“Peter Heller is the poet laureate of the literary thriller.”—Michael Koryta
An endorsement by Koryta was good enough for me.
“The Guide is a literary work and a paean to fishing, as inspiring as A River Runs Through It… Poetic… Engaging….” —Sandra Dallas, Denver Post
He gives us fast-paced action and intrigue, interspersed with closely observed, reflective nature writing. Speed up for the crime-solving, slow down for the Zen.” —Julia Rubin, Associated Press
The hype sounded good. AND Heller can write. I did enjoy his description of trout fishing. The Zen.
Since his debut novel, the modern classic The Ghosts of Belfast, was published …, Stuart Neville has … achieved international recognition as one of crime fiction’s great living writers.
… Neville offers readers a collection of his short fiction—twelve chilling stories that traverse and blend the genres of noir, horror, and speculative fiction, and which bring the history and lore of Neville’s native Northern Ireland to glittering life. …
Quite good. The first in a series of 28 Eve Duncan novels, so far.
After losing her beloved child to a serial killer, forensic sculptor Eve Duncan survives by focusing on her career.
The best in her field at rebuilding faces from bare skull bones, Eve specializes in identifying missing children.
When billionaire John Logan requests her help in identifying an adult skull, Eve–already swamped with work–tells Logan that she isn’t interested. But when he volunteers to donate a large sum of money to a charity for missing children in exchange for her time, Eve reluctantly agrees.
Logan neglects to tell her that there are powerful, desperate people who are determined to keep the skull’s true identity a secret at any cost.
And the most like Stephen King. It’s long. Sprawling. Surprising.
Supernatural horror.
MANY original and interesting characters.
One of the leads makes a pilgrimage to thank Dr. Jonas Salk for inventing the Polio vaccine.
Bartholomew Lampion is born on a day of tragedy and terror that will mark his family forever. All agree that his unusual eyes are the most beautiful they have ever seen.
On this same day, a thousand miles away, a ruthless man learns that he has a mortal enemy named Bartholomew. He embarks on a relentless search to find this enemy, a search that will consume his life.
And a girl is born from a brutal rape, her destiny mysteriously linked to Barty and the man who stalks him.
At the age of three, Barty Lampion is blinded when surgeons remove his eyes to save him from a fast-spreading cancer. As he copes with his blindness and proves to be a prodigy, his mother counsels him that all things happen for a reason and that every person’s life has an effect on every other person’s, in often unknowable ways.
At thirteen, Bartholomew regains his sight. How he regains it, why he regains it, and what happens as his amazing life unfolds and entwines with others results in a breathtaking journey of courage, heart-stopping suspense, and high adventure.
Rocco recommended this non-fiction book. It’s hilarious.
And it is excellent.
Truth stranger than fiction.
… details the troubled development and production of the 2003 cult film The Room, his own struggles as a young actor, and his relationship with The Room director Tommy Wiseau.
Of the books, TV shows and films I’ve seen about Bletchley Park, I’d say Rose Code was the most entertaining for me.
1940.
As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes.
Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets.
Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband.
Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts.
But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart. …
Rick McCharles 