For anyone wondering why my recent book reviews have mostly been about mystery novels, I can only say that first, these are the kind of books I like to read. Second, I request all kinds of books, including non-fiction and photography but excluding “human misery” books, from the library but they take time to arrive. The most recent photography book I received was written by a famous YouTuber that, while lushly presented, appeared too basic for my readers, so I didn’t bother writing a review. Photo book publishers, who previously sent me books to review have stopped doing so mainly, I think, because I typically don’t like their “influencer-influenced” books for reasons I’ve talked about before. If you own a book store or know a publisher of any size who would like to get their books reviewed here, please have them CONTACT me and I’ll send them my shipping address.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore…”—Edgar Allen Poe
Back when I was an mild-mannered engineer for a great metropolitan telephone company in Baltimore. like any good engineer I parked as far away from my office as possible to be able to get free—the key word—on-street parking. After work and picking up a twenty-five cent bag of jumbo peanuts from The Peanut Man, I would munch away while strolling past The Poe House on my way to my car.
I never read much Poe and never watched any of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allen Poe film adaptions featuring Vincent Price. Except for early Universal monster films, especially The Mummy and the Spanish language version of Dracula, I’m not much a fan of horror films.
I recall reading Poe’s The Gold Bug in high school, a book many people consider to be the first mystery story. I don’t remember much about the book now but it seems like I’ve been a fan of the mystery novel since I discovered Sherlock Holmes while in high school, reading it on my own. Conan Doyle wasn’t suggested reading in the few English classes I had while in Engineering-oriented curriculums in high school or college.
New Mysteries
I discovered Jonathan Kellerman quite by accident. While perusing the bookshelves at one of the Denver Library System’s branchs, I noticed that this guy Kellerman wrote a lot of books, So I picked one at random and forever entered the world of psychologist Alex Delaware and Homicide Lieutenant Milo Sturgis. The newest book in this series is Open Season, in what appears to be a slender volume, although its being printed on acid-free paper may have something to do with that,
In the latest book in this long running series Delaware and Sturgis are confronted by a series of apparently random killings with no noticeable link except the same weapon—a certain kind of hunting rifle—was used for all the crimes. i never try to figure out mysteries as I read these books but as I was reading this one and new victims from both past and present keep piling up, I began to fear that Kellerman was going to give us an updated version of Ed McBain‘s 1956 novel Cop Hater,, which was the first in his series of 87th Precinct police procedural books. By the way, If you haven’t read Cop Hater, skip the forgettable 1958 film, and pick up a paperback copy. It’s the perfect introduction to the world of the 87th Precinct and will hook you forever on this series.
To my delight, Kellerman did not, recycle Cop Hater’s plot and brought us an intricately plotted look at a serial killer who kills people for his own misguided altruistic reasons. As this plot unfurls you will be dazzled by the story and the imagination of Kellerman, which makes a person wonder “how long can he keep this up?” He’s been writing these books this since 1985’s When the Bough Breaks and while, it’s true the novels have, to my eyes, gradually become less dark than the earlier ones, they are no less inventive and highly readable. Open Season is highly recommended.
But Not All Mysteries
I tried reading Johnny Careless, a book in what I’ve come to think of as the “small town cop” genre and while I like some of them, I don’t like others including this one. I gave it the old “Stephen King” 50-page try but I just didn’t care about the cop, whose nickname is “Jeep”, the sleazeball—the “Careless” dude—or anybody else in the book. The writer, , has impressive credentials but I could not get past page 50. It has some impressive blurbs by famous mystery authors but a friend of mine, who has written and published several mystery novels, told me how blurbs in the book world work so I am skeptical about any blurb. It does, however, get rave reviews and has a 4.0 star rating (“a book that you loved and would recommend”) at Goodreads, so you might like it. If you do, send me an email and tell me about it.