crime

In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead

01.18.2012 books
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My man, James Lee Burke. It’s been over a year since I read you, which is too long, considering I’m only on the sixth Dave Robicheaux book out of eighteen. After this one, I may speed things up because you did some amazing work here. I have Dixie City Jam sitting next to my bed, [...]

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V is for Vengeance

11.27.2011 books
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This latest install of Grafton’s alphabet series is the first I’ve read in real time. By that I mean I read it right after it came out. I pre-ordered it at Amazon and banged through it over Thanksgiving weekend. I’m all caught up with Grafton now… just waiting around for the next one. This felt [...]

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The Moving Target

09.23.2011 books
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I said I was going to read this book after catching up on Grafton’s alphabet series. This book is credited by Sue Grafton as being highly influential to her work. She even uses Macdonald’s fictional California town of Santa Theresa as the setting for her books (it’s really Santa Barbara). That’s a serious tribute. Macdonald’s [...]

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Prime Suspect – Pilot

09.22.2011 screen

I made the mistake of flipping around the channels while traveling on business and catching Maria Bello running through a park hacking up a lung (she’s trying to quit smoking). I can’t remember seeing her in anything except for Assault on Precinct Thirteen (2005, bit part). In retrospect, the show, Prime Suspect, wasn’t a mistake. [...]

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U is for Undertow

09.04.2011 books
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I’m all caught up with the alphabet series. I’m going to celebrate somehow. I think I’ll read one of the books that influenced Grafton the most, The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald. That should hold me over until the November release of V is for Vengeance. Smart, very smart. I was initially skeptical about the [...]

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Maximum Bob

06.11.2011 books

I said the other day while watching Killshot that I was inspired to read some Elmore Leonard, so here we are. Actually, it could be the other way around, or not. It doesn’t matter which inspired which, they were both good. I’m starting to get a feel for the Elmore Leonard formula after only a [...]

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Killshot

05.28.2011 screen

This is a movie based on an Elmore Leonard novel of the same name. It’s a 2008 movie that Gail came across so she DVR’d it, thinking we would like it. Man, she nailed it. Great movie. It’s a solid, gritty crime story. How often do I use that gritty crime term? I did a [...]

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The Green Ripper

05.08.2011 books

This was the second reread of 2011 and I have a feeling that I’ll do a few more. I made a visit to the Brown Elephant in Oak Park and walked out with this paperback along with ones by Alistair Maclean (Athabasca) and Len Deighton (SS-GB). These are books that I only marginally enjoyed as [...]

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The Name is Archer

04.22.2011 books

I consume a fair amount of crime novels, but I’ve never read any Ross Macdonald. I happened in to this book because I was at a friend’s house and he just handed it to me. I started it within a few days, which I rarely do, but I was between works of fiction and didn’t [...]

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A Stained White Radiance

02.23.2011 books

I’ve read one James Lee Burke novel per year for the last four years. I’m planning on reading a few more this year because I have the next three stacked up in a pile in paperback form (his early stuff was not on the Kindle the last time I checked). They’re going to be easy [...]

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Starvation Lake

09.13.2010 books

Every time I read a Chicago Tribune article by Julia Keller I remind myself to read her more often. I’ve gotten out of the habit of reading the Trib regularly so I usually end up catching up with her articles on the net after I actually read the Trib in paper form (although the new [...]

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Tourist Season

08.15.2010 books

My sister gave me this book in paperback form. I forgot what paper smells like because I’ve been reading only Kindle books for the last few months. It smells nice. Brings back a lot of memories. Ahh, I remember the days of paperbacks and phones that use a stylus and wireless protocol B. Seems like [...]

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