The Reading List, No. 13: Books I’ve Recently Finished

It’s been a few months since I published a book blog, and it so happens that this week is perfect for revisiting one. My workload has been heavy heavy heavy of late, with new assignments and new opportunities pouring in all the time, which is great for the bank account, but doesn’t leave much time for blogging.

Plus: We are still dealing with the move from London and all that entails.

Plus: I usually publish these blogs on Daddy’s Night Out, and I am bound and determined to actually make it “out” to a local tavern tonight, which means I don’t want to be at my desk fiddling with a blog that requires an original idea. So….

Most of these books I wrote about weeks ago, then let them marinate until I reached a proper number of books to justify a blog. Which means my effort tonight is minimal.

These are books that have recently made their way through my reading list. They aren’t really reviews. Just short snapshots of what the books are about, and maybe a nugget or two about my reaction to them. If you’re a big reader, maybe you will find them useful.

Also: It’s a way to pimp my own books. So fair warning……

Twisted City, Jason Starr: I think out of all the writers I have ever read – and I’m guessing the number must be in triple digits by now – Jason Starr is the one whose books reel me in for reasons I can’t explain. I simply love his books, and zip through them every time. And the thing is, he’s a very spare and unflashy writer. I can’t recall him ever resorting to writerly tricks. He just tells the story in concise, everyday language, as if you’re hearing it from a dude in a bar, late at night. It’s almost effortless. His books tend to start out in the most mundane of circumstances, involving the most mundane characters, and then little by little, bit by bit, take you down a dark tunnel into a noirish hellscape.

That’s the case with Twisted City. The narrator, David Miller, is about the most nondescript character you can imagine – a bored, underachieving New York City financial writer stuck in a dead-end job and living with a much younger girlfriend who maxes out his credit cards and goes clubbing with friends deep into the night. He’s stuck in one of those middling half-lives where he seems to settle for whatever misery life serves up.

But there are hints of a much more complicated character, mostly through David’s strange and uncomfortable obsession with a deceased sister. The plot quickly puts him in a tangled web involving a junkie prostitute and one of her scheming, hustling, lowlife friends. There’s a couple of violent deaths and an overdose, and suddenly we see the dark side of David as he gets caught up in crimes that eventually bring in the police. This is a fast, fun read that is equal parts black humor and urban nightmare.

The Little Drummer Girl, John Le Carre: Here’s one of those authors I pick up from time to time knowing I’ll be able to bury myself into a decent read for a while. Le Carre made his name writing novels of international intrigue, and he was pretty much a master at it. This 1983 novel focuses on the Middle East conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. It’s a rich topic for a spy/political novel, and Le Carre does a good job of framing that sad and endless conflict in all of its tragic glory.

But the plot – which involves an English actress named Charlie who is recruited by the Israelis to track down a Palestinian terrorist – is complicated beyond measure. I got lost early and stayed lost throughout. It was a 641-page grind, and I’m amazed I made it to the finish line.

Cut Me In, Ed McBain: The perfect follow-up to The Little Drummer Girl. McBain is one of my favorite crime fiction writers because of his excellent 87^th Precinct series. This is a breezy, rapid-fire crime novel that was originally published in the 1950s and then resurrected in 2016 by Hard Case Crime (a first-rate crime fiction imprint). The book centers on the murder of a universally disliked literary agent and the lengths his partner went to finding out who did it – mainly because he was afraid the murder might jeopardize an important client contract. Cut Me In is a fun read with the usual lineup of crime-noir characters and dead bodies, and I’d recommend it if that’s your thing.

Reckless Comic Series, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips: Brubaker and Phillips (Criminal) are two of the leading lights of modern graphic novels, and this five-part series (so far) is one of their better works. The protagonist is Ethan Reckless (an unlikely name, but whatever), a former FBI agent turned 1980s-era LA beach bum. Although he owns a movie theatre that specializes in vintage Hollywood fare, Ethan earns his money taking on cases as a private detective, and spends much of his time surfing and living inside his head. Because of an injury, there’s much about Ethan’s past he can’t remember, which he is grateful for. His sidekick, as it were, is Anna, a 20-something film lover with a punk aesthetic who helps him run the theatre and takes his private eye calls.

The series was launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and gave Brubaker a chance to relax and write a comic narrative without a ton of deadline pressure. The books in the series are Reckless (Book 1), Friend of the Devil (2), Destroy All Monsters (3), The Ghost in You (4) and Follow Me Down (5). More are likely on the way. This is a very good series with gripping stories and terrific artwork. It owes a big debt to crime noir fiction and perfectly captures both the ‘80s and L.A.

The Making of Zombie Wars, Aleksandar Hemon: Joshua is a 30-something wanna-be screenwriter with average looks, a crappy job, a dour outlook on life, no real friends, no future to speak of, and a disgusting Chicago bachelor-slob apartment — so naturally he’s a chick magnet for the hot babes.

I say “naturally” because I have read this ridiculous plotline more times than I can count: Some half-assed nobody who inexplicably attracts beautiful women who want to bed him down and follow his star to the heavens. It’s the kind of dreamscape bullshit that almost never happens in real life, but happens over and over in fiction written by a certain kind of male author.

It happens in this 2015 novel, too, which is too bad. The Making of Zombie Wars could and should have been so much better, because Hemon is a terrific writer, and this book was flat-out hilarious at times. There are memorable scenes involving Joshua and his father, his sister, and his screenwriting class, but the author just can’t get away from having beautiful women engage in all kinds of sexcapades with Joshua. There’s Kimmy, his gorgeous and successful Japanese-American girlfriend. There’s Ana, the gorgeous Bosnian woman who takes an English-as-second-language course taught by Joshua and gets a major lust/crush on him – even though she’s married, with a kid, and Joshua is a dipshit.

Look, I have nothing against male authors writing average male characters who women adore – as long as there’s something interesting about the male characters. But Joshua is lazy, grumpy, weak, cowardly, dull, unambitious, unfaithful, slovenly, selfish, and not even all that bright. You never see it the other way around, by the way – some handsome, successful male character falling for an average-looking, selfish, grumpy woman. ANYWAY…..

I trudged through The Making of Zombie Wars. The force of Hemon’s writing made me like his book a lot more than I liked Joshua. So there’s that.

Voodoo Hideaway, Vance Cariaga. If you order this fine debut novel with elements of crime noir and sci-fi, you will make me happy. Which will make you happy! For reviews, hit this link.

Here’s how to order it:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Bookshop

Waterstones

Money, Love and Blood, Vance Cariaga: If you order this collection of short stories, you will be happy – because you made me happy! Order it here.

Note: I made the book cover collage using the basic Google Photos collage program, which randomly selects the way photos are arranged. I did not pick “Voodoo Hideway” to get the most prominent placement – it just worked out that way. I even tried deleting and restarting, and every time “Voodoo Hideaway” got the prominent placement. This is a simple matter of the Gods taking over, my friends. It’s out of my mere mortal hands….