Booked (and Printed): September 2024

 

I love September. The beginning of autumn, the cooling temps, and the first rush of green leaves turning gold, copper, and crimson. A marvelous month that is second only to October in my book of favorite things. Speaking of books (which is why we’re here, right?), my September reading life ended up embarrassingly small—three books and five short stories—due, mostly, to a late month skirmish with Covid that wiped out my pleasure reading for more than a week. Quitting two novels halfway through didn’t help either, but we’ll get to those later. The month started strong with David Housewright’s tenth Rushmore McKenzie mystery, THE LAST KIND WORD (2013). I’ve said before how much I enjoy McKenzie’s adventures and The Last Kind Word is one of the best in the series so far. McKenzie reluctantly goes undercover as a professional thief in Northern Minnesota when an AK-47 that went missing during the ATF’s botched Operation Fast and Furious—a real-life ATF sting operation gone sour on the U.S.-Mexico border—shows up in an amateurish robbery in rural Minnesota.   The bungling robbers turn out to be a down-on-their-luck family. McKenzie worms his way into their circle and, while he is trying to get a line on where they purchased the AK-47, he plans a complicated heist for them. Things get sticky when McKenzie begins sympathizing with the hard luck criminals and a local gangster and a couple crooked cops arrive on the scene. The Last Kind Word has a Richard Stark vibe, great characterization, and a sizzling plot. HEMINGWAY’S NOTEBOOK, by Bill Granger (1986), is the seventh (of fourteen) November Man thrillers; it’s my favorite of the four series’ titles I’ve read, too. After faking his death years earlier, November is called back from retirement when an acquaintance from the intelligence community threatens to tell the KGB he’s still breathing—an organization that would love to change November’s status to cold and dead. So November agrees to help with a niggling little revolution on the tiny Caribbean Island of St. Michel. Of course, nothing is as it seems and November is hard-pressed to peel away the layers of deceit and stay alive at the same time. And it’s done with Granger’s usual irony and distrust of secrecy and authority. The annual short story anthology, THE BEST MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE STORIES OF THE YEAR—2024, edited by Otto Penzler and Anthony Horowitz, is something I look forward to every year. This entry is good, but below the standards I’ve come to expect since a few of the stories made me wonder why they had been selected for its august pages. The good, and even a few great tales, made me forget the mediocre stuff without incident. I’m planning a detailed review of this one later in October and so I’ll leave it at that.

While my book length reading was pathetic, the number of individual short stories I read, five all together, was pretty okay. And every one of those tales were varying shades of good. C. J. Box’s “ONE-CAR BRIDGE,” which features Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett, is about a greedy and flat-out mean landowner that may, or maybe won’t, get his just desserts. It was part of Box’s collection, Shots Fired (2015). “THE TWO-PERCENT SOLUTION,” by Jack Ritchie, is a silly and dishonest (read that as impossible for the reader to solve) puzzler featuring Harry Turnbuckle unmasking an arsonist and murderer. Ritchie hit every bad note he could, but somehow its conclusion still elicited a smile. It appeared in the June 1984 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Al Sarrantonio’s clever horror story, “LAST”—which was published in the anthology Shivers VI (2010)—is a hardboiled and stylish play on humanity’s longstanding fear of technology. And it, unlike Ritchie’s tale, hit every note with a maestro’s touch. “DOOM OF THE DARK DELTA,” by James Reasoner (2024), is good pulpy fun. When sailor and soldier Jorras Trevayle is washed ashore after a shipwreck, he finds an evil sorcerer, a battery of wicked soldiers, a naked woman running for her life, and a species of freakishly large snakes. And all of them are an obstacle to Trevayle’s survival. Reading “Doom of the Dark Delta”—which is the first novella in Reasoner’s new Snakehaven series—is like cracking the pages of an old Weird Tales. But its zesty spirit, cracker-jack plotting, and splendid adventure are all James Reasoner. Finally, Alan Orloff’s gritty and hardboiled flash story, “ONCE” (2024), is an irony-laced crime story with a surprise begin enough for a much longer tale. You can read “Once” here at Shotgun Honey. Now, for those two books mentioned earlier where the pages quit turning before the story did. Between you and me, both DNFs (did not finish) were likely caused by me and Covid more than to any deficiencies in the books themselves. Although read ahead and I’ll mention a few anyway. Sam Llewellyn’s RIPTIDE (1992). Llewellyn is a favorite suspense writer of mine and I’ve always enjoyed his novels set around the ocean and yachting. I’ve tried reading Riptide before and failed, so maybe it’s less Covid than…something else. The narrative is flabby and uneven, which is unusual for Llewellyn, and damned if I could get into it. Again. Maybe I’ll wait another ten years and read it with different results. The other was Phillip Thompson’s first Colt Harper novel, OUTSIDE THE LAW (2017). The hardboiled style, sweltering rural Mississippi backdrop, and gritty plot are right up my ally, but the narrative never spoke to me and seemed a little flat, for no reason I can point to, which makes me think my perception of Outside the Law was influenced more by a foggy head and a cough than any real problems with the story. Maybe I’ll try it again with fresher eyes. Fin— Now on to next month…

DEAD RECKONING by Sam Llewellyn

Sam Llewellyn is an author I discovered in the late 1980s as a teenager. He wrote a series of suspense novels set in the British fishing village of Pulteney. The novels all have sailing as a backdrop, and by my recollection none of them feature the same protagonist.

I recently reread Dead Reckoning, the first of the Pulteney sailing novels, published in 1987. It’s narrated by Charlie Agutter, from an old Pulteney family, making a nice living designing racing yachts. The novel opens with Charlie receiving a summons to the village’s lifeboat. A sailing yacht, Aesthete, has been caught in The Teeth—a dangerous stretch of reef just off shore. Charlie designed the stranded yacht, and it’s one of only two produced with a new light weight rudder. The dead sailor at the helm is Charlie’s brother.

It appears the rudder failed and a heavy sea dragged Aesthete into the Teeth shattering its hull. The accident hits Charlie hard. He and his younger brother were close and his business is threatened with collapse since most think his new rudder failed. Charlie’s certain the rudder was sabotaged, but the saboteur is a step ahead and Charlie can’t prove anything. The mystery is as much about motive as whodunit. Charlie isn’t sure why the rudder was tampered with; murder for its own sake—to kill his brother or the other man aboard the yacht—or an attempt to destroy him and his business by undermining the rudder design.

Dead Reckoning is a wonderful suspense-adventure mystery. It was fairly (and correctly) compared to the work of Dick Francis by critics when it was released. A slim line suspense mystery with a sport setting. In this case yacht racing, but it is as much an adventure story as mystery, and it is seemingly influenced by the Alistair MacLean style adventure thriller. It is heavy on description, setting (weather is always an adversary), action and suspense, and light on dialogue and whodunit ponderings. 

Pulteney is a perfect setting for the story.  A boom town that was once a place where fishermen made their living from the sea, but it has been bought up by wealthy professionals and industrialists who use it as a place to moor yachts and brag about to their friends in the city. The rub between the old and new residents creates its own tension as Charlie works to solve the puzzle and catch the killer. He walks a tenuous line between both old and new, and isn’t quite trusted by either.  

Everything works in Dead Reckoning, but what sets it apart from its peers is the seamless weaving of both the culture and sport of yacht racing. The plot can’t be extricated from its background, and one without the other would be useless. The setting is exotic and familiar at once. The characters are smoothly realistic in shades of both likability and familiarity.   

Dead Reckoning was published more than 30 years ago and has held up remarkably well. Sam Llewellyn is back on my list of favorite writers.

DEAD RECKONING by Sam Llewellyn

Sam Llewellyn is an author I discovered in the late 1980s as a teenager.  He wrote a series of suspense novels set in the British fishing village of Pulteney.  The novels all have sailing as a backdrop, and by my recollection none of them feature the same protagonist.

I recently reread Dead Reckoning, which is the first of the Pulteney sailing novels published in 1987.  It is narrated by Charlie Agutter.  Charlie is from an old Pulteney family, and he makes his living designing racing yachts.  The novel opens with Charlie receiving a summons to the village’s lifeboat.  A sailing yacht has been caught in The Teeth—a dangerous stretch of reef just off shore.  The stranded yacht was designed by Charlie, and is one of only two produced with a new light weight rudder, but even worse the dead sailor at its helm is his brother.

It appears the rudder failed and a heavy sea dragged Aesthete into the Teeth where its hull was cracked like an egg.  The accident hits Charlie hard.  He and his younger brother were close and his business is threatened with collapse due to the perceived failure of the new rudder.  Charlie is certain the rudder was sabotaged, but the saboteur is a step ahead and he can’t prove it.  The mystery is as much motive as whodunit.  Charlie isn’t sure why the rudder was tampered with, and if it was murder for its own sake—to kill his brother or the other man aboard the yacht—or an attempt to destroy him and his business by undermining the rudder design.

Dead Reckoning is a wonderful suspense-adventure mystery.  It was fairly (and correctly) compared to the work of Dick Francis by critics when it was released.  A slim line suspense mystery with a sport setting.  In this case yacht racing, but it is as much an adventure story as mystery, and it is seemingly influenced by the Alistair MacLean style adventure thriller.  It is heavy on description, setting (weather is always an adversary), action and suspense, and light on dialogue and whodunit ponderings.

Pulteney is a perfect setting for the story.  It is a boom town that was once a place where fishermen made their living from the sea, but it has been bought up by wealthy professionals and industrialists who use it as a place to moor yachts and brag about to their friends back in the city.  The rub between the old and new residents creates its own tension as Charlie works to solve the puzzle and catch the killer.  He walks a tenuous line between both old and new, and isn’t quite trusted by either. 

Everything works in Dead Reckoning, but what sets it apart from its peers is the seamless weaving of both the culture and sport of yacht racing.  The plot cannot be extricated from its background, and one without the other would be completely useless.  The setting is exotic and familiar at once, and the characters are smoothly realistic in shades of both likability and familiarity.   

Dead Reckoning was published more than 25 years ago, but it has held up remarkably well, and Sam Llewellyn is back on my list of favorite writers.

Navarone

I learned something interesting a few weeks ago—Alistair MacLean’s Navarone series (The Guns of Navarone and its somewhat less successful sequel Force 10 from Navarone) has been continued by British author Sam Llewellyn. Llewellyn is best known, at least at my house, as the author of eight sea adventure / mystery novels published by Pocket Books; beginning with Dead Reckoning (1987) and ending with Maelstrom (1994).

Mr Llewellyn wrote two Navarone novels in the 1990s. The titles were never published in the United States and the reviews over at Amazon are less than glowing, but damn, two new novels featuring the boys from Navarone; two novels written by a writer whom I haven’t read in a decade or more, but a writer who could spin a terrific mystery / adventure story.

The titles are: Storm Force from Navarone (1996) and Thunderbolt from Navarone (1998).

The Amazon.com description of Storm Force:

“Alistair MacLean's gritty heroes from Navarone are not dead, and definitely not forgotten. Mallory, Miller and Andrea, the surviving commandos of Force 10 from Navarone, are sent on operation Storm Force a perilous mission through the Pyrenees to disable the greatest threat to the success of the D-Day landings, the Werewolf U-boats. They have less than six days to locate the subs and destroy them, operating outside of normal channels, without any backup . . . a true mission impossible, and a worthy modern successor to the original novels.”

The description for Thunderbolt:

“Fresh from their mission against Werewolf U-Boats, Mallory, Miller and Andrea are summoned to Naval HQ and given their mission: to reconnoiter Kynthos and determine the German development of the lethal V3 rocket, and destroy any facilities. A rocket expert accompanies them but can they trust him.”

My only hesitation? I was burned more than once by those disappointing “Alistair MacLean” novels written by Alastair MacNeill (Death Train, Red Alert, Code Breaker, etc) a decade or so ago.

Although, to be fair, Alistair MacLean couldn’t write Alistair MacLean past about 1970. Wow, that sounds snarky.