Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, February 28, 2014

From the  FFB archives

Kent Morgan lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba where in retirement he co-writes two sports columns, plays hockey twice a week, and tries to figure what to do with all the books in his house and garage.

In A True Light – John Harvey 

In 1998, John Harvey won the first-ever Sherlock Award for the best detective, Charlie Resnick, created by a British author. When he decided to stop writing the Resnick series, he opted to write a standalone where he could use his interest in both art and music in the storyline. The result is this book which received well-deserved raves from book reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic. Sloane is a 60-year-old painter who is just out of prison after serving time for duplicating fine art for a dealer. He takes the rap and doesn’t squeal on the dealer who promised him 20,000 pounds on his release. After he collects the money, he is contacted by a woman in Italy who tells him a prominent artist with whom he had a fling in New York when he was 18 is dying and wants to see him. She claims that Sloane is the father of her estranged daughter, who is a jazz singer in the States, and asks him to find her. This takes him back to New York where he discovers the younger woman is involved with a man who beats her and has ties to organized crime. Sloane isn’t convinced that the woman is his daughter and despite the fact that she doesn’t seem to want him in her life and any help with her problems that includes drugs, he can’t stop himself from getting involved. The story moves back and forth from New York to London and Pisa and Harvey’s characters jump off the page as Sloane attempts to resolve his issues as well as the woman’s problems. This is one of the few books I have read in recent years that I didn’t want to put dow

Sergio Angelini, BLACK WATER, Joyce Carol Oates
Joe Barone, EXIT THE MILKMAN, Charlotte MacLeod
Brian Busby, HOW DO YOU SPELL ABDUCTED, Cherylyn Stacey
Bill Crider, MYSTERY SCENE, Volume 1, Issue 2
Martin Edwards, A CASE WITH FOUR CLOWNS, Leo Bruce
Curt Evans, THE SLYPE and THE DEVIL IN THE BELFRY, Russell Thorndyke
Rich Horton, GRAUSTARK, George Barr McCutcheon
Jerry House, THE LAND OF SHORTER SHADOWS, Erle Stanley Gardner
Nick Jones, Titan Graphic Novel, Comic Roundup
George Kelley, NO LESSER PLEA, Robert K. Tanenbaum
Margot Kinberg, TILT-A-WHIRL, Chris Grabenstein
B.V. Lawson, THE SINGING SPIDER, Angus MacVicar
Evan Lewis, "The Life and Times of Daffy Dill" Monte Herridge
Steve Lewis/David Vineyard, THREE HOSTAGES, John Buchan
Todd Mason, REDUX, Some best ofs
James Reasoner, ESCAPE TO SINDOM, Don Elliott
Ron Scheer, DANE COOLIDGE, THE TEXICAN
Michael Slind, THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN, Sjowall and Wahloo
R.T. JONATHAN SWIFT: HIS LIFE AND WORK, Leo Damrosch
Kevin Tipple/Barry Ergang, KIRINYAGA: A FABLE OF UTOPIA, Mike Resnick
TomCat, THE TRACES OF MERRILEA, Herbert Breen