Out of Order by Lynn Galli

Out of Order by Lynn Galli

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is one of those books wherein I loved the characters but . . . wasn’t as enamored with the story they inhabited. There was a story, and it was readable, just not an exciting thrilling story.

I’m not going to do a whole long wrap-up. It is a short story after all.

Lindsay St. James works for the Mayor of a town as a ‘fixit’ person, the person who tries to manage crises generated by the actions of the mayor (and, I suppose, those around her). She has a friend who is a lawyer and works in the public defender’s office (I think his name is something like Yoshi), another friend who is a traveling marketing dude (Thad; rarely seen), and then the three friends from college who Lindsay has nothing really in common with (she is the token lesbian of the group; the name to know of these three bad friends is ‘Valerie’ – niece of Thad), and who she is attempting to disengage from. Though they are kind of not noticing her disengaging. Until I wrote that part right there about her friends, I hadn’t noticed that her two ‘good’ friends are male, and her horrible and disgusting, and maybe even homophobic friends are female. Probably didn’t notice because one of the main themes of this book is watching Lindsay first become friends with someone, then lovers of that same someone. And that person is female, so she can have good female friends (just, apparently, hadn’t happened until that point in her life).

Judge J. McJudge . . . why the bloody hell is her name not in the book description? Mmphs. Okay, looked the person up. Judge Brooks. Judge is not her first name (even Judge Reinhold’s first name isn’t Judge, its Edward. Edward Ernest ‘Judge’ Reinhold) but her profession (no idea why Judge Reinhold goes by Judge). I know she has a first name because there was a point of when it was used and with whom and . . . etc. But that part wasn’t in the sample and so . . . I’m left with ‘Judge Brooks’. Brooks is 1) female, 2) progressive, 3) lesbian – on a court filled with conservative old men. Naturally that creates some tension.

More tension occurs through the story itself – as in the plot device to . . . um . . . have a story. Someone has been bribing judges, that someone apparently works in the mayor’s office. Judge Brooks is asked to help in rooting out this corruption – which, regardless of success or failure, would not exactly develop a greater love between Judge Brooks and her colleagues.

Right. So. The romance part of the story was much more exciting. Watching the two develop a relationship over a long period of time. Handle some hurdles. Grow together. Fun. And, at least once, graphically exciting.

Well, that’s that. Short story. Short review. There were other people and story threads, but, meh.

Rating: um. *juggles apples with ratings painted on them. Drops all of them. Goes back to trying to determine rating* 4.23

December 9 2016




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Something in the Wine plus bonus short story by Jae

Something in the Wine by Jae

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*I received this book from Ylva Publishing in return for a fair review.

Part One: The Novel:
This book is about a young woman who has just turned 30 (I recall clearly that a birthday occurred in this book, but am less certain if she became 30 on that day or is ’30-something’ – the problems of waiting to write a review) named Annie Priedeaux who works as an accountant. She hasn’t had much luck with life – what with parents who seem to ignore her even when she is standing in front of them, a brother who has bullied her throughout her life (though the brother calls the bullying ‘harmless pranks’), a boss who takes advantage of her (no, not sexually – but in knowing that Annie cannot say no, so dumps lots of work on her, calls her at all hours, and wants her to come in on the weekends), and quite unlucky at love (she has no self-esteem, always thinks negatively of herself, and assumes everyone finds or will find her boring).

Well, the book opens with the brother playing yet another prank on his sister. She is working late at the office when the brother rings her – needs her immediately, emergency situation. She rushes over and finds that he tricked her – he just wanted her to attend his party. Being the kind of woman she is – she doesn’t immediately leave, but instead starts . . . cleaning. Which lead to the other main character in the book – Drew.

Drew, you see, happened to spot Annie about to spill some drinks she had picked up and rushed over to help. Only to have one of the drinks spill on her. And so the two meet – though no names are exchanged.

There’s a reason I mention their first meeting, because it plays directly into the main story-line of the book. The brother, Jake, catches Annie attempting to escape, and being the massive massive jerk that he is, he won’t let her go unless she promises to go out on one date with one of his friends. Annie reluctantly agrees – so she can leave.

Meanwhile Drew, well before this not meanwhile, Drew had mentioned to Jake that there was someone at the party who was quite interesting. For a laugh, Jake sets the two up on a date. Though he doesn’t tell either some important information – Drew, which I haven’t myself mentioned yet, is female; the person he sets Drew up he calls ‘Caroline’ – and implies that she is ‘in the family’ – therefore avoiding noting that Caroline is Annie and straight. (Just like there’s a way that ‘in the family’ is more of a misdirect than a lie, the Caroline name is also a misdirect, not an outright lie).

And so Drew and Annie meet at a fancy restaurant. Annie is expecting some man named Drew who will find her boring and want to immediately leave (or Annie won’t like Drew, I mean, Drew is a friend of her asshole brother Jake and his friends are not, on average, the most mature people in life). Drew is expecting Caroline, and that Caroline is – at the very least – interested in Drew and therefore either bisexual, a lesbian or . . . well, something that would work out to ‘Caroline’ being romantically interested in Drew.

Which leads, finally, to the central concept of the book – the two decide to ‘turn the tables’ on Jake and play a joke on him. Neither has been able to ‘best’ him before, and this seems to be the perfect opportunity (Jake is an immature lout who pulls pranks on everyone – including Drew who entered Jakes life in College).

As mentioned or implied – the brother, Jake, is a negative character, and the parents are likewise full of themselves and unaware of those around them. Annie is quite down on herself, but ‘getting past that’ is an interesting enough human being. Drew is a solid character, though somewhat – seemingly – less so than Annie. And I had the thought along the way that two of Drew’s friends might be interesting to get to know – since both are not the standard cookie-cutter ‘types’ normally found in lesbian fiction – referring here to Drew’s married friends Sam and Becky, and not at all to her ex-girlfriend Lynn.

The story line was solid – though one I attempt to avoid. Or, to be more accurate, I’ll read it but it isn’t one I’ll seek out. That being - straight woman who hadn’t realized that there were more options than men, and the lesbian who lusts after them (the straight woman, not the men). There was an interesting enough twist on the idea here – as to why both would continue being near each other and develop something of a friendship – when both probably would have never gotten to that stage without that ‘reverse prank’ issue.

I’ve read enough Jae books now to know that that is something Jae likes to write about – two people circling each other with might otherwise not gone beyond an initial contact – like the ligress (a mix of a lion and tiger . . if I recall correctly, she might not be a ligress) and the human writer in that fantasy series (meet only because the shape-shifter was doing their job and investigating the writer who seemed to know too much), or the doctor and the waitress in Heart Trouble (one being a work-a-holic; other quite straight; neither likely to bump into each other except for the part where one works in a hospital and other needed a brief stay there (and even then, the relationship probably wouldn’t have advanced much beyond quickly entering and exiting each other lives but for another bit of fantasy); or Luke and Nora who only set out together because one wanted to protect the other (and needed a ‘beard’), and the other needed protection; or the women from the Shaken series who wouldn’t have meet (likely) but for being in the same place when an earthquake hit (and therefore an ‘outside force’ pushed them to spend time together); or etc. etc. And it is an interesting thing to read – and . . . I do not recall why I went down this path other than to note that I’d noticed this about Jae’s books.

I initially rated the novel portion of this book a rating of 4.66 when I had completed it on the third. After a few days, I believe I’d revise my rating to something closer to 4.55. Which will probably be revised again once I read the short story.

This book is listed as being a ‘revised second edition’. I do not know what that means, exactly, though I do know that certain people had mentioned certain issues they had with a prior version of the book. I do not know if the issues were ‘fixed’, since I hadn’t read that prior version, or if I just didn’t have the same reaction to certain plot points (like there was a mention of ‘something problematic’ about the book ending – and I didn’t notice anything like that, so that was either ‘fixed’ or . . . I just didn’t notice the issue).

Rating: 4.55

Part Two: The Bonus Short Story:

1 - As sometimes happens - the 'sex' part got pushed into a bonus short story; a somewhat common theme to Jae's work (though the 'pushing to short story' doesn't always occur, and not every short story by Jae includes graphic sex).
2 - Jae stayed true to her characters -both nervous (Drew about freaking out Annie by being too forward; Annie about getting things perfect and how to actually get her girlfriend to stop holding back and to fuck her already).

And yes, that's basically the story - hence the title. Which I've forgotten now. And have to go look up. 'Seduction for Beginners'. It's been 12 weeks - Drew knows that Annie is negative about herself, and quite nervous so she has been super slow. Annie, though while still nervous, really wants to 'be with' Drew. Through she wants it to be perfect. So she's attempted to set up the perfect Valentine's date.

Going back to that 'true to characters' note - while Jae did stay true to her characters, it was frustrating as hell. I felt Annie's frustration myself with how Drew kept 1) holding back; 2) which, inadvertently (or on purpose?) means that Annie is forced to actually make the first move, despite that not being in her base of abilities. Also frustrating was how often Drew kept stopping and saying something along the lines of 'you'll let me know if you are uncomfortable, right?' Maybe Annie loves that. Me? Would frustrate the hell out of me.

There are hints, of course, that Annie didn't actually like Drew keep saying things like that. What with how that started to backfire and Annie actually, instead of feeling comforted and cared for, instead began to feel unwanted and undesired by Drew. Fine line, that. How to keep from being a brute while keeping from making the other feel like you'd rather just be doing anything else - like watching golf on television.

It'd be difficult, I suppose, but since the short story was included anyway, and as the novel part itself was 'revised', it'd have been better if the short story part was incorporated more into the novel. Stitching the two together. Frankly, having them separate like they are (there's an obvious break of 'novel over', here's some non-book stuff to look at; here's a short story) means that I actually took a break myself. I probably would have enjoyed the short story more if it hadn't felt like an optional tacked on thing that I probably would have just skipped if I hadn't gotten this book through Ylva's reviewers program (I mean, I already did own the short story separately - since I had gotten it for free for some reason at some point (it might still be free for all I know)). Incorporated more with the novel portion, I'd have read it immediately and . . . I don't know what.

My own fault, of course, I mean I had access to the short story, I could have immediately gulped it instead of waiting 6 days to read it. By itself.

Short Story Rating: ... no idea how to rate this. *closes eyes and randomly points finger at number section on keyboard. I have randomly decided to rate this short story: Num Lock* . . . 3.55

Part Three: Overall
Novel Rating: 4.55
Short Story Rating: 3.55
Overall Rating: 4.05

December 7 & 8 2016



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The Viscount who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

The Viscount Who Loved Me (With 2nd Epilogue) by Julia Quinn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have read 347 books this year (so far). 239 of those 347 books rest on my LGBT shelf (69% of total; 210 of those 239 books being lesbian fiction – 87% of LGBT)). There’s a point, of course, in me mentioning this in this review here instead of, say, some ‘end of year review’ type of review. Let me think, it’ll come to me – right, simple enough – my point is that I haven’t read many non-LGBT books this year, and three of those ‘not many’ (108 books) are by the author of this book (2.7% of the total).

Okay, I indulged myself because I have less to say about this book, this time, and was looking for things to say. That paragraph above filled in for my normal ‘I’ve read x number of books by author y’ I sometimes include. 3 books by Quinn, all read this year, all part of the extended Bridgertons series (first was the first book in a prequel series; other two are part of the earlier published 8 book Bridgertons series).

Violet and Edmund (brother of Billie – star of the first book in the Rokesbys series (Because of Miss Bridgerton - set in 1779) had 7 children before Edmund died in 1803 – Violet was pregnant at the time with Hynacinth . . . I think (or they had 8 children before Edmund died). Book 1 of the series, The Duke and I, was set in 1813 and involved the eldest female child of Violet and Edmund – Daphne. Book 2, this book here, deals with the eldest male child – Anthony, and is set in 1814 (no, the books don’t move 1 year in time, somewhere along the line, maybe with the fourth book, we leap to 1824). The rest of the books in the series follow the six other children (actually, that reminds me that technically there are 9 books in the Bridgertons series since there’s a short story collection at the end).

Anthony is fast approaching his death – at least he thinks he is; his father, you see, that being Edmund recall, died when Edmund was 38 (and Anthony was 18). And since he, Anthony, doesn’t believe he could surpass his father in anything, he ‘knows’ that he will be dead by at least the age of 38. If not earlier. For that reason and because he saw what happened to his mother after his father died, he has decided to not pursue a love marriage (since the father and mother were obviously in love). Most of his life that meant that he wouldn’t pursue marriage at all; instead he had been a rake. The kind who had many mistresses, but no loves, and no marriages. But at this late stage Anthony recalled that he is the eldest child, there is a title on the line, and so he’ll get himself a wife. He’d find one attractive enough to keep his interest, someone he can be friendly with, but by no means will he allow himself to fall in love with this woman. For that spells doom.

So that’s what he sets out to do at the beginning of this book – find himself a woman to marry and bred with. Which is how he ended up targeting one Edwina Sheffield – newly debuting into society, and declared by many (all?) as the . . . whatever they call the most attractive women – I’ve forgotten now. Edwina is sisters, younger, to Kate Sheffield. Kate being the other main character in this book.

Kate, for her part, is also debuting for the first time into society. Though already almost 21. The family, you see, isn’t exactly wealthy enough to launch two daughters in two different years. And so they waited. A little late for Kate, a little early for Edwina (who is 17). Kate has attractive features of her own, but being in the same family as, and in the same room with Edwina normally causes people to overlook these attractive features (she’s neither fat, nor plain, nor is she unsightly). Kate mostly doesn’t care about that, at least she either says or thinks, because her goal is to find her sister a good match.

And Kate knows, knows, that that man is not one Anthony Bridgerton. No, not because Kate fancies him for herself. No, it’s because Anthony is the biggest rake of the time. Naturally, then, this means that Kate and Anthony are on a collision course. Anthony could, of course, set his sights on someone else, but he’s both stubborn and lazy. He randomly, without ever even setting eyes on her, decided on Edwina for his future Lady Bridgerton. And the fact that she, at some point, mentioned that her sister’s approval was important to her, and that sister, Kate, clearly hates him does not move Anthony from his goal.

And so – bickering, humor, reappearance of the two leads from the previous book, a few of the other relatives from that book, parties in London, parties outside of London, walks in gardens, interactions with a dog, and much fixation on breasts proceeds to unfold before the readers eyes (the men in Quinn’s books seem much taken with breasts – dreaming of fondling and suckling on them; taking every opportunity to do more than dream of that action . . . etc. etc.).

I’ll leave with two last notes.
1) As I think I’ve hinted at, bluntly stated, or however it was conveyed before – there is a strong feeling of sinking into a Georgette Heyer/Jane Austen type of world when you read these books by Julia Quinn – but these books, the Quinn ones, do not hold back on the graphic nature of human relations – there’s much of that indeed. Graphically conveyed. Take it as a warning or inducement to read the books.
2) Two of the three Quinn books I have read came with ‘second epilogues’. These epilogues were written and released separately from the original books, but are now packaged with the books. I do not recall specifically why I skipped the 2nd epilogue the first time it came around, but I read it this time. Which lead me to certain information that I wished to not know yet – though it was heavily hinted at (that or I picked it up from the series books descriptions; actually it might be in the family tree). Plus – it left me with a bitter taste in my mouth – a feeling of dislike for more of the characters than just Anthony.
I, despite my vague dislike of Anthony, liked and enjoyed this book. I would rate the book somewhere in the four something range.

Rating: 4

December 8 2016




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The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

The Duke and I (With 2nd Epilogue) by Julia Quinn

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Note: My rating is for the original work, not the expanded work - as in, I read the original book and the first epilogue, but have not yet read the second epilogue which was written some time after the original book appeared.

Violet Bridgerton has four unmarried children, Anthony (29), Benedict (27), Colin (22), Daphne (21), Eloise (17), Francesca (16), Gregory (12), and Hyacinth (10; and yes, that's in order of ages, and yes the family does in fact go A to H in order). Her, as in Violet, husband died at some point prior to the start of this book. I know - now - but didn't at the time, when he died - he died in 1803 and it is currently 1813. So Violet has been a widow for 10 years, and became a widow at the age of 37 (making her 47 now). And has four children to find spouses, and two more coming fast into 'needing' a spouse found.

This book here specifically focuses on Daphne, though Anthony and Colin play big-ish roles, and Benedict and Hyacinth are not that far behind (Gregory is probably at or just behind Hyacinth in 'screen time' but I think of him as having less for some reason). Eloise and Francesca are there in the book as well - and there are family 'stuff' that occurs, but they mostly aren't in the book - the most a reader gets is the fact that they look very much alike, and Simon (the outsider) couldn't tell them apart.

Right, so Simon. He's the other main character. He is Duke of Hastings. A prequel tells the tale of Simon's emergence into this world - no I mean birth from mother, not emergence into society. The Hastings, as in Simon’s parents, had tried very hard to have living children, but they kept failing – stillborns, and other mishaps occurred. Finally, when the Duke was 40 (or, no, it was the wife who was said to be forty – one of the reasons the doctors said that they should stop trying, because she kept failing, and she was 40 now). Right, messed that sentence up. So, finally when the Duke was presumably older than 40, and his wife was 40, a baby was finally born alive. The Duke was so happy that he proudly wandered around holding the child, completely unnoticing as his wife bleed to death. They were kind of friendly with each other, the duke and duchess, but it wasn’t a love match and it didn’t really impact him much, apparently, when the wife died – since he has his heir now. I mention all this because I’m leading to the part wherein the duke is a massive asshole, and when it turned out Simon had a few issues with talking, like not talking for his first years, the father decided he was an idiot and pushed him from his life. Therefore warping young Simon’s mind.

The story opens with Simon just back from his world travels (there’s an easy thing I can insert here to say why he was on his world travels, but I’ll leave something, eh, for people to read for themselves). And the Bridgertons (well, the three older brothers, the mother, and Daphne) at a party that the duke (since Simon is now the duke) visits. Simon had been at school at the same time as Anthony and they are friends – he, as in Simon, knows the Bridgetons. Though he hasn’t yet meet Daphne.

Daphne, we the readers, learn quickly really desires to find a husband. So she can have a big family. But she isn’t having much luck finding that husband – because, and there are several theories about this, but her own theory (based on some things people have said and the like) is that she is seen as too much of a friend – ‘different’ than the ‘other young unmarried women’. She’s, therefore, someone men can relax around – and apparently men don’t marry such women. Apparently. Though some men do still pursue such a woman – the very old, the very dim, and the very stupid – and the first meeting of Daphne and Simon occurs while Nigel, one of Daphne’s dimwitted pursuers, is very aggressively indicating that he wishes to make Daphne his wife. One thing leads to another, and obviously Simon can’t leave a woman to be violated (or something like that) in a back hallway at a party, so he steps forward, only to see Daphne punch out Nigel.

So – there are similarities between the two Quinn books I’ve read. Large families (at least on one side), one of which is a wiser than her years youngster (I’m referring to Billie’s sister (from ‘Because of Miss Bridgerton’) and Hyacinth); and strong women. The strength is ‘explained away’ somewhat the same way – both had brothers (or more exactly, in the case of Billie, grew up very close to another family who had many brothers). Billie, though, is a more independently minded woman than Daphne.

Right, so – Simon finds out immediately that he’ll be swamped by young unmarried women and their mothers if he goes to parties – which is okay, in its way, because he never planned to go to parties – except that his friends, while he was away on his world tour, went and got married – and they, with their now married wives, wish to have the duke at their parties. I mention this because Daphne is in a somewhat similar/different situation (similar in being pushed by mothers (her own), and um . . stuff, my brain just shut off so I’ll push past). I mention because Daphne and Simon come to an agreement to pretend to court each other because Simon thinks this will cause him some greater ability to dodge these unmarried women and mothers (Daphne thinks otherwise), and Daphne does this because she expects that being courted by a Duke will push her out of the ‘she’s just a friend’ zone. And so the two court.

The first book I read by Quinn also involved the Bridgertons, but was a prequel book. Because I have the dates, I can note that Because of Miss Bridgerton is set in 1779, Violet was born in 1766 (though she married into the family, so I should use Edmund (the dead husband's name) for this - he was born in 1764, so he was 13 during the events of 'Because of', and dead during the events of the Bridgerton series. If I recall correctly, Edmund wasn't around in that earlier book either, because he was away at school. I think.

I liked the first book I read by Quinn more – the ‘Because of Miss Bridgerton’, because I liked the characters more, and it seemed to have a touch more humor (though both have humor).

Rating: 4.78

December 2 2016




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Blackmailer by George Axelrod

Blackmailer by George Axelrod

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I’m not sure if it is somewhat negative of the time period, negative of now, or what exactly, but I’m sure that my comment, which I’ll make in a moment, is negative – just not sure how. That comment: This book has a rather modern feel to it – in that it feels as if it was written in, say, 2007 and set in the 1950s (there are things that link it to the 1950s – mention of films; the somewhat causal mention of how a beautiful actress looks plain and unsexy in Technicolor (a film actress is one of the characters in this book – a new musical of hers came out during the course of this book – another character casually mentions that she looks bad in it – that Technicolor makes everyone look fake and overly painted – that kind of sounds like something someone from the 1950s could put in a book and people then would immediately have a reaction (good or bad) about it – someone could have a reaction to that now, but I’m not sure an author would think to make that comment (I’m not going by myself on this, but I will say that yes you can see Technicolor films today – as in the films from the 1950s that used that colorization process, and you can see how the colors kind of look . . . off)).

Mostly, though, I wanted to say that I had this vague feeling that this book felt somewhat modern with some odd little things here and there that seemed . . . off. Not the Technicolor thing, no it was everyone calling each other baby and darling. For the most part, the only think that I’d want to check after I finished the book – if it actually been written in 2007 and set in 1952, is when microfilm came out – but I do not need to check, since the book isn’t an historical – but a contemporary – written in 1952, set in 1952 (Microfilm came out in 1935 (well, Kodak began using it to put the New York times on it in 1935, and it was endorsed in 1936 by the ALA; the first actual ‘microfilm’, or as it was called ‘microphotograph’ came out in 1839 – but it was a ‘personal hobby’).

For example of one of the ‘off things’, and I’ll need to create the scene: Jean Dahl (sp?), one of the two main women in the story, enters Dick Sherman’s office to offer him a book by a prize winning author – someone up there with Hemingway. The guy is dead now, so any new book by him – something he wrote but didn’t get published before his death, would be quite valuable to a publisher – regardless of the books quality. Throughout Dahl seemed to use baby in every sentence. Something like ‘Hello, baby, I’m not an author’s wife. Baby. I’ve got a book. You’ll want it. I’ll sell it to you, baby, for $50,000.’ And this comment was responded to by Sherman with something like ‘You are out of your mind, baby. Submit the book through the normal means and we might take a look at it, baby. But there’s no way we’d give you a $50,000 advance, baby.’ ‘Ah, but baby, I know you’ll give me that. This is the last work of a Nobel Prize winner. Who is dead, baby.’ (for those coming along behind me thinking of reading or not reading this book – yes, that is something that keeps up, though it tended to only pop up when Dick was talking with women; though he tended to use ‘baby’ with Dahl (both used it), and ‘darling’ with Janis Whitney (sp?) (the other main female character – the actress) – though he used baby with her as well. There might even be a sentence that went something like ‘Janis, baby, you know I love you darling, I always have. We don’t change, baby. That will never change, darling’. *shrugs* take it or leave it if that would annoy you too much to read the book).

Right, so – this book is about a book publisher who normally deals with ‘author’s wives’ who have complaints. A woman drops by demanding to see Dick Sherman. Sherman, thinking it’s an author’s wife, allows her in and immediately launches into several ‘canned’ responses to normal ‘author’s wives’ questions (by the way, the bestselling author for their company is a woman, so that ‘author’s wives’ thing . . . is vaguely confusing). That woman, though, notes that Dick is a moron – she isn’t an author’s wife. She has a book. No, idiot, not her own – the last book written by a prize winning author. And she has proof – the first page in its original form.

By a weird coincidence, Dick Sherman used to work for a different publisher, one who dealt with and published that author’s work – so he would recognize that guy’s work. And he does – it looks like the product of that dead dude. So he is both excited and confused. Excited to be able to get that work. Confused as to why it is being offered to him; and how he can be sure that there actually is more than that one ‘example’ page. The woman tells him that he has until that night for a response.

Fifteen minutes later, Dick receives a letter. From an agent. Offering up the same book. Two different people appear to be attempting to sell him the same book – a book he didn’t know existed (and while the author had boasted of being in the middle of writing a book for six years before his death, no book was found in his estate after his death). Naturally Dick is confused.

Before he can think too hard, one of the authors comes by – the top one – and he has to deal with her. Then he spots an old love - the love of his life. So he is now drunk (that author’s meetings consist of going on ‘lunches’ and drinking, like, 800 glasses of .. .um, rum or something), and distracted by sighting his old love – who left him to become a movie star (which she succeeded to do (that would be Janis Whitney (not sure I have her last name correct)). So, like I said, distracted.

It’s past the time to respond to the odd offer from the woman, but he’s in luck. She turns up at his apartment. They promptly go back to saying stuff like ‘baby’, he acts like a dick (she asks for something to drink, he says no, tell me what the fuck is going on, she gets herself a drink, he slaps it out of her hand – see, a dick), but before anyone gets anywhere, two thugs turn up and do stuff. Like tear apart the apartment, strip the girl, beat into unconsciousness the man (Dick), stuff.

Dick, naturally, hasn’t a clue what the fuck is going on. So he attempts to 1) get back his health; 2) continue with his life. But he gets pulled back into things. He spots Jean at a party, then spots Janis, and then people are rolling around naked and stuff. Then the lights go out and . . well, you get it. Stuff happens.

It’s an interesting book. Seemed somewhat more competently written for a guy who seems to have mostly written screenplays – not weird ass noir stuff. There were some downright stupid stuff done by the guy – but then I recalled this wasn’t some private dick but a book publisher. He may or may not be smart, but he hasn’t been trained to be smart in this particular type of situation.

Rating: 3.4

December 2 2016




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