Through the years, I have read many of the books in Bill Pronzini’s Nameless Detective series. I read my first Nameless Detective novel in 1990. In fact in that year I read four of the books in the series.

From 1990 until 2001 I read the series from book Deadfall #15 to # 26 Crazybone and only missed one book Hardcase #15. While I was moving on the other authors, Pronzini was making major changes to the Nameless series.

Bill Pronzini transforms the Nameless Detective series

At the end of Crazybone Nameless and his wife Kerry are planning to adopt a child. Pronzini wanted to move the characters in a different direction. However, he returned to the series with major changes.

The series continued with an ensemble cast. Nameless becoming older, grayer and wiser. He moves away from being a solitary investigator to hiring both a savvy female assistant Tamara as a partner of their new agency. Additionally, they hire an ex-cop Jake Runyon to held cases..

From Crazybone on each of the books features at least two storyline featuring Nameless and another member of the ensemble.

Savages is the third book I have read in the series since these changes have been made. It is book #31 in the series. I read book #29 Nightcrawlers in 2006. Twelve year later I read book #30 Mourners. Now in 2025 I have just read Savages book #31 in the series.

Savages – The Story

Savages follows the same ensemble cast direction of the books post Crazybone. Both Nameless and Jake Runyon are working separate cases.

Nameless Detective is talked investigating the accidental death of the sister ofa former client, a sharp-tongued woman named Celeste Ogden. Celeste is convinced her sister Nancy Mathias’ death was a homicide not an accident.

Celeste has never liked her sister’s husband Brandon Mathias. She had previously hired Nameless to perform a background check on him before her sister marriage. Nameles found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Now, with Nancy dead in what officials call an accident, Celeste is convinced of murder and insists Nameless is honor-bound to prove it. As he delves into Nancy’s life, he becomes more inclined to believe it was a murder, despite ethical dilemmas and a lack of clear evidence. 

Concurrently, his agency partner, Jake Runyon, takes on a case to serve a subpoena, which escalates into a complex investigation involving serial arson and murder. The novel weaves these two cases together, keeping the entire San Francisco detective agency on edge. 

My Thoughts

Reading Savages was a nice return t the world of Bill Pronzini’s Nameless Detective. Typical of all Bill Pronzini books the characters are all well-drawn and the storylines are both compelling. Of the teo storylines I found the Jake Runyon story the better of the two.

Jake was just delivering a subpoena to a witness in a San Francisco court case. When he is thrust into the middle of a homicide AND arson case. Where nothing seems to add up. The prime suspect was friends with the victum and he seems to be liked by all! There’s a few twists and turns in the investiation enough to keep the pages turning. The ending somewhat surprising was satisfying

. While Nameless’s case was less satisfying for some but a surprise ending.

While Savages average rating was 3.68 It was a strong 4.o for me. Now I do believe you can read this book as a standalone. I do think think should read the four books that come before it to get to know the characters. As for me, I think I need to go back and read it Bleeders and Spook!

Links

Wikipedia
Goodreads
Amazon

Bill Pronzini Page

About Bill Pronzini

and Nameless Detective

Bill Pronzini (born April 13, 1943) is an American writer of detective fiction. He is also an active anthologist, having compiled more than 100 collections, most of which focus on mystery, western, and science fiction short stories.[1] Pronzini is known as the creator of the San Francisco-based Nameless Detective, who starred in over 40 books from the early 1970s into the 2000s. Wikipedia

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A few weeks ago I checked Black and White Ball by Loren D. Estleman out of the library and finally got around to reading it. It’s book #27 in the Amos Walker series. For reference, the first Amos Walker novel, Motor City Blue, was published in 1986 — and it was the very first entry in my Book Lovers Journal in 1987! The most recent Walker novel is City Walls (#31), released in 2023, so I clearly have catching up to do.

Between 1987 and 1991 I read 8 of the first 10 Walker books. Then I didn’t pick up the series again until 2012, when I read #20, The Left-Handed Dollar. Next came #12, The Witchfinder, in 2022. So when I grabbed Black and White Ball (#27), I’d read 10 of the earlier books and none of #27–31. Honestly, until a few years ago I didn’t realize Estleman had taken the series that far. Now that I do, the TBR pile just grew.

Black and White Ball (Amos Walker #27)

The book reminded me quickly why I like this series: reading an Amos Walker novel feels like catching up with an old friend. The setup: Amos is hired by an old flame to track her cheating husband, who has also skimmed $600,000 from his company. Walker traces him to Canada. While Amos is trying to confirm the couple’s room number, a woman screams. By the time he reaches the room, the husband is dead and the window is open — the killer apparently gone.

After the police interrogation, Amos is told the hit was the work of professional killer Peter Macklin. Soon after, Macklin “introduces” himself by pressing a gun into the back of Amos’s neck from the backseat of Walker’s car. Macklin, in the middle of a divorce, has received a photo of his wife with a note demanding $100,000 — or she dies. He hires Amos to keep her safe. The threat comes from another hit man Macklin knows all too well.

My Thoughts (with Spoilers — at least I think they would be)

Reuniting with Old Friends

Reading Estleman’s Amos Walker always feels like traveling back in time to meet an old friend. Here, it’s like meeting two: Walker and Peter Macklin. Estleman brings them together for the first time in this novel. While Amos has anchored 30+ books, Macklin has headlined only a handful; I’ve read one — Roses Are Dead.

Walker Meets Macklin

Their paths cross at the Cabot Lodge in Toronto, where Amos arrives to help his client’s husband, Guy Lennert. The killer is Peter Macklin. Soon after, Macklin — facing a pending divorce — receives a note and photo of his second wife: pay $100,000 or she dies. He wants Walker to protect her. The twist? The would-be assassin is Macklin’s own son, Roger — a hitman like his father, but with a very different motivation.

A Killer’s Code and a Detective’s Morality

This puts ex-cop PI Amos Walker in a bind. He’s spent a career chasing men like Macklin, and now he has to help one. But saving a life means more to Walker than sticking rigidly to his personal code. Macklin, for his part, follows a cold professional ethic — not admirable, exactly, but consistent. The friction between Walker’s decency and Macklin’s “code” gives the story its moral backbone.

Family, Hatred, and Inherited Violence

There’s also a generational angle: how criminality — and hatred — gets passed down. Roger isn’t driven by the detached professionalism that defines his father; he’s fueled by resentment. That difference matters. It shifts the stakes from a tidy noir chess match to something more volatile and personal.

Shades of Gray

The title Black and White Ball is a neat bit of irony. Neither Walker nor Macklin operates in purely black-and-white terms. They both move through gray areas — different grays, for sure — and that moral complexity is what elevates this book beyond a standard cat-and-mouse.

The Bottom Line

Black and White Ball is a strong addition to the Amos Walker series. It works as a brisk thriller, but it also wrestles with ethics, loyalty, and family damage — which makes it linger. If you’re dipping into Walker again (or for the first time), this is a rewarding stop.

Links

Website
Facebook
Goodreads
Amazon
Wikipedia

About Loren D. Estelman

Loren D. Estleman is an American writer of detective and Western fiction. He is known for a series of crime novels featuring the investigator Amos Walker. Wikipedia

Born: 1952 (age 73 years), Ann Arbor, MI

Partner: Deborah Morgan (1993–)

Awards: Spur Award for Best Western Novel · See more

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The Sinister Pig – Tony Hillerman

I’ve read almost all of the books in Tony Hillerman’s Jim Chee – Joe Leaphorn series. But the last one I picked up before this was way back in 2000, when I read Hunting Badger (Book #14)!

The Sinister Pig (Book #16) has been sitting on my shelves unread for at least five years. One of my 2018 reading challenges was to read 25 books from my TBR shelves—especially books from series I haven’t visited in years—so choosing The Sinister Pig was a no-brainer.

In The Sinister Pig, former Navajo Tribal Police officer Bernadette Manuelito has left the Navajo Police and joined the Border Patrol. Jim Chee misses his former subordinate, but he’s busy investigating a nameless corpse found at the edge of the Jicarilla Apache natural gas field. His frustration grows when the FBI swoops in and takes control of the case.

Meanwhile, Bernie follows a suspicious trailer onto the Tuttle property, where mysterious construction is underway. She may have just made dangerous enemies—and uncovered a link between both cases involving an old abandoned pipeline. That’s the theory retired police legend Joe Leaphorn proposes.

Jim and Bernie each face big challenges: Jim is determined to prove a murder where the FBI claims there’s only a hunting accident, while Bernie is unknowingly up against the ruthless and greedy Rawley Windsor. Can Jim solve the case and save Bernie, or will help have to come from somewhere else? And will Jim and Bernie admit they miss each other and want to be together?

Bottom Line

While The Sinister Pig was an okay read, it didn’t feel like the Tony Hillerman I remember. One of the things I always enjoyed about his novels was how Navajo culture was woven into the story, and how Jim Chee struggled to balance his heritage with modern life. That element was largely missing here, making the book feel more like a standard crime novel rather than a special glimpse into a different culture.

That said, I’ve already downloaded The Wailing Wind (Book #15) from my library. I want to find out what happened to drive Jim and Bernie apart—and I’m hoping it will feel more like the Hillerman I remember.

EKK Rating: 3.0  |  Goodreads Rating: 3.85

Post Update: According to both my memory and my Goodreads shelves, I haven’t read The Wailing Wind yet. The good news is I picked up a free copy—so maybe this time I’ll actually read it. And if the plot of The Sinister Pig sounds familiar, it’s because elements of it were used in Season Three of Dark Winds!

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Shadow of Death (Brady Coyne #21) – William G. Tapply

Here we are in February 2018, and I still hadn’t formalized my Reading Challenges. I knew my goal was to read 65 books that year, with at least 25 pulled from my “to be read” shelves. By the first week of February, I was already off to a decent start — and book number six turned out to be one that had been waiting patiently on my shelves: Shadow of Death by William G. Tapply.

EKK and the Brady Coyne Series

Shadow of Death, published in 2004, is the 21st entry in Tapply’s Brady Coyne series. The series began in 1984 with Death at Charity’s Point. My own journey with Coyne started a little later, with Dead Winter (#8), which I read in the summer of 1990 when the paperback came out. By the end of that year, I had caught up with the series!

Sadly, William Tapply passed away in 2009, bringing the series to a close. The final Brady Coyne book, Outwitting Trolls (#28), was released in 2010. Between 1990 and 2001, I read 16 of the 18 Coyne books available at the time. After that, I shifted to his short but memorable Stoney Calhoun series.

Reading Shadow of Death reminded me just how much I enjoyed these books. Brady Coyne, a Boston lawyer handling divorces, wills, and trusts for wealthy New England families, always seems to get pulled into something bigger. That mix of law, mystery, and human drama was Tapply’s strength.

About Shadow of Death

In Shadow of Death, Brady is hired by the campaign manager of Ellen Stoddard, who is running for the U.S. Senate. The task: find out why her husband, Al Stoddard, is acting strangely. When the private investigator Brady hires is found dead on a lonely New Hampshire road, Brady is drawn into a dangerous search. As he digs deeper, he discovers two of Al’s childhood friends have also died under mysterious circumstances — and the story turns darker.

Bottom Line

Like all of William G. Tapply’s books, Shadow of Death is exceptionally well plotted and believable. But what makes these novels shine is Brady Coyne himself — a lawyer who’d rather be out fly fishing than handling divorces, but who still manages to be a convincingly heroic and likable sleuth.

Publisher’s Weekly, writing about Scar Tissue, praised Brady as “one of the most convincingly heroic and likable of the contemporary sleuths.”

And the Florida Times-Union, reviewing Muscle Memory, noted that “Mystery lovers will thoroughly enjoy Brady and the other characters that Tapply creates… one of the best in the game.”

Another little delight for me has always been the subtle crossover with Rick Boyer’s Doc Adams series. Tapply and Boyer were close friends, and in almost every Coyne novel there’s a sly reference to Doc Adams. Shadow of Death is no exception — it’s brief, but it’s there!

Shadow of Death, like most of the Coyne novels, can be enjoyed on its own. If you haven’t tried Tapply before, this would be a fine place to start. I still have two more Brady Coyne books waiting on my shelf, including Outwitting Trolls, which I’ll save for last.

P.S. Don’t overlook the Stoney Calhoun books. Those three are shorter, but equally strong — and best read in order.

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Table of Contents

Originally Posted July 2017 revised April 2026

Ok so maybe juts maybe Parnell Hall is not going to win any major literary awards for his Puzzle Lady series. But if you are looking for a fast, funny and just enjoyable read try a Puzzle Lady book! I admit I have not read even close to the majority of the book series. I usually just pick up one of them at the library when I need a laugh break from all the murder and mayhem that I read.

The latest one that I just finished A Puzzle to Be Named Later was a welcome break after the last few intense books that I’ve finished. Especially, Chris Carter’s I Am Death and of course the ongoing circus of the Trump Administration.

My History with Parnell Hall

I first started reading the books of Parnell Hall way back in 1991 when I read my first Stanley Hastings mystery. Strangler, which was the fourth book in the series. Since then I have read all but two of the books in the now 20 book series.

One of the books that I haven’t read is A Fool for a Client which is book 20 in the series. I totally missed the release of this one. But is now being held at my local branch of the Burlington County Library System. Anyway, the point is that I have always preferred Stanley over Cora but after reading more of the Puzzle Lady books, Cora is growing on me. Booklist writes this about Cora……

“If sweet-looking, gray-haired Miss Marple cursed, smoked, and carried a gun in her purse, she’d be a ringer for Cora Felton.”

AboutA Puzzle To Be Named Later

In A Puzzle to Be Named Later  Cora is once again in the middle of a Bakerhaven murder investigation. This time the murder revolves around an up and coming new star pitcher for the New York Yankees – Matt Greystone. After signing a huge contract Greystone, who came to the Yankees as a “player to be named later”, breaks his arm in an automobile crash.

Greystone moves to Bakerhaven to avoid the bright lights of  New York and rehab in peace. When a sleazy New York gossip columnist is found dead in Matt’s sauna, during a welcome to Bakershaven bash, Matt’s wife becomes the prime suspect. There is also a crossword puzzle found with the dead man. The solution to the puzzle says “you’ll find a surprise in the file of this guy”. That sends Cora onto the trail of the killer and she won’t stop to she finds out who did it!

Bottom Line:

The Cora Felton Puzzle Lady books are a fun and welcome change from gruesome murder mysteries. Parnell is a master of witty dialogue. He also is great at creating characters, who are foils for his lead characters. Cora Felton has two foils. First. Captain Harper of the Bakerhaven police. And secondly, Sargent Crowley of the NYPD. Cora’s relations with both policemen are some of the best parts of the books.

So let’s see A Puzzle to Be Named Later gets 5 stars for a fun character and snappy dialogue, 3 stars for artistic style i.e descriptiveness, creation of a sense of place, etc. Finally 4 stars for a twisty turning plot that kept my interest. Those twists never stopped until the last pages of the book.  Averaging those three ratings gives the book a solid 4 star rating.  That means that I really, really liked A Player to be Named Later.

Now I must admit that I am a lot like Cora Felton, when it comes to doing crossword puzzles. I don’t do them very well. In each book puzzles from Will Shortz provide clues to solve the mystery. I guess in one of these books, I really have to try to solve some of these puzzle. Does anyone else who read these books, do the puzzles? Just curious!

Links

Author’s Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

About Parnell Hall

If you like a little humor in your books….

You might enjoy these authors:

Whether you’re solving crosswords with Cora or running from the mob with Stephanie Plum, these authors prove that a good mystery is always better with a side of laughter.

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The Matarese Countdown a Return to the Works of Robert Ludlum

I finished The Matarese Countdown (Book Number 37 for 2015) yesterday and it was another good read from one of the masters of the thriller genre Robert Ludlum. The book was one of the last books written by Ludlum, before his death in 2001. Through the 1990s my reading changed from reading political thrillers to mostly mystery series, but  during the 1980s Robert Ludlum’s novels were mainstays of my reading. They were always were thrilling reads, as typically, either one person or a small group of people was out to save the world. They were action packed with very well drawn plots and characters. Ludlum’s descriptive writing style really made it feel like you were part of the action, Ludlum wrote over 27 thrillers. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated between 290 million and 500 million. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries

After Ludlum’s death, several novels or novels based on his outlines were released. They were penned by authors like Eric Van Lustbader  who continued the tales of Jason Bourne and Gayle Lynds, Patrick Larkin and Kyle Mills who created a series called Covert-One based on the ideas of Robert Ludlum.

The following from Wikipedia is a description of the writings of Robert Ludlum…

Ludlum’s novels typically feature one heroic man, or a small group of crusading individuals, in a struggle against powerful adversaries whose intentions and motivations are evil and who are capable of using political and economic mechanisms in frightening ways. The world in his writings is one where global corporations, shadowy military forces and government organizations all conspire to preserve (if it is good) or undermine (if it is evil) the status quo.

Ludlum’s novels were often inspired by conspiracy theories, both historical and contemporary. He wrote that The Matarese Circle was inspired by rumors about the Trilateral Commission, and it was published only a few years after the commission was founded. His depictionsThe Matarese Countdown of terrorism in books such as The Holcroft Covenant and The Matarese Circle reflected the theory that terrorists, rather than being merely isolated bands of ideologically motivated extremists, are actually pawns of governments or private organizations who are using them to facilitate the establishment of authoritarian rule. Read More

The Matarese Countdown was published in 1997 eighteen years after the 1979 release of The Matarese Circle. I read The Matarese Circle sometime in the early 1980s before I started keeping a log of my reads, so it’s probably been a good thirty years since I read the book. But not remembering all of the details of the prior book, did not hamper my enjoyment of  The Matarese Countdown, The plot of The Matarese Countdown revolves around the re-establishment of The Matarese, a shadowy organization that is between on destroying the world’s economy to obtain global domination! One of the heroes of the book is Brandon Schofield, who along with his wife Antonia are called out of retirement to battle the Matarese. Scofield thought that he had destroyed The Matarese twenty years prior only to find that they are back stronger than ever! So Scofield aka Beowolf Agate teams with CIA case officer Cameron Pryce and Army Intelligence Officer Leslie Montrose in a race to destroy The Matarese before the Countdown reaches zero and the world economy crashes!!

I will say that it took me a while to finish this book. I started it several months ago and set it aside to finish several other books. I picked it up again earlier this week and yesterday I didn’t, or rather couldn’t, put it down until it was finished!! So check it out!! Obviously, since I didn’t remember much about The Matarese Circle, one book can be enjoyed without reading the other!!

Hum, let’s see there are other Ludlum books on my TBR shelves The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, and The Janson Directive and I need to read some more from my shelves to meet my TBR Pile Challenge! Could another Ludlum be in my future?

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David Morrell – The Mortalist, Frank Balenger, and   Thomas De Quincey series

So back in the 1980s (Ok think about that Edward the 1980s were 35 years ago! Ouch! When you were 14 in 1965 would you have thought about anything that happened in 1930 as anything but ancient history? Nope!) I read a lot of thrillers from the likes of Robert Ludlum, Clive Cussler, Bill Granger (November Man), Richard Hoyt and others. And right up there with the best of them were books from David Morrell. Morrell’s 1972 debut novel was First Blood was adapted into Sylvester Stallone’s movie Rambo.

My three favorite books from David Morrell were The Brotherhood of the Rose, The Fraternity of the Stone and The League of Night and Fog. The sad thing is that aside from the fact that I remember that I really liked the books, I remember little bit about them. I rarely read books a second time but thinking about how much I liked the books starts me thinking may I should read at least The Brotherhood of the Rose again! I do remember that The Brotherhood of the Rose was made into TV a mini-series that I thought starred Richard Chamberlain. In looking it up on IMDb I see that it started Peter Strauss, Robert Mitchum and Connie Sellecca. Richard Chamberlain starred as Jason Bourne in a TV Mini-series based on Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity. I never watched either of the series!

About The Brotherhood of the Rose from Goodreads:

They were orphans, Chris and Saul–raised in a Philadelphia school for boys, bonded by friendship, and devoted to a mysterious man called Eliot. He visited them and brought them candy. He treated them like sons. He trained them to be assassins. Now he is trying desperately to have them killed.

Spanning the globe and full of heart-stopping action, The Brotherhood of the Rose is an astonishing novel of fierce loyalty and violent betrayal, of murders planned and coolly executed, of revenge bitterly, urgently desired. More

Through the years I’ve read several more books by David Morrell and I enjoyed them all but none have even been as good as the three books from above. That is until 2013’s Murder as a Fine Art set in 1850s London Morrell wrote a terrific book using The Opium Eater Thomas De Quincey and his daughter Emily as the lead characters! Read More Here.  The conclusion of that book left me and many other readers clamoring for more! In March Morrell released The Inspector of the Dead making me and others very happy campers!  In this installment De Quincey and Emily are still in London and end up in the midst of a killing spree targeting the aristocrats of London. Cards left by the murderers reference members of Young England that have attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria. Could the queen be the ultimate target?  I just picked up the book on Friday, couldn’t put it down and have already finished it!! The review of the book will be forthcoming. In the meantime here is a list of the other books that I have read from the pen of David Morrell……Check him out!!

* Goodreads – rating is out of 5

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Table of Contents

Safari (Book #19) is the first Stanley Hastings mystery set outside the United States. Most of the series takes place in New York City, where Stanley works as a private investigator for negligence attorney Richard Rosenberg, much to the annoyance of NYPD Sergeant MacAullif.

The only other book set away from New York was appropriately titled Cozy, in which Stanley and Alice vacation at a bed and breakfast in New England.

The Story

In Safari, Stanley and his wife Alice are finally on the trip she’s dreamed about forever — a safari in Zambia. Stanley, of course, is less enthusiastic. They book with Clemson Safaris, a budget outfit led by the gung-ho great white hunter Clemson. The tour offers up-close encounters with elephants, lions, hyenas, and other wild animals. But soon, a spotter working for Clemson is found dead — supposedly from a falling fruit from the sausage tree. Then a tourist dies in her sleep. Both deaths are soon determined to be murder, and Stanley is called upon to solve the case… though as usual, he doesn’t have a clue!

What Makes It Work

Parnell Hall’s strength has always been dialogue — witty, funny, and full of wordplay. Marilyn Stasio of the New York Times Book Review noted:

“The Stanley Hastings mysteries depend on subversively sly wordplay. In the violent verbal world he inhabits, Stanley would be happy just to win an argument.”

The San Diego Union wrote:

“A light-hearted romp, drolly told, and made pleasant by its deprecating, much put-upon and wholly charming hero.”

And when reviewing Stakeout, Booklist observed:

“Stanley, who seems to have more in common with Barney Fife than Sam Spade, is actually a pretty fair detective, and, more important, his narration is witty, self-deprecating, and observant. The plot is logical in a convoluted sort of way, and the resolution is satisfying. Stakeout continues the Hastings tradition of murder with a wink and a smile.”

Bottom Line

Safari was a three-star book for me. I enjoyed it, but I don’t think it was one of Hall’s very best. Still, it’s a cozy, light, quick, fun mystery — and fans of Janet Evanovich and other humorous authors will definitely enjoy it

Links

Author’s Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

About Parnell Hall

If you like a little humor in your books….

You might enjoy these authors:

Whether you’re solving crosswords with Cora or running from the mob with Stephanie Plum, these authors prove that a good mystery is always better with a side of laughter.

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The Things They Carried  – Tim O’Brien (Book 8 of 2015)

For those of us who like me, were lucky enough to have a high draft number, (mine was 306), and escaped the war in Vietnam, Tim O’Brien has shown us slices  of  life in it,  in his novel The Things They Carried. And it’s everything that we thought it was, everything that we protested to end.

About The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried is a collection of short stories, several of which were published prior to being incorporated into the book, that paints a vivid picture of the Vietnam experience, which for the most part it wasn’t pretty. The book follows the exploits of the men that Tim O’Brien served with the one’s who died like: Curt Lemon, Ted Lavender, and Kiowa and those who made it through, alive, but changed forever like: Lt Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, and the narrator who has been writing about the war, since it ended, hoping some how that the stories will save him.

While all of the stories were amazing little slices of life in Vietnam, the one that got me was Chapter Four “On the Rainy River” where Tim is confronted with the being drafted to fight in a war that he really didn’t support and contemplates going to Canada. As I mentioned previously, I was lucky enough not to have to face that dilemma, but through the years, I have wonder what I would have done. In my mind, I always go to Canada, but in reality I don’t think that would have happened. I really don’t know how I could have handle even a tenth a hundredth of what Tim describes in The Things They Carried. At best maybe I could have been a Radar O’Reilly, I know wrong war, but you get the picture. My heart goes out to all those who lost their lives either in Vietnam or after they returned.

After I finished the book I thought, you know, the book really had no plot, no hook that catches you and keeps you reading. But then I leafed through the book, and realized that you can reread any story and get something from it, and that is wonderful. Each story provides a slice of life in Vietnam, some sad, while others just fascinating.

I read through the quotes about the book and this one from the Richmond Times Dispatch comes the closest to how I feel about the book….

“The Things They Carried is more than “another” book about Vietnam….It is a master stroke of form and imagery…. The Things They Carried is about life, about men who fought and die, about buddies, and about a lost innocence that might be recaptured through the memory of stories. O’Brien tells us these stories because he must. He tells them a they have never been told before…. If Cacciato was the book about Vietnam, then this is the book about surviving it”

Bottom Line

: The Things They Carried is an A++ book. I guess that is why the book won the prestigious French Prix du Meilleur Livre Erranger award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award! huh! Everyone who wants to know more about the Vietnam War or life in general should read it!!

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I started to keep track of the books that I read  in 1988. I kept record of themin   A Book Lover’s Journal  and wrote short blurbs about the books. Here is a list of the 54 books that I read in 1990. That’s the most books read of any year, since I’ve   kept records! Reviewing the list, I see that it was the year I discovered William G Tapply’s Brady Coyne. After reading  Dead Winter, the eighth book in the series, which was released in 1989, I quickly went back and read the prior seven books! Tapply wrote 20 more Brady Coyne novels of which I’ve read 16.  Books #21 Shadow of Death and #25 One-Way Ticket are on my to be read bookshelves! Maybe it’s time to rediscover this great series! In 1990 the second most read  series was the Mongo Mystery series from George C Chesbro. I read four books from this series. From Goodreads….

Dr. Robert Frederickson, or “Mongo” to his friends. He’s a former circus tumbler, black belt in karate, doctor of Criminology, and professor at a New York City university. And he’s quite an unusual fellow as well, not only because he’s a private investigator but also because he’s a dwarf…

The stories and the characters in this are terrific! Chesbro wrote 13 Mongo books of which I’ve read 12.  The first seven books are probably my favorites. Here’s a link to a great synopsis of the work of George C Chesbro. Check it out and Chesbro’s work at Dangerousdwarf.com you won’t be disappointed!! Of course 1990’s reads also included some books by  other favorites like James Lee Burke, Loren Estleman, Bill Pronzini, Tony Hillerman  and Stuart Kaminsky. Here’s the complete list!

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