Booked (and Printed): June 2024

My reading numbers were better in June than in May; although my eyes whined all month like a 13-year-old after being asked to set the dinner table. I read six books—two story anthologies and four novels—and two individual short stories. My reading was squarely within the mystery genre and what I read ranged from good to WOW—which is (WOW, I mean) the highest rating on my atomic book meter. First up—and this one hit the WOW scale with an unheard of WOW+1—was Stark House’s impressive but simply titled 25th Anniversary anthology, The Stark House Anthology, edited by Rick Ollerman & Gregory Shepard (2024). Its 30 stories, all written by authors previously published by Stark House, popped and sizzled. A previously unpublished short novel, So Curse the Day, by Jada M. Davis, is worth the price of admission all by itself. The anthology is big, entertaining, and fun as f— Well, you know… I reviewed it here. The other anthology, Three Strikes—You’re Dead!, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley (2024), is a sports-themed extravaganza of good clean mystery reading. I liked it a lot and you can read my full review here. As for the two shorts—“Bertie’s Mom,” by Jeremiah Healy, and “Phone Call,” by Berton Roueche—both were good. I especially enjoyed the Healy tale, which featured his Boston private eye, John Frances Cuddy. It was clever with a shimmering sense of humor. I read both stories in the September 1989 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine—which has a cringe-inducing photograph of Hulk Hogan on the cover (not shown because…well, just because.)

Okay, now for the novels I booked in June. I liked ’em all! My favorite, and it was a photo finish because Steve Hamilton’s The Second Life of Nick Mason (2016) gave it a run, was David Housewright’s seventh Rushmore McKenzie mystery, Highway 61 (2011). When McKenzie’s girlfriend’s daughter, Erica, asks him to help her father out of a jam he reluctantly agrees. Reluctantly because McKenzie doesn’t like Erica’s dad and as it turns out his instincts are spot-on because he finds himself embroiled in a blackmailing scheme with its roots in prostitution and murder. The slam-bang climax is stunning and leaves the reader wondering which side of the line—good guy or bad—McKenzie is standing. I should write a detailed review of Highway 61, but it’s unlikely since I’ve written too many reviews of the McKenzie novels in recent months and I would hate for my readers (all three of you) to get bored. So... What is more likely is that a review of The Second Life of Nick Mason will appear in the next few weeks because it is a smoking good read. A crime thriller more than a mystery, it chronicles Nick Mason’s unexpected release from a 25-year federal beef for murder. But Nick’s newfound freedom comes with strings, the type that anyone with a conscience would balk at, and more than a few hard choices. The Chicago setting is marvelous and Hamilton’s rich writing gives Nick’s inner-world a vibrant poignancy. The only new book I read was David Bell’s craftsman-like psychological thriller, Storm Warning (2024). Set during a hurricane in an almost abandoned and falling-apart high-rise apartment building on a barrier island not far from Miami, there is more to fear than the weather because a killer is lose. The handful of remaining residents hole up together, but one-by-one they disappear. Bell does an excellent job of concealing the killer, as well as their motive, and building an uneasy tension. Storm Warning isn’t as good as some Bell’s previous outings—Cemetery Girl (2013) and Layover (2019) come to mind—but it is still an excellent summer read. As for that fourth novel, Nightmare at Dawn, by Judson Philips (1971), which is the seventh Peter Sayles outing, was surprising for a couple reasons. First, its cover made it look like a straight action book, but it turned out to be a well-plotted suspense novel with a light mystery. Second, Judson Philips is the real-life name of Hugh Pentecost, the guy who wrote dozens of smart traditional mysteries in second half of the 20th Century. But maybe the biggest surprise? I liked it enough to officially begin hunting for more Judson Philips stories generally and Peter Sayles books in particular.     Fin— Now on to next month…