FRIDAY'S Forgotten Books

Forgotten Books for May 30, 2008

Ken Bruen’s Forgotten Book

Michigan Roll by Tom Kakonis

The great neglected forgotten writer in my opinion is Tom Kakonis.
He wrote a wondrous series of novels featuring an ex professor who'd served time and is now eking out a precarious existence in Las Vegas under the dubious mentorship of a very shady acquaintance.
The writing is dark dangerous poetry and the violence when it comes, is sharp and shocking, an air of doomed menace looms over the novels like a palpable cloud.
Michigan Roll, perhaps the very best in the series,, is a true forgotten classic.
Kakonis abandoned this stunning series and now writes under a different name.
The atmosphere of being damned, of no hope, of no redemption is noir like you rarely read.
The characterisation is superb and the sheer agony of seeing a decent man who never caught a break and knows he is screwed is heart wrenching.

Sandra Seaman’s Forgotten Book

THE QUIET GAME by Greg Iles

To be perfectly honest, I've never written a book review. For me books have always been a personal journey, something I've kept to myself, so I hope you'll bear with me as I tell you a little about the book I chose.

The book is "The Quiet Game" by Greg Iles. I'd been dipping into the work of several Southern writers when I stumbled across The Quiet Game. Published in 1999, the book centers around a thirty year old mystery.

Penn Cage is a lawyer who, with his daughter, returns to his parent's home in Natchez, Mississippi so the two of them can heal after the death of his wife. He gets prodded into investigating the unsolved murder of a black man in 1968. A murder that neither the black nor white community wants re-opened. Everyone is guarding their secrets, playing the quiet game.

Iles lays bare the undercurrents of a small southern town from the racial to the political. His wonderful writing weaves the secrets of the past into the secret lives of the present, exploring the effects of choices on people, their families and the community.

My poor summary doesn't do justice to the many layers that Mr. Iles has written into this book. His words make you sit up and think, chew your fingernails when things go terribly wrong, and smile when you realize that under all the conspiracy and mayhem the story is about justice in its truest sense.

And the rest:

http://joeboland.blogspot.com/

http://jasonpinter.blogspot.com/

http://wallacestrobycom.blogspot.com/

http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/ (Dick Lochte)

http://halfhead.blogspot.com/

http://smallcrimes-novel.blogspot.com/index.html

http://firstoffenders.typepad.com/offenders/

http://cleasimon.blogspot.com/

http://www.journalscape.com/Hedgehog/2008-05-29-17:50/

http://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=622

http://juxtabook.typepad.com/

http://knitstory.blogspot.com/2008/05/fridays-forgotten-books.html

http://www.redroom.com/blog/kristy-kiernan/fridays-forgotten-books-or-how-evel-knievel-got-me-to-read

http://billcrider.blogspot.com/

http://crimesceneni.blogspot.com/2008/05/friday-project-sacrifice-of-fools-by.html

http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2008/05/faded.html (Stephen Elliott)

http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2008/05/friday-forgotten-books-harold-q-masur.html

http://eudaemoniaforall.blogspot.com/2008/05/overlooked-books-friday-dogs-of-march.html

http://www.mysterybookspot.com/brianlindenmuth/http://www.mysterybookspot.com/brianlindenmuth/

http://nethspace.blogspot.com/2008/05/forgotten-fridays-mythago-wood-by.
html

http://charlesgramlich.blogspot.com/