Digital Sextant

Storm Front bv Jim Butcher; Kiss Kiss Bang Bang For today’s double review, I thought I’d write about two texts I’d just finished, both of which I’m returning to.  Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a postmodern detective story with cool humor and wacky narration, a solid film.  Storm Front is Jim Butcher’s first book in [… Read More]

by Sean Chercover I started this book two months ago when my book club read it, but wasn’t able to attend the meeting and so put it down after 40 pages or so.  Something about the book didn’t work for me.  Never one to give up easily on a book, I picked it back up [… Read More]

by Ken Bruen Calibre rockets through the story of a group of cops (ala McBain’s 83rd Precinct) in London and the criminals they encounter.  Its characters are sharply drawn and distinct, and its dialog really pops.  If Bruen’s other books are half as enjoyable as this one, he’s got a new fan. The killer and [… Read More]

Stalking the Vampire: A Fable of Tonight by Mike Resnick rating: 2 of 5 stars Mike Resnick’s Stalking the Vampire tells the tale of hard-boiled detective John Justin Mallory, a real-world P.I. who has been transported (in a previous novel) into an alternate-world Manhattan in which Goblins roam the streets and all manner of fantastical [… Read More]

Or, The Crime of the Midnight Express by Frank Pinkerton; read by Sibella Denton (via Librivox) A moderately entertaining old mystery recommended to me by a friend from the PCA Mystery section.  The book has all the hallmarks of early hard-boiled stories (though was written well before those would have been popular), including friends who [… Read More]