A few items of business before we break for the weekend, people:

MOVING – As of Monday, BOOKGASM HQ will have moved from Oklahoma City to … well, 12 minutes away in Oklahoma City. If you’re an author or publicist and didn’t get the e-mail, drop me a line and I’ll gladly furnish you with the new information.

BOOK WHORE – Just curious: Anyone out there appreciate or get anything out of this weekly feature? Let me know, either via e-mail or commenting on this post.

COMMENTS – Speaking of comments, we sure wish you’d use them more. It’s fun to get discussions going and get your constructive feedback. That said, you can forget it if you’re a spammer trying to unload pharmaceuticals or entice visitors to your online casino. Comments are held in moderation, so all you spammers have been wasting your time, because you’re not getting through. And my time, because I’m getting about 30 a day from you jerks.

BOOKS 2 FILM – Next week, look for a new occasional feature called “BOOKS 2 FILM,” in which we review recent movies and/or DVD releases based on a book, and compare it to its source material. Fun! We’ll kick it off with a look at the Jennifer Aniston bomb DERAILED.

LINKS – Lastly, a little reminder to click those links. Buying anything at Amazon by entering their site through any link on our site helps support BOOKGASM and keep us moving right along. So if you shop there at all, please enter it through our humble home on the Internet. We thank you in advance.

If no one has anything further, I move to dismiss. Second? Great. Now can I catch a ride home?

DEADLY HOUSEWIVES is a themed anthology of 14 never-before-published mystery short stories, all revolving around the role of the housewife. While men should be comfortable in their masculinity before tackling this book, it is a nice surprise to see that not all the villains are men. An additional surprise is that the big name contributors really don’t have the best work here. For the sake of collectors, let’s run down the contents.

Julie Smith (“The One That Got Away”) has a great little tale of small-time crooks and the requisite twist is nicely played. Nevada Barr’s “GDMFSOB” is a short, slightly disappointing piece that doesn’t showcase her talent properly. Christine Matthews’ “The House of Deliverance” features a creepy, suspenseful vibe, but then fritters it away with an ending that seemed out of character. Matthews also edited the book and deserves kudos for marshalling a large and capable cast.

The first real bang comes from Carole Nelson Douglas’ brilliant “Lawn and Order,” about a disaffected senior citizen who deeply resents the change in her domestic arrangements. This is followed by equally strong efforts from Nancy Pickard (“Joy Ride”) and Elizabeth Massie (“The Next-Door Collector”) which are tight, lively stories – the type Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine used to publish – and the latter of which has a clever clue planted very early on that I missed until just now.

Sadly, Sara Paretsky’s “Acid Test” is just okay – a bit workmanlike, with characters that just didn’t sing to me. And Barbara Collins’ “Trailer Trashed” just tries too darn hard to be funny. But Denise Mina changes the ambience with a wonderfully nasty piece of work in “An Invisible Minus Sign,” and Vicki Hendricks continues the brutal chill with “Purrz, Baby” – two clear examples of why you should never trifle with a woman.

The book closes with S.J. Rozan’s “The Next Nice Day,” Marcia Muller’s “He Said…She Said” (the best of the big hitters), Suzann Ledbetter’s “How to Murder Your Mother-In-Law” and Eileen Dreyer’s “Vanquishing the Infidel,” which is absolutely hilarious from word one to the end. A real winner. Also included are some author bios, and neat little essays from each contributor that focus on domesticity or the genesis of their stories, and even some recipes are shared.

So what’s the overall verdict? Since these are all original stories and haven’t been published elsewhere, if you collect or even like any of the above authors, you should pick up the book. Even the stories that are less than perfect are readable, and there isn’t a bum tale in the bunch. Plus, stories like Dreyer’s and Douglas’ are what make an anthology worth the effort: They turn you on to writers you may have missed otherwise. This is an excellent purchase for any mystery lover, whether or not the theme has any special relevance for you. –Mark Rose

Buy it at Amazon.

If April is the month for fools, where were all the usual wacky search terms that bring people to this site? In past months, it’s all been about “torture drawings” and the like. But this month? It was all about actual books. Oh, and actual breasts (mostly those of Kristin Chenoweth, star of the new film RV, which opens in theaters today [and closes Wednesday?]). Actual books and actual breasts: Those are two of my favorite things. Or does that count as three? I’m too mentally exhausted to “figure” it out.

Here now, April’s most popular search terms rundown:
67 bookgasm
50 evangeline lilly nude
46 uschi digard
34 kristin chenoweth nude
29 dean koontz frankenstein book three
25 evangeline lilly naked
23 mimi rogers
18 mimi rogers breasts
14 kristin chenoweth fhm
11 narnia movie
11 horror books
10 jessica biel nude
10 the dark tower
10 kristin chenoweth breasts
9 devil’s rejects
9 kristin chenoweth naked
9 narnia
8 witness to myself by seymour shubin
8 runaways
8 kristin chenoweth sexy

A few years ago, a new imprint called Firebird emerged to help sate the rising demand among young adults for quality fantasy and science fiction. As an introduction of sorts to the flavors it had to offer, Firebird editor Sharyn November assembled the anthology FIREBIRDS. Short story even shorter, it was good.

Now three years later, the YA genre market is even bigger than ever. Thus, FIREBIRDS RISING, the inevitable sequel. Though November’s introduction suggests otherwise, it is not as good as its big brother.

But it’s not so much bad as it is full of stories that don’t rise to the challenge of being different and wildly imaginative. Luckily, there are a few true gems that redeem the entire thing, making it worthy of a purchase. Tamora Pierce’s lead piece “Huntress” takes school cliques to an ultimate (and frighteningly plausible) extreme, that of menacing lesser peers in the park in the dark of night. (Pierce’s story is not the only one to deal with the cruelty of today’s students, as Kara Dalkey also delves into this dark corner, although – I would argue – not as effectively.)

I also enjoyed Francesca Lia Block’s brief “Blood Roses,” about two girls seeking a celebrity crush they’ll regret, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman’s “Unwrapping.” Every bit as concise as Block’s story, this also centers around two girls, but concentrates on their relationship and how it changes when one reveals a secret (and, no, it’s not that, you perv). But clearly the gold medal falls on the shoulders of “In the House of the Seven Librarians” by Ellen Klages, an utterly charming tale of a baby left behind in a library all but abandoned except for the handful of eccentric bibliophiles who inhabit its aisles. The girl grows up amongst the books, not knowing anything of the outside world except what she reads; the wonder she encounters is infectious as it floats directly off each page.

“Librarians” is reminiscent of the first anthology’s “The Baby in the Night Deposit Box” by Megan Whalen Turner, which was a highlight of that volume. But other standouts from the original fail to claim a counterpart in RISING, whether the overt update of a classic fairy tale or a comic by Charles Vess (since collected in his BOOK OF BALLADS). The absence of similar material in RISING is notable, and a detriment to its variety.

Instead, you’ll find stories about furry dinosaurs and orphans adopted by wizards, and odd rituals and an even odder boy entranced by two-dollar words. The contributors include such names as Alan Dean Foster, Tanith Lee, Carol Emshwiller and Kelly Link (who, for all the hype surrounding her in the past year, didn’t do anything for me). Being about double the age of the target market (okay, a hair above double), I suspect young adults will treasure this brick of a book more than I did. (Though I wonder if it’s entirely appropriate, given the number of F-bombs dropped.)

November promises a third anthology, and even seeks a title. I suggest, via logical progression, FIREBIRDS SOARING. If the material for that one steps up a notch, it’d be apt on two levels. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

One can only imagine a Realtor’s listing for a house on PANDORA DRIVE: “4 bed, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage, basement full of vomitous sludge, great view of monster cock.”

Tim Waggoner’s horror novel takes place in a most unusual neighborhood, where the twentysomething Damara still lives a hermit-like existence with her mother. Though not unattractive, Damara is terrified of going outside for fear her powers will wreak havoc on the general public. What powers, you ask? Those that make people’s greatest dreams and worst fears come to all-too-real life. Such forces already claimed the lives of her father and little brother, not to mention Damara’s own social life.

Meanwhile, the retired, henpecked husband across the street enjoys the newfound “twitches” in his manhood and sets out to do something about it, resulting in what must be the greatest, goriest oral sex scene in horror literature. I’m not sure what the point was, especially when his urges turn desperately brutal and overly homicidal.

I appreciated the first half of my stroll down PANDORA DRIVE. Getting to know its residents and rubbernecking at its odd events (and there are plenty) was enjoyable enough, but the last half felt like one scene stretched out past the breaking point. Waggoner’s book is not a bad one – just one where the immense curb appeal is somewhat lessened when you discover how gawdy the wallpaper inside is. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

Though they are not connected, two of the three horror stories in Jason Brannon’s WINDS OF CHANGE effectively use isolation as a theme, and all introduce some form of ancient mythology into the present day.

In the opening number – both the title story and longest of the group – Brannon strands a handful of characters in a hardware store as chaos erupts outside. A trio of employees, headed by our narrator, begins rounding up the remaining customers as trouble escalates. The power has already gone out, and now the phone lines are dead. The backup generator has not kicked in, and it’s thought that someone has intentionally sabotaged it, considering the store’s managers are the only ones with keys to the room where it’s kept.

Immediately, theories begin circulating regarding the weird things going on outside the hardware store – namely, that anyone exposed to the air is turned into a pillar of salt. One employee immediately suspects terrorism, but it’s clear that something much more elaborate, perhaps even supernatural, is at work here. The employees’ first instinct is to usher everyone out of the store, but when Jesse Weaver – an infamous local legend Jim Croce might have been inspired to write a song or two about – refuses to leave with his wife and two boys (who are every bit as notorious for trouble as their old man), the plan changes. A newly married couple is introduced, and an old man who knows a little too much emerges from the shadows to round out the resourceful cast of characters.

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Kate Pepper’s ONE COLD NIGHT is a book about the potential of loss, the very real fear that assaults a family when their child goes missing. The sometimes unbearable tension stems from this one fact, so if you can’t stand child-in-distress novels, then stay away. But if you love television shows like WITHOUT A TRACE, then this is the perfect book for you. Because Pepper walks us through the disappearance, providing a relevant timeline, and she allows her police force to do some very thorough detective work, all leading up to the confusing – and slightly unbelievable – climax. Just like the show.

The best part of this NIGHT is that the law enforcement officers act rationally. When Strauss, who is a Brooklyn detective, learns an unusual fact about the victim, he doesn’t hold it to his chest in fear that someone might think he’s crazy (an all-too-common device in mediocre mysteries), but he goes and tells the freakin’ cops because that’s what he should do! So that scene alone puts a positive spin on this tale.

And the rest of the positive spin comes from Pepper’s suspenseful writing style. You’re never exactly sure where things are going to go with the story, and she has a very creepy way of making you think the worst is about to happen. And sometimes, it does. But there’s also a level of hope and optimism in Pepper’s writing that places her above the tedious doom- and gloom-mongers.

The problem here is that the plot becomes slightly unwieldy. There are good moments and good scenes that Pepper does her best to explore, but the end result is one heck of a convoluted situation. Thankfully, the reader doesn’t care, because this really isn’t a whodunit, but a gottafindherquick. ONE COLD NIGHT is one of those fast-paced weekend reads, with some wonderful law enforcement characters (I’d rather see more of Lupe Ramos and Alexei Bruno than the main characters, the Strausses), a great common-man deconstruction of Nabokov’s LOLITA, and – at its core – a heart that cares about the people within its pages. –Mark Rose

Buy it at Amazon.

Culled from the vast universe of science fiction and fantasy magazines and small-press chapbooks, the 600-page BEST SHORT NOVELS 2005 is a fairly delightful collection, carrying both good news and bad news: The good news is that readers get meaty stories that fully explore the characters and premises, while the bad news is that you don’t want some of these excellent novellas to end so quickly.

The gems:
• “Shadow Twin” by Gardner Dozois, George R.R. Martin and Daniel Abraham, an expressionist exploration of self and other;
• The James Bond/H.P. Lovecraft adventure of Charles Stross’ “The Concrete Jungle”;
• The paranoid humanity-under-siege tale “The Fear Gun” by Judith Berman;
• The girls-only noir of James Patrick Kelly’s “Men Are Trouble”;
• And, wonderfully, Ian McDowell’s “Under the Flag of Night,” an awesome mix of history, magic and pirates that should be rated “Arrr!”

The rest are definitely a mixed bag:
• Furry fans can get their kicks from “Sergeant Chip” by Bradley Denton, a futuristic dog soldier’s take on life and loyalty, and Eleanor Arnason’s “The Garden,” a cross between STARSHIP TROOPERS, the Care Bears and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.
• Stephen Baxter takes a side trip into his Xeelee universe with “Mayflower II,” chronicling the 10,000-year voyage of a generation starship as its inhabitants evolve as they travel between stars.
• The remainders – “The Gorgon in the Cupboard” by Patricia A. McKillip and “Arabian Wine” by Gregory Feeley – try their best to tell historical tales with vaguely fantastic flavoring, but just don’t connect. With Neal Stephenson and Susanna Clarke doing such amazing jobs with these kinds of tales, efforts that aren’t total barnstormers pale in comparison.

Strahan has done an admirable job compiling BEST SHORT NOVELS 2005. He’s managed to assemble a great collection of satisfying “tweener”-length genre fiction, and pull it off with aplomb. I, for one, can’t wait for next year’s volume. –Ryun Patterson

Buy it at SFBC.

Our nation’s economy needs you! So PROMISE ME you’ll buy a new book this week. There’s a few out starting today like … oh, lessee, PROMISE ME. That’s Harlan Coben’s latest thriller featuring his former pro basketball character Myron Bolitar, here investigating the disappearance of a young girl or two.

If you like your thrillers a bit more techno, Dale Brown has EDGE OF BATTLE, a terrorist-oriented sequel to last year’s ACT OF WAR.

And new in paperback is James Rollins’ MAP OF BONES, which is certainly not the only novel of late to have the word “Vatican” figure into its plot. I like the idea of Rollins’ books more than I do reading them; in fact, I failed quite miserably at trying to finish his previous one.

There’s something wrong with the world when a third book in Dean Koontz’s ODD THOMAS series is announced before a third book in his FRANKENSTEIN series. Not there’s anything wrong with Mr. Thomas and his supernatural adventures, but we’ve eagerly impatiently been waiting a year for the FRANKENSTEIN trilogy to wrap up, while Odd showed up a second time just this past fall.

Anyway, Koontz fans will have something to give thanks for this Thanksgiving when he releases BROTHER ODD, the next chapter in the ongoing series of fan-favorite Odd Thomas, the crime-solving virgin/fry cook who sees dead people. From the looks of the cover (and more on that in a sec), one can assume Odd’s celibacy remains intact as he becomes a monk. No other plot details exist at this time, but we feel safe in assuming that much.

You can pre-order BROTHER ODD now, and hope the colored-by-Skittles cover will be changed by the publication date. In the meantime, relive good times with our reviews of the original ODD THOMAS and its sequel, FOREVER ODD.

Buy it at Amazon.

Every outré form of cinema deserves at least one scholarly dissertation about it. They have them about everything from Italian slasher films to ’70s roughie pornos, so why not one about the golden era of Mexican genre cinema?

In other books, this important cultural phenomenon has been long relegated to comical anecdotes about masked luchadores fighting shoddy ape-men and Aztec mummies, when in reality, it was the start of a cinematic revolution in Mexico. Doyle Greene’s MEXPLOITATION CINEMA: A CRITICAL HISTORY OF MEXICAN VAMPIRE, WRESTLER, APE-MAN AND SIMILAR FILMS, 1957-1977 gives this underrated genre its proper due. And yes, while these films are immensely fun, they comprised an influential movement that slowly broke film from the shackles of the oppressive religious standards of the time, paving the way for others.

MEXPLOITATION CINEMA starts off with the stories of two innovators: Don Salvador Lutteroth Gonzalez, the man who brought wrestling to Mexico, and K. Gordon Murray, who brought the films of El Santo, Blue Demon and Las Luchadoras to America, through his pioneering of late-night television broadcasting. The history of Santo – as a real luchador and as filmic superhero – is chronicled, with real respect. Movies like NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES, while looked at as trash here, are given serious critical studies. Author Greene probably goes further and deeper in his breaking down of these films than anyone probably ever has, mostly because I think no one has just ever thought to do so.

This is no snide, glossed-over capsule guide. That may turn off people just wanting a few little bites, but serious students of cult will be fully enthralled. MEXPLOITATION CINEMA is getting a well-deserved place of honor on my bookshelf and will be a well-worn reference guide for years to come, I’m sure. –Louis Fowler

Buy it at Amazon.

Hello, all, and welcome to my snazzy new column here at BOOKGASM, where I delve into the seedy underbelly of crime, spies and sleaze. For those who cruise around the blog world, you might have stumbled onto my previous effort, The By-Pass Control. Let me state most of the books to be covered into this column will be of the secondhand variety. So get a pen and paper ready to write down titles and dig around your used books store. So, of course, with this being the first column, I’ll be reviewing three “new” books: DUTCH UNCLE, A TOUCH OF DEATH and THE LEVANTER.

First up is a tale from the fine folks over at Hard Case Crime: DUTCH UNCLE by Peter Pavia. Harry Healy is an ex-con trying to straighten out his life, but gets sucked back into crime. This book deals with Harry just tring to make a few quick bucks by making a drug drop for a “friend,” but things go from bad to worse really quick, with double crosses and gangland slayings. Now, to be honest, I found this book to be the weakest of any of the 10 Hard Case books I’ve read so far. Which is not a bad thing – I just found it a little lacking compared to the others. It seems to me the author was trying too hard to be Elmore Leonard. He introduces storylines that have no purpose or characters just to fill pages. Maybe instead of this, you might just want to pick up RUM PUNCH instead. Still, DUTCH has one of the cooler covers for the line.

To continue with Hard Case, we turn toward Charles Williams’ A TOUCH OF DEATH. This book hits all the marks when it comes to a noir-type story. You have two sexy femme fatales playing a guy for a sap. We are introduced to Lee Scarborough, a down-on-his-luck former college football hero. He meets up with a young woman who has a plan to get their hands on $120,000 (hey, it was written back in the ’50s). Lee thinks he is just going to make a quick score by doing a little breaking and entering to steal the money, but nothing could be further from the truth. He meets a woman by the name of Madelon Butler, who is just pure evil, making Barbara Stanwyck from DOUBLE INDEMNITY look like a nun. I’m not going to go into further details of this book, because it will just ruin the fun. But I can safely say you won’t see the ending coming. Also, you definitely will want to search out more work from Williams. While reading this book, all I could imagine as Madelon was Evangeline Lilly from LOST, and it works perfectly.

Finally, a book about a businessman’s foray into the terrorist world. This story deals with Michael Howell, who runs a dry-battery factory in Damascus. Slowly, it’s taken over by an extreme radical group of terrorists building detonators. Seems this book could take place today, but was actually written way back in 1972. This is the basic plot for THE LEVANTER by Eric Ambler, narrated by three different main characters, with Howell covering the bulk of the tale. He’s pretty much blackmailed into letting this group continue with their actions, or he and his girlfriend will be killed. Michael tries his hardest throughout the book to slow down any progress the terrorists make, either by trying to get his factory moved to an area he knows won’t help them or by seeking assistance from the Israeli goverment. This all builds to a climax on a ship headed towards Israel on a suicide mission. Like I stated earlier, if you changed a name here and there, this book could easily have been placed in 2006. This is part of the No Exit Press line, now celebrating 18 years. They have put out 18 of their top sellers with new covers in a limited run, all well worth seeking out. –Bruce Grossman

According to the news organization Reuters, Dan Brown have his fifth book – and first book to follow his breakout DA VINCI CODE – out this year after all.

Larry Finlay, managing director for Transworld Publishers, a division of Random House, is quoted as saying, “We don’t know when it’s coming, but it’s out of the schedule for this year. At one point we were hoping for it around October or November, but now it’s looking like 2007.”

Can’t say we didn’t call this one. Apparently, it’s also no longer called THE SOLOMON KEY, either. Methinks Brown is really feeling the pressure to deliver something that will satisfy his gazillion fans.

My taste for fantasy was developed in adolescence by inspirational classics of the genre, from the humor of T.H. White’s THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING, through the majestic tradition of Malory’s LE MORTE D’ARTHUR, the charm and possibilities of Hugh Lofting’s DR. DOOLITTLE series, the pomp and piety of Katharine Kurtz’s CHRONICLES OF THE DERYNI and Mervyn Peake’s gloriously poetic THE GORMENGHAST TRILOGY. All of these fueled the imagination, quickened the blood and made one yearn to live in the time of castles and kings, dragons and magic.

If I were going to give such a book as a present (and since everyone I know has already been bored to death with my raving about the above titles), I would give a copy of James M. Ward’s new novel, MIDSHIPWIZARD HALCYON BLITHE. We can’t get too far out of control here and place it directly in the pantheon of classics, but this brief tale of warfare conducted on vast, dragon-based seagoing ships has a great vibe to it: a Boys’ Own mix of Patrick O’Brian and Harry Potter.

The Arcanian Navy uses regular ships of the line, but it also has sea dragons under their command, specially fitted with a ship-like “shell” that allows humans to mount the dragon and command it in battle. They face the formidable Maleen, a group of immensely strong and ruthless fighters who are adept at conquering other lands. Into this walks young Midshipwizard Fifth Class Halcyon Blithe. He’s new to his magical skills, but what he has is of great strength and usefulness, for he can talk to rope and determine its fitness for the upcoming task, and he is beginning to learn to speak to the dragon.

Blithe’s newness to the Navy and to magic is explored in depth. The book spends much time discussing Blithe’s training in magic and combat, and we learn more of the Arcanian way as Blithe goes through boot camp. But Blithe’s inexperience eventually ends up costing the ship dearly, and he must work hard to win the respect of his fellow crewmates. It’s a fairly standard sea adventure story, except for the marvelous descriptions of magical effects and the presence of dragons. While I’m a sucker for books on dragons, I don’t quite get Ward’s ecology of the beasts as he describes it here. It seems at some point they have exposed internal organs, which seems unlikely in the least. In all, dragon lore isn’t handled nearly as well as in Naomi Novik’s HIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON.

Aside from that, the mixed-gender group of Midshipwizards that befriend Blithe seem to be a likable gang, life on board the ship is adequately portrayed, and there’s some intriguing room for development in Blithe’s relationship with the dragon. So all the pieces are in place to continue the series of adventures, and let’s hope Ward does so (DRAGONFRIGATE WIZARD HALCYON BLITHE is due to ship in November), because this is the kind of book that could spark an interest in genre fiction, and open a world of adventure and excitement to young adult readers (though this older adult enjoyed it as well). –Mark Rose

Buy it at Amazon.

Reading J.C. Hallman’s non-fiction THE CHESS ARTIST: GENIUS, OBSESSION, AND THE WORLD’S OLDEST GAME, I was continually reminded of Stefan Fatsis’ WORD FREAK. That book was an outsider’s infiltration into the strange world of Scrabble, littered with a host of bizarre social misfits who treat the game as a way of life.

And the same goes for Hallman, who (like me) is fascinated by the game of chess even though he’s not a player. He befriends a fellow casino worker – a lonely man named Glenn who aspires to be the world’s first black grandmaster – and together they take a trip to an obscure province of Russia, where the loony president has constructed a Chess City, forcing the game on its downtrodden residents. Suspicion surrounds them their entire stay, and they rightfully fear for their lives.

Back home, they travel to open tournaments, play hardened criminals in prison matches and crash a Princeton University chess party, where the schizophrenic A BEAUTIFUL MIND subject John Nash makes a cameo. Woven through the narrative is Hallman’s selective trip of the mind through chess history, which he uses to craft theories on why a game that he deems “useless” has for some become a religion.

Largely, THE CHESS ARTIST is a travelogue. But it’s also a history lesson, a murder mystery, a spy novel and – at its core – a moving story of an unusual friendship. And amazingly, it’s not one big mess. Hallman deftly maneuvers his many threads as the prodigies he writes about do with their plastic pieces. Like WORD FREAK, it has a lot of humor and a lot of heart. Also like that book, I got completely lost in it and was genuinely sorry to see it come to an end. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

First things first: BLOOD HUNT isn’t one of Ian Rankin’s award-winning Rebus series of novels, nor is it actually a new work, having been originally published under a pen name years ago. Unlike some authors’ cheap rehashes and repubs, however, BLOOD HUNT manages to hold its own, as long as you understand and appreciate its milieu: the globe-hopping thriller.

The BLOOD of the title refers not only to, well, actual blood, but also to family ties. Former SAS commando Gordon Reeve (who, as the book’s jacket suggests, “knows something about killing”) gets caught up in a whirlwind of intrigue surrounding the death of his journalist brother in San Diego. This is no by-the-numbers murder, however, and eventually Reeve has to pull together an unlikely group of allies, unravel a web of conspiracy and deceit, and confront his own past in order to get some closure.

While BLOOD HUNT does a fine job of capturing the pacing and plot elements of the classic spy thriller (which I love), it has one particular aspect that places the book below much of the rest of Rankin’s novels: the setting. The locations leave something to be desired. From generic Scotland to San Diego to craggy, generic Scotland with a side-trip to the generic French countryside and a flashback to Argentina at night (who really flashes back to the Falklands war, anyway?), Rankin misses the escapist wonder of setting that Robert Ludlum so definitely perfected. Yet Rankin understands the thrill of the “just missed me” escape, the white-knuckle anxiety of being hunted and the ultimate satisfaction that emerges when the protagonist turns the tables.

If you measure BLOOD HUNT on its merits alone and not against the author’s body of excellent work, it stands above the crowd of me-too wannabe Forsythes and Ludlums (or even scarier, wannabes writing as Ludlum). Setting isn’t everything, and BLOOD HUNT proves that with style to spare. –Ryun Patterson

Buy it at Amazon.

I’ve never read an issue of Fangoria magazine before, so I approached the book FANGORIA’S 101 BEST HORROR MOVIES YOU’VE NEVER SEEN with marked skepticism. “What are they going to recommend?” I wondered, “SPLATTER GOOP SLAUGHTER PART 7?”

Thankfully, Adam Lukeman’s book is more highbrow than that, championing many films I’ve long thought were underrated, like THE EXORCIST III, Bill Shatner in my childhood fave KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS, Stephen Norrington’s DEATH MACHINE, the BLOB remake of 1988, Wes Craven’s SWAMP THING, Bob Clark’s BLACK CHRISTMAS and the menstruating werewolf flick GINGER SNAPS.

Separating films into the genres of “Supernatural/Hauntings,” “Killers/Slashers” and “Monsters,” Lukeman provides just enough plot to pique your interest and backs it up with just enough criticism to lengthen your Netflix queue and then gets out; no entry takes up more than three pages apiece, even with photos. Killer Santas, castle freaks, Asian ghosts, maniac cops, wendigos, mutated ticks, body snatchers, Satanic goats, demented dentists, one trusty asphyx and 2,000 maniacs – all in one swift, cool, easily digestible volume. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

It’s a fairly slow week in the way of new releases, with the most notable being A DEATH IN BELMONT, the latest non-fiction work from THE PERFECT STORM author Sebastian Junger. Stemming off a childhood encounter with Albert DeSalvo – convicted as the Boston Strangler – Junger wonders if the man was really the famed criminal, and if perhaps another man escaped the law.

And speaking of crime, here are a few recent books that escaped our attention over the last couple of weeks:
• MOURNING DOVE is Aimée and David Thurlo’s 12th novel in their Ella Clah series of Navajo tribal mysteries. Fans of Tony Hillerman, take note.
• KINGDOM COME is the latest thriller from former NFLer Tim Green. Look for our review soon.
• And Walter Moseley, best known for his Easy Rawlins mysteries, returns with FORTUNATE SON.

During its two-year journey from hardcover to paperback, BELLY LAUGHS: THE NAKED TRUTH ABOUT PREGNANCY AND CHILDREN has already dated itself, in that the husband the author Jenny McCarthy refers to is no longer that.

But she’s still got the kid and the book is still quite amusing, as only McCarthy could deliver. Name one other baby book that contains this line of advice: “There’s nothing worse than a big, sloppy vagina.”

In her own inimitable way – which is to say Girl Next Door with the mouth of a sailor – McCarthy dishes the real dirt on what it really feels like to have a life growing inside of you, and the various maladies and side effects that result. Giving birth is a beautiful thing … that does disgusting things to your body. For instance, she talks candidly (actually, “candidly” is an understatement) about which medicine gives you “wet farts,” constipation that forced her to get her stool dug out by a doctor and “blue Twinkies,” which is her euphemism for swollen labia. Plus, she discusses engorged mammaries, the fervent need to pee, the joy of granny panties and her mortal fear of pooping on the table during delivery.

Being a man, I’ll never be able to experience childbirth, obviously, but as a three-time father who’s been there, done that, even I could appreciate BELLY LAUGHS. It’s more smile-inducing than laugh-out-loud funny, but the advice is practical, even if delivered in a manner that would get bleeped on most TV shows. In other words, the personality exhibited on SINGLED OUT is intact. McCarthy’s not afraid to talk about the things no one else will (i.e. “hemmies”), and thus, the book reads like a conversation with the girl herself. A one-sided conversation in which you may not get a word in edgewise, but entertaining nonetheless. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

The other day at the bookstore, I noticed a series of novels – not $6.99 paperbacks, but $15.00 trades – written by various WWF wrestling superstars. Now, I have a hard time believing that Kane can read, let alone write a novel.

On the flip side of that sexy coin, Vivid – the country’s premier porn studio – is releasing a series of books written (wink wink) by its stable of starlets. In this case, it’s by the very empty-headed-looking Tawny Roberts and it’s entitled PRIVATE ACCESS, which is odd, because it’s all about how most of the public has complete access to her vagina.

Written in first-person perspective, PRIVATE ACCESS portrays Tawny as a typical California girl: a blond whose perfect day consists of sunning at the beach or lounging by the pool, preferably with a well-hung lifeguard nearby. And this is basically the plot: Tawny hangs out at the beach and does a lifeguard. Or a random billionaire. Or whatever bikinied girl around her needs extra suntan lotion. And this goes on for 346 pages.

There’s some windsurfing, too.

All this aside, PRIVATE ACCESS is a surprisingly fun, ultra-sleazy easy read that really does come off like the novelization of a porno film. Imagine a Jacqueline Susann book you can masturbate to (VALLEY OF THE BALLS, maybe?). It’s not Pulitzer work, people, but it gets the (ahem) job done. –Louis Fowler

Buy it at Amazon.