Author: ekkarn@gmail.com

Thoughts of The November Man and Three Missed Series 

So the other day while I was straightening up, I came across one of my old book journals. The journal covers the years from 1992 to 2000 (roughly my 40s).

Anyway, when I was looking at the journal, I also for some reason checked my Goodreads’ bookshelves. I discovered  none of the books from 1993 were listed. So I  started out to shelve the books.

Book No. 8 for the year was Burning the Apostle  by Bill Granger. It is the 13th and final book in Granger’s November Man series. The first November Man book I read was The Infant of  Prague, which I read in 1988. Between 1988 and 1993 I read the last five books in the series, as well as, the second book in the series Schism.

In the late 1990s Granger had a series of strokes. Finally, in 2000 he had a major stroke which ended his writing career. He passed away in 2012. In 2014 the November Man came to the big screen with Pierce Brosnan playing Devereaux.

Thinking about The November Man started me thinking about other series that I used to read. I thought of three more series. The authors of the following series have all passed away but their books should live on!

Brady Coyne – William G Tapply

William G Tapply’s first Brady Coyne novel Death at Charity’s Point was published in 1985. The 28th and final Brady Coyne novel Outwitting Trolls was published in 2010.

Brady is a Boston lawyer with a small but very rich clientele, that somehow always found a way to get in trouble. Most of the action on the books takes place outside of the court room.

Anyway,  Brady’s character is great and so are the supporting characters. So check out a Brady Coyne book.

There are 28 books in the Brady Coyne series. I have read 18 of them. Hmm, even though William G Tapply has passed, I still have 10 Brady Coune books to enjoy. So I should read at least one soon!

Porfiry Rostnikov – Stuart Kaminsky

Porfiry Rostnikow is an inspector with the Moscow police department. He is a….

…. A bruising bear of a man, whose love of weightlifting and American pizza has left him as squat and powerful as a . 38 bullet, Rostnikov may be the toughest cop in Moscow.

The first Rostnikov book I read was A Cold Red Sunrise the fifth book in the series. I read it because I saw it had won the Edgar award as best mystery novel. It wasn’t long after that I went back and read the earlier books in the series.

This series is one of my all time favorites I love Porfiry and his family along with all of his fellow officers. One of my favorite characters in the series is Emil Karpo who is referred to as the “Tartar” or most often as the “Vampire” based on his appearance.  Emil is a true believer in the Communist system and Will support it to the very end.

The stories are always well-written , fast-moving and interesting. So check it out!

There are 16 books in the series. I have read 13 of them. It seems I missed three books (9-11) published in the mid-90s. Note to self finish the series!!

Stuart M. Kaminsky was a profiling writer. In addition to the Porfiry Rostnikov series Kaminsky wrote series featuring Toby Peters, a private detective in 1940s Hollywood (1977-2004), veteran Chicago police officer Abe Lieberman (1990-2007) and finally a  Sarasota, Florida, process server named Lew Fonesca (1999-2009).

Kaminsky passed away in  October of 2009.

Robert (Mongo the Magnificent) Fredrickson – George C. Chesbro

Another series that I miss features a different kind of Private Eye Dr. Robert “Mongo” Fredrickson, a.k.a. Mongo the Magnificent. Mongo is …..

…..a fictional private eye and criminologist who has dwarfism……his rather unusual nickname is actually his stage name, from his days as an acrobat in a circus (a career that is over by the time the book series begins).

Mongo and his brother Garth always seemed to get involved in some kind of case with some strangeness in it.

 ….Playboy magazine as “Raymond Chandler meets Stephen King by way of Alice’s looking glass.”

Mr. Chesbro’s best-known character “is definitely an acquired taste that requires certain suspensions of perception and expectation,” wrote Dick Adler in a 1993 Chicago Tribune review.

“Imagine a dwarf who honed his physical skills as a circus acrobat called Mongo the Magnificent and then, using his real name, Dr. Robert Frederickson, became a world-famous criminologist,” Adler wrote. “Add to that the fact that Mongo’s world is filled with good and bad witches, satanists, warlocks and magicians of every shade as well as the normal run of murderers, swindlers and thieves.”

The writing, nonstop and violent, can also be very funny. Mongo played on a local  softball team in his spare time and noted that he led the league in walks.  Complete obituary

There are 14 books in the Mongo series. I have read all of them except Dream of the Falling Eagle the final book in the series.

So thinking about these four series has stirred up a lot of memories. I think I should create a mini-reading challenge”. I’ll challenge myself to read at least one book by each of these authors over the next four months! Anyone want to join me!!