Book

Review of a Forgotten Classic: They Don’t Dance Much by James Ross

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James Ross was a writer from North Carolina, he wrote some short stories and wrote for newspapers in the south.  This book intrigued me when I heard about it.  James Ross wrote this country noir book before country noir was a thing.  Daniel Woodrell cites this as an influence in his work.  They Don’t Dance Much was published in 1940 and received praise from his contemporaries, people like  Raymond Chandler, William Gay, and Flannery O’Connor loved the book.  Reviewers of this book often compared him to Chandler and even Dashiell Hammett.  You would think we had a noir literary pioneer on our hands!  And we should have, but Ross didn’t like the comparisons and wished he was in the same company of William Faulkner instead.  Even with the great reviews in its time and praise from other great authors, the book never found a big audience and was in and out of print since. Ross was so disappointed in the sales that he stopped writing novels.  Ross was one and out, but what a one.  It is a shame that he didn’t write more, I really enjoyed this book and can’t imagine what he would have written after this.  This takes a poor man who has lost his farm and takes up a job at a roadhouse.  There is a lot of troubling things that happen here, gambling, adultery, drinking, theft and eventually murder.  The writing is very good and even holds up today.  This book is now being printed by the Mysterious Press so it should be fairly easy to find a copy.

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If you want to read a cool book that is getting another chance, check it out.  This book still isn’t very widely read.  It only has 140 ratings on goodreads right now, but is well liked by the ones that have read it.  I hope you give this book a chance and find it as good as I did.

Book Review: Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis

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Warren Ellis is a renowned graphic novel writer.  If you don’t read comics you may not know him, but you probably know his work.  His graphic novel Red was made into the movie of the same name starring Bruce Willis.  He wrote the graphic novel Iron Man Extremis that is a large part of the plot for Iron Man 3.  He’s also worked on many other titles for both Marvel and  DC.

Crooked Little Vein is his first novel and is an amazing noir story mixed with some humor and fantasy, he does come from a comic background after all.  This book will make you say “What the hell…this guy is sick!” while you are laughing out loud.  This book is not for the faint of heart and may disturb or disgust some, but if your into noir and on my site I think you will be OK.

This is about a private detective that has the worst luck and needs a big break to get back to even.  He finds it when the government hires him because of his bad luck, they figure he’s a magnet for it and can help them in ways the agents from the government can not.  He meets a femme fatale that is willing to help him, and our adventure begins.  They travel to some of the most underground scenes across this great country of the United States of America to find a book that only the President is supposed to have, but Richard Nixon lost years ago.  This is the reason the country has been on a downward slide ever since.

Like I said, this isn’t a straight up noir, but that just makes it a little more original and it is a great one.  It is a blast to read and I look forward to reading more from Ellis.  Gun Machine is his next noir book and I also plan to check out some of his graphic novel stuff.  I recommend it if you want to read something different then the norm.

Bosch Debuts Today

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Unfortunately I don’t have Amazon Prime, but if I did, I would be watching this right now.  It looks awesome!  I also look forward to reading the books it is based on by Michael Connelly.  Titus Welliver looks like a great choice for the lead.  Look forward to seeing this when it is released on DVD, unless I find a friend with Prime and watch it with them before hand.  If you are one of the luck ones seeing it today, what did you think?

Review: Sweet Nothing by Richard Lange

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So I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of Sweet Nothing by Richard Lange from Mulholland Books.  They asked me to read and review it for them so here goes!  So Sweet Nothing is a collection of short stories, and I would say most fall in the noir genre.  There is one post-apocalyptic story, but all the other stories are crime, hardboiled and noir stories taking place in and around Los Angels.

We got a man who finds out his Father-in-Law isn’t all he seems.

There is a Grandmother that has to face a drive by shooting that kills a baby in her neighborhood, a neighborhood that she has lived in most of her life.

A prison guard that must protect a child molester, even though he knows the prisoner is guilty.

A gambler that has a bad addiction and knows it, but can’t stop it from destroys most of his relationships.

A man stuck in his job, has an affair and all hell breaks loose.

A man and woman have a drug habit, woman dies, man’s world falls apart.

An ex-convict gets out and turns a new leaf, gets a job as a security guard at a small jewelry shop and finds out there is a plot to rob the shop.  What side of the law will our hero fall on?

Our post-apocalyptic tale of lost treasure.

The man who is starting over, works at Subway and lives with a 450 lbs man.  How is he ever going to get ahead?

The last story covers a Mexican family that is legally living in California, but has a some family members crossing the border.  The only problem is a wildfire, a recluse that lives in a trailer in the desert and some vigilantly ex-marines.

Sounds fun! right?  I will say Lange can tell a hell of a story in a short 20 to 30 pages.  I almost felt like I read 4-5 novels worth of story in these 10 short stories.   I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from Lange, especially Angel Baby.

Sweet Nothing came out in Hardback and E-book yesterday, February 10th and is a good read, check it out.

Review: The Girl with the Clock for a Heart by Peter Swanson

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I’ve seen some reviews and blurbs that compare this to Gone Girl, and there are some similarities.  They both have flashbacks to a different time where our couple is happier.  We have an untrustworthy female lead, and they both have Girl in the title.  Beyond that there are not much alike, but if that gives readers a reason to check out this book, that’s a good thing.  This book has a femme fatale that is much darker than in Gone Girl, and a male lead that is a more trustworthy narrator.  This is very modern Hitchcockian tail to me.  Our lead tells us his story from two timelines,20 years apart and they are both very interesting.  He is put in a bad spot in both timelines by his first love and in many senses his only love.  He knows he can’t trust her, but he really wants to.  This is Peter Swanson’s first book and I look forward to reading more from him.  He is a great storyteller and I think he will just get better with time.  This book and his new book The Kind Worth Killing have both been optioned for movies already.  I look forward to reading The Kind Worth Killing in the near future and can see where The Girl with the Clock for a Heart could be an outstanding film.  Currently this book is available on Nook and Kindle for $1.99 so it is a good time to pick it up and give it a read.

Christa Faust’s Angel Dare series

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Christa Faust is not only a great noir author, she loves noir.  If you’re not following her on Facebook you are missing out. She posts lots of great pin ups from the past, news about old film-noir movies playing in theaters, and tons of other information on books and films.  You should check out her Blog as well at:

http://christafaust.net/?cat=1

Now on to the books. This series is modern pulp gold.  If you think you can’t judge a book by its cover, your wrong.  These covers are pulp art and if you like them, you will love the stories inside.  Christa takes some classic noir themes and modernizes them.  Our main character is not your average noir type character, no private detective or mafia member here, she’s a female porn star!  Sure we have had femme fatales we fall in love with that are shady, but beautiful, and it always helps when they are a successful business women of some kind, but how about a porn star that owns their own adult entertainment company?!?!  Why has nobody thought of this before?  I admit it, I love Angel Dare, she is a strong female that has worked her way up the food chain in the porn industry. A business that is a grey area, it is legal but has some shady people working in it.  She looks out for her girls because she has been there and knows what it’s like.  She gets in a jam with some bad dudes and does what she needs to, to get herself out.  It’s a fun ride that is more original then you would think.  So how does she stand up in the second novel?  The second book takes a common theme in noir, professional fighting and modernizes it.  Instead of using Boxing like many noir stories have in the past, lets use Mixed Martial Arts?  Why not, it really works and Angel gets into more crazy trouble but in the world of MMA instead of Porn this time, not that we don’t revisit that world a little in this tale too. If you’re looking for something dark and gritty you should check out Angel Dare.  Now the question is, Christa, are we getting a new Angel Dare book?  If so, when?

Review: Night Film by Marisha Pessl

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Night Film is a book that falls into a bunch of different categories, some may call it a horror book, some a mystery book others may put it on their contemporary fiction  or literature shelf.  I think because of all these elements it makes for a great noir read.  I’ll tell you right now, this is one of my favorite books.  It’s a very unique book with an interactive internet element, I read it as a straight novel and didn’t check out any of the extras on the web. I may re-read this and check out the web extra as I go.

This book’s main character is Scott McGrath, an investigative journalist that has his career ruined by a mysterious director by the name of Stanislas Cordova.  When a new investigation starts involving Cordova, Scott has to find out what is going on, no matter what the consequences.  Cordova is the interesting character that drives the plot, we just get snippets of him as the story progresses and we as readers and our hero Scott has to find what is real and what is legend or myth.  Cordova is a fictional character that seems real and real interesting.  Cordova is part Stanley Kubrick, half Roman Polanski, a bit of David Lynch and maybe a dash of Alfred Hitchcock thrown in for good measure.

Here is a great trailer for the book, and it definitely gives you a feel for what you’re in for:

This isn’t a short book at over 600 pages it takes a bit of time and effort to read, but it’s worth every minute and every page.  When you get done you are wowed and wish it had another 100 to 200 pages.  The writing is great and keeps you up late at night reading “just one more chapter.”  Let’s face it this hits all my hotspots, it’s a great written book, it’s dark and it’s about movies to boot.

I would love to see this turned into a mini series for HBO, Showtime or even an FX or AMC.  I think this would be the best way to give credit to the lengthy story.  Marisha Pessl has a movie deal already for this book and Rupert Wyatt is set to direct.  Let’s hope this is as good as this book deserves and I will be at the theater opening night when it comes out!

Review: The Maid’s Version by Daniel Woodrell

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This is a short book written by Daniel Woodrell, someone I’ve been wanting to read for a while.  I learned of Woodrell because of the movie Winter’s Bone a great southern noir staring Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes(I will re watch this and review it at a later time).  I really enjoyed this gritty real looking movie and was very interested in reading the book(still am).  I picked this book up on my Nook because it was on sale for $2.99. Though this is a short book it was really dense with great language.  The story was good, flashing to different times in the characters lives, made for a puzzle that all came together in the end.  This is one of those books that may be even better on a second read so you can pick up on all the little clues through out.  I hope to check out more of Woodrell’s books, especially Winter’s Bone, Tomato Red and the Bayou Trilogy.

Review: The First Two Veronica Mars Books: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line and Mr Kiss and Tell

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Ok I admit it, I’m a Marshmallow, and if you’re a noir fan and have not become a Marshmallow, you should give Veronica Mars a try.  Veronica Mars is a unique character with a unique media formula.  Veronica started as a TV show starring Kristen Bell on the UPN and eventually on the CW and soon grow a cult following.  It was critically well received and had a rabid fan base.  It’s following has award it many accolades through the next ten years including Empire Magazine’s 48th best TV show of all time.  Though all of this helped, its low ratings got it cancelled after 3 seasons.  10 years after it all started came a kickstart campaign to make a movie and they raised more money then they ever hoped to.  Honestly this is where I became interested.  I started watching the TV series with Netflix DVD service and was hooked, watching as mainly episodes as I could as fast as I could.   Then I was able to check out the movie and was excited for the first book.  This review is for the first two books and I hope to come back and re-watch the TV series and movie for a deeper review later. If your new to Mars investigation I highly recommend that you start at the beginning and watch the TV series first.

These books are both written by Rob Thomas the creator of Veronica and co written by Jennifer Graham and they seem to be a great duo, keeping the Mars story going.

The first book: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line starts right after the movie and continues with all our favorite characters.  It’s Spring Break in Neptune and a couple of girls are kidnaped, Veronica is on the case, and we are reintroduced to a character we haven’t seen in a while.  This reads like your watching Veronica, you can hear the voices of the characters, you can  hear the tone and deflection, their sarcasm and their emotions.  It flows very well and you can see the locations from the previous work in your head when they pop up in the book.

The second book:  Mr. Kiss and Tell starts us out in Neptune but we travel to a new college campus, Seattle and Las Vegas, this is more travelling then we normal see.  We get to know another character from the past that we may have forgotten about, but soon remember her sad story that turns into a nightmare in this book.  Though Veronica is hired by the Neptune Grand to clear there wrong doing in a violent attack,Veronica can’t work just for the big company with the money but soon sides with the victim to find her attacker.

Veronica Mars is a unique series, since it has crossed 3 media sources and has stayed true to the characters and one of the reasons this is, is Rob Thomas has had control of his creation from the start.  So with Rob’s new show iZombie coming, is this the end of Mars Investigation?  Well we may have a to wait a bit but it doesn’t sound like it:

http://www.keyetv.com/lifestyle/features/austin-lifestyle/stories/rob-thomas-veronica-mars-886.shtml

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited for some new books, but a TV mini series would be awesome!

If your like me and thought 10 years ago Veronica Mars looks like Nancy Drew in a Beverly Hills 90210 setting, your wrong!  Veronica definitely explores some of the darkest themes I’ve ever seen on network TV and waited 10 years to long to discover this.

Ken Bruen’s Inspector Brant series

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Ken Bruen is better known for his Jack Taylor books and I have not read any of them yet(again on my to read list).  I picked up the first three of this series up in a Black Friday Sale for my Nook.  The first three books are packaged together and called the White Trilogy.

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This is from the Mystery Press, who has a lot of great noir and hardboiled books in there collection.  I read the first 3 books in no time and right away got the next 4 books and read those even faster.  This collection has a total of 7 short books that follow Inspector Brant, but also follows his co-workers in just as much detail.    This 7 books in the series are:

A White Arrest

Taming the Alien

The McDead

Blitz

Vixen

Calibre

Ammunition

The fourth book, Blitz was also made into a movie.  The movie follows the book fairly well except for the ending, which I think made a better movie.

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The movie has Jason Statham as Brant and he does a great job, it is an entertaining movie worth checking out whether you read the books or not.

The book series has not been read much according to goodreads with Blitz having the most reads at a mere 427, but the series has strong reviews and high ratings.  Ken Bruen has quickly become one of my favorite noir authors and I look forward to reading The Guards soon!