orphaned boy—who becomes a pawn between the warring factions.
To defeat the terrorists and bring peace to the region, Bekah and her team must convince Daud that they are on the same side.
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Louis Auchincloss, The Uholy Three and Other Stories, Signet, 1955
Billboard: Alan O'Day, who crafted popular songs for artists like the Righteous Brothers and Helen Reddy before scoring a No. 1 of his own with the bouncy 1977 hit "Undercover Angel," lost his battle with cancer on Friday, his record label announced. He was 72.
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