#43: The Hunter by Richard Stark

Parker is a professional thief who is double-crossed and left for dead by his wife and best friend, then single-mindedly decides to get his cut of the big take no matter who he has to bring down--on up to the top gangsters in the country.

The Hunter is a very tough-minded crime novel from the early 60s, the first Parker novel by Donald Westlake under the pseudonym of Richard Stark.  It is a bleak noir with no likeable characters, but written in a terse, kinetic style.

I have been a long-time fan of Westlake (and once got a chance to meet him, when he appeared on a TV show I was directing) and have read a lot of his large body of work, but had not really dipped into his famous Parker series.

I got interested in reading The Hunter for two reasons; first was because I read a very cool graphic novel version done by one of my favorite artists, Darwyn Cooke, and the second was because I nabbed it for my beloved Kindle for free.

As soon as I finished it I grabbed a handful more Kindle Parker novels for pocket change, and dived right into The Man with the Getaway Face, the second novel in the series (and also a good graphic novel). 

Recommended for fans of inky-black noir.

#42: Assignment The Cairo Dancers by Edward S. Aaarons

CIA operative Sam Durell goes into action against a Middle Eastern zealot kidnapping world scientists for nefarious means in Edward S. Aarons' Assignment The Cairo Dancers.

Aarons wrote a long, reputable series of novels about Durell over several decades; this entry, from 1965, may be one of the latest ones I have read to date. 

While his 50s novels have a Cold War sobriety, the farther I have read into the 60s the more I have seen the more outlandish trappings of the spy novels and movies of that era; this one features a sinister German dwarf, a pair of feral twin hitmen, a giant death laser and of course a secret base hidden in a mountain that Durell has to fight his way out of.  Naturally he also finds respite long enough to provide comfort and aid to several women in need.

This is a solid adventure in a really underrated series that I have yet to find makes a false step.  I found this one at a used bookstore in Muncie Indiana for 99 cents.

#41: Our Kind of Traitor by John LeCarre

A young British couple on vacation end up in a fateful tennis match against a Russian businessman that sends the pair spiraling into the shadowy world of espionage in John LeCarre's Our Kind of Traitor.

LeCarre's work in the 60s and 70s, especially his George Smiley novels, are almost without peer in the spy genre.  Admittedly I have picked up and put down a lot of his novels since, finding them a bit mixed as the years have gone on. Probably the last one I really enjoyed was Our Game, but admittedly I have avoided a few newer entries that--based on this novel--might be worth a look.

This one struck my fancy from the beginning, written with a good mix of dark humor, interesting characters, complex plotting, and bursts of sobering violence.  It was great to see LeCarre still has some in the tank well into his 80s, writing a contemporary and relevant spy thriller.  Recommended for long-time fans of LeCarre and/or the genre.

I checked this out from the Morrison-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it at a steady pace.

#40: Slammer by Allan Guthrie

A young prison guard is tormented by fellow guards and inmates alike, ending in an explosive breakout, in Allan Guthrie's relentless noir Slammer.

I am a fan of Guthrie's hard-boiled, sardonic Scottish crime fiction, those of which that I've read are a reverent throwback to an earlier era.  This one features a classic unreliable narrator--I'm not sure if that is a noir sub-category, but it should be--and a very Cornell Woolrich-style downbeat ending (one that maybe goes on a half step too long).  It is very tough-minded in the Jim Thompson tradition and is probably not for delicate tastes, especially in some harrowing and graphic prison scenes.

Guthrie himself sent this to me for my beloved Kindle, for which I was grateful (though I would have probably bought it anyway).  I was hooked right away and read it quickly.  Recommended for noir fans and those seeking a change from American crime writing.

#39: Under the Bright Lights by Daniel Woodrell

A mostly honest cop and his mostly crooked brother, who owns a local bar, deal with murder and mayhem in Daniel Woodrell's Under the Bright Lights.

Woodrell later wrote Winter's Bone, which became a very worthwhile film and seems to have generated some interest in his older work, including this reissue of his first novel. 

Although he is frequently compared to Cormac McCarthy now, this early outing is more James Lee Burke, with colorful characters in a moody, corrupt small town in Louisiana  surrounded by foreboding swamps (which naturally play into the denouement).

I think one of the more interesting elements in the story, about the death of a prominent politician that then reveals secrets best buried, was that the cycle of crime and punishment played out through to the end with little influence from the protagonist.  It gave the story a larger noir feel, like some of Cornell Woolrich's better work.

I bought this at a goodbye price from a nearly empty Borders on the verge of closing as "The Bayou Trilogy," with two more novels featuring the main characters forthcoming. 

A good read and my first foray into Daniel Woodrell; I will definitely read the others.

#38: Robbie's Wife by Russell Hill

An aging screenwriter, not exactly washed up because he was always an also-ran, tries to restart his foundering career by going to a remote English farmhouse; but instead almost instantly fall into a dangerous infatuation with a farmer's wife in Russell Hill's Robbie's Wife.

Robbie's Wife is a mature noir with a classic unreliable narrator.  It is part of the very notable Hard Case Crime series, which releases lost classics alongside contemporary counterparts.  This is a great addition to the series, a very strong modern entry that stands alongside some of my favorites, including Scott Smith's A Simple Plan and Robert Ward's Four Kinds of Rain, books that would bring a smile to Jim Thompson's face.

Hill's book also reads as a solid literary piece, with a lot of sharp writing and an interesting subplot about the Mad Cow Disease issue in England.  Recommended for any readers.

I nabbed this off of www.paperbackswap.com and read it steadily.

#37: Nobody's Angel by Jack Clark

A Chicago cab driver ends up in the middle of two horrible crimes, the maiming of a teen prostitute and the murder of a fellow cabbie; cruising the streets in the shadows of the city's worst housing projects, he almost subconsciously moves towards solving both in Jack Clark's superior contemporary noir Nobody's Angel.

This book came out as part of Hard Case Crime, a top-flight collection of lost noirs and modern authors writing in the same vein.  This novel has a very unusual history, as Clark is an actual Chicago cab driver who self-published the book originally and sold it out of the front seat of his cab. 

It is an astounding story when one finds out how good the writing is.  It is obvious that Clark knows the mean streets of the Windy City intimately, and the characters are well-rounded.

If Cornell Woolrich drove a cab, and Jim Thompson was a passenger in the back seat, they might put their heads together and come up with something like Nobody's Angel.  Recommended.

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

#36: Zombie Spaceship Wasteland by Patton Oswalt

I was only tangentially aware of comedian Patton Oswalt (mostly from the movie Big Fan, which I learned about at the Traverse City Film Festival) but by the end of this collection of personal essays and humorous stories felt as if we were brothers under the skin.   

Zombie Spaceship Wasteland is largely about a misspent youth of Dungeons and Dragons, comic books, b-movies, and the like, written in a darkly humorous vein.  I especially liked an essay about working in a movie theater in the 80s, one about working at the bottom of the comedian food chain, and an epic poem written to his last D&D character.  The title comes from an essay about how every young dude will write a story that either involves zombies, spaceships, or wastelands; I had all three in me as a teen.

I would recommend this book by and large to a narrow audience of nerds about the same age as me and Patton Oswalt, but I think it would have some general appeal.  I checked this out from the Morrison-Reeves Public Library after the title caught my eye and read the slender tome at a good clip.

#35: Bossypants by Tina Fey

Pointedly funny autobiography from Tina Fey starts with her Pennsylvania childhood and runs helter skelter up to her tenure on 30 Rock in Bossypants.

I was a big fan of Fey on SNL and like her own oddball show and thus was predisposed to like this book (and I think it also helped that I listened to the audiobook version, where I could hear her own voice).  She glosses over a lot of things (and is much easier on Saturday Night Live then Jay Mohr or Sarah Silverman were in the books they wrote) but her funny stories, and messages of empowerment, are worthwhile.

I found it was incredibly dangerous to listen to the audiobook version of this as I was laughing so hard a few times I was almost crying, bad when driving.  Recommended.

#34: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

The final chapter in the Hunger Games trilogy finds our protagonist, Katniss, helping overthrow the government (personified by her enemy President Snow) while realizing that the rebellion isn't all it's cracked up to be in Suzanne Collins Mockingjay.

The first two books in this trilogy mainly center around Katniss participating in the Hunger Games, where the totalitarian central government keeps the districts in check by holding gladiator-style battles once a year in which only one living victor is allowed.  Astute readers will see pieces and parts borrowed from all sorts of places, including The Giver and Lord of the Flies and Battle Royale.  I have sometimes wondered if I enjoyed this series primarily because it reminded me of other things I liked.

This entry happens after the Hunger Games has ended, and to me seemed to show up the fact that the backstory of the world had been sketched in a bit slenderly in the first two volumes.  There were scenes here that seemed reminiscent of stories from Logan's Run to Beneath the Planet of the Apes which left me to wonder if Collins would leave any pop culture stone unturned.

Interesting for those who have read the first two and who would like to see the story to completion.  I got this for Christmas and finished it over time.

#33: The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto

A young mural artist takes up with a fragile man with a dark past in Banana Yoshimoto's The Lake.

I had never heard of Yoshimoto and picked this up on a whim from the Farmland Public Library.  She has apparently been big in Japan for some time. 

The Lake is a slight, and slightly creepy, novel that read a bit like Haruki Murakami lite.  The story ambles along as a blossoming romance between two troubled people until the pair visit a nearby lake cabin and two odd siblings who live there, one of who is an apparent psychic, where ties to a frightening past are revealed.

Without revealing too much of the backstory, I believe the novel would be pretty resonant to Japanese readers, and I enjoyed it well enough to look for more translations of Yoshimoto's work.

#32: The Ill Wind Contract by Philip Atlee

Joe Gall, the Nullifier, goes on a smuggling operation for the U.S. government but ends up in the middle of the Indonesian civil war with nothing but his quick wit and a swingin' Swedish stewardess in Philip Atlee's The Ill Wind Contract.

I generally enjoy this long-running, politically incorrect spy series, largely written in the 60s and 70s, although the entries are sometimes uneven.  This was one of my favorites, partially because it shows what seems to be a very accurate portrayal of the real-world civil war and has several real-life people.  Atlee's sardonic style is especially sharp here as well.

Atlee has to be recommended only for the discriminating modern eye; for instance, liberals, communists, and "women's libbers" are all considered equally evil in this story, and subtle portrayals of other races is never a strong suit.

I got this from a used bookstore in Muncie, Indiana for less than a single U.S. dollar.

#31: The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly

A lawyer working the foreclosure angle finds himself in the middle of a murder case when his client is accused of killing a banker in Michael Connelly's The Fifth Witness.

Michael Connelly is one of my favorite recent-era mystery writers and his series about police detective Harry Bosch is, despite a few low spots, a significant achievement in contemporary crime writing.  He has dabbled in a few other characters but seems to be really finding some traction with Mickey Haller, first introduced in The Lincoln Lawyer.

Like Bosch, Haller has a lot of baggage, including two ex-wives, and feels most comfortable working out of the back seat of his car.  He is also a fairly tarnished but ultimately likable character.

Connelly seems to have hit his stride with this entry, which has a neat story and compelling courtroom action.  It has been interesting to see how the characters have evolved over the last few novels as well.  I am beginning to look forward to the next Haller story almost as much as the next Bosch.

I checked this out from the Farmland Public Library in Farmland, Indiana and read it quickly.

#30: The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg

Murders and suicides rock a small town in Sweden, sending ripples through various families and back a generation, in Camilla Lackberg's debut mystery The Ice Princess.

Lackberg has arrived on a big wave of Scandinavian novels that made it to our shores in recent years post-Stieg Larsson, and I have enjoyed them as a change of pace from their American counterparts; typically more morose and thoughtful and tangled with family dysfunction.

But Lackberg takes something back in return from here; a glimmer of romance, as the main character--writing a book about her childhood friend's death--takes up with a handsome police detective, a departure from the usual gloomy ruminations of her Scandinavian counterparts.

The darker novels of some of her colleagues (authors I enjoy like Arnaldur Indridason and Asa Larsson among them) might not be to everyone's taste, so Lackberg's relatively lighter fare might be more palatable to the general reader.  I will still look for her next book even though I would not rate her as highly as some others (including current fave Jo Nesbo).

I picked this up in paperback and carried it around for a long while nibbling at it, from Europe to Chicago and finally home again.

#29: Assignment Sorrento Siren by Edward S. Aarons

An American secret agent goes on a torture and murder spree, putting straight-arrow spy Sam Durell hot on his trail in Assignment Sorrento Siren, a brawny novel in the long-running espionage series by Edward S. Aarons.

The secret agent goes rogue largely under the direction of a hardscrabble American woman turned Italian countess (the siren of the title), who ends up swaying multiple men into trying to obtain precious artwork for her.  This makes Durell a little bit more of a private eye than a spy in this entry, which seems to be the case from time to time, despite having an old Communist nemesis trying to kill him and kidnap his long-suffering girlfriend Dee at critical moments.

A top-flight novel in the series, this one from the early 60s and full of rousing action.  One of my favorites to date, despite having picked it up solely for its Italian setting (leading up to a trip to Italy earlier this summer).  I nabbed this one for less than a dollar at a used bookstore in Muncie, Indiana.

#28: The Innocent Man by John Grisham

A washed-up, mentally unstable former pro baseball player ends up framed for an Oklahoma woman's murder in John Grisham's hair-raising nonfiction work The Innocent Man.

I have always liked Grisham but hate to admit that a lot of his books were starting to run together in my mind.  But this non-fiction work you almost couldn't make up, populated with blind and drunk lawyers, bungling judges, treacherous jailhouse snitches, bullying cops, dream confessions, last-minute death-row reprieves, and more, in a  case that spans decades.

What's more, Grisham sets forth and least two other botched cases from the same time period and geographical area during the course of the story that are almost as chilling as the main story.

Long but absolutely compelling from start to finish, The Innocent Man actually made me rethink some of my beliefs about the death penalty.

I listened to the bulk of this on audio book during a long drive back and forth to Chicago, and the time passed quickly.

#27: Three Seconds by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom

A deep undercover police informant goes to prison to break up a Polish drug ring, only to get burned by his superiors and have to fight his way out, in Three Seconds, a tough-minded crime drama from Sweden.

Three Seconds is very hard-boiled and well-written and showcases a different voice in crime writing, which is one of the elements I have enjoyed from the recent spate of Scandinavian mysteries that have graced these shores in recent years.  Unlike others, the writing team of Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom is less melancholy than some of their counterparts and relies more on burly action.

The down side is that, after a long buildup, the finale relies too heavily on an intricate Rube Goldberg-like sequence of events, coincidences, and lucky breaks that allows the storyline to come to a satisfactory conclusion.

But I was with them most of the way and would recommend this meaty thriller to mystery fans.

I borrowed this from Morrison-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#26: The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer

After a mission turns tragic, a spy in a top-secret branch called "The Department of Tourism" goes into semi-retirement with his new family; but soon various tightly-woven plots bring him back into the fold in Olen Steinhauer's highly enjoyable espionage thriller The Tourist.

In turns darkly funny but eminently credible, The Tourist harkens back to the best of the genre (most especially one of my favorites, Len Deighton) but the storyline is up to the minute in terms of contemporary threats and political scenarios. 

Steinhauer writes in a very readable, engaging style while remaining suitably complex for the steady reader of thrillers.  Worthwhile right through the final twist.

I would have to say this is one of my favorite novels of the year to date and would recommend it to any general reader.  I checked this out on a whim from the Morrison-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it at a breakneck pace.

#25: Assignment Lili Lamaris by Edward S. Aarons

Superspy Sam Durrell relies on a world-famous ballerina, in deep with gangsters and drugs, to help him smash a spy ring in Edward S. Aarons' Assignment Lili Lamaris, another stalwart entry in the lengthy spy series.

This adventure from the early 60s reads more Mickey Spillane than Ian Fleming as Durrell acts a bit more as a bodyguard/gumshoe figure, getting and giving out beatings at a steady pace and dealing with all sorts of lowlifes, including a crime boss and a sinister, legless doctor.

But the backdrop is largely Rome, which is why I picked this one up after a recent visit there (and, curiously, some of the action takes place in Ostia, where I also had a chance to spend a day).  Aarons always has a good sense of place to give interest to his hard-nosed storytelling.

I believe this series is entirely agreeable, and I would rate this outing in the upper half of a steady collection of these I have worked through since rediscovering Aarons a few short years ago.

I nabbed this one for pocket change at a used bookstore in Muncie, Indiana.

#24: Three Stations by Martin Cruz Smith

Moscow police investigator Arkady Renko, an outsider in his own department, still puts his skills to work trying to solve a young woman's murder and a baby's disappearance in Martin Cruz Smith's Three Stations.

Smith's series has chronicled life in Russia for several decades now, oftentimes with long intervals between novels (though they are starting to come out considerably faster lately).  This is a credible, admirable crime series that started with the well-known Gorky Park but has produced many notable entries since then (my favorite is probably Polar Star) that are as much socio-political treatises as they are mysteries.

Wolves Eat Dogs and Stalin's Ghost, the most recent novels in the series, represent Putin-era Russia and might be a jumping-off point for new readers.

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

#23: He Walked In Her Sleep by Peter Cheyney

A genial London safecracker confounds rival criminals and the police in equal measure in Peter Cheyney's He Walked In Her Sleep.

My one regret when visiting the book stalls on the South Bank in London was not buying more British pulp paperbacks when I had the chance the first time I walked through the area.  But when I went back I was able to snag this lone book before they closed up, from British pulp writer Peter Cheyney (perhaps best known for creating private eye Lemmy Caution). 

Despite the lurid cover and noirish title this turned out to be a collection of short stories more in the vein of Leslie Charteris' The Saint.  Though expecting something more hard-boiled, it turned out to be a breezy collection of adventures whereas our somewhat tarnished protagonist Alonzo MacTavish and his sidekicks generally do more good than harm in double-crossing bad guys and generally outwitting the police.

This was an easy read over a few days and I hope to find more of Peter Cheyney's writing somewhere.

#22: Nineteen Seventy-Four by David Peace

Set in an early 70s northern England, a crime reporter tries to unravel some grisly murders that end up taking a psychic and physical toll on him in David Peace's blistering noir Nineteen Seventy-Four.

Peace writes in a raw but realistic voice and the storytelling is dense and electric.  Although I enjoyed this immensely, I would only recommend it with reservations as it is very, very mature in situations and content.  Peace's novel makes the bleak noir of Jim Thompson and James Ellroy seem like a Hardy Boys mystery.

This is the first of four novels that Peace wrote in this setting, to great acclaim.  I have also seen the first movie based on the series, Red Riding 1974, shot for British television and worthwhile in its own right.

I bought this from a neat bookstore in Hampstead while visiting England and consumed it in a single day waiting at the airport. 

#21: Tehanu by Ursula K. LeGuin

A former adventurer, who eventually chose life as a farm wife, finds herself thrust back into the spotlight when she helps a dying wizard and an abused child in Ursula LeGuin's Tehanu.

I recommend Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy to anyone (and just recently hooked my brother up with the first one) not only a great young adult fantasy trilogy but just a great fantasy trilogy in general.  This entry was written long after the original series of novels and features older and more reflective versions of the main characters from the earlier works.

Light on action, this book--billed as the last Earthsea novel--is more meditative, focusing a lot on the roles of women in the world.  It is a worthwhile adult conclusion to a series mostly read by younger eyes.

I picked this up at a library book sale for a quarter and read it over a few days on a trip to Europe.

#20: City of Illusions by Ursula K. LeGuin

The Shing have destroyed the League of Worlds, keeping the planets apart and in a semi-barbaric state; until an alien-eyed man with no memory appears on Earth ready to challenge the status quo in Ursula LeGuin's City of Illusions.

This novel is an early entry in what became known as LeGuin's Hainish Cycle, which features some of her best-known works, including The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed.  Nonetheless it really stands on its own, though the main character hails from the planet featured in Planet of Exile. 

This is a trippy sci-fi adventure from the 60s with a lot of neat ideas in a straightforward quest-style plot framework.  I got this from www.paperbackswap.com in a bound edition with two earlier works in this series, Rocannon's World and Planet of Exile, good reads all.

#19: Arms of Nemesis by Steven Saylor

In ancient Rome, a detective called The Finder tries to prove the innocence of a runaway slave in Steven Saylor's Arms of Nemesis.

This was given to me by a friend to read on a flight to Rome, and I took it with some reservations, thinking the premise sounded a little cute, a mix of Raymond Chandler and PBS; but I ended up reading it in a single day.  It is penned in a tough, credible style, and seems to me to be written with a great attention to detail.

The larger backdrop is the Spartacus slave revolt, and there is also gladiator combat, a tumultuous ride on a slave galley, and a visit to an Oracle, as well as more subtly dramatic and domestic scenes centered around the crime. 

Overall I found this quite satisfying and was happy to hear it is part of a larger series of novels about The Finder.