"Beyond's" Recent Additions

Arsenault, Mark          GRAVE WRITER
Grave WriterA juror who can't get over his wife's death, contemplates murdering her cop boyfriend, and is at the mercy of thugs for gambling debts. A defendant who sure looks guilty. A preening politically-juiced prosecutor. A scraggly, shrewd defense lawyer who must sneak secret steaks around his vegan wife. A politically-juiced radio preacher who rides around on one of those scooter thingys. Several homeless. A headless corpse. An ear-studded shelter worker with connections and a heart of gold. These are some of the ingredients in this surprising thriller, where very little happens as you'd expect. Great pace, great narrative voice. Great scene with a spider! (9 April 2007)

Carter, Steven          FAMOUS WRITERS SCHOOL
Beautiful multi-voice send-up of the correspondence course, as a none too bright and none too moral instructor exchanges "lessons" and "feedback with three students: Rio, an almost Ph. D. torch singer who writes great letters but little else; borderline-pychotic Linda Train, whose story overlaps more and more into the instructor's life; and Dan, who simply writes outstanding suspense fiction, much to the envy--and more--of our teacher-man. Tongue-in-cheek, yes, but the characters are aboslutely believable too, all with stories to tell. Dan's story is worth the price by itself. Wish I had more room for the sly cover with the author's name typed in over white-out. This is what fiction should be about. (9 April 2007)

Cobb, William J GOODNIGHT, TEXAS And no, it's not a salutation. It's a dusty, dried-up fishing village on the Texas coast, where fish now refuse to run. The novel traces activity in the town, focusing on a couple-and-a-half love (or lust) stories, and the restaurant and motel of vodka-loving Russian ‚migr‚ Gusef. This is kind of like a Cathie Pelletier book set in Texas, in Cathie's better pre-McKinnon days; funny, sad, shocking, real. And you know how the Death card in the Tarot deck signifies renewal? Well, something like that, something almost Biblical, happens in this book too. (14 December 2006) 

Egan,  Jennifer          THE KEEP
A story-within-a-story-within-a-story finds a volunteer prison writing instructor developing a relationship with her student, Ray, who is developing a fiction--or is it?--about Danny, who goes to a vague spot in Eurasia to help his cousin develop an old castle into a sort of Luddite retreat center. The castle chapters oddly seem the most real, albeit in a dreamy psycedelic way, as Danny tries to figure out what the hell is going on. Ray's chapters are very real, and sometimes violent. And the end of his segment will suprise as much as that of our instructor Holly, who brings the book full magical circle. Quite a read!--and its ca. 250 pp. don't condense well. (28 September 2006) 

Fforde, Jasper          THE FOURTH BEAR
This second in the "Nursery Crime" series outdoes its formidable precursor. Here Chief Inspector Jack Spratt and Sgt. Mary Mary seek to find the killer of journalist Goldilocks, who is quietly on to something about nuclear fusion and large cucumbers. Hindered by corrupt agencies, a WWI battlefield theme park and the escape of master-criminal the Gingerbread Man and helped by a blue alien intern and various bears (even Edwin Bruin, the agreeable ursine at whose home Goldy spends her last hours alive) they eventually get to the surprising conclusion. Despite the weirdness and occasional super-fun set-pieces such as a supposedly gay politician who fears being outed as straight, Fforde again crafts a hilarious masterpiece that somehow also works as crime fiction. (September 28, 2006) 

Gores, Joe          GLASS TIGER
Remember Yeats? The difficulty in telling the dancer from the dance? Here, Gores directs his formidable talents away from the Dan Kearney Files series, to: how to tell the hunter from the hunt. One ex-mercenary stalks the President, for reasons of his own; another stalks the stalker as an employee of the President. It's low-tech high-tension. Oh, the President and his coterie are vermin. Tune in to see how it turns out in this doppelganger vs. doppelganger thriller. (17 November 2006) 

Heywood, Joseph          STRIKE DOG
Fifth in the “Woods Cop” series, this gets off to a relatively slow start, but when it picks up steam you can’t put it down. It’s a forensic thriller with a side of cyberspace set in the outbacks of the Upper Peninsula and the Ozarks. It seems a serial murderer is targeting the best game warden in every state for a particularly gruesome death, and Michigan is the only state remaining, making Grady Service a target, and then, bait. Weird names, tons of local color and peculiar accents, and a lot of twists (literal and figurative). (19 November 2007). 

Loomis, John          HIGH SEASON
Provincetown has its unusual aspects, and is a tourist mecca for a wide variety of folk. And if you don’t know what “tall ships” are, this book will inform you. Hint: they’re not nautical. And it’s normally a peaceful place, but not now in Frank Coffin’s first outing, when a noted televangelist shows up dead on the beach. And one of the leading suspects has threatened the zoning officer with assault-by-fish. Not just another day at the beach. (5 November 2007) 

Maheu, Layne          SONG OF THE CROW
The Biblical Flood-story from a crow's point-of-view? Yes--and no mistake, this is no off-the-wall comedy. You'll come to love the crow narrator "I Am" as he grows from a nestling to a fledgling to adult, his wonderful "Mother of Many" and his mentor "Old Bone." He muses on the way of humans, their worship, the nature of flight, the perils of predation, the wonder of vultures, and more. Eerily cool book, but not for your Grisham or Steel reader--which I suppose is what puts it in "Beyond." (16 October 2006) 

Mizner, David          HARTSBURG, USA
Hartsburg, OH was once a thriving industrial town so "normal" that media used it to gauge elections. Times have changed. The economy dried and a large contingent of evangelical "right-"mindeds have settled in, now galvanized by one of their own, Bevy Baer, running a Christian campaign for School Board. Unopposed, she sort of solicits and opponent, a burned-out failed lefty screenwriter, Wallace Cormier. Interestingly, both candidates have ties to national political operatives (think, Rove), and this small-town campaign soon becomes national itself when issues like Bevy's "porn" video and Cormier's mother's lesbianism come into play. Yeah, it's funny at times, but it's also spot-on. (5 December 2007) 

Mott, Billy          THE BACK NINE
A hard-bitten drifter arrives at an exclusive golf club in California, and puts himself in the caddy rotation. It won't surprise many that he has a "past"; it would certainly surprise him that he has a future. Once a phenom in Pittsburn, he'd done no golf in decades after an injury. But a chance meeting with an old PA acquaintance brings him to the attention of the local "movers" who have a score to settle with a mob boss and his golfing hired-gun. The showdown is indeed worth the ride, kind of Tin Cup without the schmaltz, and our guy drives with a vintage 1-iron, for Pete's sake. The reviews say you don't need to love golf to enjoy this--but it certainly helps. Take this one with you to the 19th hole. (10 May 2007) 

O’Nan, Stewart          LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER
Lobster A small book full of details: a Red Lobster in Connecticut plays out its last day, in a Nor’easter, no less, just before Christmas. This breaks up a “team” of many years standing, only 5 of whom can transfer to a nearby Olive Garden. Among these is the manager, Manny, who mourns the loss of his beloved restaurant, his beloved (who can’t and won’t make the transfer), and his recently deceased abuelita. Some of his staff remain loyal, some defect, some remain loyal and sabotage at the same time. In time for the holidays, a book full of personal insight and restaurant mechanics. (5 December 2007)

Rozan, S. J.          IN THIS RAIN
This Big Apple thriller center on power and the corruption thereof, where fixes are in and developers vie ruthlessly with social interest groups for control of a prime city-owned tract in Harlem. Investigator Ann Montgomery is called in from the sticks to investigate mishaps, some fatal, at a building site operated by He Who Wants to Be the Next Trump, who is incidentally a mortal enemy of Ann's. She soon fears that she has been set up. She soon finds that is not the worst of it. High body count towards the end of this page-turner, and a twist that provides an unexpected ultimate villain. (18 January 2007) 

Swain, James          MIDNIGHT RAMBLER
With a soundtrack from the Rolling Stones (check Let It Bleed), who were known to get down and dirty, comes a book that gets, well….you know. Jack Carpenter is a disgraced South Florida detective who was good at tracking child-molesters, and who got too violent with a serial killer who preyed on “unknowns.” Now, a well-orchestrated conspiracy is on foot to free the killer, and inculpate Jack. The bad guys in this book are really, well….you know. If you like Lee Child, this is for you. (15 November 2007) 

Swierczynski, Duane          THE BLONDE
Jack Eisley, idling away time in an airport bar the evening before a big meeting with his wife's attorney, gets into a conversation with the title character, who happens to be infected with tiny microbots who will cause, after a few seconds more than ten feet away from another human, her head to explode. Disbelieving, Jack kisses her, causing himself to be infected by the bots (named after the Olson twins) as well. As they get separated and chased by various bad and maybe-not-so-bad guys, near escapes are on almost every other page. And heads do explode. Neat noir page-turner. (21 December 2006)

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