The Poet - Michael Connelly (4/5): This is a really solid thriller that I’m judging a little harshly based on some pet peeves and a mistake I made in reading the forward. The pet peeve is it’s just too damn long, something like 150k words. I’m convinced long books just because are a product of the tradpub industry and the ideal novel length is 50-80k words. It takes something really special to justify over 100k. And then Stephen King wrote the forward and he gushes about the shocking twist, so much so that Connelly probably couldn’t live up to it. Personally I saw it coming a mile away, although Connelly does obscure it artfully. Also his prose is very smooth. It’s not ornate and you won’t be quoting any lines from it but you forget you’re reading and time flies by. Overall, a solid entry into the Connelly-verse, should you start to read all his interrelated novels.
A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs (4.5/5): This is a classic for a reason. One of the first interplanetary adventure stories with a strong moral protagonist. Incredibly influential and rightly so. Bradbury and Leigh Brackett, among countless others, grew up on this stuff and I can see why they loved it. It’s still wild and exciting 100-plus years later but I can’t imagine how mind blowing it would have been to encounter this as a teenager in the 1920s. Burroughs gets dogged on as a writer by the literary snobs but I can’t fathom why, honestly. It’s purple at times and the style is outdated but big swathes of it absolutely sing. All around excellent book.
A Purple Place for Dying - John D. MacDonald (4.5/5): JDM is my favorite writer and it’s not even close. This is the third book in the Travis McGee series and like all of them that I’ve read, it is excellent. McGee is like a world-weary burnout Bond who has a lot of love in his heart but also basically hates the modern world, for both reasonable and unreasonable reasons. MacDonald’s prose is unassailable (I’m told the literati even secretly admire him up in their ivory towers) and while this book is not JDM’s magnum opus (I don’t even know if I’ve read that one yet), it is undeniably excellent. Everything about his writing and characters will stick with you. Moving stuff.
Raise the Titanic! - Clive Cussler (3.5/5): It won’t be spoilers or any kind of surprise for me to tell you that in this book they get the Titanic off the ocean floor. That, bizarrely, is one of the least bizarre plot ideas you’ll find in a Cussler book. As a stylist, Clive leaves a lot to be desired and this is probably my least favorite of the three Dirk Pitt adventures I’ve read to date, but they are reliably fun and exciting reads. If you are concerned that your plots are too outlandish as a writer, pick up a Dirk Pitt book and fear no more. My friend James assures me they get even crazier as the series goes on. Definitely recommended for light reading, but nothing super special about this one.
And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie (4.5/5): I never did get into the style in which this is written. There are a totally irresponsible number of exclamation points, for one. Christie does manage to make 10-plus characters distinct and memorable enough in a short period of time that you can follow who they all are and their significance in the plot. But the plot itself is the real star here. I can’t give it a 5/5 because of many of its weaknesses but holy cow, if you figure out who the murderer is, wow. Totally shocking twist, as good as I imagine it was 100 years ago. Masterclass in mystery plotting. Christie is the best selling novelist of all time for very good reason. Highly recommended.
The Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Connelly (4.5/5): In contrast to The Poet, this one is only slightly too long. Connelly gets very close to fully justifying the length. There isn’t even a mystery here, you know who the bad guys are very early and then it’s just a race against the clock type of suspense and it’s glorious. The prose remains incredibly smooth and readable and Haller is a fantastic character, and the relationship dynamics with his ex-wives in it are a excellent. Top notch thriller writing. And the legal stuff manages to be rather interesting in contrast to some other writers in this genre, who I won’t name but you know who I mean.
The Gods of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs (4.5/5)
Cop Hater - Ed McBain (4.5/5)
The Mugger - Ed McBain (4.5/5)
Somebody Owes Me Money - Donald E. Westlake (4.5/5)
The Girl, The Gold Watch & Everything - John D. MacDonald (4.5/5)
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke (5/5)
The Pusher - Ed McBain (4/5)
Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs (4/5)
Born in Fire - Nora Roberts (5/5)
Ice Station Zebra - Alistair MacLean (4/5)
Naked in Death - J.D. Robb (4.5/5)
Born in Ice - Nora Roberts (5/5)
Whose Body? - Dorothy L. Sayers (4/5)
Glory in Death - J.D. Robb (4/5)
Sandstorm - James Rollins (3/5)
The Con Man - Ed McBain (4/5)
Uprooted - Naomi Novik (4.5/5)
Born in Shame - Nora Roberts (5/5)
Zero Cool - Michael Crichton (3.5/5)
It Had to Be You - Susan Elizabeth Phillips (5/5)
The Godwulf Manuscript - Robert B. Parker (4/5)
Birthright - Nora Roberts (5/5)
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson (3.5/5)
The Daybreakers - Louis L'Amour (4.5/5)
The Quick Red Fox - John D. MacDonald (5/5)
The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester (5/5)
The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie (4/5)
The Ax - Donald E. Westlake (4.5/5)
Irish Thoroughbred - Nora Roberts (4/5)
The Postman Always Rings Twice - James S. Cain (3.5/5)
The Hellbound Heart - Clive Barker (4.5/5)
Driving Lessons - Ed McBain (4/5)
The Untamed - Max Brand (4.5/5)
A Kiss Before Dying - Ira Levin (4.5/5)
The Book of Three - Lloyd Alexander (5/5)
The Headhunters - L. Ron Hubbard (4/5)
Space Cadet - Robert Heinlein (3.5/5)
Search for Love - Nora Roberts (4/5)
Tinhorn's Daughter - L. Ron Hubbard (4/5)
Carrie - Stephen King (4.5/5)
16 Lighthouse Road - Debbie Macomber (4/5)
The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester (5/5)
A Soldier and a Gentleman - Talbot Mundy (4/5)
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury (5/5)
Immortal in Death - J.D. Robb (4.5/5)
The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Emmushka Orczy (4.5/5)
The 39 Steps - John Buchan (4.5/5)
The Legend of Caleb York - Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (4.5/5)
Jaws - Peter Benchley (4/5)
Sackett - Louis L'Amour (4.5/5)
Night Shift - Nora Roberts (4/5)
Lando - Louis L'Amour (4.5/5)
The Mouth of the Dark - Tim Waggoner (4/5)
Mojave Crossing - Louis L'Amour (4/5)