Thursday, January 31, 2008

The History of Books Before Printing and Emma

"The History of Books Before Printing" by David Diringer was a book for school, but I enjoyed it. It was interesting to learn how socities kept records of things before the invention and widespread use of paper and the printing press.
"Emma" by Jane Austen--frankly, it bored me. After seeing "Clueless", I already knew what was going to happen, and for some reason Emma's dad just irritated me. Why couldn't anyone leave the house after dark? Seriously, he needed to relax. Emma irritated me, too, with her little matchmaking. What was wrong with Robert Martin for Harriet? I thought he seemed like a nice guy. Come to think of it, Harriet irritated me, too. I think all the characters did.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Emperor: Death of Kings

Wow, it's been a whole week since I finished reading a book! You can tell school's back in session...
Anyway, I finished reading Conn Iggulden's "Emperor: Death of Kings" this morning, the second book in the Emperor series. Like the first, it was highly readable and brought life to the story of Julius Caesar, even if it wasn't 100% accurate historically. This one picks up where the last one left off: Caesar has fled Rome because of Sulla and is captured and held for ransom by a band of pirates. Bad mistake on the pirates' part: after his ransom is paid and he is set free, he immediately sets to work rounding up a band of willing men to go after them. They fight the pirates, take back their ransoms as well as the rest of the pirates' booty, and make their way home, killing a nasty Greek general and his troops in the process. Caesar returns triumphantly to Rome, a hero. Sulla has been assassinated in his absence. Caesar leaves again when Spartacus and his band of rebellious slaves threatens the safety of Rome, and is instrumental in crushing the rebellion (like I said, not very historically accurate). Worried about the loyalty he is inspiring in the soldiers, Pompey and Crassus send him and his legion to Spain, where book three picks up.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The Wives of Henry VIII and Emperor: Gates of Rome

On Friday I finished reading Antonia Fraser's "The Wives of Henry VIII". Always a fascinating subject for me, I found this one highly readable and very sympathetic to all six of his wives, as well as to King Henry, which I disagree with. I think he was a true villain, especially toward his first and best wife, Catherine of Aragon.
On Saturday I read "Emperor: Gates of Rome", the first in the Emperor series by Conn Iggulden. It's about Julius Caesar's early years, growing up in the Roman countryside with his best friend, Marcus Brutus. While not completely accurate historically, it was an easy and interesting read, and I'm eager to finish the rest of the series.

Monday, January 14, 2008

'Til Death; Plum Lucky; Lady, Lady, I Did It!; and King's Ransom

Let me get caught up here!
First, "'Til Death", an Ed McBain reread. Carella's sister, Angela, is getting married, and not one but two different men are after her groom, Tommy (who later becomes a cocaine addict, but that's neither here nor there). It was a pretty good one, because one of the killers is obvious, but the second one isn't (at least, not to me), so just when you think it's all over, it's not.
"Plum Lucky" is a Stephanie Plum book by Janet Evanovich. I was disappointed by this one. It wasn't nearly as funny as most of her other books, and the plot didn't keep me interested. Stephanie's grandmother finds a duffel bag full of money and heads for Atlantic City. Stephanie, Connie, Lulu, and Diesel go after her before the mobster who owns the money gets to her first. At one point Stephanie had to keep a horse in her apartment, which was pretty amusing.
"Lady, Lady, I Did It!" by Ed McBain was another reread (out of the 5 books I ordered online, turns out I had read 3!). This is a sad one: Kling's fiancee, Claire Townsend, is killed in a violent bookstore shooting that leaves a total of 4 people dead. The boys in the 87th have to figure out who the shooter was after in order to solve the crime. At first it looks like it might have been Claire, since she had recently helped a girl obtain an illegal abortion (this was in 1960) and the girl later died from infection from the surgery. Turns out that the killer was after someone else in the bookstore: a man who had argued with him over the $25 paint job on his car. Four people brutally murdered for a lousy paint job. You can see the cynicism coming through. Hell, even I felt cynical reading it.
"King's Ransom" by Ed McBain is one I actually hadn't read yet. A successful businessman on the verge of making the deal of a lifetime gets a phone call from a man claiming to have kidnapped his son and demanding a ransom of $500,000. Unfortunately, it turns out the kidnappers snatched the chauffeur's son by mistake, and Douglas King won't pay the ransom because then he won't be able to buy the stock that will give him control of the company he is hoping to take over. In the end everything works out and the little boy is found safe and sound. Good thing he wrote this one early in his career: later on and the kid would have died. I really liked this one.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Antony and Cleopatra

Yesterday I finished reading Colleen McCullough's "Antony and Cleopatra" (I know, it's not an 87th book!). I really enjoyed McCullough's "The October Horse", about Julius Caesar. This one was good, too, but it was more about Caesar's nephew, Octavian, then Antony or Cleopatra, and Octavian comes out looking better (at least until the end). Antony is portrayed as a dimwitted alcoholic bumbler; Cleopatra as an ugly, shrewish harpy who only had a minimal amount of success ruling her country because of luck rather than skill. Roman history is fascinating, though, and McCullough masterfully weaves fiction with reality. If you're a fan of Shakespeare's version of their love story, though, this will shatter illusions.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

The Empty Hours

Another one from Ed McBain that I haven't read yet. It was pretty good. It was made up of three shortish (about 60 pages each) stories. The first one involves the murder of an independently wealthy young woman who witnessed the accidental drowning of her cousin two months prior to her own untimely death. Turns out the one who drowned was actually the rich one and her cousin assumed her identity so she could keep on getting the dividend checks (she did not inherit in the event of her cousin's death, her uncle's alma mater did). She is murdered in her apartment in a botched burglary, totally unrelated to her assuming her dead cousin's identity.
The second story involves the murder of a rabbi on the second day of Passover outside of his synagogue. At first the detectives suspect a local anti-Semitic who has made his feelings very clear, but it turns out it was a member of the rabbi's congregation who felt that his non-Orthodox ideas were going to ruin his temple.
The last story has Hawes on a ski weekend vacation. A young ski instructor is murdered on the slopes. He feels the local police are botching up the case and tries to lend his help, making things very complicated when he is suspected of being the killer. In the end, he does solve the crime all on his lonesome.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

The Con Man

One I hadn't read yet, from Ed McBain. At least, I don't think I've read it. Parts of it felt familiar, but other parts didn't, so I'm going to say no, I haven't read it before. It was an early one, number 4, I think. Brown is investigating a pair of con men who are using various methods to bilk people out of money. Brown goes undercover and catches them red handed. The real meat of the story is in Carella and Kling's case. Two floaters have turned up, both female, both with similar heart tattoos on their hands. Turns out this sick creep is placing ads in lonely hearts magazines, looking for love. When he gets a really sad, desperate one with some money, he pretends he wants to marry them, convinces them to get tattooed with their initials, then poisons them and drops their bodies in the water. Carella's wife, Teddy, who is a deaf mute, helps catch the bad guy in this one. She is in a tattoo parlor, getting a tattoo, when the guy comes in with his would be third victim. She tails them when they leave the shop, dropping off notes begging passerby to call her husband at the squad, since she can't speak. Enough of them call that Carella is able to find the guy's apartment and save Teddy and the victim in time.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Hark! and Fiddlers

Two more Ed McBain rereads. "Hark!" is the last Deaf Man book, where he gets his revenge on Gloria, who double crossed him in "Mischief" and made off with his multi-million dollar drug haul. He recruits another helper, a hooker this time, mistakenly believing she'll be stupid enough not to double cross him. He is planning on stealing a rare violin off of a visiting Greek musician, and he succeeds. Then Melissa, the hooker, steals the violin from him and safely makes it out of the country after shooting the Deaf Man. He survives, and even calls Carella to tell him who Melissa is and where she's headed, hoping he'll catch her. They don't, but good for her. You can't help but cheer for Melissa.
The last 87th book, "Fiddlers", was published two months after McBain died in 2005. A man named Charles learns he is dying of cancer, doesn't have much time left, so he exacts revenge on all the people who have "fiddled" with his life. He kills the Lieutenant who kept him from being honorably discharged from the Army, the girl who called him a faggot back in junior high, his mom who walked out on the family when he was 8, the priest who molested him as a young boy, and the teacher who failed him in high school and kept him from going to college, making him eligible for the draft. I kinda don't blame him. All his targets were mean, nasty people. Doesn't give him the right to kill, of course, but I can understand his motivation.
There are a lot of personal things going on in this book. I really wish I knew what McBain was planning on doing. It's obvious he figured he'd write another one, the way he left this one hanging. I'm sure there are notes somewhere that someday some dreadful writer will cobble together in a pathetic attempt to capture his vision. So, now that I've exhausted my own personal supply as well as the libraries', I will have to wait for all the others I've ordered online to get here before I can read some more. There are 55 total, and I've read 30 in the last 5 weeks. A lot of the other ones I've never read before, so I'm looking forward to those.

Friday, January 4, 2008

The Frumious Bandersnatch and the Last Dance

Yesterday I reread Ed McBain's "The Frumious Bandersnatch", which he got from a Lewis Carroll poem out of one of his Alice in Wonderland books (which I read and didn't like). Anyway, this one is about a pop singer on the verge of stardom who is kidnapped off a boat during the launch party of her debut album. This is probably the saddest 87th precinct book, for several reasons, the main one being McBain's untimely death in 2005. He had so many different things going that will never be finished. Carella is disenchanted with the job. Ollie is becoming human and dating a nice girl (what in the world is she thinking?!). I wish I knew where those long arc plots were going. Oh, well. Another reason it's so sad is the ending--the singer, Tamar, was set up by the CEO of her record company. He staged the kidnapping with some guys he met to generate publicity, and then they double-crossed him and raped and murdered her. Ow.
Today it was "The Last Dance" by Ed McBain, also a reread. This isn't one of my favorites. It's not bad, it just isn't great. An elderly man is found dead by his daughter. Turns out he owned the rights to a play that some producer wanted to revive and make a hit out of, only Hale wouldn't sign over the rights. So his daughter hires a hit man to kill her dad. Poor guy, didn't have anything in the world, hell, his daughter freely admits she didn't like him that much. Just a lonely old retired, divorced guy living all alone, no friends, no family other than a daughter who hates to visit, and she has him killed. It's just depressing. I think toward the end of his life McBain was getting more and more cynical, and it shows.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Money, Money, Money

Yesterday I reread Ed McBain's "Money, Money, Money". This was a really good one, involving counterfeiters, drug deals, conspiracies, and a small time burglar tying it all together. Ollie and Carella are partnered together after a lion in a park that straddles the 87th and 88th precincts mauls a woman. Since she was discovered in between the two, they have to work the case together. Turns out the woman is an ex-marine named Cassandra Ridley, and she flies planes from Texas to Mexico, delivering counterfeit money for very real drugs. A book publisher is a front for a drug ring, and their salespeople are actually dealers. Ollie saves Steve's life not once but twice during the course of their investigation that threatens to bring down the multi-billion dollar drug/counterfeit ring.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Lullaby, Romance, and the Big, Bad City

On the 29th I reread Ed Mcbain's "Lullaby". A six month old baby and her 16 year old babysitter are killed on New Year's Eve, and the detectives have to figure out which of the victims was the target in order to zero on in on the killer. At first it seems like the sitter, since who would want to kill a little baby? But then they learn the baby was adopted, and the biological mother is murdered all the way across the country in Seattle. Kling gets tied up in a big drug deal about to go down, and Eileen starts seeing a psychologist to deal with the rape and later killing of a rapist suspect while on the job.
On the 31st I reread Ed Mcbain's "Romance", which was very complex, lots of things going on to throw you off track. An actress named Michelle is starring in a play in which the character she plays is hurt in a stabbing, and a detective investigates who would want to try to kill her. Michelle comes to the 87th to tell the detectives that someone has been threatening her, and then she, too, is stabbed, although it's very minor. It does however generate some much needed publicity for the crappy little play she is starring in. A few days later she is stabbed again, and this time it's fatal. Her agent/boyfriend is arrested after admitting they staged the first stabbing but swears he had nothing to do with the fatal one. He is in jail when another member of the crew is killed--pushed out of a window, and made to look like a suicide.
Yesterday I reread Ed McBain's "The Big, Bad City". Carella and Brown are investigating the murder of a nun who used to be a singer in a rock band and now it looks like she is being blackmailed. Meyer, Kling, Parker, and Willis are tied up in what was originally a burglary case where the "Cookie Boy" leaves a package of cookies at the apartments he rips off, but then two people show up murdered in one. While all this is going on, Sonny Cole, the man who killed Carella's father but got off at the trial in "Kiss" is stalking Carella, intent on killing him.