The year also marked a return to a genre I enjoyed
(loved?) as a boy—adventure.
Specifically the British writers of the 1960s and 70s featuring such
stars as Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley, and Jack Higgins. This said, I didn’t read many “new” authors,
but mostly stayed with the old reliables.
In fact, I only increased my fiction writers read by five—Craig Thomas (Wolfsbane), Alfred Coppel (The Eight Day of the Week), Shepard
Rifkin (The Murderer Vine), A.
Bertram Chandler (Star Courier), and
Billie Sue Mosiman (Wireman).
What I lacked in new writers I made up for in my long
time favorites. A full fifteen of the
novels I read, or approximately 28 percent of my total reading, was limited to
four writers. I read or reread six
titles by Jack Higgins, and three titles each by Jack M. Bickham, Ed Gorman,
and Bill Pronzini. And I really enjoyed
every one of the novels by each of my most frequently read writers of 2013.
In the old days of this blog I put together a
listing of my favorite five books read for the year, and I decided it would be
fun to do it again this year. It was
difficult to pare the list to five, and there were three or four that were cut
from the list by a less than scientific methods. With that said, my five favorite novels read
in 2013 are—
5. The Name of the Game is Death by Dan J.
Marlowe. This is the first title to
feature Marlowe’s recurring character Earl Drake, and it is a real piece of
hardboiled candy. It was originally
published by Gold Medal in 1962, and earlier this year it was released with its
sister novel The Endless Hour in a
nifty trade paperback by the never disappointing Stark House Press. Read the Gravetapping review.
4. Dark Passage by David Goodis. This is Goodis’ most well-known novel. It is dark, a little twisted, and a bunch of
fun. It was originally published in
1946, and it has been reissued a number of times. It is currently available in
an omnibus hardcover edition by The
Library of America, which includes four other Goodis titles. Interestingly, the plot is similar to the
television show “The Fugitive” and United Artists Television settled a
copyright lawsuit with Goodis’ estate.
3. The Beardless Warriors by Richard
Matheson. I was reading this title for
the first time when Richard Matheson passed earlier this year, and it is a
truly masterful piece of storytelling.
It is the story of a young man ordered to the frontlines as a
replacement soldier during the Battle of the Bulge in Europe. He is transformed from a green recruit to a
seasoned combat soldier in a matter of days, and what frightens him and the
reader alike is how easily he takes to killing.
This is a masterpiece by one of the most consequential authors of his
generation.
2. Fire in the Hole by Elmore Leonard. This is a collection of short stories written
by Mr Leonard. The title is from the story
the television series “Justified” is based, and amazingly the pilot for the
television series and the story are almost identical. I devoured this collection in little more
than one sitting, and as I read it my main thought—nobody writes like Elmore
Leonard.
1. The
Murderer Vine by Shepard Rifkin.
When I sat down to compile the best of list there was no doubt what the
number one would be. It is a perfectly
executed crime novel, and an even better piece of civil rights literature. Read the Gravetapping
review.
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