The Devil’s Badland by J.A. Johnstone

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If only the rest of the Johnstone Clan series of books had such complex plots. This is the second in the series and that marks two that vary from the typical Johnstone story.

The writing is good, but one of the villains is way too obviously being hidden. It’s the weakest part of the entire book. To the point I have to wonder if that was the point of the writer. However, the rest of the book is so good, that I’ll let some sloppy writing slip by.

The characters are as well done as ever in a Johnstone book. Dialogue seems a bit simply approached and not as sharp as in other Johnstone books. The setting description is a bit sparse.

This is a superior story than most Johnstone books. I just feel the writing is a bit off.

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

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The Expediter by David Hagberg

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Little did I know as I wandered into this book that the author lives in Florida and places his main character’s home in Sarasota. Though Sarasota is a mere backdrop for a far more involved story, it does place the book on my Florida shelf.

About the Florida setting: Hardly even a setting. It’s a hit and run with little description and no feeling that the author cared to expand further upon the glancing blow. Much like the rest of the book. There is a mention of the Sarasota airport but nothing of the interesting drive along 41 or any other road. Considering the circumstances of the character who arrives in Sarasota, his point of view of that area would have been very interesting. The visiting character seems not to care or aware of where he is. That is the problem with this entire book.

I guess author Hagberg is getting tired of the McGarvey series after 12 books and strung his characters, a see-through plot unto a simple stage with cardboard backdrop. The book starts at an interesting level and slowly comes apart along the way. Seems to me it’s pretty obvious early on who certain bad guys are and even why they are motivated to their actions. With that realized the only fun is a cat and mouse game between McGarvey and the bad guys for a few hundred pages. A bit long for cat and mouse, knowing how likely all will end. Another contemporary book that needed severe editing. If a writer is going to assemble a simple plot, best make the book far shorter.

All of the characters are typical of their rolls. There is some depth written for some, while others are handled with a few sentences here and there. Overall, it’s all too familiar. I really didn’t like how family played a part in this. It’s too simple a plot device.

This was my first Hagberg book. I best go back and try earlier ones hoping for better results and far more depth.

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

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Mash Goes to Miami by Richard Hooker

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The most frustrating part of this book is the less-than last 50 pages that take place in Florida with the main characters! This book should be titled: MASH Travels the Globe. The usual large bundle of characters are all over the place in the typical Butterworth fashion in this series. All traveling from Maine to Paris to Alaska to New Orleans, etc. This book should not have the name Miami in it.

The only use of a Miami setting is a pit stop at the Miami International Airport, something about a Catholic church early on and scenes in a hotel along Miami Beach that is loosely compared to The Fontainbleu.

The entire cover is deceiving. This is not a continuation of the MASH TV series. Butterworth is following the lead of Hooker and using those characters, plus plenty more. The cover art shows the characters in fatigues and indicates the gang is going to “invade unwary Miami”. None of which happens. It’s not atypical to have a cover not match the interior story. Considering the promises of “The smash hit TV series MASH Goes to Miami” and how far the story is from Miami, this is particularly bad packaging.

The writing is typical of the series. Butterworth is chug-a-lugging books at this point and the non-ending elongated names of everything and heavy line-by-line repetition are the filler. The writing is very funny and fun. There’s not much of a story, though the makings of a few are present. It’s all more of a travelogue. Next time I see author Tim Dorsey, I must ask him how much the Butterworth books influenced him.

The characters are not only well written, but written over and over and over again. I remember now why I had trouble getting through these three decades ago.

I believe this is my second time reading this entry in the series. Some 35 years ago I read most of the series. The trouble with the mutli-named everything is that after all these years, the books all merge together in my head. Reading this brought that to my attention.

Poking around about named authors, Richard Hooker and William Butterworth, I was surprised to learn Hooker didn’t write the continuing series and Butterworth is multiple people! Shocked to learn Butterworth is also W.E.B. Griffin! I’ve always had fond memories of the MASH series. Now I have to try a “Griffin” book, something I’ve put off due to their length and size of series. Curious about the use of humor and strung together names.

I really like the humor and the writing and the characters. It’s plotting that’s a problem. Also, many today would likely despise the 4 or 5 names everything and body has.

Despite all that, the book is very funny and a genre vanishing from the bookshelves, so…
Bottom line: I recommend this book: 5 of 10 points.

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Utah Blaine by Louis L’Amour

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This is a disappointing story from writing to plotting. ‘Utah Blaine’ is described as a gunfighter and hailed as such throughout the book. So, why doesn’t L’Amour write him as one? Sure he fires his guns many times throughout the book. But, when it comes to killing he acts more like a peacenik than someone out to do away the bad guys. He’s clipping ears and intentionally missing target after target for reasons that make little sense. Unless the sense is that L’Amour had a book to get out and he decided to get lazy and prolong the story to make a word count.

Worse, because of many missed opportunities other actions follow that make the bad guy’s motivations make less sense and question the reader why this story is happening at all.

One bit of filler is near the end when the town decides to create a governing council and select a sheriff. Who do they select? A character who comes out of no where and is described as one of the bad guys gang members who is passed off in that “he looks like a good man”.

There’s also the gang of bad guys. Each claim to be murderous cretins or insane. So why are they working together? Why haven’t they bumped each other off to make it easier for one to steal the land? To me it all seems a plot device that just doesn’t work.

There is also an overlapping of events that is very poorly handled. The book I read before this was entirely of overlapping chapters. I now realize just how great a job Alex Berenson did in ‘The Night Ranger’.

The characters in general are pretty paper thin. It’s one of the few times I’ve written that about any book. Less than standard western fare. Which only adds to the silliness of the pick for sheriff and other weird character mood alterations.

The setting is also lightly touched. Nothing like other L’Amour novels.

Still another bad part of this novel is the seemingly obvious ending and the book ending just that way. L’Amour is far better than all of this.

This is one of the worst books I’ve read in the past year. This is also the first review where I thought I needed to added “spoilers”. I try to be as oblique as possible when writing these. In this case there are so many poorly handled parts of this book, that I felt I need to point out a few.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 2 out of 10 points.

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The Night Ranger by Alex Berenson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an interesting study of the conditions and complexity of life in parts of Africa at the time of this writing. Berenson layers the chapters throughout the book with narratives of three main characters that really help make this a solid story.

Berenson outdoes himself with dialogue. Most all have a very distinctive voice. He gets the chatty, Valley Girl yapping of a 20-something to a point I could hear her irritating voice in my head. This all helps literally construct extremely strong characters.

Here, again, Berenson gives the reader a strong feel of the setting and the hows and whys of what is happening to help better follow the motivations of the characters. Though, it might also turn off some readers that there is so much background. To some, they may feel it bogs down the story. I’ve complained of such before, except in this case, the reasons why so many characters are doing what they are doing makes little sense without the back stories.

I would suggest reading as much of this book at one time as possible to better follow the overlapping chapters. Peeking at a map is a good idea, too.

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

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The Kidnapping: A Free Short Story Preview of The Night Ranger by Alex Berenson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not sure why this short story is listed separately from the entire ‘The Night Ranger’ book. Obviously it was edited out from the main book. I agree the short story, or chapter, wasn’t needed. This really can’t be read without reading the whole book it’s derived from.

The chapter is as well written as the rest of the book. It’s got the solid characters and setting as the rest of the book.

Bottom line: Read this after or as just after reading chapter 3 of ‘The Night Ranger’.

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The Shadow Patrol by Alex Berenson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I want to first note – since I haven’t before – that, besides Vince Flynn, it’s Alex Berenson that has flung me into the espionage genre that I had avoided all of my reading life. Now I have stacks of books I’ve gathered over the last five years all of crafty individuals trying to save the world.

Involving ‘The Shadow Patrol’, it was this book that that I realized what a terrific job Berenson does capturing the dialogue of the different characters. The variety of the lingo of soldiers portrayed is excellent. Also excellent is the heroes dialogue in his head, what he communicates in the field and how he communicates to his CIA connections. Mighty tough to keep that consistently.

About the story: This story is a light effort for the hero. One with bad guys that are not to destroy the world, but internal grief in the ranks of the soldiers, if I may understate. The story written does seem understated. The bad guys are not as well delineated as to their motivations as would be needed to want the hero to save the day. There were the final chapters to stop the bad guys, but I wasn’t cheering the hero on as I have in previous Berenson books. The ending was also week.

The writing, besides the excellent dialogue, is extremely good in setting description. There is a real feeling for where all occurs. The character descriptions and background are also well explored. As I typically complain about contemporary books this one could have used some editing. Especially considering the rather simplicity of the plot.

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

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The Judas Pair by Jonathan Gash
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is the first of, the English mystery series. ‘Lovejoy’ by Jonathan Gash. It’s also the first I’ve read of the series. A series that is centered around the antique auction trade. If a reader doesn’t care for that atmosphere they will hate this book.

I’d say a quarter of the book details the business of the antique trade. Obviously the intent is to familiarize the reader with the subject and fine details that the character Lovejoy must know. Knowing a bit of the business myself, I could relate. I can’t see how others could get through so much.

The unrelated details of the antique business make getting through this book difficult. The best part of the narrative is that Gash writes as lively as he can with the voice of Lovejoy. Some is much fun, while other parts can be perplexing as Gash illustrates in focused detail Lovejoy’s obsession with antiques.

Ah! Yes! There is a mystery in all this which I partly figured out very early on. I would believe other readers could also tell the troublemaker, too, in the klunky way Gash writes at times.

Seems to me if Gash had focused more on the mystery and less with the extraneous antique details, this could’ve been a better book.

Gash does his best writing describing Lovejoy and his view of life, which some readers, these days, will be offended by. Gash has a series of other characters which are well written and some less so. The area is brushed in a bit simply. Especially considering it does have a part in the mystery.

As much as I generally liked Gash’s writing, I got frustrated with his approach with the story. An editor could’ve better hammered this trouble out.

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

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The Lone Wolf Returns by Louis Joseph Vance

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I love the Lone Wolf series of films and recently hoped to find a copy of one of the books the series is derived. I found a copy of Vance’s ‘The Lone Wolf Returns’ in an unexpected place- a home school convention. A first edition, no less, from 1923.

As can be the case, the book can be very different from film. In this case, ‘The Lone Wolf’ had to be played by someone like Warren William, as he did. Thus, the film interpretation is solid. The rest of the book is far less focused than a film has to be to fit an allotted slot. I have the feeling author Vance need those constraints.

The book begins with character interaction involving a love story that leads to a surprise meeting that leads to a party that leads to an angry meeting that leads to… Lots of leading, but, as a reader, not knowing to where. This book is more of a character study than the mystery genre the character is known for otherwise.

Apparently, author Vance decided to end the series with this book at one point and seems he also decided this to be more a reflection of the concerns of age and accomplishments. The main character does an enormous amount of looking back and considering his place in the world.

There is plenty of bad guys and thieving. The legend of ‘The Lone Wolf’ as gentleman thief is very well cemented into the book. But it is hard to call this a who-done-it. There is a bit of a surprise at the end involving a few of the characters, but that is for another reader to discover.

The problem of this book is the meandering of thought over written for page after page. If the story was to be of a tortured soul, that might be OK, but then there’s a criminal story that is entwined in it all. The rambling is a bit much when a book is having problems of focus.

Then there’s an issue involving a main character being out of commission for 7 months with an explanation that is more than poorly written and plotted. It’s pivotal in the book and huge stumble.

The thing is the writing is outstanding. The rambling is great to read just for the deftness of assembling the words. There are descriptions of setting, characters adn dialogue that are exemplary.

Unfortunately, it all come s together with an emptiness that might reflect the writers uncertainty of continuing the character.

Bottom line: I don’t recomend the book. 6 out of 10 points.

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Bloodland by William W. Johnstone

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Of the few dozen Johnstone Clan novels I’ve read, few were published during William Johnstone’s lifetime. This one was. Considering the few books written at the time by him, I figure this one may have been written by Johnstone himself and not one of the herd of ghost writers to come.

Unfortunately, this is the worst of the books I’ve read possibly actually written by Johnstone. I can read a formula cast in the structure of the book. At the time he was also producing the Smoke Jensen series and this book too much reflects those. You could swap out the hero for Jensen. Not that it ruins the novel, just that it indicates Johnstone’s later actions of employing ghost writers considering how much he was able to produce, apparently, plot-wise.

The entire premise is hard to believe, which means the writer failed to connect his plot with the reader. Basically involves bad guys taking over a town with a vision of taking over the world in their way. The idea of the seduction of the townspeople seems more real today than possible in 1985. Still more than far fetched.

One of the most important things to take from this book is Johnstone’s writing of the farming industry and what was and would be happening. Younger people will have a great deal of trouble understanding what he is writing in that what he wrote has not only happened but is so buried in the commercial maelstrom, that the idea of the independent family farms that produce for the U.S. to such a high level will be hard to perceive.

The writing in the book is less than standard. The setting is described at points, but I never got the feel of the place as I have in so many other Johnstone Clan novels. That character construction is also far less than the usual stellar efforts of a Johnstone novel. The most interesting characters, to me, is the father and one named ‘Lila’, but little is done with them.

I figure this book is a sign of the stress of producing too many books at the same time by Johnstone.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 6 out of 10 points.

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The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After reading the first powerhouse novel, ‘The Tourist’, I was glad I had the second handy. Now wish I had the third as assessable. ‘The Nearest Exit’ is very, very good. It is important to note that this second novel really does need to be read in tandem with the first. The first is so involved that, despite too subtle a recap, I can’t see how the second can be read without getting lost. Written as someone who did not read the second novel by itself.

The above is one reason why this book is not as good as the first. The effort to recap the first novel is obvious and slows the story considerably. I’m trying to be objective of this book being read without knowledge of the first. With that thought, I can understand how a new reader would feel as if the fist half of the book seems off balance and overwrought with the past of the main character.

Taking into account both books being read in succession, this book is a terrific continuation of the story.

I really like the Erika Schwartz character and wish the writer might consider a stand alone book or two about her.

The writing is strained in reflection and then excels beyond that. The characters are not as well presented as in the first. Especially considering all of the looking back over the shoulder that occurs. Schwartz being a definite exception.The settings are also less focused than the first novel and other typical novels.

Bottom line: I recommend the book…after reading the first. 7 out of 10 points.

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The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic novel. Very well written with very developed characters and an extremely well thought out plot. The setting is detailed well as characters travel.

This is a complex tale that requires paying attention and reading as much as possible in any one sitting.

The main character is different from most in the espionage genre. He’s written far more like a character you might find in a trade paperback listed in a NPR top book list. So are many of the characters. All are woven into a spy tale that, I agree with so many other reviewers, belongs aside Le Carre.

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

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