Dirt (1996) is the 2nd novel in the Stone Barrington series.
Quite good. As was the first, New York Dead.
When poison-pen columnist Amanda Dart herself becomes the victim of an anonymous gossipmonger, she enlists the help of New York P.I. Stone Barrington to uncover the culprit, someone out to expose the peccadilloes of other influential gossip columnists, as well.
Dirt is the title of a faxed newsletter focused on dishing the dirty secrets of gossip columnists. An interesting premise.
Plenty of sex in this book, as there was in the first.
Yep. I’m the very last person you know who would try making soup rather than simply opening another can of Habitant. This was my first soup from scratch.
I went looking for recipes to use up our surplus of celery, onions, and potatoes.
Delicious.
Rick eating soup … in the tropics?
One YouTube vlogger looked the opposite of the TV angry chefs, so I followed his recipe. 😀
Added some corn. And a few other ingredients we happened to have handy.
After years of hearing good things about this Canadian TV comedy set in Newfoundland, I finally began watching it FREE on CBC Gem online.
It’s hilarious.
Republic of Doyle stars Allan Hawco as private investigator and former police officer Jake Doyle and Seán McGinley as his father, retired police officer Malachy Doyle. …
The debut show also reveals relationship complications with Jake and his ex-wife Nikki and his new infatuation: Leslie, a constable in the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. …
In fact, Jake is a hopeless womanizer and street brawler. He gets punched out in every episode. And kicked out by some woman twice in every episode. 😀
Stuart Woods published multiple books every year over his career.
New York Dead (1991) is the first novel in the Stone Barrington series.
Barrington is a detective forced to retire from the sexist, racist, corrupt N.Y. Police force because of a cover-up. He decides to become a lawyer/private investigator.
An intriguing premise. ➙ Barrington happens to see a woman jump / fall (?) from a 12 story balcony. Shockingly, she’s still alive when put into the ambulance.
BUT the ambulance has an accident a few blocks distant — and the woman disappears.
Tony Retrosi is a highly respected Gymnastics coach, educator, and leader.
He’s one of the Americans dismayed with the turn of Republican politicians to ReTrumplicanism. Angry, hateful, intolerant, near totalitarianism.
In 2025 you must parrot the low IQ Trump’s lies, or be banished from the GOP.
I was impressed with Tony summing up in this post:
a country should take care of its weakest members … children, disabled, sick, and elderly
healthcare is a right, not a privilege
higher education should be affordable
massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying
companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage
don’t force religion on me or mine
LGBT people should have the SAME rights as everyone else
we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, etc.
systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think
enforcement of present firearms laws and enacting new, common sense gun regulations
I believe in so-called political correctness … social politeness
funding sustainable energy
women should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men and should be free from abuse
Shadow Prey (1990) is #2 in the Lucas Davenport series.
Sandford had trouble writing the SECOND book. In fact, he tore up the first version. Completely rewrote this book — which is intense, but very good.
As a reporter, Sandford was very interested in the plight of First Nation Americans.
A slumlord and a welfare supervisor butchered in Minneapolis . . . a rising political star executed in Manhattan . . . an influential judge taken in Oklahoma City . . . All the homicides have the same grisly method — the victim’s throat is slashed with an Indian ceremonial knife – and in every case the twisted trail leads back through the Minnesota Native American community to an embodiment of primal evil known as Shadow Love.
Once unleashed, Shadow Love’s need to kill cannot be checked, even by those who think they control him. Soon he will be stalking Lucas Davenport — and the woman he loves…
Never get involved with a cop: Lieutenant Lucas Davenport has been warning women for years, but now he finds himself on dangerous ground with a policewoman named Lily Rothenburg, on assignment from New York to help investigate the murders.
Both have previous commitments, but neither can stop, and as their affair grows more intense, so too does the mayhem surrounding them, until the combined passion and violence threaten to spin out of control and engulf them both.
Together, Lucas and Lily must stalk the drugged-out, desperate world of the city’s meanest streets to flush out Shadow Love — not knowing they are now the objects of his deadliest desires….
In fact, Sandford first decides on the villain. And then starts writing — trying to decide how Lucas Davenport could catch the serial killer.
An art history professor and writer and cheerful pervert, James Qatar had a hobby: he took secret photographs of women and turned them into highly sexual drawings.
One day, he took the hobby a step further and… well, one thing led to another, and he had to kill her. A man in his position couldn’t be too careful, after all. And you know something? He liked it.
Already faced with a welter of confusion in his personal life, Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport decides to take this case himself, hoping that some straightforward police work will clear his head, but as the trail begins to take some unexpected turns, it soon becomes clear that nothing is straightforward about this killer. The man is learning as he goes, Lucas realizes, taking great strides forward with each murder. He is becoming a monster — and Lucas may have no choice but to walk right into his lair…
Rick McCharles 