Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

• Purchase it here
• Published 1983 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on June 15, 1997
• Being both a Pooh fan and also interested in Taoism (though I barely know anything about it), I found this book to be quite good. I gives a very concise description of Taoism which I can only assume is accurate. Then the descriptions come to life by comparing them with the stories from Winnie the Pooh. Actually the descriptions and stories sort of unfold and fold together so that it seems to more of an adventure and a conversation then a heavy handed book. In fact, it is quite light reading and easy to speed through. But at the same time a lot of the thoughts and ideas expressed are complex enough to spend time pondering if you so desired. Personally I believe that this is the way that most "self-help" or spiritual books should be written. So that you can easily understand them and be entertained enough to want to incorporate the procedures described into your life.

Tap, Tap by David Martin

• Purchase it here
• Published September 1996 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on December 20, 1998
• I was kind of dreading starting this book. It was one that I borrowed from Mom and wasn't too sure about how it would be. However I was very pleasantly surprised. It was very thrilling and on the edge with a lot of scenes. Plus it had more than a touch of the supernatural which is something that Mom tends not to read. And although the story did not hold any major surprises in plot development, the novel surprised me with how well it was written and held my suspense. I ended up staying up until 2:30am one night reading and finishing the bulk of it. I am now compelled to search out and give other novels by David Martin a try. Which is, I suppose, the ultimate compliment.

Tapestry of Spies by Stephen Hunter

• Formerly titled: The Spanish Gambit
• Purchase it here
• Published February 1997 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 12, 2000
• What a disappointment! Here I was expecting another thrilling novel full of great characters from Stephen Hunter and instead I got this. The characters were flat, the story only semi-interesting and it was based in the 1936. Ok, so the last one is not necessarily that bad of a story point for most people, but I'm not a big fan of old fashioned type stories. It wouldn't have been that bad except the style of the writing was done in the old fashioned style also. I suppose that you could look at that and say that the writing is consistent and realistically matches the mood and setting of the story, but I still lost patience with it. In fact there was not enough about the book to keep me reading it; I only got 130 pages in to it before I gave up and stopped reading. And that is rare for me to do.

Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff

• Purchase it here
• Published September 1992 (harcover edition)
• Finished reading it on July 15, 1997
• Since the first one was enjoyed and liked, the second was a natural. Both for Hoff to write and for me to want to read. However, maybe it was because the it was no longer a novelty or because Hoff seemed to ramble a bit more in this one, but I didn't enjoy this book as much as his last, The Tao of Pooh. Near the end it seemed to devolve into more of a litany of the sins of mankind against nature than anything else. I still enjoyed it and there was still a lot of teachings and information that I learned. Plus there is a natural growth and extension from the first book that he is not necessarily repeating himself nor the ideas. But for whatever reason, it just didn't strike me as much.

Tek Power by William Shatner

• Purchase it here
• Published November 1995 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on November 30, 1998
• The sixth Tek novel in the series. Although still not overly spectacular, the Tek series is still quite fun to read. Shatner keeps the series evolving and the characters changing while introducing new ones all the time. Plus the readers get to enjoy more and more facets for the ones that we are already familiar. This time the action takes place around Richard Bascom, the son of Jake's and Sid's boss. Richard's wife has been killed and it is up to our favorite two investigators to come in and find out what has happened. It's the usual twist and turns with all roads leading back to Tek Lords, but it is still a fun ride. Enjoy it!

Tek Secret by William Shatner

• Purchase it here
• Published December 1994 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 2, 1997
• This is another of Shatner's Tek novels and like his previous ones, it too is enjoyable. We continue the adventures of Jake Cardigan and Sid Gomez and the rest of the continuing characters. Since this novel takes place after Tek Vengeance, we have Jake dealing with the death of his lover. This was handled quite nicely and was not dwelled upon. New readers will understand what has happened and longtime readers will see the continued natural progression and growth of the character. In fact, all readers will be able to see the growth of all the characters, including a few new ones that are added to the array. Shatner has built up a world that is believable, interesting and populated with a wide array of characters. This is the fifth novel in the series.

Tek Vengeance by William Shatner

• Purchase it here
• Published December 1993 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 18, 1996
• I'll give this to William Shatner, he does pull a surprise or two out of his hat at times. This started out as another normal Tek novel and I thought that it was going to be another semi-predictable yet still enjoyable story. But then he pulls a major event about a quarter of the way through the book that was hard to believe: he kills a major recurring character. For the rest of the book, I kept waiting for him to explain how what was done was not really the truth. I expected him to undo the death. In fact I expected it so much that I never really believed the death was real until I finished the novel. At that point, I believed it and was shocked. I was also pleased, pleased that he did not cheapen his plot nor did he patronize the readers. Good job! This is the fourth novel in the series.

Teklab by William Shatner

• Purchase it here
• Published January 1993 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 21, 1996
• Yes, I bought the first Tek book, TekWar because it was written by William "Captain Kirk" Shatner. But I've continued buying the rest of the series because I actually enjoy the novels. They are fun to read, interesting characters, enough plot twists to keep interest but also simplistic enough to not lose you. They are also very quick reads which are always nice. I always feel like I'm sucked in quickly, experience the book at high speed, and then finish it off feeling resolved and pleased to have enjoyed it so quickly. Some people might feel ripped off for going through it so quickly, but not me. I enjoy it and will continue to buy all of Shatner's future Tek books. This is the third novel in the series.

Terminal by Brian Keene

• Purchase it here
• Published June 2005 (Bantam Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 20, 2008
• Terminal is a very different book than Keene's zombie books. Those should be considered pure fun, very well written but still mostly fun. This one has much more emotion in it. I forgot what Keene calls it in his blog but it amounts to the same: a different calibre of novel. Terminal falls into a dark crime novel with a touch of the supernatural. Tommy O'Brien has been diagnosed with cancer: advanced stage and terminal. Living a white trash life that he doesn't like and stuck with bills that he can't pay, Tommy avoids stressing his wife and doesn't immediately tell her. While commiserating more bad news with his friends, he tells them. Before he knows it, a plan has been put in place to provide for his family in the best way he can with the little time he has left. His luck does not change though and his plan quickly goes to hell. Tommy and all of the characters in the book are extremely real; it takes next to nothing to become involved and coring of their lives. While stupid decisions are made, they also are done with best intentions. The end of the book is gut wrenching on several different levels. Here's this good character who keeps making bad decisions and hurting his family. The book is highly recommended and should not be missed.

The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton

• Purchase it here
• Published August 1991 (Ballantine Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on September 29, 2004
• With an original copyright of 1972, this is one of Crichton's older books. And unlike A Case of Need, this one reads as an outdated book. The story is a relatively simple one: Harry Benson is implanted with a computer chip to help him recover from seizures due to his epilepsy. Once implanted, the chip gets stuck in a feedback loop and ends up causing Benson to become a homicidal maniac. The problem becomes that in a modern world where computers are already super small and nanotechnology is very real, the technology discussed here is archaic. And when I tried to ignore that aspect, the affects upon Benson of the feedback loop weren't that exciting; we've seen much more interesting and scary personality traits in people unaffected by computers that this was a letdown. If you are a big fan of Crichton, then nothing I say here will stop you from reading all Crichton's books anyway. If you're just trying some of his books here and there, don't bother with this one. Get something more current by him.

The Terror by Dan Simmons

• Purchase it here
• Published January 2007 (Little, Brown and Company hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on June 21, 2008
• I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction. While I would love to say that Simmons pulled this off masterly and had me engrossed from the start, I can't. He did do a great job. And when I finished and researched it a little, I found out that the basis for the story was true fact. In an attempt to find a north-west passage, Sir John Franklin went on an expedition from England to the Canadian Arctic but was never seen again after his departure. Considering that information, Simmons did a great job. And considering the amount of research that he put into the writing and the detail that comes through, I was very impressed. From a point of view though of getting wrapped up in the story and pulled into the events occurring, I wasn't quite there. It might have been the historical factor. It might have been the large number of characters. I wasn't too crazy about some of the time jumping back and forth at the beginning. Whatever it was, I know that I wasn't pulled into this book as much as other books by Simmons. I definitely appreciated the last third of the book more than the first two-thirds. It seemed much better written and more interesting. That could have simply been because I knew all the remaining characters that were alive and was interested in what happened to them.

The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

• Purchase it here
• Published October 1993 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 18, 1996
• I love Clive Barker's works: his books, his art, his movies. OK, now with that said let me try to give an unbiased review of this book. I loved it!! Once started I could not put it down. The whole story was interesting and fun and very exciting to read. The book is meant to appeal to all ages and for the most part it does. It is a tale involving magic, fantasy, fun, and children. Harvey, our ten year old hero, finds himself whisked away to the Holiday House where all the solutions to a bored afternoon are given to him. He later discovers the price he is paying and bravely proceeds to battle with the House. A good tale told in the vein of a fairy tale but in modern, magical times. It also comes with illustrations as done by Clive himself which perfectly match the story. They add to the wonder of discovery as you read. In case you are worried, the illustrations are pretty tame compared to a lot of his other work. The illustrations from The Thief of Always do not come close to the graphic nature of the pictures found in Clive Barker Illustrator. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone, including young children.

The Third Black Book of Horror selected by Charles Black

• Purchase it here
• Published June 2008 (Mortbury Press paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on September 26, 2010
• I picked up this book as a recommendation from an article I read somewhere. I wish that I remembered where because I would go back and discourage others from doing the same. The book was very disappointing. I knew that I was getting a collection of short stories. And only recognizing one name on the list (Joel Lane) did not worry me; I was actually excited to read some new authors and maybe find someone new to follow. Instead I found a bunch of stories that were over-the-top or tried too hard or were just uninteresting. There was one gem that I marked off below but the rest of them were better off skipped. A couple were really close to being good but they lost it before making the marks.

  "The Spoon" by John Mains - The spoon gets his revenge.

13 Bullets by David Wellington

• Purchase it here
• Published May 2007 (Three Rivers Press paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on September 6, 2008
• The action in 13 Bullets starts from the very beginning and only lets up long enough for you to catch your breathe. It then starts again and sucks you into all the excitement and suspense. This pace keeps up until the very end where it ends a little suddenly. Despite the build up and satisfying climax, I still wanted more. Through the entire book, Wellington keeps you highly engaged and interested in what is happening. A routine drunk checkpoint starts events on a roll with Trooper Laura Caxton as she quickly becomes involved in hunting down vampires with Special Agent Jameson Arkeley. With barely time to ponder what is happening, Caxton finds out the hard way how to fight vampires and the half-dead they can animate. While the book might sound like it is pure action and no plot, it does have a true story and interesting characters that are driving that story. There was even an unexpected twist at the end; you can half-see it coming but not to the level of depth that unfolds. As I mentioned above, I was left wanting more and fortunately there is a sequel in the form of 99 Coffins. Luckily, it's already on my list of books to read.

The Throat by Peter Straub

• Purchase it here
• Published March 1994 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on October 5, 1996
• This one took a while to finish but it wasn't because of the book. I ended up with a lot of other things happening and just didn't have time. The Throat is another book in the same "world" as Koko and Mystery which is great because I really enjoyed Tom Passmore from the later book and wanted to see more of him. In order to keep the book accessible for new readers and those who have forgotten, parts of the first couple of chapters go over stuff from other sources. I think that they include a couple of short stories also. But the book quickly picks up speed as Tim Underhill starts probing and trying to find out who killed his friend's wife and why it is part of the Blue Rose murders. It is a very good book and at times I wanted to keep reading, but my body would be too tired and I would fall asleep. A lot of stuff was revealed about Underhill's time in Vietnam and of his past. If you read any of the other books in the same vein, then consider The Throat another must read.

Ticktock by Dean R. Koontz

• Purchase it here
• Published April 1997 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 25, 1999
• I told myself about three Koontz books ago "No More." And now I have finished my last Koontz book and it was actually a good book to end with. I can't say that I hate it as much as some of his others (Dark Rivers of the Heart) and I only skipped pages at the beginning. The rest of it, I'm almost ashamed to say, I actually enjoyed. The dialog was very quick and witty. You find out enough about Deliverance Payne to know that there was a mystery and to be curious about her and you only find out a little bit at a time. Ok, the realism of the story was pure crap but the characters were interesting, at least until the end. <SPOILER ALERT - The story and ending are discussed below. If you want to be surprised, then stop here!> I was willing to suspend belief and believe in a doll creature chasing the main character and having him run in to the typical Dean Koontz strong woman character. But when the woman turns out to be a stunt car driver, has enough weapons to help out, can start fires and hot-wire cars in seconds, filthy rich, at that point I stopped believing in her despite the fun dialog. And get this!! The reason given for her being able to do all that was that she was conceived by some good aliens who abducted her parents and she now has magical powers! Disappointing as a final reason.

Time to Hunt by Stephen Hunter

• Purchase it here
• Published April 1999 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 02, 2001
• For Bob Swagger's sake, I hope that Stephen Hunter is finished with him. Now before you start getting some weird thoughts in your head, Bob Swagger is the main character in Time to Hunt and two other novels by Stephen Hunter: Point of Impact and Black Light. And once again Hunter makes Swagger's life hellish by making the past slice in to the present. For those who don't know, Swagger is a Marine's Marine, a true hero though he would deny it completely; he is also a master sniper with skills putting him in the top ten people in the world. This time the story focuses on Swagger's experience in Vietnam but from Donny Crowe's point of view. Donny was Swagger's spotter. Now for those of us familiar with the previous two novels, we know what happens there so there is nothing new there for us. Nothing that is except for learning about both of them, getting a lot of character development and facts that flush out the characters. Then we fast forward to the present and Swagger is forced in to dealing with the past. While this novel is equally strong and interesting as the other two, there were a few holes in the story that took away from the story. Events that happened to Swagger that are then downplayed to the point of being ignored for the rest of the book. Specifically I'm thinking of an injury. (I'm trying hard to not give anything away while also telling you how I felt while reading it.) Overall though, it is still a good book and a solid, enjoyable read.

Titanic 2012 by Bill Walker

• Purchase it here
• Published November 1998 (Cemetery Dance hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on May 17, 2010
• While you don't have to be a fan of James Cameron's Titanic movie to read this book, it would certainly help. The novel is a loving tribute or thank you to the film. Unfortunately I was never that impressed with the movie, preferring to have a little more story and characters that have a bit more depth. And in that regard I lucked out because the book has more of that. Titanic 2012 takes place around the 100 year anniversary of the original Titanic. Harlan Astor, a super rich billionaire and great-grandson of original Titanic victim John Jacob Astor, has a new Titanic secretly built using the exact same design as the original. He invites the story's protagonist, novelist Trevor Hughes, to join him on the maiden voyage and tell the tales of the ship and the people onboard. Coming off a relationship break-up, Trevor agrees. And then in a similar vein to the movie, Trevor falls in love with one of the other passengers who keeps saying that the relationship won't work. In between their moments together, Trevor interviews the passengers who all talk about Cameron's film, "the greatest movie of all time," and why they are on the ship. Unfortunately the second half of the novel becomes quickly predictable to the readers and loses all sense of surprise. At the same time, much of the emotional attachment is sacrificed. Almost everyone devolves to a hook trying to pull on the reader's heart and not someone that I really cared about. Harlan was the most interesting to me but he's also not around very much in the second half. Overall I would say that the book was enjoyable but not great. I would have liked to see more from the book but it was still entertaining.

To Bury The Dead by Craig Spector

• Purchase it here
• Published January 2001 (Stealth Press hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on June 7, 2007
• This is the first book that I've read by Spector in a while and it was extremely enjoyable. The story follows Paul Kelly: firefighter, paramedic, happy husband and devoted father. Things are going pretty good for him until one night when a call takes him to his teenage daughter who has been attacked and strangled. Unable to save her, she dies on the ride to the hospital. Paul's life slowly unwinds as the death affects him more and more until he finds his life wrapped up in revenge as a means to cope with the death. The story builds nicely and evolves as the tragedy causes ripples in many lives. These are lives for which we believe and feel sorry. And while the revenge and steps taken getting there seem a tad out of character, it's also something where we can see the stress of coping eat away at Paul. A stress that causes bad decisions and further disaster. A stress we can understand and sympathize for him while hoping that it never happens to us. One more minor point, the ending left me with more questions of what was going to happen next and I would have loved to get an epilogue that tied up at least a couple of the major questions outstanding.

To The Stars by George Takei

• Purchase it here
• Published October 1994 (hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on January 3, 1998
• As would be predictable in an autobiography, this book tells a lot about George Takei that was previously unknown. Or at least was previously unknown to some of us. For example, the fact that he was sent to the Japanese-American detainment camps when he was a young boy, one in Oklahoma and one in northern California. Or that he was involved in politics as he got older and became a good friend of Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley. Or that he was not extremely fond of William Shatner, to put it mildly. All of it was quite interesting and very revealing. Quite an entertaining read and also uplifting in several parts. If Hikaru Sulu is one of your favorite characters or at least one you are interested in and you want to gain some background information on the person behind the helm, read this book.

To Wake The Dead by Richard Laymon

• Purchase it here
• Published September 2003 (Leisure Books hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on January 24, 2005
• This is one of Laymon's books that combines so many different and weird elements that the story is unbelievable but at the same time so much fun to read. It has a dead mummy that gets revived, some prisoners being held as sex slaves, the mummy's caretaker who has his own demons to wrestle with, and a museum curator who is the most normal of them all. Mix all of these together, sprinkling in a healthy dose of sex and violence and you get a Laymon novel. Is it one of his best? Not really. Is it one that you will enjoy and barely be able to put down? Most definitely. And when it comes down to it, that is exactly what I want in book. Something that pulls me in, grabs my interest despite how weird it gets, and then won't let me go until I finish it.

Tombs edited by Peter Crowther and Edward E. Kramer

• Purchase it here
• 22 short stories by such authors as Ben Bova, Larry Bond, William F. Buckley Jr, Nancy A. Collins, Michael Moorcock and Lisa Tuttle
• Published 1994 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on October 13, 2000
• I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this but it took me about a third of the book before I realized that all the stories dealt with a tomb of some sort. There was a submarine, a grave, life and tons of others. You would think that I would realize this since the collection is titled Tombs. Despite my being dense, I didn't find this book very enjoyable. Most of the stories were pure work to slug through and not enjoyable. Only a couple of stories appealed to me enough to like but not enough to change my opinion of the book.

  "Burial at Sea" by Larry Bond and Chris Carlson - A submarine's death that is scary in itself but especially since it still happens today, i.e. the Russian sub that recently sank

  "But None I Think Do There Embrace" by S.P. Somtow - An actor makes a deal with the devil

The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce

• Purchase it here
• Published February 1999 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on November 27, 2000
• While a very enjoyable novel, I'm not sure exactly how to describe it. It's a coming of age story about a boy who also discovers the tooth fairy. Unfortunately the tooth fairy is not quite the friendly magical creature that we think. In fact, the relationship that develops between Sam, the main character and the tooth fairy is often antagonistic and brutal, but also loving and seductive. Obviously this has many profound effects on Sam and in turn on his friends. And we stay with them all from a young age of five or six to their late teens, experiencing along with them things like a first kiss, lost toes, a genius and death. Joyce's character development throughout the book is wonderful and very involving. I know that I'm not getting it across here but I found myself not wanting it to end. If you want an off beat tale about kids growing up, then this is definitely a book for you.

The Town by Bentley Little

• Purchase it here
• Published May 2000 (Signet paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 13, 2002
• This is another novel by Little that I really like. It was a bit more scary than the last couple of his that I read and that probably helped me to like it even more. The novel centers around Gregory Tomasov and his family as they move back to the small town in which Tomasov grew up. This move being made possible after Tomasov won the lottery. But what they don't realize is that the house they move in to is haunted, and pretty soon it becomes the whole town that is haunted. The spooky events and frights slowly build up and become quite chilly especially when major characters start getting killed. I'm always a sucker for having a major character that we have grown to know and like suddenly getting killed; it's so much more shocking and thrilling than a minor, nearly nameless nobody biting it. One of the other things that I liked about this novel was how the Molokan religion was a key part of the story but at the same time it wasn't thrust on us. The religion was just part of the story and not the "moral" that so many other authors make it instead.

The Traveling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon

• Purchase it here
• Published March 2001 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 19, 2001
• Wow! After reading The Stake by Laymon, I was anxious to read another book and see if they are all as good as that one. They are! This is another fantastic story that involves real characters living life with all its little problems. The adventure begins when three teenagers in the early '60s decide to try to see a traveling vampire show. It starts off slow enough but it quickly builds in to a suspenseful page turner. Without giving anything away, I can safely say that Laymon is a master at making a tense and scary moment out of nothing. Both of these novels hold off on an "true" supernatural causes until the last scene of the book. Definitely don't miss this novel!

Triage edited by Matt Johnson

• Purchase it here
• 3 novellas by Jack Ketchum, Richard Laymon and Edward Lee
• Published November 2001 (Cemetery Dance Publications hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on May 10, 2005
• This was a fun book based on a fun idea. Each of the three novellas are based on the same idea: a mystery person comes to a workplace bent on destroying someone who had no idea why they were being targeted or even who the psycho was. Originally it was going to be a collaboration but due to circumstances and killer ideas, it morphed into a collection by the three authors instead. And as would be expected, the three novellas are awesome. And while similar, they are very different too. It was cool to flip back and forth between the stories and see exactly where and how they are different; that is until that major diverting point where nothing is similar anymore. "Triage" by Richard Laymon takes the concept and runs with it: basic office workers, set in today and go! "In The Year of Our Lord: 2202" by Edward Lee moves the action into the future (I'll let you figure out what year). He builds an interesting future (not one that I would want to live in) and the story culminates in a point that I didn't really see coming. Not sure if it exactly fit but it was enjoyable. "Sheep Meadow Story" by Jack Ketchum sort of cheats a bit because the required idea occurs in a dream and not the reality of the story but it sets the tone for the story which becomes more hard boiled noir than anything else. This book is highly recommended!

Twists of the Tale edited by Ellen Datlow

• Purchase it here
• 23 short stories by such authors as William Burroughs, Douglas Clegg, Stephen King, Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg, Joyce Carol Oates, Tanith Lee and Gahan Wilson
• Published November 1996 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on November 04, 1999
• Unfortunately this collection of stories didn't turn out to be as enjoyable as I thought that it was going to. With all the big names contributing and with Datlow usually picking out a good collection of stories, I hoped to find most of them good. Only the beginning stories were; the rest came across as mediocre. The gems amongst the stones were ...

  "White Rook, Black Pawn" by Susan Wade - As Datlow put it, the story "is a tour de force about firefighting, physics, chess, and divorcing parents."

  "The Five" by Douglas Clegg - A young girl's life becomes wrapped up in the lives of five kittens.

  "Not Waving" by Michael Marshall Smith - A love story involving someone trapped in their own choices.

  "Incidental Cats" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman - A day of change for some cats.

The Two-Bear Mambo by Joe R. Lansdale

• Purchase it here
• Published September 1996 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 01, 2001
• I was caught reading this book while on a bus ride back to my hotel on a recent business trip. When asked what the book was about and if it was good, I was kind of perplexed. Not on the good part, that was a quick affirmative answer and upgrade to excellent. It was the "how do I explain this book without throwing this stranger into quandary on some of the more eccentric characteristics of the book" thing. I ended up answering that it was about two men and their journey to stay true to the qualities that make them who they are. And on the way they run in to a bunch of backward redneck hicks who are out to kill them. And it was then that I realized part of why I love the Hap Collins and Leonard Pine books; it's because they are about two men who constantly find themselves in some weird ass situations and yet they always stay true to keeping their honor. It's a very Japanese thing but it fits for them. I think that I kind of end up viewing it as role model for myself to live up to. Granted I'm not almost killed as much as these two and I do have a bit more ambition but it is still a lesson that can be learned while enjoying some good old backwoods fun.

Two Trains Running by Andrew Vachss

• Purchase it here
• Published June 2006 (Vintage Crime paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 12, 2008
• Vachss proves once again that he is great at writing a good old-fashioned, crime noir story. However while I did enjoy the book, there were still some flaws and issues that I had which took away from the overall novel. The story, based in late 1959, involves Royal Beaumont, a self-professed hillbilly, who rules the town of Locke City with an iron fist. When the mafia start trying to muscle in on his business, Beaumont hires an outside enforcer who turns out to also be a great strategist. Throw into the mix some racial discord along with an Irish mob and corrupt FBI agents and you'll have all the pieces. The problem was that the final picture included a little too much. The social and business interactions of the various groups were already a bit stretched. Then when Vachss threw in a bunch of political positioning too, it became too much and things didn't seem to gel together. Motives of the different groups were never clear. I don't think they were too complex for me to understand; I never saw them as being clear. And then to make matters worse, too many of the characters all read the same. At least four characters could be described as criminals with a strong moral or sense of honor. The source of their morals differed (racial pride or tortured soul being the two major ones) but their dialogue was interchangeable. It made the story difficult and not ring out as true. All in all, Vachss has done a much better job.

Send comments or your opinions on these books to mike@kazba.com.

Last modified on September 26, 2010