My Gun is Quick; Devil's Bridge; The Little Brother

Some more Mickey Spillane rereads! "My Gun is Quick" finds Mike down and out one night in a dive hash joint when he meets a red headed gal also down on her luck. Mike sees a glimmer of good beneath the hardened surface and gives her some money, tells her to get her act cleaned up. The next day, the red head is dead: an accident, the police determine, hit by a car. Very unfortunate, but Mike knows a murder when he sees one and starts investigating, wanting to give the girl a name and some dignity in her death. It was a great story, I enjoyed it.

Linda Fairstein's latest was really good. Early on in the book, Alex is kidnapped and the POV of the story switches, for the first time ever, to Detective Mike Chapman. Fairstein doesn't do a fantastic job writing from a male point of view, honestly, but it was still a fun change, and with Mike busy hunting for his best gal there wasn't any of the nasty repartee that Fairstein thinks of as flirtatious but I just find cringe worthy. It was nice to get some more background on Mike, too, he's quite likeable. I hope she pops into his head in some of her future books.

When I read the reviews for Victoria Patterson's latest, "The Little Brother", I knew I wanted to read it. Gabe and Even's parents get divorced, and Gabe stays behind with their mother in Rancho Cucamonga ("Rancho" for short, Victoria, never "Cucamonga". No one calls it that. "The IE" or "The 909" are also acceptable) while Even moves with their dad to Newport Beach (what are the odds?). Even is pretty happy in Newport (it helps that his dad is pretty wealthy, trust me, you're a lot happier in NB with money than without it) but he is concerned for his big brother Gabe. Whenever Gabe visits, he seems off, unhappy, complaining about being stuck with their needy, dependent mother. Then one fourth of July holiday Gabe comes to visit with some Rancho friends. Even leaves to go to a party with his friends. Later, one of his friends calls him: she has Gabe's video camera and is horrified by what's on there. She doesn't know what to do. When Even sees it, he doesn't know what to do either. He does know his brother could get in big trouble. Feeling sick and guilty, he turns the camera over anonymously to the police. It was a pretty good story, even if I winced every time I read the word "Cucamonga" by itself :)