Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, January 20, 2017

Thanks for all the congratulations. You are the people whose opinion I most value.

Don't forget our special edition on dangerous children in a few weeks.

As suggested by the forces for good in the world, I am staying offline as much as possible today so FFBs not posted early in the day might not be posted until a lunchitime check. My TV is tuned to H& G all day. Hope I got it right.

Mute Witness – Robert L. Pike (from the archive of Randy Johnson)

MUTE WITNESS is the novel upon which the Steve McQueen film BULLITT was based. One of my all time favorite McQueen vehicles(yes, I said that), if not his best, I lost count long ago how many times I’ve watched it.

It’s been quite a few years since I read this one, the first novel, of three, that featured Lt. Clancy, the only name in the novel. In looking around for this post, I learned it was originally intended that Spencer Tracy was to play the role and play it pretty much straight from the novel. When he passed away, McQueen moved into the role and the changes began.
They pretty much stuck with the plot of the film. A mobster is murdered while being guarded by the cops. The officious D.A.(played by Robert Vaughn) is miffed when the cop hides the body, allowing everyone to believe he’s still alive as he hunts for the killer.
The differences:
As I mentioned earlier, Lt. Clancy(no other name) is the name of the cop instead of the McQueen’s Frank Bullitt. The action is moved from New York to San Francisco for the movie. There’s one subplot dropped for the movie. Clancy is pretty much a loner in the novel and Jacqueline Bisset plays the invented girl friend in the movie.
And there’s no car chase in the novel. That was to ham up the movie and was used as the way to deal with the killers which was in the subplot dropped from the novel.
This was more of a mystery than an action piece. The book seems to be out of print and copies are hard to find and expensive. There are copies of the British movie edition(retitled Bullitt) reasonably priced for a used copy. The best deal though is here for the Kindle.
The editing of the car chase scene is a fantastic piece of work that won Frank Keller the editing Oscar despite a few amusing things. Scenes were shot from several angles simultaneously, resulting in the same dark green Volkswagen appearing four times and, though I have yet to spot it, a Thunderbird three times. I’ve always maintained that five hubcaps came off the Charger during the chase, though others disagree, while admitting scenes at various points show different hubcaps missing. Two of each car were used in the shooting that took four weeks.
My favorite shot is when Bullitt has used his knowledge of the streets to lose the Charger and the two hoods are driving around looking for him. A shot of the rear view mirror shows McQueen’s Mustang topping the hill behind them now.
The driver in the scenes was the actual stunt driver that did the driving, which resulted in him doing the same for a chase in THE FRENCH CONNECTION.
Finally, you just know I had to include the car chase. This was the best clip I could find, slightly edited and with different music. Just click on the Watch on You line.
I had some thoughts of including BULLITT on Todd Mason’s Overlooked Movies Tuesday, not so much overlooked as ignored by the younger moviegoers of today. You know, if it wasn’t made it the last ten years, it’s no good. I have a nephew, who’s thirty-one, something of a Mustang enthusiast, that I thought might like it. “Meh, Fast and Furious was better.”

Mark Baker, F IS FOR FUGITIVE, Sue Grafton
Yvette Banek, CAT AMONG PIGEONS, Agatha Christie
Joe Barone, FADE AWAY, Harlan Coban
Patrick Balester, Patricia Highsmith
Les Blatt, HE DIES AND MAKES NO SIGN, Molly Thynne
Elgin Bleecker, LOVELY LADY, PITY ME, Roy Huggins
Brian Busby, JOHN, Irene Baird
Bill Crider, DEADHEAD, Carleton Carpenter
Martin Edwards, MURDER ON SAFARI, Elspeth Huxley
Curt Evans, Elizabeth Gill
Richard Horton, THE TIME-LOCKERS, Wallace West
Jerry House, THE WOMAN IN THE CASE, Ellery Queen
Nick Jones, THE SNAIL WATCHER AND OTHER STORIES, Patricia Highsmith
George Kelley, THE IRON TACTICIAN, Alastair Reynolds
Margot Kinberg, AN EASY THING, Paco Ignacio Taibo
B.V. Lawson, A NIGHT AT THE CEMETERY, Anton Chekov
Evan Lewis, THE EXECUTIONER IN THE LIBRARY, Don Pendleton
Steve Lewis, DEATH OF MY AUNT, C.B.H. Kitchin
Todd Mason, BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION
J.F. Norris, MISS BONES, Joan Fleming
Matthew Paust, A SEPARATE PEACE, John Knowles
J. Kingston Pierce, THE MAN, Irving Wallace
REACTIONS TO READING, TOO LATE TO DIE, Bill Crider
James Reasoner, DEVIL'S MANHUNT, L. Ron Hubbard
Kelly Robinson, THEY CALL ME A CARPENTER, Upton Sinclair
Richard Robinson, ALL THE KING'S MEN, Robert Penn Warren
TomCat, MURDER ENDS THE SONG, Alfred Meyers
TracyK, THE PENQUIN POOL MURDER, Stuart Palmer

SHOT IN DETROIT nominated for an Edgar!!!!!!!!!!!!

Among so many wonderful novels. Wow! Maybe 2017 is going to be a better year.

Wednesday Night Music

Tuesday Night Music

FENCES

FENCES was the second best movie I saw this year (Denzel Washington starred in it and directed it). (MOONLIGHT was first on my list because I think it has a slight edge artistically).And also it broke new ground with the story it told.
FENCES was a straight-forward account of the life of a fifty-something black man in Pittsburgh in the 1950s. He is not a good man, but you will feel some sympathy for him by the end. Maybe not as much as I think Wilson does though.
Wilson's plays chronicle the lives of African-Americans for the last century. It is not a happy story. But if America has produced one great playwright I would nominated August Wilson as that one. The five plays on this list I have seen were all moving, authentic, truthful, artful. He creates real people with real problems. JITNEY is opening on Broadway now.

Have you seen any August Wilson plays or the movie versions? 

Plays

• Recycle (1973)
• Black Bart and the Sacred Hills (1977)
• Fullerton Street (1980)
• Jitney (1982)
• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984)
• Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1984)
• Fences (1987)
• The Homecoming (1989)
• The Coldest Day of the Year (1989)
• The Piano Lesson (1990)
• Two Trains Running (1991)
• Seven Guitars (1995)
• King Hedley II (1999)
• How I Learned What I Learned (2002)
• Gem of the Ocean (2003)
• Radio Golf (2005)

Honors and awards

• 1986: Whiting Award for Drama
• 1987: Pulitzer Prize for Drama – Fences
• 1987: Tony Award for Best Play – Fences
• 1987: Outer Critics Circle Award – Fences
• 1987: Artist of the Year by Chicago Tribune
• 1988: Literary Lion Award from the New York Public Library
• 1988: New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play – Joe Turner's Come and Gone
• 1990: Governor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts and Distinguished Pennsylvania Artists
• 1990: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play – The Piano Lesson
• 1990: New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play – The Piano Lesson
• 1990: Pulitzer Prize for Drama – The Piano Lesson
• 1991: Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame award
• 1991: St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates^[27][28]
• 1992: American Theatre Critics' Association Award – Two Trains Running
• 1992: New York Drama Critics Circle Citation for Best American Play – Two Trains Running
• 1992: Clarence Muse Award
• 1996: New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play – Seven Guitars
• 1999: National Humanities Medal
• 2000: New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play – Jitney
• 2000: Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play – Jitney
• 2002: Olivier Award for Best new Play – Jitney
• 2004: The 10th Annual Heinz Award in Arts and Humanities^[29]
• 2004: The U.S. Comedy Arts Festival Freedom of Speech Award
• 2005: Make Shift Award at the U.S. Confederation of Play Writers
• 2006: American Theatre Hall of Fame.^[30]

A List o

When Life Turns a Good Book Sour

So I am reading along and this book is working wonderfully for me. Yes, it is complicated reading about boats and the sea but I am hanging in there with the info-although it does occasionally seem like an info dump.
But then some men begin work on a  pipe under my house. And it is water inside my house that becomes an issue. They are drilling through the slab to retrieve missing equipment. There is unexplained water in my bedroom. They are pouring concrete inside the house. The house is beginning to look like a dump. Horrible stuff.
And suddenly I lose enough focus that I am unable to follow the plot. Did I miss the part that told me who this guy was? Am I supposed to believe in ghosts or did I miss that too?
Now I have little interest in finishing the book because I lost its train of thought.
Does this happen to you? Does life influence your ability to concentrate? Does it make a plotline seem jagged and fractured? Have you ever put aside a good book because you've missed too much to understand what's going on? Or do you go back to the place you began to veer off course.

Theme Song from A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS

My Favorite Albums as a Teen (Say 16)

To put my mind in a better place, here are my favorite albums as a teenager. Get ready for the "olden days"

Rubber Soul, Beatles;
Highway 61, Bob Dylan,
Let It Bleed, Rolling Stones;
Wildflowers, Judy Collins,
Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys;
Sounds of Silence, Simon and Garfunkle.
If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, The Mamas and the Papas;
The Animals, The Animals;
Where Did Our Love Go, The Supremes;
My Generation, THE Who;
Mr. Tambourine Man, The Byrds.

What were yours? 

No FFB This Week

Due to unforeseen non -health related events, there will be no links here this week. Sorry for the interruption but I will have no Internet access.

Your Favorite Novel That Takes Place at Sea

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0122VFAFE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Reading this right now. And really liking it.

What are some of the great novels that take place at sea?

Tuesday Night Music: Wouldn't It Be Nice

Forgotten Movies: SHAMPOO

Forty years later, this film seems like a bit of a mess. George (Beatty, a Hollywood hairdresser and Lothario) is more pathetic than I remember him. The women (Hawn, Christie, Grant, Fisher) seem vacuous and sad. Maybe they are supposed to be. Maybe with the election of Nixon, everyone is supposed to seem lost. Directed by Hal Ashby, it does connect with the frenzy of the era-or perhaps the frenzy of youth. Jack Ward, (did he play in every movie over this period?) captures it best being well past the age when frolicking at pot parties seems appropriate. I expected to like it more--I think I did at the time--but it reminded me oh, so much of the despair we are experiencing now. How trivial we all can look when are pursuits are so superficial. And George seems more than a little like our p****grabbing President-elect.

Beatty huimself seems a lot like a flash in the pan now too. I caught part of HEAVEN CAN WAIT a night later and felt much the same way. Sluggish scenes, too much talking, too in love with his own face.Maybe REDS. Any Beatty apologists out there?

BRIGHT LIGHTS

HBO showed a ninety minute film Saturday night (and I am sure it will be on demand there) that detailed the parasitic bond between Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher. The film was a tragic summary of their lives in that it more resembled a west coast version of Gray Gardens than a film about two successful women.

Much like the doc on Joan River and Elaine Stritch is was obsessed with painting these women as sad figures and little more. There was almost no discussion of their history or careers and instead we see both of them wandering around their eccentric houses, striking poses, singing half-songs. Yes, okay Carrie can sing, but boy she is better at writing or offering commentary on modern life. By constantly showing her singing it's as if the documentary wanted to paint her as a failed singer and not a successful novelist, scriptwriter, essayist, performer.

Perhaps Carrie is attached at the hip to Debbie. Perhaps Debbie turned both her children into hand-maidens but certainly there is much more to their story.

I especially found the long segment on Carrie signing autographs for $70 a piece annoying. Would they devote a segment to an athlete doing this? 

Why do film-makers need to shape the lives of older women into tragedies?I can't imagine such a pathetic rendering of the life of male performers. Okay, maybe Jerry Lewis.

Friday's Forgotten Books, January 6,2017

TONY AND SUSAN is the novel the Tom Ford's movie, NOCTURNAL ANIMALS comes from, Ford is only interested in a small part of the novel though. And he is more interested in style than substance. As I was vaguely dissatisfied with the movie, so too the novel.

Susan and Edward were married 15 years earlier. Both have remarried. One of the contentious issues in Susan and Edward's marriage was his desire to be a novelist. He didn't work very hard at doing this though. But now he sends Susan a ms of his novel. And at least half of the book is devoted to that novel. It's the story of a man, his wife and daughter, on their way to a vacation that are accosted by three scoundrels on the highway. His wife and daughter are taken as Tony stands helplessly by. The rest on the novel within the novel concern his efforts to alternately put this behind him and to find the men.

The Susan and Edward part of the novel details their marriage and also her subsequent marriage to Arnold, a doctor.

There are a lot of complimentary blurbs on the cover. One even from Saul Bellow. (The novel was written 25 years ago). But I found it repetitive in parts. We spend too much time with Tony and his abductors years later. Too much time with a sheriff trying to close his final case. I guess I wanted it to either be a noir novel or a domestic one. This one satisfied neither for me.

Yvette Banek, THE MONUMENTS MEN, Robert M. Edsel
Joe Barone, VANE  PURSUIT, Charlotte MacLeod
Elgin Bleecker, NEW YEAR'S EVE/1929, James T. Farrell
Brian Busby, THE TRUDEAU PAPERS, Ian Adams
Bill Crider. MY TURN, John O'Hara
Martin Edwards, WHICH WAY CAME DEATH, Faith Wolseley
Richard Horton, THE COLLECTED TALES OF E.M. Forrester
Jerry House, SURVIVAL ZERO, Mickey Spillane
George Kelley. SECRETS OF THE WORLD's BEST SELLING WRITER: Erle Stanley Gardner (Fugate)
Margot Kinberg, A THREE-PIPE PROBLEM, Julian Symons
B.V. Lawson, HABITS OF FEAR, Dorothy Salisbury Davis
Steve Lewis/William F. Deeck, THE VALENTINE VICTIM, Douglas Macleish
Todd Mason, THE LONG GOODBYE, a 1972 draft of the screenplay by Leigh Brackett; BRASS KNUCKLES by Stuart Dybek
Steven Nester (THE RAP SHEET), DESERT TOWN, Ramona Stewart
J.F. Norris, A CORPSE FOR CHRISTMAS, Henry Kane
Matt Paust, MATTAPONI QUEEN, Bella Boggs
Reactions to Reading, CRIME OF THE FATHER, Thomas Keanealy
James Reasoner, ANGEL'S FLIGHT, Lou Cameron
Richard Robinson, THE ESSENTIAL A.E VAN VOGT
Gerard Saylor, SWEET RIDE. Richard S. Prather
Kerrie Smith, THE MADRAS MIASMA, Brian Stoddart
Kevin Tipple, OF ALL THE SAD WORDS, Bill Crider
TomCat, THE MYSTERY OF THE LAUGHING SHADOW, Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TracyK CURSED TO DEATH, Bill Crider

Martin Scorcese: A Career in Ten Songs

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/martin-scorsese-songs-soundtracks-music?utm_content=buffera4189&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitterbfi&utm_campaign=buffer

The most satisfying novel

What novel was most successful in meeting the task of satisfying the reader. It doesn't have to be the greatest novel you ever read but one that when you closed the cover, you were sated. One where from start to finish you wanted to find out what was going to happen next.

Now normally I am not a huge Agatha Christie fan, but I found MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS very satisfying. In the crime area, also DAUGHTER OF TIME and A PLACE OF EXECUTION by Val McDermid.

Although it's a very sad book, I found NEVER LET ME GO, by Ishiguro very satisfying too. He made it about more than the idea of cloning humans. NEMESIS by Philip Roth was a small gem. So too LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER by Stewart O'Nan.

How about you? What book started well and never let up?

Forgotten Movies: THE VERDICT

What holds up best in THE VERDICT is Paul Newman's performance and the gritty feel Lumet gives it. In the 35 years since it came out, a million TV shows and movies have come up with more twisty plots, more diabolical insurance, law firms and hospitals. So it seems pretty tame now. There are a few characters who would have been knocked off nowadays,
Newman plays an alcoholic lawyer who's given a last chance for a big payoff by his pal. All he needs to do is take the settlement. But once he sees the comatose woman he's settling for, he goes for a bigger payoff. This was a highly watchable film, Lumet really knows how to give a film texture and make it seem real. Newman was expected to win the Oscar for this but he didn't win until THE COLOR OF MONEY a few years later. This was the first film where I remember thinking that he was finally getting older. Charlotte Rampling is the gorgeous young woman he has an affair with.

A year earlier in ABSENCE OF MALICE

Favorite Movies of 2016

MOONLIGHT-absolutely the best movie I saw last year.
FENCES-So much talent. 
JACKIE-a terrific performance and an artistic achievement
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA-another heart-breaker and another great performance-well, two really
O.J. MADE IN AMERICA-They released this theatrically
LALA LAND, a charming musical
HELL OR HIGH WATER-a western so well done.
CLASS DIVIDE-a doc that really kept our attention
AMERICAN HONEY-how the milennials are ripe for exploitation
LOVING-two great performances in a low-keyed take on the court case
WIENER DOG-you couldn't write this stuff
THE WITCH-mesmerizing take on a Puritan-era family's tussle with the supernatural
EYE ON THE SKY-the best thriller I saw last year.

I could go on but twelve is enough. How about your favorites of 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, John
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

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? 

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

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 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?

                            Have the happiest of holidays. The Abbotts.

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

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.

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'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

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 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 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.

Sunday Night Music

Saturday Night Music

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

Astaire and Hayworth

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 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.

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?

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 about 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 Denis 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 Night Music