Friday, December 30, 2016

Probably SHOT IN DETROIT'S FINAL REVIEW


And a good time to thank everyone here that reviewed it, read it, mentioned it, hosted me on their blog. This is a rough business and SHOT will probably be my final novel. Just don't seem to have the heart for it now. Maybe a short story but the head space to do a novel is gone. Anyway, thanks to Scott Montgomery at BookPeople/Mystery People in Austin. A store I have been in and loved.

https://mysterypeople.wordpress.com/2016/12/28/mysterypeople-review-shot-in-detroit-by-patricia-abbott/


FRIDAY'S FORGOTTEN BOOKS, Friday, December 30, 2016



Black Is The Color – John Brunner (from archives: Randy Johnson)
As a young boy discovering a love of reading even as I was learning, John8570777
Brunner was an early find, third I believe, behind Heinlein and Norton. The early stuff was mostly from the Ace Doubles. Black Is The Color is a little bit different. From 1969, part spy novel, it has a plot line that would fit in in things happening today.
Mark Hanwell, a disillusioned young man returns home to London after six months in Spain where he’d met and worked for The Big Famous Writer he only ever refers to as Hairy Harry. It didn’t take long for him to realize his hero had feet of clay, making the bulk of his money selling pornography and weed. In fact, the last four pieces of writing under his name had been written by Mark.
Home, he goes looking for a woman who’d sent him a few letters early on, then stopped. A singer, he traced the bank d she’d been with falling into as different a world as he’d ever run into.
Sadism was part of it, voodoo, a plan to start a race war in England, Mark finds his work an and the man she’d taken up with, a South Africaner.
I’d never heard of this book before I came across it. Good stuff

Yvette Banek, Favorite Books of 2016
Joe Barone, THE LABOURS OF HERCULES, Agatha Christie
Les Blatt, FAREWELL MY LOVELY, Raymond Chandler
Brian Busby, THE TEN BEST BOOK BUYS
Bill Crider, SHARP PRACTICE, John Farris
Martin Edwards
Charles Gramlich, TEN FAVORITE READS 
Richard Horton, THE PLANET STRAPPERS, Raymond Z Gallun
Jerry House, THE MUCKER, Edgar Rice Burroughs
Nick Jones, What I Read this Year
George Kelley, IF THIS GOES WRONG, ed. Hank Davis
Margot Kinberg,  The Masala Murder, Madhumita Bhattacharyya 
Rob Kitchin, THE CHOIRBOYS, Joseph Wambaugh
Kate Laity, BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH, Geoffrey Homes
B.V. Lawson, MISS MADELEINE MACK, DETECTIVE, Hugh Cosgrove Weir
Steve Lewis/William Deeck, HOLIDAY HOMICIDE, Rufus King 
Todd Mason, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, STORIES TO BE READ WITH YOUR DOOE LOCKED, ed. Harold Q, Masur
Neer, FIVE MYSTERIES, Rhode Rinehart, Jackson Vine
J.F. Norris, SING ME A MURDER, Helen Nielsen
Matt Paust, CONVERSATIONS WITH ROBERT SILVERBERG, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro
Reactions to Reading, 2016 Reading (Australian Women's Challenge)
James Reasoner, THE KNIFE SLIPPED, A.A. Fair (Erle Stanley Gardner) 
Richard Robinson, Favorite Books Read in 2016

Gerard Saylor, THE OUTLAW ALBUM, Daniel Woodrell 
Kevin Tipple, A ROOM FULL OF BONES, Elly Griffiths
TomCat, THE BEST AND WORST OF 2016
TracyK, THOU SHELL OF DEATH, Nicholas Blake

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Goodbye to Debbie


Favorite TV Shows of 2016


In no special order

1. BETTER CALL SAUL
2. FARGO
3. THE CROWN
4. ATLANTA
5. THE AMERICANS
6. RECTIFY
7. STRANGER THINGS
8. FLEABAG
9. GOLIATH
10 BETTER THINGS
11 MASTER OF NONE

What about you? 

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Favorite Novels Read in 2016

No special order (except, of course the first)

YOU WILL KNOW ME, Megan Abbott
THE PRICE OF SALT, Patricia Highsmith
BROOKLYN, Colm Toibin
MY BRILLIANT FRIEND, Elena Ferrante
A MAN CALLED OVE, Frederick Backman
BEFORE THE FALL, Noah Hawley
LISTEN TO ME, Hannah Pittard
THE LONG AND FARAWAY GONE, Lou Berney
THE WATER'S EDGE, Karen Fossum
LET HIM GO, Larry Watson
WILDE LAKE, Laura Lippman

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Goodbye to Carrie


San Junipero Episode of BLACK MIRROR

One of my problems with some of the BLACK MIRROR episodes, streaming on Netflix, has been they lean too heavily on understanding technology and how it applies to modern life-its deficits and its pluses.

But this episode SAN JUNIPERO is so much more about our humanness, about romance, about what we will choose in the end for our end. I don't want to ruin it and it took me twice to really get it. And even after that I read reviews online that told me I had missed clues. But if you haven't seen it and stream netflix, it is well worth your time. I think it is a small work of genius.

Monday, December 26, 2016

MONDAY NIGHT MUSIC


Christmas Books for Phil & Patti



Sorry this picture doesn't translate well from Instagram. TONY AND SUSAN is the novel that NOCTURNAL ANIMALS comes from. THE MAGIC OF SHIRLEY JACKSON is a replacement for the copy destroyed by falling plaster 35 years ago. What new books did you get for the holidays?

Sunday, December 25, 2016

                            Have the happiest of holidays. The Abbotts.

Friday, December 23, 2016

Friday's Forgotten Books, December 23, 2016

MAIGRET AND THE MAN ON THE BENCH, Georges Simenon

This was a strong story and good in all the ways that matter except one-the ending was one of those that came out of nowhere. At least for me.
A body turns up in an alley, the victim of a stabbing. He seems to be a mild-mannered fellow but his wife, IDing the body, says the shoes are not his. He never wore brown shoes. And the tie was too wild.
Maigret finds the man indeed has led a second life. And the second life is far more edgy than the first.
Simenon is very skilled at giving us a look at proper bourgeois French society here and how its expectations take a toll. I very much enjoyed reading a straight forward, well-written, character driven story. Just what I needed now.And isn't the jacket terrific?

Mark Baker, THE POET, Michael Connelly
Les Blatt, CHRISTMAS AT CANDLESHOE, Michael Innes
Damien Broderick NEUROPATH Scott Bakker
Brian Busby, I LOST IT ALL AT MONTREAL,  Donna Steinberg
Bill Crider, SPRINGER'S GAMBIT, W.L. Ripley
Martin Edwards, ANOTHER LITTLE CHRISTMAS MURDER, Lorna Nicholl Morgan
Curt Evans, GROANING SPINNEY, Gladys Mitchell
Richard Horton, A LITTLE KNOWN ACE DOUBLE, TIME THIEVES, Dean R. Koontz and AGAINST ARCTURUS Susan Putney
Jerry House, COLLECTED STORIES, Roald Dahl
George Kelley, THE TWELVE CRIMES OF CHRISTMAS, ed. Rossell, Waugh, Greenberg and Asimov
Margot Kinberg, WE ARE THE HANGMAN, Douglas Lindsay
Rob Kitchin, CITY OF THIEVES, David Benioff
B.V. Lawson, THE MAN WHO DIDN'T FLY. Margot Bennett
Steve Lewis, DEATH BENEATH THE CHRISTMAS TREE, Robert Norden
Todd Mason, 1989 Horror/Fantasy Anthologies
J.F. Norris, VICIOUS CIRCLE, Manning Long
Juri Nummelin, SPORTS IN THE PULP MAGAZINES, John Dinan
Neer, 1222, Anne Holt
Reactions to Reading, THE FACELESS, Vanda Symon
James Reasoner, EVE OF EVIL, George G. Gilman
Richard Robinson, THE WILLOWS AT CHRISTMAS, THE WILLOWS IN WINTER, William Horwood
Gerard Saylor, JACK WAKES UP, Seth Harwood; LISTEN, A GERMAN REQUIEM, Philip Kerr
Kerrie Smith, THE BANK INSPECTOR, Roger Monk
Kevin Tipple, THE EMPTY MANGER, Bill Crider
TomCat, TWO MYSTERIES, Donald Bayne Hobart
TracyK, KILL NOW AND PAY LATER, Robert Kyle

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Forgotten Movies: HOLIDAY AFFAIR





Now here was a film I remembered liking more than I did. Hollywood apparently decided that there needed to be very little chemistry and few scenes to bolster the romance between Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum. And why did they always cast actors like Wendell Corey as the other suitor.?You know immediately he doesn't stand a chance. The best thing about the movie was the child who had quite a large part and had more chemistry with Leigh and Mitchum than they did with each other.

Leigh plays a comparison shopper at Christmas who costs Mitchum his job when he doesn't turn her in. Apparently you were not allowed to do this. Why? A widow, Leigh is dating Corey but is still pining over her dead husband. It really annoys me in these movies when without a single romantic moment, the lead (Mitchum) proposes to the woman. Really!

I always admired THE PHILADELPHIA STORY for pitting Stewart against Grant as the romantic interests. Make it count.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Goodbye Zsa Zsa


LOVING

LOVING was not the best movie I've seen this year, but it was substantially better than I anticipated. Jeff Nichols is a skillful director and he obviously studied his subjects, knew the facts of the case, and directed the actors well.
For those not familiar, LOVING is the tale of Mildred and Richard Loving, a white man and a black woman who married in 1958 and attempted to raise their family in Virginia, a state that did not recognize mixed-race marriages at that time. The country judge sentenced them to living outside of Va for 25 years to avoid a prison term.
The movie concerns the court case that eventually overturned these laws.
The Lovings were quiet, non-confrontational people who wanted to raise their family in rural Virginia, near their families. When this became impossible Mildred wrote a letter to Bobby Kennedy, (then Attorney General) which set this case in motion.
What a perfect title. It is not only their name, but the story of their marriage-neither one turned against the other as is so often the case in  situations this difficult. He respected her need to raise her children in the country; she respected his need to stay out of the limelight. 
I almost always have a problem with films that are telling me a story I can learn from a documentary or by reading a book. But this one was so precise in its story-telling and the actors were so skilled, I have to rate it as one of the better movies of 2016. Joel Edgerton is a fine actor (in very different movies than this one) and Ruth Negga, is almost unrecognizable from the role she played in PREACHER.
What movie telling a true story earned your respect?

Friday, December 16, 2016

Friday's Forgotten Books: Special: Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini Day

(information found on various online sources and may not be up to date)

A native of the Detroit area,in the early 1970s, having moved to California, Marcia Muller began experimenting with mystery novels because they were what she liked to read. After three manuscripts and five years of rejection, EDWIN OF THE IRON SHOES, the first novel featuring San Francisco private investigator Sharon McCone, was published by David McKay Company, who then cancelled their mystery list. Four more years passed before St. Martin's Press accepted the second McCone novel, ASK THE CARDS A QUESTION.
In the ensuing thirty-some years, Muller has authored over 35 novels--several in collaboration with husband Bill Pronzini--seven short-story collections, and numerous nonfiction articles. Together she and Pronzini have edited a dozen anthologies and a nonfiction book on the mystery genre. In 2005 Muller was named a Grand Master by Mystery Writers of America, the organization’s highest award. Pronzini was named Grand Master in 2008, making them the only living couple to share the award (the other being Margaret Millar ad Ross Macdonald). The Mulzinis, as friends call them, live in Sonoma County, California.


Bill Pronzini (born April 13, 1943) is an American writer of detective fiction. He is also an active anthologist, having compiled more than 100 collections, most of which focus on mystery, western, and science fiction short stories.
He published his first novel, The Stalker, in 1971. However, his best known works are the Nameless Detective series, which he began in 1971. As of April, 2009, there are more than 35 books in the series, as well as a number of short stories.
His books have been translated into nearly twenty languages, and have been published in more than thirty countries. William John Pronzini was born in Petaluma, California. He married mystery writer Marcia Muller in 1992. They have collaborated on three novels: Beyond the Grave (1986), The Lighthouse, (1987); and Double (1984), a Nameless Detective novel, as well as on numerous anthologies.
In 1987 he won The Eye, the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by The Private Eye Writers of America. It is a more exclusive version of their Shamus Award. He has been nominated three times by the Mystery Writers of America for an Edgar Award, and received their Grand Master designation in May 2008.


Bill Pronzini/Marcia Muller.(from Jeff Meyerson)


I had a tough time deciding what to do about this (and almost left it too late), as these are two of my favorite mystery writers and have been for a long time.  In checking my Authors list, I see I've read 75 titles (putting him at #4) by Bill Pronzini, including non-fiction, westerns, and a lot of short story collections, and 48 (#9) by Marcia Muller.  The first book of his I read was The Stalker in 1974, while the first Muller was Edwin of the Iron Shoes in 1986. 


The other reason I wanted to do this was that I have always been fascinated by authors who collaborate on books, and how they do it.  We all know the story of the cousins who became "Ellery Queen" 80-off years ago.  Pronzini and Muller have collaborated on a number of books in different series.  The first that I read was Double in 1994, a collaboration between Bill's "Nameless Detective" and Marcia's Sharon McCone, the two San Francisco private eyes.  This was done in a straightforward fashion, with alternating chapters from each character's point of view.  McCone teasingly calls him "Wolf" after a story calling him "the last of the lone-wolf private eyes" (we now know his name is Bill) when they meet at a private eye convention in San Diego, and the book works well.


The duo have since worked together on short stories, both mystery and western, and are currently co-writing a series started by Bill alone years ago with 1985's Quincannon, featuring the Barbary Coast detective agency of Carpenter and Quincannon, in the San Francisco of the 1890's.  But the one I wanted to mention particularly was the second Quincannon book, as it was a collaboration bringing him together with Muller's second sleuth, museum director Elena Oliverez.  Beyond the Grave begins with Oliverez buying a Mexican wedding chest and discovering a report from John Quincannon inside.  He wrote it in the 1890s; the case was unfinished and Oliverez tries to finish solving it in the 1980s.  This works quite well and if you only know them from the Nameless and McCone series, you might give this one a try.  There were two earlier Oliverez books, by the way.


                                                                                                                        Jeff Meyerson



VANISHING POINT, Marcia Muller. (Patti Abbott)

The VANISHING POINT won the Shamus for best private eye novel the year of its publication, 2006. Sharon McCone, Muller's PI, had been turning up regularly since her first outing in EDWIN OF THE IRON SHOES.

In VANISHING POINT, Sharon is newly married, has recently located her birth mother, and has a thriving practice. Although the book does not spend much time on any of these issues, there is enough detail to give the reader a good sense of her new (and old) life. I admired the way Muller wove these details in without slowing down her current investigation a bit.

This case concerns the disappearance of Laurel Greenwood some twenty years earlier. Her older daughter, with the support of her husband, wants to put the story of her mother to rest. Greenwood was a landscape painter who often ventured far afield to pursue her work. This time she did not return. Mr. Greenwood, a cold father, has recently died. There are many questions about his handling of this disappearance and what he did and did not do.


As you might expect there are lots of twists and turns here. And the story crosses back and cross over the twenty years. McCone is very good at giving every character a personality and the surprises were consistent with it. I would like to know more about McCone's personal life, which seems complex and interesting. I always appreciate an author who gives her protagonist a rich life and although this book didn't spend a lot of time on it, there was enough to make me want to read more.

Sergio Angelini, THE VANISHED (P)
BURIED UNDER BOOKS, THE BODY SNATCHER'S AFFAIR ( M + P)
Bill Crider, A RUN IN DIAMONDS, Alex Saxon (P)
Curt Evans, BONES(P)
Ed Gorman,ZIGZAG, (P)
Jerry House, DEATH MIDNIGHT (M), SIX GUNS IN CHEEK, (P)
George Kelley, THE BODY SNATCHERS AFFAIR, (M + P)
Rob Kitchin, THE VANISHED (P)
B.V. Lawson, THE ETHNIC DETECTIVE, Pronzini and Greenberg
Steve Lewis, DOUBLE
Todd Mason, CRIMINAL INTENT, Novellas by M + P
J.F. Norris, THE SPOOK LIGHTS AFFAIR (M + P)
Matthew Paust, DOUBLE (M + P)
James Reasoner, MIKE SHAYNE AT WORK (P) (with Jeff Wallman)
Kevin Tipple/Barry Ergang, THE BUGHOUSE AFFAIR (M + P)
TracyK ,BOOBYTRAP (P)
WOMAN OF MYSTERY, LOCKED IN (M)

And others
Mark Baker, LIVE FREE OR DIE, Jesse Crockett
Joe Barone, AN AUTHOR BITES THE DUST. Arthur Upfield
Elgin Bleecker, A Hitchcock Truffaut Inrtervew
Brian Busby, Three Titles Deserving Resurrection
Martin Edwards, DEATH OF A QUEEN, Christopher St. John Spriggs
Richard Horton, TIDES, Ada and Julian Street
Margot Kinberg, COPTOWN, Karen Slaughter
Steve Lewis, SEA FEVER, Ann Cleeves
Neer, VICTORIAN VILLAINES, Graham and Greene
Richard Robinson, ESCAPADE, Walter Satterthwait
Gerard Saylor, MONSTER, Dave Zeltserman
TomCat, SIX WERE PRESENT. E.R. Punshon

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Colorizing the Petries



(This was not the episode shown.)

We watched the colorized version of two old DICK VAN DYKE shows on Sunday night on CBS. They were two classic episodes and they did a good job (IMHO) of choosing colors that would have been in use in the early sixties. However, after the first few minutes, I didn't even think about the color. I just concentrated on the great plots, acting, sets, costumes. I think in my head, they were always in color. Mary looked gorgeous. I think they colored Dick's hair a little too light.
Did you see it? What did you think? Are you in favor of colorization now that it's a better process? Is it worth colorizing TV shows?

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Tuesday Night Music


Tuesday: Neglected Movie-BLUE JAY

I caught this on Netflix. It was expected to get more of a release than it did because the audience at Sundance was favorable toward it. But here it is and I suspect it's because it is such a small movie. Really only two characters with a brief appearance by Clu Gullager, hardly recognizable.

Sarah Paulson and Mark Duplass play high school sweethearts who meet up when she's come back to their small California hometown to help her sister and he's come back to bury his mother. The movie is in black and white--I don't know why--because I think color would have served it better.

The movie was written by Duplass and he plays the same sad, insecure character he did on his two-year show on Showtime, TOGETHERNESS. Sarah Paulson is more joyful, seemingly having a good life, but eventually it's clear her effervescence is put on. It's a sad little movie but the acting is good and the dialog rings true. You believe they were a couple twenty years ago and are sad it went wrong. It is a very quiet film.

Question: Is black and white always a viable option in a movie or should it be reserved for films where is makes sense?

Here is what the director (Alex Lehmann) said about making the film in black and white. 




Monday, December 12, 2016

Monday Night Music


Actors Who Fell Out of Favor

I was surprised to see Brendan Frasier playing a brutal prison guard on SHOWTIME's THE AFFAIR. What the heck happened to this former heartthrob? Yes, his looks have faded but is there more to it? Is he just not a very good actor? More often it is drugs or being over thirty-five for women that ends a career. Remember Geena Davis? I think these movie franchises are destroying a lot of careers. Robert Downey, Jr. used to be considered a fine actor until he took on SHERLOCK and IRON MAN.
Who else has wandered offstage?I know Clive Owen is on THE KNICK but I expected more.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Friday, December 09, 2016

Friday Night Blues Brothers


THE MILLIONS: A YEAR IN READING

http://www.themillions.com/2016/12/year-reading-megan-abbott.html

Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, December 9, 2016



NEXT WEEK: SPECIAL FFB MULLER AND PRONZINI

THE WATER'S EDGE, Karen Fossum

This was a very fine novel about a rather tired subject. The abduction and murder of two small boys. It is set up in an interesting manner though. A middle-age couple stumbles on the first body and the husband becomes obsessed with the case, seeing himself as the hero of the story. He even takes pictures of the poor child's body and passes them around.
The writing is very good although I felt the detectives played a very secondary role in this. We got the POV of the abductor and the POV of the couple and the POV of the child's mother and then the second child's mother and her boyfriend. This is certainly a misanthropic view of Norwegian society. There's hardly a good soul to be found. But it is so well-written and constructed you have to finish and admire it.

Sergio Angelini, THE LAST BEST HOPE, Ed McBain
Yvette Banek, OH, JERUSALEM, Laurie King
Joe Barone, PUSHING UP DAISIES, M.C. Beaton
Les Blatt, A PRIVATE VIEW, John Appleby
Elgin Bleecker, FARGO, John Benteen
Brian Busby, Best Books of 1916 (Canada)
Bill Crider, DRAGON WEATHER, Lawrence Watts-Evans
Martin Edwards, THE FASHION IN SHROUDS, Margery Allingham
Curt Evans, My Favorite Thrillers, Part One
Richard Horton, ALIEN SEA, John Rackham, C.O.D. E.C. Tubb
Jerry House, SISTER WENDY'S ODYSSEY, Sister Wendy
George Kelley, SHANHAI FLAME, COUNTERSPY EXPRESS, A.S. Fleishman
Margot Kinberg. RIM OF THE PIT, Hake Talbot
Rob Kitchin, BLACK ROSES, Jane Tynne
B.V. Lawson, SPEAKING OF MURDER, Ed Gorman and Martin Greenberg
Steve Lewis, DESERT GUNS, Steve Frazee
Todd Mason, DIRTY, DIRTY, DIRTY, Mike Edison, THE CREATION OF TOMORROW, Paul Carter
Neer, BEST CRIME STORIES, VOL 3, John Welcome
J.F. Norris, GALLOWS FOR THE GROOM, D.B. Olsen
Matthew Paust, 1776, David McCullough
Reactions to Reading, THE BIRD TRIBUNAL, Agnes Ravatn
James Reasoner, THE OXBOW DEED, D.B. Newton
Richard Robinson, THE LONDON BLITZ MURDERS, Max Allan Collins
Gerard Saylor, ONE ENDLESS HOUR, Dan J. Marlowe
Kerry Smith, DEATH IN AUGUST, Marco Vichi
Kevin Tipple/Barry Ergang, THE DRIFTER DETECTIVE, Garnett Elliot
TomCat, BLACK-HEADED PINS, Constance and Gwnyth Little
TracyK, MURDER GOES MUMMING, Alisa Craig
Westlake Review, COMEBACK, Richard Stark

Thursday, December 08, 2016

Wednesday, December 07, 2016

Wednesday Night Music: Gaynor and Kelly


First Wednesday Book Review Club: MISS JANE, Brad Watson



MISS JANE is the gorgeously written but often painful story of a girl born with defective genitals at a time when such a thing could not be surgically corrected. Because of Jane's incontinence, she is kept at home and deprived of an education, friends, the world at large. Her doctor becomes one of her few friends and his enjoyment of her intelligence and her, of his, allows her some sense of the community. As she matures she takes some stabs at friendship and romance but retreats as she understands the issues. Jane grows  up in a rural community and Watson is especially adept at describing the sights, sounds and ambience of such a place. Although she is somewhat able to overcome her situation, Watson never makes her into a larger than life character. She is human and you feel her pain.
Apparently the book is based on the life of his great aunt.
The elegance of the writing and the vivid characters make this an excellent read.

For more reviews, consult the wonderful Barrie Summy right here. 

Tuesday, December 06, 2016

Tuesday Night Music: Garland and Kelly


Phanton Lady

I watched  PHANTOM LADY a few nights ago, starring Ella Raines and Franchot Tone, Alan Curtis and the great Thomas Gomez, and although it was interesting, the plot holes seemed enormous. How did the villain know what the patsy was doing while he was killing his wife well enough to go out and bribe the witnesses into saying they hadn't seen the woman wearing the hat. Maybe someone can help me here. Did I fall asleep? I thought it was a weird but not very good film. So much of the acting seemed off. and Tone seemed miscast. I have the book somewhere if I can only find it.

REVIEW: MANCHESTER BY THE SEA






This one is not for those who can't endure pain. It is a story about grief, how to live with it or not live with it. How it affects others. What people do to get through it. Casey Affleck gives one of the bravest, truest, realistic performance I have ever seen. He's in almost every scene and you cannot take your eyes away from his haunted face. The use of overlapping dialog was a terrific choice for allowing the characters to feel related. Michelle Williams is only in a few scenes but her final one knocks it out of the park. The setting is perfect, the characters feel real and they are given time to develop. By the movie's end you could write an essay about each of them--that's how well you know them. Just don't expect to walk out smiling. What humor there is comes from a young actor, Lucas Hedges, who again feels organic. Every line seems perfectly suited to a smart, nice kid. And like every character he has one scene that will tear you up. Maybe LaLa Land or Jackie or Fences will up the ante but this looks like the best picture of the year. And this after my deep admiration of MOONLIGHT.

Monday, December 05, 2016

What's in a name?

Sometimes it's not until I change a character's name that he/she comes to life.
Another thing about names, if a character has a name that is too modern or old fashioned for the time period, it bothers me. Although names from the turn of the last century are back in vogue to have a four-year old named Heather today would not seem right. Her name would more likely be Ella, Grace, Harriet, Marion. Although class and region also play a part.

When I first submitted SHOT IN DETROIT to an agent, he balked at the name Violet. He said it was too old-fashioned. Well, he was partially right. It was not the right name for a 40 year old woman but it would have be okay for her grandmother or daughter. At the time I had a section in the novel about how as a kid people called her Violent instead of Violet. I eventually took it out but the name had stuck by then.

Certain names have too great a connection with a famous person to use unless you are commenting on it.

What are some of your favorite character names? I am going with Merricat Blackwood (WE HAVDE ALWAYS LIVED IN A CASTLE and Bo Radley (TO KILL A MOCKINBIRD).Has a chartacter's name ever ruined a story for you?

Friday, December 02, 2016

Chemo Demo at SHOTGUN HONEY

http://shotgunhoney.com/fiction/chemo-demo-by-patricia-abbott/#more-6054

Friday's Forgotten Books, December 2, 2016

TWO WEEKS UNTIL MARCIA MULLER/BILL PRONZINI DAY


 Bonjour Tristesse - Francoise Sagan (archived review of Ed Gorman)
In the summer of 1958 I was sixteen years old and going through my first real heartbreak. My only solace was in books and movies. Seeing people was too painful. I mention this because my state of mind had a good deal to do with my reaction to a slender Dell paperback I'd been hearing about.

Bonjour Tristesse had been written by a seventeen-year-old French
schoolgirl and it had the good fortune to become a scandal in both
Europe and
the United States. The story concerned seventeen-year-old
Cecile whose wealthy and handsome father is what one might call, in
crude Yankee tongue, an ass-bandit. His latest young thing is Elsa whom
Cecile likes because she's the kind of trivial beauty her father will dump after a few months. But then Anne appears and Cecile must plot to get rid of her. Anne is serious competition to Cecile. She will take
Cecile's father from her, at least mentally and spiritually. From here the story deals with Cecile's attempt to destroy a fine woman--and one of her deceased mother's best friends--before her father falls in love
with her. The end is tragic.

The novel is ab
out pain and betrayal and loneliness and is told so simply and directly it has the effect of a stage monologue. It was condemned by most of the old farts--the French Catholic novelist Francois Mauriac reviewed it and sounded as if he was making the case for Sagan's execution--while the more charitable critics found it
earnest and compelling if not quite as important as all the fuss would have it.

There was an Iowa angle, too. Otto Preminger discovered eighteen-year-old Jean Seberg from Marshalltown, Iowa and starred her in his catastrophic production of St. Joan. The critics loved her melancholy beauty (who wouldn't?) but she certainly wasn't up to a role this difficult.
This could have ended her career but she was quickly cast in Bonjour Tristesse--which wasn't much of a movie--and did a fine job. Later she would become a French film icon when she did Breathless with Jean Paul Belmondo.

But Seberg had a troubled life very much like that of a Sagan heroine. At least one of her husbands beat her and J. Edgar Hoover had his creeps stalk her here and in France. He tried to destroy her by feeding tales to the press of how she just might be seeing a black man and showing a definite interest in left-wing politics. She died at
forty-one in circumstances that the authorities believed pointed to suicide. She had long struggled with depression.

I followed Sagan's career to the end because Bonjour had given me so much comfort that terrible summer. In France she was seen, at least early on, as a kind of J.D. Salinger, though I always thought her take
on this vale of
tears was far richer than his. And by the time she wrote Those Without Shadows a few years later she was far out of his league. And she certainly never disappointed the media. Here, from
Wikipedia, just a bit of her life story:

Personal life Sagan was married twice; to Guy Schoeller ( married
13 March 1958, an editor with Hachette, 20 years older than Sagan, divorced June 1960), and to Bob Westhof ( a young American playboy and would-be ceramist, married 10 January 1962, divorced 1963.

Their son De
nis was born in June 1963.)[3] She took a lesbian longer term lover in fashion stylist Peggy Roche; and had a male lover Bernard Frank, a married essayist obsessed with reading and eating. She added
to her self-styled "family" by beginning a long-term lesbian affair with the French Playboy magazine editor Annick Geille, after she approached Sagan for an article for her magazine.[1]

Fond of traveling in the United States, she was often seen with Truman Capote and Ava Gardner. She was once involved in a car accident in her Aston Martin sports car - (
14 April 1957) - which left her in a coma
for some time. She also loved driving her Jaguar automobile to Monte Carlo for gambling sessions.

Also, in the 1990s, Sagan was charged with and convicted of possession of cocaine.
Sagan was, at various times of her life, addicted to a number of drugs. She was a long-term user of prescription pills, amphetamines, cocaine, morphine, and alcohol.

Sergio Angelini, COP OUT, Ellery Queen
Yvette Banek, THE BIG THAW, Donald Harstad
Joe Barone, Christmas Carol Murder, Leslie Meier
Les Blatt, TAKEN AT THE FLOOD, Agatha Christie
Elgin Bleecker, Jolie Blon's Bounce James Lee Burke
Brian Busby, THE GENTLE FRAUD, Katherine Roy
Bill Crider, MAN IN THE SHADOW, Harry Whittington
Martin Edwards, POLICEMEN IN THE PRECINCT, E.C.R. Lorac
Curt Evans, SO MANY DOORS, E.R. Punshon
Richard Horton, THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS, Meredith Nicholson
Jerry House, THE SPEAR, James Herbert
George Kelley, THE COMPLETE BATTLES OF HASTINGS, 1&2, Agatha Christie
Margot Kinberg, THE SECRET RIVER,  Kate Grenville
Rob Kitchin, PAVEL AND I, Dan Vyleta
B.V. Lawson, A COUNTRY KIND OF DEATH, Mary McMullen
Steve Lewis, FOOTPRINT OF SATAN, Norman Berrow
Todd Mason, Uncollected Wilma Shore Stories
J.F. Norris, THE MAN WHO DIDN'T EXIST, Geoffrey Homes
Matthew Paust, MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, John Berendt
James Reasoner, TRIPLANETARY, Edward Smith
Richard Robinson, "comfort reading"
Reactions to Reading, VANISHING POINT, Pat Flower
Gerard Saylor,  OTHERS OF MY KIND, Gerard Saylor
Kerrie Smith, A WOMAN MUCH MISSED, Valerio Varesi
Kevin Tipple, THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END, Elly Griffiths
TomCat, MURDER IN THE RED CHAMBER, Ashibe Taku
TracyK, DUPE, Liza Cody

Thursday, December 01, 2016

Friday, November 25, 2016

Friday's Forgotten Books, November 25, 2016






Todd Mason will have the links right here. Thanks, Todd.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Wednesday Night Music


My Favorite Album Cover: THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS DELIVER

Patti's


One of my favorites. What is one of yours? (I will post it on here if you give me the title).

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Tuesday Night Music


Forgotten Movies: THREE WOMEN

Shelly Duval, now a target of horrible men like Dr. Phil, was the glue that made THREE WOMEN work. Robert Altman made one of his strangest movies with this one. Shelly and Sissy Spacek work in at a retirement home and over the course of the film change personalities. I wondered if it would hold up, but it did. Shelly is just odd enough to bring it together. Sadly. she got more odd over time. The third woman is Janice Rule who never quite makes sense to me.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Your Favorite TV Dad

I guess most people would choose Andy Taylor or Ralph Walton from earlier generations or perhaps
Coach Taylor from more recent shows (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS), but if I had to list my favorite TV Dad, it would be Jack Arnold (Dan Lauria) from THE WONDER YEARS. He was the beleaguered father I remember from my childhood. He wasn't always perfect like the fathers we tend to hold dear: You could feel his dissatisfaction with his lot in life, his disappointment in various issues, his tiredness: was anyone ever more tired. The series was inspired by A CHRISTMAS STORY and you can see the similarities in this character especially.
Jim Anderson on FATHER KNOWS BEST, Ward Cleaver from LEAVE IT TO BEAVER, Steve Douglas from MY THREE SONS, and a hundred fathers that followed them were all great Dads but I will take Mr. Arnold. .He was never the generic father.

How about you? What TV father did you like?

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Friday, November 18, 2016

Friday Night Music


Friday's Forgotten Books, November 18, 2016


WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE. -This is an amazing novel on my second reading, decades after my first. Its characters are few, they are pretty much nailed to one spot, and not much action takes places. Its high quality depends on Jackson's ability to create characters that speak and act like real people despite being essentially ghosts. You can easily see the mind that created both THE LOTTERY and THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE in this novel. It was her last novel, written in 1962, three years after HILL HOUSE.

The Blackwood family lost four of its members six years earlier. Since then Mary Katherine, a teenager, her older sister Charlotte and the elderly and ill Uncle Julian haven't strayed farther than the country store. Uncle Julian lives completely in the past, reliving a specific day in time. Charlotte spends her time cooking, canning and hiding. And Mary Katherine (Merricat) dreams and devises spells to protect them. The townspeople thinkCharlotte got away with murder and Merricat's trips into town incite their rage and amusement at the Blackwood's fate. When Cousin Charles comes to stay with them, he sets events into motion that send the family even farther into isolation. He is a villain you can really hate.

The writing in this novel is sublime. Jackson creates a world that is both seductive and frightening. I read this as a teenager but I think it takes an adult to appreciate what strong characters Jackson created.
Jackson died at age 48. What a loss. I can only imagine the novels she might have written if she had lived longer.

Todd Mason will collect the links next Friday. 

Sergio Angelini
Yvette Banek, THE HAND IN THE GLOVE, Rex Stout
Joe Barone, THE DEAD HOUSE, Harry Bingham
Elgin Bleecker, SO THIS IS MURDER, Erle Stanley Gardner
Les Blatt, THE FLEMISH HOUSE, Georges Simenon
Brian Busby, HICKORY HOUSE,Kenneth Orvis
Bill Crider, HARD-BOILED, ed. Bill Pronzini and Jack Adrian
Martin Edwards, MURDER BY MATCHLIGHT, E.C.R. Lorac
Richard Horton, SUNSMASHER, Edmund Hamilton, STARHAVEN, Robert Silverberg
Jerry House, THE SHIP THAT NEVER WAS, Mickey Spillane
George Kelley, THE BEST OF JOHN BRUNNER
Margot Kinberg, THE EYES OF JADE, Diane Wei Laing
Rob Kitchin, THE AGE OF WONDER, Richard Holmes
K.A. Laity, PORTERHOUSE BLUE, Tom Sharpe
B.V. Lawson, MURDER AT THE VILLA ROSE, A.E.W. Mason
Steve Lewis, ROUGH CUT, Ed Gorman
Todd Mason,  THE ARMCHAIR DETECTIVE, THE SCREAM FACTORY and SCIENCE FICTION EYE 
J.F. Norris, A COUNTRY KIND OF DEATH, Mary McMullen
Matt Paust, MAGGIE, GIRL OF THE STREETS, Stephen Crane
James Reasoner, KI-GOR AND THE GIANT GORILLA MAN, John Peter Drummon
Richard Robinson, The first two DREAM PARK NOVELS, Larry Niven, Steven Barnes
Gerard Saylor, MOSTLY WHILE PAINTING, Mickey Cohen 
Kevin Tipple, THE JANUS STONE, Elly Griffiths
TomCat, THE CARDINAL MOTH, Fred M. White
TracyK, THE DREADFUL LEMON SKY, John D. Macdonald
Westlake Review, THE AX

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Wednesday Night Music


Some of Trump's Biggest Donors

In case you want to avoid them. What I have to keep reminding myself is that more people voted against Trump than for him.

New Balance
Weingartz
Brawny
Dixie
Angel Soft
Cracker Barrel
Olive Garden
Home Depot
Walmart
Waffle House
Urban Outfitters
Chick-fil-A
Marriott Hotels
Exxon
Carls, Jr
Pep Boys
Hobby Lobby
Miramax
Bally's Casino
Sands Corp
Fairmont 
UFC
And some of the organizations that are working hard to keep America safe. 

Here's some more


some repeats here

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Three Recent Films We Liked a Lot



HANDMAIDEN takes some patience at 2 1/2 hours but it pays off as director  Park Chan-wook takes you through the same story from three POVS. It is at heart both a love story and a noir story. Maybe too much torture and it verged at times on soft porn but it is so artfully done and so fascinating in its unspooling that we gave it more leeway than usual. This is apparently based on FINGERSMITH, a Sarah Waters novel, which I now want to read.





MOONLIGHT looks at three periods in the life of a young black gay boy  who suffers bullying in the early episodes. Another film that is put together well and will break your heart. Especially at the very end.
Would love to see the play this is based on IN MOONLIGHT BLACK BOYS LOOK BLUE. Although the three actors don't look alike at all, it works because of the similar feeling each one brings to the role.

Here we have three women, well four really, at crossroads in their lives. The most well conceived story was perhaps the final one where a young Native American girl mistakes a temporary teacher's interest in her for more. I did find the Michelle Williams segment rather enigmatic. But still well worth seeing. Kristen Stewart has certainly turned in some fine performances.And Laura Dern is always a treat.






And two I liked less but still worth your time for certain elements.

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Friday, November 11, 2016

R.I.P Leonard Cohen


Friday's Forgotten Books

SPECIAL NOTE: I moved the Muller/Pronzini day two weeks forward. Thought we (I) needed some extra time. 

Sergio Angelini, HIS BURIAL TOO, Catherine Aird
Mark Baker, MRS. POLIFAX UNVEILED, Dorothy Gilman
Yvette Banek, THE CORNISH COAST MURDER, John Bude
Joe Barone, THE DEVIL'S STEPS, Arthur Upfield
Les Blatt, POLICE AT THE FUNERAL, Margery Allingham
Elgin Bleecker, WHOSE BODY, Dorothy L. Sayers
Brian Busby, A MAN WITH NO FACE
Bill Crider. 13 SHORT DETECTIVE NOVELS, ed. Bill Pronzini and Martin Greenberg
Martin Edwards, DEATH OF A BANKER, Anthony Wynne
Elisabeth Grace Foley, THE WHOLE FAMILY: A Novel by 12 Authors
Richard Horton, TEENAGE SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, Richard M. Elan, Jr.
Jerry House, ANTI-MAN, Dean Koontz
George Kelley, THE SWORD OF THONGOR, Robert M. Price
Margot Kinberg, MONTANA, 1948, Larry Watson
Rob Kitchin , COBRA, Deon Meyer
B.V. Lawson, DETECTIVE FICION, Mark Rpezka
Steve Lewis, POIROT LOSES A CLIENT, Agatha Christie
Todd Mason: A Variety of Mystery Magazines 
J.F. Norris, GRIEVE FOR THE PAST, Stanton Forbes
Matt Paust, STEPHEN HAWKING: A LIFE IN SCIENCE, Michael White and John Gribbin
Gerard Saylor, BAD MOON RISING, Ed Gorman
Kevin Tipple, HARD TRAIL TO FOLLOW, Elmer Kelton
TomCat, MIDNIGHT, Octavia Roy Cohen
TracyK, THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY, John LeCarre
Westlake Review, Mr. Westlake and the Masterpiece