Al Nye The Lawyer Guy

Zone One

By Colson Whitehead

Doubleday

$25.95, hardcover, 259 pages, 978-0-385-52807-8 (2011)

This is your classic zombie novel written more beautifully than you’ve ever imagined. Never before have zombies been described so elegantly – and Whitehead even has two types: skels and stragglers. Skels are the zombies of modern times: fast, horrific, flesh-eaters. They are to be avoided or killed quickly. Stragglers, on the other hand, are stuck in a repeating loop of some activity they performed before the world went to hell.

The former shrink, plague-blind, sat in her requisite lounge chair, feet up on the ottoman, blank attentive face waiting for the patient who was late, ever late, and unpacking the reason for this would consume a large portion of a session that would never occur. The patient failed to arrive, was quite tardy, was dead, was running through a swamp with a hatchet, pursed by monsters. A man bent before a mirror that perched on the glass counter of a sunglasses store, his fingers holding on the arms of invisible shades. A woman cradled a wedding dress in the dressing room’s murk, reenacting without end a primal moment of expectation. A man lifted the hood of a copy machine. They did not move when you happened upon them. They didn’t know you were there. They kept watching their movies.

                Over the course of three days, Zone One follows a man nicknamed “Mark Spitz” and his fellow zombie-killers from the Omega Unit as they rid New York City of skels and stragglers. Spitz, a black man who can’t, recounts how he got his nickname by shooting his way out of a swarm of zombies rather than doing the sensible thing and diving into the river to escape. He carries plenty of baggage from Last Night (the name for the time when the zombie epidemic began) and his fellow Omega Unit killers each have their own quirks.

                This is a novel that explores emotional, social, psychological, and philosophical aspects of life after the unthinkable happens. The reader is left with the same questions that Spitz often poses about life before the plague: with all the abundance that life has to offer, are you living life to its fullest?  

Buy it on Amazon here.

 

Feast Day of Fools

By James Lee Burke

Simon & Schuster

$26.99, hardcover, 463 pages, 978-1-2019-4311-4 (2011)

When alcoholic Danny Boy Lorca witnesses a man tortured to death, Sheriff Hackberry Holland knows that the small Southwest Texas border town that he patrols is in for more trouble. As he and his sometime lover deputy, Pam Tibbs, pursue leads, Anton Ling, a Chinese woman known as La Magdalena, seems to know more than she’s sharing.

Though presumed dead in Burke’s last novel, Rain Gods, serial killer Preacher Jack Collins is back with his machine deadly gun. Juxtaposed with the deeply moral Sheriff, who unerringly seeks justice, the Preacher is a riveting and vividly portrayed psychpath. 

Burkes is best known for his mysteries featuring Louisiana P.I. Dave Robicheaux. If you’ve like those novels, and even if you’ve given them a chance and they didn’t grab you, this compelling thriller about a flawed but eminently admirable West Texas lawman is a gem.  Not to be missed.

 Buy it on Amazon here.

 

The Night Eternal

By Guillermo Dedl Toro and Chuck Hogan

William Morrow

$26.99, hardcover, 371 pages, 978-0-06-202026-9 (2011)

This is the third book in this trilogy of the world being decimated by a vampire virus. It started with The Strain, and then came The Fall, and now the remaining heroes of those earlier novels battle against the mass extermination of humans. 

Although I didn’t review the earlier novels, I read them both and enjoyed them immensely. Any time something new and fresh can be added to the vampire lore, it’s a good thing. These novels bring a new, unique perspective to vampires that make them seem more plausible and revolting at the same time. 

Only a rag-tag band of humans is left to fight the Master. Luckily, they’re assisted by Mr. Quinlan – a half-breed offspring of the Master that has lived for centuries waiting for the perfect time to obtain revenge.

The Strain was all about this world-wide plague of vampires and the unique way they were portrayed. The Fall pits the leader of the humans against the Master. The Night Eternal brings all the elements of the previous two books to a head with a life or death struggle for mankind. These are highly entertaining novels that no lover of vampires should miss.

That being said, for me at least, one line toward the end of The Night Eternal practically ruined the entire series. As one of the main characters is killed, he “screamed like a lobster being boiled.”

What?

As a Maine native, I’ve probably cooked hundreds of lobsters in my lifetime and I have yet to hear any of them make a single sound. That description struck me as so odd and out-of-place that I almost stopped reading at that point. It just goes to show you how a poorly phrased description can nearly destroy the mood of entire book – or even three.

But don’t allow that peculiar description to dissuade you from reading this highly entertaining series.

Buy it on Amazon here.

2011 Mini Reviews

I’m way, way behind in my reviews. I often read books that I don't write a full review about but still think that they're worth mentioning. Here are just a few of the books I've read this year that fall into that category.

 

Moonwalking with Einstein

By Joshua Foer

The Penguin Press

$26.95, hard cover, 307 pages, 978-1-20190-229-2 (2011)

 

            Alabama – Montgomery.

This is a fascinating book about memory. The unusual title derives from a memory technique used by the author while competing in the US Memory Championship – a strange contest held each year in New York City where people try to remember the names of strangers, random digits, poetry, and a shuffled deck of playing cards.

Alaska – Juneau.

            The author went to the event as a journalist and ended up becoming friends with some of the competitors. One thing led to another and before he knew it, he was studying both ancient and modern memory techniques and competing at the next US Memory Championship.

            Arizona – Phoenix.

            What I enjoyed about this book was that it told a story about memory devices, people with famous memories and the ability to recall unbelievable amounts of data (like the real life Rain Man: Kim Peek). It was interesting to learn about people with unusual abilities and how, with a little effort, everyday people could train their memories to recall many more things than you ever thought possible.

            California – Sacramento.

            As opposed to the dry memory books that just teach various mnemonic tricks, Moonwalking with Einstein draws you in to an absorbing story with a likable writer as the central character. In the best possible way, Foer makes exercising your memory sound – if not exciting – at least worthwhile.

            Colorado – Denver.

             It prompted me to try out a couple of the techniques. As a result, I now know all the US states in alphabetical order – along with their capitals.

            Connecticut – Hartford.

            Next stop: the US Presidents in order, including the years they served.

            George Washington – 1789 – 1797.

            After that – who knows? The Gettysburg Address?

            Buy it on Amazon here.

 

 

 The Cut

By George Pelecanos

Little, Brown and Company

$25.99, hard cover, 292 pages, 978-0-316-07842-9 (2011)

            George Pelecanos is an award winning writer and is both a producer and an Emmy-nominated writer on the HBO series The Wire. That being the case, I expected impressive things from this novel about a returning Marine from Iraq who recovers stolen property for a cool 40 percent fee, no questions asked.

            I wasn’t disappointed.

            Spero Lucas is the adopted son of a Greek-American family who has returned to Washington, D.C. and lands a somewhat unsatisfying job working as an unlicensed investigator for a defense lawyer. When offered the opportunity to earn a little more money by a drug dealer doing time, Lucas puts any qualms about legality aside and agrees to do what he’s good at, recovering property for his 40 percent cut.

            But what begins as a recovery of stolen marijuana soon turns into dead drug dealers, crooked cops, kidnapping, and unsavory thugs looking to outwit Lucas.  Following this investigation through the eyes of Lucas as he bikes, kayaks, does calisthenics and beds beautiful women – all while taking in all the hot spots of DC – is a pleasure. It’s one I look forward to again in the next installment of this entertaining series about a flawed but likable returning vet.

            Buy it on Amazon here.

 

Before I Go To Sleep

By S.J. Watson

Harper

$25.99, hard cover, 360 pages, 978-0-06-201955-6 (2011)

            This debut novel starts out with a young woman waking up in strange bed next to an older man. She notices that he’s wearing a wedding ring and is ashamed at what she’s done. She thinks last night must have been a party where she got so drunk she doesn’t remember anything at all. She cautiously slinks out of bed, finds the bathroom, locks the door, and then looks in the mirror. That’s when things go horribly wrong.

                "The face I see looking back at me is not my own. The hair has no volume and is cut much shorter than I wear it; the skin on the cheeks and under the chin sags; the lips are thin; the mouth turned down. I cry out, a wordless gasp that would turn into a shriek of shock were I to let it, and then notice the eyes. The skin around them is lined, yes, but despite everything else, I can see that they are mine. The person in the mirror is me, but I am twenty years too old. Twenty-five. More.”

                Just imagine: you’re a 47 year old woman who can’t remember most of her entire adult life. Her physician, Dr. Nash, explains that she’s had amnesia for a long time. “You can't retain new memories, so you've forgotten much of what's happened to you for your entire adult life. Every day you wake up as if you are a young woman. Some days you wake as if you are a child."

                Faced with this physical disability, Dr. Nash encourages her to keep a journal. She gradually remembers her name: Christine Lucas. But her inability to recall much else means she must rely heavily on the two men in her life: Dr. Nash and her husband Ben. But are they trustworthy? Are the fleeting memories she has accurate? And what about the eerie entry in her journal, just below her name, in blue ink and capital letters:

                                DON’T TRUST BEN.

            Dennis Lehane, one of my favorite authors, describes this novel as “Momento on crystal meth.” While it doesn’t contain quite the number of twists and turns as that cult favorite movie, it still packs a wallop.

            Buy it on Amazon here.

 

Night Vision

By Randy Wayne White

G. P. Putnam’s Sons

$25.95, hardcover, 351 pages; ISBN 978-0-399-15705-9 (2011)

 

I’ve read several books by Randy Wayne White and this one pretty similar to the others. I don’t mean that as a criticism – White has found his groove with his Doc Ford stories and this novel doesn’t stray from the typical formula:

 

1. Doc Ford is a marine biologist who discovers someone is in trouble
2. His hippy friend Tomlinson is often involved and makes the story entertaining with his drug habits and talk of unusual spiritual phenomena
3. Doc has a lab in a marina and the story has some connection to water – usually the ocean
4. Doc either beds a new woman or breaks up with one he is seeing
5. To rescue the person in need, Doc reverts back to his training with the CIA and turns into a geeky Jason Bourne to save the day

 

This case deals with a Guatemalan girl, Tula, who Tomlinson discovers has unusual abilities – the power to speak to God through her patron saint, Joan of Arc. She comes to Florida searching for her mother and wants to lead her people back to freedom. She’s kidnapped by the steroid-crazed manager of a trailer park.

 

After fighting a huge alligator in a small lake with nothing but a small pistol, Doc meets the obligatory woman and then goes in search of Tula to rescue her. The police, the park manager’s very nasty girlfriend, and several members of a Mexican gang are also searching for the girl.

 

When Doc catches up with them, the resulting action is swift, brutal, exciting and satisfying. Hey, when you have something that works – why change it?

 

Buy it on Amazon here.

The Sentry

By Robert Crais

G.P. Putnam's Sons

$26.95, hard cover, 306 pages, 978-0-399-15707-3 (2011)

  

“Damn you Robert Crais,” I said under my breath. I had a lot to do. I needed to write four book reviews and had at least six other novels to read when The Sentry arrived by FedEx. I’d wasted the entire evening reading this book when things to do were ahead of it. Now I’d have to play catch-up with the rest of my work (let alone my legal practice, household chores, family obligations, etc.) all because this novel was so engrossing.

You could have written a book that wasn’t so mesmerizing. But noooo, you had to write something I just couldn’t put away until I’d finished it, didn’t you? I smiled, knowing that if given the chance, I’d do it all over again.

Crais usually writes thrillers about a detective named Elvis Cole, and his tough-guy partner, Joe Pike. A few years ago he wrote The Watchman – a novel featuring Joe Pike (Elvis Cole played a small role). Next came The First Rule, Crais' second Joe Pike novel. It rose to #2 on the New York Times bestseller list – higher than any of Crais’ other New York Times bestsellers.

I’d received the third Joe Pike novel, The Sentry, late in the afternoon and thought I’d just quickly skim at the first couple of chapters to get a sense of the plot. As far as the outside world goes, that’s the last thing I remember until late last night when I finally finished reading the last page.

That’s how good The Sentry is.

The novel starts with Joe Pike getting gas and noticing a couple of guys across the street.

As Pike closed the hood, three women biked past on the opposite side of the street, fine legs churning, sleek backs arched over handlebars. Pike watched them pass, the women bringing his eye to two men walking in the opposite direction – blink – and Pike read them for trouble, two men in their twenties, necklaced with gang ink, walking with what Pike during his police officer days had called a down-low walk. Bangers were common in Venice, but these two weren’t relaxed like a couple of homies with nothing on their minds; they rolled with a stony, side-to-side swagger showing they were tensed up and tight, the one nearest the curb glancing into the parked cars, which, Pike knew, suggested they were looking for something to steal.

            Pike watches the men and when they enter a sandwich shop, he decides to cross the street to investigate.

The events unfolding inside the takeout shop had happened quickly. When Pike reached the door, the two men had an older man on the floor, one punching the man’s head, the other kicking his back. The man had rolled into a ball, trying to protect himself.

The two hitters hesitated when Pike opened the door, both of them sucking air like surfacing whales. Pike saw their hands were empty, though someone else might have been behind the counter or in the back room. Then the guy throwing the punches went back to pounding, and the kicker turned toward Pike, his face mottled and threatening. Pike thought of nature films he’d seen with the silverback gorillas puffing themselves to look fierce.

“You wan’ this bitch? Get outta here.”

Pike didn’t get out. He stepped inside and closed the door.

            After rescuing the man, Pike takes an interest in his niece, Dru Rayne. When the pair are later kidnapped, Pike is drawn into a gang battle involving the Mexican mafia, La Eme, and a Bolovian hitman named Daniel and his elusive buddies, Tobey and Cleo. Just to make things interesting, the LAPD and FBI are also involved. Fortunately for Pike, his best friend Elvis Cole has his back.

            As for the three Joe Pike novels written so far, The Sentry stands unmatched.

            Buy it on Amazon here.