One Man's Opinion: THE SCORE by RICHARD STARK

If I kill, it's because I don't have any choice.

You mean self-defence.

Wrong. I mean it's the only way to get what I want.

The last book I passed on thoughts about was Cold In July. Here we are, the 6th, I'm wrapped up in my extra hoody whilst having to blow on my fingers to keep them loose. Seriously. 

And we have a new government. I wouldn't normally comment on such things, but a Labour led House of Commons has been such a rare thing in my adult life; after so many past disappointments, this shift needs celebrating. Apart from the rise of the ugliness represented by the Reform party, I'm overjoyed with the result. Just for now there is hope. Sure, it's likely to be a long haul and there will be difficult days and months, but for the first time in an age, change for the better seems possible. Go Keir. 

The book I was reading on the day of the election was The Score by Richard Stark. Perhaps it was a lucky charm. It's a Parker novel, so the quality of the writing barely requires mention- hardboiled, always to the point and as tough as the protagonist. 

I really enjoyed it, though I share some of Parker's own reservations about the escapade. The plan comes from an unknown entity. It involves taking down an entire town. There's only one exit, there's a barracks in the way and it's likely they'll require a small army to carry out the heist. If that weren't bad enough, there's a tail following Parker to the first meeting, which means there's something fishy about the whole package. 

In the end, Parker can't resist. Perhaps that says something of his character, though I'd have expected him to walk away as soon as his senses began to twitch. 

The operation itself is a treat. The twist is not unexpected, but the way it plays out maintains the energy and tension. 

A well told story, then, with the wonderful whiplash turns of phrase and crackling dialogue, just not my favourite in the series is all. 

One Man's Opinion: COLD IN JULY by JOE R LANSDALE

 

I've read and loved the Hap and Leonard books and branched out from there to read Cold In July, a crime novel with a pretty cool twist and a fair pace to it. 

Richard Dane is woken in the middle of the night to disturb a burglar. The burglar takes a shot at Dane and Dane fires back. Only one of the bullets hits the target, and the burglar drops to the ground. 

The police clear Dane from any respobsibility and it looks like life might return to normal once the sofa is changed and the wall's been painted, only the victim's father has just got out of prison and he's not the sort to take the murder of his son lightly. 

The twist, or the first of them, occurs fairly early on and I wouldn't want to continue with any plot description to preserve the surprise for you. What I can say is that a Private Investigator is introduced and that in order to resolve things there are going to be further revelations, scenes of violent action and deepending tensions.

I enjoyed this one well enough, but with a few reservations. There were niggles for me about Dane's actions early on and some of his decisions seemed unlikely. And there's the first-person narrative that doesn't quite bring the depths of the narrator all the way to the surface in the way such a perspective can take. 

Overall, a solid and entertaining novel that offers plenty of thrills and spills, but doesn't pack the emotional punch that I get when following Hap and Leonard.   

One Man's Opinion: SO LONG AS YOU BOTH SHALL LIVE by ED McBAIN

Having just completed the excellent Deadly Honeymoon by Lawrence Block, the fact that I followed up with So Long As You Both Shall Live by Ed McBain suggests an element of design. Truth be told, the McBain was simply the next in the series, so having decided to dip back into the 87th Precinct, back-to-back honeymoon stories became inevitable.

Working your way through a series, no matter how slowly, has its benefits. Character histories, memories of previous plots and the sense of place all allow for smooth running and familiarity. In this case, it also helped glue me to the page until the climax was reached. I'll try and explain. 

Bert Kling marries a model. The party after the ceremony is attended by police and those connected to the modeling industry. Also in attendance is a photographer who is quite besoted by Kling's new bride. Bert and Augusta remove themselves from the attention and retire to their hotel. There's a brief underlining of their love for each other before Bert takes a shower. When he comes out he finds Augusta has gone. He goes through the logical steps of finding her, but when he finds evidence of the use of chloroform, it's clear that Augusta has been taken against her will. 

You can imagine what follows. The 87th will do anything to help Kling out. They round up their snitches, upturn every available stone and look in every dark corner, all to no avail.

So here's the thing. In many a book, it might be clear what's about to happen. The most likely outcome is that the cops will find their suspect and free the wife after a suitable amount of detection and tension. With Kling and McBain, we know that this is in no way a given. Kling has already lost one fiancee, murdered in as a casual bystander in a bookstore (at least I think it was a bookstore- any necessary correction gratefully received) and we know that bad things can happen to anyone as the series progresses. That in itself creates a level of tension that a standalone by another author might not be able to manage in quite such a simple way.  

It's also useful to undersand what Fat Ollie Weeks stands for. Having managed to get precisely nowhere with the investigation, Carella can't refuse Weeks's offer of help on this one. The fact that he's a racist bigot who uses a strong arm more he should is marginally trumped by the fact that he is capable of thorough detective work and loves the legwork more than most. As a reader, it's easy to hate the guy, but it's also possible to be rooting for him 100% given that Kling's world and Augusta's life depend upon it. 

Suffice to say that the conclusion is gripping and the race to the end a real sprint. I'll keep my feelings about what happened to myself and recommend that you read it to find out. 

So Long As You Both Shall Live is a treat. Along with Deadly Honeymoon, it's a book that is an excellent example of what can be done in a short space of time when the quality of the writing is so high. I'd hold these up as excellent examples for those learning to write crime fiction and those who already do. Top notch. 

One Man's Opinion: DEADLY HONEYMOON by LAWRENCE BLOCK

"We have three weeks. I think we can find them and kill them in three weeks 

"Three weeks is plenty of time," she said. 

It's not the ideal start to Dave and Jill's honeymoon. At their lodge, they witness the murder of a man they've only just met. When the killers are done, they notice that Jill's an attractive woman Within minutes she can no longer claim to be saving herself for the wedding night. 

There must be many ways to respond to such a situation. Dave and Jill, without discussing the issue, arrive at the same conclusion- they must find their attackers and kill them in the time they have left for their vacation.

Problem they have is that they have no information on the murder victim other than his name. What follows is the journey of them moving ever-closer to finding the identities of the men they seek. They rent a motel room in New York, seek information in newspapers and from the connections they locate. Slowly, but surely, they piece together the situation. Along the way, they become wrapped up with gangsters and fiends, finding courage and determination from their need for revenge and unleashing the brutal strength rooted in their anger. 

Deadly Honeymoon is an absolute cracker. A simple concept that's totally engaging from the off and lean as a cyclist on the Tour de France. It has the thrill of a detective story and the lush pleasures of a page turner. 

One Man's Opinion: ALL THE SINNERS BLEED by SA COSBY

 

'"How do you deal with having all that in your head?" Carla asked. 

Titus put on his sunglasses. 

"I try not do dream," he said as he walked into the house.'

One of the things that can separate a wonderful read from just a good one is the quality of the ingredients. In All The Sinners Bleed, Cosby has gathered only elements of the finest grade and then only those that are absolutely necessary. Not only that, he adds each at precisely the right time and at the perfect temperature to produce a work that is served to us as a feast.

Titus Crown is at the heart of everything. An ex-FBI agent and now the first black sherrif in an overtly racist county, he's got his work cut out for him from the start when a popular white teacher is killed by a young black shooter in the high school. The shooter is killed by two of Crown's cops and when the dust begins to settle, a rift tears through the community and the weight of racist history bears down on Crown as he goes about solving the case.

What makes the plot so rich and thick is Crown's determination to do the right thing in the eyes of the law regardless of anything else. In order to do so, he meets conflicting attitudes all the way. There are the white supremacists fervently defending their beliefs and the civil rights movement who are ready to meet fire with fire. We have a town buried deep in religious passions that Crown has come to despise. The big cheese in town wants a quick resolution to the murder and is ready to pull the rug from under Crown's feet. His own officers need investigating because of the shooting and there are rumours that one of his colleagues is on the take. He's torn between realtionships with two women, one who is good for stability and another that offers excitement and danger. His own past haunts him constantly and there's pressure put upon him to surrender his case to those who may have the resources to bring the case to conclusion. And the depraved killer that the Crown exposes taunts him with new bodies, obscene murders and menacing threats that become increasingly dark as the story progresses. In short, the whole world seems to be working against Crown even, at times,Crown himself. 

It's a brilliant story. Cosby zooms in on personal elements and back out into the broader aspects of detection with genuine ease whilst always maintaining focus, rounding chapters with cliffhangers and gut punches born of simple turns of phrase that always hit the spot. It really is one of those reads that you just don't want to put down.

Loved this, as did the International Thriller Writers who very recenlty awarded it the Best Hardcover Novel prize. Definitely well-deserved. 

     

BISHOP RIDER LIVES

 

Have a thirst for blood? Retribution? Violence and mayhem? 

Come drink from this cup.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW 

Blood-soaked and torso-based, Bishop Rider became THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT STOP. His singular mission, his only goal, a type of carnage most would turn from. The men who destroy Rider’s family, the type of monsters they are, resulting in a decades-long war with Rider vowing to not only burn them, but anyone like them. All things end, however, and Bishop Rider, he proves no exception, succumbing to the cancer that would eventually end him.

But life, it sometimes finds a way.

The fifteen stories in this anthology both brand new tales and written by some of the biggest names working in crime fiction and horror today. Each tale pulled from between the pages of A Better Kind of Hate, The Big Machine Eats, All of Them To Burn, Brand New Dark, and Old Man Rider.

Come for the rage, stay for the dismemberment. See how a dead man makes them burn.

Critical Acclaim for Bishop Rider Lives:

“A tour of force. Oil up the wood chipper and put on a rubber apron, because Bishop Rider Lives. In the capable hands of some of the best crime writers working today, the stories in this lean anthology are brutal and cathartic, but remain altogether human. What else can I say? Every writer kills in this book.” —Johnny Shaw, author of Big Maria and The Southland

“Bishop Rider Lives elevates violence to an art-form: every knife is a paintbrush, every clawhammer a sculptor's chisel. These stories will stay with you long after the last scumbag hangs from his own viscera. Yet amid all the carnage, you may feel these tales tugging at your heartstrings…” —C.W. Blackwell, author of Hard Mountain Clay

“From bad bar keeps getting blown away, to heartbroken moms filling a hole in their heart with the heart of another, to the gruesome slaughter of a wealthy monster—it’s all here and more. Bishop Rider Lives is both addictive and chock full of talent whose tales will leave readers ripping through pages and never wanting Bishop Rider’s brand of justice to stop. Five stars.” —Shannon Kirk, international bestselling author of Method 15/33

“Bloody, vengeful, revelatory. Some of today's best crime and horror writers sharpen their power and writing tools and spill blood on the page in righteous tribute to the fiction world’s most justice-focused figure, Bishop Rider. This is an incredible collection of stories not to be missed.” —Curtis Ippolito, author of Burying the Newspaper Man

“Bishop Rider Lives: An Anthology of Retribution brings together some of the best crime writers from the genre for this fantastic and brutal collection of stories exploring vigilante justice and bloody, heart-pounding, kinetic action sequences. A must read. I finished and wanted more!” —Lee Matthew Goldberg, Anthony and Lefty Award-nominated author of The Mentor and The Great Gimmelmans

“In Bishop Rider Lives, an all-star cast of crime writers come together to paint the town bloody red. But for all the satisfying gore and payback, the power is in the small moments, the snippets of bystanders and victims’ lives impacted and bettered by our favorite avenging angels. The mission doesn’t simply continue, it flourishes and strains to new emotional highs.” —James Queally, award-winning journalist and critically acclaimed author of the Russell Avery novels

One Man's Opinion: MOCKINGBIRD by WALTER TEVIS

 

.

The fruit is still sitting there. I want it to mean something, but it doesn't.

A couple of weeks ago, I visited my eldest daughter in Utrecht. She took me to an Aldi supermarket there. We filled our shopping bags and, before leaving, stood in a circle next to a payment machine. The invisible scanner totalled up all the items we'd bought and charged us appropriately. I checked the receipt to make sure and it was spot on. To a man of my age and time, this should be mind-blowing, though I'm so used to all the amazing technologies of the world that it was only a minor thrill. 

I wonder what mind-bending technology got Walter Tevis imagining the future. Whatever it was, I'm extremely grateful for its existence. 

Mockingbird tells the story of a possible outcome. Given the challenges that we face with the rapid grown in AI, perhaps this is a book everyone should be reading. It would certainly give them a pause for thought. A moment to take a breath and try and work out what kind of world we might want to aim towards. Surely that would be a sensible thing to do. 

Then again, this is only a work of fiction. 

"The first models of thought buses...broadcast music or pleasant thoughts into the heads of their passengers. Some of the night runs would send out erotic thoughts."

"Why don't they do that anymore? The equipment broke down?"

"No," he said. "As I told you...they don't break down. What happened was that nobody would get off the buses."   

Bentley is different to most of what is left of the human population. He has learned to read, something that doesn't go unnoticed by the Make Nine robot, Spofforth, the most perfect machine ever created who rules New York and maybe the rest of the planet. Spofforth hires Bentley to interpret the captions of ancient silent movies, a job that suits Bentley down to the ground. 

Unfortunately, the curiosity in human history that being literate kindles add to his levels of dissatisfaction and confusion about the nature of life. To find head space he visits the zoo. After a number of trips, it becomes clear that the setup is fake. The animals are always on the move and entertaining and there are always three children there eating ice creams. These children also happen to be the only children Bentley has ever seen.  

There also a beautiful woman living in the reptile house and it turns out she's real. She's also unusual in that she's given up taking the drugs that are freely on offer and prefers, instead, to experience life as an outcast. 

It's not long before Bentley is teaching Mary Lou to interpret text. She's far brighter than he is and picks it up quickly. When they later move in together and discover an ancient library, they have a new landscape to explore, one that takes them away from the isolated individuals who now form the population, the monotony of existence and the regular group suicides that occur on a regularly around the city. 

As their relationship grows, Spofforth is a constant observer. The human echoes in his machine mind create a desire in him that, as leader of all things, is easy for him to satisfy. 

The novel is told through the three central characters, mainly in journal form. This allows a real exploration of the thoughts of the protagonists as well as generating a driving plot that's always engaging. 

Mockingbird has really got me thinking about what lies ahead. Most of all, it has really shown me that there's no way I can visualise the distant future and what it might bring. In place of my own imagination, this novel has taken over. A world where humans are in deep decline and are on the brink of extinction, that's not a hugely unique vision. A place where robots have taken over, do all the thinking, producing and legislating, that's not so farfetched either. What I haven't really pictured before is a planet where the humans have failed and, because they have been unable to maintain any symbiotic relationship with people, so have the robots.

There are so many facets to Mockingbird and it's such a big story that I don't feel I can do it justice. It's the kind of book that it would be great to talk about in a bar or on a walk or in a book group. Other than the elements of the opening where I was slightly put off by the information and explanations, I was totally absorbed. 

Among many other things, it's a reminder of the wonder of reading. The way pages can sometimes be mirrors to gaze into; the link it gives us with other minds; he connections to places and histories that we would never ordinarily get to visit; and the range of emotions it can evoke without leaving the comfort of our homes. 

Three days now I've been sitting on this thought bus. I'm delighted that I finally reached my destination, but now have a thirst for travel and want to hop right back on. 

Ding Ding, next stop All The Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby    

"Why are you all so...so pleasant?" I said. 

"We all are," the bus said. "All thought buses are pleasant. We were all programmed with Kind Feelings and we like our work.'

"That's better programming than people get," I thought with some vehemence. 

"Yes," the bus said. "Yes it is."