#17: An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten

An elderly lady uses murder to solve life's basic annoyances, flying under the radar as they appear to be accidents and mishaps, in Helene Tursten's darkly comic short story collection aptly titled An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good.

Tursten is the author of a solid police procedural series featuring Swedish detective Irene Huss (who makes a brief appearance here).  By contrast, this slender collection is relatively breezy, especially by the inky-black standards of Scandinavian noir.

But I enjoyed it as a quick read, and would recommend it to anyone wanting to dip a toe into the shallower end of Scandinavian mysteries.

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

#16: Orson Welles's Last Movie by Josh Karp

Orson Welles directed what is considered one of the greatest films of all time, Citizen Kane, but at the end of his life struggled for years to finish a film with threadbare finances and a crew of young hippies, a fascinating story told in Josh Karp's Orson Welles's Last Movie.

I watched the posthumously released film The Other Side of the Wind, and was so fascinated I immediately watched the documentary They'll Love Me When I'm Dead and then immediately started listening to Josh Karp's book on audio.

If you are interested in Welles at all, or the collapse of the studio system and the rise of independents in the 1970s--a favorite subject of mine--this is a highly compelling read, and deeply researched.

If nothing else, it is an interesting Hollywood story, full of unbelievable successes and ruinous failures, featuring a larger-than-life Hollywood auteur.

Very relevant for film fans, and recommended for those with similar interests.

#15: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

An emotionally and socially stunted woman finds solace and order working in a convenience store; but when she tries to fit into society by starting a relationship with a young man, it almost comes crashing down in Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman.

Murata's novel seems a fairly lightly sketched slice of life, but contains deeper meaning for the lives of women and also the structure of Japanese society.  Readers interested in Japanese culture should find this especially rewarding.

I liked Murata's style and found it alternating between melancholy and humorous.

This is Murata's first novel to be translated into English, and it is genuinely offbeat.  I checked this out from Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.

#14: Transcription by Kate Atkinson

In 1940, a young woman works for MI-5 as a transcriptionist, helping snare a group of pro-Nazi Brits; in 1950, she now works for the BBC, and sees her past catching up to her in Kate Atkinson's Transcription.

Atkinson writes across all genres, from literary fiction to mysteries; I believe this is her first quasi-spy novel, but it is filled with her quirky style.  She writes complex characters, from the protagonist's closeted boss and later sort-of fiance to a prim old lady who might also be a murderous Jew-hater.  Alliances are murky and violence can be sudden and sometimes absurd.  Features a genuine surprise ending.

I have enjoyed Atkinson's novels, especially her Jackson Brodie detective series, but this is a great standalone for readers who enjoy spy fiction as well as literary fiction.  Recommended.

I checked this out on audiobook from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library in New Castle, Indiana, given a good reading by  Fenella Woolgar. 

#13: Destroy All Monsters by Jeff Jackson

A string of seemingly random murders at music venues across the country sets forth a chilling effect on live music; but a band's tribute concert may change all that, if they can hold it together long enough to go through with it, in Jeff Jackson's Destroy All Monsters.

Jackson's book is genuinely offbeat; as much about unstoppable fate and inexplicable violence as small-town life and fragile relationships, a heartfelt slice of life and a heady fantasy.

As soon as I finished it, I texted the biggest live music lover I know and asked him to read it; anyone else who loves the live music scene or who has ever been in a band should pick this one up soon.

The music theme carries through even to the novel having an "A side" and a "B side."  You flip the novel over, and there is a novella-length story where a different character is killed, and a different person is leading the band; curiously, many of the supporting characters are gender-flipped, as well.

As unusual, but approachable, a novel as I have read in a long while.  Recommended.

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

#12: Moon in a Dead Eye by Pascal Garnier

Two couples buy into a retirement community which is unsettling in its emptiness, save for a sinister groundskeeper and a stoned activities coordinator; and then when a single woman moves in, civility is abruptly ripped away in Pascal Garnier's Moon in a Dead Eye.

Garnier was a French noir writer whose novels veer from dark comedy to bleak tragedy, and even with the unusual setting and characters (elderly in a retirement community) this one follows that formula.  There is murder, sex, animal cruelty, and a fire of unknown origin just to mention the top few plot points.  And the novel's title does not refer to the moon in a dead eye for artistic sake alone.

I enjoy French noir in films and novels and am quickly becoming a Garnier fan as more of his work appears in English.  I got this one in a collection called Gallic Noir Volume 2 and read the slender volume quickly.

#11: The Man Who Came Uptown by George Pelecanos

A private detective helps a getaway driver get out of prison on a technicality, but then expects to be repaid in dangerous fashion, in George Pelecanos' The Man Who Came Uptown.

Pelecanos is a great contemporary crime writer who has also made forays into popular television shows such as The Wire and The Deuce.  Most of his crime novels are set in Washington D.C., including this one.

The push-pull in this story is between the getaway driver, who is trying to go straight; the private detective, who is starting to go crooked; the detective's gradually reluctant partner; and a dissatisfied prison librarian who the driver meets up with once he is free.  Throw in a lot of angry double-crossed criminals and the ending leaves nobody unscathed.

 Another fine novel from Pelecanos that hits all the right beats.  I checked this out from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library and read it quickly.

#10: Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly

Renee Ballard ran afoul of office politics and ended up on the overnight detective shift for the LAPD--called "The Late Show"--dealing with the carnival of night life on display regularly.  But when she finds legendary retired detective Harry Bosch snooping through some old files, she ends up in the middle of a cold case on a murdered runaway in Michael Connelly's Dark Sacred Night.

I think Connelly's Harry Bosch series is a landmark work in contemporary crime fiction.  He has from time to time introduced other series characters, including Ballard and "The Lincoln Lawyer" Mickey Haller (who has turned out to be Bosch's half brother).

This is the first team-up between Ballard and Bosch, and it's a solid, fast-paced story, with a shaded-in-gray finale that ties the past cold case to an explosive present.

I'm a big fan of Connelly and would recommend his new novel to fans (although reading The Late Show featuring Ballard first helps).

I checked this out on audiobook from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library in New Castle, Indiana.  A good read from Christine Lakin and Titus Welliver.

#9: Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz

007 is dead, so a new 007--named James Bond--sets out to avenge his predecessor's death, and subsequently prevent an attack on America, in Anthony Horowitz's Forever and a Day.

This is Horowitz's second Bond novel, after Trigger Mortis, and like its predecessor this novel sits very comfortably in the Ian Fleming timeline and written in that classic style.  His last Bond novel took place immediately after Goldfinger, and this one slots in just before Casino Royale.

Thus we have a rookie Bond, being helped along by an older, enigmatic freelance agent called Madame Sixtine.  Horowitz has fun staging the origins of a lot of Bond's interests and habits shown in later novels.  And of course, adds a couple of oversized villains orchestrating a Byzantine plot.

For fans of the classic Bond, Horowitz hits all of the right notes.

I listened to a good audiobook reading of this novel on loan from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library in New Castle, Indiana.

#8: The Stalking Moon by Theodore V. Olsen

A soldier rescues a woman from captivity, only to have the warrior who took her come looking to get her back, in Theodore V. Olsen's The Stalking Moon.

Olsen was a prolific paperback writer, largely westerns but in other genres as well, and had several of his novels turned into movies.  Including this one, made in 1968 and starring Gregory Peck and Eva Marie Saint.

Olsen tries to stretch genre conventions in his novel, portraying the complexities of life for the two mixed-race children the rescued woman bore during her captivity, as well as the complexities of the growing relationship between the soldier and the woman.  For a mid-60s mass-market paperback, Olsen made a pretty good stab at it.

Offbeat for a western of this time, but still fast-moving and full of action, and worthwhile for genre fans.

I got this in a big box of goodbye paperbacks and read it quickly.

#7: Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic

A private investigator's cop friend is murdered, and suspected of being crooked, which the investigator sets out to disprove at great personal peril in Emma Viskic's Resurrection Bay.

Viskic's Australian setting, and deaf protagonist, elevates a standard but pretty fast-moving crime novel.  A genuinely surprising ending involving a slew of deaths and one major betrayal adds value.

Resurrection Bay is the first in a series featuring Caleb Zelic, a popular run of novels in Australia which are just making it over to the States.  I liked it well enough to want to know what happens to Zelic next.

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

#6: My Sister is a Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

A nurse, plain-speaking and plain-looking, is devoted to her spoiled, beautiful younger sister; so when her sister steadily dispatches her boyfriends for various offenses, she has no choice but help with the coverup in Oyinkan Braithwaite's My Sister is a Serial Killer.

This darkly comic novel seems ready-made for the movies in its breezy pacing and style.  Braithwaite earns points for the Nigerian setting, filled with corrupt cops and a lackadaisical health care system, both of which contribute to the sister's continued success in going without notice.

Braithwaite's novel is a fun read, with some darker subtexts woven throughout about what might have sent the sister around a murderous bend.

I checked this out from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library in New Castle, Indiana and read it quickly.

#5: Slaughter at Buzzard's Gulch by Scott Harris

An ambidextrous gunfighter ends up crossways of a saloon owner forcing women into slavery in Scott Harris' Slaughter at Buzzard's Gulch, the first in a new western series featuring a bounty hunter called  Caz.

Harris' first western series, featuring easygoing--but lightning-fast--gunfighter Brock Clemons, is more about finding family and community, while Caz's adventures are decidedly less sentimental and more action-oriented.

Caz always warns owlhoots to walk away, but if they did the book would be much shorter.  Thus Caz steadily dispatches the local nest of vipers from the first chapter to the last, with little cause for self-reflection.

A more spaghetti-flavored series than Harris' other protagonist, and an enjoyable read.

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

#4: Valiant Bugles by Gordon D. Shirreffs

A broken-down fort in the heart of Apache country is the setting for a feud between a vengeful soldier and an Apache leader called The Butcher in Gordon D. Shirreffs' Valiant Bugles.

I have enjoyed reading Shirreffs in the past, and this one is especially tough-minded; our hero has lost everything close to him, and has become murderously obsessed to the point that his troops are on the brink of mutiny, all while the infrastructure around them collapses and the enemy wins every encounter.  A seemingly hopeless finale, holding one final twist, finishes out the last few chapters.

A good solid western that I read over a few wintry nights.  I found this at a flea market for a solitary dollar and read it quickly.

#3: Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick

Anna Kendrick's rise from child actor on Broadway to indie film to Hollywood blockbusters, all while awash in self-doubt but equipped with a sardonic sense of humor, is the focus of her autobiography Scrappy Little Nobody.

I didn't realize how much I had actually seen Kendrick in until I read her account; she has had a pretty varied career in a lot of avenues.

Like a lot of these autobiographies, it is a mix of Hollywood adventures and revealing personal stories.  How much you enjoy this retelling depends on how much you like Kendrick, but the audiobook reading by her (which I listened to on loan from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library) adds value.

To me, the most profound part was when she said, basically, that making a movie was like hosting a wedding every day, in an uncharted forest. 

Worthwhile for fans.

#2: Pictures at a Revolution by Mark Harris

In the late 60s the Hollywood studio system was dying out, and a new way of making films--egged on by European cinema--was making itself known.  In Mark Harris' book Pictures at a Revolution the 1968 Oscar race for Best Picture symbolizes this, with the five movies being the square Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; the colossal dud Doctor Doolittle; and three films that were capturing what was in the air, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, and Bonnie and Clyde.

I have always been interested in this time period in American film, and Harris' book provides all the detail and research you could ever want about this era.  But what struck me the most was the portrayals of the various talents involved; a broke Dustin Hoffman sleeping on Gene Hackman's floor, a raging, fading Rex Harrison's drunken exploits, a dying Spencer Tracy trying to get one more performance in, an isolated and conflicted Sidney Poitier. 

The book shows how hard it is to make a movie, any movie, even ones that turn out to be classics, full of twists and turns and dead stops and changes of fortune.  Fascinating for those, like me, interested in moviemaking.

I listened to this on audiobook on loan from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library in New Castle, Indiana.

#1: Death in the Lava by John Benteen

The hired gun Sundance tries to save a hidden tribe of Indians, and grab an equally hidden cache of gold, in John Benteen's Death in the Lava.

John Benteen was (most of the time) Ben Haas, one of my favorite western writers, and I like his series character Sundance.  Sundance had a white father and a Cheyenne mother and lives in both worlds and neither.  As a hired gun, he funnels most of his money to Washington D.C. to help with Indian relations.  Overall a pretty interesting character.

But the novels never lack for action, as in this one Sundance is besieged on all sides, including by a band of owlhoots from a bandit town called "Hell, Yes!"

I got this one in a stack of Benteen books a friend sent me.  A recommended series for western fans.

Favorite Reads of 2018, and List of the Decade

I read 58 books in my annual quest of reading 50 books a year.  Another good year, on the world landscape, to hunker down and read.  Might have helped if I hadn't read so many dystopian novels.

This year my Top Ten favorite reads were:

Severance by Ling Ma

Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin

The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

Every Anxious Wave by Mo Daviau

Tangerine by Christine Mangan

November Road by Lou Berney

Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller

The Third Hotel by Laura Van Den Berg

The Italian Party by Christina Lynch


I first undertook this internet challenge with some friends way back in 2008, and since then I have read 598 books, or an average of 54 a year.  I didn't make it in 2013 and 2014, being a span of time when both my kids got married and a grandson was born, and I read an astounding 81 books last year, because obviously it was 2017.

I grabbed the top from every year, and some others I didn't rank as highly but have stayed with me over time; that initial list was 20, and here are the Top Ten.

I'm too close to this year's batch, but I think Severance might be there somewhere in the long haul.

The first two I have recommended to everyone, and in fact when I shot my debut feature film The Girl in the Crawlspace earlier this year, they were two of the books I gave to my lead actors as a thak you for their roles.  The next two were also a heavy influence on my movie, as a character reads them during the action.

I had to include The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as it started my now ten-year love of Scandinavian crime fiction (as well, I suspect, as quite a few other people).

The others I would just say were mindblowers in some way that sent my thinking in different directions. 

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

 Night Film by Marisha Pessl

Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin 

Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

 The City and The City by China Mieville

 Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle

 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson


Here are the next five that I had to think hard about before excluding:

Lunar Park by Brett Easton Ellis

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera


The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt


Embassytown by China Mieville

Maybe this list would be slightly different if I did it again tomorrow, but maybe not.

A couple of times I have picked goals for the year; once I read a year of all women writers and once I did a year of people of color or people in translation.  If I have a goal for this coming year, I think it will be read harder and smarter; we shall see.  I hope you see something here you'd like to read!

#57: Fargo and the Texas Rangers by John Benteen

Gun-for-Hire Neal Fargo owes Pancho Villa a favor, and ends up in the middle of a land war between Mexican-Americans and a crooked Texas Ranger in John Benteen's Fargo and the Texas Rangers.

Benteen was really Ben Haas, and one of my favorites of the prolific paperback writers.  Fargo is a series character--and despite the book's cover--this actually isn't a true western but more of a Men's Adventure novel, an early 20th Century story set square during World War I on the Texas-Mexico border.

Benteen knows how to write hard-nosed action, and plenty of it, and this one doesn't stint, including a memorable knife fight on horseback and a street fight between two tripod-mounted machine guns.

I got this in a big stack of John Benteen novels from a friend trying to turn me into a fan (he was successful), and I read it quickly.

#56: The Fugitive Gun by Jory Sherman

A cowboy goes on the vengeance trail when an owlhoot--who looks just like him--steals his name in Jory Sherman's The Fugitive Gun.

This western plot of a villainous double strains a bit--it also involves a bullet crease to the skull that causes amnesia, and a few other convenient elements--but the writing is really above average.

Sherman had a colorful writing career, a Beat poet in 50s San Francisco (and a friend of Charles Bukowski) who had a literary life outside of his prolific paperback output.

I got this in a big chunk of goodbye paperback westerns and was pleasantly surprised by the writing, and would like to stumble across more of Sherman's work. 

#55: The Third Hotel by Laura Van Den Berg

A woman's husband is killed in a hit-and-run, and on a whim she goes ahead with his plan to attend a film festival in Havana, only to catch a glimpse of him there in Laura Van Den Berg's The Third Hotel.

Although this thumbnail description sounds more like a straightforward thriller, the novel is more a meditation on the mysteries of lives and marriages, with the unreliable narrator as elusive as the unexplained sightings of her husband.

Van Den Berg is a very literate writer, which sets some of the genre trappings--including an ongoing discourse on horror movies and how they relate to the main narrative--into the background. 

Interesting and rewarding throughout.

I checked this out from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library in New Castle, Indiana, and read it quickly.

#54: All Systems Red by Martha Wells

A security cyborg on a remote planet hacks his control system, though instead of going on a rampage decides to slack off and watch a lot of soap operas; but when his team comes under attack, he reluctantly goes on the offensive in Martha Wells' All Systems Red.

Wells' novel comes built for moviedom--it's hip, cinematic, and fast, with likeable characters under the thumb of one of those giant unnamed "corporations" featured in sci-fi movies like the Alien films.  The protagonist, who calls himself "Murderbot," is written in a fun and fresh style.

I don't think All Systems Red plows any fresh ground, but it is eminently enjoyable and readable.  Wells has already written several more featuring Murderbot, which I am interested in reading.

I checked this out from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library and read it quickly.

#53: The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell

Greg Sestero is a struggling young actor in San Francisco when he meets the mysterious, larger-than-life figure Tommy Wiseau.  Their unlikely friendship spawns the cult movie The Room, and Sestero lives to tell about it in The Disaster Artist.

The making of the movie is interesting, but Wiseau looms over all the proceedings, a giant personality both generous and miserly, a great friend and a terrible enemy, an angel and an ogre, all with a fractured vocabulary and worldview.

But Sestero is ultimately kind to Wiseau--perhaps more so than the movie version of The Disaster Artist with James Franco--and acutely notes how his own loneliness, and eagerness for fame, played a role in all that transpired.

Even if you haven't seen The Room (I haven't) it is still a worthwhile read that shows truth is stranger than fiction, even when the fiction is strange.

I listened to a great audiobook reading by Sestero, on loan from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library.  Recommended for film fans.

#52: The Secret of Apache Canyon by Richard Telfair

An Easterner finds out he is getting swindled in a mining agreement, but has to throw in with his enemies when they realize they are under attack by hostile Indians, in The Secret of Apache Canyon.

Richard Telfair wrote across the genres, and it shows here, as this novel has western trappings with plenty of mystery elements thrown in--such as who orchestrated the mining scheme, who is hiding a secret identity, and who killed a pretty young woman's parents.

Full of unlikable characters, and not shaded for contemporary readers, but bangs right along and never lets up on action and suspense.

I got this in a big giveaway lot of western paperbacks and read it quickly.

#51: The Horse Trader by Wade Everett

A cowhand's kindness leads to a surprise inheritance of a large spread, putting him square in the gunsights of others who want the land, in Wade Everett's The Horse Trader.

Everett was originally Will Cook, and when he died young Giles Lutz took over the pseudonym.  Several times recently I have thought I had discovered a new author, only to find Lutz lurking behind the name.

Happily, I like Lutz's style quite a bit.  I think this one is especially unusual for its time (late 60s) as it features an African-American protagonist and a Native American deputy, both drawn in a well-rounded way.

I ended up being gifted a big stash of westerns that had this one in it, so I didn't seek it out particularly, but found it an enjoyable surprise.  A good read for western fans.