- LORDS
OF THE OCEAN by James
L. Nelson.
- I've never been on a sailing
ship in my life and Patrick O'Brien's books of sea adventures
leave me dry. But this guy writes a hell of a nautical adventure.
There's more than a touch of Rafael Sabatini here in this book
which is the fourth in a series about the American Revolution
at sea. The guy can write thrilling and convincing action. And
though I don't know a studding sail from a yardarm the guy writes
the nautical terms in a way that I get the feel of what he's
after and the action never gets muddy. Great rousing stuff.
-
- NIGHT DOGS by Kent Anderson
- This guy wrote SYMPATHY FOR
THE DEVIL, one of the best novels of the Vietnam War I've ever
read. Here he turns his attention to a big city cop working a
tough beat in the 1970's. Anderson captures the mood and malaise
of the period perfectly in a tough and unrelenting book that
might just haunt you long after you've put it down. This story
walks the walk in an uncompromising glimpse of the inner city.
I highly recommend both this and his previous book.
- THE GUN SELLER by
Hugh Laurie
- Hugh Laurie is probably known
to you as a character actor. He was the smarter of the two dumb
thugs working for Cruella DeVille in the live action 101 DALMATIONS.
He plays the Dad in the upcoming STUART LITTLE. Turns out he's
a darn fine crime fiction writer. THE GUN SELLER is a fast paced
spy/crime/action novel that moves seamlessly from humor to dread
and back again. It's light when it needs to be and gets deadly
serious when it's called for. Mr Laurie handles action well and
the plot twist at the end is a classic of poetic justice. This
one would be a great screen vehicle for someone like Mel Gibson
or another guy who can handle a wiseass remark as well as he
can a handgun. Lots of fun.
LITTLE GREEN MEN by
Christopher Buckley
A master satirist turns his eye to government conspiracies and
UFO hysteria. A secret federal task force that works to keep
the public's interest in extraterrestrials kidnaps a high profile
TV personality to help them spread the word. The poor sap believes
he's been abducted by aliens and leads a national movement to
uncover "The Truth." Sharp edged and truly funny.
THE BIG BLOWDOWN by George Pelacanos
A hardboiled crime epic spanning decades. But this is no bloated
potboiler. This guy's prose is lean and sharp and his evocation
of the forties and fifties is believable. Tough stuff without
the macho posturing. These are real men. They fight and bleed
and know fear. Pelacanos is amazing. The story moves at a rocket
pace and the characters come to life in just a few phrases.
BACKFLASH by Richard Stark
The last in the series of crime novels featuring Parker a remorseless
thief. These are CRIME novels about professional criminals at
work. And the heists they pull aren't ridiculous high tech nonsense.
They're brutal and real. Like the others in the series this one
starts out loaded with tension and then just keeps ratcheting
it up notch after notch. Parker and his string are taking on
a riverboat gambling ship. The take is big but the risks are
bigger. And anyone who gets in Parker's way is a deadman. I love
these stories. Everyone is a gem. Mel Gibson played Parker (called
Porter for some reason) in the recent move PAYBACK. The movie's
not bad but barely scratches the surface of Parker's world of
nihilism and shifting loyalty.
BRAIN STORM by Richard Dooling
This book moves from laugh-out-loud funny to thought-provoking
in a blink of an eye. It's about an army sergeant accused of
a "hate crime" and the poor sucker who's picked to
defend him. But this is no John Grisham baloney. Dooling mixes
the legal and medical professions into a challenging novel that
examines politics, morality, race, sex and science at the end
of the 20th Century. This one took two readings to soak it all
in and it was worth it. And it is a scream. But it's also a brilliant
piece of social satire refreshingly free of the tired old arguments
about bigotry in America.
Cooking Recipes! A recipe and cooking site offering free cooking recipes , articles on entertaining and menu planning, helpful cooking tips and charts, a cooking dictionary. Cooking Recipes are used in Cooking to learn to craft consumables | In order to convert psd to html , you need to be conversant with support commands, web designing and web developing dimensions. The PSD to HTML transition calls for a specialist approach, best left to the professionals... A SHRED OF HONOUR by Tom Connery.
This one is historical action that's accurate and bloody. Markham
is a soldier in the British Army in the 18th Century. He's hated
by his superiors because he's the illegitimate son of an English
General and he's Irish. He's hated by his men simply because
he's Irish. But leads them into one savage battle after another
opposing the Republican French besieging the coastal city of
Toulon. The action is furious and well told. George Markham is
a fascinating fictional creation filled with contradictions and
flaws. The opening action sequence in the book is amazing as
we are dropped into the midst of a naval battle and filled in
on the past of the main character and all the tensions in his
life in flawless prose. The climax of this intial scene is both
horrifying and darkly hilarious. This book is the first in a
series. If you like this kind of rousing stuff then this book
has to be in your library. I tore through it like wildfire.
- Chuck
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