CSI Miami: Heat Wave by Max Allan Collins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The genre of choice by Collins should have him as one of my favorite writers. However, I have had a clunky time trying to embrace his novels. This one is better than some I’ve read, though not as good as it could be.

It’s the writing that bugs me. Though the characters are mostly well drawn, the overall story is clunky. I’ve had similar trouble with other Collins books. It’s as if he is writing sections of the story and, after it’s tacked together, the seams are still showing. This is particularly true as the story is resolved at the end.

I should add that I’ve never seen the television program.

About the Florida setting: Collins clearly has little knowledge of Florida and used other resources to enhance the story. There’s one point where he is pointing out something, that now slips my memory,involving the area of Dade County and it’s obvious that he pulled that from something like an encyclopedia because he entirely ignored the larger picture of what has been going on in Dade County. The set piece that sets off the rest of the book involves someone running to the scene. How that is described would be pretty impossible if you knew the area of Miami Beach. All of this does not effect my rating of the book, just wishing for better accuracy.

Big kudos to Collins for not draping a backdrop of the book of a realtor’s fantasy of sunshine and palm trees. Bulk majority of Florida authors, who don’t know the state, do this and often ruins the book for me.

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

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Apopka by Apopka Historical Society
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

There is so little written that entirely encompasses northwest Orange County and here’s one of the few books that attempts to cover it. The Apopka Historical Society took this project on and the best source to gather images and history to do it. It is constrained by the limits Arcadia typically has for their massive series of photo histories. However, the Apopka Historical Society dropped the ball despite the opportunity.

The book opens with a nod of making use of Jerrell Shofner’s book as a main backbone for research. Seems that would lead to an outstanding presentation. What ends up happening is to mush self observance by the Society in putting the book together.

The book is full of the typical layout of an Arcadia book, with history generally covered from the 1800 to present. I wish they had paid more attention to Shofner’s attention to detail and historical layout. Instead all is way too simply brushed over. So mush that could have been written isn’t and there are way too many winks and nods to inside jokes apparently presented.

It’s nice to know that the Apopka Historical Society knows itself so well to pepper the book with secret messages to others, but I would have hoped that there was more a drive to present the history as much as possible and less about self awareness.

That leads to the worse part of this book – The last 4th of the book is full of very recent photographs about those living, at the time of publication, and simple sentences of who they are. How on earth is former State Senator Henry Land only written about in a way i just did in this sentence without listing his accomplishments in office and so much else he and the Land family did is lost to me.

This really falls on Arcadia that lets folks publish pretty much whatever they want with little to no involvement due to the cheap reproduction involved. An editor could have flagged the problems.

There are good photos and some memorabilia shown and that is the only real benefit of this book. For that I bring this up to two stars. Otherwise…

Bottom line: I do not recommend this book. 2 of 10 points.

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History of Apopka and Northwest Orange County, Florida by Jerrell H. Shofner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Though I’ve gone through this book for various research projects over three decades, this is the first time I’ve read the entire book. AS with any Shofner book, the vast technical history is ever present through out the entire book. Shofner doesn’t put together any history without obvious intense research. He puts other history writers to shame. Thus, his books can be a bit hard to get through as so much is stuffed into a sentence and paragraph. This, now read in it’s entirety, is better written for the average reader than the other books of his I’ve read.

Shofner slips through, what is little known of, early Florida pre-American pioneers. This first part is the weakest presented in writing. Seems to me Shofner gets a bit lost if he can’t write without documented evidence present. Seems Shofner would have great difficulty writing fiction. Giving more confidence in his presenting facts.

The period of the 1800s is extremely well covered and very impressive. Shofner’s concentrated focus of research is very evident. Florida in the 1800s can be a tough bear to contain. Info is elusive and accomplishments very difficult to track down and prove. No doubt Shofner accomplished the proving part. Presentation is also excellent.

Though I wish the book was sectioned by decade or century, this is a rare time, by a writer, that does not happen and it’s also revealing how a century mark does not alter the trajectory of a community due to a century mark.

The 20th century is as well done, but Shofner falls into a trap he has repeated in other books. As names become more available, he includes them in the text of the book. A bit too much space is taken up where it could have been placed in footnotes.

Something often absent in Florida histories is including the developing of black communities. Shofner does a tremendous job of adding and writing of it. His pointing out the black community asked not to have their streets paved and then 40 years later complaining about it, reveals the troubles of Florida history in the last 50 years.

As i have seen in other Floria histories, including those I’ve assembled, after the 1950s the trajectory of accomplishments in Florida’s history sputters out and it’s tough to flesh out the history in presentation. Shofner well addresses this in his book as he points out early community leaders die off and are replaced by so many from out of state without the drive, less vision, more interested in profits(government-wise or business) and are not even in the country to guide toward success – OK, I’ve fleshed out a more pointed editorial of Shofner’s words of the empty past 50 years.

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

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Thought I would share this cartoon I drew in 2009. Many know I’m kinda-sorta an all out book nut. One book espionage series I love is the Vince Flynn series of espionage thrillers featuring, American hero, Mitch Rapp. This cartoon was for my home base for editorial cartoons that was having the author on to promote his book. Each Halloween since, the publishers of Mitch Rapp are so kind as to resend out this cartoon.

Since this cartoon came out, unfortunately Flynn has died. The series is just restarting this week with another author I’m very familiar with, Kyle Mills (author). Mills is great and I’m really looking forward to the new adventures of Mitch Rapp!

Eyes of Eagles by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Eagles series of books is one, soon to be of the few, series that started while William Johnstone was alive. Would like to hope this has more of Johnstone in it than ghost writers, but we all may never know.

This is a sprawling book that could have been three or more books. An enormous amount is covered here. Yes, unlike so much written today, this is a cohesive story that is pretty tight. One of the reasons i like the Johnstone Clan herd of books is the editing process works where it seems to be practically missing in the bulk of books written today.

The writing is not as good as in other books written during Johnstone’s lifetime, but still much better than so many contemporary novels I’ve read. Considering how many characters, fiction & non-fiction, are presented throughout the novel, the definition is very impressive. Characters are the greatest strength of the Johnstone Clan books.

The last third of the book covers the Alamo story that is extremely well done. If that were set as a book of it’s own, I would give this five stars.

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

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The Intercept by Dick Wolf
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I hated the writing in this book. The dialogue is written more as some illiterate types a “text”. At one point, as I started reading the book, I was going to mark the horrible bits of dialogue. It took little time for me to realize I would likely spend more time marking the book, than reading it. It’s even more unfortunate when distinct voices are not part of the dialogue. Most all in the book have a similar banter. Trying to follow stunted sentences and unclear descriptions had me often lost in this simplistic novel of espionage.

Why an editor didn’t scrap this is beyond me. The dialogue alone is a reason to do it. Then there is the rest of the book. An over written, over described, under dialogued mess deserves editing. The writer obviously is not skilled in writing an actual novel. A hand full of paragraphs does not a chapter make. Especially it’s all drawing out to the inevitable. This book could have been 200, maybe 300 pages less, stream lined and focused.

There is a mystery embedded in all of this, which should have been the actual book. The biggest success I can tag the author with is that this contemporary novel’s bad guy I didn’t guess. The rest of the novel is so formulaic, the mystery is the only thing I didn’t know would happen at the end. I will add that the medium used and how it is used was a welcome surprise in the book.

Something else I liked was the written reasons why the bad person was after certain people near the very end of the book. Showed an understanding of the field involved that is rarely explored in espionage novels.

Bottom line: I do not recommend this book. 3 of 10 points.

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The Story Pole by Sherman Yeary
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For what is basically a self published book, this is excellent. Yeary writes very well. The focus is steady and the book is broken into chapters to help that.

There are some excellent photos included that really help illustrate much written.

I really liked Yeary’s description of growing up in 1920s-30s in a point by point way that is readable and very educating. Wish Rawlings and most others could so clearly present early life in a rural setting.

For someone just recording his history, Yeary does an outstanding job of starting at a point in life and building to the next turn, which becomes another chapter. Too many best selling author’s books get published without a cogent reason for a chapter break.

Probably the worst part of the book is the cover, as can be seen above. There is also not a map in the book. If the reader does not know Ocala, they will be lost.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 out of 10 points.

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Citra – Home of the Pineapple Orange by Faye Perry Melton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Considering there is likely never to be a specific book about the history of the little community of Citra, this book is a Godsend. It has a ton of information for a shorter book. Lots of photos and documents copied in it.

Due to the rarity of Citra history, I really can’t complain about the mish mash approach to laying this book out. There are also hard to see reproductions and various typography used.

The history is well written and I like how each chapter-type covers specific points of Citra history.

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

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The history of Astor on the St. Johns, Astor Park, and the surrounding area by Albert Wass
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is what a history book should be. Builds the history and reflects and refers back to keep the narrative in context. Through this book the author will break down a new occurance back to it’s origination. The reference is not done endlessly. Just enough to remind the reader where they are and what went on before. Especially helpful as so many generations of names of people are unfolded. How I wish all history books did this.

The writing is very good. I really like how certain folklore of the area has been completely separated from the factual history.

Drawbacks: As usual, maps would be extremely helpful. There are also only a few photographs included. I’m not going to mark against what’s missing considering the size of the book. How good it is trumps the drawbacks.

Bottomline: I recommend this book. 9 of 10 points.

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Eternal Spring- Man’s 10,000 Years of History at Florida’s Silver Springs by Richard A. Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third or fourth book I’ve read of Richard Martin’s. It’s been years since I’ve read his work, but this is clearly head and shoulders above the other books.

This book is superior to so many histories in it’s layout, writing, organization and even images. Martin clearly lays out the early the vast history of the area that includes Silver Springs State Park. At the time of the books publication, 1966, the park area was still privately owned and not part of the state park system as occurred October 1st, 2013.

There is a lenthy list of fish & plants to be found. Much about indians and development of a multi-level attraction.

I will quibble with the amount of writing that is outside the purview of the subject. Martin leaves the tracks at times as he chronicles indians all over Florida, seemingly just because he’s listing indians. Instead fleshing out more in the lives of the indians in the area would have been more germane.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 out of 10 points.

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Murder Fantastical by Patricia Moyes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I do like this Tibbetts series and this one was as much fun as the last I read.

The mystery starts off very slowly. There’s meandering all over, in and out, up and down, ad around the Manciple family. The family is interesting, just, to me, not that interesting. All of the meandering leads to very well defined characters. Especially impressive due to a very large cast.

The settings are well illustrated. The locations are few and two major settings are particularly well told.

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

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