Last night I was part of a Florida springs symposium with a wide variety of speakers updating the audience about the current status of our natural springs and about upcoming legislation.

My role was creating a unique painting of each speaker during their presentation. A few are on the table below. I have a bit of cleanup to do with each and I’ll post them here in the next week.

The Doomsday Formula by Nick Carter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Considering it’s genre, this is a good book with typical Nick Carter trimmings. A lot is obvious and that takes away a lot. How Carter gets through the story is not so obvious, which has me rate the story good.

The setting is rather well defined for such a short book. The characters are very loosely defined. Who they are is obvious. The writing is standard with the Carter character with the best lines.

I’m reading this prior to reading a Mickey Spillane book written at the same time. Thought it would be interesting to read similar genre series books of a time period that was seeing enormous thrusts off a cliff for America. This book hardly refers to the 1969 period of hippies, Viet Nam and the like.

Bottom line: I recommend this book for the action/adventure enthusiast.

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Path Of The Assassin by Brad Thor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is certainly a thrilling novel. It’s rather well written (Though, did spot quite a number of typos in the text set). There’s a good story with good twists and turns. For the espionage adventure reader, there is a lot of fun and well worth reading.

However, something about the Thor books bother me. I’ve read about four of them and all leave me feeling that the stories are contrived. In this case, the idea that the hero is thrown together with someone who quickly becomes very good battling with well trained military members seems as if the author went through a checklist of characters to fill the story with instead of having a story and letting the characters create themselves. The other obvious intent of the partner seems the same. The final wrap up was various obvious from the start and frustrating to end with as compared to begin with.

I’ve got the entire Thor series and will likely try another down the road. Call me a sucker. I do like the overall story and the exciting scenes included.

Bottom line: I recommend this for the espionage/action/adventure reader.

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Here’s a page from the upcoming ‘Swampy’s Florida: Melbourne’. Swampy and friends off to construct everything in sight as so many did around Melbourne in the 1950s. The book should be available in two months through The Knowledge Exchange.

Here’s a preview of the Swampy’s Florida cartoon coming Sunday.

A set of Swampy’s Florida Valentine cards coming soon.

This is one of the drawings being proposed for a set of Swampy’s Florida Valentine cards. I’ll post the color version as it comes along.

This is one of the drawings being proposed for a set of Swampy’s Florida Valentine cards. I’ll post the color version as it comes along.

I inked this on the 11th and colored on the 12. Thought I’d include the finished cartoon.

Here’s the link to the Swampy’s Florida cartoon post: ow.ly/svLEQ</a>

Murder Is My Business by Brett Halliday
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love to start the year with a Michael Shayne mystery. I’ve already read most of the series in the early 2000s. I didn’t get to many that didn’t take place in Florida and the ones being pumped out by ghost writers post-Dave Dresser or 1960. I did have this as already read as I mixed this title up with another in the series. Just to note: I hadn’t read this before and somehow have two now marked here.

This was a great Shayne novel. This one taking place in Texas. As usual Dresser knows his terrain and locations seem real as well as the characters. The mystery is very good with many layers involved. The reader is kept guessing until the end, though this one has a key clue flipped at a little too opportune time. Still a very good mystery well worth the time – If you can find it.

Bottom line: I recommend this book.

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As i signed a couple sets of Swampy’s Florida books for the Silver River Museum to sell, I added a critter or two along the way. You can get your copies by going by or contacting the Silver River Museum. Click here to learn more. Here’s a happy raccoon. I have no idea what he’s so happy about. That’s what psychiatrists are for.