Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Tfitoby wrote: "You ripped ALL of them? Wow that's some serious viewing.
I saw both Marvin episodes the other night, my first ever Twilight Zone experience. They certainly made it seem easy. "

We have the full Twilight Zone & Outer Limits on DVD & I've put all our DVD's on a mirrored pair of USB drives which are shared out to our PC connected to the TV. Makes it much easier to look up info & play what we want, when we want, where we want. I use a program that makes it very easy to do & get excellent quality.

Jim wrote: "Tfitoby wrote: "You ripped ALL of them? Wow that's some serious viewing.
I saw both Marvin episodes the other night, my first ever Twilight Zone experience. They certainly made it seem easy. "

We ..."

That sounds like a great set up.

Yeah, it's mostly the French who like a lot of US genre authors than the Americans do themselves. See also Jim Thompson and James Lee Burke.

Interesting that so much classic noir stuff is way more popular in Sweden than in Denmark, by the way. Doesn't really surprise me, however: Yhe Swedes seem to hold the genre in a bit higher respect than we Danes have until recently... if not quite as much as the Britons and Americans. I can't think of any Scandinavian crime writers who are anywhere as respected by their country's literati as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is in the UK or Raymond Chandler in the US.

On-topic: I finished reading Ellroy's "Clandestine" last evening. Overall it quite impressed me, but the plot was somewhat clunky in places. Review forthcoming.

Just starting this - The Vanity Game

Just finished Killer Protocols which I enjoyed but I haven't posted my review yet. Starting
The Moving Target.

Ctgt wrote: "Just finished Killer Protocols which I enjoyed but I haven't posted my review yet. Starting
The Moving Target."

Glad you enjoyed it, Ctgt!

My review of Clandestine is up now, if you're curious.

I just got around to posting my, brief, review on Chandler's THE LADY IN THE LAKE. There seem to be two schools of thought re this book: those who loved it as classic Chandler and those who felt it fell short. I'm in the latter camp. So be it ...

Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa. It has a certain noir vibe, with a couple of policemen investigating three murders in a remote Andean camp. Lots of moody scenes with storms and earthquakes, flashbacks, doomed love affairs, implacable destiny. Also lots of politics, but to be expected from a South American novel.

Just started Frank Bill's DONNYBROOK today.
So far it's been 10 pages of mayhem poetically rendered.

Quite a few endorsements/blurbs for this novel from some of my favorite authors: Daniel Woodrell, Megan Abbott, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Donald Ray Pollock, Michael Koryta ...

Just finished The Big Midget Murders by Craig Rice. Not as good as I thought it was going to be.

Just finished Haraln Coben's Play Dead. Just starting a Swedish crime novel Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End by Leif G.W.Persson

Im reading The Bamboo Blonde by Dorothy Hughes, its one of her earliest from 1941. It started slow but its getting stronger by the page, set in in Long Beach and reads like a hardboiled PI by Ross Macdonald set in Californian country side of those days.

The female lead first person,inner monologues makes it much different. She isnt a female fatale type exactly.

I just read The Moving Target, The Deep Blue Good-By and finished with The Last Good Kiss. I didn't really plan to read them sequentially, but you can definitely see the transition from Hammett and Chandler to R. MacDonald and J MacDonald and Crumley. I really liked Deep Blue and loved Last Good Kiss but wasn't as impressed with Moving Target, although I guess R Mac gets better as he goes from what I have read about the Archer series.

Ctgt wrote: "I just read The Moving Target, The Deep Blue Good-By and finished with The Last Good Kiss. I didn't really plan to read them sequentially, but you can definitely see the transition from Hammett and..."

Archer series is a good follow up to Hammmett/Chandler era. Book 2-4 is stronger than book 1.

I've been on a road trip hitting various used bookstores throughout southern New Hampshire and western Massachusetts & I carried my iPad with me.
I have several e-zines and anthologies on my Kindle reader (Thuglit 1-3; Beat To A Pulp: Hardboiled 1 & Hardboiled 2; Beat To A Pulp: Round Two; Blood; Tacos #1).

I've also downloaded a few e-books recommended to me by folks on Rara-Avis and here at Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ.
While on the road I read Fierce Bitches by Jedidiah Ayres from Crime Factory. Loved it!

Since Fierce Bitches, I've been reading several stories each night from Patti Abbott's MONKEY JUSTICE: STORIES (another e-book).
I really recommend you guys giving her stuff a try. She's brilliant. Not all of it is noir but every story packs a punch.

At some point during the trip I picked up a paperback copy of FER DE LANCE, supposedly the 1st entry in Rex Stout's NERO WOLFE series.
Man.
I had to give up the ghost after page 41. I remember reading two or three Nero Wolfe novels decades ago and enjoying them at the time. At any rate,
I decided to stay with Patti Abbott's anthology.

Now that I'm home I'm about to either start reading John Fante's ASK THE DUST or Dan J. Marlowe's THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH/ONE ENDLESS HOUR from Stark House.
I'm leaning towards the Marlowe Stark House double.

Just started The Kind One

Ctgt wrote: "Just started The Kind One"


I read Sailor about six months ago. Great book. I'll check this out.

Just started The Wrong Case.

After the group read of Crumley's The Last Good Kiss I had to move The Wrong Case to the top of my list.

"There is no fire like lust. There is no grip like hate. There is no net like delusion. There is no river like craving." Buddha. From the Dhammapada, #251. MINDFULNESS & MURDER by Nick Wilgus, Crime Wave Press. Chapter One ...

I just started in on the audio book of Deadly Edge, a Parker novel, by Richard Stark. Off to a great start, as usual.

Jim wrote: "Victoria, you're not listed a an author here on GR & don't have this story listed as something we can show that we read or post a review to. You should probably do both."

Thanks, Jim. I'm new to Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and my novel isn't out yet, which is why I'm not listed as an author. I didn't realize that I could post short stories for review on GR, or have I misunderstood your post?

I'll PM you about this, Victoria

Jim wrote: "I'll PM you about this, Victoria"

Thank you, Jim.

Spy who Came in From the Cold is one of my favorites. the BBC producton is good, too.

I'm reading the collected works of Edgar Allan Poe. I guess he's relevant to the group in the sense that his C. August Dupin stories represent the beginning of the crime fiction genre as we know it!

John D. MacDonald - A Purple Place For Dying at the minute

Col wrote: "John D. MacDonald - A Purple Place For Dying at the minute"

Col: You're killing me here on this thread wanting to be reading what you're reading...Travis McGee is my guy, always.

Simon wrote: "I'm reading the collected works of Edgar Allan Poe. I guess he's relevant to the group in the sense that his C. August Dupin stories represent the beginning of the crime fiction genre as we know it!"

Simon, you too, killing me by my wanting to read Poe. I agree that he was the beginning of the genre we know, love and read. Need to read him soon.

Nice post.

I went downstairs to my library to fetch a paperback copy of Willeford's Miami Blues to read for a 3rd or 4th time before launching into a recently acquired PDF copy of Grimhaven (my thanks to the individual who sent this to to me; he knows who he is) when I paused before my collection of James Crumley books.

I picked up The Last Good Kiss and read the 1st couple of paragraphs and figured what the hell- I haven't read this in at least seven years.

It's wonderful. The sentences are so beautifully rendered I find myself re-reading each line twice.
So... I'm reading The Last Good Kiss.
Willeford has been postponed. Again.

Mike wrote: "Now delving into a little Irish Noir. The troubles are not over in the land with four green fields. In The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville, Gerry Fegan is haunted by the ghosts of twelve peop..."

I bought this book also for $2.99. I'll be reading it soon.

I'll be reading The Peeping Tom Murders by Jack Bayes next. I put this cover up.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...

I just read a nonfiction piece by John D. MacDonald, apparently his last published piece, Reading For Survival. It's a conversation between McGee & Meyer. Really good. There's a link to it in my review here:
/book/show/6...

I've just started reading Robert B. Parker's Lullaby. So far it's been good.

I started Valdez Is Coming this evening.
This is a fast read.
I've been an Elmore Leonard fan since the mid-80s, I think.
This will be the 3rd time I've read Valdez.
It still holds up. The dialogue just flows.
Elmore Leonard's Westerns never get too old for me to enjoy.
Valdez Is Coming is one of his best.

I've just finished David Goodis - Dark Passage. Loved it, although it feels different from the Bogart movie (must re-watch) . It also feels related with the previous month's pick : In A Lonely Place, by spending most of the story inside the head of a man coming apart under pressure, although from different motives.

Josh wrote: "I just finished David Corbett's DONE FOR A DIME - not as good as some of his other works but well worth a look. It's a little less noir and more crime.

Am about to start James Ellroy's non-fiction..."

I don't recall seeing this post before. It's great seeing another David Corbett reader here.
Have you read Do They Know I'm Running? If so what did you think of it? I consider it to be his masterpiece.

Started GRIFTER'S GAME by Lawrence Block (Hard Case Crime #1) tonight.

Amazon just sent me an email telling me that more of the Matt Helm series are available for pre-order. I've already gotten & read the first two Death of a Citizen & The Wrecking Crew. I thought the third book, The Removers, wasn't due until August, but now they're saying I can get the fourth book, The Silencers, in June, so I guess they've moved their publishing dates for all of them up. The Ambushers is due out in October & The Shadowers in December.

All of this puts me closer to the real goal, the final Helm book that Hamilton wrote, but didn't publish before he died. I've waited a lot of years for it.

Starting Point and Shoot

Jim wrote: "Amazon just sent me an email telling me that more of the Matt Helm series are available for pre-order. I've already gotten & read the first two Death of a Citizen & The Wrecking Crew. I thought t..."

Hey I saw somebody (not me this is not a promo) has written a book called Matt Helm The War Years compiling snippets of Helm's reminiscences about WWII in a novel and fleshing it out some. Claims Hamilton's nephew read it and approved it. Didn't know if you'd seen it but thought you'd want to know about it. I have not read it and cannot tell you anything else about it.

At an Ithaca, NY book sale my wife and I attended last Wednesday I picked up a complete set of 1st edition Gold Medal Hamilton "Helm" paperbacks. Already had an almost complete series but most had used book store stamps on the inside covers.

The ones I picked up in Ithaca had no such stamps and except for a bit of yellowing on the pages from age are in very good to near mint condition.

Those first 3-4 "Helm's" are superb. I'm also a big fan of Hamilton's Westerns and stand-alone noirs.

Can't wait to find a copy of Matt Helm The War Years!


UPDATE: Crap! I'm still missing 4-5 entries to have a consecutive run on the Matt Helm series. A lot of what I picked up turned out to be duplicates on the ones I already own.

Thanks, David. I hadn't known about it. Matt Helm: The War Years by Keith Wease is available only in Kindle format, unfortunately. There are 3 reviews of it here, all pretty good.

I've got all the Helm books & have read them all several times. I'm also a real fan of his westerns & other books. Recently I read a collection of his articles, On Guns and Hunting. That was really interesting to read because some of the articles are about hunts & areas that he wrote Helm into. I go into more detail in my review:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Finished The Peeping Tom Murders by Jack Bayes. Great book. Moving on to Case of the Vanishing Beauty by Richard Prather. I didn't realize until I after I chose this one was that this was the first in the series.

Just started The Hindenburg Murders by Max Allen Collins. Very interesting concept, taking a historical event with real characters and making a murder mystery around them.

AndrewP wrote: "Just started The Hindenburg Murders by Max Allen Collins. Very interesting concept, taking a historical event with real characters and making a murder mystery around them."

Tell me how you like this after you finish it. I enjoy his historical PI series with Heller and wondered about books like this one, his other historical mysteries.

I have just begun re-reading Nick Tosches. Cut Numbers is first. Then Trinities. I remember them both very fondly so I hope I still feel the same way when I am done.

Just started Stiffed by Rob Kitchin

I'm reading The Taste of Ashes by Howard Browne because it was originally the lead choice for the Pulp Fiction Group Read for ...July (?) -Hansen's Fade-Out has now taken the lead apparently.
Also "Ashes" is the only "Paul Pine" novel I haven't read.

Coincidentally, this afternoon I was watching an old 1960 episode of the tv series Hawaiian Eye via Warner Archive Instant Streaming entitled "The Bequest of Arthur Goodwin" with a screenplay by Howard Browne adapted from a story by same.
Directed by former Orson Welles associate Everett Sloane and featuring in this episode special co-star Fay Wray.

Personally I would have preferred reading the original Browne story.

Mohammed wrote: "AndrewP wrote: "Just started The Hindenburg Murders by Max Allen Collins.

Tell me how you like this after you finish it. I enjoy his historical PI series with Heller and wondered about books like this one, his other historical mysteries. ."

Mohammed - I finished The Hindenburg Murders last night. Enjoyed it very much as it was a refreshing mix of historical facts and murder mystery. You can read my full review here:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...