New Ed Gorman Novel: SLEEPING DOGS

I’m back, sort of—my posts will very likely be limited, and don’t be surprised to see a few reruns. But today’s post is new and about something pretty exciting. I recently had the honor of conducting an interview with one of my favorite writers: Ed Gorman. (You’ll be able to read the interview over at Saddlebums in the next few weeks.) And while I was doing a little research I bumped into the artwork for an upcoming novel of his titled Sleeping Dogs.

Information is a little difficult to find on this one, but I have it on good authority that it is a “political whodunit.” It’s nice to see Ed back in the mystery novel game—the last few years most of his work has been squarely in the western genre.

Speaking of Ed Gorman mysteries, his latest Sam McCain novel, Fools Rush In, is currently out in hardcover from Pegasus. (I received my copy a few days ago, and hope to get to it very soon.) It has been receiving some praise not only on the Web, but also in print: Jon L. Breen wrote a nice review in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and Bookgasm loved it.

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press Minotaur
Release date: April 2008
Price: $23.95

Hiatus

You have probably noticed--at least I hope you have noticed--that it has been deathly quiet around here this week. I have more things to do than time to do them, and unfortunately Gravetapping is at the bottom of my "to-do" list. So, I'm going to bug-out for a few weeks--two is the plan--and be back spry, chipper, and hopefully more interesting than the blank screen of your computer. Meet me back here around the end of the month.

Until then, you can still catch a glimpse of a review or two at SFReader.com, or Saddlebums--I just posted a review for James Reasoner's (published under the name Mike Jameson) Tales from Deadwood.

Masters of Horror: Incident On and Off a Mountain Road

This is a repeat post. It originally went live December 18, 2006.

This is another busy week for me, but I plan to get at least three posts up, and I'm hoping at least one of them will be an original review. To give you a taste of what might (I stress might) be in the works here at Gravetapping over the next few weeks, I just finished Steve Hockensmith's terrific novel Holmes on the Range, and last night I started Andrew Neiderman's latest horror novel Unholy Birth.

I recently discovered—or more aptly put, remembered—the Showtime series Masters of Horror. I know nothing about the actual series, other than it was created and is produced by Mick Garris, and airs on Showtime; I'm one of the remaining three or four dozen people without a cable or satellite connection in my home. (It's expensive, and hell, it leaves me more time to read.)

I have, however, been watching the individual episodes as they are released on DVD, and while the series is a little uneven, a few of the episodes have been terrific. One such episode is, Incident On and Off a Mountain Road. Incident is based on a short story written by Joe R. Landsdale and directed by Don Coscarelli, who also directed the wonderful Bubba Ho-Tep starring Bruce Campbell, which also just happens to be based on a Joe Landsdale story.

Incident is a tour-de-force horror film. It is part slasher, part psychological thriller, and completely and outlandishly entertaining. The cinematography is beautiful, the acting is better than competent, and the direction is great. Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is very nearly the perfect horror film--its length, at just under an hour, is ideal for the story, and the story is told with a sharpness and style that slasher films rarely exhibit.

While I have never read the Landsdale short story on which Incident was based, I can only bet the film served its interpretation well, and I hope, oh how I hope, to see Coscarelli and Landsdale team-up again. Rumor has it, they are in the process of putting together a sequel to Bubba Ho-Tep.

While the DVD-version of Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is a little overpriced at $16.98, you should make an effort to find it in a library or at your local video store. It's well worth the rental fee. At least, I think it is.

"Scream Queen" by Ed Gorman

Jason, Spence, and Bill are in their early-twenties working dead-end jobs—they work at a locally owned video store, and after closing each night they fall back to Bill’s apartment with cheap beer and campy DVDs. They share the dream of escaping their boring Midwest lives to the excitement and glamour of Hollywood. The three know that if they could ever get the courage, they could make it big as directors.

Everything changes for the boys when one evening a woman who looks strikingly like the Hollywood actress Michele Danforth—the scream queen a few years back who disappeared from Hollywood without a whisper—walks into their video store. The boys quickly formulate a plan to discover if the woman is Michele Danforth, and it doesn’t take them long to go too far, and their actions reveal a seamy and dark underside that will betray not only their friendship, but very nearly their lives.

“Scream Queen” is a nifty little thriller of a short story—it is less mystery, and more dark suspense, but no matter where it is categorized, it is both entertaining and thought provoking. It is entertaining in that it kept me guessing until the very end, the characters felt real, and the atmosphere was perfect—it was dark and heavy without being morose and depressing. It also tackled a few deeply felt human emotions like sex, friendship, betrayal, and even perception. But mostly, it was a lot of fun, and very much worth the price of admission.

“Scream Queen” is in the current issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (September / October 2007), and it can also be found in the anthology Midnight Premiere, published by Cemetery Dance and edited by Tom Piccirilli.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- Main Theme

I don't know if I should admit this, but I'm big a fan of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series; the first three seasons were terrific. The characters were well drawn, fun, and very likable. The plotlines ran from the usual--classical horror and science fiction fare--to something more original, and then there is Buffy. Who could ask for a better protagonist? She was tough, vulnerable, and super cool.

Here is the opening credit sequence from the second season.

Hubble Space Images: Nebulas

I recieved an email recently from a regular reader, or so I presume, who asked me why I don't follow a more usual pattern of reviews, book-talk, etc. My answer: I post what I enjoy, and while I do enjoy the world of fiction--both novels and film--I also enjoy a few other things. And looking at photographs of space objects is one of my favorite things; actually now that I think about it, looking at photographs of darn near anything is one of my favorite things.

So here are a few photographs I found on the Hubble Space Telescope website. This time I chose four of my favorites from their Nebulae section.

This first photograph is titled: Stellar "Eggs" Emerge from Molecular Cloud: Closeup of Evaporating Globules in M16



This one is titled: Star-Birth Clouds in M16: Stellar "Eggs" Emerge from Molecular Cloud. And my only thought is wow!




This is the Reflection Nebula NGC 1999.




This is the The Bubble Nebula NGC 7635. This one reminds of a special effects for Star Trek--can't you nearly see The Enterprise making ts way through this beautiful place?

To visit the Hubble photo gallery click Here.

THE MASTER SNIPER by Stephen Hunter

I’ve been in a thriller mood recently, but most of what the current crop of thriller writers puts out doesn’t do much for me. Their writing seems flat, uninteresting, and their plots are full of holes and so unbelievable that I usually can’t get through the first fifty pages. It doesn’t help that many of them are 500 pages long or more. That’s why I recently read an older novel written by a thriller writer who has never disappointed me. The novel: The Master Sniper. The writer: Stephen Hunter.

The Master Sniper is an early novel by Stephen Hunter; it was originally published in 1980. It is a thriller of the Second World War—a sub-genre I love—and it reminded me just a little of Jack Higgins’ bestselling The Eagle Has Landed.

Captain Leets is an officer with the Office of Strategic Services, a paper-pusher really, who specializes in Nazi firearms. He, as everyone else, is waiting out the war. It is January 1945, and the Nazis are against the ropes. They still have enough muscle to do some damage, but the end of the war is in sight, and no one wants to take too many chances, and Captain Leets is no different.

That all changes when a strange report crosses his desk: a small shipment of Stermgewehr-44s—an assault rifle that was produced and requisitioned in the thousands—was sent from the factory to a place called Anlage Elf. Leets isn’t sure why, but something bothers him about this shipment of rifles. It’s not just the number of rifles being shipped, but no one has heard of the requesting agency, and why would the Germans risk shipping such a small amount of rifles across the country when the war is lost?

This sets up a mystery that Captain Leets will struggle to solve throughout the rest of the novel. He will go against his superiors, participate in a parachute raid of an enemy camp, discover things about himself that he doesn't like, alienate friends, and slowly, ever so slowly discover what the Germans are up to.

The Master Sniper is a rewarding read. The prose is quick and spry, while the plot is rich enough to keep you guessing until shortly before the end. Mr. Hunter ratchets the tension and suspense perfectly, and the characters are enjoyable and likable—Mr. Hunter does an excellent job of creating a likable hero, while also creating a villain who doesn’t seem terribly bad until the novel begins to unwind, and then he is unmasked as a truly despicable and dangerous person.

Run, Fat Boy, Run -- Trailer

This past weekend I saw the trailer for Run, Fat Boy, Run--the latest satire starring Simon Pegg. I enjoyed his two previous films Shaun of the Dead, and the more recent Hot Fuzz. The trailer for Fat Boy made me laugh, and so here it is...in a minute anyway.

Run, Fatboy, Run stars Simon Pegg, and Hank Azaria. It is directed by former Friends co-star David Schwimmer. It is scheduled for release October 26, 2007. The Yahoo!Movies descriptions reads:

A charming but oblivious overweight guy leaves his fiancee on their wedding day only to discover years later that he really loves her. To win her back, he must finish a marathon while making her realize that her new handsome, wealthy fiance is the wrong guy for her.



To visit the IMDB site click Here.
To visit the Yahoo!Movies site click Here.

Saddlebums Update

This is a week for the books, and it's only Tuesday. What does this mean? I'm busy. Super busy. I have a few classes that are starting out rocky, and I'm also in charge of the content on Saddlebums this week.

I posted a review for Ed Gorman's latest Cavalry Man novel: Doom Weapon, and tomorrow I'll post an interview I did with Robert J. Randisi--he wrote the Joe Keough novels, The Ghost With White Eyes, and one of my favorite horror novels Curtains of Blood. He is a true gentleman, and for this interview he went out of his way to be generous with his answers. He goes into great detail about his long-running series The Gunsmith, and touches on several interesting points about writing, reading, and the western genre in general. It will up tomorrow, and you won't want to miss it.

To read my review of Doom Weapon click Here.

Zingers 3: More First Lines with Grab

I love the first few lines of novels. When they are done well they set the tone, theme, and just about everything else that makes a story a story. They all also act as a hook—they need grab, or the reader will put them back on the bookstore shelf and move down the line until they find a book with an opening that appeals to them, and bam. If it has grab they’ll be at the cash register before the clerk can ask them if they need help.

As usual I have three opening lines, or paragraphs as the case may be, that were especially appealing when I picked these books up. They are from three divergent genres—the first is a mystery and traditional western rolled into one, the second is a techno-thriller, while the third is an adventure / spy novel.

There are two things you can’t escape out here in the West: dust and death. They sort of swirl together in the wind, and a fellow never knows when a fresh gust is going to blow one or the other right in his face. So while I’m yet a young man, I’ve already laid eyes on every manner of demise you could put a name to. I’ve seen folks drowned, shot, stabbed, starved, frozen, poisoned, hung, crushed, gored by steers, dragged by horses, bitten by snakes, and carried off by an assortment of illnesses with which I could fill the rest of this book and another besides.

So it’s quite a compliment I bestow when I say that the remains we came across the day after the big storm were the most frightful I’d ever seen.

This is the opening paragraph and some from Steve Hockensmith’s humorous hybrid mystery / western Holmes on the Range. The opening line sets up the entire story so well that it only takes a few seconds to realize there is something special and different about this novel. And the rest of the novel certainly doesn’t let you down.

Most of the time they didn’t f*ck around with the executions. A bullet in the back of the head or a blade drawn across the throat and the body left pretty much where it fell. But when Rashid was there it was different. Rashid liked to play.

This is one of the coolest openings I have read recently. It creates a situation of change seemingly effortlessly—we don’t know whose perspective it is coming from, but we do know that he is in a bad situation that just got much, much worse. This one is from Overkill by James Barrington.

There were times when Jean Mercier wondered what life was all about and this was definitely one of them. Somewhere beyond the boat in the darkness was a shoreline that he could only guess, and the lack of navigation lights wasn’t helping.

This is the opener for Jack Higgins’ A Fine Night for Dying, and like everything written by Higgins—at least his early work—the opening is smashing. Why the hell are the navigation lights not on? And why didn’t Mr. Mercier start thinking before he decided to take a midnight cruise?

ACT OF PASSION by Harrison Arnston

When I was a teenager my parents belonged to a bulletin board service called Prodigy. It was around 1990—I was in High School, but the exact year escapes me. The Prodigy service was cool. It had a large array of discussion boards that—for the most part—got some pretty neat participation. The arts and literature board was active and it attracted quite a few writers including Douglas Clegg, David Bischoff, Marc Iverson, C.A. Mobley, S.K. Wolf, Harry Arnston, and so many others that it would be impossible for me to remember them all, let alone list them.

Harry Arnston had his own discussion group called Harry’s Bar and Grill, and it was a gathering place for readers, writers, and anyone else who wanted to discuss genre fiction—both what to read, and how to write it. I was in awe of Harry. He wrote nine, by my count, novels; they were all paperback originals and very much in the mystery genre. Two were courtroom dramas; one was a thriller with its seeds in World War Two, while still another was more like a private eye novel. His work was interesting, and he was a consummate gentleman. I emailed him several times, and he always responded with an obvious kindness that I still admire.

Unfortunately Harry died in the mid-1990s—the last email I sent him, somewhere between 1993 and 1994—asked him when his next novel was due out. His response (certainly not verbatim): I have two novels completed and sold to St. Martin’s Press, but I don’t know when they will be released because they keep firing my editors. I never saw those two novels, and I have always wondered what happened to them—did they ever hit print, or did they die with Harry?

I haven’t read all of Harry’s work, but over the few years I frequented Prodigy I read everything he put out, and I really quite liked it. Which brings me to my belated point: A few months ago I came across one of Harry’s novels in a thrift shop. It was in surprisingly good condition, and even better, it was one I hadn’t yet read. The title: Act of Passion.

Act of Passion is a straightforward courtroom drama. Ann Cohen is the mistreated wife of real estate developer Marty Cohen. Their marriage is a sham—Marty is a little man who loves to bed other women, and his taste trends toward the kinky. The novel opens with Ann drinking herself the courage to confront Marty—earlier in the evening Ann and a friend had seen Marty in a perverted sex act with his mistress, and Ann has had enough. She is finally going to file for a divorce, but before Marty makes it home the police knock on her door.

They ask her several disturbing questions: Where were you this evening? Do you own a gun? She doesn’t understand what they are doing until they arrest her for the murder of her husband. This is where Act of Passion begins, but it is a long way from its end. Ann enlists the help of one of the most highly sought criminal attorneys in the country. He made his name representing a local mobster, and he readily agrees to represent Ann.

Act of Passion was a fun novel to read. It was published in 1991 when the courtroom drama was all the rage, and it has all the elements of the genre: courtroom scenes, investigators, lawyers, judges, and even gangsters who know more than they want to tell. The characters are well conceived—they are not fully developed, but they fit the story perfectly and they, specifically Ann, are rendered to be likable and believable. The plot is also very much the expected, but Mr. Arnston adds enough twists and turns to keep it fresh and exciting.

I enjoyed Act of Passion a whole lot, and while it does have few a creaky moments—the favor of a mobster, the incredulous naiveté of Ann—it holds its own as not only a blast from the past, but it also still has a voice and power sixteen years after its original publication.

If any of you have any information about Harry’s work, especially those two novels he sold to St. Martin’s, please clue me in. I enjoyed his work when he was writing it, and Act of Passion reminded me I need to keep looking for his novels, and there are several of them I haven’t read.

Nowhere Man -- Main Theme

It's the first day of my last semester, and to cheer me up--I also just looked at the syllabus for my Corporate Income Tax class and so I really need cheering up--I took a cruise through YouTube, and of course found something pretty darn cool.

In the mid-1990s the fledgling network UPN green lighted a series called Nowhere Man. It starred Bruce Greenwood, and it was one of the coolest shows on television. I watched every episode when they originally aired, and then waited patiently (I only threw two or three tantrums) for its release on DVD. Unfortunately it only made it one season, and the conspiracy theory I started about the lost season two being released is nothing more than a vicious hoax.

This clip includes the introduction as well as the end credits. Enjoy.

Saddlebums Goes Live

I have some exciting news—I know, I’m a nerd, but it really is exciting. I’m part of a new blog called Saddlebums that is dedicated to the western genre in all its forms: traditional, contemporary, films, novels, or anything else western. In a phrase, if it’s western, we’re interested in talking about it at Saddlebums.

Why do I announce this right now? Well, today is the grand opening, and we have something pretty darn cool waiting for you. Somehow, someway, Gonzalo—my overworked and under-appreciated partner at Saddlebums procured an interview with the legendary author of several of the better westerns written in the 1970s.

The author: Brian Garfield, and he has some interesting things to say about his experiences with Hollywood—he is the author of Death Wish, and Death Sentence, which has been made into a film starring Kevin Bacon and will be released at the end of August. He also shares his insights into the world of his fiction, the western genre and a slew of other things. This is an interview that should be of interest to everyone.

We also have several more interviews in the can: Ed Gorman, Robert J. Randisi, James Reasoner, Johnny D. Boggs and several more that are just as exciting. We have a few reviews written and ready to go live. To give you a taste I reviewed Ed Gorman’s latest Cavalry Man novel and loved it. Surprised? You shouldn’t be because Ed Gorman is one of the most reliable writers working today.

Our goal is to update the site at least once a week, but we really would like to post several new pieces each week—this is where everyone who loves, or even just likes, the western comes in. We don’t want to hog the discussion, but rather facilitate it. If you have something you want to say, Saddlebums welcomes your comment. Whether you simply want to comment on an article, interview, or if you have more on your mind, we are more than happy to accept thoughtful guest bloggers.

Go over and take a look and let us know what you think. The address is: www.saddlebums.blogspot.com Or you can click Here.

An Interview with Alan Weisman

I stumbled across something pretty cool a few weeks ago—an interview with author Alan Weisman about his new book The World Without Us. The interview was in the July 2007 issue of Scientific American, and Weisman pontificates about what would happen tomorrow if humanity disappeared today.

The idea is fascinating to me, and while I haven’t read the book I plan to—I have a hold on it at my local library. The interview begins with Weisman explaining what would happen to Manhattan’s skyline:

I discovered that our huge, imposing, overwhelming infrastructures that seem so monumental and indestructible are actually these fairly fragile concepts that continue to function and exist thanks to a few human beings on whom all of us really depend.

Mr. Weisman goes on to explain how the natural waterways—there are something like 40 streams and numerous springs on Manhattan—would reclaim their former routes and slowly undermine Manhattan’s infrastructure. The tunnels would be the first to collapse, and then slowly the buildings would begin to topple from corrosion caused by the unchecked flow of water.

The interview also discusses how the eco-system would change with humanity gone, and it also briefly touches on why Alan Weisman wrote it. It is an environmental book about how we can become part of the environment rather than attempt to control it. The interview is fascinating. It reminded me a little of George R. Stewart’s Earth Abides, and damn if it didn’t make me want to find another last man story to read; and soon.

To read the interview in click Here.

There are also numerous interviews, articles, and reviews online. If you Google “Alan Weisman” you will get more hits than you can possibly deal with, but many of them are great fun.

Painted Lady

I generally don’t review much film, but every so often I see something that feels a little special, and obscure—most movies and television get so much publicity that I don’t know how, or what, to add to the conversation. This past weekend I watched an older—it was originally aired in April and May of 1998—Masterpiece Theatre mini-series titled Painted Lady. It stars Helen Mirren—who captured my imagination in her role as DCI Jane Tennison in the Prime Suspect series—and Iain Glen. It was written by Allan Cubitt, and directed by Julian Jarrold.

Helen Mirren plays aging blues singer Maggie Sheridan—Sheridan was one of the most popular blues singers in the 1960s, but she has faded away with a long trail of drug abuse, hard living, and depression. Maggie is penniless and living off the goodwill of Sir Charles Stafford. Sir Charles and his son Sabastian took Maggie in after a failed suicide attempt, and she now lives in the guesthouse on the Stafford estate. She is relatively happy, and even recording again when one night a robbery in the main house goes wrong. The robbers want the artwork hanging on the walls, but Sir Charles interrupts them, and they gun him down.

It doesn’t take long for Maggie to realize that nothing adds up in Sir Charles’ murder, and she doesn’t trust the police with her suspicions. Maggie's suspicions lead her the long process of uncovering what really happened that night. In the course of her investigation she goes undercover as an art dealer, faces brutal criminals, finds heart-breaking betrayal, and finally discovers the truth she is seeking, and it is much more than she had ever anticipated.

Painted Lady has the feel of a novel. Its running time is more than three hours, and the plot moves along swiftly while each character—specifically Maggie and Sabastian—are developed into full and likable people. The mystery has the feel of something you would read in a Dick Francis novel. We get a view into the art world—something I know very little about—as well as the world of professional musicians. The mystery is also strong: the early whodunit of Sir Charles Stafford unravels to reveal much darker and more sinister plots. It kept me guessing until the end, and when it was done I actually wished there was another episode.

I don’t know how much the DVD of Painted Lady costs—I checked it out from my local library—but I do know it is, at a minimum, worth the rental fee, or better yet looking for in your local library. I enjoyed it very much, and it reminded me just how good some of the mysteries on PBS are.

Death Sentence -- Trailer

Sorta good news. I just found the trailer for the new film Death Sentence—scheduled for release August 31. It stars Kevin Bacon, Kelly Preston, and John Goodman. The director: James Wan, who also directed Saw (a film I didn't enjoy). It is based on Brian Garfield’s novel of the same title, and it looks decent—heck nearly every action-type movie looks good to me.

The Yahoo!Movies page description reads:

Nick Hume is a mild-mannered executive with a perfect life, until one gruesome night he witnesses something that changes him forever. Transformed by grief, Hume eventually comes to the disturbing conclusion that no length is too great when protecting his family.



I read the novel about two years ago, and loved it. The film doesn’t look much like the novel, but who knows, it might be great.

Ed Gorman posted a letter from Brian Garfield on his blog a few days ago, and Garfield was pretty positive about the film: It's based, in theme if not particulars, on my novel of same title. I wrote a couple of the scripts; the shooting script is written by Ian Jeffers. I think he did a good job.

Unfortunately he hasn’t actually seen the finished product.

Click Here to read the entire letter on Ed’s blog.

Mystery Scene's Top 100 Private Eyes

I was at the library yesterday—a different branch than usual—and like I do every time I have occasion to go to this particular branch I thumbed through the most recent issue of Mystery Scene magazine. It's the 100th issue, and there were several celebratory types articles: a short essay by Ed Gorman on where the magazine came from, Lawrence Block’s five favorite novels, and my favorite, the Top 100 Eyes of the of the Mystery Scene Era by Kevin Burton Smith.

The only rule Mr. Smith followed was the private eye had to appear during the period Mystery Scene has been in publication—1985 to the present. They are listed in alphabetical order, and it is an impressive list indeed. A few of my favorites included are: Sam McCain, Veronica Mars, Burke, Adrian Monk, and Dave Robicheaux.

A couple I would add, and don't laugh because you will hurt my feelings, are: Joe Copp by Don Pendleton and Murdock by Robert J. Ray. The Joe Copp series was cheesy, but damn I loved those books as a teenager, and I have the same fond memories of the Murdock books. They were good old fashioned southern California fun.

It is a list well worth taking a look at, and luckily Mystery Scene has the article posted online as a PDF—to check it out click Here.

Click Here to go to the Mystery Scene website.

New Rat Pack Mystery by Robert Randisi

While I was doing some research for an interview a few weeks ago I ran across the cover art for Robert J. Randisi's second novel in his very entertaining Rat Pack series. The title: Luck Be a Lady, Don't Die. It's scheduled for release December 2007.

The first Rat Pack mystery, Everybody Kills Somebody Sometime, is a terrifically entertaining and very well written mystery that gives life to the Las Vegas of the 1960s--it follows the Rat Pack, as they begin shooting the film Ocean's Eleven, through the eyes of Eddie Gianelli. Gianelli is a pit boss at the Sands, and when Frank Sinatra asks him for a favor, Eddie can't turn him down even if he wanted to, and that's exactly what he would do if he could.

It doesn't take long for the bodies to start piling up, and Giannelli is in for much more than he signed on. This is one of Randisi's better novels in the past few years, and I enjoyed it a whole lot. Needless to say I can't wait until Luck Be a lady, Don't Die is released. It doesn't hurt that the cover art is pretty cool in its own right.

Hubble Space Images: Galaxies

I'm a geek. I love to surf through the NASA website and look at all the cool images they have posted. They have photographs of astronauts, space vehicles, stars, and even our own planet. It is just about the coolest place I can think of going on the Internet, and I wanted to share a few images of our neighboring galaxies as taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

I'm about as far from an astronomer as a human can be, and still be alive, but these are absolutely beautiful and I certainly don't need a description of what they are, or where they are to enjoy them. I hope you feel the same way.

This is the ESO 510-G13 Galaxy. It is described by the Hubble website as a "warped" galaxy taken at an "edge-on" angel.




This one has an outrageously cool name: Hoag's Object Galaxy. It is described as: ring of hot blue stars pinwheel around [the] yellow nucleus.

This is the NGC 5866 Galaxy.

This one is NGC 1512 in near-ultraviolet light.

To visit the official Hubble website click Here.

IN THE DARK by Richard Laymon

Richard Laymon is one of my favorite horror writers, and of the novels he wrote, two stand out as my favorites. The first is his Bram Stoker winning novel The Traveling Vampire Show and the second is his novel In The Dark. I recently reread In the Dark, and it was as good as I remembered. And my memory had built it pretty high, because it is the first straight horror novel I had read since I was a teenager. Sure I read the stray Stephen King and Dean Koontz, but I hadn’t ever really been much of a regular horror reader.

Then one autumn evening I stumbled across In the Dark at my local bookstore. It was the Dean Koontz blurb on the spine that caught my attention, but when I flipped to the first page and began to read I was hooked. In fact I spent the better part of the next year or so “catching up” on the horror field. I read Jack Ketchum, Graham Masterton, Edward Lee, Douglas Clegg, Tom Piccirilli, Al Sarrantonio, and so many others I couldn’t possibly list them here—at least not list them and keep you reading.

Jane Kerry is the head librarian at the Donnerville Public Library. She is young, not too far out of college, and she only recently moved to Donnerville, so she hasn’t made many friends around town. Her existence is lonely, a little sad, and not very exciting. That all changes one evening just before closing time when she discovers a plain white envelope on her chair; it is addressed to JANE. Inside she finds a fifty-dollar bill and a note. The note reads:

Come and play with me. For further instructions, look homeward, angel. You’ll be glad you did.

The note is signed MOG (Master of Games), and it is the first of many notes that will lead Jane into increasingly dangerous situations with the promise of larger and larger monetary rewards. It will test not only Jane’s courage and perseverance, but also her ethics and morality.

In the Dark is a suspenseful, enjoyable, and all-around fun novel. Richard Laymon’s plotting is perfect—there are no questions left unanswered and he builds the suspense slowly, ratcheting it up until the climax, where he throws everything he can think of at the protagonist. The characters are likable—particularly Jane and her friend Brace—and he avoids, for the most part, the gratuitous sex and violence he is known for. The narrative does, at times, feel juvenile: towards the beginning Jane is searching an old cemetery for her reward from Mog, and her thoughts are less like an adult woman and more like an adolescent boy, but it works to create tension, and also endear the character to the reader.

In the Dark is one of the few Richard Laymon novels I would recommend to nearly anyone. If you enjoy suspense, horror, or simply well-crafted storytelling, In the Dark will be a good fit. But be warned, if you upset easily, or can’t handle much violence, tension, or a few graphic scenes, you should look elsewhere.