Quarry's Blood

 

I really enjoy Max Allan Collins' Quarry books. This is supposedly the last one. We'll see!

Quarry, the contract killer, has been happily retired for decades, married and living a quiet life churning out "fiction" based on his kills. Unfortunately after his wife passes away, Quarry discovers he's a target: someone is trying to kill him. And the list of possible suspects is pretty long, considering all the people he's taken out over the years. 

It was a fun, quick read, even if it was a little unrealistic that a man in his 70s could still fight (and win) against men half his age. I supposed it's not entirely out of the realm of possibilities. At any rate, if it was Quarry's last tale it ended on a high note. 

Universal Studios Monsters

I love horror movies, the cheesier and the gorier the better. When we were kids my sister and I used to walk to a video store (remember those?) near our house. It was an independent one, not a big chain, and they had a whole wall of horror movies. We used to check out a different one every day. I honestly haven't seen a lot of the Universal Studios early horror films with Dracula, Frankenstein, or the Mummy, so this book was a good introduction. He talked about the actors, makeup artists, directors, and writers who helped bring these creatures to the big screen. It had lots of great photos. It was entertaining and now I'm on a quest to see Bela Lugosi as Dracula :)
 

The Continental Op; Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama

 

I so rarely enjoy books of short stories, especially by the same author. This was an exception. Which is sort of ironic, because I'm not really a huge fan of Hammett's full length novels. I should be: they're noir and set in California in a fascinating time period and have all that lovely P.I. slang, but I just don't. I read "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man", and thought they were okay, not great. And I have no desire to reread them. 

This book was different. The short story format really seems to work well for Hammett's writing style. The detective's name is never revealed but he works for San Francisco office of the Continental Detective Agency. One of the stories was particularly good: "The House on Turk Street". I really enjoyed the twists in that one, and it was nice he tied it up later in "The Girl with Silver Eyes". 

Sigh. 

I wanted to love this book, I truly did, because I *love* Bob Odenkirk on "Better Call Saul" and "Breaking Bad". I actually prefer "Saul" to "Breaking Bad", an opinion I know is in the minority (at least in my family). But I think he's such a terrific actor who did a great job of making a not terribly sympathetic character one you want to root for. It's a talent for sure (and yes, I know the writers have a lot to do with it, but if a lesser actor were playing the role all the best writing in the world wouldn't make a damn bit of difference). 

So it breaks my heart to say it wasn't that great. Odenkirk had a long career before Saul Goodman and I've seen nothing from those early years. He went into a lot of detail about a show he did with David Cross on HBO called "Mr. Show" and, since I haven't seen a minute of it, it went totally over my head. For super hardcore Odenkirk fans who have seen a lot of his work this book would probably be more interesting. I just couldn't muster up the enthusiasm for it. 
 

Finlay Donovan Knocks "Em Dead; World Travel

 

Whelp, so far March is not off to a great start, reading wise. I managed to finish two books over the weekend, though, so perhaps I can keep this train rollin'.

The second book about Finlay Donovan, after "Finlay Donovan is Killing It", was a bit of a let down. The first book was just so darn good my expectations were very high for this one. Cosimano talked a little bit in the acknowledgements about how hard it was to write humor during the pandemic lockdown and I can totally understand that. It just felt like she was trying too hard, whereas "Killing It" just seemed organically funny. 

Finlay discovers an online women's forum where people complain about their husbands. She finds a post about her ex, Steven. Someone is offering $100k to take him out. As much as Finlay loathes her ex she most definitely doesn't want him dead. Especially if someone tries to kill him while he's watching their kids, so she and Vero set out on a mission to discover who posted the message. Another contract killer seems ready to take Steven out, so time is of the essence. 

Can I just say how much I love Vero? Where can I get a best friend/sidekick like her?

At any rate, Finlay is also juggling her increasingly complicated love life. Law student Julian is MIA in Florida and hot cop Nick is sniffing around more aggressively. I'm declaring my flag for Nick right now (Julian is too young). Although Nick is a cop, which given Finlay's proclivities for getting accidentally mixed up in crime scenes, might make things a bit awkward between them. 

Here's hoping the next book doesn't feel quite so forced. 

"World Travel" by Anthony Bourdain (finished by his assistant Laurie Woolever after his death) was a fun hybrid of travel guide and Zagat's. He talked about places he'd gone all over the world and the food he enjoyed. It was interesting and made me miss traveling. Hopefully if things stay pretty good COVID wise, I can make a big trip later on this year. One of the places he talked about that I never really considered going was Singapore. He just had such an interesting perspective on things and was such a gifted storyteller. 

The Last Daughter of York; King of Blood and Battle

 

I didn't realize how little I read in the month of February. Hopefully I can do better in March!

"The Last Daughter of York" by Nicola Cornick was interesting. I'm not a huge fan of her prose: it was a little over the top and repetitive to me (you don't need to compare everything to something else in order to describe it), but the story was kind of interesting if you're willing to suspend disbelief. 

It alternated between Anne Lovell, who was married to King Richard III's best friend, Francis, and Serena Warren, who lives in the present day. Serena is still haunted by the disappearance a decade earlier of her twin sister, Caitlin. She gets a phone call that Caitlin's body has been found--buried in a vault that hasn't been opened since the early 1700s. It's definitely Caitlin's body, but how did a 21st century woman end up in it? 

In the 1480s, King Richard is accused of the terrible crime of killing his nephews. The oldest boy, Edward, died of the plague but Richard, Duke of York, is still alive and Richard asks Anne and Francis to help keep him safe if anything happens to him. When Richard III is killed at Bosworth, Francis brings Richard to Anne while he continues the fight against the Tudor usurper, Henry VII. All is lost at the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487 and Anne can think of only one thing to help her husband escape: the Lovell Lodestar. It's a powerful magical object that saved Anne's life once, and it saves Francis and Richard too. It sends them somewhere safe: 1930s England.

Let's pause for just a second here. The Lodestar couldn't think of *anywhere* safer to send them than Europe on the brink of WWII? I mean...I can think of a *few* other times that would have been better, but hey, then there wouldn't have been a story, I get it. The story I really wanted to hear was how a man and a boy from 1487 somehow managed to survive in the 20th century. No one would have been able to understand them, since English was very different back then. It's not like they had transferrable skills. Unfortunately, she didn't get into that aspect of it. 

Like I said, it was interesting in its way and I liked that she made Richard nice. I always appreciate that. 

"King of Battle and Blood" was not what I was expecting after I read the reviews. I was expecting a vampire/human love story with some magical/fantasy elements and instead I got extremely repetitive sex. Lots of sex. Using the same words, over and over. I really wanted to send the author a thesaurus, because there are other (better) words to describe things. 

The nation of Cordova is being slowly taken over by Adrian, the vampire king. Isolde's father, King Henri, knows he can't beat Adrian's army in a fight, so he wants to offer a truce. Adrian is fine with that, but he has one condition: he wants to marry Henri's only daughter. Isolde has been trained since birth to hate and fight the vampires, so you can imagine how excited she is at the prospect of marrying one. However, she can't deny her seething attraction to him (insert epic eyeroll here) and she knows it's the best hope for her people, so she agrees. 

Apparently this is the first book in a series. Suffice it to say, I will not be reading the rest. One review on Goodreads said that she prefers a little plot with her smut, and that totally sums up my feelings for this book as well.