Friday, October 25, 2013

Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, October 25, 2013

Next week, B.V. Lawson will be our host. And two weeks from day, we will celebrate the work of Ross MacDonald



Crossroad Blues, Ace Atkins

Nick Travers, a former football player, is now employed by Tulane University in New Orleans teaching the history of the blues. In his spare time, he is a "tracker" and scholar, seeking gap-filling information about blues singers in the last century. His particular interest is in Guitar Slim. Travers also plays blues at JoJos Blues Bar.
A Tulane colleague, who was following leads about some missing Robert Johnson music, goes missing himself, and Travers, knowing the area and the people, agrees to look into it. Along the way, he tangles with a tantalizing redhead, a wily albino with more information than is good for him, a lethal Elvis lookalike and other dangerous types following the same path, looking to score from supposedly missing records Johnson made before his death.
Atkins is so highly skilled at evoking atmosphere-you feel like you're traveling down through the Delta with him, stopping at jukes, having a po boy on the road or a beignet in New Orleans, listening to some great music. He creates a believable protagonist, who wrestles with some dangerous adversaries as well as the question of how to keep the blues alive without exploiting it. This is fine crime fiction, but it is these other elements that makes the novel zing. 
It's hard to believe a 25-year old had the nerve and talent to write this exciting and evocative book. You can feel the excitement and enthusiasm of its young author in every sentence.

Sergio Angelini, DEATH IN CAPTIVITY, Michael Gilbert
Joe Barone, THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL, Ed McBain
Brian Busby, SUGARPUSS ON DORCHESTER STREET. Al Palmer
Bill Crider, SCRATCH ONE, John Lange (Michael Crichton)
Martin Edwards, TROUBLED DAUGHTERS, TWISTED WIVES, Sarah Weinman
Curt Evans, RASPBERRY JAM, Carolyn Wells
Ray Garraty, A SHROUD FOR JESSO, Peter Rabe
Ed Gorman, NIGHTMARE ALLEY and GRINDSHOW, William Lindsay Gresham
Jerry House, HARLAN ELLISON'S MOVIE, Harlan Ellison
Randy Johnson, THE OUTFIT, Richard Stark
Nick Jones, A MAGNUM FOR SCHNEIDER, James Mitchell
George Kelley, RAYGUNS OVER TEXAS, edited by Richard Klaw
Margot Kinberg, THE BIG SLEEP, Raymond Chandler
Rob Kitchin, JADE LADY BURNING, Martin Limon
B.V. Lawson, THIS ROUGH MAGIC, Mary Stewart
Evan Lewis, CONAN, THE ROGUE, John Maddox Roberts
Steve Lewis/William Deeck, DEATH IN HIGH HEELS, Chrisitana Brand
Todd Mason LEARNING TO DRIVE, Katha Pollitt; SEDUCING THE DEMON, Erica Jong 
 Neer, THE MUSICAL COMEDY CRIME, Anthony Gilbert
J.F. Norris, THE COOK, Harry Kressing
Juri Nummelin, THE BATTLE, Brian McDermont
James Reasoner, LADY, Thomas Tryon
Kelly Robinson, SIX BOOKS FOR HALLOWEEN
Richard Robinson, The Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus ed. by Brian W. Aldiss
Gerard Saylor, JITTERBUG, Loren Estleman
Ron Scheer. RED HAWK TRAIL, Max Brand
Kerrie Smith, NO MAN'S LAND, Reginald Hill
Kevin Tipple. Patrick Ohl, THE WEST END HORROR, Nicholas Meyer
Prashant Trikkanad, ACTION COMICS #1
James Winter, HENRY FOUR, PART TWO, William Shakespeare, THE GREEN MILE, Stephen King
Yvette. CIRCLE OF SHADOWS, Imogen Robertson

6 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Some new names for me to check out.

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

Patti, I posted my FBB a day earlier. It's called "Action Comics #1, an anthology of comics, 1938". Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Patti - As always, a great lineup here. Thanks for including my post in it. :-)

J F Norris said...

Patti - thanks for including my review about the play I saw Veronica's Room, but my real FFB post is on a book. It's up now. Can you change the link to this one:

The Cook by Harry Kressing

Kelly Robinson said...

Thanks for linking my Halloween books post. (I didn't finish my real FFB post in time.) I do think there are at least a couple of books that qualify in my list, though. As always, I look forward to reading everyone's entries.

Todd Mason said...

http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2013/10/ffb-redux-katha-pollitt-learning-to.html

My redux review of LEARNING TO DRIVE by Katha Pollitt and SEDUCING THE DEMON by Erica Jong...and links to others' reviews for 1 October 2010!