books #29 and #30

[realthog]

Lately I've been getting behind with reporting my leisure-time reading activities; this has been for the same reason that I've not been posting as much over the past couple of weeks as usual. I'm trying to get to a stage in my work on Bogus Science where I can leave it for a week or two without finding, when I get back to it, that I have too much tiresome picking-up-of-pieces to do before hitting my stride on it once more. (In fact, I'm planning to take a laptop and some relevant books into the hospital with me, but I've no idea how much time and/or inclination I'll have for any real progress to be made.) Further, since I'm doing so much reading for research on that book during "working hours", as it were, I have less time and exponentially fewer brain cells for leisure reading; right now I'm not selecting exactly yer Proust or Gogol to read in bed or on the lav.

So, a pair of thrillers . . . and treated more briefly than usual.

A couple of years ago I discovered a Stephen White novel in a garage sale and bought it on the principle that he was "obviously" Jonathan Kellerman Lite: his psychologist detective is called Alan Gregory rather than Alex Delaware, but the setup's very similar. By the end of the book, I realized I'd rather underestimated White's place in the scheme of things. Since then my reading tastes have undergone one of their periodic shifts, a by-product of which has been that I'm no longer interested in Kellerman's work (although someone let me know if he writes another Billy Straight or Butcher's Theatre). I still, though, like White's work very much.

The latest I've read, Warning Signs (2002), sees Alan Gregory treating a patient whose son and another young man seem to be planning a sort of Columbine-style crime. Of course, nothing is quite as it seems, and by the time things really start hotting up it's plain that the crime involved is on a far, far more grandiose scale. All of White's usual characters weave in and out of the story in their customary soap-opera (no insult intended) fashion, but, in terms of these minor subplots, he's a skilled enough writer that it doesn't matter if you haven't read any of the earlier volumes in the series. All in all, then, a good, satisfying read.

Decades ago, probably in the late '60s, I read one of Dell Shannon's police-procedural novels and liked it quite a lot; for some reason, though, I never got back to her. More recently, I found an omnibus of the first four Shannon novels and bought it; and the other day I read the first of these, Case Pending (1960). Luis Mendoza and the crew investigate the second of two murders that strike Mendoza as full of similarities even though in different areas of town and with victims from very different backgrounds.

I didn't enjoy this as much as I remember enjoying the Shannon novel I read 'way back when; but, to be fair, this was her first foray into crime fiction (she'd written historical novels under her own name) so its major flaw -- too many "atmosphere-building" sections in which nothing happens and anyway you already know the character is scared stiff so don't need five pages of description of heart pounding, shadows rustling, pants-leg dripping, whatever -- can readily be forgiven. I'm not planning to read all four of the novels on the trot; but the omnibus is on my nightstand for the next time I'm in the Shannon mood, which I expect won't be long a-coming.

Currently I'm enjoying Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty (1990ish).
 

Comments

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I had the same problem with Kellerman, although I also like those two standalones (BILLY STRAIGHT and BUTCHER'S THEATER) but not the other standalones like A COLD HEART (or was that spinoff female cop?) or THE CONSPIRACY CLUB.

Will have to look at this White bloke...

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I think A Cold Heart was a Petra Whotsit novel -- i.e., a "spinoff female cop" novel. If it's the one I'm thinking of, I quite enjoyed it. My beef with Kellerman and so many others of that bestselling ilk is that "quite enjoyed" really means I've been wasting retinal cells; I could instead have been reading something I actually enjoyed.

The Conspiracy Club is indeed wretched.

I've been reading the White novels all in the wrong order. It seems to me that the first two or three he wrote are fairly standard stuff (good of their kind, but no more); thereafter, he spread his wings.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

I'm getting into Lehane right now, but his first novel is a Walter Mosley impression. Thankfully, I read Gone Baby Gone first so I am already hooked.

And now I'm reading one of the Ed McBain lawyer books. I like it in that police procedure way - although I find it interesting that he just stopped the lawyer story to go with the police procedure in that "I didn't know it at the time but here was what was happening when I was interviewing the psychiatrist"

But as for television I think The Wire has ruined me for all police procedurals besides The Wire.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"And now I'm reading one of the Ed McBain lawyer books."

I've read most of them, but don't like them nearly as well as his 87th Precinct books, which I revere (hence my homage to them, coming out from PS Publishing later this year, The City in These Pages, plug plug).

I keep meaning to try Lehane, but haven't got there yet.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

I was going to congratulate you on this astonishing concatenation of tags, when I realized your Dell Shannon was not this Del Shannon.

Too bad.

Love, C.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. Del Shannon. Ahem. Well. Um.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

There's some stuff about the "real" Dell Shannon (Elizabeth Linington) here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Shannon.

[louismaistros.livejournal.com]

Not to be judgmental or anything, but....

Richard Marx?!?!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

And why not? It was a recommendation that, midway through the second play, I'm modestly enjoying in a wallpaper sort of a way. Not great, but it'll be interesting to see if he becomes Bryan Adams when he grows up. Some nice sax passages.

[louismaistros.livejournal.com]

Well, ok. I do admire your courage in admitting that you listen to him. My own guilty pleasure is Gordon Lightfoot. Sundown, ya better take care... :-)

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Somebody (was it Laird and/or yourself?) was mentioning Lightfoot recently, and it reminded me I should give him my five-yearly try. So far, each year I've concluded that, nope, I still don't; but one o' these days, who knows?

I think it unlikely Marx is going to become a regular part of my musical diet, but for the moment it's pleasant enough to give the album a few spins.

[louismaistros.livejournal.com]

Strange, but Lightfoot seems to be attaining coolness after all these years. I remember in the 70s he was not quite folk, not quite rock, but relegated to the dreaded easy listening category, meaning the stuff your parents listen to. I don't know Laird, but suddenly I've been hearing Lightfoot brought up in casual conversation a lot.

I wonder what causes that.