Black Cherry Blues. James Lee Burke. Harper Mystery paperback. ©1989. $10. In the joint, guys in lock-up can get about anything. Make about anything, given enough time, persistence, someone willing to break laws associated with bringing contraband into a jail, and a lazy guard or two. No stretch of the imagination here, right? We should…
Book Review: City of Bones, by Michael Connelly. Grand Central Publishing. Hachette Book Group. ©2002. $10 Blurbs on books are worthless. Honestly, the accolades plastered across paperbacks are pointless. “Sizzles with energy,” “Invigorating,” “Haunting,” do not accurately assess procedural crime fiction novels like City of Bones. I’m not taking anything away from Mr. Connelly or any…
Breakdown, by Sara Paretsky. Signet Select; Penguin Books. 2012. $10. Ms. Paretsky’s books are not for juveniles. I mean, young adults could read them, and probably should read them, actually. They would have a wonderful role model for writing fiction, for spending time thinking about writing, for constructing an amazingly detailed framework upon which to…
A Wanted Man (A Jack Reacher Novel), by Lee Child. Dell Paperback. 2012. $10. In Child’s 17th Jack Reacher novel, we pick up Reacher where he left off, in far western Nebraska, in the wintertime. As Reacher is want to do, he is hitchhiking. But, just how attractive a hitchhiker is Reacher, at 6’5″ and…
The Glass Rainbow, by James Lee Burke. Pocket Star Books. Simon & Schuster. ©2009. Paperback, $10. Another great book by Burke, an amazing, captivating page-turner I hated to put down. His books wear me out; I stay up too late reading his prose. The image (left) is of a barracoon. This particular barracoon can be found…
A Morning for Flamingos, by James Lee Burke. Harper Mystery paperback. 1990. $9. (#4 0f 19 in the Dave Robicheaux series) I’ve been toying with this idea for a few days. I’m debating of starting a giveaway. JLB has become one of my favorite authors of fiction, not simply crime fiction, but fiction, in general.…
The Black Tower, by P.D. James. Simon and Schuster Publishing. 1974 (reprinted in 2001). $16. I cannot consider myself a true devotee of crime fiction as I yet have gaps in my reading. For instance, I have yet to read any Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett. I’ve got to rectify that mess fairly soon. I’ve…
Critical Mass, by Sara Paretsky. Signet Select Fiction; Penguin Publishing. Paperback. 2013. $10. I recently wrote an essay about using Twitter for professional development. I suppose Facebook, if used with due assiduity, might allow a person some degree of learning and education. With Twitter, you get to choose who to follow, and following accounts is…
Basket Case, by Carl Hiaasen; Grand Central Publishing; Hachette Group; 2002. Despite Carl Hiaasen being a New York Times bestselling author, he is a new author for me. I don’t put much credence in New York Times accolades. These have become meaningless, more or less. James Patterson is a New York Times bestselling author, and…
Winter Study, by Nevada Barr. Penguin Books. Paperback. 2008. $10. I’m easily impressed by authors who integrate real, local geography into their novels. The idea of being able to “go there” and walk in the footsteps of the protagonist is a romantic notion of mine, I suppose. James Lee Burke fuses southern Louisiana geography into…
Constant Geography 
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