The Hot Country by Robert Olen Butler Mysterious Press, $25.00, 326 pages, ISBN 978-0-8021-2046-5 Some years from now, when future historians examine and analyze the early twentieth century and the factors leading up to the first World War, one of them will pay particular attention to the Mexican Revolution. Then, as now, Mexico had a prickly relationship with the United States. With mechanized war on an industrial scale looming
The Twelve by Justin Cronin Ballentine Books, $28.00, 568 pages, ISBN 978-0-345-50498 I swore I’d never do it again. Took the pledge and promised that was it, I’d never touch the stuff again and I meant it. I really did. But then, over time my resolve weakened. Things happened. Life, with all of its trials and tribulations, intervened. Day-by-day I felt myself slipping . . . finally I could
Black Fridays by Michael Sears Putnam, $25.99, 341 pages, ISBN 978-0-399-15866-7 Back in the nineteenth century, Mark Twain wrote, “There is no distinctly American criminal class . . . except Congress.” If he was still living today, he might amend that to say, “. . . except Congress and Wall Street Operators,” because as anyone who pays the least bit of attention to the news knows, hardly a month
The Three Day Affair by Michael Kardos Mysterious Press, $24.00, 249 pages, ISBN 978-0-8021-2026-7 One of the things I try to do each week in the Mysterious Book Report is to find new and interesting authors to review. The reason is because we’re looking for our next favorite author, rather than covering the old favorites . . . who’re already getting plenty of ink from the relentless publicity departments
The Wrath of Angels by John Connolly Atria, $26.00, 481 pages, ISBN 978-1-444-75644-9 This week’s MBR is different. It’s different because the novel we’re reviewing represents a new type of fiction that blends two different genres together. In this instance a crime drama is combined with elements of the supernatural. Think Sam Spade meets Steven King and you’ve got the general idea. As an enthusiast of both of the
Bucking The Sun by Ivan Doig Simon & Shuster, 1996, $23.00, 410 pages, ISBN 0-684-81171-5 Had to dig down to the bottom back of the bookshelf for this week’s Mysterious Book Report. It’s one that’s been out for a time, having been published in the mid 1990’s. I read it years ago and passed the volume on to someone else . . . which I came to regret as
Live By Night by Dennis Lehane Wm. Morrow, $27.99, 402 pages, ISBN # 978-0-06-000487-3 Happy New Year to you and yours. I’m looking forward to a year filled with new and exciting thrillers, mysteries, and whodunits of every kind; from police procedurals to courtroom dramas, from hard case crime to a couple of science fictions, we’ll review them all . . . and throw in few surprises too. I’m
Sutton by J.R. Moehringer Hyperion, $27.99, 334 pages, ISBN 978-1-4013-2314-1 The novel is titled simply Sutton, by Pulitzer Prize winning author J.R. Moehringer. Some astute readers will no doubt recognize the name from his best selling memoir, The Tender Bar. On Christmas Eve 1969, after seventeen years of incarceration, Willie Sutton is released from the state penitentiary at Attica, New York. He meets two people from one of New
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller Knopf, $24.95, 320 pages, ISBN 978-0-307-95994-2 Woof-woof-woof. There’s an old saw that goes like this: You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, that I learned from my mother’s mother when I was just a little boy. Superstitious to the end, “Nanny,” as Grandma O’Toole was called, set store by it and many others like it. Well . . . without any disrespect
Creole Bell by James Lee Burke Simon & Shuster, $27.99, 528 pages, ISBN 978-1-4516-4813-3 Creole Bell begins in Indian summer with a torpid Dave Robicheaux in the hospital recovering from gunshot wounds. He’s on a morphine drip for pain and very uncomfortable. He has a history of alcohol and drug addiction, and is a long-standing member of AA, Alcoholics Anonymous . . . the twelve-step program that’s helped so