Whistle; Unknown Man No 89

 

I've never read any of Barclay's other books but judging by the comments online this one is a departure that not everyone liked. 

I did, and maybe it's because I've never read anything of his before. Yes, it bore a striking resemblance to "Needful Things" by Stephen King, but it was still fun and kept me reading. I had a hard time putting it down. 

In 2001, a new model train shop opens up in Lucknow, Vermont. In 2025 (or thereabouts) children's book author Annie is looking to get away from New York City after the tragic death of her husband in a hit and run. Her agent rents her a great house in upstate New York and she and her young son, Charlie, go and hope to heal. Charlie finds a model train set in the shed out back and he's enchanted by it, and Annie encourages his enthusiasm. 

The book is told from alternating points of view, 2001 and 2025. In 2001 the Chief of Police, Harry, is wondering why so many terrible things are happening in his small town: a gas barbeque blows up and kills a young father making birthday dinner for his son, a woman commits suicide, another young man lights himself on fire. The only link? They all had trains from Mr. Choo-Choo's shop. 

I don't want to give away too much but I thought the ending was quite clever and satisfying. Sure, there were a few holes that didn't make sense but I'm willing to suspend disbelief for fiction (to an extent). I would be glad if Barclay continues to write these darker stories. 

Another fun Elmore Leonard: "Unknown Man No. 89". Jack Ryan (I'm assuming no relation to Clancy's Jack Ryan) is a somewhat recovering alcoholic in Detroit who works as a process server. He's hired by a man named Mr. Perez to find someone named Bobby Leary. Bobby's father put stock in his name when he was a baby, and now that stock is worth a good amount of money. Mr. Perez is making an offer to tell Leary about the stock in exchange for a small finder's fee. 

Turns out Bobby is dead but he has a wife, Denise, and she becomes the focus of Ryan's search. But Ryan is wary of Mr. Perez and what kind of game he's playing. He suspects he's trying to cheat Denise out of what is rightfully hers (spoiler alert: Ryan is correct). 

It was a good story and I liked the ending. Leonard's endings are always unusual, never quite sure if it is good or bad. 

The Carpool Detectives

 

A few years back I heard about web sleuths: people who use the power of the internet for good, to help solve cold cases. I thought it was something I could do but I got quickly disheartened by the sheer number of unsolved cases and realized it wasn't for me. These four women did it, though, which is so amazing!

Shortly before the pandemic started, Marissa, a stay at home mom, was looking to get back into the workforce and took an investigative journalism class. While watching some B roll footage, she saw a police helicopter retrieval of an SUV where the two passengers had been found dead. Surprisingly, it was ruled a homicide and the case was still unsolved, fifteen years later. 

Once COVID kicked in, Marissa connected with three other like minded women (Jeannie, Samira, and Nicole) who wanted to solve the case of Joel and Angela Watkins (not their real names). With dogged persistence they were actually able to find out what happened to the couple. It was an incredible story. 

52 Pickup; Cooler Than Cool

 

While reading a biography on the late, great Elmore Leonard, I realized I hadn't actually read a lot of his books. So I checked out a collection of four and dove in. 

"52 Pickup" is the story of Harry Mitchell (Mitch) who steps out on his wife and gets caught in a nasty blackmail scheme. Rather than pay off the blackmailers, Mitch decides to turn the tables on them. Things get deadly. I don't want to spoil it by giving away too much, but it had a very satisfying ending. 

And here we are with the biography, "Cooler Than Cool". Who was cooler than Elmore Leonard in his heyday? No one, really. The man's fiction had a style all his own. He's eminently readable and his books, even the ones written half a century ago, don't feel dated. 

Leonard was an ad man in Detroit who wrote stories before he was able to make a living by writing fiction. He married young and had a bunch of kids. He struggled with alcoholism, got sober, got divorced, remarried, and continued writing. Most of the movies Hollywood made that were based on his stories weren't terrific, with a few notable exceptions (3:10 to Yuma, Jackie Brown; Get Shorty). Every few decades a new generation would be introduced to the brilliance that was Leonard. Justified was a smashing success and a high note to end his prolific career. Leonard died at the age of 87 a little over a decade ago, but his legacy lives. It was a terrific read and I will definitely be reading more of his fiction in the future.  

Out of the Woods

 

This was a really sad one. 

Back in 2005, a serial killer with the initials JED broke into the Groene home, murdered Brenda Groene, her boyfriend Mark, and her son Slade. He kidnapped nine year old Dylan and eight year old Shasta and held them captive in a remote area of the woods in Montana for weeks, abusing them in the most horrific ways imaginable. I think one of the worst things he did was give them hope: he told them if they could capture a wild chipmunk that was hanging around their campsite he would take them home. The kids did everything they could think of to get the chipmunk and when they finally did they were ecstatic at the idea that they were going home, only to have JED brutally murder Dylan right in front of Shasta. He took her and ran, stopping to eat at a Denny's. The waitress and several of the customers recognized them from the AMBER alerts and billboards and called the police. The waitress was able to stall them by pretending the printer wasn't working while several of the male customers hung back at the ready to physically restrain him if he tried to grab Shasta and run. The police came and arrested him, and unfortunately it felt like that was just the beginning of Shasta's nightmare.

Her father was devastated that Dylan was dead and refused to believe it until the police took them back to the campsite and recovered what remains they could. He was a shattered man who didn't want to hear about Shasta's ordeal, even though the poor girl needed someone to talk to. She ended up acting out, drinking, doing drugs, cutting herself, all sorts of horrible things, despite everyone around her trying to help her. She was shipped off to a group home for teens, which made things worse. 

Twenty years later and Shasta is still fighting daily to have a "normal" life. It was such a heartbreaking story. Olsen said in the afterward that he really hopes she can make a good life for herself. I hope so too. What a goddamn tragedy all the way around. 

It's Almost Always Sunny in Philadelphia

 

I read Kimberly Potts' book about the Brady Bunch and enjoyed it, and since I like "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" I thought I would give this one a whirl. 

It was pretty good. Hard to believe the show has been on for 20 years! I went back and rewatched a few of the early episodes and my God, they all look so young, even Danny DeVito. Of course so did I in 2005. 

At any rate, some of the episodes she talked about as being fan favorites aren't necessarily my favorites. I understand why a lot of people enjoy them, I just don't like them as much. About 2/3 of the way through the book she went on a multipage diatribe against Jerry Seinfeld, who apparently had the audacity to claim he's never seen the show, doesn't watch much current TV, and thinks TV comedies peaked when his show was on in the '90s. Um, okay? Not sure why I'm supposed to care what Jerry Seinfeld thinks or why she seems to care so much. It was just weird and felt out of place. Other than that it was a decent read. 

Class Clown

Dave Barry is usually pretty good for a laugh (not always, he's had some duds, but he's human). This one was pretty amusing, I enjoyed most of it. 

Dave is almost 80, which makes me feel stupid old, but then getting out of bed every morning also makes me feel stupid old, so there's that. He was the second child of four. His parents sound like they were nice people and Dave said he had a nice childhood. Not long after his father passed away his mother committed suicide (that was one of the not funny parts). 

Dave enjoyed being a full-time journalist (he used to write a weekly column until he semi-retired twenty years ago so he could spend more time with his family). He did get to do a lot of fun things and meet some interesting people. It did make me laugh out loud at times, which is something we all need. 
 

The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild

 

Bryan Burrough is an underappreciated author, at least in my neck of the woods. I love his dry, slightly snarky sense of humor and his hilarious asides in this book. 

"The Gunfighters" takes a look at the mythology of the wild, wild west. He went through all the major suspects, and some not so well known characters. It was really fun, and then I had to rewatch "Tombstone". Which was not a hardship. I love Val Kilmer in that movie. The real Doc Holliday sounds like a super fun guy. Although, I'm sure, the men he killed didn't think so.