Case Of The Phantom Fortune (Perry Mason Mysteries by Erle Stanley Gardner
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Not one of the best of Gardner’s books. The story is so-so to begin with. The problems lie in the story structure and, more specifically, the dialogue. It seems that at obvious points that separate paragraphs were constructed and pasted into the book. Considering how much one sentence dialogue is in this story, a large, descriptive diatribe about legal or investigative methodology doesn’t read cohesively. There’s a great story here, but the structure is off as the story slows and speeds at different points and then there are the technical speed bumps. Almost wonder if Gardner wrote this at all and if this was put together by a staff. There are far better Perry Mason stories and those should be read first.

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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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It’s Taylor’s 21st birthday! Here’s the annual little bit of animation to celebrate and below is a photo of one of two banana splits a year I have in honor of. Hoping Taylor has a tremendous birthday today!

This is the latest I’ve posted for Taylor’s birthday. Being on the road for the past five days, along with car problems, got this out later than I’d liked it to get out.

Got to meet up with old pal Jeff Parker this evening in Tallahassee during a brief stop there. It’s the first time I’ve seen Jeff in two years. Great catching up and we exchanged some goodies. Hope to see Jeff again before two years.

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

Finished this back on Friday during the Florida Parent Educators Association conference. It’ll be available during an auction to raise money for the American crocodile on June 29th at Reptile World Serpentarium near St. Cloud, Florida. This painting will also be available as a print soom. The setting is Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge south of Miami.

Tripwire by Lee Child

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My second run at a Reacher novel and I found much of what I found in the first: No editor. Well, Dell might have one around one around, but it seems they don’t get much involved with the Reacher series. There are hundreds of hundreds of unneeded words in this novel. It’s a great story, but poorly executed in it’s pacing due to the over writing. Basically the book is muddled. While Child explains nearly every move made by the main characters, it quicksands the reader to move on with the plot line. The reader really doesn’t need to know how the bad guy sleeps at night and the process of that. The reader doesn’t need to know back and forth banter at a ticket counter that had been covered earlier in the book.

Now, if Child were an outstanding writer and it was fun to see how he turned a phrase, my opinion would be very different. However, his writing is just good.

The plotting is what Child does best. I’d suggest he might think of teaming with another writer that might help reduce the excess. One thing ran through my mind as i read this: What a better job John D. MacDonald would have done with the book.

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Started painting this this morning and just finished it here during the Florida Parents Educators Association convention in Osceola County, Florida. The setting is Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park near Pensacola..

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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