Book Report #74 - Waist Deep by Frank Zafiro

You know what I love best about reading? 

Sure the characters and stories can take up a special place in your life but what I love best are the authors.

I read quite a bit and sometimes I'm compelled to contact the author.  I even have a letter, in a drawer, from the man himself; Elmore Leonard.  Yup, I wrote him and he wrote back.

Mostly contact is via email or this blog. 

Frank Zafiro and I have corresponded a few times over the years.  Not long ago he emailed me asking if I'd read Waist Deep yet.  When was the last time you've had an author contact YOU?

Well, I dug the book up, I have a kindle copy, and started to get into it. However I had to put the book aside twice in order to cope with work.

But that's the test of a good book; can you put it down and get back into it days or weeks later?  If you can you know you have a connection.  This book was like that.

Every time I read something by Zafiro I wonder why I don't read more of his stuff.  The answer is that there is so much stuff out there that I want to discover that I can't stay in one place for any large block of time.  You know it's true because I blog about books as I read them; I'm all over the map.

But what about Waist Deep?

It was excellent.  Zafiro has such a wonderful, deeply damaged character in Stefan Kopriva that I'm always wondering if his character will just curl up in the fetal position and give up on life. I really enjoy seeing how he keeps himself motivated and moving forward.

Clocking in at 263 pages this book is right in the sweet spot for mystery fiction.  I love the old stuff from the paperback area of the 50's and 60's where authors were "writers"; guys who bashed away at a typewriter all day long to make a living.

Zafiro is that kind of writer, think Mickey Spillane if you want a comparison to the kind of writer I think Zafiro is.  Hell, his output alone should tell you that this guy is writing as a career.  He's also one of the lucky ones who's just loving it too.

Perhaps his years on the Spokane PD has taught him him to write with the notion of getting to the point.  I love this.  I don't need 200 pages of exposition to make me feel good about buying a book.  I need a good story that kicks me in the ribs.

Waist Deep kicked me hard.  I have two daughters who are about the same age as Kris Sinderling, the subject of this story, so perhaps I could relate to her dad who hires Kopriva to find the missing teen.

In any case this is a solid story that I very happy to have read.

Book Report #59 - The Spider Strikes by R.T.M Scott

The "original" Radio Archives cover.

Arguably the Number Three character of the pulp era, after The Shadow and Doc Savage.

Richard Wentworth is a rich New York bachelor who, with the help of his trusted servant, Ram Singh and his girlfriend Nita Van Sloan, fights crime with deadly consequences.  He's suspected by the police of being The Spider which adds a fun increase to the suspense of the stories.  Not only are you wondering how he's going to defeate the bad guys but also how he's going to avoid capture by the authorities.

Set in present day 1933, the story kicks off with Wentworth confronting a notorious con man on board a transatlantic ocean liner. The rest of the story is set in Manhattan where you can hear the jazz, see the potted ferns and taste the champagne of a man who has continued to thrive, even in the depts of the Great Depression.

The first two novels were written by Scott before being taken over by Norvell W. Page who then took the character to dizzying places.  I'm looking forward to these supercharged stories.  This first novel of the series was very much a battle of wits from two highly intelligent foes and relies a lot on deception by the use of disguises.

My favourite part of the story was when our two advisaries meet face to face and have a civil discussion on how they will defeate each other.

The story was wonderful.  It was sophisticated, quick-paced, violent and filled with believable characters.  It was definitely worth the 10 cents charged at the time and the $3.00 I paid for the paperback reprint, published in 1969, that I bought from a used bookstore.

My paperback copy

Partway through the book I spent another $3.00 to get the ebook version from a company called Radio Archives.  This version was fantastic; not only did I get the original novel and the original cover art but there was an historical essay about the the Spider stories and the pulp era.  Plus, and this was the real hook for me, the two backup short stories that were published in the original magazine.  This is the kind of stuff that can really add to the experience of reading vintage fiction and is a way of preserving stories that would be lost otherwise.

These guys are doing a fantastic job!  Look for Radio Archives HERE to browse all the titles.

Now for the short story reviews:

Baited Death by Leslie C. White: Holy cow! This was a serious bit of hard, hard boiled storytelling. A cop is killed and his partner takes justice into his own hands to avenge his death. This story alone was worth the purchase price.

Murder Undercover by Norvell Page: Another story about Revenge. Set in Washington, DC, the nephew of an Italian ambassador uncovers the truth behind his uncle's death.

Ford 8

Becalmed by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

This is a nice stand-alone short story, set in the Diving universe.

I'll admit right away that I really don't know where it fits in but I have fired off an email to the author asking the question.

Here we follow the story of Mae, a linguist assigned to a diplomatic corps, who is suffering from amnesia caused by PTSD.

It's a chilling story where memories of a massacre keep seeping back into her consciousness. When ever a new memory emerges she wants to retreat and not deal with what she's gone through. But she needs to know ...

Rusch does it again, she's simply flawless in creating believable characters we can care about.

Even though Rusch uses the tired old SF trope of a diplomatic mission to prevent war between two unpronounceable alien cultures, the mission only serves as background for our character's trauma.

The use of flashbacks was intense and I was just as repulsed as Mae by what she remembered.

It was a very good read.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The author's site is HERE

Frank Zafiro bonanza!

Lucky me, I just found out that every River City ebook by Zafiro is on sale for $0.99.

Frank

I've caught up my library by buying;

Some Degree of Murder

Dead Even (short story anthology)

No Good Deed (short story anthology)

And Every Man Has To Die

The Cleaner (short story anthology)

and

Waist Deep

I've been a fan for a while but put his books aside after his third River City novel, only because I found it over-long. Zafiro usually writes much tighter stories and I was disappointed with the departure.

As a matter of fact I am currently reading "The Bastard Mummy", a free download, and will review it soon. Look for a post on the story in early October.

Thanks to Frank.

Frank Zafiro's website is HERE

The Bookless Library

I just read a very interesting article by David A. Bell in The New Republic magazine's website about the impact of ebooks on public and research libraries.

Well worth the read.

Find it HERE

The New Republic website is HERE

Information on the author can be found HERE

Book Report #45, Cop Hater by Ed McBain

First published in 1956, the first book in the 87th precinct series has finally come to eBook.

I love the detective fiction from the 50's and 60's, during the paperback hay day.

This story is a straight-up police procedural about a serial killer who's targeting cops.

It was very well paced, considering its the first in a series; I would have expected much more exposition. McBain seemed content in letting the story play out and only giving the reader the minimum amount of back story needed to tell the tale.

I was surprised at the level of sophistication forensics was at for the time. McBain went to great lengths to show police procedures as accurately as possible which makes for convincing story telling.

Ed McBain's website is HERE

If you want to buy the Kindle version, go HERE

The guilty pleasure of reading

Reading is held in high regard. It is my favorite pass time but it does come with a cost.

Reading is a solitary activity. It does not lend itself to conversation unless the parties talking have each read the same book. When I read I'm usually locked away in a room, by myself, not talking to any one.

That's part of the cost. As much as I love it, it is a bit of a selfish act. So it's hard to find the time to read guilt free.

Then there's the reading itself; what do you read? Classics, literary fiction, genre fiction, magazines, newspapers, etc.?  I love fiction above all other types of reading. But I sometimes come away feeling like I might have spent my time better by reading something more important.

I've decided that I read for my own pleasure and knowledge. I'll follow my heart as to what I read.

There is so much joy to be found in books that I can't help but be drawn to book shops of any description. Used bookstores are the best of all. There you'll find treasures long out if print at discounted prices.

One day eBooks will open the entire back list of the written word at an affordable price but right now the book readers are ahead of their time.

Content is still very expensive. I was looking for a Dirk Pitt adventure that is over 30 years old and was stunned to see it for sale as an eBook for over $10.00!! How can this be? Surely vendors know that you can get the same book for less than $2.00 in a used book store. Or Zero if you download a pirated copy.

You can wipe out most of the piracy in media by simply charging a realistic price for the product. $10 for electrons? No way. $2.99? Much better. Saves me the trip to the used bookstore. $0.99? I'm not even going to look anywhere else; I'll just download a copy.

If publishers embraced eBooks as simply another type of book they'd be able profit from it.  It used to be that the hard cover came out first then, a year later, the paperback.  Why not wait another six months to a year and then release the eBook?  And while your at it offer the entire back list of an author in eBook as well.  Some people, like myself, are completists and want to read books from the beginning.  Surely there is money to be made from that.

iTunes has sold billions (that's with a B) of songs at $0.99. Books would sell just as quickly at a reasonable price.

Book Report #40 - Drive by James Sallis

Drive

by

James Sallis

 I was searching for a movie to watch, not long ago, when I saw the Ryan Gosling trailer for Drive; now THIS looked like an intense movie.  Unfortunately we didn't watch it - it was not what we were looking for at the time.  But the story stuck in my head and I  searched for it on the web and discovered the movie was based on a novella by James Sallis.  Coming in at 158 pages this is the kind of crime novel not seen in decades.  I was happy to see it available as an ebook and downloaded it to my Kobo Vox.

I loved how Sallis toyed with the time line; starting in the middle and flashing back and ultimately forward in the story made it very enjoyable.  I was not able to read it in one sitting, although it felt possible, and I did suffer a bit of confusion when I put the book down for a couple of days then tried to remember where I was when I picked it up again.  So I would suggest giving yourself plenty of time to sit back and enjoy the story.

This is a wonderful example of neo-noir, gritty, scary and very, very interesting.  The story revolves around a gifted Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a get-away driver for criminals in his spare time.  In time the life of crime is more alluring to him and he is slowly drawn in to the world completely.

I've always been fascinated by stories like these; how can a normal person turn to a life of crime?  I found myself rooting for him to make the right choice only to watch him spiral further into a world he can't control.  It was great stuff.

I'll be watching the movie this week, for sure.

Book Report #33 - Bimbos of the Death Sun

 Bimbos of the Death Sun

by

Sharyn McCrumb

Wow! What a fun ride. The title is a bit misleading but that's the point of it. This is actually a murder mystery set at a science fiction convention. And believe it or not, this fun little book won the 1988 Edgar Allan Poe award for best paperback original.

Anybody who's been to a con will appreciate this story. What makes it fun is the fact that it's set in the 1980's (the book having been published in 1988.) with all of the "high tech" of the day.  The cast of characters, however are still among us - they are timeless and McCrumb treats the community with respect.

The story is very funny, in a self-deprecation way but the characters jump off the page which made this story a nice bit of fresh air.

I came to this book via a podcast that I recently found.  At some point Seth Harwood made a shout out to the Flash Pulp podcast.  Curious, I found it and started to listen to a few shows.  These people put out original flash (read short) pulp fiction and pepper the podcast with the occasional "behind the scenes" show.  It was during one of these shows that the hosts mentioned the new book club they've created and how Bimbos was to be the first read.

It wasn't easy to find a paper copy that I could get through the mail in time to read before the deadline of the book club.  So on a lark I did a search on the Kobo website and found it as a ebook!  I threw the book on my iPhone and read it in no time. (This ebook thing is really going to open up the back catalogs in a few years.  It's gonna be great!)

For anyone who's even a little bit geeky this book would be fun.  If you've ever been to a con (think the Calgary Comic Expo) and the book will jump right into your imagination.