Mysteries and Thrillers

Book Review: 'Explosive Eighteen' by Janet Evanovich

11/27/2011
Kinsey Roberts
Another hit for Evanovich

Janet Evanovich strikes gold again with her latest Stephanie Plum novel, Explosive Eighteen. Evanovich seamlessly weaves together another page-turner with the usual suspects plus some quirky character additions.

Explore 'The House That Would Not Die' this Halloween

10/26/2011
Holoholo

Screen veteran Barbara Stanwyck made a rare television movie in 1970, one that is perfect for Halloween howls and screams. The House That Would Not Die might not be a great movie, but it is great fun.

Invite 'The Uninvited' to your Halloween party

10/26/2011
Holoholo

The Uninvited is that rare film that defines a genre, and though it was released in 1944, it retains its title as one of the very best all too rare ghost chiller films. A film relying on atmospheric effects, low tech wizardry, superb acting and taut tight direction by Lewis Allen, a name too few recognize until they see his resume and realize how many genres he infused with skill and brilliance in both big screen movies and television.

'The Night and The Music' by Lawrence Block

10/10/2011
John Neal

Crime writer Lawrence Block created Matthew Scudder in the 1970s. Scudder is an ex-cop, an alcoholic and an unlicensed private investigator. It was pretty typical stuff until 8 Million Ways to Die, Block's award-winning novel that took Scudder and readers alike to the very edge.

Scudder has since quit drinking and he's settled down, but he's still around to lend a hand to the downtrodden and defenseless. His literary life is as rich and as complex as yours and mine. He has his faults and shortcomings and he doesn't always win.

Reviewer Rating: 
4.00Stars
ASIN: 
B005QSSKCG

'The Consummata' by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins

10/8/2011
John Neal
The long-awaited sequel to Spillane's "The Delta Factor"

Mike Hammer was not Mickey Spillane's only creation, though it was his most enduring one. In 1967, Spillane published The Delta Factor; a part-spy, part-heist story featuring Morgan the Raider. The intent was to build a new series around this government agent-turned-master thief. Complications with and the poor reaction to the film version, however, frustrated Spillane and work on a second installment in the series was put off ... until now.

Reviewer Rating: 
3.00Stars
ASIN: 
0857682881

Getting Off by Lawrence Block

9/10/2011
John Neal

Katherine is young and beautiful with a voracious appetite for sex. She learned what men like from an early age and uses her skills of seduction to lure them to bed. But a vigorous romp under the covers isn't enough for her anymore. The only high for Katherine these days to commit murder.

Reviewer Rating: 
3.00Stars
ASIN: 
0857682873

'Tell All' by Chuck Palahniuk

5/17/2011
Louie Aronowitz

This morning I finally finished Chuck Palahniuk’s latest novel, Tell All. In classic Palahniuk fashion, every time I read a chapter of this book, it left me with an overwhelming feeling of, “What the heck did I just read?” That is, of course, until the last few chapters when he finally pulled back the curtain and tells the reader what’s really going on.

ASIN: 
9780307389824

'The Wrong Man' by William Inglsey

2/16/2011
John Neal

Sam Schuler has an ordinary existence. He works at a liquor store while attending junior college with hopes to improve his lot in life, and he lives with his pregnant girlfriend, Jill.

Ordinary doesn't last long when Sam is accused of stealing a stash of marijuana from a party he didn't want to go to in the first place. When a confrontation with the neighborhood's sociopath, Owen, is interrupted by the police, Sam's idyllic life turns to ruins when Owen and his gang rape Jill.

Reviewer Rating: 
3.00Stars
ASIN: 
978-0-9826887-3-1

Kiss Her Goodbye by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins

12/13/2010
John Neal

Mike Hammer has retired to Florida after winning a deadly shootout with a young mobster in New York. Retirement doesn't last for long when Mike gets called back up to New York to attend the funeral of his friend and mentor, who died of an apparent suicide. Mike doesn't buy the suicide story and begins looking for a murder.

Reviewer Rating: 
3.50Stars
ASIN: 
0151014604

'The Baddest of The Bad' is Oh So Good

7/31/2010
John Neal

Crime fiction can be broken down into subgenres. There are the cozies like those found in Ellery Queen, the hard-boiled grit of a Sam Spade or Mike Hammer novel, and the fact-heavy and suspense-driven stories of James Ellroy. Then there are the stories about people who have crawled out of the gutter.

In fact, there's a whole magazine dedicated to the screwed up people and their screwed up relationships that often end in bloodshed: Out of the Gutter. Gutter went books this year and they gave me a copy of their debut "The Baddest of the Bad" to read and review.

Reviewer Rating: 
4.00Stars
ASIN: 
0982688709
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