Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, July10, 2015

(From the 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. He admits that he didn't need that box of 15 books that arrived this week from Bookcloseouts.com.

In A True Light – John Harvey – Carroll & Graf 2002

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 down.

Joe Barone, INSPECTOR SINGH INVESTIGATES A CALAMITOUS CHINESE KILLING, Shamini Flint
Les Blatt, INSPECTOR FRENCH'S GREATEST CASE, Freeman Willis Croft
Elgin Bleeker, THAT SUMMER IN PARIS, Morley Callahan
Bill Crider, STAR SCIENCE FICTION #2. ed. Fredrich Pohl
Martin Edwards, THE INGENIOUS MR. STONE. Robert Player
Ed Gorman, THE EVIL DAYS, Bruno Fischer
John Hegenberger,  MACABRE READER,  Donald Wolheim 
Rick Horton, HELLO, SUMMER, GOODBYE, Michael Coney
Jerry House, FORGOTTEN CHARACTER: NIGEL STRANGEWAYS
Randy Johnson, AMOS FLAGG: HIGH GUN, Clay Randall
George Kelley, ALL BUT IMPOSSIBLE. ed. Edward D. Hoch
Margot Kinberg, THE CRY, Helen Fitzgerald
B.V. Lawson, A NIGHT AT THE CEMETERY, Anton Chekov
Evan Lewis, THE TRAILSMAN BLOOD WEDDING, Jon Sharp
Steve Lewis/Barry Gardner, THE MAGIC OF RECLUCE, L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Todd Mason, GALAXY: THIRTY YEARS OF INNOVATIVE SCIENCE FICTION edited by Frederik Pohl, M. H. Greenberg and Joseph Olander (Wideview/Playboy Press 1980)...and the other US sf and fantasy magazines, along with the first issue of GALAXY, October 1950
J.F. Norris, THE DOORS OF SLEEP, Thurman Warriner
James Reasoner, CRISIS ON MULTIPLE EARTHS, Gardner Fox
Richard Robinson, THE BOTTOM OF THE HARBOR, Joseph Mitchell
Gerard Saylor, KISS HER GOODBYE, Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins
Kerrie Smith, A IS FOR ALIBI, Sue Grafton
Kevin Tipple/Barry Ergang, PETER LAWFORD: THE MAN WHO KEPT SECRETS, James Spada
TomCat, CITY OF BRASS, Edward D. Hoch
TracyK, FOURTH OF JULY PICNIC, Rex Stout