Blood on the Mink by Robert Silverberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Three stories in one!

The first novel length story is a standard story of counterfeiters and the good guys out to thwart them. The story is well written with a nicely done complex web weaved by the good guy to catch a bunch of bad guys. The ladies involved are standard for a pulp tale. As is what happens to them. Overall a story to read during a rainy day.

The second tale is a throw away story. Obviously pure filler. Another counterfeiter tale of money and people. Fine to read this after the reading a story like the first.

The last is a really quick one where much happens in a few pages. Most of the story is a gun battle. I like how it was staged and the ending.

Bottom line: i recommend the book. 5 out of ten points.

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Never Leave Me by Harold Robbins
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

An uneven and intriguing book examine one man as a lecherous lout and getting away with it.

I nabbed this book due to the entrancing cover illustration. Then realized i had never read a Robbins book. So, now I have.

Approaching this book as if there is a hero in it is a mistake. The main character seems the family man, but unveils something very different along the way. That way reveals author Robbins inability to tell a good story and his ability to derail a perfectly overly simple tale with various sexual encounters that adds nothing to the book itself.

The writing is good and drew me into the mess that is written for the main character. However, the main character’s ambition to use all to achieve questionable goals in the end left me empty.

Robbins does a very good job of presenting each character. The women, particularly well defined. In more ways than one.

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

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Where Is Bianca? by Ellery Queen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this volume a lot. A law enforcement novel with a pal trying to figure where a body is, alive or dead.

The pacing of ‘Where is Bianca?’ is terrific as the so many elements are shuffled here and there. It’s still easy to follow, which i learned as I traveled across Florida and in and out of places. I could still pick up the book and know where i was in the book.

The character development helps move the book also. Each are very well done. Even the one(s) who are missing. With distinctive voice, each character further stands out. Settings are light.

Bottom line: i recommend this book. 6 out of 10 points.

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The Bellini Look by Carol Ryrie Brink
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Carol Brink wrote my favorite book as a child. When I came across this gothic tale, i nabbed it and was intrigued as to it’s contents. After reading this book, I understand why she wrote little of this genre.

As my cartooning has a humorous bent, realistic approaches for me can be very difficult. Obviously Brink’s vast writing in the children’s genre hampered her in writing this. The dialogue is more childish than adult. Too often the main character “cries” instead of speaking. The actions of the adult are also more of a child than an adult. The mis-handling of the main character makes the rest of the book unbalanced.

The rest of the characters are good. Most written distinctly separate and having a voice of their own. Why Brink couldn’t accomplish the same feat for the main character is beyond me. The settings are very well done.

Brink does do a good job of creating the atmosphere of mystery, tension and the unknown.

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

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Tempted to Love by Barbara Cartland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve seen Barbara Cartland paperback novels all of my life. I’ve always loved the covers, but just not picked on up. As I picked this one up, I wondered just what was written inside. So, I read it.

The story has a clunky majority and a more exciting ending. The characters are well done. Especially the heroine. Though the writing could use some help, the plotting is very good.

The book opens laying out the late 1800s battle of Germany and France. The rest of book tags the efforts to ready for battle. The effort assists the story to feel more real.

Over all the dialogue is far to simply written for the period portrayed.

Overall, I liked the book, nevertheless.

Bottom line: I recommend the book. 5 out of 10 points.

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Magnificent Destiny: A Novel About the Great Secret Adventure of Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston by Paul I. Wellman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a long and thorough sprawling book of Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston’s amazing relationship. Wellman does an outstanding job of creating such an epic accurately portraying so much about and beyond Jackson and Houston.

The writing is excellent throughout. The development of the characters is some of the best writing i’ve read. A reader can feel the power of the younger Jackson, the fight of illness in Jackson’s middle age and Jackson’s weakened form approaching death.

The plotting obviously was given wide territory as this book stretches 600 pages. For a contemporary novel, 600 pages usually means a need to edit out 400. In Wellman’s case, there is want of more.

The largest drawback of Wellman’s book is the sainthood given to Jackson and Houston. The two made mistakes and some were huge. Wellman slides past and reconstructs from a view of forgiveness. The continued debate as to just what Houston was doing riding away from Santa Ana is portrayed here with a kinda sorta logic of action meant to defeat the Mexican monster.

Bottom line: I recommend this book, if you can find it. 9 out of 10 points.

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Then on to the old Osceola County courthouse. Leslie, of the guardian ad litem program partly housed in the building, was very kind to give me a tour through this fascinating building. There are more photos of the courthouse over at my Swampy’s Florida page.

After leaving Kissimmee, i did some poking around for books, that I usually like to do on my birthday. I found some wonder books! And quite a few for friends!

Brotherhood of the Gun by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This entry in the johnstone Clan stable of westerns is above most. The story of hunting down slavers sends the two main characters across the western territory with some of the better depictions of areas they travel through. Also more historical context is presented as part of the story.

Excellent work is done in depicting the “Blood Brothers” and, a Johnstone favorite, a mountain man who is the leader of the journey. Other prominent characters are also well done. it’s the bad guys that are flimsy this time around. All of the error of their ways is detailed. but who they are is lacking.

I really liked the extra effort to place the story into the historical timeline of U.S. history.

The plotting is good and the story pace is quick despite the amount of time and desolate travel that is done.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 7 out of 10 points.

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Blood Bond by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another retelling of the story of Custer. This time with the Johnstone Clan’s first part of the Blood Blonde series. It’s pretty accurate and the inclusion of the fictional characters are well done.

The duo, being written as half-brothers, is the best part of the tale as the writing well depicts brotherhood, however it is formed. From mild disagreements to the complexity of romantic entanglements. Just another example where the Johnstone Clan well creates characters.

Plotting of the entire book is even, which can be tough to do while balancing true events. The battles are pretty standard Western gun fights and indian battles. The Custard affair becomes a countdown to it’s ultimate end.

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

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A Guilty Thing Surprised by Ruth Rendell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rendell’s ‘A Guilty Thing Surprised’ begins as a very good mystery but ends with a thud.

Rendell sets up the story in a section of town with a small bundle of characters and proceeds through each forth and back again recording their story. The characters are good and the plotting seems well done. Then Rendell wraps up the last few pages with a weird little messy solution that, seemed to me, a desperate way to end a story differently.

The setting is well done and, otherwise plotted well.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 5 out of 5 points.

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Heartstones by Ruth Rendell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

‘Heartstones’ by Ruth Rendell is a haunting tale that is brilliantly written. All seems to start well enough, if not a bit off kilter. As the story goes along all turns and turns and turns. Finish this just before bed and you may being turning a lot in bed.

I try to keep my reviews void of any actual story, but have to remark of the change of the main character and what a terrific job Rendell does. i marvel at how Rendell took me from a view of the main character to something else altogether. This book is near towards a horror story and certainly no standard mystery. In that I despise horror or science fiction, which i see as one in the same, and place the rating I have indicates how much this book caught me in it’s writing and plot.

It might’ve been nice if the story fleshed out a bit more. But am certain the book would have far less impact if longer.

A side note of the backward thinking of today: Younger people might have trouble with this book in that psychological problems are at issue. The silly idea that you are what you say you are and one lives only for the moment, that is favored today, would have one leave this book wondering what had happened at the end and not understanding the book at all. A great point of discussion for a book group.

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

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