Books
February 23rd, 2015 – Book: ‘The Family Jensen’ by William Johnstone.
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Feb.23, 2015, under Books
The Family Jensen by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The first book of a series by the Johnstone Clan, that I’ve read, are usually excellent. This one missed that mark. There certainly are some great stories inside and even a good overall story. It’s just that in an effort to weave four stories together as a whole doesn’t work. The three individual stories of the three main characters read as stories meant for another purpose. So that the main underlining story also seems like a separate novel. Seems to me the Johnstone Clan could’ve just fleshed out all four stories into separate books that might not run the typical 300 pages. Maybe that was the initial idea.
The writing is OK. Though it does seem as if, at least, one of the three separate stories was written be an also separate author.
The characters are as good as always. Especially good work done for the indian characters. The bad guys were lacking in this case.
I’m going to recommend the book due almost entirely with the last fourth of the book. I do recommend reading the book as separate novels. Might be best to skip the prologue, I think it makes more sense that way.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 5 out of 10 points.
February 20th, 2015 – Book: ‘Poirot Loses a Client’ by Agatha Christie
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Feb.19, 2015, under Books
Poirot Loses a Client by Agatha Christie
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
‘Poirot Loses a Client’ lost me a bit in viewing Christie as a great author. The formula is mostly the same. Someone is dead. Group of people are suspects. Everyone is overly talkative about what they think is going on. Suspects gathered. Resolution. After reading Edmund Crispin, I wish Christie thought of fleshing out a plot, characters, setting and writing.
This story has Poirot, and pal, enter the story with little explanation as to who they are and why they would be involved in the plot. For those of us that know the characters, we could say we don’t need the background. I feel a book needs to anticipate new readers and not make assumptions.
Moreover, the story feels like it has been pushed through a template, as referred to above.
Getting to the conclusion is a plodding roaming of Poirot finding one talkative character after another. Not all suspects would spill so much. One way Christie could have made the story more interesting story would be having the characters stonewalling Poirot.
The resolution was a bit frustrating after getting through the rest of the book.
There is good character development, with the exception of proper introduction of the two main characters.
Bottom line: I do not recommend this book. 4 of ten points.
February 15th, 2015 – Book: ‘Laughter’s Gentle Soul’ by Billy Altman
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Feb.15, 2015, under Books
Laughter’s Gentle Soul: The Life of Robert Benchley by Billy Altman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a fantastic book that thoroughly tells the life of humorist Robert Benchley. Altman does a great job with research and cohesively piecing a lot of parts together to present this book.
One of the most obvious things about this book is that Altman read all he could about Benchley. To the point that a drawback is the nearly exact lifting of many parts of many books. There is much in this book that I’d already read from books about Benchley or include him. That might be considered bad, but in this case Altman does such a fine job weaving parts of many volumes of books, articles, songs, scripts, that it is impressive.
Reading this is almost like rereading Nathaniel Benchley’s book about his grandfather. The big exception being that Altman carries a lot that Nathaniel wrote and builds upon it. One of the problems of Nathaniel’s book is not telling whole stories in an obvious attempt to skirt around Robert’s drinking and fidelity problems.
I do recommend reading Nathaniel’s book before reading Altman’s due how much both work to paint a portrait of Robert Benchley. I’m glad I read one before the other so that is really helped me see different ways of looking at such a creative genius.
Further praise to Altman for noting the years throughout, something many contemporary biographers do not do.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 out of 10 points.
February 10th, 2015 – Book: ‘The Long Divorce’ by Edmund Crispin
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Feb.10, 2015, under Books
The Long Divorce by Edmund Crispin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
As much as I really liked ‘The Moving Toyshop’ for the playful way with the story and characters, ‘The Long Divorce’ has far less engaging characters and story. I can still clearly recall many parts of ‘the Moving Toyshop’ and can hardly recall much of ‘The Long Divorce’.
The writing is fine for a mystery. The setting is well defined, especially the rural areas. The characters are also illustrated well but with less spark than in ‘The Moving Toyshop.
There is a significant and needless plot device used, it seems, because there is little engaging in this book. I’d say, that is what hurts this book. The writer was so busy setting up to reveal the plot device that certain characters and situations got washed out.
Bottom Line: I recommend this book. Checking 5 of 10 points.
February 6trh, 2015 – Book: ‘The Moving Toyshop’ by Edmund Crispin
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Feb.06, 2015, under Books
The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a rollicking good literary time as author Crispin takes you along for a weird mixture of mystery and hijinks. There is a mystery in it all but it’s more than forced. The fun is reading Crispin’s writing of the characters and settings. Both extremely well done.
The embedded story is a bit complex and certainly strains credibility. Considering this book is from the mid-1940s and set in tiny Oxford, England, the tale would be far easier to pull off today.
Included are chase scenes written like few others. The best part of those are further descriptions of the locales.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 7 of 10.
February 2nd, 2015 – Book- “The Last Mountain Man: Savage Territory’ by W.W. Johnstone
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Feb.02, 2015, under Books
Savage Territory by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m reading these in order and this is the fourth in the series. After a bumpy third book, this one gets more on track of the first two with similar quality and story telling. This is not as good as the first two, but still, involving story telling better than most all of the rest of the Johnstone Clan written books.
Seems this is the same writer as the other three books, for, again, there is an interest in trains, a Perry Mason-type trial and attention to detail missing in most Johnstone books. The writing is very good. The characters well written, as usual.
This is the first of the four where the outcome is pretty obvious from the start. The writer keeps the reader guessing as to just how the obvious ending could possibly occur with so many characters going in so many different directions. It all works well.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 of 10.
January 31st, 2015 – Book: ‘Last Mountain Man: Purgatory’ by W.W. Johnstone
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jan.31, 2015, under Books
Purgatory by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
As I read the Johnstone Clan’s The Last Mountain Man series from the start to this third in the series it becomes very apparent that the crafter of the tales is a far better storyteller than those handling the other parts of the series I’ve read so far. These three are all complex with interwoven threads that bind to make a solid story.
However, this one is not as well written as the first two. Specifically the first few chapters that are a mish-mosh of trying to retell the two previous books and start telling this one. One reason for this may be that this book came out the same year as the last and the one previous to it came out only months earlier. Chug-a-lugging these books seems to have strained production values.
The bulk of the book is still good, lacking the depth of the first two. The characters are especially well explained. Excellent work is done with a secondary character that is law enforcement that, over the course of the book, realizes what is really going on.
Despite the poorly written first chapters –
Bottom line: I recommend this book 7 of 10
January 30th, 2015 – Book: ‘The Last Mountain Man: Deadly Trail’ by W.W. Johnstone
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jan.30, 2015, under Books
Deadly Trail by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This may be the best of all of the Johnstone Clan books I’ve read. It’s a very complex story with various threads that go in all kinds of directions and pulls in elements of the book before it. This was a heck of an accomplishment just to get the book out, but especially in light, for me, of the couple dozen I’ve read of the Johnstone Clan that never get to this point. This ghostwriter obviously wrote the first book in the series and this one, the second. Wonder if the writer wrote the third?
There is far extra care taken to develop characters. The dialogue of so many is very well handled. the settings are also well literally illustrated. Clearly the writer was well researched involving many subjects. One that especially stands out is a knowledge of trains that places the reader in a train and what happens on it. Outstanding work there.
Both the first in the series and this one also do something else out of the ordinary in a Johnstone Clan book: Include a number of newspaper stories, notes, letters, etc. This really ads to the legitimacy of the story.
One complaint would be the horrible cover. Seems the person in the photograph on the cover is to be the main character, Matt Jensen. But this photo is of a fellow in a costume and coonskin cap that Jensen never wears in the books. There are plenty of illustrators out there that could a dynamite job providing a powerful selling cover. Wish the Johnstone Clan would consider different covers.
Bottom line: i recommend this book. 9/10
January 27th, 2015 – Book: ‘Matt Jensen: the Last Mountain Man’ by William Johnstone & pals.
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jan.27, 2015, under Books
Matt Jensen: The Last Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
As I have found the first books in a Johnstone Clan series are dynamite and this is one, too. A thoroughly satisfying western with a great underlying story with typical protagonists, lots of action and a very good ending.
Before this I read a book by L’Amour. The difference between the two writers, to me, that L’Amour was a literary writer and the Johnstone Clan tell simpler stories with a knack to craft characters the readers can care about. I’ve found myself not caring much about L’Amour characters. The Johnstone characters I usually want to know more about which pulls me into more novels in the in numerous series.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 7 of 10.
(side note: I happened to find this book during my travels and started it the same day. that has almost never happened. Hundreds of books writing to be read and I prop open a novel the same day I buy it. This happens to be a first of a series I’ve wanted to start, I hadn’t ready a Johnstone this month and I just finished a book and needed to start one all got me to read this immediately.)
January 24th, 2015 – Book; ‘Crossfire Trail’ by Louis L’Amour
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jan.24, 2015, under Books
Crossfire Trail by Louis L’Amour
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A great tale wrapped in all that L’Amour knows how to unwind. This is far simpler than many of his tales and shows how able he was at assembling a book that has the reader fully involved even in a shorter story. The core of the story is predictable. Other parts are laid out to satisfy the predictability.
The writing is very good and the characters well crafted. Though the bad guys are a bit less detailed than in other books. Though that means the characters have far more definition than most books.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 7 of 10.
January 23rd, 2014 – ‘Robert Benchley’ by Nathaniel Benchley.
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jan.23, 2015, under Books
Robert Benchley by Nathaniel Benchley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Son Nathaniel’s book of his father is a well written account of his father’s life. As he mentions at the start, this is more anecdotal than a chronological history. As can be the case in a situation like this, it does seems Nathaniel was weaving around spot’s in Robert’s life he’d rather not have published. One moment the book is tripping along the chronological trail. Suddenly there are leaps here and there in time. then back to chronological order.
If I had not other wise known and read so much of Benchley over the past 40 plus years, I wouldn’t have thought much of it. In this case, Nathaniel’s skipping is at spots where Robert’s life took some turns that would be tagged uncomfortable. Certainly understandable for a son to do. The last people you ask to learn about a person is the family.
I was hoping for more first hand knowledge of the goings on in Robert’s life. Unfortunately, it seems so much I’ve learned of Robert being away from his family is reflected in the lack of personal stories in the book.
This has me pulling ‘Laughter’s Gentle Soul’ by Billy Altman off the shelf for another viewpoint. Seems Altman had no contact with the Benchley family in assembling his book. Wonder what I will find there?
Despite all this I do feel Nathaniel’s book is an otherwise very good overview of Robert’s life. There are a ton of promised anecdotes. That’s what the book is basically based upon. Lots and lots of hilarious stories that are pure Benchley. Thus this book is not to be missed by fans of the era and the humor.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 7 of 10
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