The Singing Sands by Josephine Tey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Tey’s ‘The Singing Sands’ seemed at times more of a study of a mournful soul of Alan Grant, the main character. The mystery part being an after thought.

The story is clunky at best. With a secondary character that Tey has written in a very odd way that makes the story even more clunky. It was hard for me to get through this book without wondering what was going on in Tey’s life to assemble a depressing story of the main character.

The mystery meanders during Grant’s vacation to a conclusion that, i found, rather unsatisfying.

The writing is fine. Setting descriptions are often well done and other times lacking. There are a few other characters that are interesting. The rest are standard and very forgettable.

All this leading to explaining the mindset of Tey before she died, as this book was published after her death.

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

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Night Ferry to Death by Patricia Moyes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my first mystery by Moyes I’ve read and I liked it a lot. I’ve garnered other Moyes novels and will be dipping into them soon for more of the Tibbetts.

This is a fine mystery with lots of procedural efforts to find the bad guy. The writing is solid with no excess. I was surprised that even a clue I noticed wasn’t mentioned to convict the guilty. That is also meaning I knew who it was within the first 25 pages, which was disappointing. Though so much else happened, that I was perplexed as to what entirely was going on.

My only trouble is the heavy violence wrought by the cause of the mystery. Didn’t seem to fit.

Still a great mystery and well well worth reading.

Bottom line: I recommend it. 9 of 10 points.

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Golden Goose by Ellery Queen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this book! Definitely one of my favorite books of all time! It’s also outstanding in writing, plotting and full of fun!

This is presented as a mystery that would better be described as a Faulkner-esque study of odd characters in an odd town that happens to have a mystery involved. And it’s a great mystery! Especially the end!

The characters are outstanding. Each with their individual voice and extremely well defined. The writer(s) did a fantastic job with the setting. I do wonder if this was written by the duo known as Ellery Queen or was someone else. This book has a far lighter and better written than other Queen books.

This is just a terrific and fun book!

Bottom line: A must read. 10 of 10.

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Die Laughing by Steve Allen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I love Steve Allen, but this series continues to be clunky. This is one of the few of the Allen mysteries I hadn’t read and thought I’d read one of the last in the series. Unfortunately, the series ended when Allen suddenly died. The concept is great in that Allen and his wife, Jayne, who died this past April, are the sleuths out to solve mysteries they stumble into.

The plot is fun involving a comedian that has died, or has he? Allen clearly has fun leading readers in one direction and then the next. Hollywood and it’s luxurious lifestyle is the backdrop and is well described and commented on by Allen.

The trouble with the book is it’s length. This book could easily have been whittled to 150 or 200 pages. A lot of Allen’s writing, as I wrote, is fun. It’s just not stellar to warrant the excess.

A really good writer of fiction could have streamlined this. But, Allen is writing as Allen does in all his fiction & non-fiction. Lots of sidelines, funny jokes and commentary. Worked well in his non-fiction, but is like large speed bumps to readers.

However, this is a fun book with good characters and the fun of following Allen, Jayne and their limo around.

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

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The Worlds of Robert E. Sherwood: Mirror to His Times, 1896-1939 by John Mason Brown
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Worlds of Robert E. Sherwood: Mirror to His Times, 1896-1939 is an odd book that is crafted by the author to do his best to reflect the authors politics. It’s far too over written by an author whose favorite literary device is the comma.

The book does do the job of presenting Sherwood’s life. It’s just in such detail it can be confusing as to whose life you’re reading as the book wanders off into to pages of others lives. There are further details rolled out involving events, weather and various other happenings. I love details. I just with this writer was good at presenting them.

What the writer is bound and determined to present are his liberal political leanings and to dress Sherwood in them in a straight jacket. Because I came into the book already knowing quite a bit about Sherwood I knew this presentation was off balance. Along the way I found I had to separate Sherwood from the writers opinion of him. The book tees off with Sherwood making a presentation that tells of his early days involving war and the like. The author takes that to be a strong stand of pacifism and adds his view of Sherwood’s view.

The book is fraught with the author’s opinion of what is happening, instead of basing the narrative of Sherwood’s documented life. He waaaaay over does this by making lengthy lists that is obviously the author’s opinion than fact.

Certainly an author’s view has to be basis for a biography. In this instance the view was the foundation and the effort was to build a life around it.

Adding to this is how this book is assembled for publications. Why did the author draw a line at 1939 for Sherwood’s life? It’s not half way. There’s not much more before Sherwood’s death in ’55. The book is already nearly 400 pages. Why not wrap it up? Or split into two books.

Best idea would’ve been to severely edit this book.

The book is full of good Sherwood information, but poorly realized into a book.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 3 out of 10 points.

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Southways by Erskine Caldwell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a collection of stories by Caldwell set in his favorite setting – the South. Though well written, every single one of these 3 to 5 page stories is very depressing. If you’re having a tough time in life – Do not read this book!

Each story has different characters, but most have a similar theme of relationship troubles. All of the characters are very poor or worse. That lends itself to how similar most of the characters are. To a point I have to wonder why Caldwell didn’t just use the same name to many.

The main problem I have with these stories is that all trail off with no true ending. I realize that is a certain style. Just after 5 of these stories, it gets irritating and found I didn’t really care about any of the stories.

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

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The Most of Everything: The Story of Miami Beach by Harold Mehling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was soaring to ten stars until the last couple of chapters diverted into an emotional wandering into the author’s view of prejudice of the Jewish community.

This book rockets off with humor and a great storytelling style as it unfolds the history of northeastern Dade County. Lots of flourishing prose of development pros and cons, results and dreams of the future. Mobsters, millionaires, drunks and writers are all covered in an entertaining and informed way that can only leave a reader satisfied. I with more books took this tact in history writing.

Then things go awry as author Mehling takes two chapters to detail his feelings about Jewish prejudice with no reference of any other prejudices in the area, such as to blacks, the poor or anyone else. Some of what he writes are neat anecdotes. But otherwise, he presents a slim case as to what was going on at the time and detailed specifics as he does throughout the rest of the book. He seems to be emotionally driven enough and certainly capable of writing a separate book that might have covered the subject of Jews in South Florida. As someone who has worked involving history of Jews in Florida, a volume like that would have been welcome.

Despite his uneven chapters of prejudice, the rest of the book is dynamte. So…

I recommend this book. 7 out of 10 points.

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Ashenden, or The British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Maugham’s series of stories, or whatever this is, claim to be a somewhat fictionalized version of experiences the author had while a spy for the U.K. during World War 1. It’s a disjointed lot that tries to connect at different points and clearly disconnected at other points. There are a couple extremely well written complete stories near the end. Otherwise this is a set of chapters that leave the reader feeling like they are missing what could have connected the whole.

Odd that Maugham’s alter-ego, Ashenden, is written inconsistently throughout this book. Sometimes I wondered, while reading, if Maugham was filing more than one person under the moniker of Ashenden. But, why would he do that and make the book uneven? But, that’s what it is – uneven. That or Maugham was schizophrenic. Seems he would not intentionally document that. Obviously, I left this book more than a bit confused at to just who I was reading about.

Again, the writing is otherwise top notch and the last couple chapters are well worth reading. But, as a whole….

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 5 out of 10 points.

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The Big Gundown by J.A. Johnstone

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The first three in the series of ‘The Loner’ does a great job with having some of the most complex plots of any of the Johnstone Clan books. This one leans in that direction and then comes apart midway through as the book settles with multiple bad guys and the good guy. I expected far more as the book developed, as in the previous books. Instead, the hero continues with an odd masquerade. The disguise is unneeded at a point and he could have accomplished his goal. Instead, the there are explosions and shootouts. One “instead” can be OK. Two are too many.

The characters are too much like others earlier in the series. Unfortunately notches below the earlier ones. The hero playing his own spy, slides away from the build up in the previous three books and acts more a specter of portrayals of Smoke Jensen.

The setting is sparse as a chunk of the book takes place in a loosely written hideout that is described at being complex, but not well explained. One part very clunky throughout the book involves a tank. The part hard to understand is the ease with which this tank is moved through the story. The tank is described as massive, but the movement seems more of a feather.

Disappointing entry in the series. Worse of the four books.

Bottom line: I do not recommend this book. 4 of 10 points.

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Dead Man’s Gold by J.A. Johnstone

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great book. Very good writings, terrific characters and a fulfilling reading experience.

The plot is very well thought out with layering that works well. The traveling written involving the characters could make the reader reach for a glass of cold water and want to turn on the air conditioner.

The characters are well developed with some outstanding touches. One is superior dialogue that distinguishes each character well.

The worse part of the book is still another terrible misfire collage of images that is used for the cover.

Love the historical touches that are the foundation of the story. How all of that is resolved along with a final footnote are wonderfuly written and best part of the book.

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

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