Mark Martinez
The latest entry in the Nate Heller historical mystery series is based on a 1953 kidnapping and murder. Heller is hired to assist in recovering a young boy who has been kidnapped. A $600,000 ransom is delivered but the kidnappers don't return the boy. Following a hunch, Heller uses his underworld contacts to find and expose the kidnappers, facilitating their capture and conviction for a terrible crime. But only half the ransom was found. Five years later, Heller is drawn back into the case by Jimmy Hoffa, Robert Kennedy, and the boy's father who wants to know the truth.
Collins is an expert in weaving a fictional tale from historical events and personalities. Even though I wasn't familiar with the actual event, I was absorbed in Heller's investigation, the incompetent kidnappers, the accommodating mobsters and bent cops, and a grieving family. If you're a fan of private eye novels, this is a book for you.
I received an ARC of The Big Bundle by Max Allan Collins from the publisher.
Thomas Senlin is lost and trapped in the Tower of Babel, looking for his missing newlywed wife. The timid headmaster must become someone else if he's to have any hope of finding her. This is the first book in a quest tale that has its interesting moments, but I found the ascent through the first four rings of Babel exhausting, perhaps because most of the people Senlin meets seem so duplicitous. I don't know if I'll continue reading this series. I'll have to think about it.
I've had this book on a shelf for a very long time and finally got around to reading it. John Wyndham wrote “The Day of the Triffids” seventy years ago in 1951, but if he were alive and writing today, I don't think his story would be very different. Nothing about his post-apocalyptic vision of Britain seems out of place. The idea that large, chubby, venomous plants developed in secret somewhere in Russia might become the dominant species is only moderately more disturbing than some of the things that we humans are doing to ourselves. Wyndham suggests that a few humans would survive, but only be letting go of the past and changing behavior. What an optimist! I guess you had to be an optimist in post-war Britain. Nevertheless, the story is compelling, even when most of the characters are flat and little under-developed.
Krrsantan's appearance in the television series “The Book of Boba Fett” seems to have inspired interest in the character. This collection revisits the first appearances of the Wookie bounty hunter in Marvel's line-up of Star Wars comics. Unlike our good friend Chewbacca, walking carpet, Krrsantan is a very angry walking carpet, prone to extreme irritability and violence. I don't think it makes him a very good bounty hunter, but it makes him an entertaining bounty hunter. The truth is, a television series “The Book of Krrsantan” would have been fun to watch.
Steven Blitz is having a tough day. He's defending a psychopathic serial killer whose trial starts on Monday and he needs to work on his opening statement. His wife, Laura, wants a divorce and is leaving him for another woman. He's been having terrible migraine headaches. Laura kicks him out of their house and on the way to his brother's home, he stops for gas and gets stabbed, bleeding out in the snow and the dark.
But other versions of Steven Blitz, “who've made different, better decisions than this version” of Steven Blitz made, are living happy lives right now, aren't they? AREN'T THEY?
In “The Next Time I Die”, Jason Starr successfully blends the humdrum, aggravating details of everyday life with alternate timelines in an entertaining showcase of suspenseful paranoia.
I got a kick out of Mr. Merritt's epistolary tale of a hidden society managing world events to keep their secret safe. I listened to the audio version of the story with several narrators. Production quality is excellent and kept me interested in a story that leaps around the world with multiple points-of-view. I was a little shocked at the way the story ends. I had to take a moment to process events before continuing to the final chapter. Overall, an entertaining and enjoyable read. I received a free copy of the audiobook from the author for review.
