Driving from Denver, CO to Lake Kiowa, TX, I listened to Brian Keene’s WITH TEETH, narrated by Time Winters, about a group of desperate West Virginians who venture into a hollow to scout an excellent place to cook meth and inadvertently stir up a nest of half-starved vampires. Keen draws his characters with depth and […]
Read More With TeethI’m a writer. I don’t review books, I recommend them.
Read More Manifesto@blacklionking tweeted the praises @Kellyekelll’s #LIKEASISTER, so I gave it a taste. Worthy AF, gentle reader, worthy AF.
Read More LIKE A SISTERYou may know Hard Case Crime. They do reprints of pulp gems and originals of the best crime writers working today. Stephen King goes over to Hard Case when he wants to step out of the Horror lane. Needless to say, if you see a book with the Hard Case logo, it’s a safe bet. […]
Read More Gun HoneyDavid Ball’s BACKWARDS & FORWARDS: A Technical Manual For Reading Plays, is one of the best books on writing and analyzing drama that I’ve ever read. It’s certainly my favorite.
Read More BACKWARDS & FORWARDSI can’t remember what prompted me to read David Weber’s 1993 novel. It was likely on a “Best Science Fiction” list somewhere. Honor Harrington just got her first captaincy, but some petty politicking has her and her ship, The Fearless, overseeing Basilisk Station, the worst assignment in the Queen’s Navy. But when Honor insists on […]
Read More On Basilisk StationIt’s difficult to describe Duane Swierczynski’s THE WHEELMAN without giving too much away–and saying as much, I’ve probably given too much away.. McKenna at MURDER BY THE BOOK recommended THE WHEELMAN, and for whatever reason, I allowed it to sit on my shelf for a decade before cracking it open. I ought to have had […]
Read More The WHEELMANGarth Ennis’s The Boys is about the eponymous motley crew of borderline psychotics working for the CIA to take down power-mad super heroes who hide behind their capes and corporate sponsorship to commit daily atrocities. Ennis writes with deadpan irony and delivers a wildly violent world loaded with sardonic humor and blood ejaculating across every […]
Read More THE BOYS V.1It seems Gregg Hurwitz takes pains not to write the same novel over and over again. He also allows his serialized characters and relationships to evolve and change. It is thus that Evan Smoak, also known as Orphan X, stands out in the modern landscape of preternaturally capable hard-boiled heroes. Much like John D. MacDonald’s […]
Read More DARK HORSEThe second best thing about discovering a new author is discovering that they’re not. Author of over twenty-seven novels, Stephen Graham Jones is one such. And I’m giddy at the thought of working my way through his catalogue of twenty-sevenish novels. Yes, giddy. After eyeing the provocative cover of THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS for months, […]
Read More MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW
p.j. taegel 