Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First, this is not a happy volume. du Maurier builds up, I believe, the largest body county of any of her books. Mostly of the of the family that is the focus of the book. Not an uplifting book.

This is another of du Maurier’s sprawling novels following a family over a century plus. The characters are very well developed. There are a lot of characters and du Maurier does it again creating and then consistently using those characters as her story goes along.

Her writing of the mining business and those that work those mines is very impressive. Especially those that run the mines and the interaction with the business.

I love du Maurier’s writing ability and this book is worth that reading trek.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 out of ten points.

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Dark Night of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This excellent volume of Smoke Jensen wraps the 20th anniversary of the death of William Johnstone. The writer of this creates a tale and writes quite differently than Johnstone, but with the same panache and skill the pull a reader through. Some recent johnstone books have been missing this.
This writer also pulls in elements of Johnstone’s earlier horror books, but includes humor often absent in those. Overall one of the best of the last ten years or so.

The plotting is very well done. Writing in the attacks and the town organizing and pursuit is well paced with a very satisfying conclusion. Whereas I’ve noticed far too much extraneous material in many recent Johnstone Clan novels, this one is far better tightly written.

The expected well-written characters are included and the settings also better depicted. A few new characters are written in with such ease, I wasn’t sure whether I had or hadn’t read of them before. Great!

The ending is also better than most. Not the typical Johnstone ending with the reader feeling nearly in free-fall. Satisfying.

Overall, this is a great book!

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 10 out of 10 points.

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The Dark Side of the Z (Volume 20) by Fabien Vehlmann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A very good Spirou tale that continues from earlier tales. The graphic take of the moon-tale is particularly good. Simply moving characters from earth to moon without a lot of explanation than the underlying tone of universal evil works well.

The artwork well continues the excellent work of earlier tales. A little sloppy here and there. Forgiven with such a large complex to create and illsutrate.

Great job and something the ‘Big 2’ need to note and work toward. The 2 are at such a low level, it’d be better to just shut down and let CineBook take over it all.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 10 out of 10 points.

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It’s a Sin to Kill by Day Keene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very good tale of somewhere along the central gulf coast of Florida.
The story draws the reader in immediately and the mystery is intriguing.
A few pages later, a similar action that opened the book is repeated in a different way.
After that, the action takes off and it’s not nearing the end that a resolution seems to be occurring.

I believe Keene was dressing Ames, the main character, as a dopey guy who is caught in something he can’t figure out. Suddenly he does. Why was law enforcement not looking into what Ames did? Keene used that loop-hole to move the plot.

The story is still fun to read.

The Florida part: Keene is not specific as to the location in Florida. He titles it Palmetto City and then confuses municipalities and county government. I’ve read quite a number of writers doing this of Florida in books of the ’50s and ’60s.
The location swings to Tampa and there’s mention of Boca Granda Pass, that waaaay south of Tampa. The setting is somewhere in between.

Keene’s writing of the fishing village is excellent. Barnacles and all.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 7 out of ten points.

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Shooting Iron by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This 2nd entry in the ‘Devil’s Gulch’ series, is a bit of a drop from the first. The story is good and plotted out well. Unfortunately, there is a lot of repetitive narrative and dialogue that drags the book. This is really a shorter story drawn out far more than it should have been. The repetitive narrative and dialogue gets irritating. The writer need a nudge by the Johnstone editors to grab a thesaurus. A tighter approach would’ve made a great book.

I guess the issue is the length of book equating to funds paid the writers so that length matches. Ugh!
As readers are falling away in droves, shorter books would be a far better trail to take.
Maybe a collection of shorter stories. The preview section at the end of each book is already adding a good bit of another story.

The plot and story is a very good one. The characters very good. There are returning characters and new ones. The Henderson character was a good addition and added a layer that well aided the story.
The writing, setting aside the excess, is well done.

This book is a continuation of the first. However, a reader doesn’t have to read the first to follow the story.

I have no idea who is picking the Johnstone Clan titles, but this is another bad one. I get the simple-title-to-sell mantra. I just believe the johnstone moniker should do better.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 6 out of ten points.
I had access to this book via the NetGalley.com site.

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History of the DC Universe by Marv Wolfman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Note: My intent in my goal of books is to include graphic novels or long-form comics as this is also part of my work. I’ve slipped recently and trying to catch up. Hope to add – at least – a comic a week.

This was quite an endeavor: A concise history that includes all of the DC comic book super heroes.
The result is a contrived silliness in writing. The artwork had to be a gargantuan effort. I’m not a fan of George Perez’ artwork, but have to admire the work done in this.

Writer, Marv Wolfman, likely, did the best he could with what was thrown at him. Obviously there was a demand to include recent DC comic book characters featured in comics that were out at the time this volume was published. All of those comics failed despite the advertisement.

Decades later, this volume of “history” has been redone, reformed and undone many times. That has more to do with the lack of respect of the owners of DC trying to brown-nose the whatever current trend flies by to be “inclusive” in one way of the other.
Today, the task Wolfman had would be impossible to create.

Bottom line: i don’t recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.

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A moment to prey by Harry Whittington
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As this A cracking good book of a Florida that still exists, but generally unknown to most and shut out by the realtor/builder/developer/Media crowd. Florida still has a larger population than is known living in the woods and swamp. For those that don’t know, it’s as dangerous now as this was written, some 70 years ago.

Whittington drops his plot into the wilds of Florida and cuts loose. Apparently Whittington was born and raised somewhere north of Ocala. Where exactly, I haven’t been able to determine. His writing in this of Fort McCoy and Eureka Springs area, may answer the question.

The cuts loose i mention is to be discovered by the reader. Well worth the journey.

I love the mention of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings included. Thankfully, Whittington knows how to write and writes in low gear of natural Florida to get sharp focus of the plot.
His plot and writing are excellent. The suspense is very well written as Whittington drops in such scenes at just the right places.

I will note: The fate and conclusion of all is not as obvious as a reader might figure.
John D. MacDonald covered similar territory in some of his books a bit later, but without the working knowledge Whittington had.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 10 out of 10 points.

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The Bullet Stops Here by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Quite a Johnstone misstep. Johnstone editors needed to reign in this writer and have some re-reading of original W.W. Johnstone books. This was more bad pulp novel than typical Johnstone quality fare. ‘Melichus’?

Hard to write there is a plot involved. This is basically a long, MatthewReilly-esque chase book. Except with nearly non-stop fighting, explosions, bloody body parts and plenty of death. Of the 275 Johnstone books I’ve read, this may be the bloodiest I’ve read. There’s really no need to have the repetitive pieces of skull references.

A major complaint I have of this volume is the prevalence of Valley-girl-isms so prominent in today’s vernacular. Not to be heard back then. A lot of this written in the dialogue of Luke Jensen. Luke sounded more a decedent of Reese Witherspoon than Smoke Jensen.
There are a few times when the Luke dialogue swings from Valley-girl to a diatribe more likely heard from a Harvard graduate.

Something odd I noted throughout the book is the excessive use of actions using the letter ‘s’. ‘Stumbled’, ‘scrambled’, ‘swarmed’, ‘scurried’, more ‘stumbled’, ‘stutter-stepped’, etc.

One thing this book does do is move. There is very little of the excesses I find in more recent Johnstone books. Thing, is the character development doesn’t exist, as it does in most all Johnstone books, and I found I really didn’t care whatever happened to whoever.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 2 out of ten points.
Of all the Johnstone books I’ve read, this is one of, maybe, 5 I’ve given such a low rating.

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Heat of Night by Harry Whittington
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Whittington goes for the melodramatic in this Florida-based fiction. It’s a simple, over-written story that is plopped along Florida’s gulf coast, near Tampa, where Whittington lived. The standard backdrop of a ‘Blow’ tucked into the background to aid the atmosphere. Big developer and Spanish-speaking family added to the most stereotypical story written of Florida in one way or other. I’ve read dozens of these from the late 1800s to present.

In this case, Whittington seems to have been churning a tale out to churn a book out. Despite WHittington’s typical great skill of writing, this book is a step down.

About the Florida part: Far weaker than other Whittington books. He makes up the name of the area as ‘Dead Bay’. He does well capture the fishing village feel. The storm was unneeded and not-well depicted.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 4 out of 10 points.

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Neal Adams Monsters by Neal Adams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Basically, this is an updated version of work that Adams and his Continuity Studios did back in the 1970s. My suggestion: Stick with the oriignal.

Adams strength was his rendering. The updated version includes too much digital falderal that impedes the dynamic illustrating. Though, this is not Adams & Co. best work. As Adams was fully able to redraw weak parts of the story, it’s too bad he didn’t.

The plot is shaky. The written execution is not very good. I noticed this when I read it some 40 years ago. Again, the updated version could’ve cleaned up the dialogue.

Overall, this new version is fine for the Adams completest, but for the casual reader, stick with the original.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.

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The Cat Who Talked Turkey by Lilian Jackson Braun
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As this series winds down the need of reading previous books and knowing the landscape and characters becomes more essential. Those that do will enjoy this turkey trot through another story of Qwill and his kitties. There is a bit of mystery included, but this is really a slice of life story and familiar characters written to satisfy the fans of the series.

Bottom line: I recommend this book and series. 7 out of ten points.

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