#fridayreads – Page 6 – The Great Gray Bridge

#FridayReads, Jan. 18–“God Save the Mark,” Donald E. Westlake and “Going Clear,” Lawrence Wright

January 18, 2013/2 Comments/in Books & Writing /by Philip Turner

#FridayReads, Jan. 18–God Save the Mark, a wise-cracking mystery novel by the peerless Donald E. Westlake, featuring a naive young man who inherits a fortune from an uncle he never even knew of, and then tries to keep his hands on it, and away from the lurking no-goodniks who want to fleece him of his windfall. Westlake’s dialogue is street-wise, funny, and real.

Also, just starting to read Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood & the Prison of Belief,Lawrence Wright’s careful dissection and, as the flap copy reads, “deep penetration” of a modern cult. One case Wright reports on is that of Kyle Brennan, a 20-year old whose tragic suicide may have been preceded by his father’s acquiescence to a Scientologist bigwig’s instruction to withhold from the young man medicine prescribed for him by a psychiatrist. The NY Times has already released a review of the book that will appear in this coming Sunday’s Book Review, by Michael Kinsley, who calls it “essential reading.” Should make for revelatory reading this weekend.

#FridayReads, Jan. 11–“Zero” by Collinson Owen & “The Troubled Man” by Henning Mankell

January 12, 2013/0 Comments/in Books & Writing /by Philip Turner

#FridayReads, Jan. 11–“Zero” by Collinson Owen. Enjoyed this engrossing late-Edwardian (1927) potboiler about a novelist who welcomes the opportunity dealt him by a train wreck that leads his wife and friends to believe he’s been killed. Notwithstanding a new life under a nom de plume that shoots his career as a writer to new heights, he discovers a powerful urge to somehow go home again. It has lots of London publishing and theatre world material. According to the inside, Owen wrote at least 5 other books: The Adventure of Antoine; The Rockingham Diamond; The Battle of London (as “Hugh Addison”); C.O’s Cameos; and Salonica and After, a travel narrative. It’s easy to see why this was a popular entertainment in its day. I (gently as possible) reread my 1927 copy (it’s mostly disbound).

Have moved on to The Troubled Man, another Kurt Wallander police procedural novel in my recent binge of books by Henning Mankell. This is one of the last of his Wallander novels, with the taciturn detective investigating the inexplicable disappearance of his in-laws. This book also features his daughter Linda, a police captain herself. It is the father and mother of her beau that have gone missing. I know from the sequence of these novels that Wallander is going to retire soon, plagued as he is by diabetes and terminal ennui, a fear that he’s wasting his life in futile pursuit of lawbreakers. I love these books for Mankell’s loyalty to his characters.

#FridayReads, Dec. 28–“My Friend Dahmer” & “The Fifth Woman,” a Wallander Mystery by Henning Mankell

December 29, 2012/1 Comment/in Philip Turner's Books & Writing /by Philip Turner

#FridayReads, Dec. 28–My Friend Dahmer, a graphic art memoir by Derf Backderf. A powerful book of comic art filled with distressing and dramatic aspects of Jeffrey Dahmer’s adolescence in a suburb near Akron, Ohio, where the future serial killer went to high school with the author. Published by the estimable Abrams Comic Art imprint.

Just finishing the pulsating police procedural The Fifth Woman, a Wallander novel by the Swedish mystery master Henning Mankell. This is the fifth of Mankell’s books I’ve read in the past couple months, and I’ve found each one more compelling and engrossing than the last. As in all the Wallander books, the diabolical plot is gripping, but it is the humanity of the police officers that pulls the reader through the yarn.

#FridayReads, Dec. 14–“The Man Who Smiled,” a Wallander novel by Henning Mankell

December 15, 2012/0 Comments/in Books & Writing /by Philip Turner

#FridayReads, Dec. 14–“The Man Who Smiled,” a Wallander novel by Henning Mankell. With so much unexplained crime in our midst such as the mass shooting in Newtown, CT today, it’s somehow sustaining to enter into Kurt Wallander’s world as he tries to riddle out the source of evil in Ystad, the small Swedish city that is his realm.

#FridayReads, Dec. 7–“Sidetracked,” a Kurt Wallander novel

December 7, 2012/0 Comments/in Books & Writing /by Philip Turner

#FridayReads, Dec. 7–Sidetracked, a Kurt Wallander novel by Henning Mankell. In finishing this gripping novel which features a serial killer taking revenge for harm done to his vulnerable sister I’ve completed a binge of three Mankell books read over the past several weeks.

The others were The Dogs of Riga (originally pub’d in 1992, it’s set in Latvia as the Eastern Bloc was on the verge of collapse) and The White Lioness (first out in ’95, it’s set amid the end of apartheid in South Africa, with a terrifyingly plausible plot on the life of Nelson Mandela). The cases become more engrossing and Wallander more believable and sympathetic the deeper you read in to the series. Last year, I read Faceless Killers, One Step Behind, and Firewall, so I think there’s only one I haven’t read, The Fifth Woman.

#FridayReads, Nov. 30–“The Pot Thief Who Studied Billy the Kid”

December 1, 2012/1 Comment/in Books & Writing, Philip Turner Book Productions /by Philip Turner

#FridayReads, Nov. 30–Just starting The Pot Thief Who Studied Billy the Kid, by J. Michael Orenduff, manuscript of the latest mystery in the delightful Pot Thief series which I’m representing to publishers as agent. These novels, set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, feature protagonist Hubie Schuze, a pottery geek. Hubie loves digging in the desert for ancient pots and crafting copies of artifacts with his own hands. When not engaged in these activities, he is usually absorbed in reading a book, often a classic. He has a sidekick in sleuthing, Susannah Inchaustigui, a descendant of one of New Mexico’s Basque ranching families. They meet most afternoons at Hermanas Tortilleria, to sip margaritas and discuss their latest puzzler. The books are very funny and deserve a wide readership.

In the new book, Hubie is clandestinely digging for Anasazi pots in ancient cliff dwelling, when he grasps a withered human hand. He was hoping for an artifact, not a handshake and is puzzled by his discovery, since the Anasazi did not bury their dead in their living quarters.

Earlier titles in the series are The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy, The Pot Thief Who Studied Einstein, The Pot Thief Who Studied Escoffier, and The Pot Thief Who Studied D.H. Lawrence. While I am working to find Mr. Orenduff a major publisher for his books, the books are in the meantime available and sold at Amazon.com.

#FridayReads, Nov. 16–“The White Lioness” by Henning Mankell

November 16, 2012/0 Comments/in Books & Writing /by Philip Turner

#FridayReads, Nov. 16–The White Lioness, a Kurt Wallander mystery by Henning Mankell. Another terrific police procedural featuring the humane and likable Swedish detective.

#FridayReads, Nov. 9–“The Dogs of Riga,” Henning Mankell

November 9, 2012/0 Comments/in Books & Writing /by Philip Turner

#FridayReads, Nov. 9–“The Dogs of Riga,” a Kurt Wallander novel by Henning Mankell. I find myself getting totally absorbed by Mankell’s sympathetic characters, intriguing criminal puzzles, and compelling narrative style.

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