Walking Dead Vol. 24: Life and Death; Walking Dead Vol. 25: No Turning Back; Walking Dead Vol. 26: Call to Arms; Forever and a Death

I didn't realize I was so far behind on the "Walking Dead". I stopped watching the TV show a few seasons ago, because it was getting tedious and ridiculous, and I forgot about the graphic novels. Vol. 24: Life and Death finds Rick's group facing a new threat: the Whisperers, a band of people who wear the skin of the dead and walk among them. Their leader is named Alpha, and she is Lydia's mom. Lydia is Carl's new girlfriend, and when she goes back to join her people Carl chases after her. Rick infiltrates their group to rescue Carl, who won't leave without Lydia. Alpha orders Lydia to go with Carl, and warns Rick that if he crosses over into their territory again it will end badly for him. When they return to their area, they discover Alpha has murdered twelve of their people.

In Vol. 25: No Turning Back--of course Rick's people want revenge after Alpha killed so many of their own, and they don't trust Lydia. Rick sends Andrea, Lydia, and Carl to the Hilltop with Maggie for their own safety and he and Michonne (who is back, hooray!) try to talk the town out of recklessly going after the Whisperers. Rick is accosted and beat up for his troubles, but he manages to spin it and get the town back on his side when he orders an army to start training.

Vol. 26: Call to Arms has the army training to go after the Whisperers. Negan escapes and joins up with them, eventually killing Alpha to show Rick his loyalty. Andrea is worried about how far gone Carl is over Lydia, he won't listen to reason at all. Eugene has gotten a HAM radio working and is in contact with another group of survivors in Ohio.

Donald Westlake is always fun. Back in the mid 1990s, he was asked to write a treatment for the next James Bond film, if "Goldeneye" ended up becoming a hit (it did). He wrote several, but none of them seemed quite right for the producers of the film and he ended up not working on it after all. But he did turn one idea he had into a book, and it was a lot of fun. Richard Curtis is a wealthy real estate developer who is in debt way over his head. He comes up with an audacious plan to not only steal Hong Kong's gold but destroy the city in the process, getting revenge on those he felt wronged him.