Home Invasion by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow! I liked this book a lot! I like how the characters are written, the plot, the pull of the story, the story, the writing, the plot twists, the ending, etc. I short the book a star due to a few items that bother me.

The book is about a small city in Texas taken over by a very large entity and more that will have to be discovered while reading. The great thing is that none of the takeover takes place right away. The story has number of threads and it takes a bit to tie it together. The reader knows it’s going to tie together and that is one of the things keeping you on the edge of your seat trying to figure how that will happen. This book starts on one level and ends up in a very different place. I love when i can’t figure an ending out and that was pretty impossible here. Another great things is that every character is expendable, which is typical of the Johnstone westerns I’ve read. Love how that worked out here. Made it all so much more realistic.

These days, in our current political atmosphere, the plot seems possibly not far off from possible. Staunch liberals will hate this book. People opened minded will greatly enjoy it. I sure like that conservatives are put in a good light here. I read so much contemporary mess where the conservatives, Republicans, patriotic people are evil. Though this book flips the favoring, it is still less strident than sooooo many authors I’ve read.

My concerns are mostly technical. I’m not a lawyer, but I believe there are some pretty big holes in how the court case early in the book is handled. Though I like the ending, I don’t quite believe everything would go so quick back to normal considering the premise of a fixated populace.

Besides a great story, I’m also amazed at the level this book is considering it’s coming out of the Johnstone mill. The amount of books pumped out a year by Johnstone and company would lead one to believe the books are just rot machine gunned out by ghost writers. This is the second book recently produced by the mill and am staggered at it’s quality. I really expected a loosey-goosey mess of a non-stop battle involving what I figured might be the “Invasion” before reading the book. As I read I discovered how very wrong I was. Have to almost wonder if some of the ghost writers are long-time professionals filling in some economic gaps by producing these.

I highly recommend this book.

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Savage Texas by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The seemingly never ending Johnstone literary legacy continues. I had to suspect that this relatively new entry into the fray might not live up to the early days of the Johnstone western series thirty years ago. With Johnstone himself long gone and seemingly a team of ghost writers pumping out volumes of books every year, I wondered if these spin-offs of spin-offs could sustain quality.

Well, this one does. It’s clear the framework setup by Johnstone oh so long ago is being strictly adhered to. The story draws you in and keeps you turning pages to the end. It’s a wonder why this rather innocuous series isn’t better known. This was far better written than any of the recent fiction I’ve read by contemporary authors. My usual complaint of over explaining everything is somewhat found here. But in no way to the degree of what i find in the current best seller market.

Someone else here found something that I, too, found. Part of the book is missing. I was mighty confused when one of the characters is alive one minute and dead the next. If the other contributor is correct, then the page count is the problem. However, my copy had even less pages- 314.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book.

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Killing Castro by Lawrence Block

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Block’s book follows a handful of folks out to kill Castro. The story is very good and the outcome of the task is interesting as the reader learns about the ones out to take out Castro. Block does a very good job of crafting the relatively short story. The best part is the history of Castro and Batista and their rise to power interspersed throughout the book.

Block starts the book in Ybor City, near Tampa, in Florida. Considering the atmosphere of Ybor City at the time this book takes place in the early ’60s, it’s a shame Block didn’t know more about the area to be more descriptive.

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Trail of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This third in the series is much like the second with the obvious intent to make it different. Almost as if Johnstone wanted to rewrite the second in the series.

It’s still a real good book. You get to really know the various other characters involved. Most are fleshed out. It was quite a task. I almost wonder if Johnstone went too far with his descriptions. Not sure if he needed to flesh them out as much. But that is a light complaint compared to the overwrought Reacher novel I finished before this.

This is also a fun story with all kinds of things happening, lots of side stories and a satisfying conclusion. Johnstone does give a view of the bad guy and the like to understand their positions. It’s a satisfying reading pleasure.

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Here’s a flock of artwork done at Chelsea Coffee this evening. Three caricatures, a Swampy cartoon and roughs for some proposed Swampy clothing.

The Gray Man by Mark Greaney

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

‘The Gray Man’ by Mark Mark Greaney is very well written, though the plotting leaves a lot to be desired. It’s basically a chase book. I found it like a Matthew Reilly book, but better written.

The hero is well defined as are many of the supporting characters. I wish there was more about the bad guys. I kept expecting a bit more of a plot to be revealed as reasoning for keeping them loosely drawn. Locations are very well written. The author has an opening acknowledgement pages telling of his travels to help make locations read as real. The main plot has many holes in it as a big business seems to have about anything it wants with a couple phone calls. Even in big business there is bureaucracy and the easy summons of whatever from around the world is a bit much.

A big plus is how well author Greaney gets his hero hurt along the way. It’s hard not to wince at parts where the hero gets injured. The hero is not invulnerable. A chunk of the book has an aside through the eyes of one of the characters who has a sibling. I found it interesting that the way this is handled had me wonder if the other sibling was imaginary as each is treated autonomously.

One thing kept crossing my mind as I read: This book would have been better set in the American west in the 1800s. Nevertheless, it is a thriller, fun and worth reading if you like lots of action and a very good chase.

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You Bet Your Life by Stuart M. Kaminsky

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A real fun book of the constantly depressed Toby Peters out to calm the anger of mob guys after Chico Marx, of the Marx Brothers. Much like the rest of the series, Toby encounters others known of the era of the ’40s.

Pretty well written, as always. However, there are a few loose ends that, I believe, may have been part of an effort to throw the reader as to who-done-it. Though, to me, it was pretty obvious from near the beginning. This was the first of the Toby Peters series I have read where the bad individual was figured out fast.

The depictions of the Marx brothers, of which I am a solid fan, is quite off from what they were off screen. Harpo was known to have, and I have heard it myself, a deep New York accented voice and Groucho was known to be far more subdued in regular life. Chico’s depiction by Kaminsky is what I have read it was.

This book also shows Kaminsky’s adept ability to write about Chicago and not Florida, at the time. Chicago is written in such depth, while only a glancing blow is made of an opening scene in Florida. This changes dramatically when Kaminsky writes his Lew Fonesca series based in Sarasota, Florida.

Overall, I recommend the book.

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Hernando de Soto among the Apalachee by Charles R. Ewen & John H. Hamm

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A terrific literal mapping out of DeSoto’s trek across Florida and his visit near Tallahassee. Very thorough and lots of cross referencing done within the volume itself. The best of this is reading the translated journals of those who chronicled the hike.

The focus is the Christmas encampment near Tallahassee. The well noted archaeological work, what is found, theories based upon mostly empirical data and the journals can ease the reader into a comfort of more historical facts than in some similar works.

In my case, i am sure to return to the journals and re-read them. Parts of it are quite something. At one point a journalist queries as to why, in that God had brought DeSoto to conquer the land for the Kingdom of Spain, the hikers couldn’t get the indians to see the conquistador’s superiority. Afterall, the Spanish visitors have “cut off their [the indian’s] noses and their hands”. Why can’t they all be friends?, he wonders. I can see how this attitude would greatly perplex those with today’s flowery, “reality” television laced and sugary view of the world today.

A definite book to read for better understanding of the impact of the Spanish on the indians in Florida – Despite much of what is going on this year of 2013 in Florida involving something called ‘Viva 500’ where much of what is written in this book is flipped for seemingly politically correct reasoning. Forgive me if I take my history with more factual accuracy than the fictional white washing today.

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Return of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked up the first book off a bookshelf of a place I was visiting. Read it and now I’m amongst the very apparent many who are collecting the series of series. The first book drew me in as it fleshed out quite a set of characters and told a great story. I delved into number two hoping to find more of the same and did. It is a continuation of the first book and wraps the loose ends. Obviously a setup to get the reader on to number three. Though i doubt at the time William Johnstone in the mid-’80s knew of the industry he was about to spawn. Quite a set of books are coming out this year of 2013 years after his death.

I highly recommend this book, AFTER one reads the first.

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Moonraker by Ian Fleming
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The best of the first three Bond books. Fleming moved forward with this far better fleshed out novel and a true threat for Bond to go after the bad guy. The beginning premise is a bit flimsy as to how the bad guy and Bond get connected, but the rest of the book makes up for the contrivance.

Reading this over fifty five years since its being written makes one marvel at Flemings ability to conjure rockets so well before anyone could get very familiar with them. I urge a reader to slow down reading parts about the rockets and take in Fleming’s depiction of the machinations of the rocket involved. Can’t imagine what that was like reading the same parts in the ’50s.

I recommend this and the previous two Bond books: casino Royale and Live and Let Die.

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Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I felt as if I had just read a short story than a book. This really goes quick. Part of the reason is the very good writing and pacing. The story itself was, oddly enough, a bit like the book I read before this in which it is a kind of a novel-length chase scene. This chase involving a deck of Bicycle. Unlike the book I read before this, this has far better writing and a real development of the characters. The ending is rather overdone. But then so is the card game which is central to the story. Meaning this short story novel could have been even shorter.

Involving the movie series: I really like the James Bond character in this book better than all the film versions. More intriguing character. This first of the set should be leading me on to the next in the series.

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