#40: The Prophet by Michael Koryta

Two brothers who have gone their separate ways--one, a highly respected high school football coach, the other a bail bondsman with an unfulfilled life--find their lives crashing together once more as a young woman's killing mirrors their own sister's death years before in Michael Koryta's The Prophet.

The Prophet is a big, solid thriller, in a beach read vein, but with rich, intriguing characters and a compelling plot.  Of most interest is the relationship between the two brothers--the coach, on the cusp of a state football championship, his brother on the edge of darkness--and the memories of their sister that have pulled them together even as they try to tear each other apart.

This is the first novel by Koryta that I have read, although I have been interested in him for some time as I know he is a fellow Hoosier.  I will definitely look for more of his thrillers after enjoying this one.

I listened to this on audio book on loan from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#39: Femme by Bill Pronzini

The Nameless Detective and his crew get mixed up with the dangerous woman of the title in Bill Pronzini's Femme.

Femme is a new entry in the long Nameless Detective private eye series that has been running for decades.  Although a devoted reader at one time, I had sporadic interest in the series in recent years until I saw this one on the shelves of the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library.  In fact, it seemed so different than its predecessors that I didn't know what I was looking at for a minute.

With its throwback cover and straight-on noir plotting I gained a new interest in what was going on with this long-running character.  I found that despite reaching into pulp roots for material, the protagonist continues to grow and change, along with his supporting cast.

I felt this to be an agreeable enough mystery, probably even more so for fans of Pronzini's work.

#38: Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

A small-town cop grows to believe that a suicide at a local fast-food restaurant might have actually been murder; but as a giant asteroid is coming to destroy the Earth, nobody much cares but him in Ben H. Winters' genre-bender Countdown City.

A strange mash-up indeed, as if Philip Marlowe washed up in Nevil Shute's On The Beach, and bumped in to Lew Archer.  Countdown City is a very philosophical entry in the apocalyptic genre and a cracking mystery to boot, topped with a harrowing ending (and it's not the world blowing up, this is the first of a trilogy).

This is the book I find myself recommending to everyone this season, joining The Dog Stars, Night Film, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as my recommendations to people who just enjoy good reads.

I bought this in paperback sight unseen because of a recommendation from a friend (who happens to be the cousin of the author), and was sufficiently floored enough to pass it around to several others when I was done.  Suffice to say, recommended.

#37: Choke Hold by Christa Faust

Former porn star Angel Dare keeps trying to outrun trouble, but once again trouble runs faster in Christa Faust's Choke Hold.

At the apocalyptic denouement of Money Shot, the novel where Angel first appeared, Angel tried to leave behind the sordid porn industry.  However, meeting an old friend--and subsequently being asked for a favor--quickly puts her square in the middle of the only slightly less sordid world of underground fighting.

Very tough noir--part of the impeccable Hard Case Crime line--is for discerning readers only.  But it is a fast-moving, enjoyable read and a good crime story.  I am a fan of Faust and look forward to more of her work.

I bought this for my beloved Kindle and read it quickly.

#36: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

A schoolteacher finds a time portal in the back of a diner that leads him to 1958, and after a few experiments, he hatches a plan to prevent the Kennedy assassination; but as this is a Stephen King novel, nothing quite goes as planned in 11/22/63.

I have been a bit hot and cold on King's contemporary work, but this is a sprawling, emotionally resonant story that--despite being doorstop length--holds interest throughout.

At first our protagonist tries to undo a grisly murder spree that has left a contemporary friend scarred, and also tries to help another accident victim he learns of in the present. 

Then is a lengthy, ruminative section as the teacher gets a job in a small Texas school and waits for the assassination to get closer.  This is a surprisingly warm-hearted sequence where he (ill-advisedly) falls in love with a young woman and otherwise enjoys his life in what is in some ways a gentler, easier time.

Then the tension ratchets up as the teacher circles closer to his prey, setting in motion a very surprising turn of events.

I listened to this in audiobook from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana, and felt the reading--by Craig Wasson--added tremendously to the story.

But this is a solid read for casual readers as well as long-time Stephen King fans.

#35: The Colombian Mule by Massimo Carlotto

Three old-school criminals band together to free a colleague framed for drug smuggling in Massimo Carlotto's The Colombian Mule.

Carlotto's very tough crime novel, from the World Noir line and set in Venice, depicts a bleak world where criminals follow their own code of honor but the police follow none; and yet Carlotto fills the story with lots of dark humor.   

The Colombian Mule is also livened by memorable characters, especially Old Rossini, a former gangster whose formidable presence and rather tarnished ethics make for some of the funnier, and most frightening, parts of the novel; and his philosophical protagonist, a semi-retired crook called The Alligator.

Apparently Massimo Carlotto is very popular in his native Italy, not only for his writing but for how closely his personal life hews to his storytelling.  Recommended for fans of hard-boiled crime.

#34: Night Film by Marisha Pessl

A disgraced journalist tries to resurrect his career by investigating the suicide of the daughter of a famous, reclusive horror film director, but soon finds himself on a dark, strange path of his own in Marisha Pessl's Night Film.

I first learned of Night Film because of the interactive elements, where icons in the text can be read with a phone app to bring up additional videos and images; but this gimmick is only the tip of the iceberg in a trippy narrative.

The book has photos, mock newspaper articles, and other clues salted throughout to help the reader unravel the knotted tales alongside the protagonist (but be warned:  the enigmatic ending leaves you to draw your own conclusions).

This dense, odd mystery/horror hybrid--sort of what might happen if Stephen King wrote All The President's Men--is worthwhile for ambitious readers, and one that I have been recommending to a lot of people.

I was given this as a gift, signed by the author, and consumed it steadily.  Recommended.

#33: The Crocodile by Maurizio de Giovanni

A good cop, unjustly accused of being a mafia informant, is shunted away to a desk job; but when a serial killer called The Crocodile--who leaves dead children and tear-stained tissues in his wake-- terrorizes Naples he is brought back to action in Maurizio de Giovanni's The Crocodile.

I have been interested in reading more Italian literature since visiting the country over the last few summers, so I was excited that World Noir, an imprint of Europa Editions, sent me several books in their new line.

This was a new author to me, but reminded me quite a bit of Andrea Camilleri and his well-known Inspector Montalbano series; and must have been the intention, as de Giovanni's protagonist is jokingly called "Montalbano" by his colleagues as the case unfolds.

The Crocodile is a compelling mystery where the grisly elements are offset by surprisingly rich slices of Italian life.  A good read for mystery fans, and fans of international literature.

#32: Gun Machine by Warren Ellis

A New York cop on the edge of burnout sees his partner killed; suddenly hungry for revenge, he gets involved in a case involving a strange and prolific serial killer in Warren Ellis' Gun Machine.

Ellis' first novel, Crooked Little Vein, was a glimpse into the weird underbelly of America; this novel aims closer to traditional mystery elements, with a little of Ellis' weirdness layered over it.

Ellis may be better known as the author of cult comic book series like Transmetropolitan and Planetary, where I first became acquainted with his work.  And therein lies the problem; I fear that fans of Ellis' unique comic book writing might find Gun Machine too bland, while casual mystery readers will find it too offbeat.

For me, however, it was just about right.  Recommended for those looking for a different type of mystery read.

I borrowed this from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.

#31: Joyland by Stephen King

In the 1970s, a young man spends his summer working at a southern amusement park at the end of its era; today, he contemplates that memorable summer of longing and death in Stephen King's Joyland.

Joyland is an unusual novel for Stephen King in a lot of ways. First, it was written for the Hard Case Crime line, a paperback series of lost noirs and original titles in the same vein; and second, despite having a ghost story at the center, and several characters who seem to display psychic powers (including a carnival fortune teller and a sick child), King firmly roots Joyland in the crime novel tradition.

Despite its unusual pedigree it is a solid thriller, infused with melancholy.  King writes in a sure-handed way and offers up a large-scale, cinematic conclusion.

I bought this for myself with an Amazon gift card and read it quickly.  Recommended for King fans and general readers.

#30: False Negative by Joseph Koenig

In 1950s Atlantic City a reporter who fell from grace ends up writing for true crime magazines; when he stumbles across a murdered woman on a lonely beach, he tries to resurrect his career and solve the crime in Joseph Koenig's False Negative.

This is another in the Hard Case Crime series, the eclectic series of lost noirs and similarly-themed contemporary novels, and has been of special note as the return of cult author Joseph Koenig, who had not published a book in several decades.

False Negative is a very tough noir, with many unpleasant elements for those with more delicate reading sensibilities.  But it is well-written with a good sense of time and place, as well as a compelling story from beginning to end.

I got this for my beloved Kindle and read it quickly.  Recommended for fans of the Hard Case Crime line.

#29: X Films: True Confessions of a Radical Filmmaker by Alex Cox

British filmmaker Alex Cox writes about the making of a handful of his films, including the cult classic Repo Man, and also shares his filmmaking tips and general philosophies in X Films:  True Confessions of a Radical Filmmaker.

As a person who has written some b-movies, I am a big fan of Alex Cox and his ethos (including his definitive writings on Spaghetti Westerns). However, I do think this collection of essays and stories would be of interest to anyone who follows independent or cult film.

Cox's frank stories and colorful adventures, frequently at the margins of mainstream Hollywood, are a fascinating read.  I would consider this collection, along with Robert Rodriguez's Rebel Without A Crew, John Russo's Making Movies, and Rick Schmidt's Feature Filmmaking at Used Car Prices and Extreme DV a must-read for independent filmmakers.

I was surprised to find this at a go-away price on Amazon; when I was finished with it, I mailed it to a friend who is also an independent filmmaker.  Recommended for the like-minded.

#28: Argo by Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio

During the Iran hostage crisis beginning in the late 70s, CIA agent Antonio Mendez hatches an audacious plot to rescue several Americans hiding in the Canadian embassy.  The mission is outlined in this (certainly sanitized) nonfiction account (as well as a very good movie version with Ben Affleck).

Although not nearly as exciting as the movie, Argo has many interesting elements, including accounts of Mendez's disguise skills and his overall interest in Hollywood, which leads him to a scheme where he is in Iran to scout for a science-fiction film that is never going to be made.

The denouement of the rescue, finally revealed after all of these years, provides a bright spot in what was a grim time for American diplomacy.

I listened to a very good audiobook version, read by Dylan Baker, that I borrowed from the Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#27: Kincaid by John Callahan

A tough rancher sees his family wiped out by gun-toting Indians, and in seeking revenge gets in the middle of gun-runners and other hardcases and owlhoots in John Callahan's Kincaid.

Kincaid is a spare, hard-edged western, one half of an Ace Double (with Clement Hardin's The Oxbow Deed on the other side).  I don't know much about the author, but this is certainly part of the revisionist western tradition of the 60s and 70s.

This one features plenty of western standards, including a wise old ranch foreman, an understanding widow, a perky son frequently in harm's way, and scene-chewing villains.

Callahan's writing is not demanding, but certainly satisfying.  I found this in a big stack of paperbacks at a flea market and read it quickly.

#26: Flight to Darkness by Gil Brewer

A Korean War vet plagued by nightmares ends up in a psych ward, where he falls under the sway of nurse who is more femme fatale than Florence Nightingale in Gil Brewer's Flight to Darkness.

Brewer is a classic writer of bleak pulp noir that isn't always named alongside greats like Jim Thompson and Cornell Woolrich, but is right in that category. 

This novel features a classic unreliable protagonist whose frequent blackouts leave gaps in the story, including what happened during a hit-and-run and how another person was killed with a hammer.  A very tough story with interesting twists right to the end.

A good read for fans of pulp fiction and classic noir.  I found this one for my beloved Kindle at a goodbye price and read it quickly.

#25: Buchanan Gets Mad by Jonas Ward

A laconic drifter (of which the fictional Old West was chockablock full of) has his horse come up lame at the outskirts of a town under the sway of a sinister fire-and-brimstone preacher; he reluctantly, and then with increasing fervor, dismantles the preacher's evil empire in Jonas Ward's Buchanan Gets Mad.

Buchanan was featured in a long series of paperback westerns beginning in the 1960s; I favor the early ones, written by William Ard, replaced by a flight of pseudonymous writers after his death.  This is a pretty tough western written written in a hardboiled style.

I found this for a single dollar at a flea market, along with several others, and read this one quickly.

#24: White Dog Fell From The Sky by Eleanor Morse

An African man makes a harrowing escape from Apartheid South Africa in a hearse; as he tries to reassemble his life in Botswana, he meets an American woman whose marriage is slowly crumbling.  How their lives continue to intersect and impact each other is at the center of Eleanor Morse's White Dog Fell From The Sky.

I picked up this novel because my wife had to read it for an MFA class, and I wanted to read along.  I also support any book with a white dog in it, as I love my Westie.  This dog, however, is a somewhat mystical animal that appears at critical junctures and helps the dual protagonists in various ways.

Going into this with no preconceived notions, I ended up enjoying the novel for the most part.  I felt stronger about the high-stakes plight of the African man (who falls in with revolutionaries) than the American woman and her relationship entanglements (which soon include a rugged outdoorsman-type as a counterpoint to her husband).

A solid read about a sad, specific time in world history.  Worthwhile for general readers.

#23: Welcome to the Octagon by Jack Tunney and Gerard Brennan

An MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter in Belfast, raising a kid on his own, gets into underground fighting with the expected results in Welcome to the Octagon, the first entry in the new Fight Card MMA ebook series.

I picked this up for my beloved Kindle because of my interest in Irish author Gerard Brennan, as well as a general enjoyment of the earlier Fight Card books, a period series that harkens back to pulp stories of old.

Even with the MMA trappings, it's still an old-school story of a palooka who makes a wrong turn, and those who like this type of stories will enjoy it fine.

Although the Fight Card novels are always short, Welcome to the Octagon seemed not only short but rather abrupt; I would have liked it to be fleshed out quite a bit more, especially in the third act.

That being said, I am sure I will continue to read the Fight Card series.

#22: Build A Box For Wildcat by Jeff Clinton

Wildcat O'Shea is a cowboy with a penchant for dynamite and loud clothes, but has to rethink his lifestyle when saddled with a couple of ornery kids in Build a Box for Wildcat.

Despite the serious title, and a sober picture on the cover, Build a Box for Wildcat is generally a comedic western, spiked with generous fistfights and shoot-outs. 

Jeff Clinton is the pseudonym of Jack Bickham, who wrote a number of Wildcat O'Shea books as well as other westerns (such as The Apple Dumpling Gang) and in other genres.  If the film version of The Apple Dumpling Gang sticks in your childhood memory as it does mine, you can sort of gauge what kind of novel this is.

I picked this up sight unseen at a flea market with a stack of other paperbacks and found it an interesting departure.

#21: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Two teens, both named Will Grayson and both adrift in the Chicago suburbs, lead parallel lives until a big-boned, openly gay friend named Tiny brings them together in Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan.

I was interested in dipping into some John Green when I found this on the audiobook rack at the Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana and decided to give it a try.

It is a funny, coming-of-age young adult story (written in alternating chapters by the two authors) which hasn't fallen far from the John Hughes tree.  The novel's frank talk about sexuality and sexual relationships (the two eventually meet in an adult bookstore) would probably make it more suitable for older teens, but its message of general acceptance of other lifestyles is good for all.  It finishes with a highly unbelievable chain of events surrounding an elaborate school play about Tiny's life, but in general can be forgiven for a false cinematic ending.

I enjoyed listening to this novel and found it enhanced considerably by good narration.

#20: Sin In Their Blood by Ed Lacy

A Korean War vet with both physical and emotional trauma comes home and wants to live a quiet life; but a suicide that actually is a murder gets him back in the game in Ed Lacy's Sin In Their Blood.

I don't ever see Lacy mentioned with other noir masters, but his books are highly enjoyable, full of action and a bristly humor.  Somehow I have read a fair amount of his books and keep looking for more.

This one has blackmail, beat-downs, and beautiful dames, but the offbeat characterization of the protagonist lifts the story above its 50s private-eye roots.  Lacy's books are definitely not politically correct, but can be enjoyed as a product of their time.

I got this for my beloved Kindle and read it quickly.

#19: The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

A Tokyo pickpocket gets involved in a gang of thieves to help an old friend and mentor, not realizing the life-and-death stakes at hand, in Fuminori Nakamura's creepy noir The Thief.  Along the way he ends up befriending a child pickpocket and tries to keep him off the same path.

Although on the surface The Thief is a pretty straightforward crime novel, there is an unsettling air about the proceedings, everything clammy and slick with sweat, dark and rainy and cold.  With its constant grinding on of the machine of Fate, the novel actually reads like something between Richard Stark and Albert Camus.

I picked this up without knowing anything about it at the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.  I have already recommended it to a few others but would say it is for anyone who likes a more offbeat crime story.

#18: Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

A young woman in 1970s London has a fling with an older man and gradually drifts into the spy world (during a gradually cooling Cold War) in Ian McEwan's Sweet Tooth.

McEwan's writing is generally considered literary fiction, but somewhere along the line he had to have read some classic John LeCarre as this novel seems to be a direct homage not only to that time and place but to LeCarre's works.

But there is also a literary element as McEwan explores how this young woman is used by men--her older lover, her first lover, her bosses and coworkers--as a pawn in what turns out to be a pretty low-stakes game.

I have read McEwan from time to time but was especially attracted to this novel because of the spy setting and time period.  My wife is a big McEwan fan and I bought it for her with the sly intention of reading it next (and did so).

Recommended on various levels, for serious readers and classic spy novel fans.

#17: A Bullet for Cinderella by John D. MacDonald

A vet just home from a North Korean prison camp goes looking for a stash of money buried by a deceased fellow prisoner, falling in with a good girl and a bad girl while all the while being dogged by a psychopath in John D. MacDonald's bracing noir A Bullet for Cinderella.

MacDonald is probably best known for his Travis McGee series about a Florida P.I., but I like his non-series work even better.  This was a very tough story and an old-fashioned page-turner (although those who have read the later Cape Fear might speculate if MacDonald rehashed some ideas).

This was recommended to me for my beloved Kindle and I downloaded and read it quickly.  Great for MacDonald fans and good for anyone else who enjoys hardboiled stories.

#16: The Chill by Ross Macdonald

Private eye Lew Archer goes looking for a runaway bride and stumbles across a series of murders that stretch back decades in Ross Macdonald's The Chill.

As a teenager and young adult I was a great devotee of Macdonald's Archer series and thought I had pretty much read them all until I stumbled across this paperback at a used book sale at the university where I work.  I'm glad,  as I think I appreciate Macdonald's writing even greater with more adult eyes.

Macdonald writes a great hardboiled story but includes a lot of psychological elements that makes the storytelling even more sophisticated.  If you have somehow passed by Macdonald's work it's never too late to jump in (and there have been several good movie versions as well).  Recommended for fans.